I started a business. It made me want to drink copious quantities, smoke myself into oblivion and hit my head against a brick wall. Instead I wrote a blog.
Site Launch Day: -1
User Count: 24
Going right:Got mentioned in someone's blog as a Bright Idea. Hurrah.
Going wrong: Full site wasn't bloody launched so anyone who clicked thru saw a crap pilot.
Comment: Quickly adjusted page header to say Full site coming soon, get a reward of 300 credits. No-one signed up.
Names are important. #Shakespeare #Fail. My boyfriend agrees with Shakespeare though - he just doesn't care that a spaghetti bolognese, is different to a Chili con Carne. They're both tomato-y meat sauce. It's not that I don't like the additional spice and kidney beans, it's just not what I ordered.
(BTW you may hear a lot about my boyfriend, he has been my sounding board, my adviser and just generally the person who makes me a cup of tea when absolutely nothing else will cure the problem).
You see, I'm an analyst by trade. Not a superb one, nor a mediocre one - somewhere in between. Pretty good in fact. But someone whom people who know nothing about excel or finance would call an expert. HA HA HA. I live in fear that some expert, somewhere will denounce me very soon.
What I am definitely not, is a lawyer, a marketer, a copywriter, (oh yes - I found out the hard way that these are different jobs), a web designer, an accountant... Well as you can imagine, the list of what I am not goes on. So when someone said to me the other day - typically just days before launch:
"Well as you must know, unless you're registered with the data controllers' commissioner, you can't accept peoples' private information on your website."
"But surely if they are putting it on the web for all and sundry it's not exactly private." I said. "In fact it's their choice. All I am asking for is a User name and an email. The credit card stuff is taken care of by PayPal*."
"Doesn't matter. Data protection and all that."
So for people who don't know - if you accept any personal details of the ANY user including for example a clearly fictitious-unless-somehow-re-attached darthmaul@hotmail.com living at 1 darkside road, dathomir, you need to register with the data controller commissioner in your respective country (in the UK that's http://www.ico.gov.uk/). It costs 35 quid, yet another start-up expense to add to the lengthy list, although not quite in the same league as paying 350 quid an hour to lawyers to add clause 1.1.1 consisting of less characters than a tweet.
*P.S. No ringing endorsement of PayPal, by the way. I hate them as I hate anyone who pretends that the best way to provide customer support is to hide their phone number several layers deep on their website. Mine is +44 7500 973 372. It goes through to my skype. But you're better off leaving me a chat message. That way I can get to it in the middle of the night, which is my preferred time to work.