My Wealth Creation Journey

Day 521 - Wednesday 30th September 2009

Last day of the month, dawns... a little late in bed last night 1:30am and so very groggy getting up at 6:30am. Still there are things that need to be attended to for Westminster University and these can be done before they start work. This is done and dusted in an hour, then off back to bed to catch up an hours sleep.

Urfi my Table Tennis business partner is around to try out his wireless adapter and see how quick this will be when trying to do the live TV Table tennis matches. While he is with me I grab him for an interview with Gergely Urban (Urfi) which we quickly do and put up on the internet onto YouTube and the Watford Table Tennis Blog.

Otis is out this morning in little Bedford collecting our Reseller pack for a Business Dashboard product that enables businesses to gain an overall view of their business performance. A collection of dials and charts provides a comprehensive view of the business. We will have to integrate our i-Tr@der web based Business Platform cloud computing solution into their system, but we had plans to write a high level KBI product ourselves so this will probably be a faster and slicker solution to market.

A few panic calls from Revolution Telecoms who are raising invoices today for the first time. It's always easier when being trained... still they were almost there just struggling to find the last piece in the jigsaw and soon sorted.

Back at the ranch Otis has to get some data prepared to Import for one of the subcontractors on the One-Hyde-Park project. The way they supply this to us is not that convenient but anyway by around 4:30pm this data has been imported. Now Just one final step before we can advise then that these Product Codes are ready for use....

Preparing for Livia, our new marketing person who will join tomorrow... there is so much to organise with the marketing that I'm not sure where to start... but certainly we need to streamline and improve our use of twitter and start building our contacts there, so getting this straightened out is not a bad place to start.

Table Tennis this evening we're playing the second team in the division here is a link to the Fullerians Vs WWCC full match report (with video). We won the match 6-2 narrowly missing out on taking all four points from the fixture. 6 out of 6 singles wins for me this week, so quite happy with that! Bit of a late night again tonight, and an early start planned again.

Day 520 - Tuesday 29th September 2009

Classic I forgot to send of my Credit Card payment yesterday... now it looks like a special delivery cheque to avoid a late payment penalty... I should do that direct debit thing to avoid this... when will I take the advice of the Momey Gym ....

6:30am start today... Westminster University configuration is one of the first tasks, but I have loads of other jobs to do as well. Deliver Net statement needs to be sent, but there is some cash allocation to do first, then I need to send some emails.... and Ian my technical manager is back today and I need to revisit a few things with him about customer requirements.

Ian is a bit late logging in from a long weekend but eventually he makes contact... phew... I start to think there might be an issue but no...

Ian is going to sort out an Invoice layout request from Revolution Telecoms, I send over some things to Carl French who we met the other day... and  now... I'm going to see if I can get my Zoom H-4 (portable digital voice recorder) to act as a microphone for the UStream TV and also Skype and Camtasia... Success so this morning I will record a quick video as part of UStram TV a news bulletin for the Watford Table tennis blog.

That done, Otis is back from his Brent Cross 4Networking meeting.. lots of interesting stuff going on there. Lunchtime soon arrives and now I'm preparing for a meeting this afternoon with Claire Raikes and Livia Fekiacova which starts at 2pm. That time soon arrives and we discuss a two phase option for evaluating the way to use Twitter. I have prepared a whole list of strategies for working on our 6 products and will be writing to Livia later today to confirm her position in the company and her role as marketing manager.

Credit Card payment sorted, discussion on some data manipulaton during the afternoon for westminster University and the day disappears pretty quick... I finally get the job offer letter off to Livia, and then it's getting ready to go to a table tennis match. The first match in the Chalfont league tonight against one of the better teams... I play pretty well and win my three games, the team wins 7-3 so a good start to our campaign.

Back at the ranch I have received a post for the watford blog and get that up on the system... there is plenty for people to read tomorrow... I have two other posts to put up which I will tomorrow that'll keep the information flow really going... bed at 1:30am...

Day 519 - Monday 28th September 2009

This morning back at the desk at 7:30am. This was the first weekend this year where I did almost nothing with work... I did plan some activities for this morning yesterday, but in the main it was a relaxing weekend.

This morning the first task is to check the Deliver Net system, as Ian is away I'm covering for him, fortunately all is well... next task is to get these blog posts up to date, then two small items to attend to, Revolution Telecom and Westminster University... then onto some other things which just need to get cleared of the job list.

Urfi pops in all excited about streaming live TV onto the Blogs... we will have to do something, will be very interesting to see live local Table Tennis matches and also the parents watching their kids during the sessions. We amend a few things on the blog for him, just in time for the meeting with Carl French from Replico (one of Otis's contacts from 4Networking).

Carl has a finger in a lot of pies but one of them is a distribution business for tanning salons and spa's around the country and also internationally. The Online forms ordering system will be perfect for his business, the plethora of other modules will also work well for them. They have a spatially distributed business with people in Watford and Bristol and an external outsourced fulfillment company, all of which fits perfectly with our i-Tr@der web based Business Platform.

After some lunch, now onto sorting out my ecademy profile. I've been meaning to do this for ages, but one of those jobs that has been put off as low profile compared to many others. I accept a load of requests to make contact and change my 50 words as well as the profile description to include BillBandit and other businesses I'm involved in.

We restart the Facebook adverts that we ran earlier last week with different selection criteria we shall see what happens with that. A few support requests float in from Westminster University so I have a few configuration jobs now to do tomorrow first thing.

Table tennis practice withRoger tonight and quite a hard workout... at the end we play one of the coaches, Roger loes 11-8 in the fifth leg and I win 14-12 in the fifth... encouraging for both of us! Back at the ranch a beer and some food, then off to bed... earlier start tomorrow !

Day 518 - Sunday 27th September 2009

Leisurely start to the day and a good old fashioned cooked breakfast without Bacon, but tasty nevertheless. The morning disappears very rapidly and then I'm thinking about dinner tonight. I don't really use a freezer and I really need to cook again tonight,so that I have things for during the week. I will need to nip to Asda's to pick up a couple of bits on the way around to my mothers.

My sister is around at my mothers as well today. It's quite funny really, my mother has started to use Facebook and my sister uses it and of course it is a strategic part of our marketing for Chris Ogle, i-Tr@der and the BillBandit brands. Now because everyone is reading the notes and comments on Facebook everyone knows what is going on... so what do you talk about when we all know what happened in the last week via Facebook !!

My mum has now emerged from the 12 week no bending stage after her Hip operation and until now her knees have been really hurting so much so that she has had real trouble just walking around the house. She has however lost a stone in weight and ot appears that the knees are hurting much less... is this due to the weight loss or time?? interesting question? lets see what happens over the coming weeks.

Back at base around 5:15pm so time to sort a few things out on ecademy... I want to change my profile on there and get the BillBandit listed... I make a start but I think I'm going to lay down for 30 minutes... all this resting and taking it easy is making me tired !

7pm jot down the things that I need to be doing tomorrow morning, then run a bath and a nice relaxing evening... Mushroom and Bacon risotto tonight!

Day 517 - Saturday 26th September 2009

Well a good lay-in this morning until about 9:30am, the weather looks amazing outside... we haven't had any real rain for the entire September it looks like and today wall to wall sun with about 22c, not bad for the end of September. Looks like the seasons are changing, May / June and September nice weather, July and August rubbish....

Today is a long overdue cleaning day... the flat has gradually slipped back into being a bit untidy and dusty... I exchange a few twitter comments with Louise BJ - Frontline Results about outsourcing this housecleaning task... I really should to maintain it, however once in a while I don't mind... it's such a mundane job that it is kind of theraputic a bit like meditation...

Off to Asda's this morning as well to pick up food and drink for the weekend... really busy in Asda's today, I can't believe the car park is so full... after walking around in the shop for a few minutes I hear that Peter Andre is in the shop signing copies of his new CD... ahh that explains why there are so many people there.

Back at base I'm continuing with the cleaning and social networking on the Internet before taking a shower and getting ready to get into cooking for this evening. Tonights menu includes, Roasted Peppers with fresh tomato, garlic, black olives and sun dried tomatoes, followed by grilled Asparagus and cured ham, and then a lasagne with pork, fresh spinach and thyme flavoured sauce served with a balsamic vinegar 5 leaf green salad.

Food goes down pretty well with a couple of beers and red wine!! Quite a late night, but another restful day tomorrow... I'm thinking though that I need to get active on my book again!

Day 516 - Friday 25th September 2009

Early morning once again, 5:30am trying to get the last parts of testing completed for Westminster University. Some confusion over different versions of the database meant I had to download the data a couple of times before I was working with the right one... when the database is over 200mb it takes a while. I've a few questions still to get answers before I can finish, so fire them off and get on with some other bits while I await the replies.

Otis is out in Milton Keynes today with the BillBandit and so won't be back much before 11:30am. Urfi calls in the morning, he wants to come around today and work on the Urban progress TTPro blogsite. Now we have the 5 main secondary school hub locations in place, Watford Grammar School, Ravenscroft, Finchley Catholic School, Hendon, and Ellenboro' we are now all set to publicise the locations, coaches and times of all the sessions.

Paul Dilley from Westminster University reports a couple of issues that have happened as a result of the system 'Upgrade' and I manage to get these wrinkles ironed out a little before 5pm, but he has already gone home by this time.

My technical man Ian Campbell is out today and Monday he is taking a long weekend away, so I am covering for him on that front today although everything is pretty quiet... I hop Monday folllows in the same vein as today! Ian has only taken about 5 days holiday including this one this year he is an amazing asset to the business. Morris my business partner is also away today although he is going to Mexico for one month...

I finally manage to to place the Orders for the BillBandit polypropelene bags, and it looks like the final artwork proofs for the retail packaging will be with me early next week!! So this is all moving forward. I think we will definately miss the xmas 2009 for retail sales of the BillBandit, although we might do well online!

Table Tennis practice with Roger tonight although to be honest really quite tired! The practice goes well although we finish at 9:10pm both ready for the weekend. Back at base a portion of chips and some breaded chicken, watching a movie (the Pelican Brief) and then off to bed about 1:30am ready for some serious sleep tonight!

Day 515 - Thursday 24th September 2009

5:30am start again this morning. Serious testing for the Westminster University application today and by 8am I've done pretty well, still not finished yet, but it is looking very much better.

Some fruit with a cup of coffee, then a quick shower, put some washing on and then get changed ready to head down to Watford Grammar School with my colleague Urfi - Urban Progress TTPro. Today we are down there to finalise the arrangements for starting the Academy, sort out storage for the Tables, Insurance, contracts (although fortunately no one wants to get into huge legal bills).

The meeting goes really well, everything is sorted... Wednesday 5th October is set for the start date and next Thursday 1st October for the delivery of the Table tennis tables down to the school. We have some paperwork and other tasks to sort in the interim but a very positive view from everyone involved.

Back at the ranch we start to sort out all the details and preparing the materials for promoting and raising the interest for the start of the Academy. I put a blog post up on the Watford Table tennis blog announcing the Academy and also call the Watford Observer Sports editor to ask if they can come down to the school and cover the event for us. There is a possibility that the local radio could also attend and do an interview... with who we don't know yet!

Otis has been out at the 4 Networking meeting this morning and although along on BillBandit business appears to have uncovered some great i-Tr@der business opportunities. We discuss these over some coffee and toast and looks interesting... Otis needs to follow up on these, one specifically looks like a redeployment of the systems we have running at Deliver Net for online ordering... but on this occasion not care homes but tanning salons...

More information and emails on the Westminster system and this clears up a lot of things... we sort out the issues with product codes for the subcontractor Ruddy Joinery on the Laing O'Rourke system, and Otis finishes rendering the videos from last nights Table Tennis matches.

Otis is off, I'm going to take a quick break, then go shopping again and tonight get back and work on the Blog posts for this blog and testing the Westminster university system. While I'm doing this I'll upload all the Videos to You-Tube because this slows down things during the day, and that is painful !

New Question Time tonight and Andrew Neal with News Week afterwards so this is good, back with my two favourite shows of the week !! Bed at a little after 12pm going to be up early again to finish off the Westminster testing....

Day 514 - Wednesday 23rd September 2009

5:30am start again this morning. The fallout from the Deliver Net online ordering issue needs to be sorted this morning, so the early start enables me to download the database and plumb in the things that need sorting as well as produce a detailed report summarising all the locations and shipments that have had issues.

On attempting to set the prices though I am stumped... they have previously always had these products free of charge... this means there were never any prices... I've never received the pricing... so having taken the flack it looks like I didn't have the information in the first place!! Anyway... I've done all I can do... will I get an apology ?? we'll see...

Otis is in normal time today no meeting, but he has meetings tomorrow and Friday! I've left a problem for my colleague Ian to sort for Hysen and he gets the problem sorted before 9am... I send on a note to say the job's been done! Making a list of things to do today... there are lots of bits and pieces to do with BillBandit and following a conversation with Claire Raikes yesterday we are now going to work out a proper marketing plan. I have contacted Livia Fekiacova and we are having our marketing kickstart at 2pm next Tuesday!

More bits and pieces filter in on the data to sort for Deliver Net and Otis gets on with that... also there are a few issues with some of the products loaded onto the system by Laing O'Rourke on the One-Hyde-Park project... I've identified the issues and once again there is a list of actions which Otis can attend to.

A conversation with Revolution Telecoms MD means we can now finalise the layout of the Invoice for them, and with a few other phone calls from different clients the afternoon passess quickly.

Table Tennis tonight, we are playing at Queens school against the team that won the league last year. They had an unfortunate incident last week and dropped 3 points, so they will be keen to make amends. Well it wasn't to be... although I personally dropped a game, the team played well with Roger Pyle and Alan Thomas making contributions and we came through 5-3.... we are now four points ahead of this team !!

Back at base a quick trip shopping at 10:30pm to get provisions for tomorrow, no fruit or sandwich ingredients in the fridge! A bit of work and then 12:30am to bed.... going to have to get up early to really sort out the testing for Westminster University.... I will be tired at the end of this week that is for sure !!

Day 513 - Tuesday 22nd September 2009

5:30am start this morning. Received en email from Deliver Net to say they have discovered that with one of their customers that some of the products have been going out to a selection of the homes at zero value. This customer is complex, they have three style of home :-

• Inco Products are free issue and Paper and Chemicals
• Paper and Chemicals are free issue but Inco paid for
• Pay as you go

Al products are ordered online through electronic forms and the system also manages a Budget spend per product group and an emergency tolerance level.. after which products can be ordered but they are chargeable. So it is not surprising that with a configuration like this something could go amiss.. anyhow it turns out we were not provided with the pricing for these products rather then we hadn't done them.

Anyhow this morning I'm quantifying the problem and then making recommendations to resolve it so that things can be normalised.

Ian picks up the cudgels for a problem with Hysen and then I'm back onto the Westminster Uni. stuff which is getting closer and closer now.

we are having a busy support day today, Hysen, Laing O'Rourke, Revolutions Telecom, Yellow Pig, Kan are all on the phone at some point in the day with small problems and questions. Both Otis and I are kept quite busy for most of the day which prevents me from moving forward with Westminster. I also get told by Deliver Net that it is our fault that these products have been shipped at zero value and we're to sort it out not leave it to the staff at their offices! More on that tomorrow I think.

Table Tennis practice tonight although we can't go to our regular haunt as the school is shut for some open day or other. Still we decide to go and play locally... very busy with the kids down there until 8pm and then after this adults. This is busy as well so we have to take it in turns at the table although we manage to get a good practice and a few games in preparation for tomorrow nights top of the table clash!

Back at base.. a couple of beers, translate a letter for a friend a bit of blogging and then bed 12:30am another 5:30am early start tomorrow on the Deliver Net stuff again!

Day 512 - Monday 21st September 2009

7:30am at the helm ready to start another week... a few emails to various customers to email them on progress which has taken place over the weekend, then back onto the Westminster stuff.

Otis arrives at a little after 8am and he has an ever growing list of things to do... He'll have to take control of his time soon, spending a bit too much time on Forums, Twitter, Facebook and other activities which are not generating income... focus is the word...

I'm having a frustrating day... there are so many balls in the air at the moment and we have limited resource... Ian my senior technical guy is resolving some reconciliations going back 3 years for a client and this is taking a while... we are uncovering some system anomalies all of which are fixed and increase the time required to complete the task.

Today my task list is growing, growing, growing even though I am doing, doing, doing... there just are not enough hours in the day. Customers call frequently during the day as well.. not major issues just questions, requests and some system configuration tasks... all take time and sap the day away from me... consequently I can't spend much time on Westminster University... going to have to get up early again tomorrow... another 5:30am beckons I think !!

We have decided today to start a Facebook advertising campaign to test the water, see what happens. We've picked a demographic for the UK and paid for some click-thru advertising. The whole idea behind this is to experiment, see what happens, get feedback and also get the name out there. Even though thead might be presented often we only pay if the ad is clicked on. So we have set a £15 limit per day for 3 days... lets see what happens. The advert went live at about 3pm uk time and we had some 20 or clicks on the first day... lets hope we get a combination of awareness and also interested people who buy... watch this space!!

We have built up 10 BllBandit packs today, Otis is off to some 4Networking meetings and he is talking about Billbandit... hopefully he can sell a few while he is at the meetings for £7... once the word is out perhaps more people will then visit the BillBandit online store and buy a unit!

Table Tennis tonight... practice with Roger, tonight and tomorrow with a match on Wednesday. Check out the Watford Table tennis blog where we have posted some recent match results and videos of what has taken place in the first week of the new 2009/10 season.

Write up a couple of Blog posts... cook up some Salmon in Teriyaki sauce (now that was moist, tasty and enjoyable) and then off to bed circa midnight... early start tomorrow!