Cassie

We are a small errand/concierge service whose model was established around doing basic errands for people, such as banking, shopping, deliveries and cleaning.

Early on after our launch we started getting interest and bookings from other businesses, that needed help with setting up things at events, cleaning, moving offices, deliveries and administrative support. This has been great for our exposure and experience.

Our issue is the immediate and constant expectation from the companies booking us, and sometimes even individuals, that they aren't required to pay us for 30 days or similar. The way I think of it is, we are a B2C business, and thus when you are done utilising our service you pay. Much like walking into a corner-store, you dont pick up a bottle of OJ and say "put it on my bill!" to the cashier as you walk out the door.

We do have one business that we invoice about $6000 worth of work for a month which is great, but we have kept our margins low for them (as per an agreement made when they explored using our services) so we need that paid to us as quickly as possible, thus, they pay us weekly, but I have found that the accounts staff we deal with at that company, grumble a lot when we call for our payments, asking things like "why can't you guys just organise to get an overdraft arrangement with your bank?" or "can't you make other arrangements this week?". (More info within Answers..)

Our kitten was successfuly potty-trained by week 8.

He is 5 months old now and we always have 2 litter boxes going for him, I change both of them, completely, daily.

I noticed about a month ago he would get really fussy about using a litterbox that he felt was full but did not seem full to me. This would happen at about 4 hrs before it was due for a change. During this time I would have to strictly keep an eye on him because he would try and go in corners, or sometimes super odd places like on top of my laptop bag.

About 1.5 weeks ago he was down with diarrea and thats when the sh*t hit the fan, literally. It would come on so sudden and explosive, he would have little time to find anywhere suitable to go. The vet gave us antibiotics and it took us 2 days to realise they werent working, because the problem was worms. 4 hours after the worm tablets and he was perky bright and happy... 24hrs later and his poop had become a healthier colour, but still soft. Three days later his diarrhea was still hanging around, although not explosive, if he went in the litterbox once, he would not want to use it again, which meant if he had his way, I would be changing it 5 times a day. I took him off the antibiotics completely 2 days ago and his poop has started firming up, but is nowhere near solid and healthy.

...more info in Answers section

I was frying some sausages in a pan and noticed that when I turned them over there were a couple of little fat black ovals stuck onto them. I rinsed them off before serving for dinner, but post-dinner I remembered that a week ago we had discovered some dying maggots on the shelf above where the pans are kept. Something had died behind there (we never discovered what it was but could smell it) and after a cleaning, the maggots that now had nothing to feed on slowly starting crawling out. We cleaned them up but Im thinking a couple of them may have fallen into the pan and died.

I know ingesting live maggots has risks to it, but dead maggots that were fried alongside the food?

I've joined a closed group (that's closed, not secret) on Facebook that is a support community for a medical condition I have. I want to post questions, but I've noticed that when my friends post questions in groups I can see it in my activity ticker on the side. Is there any way to ensure no-one but the group members see it?

Honest answers please.

I'm helping a friend get a small mattress made for a baby's port-a-cot. The mattress will just be from a cut-down foam mattress a few inches thick. I then need to get made a zippable cover - what is a fabric that would be durable-ish but at the same time would be soft, but not too soft ... for a baby?

Keep in mind that the mattress+cover would then be dressed with a cot-sheet and the usual cot yaya.

I live in the South Pacific and novelty items are hard to come by here ... I need large novelty glasses like these http://www.zymetrical.com/bulk-large-oversized-sun... in about 2days time so not enough time to ship them in.

Im trying to google how to make them myself (its just for a quick tv commercial shoot so they dont need to be perfect) but cant find anything... any ideas?

I'm helping an advertising agency put together a quote for some props for a campaign that one of their clients has approved... there was a technology glitch today and I received their list of items (that I have to quote on and source) 5 hours late, and now have just found out that I need to put together this quote in the next 2 hours ...

One of the items they need a bucket of confetti - how much scrap paper/crepe paper/ gift wrap is that?

I have a small business and have a friend who gives me legal advice but don't want to bother her with this simple and quick question.

The following item is part of a contract for providing "temp" staff. It's for the situation, FOR EXAMPLE for a company booking one of our temp workers for a week because their usual secretary was down really sick, but after 2 days the usual secretary was better and came back to work, so they wanted to cancel the contract:

"7) Both parties may terminate this agreement immediately with written notice."

My question is: how to I include that they must pay for the days they have engaged us for up to that point? A better way of saying: "Compensation for work engaged so far must be settled as per agreed payment terms."

Please only answer this question and not give me advice about whether or not to have a contract and how other temping agencies work .. there is a lot of context here and I'm just cutting out this tiny piece to get some quick advice on.

Thank you!

Have had this experience before, a very hostile harassing presence in another home years ago so am recognising the warning signs, the way we ended up remedy-ing it was getting a priest in to bless the house.

Just wanted to check if maybe Im imaging things this time round:

1) felt a presence while I was dozing off to sleep last night (and physically I couldnt move, I know a lot of people get this)

2) when I went to sleep I am pretty sure I closed and locked my bedroom door, however woke up about 20mins after my initial doze off to find it open yet the "lock" switch turned down (into lock) on it

3) Noticed our aircon remote was on our dresser this morning as usual, I noticed it cos I debated cleaning my dresser ... this afternoon went back into bedroom and it was on my bedside table. I'm the only one at home today and I doubt I moved it because it's very cold weather where I am right now and there was no need to use the A/C. However there is a chance I picked it up absentmindedly.

They don't charge to play, they don't have advertising space on any of their sites, and their merchandise isn't expensive. How do they make their money?

I've posted 2 simple questions over the past two weeks and haven't received any answers.

Are you guys seeing this question, here, right now?

I run an errand company (just started up) where our services are as you would expect, deliveries, grocery shopping, cleaning, banking etc.

We've been offered a table at our friend's booth at a community market in a couple of weeks and I'm unsure what to populate it with. The only thing tangible we have are gift vouchers. I understand the best thing we could put there is someone who can talk about the service but of course we need something to make people actually stop at the table to begin with.

What kind of pieces of collateral or branding should we put on it/behind it :) ?

A tenderness and pain on the inside of my left calf, that snakes around to the sole of my foot. In the evenings my ankle and foot swells slightly and the pain worsens.

Went to Doctor convinced it was DVT but they had me scanned and my main vein is fine.

Doc thinks it could be early cellulitis and has put me on antibiotics and aspirin just incase the scan missed something.

I don't think it's cellulitis because there is no warmth or redness. I agree it's not DVT now after the scan, also because I'm not obese or old.

Could it be a pinched nerve?

Organised people, how do you deal with your clean laundry?

As soon as it is washed and dried do you:

- hang it up as is, and iron it once you are going to wear it

- iron it as soon as it is dried which would make laundry days quite long for you

- keep it in a basket or on a shelf somewhere and have a designated ironing night

I recently read that ACV can be used diluted as a topical antiseptic if you think you have a UTI coming on ... was wondering if it could be used as a preventative every now and then even if you don't think one is coming on, but just as a general precaution ... like regularly drinking cranberry juice?

Or is it a case of it wouldn't prevent anything but can only be used as a remedy?

I'm spraypainting a very old desk lamp that has spider veins of rust snaking all over it's base and "shade" ... I'm using a light colour ... will the rust gradually work its way up through the paint or once it's covered with a few good coats... it will stop "growing" ..?

I think I've got a good story idea and don't have the patience or skill to write a book.

Is there a place online where writers pick up concepts?