Great Help From People Around Me

I'm new to this business lark.

I did business studies at school, but it was probably 8 years too early for me.

I am the Jack Rodwell of the business world.  I have great potential.  I have alot of skill.  I just lack experience, but one day I could be world class! :)

Im a novice when it comes to stuff from the HMRC or Companies house I just don't understand it, and i'm sure im not alone in this thought.

I don't know how i'd ever put together a water-tight business plan to a brilliant investor.  After all Investors have been there done that, they will know every little fault in my business plan inside and out.
They will have the Financial knowledge that I am pretty much dyslexic on.  I'm rubbish with numbers!

BUT, I keep coming across fantastic people that keep teaching me stuff, whether its to do with servers and web design, or whether its to do with organisations that can help me progress.  Everyone seems to help.

A guy I work with is being a fantastic help.  I won't name him as he probably won't want to be.  He has been a breath of fresh air in my work, he really knows his stuff.  He was also part of a new business enterprise initiative and he is helping me without a second thought.  He is giving me some great advice, and I will definately take it on board, he's also helping me with the hard forms from Companies House and the HMRC.

I've also had a call today from Rotherham Enterprise, I met them at the Enterprise Show in Sheffield run by business link.  They work very similiar to business link, helping Rotherham business's to get to a stage where they are ready and set for the market.  Im due to meet their adviser to talk through my 3 plans that i have put together.  Those plans could quite easily turn into 6 at the drop of a hat, so times are exciting.

The forums that I talked about in earlier blogs are also proving to be a good find, they are providing me some brilliant ideas and inspiration aswell as some sound knowledge.

I have a difficult couple of weeks coming up with some private stuff that is business related, but I can't talk about this on here.

The missus is at a templespa party tonight and i've just got in from basketball, so im just chilling out writing my blog.  Im on atkins diet so im shattered, but i'm still full of ideas which is great.

Interesting and Valuable Day

So today I went to http://www.theenterpriseshows.com/ which are being run by Business Link Yorkshire and help entrepreneurs interesting in receiving help and guidance when starting their business.  I learnt some valuable tips and got some great advice.

At these shows they have various stands from different companies ranging from Banks and Solicitors to local organisations looking at helping you through the stages of your start up business.  I am now expecting a call from a Rotherham Based company that looks to advise startup companies and also a business link advisor who will hopefully help me with my business plan.  I have also emailed a company there who specialise in web design for a quote on the different sites that I am looking to operate.

I went to visit a couple of seminars and while there I bumped into Michael Ord and Gemma Baldan of www.frooly.com which is a start up business which received £1m in start up investment.  They were both doing a talk to local entrepreneurs which was quite interesting and very funny and gave me some good tips on how to get the best from what I want to do.  The business that they run is a Social Networking Site designed to promote the best independent local business, and I think Frooly has the potential and the idea to become huge.  You can follow them on twitter with @whatisfrooly

I also had a bit of a brainwave on the way home, and I need to research this a bit further but it basically a new way for small start up companies to get business.

Anyway, the heavens have opened and what was a lovely sunny day earlier looks quite mental and I may need to build an arc.

Useful Tools for Start Up Companies

Over the past week or so of writing my new blog I have been given some useful information and resources by quite a few people.  These are becoming a great help and some of the things that I thought would be straight forward look like being far from that.  Great that I now know because it means that I should be able to get everything air tight.

I was put in touch with 2 business forums which basically help business people with answers that they may not know.  This is ideal for a start up business such as myself, as many of the questions and terminology thats used is like speaking in toungues!!!  The 2 forums that I have been put in touch with are www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk and www.freebusinessforums.co.uk/ and I've had some great responses from people that are willing to help and seem genuinely knowledgable.

I am also attending an event run by Business Link Yorkshire and it is basically talking through and giving advice to young people about starting and developing a business, the website to the event is www.theenterpriseshows.com/.  I'm looking at getting lots of tips on business plans and hopefully network with some interesting people.

All in all this could be quite an important week in my longterm plans.

I shant be beaten!!!!!

So im still messing around with this server trying to get the site up and running, ive had my database go missing, ive had table and settings sql go missing and now im missing some kind of smarty file!  Never again will I curse the lads in IT........Saying that they are trained, im merely a monkey trying to do an IT Geeks job!

I've decided I wont let it beat me, im learning new things all the time so for me its actually been a good experience.  I might not no everything about it but the site is nearly up and running, I just have to find out how to install this smarty.php file!

Business plan wise nothing had happened, I need advice from external people and I need to know the best companies to get quotes from so that is going to be a longer process.  I don't mind this, I want it to be right when its done.

I am going to go to an event thats planned by Business Link Yorkshire that is designed for start up businesses which should be good.  They should be able to give me more tools.

I also want to say a thank you to Gemma Killeen an old school friend that got in contact after reading my blog and gave me some good advice and Dave Dingvean who was interested enough to offer his service.  Its much appreciated.

Luck or Karma?

Sooooo, once again companies house sent me out an Annual Return to send back to them (I've still no idea what it is, what it does, or what relevance it will have to them.  I think they just charge it yearly to make more money).  Once again they have failed to send me online filing passwords which means that its costing me more money than it should and it also means that i'm 2 days late in sending the information back to them. Its really frustrating and then they even have the most antiquated methods of payment.  I can pay by cheque or by postal order.  I think someone should tell them that its the year 2010 and there is a thing called the internet that allows people to pay for stuff and there is also something called a Ninendo Wii, its like an atari (with Pong) but without the wires, it must be magic!

Sometimes things just dont seem to be set up for start up or web orietentated business's. Alot of the jargon they use is also a ballache.  I don't know if im supposed to dedicate shares to myself, or distribute them.  Am I company secretary or a director or secretary general!??!?!?  THIS is why I need someone with experience to get advice from!

Sometimes I believe in Karma and other times I dont.  For instance, when I used to live in Peterborough I would go out alot and not maybe concentrate on my career and I never got any breaks.  Then as soon as I moved to Sheffield (The day I moved up I got made redundant) things started going really well and within 6 months I had a new house, a new car, a baby on the way and a wonderful girlfriend (Now Mrs Clarke).  It got me thinking that Karma must be playing a part...........Until I see people that don't deserve things getting the good things! 

Over the weekend we had a really good viewing on our house, but we found out today they had gone for another house even though it was a straight choice!  Now thats Karma........Or is it?

Local Resources

So the aim of getting my business plans to market is to create 1,2 or 3 profitable businesses so that I can easily support my family in the future.  There are lots of resources available to start up companies and people looking for help.

One main company that people know about are Business Link, they help start ups with things such as Grants and Advice.  Other things available to people are things such as business angels, here in Yorkshire there is a company called Yorkshire Business Angels, they are basically a group of investors looking to make money out of start up companies and help young entreprenours.  They are kind of like the Dragons Den people, but without the sarcasm of Duncan Bannatyne and they dont sit in a chair with £100k next to them.

I aim to take advantage of as many of these local resources as I can over the next couple of months, they should be able to provide me with the knowledge that I need to get the results that I want.

On another note, I have some kind of forms that need to be back with companies house by the 20th.  I have registered with webfiling and was expecting some passwords to get mailed to me.  I still havent received these and im sure it was the same lasttime.  I find this ridiculous as these forms by all account are quite important so ill need to chase these tomorrow.

I have already had some enquiries following the writing of this blog which is great, its good that people take an interest and want to get involved.  Hopefully I can get to a stage where I can give a definate answer on the way forward for the business soon.

On another note, hopefully the www.pimpyourpic.com website will finally be back up and running after a year out tomorrow, I managed to transfer everything to the  server myself, im just having problems with putting the database on here too, so im waiting for a good friend of mine to find the file and show me what to do next!!!