New challenges – Blog report

Another quarter has passed… This blog report is important, not only because I wanted to give you an update about the blog, but also because I wanted to give you more insights into what has happened in the past three months. It may appear to you that nothing has happened, but I ensure you, I have been working hard behind the scenes.

As you may remeber, I identified the following in January:

I have to slow down, I can’t keep up with the pace and don’t have time to work on anything else.

Well, I think I managed to achieve this and to be honest, I am pleased I did. It might have resulted in the blog slowing down and Readers may think I  have neglected them – which I hope is not the case as I tried my very best to share interesting posts and be more active on Facebook – but I do feel that I achieved my objective and I got my life back. I become re-invigorated and inspired by, enjoying weekends and weekday evenings: cinema, watching inspirational TV at home, reading books, day trips, dining out, museums etc. These play a huge part in having been able achieving my other goal:.

Do not want to get there quickly. Enjoy the road and have fun.

Altough I tried to be more active on Facebook and create different content as well as hit the right tone, the majority of the time I worked on my product and own business behind the scenes. I felt like I had been in exile for a while. You, lovely Readers might have not seen it, but I can assure you I managed to achieve yet another goal, namely

Start the new year with the most difficult and biggest task.

 

 

Well, the biggest part of the job has been done. I must admit my enthusiasm has been up and down during the proces as I have been full of fears and doubts in one moment, then in the next, going full steam ahead. It is not easy to carry on with little encouragement and support and this road is bumpy anyway. On one hand it is amazing to work on your own ideas and what you like, on the other hand you are full of questions as to whether you are ever going to be able to run your own business. I am confident that what I imagined is good and there would be demand for it in the market, but whether I will be able to run and sell it myself, that is a different story.

It was not easy either to concentrate on the biggest task and not to be distracted by creative ideas. Finally, the long and grey winter did not always help to stay focused and have high spirits all the time. But now, being in the month of the Aires everything being reborn and we all get new energies and isnpirations.

As far as the deadline is concerned, everything could have been done in a shorter period of time, however, I managed at last to understand that best is to make progress in my own pace, otherwise I might burn out quickly. Your own pace is important so that you can get used to the idea of what you are trying to achieve and think through the whole concept.

This of course does not mean the process and setting up the business can be delayed forever. Yes, I could have finished work in a month, yes, I could have started running my own business earlier saying ‘Who dares wins!’. However, if you want to create quality, which I do, then it takes more time. I also had to remind myself that  research and knowledge is important and both needs time for what I want to achieve.

Every single piece of my business plan is becoming clearer and clearer day by day.

I do not mean to have everything perfect – if I did, it would take years, plus I am perfectly aware that I will pick up more knowledge and will fine tune the product through experience. But I do believe I have to LOVE my product because this is the only way to appear authentic and genuine in front of clients and I also must feel confident and comfortable with what I am selling. If I don’t feel comfortable, what would be the point in starting anything?

I also let my worries about my website go. I am aware there are many issues: plugins don’t work properly (instagram feed), it is slow etc. Unfortunately, I can’t deal with it at the moment and my priority lays elswehere. At the same time I know, that soon the time will come when I will outsorce this activity and the website will be reborn.

Results:

I must admit this is the first qaurter when I have not looked at the statistics. When you are not too confident because of having a different focus, the last thing you need is some daunting statistics. So I am sorry, Mr Statistics, but I don’t want you just now!

Numbers on Instagram are improving, not massively but still, however, I did manage to let the worries about the number of followers go for once and all. I have not been worried about it anyway for some time, but there was a sentence that made it absolutely clear why one should not worry. When we were in the cinema earlier this month, I saw the latest advert by Macmillan Cancer Support where it was said:

Cancer does not care who you are. […]

It does not give a damn about the number of followers you have.

I don’t think it needs more explaining. Therefore, even if I don’t manage to post on Instagram which is by the way the most successful platform of mine, the world will still turn. At the same time, I am pleased that

• The first time one of my photos got 100+ likes.
• There has been some dialogues with a few people which is nice.
• I get positive feedbacks which gives me pleasure and strength:

‘We love your content.’ Bestcastlecombe – an official, regional profile
‘Very impressed with the Shakespeare quotation. Especially in Hungarian.’
‘I cannot take my eyes off of it.’
‘What is a staddle stone? I’ve managed to live my whole life in England without learning this.’
‘It is fascinating to learn about the history of the buildings I have passed so often all my life and wondered what they were originally. Thank you for a great way of getting locally educated!’
‘Great to know the background. I have passed it so many times since I was little and now I know it!’

What are the goals for Q2?

A LOT.

• Pull together all the materials I have been working on.
• Register the business.
• Arrange insurance.
• Finalise pricing.
• Re-design website for which final content is needed.
• Create all necessary and practical documents (inventory, Health & Safety, invoice, accounting etc)
• Check last details
• Testing
• If testing is successful, then the most difficult task: advertising, sales and marketing including negotiations. (Uh, it sounds pretty daunting…)
• And of course get my head around the idea of leaving my comfort zone.

I won’t be bored, I think. I may or may not be able to have everything sorted by the end of Q2. If it won’t, it won’t be a problem.

~

Last but not least thank you for your patience and let me assure you I am going to carry on writing interesting and entertaining posts and give more of myself on the blog, on social media and everywhere as my exile has expired.