OK so Sunday we had a day of just chilling and sorting the house out during the day. On the afternoon we had a very exciting place to go, so off we went to buy some nice wine and some flowers. We drove to Swainby at 5pm and pulled up in front of the house we were going to and we were greeted by one of the most amazing chef’s I have ever met (I have to be honest, I haven’t met that many), but even so, Simon has worked and ran some of the finest restaurants in the world from 1 to 3 Michelin stars. And guess what…..were were going for a dinner party at his and his girlfriends!!!!! Well you will have to check out my other blog tomorrow night http://moreishfood.wordpress.com/ to see pictures and full descriptions of what we ate. All I can say on here is OMG THE BEST food I have ever tasted in my life!!
Monday came around (we stayed over) and I helped Helen with her phone and some new social media skills, three hours later and we were getting there! We decided to go to the pub for some lunch and whilst we were there Simon and I got talking about what he wanted to do later on in life. It soon became very apparently that what we both do now and what we both want to do in the future is very similar and businesses could be formed! It really was a eureka moment and off we headed back to the house to discuss future plans in greater detail. All I can say for the moment is watch this space. I don’t think I would be happy just having one business and I want to really push myself and achieve everything I want and more.
Tuesday and a pretty sleepless night, I am planning the new food idea in all of my dreams and wake up constantly with ideas and light bulb moments. I cant wait to get back to work this morning, two days off is a long time and I need to be busy again. So Innov8 this morning with a visit from our ‘competent’ person that we work with from a Environmental point of view. One of my greatest beliefs is to do everything right, above board and be cutting edge, this guy gives us that!
Lots to do after that meeting, but no rest for either of us. Straight into another meeting with our business link advisor. We are currently on the ‘Over the Threshold’ scheme with Stockton Borough council and Mark has been invaluable, a mentor, a friend and a sounding board. We are both on the scheme for Innov8 and Moreish Food so it usually entails a whistle stop meeting downloading everything that has happened between both businesses in the time since we last saw him. A great meeting with lots of action points to be getting on with…….No rest for the really wicked (that’s me) I am straight into another meeting with our ISO advisor to check over final documentation for the Quality, Safety, Health and Environmental Management system we are implementing! Lots of coffee later and over 100 pages checked we are a great deal further forward.
So by now it is 3pm and the day has flown by. I decided to do the month end paper work for the accountants. Paul is selling selling selling stock like no ones business. A great day and all I can say is roll on Wednesday or should I say bring it on!!
Well there is and that is enough from me this evening I hope you have all had a good night and don’t forget to vote for me www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge look for Louise Moore and vote, you can also vote via text by typing VOTE LOUISE MOORE and texting it to 07624 803199. Thank you xx
Louise's Blog
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Monday, 30 May 2011
What a great week at Innov8
Well I started writing this blog on Saturday with all good intentions of posting it then……it is now Monday the 30th of May and I thought that I should let you know what has happened the rest of the week.
Firstly there has been no more sleeping in, which has been nice. Wednesday was a morning of training for a Networking group I am part of. I have been asked if I can be the host for the meeting so I get to use my voice every other Friday and be in charge, more on that later in the blog. Wednesday afternoon was catching up trying to get my desk looking like a desk and not a dumping ground for paper! Maybe I should start a waste paper company, from my desk!
Thursday morning Paul and I attending the Middlesbrough Business Forum at La Pharmacie, the event was quiet as the Hitachi Open day was on. But the speakers were excellent; they were Martin and Peter from Python Properties. I had heard a little bit about their story and vision before but this time was inspiring, and they mentioned in the talk that they were member of the Entrepreneurs Forum http://www.entrepreneursforum.net/home/index.php so straight after the talk Paul and I headed over to see them to discuss further. WOW they had nothing but praise and excellent stories about their mentor and how he has helped their business in the last three years.
In the afternoon we were visited by Simon from The Manufacturing Advisory Service to look at embarking on a project with one of their advisors. The project was all signed off and we were given the go ahead, which is great news as we will be able to move the business on with some great help and guidance. The remainder of the afternoon was spent cleaning, tidying and organizing the warehouse as we had an Environment Agency inspection the following day.
Friday and we started at 5am as we were off networking in Middlesbrough, meeting from 7 till 8.30, great start to a Friday, it was my first meeting hosting it and it went extremely well. 9am a meeting with a VERY large North East company who wanted to discuss our services with them. Paul and I went and expected the meeting to be 30 mins, two hours later and we had been accepted as a contractor and have a duty of care inspection in the next few weeks. What a great start to the day!! Back to the office for an hour and them off out for a RGF meeting at Teesside University with the NISP team, great meeting but I think at this stage way out of our league and we certainly are not ready for anything like that. Fly back to the office and get ready for the Environment agency inspection, arhhhhh scary TWO of them turned up…..I am not normally nervous but I was at this point. Anyway their inspection went extremely well and we were granted out latest permit! Time for a beer, and relax!!
Friday night was a bit of an anticlimax as we had worked so hard all week for Friday day and we get home and I just felt a little deflated by having nothing to do. Hey ho, the ups and downs!
Saturday morning back to the office, we had Tim our web developer coming over to do some work on the website. Tim is brilliant and he flew through the work we set him, check out one of the pages http://www.innov8disposal.com/about/meet-the-team-2/ we were only going to work till 2 or 3 ish, oh dear at 5 o clock one of us noticed the time and the four of us headed home, a great day and we achieved lots! Saturday night we headed over to see my Mum (or the oracle) she gives us advice and helps us both make major decisions in the company, she is totally invaluable and I really don’t know what we would do without her, she is so sensible and looks at the big picture.
I am going to blog tomorrow about what we did on Sunday and today as there is too much to tell you all here and there is even more exciting news (surely not I hear you say)! Well there is and that is enough from me this evening I hope you have all had a good night and don’t forget to vote for me www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge look for Louise Moore and vote, you can also vote via text by typing VOTE LOUISE MOORE and texting it to 07624 803199. Thank you xx
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Turbulent Tuesday starts badly but ends well
We went to bed at a relatively good time last night (11pm) and we are early risers, with me normally getting out of bed at 5.30 or 6 and Paul usually follows at 6.30 or 7, so it came as a massive shock this morning when I rolled over in bed and looked at my phone to see it was 8.07am, WHAT!!!! ‘Paul it is 8.10’ his reply ‘your joking me right?’. We never ever sleep in, even on a weekend we are up by 8 and that is a very good lie in. So panic ensued and we rushed around for a good 15 minutes.
Paul left at 8.20 to walk the dog and go straight to the office as our new forklift was being delivered at 8.30. I on the other had was supposed to be going to the SEO course that I blogged about yesterday, however what I didn’t tell you was that I found out last minute that it was all on Google Adwords! Well this is a particularly sore subject for me and I know all about the good and bad points, so I ducked out of the course for the day and will do the rest of the course shortly.
So off to the office and another busy day ensued. Paul was organizing the sales of the kit we currently have as well as coordinating the new collections. I decided to have a ‘accounts’ morning and organized all of the paperwork for the accountants…..bad idea! Note to self – if you have got off to a bad start to the day don’t then depress yourself with how much money you need to pay out or how costly the staff wages are. Anyway…….
On a brighter note we received Power Seller status and top rated seller achieved for our online retail store 8-Outlet today which gives us lots of new benefits. And our new van arrived today, not such great news as there are numerous things wrong with it but, always look on the bright side of life!
So at 4.30 I uped sticks and left to go home to go to our first Mussel Club event http://www.themusselclub.com/ Paul arrived home shortly after me and decided that we had had such a crappy day that we shouldn’t go. Well I have a motto that if you answer the phone you should always have a smile on your face as this is reflected in your voice tone and if you don’t want to go out to an event that you should because something good always comes from it! So 20 minutes later we bundled into the car and off we went – for those of you who aren’t the brightest I won the ‘should we go/no we are not going’ argument!
Well we got to The Staincliffe Hotel in Seaton Carew and were met by some wonderful people, none of whom are in our usual networking crowd, which made a nice change to meet some new people, and guess what? We had a great time, it was very relaxed and sociable, no awkward silences and it really was just like going out with a group of friends and getting to know them better. By the end of the night we had met some great new people and also had a few leads. To top everything off we got an email from a large North East client saying that they wanted us to do a collection for them. A fantastic end to not such a start of the day. As one very early exiting Apprentice contestant famously said over and over again ‘you have to roll with the punches’ and I guess in a way he is right (although annoyingly) we have to take the mediocre days with the great days!
Well that is enough from me this evening I hope you have all had a good night and don’t forget to vote for me www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge look for Louise Moore and vote, you can also vote via text by typing VOTE LOUISE MOORE and texting it to 07624 803199. Good night!
Paul left at 8.20 to walk the dog and go straight to the office as our new forklift was being delivered at 8.30. I on the other had was supposed to be going to the SEO course that I blogged about yesterday, however what I didn’t tell you was that I found out last minute that it was all on Google Adwords! Well this is a particularly sore subject for me and I know all about the good and bad points, so I ducked out of the course for the day and will do the rest of the course shortly.
So off to the office and another busy day ensued. Paul was organizing the sales of the kit we currently have as well as coordinating the new collections. I decided to have a ‘accounts’ morning and organized all of the paperwork for the accountants…..bad idea! Note to self – if you have got off to a bad start to the day don’t then depress yourself with how much money you need to pay out or how costly the staff wages are. Anyway…….
On a brighter note we received Power Seller status and top rated seller achieved for our online retail store 8-Outlet today which gives us lots of new benefits. And our new van arrived today, not such great news as there are numerous things wrong with it but, always look on the bright side of life!
So at 4.30 I uped sticks and left to go home to go to our first Mussel Club event http://www.themusselclub.com/ Paul arrived home shortly after me and decided that we had had such a crappy day that we shouldn’t go. Well I have a motto that if you answer the phone you should always have a smile on your face as this is reflected in your voice tone and if you don’t want to go out to an event that you should because something good always comes from it! So 20 minutes later we bundled into the car and off we went – for those of you who aren’t the brightest I won the ‘should we go/no we are not going’ argument!
Well we got to The Staincliffe Hotel in Seaton Carew and were met by some wonderful people, none of whom are in our usual networking crowd, which made a nice change to meet some new people, and guess what? We had a great time, it was very relaxed and sociable, no awkward silences and it really was just like going out with a group of friends and getting to know them better. By the end of the night we had met some great new people and also had a few leads. To top everything off we got an email from a large North East client saying that they wanted us to do a collection for them. A fantastic end to not such a start of the day. As one very early exiting Apprentice contestant famously said over and over again ‘you have to roll with the punches’ and I guess in a way he is right (although annoyingly) we have to take the mediocre days with the great days!
Well that is enough from me this evening I hope you have all had a good night and don’t forget to vote for me www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge look for Louise Moore and vote, you can also vote via text by typing VOTE LOUISE MOORE and texting it to 07624 803199. Good night!
Monday, 23 May 2011
Just another Manic Monday
Phew, just home at 7 and now I am blogging! We have had a great day, we have three new clients on our books and three collections tomorrow! This morning started with a quick catch up in the office, well it was supposed to be quick, yesterday we bought a new van for the company and I started to call around a few insurance companies, well one company and 40 mins of my life that I will never get back and we were still no further forward! Now late for a meeting with our HR company I jumped in the car to go and see them…..arh part time staff and holidays baffle me! Back to the office for a meeting with a well known Van/Car company to discuss the options on new and old vans for the future, great meeting and a really nice guy!
12.40 and we are off again to see the web developers, there are a few tweeks we need to make to the website and some additional work that we needed doing. Great meeting and more work for me L as since I have become the ‘marketing’ person of Innov8 Disposal then I need to make sure everything happens when and how I want it to. I was just saying to Paul today that it is interesting how I have never really had a real ‘love’ for a profession but now having being self employed for 14 months I really feel that out of all of the jobs that I do within the business – marketing is my most preferred.
3pm and we have a meeting with a research company. We are currently looking into how we make our business more innovative. We want to become real pioneers in becoming a leader in new recycling techniques and this is one of the very many steps we are taking. We don’t just want to accept what is out there at the moment for recycling, we want to change the way things are done.
4pm well all visits and visitors have now gone for the day and it is now time to try to catch up on emails. Running two companies means I have the pleasure in having 4 email accounts and I sat down with 200+ to read, most of these unfortunately also needed auctioning. Hence the 7pm finish and three hours later. I am down to about 96 which is reasonable.
I was however supposed to be going to Toastmasters this evening in Durham but yet again my crazy life means that I don’t have the time for it, it makes me sad but one day!!! We have something on every night this week so it is going to be pretty manic for the remainder of it. I am off on a SEO course tomorrow which should be great, it is day 1 of a 5 day course over the next few months, so I will be letting you know all about it in the next few days. Good night and don’t forget to vote for me www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge look for Louise Moore and vote, you can also vote via text by typing VOTE LOUISE MOORE and texting it to 07624 803199. Good night!
12.40 and we are off again to see the web developers, there are a few tweeks we need to make to the website and some additional work that we needed doing. Great meeting and more work for me L as since I have become the ‘marketing’ person of Innov8 Disposal then I need to make sure everything happens when and how I want it to. I was just saying to Paul today that it is interesting how I have never really had a real ‘love’ for a profession but now having being self employed for 14 months I really feel that out of all of the jobs that I do within the business – marketing is my most preferred.
3pm and we have a meeting with a research company. We are currently looking into how we make our business more innovative. We want to become real pioneers in becoming a leader in new recycling techniques and this is one of the very many steps we are taking. We don’t just want to accept what is out there at the moment for recycling, we want to change the way things are done.
4pm well all visits and visitors have now gone for the day and it is now time to try to catch up on emails. Running two companies means I have the pleasure in having 4 email accounts and I sat down with 200+ to read, most of these unfortunately also needed auctioning. Hence the 7pm finish and three hours later. I am down to about 96 which is reasonable.
I was however supposed to be going to Toastmasters this evening in Durham but yet again my crazy life means that I don’t have the time for it, it makes me sad but one day!!! We have something on every night this week so it is going to be pretty manic for the remainder of it. I am off on a SEO course tomorrow which should be great, it is day 1 of a 5 day course over the next few months, so I will be letting you know all about it in the next few days. Good night and don’t forget to vote for me www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge look for Louise Moore and vote, you can also vote via text by typing VOTE LOUISE MOORE and texting it to 07624 803199. Good night!
Sunday, 22 May 2011
The Thursday Challenge
What a great few days we have had, finally on Thursday we were able to let everyone know that we were through to the next stage of the ‘If We Can You Can 2011 Challenge’. To start off in a brilliant way I was invited to the Entrepreneurs Forum conference. It was an early start, up at 5 to get ready and leave the house by 7 (I didn’t want to be late). The event was being held at the Hilton in Newcastle and I was a little daunted in making my way up to the event room at 8.50 (for those of you who know me I am very very confident), but on this occasion I was surrounded by my peers and well respected business people that I look up to and want to learn from.
I entered the room and thought that I would be met by someone from the If We Can You Can team and the rest of the finalists, oh dear I was wrong and I suddenly felt very alone. So I made my way over to get a tea and started to look around, ahhh I finally saw someone else that was standing all alone. So I made a beeline over to her and introduced myself, as she introduced herself as Angela Anderson the owner of Zenith Recruitment a gentleman came and joined her, oh I felt so foolish, however he then introduced himself as David Harper from Harperco and straight away they both made me feel at ease. They asked me lots of questions about our business and in turn I reciprocated and instantly we hit it off, phew!
Into the conference with another 250 people from across the North East for the rest of the day and I have to say the quality of speakers were amazing, I particularly liked Simon Calver from LoveFilm and Nick Wheeler (probably the funniest most thought provoking speech I have ever heard) from Charles Tyrwhitt shirts. They both inspired me and I made plenty of notes.
The networking breaks came thick and fast and I lost my fear of being alone and started talking with some really nice people. The food was also something to write home about, or blog about, I also have http://www.moreishfood.com/ and blog on http://www.moreishfood.wordpress.com/ so when I get a moment I can let you know how it was. As the day grew to an end Paul joined me at the hotel and we went to get ready for dinner.
Dinner was brilliant, the event was so well organized, and the people we sat with were inspirational and interesting. The awards were fantastic and I have to say Anne Preston was outstanding and a true entrepreneur. A perfect end to a perfect day!
I entered the room and thought that I would be met by someone from the If We Can You Can team and the rest of the finalists, oh dear I was wrong and I suddenly felt very alone. So I made my way over to get a tea and started to look around, ahhh I finally saw someone else that was standing all alone. So I made a beeline over to her and introduced myself, as she introduced herself as Angela Anderson the owner of Zenith Recruitment a gentleman came and joined her, oh I felt so foolish, however he then introduced himself as David Harper from Harperco and straight away they both made me feel at ease. They asked me lots of questions about our business and in turn I reciprocated and instantly we hit it off, phew!
Into the conference with another 250 people from across the North East for the rest of the day and I have to say the quality of speakers were amazing, I particularly liked Simon Calver from LoveFilm and Nick Wheeler (probably the funniest most thought provoking speech I have ever heard) from Charles Tyrwhitt shirts. They both inspired me and I made plenty of notes.
The networking breaks came thick and fast and I lost my fear of being alone and started talking with some really nice people. The food was also something to write home about, or blog about, I also have http://www.moreishfood.com/ and blog on http://www.moreishfood.wordpress.com/ so when I get a moment I can let you know how it was. As the day grew to an end Paul joined me at the hotel and we went to get ready for dinner.
Dinner was brilliant, the event was so well organized, and the people we sat with were inspirational and interesting. The awards were fantastic and I have to say Anne Preston was outstanding and a true entrepreneur. A perfect end to a perfect day!
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
The night before!
Well it is 23:23 as I write this and it is the night before the big announcement! We haven't been able to tell anyone our exciting news for almost week! Tomorrow everything will be revealled.....we are finalists for If We Can You Can Challenge 2011!
Paul and I have just returned from Being World Class at Rainton, which was a business club event bringing all of the North East business clubs together! It was an excellent night with the guest speaker being Chris Cook a local lad from South Shields who became a world class swimmer!
We exhibited tonight and gained a lot of potential new clients, people really can't grasp why or how our service is free! Our USP really astounds people!
So we have come home I have packed a million and one outfits for tomorrow's event at the Hilton, men they have it so easy....just hire or buy a tux it really couldn't be easier, there has to be a business model here somewhere ladies! No where in the North East of England is hiring Black Tie clothing for women!
So off to bed and will blog soon!
Paul and I have just returned from Being World Class at Rainton, which was a business club event bringing all of the North East business clubs together! It was an excellent night with the guest speaker being Chris Cook a local lad from South Shields who became a world class swimmer!
We exhibited tonight and gained a lot of potential new clients, people really can't grasp why or how our service is free! Our USP really astounds people!
So we have come home I have packed a million and one outfits for tomorrow's event at the Hilton, men they have it so easy....just hire or buy a tux it really couldn't be easier, there has to be a business model here somewhere ladies! No where in the North East of England is hiring Black Tie clothing for women!
So off to bed and will blog soon!
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