Episode 1

Christmas is only a little under eleven months away, despite today’s blog image, but more on the story behind that a little gem a bit later…

Day one was like any typical first day in a new position. I got to know my new colleagues (spoiler alert, there is only one at this stage, the fabulous Louise) and set up some basics, like my email address. Nothing says professional like an email address with your very own domain, right? (PS there is no andy@andrewleroy.com.au so please don’t wast your time).

The temps in the Brisbane office are quite demanding, by all accounts. Day 1 met with complaints over company-provided refreshments and some pretty inappropriate office behaviours, none of which can be disclosed in this time slot. One of the Adelaide temps also caused a ruckus by playing hide and seek when the piano arrived… that’s another story altogether, but here’s a photo of the piano!

Happily, I can report said temp was found hiding under my bed and later came out to gorge himself  on company supplied biscuits.

The first order of the day was to set up our email accounts. I used to work on the helpdesk of an award-winning internet provider, so this would be a piece of cake!

Half a day later, we forlornly raised a ticket with our email hosting service because of an issue with the alias on my email address. This has, thankfully, been fixed. But more on that later. Needless to say we were disappointed that such a basic task took so much of our first day, and lamented that this is why companies employ IT people.

We were at day one with no income or clients at this point. We’re literally a start-up, and relying on our own abilities and willingness to learn to get by until we can, down the track a little, afford to hire someone (so get those resumes ready!)

Did I mention we’re located in two separate states? You might remember from the prologue that Louise and I first met in Darwin. More than ten years have passed since then and I’m in Adelaide, but Louise made her way back to Brisbane after finishing her stint in the Top End. We settled on Microsoft Teams as our preferred mode of communication and have found it an excellent means of remote collaboration. This is by no means an advertisement for Microsoft (although I could be convinced if Bill Gates of  one of his very capable marketing gurus would like to cross our palms with gold a direct debit of grand proportions for  telling everyone how good Microsoft Teams is and how it’s the backbone of our inter-office communications across state borders in the COVID era.

Where was I…

That’s right, Microsoft Teams, where we can see and talk to each other with ease, add some kooky background effects (I’ve now got a background of the Muppet Theatre). We can look at documents and other media together while we collaborate, hatching our amazing plans (!) Day one also saw the birth of our shared calendars and we booked our first meeting: a local-to-Adelaide lawyer to help us get our partnership agreement in place and  create some agency contracts for us.

We identified our short term tasks and priorities to support our business structure, patted ourselves on the back for what we achieved and called it a day.

It’s important to note that before our first day, in the lead up, we had already registered our business partnership and business name. We also had our bank account all set up and ready to go before day one – business accounts can take a wee bit of time, so be prepared to wait for your bank to go through its processes. At this point, we’re outlaying money from our own cash reserves, but we’ve got plans afoot to start earning an income. Until then, it’s foundation-building time!

In between our heady prologue days and day one, Louise and I decided to get a little bit experimental and write some COVD carols to share with the world, which explains the stunning cover photo for today. Check out our viral-yuletide themed tunes on our TikTok pages! (Massive shout out to my three followers… figure correct at time of publication). Here’s Louise’s TikTok page… she’s got more followers than me (figure correct at time oF publication).

In years to come, this will be rare early footage, so you’ll definitely want to check them out before they become too hard to find!