Contemporary Doors

We have been working hard on designing a new range of contemporary doors. We are going to be more mainstream with them with a dash of Italian styling in there too. We hope to have these ready for launching at the start of May. Keep looking!

International Business

At the end of August we treated ourselves and the children to a 2 week holiday in Ibiza. It was absolute bliss - great weather, great company, and a great time all round. For the first week we forced ourselves to not even mention the business, and to relax, which we did. We relaxed so much that we couldn't be bothered to even think about home in the second week and had to be dragged onto the plane to come back.

We've been back about 2 weeks and it seems like forever ago, why is that with holidays?! You spend a load of money on it and lots of time looking forward to it, just for it to dwindle into the back of your memory for a rainy wistful day once it's over?

So now we're back with a vengeance. This is the year when all other things can wait, and it's Funky Wood's year. I've been to UKTI this morning to investigate exporting to Dubai, Qatar, and Saudia Arabia. I'm looking at all high growth economies, including Brazil and India. I'm looking for places where they have a lot of money to spend on construction. I'm probably going to join the passport to export programme next year so that means the next few months are all about doing as much research as I possibly can, so that I can get maximum use out of the programme.

I'm going to Italy in a couple of weeks to speak to someone about a really exciting new product which we're going to be launching. I'll let you know more really soon.

Eddie's working on prototypes for new doors and a new skirting board profile.

We're also taking on an apprentice! Shaun Woodhead will be joining the Funky Wood team over the next couple of weeks. Shaun has a really great attitude, a willingness to learn, and I'm sure he is going to be a great success as Funky Wood grows.

That's all for the moment but things are moving really quite fast these days, I could really use one of those 2 week holidays in Ibiza.....

Buy Modern, contemporary doors. , Door frames, Skirting Boards, http://www.funkywood.co.uk/

That first step in enterprise

Yesterday I took my 3 year old daughter to Raby Castle for a family fun day. We'd just got there when she wanted to go to the swings, not the family fun day! I managed to persuade her to do the crafty activities and then we walked down to the adventure playground. There was a little activity course where she had to walk along planks and chains which she loved. She got to the chains where you have to hold onto the top chain and walk along the bottom, she was nervous. She asked for my help, I was there (obviously!) with support, holding her waist, she was still nervous. It was such a huge feat for her and she thought she'd never be able to make it to the other side, but she really really wanted to get to the other side. So I said, 'just take one step' she did. Then another step, then another step, until she'd finally got to the other end and she looked back at how far she'd come. It really inspired me. This was such a huge thing for her to do and she just broke it down into small chunks and built the chunks until she'd achieved her goal and achieved something amazing. That gave her the confidence to do the next chain on her own.

It was such an inspiration for me, and I wanted to share the story to anyone who thinks they can't do things. I'm a true believer that you can do anything you want in life - absolutely anything - so long as you really really want it. Eddie's always dreamed about going to space, he can do it. If he goes to college for 10 years then he'll be a qualified astronaut. 10 years seems like a lot but if he so desperately wants to do it then he will.

It helps if you have the support from people who know and love you, but it's not essential. You can get help from a whole load of people - me included. It helps that I'm a positive thinker and I see opportunities in everything, but I've only just got my confidence back these past few months, a year ago I would never have dared to put one step on those chains, but then I dared to take one step. That's all it took, just one step. Then I took another step and now I'm onto the next chain. I once wrote a poem which you might like (it's a bit mad LOL).

It only takes guts to grab it by the horns
It doesn't cost a dime
Life's about living, or so they say
So do it today or DIE

Told you it was a bit mad!

Have a good week, Helen
www.funkywood.co.uk - Buy modern doors, skirting boards, architrave, door frames, UK

Funky Wood Unique Interior Doors and Contemporary Skirting Boards

As it says in the title, I've been eating, sleeping, and dreaming of key words, titles, headings, HI tags, a href's... I could go on! For the past month I've been upgrading our new Funky Wood website, please view it here: http://www.funkywood.co.uk/. I'm quite proud of my HTML and design skills, I never knew I had them! It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it. If anyone's ever done web design before then you'll understand the immense torture you go through and then the fantastic pleasure when it all works!

I'm thinking about setting up a website design & SEO business as a side-line to Funky Wood. If anyon'e interested please contact me. Might call it Funky Projects. I'm going to launch a strategy and marketing business under the same name. It just seems a shame not to share my experiences and skills with the rest of the business population. It's another website to do though, so I need a couple of weeks rest, although at least this one won't be 45 pages!

Eddie's been driving me mad with backlink strategies. It's not that I disagree, it's just that he's obsessed! It's when we get into bed on a night and he says those immortal words... "I've found a fantastic website, you know what it says..." What with the HTML and his backlinks, I'm slowly going crazy(or crazi-er?).

I'm meeting up with a couple of sales agents this week to move on with our national sales campaign, it will be really nice to talk to a person rather than a computer. I also have to let previous customers and contacts know about our new, funky wood, website! So, until next week.contemporary doors.

An update in the life of Funky Wood

I haven't had time to sit down lately, well actually I haven't had time to stand up! - been glued to my desk from morning till night, it's like slave labour only I'm my own slave driver. I've been researching other business ideas - don't tell Eddie! I just get bored after a while and Funky Wood is fantastic and all that, but you know there's so many opportunities out there.

Anyway, I haven't left Funky Wood or anything like that and in fact I've set ourselves some more goals. That will hopefully keep my interest going - at least until I can find someone to sneak into my shoes.

I've been working on stuff like accounts - man alive, how dull is that? What a painful experience! Hopefully I'll be able to get someone to take over the book-keeping soon so it can leave me alone. You'd think with my investment experience that I'd enjoy figures and I do, just that was painful. Anyway, I'm now onto our website, which I WILL get finished by Sunday night. After that it's plain sailing all the way. I'm even thinking of taking a week off at the end of July before we kick off our national sales campaign.

We got through to the regional finals of The Pitch 2010 at Edinburgh last week and were beaten by someone promoting swimwear for poorly people. She is doing a fantastic job and I hope she wins overall, she's such a lovely lady at Glitter Beach.

Eddie's working on some new fab designs, so he's happy in the workshop, doing designs and customer orders. Everything's ticking along nicely at the moment. Long may it last and please can we have some better weather???!

Back to reality

It's back to reality now, Charlotte won fair and square and after speaking with her before the results, I can't think of a better person I'd rather lose to. Many congratulations Charlotte! I'm looking forward to that celebratory drink.. With a £5,000 prize we could go wild - just put it down to marketing expenses...

I've been doing the usual marketing activities this week and got a couple of orders from people YAY! So it's clear that this activity does pay off. We are also recruiting sales people throughout the UK. It would be good to get someone in the North East as well, to take over what I'm doing, so that I can concentrate on managing it all. If you know anyone who might be interested in a sales role with Funky Wood please ask them to email: enquiries@funkywood.co.uk and I'll send more details to them - even part time would be good.

On a personal note my little girl had her first week at nursery. My heart felt completely ripped out when she was crying that she didn't want to go and leave me. Then again a few days later when she was skipping up the school path saying, 'Bye bye mummy!' We hadn't even GOT to the school door! Kids are so fickle!

I met up with the North East Chamber of Commerce and signed up to their networking events, so hopefully I'll be able to meet new contacts and generate more business through that. There's also a couple of property networking groups - 365 Property Developers for one.

Thank you to everyone who voted for us in the competition. It was the most fantastic ride, really enjoyed it and the people at ifwecanyoucan are brilliant. Thank you for the opportunity. (Sounding like The Apprentices now when they get fired :-) )

Doorframe Specifications

The results are in and being counted, tense moments...! Thanks again to everyone who voted for us. I had a lovely chat with Charlotte from Harvey & Hugo on the telephone last week and she's such a nice girl. Hopefully we will stay in touch and be able to bounce ideas off each other.

I've been to see some architects who really liked our products but they were a little concerned about the fire-rating on the doorframes. Being a non-joiner, I didn't have a clue so said I would look into it and get back to them. As soon as I got back Eddie said that they weren't fire-rated as they are but we could make them fire-rated by adding intermittent strips. A whole new world opened up to me and I found out about fires, fire-ratings, fire controls, - are you still awake? :-)Eddie already made the wood thick enough to withstand a fire for 30 or 60 minutes, so all we have to do is insert an intermittent strip if needed, so it's no problem. I have to communicate this to the architects, interior designers, and property developers that I've already contacted. It's a great way of contacting them again and getting our name in front of them. Maybe they will think of using Funky Wood in their next project - let's hope so!

We've had some fantastic feedback from our previous customers. They have loved the product and loved the service. So we're obviously doing something right! Rule no. 1 the customer is always right. Rule no 2 in any event that the customer is wrong it's because of something we've done. The only time this doesn't apply is when you get the odd person about to make a large order, BUT they won't give you a landline, their address, and their full name.... Then they want to pay you by credit card and get it delivered to a different address than on the card.... What happens is the person who's credit card they are using refuses the transaction about a month after processing it, you get debited on your business bank account, and the thief walks away with your goods. In the event that this ever happens then I think the following process is best:

1. take their credit card details and the address they want it delivered to
2. phone the bank and tell them that you have details of a stolen card and that the person should be contacted to cancel this (and any other) card.
3. phone the police and tell them you will be making a delivery to a thief and this is the perfect chance to catch them red handed.
4. get one of your babies extremely bad nappies and post it to the address they gave you. With the police waiting to nab them, I believe a good job is done and maybe they'll learn. :-)

PS - if you want an extremely bad nappy to send to someone like this then let me know. (Can see a new business idea sprouting here.... 'www.badnappiesforbadpeople.com' :-) )

Of course the best way is to ask to speak to them in person via the landline and only deliver to the cardholders address. Having it happen to us once we have controls in place now to make sure the person paying is legitimate. You live and learn and I wish we'd never had to learn the hard way, but there you go.

Good luck to everyone with the competition. I'm not very confident, Harvey & Hugo is a brilliant company and Charlotte is such a professional, friendly person. I'm sure she will do really well with her business and her future.

Thank You

The competition results are getting closer and I want to thank everyone who has voted for us. We won't forget you! That is, if they ever tell us who you are, if they won't just tell us yourself so we can personally thank you. We won't bombard you with SPAM, we think SPAM stands for Stealing People's Ard-earned Money, so we hate the stuff! Having said that, if you are interested in our products then let us know, we can come and see you, show you samples, send samples through the post, come and see your property with a range of products and give you our advice, or even draw up some designs for your doors, which will be unique to you. Phew that was a long sentence!

We are often asked where we make all of this contemporary wood, so I thought I would share it with you. Our HQ are an office in our garage, which Eddie converted into a room. We make everything at my dad's place. He has a few acres and barns, so he very kindly lets us use one of the barns as our workshop. We hope that with more orders we will be able to get some official premises, with a shopfront, and offices.

This week we are continuing with our brand awareness, marketing strategy, and product development.

Please keep the votes coming in, we need your vote! Vote Funky Wood! Ppppllllleeeasssseee!!!

Chunky Funky Wood

We have been experimenting with the square edged skirting board, and Eddie produced some thick skirting, thicker than the norm. It's 25 mm thick instead of the standard 20mm. He brought it home, we waxed it, and it looks amazing!!!! So we took a photo on our phone, with me holding it against a white door, balancing it on books to get the height, trying to get my hand out of the way and its no surprise therefore that the photo was rubbish. But we tried. Will get some better photos and launch them on our website. I think it will be a real seller as it's contemporary, chunky and funky, and looks absolutely beautiful.

I have also been resourcing door handles. Watch this space for some funky products to compliment your doors. Again, I think this will be a real seller and will appeal to people who want to add a contemporary feel to their home without replacing doors and skirting etc.

London & Butlins!

Well, I walked around Chelsea for around 4 hours. Completely crippled myself, despite wearing good shoes, but I managed to speak to around 8 interior designers who were very responsive to our products. Two of them wanted quotes and samples for projects they were working on, and it was well worth the mission.

Two days later we went to Butlins on 'holiday' - ie a 7 day work out running around after our 2 and 3 year olds. So now we're back we need a proper holiday, where you do absolutely nothing but rest - like that's going to happen!

While we were on holiday we had some great ideas for our business. Firstly, we want to offer square edge skirting board which is hugely contemporary and looks really smart. We also want to offer contemporary ironmongery (handles and hinges to the non-joiner like me). We think our website needs sprucing up but that costs money we don't have. We also set ourselves some targets for the year ahead. All of this while watching Billy Bears Magic Show AGAIN :-)

Canvassing!

Am feeling like an MP, short of knocking on people's doors I'm not sure what more we can do. Just got to hope we have enough friends to vote for us and that readers of the Northern Echo will like us and up the votes.

Am off to London tomorrow to visit some interior designers and top end furniture shops in Chelsea, with our products. So fingers crossed they like what they see and make orders.

Next week we're going to Butlins with the kids so that will be nice - just hope the weather gets better! When I come back it's a case of contacting as many people as possible to sell our stuff, if anyone knows anyone and can refer them to us then that would be a great start! You can contact us at enquiries@funkywood.co.uk or telephone 01325 313031.

Firstly, we are absolutely THRILLED to be a finalist on the ifwecanyoucan challenge!!!!!

The judges on the panel were so supportive of our idea and gave us some brilliant advice for the future. Our products are unique, funky, designer, eye-catching, and we have a sound back office system to deal with customer enquiries.

About me? I have a love for people from all walks of life. I grew up walking the streets with my friends (much to my parents distaste) and loved socialising. Once I left school and went to university, I moved to London where I was loved for being the 'geordie' although from South Durham I hardly had a geordie accent as we all know it. I got a bit fed up of London - it was the tube commute that killed it - so came home. Managed to spend a few months abroad teaching english and getting to know some really cool people. I met my husband in Manchester and moved there for a while, ended up running my own office, and marrying Eddie! Our two children followed shortly afterwards and we moved back home to my beloved North East.

Eddie is the one who had the idea. I was too busy changing nappies, making milk, and running on 3 hours of broken sleep a night (if you've got kids you'll understand walking through the town pushing your pushchair with your eyes closed, because you just can't keep them open any longer). Eddie produced these amazing designs and Funky Wood was born.

A few months later we are finalists in the ifwecanyoucan challenge, we're flying by the seat of our pants and we are LOVING IT.

Please please please please please please VOTE FOR US!!!! We NEED YOUR vote! We need your vote more than the tories/labour/lib dems ever needed your vote! Please pick us! We probably won't be able to change the government but we CAN grow the North East manufacturing industry, give people jobs, and help make our region shine. Please VOTE FOR FUNKY WOOD!! (yes, I am begging, I have no shame :-) )

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog - more posts soon!