My Wealth Creation Journey

Day 308 - Saturday 28th February 2009

Up early 6:00am start, got a lot to do this weekend and I need to get cracking with everything. The big job for today is to update prices and make some database changes for Deliver Net in Skipton, but there are a lot of smaller jobs that I want to roll out before I start on that.

We received an email during the week from a Richard Merrett who belongs to a social group covering Wembley, Harrow, Pinner, Watford and other town in the area. He is holding a Custard Pie throwing galley in May and would like to donate all the proceeds to the WillMeOn campaign. This is really good news and paves the way for us to think about other possible fundraising events that could be organised to promote WillMeOn and William Maybanks Olympic challenge. Amongst other things a reply to Richard is on my list today,

Other small things such as sending out a couple of statements, setting up an email template for my mate Urfi at (Urban Progress TTPro) so that he can announce the WillMeOn campaign to all the people that he visits and sorting out the detail to go on KD Accounting Website about the i-Tr@der Business Platform.

William Maybanks is playing the in the main event for both Doubles and Singles in an international open tournament in Hungary this weekend. He is keeping us all informed using twitter and I am also staying in touch throughout the day on Facebook as well. Although Will is knocked out of the main event he has learned a great deal from playing at the tournament and he will be popping up some photos on twitter - willmeon later, don't forget to check those out and FOLLOW William!

Finally I get around to updating Deliver Net's pricing and sorting out the databases the whole things is done and dusted by 12:00 midnight ! Early morning again tomorrow hopefully as stuff to finish for Deliver Net and also loads to do with Kan... another long day to come!

Day 307 - Friday 27th February 2009

Up early 6:00am start, have given up the booze for petty much the whole of March, I have so much on at the moment I just need a clear head to ensure that everything gets done!

I'm busy stuck into the working day when I receive some notification of issues at Deliver Net. The system is in need of a restart. Although we have cured some memory leeks and changed a couple of programs to improve performance, the system has not been restarted for 16 days or so and I suspect this is the issue. Deliver Net need to get an aged debt report out to the bank and this is required by 11:30am. I wish they'd give us prior notice of such important deadlines then we'd be able to make suggestions and give advice on the best way to deal with them instead of no plan and then firefighting all the time!

Get a few of my backlog block posts written and then onto knocking out a couple of documents for a friend / colleague who has got involved with a business supplying outside plants to Pubs, restauruants and hotels called Major Plants. He needs both an 'about us' page written and also a 'Marketing / Sales Letter' both of which I craft for him. Takes a bit longer than I expect but he is Hungarian and is relying on me to get the tone and message correct for him. Good news he is delighted with what I have written and I can cross this off my job list !

I also have to write the copy for my Sisters page on the WillMeOn Campaign site to write. She runs a business called KD Accounting which is an outsourced bookkeeping service historically with Sage Line 50 but now she is starting to work with the us and the i-Tr@der Business Platform. We are about to offload our bookkeeping to her and she will be managing the finances for the WillMeOn 'not for profit' company too!

I have a long conversation with Daniel Seal of Bedside Manner and we have now agreed the structure for the filing of his documents and we will implement this on his behalf in time to start loading his files on Monday next week.

A long overdue call with Peter Evans of MET - Minibus Executive Travel this morning to update him on William Maybanks progress. He has been sponsoring William for a couple of years almost now and has been complaining that he doesn't get to hear much about progress. He was unaware of the WillMeOn website although I had already updated him on what we were doing. I think now he will watch this site with interest as William continues to update this on a daily basis with what he is doing.

I finish off the day with a long Discussion with Claire Raikes regarding the WillMeOn site and what is left to do now. We agree four things for here to do, although she is in the process of moving house and so much of this will not happen until next Tuesday!

I finally get a bit if social networking stuff out of the way before going off to play Squash (the first time for about 2.5 years) with Eddie Dillon of Promedia Ltd, this is likely to be a laugh as I have been playing Table Tennis and have remained fairly fit, whereas the last time Eddie did any sport was with me 2.5 years before. Watch this space tomorrow to see how we got on !

Day 306 - Thursday 26th February 2009

 Up at 7:30am a little bit later than I would have liked. Quickly organised Otis with the things he needs to get on with today. Having updated my list of jobs today there is plenty of things to do again today.

Quickly knocked of some housekeeping jobs this morning. Updated the payments from Northern Healthcare and then sent out their statement. Added Select Hire to the customer list, created their login account and now sent out our Bank details for them to get their systems all updated.

There are a few odd jobs to get done on the WillMeOn publicity side and Otis is investigating the FriendFeed software to see how we can introduce that into our various sites as well as the WillMeOn effort. FriendFeed allows you to bring input from different social media sources into a single area and then host that on blogs and Websites. We have now implemented this for me on the Chris Ogle - IPS Blog and also on my twitter home page. The good things about FriendFeed is that you can also Join a room and host the contents of other peoples feeds as well which is pretty kool.

The guys at Executives on the web are still working on the email problem but by the end of the day good progress has been made and it looks like we're getting to the end of this problem. Tomorrow I will have to complete the conversion of the Templates across to the new model and ensure they are all working properly. This is not a five minute job either. Perhaps second job of the day after writing some copy for my friend.

Started to set-up the Laing O'Rourke project today and gather the information together of what we have received from the different delivery partners. Tomorrow I will look at this and then see what is missing and then we can start to plan the training down on site in Wembley.

Ian my colleague has been doing the end of month cross checking with the Sales ledger and we now have spotted that the automatic allocation program is timing out. We need to work out a better way of achieving this, even if it were to cycle through and process more efficiently it would be a start. This is holding up the completion of the Bank Reconciliation process which is almost complete.

Today we hit the £500 donation level for the WillMeOn Campaign and great thanks to everyone for their contribution and support for achieving this in 12 days from the launch date, which is a tremendous effort. Tomorrow and Monday we will bring together all the particpants and start to move to phase two which is spreading the word by getting the Badges and Banners on as many sites as possible. I think I will advertise this also on Ecademy to get the word out, maybe get some Blackstars to help with this.

No Table Tennis tonight or tomorrow actually. Relaxing evening although I am still working here at just after midnight, with a few last minute tasks before I call it a night.

Day 305 - Wednesday 25th February 2009

Up at 6:30am Got to take the car down for a service and  MOT today, once back I manage to get a few Blog posts laid out (although not fleshed out). Sometimes just documenting what went on in the day is sufficient to then be able to write the post a few days later on!

Executives on the web at 10:00am, all day bits and pieces now turns out that it is one machine with the issue and this is because I think around the Firefox problem. Have to export the data and then send to Bal for resolution.

Spoke with two people on the Laing O'Rourke Hyde park project now starting to receive the data in. Need to create a project map of what data I have received and now start to plan out the desktops and the functions that these people will be needing.

Car passed the MOT horrible £700 bill to pay for full service, two tyres etc. etc. cost of motoring. Just the Tax to get and then all legal for another year !

Bedside Manner project, 16:00 talking to Daniel about the filing structure and how we intend to use the system to store the information that he wants to upload.

Talking to Stev Vickerman and also Nigel about system performance at Deliver Net. we have now installed the system now we have to look at ways to improve performance. I made a simple change to the amend order search screen to not read in all the customers in the drop menu this will speed things up there.

Speak to Kan regarding their upgrades at the weekend, agreed a way forward with Ian. We are implementing the General Ledger finally with Kan and as they are 8 months into the current financial year we need to carefully plan how this is going to take shape!

Table Tennis handicap cup in the evening, we win with 15 points to spare, played pretty well total of 99 points to me and 23 against, so an average of 2.5 points per leg against me... not too bad.

Day 304 - Tuesday 24th February 2009

 Up at 6:00am returning to the UK today. Get my coat on and brave the chilli and rather snowy Budapest streets to pick up some hot rolls, bread and pogacsa`s which I'm going to take on the journey back to Watford!

Leave for the airport around 8am, decidedly more reasonable time to be catching a plane that the 5am start on the way out! Tram, Metro and then the bus from Kabany Kispest to the airport. The trip is fairly uneventful and I'm in the airport building by 9:10am. Pannon have a free WiFi setup at the airport and this gives me a chance to try out the Internet on my Mobile phone. The twitter for mobile interface is pretty neat this is the first chance I've really used that on the mobile and it works well. I pop up a post just to try it out and heh presto! it works. It's good fun being able to post things on the move, and the WillMeOn Campaign with William Maybanks will be much better for the direct involvement with those keeping check on his progress over the next 3 years on his road to the London Olympics 2012.

The flight is the usual 2 hours 20 minutes or so from Budapest back to London-Luton and passes fairly uneventfully. Ian my colleague is picking me up from the airport as we need to discuss a few things. Firstly he needs to show me the work that has been done with the Bank Statement Reconciliation software and secondly we need to agree the strategy for implementation at the Laing O`Rourke Consolidation centre at Wembley.

There has been a stack of people chasing me and when I finally get back to the office at 3:30pm, I have a humungus pile of emails to sort out and spend the rest of the afternoon on the phone speaking with clients.

We have one of the top two teams in the Chalfont Table Tennis league this evening and having got up at 5am UK time I am feeling a little jaded, hopefully once I get on the Table I'll be refreshed !!

Day 303 - Monday 23rd February 2009

7:00am start, on with the book again!! Although today is a normal working day and likely to be full of interruptions again.

Adrian upgraded the Email software on two of the servers over the weekend. This should not cause any problems as we have already deployed this elsewhere on our other servers. 

I'm going to have to get a few emails out before people start work in the UK and there are a few outstanding emails with regard to Deliver Net. I have to organise my lad Otis for the work that he has to get done over the next day or so also.

I had left a note on Friday for my lad to send back some amendments to the business share agreement which we want to get sorted and sent back to our solicitor as well as the Laing O'Rourke Select Hire contract which needs to go back to Laing's head office in Dartford. Checking in with my lad he never even opened his jobs list on Friday... what was he doing then ? It always amazes me how few skills school leavers have that are useful when they start work, or is it common sense that's lacking a bit here... time will tell!

There are some upgrades for Deliver Net online forms ordering and also I need to agree an action plan for Executives on the web to ensure that the system beds in there. There are some issues with the sales staff trying to get away from using the system, luckily the management team are really backing the project but it does highlight how strong leadership is required when changing the tools that are used for CRM in a business.

Now the contracts are signed with Laing O`Rourke on the One Hyde Park project, we can get them to raise the Purchase Order and once that is done we can get the application spawned and start the Implementation. This is going to be a very interesting project indeed and I am looking forward to it!

I take a few calls today, one of which surrounds Distribution lists in iEmail. There are issues we know as this is pretty unchartered territory but it appears the combination of the Distribution lists and links from the system do not function entirely correctly. On discussion with my colleague this gets added to the jobs list!

Bedside manner get in touch today as well, he is now keen to get the project moving as he has a deadline for his quality assurance assessment, funny how people work so much better when they have deadlines to meet. Now there is a definitive date where everything has to be in place, the project moves forward rapidly!

As always the day is disappearing fast and progress on the book is decidedly slow. In the late afternoon I am made aware of internal email issues with Deliver Net. This is escalated fairly rapidly to the MD level, and it turns out that a support query that I handled earlier was not as first thought. We manage to sort the problem rapidly once the problem is understood and identified! this issue serves to confound my attempts to complete any further work on the book today. Not much progress made really!

Interesting... today has been little different from a work position than if I was back at the ranch. OK there are a few things that I am unable to do from Budapest but in principle I am 90-95% as effective there as I am in the UK. Were it not for the need to meet clients, hook up with new prospects and manage my lad, then my need to be in the UK would be almost zero!

Possible rendezvous later on with a mystery lady....

Day 302 - Sunday 22nd February 2009

6:15am start, on with the book!!

8am hear that Magdi's father is not so well, tired and asleep, dizzy and sick, sounds like a bit of vertigo, hopefully he will be ok, if not better tomorrow the doctor will be called.

I'm not expecting to go there for lunch now, but Magdi races over there in a taxi. Anyhow Magdi calls at 11:30 and suggests I go over at 12:30 for lunch, even papa is sick. I take the opportunity on the way over there to shoot some pictures for Twitpic and get them loaded up. Should be fairly interesting for followers to take in a bit of Budapest!

Back at the ranch at 5pm after a quick stop off at the shops. Back on with the book whilst hand holding Magdi through some web sites that she is looking through for me.

We get on to chatting about how hard it is to learn a language and I asked Magdi, why is it that I speak reasonable Hungarian... because I'm clever? because I have a good memory? because I am often with Hungarian's? no the answer is because I had a reason... in my case a girlfriend and I wanted to be able to converse with her family in Hungarian, herein was the incentive. After the relationship I just continued with it. Actually I haven't studied very much and I ought to... I will one day be perfect with it I'm sure!

Magdi finds English hard because you can't learn a language gazing at a dictionary. You have to have a reason, and finding some websites in English and getting her signed up to them, or doing something for me in English will ensure that she starts to use new words and can make sense of the ones she already knows.

Had an interesting chat over twitter with new contact from Holland who checked out I was in Budapest and he's just arrived. We agree to have a Tweetup tomorrow. Tweetup where meetings take place following contact through twitter, happy days!

In bed again before 12 midnight. Early start again tomorrow, last day in Budapest and loads to do, plus everyone is back at work!

Day 301 - Saturday 21st February 2009

Was out until late last night and a very busy week so took it easy and relaxed, laying in bed until circa 11:00am.

Called Ian my colleague to see how things ended up yesterday and whether there was anything urgent that needed attending too. A couple of minor issues with one of our customers who I may speak with over the weekend but nothing too urgent or pressing.

Check out my emails and update some of my social networking things, it is snowing again today and very cold here in Budapest. Here is a photo from Nepszinhaz Utca where I am staying. There are some other pictures there of my journey yesterday as well.

This afternoon I am getting on with the book. The peace and quiet is good and there are no distractions here. So I can plough on and make progress.

In the evening I am helping Magdi (who I am staying with) to improve her computer skills, she has recently acquired a laptop and is learning to use the Internet, email and social networking sites. The only problem for her is that some of the people she would like to communicate with don't speak Hungarian and English is the only common language, Magdi doesn't speak English either!

I'm not going anywhere this evening, I want to get an early start on the book in the morning and an early night beckons. I always have a good night sleep here in Budapest even more so in the winter when all the noise is shut out because of the cold. The summer is more difficult with all the windows open..... the trams make quite a noise from about 4:30am!

Day 300 - Friday 20th February 2009

What about this for the 300th day of Internet Marketing and my Wealth Creation Journey. Who'd have thought over the past 9 months or so I would have travelled such an interesting path. This time last year we were looking for outside investment to drive the marketing effort forward. This year we are on the edge of cutting loose a comprehensive Internet Marketing platform that will transform the way software is taken into the marketplace. What a revolution we are involved in and I'm loving every minute of the business, the energy, the action, the people and the excitement. This is truly what business life is all about!

Up at the crack of dawn today, 4:15am finishing off my packing which is a very small hand luggage case. Just manage to get all the various bits and pieces packed in there. Just going off to Budapest  for a few days so don't need to take much with me. The purpose of the trip is to further my progress with my e-Book which is titled 'Running a Business Online'.

By the end of today I will have had a little over 7 hours sleep in about 68 so I will probably have a lie in on the Saturday being of no use to man or beast.

No problem with the flight everything is on time even though there are reports about snow in Budapest. Doesn't seem to phase other countries, a slight dusting or even a hard frost and the whole of England is thrown into complete turmoil. The Scottish appear able to deal with things much better I guess they are a little more used to it than us down south.

Arrive in Budapest to a chilli -6c, going to hop on the bus, Metro and Villamos (Tram) to get to where I am staying. Not a difficult journey will take about an hour all told. I arrive at the flat around 11:15am local time. Have been taking pictures with the new phone and sending them up to twitpic just to test and make sure that what William will be doing when he arrives next week will work satisfactorily.

Check out my TwitPic Photos to see some of my wanderings and the snowy weather in Budapest. Once I managed to get to a PC and check out Twitter I could see all was working as it should which is great news. For William Maybanks to be able to continually update what is going on during his journey will be just fantastic for all those supporters following him.

I grab a short nap in the early afternoon before getting myself setup to get on with the Book. It has been a long day, but I do get out later on and check out the local music spot and have a few well earned beers to celebrate the end of day 300!

Day 299 - Thursday 19th February 2009

I'm up at 5:30am this morning, I have to check out the details for Laing O'Rourke. I have left a text message for Andrew Boyle to get back to me to confirm what time the meeting starts. Well I get confirmation that the meeting starts at 9:00am but not in Datrford at the Consolidation centre itself. The other change is that the afternoon meeting is now not taking place at all, possibly delayed for a few weeks so just the morning required.

I now have to get my skates on and get down to Wembley ASAP. I get down there at 8:10am, it is half term and there is very little traffic on the roads so it only takes about 30 minutes to get there. Just in time for a bacon roll and a cup of coffee before the Deliver Partners arrive of which there is around 30 people.

Drew takes them through the presentation that we have prepared earlier in the week. My input into the meeting is one of ensuring that any questions raised by the Delivery Partners relating to the system are answered effectively and also to ensure that all of the Deliver Partners are aware that I need their data and that I need it soon! After Drew has finished I set the deadline for data to be received by me as the 26th February, 1 week from today.

Further testing of the Executives on the web email footers during the afternoon now they have had Firefox removed followed by transferring everything across from my phone to the PC ready to get onto the new phone.

Coaching Table Tennis this evening as well as popping over to see William Maybanks and pass over the Nokia 95 phone to him. With this he will be able to upload directly to his Twitter account directly and post pictures for viewing on twitpic. We can then download those and redistribute as necessary.

Back around 10:30pm just in time to start packing and getting ready for the trip to Budapest in the morning. Another very early start I have to be up and about at 4:15am !!