This is Quite an interesting article on the subject.

it’s a fantastic little idea that once written would only need marketing and not continual updating, in fact you could outsource getting it written on that basis, all you’d then need to do is market it. I’m not sure how easy it would be to access the patents database (I’ve never really looked that closely at it) - any ideas Glenn?

I fell at a hurdle long before purchasing the book actually, that’s because my inbox still contains 300+ emails (and I got a size warning for it this morning too!!). I do have an excuse though, I simply watched the video and thought “Wow great idea, I can follow some of that”. Glenn took it one stage further and read all the supplementary information over at inboxzero.com - by his own admission this solidifies and puts into practice the ideas behind the video - I’m hoping to get time to do that this week (now if only I had read a book about making time to do such things…)

Once I get that cleared I’m aiming to get the book at least started over the weekend.

Whilst I haven’t pulled my finger out and started reading the book, I have noticed a major change in Glenn. It’s difficult to describe and it’s probably only how well I know him that I can see it, it’s not just his enthusiasm for this book (as he says a complete recommendation from Glenn is hard to come by!), but more about how much less jumping between tasks he does!

Interestingly, the said that although the way The Apprentice is filmed is different to the way it’s shown. When watching it makes it seem like it lasts 12 weeks, i.e. one per candidate. However it only takes two months in reality. The tasks can sometimes run back to back, other times there are several days between the last and next task.

The producers also film two endings showing Alan Sugar telling both final candidates they have one. Then both work for him for a couple of months while the show is being edited and aired. Then Alan Sugar chooses based on the tasks and how they have been working for him.

Just goes to show that TV is not what it might seem.

As for April it was quiet with my online shop aswell. I put that down to easter aswell the nice weather. Roll on the bad weather where people get bored and spend!!

Personally I found Michelle very likeable from the minute she came on stage, asking whether she could put her glasses on because she couldn’t see anybody and felt like she was talking to herself.

Michelle, was likeable, funny and ultimately quite down to earth about her experiences from her tough childhood, to applying for the apprentice (and thinking she was going to work for Branson!).

She gave opinions on education, politics and women in the workplace, before discussing her charity work, her hobbies and her plans for the future - several times telling the interviewer she hadn’t finished yet and was going to continue!

She did ask one thing though - that none of us judge a book by it’s cover, as she thinks she looks like Joanna Lumley on the cover!

If you’re an eBay fanatic all those missed parcels and trips to the post office (at funny times) can cost you in both time and petrol!

If you were allowing them to post parcels and collect your dry cleaning I would expect either a bill at the end of the month, or to “top-up” an account in advance (that may require a bit of IT?).

I’d possibly build up my model on the basis of different things, the things I do reguarly like post office at one lower price (as I know lots of people may use the service), but if I have to go and collect a special widget from a special shop I’d want a “custom price” for a “custom job”?

I would imagine you’d get people to register for a small fee, say £9.99 then you could email them when the parcel arrived and then charge say £4.99 every time they used the service.

Costs would be some IT systems to track what came in etc and to email the customers. Then a industrial unit and some staffing - which could be cheap if you’ve got good IT as they won’t need to be that clever.

Bit of promo and PR, and that would be it really.

Sounds a good idea, I like it.