What's the worst thing about your business

[stour]

what do you hate most? the 1% of 'funny' customers? Dealing with suppliers? the bank? books? wholesale customers?

For me, i think it's banks and foreign suppliers, especially those that write emails containing the phrase "please to be understanding".

and my next question is - what stops you giving up your business? or put more positively, what keeps you going? If it got time to quit, do you think you'd know it?

now that my skin is giving me less jip, i'm starting to wonder the bigger problems of life:woot:

sarah

[littlesheep]

the unpredictability - I've had a few months rushed off my feet and now it's gone back to what it was before but I haven't done anything differently in any of those months... not sure why I don't give it up really - probably because I have plans for it for the future when my babies are all grown up so for the moment keeping it ticking over is fine by me (we are 'lucky' in that we don't need any income from it at the moment)

[Chell]

What do you hate most?
Book keeping and tax returns. I am so disorganised but I blame lack of space.

What stops you giving up your business? or put more positively, what keeps you going? If it got time to quit, do you think you'd know it?
I've barely started. The business is only 18mths old but when we started the site was rubbish and had very few products. I didn't have a huge amount of money to invest so the business has been gradually growing.

ETA: I am so stubborn when I put my mind to something so giving up wouldn't be a decision I'd make unless I had too.

[Olive_Oil]

What do you hate most?
book keeping for me too - partly cuz i dont really know what im doing and partly cuz i dont keep on top of it. Also the pist office run.... I hate that...quite an essential part of the business though so im stuck with it :cheesy:


What stops you giving up your business? or put more positively, what keeps you going? If it got time to quit, do you think you'd know it?

Im still a baby in that respect, only been trading for 8 months, but each month I seem to be growing and Im excited about where i 'could' go with it all. Its also paying for itself atm so its easy for me to keep going. I think that i would quit the minute my passion for it goes, as i dont see a reason to keep doing something that makes me unhappy.

[feistygal]

I most hate packing parcels, dealing with suppliers that favour other businesses and all the spam e-mail and sales calls.

[ann0024]

Book keeping for me too, I really should make more of an effort to keep it up to date. Then maybe I would have a better idea about completing that funding from I was talking about the other day. Still haven't finished it.
I haven know idea why I still do what I do, maybe I would feel like a failure if I gave up.

[Arianna]

what do you hate most?

Probably the amount of paperwork and lack of space.

what stops you giving up your business? or put more positively, what keeps you going? If it got time to quit, do you think you'd know it?

The challenge - no day of mine is the same. I'm either doing bookkeeping or website design - and no job is the same.

I could never work for anyone again as an employee after the way I was treated by my ex-employer. I could not put myself through the risk of it happening again when my endometriosis comes back.

I love the flexibility (okay haven't got much of that atm because I'm totally snowed under) but I don't have to work 9 til 5 as long as I meet my deadlines.

I think I would probably know if it was time to give up or not.

Arianna

[funkydorydawn]

What do you hate most?

Looking at competitors' websites and thinking mine is automatically cr@p by comparison.

Also, as DP and I are both self-employed from home, we both get pretty hacked off that people don't understand that we are together as a family 24 hrs (school holidays being especially pressurised), so we don't work like conventional families do. That is very hard to put across to people.

what stops you giving up your business? or put more positively, what keeps you going? If it got time to quit, do you think you'd know it?

The money :cheesy:. If I had a part-time job, or a full-time one for that matter, I would spend many wasted hours getting to and from that job, not to mention buying work clothes. I'd have to organise who drops off and picks up the boys from school - which at the moment is 3 different schools at 3 different times - hmmmm pretty impossible for a childminder.

Then I don't have to put them in an after school club or nursery/CM environment.

Our boys have been used to their dad working from home since their birth, and now that I do it, we all fit around together - and we just rub along :happy72:.

The accounts I don't worry about because I log and file everything as I go along - otherwise it would be turned into an aeroplane, light sabre for a star wars figure, or an arsewipe for a 3 year old :cheesy:.

On the whole - I LOVE my business and couldn't see it any other way now - although if I had one wish it would be a place to socialise with people that have nothing to do with my home life - which is where places like this come in.........

dawn
xx

[stour]

i don't particularly mind the books any more. i guess we've streamlined it well enough. i do hate chasing late payers though.

i've been wondering about giving up. Not because it doesn't work but because of how ill it's been making me. It is quite scary to think that you're affecting your health by working so hard. No job / business is worth affecting your home life for. Having said that I'm like a dog with a bone. i just can't give up. i don't know whether i ever will be able to. i might be buried with a laptop:hysterica

[Chell]

i've been wondering about giving up. Not because it doesn't work but because of how ill it's been making me. It is quite scary to think that you're affecting your health by working so hard. No job / business is worth affecting your home life for. Having said that I'm like a dog with a bone. i just can't give up. i don't know whether i ever will be able to. i might be buried with a laptop:hysterica

You're right, your health is more important, life is too short.

[lajlaj]

what do you hate most? the 1% of 'funny' customers? Dealing with suppliers? the bank? books? wholesale customers?

For me, i think it's banks and foreign suppliers, especially those that write emails containing the phrase "please to be understanding".

and my next question is - what stops you giving up your business? or put more positively, what keeps you going? If it got time to quit, do you think you'd know it?

now that my skin is giving me less jip, i'm starting to wonder the bigger problems of life:woot:

sarah


Dealing with suppliers beyond any shadow of a doubt!! I just cannot understand how someone that is providing you with a product or service think they have the right to treat you like sh*t!! Then add in the language barrier with the Chinese and their apparent disregard to their printed pricing and the fact that each time they speak to you their price goes up again ...

Would I give up?? No I don't think so, I had the perfect opportunity last year to walk away but what else would I do??

[stour]

You're right, your health is more important, life is too short.

Yes and no. I think in reality that its actually more about ways to keep me 'safe' and my priorities right.

I think its time to shift thinking, restrict the time it takes up, try to iron out some of the things that cause me so much stress and allow myself to delegate and indeed force other people to accept delegation.

i'm very lucky to have a business that feeds / clothes the entire family and we're grateful for the improvement in circumstances it gives us - we're going abroad for the first time in the kids' lives this year - but I use too much of this to explain the fact that it's all consuming.

i think the business needs to grow up a little and start functioning without me doing absolutely everything.

[Miranda]

Dealing with suppliers beyond any shadow of a doubt!! I just cannot understand how someone that is providing you with a product or service think they have the right to treat you like sh*t!! Then add in the language barrier with the Chinese and their apparent disregard to their printed pricing and the fact that each time they speak to you their price goes up again ...

Would I give up?? No I don't think so, I had the perfect opportunity last year to walk away but what else would I do??

You're all in the wrong business. Nappy suppliers IME are by and large LOVELY. There's the odd one or two who drop you in it with 4 mon th delivery times or change the design after you've bought 6 months supply upfront so you have to loose margin by selling it cheap. However the downside of that is the lower margin.

I waver from really loving it to absolutely hating it though. I think if someone offered me a nice sum of money I'd be tempted to walk away. The pluses are doing my own thing, the minuses are many:
eg The irritating things like banks who c**k up their online payment systems and have an Indian call centre you can't understand then won't allow you any overdraft to cover the shortfall in turnover due to their incompetence 2 weekends in a row, employees contributions and the apalling lowly SSP, and BT who when you advise you're moving across the road next month cut you off next day at 11.30 am and your number is 'this number is not available' till 5pm, and you have to speak to 11 people before you get to someone who can help you and each time you have to repeat your problem, and the firm from who you bought a mobile chip & pin machine on the understanding they can deliver in 10 days time as you need it for an event who then charge you for it and deliver a day late so you misss a day's takings, they then fail to supply the extras (spare battery etc) and still 6 months later have not managed to produce the itmes or a VAT receipt. Also HMCE who every time charge VAT as well as duty on zero rate goods despite the correct tarrif code being written on the label on the invoice on the box.

I don't mind the customers they can ask any Qs they like and I'll always try to help, some are very sweet and many we have quite a nice laugh and rapport with, and I love the little thank yous especially when I've told them they don't need to buy anything to solve their problem. but I do wish they'd think that I don't really want to be included on their birth announcement email to their entire address book with unedited full size photos (all 27 of them) of darling baby Zadie, yes she does look very cute in that hat that baby grow but she does look like...every other baby I was sent this week and takes 3/4 of an hour to download clogging up my emails

[Chell]

but I do wish they'd think that I don't really want to be included on their birth announcement email to their entire address book with unedited full size photos (all 27 of them) of darling baby Zadie, yes she does look very cute in that hat that baby grow but she does look like...every other baby I was sent this week and takes 3/4 of an hour to download clogging up my emails

:hysterica

[Miranda]

i think the business needs to grow up a little and start functioning without me doing absolutely everything.


It's called delegate. I think I've done my business very differently, in that we can function (and have to right now unfortunately) without any 1 member of staff for weeks at a time, and often without 2 some weeks. However I can't clothe feed etc my family on my money alone, but I probably could without the staff / bookkeeper costs or if I worked harder and did more in the way of promotion of the business. Not sure I want to do that though.

[Miranda]

:hysterica

Please don't do it! I far prefer the 'Birth Announcement' that goes to the whole address book and says briefly it's a boy or girl with a link to ourcutenewbabywebsite.co.uk saves me a load of hassle

[Bay-Bee]

I don't like using the telephone and speaking to people on the phone, may it be people trying to get me to advertise with them or when I have to sort things out over the phone!! I get all flustered!!!

What keeps me going is my love for Bay-Bee and how it see its future and being able to stay at home with the next baby and also feel like I am able to contribute to the household things.

[Slug]

My pet-hate is trying to find a person to talk to or email at a particular company or charity and not being able to find a phone number or email address from their website - I hate online enquiry forms.

What keeps me going is I've only just started so I can't stop yet! Plus, I'm enjoying it so far most of the time.

[silverjells]

The constant need to keep up with the advertising and promotion, it's a toddler class so by default we have people moving on and need to keep newbies coming in. I never realised quite how much time this would take and how much it keeps your mind on it.

[cemceyda]

The parents..lol .
I own a nursery, kids are great its always us parents that are a pain in the neck.

[MerrilyMe]

I most hate breaking down boxes that deliveries come in.

I don't give up because it provides 30% of our income and gives me something extra to focus on and be positive about.

[moomum]

Did you ever see the Black Books where Bernard trys to stop Manny from selling a book because he will have to do the whole ordering, phone catalog thing to restock.

I feel a bit like that :-)

I like it mostly but I don't like:

orders that go missing in the post
stocktaking
customers that change their mind
ordering new stock

[knotjustjigs]

what do you hate most?
Dealing with orders that have gone missing in the post.
paperwork


what stops you giving up your business? or put more positively, what keeps you going?
I dont give up anything without a fight!i am not a quitter...
What keeps me going is the knowledge that i will be able to give up my real job come summer to spend more time with my family and to spend more time on helping my business grow.

What do i like about my business?
Its flexability
I love doing Fairs
The income (albeit small)it generates
The people i meet and have met
I have become more confident
It gives me a sense of achievement

If it got time to quit, do you think you'd know it?
Yes i hope i would, not much point being a busy fool.

Good thread :)

Ketty x