Still Playing Catch Up

So after last week where, unfortunately, I didn’t make much progress, this week I have. I’ve solved many of the issues from my entry a couple of weeks ago and am well on my way to solving some others too. All being well I’m still hoping to go live and start trading in the next month or two so not too far away from my original plan.

Let’s start with the biggie shall we? Well, I think I may have finally cracked the storage problem. Went to see a place this morning and, although it’s smaller than many of the others I’ve looked at, it’s within my budget (ish) and is big enough to get started. The plan was always to start small anyway and to grow steadily and within my own means so this is a great place to start. An hour or so after I left the place they emailed to say one of their units is coming free from mid-week this week and Ginger Sky is now on the list to reserve it, just need to work out the finer details.

Another issue I was having was the final design of the website. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was looking online for a site to show the web designers to use as a base. This proved trickier than I thought as I’m after something a bit different and I suppose if I’d found it easily then it wouldn’t be all that different, if you get what I mean. Anyway, I think I’ve been able to get more of an idea in my own head about what I want it to look like and am going to meet with the design team this coming week, all being well, so things are heading in the right direction again.

I’m also very close to ordering my first lot of stock. Was hoping to have had this done but the issues with the storage has held it back. Also, the first supplier I’m going to use is based out in Canada so trying to get my head round how VAT works on imported goods has not only hurt my head (think the cogs up there need greasing) but also set me back a couple of days. Won’t be long now though.

Now the issue I’m having is finding complimentary products to launch the site with. I know what the first set of products are going to be but due to the VAT and shipping from Canada they take up a bit more of my budget than I would have first liked (but they are really cool though). This means that my aim of launching with 10-12 products is now looking rather ambitious and it’s a case of deciding on maybe 2 or 3 other products that fit together well with each other, will have to think about this one.

So, hopefully this entry has been a lot more positive than some of the others over the last couple of weeks but I think I’m now beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I hope you’re enjoying following my story and that you stick around to see how it turns out. Once I open the metaphorical doors to the store I’ll continue to give my insights to running a business but should also have more time for some of the fun and informative stuff (like last week’s cooking tips)