My Filofax

Yes, even though I make notebooks, I still use a filofax. Weird, I know. I have an A5 size Domino in brown snake. It's ideal for planning my work week and making lists and notes for the notebook I am working on and ideas for the future.

At the front I have the diary. I create and print my own diary, On the left side is a week to a page with 3 lines making 4 spaces for writing. The right side is my notes side. It has a weekly tasks section, a calls section and a full length To Do list section. The To Do list can be split into various other section if needed. I find that this layout works really well for me and if I do change my mind, I can easily go into the laptop and change the format and print it off.

Next I have the admin section. This is where I make general notes about the business. Lists of craft fairs and what to take to them. Excerpts from meetings with contacts, the whys, wheres and whens (these come in very handy as reminders of discussions) and notes from any courses I've been on. I use my Moleskine cahiers to actually take the notes on. I also keep a timeline of everything I do concerning the business, like notebook specs, when I've submitted tax forms to HMRC, updated my Sage programme with purchases and sales, sent out brochures/ flyers and had contact with clients, etc.

There are small sections next. My Ideas section is just that. Anything that comes to mind, no matter how silly the idea, goes in here. Silly ideas can be adapted to great ideas later on when I'm in a different frame of mind. I also have drawings and photos of things I like that can become an inspiration for a new notebook. I have a section for website and blog. Domain and blog details are kept here, in case I forget. Then the finance section. Since most of the financial info is on my laptop, the notebook just has finance codes, etc. as a backup.

I really have to go through the Filofax again and reorganise it. I feel that I'm not getting the best use out of it. Need some ideas here

Do you have a business Filofax? Tell me about your layout.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

McLean Book Arts Launch

Today is the big day for McLean Book Arts (MBA). Champagne is chilling in the fridge and a dinner reservation has been made. We are going to combine 2 celebrations, the launch and our 13th wedding anniversary (13 is a good number and it will be our best year yet).

Today the website goes live along with the Etsy shop. I'm putting a few notebooks on today and then there will be 2 or 3 notebooks added per week and after that, as I make them. Nettie has kindly offered to display some brochures at H.W. McLean engravers in Paisley (big hugs) and my hairdresser Lia at Moda in Leith has kindly offered to take some of my flyers (also big hugs). Also a big thank you to friends who have offered to take some flyers/brochures and thank you so much for the beautiful flowers sweetie.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

P.S. Big thank you to Nettie & Hamish (MiL/FiL) for the beautiful flowers, very much appreciated. xxx

The Launch

The Launch day is nearly here, the 6th September, but everything is practically ready. The brochures are in the midst of being printed, letters of introduction, postcards, flyers and posters are done. I'll be uploading the new website and new products on my Etsy shop on the day. It is our wedding anniversary the next day, so hubby and I will be having a double celebration that weekend.

Things will change as I get going, but that happens, especially when new ideas are escaping from my sub-conscious every night. It can be annoying when I've forgotten what i dreamt about the night before, but I have a pen and paper by the bed, so I catch a few of them. A lot of the ideas are just not viable, but some of them are and they are going to be incorporated into the mix at some point.
I'm working on a new range of notebooks at the moment, I thought I'd get those going quite quickly as they are a less expensive option. The current range costs from £20 - £50, but the new ones will be from £16.00 to £19.00. They will be the same quality and the same materials, but will just have fewer pages.

In the autumn, I going to be working on a product for toddlers, not saying what it is yet, but you'll be the first to know when it launches. It will be very interesting to see how it evolves. It was an idea that my Mentor came up with after seeing my work for the first time. It will be a lot of fun letting my inner child out for a while.

The blogs posts have been devoid of photos, but that will change on Friday, promise.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Brochures

I've spent the last day and a half working on my brochures. I found some great paper that I've decided to use as the brochure cover. So much nicer than the card I was using. The paper makes the colours more vibrant and I'm delighted with it. The thing is, I've run out of colour ink for my Kodak printer, so I've come to a halt until I get some tomorrow. The paper was advertised as A4 when I bought it, but it is 4mm short on the long side. Doesn't sound like much I know, but when the content pages are exactly A4, it's a bit of a pain. Just as well my new guillotine arrived yesterday. As Ray Winstone would say "It's a monsta". Heavy metal indeed, there isn't a bit of plastic on it. I think I'll be using this for the rest of my bookbinding career, can't see it breaking any time. Anyway, I'm going to have to cut the offending A4 pages to match the not quite A4 ones, easy job, though I shouldn't have to do it.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Nearly ready to go

Well, exciting times, I have a launch date and I'm nearly ready. Got flyers, posters and postcards done, my business cards are great. Tomorrow I have an appointment to see the bank about a business account. The bank appointment is making everything very real, not too scary though, I'm really excited. I have an appointment with my Business Mentor next week to finalise my brochure and go over the details of starting up, then I'm ready to send out the marketing materials. The items on my To Do list are gradually being ticked off.

I had lunch with my friend Adele today and told her all about my plans, I hadn't seen her for a while, so she didn't know about it. We used to work together. She was telling me all about her daughter, who is now two. She sounds like a real cutie. It was lovely to see her.

I've been doing some work this evening and now I've finished my blog.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

P.S. Just bank from the bank, a lovely lady at HSBC has given me a business account.

McLean Book Arts Postcard

Today I completely ruined 2 casebound books I was making, bah. I really should not do things when I'm not well. I'll learn the lesson eventually. Started on another 2, but coptic bound this time, looking good.

I created a postcard to send out with orders. The front is my avatar with the web address below. The back is kind of like my business card with a thank you message on it. The message can be changed to suit the purpose. I've done an example for my Mentor to see next week.

I'm hoping to get this light cube tomorrow so that I can start on my brochure photos.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Edinburgh Free Fringe

Today, DH and i went into town to see some of the Fringe. We went to see some musicians at the Free Fringe at The Tron. I bought a CD by an Aussie musician who lives in Berlin called Geordie Little. He is a brilliant guitarist, who writes his own music and has a great style. You can hear his music if you click on the link above. It's a great venue to hear music, all for a donation at the end of each set.

I've put in an order for a photo light cube from a supplier in Portsmouth. This will help me get the light for my brochure photographs looking more professional and it will let prospective customers see the notebooks a bit better. I should get it mid-week, so I'll get the draft introductory brochure done by the time I'm meeting my Mentor the following week. After the photos are added, I'll just have the descriptions to do. It shouldn't take too long.

Watching The Hobbit on Netflix. I'm sad to say, that we think that the story has been stretched far to thinly to make 3 parts. We will watch them all, if only because it's Tolkien and we loved The Lord of the Rings. I'm writing my blog while watching it, it's ok, but I wouldn't buy it.

Talk soon
Love & Hugs
Angela xxx

P.S. Guess what?  LoveFilm are sending us The Hobbit on DVD. Hahaha

New Cover

I've been quite productive today. Managed to finish one of my secret bindings in A6 called "Queen of Hearts", it took a while, but I got there. Pity I can't describe it or post a photo, that has to wait for the launch. Also been working on " The Tree". Got the cover done, just need to attach it to a book block. I'll probably get that done tomorrow.

The printer is playing up. I can't seem to get the paper I want to use to go through. Total pain, I was trying for ages, even glued the paper to a sheet of printer paper, alas no luck. I wanted to have an idea about the brochure I had, ready for Tuesday. That's when I'm meeting up with my Mentor. I may have to think up something to get around the problem.

The thing I've discovered about working for myself, is that I can work when I want to. I've been working for 4 hours this evening while watching Indiana Jones and sipping wine. It's 21:30 now and I'm thinking about stopping when I've done this blog post. Well, that's it, I'm off.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Tuesday

I've not been awfully well, so I've avoided being creative and stuck with the manual task of sewing book blocks. It's something that a lot of binders hate, but I really like it. I find it to be quite therapeutic and it gives me something to do while watching TV or when I'm feeling restless. They need to be done at some point in the process, so I've now got a stock of them to keep me going. I've found paper that I really like, so I'm going to be doing all my future book blocks with it and I'll also use it for flyers and brochures. It will be good to use for brochures as it will let the person reading it actually see and feel the quality of the paper. I think that I might be starting to feel a wee bit better, because my ideas machine is ticking over again. It's quite hard to switch off, once it gets into gear. It's just a good job I can make notebooks. I love my laptop and I love my smart phone, but sometimes writing down an idea on paper seems to bring it to life a bit more that a gadget would.

I'll be having a meeting with my Mentor in a week's time, really looking forward to it and she's so supportive. I'll get going with a couple of ideas I had earlier and get a couple of draft items a bit more firmed up and printed off to take with me. I thought I'd take her to one of my favourite places in Leith, something different from Costa. I don't like their coffee coolers, but prefer a frappuccino from Starbucks, though their skinny cappuccino is fine. Talking of coffee, the best in Leith has to be from The Shore, it's fantastic.

It's 02:27 in Edinburgh and I should be in Z-land, but I couldn't sleep. I forgot to take my painkillers at the right time. I think I'll head to bed now though, I feel a yawn coming on.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx