Good progress today. I've decided to set up a company on the Companies Office website. I've reserved the name for the week, and will have to fill out the rest of the information and pay $150.
I've talked with Kelly in Centre Place. She drew up the lease agreement today so I can pick it up tomorrow at the Information desk tomorrow. I will go to Sukdeep's house and ask for her legal advice.
Amandeep is very excited and she said that I should set up a marketing plan with her. I will have to get together with her, though. It may be difficult, but I guess I will manage.
I may also ask Lauren to come into the shop to help out in the weekend, however, I cannot really afford to pay her a wage so I think I will make her position commision-based. I haven't talked to her yet, but I am not sure whether she's interested in this kind of job.
Jeanie is excited and liked my announcement on Facebook. Everyone thought my good news is that I am pregnant, but I am not.
This will be a bumpy ride, and I can't find any money in my bank account. Richard is wanting to buy a new speaker, go to Papua New Guinea, and I am going to spend another $150 this month. How are we going to survive? Next pay day: please come quick!
I have so many ideas about my little shop. I think the window display can have some nice pillows (can we rent this from somewhere?), and put the shoes on top of it. And I will need to get some shoe racks/wooden boxes. I will have to get a really nice antique looking chair (for next to nothing since I don't have any money). A mirror is needed as well, Eftpos machine, and a cash register.
On top of that, I will need to pay the Customs people to get an import permit, pay insurance company, find and pay lawyer, and pay accountant (probably not going to pay her that much anymore since I've already paid her $250).
I am considering whether I should buy MYOB basic package. It's $1000, but it's going to automatically register the shoes that I sell. Is it going to help me? If I don't sell any shoes in a day, maybe this is not the package for me? I will just use Excel for the time being, and keep all the dockets.
This is so much fun. I am so excited! I am so scared! I am so pumped! I am very happy about my progress, and hope I won't fail.
6/18/2010
Cute, and my shop will be called Fairytale
I was trying to find some cheap white wedding shoes from Taiwan, but I came across this picture on the Taiwan Yahoo auction site. I like this model! I hope it sells clothes, which is the original intention of the photo. I've decided to rent one of the Ward Street shop on the shady side of the street. It will be a good start point, and the rent is $350 per week. It will officially start on 1 August, and I can get into the shop two weeks before that to renovate the place.
Here's my plan. I will buy a bucket of white paint that looks similar to the paint used in the shop. (This will require some research on my part, and buying the wrong paint is futile.) I will touch the whole shop up, and hope to God that it is the right white. I will look for old racks from Salvation Army and other Op Shop, clean up the racks and repaint them. Put the racks into the shop for shoes. I will put a counter inside myself, probably the one in the spare room since we don't really use that desk anyway.
Items to purchase is a very nice chair for the person to sit on. This will be the main piece of furniture that I need to invest big money in. It can be either a huge sofa with no back, or an antique chair with high back. I think I will try to find an antique chair that's not too expensive. Maybe more Op shopping.
The second item is a shoe mirror. This can be a short and stout one, which will not cost very much. It needs to be able to stand on its own.
The third item is a cash register. Then there's the Eftpos machine. I will need to get some curtains in to hide my stock at the back of the shop.
Apart from these items, I don't really need to purchase anything except the stock.
I will have to get public liability insurance, an import permit for my shoes, set up my company (already did a name search and the name I want is not taken.), talk to a lawyer, talk to my accountant and decide which accounting package I am going to use, sign up for a GST number, keep good record, connect electricity and pay the bills. Away I go!
I've found a shoe supplier from US. However, I am still not sure how much it will take to ship the shoes here. It is really hard to say, but I will have to prepare a quote. Of course, I can just order some shoes and see how that goes! Big risk there.
All in all, I feel that I've accomplished something today. I feel that I am one step closer in starting my new business.
6/17/2010
No I didn't say that and I am very busy today
Did I say The Pacific is a bad series? No. I liked it! I just miss the movies and the dramas from Taiwan!
I haven't been very organised lately, or should I say, I am reasonably organized that things are being done just before their due dates? It was very cold this morning, but I managed to get up with K and had a shower first. The duvet cover, the cover sheet and the pillows are in the washing machine, and my breakfast was eaten before nine. I did pretty well making a shopping list after reading Cuisine magazine. This week's objective is to cook soup, a lot of soup.
I just can't find any watercress from supermarket, though. I don't even know what it looks like, but I imagine it looks like the above picture or something like parsley. I've decided to get a mint plant so I can plant it into the ground when summer comes after September.
I haven't bought any leek after I married K, that's a first. It's very cheap at the moment as well, less than one dollar a leek. I got two kumara since I've been thinking about roasting some beef in the oven. I managed to get everything into the car with some difficulty, and get everything out as well.
Lunch was a great affair. I made hot and sour prawn chicken noodle soup. It was so yummy! However, I think I can improve it further by not adding to much fish sauce. It was too salty.
K got to Chartwell after getting off work by two o'clock in the afternoon. I coerced him to buy a blue jersey from the shop. It wasn't going so well when we were in Hallenstein, but I managed to get him to get one from Farmers. I feel very good and we went home together to find Fuzzy at the door.
Fuzzy just came back from Auckland. She went there for a visit to the starch factory. She was so tired that after talking to me only for one minute that she was already lying flat on the bed.
We talked about moving out when I sent her home. I hope she is going to be able to move out soon.
I was having some fun on the computer when she was sleeping. Now it's time for me to roast that beef with the pumpkin. Hopefully, this hearty meal will warm us up tonight. It's time to crank up the heater and keep warm under the blanket.
The To Do list is still long, but at least I've done the shopping and folded all the clothes now. I feel that I've accomplished something today.
The temperature is so low today that when I was printing out the document from the printer, it was smoking.
6/16/2010
Our country our duty
I watched the last episode of The Pacific this Monday. The mini series reminds me of the movie I saw in Taiwan. War is never pretty and glorious. I remember a girl being raped in Vietnam in the movie, and the soldier was trying to save her. I remember a girl who shaved her hair off because being a woman means that you don't have the right to live as a human being, you will be raped and you will be killed in another movie. I remember the man who fought the Japanese soldier in an arena because of pride and love of his country. China was invaded in Second World War, but even though most of the land had been taken over by the Japanese, people continue to fight back and resist the Japanese soldiers. They won't take Japanese names, they won't speak Japanese, they will fight the Japanese because it is our country.
My grandfather went to the war as a soldier. He seldom talked about his family, but he said that he was taken care of by a servant girl, a nanny. He went to the military school and trained to become an artillery man. He told us about the Clydesdale horses that pulled the cannons. He talked about how difficult the war became and they had to shoot the horses and eat them. Dad told us about how grandma escaped from China with her two young children, how granddad was still fighting with the troops, she's already back in Taiwan. They met again and had dad in Taiwan. What a joyous time!
The Pacific portrayed three main characters in the Second World War. The first one died in Iwo Jima, and he fought valiantly in Guan Canal, Papua New Guinea, and made a huge effort getting people to buy War Bond back in United States. The second one was a writer, he fought in Papua New Guinea as well, and got really sick in the jungle. He kept writing, reading, and the drama looked at the war philosophically as well. Is it right to send men forward when you know that they are crazy? What is the human limit? The Americans came into war from a different angle, it's patriotism that motivated them. They were attacked last by the Japanese in Pearl Harbour. However, the Chinese, the Korean, and the people of South East Asia are all invaded by the Japanese. Your home is torched, your belongings are taken away from you, and your relatives and friends are killed. People in these countries are perhaps motivated differently from the American. They are motivated by necessity, they are motivated because if they don't do anything, no one else will. I am sure that many people felt despair, sadness, anger, and wanted to get out of the war, but they couldn't. There was no food, no water, and you had to go on. You learn to live without.
What shapes us, as human, today? Our forefathers have fought in the war, either out of necessity, or out of patriotism, or for the greater good. We have to learn to prevent it from happening, we have to think that we are better at this now. We can do without killing one another, taking what's not ours, and live in peace. There are still so many wars going on in this war, if we can learn something from this series, it is this: stop fighting, and start living life again. War is ugly and wrong no matter how glorious people paint it. Soldiers who fought in the war should be taken care of when they come back home, and the people should work on reconstructing the war-torn countries. We can be friends. We can love one another.
My grandfather went to the war as a soldier. He seldom talked about his family, but he said that he was taken care of by a servant girl, a nanny. He went to the military school and trained to become an artillery man. He told us about the Clydesdale horses that pulled the cannons. He talked about how difficult the war became and they had to shoot the horses and eat them. Dad told us about how grandma escaped from China with her two young children, how granddad was still fighting with the troops, she's already back in Taiwan. They met again and had dad in Taiwan. What a joyous time!
The Pacific portrayed three main characters in the Second World War. The first one died in Iwo Jima, and he fought valiantly in Guan Canal, Papua New Guinea, and made a huge effort getting people to buy War Bond back in United States. The second one was a writer, he fought in Papua New Guinea as well, and got really sick in the jungle. He kept writing, reading, and the drama looked at the war philosophically as well. Is it right to send men forward when you know that they are crazy? What is the human limit? The Americans came into war from a different angle, it's patriotism that motivated them. They were attacked last by the Japanese in Pearl Harbour. However, the Chinese, the Korean, and the people of South East Asia are all invaded by the Japanese. Your home is torched, your belongings are taken away from you, and your relatives and friends are killed. People in these countries are perhaps motivated differently from the American. They are motivated by necessity, they are motivated because if they don't do anything, no one else will. I am sure that many people felt despair, sadness, anger, and wanted to get out of the war, but they couldn't. There was no food, no water, and you had to go on. You learn to live without.
What shapes us, as human, today? Our forefathers have fought in the war, either out of necessity, or out of patriotism, or for the greater good. We have to learn to prevent it from happening, we have to think that we are better at this now. We can do without killing one another, taking what's not ours, and live in peace. There are still so many wars going on in this war, if we can learn something from this series, it is this: stop fighting, and start living life again. War is ugly and wrong no matter how glorious people paint it. Soldiers who fought in the war should be taken care of when they come back home, and the people should work on reconstructing the war-torn countries. We can be friends. We can love one another.
6/15/2010
Real low
I've been feeling real low lately, hence no blog posts for a while. This is possibly brought on the high created by wanting to set up a business by myself, and that plan didn't go so well.
I've contacted a second-hand cloth shop and got some information from the owner about her business. She was going overseas and closing up shop at that time. I came along and went around town to look at several shops. Looking back, I think it was not the right time to get into retail.
I had a second idea of getting into partnership with a lady in Auckland who sells wedding shoes. However, after some number crunching, it doesn't look like it's going to work out, either.
I also went up to Auckland to the Small Business Expo set up by Bizzone. The Expo was a success and I did get a lot of contacts from there. One of the important thing that I lack is the capital, and the second thing is experience.
This retail adventure is now on hold, and I've been sleeping in the morning and not getting up until noon for the last week. I've decided to get earlier and think about some things that I can do to cheer myself up. There are also a lot of constructive things to do apart from setting up my own business.
I've always wanted to make some clothes for my Barbie. Yes, it is childish, but I think it is a good exercise to practice sewing. It is fun, and I can make some clothes for myself as well. Existing Barbie outfits are either tacky, or too formal. I think I may make some track pants or jeans for Barbie.
I also came up with an idea of making some science T-Shirts. There are some around that you can get online, but I've never seen one here in New Zealand. Maybe they are too geeky for people to wear? I am not sure how big the market is, but I am sure some people will be interested in acquiring certain shirts featuring huge dinosaurs, beakers, periodic tables or math equations.
I can also take some photos of my clothes and accessories to upload onto Pupe. You can get free outfit if you do that, and it's fun to dress up your little doll everyday.
I also want to read more novels, but I haven't decided which ones I am going to read. I should take all the books back to the library. They are due on the 22nd of June.
Fielddays is on this week, but I am not going. The weather is well today so I managed to put out the washing. It will be fine again tomorrow, maybe the clothes will be dry in this weather? There's me hoping.
I also want to look at some crafting tools and materials from Spotlight and compare their prices with the ones that you can get from StampUp (Australia). I am not sure which ones will be more expensive. I am also not sure whether I should keep going to the card making classes. They are really fun, and I can give the cards to relatives and friends.
There are also some projects around the house that I can do. I can mend the seat cover. I can make scones and try out recipes on the internet and the recipe books that I've never done before. It will be an adventure!
I hope that I won't want to stay in bed next week. There are a lot of things that I can do, and not all of those things need to involve making money. I think I may have a serious case of burn-out.
I've contacted a second-hand cloth shop and got some information from the owner about her business. She was going overseas and closing up shop at that time. I came along and went around town to look at several shops. Looking back, I think it was not the right time to get into retail.
I had a second idea of getting into partnership with a lady in Auckland who sells wedding shoes. However, after some number crunching, it doesn't look like it's going to work out, either.
I also went up to Auckland to the Small Business Expo set up by Bizzone. The Expo was a success and I did get a lot of contacts from there. One of the important thing that I lack is the capital, and the second thing is experience.
This retail adventure is now on hold, and I've been sleeping in the morning and not getting up until noon for the last week. I've decided to get earlier and think about some things that I can do to cheer myself up. There are also a lot of constructive things to do apart from setting up my own business.
I've always wanted to make some clothes for my Barbie. Yes, it is childish, but I think it is a good exercise to practice sewing. It is fun, and I can make some clothes for myself as well. Existing Barbie outfits are either tacky, or too formal. I think I may make some track pants or jeans for Barbie.
I also came up with an idea of making some science T-Shirts. There are some around that you can get online, but I've never seen one here in New Zealand. Maybe they are too geeky for people to wear? I am not sure how big the market is, but I am sure some people will be interested in acquiring certain shirts featuring huge dinosaurs, beakers, periodic tables or math equations.
I can also take some photos of my clothes and accessories to upload onto Pupe. You can get free outfit if you do that, and it's fun to dress up your little doll everyday.
I also want to read more novels, but I haven't decided which ones I am going to read. I should take all the books back to the library. They are due on the 22nd of June.
Fielddays is on this week, but I am not going. The weather is well today so I managed to put out the washing. It will be fine again tomorrow, maybe the clothes will be dry in this weather? There's me hoping.
I also want to look at some crafting tools and materials from Spotlight and compare their prices with the ones that you can get from StampUp (Australia). I am not sure which ones will be more expensive. I am also not sure whether I should keep going to the card making classes. They are really fun, and I can give the cards to relatives and friends.
There are also some projects around the house that I can do. I can mend the seat cover. I can make scones and try out recipes on the internet and the recipe books that I've never done before. It will be an adventure!
I hope that I won't want to stay in bed next week. There are a lot of things that I can do, and not all of those things need to involve making money. I think I may have a serious case of burn-out.
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