Fat Talking Reindeer in Stockings!

Stress Level Today: 3 Grey Hairs

So whats happened this week? I asked Karl. "Not a fat lot" he replies in a very helpful Monday morning kind of way. Its been an odd kind of week with one day seeing us take half of our normal weekly takings in one day then the next day hardly any sales. Almost as though the world outside The Pit (office/spare room) has been wiped out in some Supernatural event.

Exciting news! We've had an influx of talking Santas and Reindeer in our brand new Christmas pet toys. We've even got rabbit and Hamster Christmas stockings!

They are so cute and cuddly. I might just get one for myself.

This week it is all good news with the first of my day job friends on the verge of moving to pastures new and salaries we can only dream of. Good luck to her!

Its been all quiet on the High Street Prices website. Hopefully it is a pre Christmas lull and people are poised to leap into a buying frenzy soon. Ideally an indecisive frenzy so they need a price comparison website for fabulous gift ideas

Lord of the Websites: Return of the Fireworks

Stress Levels Today 5 grey hairs

You would have thought I would learn not to write a blog entry on a Monday morning before going into work but no here I am tap tapping away in the most hideous foul mood that you can image because I have to go into work in an hour. Lets try to imrove my mood by turning to all things Ardent.

I've managed to squeeze in some spring cleaning of our categories and am currently making sure the heading Dogs is lovely and orderly with all the items snuggled nicely just where you would expect them. At the moment its a bit of a mess as I'm halfway through and theres a lot of fantastic items falling into the Dogs category. Just have a look at the Aquatics section for an idea of how it will look when I'm finally done if my soul hasn't been sucked out of me by then.

Selling has been a little quiet lately due to the impending doom of the economic climate and E Bay deciding to change how it works just enough for all the neophobics to run for the hills, away from the furthest wifi reaches. Hopefully it will pick up soon otherwise food is going to become an optional luxury again.

I've wheeled out and dusted off my surviving the fireworks season epic article again. It is just what you need to get through the next 4 months of small warzones in suburbia. If you want a good read visit our squidoo lens at http://www.squidoo.com/ardentpets_fireworks.

Karl has been showing a little favoritism between our two babies and has been spending more time on http://www.highstreetprices.com/. It now has a lovely collection of Google ad campaigns to lure all those fiscally fabulous Christmas shoppers through our portal to a virtual mall of wonderful bargainous gifts for all.

Now my bad mood is under control and simmering nicely, I'm off to do a little bit of picking and packing before dragging myself kicking and screaming to work. Come back next week for another exciting installment.

Christmas ideas, Explosion of Elephants, Hard of hearing hamster?

Stress Level Today: 3 Grey Hairs

Its been a good week despite my chronological advancement on Thursday. Had lots of nice things and managed to distract myself completely by reading and finishing one of my birthday books.

Still got the feeling I've got a bit too much on my plate as Uni coursework is slightly behind schedule as we hit a slight problem with clicker training K.D. the hamster (and small pet product advisor for www.ardentpets.co.uk). She wasn't picking up click means treat after several sessions so we think she may be a little hard of hearing as she started getting the idea when I swapped click for a light.

Work is work need I say more (better not go there at the moment)

Were are having a massive stock clearance at Ardent Pets and have just started arranging a job lot of odds 'n' ends to auction on E bay. So look out for an extravaganza of elephant shaped hamster houses and get bidding.

Dont forget to visit our new baby www.highstreetprices.com where a whole page of discount coupons appeared this week. Great for those early Christamas presents so get shopping!

Links, Links, Links and Christmas Presents

Stress level today: 4 grey hairs

Its been links, links, links this week for both www.ardentpets.co.uk and www.highstreetprices.com . We are now listed on oodles of web directories so that google thinks we are fantastic and popular and will rank our web pages really highly (or at least higher than they are now).

Its has been very exciting with our first commision earned through highstreetprices.com after less than a week since its birth. I've been having a good rootle around all the different sites listed and have some great ideas for Christmas presents already. At least that's one less stress this year.

Thats all for now, come back for more next time

Hamster Agility and High Street Prices

Stress Level today: 4 grey hairs

The time has flown by with my time management skills still being somewhat lacking as you can tell by the time period between Blog entries. It has been quite a month with our foster dog Peggy finding a fantastic new home and me being away for two weeks on my post grad diploma course. Since last writing I have clicker trained a goat which was very exciting and will be clicker training our Hamster 'K.D.' to negotiate a small agility A frame. So far it is not going well as after a week of testing to find out which liquids she likes she has decided liquids are all rubbish and she will only work for pieces of carrot (shaved into microscopic slices so she cannot pouch them). Its a steep learning curve for me!

Other news the Ardent Empire has had a new baby. We have launched a shopping price comparison site which is like a mini shopping guru as it is a guide to lots of different websites for a whole range of products and services. A fantastic place to start for your Christmas shopping (Yes I did type the C word in September).

Feel free to have a look around www.highstreetprices.com

We are now officially VAT registered so will be giving money to the tax man instead of heating the house for the next few months until the website (www.Ardentpets.co.uk) grows enough to compensate. Any donations of big woolly jumpers will be gratefully received.

That's all for now come back soon for another exciting entry from behind the scenes at Ardent Pets

Optimising Our Great New Stuff

Stress level today: 1 grey hair

We've branched out into food with some fantastic Arden Grange pet food. Karl has been busy putting these onto the website http://www.ardentpets.co.uk/. So far no takers but watch this space!

He still hasn't had a moment to list any of the great new products I've picked which are currently clogging up the landing and entrance to The Pitt (the office a.k.a the spare room). I'm going to be well prepared for the Olympics with all of the athletic training I've done just getting to the loo in the morning. Especially when our wholesaler order arrives and that adds to the challenge of landing navigation. To give Karl his due he is completely up to date with all of the Aston Villa Football Club news and whats happening in the cricket so he is very busy. Lets see if he reads my blog!

My other great find this week is the Olimpia Hamster cage (right). Its really diferent to any other cages available. Even the spelling is different! Check it out at http://www.ardentpets.co.uk/small-animals/cages/ferplast-olimpia-pet-hamster-cage/prod_872.html

Other news we've commisioned a SEO campaign (search engine optimisation) so that lots of people can find us not just a select and special few. They should also create some links and help spred the Ardent Pets word. Come back soon to see if it is money well spent.

The VAT Man Cometh

Stress Level Today: 2 grey hairs

Things are going OK this month. I daresn't say things are going well as every time I am a tinsy bit positive we always get a selling drought. The month didn't get off to a great start with my nan dying and then I managed to drive my car into a 5ft ditch the day before the funeral. It did mean being car-less I took a week off to help Karl with all things Ardent and as a result we have fantastic new cheaper postage prices on E bay and more postage options which is very exciting. It has given sales a little boost and warded off some recessional spending reticence in our customers.

We are busy earning karma points fostering Peggy a little terrier cross whose owner was extremely mean. Hopefully she can be rehomed soon so she can start a fantastic new life.

Our biggest news is that we are approaching the VAT threshold this year and will be registering within the month. Its very exciting and scary but it means we're getting bigger. As a consequence I might become a partner in Ardent Pets rather than general lackey and assistant to his nibbs. Expect stress levels to rise as we get used to accounting for VAT.

Our first newsletter has gone out. Admittedly 9 times to some people before we got the hang of the software. Its all about travelling and has a fantastic discount attatched. August is probably going to be preparing for fireworks season but I might delay it until September as I suppose it is a bit early for people to take it seriously. If you would like to sign up for our incredibly informative newsletter register at https://www.ardentpets.co.uk/cart.php?act=reg&redir=L2luZGV4LnBocA.

Thats all for now come back soon for more exciting Ardent Pets News