Looking back on 2022

I'll start this blog by saying Happy New Year to you all! I hope this year provides you with everything you've worked hard for and I look forward to hearing how it goes for you. For me, I have a plan as you can see above but first, a little recap is required: As you may know from previous blogs I went full time with The Bald Viking in January last year and it went downhill quickly. It's something I refer to as the "Shea Butter Saga" but I won't bore you with the details - you can read about that here . Essentially, I spent the year unemployed despite working as hard as I could. It was a struggle. I was surviving off of the little bits of cash I was able to get from trade stands that I'd done and in May I paid myself a dividend of £500 - That was it for the year. Money had stopped coming in earlier in 2022 before I decided to go full time with this. Sure The Bald Viking was paying for some bits that I was able to put through the books like fuel and insurance for my truck, bits of food here and there when I was away at trade stands (and the odd small tattoo - Hey, it's advertising!) but apart from that, I was living off of credit cards. I'm certain you know that's a very dangerous thing to do but as I had no other option, I dug myself a very big hole. I was doing everything I could to bring in more money like doing as many trade stands and events as I could but in a cost of living crisis, there was only a small number that actually worked for me. Sales started to pick up towards the end of the year, especially as I pushed myself by doing some big, multiple day Christmas markets. The business was doing very well but that didn't mean it was money in my pocket. The more products I sold brought higher restocking costs, the travel and accommodation that was required for most of the events meant further expenses and don't even get me started on the trade stand fees! A lot of money went out over Christmas so I wasn't left with a lot but it did put me in a good position to set myself up for the future. Before this point I'd never had "enough" money in the account for everything I needed. I was missing a few bills here and there because I thought I had enough money to cover everything but another expense would pop up unexpectedly, leaving me to hope I'd make some sales to make that money up. With the money that came in over Christmas though, I was able to leave a float in the account. This means I should always have enough to cover all of the main bills and expenses and I've even been able to set myself up a small salary to pay myself each month! Nothing fancy as it keeps me under the tax threshold - perks of being self employed - but it's regular income that should help. If I have a good month and have more than the float left in the account, I can pay myself a little dividend which will be nice too. Of course, if I have a bad month, I may not even be able to pay myself the salary so it's swings and roundabouts. I'm hoping that all of the work I put in last year, especially over Christmas, will see me getting more regular orders and keep that money coming in to allow me to keep going. Now, I'm no longer "unemployed" but I can't deny that struggle hasn't impacted me personally. There's been a lot of ups and downs... The debt is one of the main things that's been looming over me and keeping me in a shit place, I've been introduced to some personal mental health issues and I've put on a lot of weight... With everything that's gone on I've been too busy or just not in the right headspace to look after myself and it's just spiralled. That just makes everything worse too. So this brings me to my own personal New Years Resolutions! I haven't listed them out properly because there's no particular order to how I want to approach them. I've been working on the MH shit with therapy though I feel like that's only made it worse. I'm waiting to be put on medication to see if that helps but only time will tell. I'm taking steps to work on the debt so that it's not a constant worry and I'm finally starting to take care of myself too. I'm sticking (loosely) to a diet plan that I'm hoping to get more strict with as I progress and I've started exercising again. As I write this, I've only been to the gym once so far and have been on a run - it doesn't sound like a lot but it's more than I've done in a very long time and it feels good. I'm also trying to give up vaping... I made the switch from smoking to vaping many years ago and that was easy but trying to stop vaping is proving very difficult. We'll see how that goes. I'm hoping that working on all of the above will put me in a much better position to be able to deal with everything life throws at me. Once the debt is out of the way, the little money I'm getting from the business will go a lot further and that's one more positive thing. The Business It's about time I got to the business plan I posted above. I say "business plan" but it's more just a list of things I need to get done. The soaps were on the list last year but with everything that happened with the Shea Butter Saga, it got pushed back by a lot. I made good progress in December and now have a batch that's nearly ready to go as well as another batch that I poured today. I'm hoping these will be ready for release later this month or at the very least, early February. I'm planning to release 2 more scents to my permanent line up as well one more seasonal scent to be released around August, this will be a charity collaboration. For the permanent scents, I've got ideas that I've had written down for a while. I just need to pull my finger out and get started - I'm hoping these will be released by April. They will be different from my other scents but will compliment my range well. Moustache Wax is something I've wanted to have for a while and have been asked a fair few times for it so it's about time I got that done. In all honesty, this should be fairly easy to achieve. I pretty much stumbled across a good formula when I was doing trial and error for my balms. All I need to do now is a bit more trial and error and I should be good. I want to expand my ladies range as well because, at the moment, I can't really call it a "range" when there's only one product... I won't give anything away just yet but I have ideas for 2 more products that will still be all natural. Now, my own space. I've been waiting to do this for a while now but there was some set backs with the spaces I'd seen. Mainly structural issues that the landlord hadn't seen and then the problems came with the repair costs. It was probably good that I didn't go for that place at the time because, even if it was structurally sound, I probably couldn't have afforded it. Now that I'm in a better position I've been looking again and have found a potential space that would work very well. Actually it would work better than expected but I don't know if I can have it yet. I'm still waiting to hear back about it as I asked just before Christmas and had a chat with the owner. Even though the conversation sounded promising, nothing is set in stone. I am hoping this one works out though because it will give me the space I need to work as well as space for a bit more... Updates to come! Nothing good comes without a lot of effort so I'll continue to work as hard as I can. Having my own space to work from away from home will allow me to get more done and bring these ideas for new products to fruition. I'm hoping that the new product releases will bring more sales, more sales means I can pay myself more and paying myself more means I can work on the debts. Working on the debts will help me clear my head a bit and get me in a better place, being in a better place will help me continue to work on myself and give me the motivation I need to keep pushing. And just like that, it could all come together! Well, there's my grand plan for 2024. I'm hoping to get a lot done this year but I know some of it, the more personal bits, may take a bit longer. I'm determined to see it all through though and putting it all here for you to see helps me feel a little more accountable for it. If I don't do it then I haven't just failed myself, I'll fail you too. If you've read this far, thank you. When I started writing these blogs I didn't expect anyone to read them but I've had a lot of messages about them which is great to see. So if you read this and are planning on making some changes/improvements in your life, feel free to send me a message. I'm always happy to talk and if I can help you in any way, I'll do what I can. Have a great year.

I wanted to do this blog post earlier in the year, maybe a couple of months after going self employed to report back on how I was finding it. Shit went tits up though and I had some major set backs so I find myself writing this now, much later than I wanted. Now it’s still too early to tell if I’ve made the right decision here, if all this will work out and I'll be able to support my family or if I’ve completely fucked it and am now stuck… but I feel it’s still worthy of a little reflection. Making this decision was something I’d been thinking about for a while and was ultimately forced in to it - You’ll see why in a moment! Heads up, this will be a long one. Let’s go back shall we... The Past The start of my career was based mainly within law enforcement. I joined the Metropolitan Police as a Special Constable in 2015, working in my free time with a view to join as a Police Constable a couple of years later. My main job at the time was at an engineering company in an operator’s role earning £8 an hour. It was boring but it gave me the easy life of a Monday to Friday allowing me to pursue what I believed to be my “dream” on evenings and weekends - Always been grinding! Once I started in the Met I quickly found out about the role of Detention Officer in Police Custody and applied for it as soon as it was advertised. It took a while to go through the application process so in the meantime I put a lot more time in to my Police work. In July 2017 I started as a Detention Officer and towards the end of 2018 I realised that being a Police Officer wasn’t going to be for me. This was most likely because I was now spending a minimum of 12 hours a day in custody then “Policing” on my rest days. I’d seen everything at this point and though I’ve always loved helping people, putting myself in harms way to protect someone or just being there as a preventative measure, there was more that changed my mind. Politics, policies and attitudes both inside and outside of the Police were the main cause. Officers have to set themselves on fire and jump through hoops while juggling just to do something simple. It takes a lot of time and work, each action is met with both positivity and negativity, the workloads pile up, all this and a fuck load more. It causes a lot of stress amongst officers and impacts their family and social lives which is something I didn’t want to happen, especially as we were expecting our first child at the time. At this point I resigned as a Special Constable and freed up my spare time outside of my main job. So I’d decided to stay in Custody. The role was a mix of day and night shifts on a rolling pattern but it allowed for 4-5 days off between sets and was good money. As always though, I found myself looking for other jobs outside of the Police. I applied for a few but never got anywhere. I’d heard about roles in Border Force being good money and as I had experience in this sector I felt like I had a chance so in 2019 when they opened recruitment again, I sent in my application. Of course we then had that little thing called covid which fucked everything and I didn’t get an interview with Border Force until April 2021. Things still took a while but I eventually started training in November 2021. And let’s not forget that I started The Bald Viking in 2019 too! The Not So Distant Past To The Present I was now an Immigration Officer. I started at Heathrow Terminal 5 in January 2022 and though I went in to this job knowing it was going to be fucking boring, I wasn’t prepared for the shitshow it actually was. Before I applied, I’d spoken to people I used to work with who were now in Border Force to get an idea of the role, the hours and all that shit. The role was mundane and tedious but it paid well so I decided to go for it. The hours and shift pattern I’d been told about before I applied sounded good, it wasn’t until I was in the middle of training that I was informed they’d changed the shift pattern during covid and it was now absolutely shit. From what I remember being told, it used to be 7 or 8 hour shifts working 5 days out of 7 on a weekly rota. Heathrow was always going to be a 2 hour commute each way for me but with shorter shifts it would have been manageable. The new rota was 4 days out of 7 but 10 or 11 hour shifts. There were 3 main shifts available with a bit of variety in them but they were essentially earlies, lates and nights. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? It fucking was. Allow me to explain. The earlies were usually 5am starts and finished around 3pm, the lates started around 12pm and finished after 11pm then the nights started at 9pm and ran until 7am. It still wouldn’t be too bad if you started on an early, did a couple of lates and ended on a night but that’s not how they did things. Oh no! When I said you worked 4 out of 7 days, that wasn’t 4 in a row, they’d be broken up throughout the week. Over the course of a year you had to work a certain amount of weekends and a certain amount of nights. It would have been ok if you could choose a shift pattern to suit you but that wasn’t allowed so you ended up having a random set of shifts throughout the week. I’ll give you an example of the usual week I’d have: Sunday would be a night shift so I left home at 7pm to start at 9, finished at 7 and got home just after 9am on the Monday, sometimes 10am depending on the traffic as I had to go on the M25. I’d sleep until about 1pm, maybe 2pm if I got back later. On Tuesday I’d be starting at 5am which meant I was up at 2am and left at 3am. I’d finish around 3pm, get stuck in traffic and get home closer to 6. Let’s pause here for a second! I finished a night shift and got home around 9am then slept until 2pm at the latest, a healthy 5 hours of sleep! From the point I woke up I had 12 hours before I had to get ready for my early shift the next day. The kids didn’t go to bed until 8 or 9pm so that was the latest I could try to sleep, never did get to sleep that early though! If I was lucky it was usually 11pm or midnight before I got to sleep allowing me to have an even healthier 2-3 hours of sleep before work. If I was really lucky I might have the Wednesday off then a night shift on the Thursday and a late shift on the Saturday before starting again on the Sunday. I barely had a social/family life outside of work and whenever I did have that quality time, I was always tired. It didn’t take long before I started falling asleep while driving to and from work. Once or twice was a coincidence, I was tired and it was expected. When it happened 6 or 7 times I realised there was a problem so I went to the doctors. I described my shift pattern and the commute and they immediately signed me off work and referred me to a sleep clinic as they believed I had sleep apnea. There was a few other things that lead them to believe this, mainly being a fat cunt, but the lack of sleep due to work was the main concern. After 3 months of working here I reapplied for my old job in Custody as well as a ridiculous amount of jobs on Indeed. Jobs that I was under qualified for, a lot that I felt I was over qualified for and many more at my skill level. I heard nothing back. What Do I Do With All This Free Time? I was now at home, spending all my time with my family, doing everything I wanted/needed to do and it was wonderful. I had full pay for the first month then it went down to a reduced payment. It took a long time before I got the referral to the sleep clinic and I eventually went down to statutory sick pay. We were struggling a bit financially at this point but I didn’t want to risk falling asleep at the wheel again so I was holding out to get my old job back and decided to start doing trade stands as well. That’s a whole other story but some of my past blogs are about trade stands so make sure to check them out! Since starting The Bald Viking I’d always wanted to end up doing it full time, I just didn’t know when that time would come. Trade stands brought that time closer and when I had a very successful Christmas market in November 2022, that time moved closer still. In December I was informed that the statutory sick pay was going to end leaving me in a shit situation and with no luck finding any other jobs (I’d applied for over 70 while all this was going on, got one interview, unsuccessful!) I had no choice but to make that decision and go full time. But Cal, what about your old job in Custody? Ahh, you'll see. My last hope was to get my old job back. I'd applied online, gone through the whole recruitment process and was waiting for the vetting. I hadn't heard anything for a while so I called them to ask for an update. They told me they were still waiting for 1 of the 3 references I'd supplied them with. The 2 that were done were both in the Met; 1 Sergeant and 1 Inspector. They still needed the reference from my Border Force supervisor though. This is where it gets interesting. The supervisor I was assigned to when I started barely spoke to me. I got a couple of emails full of unnecessary shit from him and that was pretty much it. After being there 3 months this guy disappeared, I couldn't get hold of him through phone or email, asked other officers and no one had heard from him or knew where he was. He could have died, gone off the grid, became a mole person or anything. Fuck knows what happened to him but I was unable to get that reference. While I was signed off I got assigned to a new supervisor so I told Met recruitment about this. Informed them of the disappearance of my old supervisor and asked them to email the new supervisor for the reference. They said they couldn't do it... When I asked them why, they told me they needed the reference from the referee I'd given on my application. I confirmed with them that this dude may be dead and they told me it didn't matter, he's the one they need the reference from. Baring in mind I'd only left this job a couple a few months before reapplying and had a Sergeant and an Inspector both still in the Met who'd already given references, they said the application could not progress without the one from Border Force. So that plan was dead. How fucking stupid. The Present So here we are, apologies for taking a while to get to this point but I wanted to give you a good idea of what was going on. What I’ve written here is fuck all compared to the amount I wanted to write but I didn’t think you’d appreciate a novel for a blog post. In January I announced I was going full time with The Bald Viking, making the jump and becoming self employed. That's when it all went tits up although I hadn't seen that yet. I started by planning out the year; I committed to another regular market at Potters Bar, confirmed a regular spot at the Welwyn Garden City farmers market as I'd done a couple there already, booked a few multiple day trade shows, got more ideas for new products down on paper and got to work stocking up as much product as I could because the quiet months were the best time to do that. My online sales grew a hell of a lot from last year so thank you for that! With markets and trade events not really kicking off until March I really needed that boost. My first trade stand of the year was The Peculiar Market in Welwyn Garden City on 4th March, I was really excited to be back, did really well that day and sold a lot of products! Two days later I got an email about a potential quality issue. A new customer had generously bought all 6 butters from me at the trade stand, I'd spent a lot of time talking to him about anything and everything and was excited to see what he thought of my products. He told me that 2 of them were fine but the other 4 were very grainy. Now at this point I hadn't seen what was going on and assumed that it was the typical "summer graininess" and that maybe the tins had been in the sun or something. I gave him advice on how to melt them down and set them again but a week later I had another email from him saying they went bad again. The next day I got 2 more messages from other customers with the same problem and that's when I realised something was going on. The Shea Butter Saga I began checking through all of my butters and found that all of them had changed consistency to what could only be described as "damp sugar". Coarse, crystallised and absolutely unusable - I had no idea what was going on. Now my flat is always ridiculously warm and I thought that maybe the butters had warmed up too, wether that was from the heat in the flat or the sun coming through the window, I couldn't be sure. I spent a long time melting down each tin then setting them in the fridge before placing them in a cool box instead of on the usual shelf. For a couple of days they looked fine so I began sending products out again. A couple days later and I found them going bad again. I melted them down once more and did some tests by leaving the tins in different areas around the flat. No matter where they were placed they all went bad. It was at this point that I found the balms and Tattoo Butter were affected too, though different results due to different ingredients/formulas. I realised that these tins I spent a long time making to prepare for market season were completely useless and couldn't be saved. Over £4,000 worth of stock in the bin. This is where I really started to worry. After doubting myself, my methods, my process and everything else I realised it must be an ingredient. There were only 5 ingredients I used that were present in all types of products that went bad so I started replacing them one at a time. Mango Butter was the last ingredient I had to replace and I jumped the gun in assuming that was the problem. I'd replaced Shea Butter the day before and the test batch produced with that looked fine - it wasn't though, it just took a good few days for the quality to deteriorate. So eventually I found it was Shea causing my problems. I got on to my supplier about it and they refused to acknowledge there was an issue. I began to notice a pattern in the bad products at this point, there was always a dip in the middle of the tin and a ring around the edge showing signs of separation. I purchased more shea butter from a different supplier and when I opened the tub I noticed a big dip in the middle with a grainy texture around it. I had a feeling that this was going to be bad quality too and I confirmed my suspicions when I made another test batch. This went on for a while. I went through 5 different suppliers trying both organic and non-organic shea, going back and forth with the suppliers about the quality, each one denying any problems. Each tub I opened looked exactly the same and I could tell the products would go bad - unfortunately I was always right. The worst part about this is that it only seemed to be me who was affected by this. Other companies use shea and no one was saying they had an issue. Eventually I found another company who experienced similar issues, they used a lot of different ingredients but only had problems with the products containing shea! When I posted an update on Instagram about this I then had other people coming forward saying that they'd seen a difference in quality from other companies they'd bought products from. Apparently those companies denied any quality issues though... At this point I'd spent over £1,000 buying more shea, tins other ingredients to conduct tests and make up test batches etc. I was broke and it wasn't looking good. I lost a lot of sleep over this shit and honestly it was fucking me up. The company I had built from nothing and turned in to something great, was now reduced to nothing again - at least that's how I saw it. I had a last resort plan that then became the only plan and that was to swap out shea for something else. I wasn't sure what I could swap it for to have the same quality, texture and affect that my products had before all of this, so I got to work again and eventually landed on Kokum Butter. It had everything I needed but it was more than twice the price of shea, a price I was more than happy to pay to get back to normal. As soon as the Kokum arrived I made test batches with all 3 types of products and was happy with the results. I kept them on the table for a week, in the warm to see how they'd be affected and they held up great. Eventually I began restocking my products as fast as I could and only finished that last week... We're in July now, 7 months later. The Hopeful Future Last night I delivered the final replacement product I had to send out. You see, during all this shit I was sending replacement products to people who purchased the bad quality ones from me. I didn't realise the replacements were shit too so I ended up replacing the replacements! Anyway, I've had enough of dwelling on the past. I worked hard, got through it and I'm happy to see the end of it. Now I can focus on growing my business properly and kicking off this self employed venture how I'd originally planned. Fresh start? I'd love to! So now the main reason for this blog: What's it like going self employed? Well if we pretend this shea issue never happened and forget that fact I've only paid myself £500 this year, it's not too bad! I'm working a lot more now, every day with constant messages, emails, social media, product making, testing, designing, deliveries, trade stands and everything else you can think of. All this is separated though, broken up throughout the day. I'm working from home but I can pick and choose when to do what I need to get done. This way I can see my family more. I now take my son to school and/or pick him up near enough every day, I'm always there for dinner and to get them to bed and I have evenings to myself too. Financially, it's a struggle at the moment but I see glimpses of light and I know it's going to get better. I could have been there already had it not been for all of that shea bullshit but I'm hoping next year will be a fresh start. I've set myself up for a good Christmas period that I'm hoping will carry me through and set me up again for next Christmas, I'll be releasing new products, adding new services and just get through everything like I always do. If you're thinking of going self employed and have something you can jump in to, you should go for it. All those things you're worried about will work themselves out, trust yourself and make it work. Don't get me wrong it is scary to even think about it, you need to plan for it going well and have back ups in case it doesn't, plus some extras in case you get side tracked! If you can set yourself a good plan going forward, you'll be able to work it out if something goes tits up. Just maybe don't do anything involving shea butter... Well that was a big old fucking blog, I'm glad to be at the end now and I'm sure you are too! Hopefully this has explained why I went full time and has given you a good perspective if you're in a similar situation. My journey went downhill pretty much as soon as it started but I'm fighting my way through, I hope yours will be a lot smoother and all uphill! One last thing I need to mention here is all the support I had from my customers. Not to sound big headed but I like to think I provide excellent customer service and I pride myself on that. I've been told many times that my customer service is outstanding and I think this is why I got so much support. I'm telling you this because it's important, don't underestimate the power of great customer service. If you're an arsehole, you'll be treated as such. Be a nice person and I find that the karmic powers that be will help you out when you need it. I had a few low points during all this shit but then I'd get a message from a customer saying something simple like "Thank you for keeping us updated with everything, looking forward to seeing the products back soon" and that kept me going. With whatever you do, if you provide a great service it will provide for you too. Thank you.

It's been a while since my last blog post so it's great to see your beautiful little face perusing through my ramblings again! In early September I wrote about my first trade stand experience (You can read it here ) and mentioned that I had two more coming up so I figured now would be a good time to reflect on the other events I did and how I've grown The Bald Viking since then! Before I get started I should point out that I am by no means an expert in business, in fact I'm a useless cunt but you'll see the little things I've been doing that have helped me and hopefully they'll help you too. My 2nd trade stand was back at Stevenage Farmers Market in the Old Town. My set up was the same but I'd learned from mistakes I made at the previous market regarding visibility so I dropped the back wall (this enabled passers by to see what I was doing from behind my stand) and also had 2 roller banners made up. One has the lovely Alice & Rebecca showcasing my Tattoo Butter (A great attention grabber!) and the other has a large picture of my logo with writing showing what I sell. Both of these add extra signage to my stand from all sides, make it look a bit more professional and I noticed they were getting a fair bit of attention so that's money well spent! I also embraced my inner "Del Boy" and started flagging people down that would have otherwise walked past and once they'd had a good look at my products, most of them purchased for themselves or others. In doing this I managed to get a lot more custom and doubled what I took at my first trade stand! My First Big Event The following day I had my first big event: The Autorama Hot Rod & Customs show run by the A602s - And what an event it was! Now I'm useless at finding out what events are on and when etc. but I was fortunate enough to get an intro to this one through my Uncle Graham who is friends with one of the organisers. I sent off an email, had a phone call, paid the trade stand fee and I was in. On the day I got there early as I always like to do but then found that the bigger and more experienced traders had already been camped out there since one or two nights before! Luckily I was able to squeeze in near the top so I wasn't pushed all the way down to the end where there was less foot traffic and I was fairly close to the main stage as well as the food trucks which definitely helped me get noticed. I met a lot of people at the show, gained some new customers, got chatting to the lovely Fiona who now stocks my products at her barber shop, Brethren's Barbers , and got advice from the more experienced traders on other shows I should look out for. I had a great time at Autorama and the business did really well too! A Little Help From My Friends As I mentioned above, the only way I got in to this show was by my Uncle giving me the heads up about it and friends and family are very important to help your business succeed, as you're about to find out. My next trade stand was going to be at Stevenage Farmers Market again on 8th October but before then, I was travelling a little ways up north to attend the Beard On beard competition on 1st October. This was going to be my first time attending a proper beard event and it was going to be as a spectator/competitor as I knew the trader slots for these events were already filled the previous year so I would be unable to trade there. That is until I received a message... Earlier in the year I had met up with Jim, a customer of mine, and his lovely wife Dana for a drink when they were passing through my area (Hi guys!). I'm in regular contact with them on social media through messages and shared groups and as I've always been honest and open (As you'll see in my first blog here ) I was telling Jim about my website sales being pretty shit at the time and trying to find ways to boost them. The next day I received a message from Dana saying that she knew the organisers of Beard On and had spoken to them about me, managing to squeeze me in for a trade stand! I was over the moon hearing this and was so grateful for their help because being able to trade at a beard event is a big thing! My stock was very low at the time and I had a couple of weeks before the Farmers Market so I was going to take my time restocking but now I had to get my arse in gear to get everything done in less than a week so I was ready. I had a great opportunity given to me by Jim & Dana so I didn't want to fuck up and let them down! The whole week I was getting up early to make products, label them and even had a few supply issues that I just managed to get sorted in time but I got there and before I knew it, I had the truck all loaded up and was on my way to Beard On. Beard On I was the first trader there as I always like to be early so I got set up then did some mingling. I got chatting to Michael and Kay Wallage, some of the organisers, and met a load more lovely people from the team that set it all up. More traders started coming in (There was 7 of us in total) and before I knew it the hall was filling up. It was great to get to chat to customers and other beardos that I'd only spoken to before online, I made some new and already repeat customers, had some photos taken as you'll see above and I still took part in the competition so it was an all round great experience - I'm also booked to trade there again next year and I can't wait! The following weekend I was back in my usual digs at the Stevenage Farmers Market and had another great sales day as well as meeting even more people and gaining new customers! Trade stands have already become a big part of the business' income and will be the key to The Bald Viking eventually becoming my full time job. They have grown my business so much more than any ad or marketing campaign has in the past and I feel like this is because it's so much more personal. I get to interact and truly engage with my customers and sell my products properly, rather than just posting about them online. Ambassadors The next step I took in growing my business was bringing some brand ambassadors on board. I'd toyed with the idea before and even had it set as one of my new year resolutions but I had my concerns. My main concern is that with ambassadors from other brands, all I tend to see is them spamming the comments in group posts with their discount codes and like those ads that pop up in the middle of a YouTube video, all it does is piss you off. I didn't want to be annoying people with promotions of my business so I knew I'd set some ground rules - Mainly just to not be an irritating cunt, or "Thrush" as I like to say. Rather than ask people directly to become ambassadors like all those spam businesses do that end up in your message request folder on Instagram, I figured I'd put out a post inviting applications from those who had tried my products, love them and actively want to promote my business because it's a business they like. I offered a little incentive because any help they bring me should be rewarded but I didn't expect to get much interest. The next day my inbox was flooded with applications and I spent the next couple of days sorting through them all. I had a lot of applications from people who hadn't tried my products before and I turned them down on the basis that it's hard to recommend products when you haven't even tried them! The rest of the messages were from new and repeat customers who said they'd love to help me promote my business and it was a great feeling to see so many people want to represent my brand! I now have 12 ambassadors that are known as my Raiders and they've already helped me to get orders and new customers! A Little Summary There's a lot of steps involved in growing your business. While mine is still very small and doesn't have a lot of money, there's still little steps I can take to keep growing. Baby steps, if you will. Trade stands have been great and ambassadors bring that little bit extra but there's still a lot I have to do. Ambassadors are what I'd describe as "passive marketing" in a business because they're picking up my slack with posting and other bits like that. There's only so much I can do but my Raiders help me further my reach and recommend my brand to more people that I possibly could alone - Thanks boys! Trade stands being a big part of my income need to continue too and that's why I've been spending a lot of time recently searching for other regular markets I can get in to as well as bigger events throughout the year. I'm currently booked to start doing 2 regular markets in my area on top of the Stevenage Farmers Market (These are the Welwyn Garden City Farmers Market and also the Peculiar Market which alternates between WGC and Hatfield). As well as these I've just secured a place at the 3 day Christmas Market at Knebworth House and the following weekend I'll be at Beardingham which is a big event set up by the Bearded Villains (Big thanks to Paul, on of my Raiders, for letting me know about this)! I'm very excited to be getting in to all of these trade stands and I'll be sure to keep you updated on how it goes. Well that's it for now! I hope this helped some of you, the smaller businesses anyway. If it wasn't clear enough, most of what I'm trying to say is that marketing doesn't have to come through ads that take your hard earned money and give you fuck all in return. It's more about networking, getting out there with your business and making sure you're getting noticed, rather than just boosting a social media post and constantly checking to see how well it's doing. I must have spent at least £1k on ads in the past and have not seen one order come through for them but comparing that to my trade stands where, let's take Stevenage for example, I pay a £20 trade fee per time and made £170 the first time then over £300 the next two... the returns are instant and a fuck load better than ads! Friends and family are fantastic as well! My mum, my uncle and Jim & Dana have helped me get in to 3 of the trade stands I've done so far and one of my Raiders, Paul, let me know about one I have coming up. Another one of my Raiders, Gareth Williams, took the time to make a big list of other events throughout the year that would be suitable for my business and I'll be applying to some of them when I can - Much appreciated bro! If you speak to people and ask if they know about any events you could trade it you're bound to hear about something that will help you out so get asking around. Work out what would be best for your business then start taking those steps to make it happen. It's working for me and I'm fucking useless!

As hard as it is to believe, I wasn't born this beautiful. I was born a red head, "kissed by fire" if you will (An information card about my birth with my newborn picture on it actually says "Hair Colour: Red") but that soon changed to white/blonde. By the time I was a toddler I had long, thick, platinum blonde hair that most ladies would be jealous of. A couple years later it started to go a little darker and for the rest of my pre-bald life I was a dirty blonde. Around the age of 14 I actually had shoulder length hair which I then dyed bright blonde and I looked like a fucking light bulb! I dyed my fringe a couple times during that standard emo phase but generally kept to a short back and sides after that. Bald Is The Family Way! My dad and all his brothers are bald and were bald as far as I can remember - My dad still sports the Friar Tuck, egg in a blanket look and despite the constant pleading and bribes from me he still won't embrace the baldness! My mums brothers are balding/thinning as you do later on in life but despite them still managing to keep some of their hair, I knew it was only a matter of time until I started heading that way myself. That time came soon enough! Around the age of 17 I started noticing my hairline receding and it seemed to get worse every time I looked at it. I wasn't quite in denial because I knew it was happening but I tried to hide it as best I could. With the short back and sides style trim I said about earlier, I kept a longer fringe so that I could cover the part of my forehead that was now permanently exposed. I went to a barber at the time who kind of had the same thing but didn't really bother to hide it and he helped me keep it covered for as long as we could. It was going alright for a while as I hadn't really looked at it much, I suppose at this point denial was starting to creep in. Until that fateful day... The Reality Of Going Bald! Shortly after my 21st birthday I was driving to meet some mates and had the windows down. As I passed a T-Junction, a crosswind blew through my car and I felt it disturb my precisely placed hair. I looked in the rearview mirror to sort it out and to my horror, my worst fears came to fruition. The remnants of my "fringe" had been blown in to a triangle, pointing down towards my nose and it fully exposed the receding hair line I somewhat forgot I had. It was at this point where I said "fuck this" and called the barbers to book an appointment. The hair had to go. I got to the barbers the next day and was greeted by my usual barber. He asked if we were doing the same as usual and I said "No, I want it all off". He chuckled and asked what I meant so I told him "The hair's coming off and I'm going bald". This poor man was so reluctant to do it, because he thought I'd be angry at him after, that he made me start it off. No joke, he held the clippers in position and had me move my head in to them so that it was all my doing! A few minutes later the deed was done and I felt like a new man. A fairly insecure new man, mind you. I hadn't told anyone I was going bald, not even my now wife Kerry, so I had all the shock reactions to come. I knew people would say it didn't look right and I was correct! The worst part about it though, and here's some solid advice if you're thinking about taking the plunge and going bald, was that I didn't realise I had a slight tan at the time. Being summer, I'd unknowingly gained a slightly golden glow so when I shaved my head I was left with a pale outline from where my hair used to be! Kind of like the white lines on a tennis ball except it was the whole top, sides and back of my head. This made the initial reactions from friends and family worse but after a couple of weeks my tan evened out and it looked a lot better. That was the last time I went to the barbers, until I grew my beard of course. I started growing my beard out as soon as I went bald but it was minimal, nothing like it is now - It definitely helped the aesthetic of being bald because I no longer looked like a thumb with a terminal illness. The hair on my head was still growing, albeit slowly and patchy, so I had to find a way of staying bald. I bought myself one of those round, handheld clippers (I think it was Babyliss) and that served me well for a good year. I did have a blunder with it one day and accidentally lopped off half of my eyebrow... Luckily my eyebrows are very light so it wasn't that noticeable (My wife didn't even realise until I pointed it out 2 weeks later!). I grew tired of having stubble on my head and wanted it to be completely smooth so i turned to my trusty razor (Note: Those Skull Shavers you keep seeing advertised don't get rid of it all, you'll still have the stubble). For some fucking reason I thought it would be weird to have a wet shave on your head so I went in dry (That's what she said), no shaving foam and just hacked away at my head. It left me with an awful looking shaving rash for a good week. Next time I had the sense to use shaving foam and the result was a lot better. I now do this 2 - 3 times a week to maintain the beautiful baldness and keep it all smooth. More advice for you: 1. Shaving your head is not the same as shaving your face. There's different contours and angles you have to get right in order to avoid cutting yourself. Don't get me wrong, you will cut yourself so be prepared for that - I still cut myself from time to time. Practise makes perfect though and you'll get there in no time. 2. Use a sensitive shaving foam/cream. If you've recently gone bald or are planning to do it, remember that your head has always had a safety blanket of hair to protect it. Going bald exposes it to the elements and the skin on your head will be a lot more sensitive. I use NIVEA sensitive shaving foam/gel and you can usually get it in any supermarket for around £2. 3. Use the right razor! As weird as it sounds this is very important but luckily for you I've done the leg work for you through trial and error. Now your big name brands like Gilette (THE BEST A MAN CAN GEEEEETTTTTTTT!) and Wilkinson Sword are good to use on your head but they are so expensive! When shaving your head you want the sharpest blades possible so you're going to be changing your blades more often than when you were just shaving your face. This is where it starts to get more costly so the newer subscription brands will be your friend. Stay away from Harry's! Nothing against the brand but, again through trial and error, I found that they're not actually meant to use on your head - They even state this on their website. I found one called Dollar Shave Club and have been using them for years now. They have 3 different options for razors and I use the most expensive one, I think it's called the "Executive" razor. I say expensive, it's less than half the cost of the store brands. The razor handle is around £6 and you get a 4 pack of blades for £8 - I get this on subscription each month and change the blade each week so all in, I spend £8 a month. DSC are hands down the best razors to shave your head with. They also do other products like pre, during and post shave balms etc so you can treat yourself if you want but they're not as well priced as the razor blades. 4. Moisturise! Keep your baldness moisturised and shined up - You can thank me later for this. If you have a beard, use your beard products. Any product leftover on your hands after you've sorted your beard should go straight on to your head (If you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen videos of me doing this). If you don't have a beard and don't have those products, I'd recommend my Tattoo Butter as it's a fantastic moisturiser, smells great and will last a long time. Embracing The Baldness! If you've been thinking about taking the plunge and embracing the baldness, I hope this blog has helped you make up your mind. Going bald was one of the best decisions I ever made (Growing my beard was another! Check out my post on how I got started here .) and I'll never go back. I mean I've even turned it in to a brand! Fuck me, right? You'll never have a bad hair day again, you save money at the barbers and are always in full control of how you look. Do it. Do it now. Ok bye! Do it.

It took me over 3 years to do my own trade stand. Why? I'm a dickhead, that's why. There were many opportunities for me to have a trade stand at local markets, mini festivals and more but I just couldn't get organised in time. Money was one of the biggest issues because the basic equipment you need, such as gazebos, can be ridiculously expensive and during those 3 years I'd been saving money to bring out new products and better the business. That old saying "You have to spend money to make money" comes up here but in this instance it has 2 meanings: 1. I need to spend money on ingredients, safety reports, labels and containers in order to actually have products to sell. 2. I need to get my business out there to actually sell those products. Trade stands are fantastic for getting your business noticed more, especially if you have a big, bold banner with a fuck off skull on it but I needed time and money to get it done and I'm always running low on both. The Kick Up The Arse I Needed In January 2022, the organisers of a certain Viking themed festival contacted me and asked if I wanted to have a trade stand there. I had no equipment, no idea what I'd need but I did not want to let this opportunity get away! The prospect of having my first trade stand was great but the bigger opportunity was to get my arse in gear and sort out all of the equipment so that I could do more in the future. I told the organisers that I'd love to do it but had never done one before and didn't have anything I needed but if they were ok with it, I'd get everything and keep them updated along the way. They accepted and were very kind in helping me out with answers to the many questions I had. The main question I had, and one that involved months of research, was deciding on what kind of tent/gazebo set up would be best for me - This was the most expensive bit of kit and would be an investment so I wanted to make sure I did it right. I was told that medieval style canvas tents are great though costly and was advised to stay away from the cheap pop-up gazebos as they always break. This is what I was told at the end: "Whatever you go with in the end though, it does not make a difference for this festival :)". Now I planned to continue doing this festival for many years, if all went well, so eventually I found a heavy duty gazebo set up that I was happy with and had good reviews for reliability. I spent around £1500 on this (the one that's pictured above) and was so happy that I'd finally got it and made a good investment for my business. I updated the organiser straight away and was fairly disheartened at the reply I got. After describing my set up I was told that I'd essentially made the wrong choice for this festival as they had now decided that from next year, they'd only accept the medieval style canvas tents. I was pissed. SO PISSED! I replied using her own words where she told me it wouldn't matter what I got and then she came back at me all shitty, tone had completely changed and the nice, friendly and helpful person I'd spoken to before had fucked off. As I've already stated, I chose this particular set up with a mind to continue doing this festival in the future and had now been told I wouldn't be accepted back next year without the right kind of tent. A couple more "strongly worded emails" were exchanged and then I pulled out of the event. I felt like I was being treated like a mug and I wouldn't let that happen. All The Gear With No Idea Anyway... My lovely mum got wind of an opening at a local farmers market and did the leg work for me so all I had to do was send some details over to the organiser then apply for a trading license. Within a month it was all done and I was on my way to starting my first trade stand! All I had at this time was a gazebo and some tables but nothing else. Of course I had products to sell but my stand had to look the part too. More research... every second of every day I was trying to work out what would look good, where I could get the equipment and how I'd arrange it. I had a rough picture in my head but making that become real was proving difficult. I wanted to get some stepped display stands of some kind but everywhere I looked, the prices were extortionate and I couldn't afford much more at the time. Eventually, I had a look at the Hobbycraft website and found some alternatives: Crates! Lots and lots of crates! I went in to my local Hobbycraft store and got a variety of small and larger crates, some spray paints and some organza runners. I put the crates on the ground outside and went to town with the spray paints. Using black, orange and grey to compliment the colours of my brand, I soon had some display stands that looked awesome and were very versatile with setting up/stacking. I picked up some small wall shelving units from B&M and then I grabbed a couple of grey, single, flat bed sheets from Asda for the table covers and that was pretty much it! I got thrifty as fuck. All I had to do now was arrange it on the day and I was set. Getting Ready The day soon came and I was so nervous. I spent the previous evening loading the car, getting all my products ready and crafting some finishing touches. I got to the market 3 hours before it opened and started setting up. Here's a word of advice for you: Heavy Duty gazebos are a TWO man job! I struggled getting it set up on my own but managed it eventually. Then I laid the tables out in an "L" shape so the stand looked more spacious and welcoming and started laying it all out. Bed sheets on the tables, organza runners on the bed sheets for a nicer look, crates on the runners then everything else on top. I'm glad I got there early because it allowed me more time to move everything round a couple of times and see how I wanted it. About 2 hours from the point I started setting up I was finally satisfied with how it looked and then I just had to wait for the market to open! To summarise the day: I did about £170 in sales which made it my best sales day ever and, considering I only expected to make £20 if I was lucky, I was overwhelmed at how well I'd done! My parents came down to see me and brought Kerry and our boys with them, my friends Luke & Penny came down and brought my little mates Rocky & Buddy (pictured above), I gained some new customers, spoke to a lot more people and got my brand noticed by a lot of people! The organiser, Hugh, also wrote up a newsletter announcing the arrival of The Bald Viking at Stevenage Farmers Market and I've now kept that as a little keepsake <3. Overall, and considering this was my first ever trade stand, it was a massive success! I couldn't do the market in August as I was away but I'm back there this Saturday and the following day I'm doing a Hot Rod & Classic Car Show! Exciting times! More To Do Now here's the bit for anyone reading this who's thinking of doing their own trade stand... What I could have done better: 1. More signage! It was actually pointed out to me that from the back of my stand, no one could see what I was about. There's a footpath behind my stand and I was flagging some people down to bring them to my stand but signage would have helped. My trade stand is actually in front of a boutique house that has barbers and tattoo artists and as I sell grooming products and tattoo aftercare, it's definitely something I need. I've now got 2 custom roller banners on order and I'm hoping they get here on time but if not, I'll have them for the next one. 2. Social Media! At the time of writing this I still haven't done it and have just reminded myself about it. It's a local farmers market that a lot of people in the area know about and go to if there's something there for them. Jumping in to some of the local community facebook groups and similar places, you can let people know that you'll be there and quickly show off what you offer. It's bound to peak the interest of one or two people. 3. Information! Assume that not everyone who comes to your stand will talk to you because they don't, even if you greet them. Some will just have a little nose around then fuck off. A price list is a great way of showing what you offer but you can always elaborate on that with further bits of information. For example, I sell different types of beard products so I'm going to have info printed out and framed on what the products are and what they do for your beard. I'm also going to have something similar that describes my scents a bit more. You might have a couple of people come to you at once but you can only really have one proper conversation at a time. If the other person's questions can be answered by the information you have on display, that will really help and might even get you an extra sale. Well I think that's about it for now! My experience of my first trade stand and my journey to get there all down in writing for the world to see. I hope you enjoyed it and that it helped you if you're planning your own trade stand. I've added a little slideshow below to show more pictures and help you see what I was talking about. As always, I'm more than happy to answer your questions if you have any about trade stands, gazebos, banners, signs or anything else you can think of. While we're at it, I'm always up for a chat if you just want to talk shit! DM's are always open for you guys. If you fancy reading a little bit more about me, check out my last blog here!