All right, so I'm just getting ready to go out.
I'm gonna wear this dress, I think.
Neighbors blasting out music, so it's not like I can go to bed early every night of the week.
Right.
Yeah, so what have we learned from the Heaters up until from 2020 to 2025?
Next year will be our sixth year of trading and working and helping and running everything.
Well, we've learned that they like to covet everything and they want the monopoly on everything.
So we've exposed that and we've told people all about it.
This is a cushion, this is a this is a dress.
I don't know what the dress is.
There's nothing in it, I don't think.
It must be always monsoon, vintage monsoon.
It's lovely.
So yes, what have we learned?
Well, we know they like to covet everything, don't they?
We don't.
We like to give it all out.
And that's what they don't like about us is we give out so much for free and we help so many people or give it out for peanuts.
I mean, you know, if you've got something that's worth £100 and we're doing 75% off, that's 25 and you get £5 worth of stuff because you spent over £20 in the shop.
You know, so that pisses them off, doesn't it?
Because where they could get £100, we're getting £25.
You're getting £5 worth of stuff.
You're having a bargain.
It covers any running expenses we got on nappies or food banks.
It's making them look mad, isn't it?
So I was thinking, how can we combat that?
Obviously we've exposed them.
And I think a lot of people can see it now.
A lot of people can see it.
And the messages I've had since, well, not even before we left the country of the donations, probably could have filled the shop with donations before Christmas and after Christmas, where we've shut down for donations, literally filled the shop.
Thank you so much, everybody.
And the quality of donations, these, this dress was donated, this this cushion was donated, and I've had them through my allowance and paid for them.
And when I finish with them, I will re-donate.
So yeah, what we've learned is they're very covered dressed.
And I was going to do a makeup.
That's what I was going to do was a makeup tutorial, but I'm not feeling up to it.
To be honest, I just might put a bit of sparkle on and go.
Um, yeah.
So what, what I thought we'd do is teach people how to start up their own baby bank, food bank, anything bank, anything to do with the community, because that then dilutes their supply.
Because the more, this is why they don't want people to do things like we do.
Okay.
Because it dilutes their supply.
It dilutes it.
If the national lottery or a hundred thousand pound and they've got 10 charities from the same area asking for money to do good causes, then it would make more sense not to give the a hundred thousand pound to one charity and to split it between the 10,
because it's going to affect more social dynamics and more people and help more people in the long run.
This is why they don't want anybody to start up in their areas.
Right.
This is why they want a monopoly.
This is what we talk about the monopoly money.
Yeah.
So the first thing you need to do is establish what you're going to do.
Don't do what we did and said, we're going to do everything because it's hard work.
Okay.
It didn't start off like that.
It didn't start off like that.
We started off taking pets off, um, families that couldn't look after them anymore.
Um, and we were going to rehome and we were like, no, we're not real mean any of these pets because I trust anybody.
Um, then we started a baby bank.
Then we started the food bank.
Then we started an everything back.
And now we're up to our neck in stock.
Right.
So pick your niche and stay in it for a year or two.
Get public liability insurance.
Cause from the minute you say I'm going to run a baby bank, I'm going to start a homeless charity.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do that.
That's when you were liable.
You need public liability insurance straight away.
As soon as you take on another person as a volunteer, you need employer's insurance because you are then an employer.
Okay.
Even if they're voluntary.
Okay.
If you founded something and you take them on, you need that insurance.
You need, um, insurance for the building that you'll be in.
You need insurance for your contents, your stock, you'll need insurance for your staff.
Right.
So ring the insurance people first and make sure you can financially pay that amount.
You're looking at anything between 250 to 2000 to start up with insurance, depending on what you're doing.
Okay.
And how many volunteers you've got, where you are.
I mean, obviously working out in the community is more of a risk than working inside a community group, you know, where there's like fire, eggs, plans, things like that.
But if you're out picking up syringes or whatever, litter picking, obviously there's more of a risk.
Then touch base with your environmental health and your trading standards officer.
Even if you're not selling stuff and you're giving stuff out for free, there will be product recourse, there will be rules and regulations you've got to follow.
Okay.
Like HTC tried to make out we didn't want to win checking for fire labels.
Let me tell you something now, my baby bank girls, right.
My two baby bank women check everything.
And let me tell you something.
Now they don't miss a trick.
Okay.
So there's things like nightwear, all nightwear, anything that is anything to do with nightwear or accessories has to have a fire label on it.
Otherwise it's got to go in the bin.
Is this cushion got a fire label?
No.
So, you know, should have gone in the bin.
Yeah.
I've got it.
I've got it.
I know it's flammable.
Anything that isn't wet will burn basically.
Right.
And even wet fluids can burn if they're flammable.
So you need that insurance.
You need to get all of your local council and you need to get all of your trading standards officers.
That is the first thing you need to do.
Okay.
Then you need to establish some policies, for example, who you're going to exclude and why, because if you're giving out stuff for free, you will get fleeced.
Okay.
And you have to have an accountable reason of why you stop those people from using it.
For example, when we first started, we got given a pile of brand new prams from a baby bank that shut down.
We had two egg prams.
We had some reconditioned prams, some brand new, and then two egg prams.
They died.
They hadn't even had babies, right?
They were pregnant and they weren't even due.
And they dived on the egg prams and then gave us a load of... when we said, no, I said, you can go up to Aberabad and you can pick up the two prams up there for free and you can take them if you need them.
You're not having the egg prams.
The egg prams were given to our walkers.
Okay.
Because they didn't have cars.
One of those walkers was in hospital where they'd been beaten up with a newborn for their partner and was in a refuge.
Okay.
But we're still in hospitals and left with nothing.
So we gave a brand new egg pram to those in the box.
And then another lady had five children and two little ones.
And we had a buggy board that we knew would fit it.
And she had the buggy board and she had the pram and she was a walker.
Okay.
So you need to have a rationale on why you're excluding people because you will get targeted if you start excluding people.
You need to figure out which charities and businesses you want to work with first.
Okay.
Don't work with everybody because I've got messages trying to blackmail me to work with Hope No Bus CIC and HCT.
And I was like, I'm not working with either of you.
When we started.
Okay.
So you need to have a reason why you've excluded people.
A rational reason.
And we did.
We said we don't want anything to do with you because of the constant fighting and the constant arguing and nearly five years down the line, they're still doing it.
Fighting in the streets.
And we know what you're like.
So that's what you need to do.
So we thought, you know, we're not like them.
We don't covet everything.
We don't say no, no, no, no, no, this is all mine.
We choose who we give it out to.
No, we don't.
We help people.
If you want to start up a baby bank, we'll help you.
If you want to start up an everything bank, we'll help you.
If you want to start up a second hand shop, I'll give you as much knowledge as I can.
You know, the other thing you need is good storage.
If you're going to do this because we didn't have any storage and we're still dealing with storage, as you can see.
You know, and look at where we are now.
We're talking industrial racking, hard hats, steel toe caps.
You know, I mean, we should be having forklift for this racking, but I haven't got a forklift driver.
I haven't got room to swing a cat, no longer forklift, have I?
So we're looking at aircraft steps at the moment.
But this is the point that we're at five years down the line.
So we haven't really got a limit, because we keep going, keep going, keep going, because I can see the bigger picture.
Now, perhaps that's my neurodiversion brain, but you might not be able to do that.
You might need to limit yourself to certain things.
Okay.
And don't forget, you can't just rescue something and give it out.
Right.
So you can't just take a load of electricals from somewhere and give them out, because they could be passed a certain date and have to be totally disposed of.
But then that's where trading standards and the council will come in and advise you, you know, advise your governing bodies.
You don't need to be a registered anything to start.
You don't.
Okay.
It helps, but you don't.
But you can register and you can get funding, you know, and to start up something, you can get up to 20,000 pounds funding.
And this is why they don't want to, they think we don't know any of this, you see.
But when I started, I started for a completely different reason.
I started this to take down the ones that were taking everything and wanted the monopoly on everything.
It wasn't supposed to be as big as this and end up a complete brand and a complete, you know, being paid by Facebook and all the rest of it.
It wasn't supposed to be like this, but the haters make you famous.
The haters pay you bills.
The haters influence the algorithm, you know.
So there we are.
Use it to your advantage.
Yeah.
So it's a new year.
It's a new start.
Haters, you can look out because I'm feeling better.
So I'm coming after you now.
If you think I've already come after you, you've got no idea.
So yeah, but anybody else who wants to start up in the local areas, we're more than happy, or further away, we're more than happy to give you the knowledge that we've learned along the way.
Because yeah, it only helps other people, doesn't it?
And the people who covered everything, you know, it dilutes what they're doing.
And it dilutes their access to stuff and it exposes them, you know.
So be very cautious when you first start up to things, guys, who approaches you first.
So anyway, Happy New Year, guys.