Will's Entrepreneurship Extravaganza Log

[Will]

Monday 12/4/10

First ever post.

Today we put pen to paper for the purchase of the kids clothing store in Dulwich Hill. This process involving lawyers and real estate agents has taken at least six weeks! So for all those out there who can't wait to get in, it takes six weeks! We were thinking six days....lawyers just love to take their time. In retrospect maybe there are lawyers out there who guarantee a fast turn around and who actually know the retail act back to front rather than just assuming crap! Bad systems and totally stuffed service...

Spent a few hours at the school returning the calls of leads. This took a good hour and I will be training my staff this week so that they can sell as good as I do and will be attending a sales work shop on Thursday morning to sharpen up the sales spiel.

Apart from that, I finished my 90 day plan for the next quarter and will be committing to finishing the website updates and video uploads to the website by the end of the month. Also happen to sign up for Craig Rispin's future trends monthly webminars and am talking to a new book keeper to get rid of some of the sorting of receipts that I just hate doing.

Now I gotta go watch Man Vs Wild...Bear Grylls totally makes me feel like a school boy with his survival skills. Makes me feel pathetic whenever I think I am too lazy to do anything or just on the couch.

Tomorrow I am going to design the first sales meeting I will be having with my staff this Friday. Will write it up and review it after Thursday's sales session with David Pengalese.

[one]

Bear Grylls = awesome! Man vs Wild is part of every Monday night for me.

[Will]

Finally got the keys handed over to the new shop. Really had to give it to the lawyers to make the necessary phone calls before things could happen. * Grrrr thank god my partner knows how to turn it on people. *Fake pms really scares the guys haha.

Was half way through my sales session so will have to finish that off tonight. *Was rather unproductive in the morning had to drive the misses to the salon so only really got started after lunch.

Not sure how life changes from here on but Summer Lane opens tomorrow. Will post the website once it launches tomorrow.

[Will]

First day at new shop today. The domestic just had to happen driving over since the car ride was an hour.*

Felt rather out of my element today sorting the stock. *New experience running a retail shop, many of the regular customers coming in to chat and basically telling us what they wanted us to stock for them which is good. *

Spent the day taking lots of photos of the stock to go online. *Although since we're indoors the lighting was not that good. *Not a bad taking given it was a weekday, looking forward to Saturday to see the real potential of this shop. It's gonna be a very busy few weeks.

[Brendan]

Excellent stuff Will, how does it feel to be actually in the shop after all that legwork on getting all the paperwork and legals done?

I love the log, keep it up!

[Will]

Hey Brendan. The novelty of it all has sizzled out probably six weeks ago pushing the landlord's lawyers around. Right now the feeling is...yes I want to start implementing all the strategies that I have formulated over the last six weeks to break out of the gates, but ....there is a good load of cleaning up to do, clearing away the mess and clutter to make room for the improvements that we plan on kicking in place.

Process should take another week as well...

[Will]

Actual computer post today rather than an iphone post

Today was a bit rough. Stayed up to 1am last night working out what the winter stock was that we had to order for the new shop. Rolled out of bed at 6am to get ready for a sales presentation. I'd give the sales presentation a 7.5 out of 10...nice to see he focused more on value far more than the traditional closes, he used more of the products value over attributes but lacked practical application of his ideas.

Then ran over to meet some suppliers which took a while before heading over to do some work at the music school. All day I ate some yoghurt at the sales presentation, then had a vietnamese pork roll for lunch and then had another one for dinner at around 8:30pm....had a can of mother in between ( I only save these for when I have less than 7 hours sleep and I avoid coffee otherwise)

Not that hungry right now but definitely didn't have time to eat anything else. Got back and had to email the subcontractors for respective projects and also prepare a sales training sheet for tomorrow for the school's front desk staff meeting tomorrow. First one in 7 years, should probably be one every quarter!

What's the average number of hours business people sleep? I actually need sleep, I need 8 hours otherwise my exzema flairs up and I just feel itchy, irritated and like a zombie all day....terrible

[Will]

Well all I have to say is that the best part about buying a business is that there are existing customers. *Today numerous old customers walked in. Yes a few commented on where the old owner was but everybody talked about what they would like the shop to stock.

This is very different to hoping that what you are ordering is going to get sold. *Spent the day looking for more winter clothing suppliers and serving customers. Somewhat eating less these days...

Still plenty to do with the shop though and we really need to get more stock in the store.

The sales meeting with the staff at the school was pretty good. Nutted out some goo points and our point of differentiation and how to communicate this when handling leads. Best to differentiate than compete on price.

Here's a very good read on what to do with life. I have done some travelling and risk taking but probably not in the detail of this guy...

On Changing your Life - EDF Forum - Politics, Lifestyle, Travel and Gambling

[Will]

Left the shop at 1am today. Give me a hell yeah for business!

[Will]

Left the shop at 1am today. Give me a hell yeah for business!

Not a bad day today have a lot of things to smooth out. Trying to get some sleep back and want to roll out marketing.

School wise need to watch how I speak to people