Things I am learning about business

One when somebody says they are going to order something from you, they may not be.

please don’t get me wrong, I have had many of you contact me and say you were going to order things. Then sometime later I do receive an order. Equally I’ve had many random people that I have never heard of again contact me, say they are going to order things and then nothing happens.

Two most people are fabulous, then there are the other less fabulous souls wondering the inter-webs.

truly I have been amazed at how polite and friendly most people have been. This perhaps sounds a bit terrible. However one does hear so much about online trouble, so I was not sure what reception my business would have. as I say I am impressed with the politeness of the majority of people. There has been the odd random incident involving sometimes swearie people, however none of these individuals have ever ordered from me and I do not wish to glorify this sort of thing by going into any details.

Three if you are contactable, this does not mean you will be contacted.

in the very early days of my business I littered Facebook with posts telling people they could contact me. I say the very early days, as Orkney Parrots is still in the early days. okay this one is a bit tongue in cheek as there have been some people who have contacted me. It’s hard to gauge how many have contacted me from reading multiple posts telling them to do so 10 times in a row. At risk of sounding like a broken record, I am contactable. I do have a preference for people using the contact form on this website, as my screen reader appears to work much better with emails and I get (I think) much more reliable notification sounds letting me know somebody wants to get in touch.

Four if there is a long gap between orders, this does not mean that you will never receive one again.

you did just read that right. i’m not quite sure how to elaborate on this one, but if you would allow me a moments license to be possibly cheeky, please do not assume that other people are ordering. Every order is important to me. I am not sure if I have just (metaphorically) shot myself in the foot with this point or not.
Five I am now hoping I haven’t killed any future business with point number four.
okay point number five was actually meant to be what point number six is going to be.
Six when people ask me how Orkney parrots started, I am beginning to think they want me to elaborate a lot.
as you will know from reading the our story page my family have been interested in drying allsorts of food for a long time. in fact Orkney parrots is an idea that I have carried for a long time. I am beginning to realise though that I think people may want a bit more detail.
so if I have not scared you away with point number four, please look out for my next blog post which will be dedicated to a more detailed description of how Orkney parrots started.
Seven The next link takes you to my previous blog post.
Okay that’s one was not meant to be on the list either. It isn’t something that I have necessarily learned since starting a business. But then again perhaps it is. is it just me, I would label that link previous as it is taking you to the previous chronological post.
Eight I really need to re-introduce Miss Miss and then move on.
if you scroll way back through Orkney parrots Instagram and Facebook you will find examples of Point Number three as well as pictures of Miss Miss. I am worried about sharing too many pictures of Miss Miss online as I do not want to spoil point number two. You see Miss Miss has had a plucking problem. as I have said on the posts about her, this was caused by a traumatic event that happened before she was in my care. I would like to say that you have all been fantastic. Everybody left lovely comments for us. However before Orkney parrots, I shared some pictures of her in some other places online and people were less than Understanding.

Nine I can balance multiple spinning plates.

No, this is a figure of speech. I don’t know if I would know how to get a plate spinning. Okay this is getting off track. What I am really referring to is that I feel I am getting to grips with handling something much more technical like this website. As well as social media. perhaps point number nine should have read, must be able to balance spinning plates while running a business or delegate really well.

Ten I have to figure out how to finish off blog posts better.

have you noticed on my previous posts that I just sort of stop writing. I’m now thinking that this is not very elegant. I must figure out how to finish them better in future. Fortunately this list lends itself to wrapping up nicely at the end. I am never quite sure how to finish them normally as it tells you at the beginning it is written by me. but I do really hope you have enjoyed reading this and I cannot wait to hear what you think of it.