Today's Meeting

Simon.
The last couple of days have been spent starting to pull together a business plan. We've had a look at a couple of possible premises in Wood Green, and although we knew the rent was high, it still takes some getting used to. We had a really useful chat with a guy whose business was relocating from Wood Green. He had a shop about 600 square foot, which was probably too small for what we have planned, but he was able to give us a heads up on some of the costs that we only had estimates on (insurance, gas/electric, rates). This will enable us to make our business model more robust. (listen to me...'robust', 'business model'. Someone's been reading up on business planning recently).
We also found somewhere other than our houses to meet in future. It will help having less distractions, and we had a fine example of one of those this morning, when Tim's ceiling came down, with a few gallons of water in hot pursuit! Tim wasn't too keen on calling a plumber, he's quite handy with the DIY, and I imagine that the bill he would be presented with at the end was also off-putting, so i'll look forward to hearing the end of that story.
We have started our marketing campaign too, and after a couple of calls to the local paper, we had a photographer round this morning. They're going to run an article next week, which will certainly help spread the word.
We've sent a pitch to a couple of the nationals too, suggesting a weekly diary, so we'll have to see how that pans out. Tim also suggested trying for a reality TV show, a kind of Jimmy's Farm, for urbanites (but without Jamie Oliver's money). Mmmm..