It’s raining, it’s pouring …

… and there I was still snoring at 8 o’clock this morning! Only to be rudely awoken by the nanny ringing the doorbell, bless her. I keep suggesting that she use her key but she doesn’t like to. I think it’s the fear of coming across my beloved in his boxers or something equally scary! Anyway, can’t remember the last time I had a lie-in, I think it must have been the Lemsip Max before bed that did it (I’ll be having another one of those tonight). That extra hour made all the difference and I actually feel quite bright and breezy despite my stinking cold. So I’m hoping to have one of those super-productive days and clear the decks of all those little jobs I’ve been procrastinating about …

Been (via Starbucks!) to the bank, to take in the form they need to complete for my online payment processing account. Once I’ve got that set up, I’ll be able to take money on the website. Membership will be completely free so that as many mums as possible can join, but people will have the option to pay for various premium features if they want to. I’ve spent hours and hours agonising over what to charge for and how much to charge, and I’ve finally got to a solution that feels fair and seems to work. But it’s this kind of thing that brings home to me that, no matter how many people I ask for advice, ultimately it’s my decision. I’m on my own!

Anyway, the developers are apparently going to build me a ‘bespoke’ shopping cart, rather than using something off the shelf - don’t really know why, but it makes me feel special anyway! They’re cracking on with the HTML for the site and are due to start building the database fairly soon. Exciting stuff, although I guess it also means that I’m going to have to fork out the next financial instalment fairly soon as well. . U . . O!

Work seems to be being interspersed with Christmas jobs this week. Crazy, isn’t it? Spent two hours online last night looking for the best price on a Clickstart My First Computer. Of course I didn’t buy it when I saw it at a great price last week, and now pretty much everywhere has sold out … and all the prices have gone up! And then, just when I finally tracked one down, my partner said he’d gone off the whole idea as he doesn’t want the children to grow up too soon. Oh, you can imagine the way that conversation went!

Could write all morning this morning, but then I wouldn’t get those other jobs done … so time to get focused. Thought I’d leave you with a Tibetan saying that I discovered in my latest book and need to keep in mind:

“Seeking happiness outside ourselves is like
waiting for sunshine in a cave facing north.”

Well, it’s a grey old day out there and I’m still managing to create my own sunshine, so that’s an achievement if ever there was one! See you later …

Phew!

All I can say is that I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief that last week is over!  (And yes, I do realise we’re already nearly halfway through this week - scary!)  So much for all my plans of getting glammed up and swanning into London for the various Enterprise Week events … I was far too busy mopping up sick and wiping bottoms instead!  Both our little ones were struck down with yet another tummy bug, and the nanny was due to fly off to Prague at the weekend.  Much as I would have loved to, I didn’t really feel I could expect her to work, just in case it ruined her trip and she never forgave me and I got blacklisted as the worst employer ever, that kind of thing.  I am a great believer in karma.  So there I was back on mummy duty and loving every minute of it, as I’m sure you can imagine!  But every cloud has a silver lining and, if nothing else, it renewed my enthusiasm for work!

And I can still say that having just spent hours trying to send a simple email newsletter.  How big a deal can that be?  It seems it’s quite straightforward if you don’t mind it looking rubbish and not being personalised at all, but as soon as you want to mail merge fields and give it some kind of design presence, it all goes to pot.  Or at least mine did!  So if by any chance you’re reading this having received one, I’m sorry, it should’ve had your name in.  Oh well, next time …

Tough one …

Tough old week, that is! Just as I thought I was actually starting to recover from this pesky postnatal illness that’s been hanging over me for the past, oooh, 15 months or so, it’s suddenly come back and bitten me on the bum again! Triggered, of course, by the fact that both my little ones have been poorly … for the umpteenth time, or so it seems. Came back from meeting a friend last night, having had a good old catch-up, only to find that my youngest had thrown up everywhere and was being sponged down in the bath. Not a nice sight. And, of course, it meant that I didn’t get any sleep at all and am feeling distinctly bleary-eyed and down-at-heel today. Hey ho. I guess it’s just one of those things that happens - part of motherhood, life, etc, etc. But when I think about the responsibility of having to deal with stuff like that for the next umpteen years, I really really want to run. All I can say is thank heavens for the nanny, she’s worth her weight in gold. Come to mention it, she probably costs more than her weight in gold! But she means that I can at least walk out the door for a little while, and concentrating on business helps calm me down. So Mummo is making me happier already, and that’s what it’s all about. Don’t know who’s out there reading this, if anyone, but if you’re a mum go and check it out: www.mummo.co.uk. You can register interest now even though the full website won’t be live for a couple of months - that way I can keep you up to speed with what’s going on.

In the meantime, who’s been watching Strictly Come Dancing? I absolutely LOVE that show. It’s definitely a dose of escapism … into a world of passion, romance, satin, sequins and sexy strutting, twirling, whirling, demon dancers. They’ve really upped the ante with the women this year and I’m just wishing I could be one of them.

Anyway, as for business, I’m just debating over the colours for the logo and putting my PR and marketing strategy together.  The big decisions for today are Rubine Red vs Rhodamine Red, do I need letterheaded paper and should a community blog have its own blogroll?!  Answers on a postcard please …

I must be mad …

Wow, the days and months are flying by - I can’t quite believe how long it’s been since I last ‘blogged’! Had to return to full-time mummy duties for a while as our poor nanny was “proper poorly”, as she put it - turns out she caught the dreaded salmonella from our daughter, which apparently means we’ll be investigated by environmental health! And now I’m officially office-less. Sitting here in the only local cafe with internet access, trying to concentrate and hear myself think over noise of the juicing machine. I sometimes wonder how on earth I can even contemplate setting up a new business when my life is scattered amongst various piles of paper all round our house and I drift from one coffee shop to another all day long. Not to mention needing to get over ‘postnatal depression’ (sshhh, don’t tell anyone!). Perhaps I should just take my mum’s advice and spend my days doing yoga and meditation … or then again, perhaps that would really send me mad?! Instead, being the kind of contrary Mary I am, I choose to busy my brain with new ideas, options, possibilities … escape routes to an exciting future.

But things have reached crunch point. Can’t keep on researching forever, I need to actually make a decision. Apparently, that’s what you have to do in business! Everyone I’ve spoken to so far about this idea seems to think it’s a good one, so do I just go ahead and take the plunge, investing all my time and money into it, or … ? Do I take the children, move to the country and opt for a simpler, less materialistic life? After all, whilst I may not really want to ‘play mother’ at the moment, I do know that once these precious years of my little ones’ lives have passed, I can never press rewind and go back again. Is there some way I can follow both paths? At the same time? Or is that called having your cake and wanting to eat it as well?! (I’ve always wondered, aren’t you supposed to eat cake?!) Anyway, enough rambling, I’m going to disappear to a cottage in the middle of nowhere and make my mind up. A whole week to myself - it’s been so long since that happened that I’ll probably be ’sectionable’ by the end of it! Which, I guess, is always another path! Want to come with me to my rural retreat and see what happens …

Kitchen table dramas!

Well, here I am again, sat at my kitchen table … except it’s not actually mine, it’s a friend’s. She’s been letting me use it so that I can stay out of the way of the nanny and the little ones, for their sake as much as mine. I just kind of knew that work and kids wouldn’t mix, even ‘pretend’ work which is often what this feels like! (And, before you jump in, I do know, from three years’ personal full-time experience of it, that looking after children is harder work than anything else you could ever do … but you know what I mean!) Anyway …

This is it, just me and my laptop, a mobile phone and a fledgling business idea. It’s a lonely old place, really. In fact, the title of this entry is more than a bit tongue in cheek, as I could do with a drama to liven things up. Still, shouldn’t tempt fate and - knowing me - I can always create one if I get too bored! So what am I doing … and how long before I can go to Starbucks (again) for coffee and company?! I’ve been trying to sort out my research questionnaire, which I’m hoping to send out to lots of mums to get some background data to support my plans. I’ll be slightly gutted if people’s replies come back and they don’t tell me what I want to hear, because then all that hard work will just have to go in the bin! I’m offering to donate money to charity for every completed questionnaire I get back, so fingers crossed that’ll motivate everyone to help out. I did sensibly remember to say ’subject to a maximum donation of …’ just in case the whole thing got out of hand and ended up as its own viral marketing campaign. Talking of which … (but I’ll have to come back to that as the coffee urge has just got the better of me!) See you later!