A Challenging Week

This past week has been fraught with challenges, it’s been one hurdle after another and has been a real struggle to make progress. Fortunately I had a weekend away at the end of it to de-stress and re-focus ready to tackle the challenges head on this week.

The biggest issue recently, and one that you’re probably sick of hearing about (I know I’m getting sick of writing about it), is storage. A couple of weeks ago I thought I had this sorted but a miscalculation on my part meant a facility I thought was within budget was actually well over, so I was back to the drawing board. This past week I’ve roped a friend into helping give a fresh perspective to see if they can help find something suitable and affordable. This delay is really holding me back at the minute as without storage I’m unable to order any stock which in turn means that even if the website was ready I wouldn’t be able to launch.

Hopefully, after a nice refreshing weekend and a helpful hand or two, I’ll be on top of this challenge by the end of this week.

Another challenge I’ve had this week, albeit a bit more fun than the storage problems, are relating to the Ginger Sky website. In the next week or two I’m hoping to have a meeting with the web designers and they’ve asked me to do some preparation for them. As well as the overall design of the site they want an idea for how the site is going to feel and have suggested using an existing site as an example. Unfortunately I so far haven’t been able to find a site that I like the feel of but also has that something different that I want for Ginger Sky. I do have a couple of ideas of how I want it to look so hopefully the designers can understand my vision when I meet with them.

These have been the two biggest challenges for the week, the rest has all been about time, and not having enough of it. I’m still holding out hope that I can have everything in place and ready to start trading next month but that means cramming in a lot of work into the next few weeks. Hopefully I’ll be able to sort out the storage and get the website on it’s way soon and then it will be a case of pulling all of my research over the last few months together and start spending money (eek!). And that is where the last week’s final set of challenges comes in, budgeting.

The miscalculation with the storage options prompted me to review my budgets, mainly to see exactly how much I can afford for storage and similar services. Maths has never been a strong point of mine but have muddled through this week and think I’ve cracked it. Now I know how much I can afford each month the next challenge is trying to mix and match all the services I need (storage, insurance, website, phone etc) so that the total falls within budget. I am currently balancing all the options, deciding which areas I’m willing to compromise and which ones I’m not but soon I’m going to have to make a decision and start signing up with whatever companies I’ve decided to use.

I hope that entries like this help show anyone else thinking about or setting up their own business that challenges are part and parcel of the experience. The important thing is to not get down heartened by them and to remain positive and focussed on what it is you’re trying to achieve. Hopefully my next blog entry (after my next recipe that is) will be more positive and I’ll have gone a long way to getting through these challenges.