Fishing News Review the Riviera Fishing System (www.gurdy-fish-stripper.com)

Really excited! Fishing News reviewed my Dad's piece of kit on 1 August 2008. The gentleman who wrote the article (Phil Lockley) tried out the equipment on his fishing boat with Clive Baker (a Torbay based fisherman) who instigated the development of the product. He positively raved about the system. I believe that it reduces the yield of fish loss from 30% to about 5%. This has a vast improvement on productivity of an inshore fishing boat. What with the cost of fuel, and time taken into account, the Riviera Fishing System pays for itself. I have watched the Riviera Fishing System in operation too.

We were pottering around the bay off Babbacombe, Torquay and we came across two fishing boats. One fisherman was using the handlining technique, basically letting the line out by hand and then pulling it back in (which I think is called 'jigging'), it looked like flipping hard work (hats off to him). The other fishing boat belonged to Clive and he was on his boat using the prototype Fishing System - the difference was remarkable. Clive stood by the Gurdy wheel turning the handle forward and backward (letting the line out and then winding it back in). Instead of the fish having to be pulled off the line by hand they were pulled off by the Fish Stripper. So not only did he not have to stop to remove the fish from the line his yield was also greatly improved. So less time at sea, better catch and a sustainable fishing method, no wonder he is so happy with it!

See the article at www.gurdy-fish-stripper.com

Upgrade to Serif Webplus x2

I have was having a few problems getting my websites to look how I wanted. For example I wanted thumbnail pictures to enlarge at mouseover. Serif Webplus 10 does not have this as a built in feature - however it is possible to do, I believe, with a bit of HTML skill. My HTML is a little limited and I never really got around to having a go at it as I didn't have to time to sit down and work it out.

I had a phone call from Serif who offering me an upgrade. At £40 for the upgraded software, a piece freebie software, P&P and a years internet hosting - how could I say no? On top of that the Webplus x 2 makes it very easy to make thumbnails larger on mouseover, as well as other nifty extras, - what more could you want?!

"WebPlus X2 from Serif – offering stylish, modern, and fully-functional website design with no need to learn any HTML!"

Another New Business Venture website - www.gurdy-fish-stripper.com

There is danger that this website writing may become a new career! I have since designed a website fo my Dad's new invention.

He has designed a new fish stripper, gurdy wheel and outrigger system for commercial fishermen. If it is a really good piece of kit and the local fishermen are raving about it already. His website http://www.gurdy-fish-stripper.com/ (or co.uk) is starting to come together. I have learnt some now techniques with the software - mostly gleaned from the helpful people on the Serif forums. These I have in turn used on my website too. As time goes by I think both will become a little more sophisticated.

He also chose to buy his domain name and host package from 123-Reg, however he decided not to buy a bespoke email address.

I read somewhere that you should always buy a .com instead of .co.uk or equivalent (or both) even though it is a bit more expensive. For my Dad's product I think that this is appropriate as he is likely to be selling abroad, however my company is local so http://www.rivierameat.co.uk/ seemed the better option for the time being

New Business Venture Website - www.rivierameat.com.uk

Our next step for our new business venture - The Riviera Meat Company Ltd - was to get a website. Neither my husband nor I have any real website experience but because we had a minimal budget we decided to create it ourselves. I purchased some Serif website software for £10 from PC World. You have to ring up Serif to register the product. When I rang I was offered an upgrade for £30 so I took it - so I now have Serif Webplus 10. I am really pleased with it. It is really easy to use - a bit like MS Publisher. If you want text you draw a text box and put text in it. If you want an image you use an image frame. Not programming required (unless you want more fancy stuff)! The hardest part of it all was deciding how our logo was going to look!

After that was created we looked around for a domain name and host. In order to keep it all in one place we opted for 123-Reg. It was really easy to sortout as you go through the signing up process step-by-step.

What domain names do you want? (www.rivierameat.co.uk - does what it says on the tin!)
Do you want a bespoke email address - what do you want it to be? (sales@rivierameat.co.uk)
Which host package do you want? (basic will do - but can upgrade later)

Enter payment details and go....

When it was activated we used the Serif software to upload the website to the net - easy peasy - even a beginner can do it.

Registering the company - The Riviera Meat Company Ltd.

We tried to choose a name which said what it did on the tin - The Riviera Meat Company - a meat company based in the English Riviera. We checked to see whether there were any other limited companies called something similar and there wasn't so we decided to register it. I have since been asked why we decided to become limited. Basically it was on the advice of an accountant and because we felt that customers would be more comfortable dealing with a limited company. http://www.bizhelp24.com/business-start-up/sole-trader-or-limited-company--2.html describes in more detail what I am trying to explain.

Any-way we made the decision to become limited and so we had to find out how to do about it. We used a company called Quick Formations Ltd (http://www.quickformations.com/) which was a really quick and easy process. It only cost us about £50 and we were ready to rock 'n roll!

The only mistake we made was with the Director's address and setting up the bank account (which I will discuss later). As we didn't know where we would be living when we moved to Devon we used my parent's address. Unfortunately we would then be unable to produce ID for the bank as we didn't live there - worth thinking about when you register.

The Riviera Meat Company Ltd - our new business venture

My husband and I (and two children) were living in Cambridgeshire and all was going reasonably well. We had just built ourselves a lovely home, my husband had a good job, and I was on maternity leave from my job at the local college.

Thinks started to go a little wrong. My husband's job was starting to be very demanding. The hours were dreadful, the pressure on him was starting to take its toll. He looked positively grey. I could tell that something would have to give - and it wasn't going to be his health.

To top it all off we had some complications with our new house. Out next door neighbour declared a boundary dispute and in order to sell our house we were going to have to engage a good solicitor. As you can imagine it really soured living in out beautiful house (and my husband wasn't even around to enjoy it anyway).

We made the decision we were going to leave Cambridgeshire and relocate to Devon. My husband started looking around for jobs and decided to leave his current one. We decided that we needed a plan in case he couldn't find another job. His friend had also left my husband's place of work and set up a meat company - he encouraged us to do the same (although in a different part of the country!)

The Riviera Meat Company Ltd was born.

Where do I start - New Business Venture(s)

There has been so much going on I don't know where to start. I am doing some of this blog retrospectively as some of my business was setup about 8 months ago. It isn't really one business that I am involved in so I am going to talk about all of them!

I am a busy mum of two who never does things by halves! I want to talk about what I have been doing to help anyone else who is thinking about setting up a business and what I have done. It has been a real learning curve so if it helps anyone else out - great. If anyone has any tips for me - please do not hesitate to comment.