Thursday 12th October 2006

It’s good having a house guest now and again. You can tap on their door and bring them in tea and orange juice and things like that in the morning. I like playing host sometimes. Also, I’ve always felt slightly guilty about living in a two bedroom flat alone and so I feel I’m utilising it more to its full potential and purpose.

It’s how long people stay though, isn’t it? I’m essentially a live-alone kind of guy, not because nobody wants to live with me, that is not the reason, but because I do enjoy having somewhere to myself and being able to have a bath with the door open, that sort of thing. Mind you, I suppose Michelle was here for several months and that never bothered me. She just had to look away or pretend she was being sick whenever she walked past the bathroom and saw me in the bath. She is very good at pretending to vomit, let me tell you. Very convincing. Quite the actress.

And so anyway, having Wade here is good fun and it will probably become quite a regular arrangement, what with the company being set up and all. On that front, and I know it’s probably tedious to read about but this is my Blog, we had a meeting with web designers Forty Eight today and basically awarded them the design contract. We shook on it anyway. Obviously it would be better to see lots of companies and get lots of quotes but these guys have really impressed both Wade and myself, and so we went with gut instinct. Also, their quote for the job, which does involve quite a lot of design on the site itself, but is basically for putting together a whole pack to take to potential investors, is very reasonable and there’s no way we could get the same quality for less.

On top of that, there’s such a thing called European Objective One funding, which on Merseyside can pay 40% of your costs in setting up a business if awarded. That would make their quote even more attractive, and I think it also extends to office rent, etc. I am having a meeting next Tuesday to discuss it. That’s one of the perks of living in Liverpool I suppose… 40%. That really is a huge amount and would make such a big difference.

Forty Eight have also told us that really, to get this working properly, we are going to need investment of about £300,000. Maybe even half a million. Those are crazy numbers, but because it’s a community website and recently MySpace together with – this last week – YouTube, have gone for such silly money, it’s the sort of thing investors would be interested in. We’d only want to give away 20% of the company for that money too which will be the bargaining point.

Well, well. We’ve got a lot to learn. This will be a fascinating journey, no doubt about that.

I would say one element of doing this properly is probably not to publish details such as the above on the internet for all to read and analyse. Only an idiot would do that, surely? I am going to keep quiet about GH for a while I think (I trust you of course, my nerdy regulars, but you never know whose evil eye is scanning this page). I can tell you that we took enormous pleasure in viewing a potential office up on Slater Street. It’s only a room, but it’s large enough, light and airy, secure, perfect for us, and at £450 a month with all your bills included, apart from the phone, and all your rates, plus your service charge, it’s affordable too. Maybe we’ll hang on until we at least have the business bank account, hey? Let’s not run before we can… oh no let’s run! I’d love to have an office. I’d love to be able to sit in there all day, with nothing to distract me… Global Hangover stuff aside, I’d get loads of other stuff done too. Hmmmm. It’s tempting. You need an office from the off, right?

Right.

Athena Caramitsos, the tiny, infant faced semi-human midget doll came over from Manchester this evening to meet Wade. Met up with Kerry too – in The Philharmonic. Wade seems to like it here. Everyone’s been very friendly. Wait until some scally throws a chip at him from across the street. Nah, Liverpool’s fab, things like that rarely happen and can’t outweigh the good.

Keep thinking about that office…

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