Blog

Our Busiest Season

stephen

You may have seen or heard (or had one-of-those-annoying-auto-responses) from us – that we’re a little bit busy at the moment. It’s true. And it’s not just because I’m wasting time blogging about it (I pre-scheduled this post, by the way – I didn’t actually even have time to write it on the date it’s been published – I predict!!).

November and December are our busiest months by far. It’s mainly due to our subsidiary businesses, Build Me Mini Limited, which serves children and grown-up children across the world with custom personalised mini-figures made from LEGO parts. Last year alone we estimate that over 3000+ houses opened a Build Me Mini figure on Christmas Day. Each one, lovingly created by our hard-working teams.

Since the actual Christmas Elves are a little busy at this time of year, all of our HeartCo team usually jump on board to lend a hand with the toy creation. That can often lead to delays in email responses and phone-lines ringing out while we tape up boxes. With all this in mind, we are really sorry for any delay in communication with either email or calls. Normal service will resume in January. And, of course, no email will be ignored – we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

In the meantime, if we’ve wet your appetite for personalised gifts… You can order your own personalised minifigure made from LEGO parts here.

Clear Your Cache

stephen

Ok, so you need to reload that website. Properly. In case you didn’t know, your browser saves a lot of information so that a web page can load quicker next time. Very helpful. Until it starts saving information that needs to be updated. Then how do you clear its memory? The ‘memory’ is called a cache and what you need to do is clear your cache. Each browser handles it differently, so here’s a quick reference on how to do it for Chrome, Safari, Firefox and internet explorer.

CHROME (Desktop)
Go to the Chrome (More, for Windows OS) dropdown at the top bar and click Clear Browsing Data. Ensure Cached images and files is ticked and click Clear Data.

Note: Chrome is a cheeky little blighter that will continue to keep information even after the cache has been cleared. The best way to insure this doesn’t happen, or to reload the page for sure, is to open an Incognito tab. Click the three vertical dots at the top right and select New Incognito Tab.

CHROME (Mobile)
Go to the three horizontal dots at the bottom and click History. Click Clear Data and ensure that Cached Images and Files has been ticked before tapping the red button.

SAFARI (Desktop)
Go to the Safari dropdown at the top bar and click Preferences. Select advanced. Select Develop. Click Empty Cache.

SAFARI (Mobile iOS)
Go to your settings app. Go to Safari. Clear history and website data.

Firefox (Desktop)
Go to the History dropdown at the top bar and click Clear Recent History. Click Clear Now (ensuring Cache has been ticked).

Firefox (Mobile)
Go to the Menu at the top right and tap settings. Go to privacy and settings. Select Clear Private Data.

Microsoft Internet Explorer (Desktop)
Firstly, please choose another browser. No-one should be using Internet Explorer. Like ever. But to clear the cache, click on the gear, top right. Click ‘safety’, delete browsing history.

10 Years Later

stephen

This year marks the tenth anniversary for HeartCo. And it’s crazy to think of the journey we have been on. Right back from our start in 2009, when my father-in-law gave me his Mac Pro as I started a venture I never could have imagined would lead to where HeartCo is now.

Still working at Sainsbury’s, 10-years-ago Stephen handed in his resignation with an uncertainty about what the future held. But I knew it was the right thing to do. I believe it was a God moment. And by that I mean, something that God had His hand on. Crazy to believe perhaps. But with every passing year, the craziness starts to make a little bit more sense.

Now, a set of three limited companies and professional photography sole trader, HeartCo Ltd feels stronger than ever. But I won’t forget the roots of where we started. And I believe that the pathway we have and are carving will be a wealth of help to others who want to start their own businesses and help their dreams take flight.

I don’t know it all. I know precious little, actually. But I do know how I got here, so if anyone out there wants to pick my brains. Consider me available.

Limited Unlimited

stephen

As of March 2019, HeartCo officially becomes HeartCo Limited. Ironically to remove the limitations surrounding being a Sole Trader. It’s exciting an time to be a part of the HeartCo family or to be one of our valued customers as we move forward into the next chapter of our professional services.

While we actually registered the name HeartCo Ltd in 2018, we needed to couple a few other elements together to bring both Media Sussex Ltd and Build Me Mini Ltd along for the journey, and now the dots are lining up and we are ready to roll as we move into the 2019/2020 financial year.

What will this mean for customers?
Initially, not a lot will change other than the name of the business. But, going forward, there will be a whole host of benefits for our customers – watch this space.

In the meantime, the main thing to be aware of is the division of service to the specific subsidiary business (or, for the sake of simplicity, HeartCo Departments). For Media Development projects, your invoices will now likely come from Media Sussex Ltd and all LEGO-related services will be invoiced by Build Me Mini Ltd. This will come complete with new bank account details, so please ensure you check the footer for the payment details on your next invoice 🙂

Neither Media Sussex Ltd or Build Me Mini Ltd are going anywhere and they are still very much a part of HeartCo Ltd, but for the sake of business expansion, it’s super-helpful for us to properly allocate out our departments.

What about Olivejoy Photography?
OliveJoy is still very much at the heart of HeartCo Ltd, but due to the business re-structuring it is not possible to have a Limited Company structured above a Sole Trader so OliveJoy will be a part of HeartCo in heart only. Legally they are separate entities. OliveJoy Photography clients and services will remain unaffected and unchanged.

Why are we so busy?

stephen

You may have seen, heard or tasted (?) that we’re a little bit busy at the moment. It’s true. And it’s not just because I’m wasting time blogging about it (I pre-scheduled this post, by the way – I didn’t actually even have time to write it on the date it’s been published – I predict!!).

November and December are our busiest months by far. It’s mainly due to our business Build Me Mini, which serves children and grown-up children across the world with custom personalised mini-figures made from LEGO parts. Last year alone we estimate that over 3000+ houses opened a Build Me Mini figure on Christmas Day.

With this in mind, we are really sorry for any delay in communication with either email or calls. Normal service will resume in January. And, of course, have a lovely Christmas.

Project Management Made Easy

stephen

We looked through various existing softwares and transitioned through many of them over the course of several weeks. And since we spent a lot of time and energy into finding (what we found to be) the best solution – we thought we’d share it with you. It’s not a new technology, it’s been around for a while. You may have even heard of (or already use) it. But it’s worth a mention here on our blog. It’s called Trello. And it’s the bomb.

This post looks at how Trello works and how you can use it to help streamline your business (for free). The beauty of Trello is that ability to drag and drop tasks around your lists as you see fit. Not only is it easy to do, it’s incredibly satisfying.

You can check out Trello here. This link. takes you to a sign up page (all free).

WooCommerce and WordPress

stephen

Recently, a lot of our clients have been looking to have us build E-Commerce shops for them. This is something we really enjoy – but what’s more – we enjoy helping them USE the site once we’ve finished building it.

Static sites are great, but having an e-commerce site means that the user needs to understand, at least the basics, of how to use the site. Most specifically, perhaps, when it comes to orders and products.

For this reason, HeartCo (with Media Sussex) put together three handy Youtube tutorials on how to use WooCommerce, which is the standard solution for turning a WordPress site into a shop.

We’ve broken them down into three handy videos:
1 – Products; 2 – Orders; 3 – WooCommerce Settings (for advanced users)