Change of name, change of premises, change of everything

We have, like many small companies, been running out of the house for the last couple of years using a wi-fi peer to peer network with a domestic broadband connection.

The growth of our plants business, www.plants4presents.co.uk meant that we had to find some additional space - we actually needed 5000 square feet to store and pack the plants but it turned out that the only way we could achieve this was to take on 105,000 square feet - nearly 2 acres of unused glass house.

So it turns out that we are going through 2 of the common barriers that small companies face at once - moving into proper premises AND putting in a server for the network while hooking up to business broadband. So we ended up moving 2 businesses and ourselves all at the same time. I know I'm not happy unless achieving the impossible but this is ridiculous.

We've had to work quite hard to stabilise the premises - I'll tell you about the gory details another time - but we're currently gearing up for the Christmas Rush - the girls expect to ship 2000 plants in the next 3 weeks - mainly down to Emily's sterling work with the PR.

However it has taken Isobel a lot of work to get the server up and running - she's been writing code since 1981 and managed a large network in our last business so she knows more about what to do than the average small business owner. Nevertheless its been a struggle to get it sorted.

This has interesting links into my own current project "Abandoned Heroes" which deals with how small companies actually use IT and e-business.

I'll cover that in the next post.