Help - Sales Advice Needed

All is well with our animal family, everyone seems to be enjoying the mild weather, who would believe this time last year the snow was on its way (ooh hope I am not tempting fate there!! lovely as snow is, it does make life a lot harder both on the farm and out on the building site where Tony's works)

So to my blog title, I really need some sales advice,  in my past life I was office bound, a financial / office manager.  A wiz with a computer, and a fountain of knowledge and experience with word, excel, access etc and a head for figures.  BUT SALES IS QUITE ALIEN TO ME!!

We made a huge change in our life's direction to follow our dream, sold our lovely comfy house and invested everything into Cotswold Vale Alpacas.  Its been a bit of a roller coaster, not more so due to the recession, but wouldn't change our decision for anything, we didn't want to be one of those couples who said later on in life !If Only We Had!!!!!"  with hind sight we may have changed some of the way we have done things but not   the decision to breed Alpacas.

Tony's has carried on with his day job which has helped keep our heads above water, last year I was made redundant from my part-time job, which pushed me into working full-time with the Alpacas (which I love)

Having never run a smallholding I have learned loads, am very confident in caring for the Alpacas, proud of our healthy cria from this year and even more prouder of learning to spin & knit (getting better & better at both as time goes by) especially as I have always been a brain person not a hands on person!

Now for the help - Sales advice needed.  How to advertise & sell some girls, how to market them & where?  how do I decide who to sell!!  I have never been a sales person and feel way out of my depth with this (I knew it was coming, but time has flown and it seems to have come around so quick!)

We have sold boys, (I really don't want to part with them!!) but I need to sell girls!  Any help and advice would be gratefully received.

Many thanks

Where has the time gone!!

It's been a long time since I have blogged!!  2 months!! where has the time gone?

All the animals (Alpacas, Dogs, Cats, Horses and Goats) are doing well, but I have lost count of how many animal mouths we are now feeding!  But we love them all.

We did have a bit of a worry with Ronnie a couple of weeks ago, Ronnie is our little beige pygmy goat, she became very quite and didn't want to come out of the stable, which is certainly not normal!  Normally the minute they hear the patio door open they both start calling to be let out, but it was funny they were both very quiet, they normally run out of the stable to get their breakfast.  But Roxy came running out but Ronnie was sat in her bed (an old plastic dog basket with straw in, which they both love to sleep in).  I went in and she got up but appeared to be a bit lame, I couldn't feel anything wrong, her leg wasn't swollen, there was no heat and she wasn't too worried when I moved it, so I put it down to a strain (which I am not surprised at,as they are both forever jumping in and out of the feed which are hanging on the hurdles (just to make sure we don't have any unwanted creatures getting into them) and I have even found them up in the hay racks!!

But thankfully within a couple of days she was walking a lot better, although she was still quite quiet, but now I can report that she is definitively back on form as you will see from the photo below.

Here they both are on top of the dogs kennel waiting for their tea, as you can see they have been very naughty by stripping the felt off the roof and pooing on it!  Just can't keep them from jumping onto everything, I think they have springs on their legs!.

They are so, so funny and we love them to bits, during the day they have the full run of the barn, yard and field, if you go out they called to you, if you are in the barn they follow you around and if you ignore them they will pull at your trouser and push your legs, they love to be tickled and scratched, and even wag their little tails.  They do so many things which make us laugh.

Here they are in what should be their tunnel, which they took apart!!  But how can this not put a smile on your face?

The Alpacas and Goats get on well now, and just mingle in together, sharing food and hay.  So here is a photo the girls waiting for their tea, its amazing they can all be at the top of the field when I go out to do the feeds, the goats hear the patio door open so start calling, the alpacas hear the goats calling and immediately come charging down the field and before I have even got over to the barn they are all queuing up for their tea.  And as soon as the horses see the alpacas come down, they too are calling for their tea!!

Here are some of the girls already down in the barn.  Come on Mum, where's our tea??

They are happy for me to get in amongst them to put the feed in the troughs, but I do sometimes get someone spit at the back of my head!  But I do know its not aimed at me, but at each other tussling over who gets to the trough first, but try as I might I cannot get out there without them noticing, due to them noisy BG's (be some much easier to put the feed in the troughs without them all in there)

But they all seem to be very happy and well, if they are a bit dirty!!

Well hopefully if wont be as long until our next update!!

Bye for now.