However, since things have been really busy with work, but money is slow, I've decided to cancel my tennis membership for a few months, for two reasons

1. To help the finances a little
2. And to help me focus on work a little better

So, I'm determined that when I return back to playing tennis, I'm going to be as fit as I have been for a long time.

My goal is to lose just over half a stone in a month. I'm going to do this by running every other day, and doing a few other bits that don't cost anything, press-ups, sit-ups etc...

Hopefully, I can still maintain my mixed diet of healthy food and take-aways and I'll still be able to achieve my goal.

Aiming to be back at the tennis club in April, so watch this space.

Now that things have settled after the spring fair, I can now take stock of what's on the horizon and what direction I should be going in for the rest of the year.

It's apparent the the whole of the So Easy Brand has potential. The brand is good, the products, although aren't unique, there is a market for the simplicity I'm trying to achieve, so that is going to be a big focus for me for the rest of the year.

I think for the next few months I'm going to be juggling a lot of projects at once.

For Foxwood, I have a couple of Recruitment projects, another site redesign for JamCem, which will involve a redevelopment of My.Foxwood. 

Also, following the Spring Fair, I have another large project for WriteFromTheHeart Keepsakes. This could hopefully be a monthly retainer plus equity, but I guess it's going to take some weeks to finalise. 

I also have a quote to do for a local networking group which could potentially end up being about £10k work, but not sure if that will come off or not.

Another good contact from the Spring fair was a guy who wants me to be distributor for his Surf products, Ola Ketal. I thought this would be a great project to test the So Easy solutions from start to finish, but although I love the brand and his products are pretty snazzy, I just don't think I can give it the time it needs to make it a success.

So, I'm still looking for a nice little project to test So Easy from start to finish, so Im thinking of setting up a little musical gift shop... E-commerce with So Easy Design, manage across market places, and the do the fulfilment too, but run it as a proper customer.

 

Simon is quite keen to start pushing the fulfilment side of the business, so I think that will be a good point of focus over the next few months, however, following the spring fair, I have a number of contacts that want e-commerce solutions, so I'm going to have to get cracking on that too. Still a lot of work to get it to a launch-able state.

Got another meeting in the morning in Knights bridge, with a family I met at the Spring Fair. They are also looking for a fulfilment solution, but also a start to finish solution for their son. This could be a great little project to get everything up and running with.

My main goal is to try and use big projects from Foxwood to fund the development of So Easy, up to a point where So Easy is generating around £3k per month.. Then I can relax and take a few holidays.

The last few months have been tough, but I've really managed to move So Easy forward significantly, so the risk of cutting down some clients to focus, has paid off. However, the bank balances are not looking great.

I still feel I need around 6 months to get So Easy off the ground, so I went to the bank to borrow £30k. This should give me the buffer I need to get everything up and running.

I must admit, I was a little concerned about getting into debt again, but let's face it, it's not like I'm spending it all on clothes or holidays... It's to help build up the business. Plenty of people have so much more debt than that, and this is for the bigger picture. I also have around £100k equity in my house now, so, I won't lose sleep over it, and hopefully it will give me the boost I need to start earning good money again.

Happy Monday, and I'll update you all again soon... 

i arrived at Birmingham NEC, 14:00 on Saturday, ready to drop everything off at the stand and get an early night. What I wasn't aware of was that I had to book a parking space outside the loading bay, and pay a £50 deposit. Refundable, but if I was a minute late, I'd lose the deposit. Not knowing where to go, I was starting to panic. No idea where Hall 4 was, but luckily I managed to navigate round all the halls and find my entrance.

When I finally found my stand, I have to say, it was very disheartening. A tiny little empty stand. I looked around at all the competitors in the hall with their fancy lighting, and plenty of room to sit to customers and chat. "How was I going to attract any customers?".  Tired from the drive, and the stress of finding the stand, I then realised I was still on the clock to get my £50 deposit, so I quickly unloaded the car, and took the car back to the car park (and got my deposit back. I made my way back to the stand (20 minute walk from the nearest car park, the NEC is huge), and slowly started to put the stand together, setting up the banners, and the computers etc...

I finally get everything how I wanted it, and I have to say, the results weren't too shabby. Let's not forget, budget was very limited and this was all organised in just 6 weeks.

This was the first time in years I'd actually been in front of customers, selling a product. It didn't take long for me to get back into the groove, and after the first day, I'd received over 20 decent leads already.

My main aim of the exhibition was to test the market to see if So Easy has a good customer base, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the great feedback I was receiving, both for the product, and the brand.

The next 4 days were tough, but I collected some great contacts and I think I'll have to put the exhibition down as a success.

Well, I've spent the last 5 days selling an entire solution that doesn't quite exist, so I'm up against it to get everything working smoothly.

I have to say, that the weeks leading up the NEC, I managed to get so much completed:

However, that's just the start... Now that I have so much interest in the solutions, I have to actually get them finished. 

So, it's bye bye social life for a few weeks / months and head down to get this shit off the ground...