Friday 2nd August 2019 - So what is ahead for HMHB in August?

Posted 2:00pm

It has been a busy, eventful and action packed year so far. Massive developments as already described in the blog. And hopefully, if the lottery can see the potential everyone else sees in us, it will end with celebrations.

But we still continue to develop and August is going to be just that. A time to get all our paperwork up to date and get off some applications too.

So what will we be doing.

I have been working on the accounts, and will be getting last year's accounts (June 2018 to May 2019) to our accountants by the end of next week, so they can be audited and delivered. I should really have done them monthly - but it just got behind, but am busy inputting income and expenditure onto Sage, reconciling the bank with the statements and ensuring all the invoices are receipts are in order.  It is fairly straight forward, just time consuming.

I have already started on two new funding applications - both around £3000. We are waiting to hear on a couple of others too. And I will go through the list I have and try and get off at least another five or six during August. It is a good time to get them off as people are away, so meetings will be at a premium.

I managed to sort out a lot of papers at home recently, and will be contacting as many of our old users as possible to see how they are doing, and if our course helped them. It will be interesting to see just how many replies we get.

I need to update our website with some features. I will be speaking to Kacper on this and see if we can get anything done. I may have to do some stuff myself - it is a learning process, but I am picking things up.

I need to work out exactly how we want to work with our various partners, and prepare papers, as there will be some big meetings coming up in September and October. We will also need to tie that in with our big lottery application - which will go through a few drafts I am sure. That will include a spreadsheet of costs with detailed explanation of how we have calculated. The good thing here is that I am used to management accounts - with budgets, cashflow and payments. We have been sensible around salaries and expenditure.

So really, August is probably about consolidating our current position, looking at the provision with partners and preparing for that. I am genuinely excited. I am sure there will be some ups and downs along the way, with more stress and frustration. It is all a challenge.

Finally, due to the LIF, as well as the sponsored money from Open Destination, our Lazza does not have to use his money to prop up the business - at least for a few months - and by then we should know more about our financial prospects.  Good times!!!  Thanks everyone for support.