Like you I’ve worked and paid taxes all my life, and like you I’m disappointed in the results. Being middle aged I was brought up in semi socialist Britain believing that the government would take care of all out needs. All we had to do was work and pay taxes. I was brought up to believe that loyalty was a good thing so I worked for the same company for years.

Then the ground changed. Loyalty was no longer valued. It now means nothing as a new breed of managers churned out from the business universities have come on the scene preaching a new doctrine of you do what you are told. Lean (or is that mean) manufacturing, more work for less pay. the government now tells us to save for our pension. yeah right, how does someone on the minimum wage save for a pension? And by the way I thought we already were saving for our pensions, isn’t that what national insurance is for?

So I decided it was time to take action. I had to reprogramme myself from all the belief systems I had instilled in me when I was growing up about trusting the government, trusting the banks etc. I decided I would invest in myself and build my own pension fund up. The question was how? It can’t be done by working for someone else and saving a little every week, yes you can build a fund up that way but it won’t amount to much and by the time the government has fleeced you for taxes there’s not much left to save.

Most people’s jobs just cover their living expenses, especially as wages have been driven down by mass immigration over recent years. I concluded the only way you can have a chance of building a fund is to start your own business. So after much thought I started my own business ArtsCraftsAndHobbies.
The objective of the business is to build up a pension fund for my retirement if and when i decide to retire. i do not want to be dependant on the government.

I am still in full time employment so I run my business alongside my full time job. An online business is perfect for this.

My goals are pretty simple. The first year I wanted to launch the business and begin trading. I wanted the business to be self-financing once I had invested the initial start-up money. all the profits would be reinvested into more stock building up my stock items to give customers more choice.
I’m glad to say that I am accomplishing these goals. The business is growing fast and I am building a good solid customer base with strong monthly sales.

it is i have to say a lot of work. Though very enjoyable. I have learned a lot over the last ten months about business and I have a lot to learn but I’m looking forward to it. I have lots of challenges ahead to reach my target turnover. I need to promote my website more, I will be posting about the plans I have for this over the coming weeks, I need to employ some direct marketing techniques. I need to get a small catalogue designed and printed. Lots of challenges in the coming months but I’m looking forward to them all.

at the moment things are looking good, my business is growing every month and there’s lots of potential for huge growth rates which i intend to exploit. November has been a busy month with sales coming in thick and fast testing the systems I have in place to deal with them. there’s no doubt that i need to find a better software system for dealing with sales to handle the next stages of business growth but it’s just another challenge I’m looking forward to dealing with. Anyway on with the adventure. Until next time.