A change in direction

This project has gone on hold for a while, as I was presented with an oppertunity this week I think could be a great starter business for me, or a springboard to a lot more. Therefore I am currently focussed on exploring this business and I'll get back to the original one later!

Next weeks to do list.

I find things a lot easier in small chunks. So by Friday 16th I intend to:

• Have finished reading Freesourcing: How to Start a Business with No Money
• Start and get at least halfway through reading Starting a Cake Decorating Business from Home
• Make an appointment to see 3 florists
• Order bridesmaids dresses
• Make another 20 cards
• (Get my sewing folder up to date) non priority, can roll over to next week
• Finish my wedding book
• Have set up google adsense  
• Write to the financial ombudsman
• Write to Esurv
• Call the wedding list stores

I know not all of that is strictly business related - however I'm getting married in 4 and a half months and am starting to panic at how little is sorted - so need to get a canny bit of that out the way first, and its my first physio appointment. Also the purchase of our first house is hopefully getting close now, so that needs to be a focus too. I'm making a few quid a week with the cards at the moment, so making these is in a way working towards the business goal, as all the money is going into the kitty. 

Setting up the foundations of a business

I've reached the end of chapter 2! This doesn't sound like much of an acomplishment, but I'm in fact nearly half way through the book.

Lessons for today are:

• Learn what needs trademarking or what I can stamp as having intellectual property rights at www.ipo.gov.uk
• Look at Creative Commons www.creativecommons.org.uk for free licences and legal tools

What can I say, I think I read most of the useful stuff yeserday!

My Elevator Pitch

You should be able to sum your business up in 15-30 seconds, making it easy to understand and communicate to potential clients. So I'm going to do a draft of this 'elevator pitch' now, and see how it has altered by the time I come to the end of the 6 weeks.

"I Do Cupcakes is a small business which produces cupcakes and traditional iced cakes in a range of fresh, modern flavours using high quality ingredients. The cakes are primarily aimed at weddings, corporate events, special occassions and food and craft fayres. All cakes are produced to order, with prices decreasing for larger orders. I one day hope to launch a mail order service but the company is currently limited to distribution within the North East'.

Lessons for Wednesday

So my posting every day soon went wrong! However thats only because yesterday I got very wrapped up in the book, and ran out of time to post.

• Lesons from yesterday are: 
• I'm not eligable for the Prince's Trust help or grants as I'm already employed (why is society geared to get us to a certain base level, but not push us or help us reach our full potential?!)
• It only costs £20 to register as a limited company with companies house. This can be done online at companieshouse.gov.uk
• www.shortask.com is a website containing micro jobs, worth checking out to try and find ways to boost the start up fund 
• Check our freecycle.org to gain equpment for free
• If I want to fake busyness, go to www.thrivingoffice.com to generate background noise that makes it sound like I'm running an empire when I'm on the phone to customers!

Use what you have!

I'm going to undertake an exercise Freesourcing: How to Start a Business with No Money talks about. The aim is to write two lists, the first details everything I currently have to hand to start and run my own business. The second is everything I think I will need to run and grow my business.

What I have

Computer
Broadband
Mobile Phone
Desk/office space
Suit
Helpful and enthusiastic family
Transport
Knowledge
Some equipment (bowls, muffin trays, tins, measuring equipment, icing gun)
Ideas
Confidence
Personality
Sales skills
Interpersonal skills
Creativity
Enthusiasm
USP

What I need

Caddys to transport cupcakes
Knowledge of fairs/outlets
Marketing knowledge to promote business
Logo
Website
Pricing structure
Menu
Money
Blender/fondant cut outs/icing bag
Icing skills
Supplier for bulk materials/Macro card
Business cards and leaflets
Tablecloth/stands for displaying produce at fayres
Eventually more suitable transport than the back seat of my little jalopy!

Freesourcing

Today I've been focused on reading Freesourcing: How to Start a Business with No Money. I've also cracked Amazon Associates (feels good to cross something off the list on my very first day!).I accidentally registered for the US version first though, so I need to work out how to make it all UK-licious.

I've only gotten through chapter 1 of the Freesourcing book but I'm finding it really useful. So far I have learnt:

• Utilise social networks. 
• www.linkedin.com (never heard of it before) can be a great tool to connect with existing business people and find vital contacts.
• Create a facebook group to market your products
• Twittering can increase brand awareness
• http://notify.me can be set up to tell you whenever your name, company name, products etc are mentioned on blog posts, picture uploads, news feeds or any other form of information held on the internet. 
• I am the main asset of any company I create, and my enthusiasm and drive is what investors will be interested in, often more so than the product, as a driven MD of a company is the most important part.

6 Weeks and counting

A few days ago I found out I need 6 weeks of physio before likely keyhole surgery on my knee. So I have decided to use these 6 weeks productively to try to get a little closer to realising a dream of mine.

By the 14th of May I hope to have: 

• Read cake decorating business book
• Read freesourcing book
• Read starting your own business book
• Read social media book
• Make a list of all places that do craft fairs in the area
• Make a list of all places that do wedding fayres in the area
• Contact all the above places to find out how much tables cost/how far in advance you need to book up
• Look into the services offered by business link
• Find out how to register a business
• Look into the HSBC service I signed up for
• Work out my price point and viability
• Set up an email addy
• Photograph all trial recipes
• Cost up all trial recipes
• Create business plan outline
• Register new website
• Work out google adsense
• Work out Amazon associates

I also intend to continue trialling recipes on my other blog, Basil and Cocoa, although at this point it is not so much the product I need to focus on, as turning that product into a business. I can discover which chocolate sponge is best later, but I need to know if it is a viable business first of all.

I am not naive enough to think this is going to provide me with a fortune, but I would love it to provide me a second income alongside my main job, doing something I love, that could continue to provide an income if for any reason I were to loose my main job, or if it grew to be able to be my main income if and when we have children,

Right now I know nothing about running or setting up a business so it's going to be a real journey, but an exciting one.