Been a long time since my last post! But there's been so much that I've been doing, the workload has just been so incredibly intense that I don't focus on making regular posts both on here and on social networks. This will be changing now though, I've re-planned, re-organised, refreshed! You're looking at Gareth 2.0! Not getting into the details, the workload hasn't been the main cause of my absence, I have faced a lot of serious personal problems which gradually dragged me down into such a mess. Thankfully on the surface I've managed to maintain a perfectly fine exterior but until recently I've had to basically get my life in order. I've done that now and I've come back stronger!

So first development, business partner! Business partner! This means shared workload, pooled knowledge and expertise, double manpower and so much more! His expertise is in marketing, a Business marketing student in Plymouth. He sent me an email after seeing a post I made months ago stating I was looking for a business partner, we got to talking through it and today I have been writing out his contract. He's shown great initiative, understanding and knowledge, with talking to him he seems to be just on par with me, in a few days he'll have caught up and we'll be on the same level with the business.

With his expertise being in marketing, it's the resolution to my problems (You may have gathered that in previous posts that marketing is not in my skill-set) so with all the agreements that we've made it seems to be a great partnership. He's currently working on a marketing plan, which we can use to determine objectives, targets and points of action. All of which I couldn't do. Now there is the obvious problem we have in distance, a 321 mile distance to be exact, but so long as we practice consistent communication we can combat this problem. I also barely know the person and being a student he's got as much University work to do as I do, which is a lot! But if I can manage to handle it, I expect he should to. And he won't have access to valuable materials/resources until a line of trust has been established, I feel this will only happen after we meet face to face!

But to summarise on this, he's skilled, intelligent, understanding, resourceful and got great initiative and drive. He shows potential to be a great business partner, let's hope he's got the work ethic to match! We will officially announce him as a business partner in the near future.

On an extra note, future Kickstarter funding has been suggested and is now a consideration. To be honest it's on the backburner on my personal priorities right now, my new partner has said that he does have some decent video production & editing equipment, while I haven't seen anything he has produced in the past, I think I would leave this task to him while I work on other things. To clarify why I mention this, successful Kickstarter projects require a great video and a hell of a lot of successful marketing (Translating into web traffic and engagement). I failed last time because I didn't know this and I didn't have the skills for it. But this can be good for when (Or if) my partner makes the second attempt, because he can learn from my mistakes and knowledge and use his marketing skills much more effectively. Successful funding is much more likely with this person than me.

Now onto web development, the rather less interesting topic of discussion, this is more bad news than goods. I say this and I'll likely underplay the importance of this topic while ironically it's the most important part about this company; it's the platform! Well good news, we're onto the final section. Bad news, we've been stuck on it for a while now. Mistakes have been made and to my memory the financial system has had to be scrapped at least twice, the most recent time I was disappointed to say the least. I have put so much work into clarifying and explaining what is needed, providing explanations, examples, notes, etc. yet they still failed to provide anything that resembled what was needed, what especially rubbed me the wrong way was blatantly getting things wrong which they has asked about and I gave clear answers to.

I can't get too upset over this though, they couldn't have done this intentionally, it's damaging to them to get things wrong. They've been working on this for so long now that they just want to get finished as soon as possible, so they have been rushing things causes mistakes, careless mistakes. But this is detrimental because mistakes of this nature require backtracking and huge wastes of time. I hope they realise now that they just need to relax and be careful, take it slow and get the job done right. This is how they'll finish, not by rushing and tripping at the final hurdle.

Next, networking. Argh! Getting pretty good at it, went to my first networking event last week (Did absolutely terrible at presenting but still benefited so much) but that's a different story. I've been developing my skills outside of networking events, met some truly incredible people, an artist and a photographer within the University were two highlights, who I will be promoting in thanks for the incredible help they've given me. Have to admit, at times my verbal communication can greatly let me down, there have been times where I'll struggle so bad just to speak. But on the whole I've enjoyed seeing my skills develop, the benefits that follow and the incredible people I get to meet.

This post has gotten quite big, I think I'll just leave it to one last point just in case you've gotten bored! Okay so lastly, I'm planning on doing an 'Artist of the day' promotion, which involves featuring artists in regular postings. So artists who I personally love but also supporters on Facebook and Twitter who would like to be promoted. One of my passions is to help artists and meeting artists and seeing their work has changed my life, so if I can help artists by getting their artwork seen and shared amongst the community, in exchange for an engaging community and the support you give me it's the least I can do! Oh and check out the awesome picture someone took for me!

Taken by Heather Whiston Photgraphy