Scary stuff and the woe of deliveries

Our plans are somewhat awry at the moment due to certain key deliveries of Spring/ Summer collections being late. The sale to try and clear as much Autumn/Winter stock and rake in cash to pay for the new seasons' stock has run its course with sales this week as low as any, so we could really, really do with new stock - everyone's waiting for it.

I remarked to a friend the other day that it's not the initial investment which is frightening, it's the second input of cash required to continue growth that can come as a shock. We're in a business which can only grow if you invest more each season. With residual start up costs eating most of the profit from the first few months, that second boost has to come from our savings. I'm very glad that one, I factored this into the forecasts and two, that we have what looks like just enough to invest for growth and have money to live off. Imagine a plane in a dive, pulling up just in time to skim the tree tops, that's our financial forecast over the coming weeks! If we can avoid borrowing anything from the bank I'll be a happy man and we should be able to draw our first salary before the end of the first half of this year.

I think once you've borrowed from a bank, you're no longer in total control of your business, not just financially but mentally. You're working every week with the thought in the back of your mind that a percentage, large or small, of your profits is going straight to the bank. The larger that percentage, the tougher I can imagine it is to motivate yourself, especially as a start up, when the light at the end of the tunnel can seem far enough away at times without added pressure.

So whilst things are a bit out of kilter at the moment, I'm confident that we'll eventually get our new stock, pay for it, and get the webstore going, all in time to pull out of the dive! Because we're different, we're carving our unique space in the plethora of children's clothing retailers and as the new strapline goes - because childhood's too short for pastel shades! Long live Funky Rascal.

Busy, busy, busy

What on earth have I been up to for over a month? It's mid-Feb, the snow's long gone, replaced with the more standard Scottish winter and we're up to our eyes in our webstore project and placing orders with lots of new brands for Spring/Summer and Autumn/ Winter. Isn't it fun placing orders when you don't have to spend the money?

Yes and no. It's fun looking at all the funky clothes and trying to work out what we could, should and will order but it's a lot of hard work trying to make sure we have enough of everything we think we'll need based on 3 or 4 months of trading.

I then need to try and control our enthusiasm by using the projected sales forecasts to tell us how much we need to order in order to hit those targets. And those forecasts are of course based on best guesstimates. By next Autumn, we'll be coming up to our first year in business. We'll also have opened a webstore (coming in March), so the growth of that also needs to be factored in. It's all a tad nerve-wracking!

One very pleasing thing is that much of our Autumn/Winter stock from this year is almost depleted, so by some miracle of good planning, Anne managed to get many of our first orders (based on absolutely no experience!) pretty much spot on. It means we've got a good amount of the cash flow required to pay for the Spring/Summer orders which are all arriving in the next few weeks.

It's now that I realise that quitting big corp wasn't so much a pleasantry (although it certainly was!) but a necessity. We're both fully occupied running the business, our children, our house and our lives. I just can't see how Anne would have managed everything if I'd continued to work and travel as I was. Phew!! Good thing we made the right decision.

Another bonus is that I've become much more domesticated! For those who know me, that may come as a shock. I've always been pretty meticulous about "my" kitchen as I insist on doing most of the cooking but I've discovered the joys of laundry, hoovering, etc... very post-modern, haha!

Let's see how we get on with the next few weeks. There's a lot going on and a lot more money going out but there a small light with the faint word "salary" on it at the end of the tunnel. And at least the tunnel is our own creation and lined with bright, funky clothing!