Hi, and welcome to my review of 2012, it has been a big year for many things including for us here at Ginger Sky. Here’s our look back over the past 12 months and some it’s highlights.
I hope you all enjoy my review and indeed enjoyed 2012. Over the course of tomorrow on Twitter I will be counting down the top 3 most read blog entries and recipes form the Ginger Sky blog.
Here’s wishing you all a happy New Year and prosperous 2013.
The year started with typically British bad weather and storms across the country. It also saw the Costa Concordia disaster off the Italian coast, a timely reminder (see April) that humanity are sharing a planet, not ruling it.
For Ginger Sky, January was the month when the name was decided. I had a few ideas for names bouncing round my head but in January I officially decided that my company would be called Ginger Sky Ltd.
February
February wasn’t a great month, it saw the loss of Whitney Houston in Beverly Hills, one of the best loved voices of recent times. It was proving to be a slow start to what turned into a great year.
After deciding on a name and having researched the type of products I wanted, February saw me produce my business plan for Ginger Sky. Working around current employment commitments the plan was to take things slow ensure that all bases were covered before starting to trade.
March
In a step forward for female entrepreneurs, Sara Blakely, the inventor of Spanx, becomes the youngest self-made female billionaire. There are many people to look up to in the business world and Sara Blakely is definitely a good example to learn from.
Easing into research for Ginger Sky, March was the month in which I started pricing websites and website designers. I also made the purchase of the domain names that will be used once the sites are ready.
April
April 2012 was the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, one of the most infamous and portrayed disasters in history. In other maritime related news the 158th Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities was interrupted due to a man swimming in the Thames. The protester was later to appear in court to answer for his actions.
Ginger Sky became official in April as I registered the name and company with HMRC. This month also saw my first research trip, a visit to the London Coffee Festival, one which I would certainly recommend.
May
The annual party that is Eurovision also saw that other great tradition, that is of the UK building up hope just to be let down. This year’s result was an impressive 25th out of 26 finalists with Englebert Humperdinck’s “Love Will Set You Free.”
Since Ginger Sky had become official, May was the time to start building resources. This started with signing up with an accountant and increasing research into possible product lines.
June
The month started with the celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, a chance to show all that is great about Britain, something which would become the theme for the summer. Sadly, this also saw Euro 2012 and England inevitably losing on penalties, something which thankfully has been overshadowed by the months that followed.
June was the start of supplier contact for Ginger Sky. Building up contacts with product suppliers such as Molecule-r and Fred and Friends ready to start stocking their product lines when the time comes.
July
July saw a first for British sport with the brilliant Bradley Wiggins winning the gruelling Tour de France. If that wasn’t enough, fellow Brit Chris Froome finished as runner-up, officially marking the start of Britain’s great summer of sport. July also saw the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, but more on that in a bit.
With the help of our friends at Owl and Pussycat Creative (@oandp_creative), the Ginger Sky logo was born.
August
London 2012 arrived and turned into a massive success, much to a lot of people’s surprise. In one of the greatest summers of British sport the country won a total of 65 medals, 29 of which were gold, and a whole new breed of sporting hero was born.
August also saw the start of Ginger Sky’s Twitter account (@GingerSkyLtd), marking the start of Ginger Sky’s public presence. Twitter has provided a great sounding board for ideas as well as getting the Ginger Sky name out there in the public domain. Once I start trading it will also be a great way of getting offers and products to friends and fans.
September
The Paralympics got underway in London, a great success on both a national and international scale, but also on a personal level. The games have helped change the attitudes of a nation and will hopefully have a positive and long lasting legacy on Britain. Personally, I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to be involved in an Olympics in my own country. Due to my interests in the sport of goalball I was chosen to be a goal judge in the Copper Box for the Paralympic goalball tournament. This was an experience I will never forget.
In amongst spending 3 weeks at the Olympic Park, September also saw the start of the Ginger Sky blog. This has given me a great way of telling my story and getting in touch with potential future customers.
October
October saw another step in human endeavour with the highest ever sky dive by Austrian Felix Baumgartner. Jumping from a balloon 24 miles up, he became the first person to break the sound barrier without mechanical propulsion.
In a huge step for Ginger Sky, I began rental of storage facilities. This, in turn, meant I was able to place my first order of stock, a range of gastronomy sets from Molecule-r (see picture).
November
Continuing Britain’s unpredictable weather, heavy rains in November resulted in yet more flooding throughout the country. Further a field, Barack Obama was re-elected as President of the United States for another 4 years.
November also gave me the chance to participate in Global Entrepreneurship Week by running “A Week in the Life of a Startup Entrepreneur” on this very blog. This proved to be a fantastic networking tool as well as a great way to share my experiences and pass on tips and techniques I’ve picked up on my journey so far.
December
Getting through December saw us survive another apocalypse, I make that at least half a dozen so far, not doing bad. It also came with the announcement of a royal baby with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge expecting their first. In a year that has seen so much celebration around Britain perhaps this was a fitting end to the year.
December for Ginger Sky has mainly been about tying up loose ends and doing more research ahead of a proposed launch in the first quarter of 2013. As part of this, Get Extra (@GetExtra) provided me with a first draft of the Ginger Sky homepage. There are still a few things to tweak and other pages to make but it is all starting to take shape.
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