Stop running and take a breather to take in what is happening...

I had never really thought about all the details that go into business at the same time. Even though I'm an accountant and business practices and procedures was part of my studies there. I didn't really realise just how much of it, I already use.

My tasks for the past 2 weeks, have been to come up with a business plan and set it out. This involves setting up your business structure, marketing plan and your financial plan. I worked on all 3 yesterday and came up with some interesting figures and facts. I'll be assemblying them altogether today and I think I may just have a pretty good business plan, but in my case. Bits4Babies.com has already been going for 3 years. So it was pretty easy to get the structure right, but the marketing and financial side of things amazed me. I'm glad I did that exercise. It just re-iterated where we were going and what we wanted to achieve.

That was just one of my tasks. The rest of the tasks will probably only get pulled into place properly over time, but I want to say this. The coaching that I'm receiving has already been invaluable. They keep up your confidence, keep your drive going and most importantly, they won't let you give up. Giving up is not a word I use often in my vocabulary, because I don't know what giving up is.

I have always been persistant and kept on going no matter what. That's who I am and the people that work with me, have kind of found that out. Sometimes, I steam ahead and they fall behind a little, this is when I try my very best to help them catch up with me, but I also know that I have to keep going ahead, so I try to slow it down a little. That is hard for me.

This business coaching is good and I can see many good things coming from it, but I really do need to keep my feet firmly on the ground and consider that there are other people that want to go as fast as me, but have to learn what I've learned to keep up. That is probably the biggest lesson I've learned this week. "Try and take a steady pace, so that others can keep up with you."

Well, I'll be beginning my week with more tasks to do, but with a fresh view on things. I'll keep you posted of what is happening.

I've got my confidence back. :)

Over the past 2 days I've been experimenting with my sewing machine and discovered that I'm not half bad at patchwork. After the patchwork playmat, I decided to try my hand at patchwork again.

This time I put together a couple of cushions, one pink and the other blue. They were made up of 4" squares with a calico backing and fire resistant filler. The are rather small to the standard size cushions, but they really do look really cute.

I could imagine them in a conservatory, living room or even in the bedroom. Just to brighten up the room a little. I hadn't realised that once I started I was going to get the bug and want to carry on with more... My head is swimming with ideas, I just have to put them into action and produce them.

I hope that you like the pictures. I thought I would just keep you up to date on my activities. :)

These cushions are also for sale on Ebay. So if you're interested, by all means come and have a look. Just press the buttons and you'll be taken straight to them. These items are only on a 10 day listing and they are really just one of a kind. So you can't get better than that, can you. :)

A Triumph

Today, I jumped another hurdle. ;) I finished the playmat, I started about a month ago. It turned out great. I was really impressed with it, even if I may say so myself.

It was the first time in years I tried patchwork and so this was a big task for me and now that it is done I'm proud of it. You saw a picture of it in it's beginning stages, but check it out now... :) YESSSSSSSSSSS..... I'm happy, can you tell? hehehe.

On the note of doing well, I've completed my course work for the moment and I've just implemented the last details to what I needed to do, now I just need to watch the webinars and then I'm completely done, ready for the review. Phew, talk about working under pressure. :)

Kev is going to be making plaster of paris casts soon, he finds it relaxing especially when he starts working on the painting detail. I'll show you that when he's done one, they are gorgeous. I wish I was half as talented as he is.

So you see, we are creative together in our own ways. :) Hope you like the pictures.

The journey continues...

As I write this, I am sat here in my pj's and my dressing gown with fluffy pink slippers on. So you can imagine, I'm still not fully awake yet, but I couldn't wait any longer to tell you the news.

http://www.bits4babies.com has had a make-over. We have spent hours and hours trying to get the site up to scratch again.... yes, we did get complacent, but now we are focused again and things are running nicely again. Bits 4 Babies was established on 6 January 2006 and has gone through many transformations, then we hit a stumbling block. We were teetering, we knew that now was the time when we would either slide back or go full steam ahead. We did the latter.

Over the past 2 weeks we have been consulting with other professionals and we have done the work necessary to give it that one last push. We got rid of all the old product pages, search pages etc and it is slowly correcting itself on the search engines. Kev and I are exhausted, but we keep going on, because we know we have to.

I have learnt a great deal more about web-design and put that into action, I put in what I already knew and added a little more. With advertising and marketing, it was just getting the right mix. We are now on our way up again and it feels great.

Bits 4 Babies US & CA now has a new look. We are planning on putting a community in place for those of you that like to share your experiences with parenting, pregnancy and child care. We hope to have a place where you can blog about your little angels and their antics. Show pictures and just share general information on pregnancy and toddler issues. This will most probably be our next move, but ummmmm, I need to figure out how to use the program. hehehe.

We have a newsletter in place now, so if you would like to know what is happening before anyone else does... Sign up. We would love to have you on board. We were invited onto a e-commerce course via Joel Comm's business associates. He is an expert in his field to say the least. You've seen him on tv, twitter and generally all over the net. He has an interesting out look on business and how it works for him. I can honestly say he has inspired us.

Although we cannot brag figures just yet, I'm sure that in the near future we will be able to give you a little background on how much our business is growing. We're on a plateau at the moment, so as soon as we've hit that next hurdle we'll let you know. The next update will be in a few weeks. So see you all then.