It does get tough when you are doing your accounting though. I know some friends have questioned by ‘business entertainment’ at times… And now laugh that every time I go out, I either wind up drumming up a new lead or bumping into an old customer and start talking about work again. In my mind, life is different when you own the company. You NEVER stop working, and you survive off any networking you do.

But, am I the only one who often finds the line blurred between having a good time with friends and doing business with work colleagues?

I know a lot of people would say that if it’s fun, it’s not work, but I feel like that myth was dispelled the day I started working for myself and basically spend my life doing stuff I like (and get severely depressed when I go through a couple of months of NOT leaping out of bed to get cracking).

The I wonder if it’s the mix? Like if Im out with a group of people and one of them happens to be an accountant, and we spend 30 minutes going over the fine points of financial statements on my Friday night – I consider this valuable information, or is it just idle chit chat? If it’s 30 minutes out of 2 hours, does that change it? Is this a meeting or is it a drink?

Is it defined by the purpose? i.e if you INTEND to go get financial information, it’s a meeting, whereas if it happens by accident, it’s a drink.

Sometimes I think it’s funny that the things I get the MOST work out of or the best advice, are probably considered social situations, while the stuffy old ‘business’ events can often generate nothing, but probably look better in the accounts. Hmmm.

We’ve made it even more tempting, by putting the first $50.00 in your account when you sign up through the Flower Power Daisy promo.

And to sweeten the deal even more, the Power Kiwi AGM yesterday resulted in some cool plans to reward our loyal customers… We’re intend on being everything your current power company is not.

And remember, signing up to Powershop will probably be the easiest thing you do this week. Just enter a few details from an old power statement in their online form, and they do the rest.

So go on! Join the revolution!

Actually, we know that you can, and you do, within about 2 seconds of seeing it in the letter box.

However, we also all know that if you don’t PAY the bill, you’ll be disconnected, and I for one, cannot handle icy cold showers all winter, or not being able to cook my new FAVORITE vegetable EGGPLANT, or being able to switch on the old electric blanket, etc etc.

So, while the rest of us were sitting around contemplating how to make your lives easier, Rowan made his first (?) iPhone app.

It’s pretty simple, and like most great inventions, solves one problem well. The Flower Power iPhone app allows you to plugin your current meter balances, then click through to be told how much power you need to buy, which you can then buy from your default Powershop provider.

The great news is that outside of stopping you from having to remember a series of numbers while you head back to your computer, or writing your balance on your hand, only to wash it off… it’s FREE, it’s super easy and it takes the pain away from paying your power bill.

So go on, download it, use it, and send us any feedback :)

A well time quote I heard yesterday was ‘in five years, will this problem still feel so big?’

In this case, my initial answer was ‘yes, when I’m bankrupt and out on the streets begging for money, this problem will feel bigger!’

Then I went to dance class… Tired, grumpy and feeling anxiety levels I haven’t felt since I took over this company when it was in debt and had been sort of abandoned for a year or so.

One lesson I learn OVER AND OVER, is when you are the most stressed, and the least able to come up with answers, GO DANCING… Or whatever it is that empties your mind and changes your focus to something fun and energetic and makes you feel a little spark of happiness.

Then you put your problems into perspective.

By the end of the night, I was halfway back to putting the issue into perspective (I still paid all my tax, I’ve got work on, this is ALWAYS a bad time of year, I’m a long way from the streets…)

I think my point is, whenever you’re feeling the least motivated and most pathetic, it’s most important to get off your butt and do something :)

Every now and then, we run into issues, but every time, we have managed to come to an agreement that works.

We are a design company. I accept that sometimes the designs we do don’t fit with our customers immediately. That is why I stress to them from day one to be blatant with their feedback and give the guarantee that we will rework our designs until they are 100% happy.

Currently I have two customers who are refusing to pay me.

I know it is because they either have no money or the money they do have, they’d rather keep for themselves.

These two customers went the entire way trough the design process, they signed off on the designs, they used words like ‘happy’, ‘this looks good’, ‘yes lets proceed’. I keep a good record of these conversations for exactly this reason.

Because several weeks after they were meant to pay, they still haven’t.

The initial excuses were over the arrangement. So I reproduced the proposals and quotes they signed off on. These contained the full fixed quote and our payment details. No fine print.

Now, and this is what kills me. They are both claiming that they were ‘unhappy with the work’. This is the first I have heard of it, and comes several weeks after the project was completed on the basis that they told me the EXACT opposite.

Neither of these companies is based in New Zealand, both owe me several thousand dollars and I suspect neither was ever planning to pay it.

What can I do? I have tried talking to them, I have shown them everything they wanted. Now I am stuck in a position whereby they can attempt to ruin my reputation, while also walking away with hours and hours worth of work that I produced for them (There is only so much in design that you can NOT deliver before payment).

However, as I started telling people, it quickly became apparently that those I know and love and hound with information all the time, still don’t always ‘get’ Powershop. So I figure now’s as good a time as any to fill you in on the easiest thing you can do this year to gain power over your power supply.

Powershop is JUST ANOTHER power company

What I mean by that is that it’s not this funky weird tech company, when you join Powershop, you are joining a power company in EXACTLY the same way as if you would join Meridian, Genesis or any of the old lot. It also means that if you aren’t overly interested in analysing your Power account, switching suppliers every month or taking advantage of the numerous other awesome features of Powershop, you can simply select the power supplier you’d prefer (or just set it to the cheapest) and your power is bought for you every month, by direct debit, without you ever having to look at it.

Powershop has the best support I’ve EVER encountered

And I can back this up with testimonials from everyone else I have convinced to signup. They chat on IM, call you and email you PROACTIVELY if they notice something amiss or if you have a question. They are polite, friendly and genuinely believe in the company they provide support for. Show me another power company that can say that.

Powershop IS changing the way we buy power

I’ve been using Powershop pretty much since as soon as I could. My sister signed up as soon as she bought a house. We both have very different ideas about what we require from a power company – Sarah all about saving money and monitoring how much she uses. Her competitive spirit kicked in and she really enjoys figuring out how to keep her power costs low.

I love the fun! I LOVE signing in at Halloween and buying 666 power (for bargain basement prices), I like knowing that when I buy power, I can offset my carbon emissions. I like that when I have time, I can take an active role in choosing who supplies my power, but when I don’t, I can reply on my default option being far cheaper than any other power company can offer.

One more cool thing

Powerkiwi (a business that I have a shareholding in) is one of the first power suppliers to jump on Powershop. We’re so excited about converting people to Powershop, that if you signup using our promo we’ll give you $20 off Flower Power. AND (final, final good thing), when you signup, you can fill out the direct debit form ONLINE. which means no downloading, no printing, no posting AND no effort!

I imagine is slightly controversial? In my experience men are the first to get hurt and angry when someone suggests that maybe they are not the answer.

It might be a little idealistic? You can’t buy 6 million girls a cow and expect the world to become a better place.

But it definitely makes a lot of sense. There has been all sorts of research (and generally it’s done by the people leading the micro financing charge) that shows that lending to small groups of women is the most effective and successful method of increasing the living standards of the world’s poorest.

I also LOVE the idea that you are investing in these people, not donating to them.

Totally different industry from mine, but this guy is the type of person who always pushes the boundaries, who takes risks on things (but not crazy ones), based on a really solid understanding of what he does, what people want and the niches you can create for them. He never said ‘I’ve done the hard work now, no more risks’

Contrast that to an article I read this morning about how New Zealanders are great entrepreneurs, but terrible at follow through. Even those who have ideas, seem to stick with one, create a nice and comfortable life and then focus on their nice lifestyle. The point being that being a wealthy New Zealander is comparatively easy. You don’t need much here to live an awesome life.

I suddenly realised I am the type of person to be the latter. I had a rough start. It tired me out. I’m STILL using that as an excuse for not pushing myself back to that on-edge, freaky but amazingly exciting challenge mode.

What a great guy and a great reminder that you don’t have to have everything on the line (a la the early stages) to still get the thrill of the challenge.

This could well be true, I don’t know the stats on how much value us small businesses add to the economy in proportion to our size. Maybe we don’t add that much when being dwarfed by the larger companies amongst us? Are we sort of a waste of time?

This isn’t a rant, I just heard that the Business Advisor position at Grow Wellington has been significantly reduced. To me it seems a shame. I feel like Ruth and Marie-Claire before her have offered a HUGE amount of value to my business and that the funding I have applied for through these wonderful people will be paid off at least threefold in terms of increased revenue (and a lot of this export revenue)

I’m sure many small businesses are in the same boat, but maybe we just have grand visions of ourselves and when you multiply a $5k investment, over a lot of small companies, the council would be better off to combine that funding and invest it in a larger company?

I’d be interested to know, because i thought there was definitely room in Wellington for one person to be dedicated to helping grow small companies OUTSIDE the official incubators etc?

I totally understand there is a higher risk of growing small companies that are reliant on investment rather than earnings (we have all met ‘entrepreneurs’ who have never run a company that can break even on its own), but I think, while I was easily able to survive without funding, the boost that funding gave me to get business advice was incredibly valuable.

This company is my life’s work. It’s the cause of countless tears, sleepless nights, and has caused me to grow up suddenly and often painfully.

I’ve had to fight tooth and nail for it, had my personal life pulled through the mud… I think I was about 20 when I started on this journey and I do believe that I went about this whole thing just about the hardest way possible.

Sometimes, I look back and think about how much I have had to sacrifice to get here. Turning this business into the life I dreamed of was for a very long time, a nightmare. With the benefit of hindsight, I would have walked out the door two years ago without a backwards glance.

I have been taken advantage of so many times, by people I have trusted and who I have gone out of my way for. This has hurt me both financially and personally and has well and truly opened my eyes to a side of human nature i would rather remain ignorant of.

I have ended many phone conversations a shaking, nervous wreck after confrontations or sales pitches. I have woken with terror, because I quite literally did not have ANY idea how to get out of situations or any idea of WHO I could go to for advice. I have realised well and truly that at the end of the day, you are the only one who can fix your problems.

I have been in massive debt, earning next to nothing and been absolutely unsure how I was ever going to get out of that hole.

I have asked myself, often, if I could handle ONE more thing going wrong. And what actually happens to you when you can’t handle it.

I have rung my dad in tears to finally ask for a loan.

I have over-promised and under delivered.

I live life 2 steps behind where I want to be and I cant go to for a drink without work popping into my head.

I have often been on the verge of running out of money with no new work in sight and wages to pay.

Running a business, especially with the way I started out, is so stressful, demoralising and all consuming, that in the bad times, I do ask why on earth I’m doing it.

But, here is why:

I have never had anyone default on a payment. Despite having no formal contracts and often with customers on the other side of the world.

I know someone who will sit in someone’s office on my behalf until a payment is made, And I have never even met her. I have other friends who will willingly, and without payment, go into battle for me when I can’t do it any more.

I have steadfastly refused to work on project I disagree with and I refuse to give up on a project until the customer is happy.

I might work till midnight sometimes, but when the sun shines, I also sometimes head to the beach. I control my life, finances and work. I am free to do as I please, when I please.

I meet exceptional people who treat me like an exceptional person.

I face a new challenge every day, and the number of times I have achieved something I thought was impossible astounds me.

I am surrounded by people who will drop anything to come out for a drink, or who will hug me and spend hours helping me calm down and form a plan when I turn up at their doorstep, sobbing.

I never had to get that loan from dad, because I turned the company around and paid all my debts and (very significant) bills with profits from 6 months of hard work.

I proved to some very doubtful people that I could do it. And I proved to myself that I could.