Can only wait so long, with new rules being applied weekly weve decided to jump. some of our clients have made use of the service where they drop off their shoes at our home and after discussing the possibility of a VIP club and getting a good reaction from clients we are moving forward with this idea.

Where do you start with this covid thing? Spoken to a few clients on our office visit list and this is unlikely to get better as social distancing rules have put offices off for having visitors like the Manchester Shoe shine co for the foreseeable future. Next up Hotels and the city centre still resembles a ghost town and the Hotel have suggested mid September for our return, which will probably coincide with the start of the flu season, which really should not be a problem as no one died of the flu last year. Then we get the events, well do we have to be doubled jabbed for this, what constitutes a large gathering? If you have been advised by drs to not take the jab where do you stand? This is madness. I know a guy who had covid and then 4 months later had the jab? but can still get it so how is this a vaccine? Anyway, grumble over. Been up in Aberdeen for a couple of weeks for a break as im probably not allowed to fly lol.... The shoe gang podcast is gaining listeners which is great and we really do have fun doing this. Teresa is back in Manchester as she is helping out with grandchildren on summer holidays so next Saturday will be a international conversation, also managed to do 2 interviews so things are moving in the right direction on that front . maybe even take over from the shoeshines? who knows in this crazy moment in history. Have even been looking for jobs to help with finances for now and have applied for some real interesting roles, ill keep you posted. Thanks for popping in guys and hope all is well with you and yours...God bless.

Hello guys, we are still in the dark over when we can restart operations in town.  We have been told , maybe September. It maybe possible to go to another hotel and start sooner, so we are checking out a few places. On a brighter note we have our first event since feb 2020 this weekend. Myself and Teresa will be at the King street Townhouse hotel for a fathers day event, it feels very strange. Hopefully this will be the start of the bounce back. One thing im hoping for is to get back into podcasting for the Shoeshine business, we had just started when the virus hit so we put it on the back burner . What we did do however is, early this year we started a new Podcast about shoes. www.theshoegang.com which we plan to develop over time. It has been great fun doing these and we can see it leading to bigger things hopefully. The lockdown has given us time to reflect on life and we hope to develop these reflections into daily life to bring us into a better place. A bit heavy the last bit, but im sure we are not alone in feeling like this. It will be interesting to see if people and businesses change as well.

As well as bringing in new ideas and practices to the business we hope to build strong collaborations with some exciting businesses but also try and rekindle some ideas and avenues we were working on before the Pandemic, just at a slower pace.. Anyway guys we hope you are all well and safe and also able to see some glimmer of light at the end of this dark season we have all been through. Hope to see you soon.

Blimey this seems never ending. Already a quarter way through the year and still at home. More questions than answers really. Will events come back in September/oct and who  attend? Very sad to see so many friends changing roles it feels like we will have to start all over again lol Anyway hope you are all well and safe and hope to see everyone soon..

Thanks for popping in guys,

took to the microphones again last week to do our first podcast since xmas 2019. problem being what do you talk about, business and town are dead quite. So its easily going to be next year before we see any ground being made and seeing as jan/feb are usually dead, it will be all eyes on March to see if any bookings come in.

So we push ahead with our lives and see if other opps turn up, we are still working on a couple of ideas but hard to test in present climate but we continue to move fwd, one idea feels good and could replace the shinings financially, still shoe related. Me and Teresa feel excited about the project and thats what its all about I think. getting excited about a new venture that can run alongside our present one. At the very least it will keep us occupied during the coming winter.

Ive been doing a clean up on social media in the last few days, seems to be a lot of panic and desperation on Linkedin in recent weeks, and I thought it was getting nasty and distasteful, every time I click on it seems to be all about politics so im doing a slow down on my usage on there. I think it boils down too "My dads bigger than your dad" mentality, its very sad.

Twitter, well thats turned into a war zone, so ive turned off a lot of notifications of people who think its ok to tweet hurtful and harmful tweets. Does anyone remember when social media used to be fun? Every ones losing their minds. Funny how some people can be so positive about themselves in the good times and then become toxic in the bad times.

So im doing a "Social media distancing" where I try to block any negative stuff and replace it with people with positive outlooks and manners...lol. Anywayim off to the fridge to get a cold beer and put my feet up and dream of happier times. God bless.

We have heard from a number of people over the last few days asking about the Drop off service, so we are hoping to have that up and running within the next week . The decision is out of our hands atm but we are working with the Hotel for us to come in for drop offs only. Very small steps , but steps none the less. Also will be starting the podcasts again this week which will be good, got some great ideas floating around atm so please look out for news on that. We have now changed the Polish that we use , after getting some samples sent to us late last year from Famaco we were very pleased with the results, they are more expensive then Kiwi but the difference is there to see. Also hoping to do some videos around Manchester about certain makes of shoes, so looking into getting some great locations for that project. We will probably join up with Patreon for the podcasts and videos in this crazy time to help support us. Let us know how you feel about this please. 

Blimey people, as you can see, its been nearly 6 months since ive opened up at the Lowry hotel for the shine service. I remember in early March and sitting in the staff canteen and speaking to a couple of the  managers about the amount of guests leaving for the airport to get home. I remember saying that I may take a 2 weeks off until it all blew over.....lol. Within 3 weeks I recieved a nhs letter instructing me to shield until June 5th. I thought it would break us and we would not survive, would people even remember us?

Here we are 6 months down the line and things very slowly getting back to normal, well the new normal. Me and Teresa have both been talking to business clients in and around the city to gauge when to restart but it seems most offices will not reopen until early next year. Our 3 Daughters are all working from their homes and have also been told feb . We cannot see any large events taking place this year either and we have spoken to clients that use our services at these that next year is looking very sketchy. If you think our main task at these events is to draw crowds to our customers stands you can see the problem.

Then theres the 2nd wave? sept/oct? who knows, will I be told to Shield again? Another problem is the public transport system we use to get into the city every morning. I know one couple who I used to wait for the bus with have told me "the buses come, but you cant get on because of social distancing" So we are set with a set of practacalities that we need to resolve, after all we are still a business  in need of cash flow. Please dont get us wrong , we know the hardships of people getting made redundant and now the Furlough is ending, well who knows ? So we feel extremely fortunate that we can bounce back given the right circumstances.

On the bright side we now have a very nice garden and the pandemic has shone a light on possibilities. Possibilities that were always there but in these dark times we never noticed them until recently. Me and Teresa have been hit hard financially by the pandemic and we know we need to have various money streams coming in if we are to survive, so we will start running with a few ideas , actually we have already started on one. We are very confident about the future of these ventures and we still believe the shines will come back at some point and we can then move fwd with our huge plans for the shoeshine business.

Myself and Teresa look fwd to seeing our great customers very soon and get back to what ever the new normal will be . We have seen via social media many of our  customers, businesses and friends have  closed down and moved on and we pray that better times find them soon. 

Had an interesting chat with a young business coach earlier on in the week who was just passing. A lot of people dont see young people with much business savvy  , but I found him very intelligent, he certainly travels well on it. Anyway he was saying stuff about business that was solid and I will certainly take on board.Thankfully I did not have to pay him lol .

A regular came to see me on friday and the subject of blogging came up for the lancashire ladies cricket team and he was disappointed that I had decided to walk away from the idea. It is a great opportunity for someone else to get into this sort of thing , I just dont think its for me. On the bright side he did say he would get me a signed shirt for the office.

Had a good meeting with the sales team down in the offices at the Lowry last month. I was surprised as tbh I did not recognise anybody as it had been a long time since visiting the offices. Seems nothing changes in the hotel trade as everyone was different as they seem to move around between hotels a lot. Anyway spoke to the girl in charge and had a good chat as to what I was after. We now have our own bio on their system so when a conference asks for details they can add us as an add on, hopefully this will bring much needed work, it cant be a coincidence that this has coincided with us doubling our daily hits on the website, this should bare fruit in the coming months.

Another thing that happened yesterday was the drop off service, which normally we get a text or message on Linkedin about dropping shoes off. Well yesterday we received a couple of pairs from someone new who did not contact us before hand.This may seem small to you but to me it seems that it is the beginning of people thinking its normal to drop your shoes off at the Lowry hotel.

Had a new enquiry about moving hotels, but we are happy at the Lowry and cant see us moving, I think the only problem I have with the situation is that we cant use our stands and chairs as they clash with the interior, I think we could increase business with them but hey you have to work with what you got right!

About a month ago we had 2 emails that I never really took much notice of. The first was from a Chinese law firm asking about our domain name and if we still use it and the second was from  a domain name business that said our domain was coming up for renewal which I thought was spam.

Then last week the 2nd one emailed  us again which I just put down too spam again and never thought about it. This was a big mistake.

I never check emails after 4pm on a Friday as I think its important to switch off for a break at weekends, even more so I think if you have your own business as work can take over your life. Anyway Monday at about midday I thought I would do a quick blog and check emails and realised we no longer had a website, why? because our domain had actually run out. Panic  set in and thought rushed through my mind about business lost and the thought of starting over with a new name, can you imagine the hassle it would be to open new bank accounts, credit cards, marketing, well I could go on but im sure you see the picture. What if the chinese law firm had noticed it was available and snapped it up. To make things worse Teresa had a missed call from a phone number in China.

Thankfully everything was ok and we were saved from disaster but it does make you think that something so small can have an huge impact on your brand.

Sometimes it seems we are very quite, but sometimes we are working long hours on future plans and projects. At the moment we are d, oing our base at the Lowry and thats about all, but when im home its straight to the office and working on stuff and before you know it its dinner time. And to be honest it can be exhausting, especially when there is very little money coming in. We use this time over xmas and now to plant seeds in peoples mind and start conversations with contacts , the problem with this is that once your mind gets into this pattern it can be difficult to hang on to it as your mind can race off in different directions. Mostly these things fade away and sometimes they are pursued to see what we can make happen.Then you can easily end up day dreaming, but to be honest I do a lot of this and think its a great stress release. I mean we all have dreams on where our businesses can go and without that , whats the point. There is no point working night and day for sometimes very little money if you dont love your business, if you dont have faith , not just in the business but in yourself.

I catch the bus every morning at 6am for town and every morning I join the local night shift , just finishing and if im not engrossed in a podcast, I listen into their conversations and it makes me very sad that people both men and women are so unhappy, often very angry at the job they do, sometimes I feel these people are working and living within a nightmare. I am so grateful for my business and my clients and The Lowry Hotel that I can continue following a dream and thank god for I feel truly Blessed.

Probably the best January we have had , not enough to order the new Mercedes just yet though. Had a lot of chats about big events later on in the year as well, which is good as we missed out on a lot last year. We are working on some partnerships as well which will bring our brand to the attention to a wider audience which can only be a good thing. The new logo is on hold until a few things become clearer. Me  and Teresa had a chat the other night over a few beers and wine and looked at what we need to do to get the work/life balance thing right. we are on the right path and moving fwd with that.

Being a Southerner , this whole chips n gravy thing is still very wrong in my eyes, even though our 3 daughters swear by it. To me chips go with ketchup and thats it. However the other night we had run out of the red stuff so Teresa put some Mayo on my plate instead, she has this all the time.Shocked at first I decide to try this combo just to keep her happy and it blew me away. I cant get enough of this chips n mayo thing now!

January has always been a dodgy month, so me and Teresa have been watching netflix over the week and I think ive noticed something strange. We watched a series called "thieves of the wood" and the main character in there is about mid 20s but his acting and facial expressions are the mirror image of Richard gere. Now this might be down to us not watching a great deal of telly but now its happened again. This time it was in the series "Messiah" only a few episodes in atm but ive gotta say the guy playing the tall FBI bloke has the same as above but this time its Steve Mcqueen,granted hes about two foot taller than Mcqueen but just watch his facial expressions, its Mcqueen all over. Now is this just the actors or is this a ploy to get more work, very clever maybe.

Weve also started doing an online writing course called couch to 5k words. 3 days in atm but looking fwd to doing it more. Me and Teresa are always talking about story lines so we thought why not and to be honest we know a few people in the trade so to speak so you never know where it will take us, more to follow.

Another year, spent the xmas and new year break up in Scotland, lots of hiking and stuff. We had time to sit back and relax away from Manchester and take stock of where we are and where we want to be. Firstly we are very happy with the business but we recognise that we need to change a few things , especially our finances. Secondly we need to change the whole identity thing, we need something more ummph if you know what I mean. And lastly we need to take on smaller jobs which we tend to turn down as not enough profit. But any profit is good right? within our business ethos anyway!

We are now back at the lowry but as its january its very quite, so we will spend the time working on the other stuff. Saw them refurbishing the conference rooms bar yesterday and happened to get hold of a few mirrors, which will get hidden until we pop in with a van next wednesday night to pick up the bar stalls . The mirrors are for the back garden.

Had some help with the new Logo from my daughter and son in law, so new logo and new colours, but will do the website and social media with new stuff but will have to wait for business  cards new aprons etc.

Hope you have a great new year.

As I said in the last blog we are planning ahead. Cant really go into too much detail as nothing is certain. We have made contact with some companies who are interested in our concepts but are hesitant as this is different but I think with some further talks and tweaking a few details we could have a set up unrivalled in the uk, saying that we never wanted to be the best in the UK , we just wanted to not follow the norm. That’s why we have worked in Barbers,and  gyms just to try something different.

Id be more than happy to just sitting in the Lowry hotel all day but that wont pay the bills so we thought well how about one day a week here and another day there with the Lowry in the days inbetween. Nothing different in that solution but we want to push boundaries but still keep our work /life balance.

Probably thinking “why does he just not say?” but we want people to say “WOW” so as we push into xmas we are working hard in the background to change our lives next year.

Thanks for popping in and having a read, hope you have a great week.

We seem to be chopping and changing our ties at the Lowry over the last few months and we are about to do the same next week. The morning shift seems to fit in so much better with our lives than the evening shift. We thought with the new bar and restaurant we would have had an increase in business but to be honest we are no more busier than our old morning times, so will be going back to them times. I would not say we are busy at the Lowry but it does give us a huge advantage that we can ride on the back of such a name. It lets people know that our standards are high, a few other hotels have called us in fro meetings, but are not offering us anything more than we already have at the Lowry, plus we are given a lot of freedom here , which has been a sticking point with some of the other hotels. Lots going on in the background atm and we are planting seeds and starting conversations that will bear fruit in the coming years.

One of the biggest reasons for going back to mornings is all to do with work/life balance stuff, I had just started to enjoy cooking for the first time in my life and one of the highlights of my day was cooking with Teresa our evening meal over a cool beer and glass of wine, I really missed it, so am looking fwd to getting back into that. We are both doing a lot more stuff with our church which happens a lot more in the evenings which I feel ive been missing out on so thats an added incentive to change times.

Only two weeks to go before we close for 2 weeks for xmas (20/12/19 -6/1/20) weve been invited away this year so will be heading up to Scotland for a well earned break.

Last night was our first night back doing the beer and shine @ the Lowry hotel,but no one had told the bar staff about the discount so ive had to postpone it until tonight. me and Teresa decided to get a couple of bottles at a time and pay up front , seems easier than paying a lot out at the end of the month.  Anyway went to check on the bar stalls we got after the renovations but one had disappeared so moved them somewhere safer until i can get them home.

We have a few guys coming in tonight for a shine so hopefully others may see and join in, I mean your in the bar anyway so why not get a shine with your beer? The Spa at the lowry is a busy place so I popped in there last night to have a chat and was offered free sauna whenever I want one and I do like a nice sauna. When I was thinking about this on the way home I thought, you know , most people who are having a treatment there are usually undressed into a dressing gown so why dont we offer a ladies boot shine whilst they are having the spa? Will  speak to the girls tonight, maybe offer the staff a free shine to promote the idea.

We had a lot of stuff happening for Nov/Dec as I said in my last post but this seems to have come to nothing. Its so hard when you run a business to have disappointments like this but thats how it is. Me and Teresa are looking on the bright side and feeling grateful for what we do have.We are fortunate not to have overheads like other businesses eg rent/staff etc, that must be so difficult for small businesses to handle. I see a lot of businesses  when im walking through town with staff just twiddling their thumbs as its so quite and the xmas markets seem to be very empty this year. You would not think so with the amount of press their getting but as ive come to find a lot of business is all about the hype.

I prefer to be honest and admit we struggle ,  i  certainly try to be as honest as poss as I respect that in others. One thing, well several things ive been looking into to boost work is social media, we are very regimented in this, tending to use Twitter and Linkedin only. Teresa has said we need to get more personal so people get to know us more, instead of just sell,sell,sell. She has a good point as I tend to read more personal stuff from the people I follow and just scroll past the sales stuff. More blogging and podcasting  to sort out and probably use Facebook more. Anyway guys its Friday, so hope you have a nice weekend and catch you soon.

David.

Some exciting times ahead for us with some great offers coming in. One of the good things about it being so quite during August is it gives you time to think and plan ahead. We have been approached by a few places over the month but 2 caught our interest. If we accept these opportunities and we will it will mean fairly big changes to our working week and work/life balance. 

From 35 hrs a week to probably around the 60 hrs mark, plus Teresa would  have to spend more time in town with me which I think she would enjoy. Hopefully she can just set up with her laptop in one of the hotels and work away( reminds me to mention free coffees for Teresa) Also bringing back the beer n shine thing very soon.

Been spending a huge amount of time in the kitchen where me and Teresa have been cooking together, which is another thing that free time gives you. We have been honing in on chinese stir frys for weeks now and have it down to a T. Fantastic times chopping and slicing with a cold beer and enjoying a nice home grown and cooked meal( veg from the plot). Of course this will have to change when our new projects start up in november, maybe we can bulk cook?.

September jobs already coming in as well as jobs for october and xmas enquiries already

With the sunshine beating down upon us atm, business is always slow. In this heat "dress down friday" becomes "shorts and sandals week". So me and Teresa have adapted by spending our quite weeks down on our allotment which as it happens is one of the busiest times in the gardening calendar so it all works out in the end. The hotel is having some major refurbs going on atm so conferences are down, but we do get the odd guest still using the service. This gives us an opportunity to spend more times with some potential clients who want to know more about the business and our services. Normally we have to try and cram it in in about 5/10 minutes if they are interested of course. But some are more than happy to sit down and chat about the company for 30 mins or more, this gives us the chance to tell them in greater detail how we work and can give them statistics and examples. I can honestly say this will have an enormous effect on business over the next 12 months as people become much more interested in what we do and how we can help them instead of just hearing how we started.

No news on the kitchen stalls though.

Now that the new Lobby is up and running the next phase is about to start next week I believe. The bar and Restaurant will have a complete refurb. Which means all these amenities move up one floor with me in tow. Dont mind if im honest, but I do have my eye on a couple of bar stalls which would fit very nice in my kitchen. So I will put in a bid for them this week. Building work to take approx 6 weeks.

Sad news that Russ the head concierge is moving on, it was Russ who first contacted me about being in the Lowry and I will be forever grateful to him for that.

.Had a good meeting with the head concierge and general manager about how they can help the Shoeshine business and push it more within the hotel. One of the ideas was too attend the hotel events that they do to promote the hotel, and as it happens we had one on wednesday night. So I went in for a few hours that night and had some great feedback including a event organiser who deals with Jewish weddings, who was very interested in using us, so watch this space.

The hotel is going through some major investment atm and this throws up some great bargains, such as  carpet roll ends. Huge pieces and very hard wearing so I bought a few and had a mate with a van come and pick the rolls up. Have now had the whole house carpeted with probably the most expensive carpet in the street.

We spent the end of the week in Bridlington on the Yorkshire coast. The event was a busy couple of days for us and we are glad to be home with our feet up. Strange thing is I tend to use cash everywhere but this time decided everything goes onto the business credit card. Normal for some of you im sure but in Bridlington things are different. Popped into the town centre and the sea front for a wander round and decided to get a coffee, no where excepted cards, thought ok , Ill get a coke from the off licence, wrong again, cash only. Later that day decided on a chinese takeaway, popped in to order and a no cash system was in operation. So thought ok get a pizza, in the town , again cash only. I can only assume there is a lot of credit card fraud in this part of Yorkshire.

Popped into a local takeaway in Harrogate on monday night after work and ordered a double cheeseburger and fries for teresa and a kebab for me. When I got back to the apartment I opened the bag and found Teresas burger n fries in one box and mine all in different ones. One box for the kebab meat, one with the salad ,a tub with the sauce and a bag for the Pitta.Never seen that before, did think of going back and asking for a discount as I had to make it myself but was a bit tired.

Back in Manchester today but hopefully a early finish and then back on the road to the east coast for a few days . Hoping the weather picks up as the venue is right next to the beach. Have to find a different route when we go north of Manchester as Teresa can not drive over Barton bridge anymore lol, so we need a new way or more jobs in Birmingham.

Up in Harrowgate today and tomorrow for one of our regular clients. Nice looking town and I must say probably the best fish n chips ive had in a long while last night.We decided on airbnb this time and we were not disappointed, we have a really nice apartment in an converted church , 2 mins away from the conference centre. Same price as a good hotel but with free parking, most hotels seem to charge £17 per day. Might try a local bar tonight for a few cold beers.

Had a good chat with the Lowry  manager this morning and he is arranging a meeting to discuss ways they can push the Shoeshine service with the corporate events team at the hotel. This is a huge part of the hotels business and a somewhat under used source of income by myself. Hoping also to service the apartments that are going up around the hotel especially the short stay ones. If all goes well, I will have more than enough business to keep me happy.

Shoeshining is a strange business, not over popular with most individuals, but some people take it very seriously. Today some Gent drove from Leeds to Manchester  just to drop shoes off for me and then will drive back on Monday to pick them up. This helps with the brand that we are at the 5 star Lowry hotel and some people will go out of their way to use us.

Blimey, nearly 4 months since I last blogged! 

Tbh I have been fairly ill and it has taken me longer than I thought to get back on my feet.Had about 6¬8 weeks out and then when we finally get back to work we find the Hotel just about to start a refurb, timing eh1 Anyway the lobby has been lavished upon as is the Lowry way and business is starting to trickle back . I think I mentioned in an earlier blog about other guys setting up Shoeshines in Liverpool and Leeds, unfortunatly I have been told that they have gone out of business, well the Leeds one has closed its premesis and the liverpool one is on limited trading hours. I find it a shame they went out of business as I feel the more people doing it the more attention it gets. So I wish Alan and Keith all the best for the future, pretty sure they will survive as I dont think they were shot of a bob or two!

Away from Manchester for next week , first to Harrowgate then onto Bridlington.so a nice time by the sea!

Been fairly busy this week at the Lowry. Had some great people to chat with and heard some good stories. Being at the Lowry, you never know who is going to take a seat, Had an "A" lister today but also people who want to work with me on other things, which I will be exploring over the coming months.

Decided to go back to work early so went in on the 7th, saying that, it was Teresas decision...lol. Really enjoy the early mornings at the hotel, it fits in with our day much better. Still, Manchesters very quite at the moment, same as everywhere I suppose. Normally get home at about 11ish to work in the office on emails and getting some new work and connections in. Not much else to say really, oh the podcasts are going well, was supposed to be 2 a week but just managed 1 a week so far as not much going on. Will do another one tomorrow. So if your reading this and thinking how can I improve my office or event this year then just give me a call. 

Finally got round to doing our first Podcast today, very strange feeling .Some years ago now I did a degree with Salford uni of which Podcasting was a part. I even still have all the equipment, but unfortunately I have no idea how to use it now. So I just did it with my Samsung phone, no editing no cutting no background music , just me rambling on about something I feel passionate about, I mean at the end of the day its all about content , right? 

So where on our way on that front, also spoke to some nice people over in NYC  about their shoeshine app, it looks very impressive but out of our financial reach atm but will look into cheaper alternatives over the xmas break. We finish on Friday night and dont come back until 22nd of jan , so plenty of time to look into these areas. Weve had a lot of interest in our office visit service recently, I put a post up on Linkedin about a cancellation we had for lunchtime and had over 1600 views so will try that again.

It would only take a slight change in luck to  improve our finances and that may be it , so we have our fingers crossed that some of these enquiries lead onto something bigger. Even though me and Teresa have come through some very dark days this year we still feel very lucky to have such a great little business with fantastic opportunities and working together has helped us pull through.

We are still at  the Lowry hotel and feel very at home there, all the staff and management are great at supporting us and we both feel we will be there for some years to come. In the quieter moments ive headed down to the basement of the hotel to work alone on my stands, we did have some help from some of the builders in supplies and the use of a nail gun, which saved me hours of work. So hopefully we will have two new refurbished stands for the coming year for the events.I have to admit I do get flashbacks of the film "the Shining" while down there so tend to work as quick as possible ...lol 

Sometimes you need to try something to know it wont work, but it takes it from your mind, that you thought it would work and now you can go back to the plan. Youve tried it, it did not work out, move on.If you dont give it a go , you will always have this nagging doubt , what if. I suppose all businesses go through this and move on.

Some times you try something that seems good but you soon get that gut feeling, this is wrong. Ive learnt always go with that gut feeling. Working on some new hours from next week, again , try everything.

Looking fwd to starting the Podcasts this week, always been a big fan of podcasts, I think its one of the best medias going.

As I said in an earlier blog, working two hotels was problematic to say the least. So we have decided to leave the Mercure and put all our efforts into the Lowry.

we have a few things that we are planning on and this is more suited to the Lowry so looking fwd with that. 

Its been hard work trying to work two hotels and to be honest it was a bit of a experiment, but we needed to do it to see if it worked. A very busy time at the moment with the xmas events which hopefully bring in some money.

Did an awards dinner last week and bumped into some old friends who had used our services before, this was a bit different from most award dinners we do as we decided to cut out the middle man as they did not seem interested. I think it worked well and we made a few quid and found out we have been booked for next year plus we were asked for our business card 10 times, so a great result for us, hopefully do some more next week.

Had to have Friday off through illness as I have Shingles in my left knee, very painful but I have to work so will be back in monday, should clear up in a week or two. Lots of events coming up leading upto xmas.

Beer and Shine started last week and needs much more pushing for it to be something big, but we carry on. Timing at the two hotels is not working at the moment, its a hard call.Certainly on the right path here and we feel things will drop into place when the time is right. Still playing with the idea of Podcasting, just needs some time to work on formatts.

Been at the Piccadilly hotel for 3 weeks now, but hard to gauge with it being August, but sept will give us an insight.There has to be things in place if we are to make this one of our city centre bases. Location wise its perfect and has a reputation for being very corporate and with over 10 large conference rooms and if when they sell these they add our services on top we will be very happy. Teresa will put some suggestions together on how we would like it to work for us and hand them in next week before we go on holiday for 12 days, this should give them time to decide away fwd.

The 60 hour weeks have not been as tiring as I thought and still get a bit of a kick when I wake up and think what can happen today and what stories I may here and people I might meet. Still fascinating.

So the world of corporate returns after the summer break. Now in position in the Piccadilly we have been told it has a major corporate clientele and sept should be very different to aug. Me and Teresa have been offered a free holiday in the Scottish Highlands for 10 days mid sept which is fantastic news and we are really looking fwd to a break. There maybe very little wifi so we may just leave phones and laptops at home, which will be very interesting.

Myself and Teresa have been preoccupied recently with the trials of life , but now we are moving fwd with the business. We put the feelers out about getting a second base in town and had 3 choices. We were having a drink trying to decide the best position and then out of the blue another offer came through on social media. I must tell you , I jumped at the chance of this place and arranged for a chat and coffee the very next day. Proud to say we will be in the Lobby of the Piccadilly hotel from monday @8am till 3pm.

When I first arrived in Manchester well over 30 years ago this building jumped out at me with its striking Brutalist Architecture and prime location, never did I think I would be working there all these years later.

Our services include the traditional sit down service as well as a drop of service which enables you to drop your shoes off 24hrs a day and pick them up when it suits you. @£6 a shine its probably the best deal in town so if your daily commute takes you past the lobby then why not pop in and say hi. Hope to see you soon.

Needless to say we are still at the Lowry hotel between 4pm to 8pm. 2 iconic hotels , 1 great shine.

The summer has brought wall to wall sunshine here in Manchester, so sandals are everywhere. Luckily being based in the Lowry we still have enough business to see us through. We are  quite, but working hard in the background to bring some great services to Manchester and with talks with managers at the Lowry we believe come September business will be improved on last year.

Not sure how other shoeshines are doing , but me and Teresa have been passing work on as certain jobs dont fit into our plans.Some say thanks, others just take, but we believe clients appreciate our honesty and this  builds our brand.

The summer sun has been a shock to all of us, but hey what a summer, me and teresa have been able to take time out and soak up some sunshine and this has giving us some inspirational ideas. These ideas may be the summer wine or things we can build on. Either way me and Teresa are enjoying the sun and feel very relaxed and enjoying a bit extra time with family.We both hope all our clients are in similar circumstances.

The Lowry hotel has been a bit of an eye opener for me, it shows me how far I can take this business. Is it a business or a life choice?  As the saying goes "work smarter not harder". With our position in the hotel at the present, we are just offering basic services but there are so many more we could put in place to improve. So we work on putting these ideas into practice as soon as is viable. The Lowry have pushed the shines and are open to see what we can do. Its great to have backing like that. Adrian and russ and the whole of the team have been great. The bar guys have been looking after me as well and are mentioning the shines to guests which can only add to business.

Passed on some work this week as the distance was too much, not in miles but it just upsets our routine and at the moment we have a nice flow going on at the moment. Another couple of pieces to add to the jigsaw and this will be great fun everyday of the week. These pieces are on the table and we just need to sit down and talk. With every thing in place this will give us a much better quality of life but still in control.

Had some guys drop shoes off at the house and asked if they would like a postage service, which they did. so even though it looks profitable it would mean working a few hours some nights  on my own, so , not sure, as I like the chat.

Busy week next week, and our first visit to Haydock Park to meet the team there and see how we can fit in

Had a call earlier in the week by a gentleman who asked if he could pop in to The Lowry with some shoes, He turned up the next day and we were having a chat about business start ups and podcasting, you know the usual stuff. Anyway he asked  if I would like to have a chair at Haydock Park race track on corporate days, I was not sure as to if this would work but kept quite and carried on. He said he would email me the next day to push things fwd. In the meantime the idea grew on me and thought this could be pretty exciting. The next day true to his word , I received an email from him and another from the general manager asking me to come in for a meeting to discuss possibilities. Its so nice to see people who are good to their word in what seems a cutthroat money grabbing business world these days. Ive always been about partnerships, some work some don't but in partnerships it has to work for all parties. So we have a van tomorrow for an event in Liverpool on Mon/Tue next week so I'm pushing to drop off a chair and stand at the track on Saturday.

This partnership and the one we already have with the Lowry Hotel will promote our business the way we wanted to be seen from day one, its all about quality not quantity. 

Had an email to see if we do a Postage service, this has come up a number of times recently, so am looking into the workings of something like this, there is a office available round the corner from me right next to the post office which seems to perfect to be true, I will see how this works out financially for us. tbh we already have regular gents dropping off shoes at the house and picking them up next day so it may be time to get this office. The office in town that we want is still on hold for financial reasons , meaning we cant afford it at present, but we are hopeful we will have our office in Manchester city centre this year.

Thanks for reading guys I really appreciate your time.

Weve been at the Lowry a couple of months now and hoping to have a meeting with the events and conferencing teams this week to sell the service. Starting to get noticed around town as well now, oh well it only took 5 years. Had some interesting offers for business but are quite happy where we are. Events are going well but we are not chasing them, if they come , they come. As for office visits, gradually getting more clients but there will come a time when we are fully booked.

Me and Teresa have lots going on atm so we are quite happy to finish at 12ish and move onto other things and this seems to sit well with us. We visited the Northern Business Event at Manchester central convention complex as guests , which was strange as we normally do a lot of work there. A week later I got a call from a company to say id won first prize and would receive 3 months business coaching. Quite nice I thought, before id realised that I did not enter any comps and had run out of business cards some weeks ago.

I sat down with a cool beer down the allotment one hot sunny afternoon, and sent them an email to decline the offer as I thought it would effect my business model and asked if they would kindly "pass it on" to someone more in need of coaching. This was a good move as they never came back to me, so showing their rudeness and who wants to work with rude people?

So from out of nowhere we have now secured a  nice morning base . The Lowry Hotel, sitting on the banks of the River Irwell and overlooking Spinningfields and King street is ideal for us. As the first 5 star hotel in Manchester we are so proud to be able to offer our services to guests there. We are still able to have our regular clients pop in to see us too. Slowly building up trade already and hope to become part of the hotel. Already seen tv celebs, singers and a host of football players and also a royal, so who knows what could happen?

Going away in April for an event in kent, will be nice to be away for a week. Our lives have been turned upside down in the past few weeks so a nice break from the norm is well in order. It will certainly help the bank balance as well. Office visits doing well and should be landing a big client by the end of the month.

Lots of new buildings going up in Manchester , be very interesting to see who moves where , We too are keeping an eye on the office front and as soon as things pick up we will start visiting a few places. Trying to find one with an all you can eat chinese buffet close by.

Hoping to find some time this week to do some work on our stands, got a great new idea which we hope will make the stands look better and bring in some new clients. Another Big meetinng this week to try and land a huge client. Still waiting on some quotes to come back which will put us in the position of buying our own van, would of prefered the sponsorship route, but still waiting on people to come back to us on that. Having a weeks trial starting next week at a top hotel, if it goes well it will take us to another level.

Trying to fit in 2 metings today as well as our usual workload. its great to be busy. Moving chair and stand in for an event later this week in a prime location. Maybe moving forwardon the Van front as well, little steps, but steps all the same.

Monday morning and a busy week ahead, meetings with new clients and apossible city centre base. Feb has been great, so good to have such a great start to the year. We could be in our ideal situation by June,so much to look forward to.

In business is there such a thing as a great start? I mean me and teresa last Nov/Dec worked flat out on line and are now seeing results, so it was the hard work we put in when we are not shining.Business never stops, every moment is an opportunity.

Strange days Fridays. Fridays to us are like the lucky dip on the Lotto. Normally very quite days especially with Dress down fridays all the rage but to us there exciting, you see as I said Fridays are quite, we normally work from home online, twitter , linkedin etc and in the afternoons we go to the Allotment (weather permitting) but some of our best jobs and opportunities come to us on a Friday. Today , again we got a Friday surprise which will not only give us a base in town again but be very high profile. Really hope we can impress this people next week to give us a shot.

Put a post up on Linkedin yesterday for van sponsorship, still early days. But as of writing this we had nearly 1k of veiws on the post so many more people and businesses have now heard our name which can lead to possibilities of all sorts. Quite ironic really as we are selling advertising space on the van to promote their services as we drive around city centre manchester. Would be great if we had someone come in and make an offer.

Snowing in Manchester today, not much but hopefully enouigh to remind people to get some polish on their shoes for protection. Always brings in some new clients and once they realise that polish protects they see the value of the service.
 

Been really eciting , 2018 so far. Had new clients contact us today for office visits, so different from last year. Maybe this is our year when we finally break through.maybe worth oprning a few beers tonight.

Had a chat with a local Hotel about having a base for the early morning, Tbh its never really worked before, but might do it just so we have a base in town. The best part of having a hotel is that you can pickup or drop ofyour gear 24/7.

We may have a very nice base coming up but not untill summer time, so weneedto build up more clients for that.

Teresa is  busyat her desk with lots of enquiries about both our event servicese and the office visits today, so it seems to be carrying on from January. One big job has come in for a qoute which will be great to get so fingers crossed on that one. Still working on the sponsered van idea at present.

Some people we were in talks with over xmas seemed to crash and was dead in the water until today. An unexpected message has brought it right back into focus and im working on this big name to take us on.

January is normally very quite for us in fact for the first 3 weeks I was still in my PJs and then BANG. Me and Teresa have been rushed of our feet getting quotes out and new clients coming on board with the office visits. Our best January ever.

Going up to Middleton today, normally we just work in the city centre but a client has asked to visit his office. Looking forward to see how it works as its only 6 tram stops out. This is one of the reasons we need a van. With many of our clients seeing us about town and would like to use our service but being outside town its difficult for us to get about, Whereas in town its  a case of the next job is a street or two away. With a van we could visit Oldham, Stockport , Bury and all the satalite towns around us.Trams are ok but they very rarely get you to the front door.

Started back doing the office visits today, Good to have busy days again. Traveling out to Middleton tommorow for a client. The new base in town fell through at the last minute, shame , but its a big city.

Looking into Podcasting again this week, I really like this media, its going over to "Shoeshine Diaries" side of things as its more personal and less what the business is doing. Hoping to get Teresa in on it as well but will have to wait and see.
 

In disscussion with a potential new base in city centre manchester. Going to just do 1 day a week, possibly a Thursday, so we have a prescnce in town. had to turn down a few clients this week alone.This has to stop.

Always been interested in going off grid, but todaywe had a power cut. Only for 90 mins, but blimey, it was a shock.We were just about to send an invoice of as well for a big job...lol.It has shown us just how much we are hooked into the system, even a Shoeshine needs the web nowdays. We would be a totally different business if we did not have social media and websites.

Had a very surprising offer yesterday, could mean a big jump for us. Its a bit hush hush atm. but its kept me up all night.Also another enquiry about a home drop, must admit its nice and relaxing polishing shoes in your slippers.
 

The future is looking up, new buildings are going up everywhere at the moment, with new developments getting planning permission granted on a weekly basis. Really looking forward to working in some of these buildings. Not sure im going to look out of the window at 56 floors though to be honest.

After last weeks visit at my home im  thinking again of a delivery service. I think most clients are not concerned about price its more about convenience. Another option would be the van idea, it would mean we could widen our service which at the moment just caters for city centre, with the van we could cover areas like stockport,wilmslow and anywhere in Greater Manchester. We are still thinking of the sponsered van idea as the best option for us.

Had a gentleman drop of 5 pairs a shoes today, nothing new in that you would think. But this time being a Friday I was at home, dident even have to get out of his car. Passed them over to me and came back an hour later and I went out to pass them back. Never though id be working from home in this business, still a nice surprise for a Friday. Have a good weekend.

Got some good news today with a couple of clients accepting our quotes, funnily enough , neither of them in Manchester. We tend to stick to Manchester because its so much easier with transport and home. but if we get asked to go further afield were quite happy too.We did stop going out of Manchester last year  but now Teresa works with me its nice to get away for a couple of days. Some of our regular clients do exhibitions and events all over the place and so once they have used us in Manchester we tend to get a call a couple of months later for their event in Birmingham, leeds,London.

London is a nightmare with traffic and parking so Itend to up the quote to compensate for this and so it normally goes to a more local business, which is fine as theres room for everyone.

Today Ill take a 7 mile trip into town to see one client.I will do 2 pairs of shoes, possibly 3 and earn about a tenner.Some people would say why bother? Its called customer service, if a client wants us on a certain day , then thats when we arrive. I dont just do this with new clients, Henry has been using us for 2 and a half years, weve become good friends,We are not just building a business/brand, we are building great relationships.

If you would like to know what we will be talking about whilst I do Henrys shoes visit my personel blog over on Wordpress and see what we are about.We have a high stakes bet on!

Is it really only half way through? Not much happening in town at the moment so we are using our time to build more conecctions on Linkedin and Blogging. Getting some interesting stuff in for later in the year though.Thinking about our office were hoping to get in the summer.

Looking into this Crowdfunding stuff over the weekend. A van would to put it mildly , revolutionise the business. We hire atm on a adhoc basis but having a van of our own would mean we could take on home visits and do some Lucrative airport work. My conecctions on Linkedin offer us some great free work at business events and award ceromonies but without a van we can not manage the expense.

Maybe get some sort of advertising for local businesses on the side could help the idea maybe. Interesting times.

Ive often thought about putting a chair in a pub or bar for a Friday. But to be honest shoeshine stands and alcohol dont normally mix. Ive been told there used to be  a guy in a Liverpool pub that did it, he was really popular. hes not been there for years so is he dead or not busy enough?

May look into it ,maybe a bit of research as its Friday. Have a great weekend people. many thanks for stopping by.

So far January has been strange, normally January is very quite but this year is different. Weve been getting a lot of enquiries and a few bookings already.Put out some quotes, some you get some you dont, its just business. Our website hits have doubled? weve gone from 40 hits a day to 100? is this business coming in or the fact that I do a daily blog? It may be a mixture of both because as I said weve had a lot of interest.

It looks like the hard work we were doing in the run up to xmas has paid off. We are close to getting a huge client for our office visits here in Manchester. Also quote for event later in the year and a very good promotional spot for us as well looks possible.

Still waiting on some of the other work we were working on last year , but early days yet. Really nice to get some emails ffom our regular office visit clients , now starting to book us in again. Off to the allottment now and as its my Birthday, maybe a few beers tonight,  Happy days.

We have been invited to the first two Northern Powerhouse events held here in Manchester and was looking forward to this years. Unfortunatley it has been suspended until further notice this year. A bit of a blow for us as we pick up lots of work from these two days, Delegates see us in action and then pop over for a chat and book us for their events. We have built up strong friendships at the NP and wish them well and hope it gets sorted soon.

Still working on some clients which should bring us in some good work, just waiting for that phone to ring. The disscussions we had last year with businesses in Manchester , if they come through for us will give us a bumper year, so fingers crossed.

Plenty of emails done over the past few days, and taking some bookings with our office visits, but not untill the end of the month. Frustrating, but no ones got the cash untill payday which is normally the last Friday of the month. So we are bedding in at the home office, doing us much prospecting as we can. We are cutting back on everything to see us through until then. TBH we should be out there promoting ourselves and networking but at present we dont have the finances to do this. We had a few meetings late last year and if they come through we will be on a much stronger footing.

Strange feeling this January, well most Januarys to be honest. You have everyone talking about new beginnings and how they cant wait to get back to work after xmas and new year and Linkedin is probaly the worst. Dont get me wrong, we also have great plans for this year with the business, but whilst everyone goes back to the office, we are at home waiting for calls and emails to come in.

So what do you do? see if there are any beers left in the fridge after new year? Well ive tried that and there arnt.So we need a plan to get us moving forward, we know business will come as it always done but we are just a bit slower of the mark than others. This week we have a choice of either redecorating 2 rooms here at home and also digging over the entire Alottment or keep busy doing something else.

Were going with the latter!

Content is king they say so me and teresa have both started new blogs and are planing a weekly Podcast and Vlog.Procastination is the killer so there will be no flash equipment just the laptop to do all of them so we can start this week. Otherwise we have to wait for some cash to go shopping for new cameras and mics, and that aint happening.

Christmas is always quite for us as it is for most businesses. Our website hits normally drop well below 50 hits a day, but yesterday we hit 144? and am on target to hit well over a 100 today(saturday). Strange but has givem me and Teresa some hope for work during 2 of our quitest months, jan/feb. Fingers crossed

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We are spending some time at home this week as we only have a few office visits planned. You would think we would be busy with all the xmas parties and office drinks, but its been very quite.Same as last year so its no surprise. Luckily we had a good month of visits before with some new bookings coming in.

We are planning for next year and hopefully get our own base in town again, but this time a nice office with a bit of class, and in Manchester there are some great deals out there atm. We have our eyes set on a few and will look into it more deeply in the spring time. It will definatly work better for Teresa if she has an office in town as it will make it easier to go and chat to potential clients.

We are also looking into Bloging more and even a weekly podcast. trying to keep up with social media is taking on more time , so teresa will be able to concentrate on this more once we have the new office as she has a lot of distractions when working from home as you can imagine.

If we are not running around the city centre or at one of our bases, you will find us at home in the office thinking up ways to improve our service and ways to expand. By the end of July we think we will have doubled our bases to 4 and a 5th coming soon after.  We are also continuing our search for our very own recipie for polish.

When I get home from work our kitchen sometimes resembles a chemistry lab with concoctions on the cooker bubbling away and pots of samples to test. Teresa has been researching and testing new polishes for some time now and has become a bit of a chemistry geek and we feel we are close to a workable product. Of course we could just get the stuff made in india or china and just add our labels and our  marketing but wheres the fun in that. When we have found our recipie you will know it was made right here in Manchester , England.

This process takes time that sometimes we dont have, but Teresa refuses to settle for an inferior product and so we carry on. But this sometimes throws up surprises and she may have stumbled on to a winner, in fact we were up after midnight the other night and even opened a bottle of wine to celebrate this new product. It still needs a bit of work but if we get this particular product right we will be very happy.

Business has been slow with the heat wave here in Manchester, with everybody going onto dress down mode, with shorts and sandals/trainers everywhere.But on a brighter note we have been asked to place our chairs in 2 new sites, 1 in city centre and the other one in Media city. Hopefully this will build our presence up in the city and help spread our name around. We have been lucky so far with our sites as Flanagans on King street and The Gym on Portland street have stuck with us in these quite times and we are very grateful for this and hopefully business will pick up soon.

Our work on our very own Polishes carries on with the finished product in sight. The reason why this has taken so much longer than thought is that we came across a solution that could be huge , so we are keeping it under our hats for now, but we are testing new batches of polishes every night. We are hoping to get better at this Blogging as well so we are going to hopefully see some Pro Bloggers on Wednesday night.Having a pitch at St Johns is still in the pipeline but no news as yet but we are keeping our ears to the ground as this would certainly move us onto another level.

Had a great 3 days in Birmingham with PD Ports @NEC , met some great people. We were very busy but had some great fun and conversations. Dident really have time to walk round and check out the other exhibitors as the venue was huge, by far the biggest weve done in 4 years. Stayed at the IBIS Styles hotel next door, very comfy and the beer was very cold at a great price. Breakfast was top notch.

From 6th march we will based in the lobby of the Renaissance Hotel every weekday from 7-10am. Had a meeting today and everything looks good, will be moving chair in at the weekend.

Still @ the gym on Mondays and wednesdays lunchtimes, starting to get regulars now, just need to get some flyers done for the front desk and some advertising on the Gyms website. not done any training myself last week as work was a bit hectic with new business enquiries, but will be back in this week to keep up on my 5k . Plus im gonna get myself one of these for when im on the treadmill.

Great couple of days at the gmex with the Northern Powerhouse conf 2017. Great to see so many clients from last year sitting back in the chair. Made many more contacts and got a few Event. bookings for the coming months. Also met a new contact who may be able to get our foot in the door @ media city, looking very promising. We did take a job in birmingham which im trying to avoid but the client was so nice I couldent refuse.

Just finished setting up for the Conference at the Gmex, the chair looks quite lonely atm but if its anything like last year we will be busy. Hoping to catch up with contacts and friends we met a year ago. At Northern powerhouse 16 we picked up a lot of work for the rest of the year and even bookings for this year as well. By the time we finish on Wednesday we hope to be moving some chairs into our new base, just waiting  on emails.