The past year has been tough for everyone on the planet and as such I have tried to be quiet, considered and have compassion for the world's suffering. The trouble with putting yourself last is that everyone else walks off with the handouts and that's pretty much how I feel my last year has gone.
As a micro-enterprise and a very small Ltd business, I have received no financial (COVID19) support from the UK government, not a single penny, I guess it's my own fault for listening to my accountant 15 years ago when I set up my own company to set it up as a limited, VAT registered one. There was no mention of a turnover threshold or anything like that at the time. I assure you, never during all my years of trading have I even got close to any kind of made-up threshold, which was suggested by accountants, eg. £50k profit before setting up a Ltd company. Unfortunately I have never made that kind of a profit in all my years of trading.
Also in the past year I have assisted my Japanese Taiko drumming teacher to keep his business alive by moving all his classes online. This was definitely not easy, not only did I have to spend many hours training him, which is ongoing, I've also had to train a lot of the students on how to use applications like Zoom. Unfortunately he was only able to share a small amount of the proceeds from charging for classes and of course he wanted to keep the fees low too because of COVID. It meant I earned the actual equivalent of £2.32 per hour for the hours I worked. I probably spent far more hours then I have calculated, but it has meant a lot of very keen Taiko drumming students have been able to practice Taiko from home throughout the whole pandemic. Don't get me wrong it has been a pleasure to serve the UK Taiko community in this way, but my support in kind doesn't pay the bills. Of course whilst I was spending time doing this, I wasn't able to spend time on my own business, which by now was receiving zero enquiries. I know the pandemic has a lot to do with that too.
Some would say I don't run a business, I have a hobby and they might well be true in that statement. I have thought about closing it down many times, in fact I have thought about it many times during every single year for the past 15 years of trading.
Maybe I will one day?
But for now, I'm hanging on, hanging on to the idea that I can create something that people are willing to pay money for and as such I am training myself to up my game. There are 2 projects that I am really keen to get off the ground.
Learn how to create 2D animation videos using Toon Boom - it may cost me some money to purchase software and courses to learn how to do it.
Augmented Reality. I'd like to learn how to create a AR web application for a specific business use I have in mind.
On top of all this I have a podcast, titled 'Share Your Story' , do check it out, I interview small business owners like myself to share their journey into business, I do capture some awesome stories. I don't have ads running on the podcast, it's definitely not big enough for that and even if it was I suspect I wouldn't run ads anyway. I love doing these interviews but it takes up a lot of time, unpaid time of course. I am determined for now to continue with it and will ask guests if they'd buy me a coffee in return.
Thank you so much if you have managed to donate a coffee, I appreciate you. Keep in touch and keep checking back as I will add further free stuff to my donate page on my website for you to enjoy.
You can also create your own page and if you use my referral link, when you receive your first coffee, I get one on the house too, buymeacoffee.com/?via=stayingaliveuk
Stay safe, stay well, stay happy!
Michael
Chief Storyteller - Staying Alive UK
buymeacoffee.com/stayingaliveuk
