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You can listen to an audio version of this newsletter here:
A few notes: What I say in the spoken version differs slightly from the written version, mostly to make things flow better for ease of listening. There might be an occasional extra aside in the audio if something occurs to me while reading, but the bulk of the content is the same as what you can read below.
Also, I try to do this in as few takes as possible so it’s not perfect, but it is me and I think it perhaps adds a different dimension when you get to hear about the diaries. This is a new addition — and — a warm-up for a podcast, I think!
Now onto this issue!
Business, bitches
Towards the end of the last newsletter, I shared an announcement I’d made in my diary back in Dec 1993 when I was 12 and keen to make a name for myself in the business world:
Making friendship bracelets — for money! (as I delightedly / greedily state) is such a 90s business idea, I love it. And Bunty was a great choice for the marketing, though I don’t think we sent the ad off — or, if we did, the powers-that-be at Bunty ignored it, because we didn’t ever get an influx of orders. Excitingly, I’ve found the draft of the ad — so that’s coming up.
A bit of context first: Laura and Tracie were two of my best friends at this time, and we all lived on the same street, which was handy for business lunches etc. In all seriousness, we did, for a while, have meetings in Tracie’s dad’s greenhouse, all three of us perched on upside-down plant pots.
When I delved deeper into the 1993 diaries, I discovered so much more material about the friendship-bracelet-making enterprise, particularly in the flowery notebook:
Which yes, began life as a book of song lyrics, but then, as we are about to find out, had a glorious spell as a kind of “Start Up Journal”.
So before I get into the nuts and bolts of the marketing and financial side of friendship-bracelet making for 12 year olds, I can tell you that this wasn’t our first foray into commerce.
A few months before, Laura and I had nurtured another business idea, this time by trying to break into the world of magazine publishing.
With this —
If only Puzzel was a deliberate ‘cool’ or ‘zany’ misspelling!
Alas it is not.
I also found a list of our individual responsibilities:
Oh how I wish I knew what the questionably-titled “Whats the Words” game entailed!
Good to see Laura’s taking responsibility with advertisements; it’s valuable training for contacting Bunty re: ad space. I also like that “Jokes” has been renamed “Ultimate Jokes”. Pretty sure that’s Laura’s handwriting. I do think she has a good variety of fun jobs.
For my part, it really makes sense that I’m doing most of the sensible word-based stuff, that fits my more serious wordy nature. And it also makes sense that I’d get to do the front cover, that fits my more bossy nature. I think we can all agree I did a great job on that mock-up.
My fave part of that: marking the price up from 8p to 10p.
Know your worth people, know your worth.
Style, Twist, Style n Twist
Although the extract I shared above where I make the announcement is dated Dec 28th 1993, the next update on the biz isn’t until a few months later. Perhaps we needed some time to let our creativity percolate?
So here we are in March 1994, which I note has gone ‘bleeding fast’ — that’s very Yorkshire, very middle-aged, very much from my mum. Love that I’ve used it here.
Nice design skills on ‘CRAFT SHOP’ lettering, Teresa.
Now, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, we can see two developments with the bizness: we are not merely making friendship bracelets, we are starting an entire shop! And we’re not only hitting Bunty with our marketing, but the local Spar as well!
And, if I may say, the ad is KILLER —
I genuinely think this is good advertising copy: starting with an enticing question, playing on the very human need for connection, offering a wide range of colours and styles. Excellent work.
Now we turn the page and this is where I become an accountant / finance officer / not really sure what the job title would be, but essentially I begin doing some sums.
Price list to start:
As you can tell, I was very into this.
I asked Laura what she remembered about all of this recently and her main memory was that she could only plait wool, so that was her speciality. I do remember that, and I also recalled that I did some kind of knotting technique to make the ‘style’, ‘twist’ or ‘style n twist’ bracelets, a technique which I can’t remember now, but that I just love the names of.
Next, with the prices set I can begin the financial forecasting:
£6 every week — EACH. A bleeding fortune age 12 in 1993!
Putting £1 or £2 back into the business, so we’d still be paying ourselves — very progressive. Loving that.
I wonder why I thought we might need glitter and 200 sheets of paper, when it seems we were a very wool-based business?
Maybe to make posters, because I loved doing that as well. It was around this time that my dad said he might be getting me a jewellery making machine (?!) for Christmas, and so I made 20 A4 full-colour posters by hand to advertise what I had decided would be my new jewellery shop, so I’d be ready to hit the ground running when I got the kit. Something went wrong (he was sourcing it from a friend I think, and it fell through) but the point is I was READY.
So I’m not surprised at all to see this level of detail and planning for the friendship-bracelet venture when we had very little stock, apart from a few friendship bracelets and Tracie’s woollen doll (which to be honest, sounds very advanced).
But I’m sure I enjoyed all the projecting and imagining, and maybe that was more fun than actually doing it? Possibly.
An adult kitten
As you now know, creating the crossword for Puzzel Mania fell under my list of responsibilities, so I thought it’d be fun to share what I came up with.
First, here’s the completed grid:
And here are the clues, which unfortunately I didn’t finish. I think I make a strong start with 1 Across, but it trails off.
Did you notice anything strange about the completed crossword?
I’ve looked at that grid a couple of times this past week, but only saw it when I was putting this newsletter together today: there’s an “animal” on there which doesn’t exist, but which I must have thought existed. I’ll let you find it.
A little update
Before I go, I just wanted to tell you about something I’ve been thinking about for a while and have finally taken the plunge with: and it’s to give folks the option to upgrade your subscription here from free to a paid one.
However — all posts are still free for everyone to read, whether you’re a free or a paid subscriber.
I’ve set the price lower than the usual Substack recommendation, so it’s at £4 per month, and again — it’s just there for anyone who wants to, and is able to, support the newsletter in that way.
If you enjoy what I share here and you have the means to upgrade, that would be all kinds of 90s cool, but if not, also cool.
Either way I appreciate you reading and being here xx
At some point, it’s possible I’ll venture into making extra stuff for paid subscribers, but I will definitely let you know before that happens, and there will always always be a full and free and super cool version of this newsletter.
And finally: I’ve been allowed on the 90s podcast again!
I was delighted to be asked to make a mini return to It’ll Be Alright In The 90s last week to do a quick diary share. In the episode Stu and Alex are talking about things they didn’t like so much about the 90s — so I decided to read something from my super-secret diary with a lock about a ‘cultural incident’ that I was NOT happy about.
That episode will air this week on Thursday 9th May, but if you want to catch other episodes before then, go to their linktree and choose your platform of choice. The current episode is excellent; it’s about how 90s programs like Tomorrow’s World predicted what the future of technology would be like, and if you watch it on YouTube you can see the clips Alex and Stu are discussing. Lots of fun.
And, if you missed me on there back in March, look for episode 69 or click here and you can listen to me reading plenty of embarrassing diary extracts out loud and having a chat about all things 90s.
Okay, that’s it for this time. I hope you enjoyed this issue, and if you did, please do all the things like commenting and sharing and popping over to Instagram to say hello and all of that to help spread the word about the newsletter.
Thanks for being here — and I’ll be back soon,
Teresa x