Cash flow, cheap champagne and Dizzee Rascal
Another week in the hell that is business ownership. Things get worse with Woolworths and then slightly better with Dizzee Rascal.
Another week in the hell that is business ownership. Things get worse with Woolworths and then slightly better with Dizzee Rascal. Cash flow, champagne and Dizzee Rascal
A short inbetween entry – I am still hoping to post the rest of the notes from our sublime Tuscany tour but it has been another 100+ hour week and I am brain dead and despite my best efforts, have not found even a tiny sliver of time to finish these.
In the interest though of compiling a true to life blog, I think it is probably right not just to record how we swan off to beautiful places and eat and drink some amazing things. Because that is only a tiny fraction of what we do. The rest of the time, we are trying to build a business which means dealing with issues with staff, landlords (I definitely cannot record details of the latter here as I will become highly libellous) other issues also not for discussion here and, probably the worst of all of these for me, cash flow. This has reduced me to tears twice in the last three days and while tomorrow, I will no doubt get up, pull myself together, go forth and find a way through it, having to tell our suppliers who we value you very highly that we are going to be even later with payment is the least fun thing I ever, ever have to do.
You always get told that starting and running your own business will be hard. I certainly did. Two and a half years down the line, I can tell you that it is in fact two hundred million times harder than you think it is going to be. Our suppliers (and I am not making that exception for political reasons, honest) and one or two others aside, we are up against breathtaking inefficiency, behaviour which can only be described as borderline psychopathic (and yes, I do mean those who refuse to fix a problem which would take them two days maximum and which has lead so far, for us, to four months of misery that we cannot begin to describe) and then just good old fashioned tough times bought on by growing fast.
This means that I do hit a wall where I think I might be dying of a stress induced heart attack at least twice a day (Mum – it is ok, honestly, I am not really dying of a stress induced heart attack, it just feels like that sometimes) and during a meeting with Jude on Friday night where we were working out our payment schedule, I did start to seriously think about just walking away. From everything. I won’t though, but the idea was amazingly tempting. Just go. Just get on a train and disappear and go and work in a pub in Wigan under an assumed name.
Obviously, I couldn’t go to Wigan now as I have now recorded that idea in this blog, but somewhere like that.
Breathing deep and moving on.
I have been meaning to pass on here for two weeks now astounding news that is yet another sign (as if we need another) that the world is indeed on the fast track to hell in a rickety hand basket. I think I will start a whole section on this blog that falls under the ‘signs that the end is nigh’ category. Lord knows they are coming thick and fast these days.
Sign number 1. Woolworths are launching a £5 bottle of champagne. The back label will provide helpful hints as to which delicacies from its pick and mix range are best matched to this wine so that drinkers can enjoy a complete gastronomic experience. Their managing director, Tony Page, said that while champagne was a luxury product, it could be ‘produced cheaply and efficiently’ . Has anyone done a study on the real cost to the environment of your cheap bottle of champagne Mr Page? Has anyone with who is familiar with even basic champagne ever tasted it and confirmed that it was indeed a good ‘cheap and efficient’ version. Apparently, a caviar gift set and a diamond range produced under the same ‘worthit!’ lael are to follow shortly. Worth it to who exactly? I suppose that both are right on the money in these times of complete mass insanity given the global crisis in fish stocks and the realisation even among mainstream entertainment media that much of the diamond industry is soaked in bloody suffering. That is the world we live in . Woolworths fidldles with its ‘Worthit!’ range while the future burns.
So far, not really very cheerful so some better news. We left Clapham at about 10pm on Friday and went to Lordship Lane to collect some wine I had to deliver the next morning. When we got there, Eliza and Rebecca were in a state of almost hysterical excitement. Dizzee Rascal (recording artist who has just been named best male act at the Mobo awards) had just been in, with his body guard. Eliza had apparently tried to make their interaction last for as long as possible and felt that she had indeed shared a moment with him over the carrot cake. For that is what he had purchased – a slice of carrot cake and a bottle of our delicious sparkling Vouvray. God bless you Dizzee – in a world where even someone clutching £7 can go shopping for a bottle of ‘real’ champagne and disgusting mass produced sugar things, a bona fida Award winning rap person has been in to Green and Blue for carrot cake and sparkling Vouvray. Rebecca intruded on my happy musings somewhat to comment on the fact hat apparently his bodyguard (slightly unnecessary in G & B, I would have thought) had pointed out to him that ‘That is not champagne, you know’ as they left and while Dizzee’s response went unrecorded, I really and truly hope it did not matter to him. I am pretty sure he is going to enjoy it immensely anyway and hopefully it will be a lesson to him that you don’t ever, ever believe the hype. The things really worth having are rarely those that have been marketed to beyond truth or reality to the point that they are not worth it on any level save the most superficial.
A short inbetween entry – I am still hoping to post the rest of the notes from our sublime Tuscany tour but it has been another 100+ hour week and I am brain dead and despite my best efforts, have not found even a tiny sliver of time to finish these.
In the interest though of compiling a true to life blog, I think it is probably right not just to record how we swan off to beautiful places and eat and drink some amazing things. Because that is only a tiny fraction of what we do. The rest of the time, we are trying to build a business which means dealing with issues with staff, landlords (I definitely cannot record details of the latter here as I will become highly libellous) other issues also not for discussion here and, probably the worst of all of these for me, cash flow. This has reduced me to tears twice in the last three days and while tomorrow, I will no doubt get up, pull myself together, go forth and find a way through it, having to tell our suppliers who we value you very highly that we are going to be even later with payment is the least fun thing I ever, ever have to do.
You always get told that starting and running your own business will be hard. I certainly did. Two and a half years down the line, I can tell you that it is in fact two hundred million times harder than you think it is going to be. Our suppliers (and I am not making that exception for political reasons, honest) and one or two others aside, we are up against breathtaking inefficiency, behaviour which can only be described as borderline psychopathic (and yes, I do mean those who refuse to fix a problem which would take them two days maximum and which has lead so far, for us, to four months of misery that we cannot begin to describe) and then just good old fashioned tough times bought on by growing fast.
This means that I do hit a wall where I think I might be dying of a stress induced heart attack at least twice a day (Mum – it is ok, honestly, I am not really dying of a stress induced heart attack, it just feels like that sometimes) and during a meeting with Jude on Friday night where we were working out our payment schedule, I did start to seriously think about just walking away. From everything. I won’t though, but the idea was amazingly tempting. Just go. Just get on a train and disappear and go and work in a pub in Wigan under an assumed name.
Obviously, I couldn’t go to Wigan now as I have now recorded that idea in this blog, but somewhere like that.
Breathing deep and moving on.
I have been meaning to pass on here for two weeks now astounding news that is yet another sign (as if we need another) that the world is indeed on the fast track to hell in a rickety hand basket. I think I will start a whole section on this blog that falls under the ‘signs that the end is nigh’ category. Lord knows they are coming thick and fast these days.
Sign number 1. Woolworths are launching a £5 bottle of champagne. The back label will provide helpful hints as to which delicacies from its pick and mix range are best matched to this wine so that drinkers can enjoy a complete gastronomic experience. Their managing director, Tony Page, said that while champagne was a luxury product, it could be ‘produced cheaply and efficiently’ . Has anyone done a study on the real cost to the environment of your cheap bottle of champagne Mr Page? Has anyone with who is familiar with even basic champagne ever tasted it and confirmed that it was indeed a good ‘cheap and efficient’ version. Apparently, a caviar gift set and a diamond range produced under the same ‘worthit!’ lael are to follow shortly. Worth it to who exactly? I suppose that both are right on the money in these times of complete mass insanity given the global crisis in fish stocks and the realisation even among mainstream entertainment media that much of the diamond industry is soaked in bloody suffering. That is the world we live in . Woolworths fidldles with its ‘Worthit!’ range while the future burns.
So far, not really very cheerful so some better news. We left Clapham at about 10pm on Friday and went to Lordship Lane to collect some wine I had to deliver the next morning. When we got there, Eliza and Rebecca were in a state of almost hysterical excitement. Dizzee Rascal (recording artist who has just been named best male act at the Mobo awards) had just been in, with his body guard. Eliza had apparently tried to make their interaction last for as long as possible and felt that she had indeed shared a moment with him over the carrot cake. For that is what he had purchased – a slice of carrot cake and a bottle of our delicious sparkling Vouvray. God bless you Dizzee – in a world where even someone clutching £7 can go shopping for a bottle of ‘real’ champagne and disgusting mass produced sugar things, a bona fida Award winning rap person has been in to Green and Blue for carrot cake and sparkling Vouvray. Rebecca intruded on my happy musings somewhat to comment on the fact hat apparently his bodyguard (slightly unnecessary in G & B, I would have thought) had pointed out to him that ‘That is not champagne, you know’ as they left and while Dizzee’s response went unrecorded, I really and truly hope it did not matter to him. I am pretty sure he is going to enjoy it immensely anyway and hopefully it will be a lesson to him that you don’t ever, ever believe the hype. The things really worth having are rarely those that have been marketed to beyond truth or reality to the point that they are not worth it on any level save the most superficial.
