2010 already and what a year 2009 was for us, despite the economic climate we continued to blossom, growing each month and developing our three core services - pedal powered taxis, delivery and recycling vehicles.
We've got a few resolutions to keep to which certainly helped us last year, sticking to our values and working hard and fast to grow. At the same time we need to make sure that we grow at the right speed for the company, keeping our personality and retaining a strong base from which we can try out new things.
I think it is always nice to recap last year before setting out for the next one. It's pretty easy to forget even big things!
January - We got back to work and panicked a bit about financial climate in front of us, we hoped that our approach to saving people cash and providing a good service would mean we could retain customers. We also really hoped that our customers could weather the storm.
February - We had some great news, we had qualified to receive a grant to enable us to buy equipment so we could produce all of our own power.
March - We had the Welsh Rugby squad on our pedicabs and spread the word about making your own bread.
April - We were nominated for a Prince's Business in the Community Award, worked our we had saved 600 tonnes of C02 with our recycling programme (that year) and got a new clock for the office..
May - We won the Prince's Business in the Community Award - pretty cool! And we gave Luke a holiday.
June - We investigated some new bikes for the company.
July - We had a video made about the company, awarded our 'Recycling Champions' award, trailed a new bike AND started the container conversion using the grant we go in February. We also delivered the Councils 30,000 item!
August - Pretty quiet on the big new things front, just plugging away!
September - We returned last years Pride of Herefordshire award, I had a holiday, our new bike hit the road, I got to ride a penny farthing AND we raised money for Help the Heroes as well as taking on some new contracts.
October - Our new rider TOM THE BOMB started with us, we installed sunpipes in the office and we commissioned some fancy boxes for our bikes.
November - We plugged away at the new contracts and got used as a best practice example by BITC
December - We started to look at taking on new pedicab riders, had BIG BEN back in the office, installed solar and wind power into the office and had an awesome 12 days of Christmas fancy dress party!
So all in all last year was busy, all of the work we have been running has been growing and on top of it we've been looking to put ourselves in a position to now look at growing in the correct way. Not too fast but fast enough to capitalise on our efforts. With new staff members in place and plenty of irons in the fire 2010 looks set to be a great year for us!
and being used despite the weather. It was very inspiring to soak up the atmosphere and the location
and to try a few of the local delicacies..
Whilst in Copenhagen it was great to visit the chap who built one of our Cargo bikes, Hans is one half of Larry Vs Harry who make the Bulliitt bikes which we use
Excellent to have the chance to speak to the guy who made the bike and talk about why he did it and his views on cargo cycles as solutions to work and infrastructure solutions, or course over there the bike is the number one form of transport so it's not strange to see huge loads balanced on bikes without a second glance from passers by.
maybe next year!?
More snow this week and freaky blizzards. Not to panic though as the Bullitthas dealt with everything admirably. Anyhow the snow is melting now which makes everything super slick on the fixed wheel
.
We thought it might be interesting to think about the physical size of the amount of recycling so Luke and I did some quick sums and a few sketches 
to try and work it out. The tough bit is trying to make is quantifiable for the everyday person. We think it'll be something like a cube 50m wide 50m high and 2km long for the 2009 collections. It doesn't really mean much like that even though it is a gigantic size. We'll have a think and get back to you..
once a perfectly watertight shipping container had had a gigantic hole cut in the roof it was just a case of a little fettling 
and then adding a prism to the super reflective tube and a diffuser inside the office 
liberally applying sealant and then came the big moment, turn the lights off... shut the door and see if it works... and boy did it work!..
Free sunlight in the office! No power and good enough to supplement some solar powered 12v lights we've got going in next week. Pretty exiting stuff hey!
anyhow.... I just couldn't resist asking him for a go on one of his other contraptions..
time relaxing
and time on Mont Blanc,
nice to have time away to focus on new things for the business.
