Posts Tagged ‘business’

Last night when I got tired of messing around with that wifi card and installing things that wouldn’t work, I returned to the soothing environment that baking is for me. And no, I didn’t do it literally. No cookies in the middle of the night ;)
But during the day yesterday my mind was elsewhere no matter what I did and I began to shape a small business idea and how to get started. It’s always the “getting started” bit that is tricky. At least when you start from scratch. Unfortunately I don’t have £10k to spend on an oven…or on anything else for that matter…or the space for it. So to begin with I will need to improvise.

So I thought I’d start out in a miniature scale and sell samples dirty cheap online, which in itself won’t give any profit to begin with. What I will charge for is ingredients, shipping and packaging. And also give the possibility to order larger quantities of course.
Since this is food I won’t be able to ship outside the UK, so those of you in the US or otherwise who are curious about my goodies, sorry. The restrictions in customs both here and in other places are way too complicated to keep track on, and in the end you might have to pay more than it’s worth.

Since I’m pretty much free to do what I want today I’m looking around for a good supplier when it comes to packaging, decorations and other things. Prices in regular grocery stores would make everything so much more expensive and in the end they are the only ones making the money. So I’m looking for suppliers that can offer bulk orders.

It will take a lot of planning since I don’t want to offer more than I can deliver. When I know what I have to offer I will put it up both here and in my Kitchen blog to start with. Then I might expand to a separate site in the end, we’ll see. Depends on how it goes. And of course accept orders for birthdays and such as well :)

Returning customers is always the best way to know how doable this is, and especially since getting straight feedback around here is very difficult. One thing I’ve learned is that if people here like something, they will come back. Otherwise you’ll never see them again. Simple as that :)

Whenever someone is trying to reach for their dreams, I’m among the biggest supporters. I believe that without dreams we are not the unique creatures we are meant to be and living a life without something to reach for is rather dull in the long run.
My own dreams (or at least one of them) are sweet, covered in whipped cream and sugar paste :p They reach very far back in time and I’ve had a lifetime to practise.
Some of you already know that I’ve got one huge sweet tooth and that it’s not always a positive thing. However, the main reason for that is that I do love to bake. Maybe not when we have a hot day like today, since the oven tend to turn any room into a sauna, but at this very moment I still got a strawberry pie sizzling along for another 20 minutes. I think the main reason for this interest is that it brings me closer to home and to the bits that I used to love about being a kid. Our kitchen back where I grew up was always hot, summer or winter, didn’t matter. Granny had a big table in the middle of the kitchen that she and mom used for pretty much nothing but baking. In the daytime it was almost always covered with flour and I was often around just watching mom shaping cookies, Swiss rolls, buns, cupcakes and on occasion cakes for a birthday or similar.

So a hot kitchen and the smell of baked goods from the oven has a weird calming effect on me.
Throughout the years I’ve gathered a lot of different recipes from both here and there. What I know best is the cookies and cakes from my native country of course, but on occasion I make pastry from a lot of places. And I put my own signature on some of them if possible.
To open a bakery and offer a small and exclusive range of pastry is one of my dreams. And after being in this country for nearly 7 years I’ve seen most of the pastry that is on offer, at least in this town, and I know for a fact that I’ve got recipes that they don’t ;)
Which still doesn’t mean that it would go down well. Robin is sceptical, which is rare for him, and since conducting a market research around here seems to be impossible, I listen to what he has to say.
But, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t do things my way and took a detour off that big motorway where safety is almost guaranteed. I love a good challenge if nothing else :) However, it’s difficult to do market research in a place where people are too polite to be honest. Even when you ask them to. And since my range of goodies are not scones or biscuits, you just never know what will work and what won’t.
Another thing is that rents for commercial space is sky high in Chesterfield. The counsel won’t do a thing to encourage new business to grow, and for a bakery you really need the right kind of space too. Then of course it’s a matter of money. Most things are these days. Just to get the ovens and chilled storage space would cost a fortune that I don’t have.

I guess I could start out in a small scale to begin with and see if there’s any demand. But in that case I would need a much bigger kitchen and an oven that is more reliable than the one I have today. I want an electric oven, not a gas oven like I have now. A bigger one would be helpful too :)

We do need to move in any case and we’re looking around every week for something closer to town and bigger than what we have today. It’s difficult to find anything that got enough counter tops for projects like this. Most kitchen are fitted by men and men who fit kitchens rarely bake in that way. If at all. So a bigger kitchen with enough space is what I’m looking at whenever we go out to take a tour in something that is available to rent.
Among other things :)

Well, my strawberry pie is done and I need to make some custard for it. Then it will be dessert tonight after the steak and the potato salad ;) However, I could make loads of that kind of pie a day, but I would need someone else to eat them :p And preferably pay for it as well ;)

We’ll see. I will start by trying to do some market research and then time will tell if it’s doable or not. Because frankly, I’m sick and tired of the design business and setting up stores for others online. Not to forget the dreadful creations of web graphics that is something I do these days because I have to, not because it’s one bit pleasant.
To me, work should be something you really want to do, and if it is, you never have to work a day in your life again :D

I’m so behind in the updates on what happens with my grandson, it’s a shame really. A couple of days off the blogging and I’ve got millions of things to catch up on….well, sorta. And in between that I’ve got nothing to write about :p

But anyway…

Sometimes Mr Sandman is taking over and knocks you out before the food is served, and that’s what happened with Alexander in the first photo in this post :) He simply fell asleep in his high chair while his mom was preparing lunch. Good thing that the chair’s got that little table in the front even though it must be terribly uncomfortable…heh

And then the other day they went down to a pizza place in town together with some friends who came for a visit. Alexander had pasta with ham and of course he was smiling and waving at the camera…hehe

He’s also learning how to walk on his own very quickly right now. There’s a video below that his mom took a few days ago where he’s taking a lot of steps on his own, so practise is paying off :D

You know…what’s being said about parents wanting their toddlers to walk as soon as possible, and then later sometimes wish they were back in the cradle again is true :p I know that his mom wants him to walk and get around on his own as soon as possible, but I also know all too well that when he finally does he will be fast as the lightning :p And he’ll be everywhere :p

During the evening yesterday it started to smell a bit burnt in here. At first I thought it came from the outside since the landlord tend to burn down whatever he can get his hands on during the summer months, but when I peeked out the front door the air was clear and fresh.
Back indoors again I noticed that the closer to the desk I was, the stronger was the smell. The reason that I never considered my PC to begin with was that it’s not even 2 years old yet…and of course our landlord and his match box :p

I shut down the PC since I wasn’t sure how well filled our fire extinguisher is any more. After 10 minutes the smell was gone but I decided to leave it off for another hour or so to allow it to cool down.
When Robin came home I turned it back on again and it was fine. For a while. But as soon as I started to render in Poser the smell was back again. I also noticed the first time that the USB port where my Wacom tablet was hooked to simply fell down and died. The second time my second USB port did the same thing (I’ve got 2 ports in the front and 4 at the back), and later when I tried my tablet in the ports in the back, it was dead. Not the ports, but the tablet.

The second time I shut it down we removed the side panel to take a peek inside….and man…hehe…it was DUSTY :p I spent probably almost an hour just cleaning it all out with the vacuum. The fan was clogged with dust, which explained the whining sound it always made as soon as I did something that took a bit of CPU power. It used to sound like I had a turbine under the hood or similar…heh

The USB ports at the front are dead though. Couldn’t do much about that by dusting it off. There are no visible burns on the inside and it’s been working fine since I put it back together again last night. I did however turn it off during the night. It’s rare that I turn it off at all, so it’s a darn miracle that anything is working :p From now on I won’t leave it on though :p

But my Wacom tablet died. The cord gave up, which is one of the most common problems on any tablet like that. Unfortunately it happened very sudden and I haven’t got a new tablet planned in the budget. Not even in the emergency budget :p Silly, but for as long as it worked I never gave it a thought.
This means that it might take a while before I can afford a new one…and the result of that is that there won’t be any new paintings in a while. I do have one more update for Paperbag Designs to do on that girl I was painting…but that’s about it. And it’s far from ready.

Oh and I actually checked my credit rating yesterday after that thing happened with O2. There was a time when not borrowing any money was a sign of healthy finances, but that’s not the case any more. I’ve got no debts, no loans of mortgages and I’ve been on this address for nearly 6 years, no overdrafts on my bank account and I’ve got very good references from the bank overall….but I STILL can’t get credit.
No one wants to be the first to take the chance….and when it comes to O2 that’s just outright silly since I’ve been a customer with them for nearly 2 years now. And I’ve never missed a payment with them. We’re going to give them a try today again since the application yesterday went through just fine with one of their guys at their call centre, but not with the other. So stay tuned.

Now it’s time to do something else :p We got a carpet to put into the living room and we also need to get outta here to pick up a local paper.

Be good and don’t forget to have a nice day :D

My grandson had his very first bib overall the other day, which I have to say is one of my own favourite kind of pants….or trousers if you’re here in England :p Especially if they are big and with a loose fit :D
But of course a bib overall is not even half as pretty on me as it is on Alexander :p Everything is cute in a smaller size, just the way it is :)

We have a grey, but not too cold day today. Actually, the sun is up there somewhere and it’s trying it’s best to peek through. I’ve got a painting to finish and that should keep me busy for the rest of the day. I’m also going to spend half an hour with Paul McKenna in the afternoon today, trying to do as I’m told for a change and put away the cigarettes. Still got that cough and it’s not easing off any, so I guess it’s time. Rather not have bronchitis during the rest of the summer if I can help it.

And Alexander’s mom is 21 years old today :D Hip hip hurray!! :D If I was there I would bake a cake and bring over…at least :) But since that’s not possible and since sending a cake would probably get messy in the long run, I’ll have to do the congrats virtually instead.

And as I suspected, the house we were looking at last week was already gone today. Someone managed to call the landlord yesterday and grabbed it. To get out of here is like trying to leave Hotel California….and this place doesn’t even have room service :p There’s a new local paper tomorrow though, so we’ll keep looking.

Now it’s time to start doing something creative here. And don’t forget to have a great day :D

Just me again :pp
Since I posted the update on the painting I’ve been playing with the bar at the bottom of this blog and found some more things to add to it. There’s a lot to choose from, but I don’t want to clutter it too much. So being a graphic designer and illustrator myself who is hunting new customers with a big axe (well, maybe not :p) I know how difficult it can be to find the next project. There are times when a steady job with monthly fixed payments is very tempting, but it would kill me. And I like to live on the edge…so to speak :pp

Anyone who’s working as a freelance knows that to get that next project you need to stay on top of things. And since this blog is almost all about graphics and art I thought I’d add a feature to the bar below that will make the hunt a bit easier.
The button where it says “Creative Jobs” is a search especially made for freelancers. It shows a lot of different kinds of jobs since creative jobs are not limited to graphic design and illustrations. Web development and any kind of entertainment is just as creative, but in their own way.

The easiest way is to take a look actually. And you can clear the search if you want to look for something that I didn’t add to the basic search too.

And if you’re looking for a freelancer, feel free to place your own ad :) New ads will automatically be posted to Twitter under my profile, @simplychrista.