As I write these blog posts and more people are (hopefully) reading them, I’m starting to feel a little vulnerable and exposed.
Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely no plans to stop, as I still believe it’s a worthwhile thing to do and if I can help even one person to get their business idea off the ground it’ll be worth it – but it’s scary nonetheless.
A new experience
As you may have gathered, I’ve done absolutely nothing like this before. (Well, not entirely true. I do have another small business, but it’s in a completely different area and it’s a franchise, so I get loads of support.) With this, I’m completely on my own and learning everything from scratch.
I guess what I’m trying to say is I’ve suddenly realised that if I fail, I fail very publicly and there’s no hiding it. Not that I want to hide, but you know what I mean.
Have I put too much on my plate?
I do sometimes wonder if I’ve put too much on my plate (i.e. keeping up a blog when I already have two kids to look after, a business to run, another to get off the ground, plus all the usual household and admin stuff to do). I love writing though and I’m really enjoying it. It’s certainly better than booking products into Amazon or trawling the internet to find entertaining posts for social media!
Plus, if I do go wrong, maybe I can look back one day and pinpoint what it was – as it’ll all be written down!
Lost in translation
I had a moment earlier this week where my supplier was telling me it was going to take 20 days for the goods to get here (although I’ve paid for express delivery) and when I pushed back they asked for more money. I refused. It eventually turned out she wasn’t asking for more money – she was wanting to be sure I’d paid the customs fee with my balance – completely lost in translation.
I did eventually find out that she’s using a shipping agent – which I suspect is probably costing me more anyway, even if it makes her life easier. I think this is something to look into for my next order, as it doesn’t seem particularly efficient and days seem to be lost while they’re getting the order from the factory, to the agent and then finally onto the plane (before it finally gets into a lorry). Fun fact for you here – my stock is actually going to end up in Dunstable – just a few miles from where I was born. Small world, eh?!
Anyway, my point is, I had a few horrible, very scary, hours between emails, where I just thought maybe, despite all my precautions, I’ve been scammed and there are no swaddles and nothing will arrive and I’ve lost all my money… Then again I think I’m going to have that fear until the day they get here (3 December, all being well).
So what do you think? Is this complete madness?