Anyone going self employed is off their head
This isn't going to be a well illustrated blog entry, because what I'm chatting about came long, long before this blog, this website, and long, long, long before my current phone or laptop!
I'm casting my mind back Autumn 2014. Come with me, if you will.
Well. October. Is October Autumn? It's certainly Autumnal.
On 1st October 2014, No Books Were Harmed was registered as a business.
For a couple of months previous, I'd been spending every spare minute folding books. I'd amassed quite a few! I was sharing their photos on my personal Facebook page, constantly amazed at the things I was creating!
At this point, I was working in my regular full time job, 6 days a week, 20 miles from home, in the family business, PEARL'S (Pet Care) (the Facebook page looks a little neglected - possibly because their social media person bailed in 2015 *halo*). Around this point, a pal had taken over a local sandwich shop, and despite 'under new management' across the window, very few people seemed to be noticing. She asked if she could borrow a couple of my folded books, to try and draw attention to the window. Of course she could! So I popped in a few - can't remember what all they were, but I know one of them was my take on the Rolling Stones logo. Over the next couple of weeks, people kept asking to buy my pretties, and Andrea would tell them they weren't for sale - and they'd duly trot down to my work, and ask me the same haha I kept saying no. I wasn't self employed, and I was barely scraping minimum wage (hence working 50 hours a week on top of a commute). As the daughter of a self employed mother, I know exactly how tough it is to make a living being self employed, and I'd never be that stupid*. I'm also far too 'straight' in that there's no way I'd risk putting money in my back pocket - but this fascinating hobby couldn't possibly be worth the hassle of declaring to the tax man, so I steadfastly refused to sell. Simples.
A couple of weeks went by, when I was having a very rare Saturday off, and I think I saw a missed call from Andrea. Or maybe it was a message. Honestly can't remember. But. She was telling me that Hollywood actress,Tilda Swinton (who happens to live about 20 minutes away from where I used to work), had been in, and wanted to buy the Rolling Stones logo!
How amazing is that?!
But I refused.
There were a few issues.
I wasn't a business.
Those books we made purely for me.
The Rolling Stones logo is a trademarked design.
And what if she was gonna give it to Mick as a pressie and I ended up in all kinds of shit?!
So I never did sell Tilda, or anyone else, that book.
But I did phone the tax man and ask what the script was about becoming self employed whilst in full time employment. And the following week, NoBooksWereHarmed.co.uk came in to being...
* turns out I am that stupid, and it's the best, stupid thing I've ever done in my life
I'm casting my mind back Autumn 2014. Come with me, if you will.
Well. October. Is October Autumn? It's certainly Autumnal.
On 1st October 2014, No Books Were Harmed was registered as a business.
For a couple of months previous, I'd been spending every spare minute folding books. I'd amassed quite a few! I was sharing their photos on my personal Facebook page, constantly amazed at the things I was creating!
At this point, I was working in my regular full time job, 6 days a week, 20 miles from home, in the family business, PEARL'S (Pet Care) (the Facebook page looks a little neglected - possibly because their social media person bailed in 2015 *halo*). Around this point, a pal had taken over a local sandwich shop, and despite 'under new management' across the window, very few people seemed to be noticing. She asked if she could borrow a couple of my folded books, to try and draw attention to the window. Of course she could! So I popped in a few - can't remember what all they were, but I know one of them was my take on the Rolling Stones logo. Over the next couple of weeks, people kept asking to buy my pretties, and Andrea would tell them they weren't for sale - and they'd duly trot down to my work, and ask me the same haha I kept saying no. I wasn't self employed, and I was barely scraping minimum wage (hence working 50 hours a week on top of a commute). As the daughter of a self employed mother, I know exactly how tough it is to make a living being self employed, and I'd never be that stupid*. I'm also far too 'straight' in that there's no way I'd risk putting money in my back pocket - but this fascinating hobby couldn't possibly be worth the hassle of declaring to the tax man, so I steadfastly refused to sell. Simples.
A couple of weeks went by, when I was having a very rare Saturday off, and I think I saw a missed call from Andrea. Or maybe it was a message. Honestly can't remember. But. She was telling me that Hollywood actress,Tilda Swinton (who happens to live about 20 minutes away from where I used to work), had been in, and wanted to buy the Rolling Stones logo!
How amazing is that?!
But I refused.
There were a few issues.
I wasn't a business.
Those books we made purely for me.
The Rolling Stones logo is a trademarked design.
And what if she was gonna give it to Mick as a pressie and I ended up in all kinds of shit?!
So I never did sell Tilda, or anyone else, that book.
But I did phone the tax man and ask what the script was about becoming self employed whilst in full time employment. And the following week, NoBooksWereHarmed.co.uk came in to being...
* turns out I am that stupid, and it's the best, stupid thing I've ever done in my life
Oh wow! Was that really where we first met? Amazing!
Well done Jo. So glad to have met you on that medieval day in Cooper Park. What an inspiration you are (I’ll stop before the tears begin).