::@:: Reality of Dreams ::@::

I did try and to come up with a better headline but… anyway, this post is mainly to do with my new business, so if you would consider that boring, then don’t read on…

(EDIT: I mention in this that I was going to try and do images for the March 25th Freedom Day, well the first is up in my Project365 folder - LINK. If you do want to use the image for any event relating to Stop The Traffik please email me, or leave a comment, and I’ll send you the full res version)

Well, Illusionary Constructs has been going since November, but it really got its kick start at the beginning of February when my grant came through, which quickly disappeared as I bought Adobe Creative Suite Premium 2.3, software costs SO much… just look at the high end versions of Vista and Office!

Since then my initial contract at Granton’s NEO, the whole reason I decided to give being self-employed a shot, has progressed slowly but surely. The lack of speed have mainly been due to various issues such as waiting for approval, deliveries, companies suddenly deciding they don;t have an item any more etc… oh yeah and me living on the wrong side of teh country. This has made it slightly difficult to get over very frequently (currently over twice a week) as I have to either catch the trains (which to save money means catching one after 9am, its saves around £10) which has multiple downsides, or I have to use the car, but since this is my parents car they need it obviously for work and living so I need to work round them (that being said they have been really understanding and I’ve managed to get the car most times when I really need it). The actual IT suite is progressing, and thankfully I’ve learnt some lessons, for example patching your own Cat6 RJ-45 cables sounds like a good idea, but apart from the money you save, it is a pain.

Apart from that I’ve only had one other job, and that was for Gorgie’s Kid’s weekend (a poster and leaflet themed on “Mind the Gapâ€?). It was a good experience due to having to work to a brief and also having to please a number of people, not just the one. Hopefully the people at Gorgie like it, the clients seemed to. Oh, and I also got to buy my first ever stock photos :).

Of course I realised that I need to advertise the business, so initially I sent an email to the Scottish DC’s, only East Scotland got back to me (not really surprising considering how long I’ve been there), at any rate at prompting from my parents I went ahead anyway and sent out adverts to the DHQ’s and asked if they could be distributed to the corps and centres. I now know that in the East and West they have, as for North? No idea, I see no reason why they wouldn’t but I can’t say for definite. Since then I have had no responses.

I have looked at advertising in the Salvationist (for those outside the Army that’s our national weekly newspaper), but for an advert measuring approximately 10cm by 14cm would cost around £180 per week, which is a bit expensive for me at the moment. I’ve even looked at going to Roots and getting a stall but that is around £350 (for the weekend admittedly) plus travel, accommodation, and also tickets for Roots if I wanted to go… so that is even more expensive. That being said a cheaper option is advertising on screens and with a poster which would work out at around £150 (give or take, as I have to print my own poster, obviously). Gonna have to think about it, probably going to do the latter as its cheaper and I can but hope it results in some business.

Of course, I can only keep going as long as I have business, and figuring out what to charge has been a nightmare. Currently I’m using a flat rate structure, £30 for a poster design (no matter the size), £20 for a photo clean-up (no matter the quality), and a scale for laying out booklets/reports (depending on size). What annoys me is that I can;t, at the moment at least, really do any real printing. I would love to do the printing as well but I would hate to see how much one of the printing machines would cost to even rent.

Being stuck in Barrhead is not helpful, and yet it is. Its not because I feel cut off and isolated (which is not good for my creativity or my fragile little mind) and yet it is helpful because I have no rent, bills etc. eating into what little I have coming in. Which is all well and good but my contract at Granton officially ends in April and my parents move to their retirement home at the beginning of May (they’re still working until August but this means they can settle in), which is small so I can’t move in with them. I knew when I started this there would be problems, so its not really a huge shock.

Anyway, my next step is really to try and get some pre-made poster/on-screen designs done (especially some for Freedom Day on 25th March) and then to create a nice looking web site where I can sell stuff, probably using PayPal initially, even though they take a cut my bro-in-law uses them and he hasn’t had any problems.

In short, job okay but could be better

Oh, and I’m STILL on the look out for a flat over in the East. There is a chance of the Army flat in Dunfermline but it may not be available for a while, and the council in Edinburgh is a slow process. If I did, sorry WHEN I, get a flat either in Edinburgh or even Dunfermline I would be able to get a job to help keep me solvent. As for why not get one here it basically comes down to wanting, and believing I should be, over on the East… that and I could never seem to get a job anywhere

I think that really kinda gets everything up to date on those fronts, and now… to bed! Laters.