We received our planning permission from the council, meaning....
YES, WE CAN ACTUALLY OPEN THE SHOP!
We're a little excited about this, can you tell?
There's so much to report on in addition to that - sadly I seem to have mislaid my camera, so no pics I'm afraid.
1) We designed our flyer and the printed copies arrived today. Today's news means we can actually go and start giving them out to Tourist Information Centres and local holiday camps
2) The shop has come on such a lot since our last post. We really are ready to open now, and it feels like all our hard work has paid off - the place is unrecognisable from how it was when we found it. Hopefully we'll get some pics with K's camera tomorrow!
3) We've had such a lot of interest from people walking past the shop and some really lovely comments. It was so sad having to turn customers away, but we're looking forward to opening the door tomorrow and welcoming people in.
4) Very excitingly, we have the Western Morning News coming next week to do a story. I think the last time I was in the paper it was in the Express and Echo when my mum opened her dance school, funny how things come full circle.
In brief: HOORAY!
Showing posts with label paperwork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paperwork. Show all posts
Friday, 15 April 2011
Sunday, 6 March 2011
The Delivery is Nigh
Hurrah! We finally placed our first big stock order of bisque and equipment, among which is the kiln - very exciting. It took a lot of work, and much weighing-up of the merits of mega-monster T-Rex figurines vs. Princess Cupcake trinket boxes and the like.
As you can see from this picture, yes, colour-coded spreadsheets did get involved.
Once the stock arrives tomorrow, we'll be able to get started painting up samples for the shop - I can't quite describe how much I'm looking forward to this part of the job!
A slightly less enjoyable, but equally important part of the process has been absorbing as much knowledge about running a small business as possible. We've also been getting some great advice from friends and family, and my Devon Libraries card has been working flat out giving me access to some very nerdy business books, whilst K is doing the sensible thing and tracking down a good accountant.
Makes for exciting bus reading though...(well, when compared to my Pass Your Driving Theory Test book anyway.)
Hopefully over the next week we'll have some sample pieces painted up ready to show you. If anyone has any ideas for designs, I'd love to hear them!
As you can see from this picture, yes, colour-coded spreadsheets did get involved.
Once the stock arrives tomorrow, we'll be able to get started painting up samples for the shop - I can't quite describe how much I'm looking forward to this part of the job!
A slightly less enjoyable, but equally important part of the process has been absorbing as much knowledge about running a small business as possible. We've also been getting some great advice from friends and family, and my Devon Libraries card has been working flat out giving me access to some very nerdy business books, whilst K is doing the sensible thing and tracking down a good accountant.
Makes for exciting bus reading though...(well, when compared to my Pass Your Driving Theory Test book anyway.)
Hopefully over the next week we'll have some sample pieces painted up ready to show you. If anyone has any ideas for designs, I'd love to hear them!
Sunday, 27 February 2011
A small hurdle
Things have been fairly quiet on the shop front this weekend. Why? Well, aside from borderline RSI due to excessive flat-pack construction (I just can't help myself), we hit a minor obstacle on our route to opening Seashore Ceramics.
It doesn't bear going into at length, but we discovered we'd have to apply for change of use planning permission on the property we're renting, from standard retail use to 'mixed use'. This meant some very stressful filling-out of some very cryptic forms late one night this week, and a whole day of chasing round different council departments, bits of information and photocopiers for K, so that we could get the application in as soon as humanly possible. By the sounds of it, the whole affair was a bit like that John Cleese film 'Clockwork', but set in the print shops of Newton Abbot.
We're really hoping that our request is going to be approved - in theory it shouldn't be a problem, but they can't guarantee anything, and the wait is up to 8 weeks before we know. Personally, I think they'd be mad to turn it down - a fun, creative, tourist-friendly business is surely just what the area needs, rather than just having a temporary 'fell off the back of a lorry' shop fill the space, or worse, leaving it empty - but then, I'm going to be biased, aren't I!
So, we'd been hoping to open for Mother's Day (first weekend in April), and still plan to if permission comes through earlier. If it takes the full 8 weeks, but as long as we actually get permission, we should still be able to open in time for the Easter holidays. And in the meantime, having taken our metaphorical feet of the gas slightly has given us time to do more work on getting our website and stock ordering set up.
I think things are going to be just fine, it's just a matter of trying to ignore the slight cloud of uncertainty which hangs over us for the near future!
It doesn't bear going into at length, but we discovered we'd have to apply for change of use planning permission on the property we're renting, from standard retail use to 'mixed use'. This meant some very stressful filling-out of some very cryptic forms late one night this week, and a whole day of chasing round different council departments, bits of information and photocopiers for K, so that we could get the application in as soon as humanly possible. By the sounds of it, the whole affair was a bit like that John Cleese film 'Clockwork', but set in the print shops of Newton Abbot.
We're really hoping that our request is going to be approved - in theory it shouldn't be a problem, but they can't guarantee anything, and the wait is up to 8 weeks before we know. Personally, I think they'd be mad to turn it down - a fun, creative, tourist-friendly business is surely just what the area needs, rather than just having a temporary 'fell off the back of a lorry' shop fill the space, or worse, leaving it empty - but then, I'm going to be biased, aren't I!
So, we'd been hoping to open for Mother's Day (first weekend in April), and still plan to if permission comes through earlier. If it takes the full 8 weeks, but as long as we actually get permission, we should still be able to open in time for the Easter holidays. And in the meantime, having taken our metaphorical feet of the gas slightly has given us time to do more work on getting our website and stock ordering set up.
I think things are going to be just fine, it's just a matter of trying to ignore the slight cloud of uncertainty which hangs over us for the near future!
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