1000 quid club revisited

[DolomitesDonkey]

How is everyone getting on? Since our last thread I am moving in to a totally new area, once which I'd wanted to do (many a time), but didn't feel that I "could" - for a variety of daft reasons (e.g., self-esteem!).

I've really been struggling the last few weeks finding the time to work on this new project - my paid job has been pretty full on - e.g., 11 hour days - then with 2 tiny ones on top of that - and the change of season isn't helping.

I long for the days when the children will need to be prised from their beds rather than shouting in my face from 5am.

Has anyone got any tips for this? I'm really a morning person but my toddler is destroying my will to live, never mind my will to work. I'm open to all sorts of tips from behavioural/reward strategies through to "best doping devices".

I tried working late the other night but my brain turns to mush by 8pm.

I had been planning to attend the great British business show in London next month but as my new business isn't ready to launch I just feel the timing isn't quite right. I know we talk about procrastination but it's not simply that... it'd be a 300 euro day out which seems a lot for what I feel it could return to me right now. Anyway, if anyone's interested the tickets are free and there are more details here:-

www.greatbritishbusinessshow.co.uk/index.asp

Updating here,
I have a party booking, I know it's not £1000, but it's not a day either. £250 for 2 hours though, if I did 4 it would scale up to £1k/day.
Massive ego boost this week, DD had homework to write about a person who's her role model. She chose me "because you made your own business from nothing, you're amazing" I was very touched by that!

Hello, I would like to join! I have an idea for an on line business and have for as far as setting up the website, struggling with tech issues though as am totally inept in this area.

My other issue is that I am not business minded at all and am
not sure how to set out what I am doing. I feel I need advice on this, any ideas where I could go for this?

InMySpareTime that is brilliant! Well done, I think you are technically earning £1000 per day . You must feel so proud of yourself. (And of your DD too, that is adorable and must make you feel even more proud of your achievements!) May I ask what your business is? (Sorry, I must have missed it up thread).

icepole I scoured the Internet for advice on general business practice and how to set up in business. I got invaluable help from Business Link but I'm not sure to what extent they still exist. You can still get information and advice from www.gov.uk I believe. Good luck.

Ahh, I just looked back through the thread and was reminded that you are a storyteller InMySpareTime, is that what your party booking is? How are you finding you are getting business- through word of mouth? Congrats again, must be a good feeling.

Ok despite masters and previous senior management role, i cannot for the life of me currently think of decent paid wfh for me.
Only ideas so far- hosting/teaching overseas students, ebaying, exam marking, casual clerking for local council
Any inspiration please? I have a general management background (mainly public sector) plus business masters and 14 yrs training experience.

Salbertina, how about advising small businesses how to access funding/complete paperwork/negotiate contracts etc?
Always, it is a storytelling party, they found my website via a google search.

Thank you, is there much market for that?

If you can do it well, and get your marketing sorted, you should be able to find your market for this. Often small businesses lack the knowledge or time to access the funding they could be entitled to, and I'd have thought they would be happy to pay you some of the money they never thought they could get.

Thanks, feeling a little dim and lacking in confidence but yes, why not? Hopefully i have some skills/experience to impart!
How about you, whats yr plan?

Parties for the easy money, but not reliable income.
Framed personalised stories for craft fairs, good income for summer months but time consuming getting stock levels up.
E-book for steady long term income generation.
I have lots of strings to my bow and like to have fallbacks if one sector fails.

Portfolio career, hey? V wise ..plus makes life more interesting. E-book intriguing!

13,000 words so far, plan to publish with smashwords at around 30,000 words but feedback so far is overwhelmingly positive, people want answers to the questions posed in my blog "teaser" stories.
Summer is boom time for storytelling, lots of storytelling festivals. Winter is boom time for reading as people curl up with a good book. Win-win for me.

Just catching up with some of the recent posts on here and was thinking that those with ebay skills experience AND domestic / organising skills could offer a service where you combine the two. i.e. you go to someone's house help to identify / clear out unused or unwanted items which you photograph and sell, and then you 'pay' the householder an agreed percentage of the amount in vouchers which they can then use to purchase your baby sitting, tidying, ironing, cooking help. So you get a small fee for your ebay skills, and then you also have a client (who can pay) for your other services. The client gets rid of unwanted / unused items (maybe a bit of decluttering), and then also gets vouchers that they can use for your 'concierge' services. So you've helped them to afford / pay for the very thing that you want to sell. I think that might just be win-win-win-win-win

In fact why don't you start at my house

inmysparetime great news! I have a similar (but very different) portfolio:

• wintertime workshops and writing
• spring, summer, autumn holding ceremonies

I'm part way through writing a book to accompany my work and struggling a bit with the best way to do it (ebook or physical book). Wondering if anyone has any advice in this area?

Ebooks are IMO the best bet for a first book as they remain "on display" for longer. Smashwords do a free book marketing guide that explains the difference between print book marketing and ebook marketing more eloquently than I can.

Well, I have been lurking, here, on the other thread and the entrepreneur one too...

I think I am clear now what I want to do, but it might take a while to get everything sorted.

All the threads have been super inspirational and made me feel more confident about getting on with it. It has also saddened me a bit that there are so many educated, clever women out there looking after kids with no self-esteem. It's not an area for me, but anyone who wants to charge us all a reasonable sum (cos we're not yet working) to tell us that we can do it, we are great, etc.

Anyway, I was finally pushed to stop lurking and interrupt:
InMySpareTime: Have you thought about framed poems? I haven't looked if you put your site on any of the threads. However, I have thought a few times about getting DS's favourite poem up on his wall. I know Etsy do snippets of 'family' songs.

HereInCornwall: Having holidayed in Cornwall last summer, perhaps you could go into sunshine production? Umbrella sales? Sorry.....anyway, I think there is a company that hires out kids stuff for holiday-makers. So, if you have the car packed up then they will hire a travel cot, pushchair, highchairs, etc. Also then can target people visiting from overseas who might fly over?
On the same theme: Holiday home arrival packs? So, there are people who own the holiday homes for rent - you could get them to offer welcome packs - that you make up and provide (washing up liq, food, drink, soap) but also for people with second homes who whizz down on a Friday night - you arrange to provide them (not sure how - can they pick up from you?) with some groceries, booze, maybe hire kids toys/books, arrange a car wash while there, sort out tickets, restaurant reservations, etc. as you have the local knowledge.
Would think easy to market using lots of words about holidaying cornwall and tons of websites exist that you can advertise on?

hoopsadazy thanks for those ideas. I'm still mulling over the Cornwall/concierge/holiday idea. In the meantime, I have come up with another idea which seems to be getting good feedback. I'm getting a little bit (over)excited about it and currently working on a website etc to just get myself out there and get started. I'm also looking at an admin/organisation sideline. This thread is awesome - you're an awesome (this is currently my 4yos favourite word!) motivational bunch. I'm doing a little (free) course in the evenings which is really helping me get my head together.

I'm still aiming for 1000 quid a month initially, but the 1000 a day objective is certainly in my longer-term business plan.

The most positive things I have taken from these threads recently (and by the way, I never look at any other sub-forums - only the freelances/SE one!):

• Just get out there and give it a go, don't wait and wait until it's all perfect. You can't get clients unless you get out and advertise - doesn't matter if your site/name/content/business cards etc aren't perfect yet!

• You CAN do it. Have the confidence to go out there and sell what you're good at. Nobody can do everything/be everything all the time, so offer what you're good at to people who aren't good at it!

• Following on from the above, I am using that as a 'practise what you preach' motto. I am obviously going into an 'outsource your small jobs' type area so I have to be able to sell to people the fact that I'm BRILLIANT at xyz and they are not brilliant at it, so should pay me to do it.

Happy motivational Friday ladies!

Thought you might like this story about a millionaire mumpreneur on huffington post:
Mompreneur Nina Restieri Organizes Her Overwhelming Schedule Into A Million-Dollar Business t.co/euvqWBlidh

Thought I'd bring this back to life...

ModeratelyO - are you working for yourself or thinking about it?

Yes, just started working for myself.

What is it you do? How's it going?

Just a quick bump. We at the 1000 quid club are looking for new members for our free "mastermind club". It works best for those in start-up mode or who have fewer than 12 months experience going it alone. We provide each other with support, encouragement and a sounding board whilst you bring it all together.

If you're interested in joining, please PM me - we'll need to connect on FB and then I can pop you in the group.

(PS yes, 1000/day is in sight!)

Hi Dolomites - I think I may have been in the group at some point, but it was early on and most of the activity was still on the MN thread, so I didn't participate much. Is it OK to join now.

I'm on a different path now and work as a freelance web copywriter. I love it but need to make a plan for increasing my rates - I'm aiming to be top quality at top rates. £1,000 in a day may be ambitious but you never know.

Yes, please pop me a PM because I'm afraid I can't remember who you are.