I started a business. It made me want to drink copious quantities, smoke myself into oblivion and hit my head against a brick wall. Instead I wrote a blog.
Site Launch Day: 0
User Count: 24
Going right:Site ready to go live, t's crossed, i's dotted.
Going wrong: Security Certificate that has been bought is not the right one for the site. No payments can be made, have to get a new one. This will take a 2 more days.
Comment: Will Harry ever get it on with Sally? Yes. Will Price Charles die before being King? Maybe. Will web designers and web developers ever be on the same page? NO...
24 hours was a long time in Jack Bauer's life. I know exactly how he felt (well minus the water-boarding stuff). The developers have blocked my access to the site - under maintenance, they call it - and I feel bereft. The daily tweak has become an addiction.
The site is due to go live this afternoon and today of all days, I feel needs to be celebrated with a glass of champagne. It's been over a year since I started developing the business model, briefing contacts, sourcing expertise, planning the strategy and fairly importantly, not earning any money. But I can't have one; not only because we can't really afford it (actually can always afford champagne, it just takes precedence over food) but because this morning, I found out I was pregnant once more.
We are of course blessed. But after a 30 minute bout of screaming from our 15 month daughter at lunchtime, my boyfriend said in a sudden spell of doubt.
"She was such an angel when we started trying for the second. How is it that suddenly she's turned into a monster? It's like she knows she isn't our sole focus anymore."
Like all parents we think our daughter is a genius despite any proof to the contrary. Only this morning she said "Go-ga" which was very clearly "Good girl." But deducing that she may for a while be displaced from the center of attention in 8 months or so, is stretching even my suspension of disbelief. I think it's far more likely to be her upper lateral incisor emerging.
As well as being a future Carl Sagan (my prophesy) or [better than] Britney Spears (his prophesy) my daughter is also the source of my inspiration for my business.
When I was 15 I said to my friends, who like me, wore black, upside down crosses and didn't inhale Silk Cut:
"Really there is no need for women to breed like heifers. Am just waiting for science to develop pouches so men can carry children like seahorses. It annoys me that we're even defined by our gender: Womb-man. A man with a womb. Although I suppose it's better than Boob-man."
When I was 25, I said to my colleagues in the bar round the corner, after 4 pints and two tequila shots on a Wednesday evening:
"It's disgushting, my boss is now pregnant for the shecond time in three years and gets PAID for being off work and choosing to have a child? I mean we now have to find someone new, train them up and then get my boss to come back in and prolly leave the office at 5pm every day to pick up her kids? Isht's just not profressionul"
When I was 35, I cried hormonally to my boyfriend 4 weeks after my daughter's birth:
"I can't afford to stay off with my baby because I'm a consultant and work for myself. The government doesn't give me any money because in the first year of business I can't afford to pay national insurance. What am I going to do? I can't give her over to anyone else. I just can't. She's a part of me. We have to move. You get rich right now or we're leaving the UK and going to Sweden where they'll pay me for 13 months maternity."
But I didn't leave. Instead, I decided to create a company that actually helped women work at 3 in the morning when they were wide awake from breast feeding and men to work Sunday mornings and instead spend Friday afternoon attending their kids' school play. And I cross my fingers that now it earns enough to provide for my growing family. Because if it works for me, then it works for everyone who wants to join me.
Before it works though, the damn site has to go live and that, of course is the billion dollar question. Lesson today. Web designers, developers, programmers etc will NEVER be individually responsible for coordinating the project...they will throw they're hands up in the air and absolve themselves of any blame. If you can - get them from the same company. The web development company I have used is called Tiger Fish (who knows why...) and would have probably been best off in many senses using them for design as well.
But as my web designer is brilliant (www.3ems.com) and also very good value for money - living in Croatia, I won't be changing any time soon. Has nothing whatsoever that he also happens to be my first boyfriend.