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!

A very happy New Year to you all...

oh so nice to have a break...
but onwards and hopefully upwards.

firstly, let me wish you a contented, happy and, if you're good, a prosperous 2011!

we've just had a look at the 2011/12 winter collection from our major winter gear supplier and it's made us feel a bit odd, to be honest. we're in the middle of the earliest, coldest and toughest winter in scotland on record and it's only early january. we've seen -10C as a maximum daytime temperature in cupar. cupar! we're a stone's throw from the ever-warm east neuk of fife, yet i have never, ever seen temperatures like that outside the highlands. bbrrrrrrr

but we're into 2011 now and all that it holds for us. we're hyper-excited! online store, agentship, well-loved local children's clothing store... oh, did i say "agent"? almost skipped over that one... ;-) oh, and online store...

but time for a bit of reality. if you're going to ditch the corporate life, here are 3 big lessons/ warnings...

1) it's not cheap - in fact, it's very expensive. you're going to have to put £20k+ into the set up. we live in the ar$e end of the UK but still, a nice corner of scotland. refitting a shop, buying stock and all the other expenses will reach at least this level, minimum.

2) it's not cheap - not again! yup, more money. you won't make enough money to live on in the first year. you'll need to balance the cash you have coming in against the amount of stock you need to keep buying. in the first 6 months (and probably 12 or 18) you will have to live off either your savings or a bank loan or both.

3) it's not cheap... ... ... boring isn't it? but your cashflow is critical (point 2 but from another perspective). if you don't sell enough, you won't have the cash to buy the next load of stock... plan ahead and always low-ball your turnover by a big degree. it's not sandbagging when it's your own business!

don't get me wrong. i LOVE what anne and i are doing, we have a great vision and we're making it happen but if you need to borrow a lot of of money to do it, at the moment, don't do it! the bank will shaft you on interest; they'll view you as a massive risk and of all their assets, you will be the first one they pull the plug on.

you need to be able to set up and cover your own personal costs for about 12 months WITHOUT relying on a tossing bank. they're awful mercenaries and they'll not wince as they strip you and your family of every last penny and then charge you interest and fees on that.

but, if you've the will, the finance and the sheer bloody-minded determination (for those who know anne, you may recognize some characteristics!), then there is NOTHING like breaking out on your own.

oh, that "agent" thing... one of our suppliers has asked to act as their agent for the UK. another string to the bow and given the feedback and sales of their clothes, we're delighted.

so, wishing you a fab 2011 and keep your eyes on the website in the next 2 months for the online store to appear.

always think laterally, never linearly!

g

wow, what a busy couple of weeks and i've realised that i haven't posted anything since the end of november. things must be good!

i was having a chat with an ex-colleague the other day and it reminded me of why i didn't miss life at big corp - politically (un)inspired decision making by mid-senior mgmt being one of my biggest bugbears. i swear, if we can make a big success of funky rascal, i shall not tolerate that sort of behaviour. but that makes me think... what is it that fosters that sort of behaviour by people earning big 6 figure salaries? surely they should be big enough to stand by their convictions, it's what they always wanted from us...

it's fear that drives that sort of behaviour and it's certainly fear that i identified as one of the main reasons i chose to leave. everybody was afraid. we were more concerned about what those around and above us would think of our decisions than being able to make and stick by well-informed decision making. "what if the VP doesn't agree?", "i know that's not on his/her agenda", etc, etc.

and that fear only comes from one place - the top, the very top. the CEO was, by all accounts, an intolerably arrogant man. a man who would make decisions and form opinions at a whim, whilst those of us several tiers below would spend weeks and months putting together the rationale as to why we should make a strategic or tactical decision only to see it over-ruled.

all too often, we would hear that VPs and senior VPs would fail to stand by or even make a point for fear that it wasn't what the great chief wanted to hear. how on earth can you run a truly successful business, when fear permeates your entire organisation? it's not exactly motivational, is it? which leads me to my main thought...

several years ago i came across an interview with a very powerful global industry figure, not a man you messed with by any account but not one who ruled by fear and he had a "revolutionary" view of priorities within a business. this man was wendelin wiedeking, then CEO of porsche group and the man who had turned porsche from a niche sports car manufacturer into a company large enough to attempt a takeover of VW audi group. his view (as i remember it) was that if you want to deliver shareholder value, you do not make knee-jerk decisions which will influence the shareprice in the short-term. in fact, he listed shareholders as 4th on the list of 4 groups a company should prioritise and it went like this -

1st - employees - if you don't have happy employees, you're never going to get over the start line, let alone get a look at the finish line.

2nd - customers - happy employees will create happy customers. sacrifice your employee satisfaction for your customer satisfaction and you'll enter a downward spiral.

3rd - suppliers - supplier relations are a core element of a company's success. they can make or break you financially and with respect to your customer relationships.

4th - shareholders - if you keep the first 3 groups happy, then the 4th group will benefit as a direct result. in fact, don't "focus" on them at all, shareholder satisfaction will occur if you deliver success in the first 3 groups on the list.

and that is where my last company fell down. the CEO was (like many CEOs it has to be said) beholden to the shareholders. i'd say is list went more like - shareholders, CEO, customers, suppliers, employees. that resulted in knee-jerk cost cutting announcements and staffing reductions. less staff, more work, increased stress and spineless snr mgmt - i said my goodbyes!

it may seem an overly simplistic view of running a business but really, it shouldn't be that complicated. pay your employees a bit more, listen to them a bit more, give them opportunities to learn and grow, show you value them in a way that means something to them. you could be surprised by the results!

haha. i just "popped in" to the shop this morning to run off some inventory reports and take them home (we're not open on mondays). i didn't account for the number of people looking for proper gloves/ mittens for their kids which can withstand the wet slushy snow we've had in cupar for ther last day or 2.

so i ended up opening the shop and we've had a pretty good day, considering it's been snowing heavily on and off for most of it. no, make that a very good day, considering the above. up there with some of our very best mid-week days in fact and i only opened at 11!

kind of played havoc with our previous plans for the day but at least we have the flexibility to be able to do it. mind you, don't know what we're getting for dinner. i was going to do i spicy beef stew (again, i know, but it's very cold and i love beef stew!).

now this is what it's all about... the kids are at nursery, i'm behind the till and anne is playing golf with a friend. when she's back, she'll take over behind the till, i'll pop home and put on a hearty casserole to keep out the cold and do a bit of tidying up. ideally of course, i'd be playing golf (and i'll get my turn) but mrs b did let me go to the rugby on saturday, so i hope she's enjoying this beautiful crisp, sunny day.

we're aiming to reclaim a majority share of the living room as parental-controlled territory from the insurgent children and their ever-spreading toy army. the kids' rooms now have mucho additional storage installed and if i can get a couple of hours this afternoon, all the boxes of toys we've been sorting out will make the (hopefully) final move upstairs. i can't actually imagine having a tidy living room! maybe we could consider replacing the carpet and getting some new furniture? woah boy, steady on!!

well, life seems to be finding some sort of rhythm. it's a little irregular but then i'm a bit of a jazz fan, so that's fine with me - always good to work your way around a bit of improv!

it's been all hands on deck for the first 2 weeks, getting all the stock inventoried, barcoded, re-boxed and organised in the stock room. yes, you can now tell the difference between the stock room and the office! we've had more lights installed in the shop as the oh-so eco-friendly led lighting just wasn't cutting the mustard and we were getting tired of hearing comments from outside the window about whether we were open or not, even if they were fair comments.

even the children are adjusting to having daddy about during the week. rebecca (2) took to it in her stride (as i expected) but i think liam (4) was a little disconcerted - suddenly very objectionable. however, that seems to be passing now and it's less of a problem for him as to whom takes him to nursery, forces breakfast down him, etc.

you accept that your children will favour one parent over another in different circumstances and that there are 2 parental roles - mother and father. however, i think that this is often just an extenuation of the roles we played in their early lives. anne is their mother who nurtured them through their first months and years and i am the clown/ grumpy, over-worked wage slave who turns up at the very end of the day. now we're breaking those stereotypical roles, ie we're now both grumpy over-worked wage slaves! seriously though, we're not.

i'm a lot less grumpy (believe me, i still have my moments!) and i know anne appreciates sharing the burden more equally in raising 2 children. and neither of us is a wage slave to the extent that i was. we're doing this to make a living, certainly but we're doing something we both choose and (so far) thoroughly enjoy.

as we enter the full swing of the festive season and all it brings for us as novice retailers, i'm sure there'll be many more lessons to be learnt from new experiences but at least i won't be off to the far side of the world for 10 days immediately prior to christmas and we can both prepare together for a family christmas.