Week by Week in Diary

Today I started reading a book I'd bought ages ago called "Start Your Business Week by Week." It goes through a list of things you should be doing each week in the run up to going live. It has 26 weeks in the book, but I only have 20 weeks before I plan to start so I should have started the book six weeks ago! I'm hoping some of the chapters won't be relevant to me as I won't have employees, I don't need any stock as I'm not selling products, I won't need premises as I'll be working from home and I don't need to raise any cash as I've already saved up for that.

So week one lists the following:

• Set up your work area

I'm going to use our spare room for my office. At the moment it's just got a sofabed and all the furniture that doesn't fit anywhere else. There isn't really enough room for a desk but I'm just going to be using a laptop so won't need a full size desk, I can sit on the sofa. I will need somewhere to put a printer, though, so I'll have to sort out a surface for that.

• Purchase the stationery you will need to get started.

Stationery! Who doesn't love stationery? It does actually say in the book to be careful and not to get too excited as it can become an addiction, haha! Well I'm going right now to start an Amazon wish list named "Stationery." Wooooo.

• Sort out access to a computer.

I already have a laptop, but it's five years old and on its way out so I'd already decided to buy a new one. I have £50 in Amazon vouchers at the moment from doing surveys, but I'm close to my next payout on a few of the survey sites so I think I'll wait until I have at least £100 and then go shopping. I also need to buy a printer.

• Identify your local business support service.

The book suggests Business Link. Looking online, this has been replaced by a section of the gov.uk website and I've already read that to death, so I think I can tick this item off as complete already!

Right! rubs hands together Let's get this party started.