On Tenterhooks

I've decided to start blogging again. The new Richard's Blog will be more generalised and ad hoc than the old, but the trials and tribulations in setting-up a roofing company with my nephew, Lorne, will be a key theme.

We decided to set-up a limited company with me, initially, as the only shareholder! Registering the company, buying and insuring a van, and sorting-out a website, e-mail, FAX and 'phone were the easy bits. We've opened a business account, designed a logo and ordered business cards and signage for the van.

I've spent a helluva lot of time, this week, in setting-up (hopefully) appropriate keyword metatags for the website and registering with search engines and trade directories. (Google was first to find us.)The main result, so far, is that the calls from businesses wanting to sell us their marketing services have started to flood-in! Please click on our site to help raise its profile.

On Tuesday, Lorne and I attended a Business Links "Foundations for Success" workshop, which was very good, and we've booked three follow-up workshops over two weekends in February.

As a result of advice received at the workshop, I've made an appointment at a local Chartered Accountancy firm to discuss accounts, payroll and VAT registration, 'though I hope to deal with most of this myself once I've had some initial advice.
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On Wednesday morning I was in town for a Socitm Commercial Board. It was the first for Karl Grundy, our new Head of Business Development. His is the last of the key roles we set-out to establish when we embarked-upon the turnaround of Socitm, and he soon demonstrated just why we need it by disabusing me of misconceptions about the environment for a proposed new service.

From there, I went for a reunion, and a long and boozy lunch at Smith's of Smithfield, with former colleagues from the North-East London Teleregion.
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During the week, Lorne started on a flat-roofing job that he picked-up by word of mouth, and we are waiting to be able to start work on another job he quoted successfully for. A friend of mine also asked us to quote for reroofing his house after I e-mailed details of our venture to a number of my friends and contacts.

All-in-all, 'though, I'm feeling very nervous!