Chrome

A quick search on the net revealled that many users are already complaining about this (and many actually raised this during the beta phase too). There is, at least I don’t think there is, anyway of installing behind a proxy. I hate to say it but this time Google seem to have missed a trick.

Success

Success can mean a variety of things to different people. It could mean being able to survive solely on the business, it could mean being in the top 5 companies for a particular product search on Google… or it could be just surviving the first year of business.

In the case of iLoveShirt (and in the context of this experiment) success will be measured against the following goals:

1. Still being in business after 1 year
2. Having a positive bank balance (any profit would be seen as a bonus)
3. Being personally happy with the past year and wanting to continue trading for another year. This is perhaps the most important goal to me)
4. >80% customer satisfaction. This is not to say I won’t strive for 100% but in life there are just some people that are never happy.

Of course, returning to the fact that this is an experiment, I shan’t (hopefully) be too unhinged by any failings that occur in the year’s trading. That is as long as the business learns from these events even if they are not bought on by something in our control. There is always room to mitigate any damages.

With these goals in mind and a lot more thoughts running through my head it’s time to turn my attention to the business plan. Perhaps this should have been completed sooner rather than later… but as long as it’s looked at then better late than never. This business plan should make up the next post in the series and perhaps will be a lengthy one.

Houses of Parliament

Following on an ealier rant I had about the unusable Government Gateway I mailed my local MP (Mrs. Anne Main - Conservative) and various email addresses I could find for the operators of the site stating my frustrations. To be fair to all who I contacted I had quick responses from everyone… none however could supply me with a resolution to my issue.

Those involved in the site have told me that they hope to have the functionality where a user can un-enrol and then re-enrol sometime next year. Anne replied (be letter… how old SkOol) mentioning that she has “written to the Government” on my behalf and says she’ll get back to me when she has a response.

So, no real progression for me and my VAT return… looks like I’ll be filling it in by hand this year. I will, of course, post any update on this.

Starting a Business

Well I’ve always liked comical T-Shirts (at least I think they’re funny) and in the past I’ve scrawled down some ideas for designs of my own in my old beaten moleskine… so this is gonna be my domain. I realise that these online T-Shirt shops are ten-a-penny but at the moment I don’t actually think this’ll be too much of an issue… I’ll go into this in more detail later on.

Oh, once again I should make it clear that when I say “I don’t actually think this’ll be too much of an issue” that this is exactly what I mean… this is only my current thinking and I may be wrong… very wonrg. This, being an experiment, is however not really a bad thing.

What’s in a name?

Ok, so we know now that we’re going to design and sell T-Shirts… what’s next? Well we need a name. And one that will also be our domain name as we’re are talking about an online business (actually this would probably be needed even it wasn’t going to be purely an online business). Ideally this name will contain a useful keyword to aid decent search engine results and also shouldn’t be too long so is easy to type. A .co.uk name should be fine for starters I think.

I have investigated a few names that I liked and to no surprise most of these were taken aleady. I have also decided to drop the “t” from T-shirt as this would reduce scope for confusion with a “hyphen/no hypen” query. In the end I have settled for iloveshirt.co.uk as a play on words from the “Anchoran, The Legend of Ron Burgundy” (one of my fave films ever) quote “I Love Lamp”.

With the domain secured we’re ready to move on. In this instance I’m not registering a company but instead am hoping to use an existing company I have and have a “trading name”  (I need to confirm that this’ll be fine… but I’m sure it is). This approach saved a few pennies surrounding the setting up of a business tasks. I imagine that this has saved ~£200/£300 .

Right, that’s it for now… back next time with some info on where I want the business to get to.

Following getting the first batch through in the post I was disappointed to see that the ‘front’ had a black background instead of the white I was expecting. I mailed the Moo customer service suggesting that perhaps this was due to my use of transparent png images. They promptly replied stating that ‘yes’ they use a default black background colour. They also offered me a discount code enabling me to get a second order for free (inc P&P) and that once I’d placed it they’d check to make sure that they looked OK.

Once I’d replaced my order I did contact them giving my order number and got a reply back from their CS saying that all was good with my new cards… what great customer service!

Business Card Back

And front…

Business Card Front

I would definitely recommend Moo to anyone who needs this kind of printing to be done… just brilliant!

Oh… there’s a useful page here with a template image that can be used.

No way in

Basically I’d forgotten my password and so went to look for a “reset button”. This actually isn’t on the main page but instead linked to from a deeper page (I infact had to pretend that I was wanting to apply for a new driving license!!!). Once I’d found the link I had to enter some basic personal information and was then prompted for 3 (yes 3) pieces of memorable information… these were a name a place and a date. Now maybe it’s just me (I hope it’s not) but there are a few choices available to me for all these items. I’ve tried all the combinations I can think of but to no avail.

Hope was not lost at first though as there’s a telephone number to call if you’ve forgotten all the information. I called that I got through to a lovely understanding lady who sadly told me that they cannot reset my password either unless I gave them the same information… they have no greater power (i.e. telling me which pieces I might have got right) than the website! I asked what I could do next and was told “nothing”, “there’s no more that you can do”. The lady did mention that there was talk of a “fix” being put in place to fill this ‘gap’ but that proabably won’t be in place until next year at the earliest and that’s if they do anything at all.

I can’t believe I’m the only one in this boat so please please fill in the feedback form on their site asking for this feature to be added.

This sofa is the design of Cristian Zuzunaga who I believe was a student at the royal college of art and I think is (or was) being sold by a Danish manufacturer Kvadrat.

I want: Very cool Pixel Sofa

I don’t know really why I like it so much but I can guarantee hours of fun playing the “You’re colourblind, what colour is this?” game.

I mailed Chilli in the week and lured him (and his more hardcore tools) over with the promise of lunch. Thankfully he agreed and yesterday he turned up with a powerful dewalt drill and a huge toolbox of other manly instruments… oh and he also bought his beautiful daughter Charlotte along to oversea the works.

There were three nuts that needed removing and one of those had already had the butcher treatment from me and my angle grinder. After a quick pizza break he set to work trying to drill out the mashed nut while Charlotte kept me distracted so I wouldn’t get in Chilli’s way.

Charlotte make sure Chilli does it right

The nut (or what was left of it) finally gave up and came free… to say I was happy would be the understatement of the year.

He then moved onto the next two nuts which he made swift work of by hammering on an impact socket (yes I know I tries this) and applying some brute force. They didn’t give up too much resistance and we now have a mini which can have the wheels removed easily.

The Butchered Locking Wheel Nut

I’m eternally grateful to Chilli for helping out with this and just hope that one day they’ll be something that I can help him with.

So what’s next you ask? Well I now plan to remove the rears wheels and service the brakes (not sure if they’ll actually need replacing or not) and also check out the handbrake. Stay tuned for the update :)

For most people removing wheels from cars is not something to write home about (or blog about for that matter)… but for me and Nushka this has turned into something more than a five minute job. The reason for this is simple… I don’t have the key-socket for the locking wheel nuts! I need the wheels off so that if (or when) I get a flat and am where a lot of mini owners time is spent (i.e. on the hard shoulder of motorways) I can very easily replace the wheel with the spare. Oh there’s also the added necessity so that I can service the brakes, replace the ball joints and correct the steering.

The Blasted Locking Wheel Nut

Attempt 1 - Impact Sockets

Well to start with my locking nuts had this tasty little metal collar on which span freely around the outside… this would have put stop to any attempts at just hammering on an impact socket over the top. So this was, and quite hastily at that, removed using a screwdriver and hammer combination. Next up I hammered an undersized (is that a real word) impact socket over the top of the locking wheel nut. Of course with this firmly in position I just attempted to unscrew the nut as normal. Sad to say all that happened was the locking wheel nut with it’s once perfectly cylindrical exterior now hexagonal returned to it’s circular shape and my impact socket just came free. Blast!

Attempt 2 : Special Tools!

Thanks to my boss I was able to get my hands on a special set of sockets which were specifically designed for removing locking wheel nuts. These had a fluted interior with a very sharp reverse thread. The idea being that you hammer them on and then as you turn the socket they ‘claw’ into the nut and eventually cause it to turn free.

Sadly this attempt achieved similar results to the first… the end product being a wheel nut with a smaller diameter due to the outer few millimetres being shaved off!

Attempt 3 : The Angle Grinder

Fair play, perhaps I was really looking for an excuse to buy such an exciting power tool… but nevertheless I was hoping that by cutting a nice grove lengthwise through the nut I could then use a long thin tool (such as a beefy screwdriver) to finally free up the nut and get it off (there are in fact 3 nuts I need to remove).

The cutting went fine… in fact more than fine as I had great fun as there were loads of sparks :-)  Unfortunately once again, due to the softness of the nuts, this did not work. As I was pulling up on the lever (in this case a screwdriver) half of the nut - down to the depth of the slit - snapped off! The inner part of the nut is still attached fast. Attempt number 3… FAIL!

So What’s Next?

Well, I currently have 2 more options that I can think of:

• Drill out the stud
• Use a cold chisel to snap off the remainder of the nut

These will be explored in later posts.. wish me luck!

And now, only 18 days on they’re all pretty much on the way. We’ve kept the tray on our bay window cill and as you can see the majority of them have not been put off by the chilly last couple of weeks.

Recently Sown Garlic

7 of the 10 cloves are certainly making progress and are looking pretty good. They will be translanted outside into our raised bed (to keep the rhubarb company) just before Christmas.

I plan on sowing another 10 cloves at the start of December to hopefully give me an ongoing crop.

I’ve also ordered some broad bean and Iglo cauliflower seeds from the web so I hope they turn up soon so we can get them on the way too.