Everything important to you and yours - in a Nutshell!
Three of us Gloucestershire networkers are finally enjoying the fruits of a long year’s labour, with the launch of our new website called Your Nutshell.
It’s a private, secure place online where our members can store securely everything that’s important to them, in a mix of diary, memory bank, living will and virtual filing cabinet. This in turn creates a snapshot of themselves and those around them, and what they’re doing at that time .. in a Nutshell!
The website, yournutshell.com has only just launched publicly (last week in fact), but with membership growing by word of mouth over the last couple of months, we already have users as far afield as South Africa and New Zealand which is brilliant news.
(Although the last two were from Bishops Stortford and somewhere in Middlesex, so a bit closer to home!!)
The idea has developed into something that’s both practical and fun, from what was originally a sad beginning.
We lost a friend far too young, and watched his wife go through hell not only coming to terms with everything, including her future bringing up a very young family, but struggling with all the financial and legal stuff – she had tended to leave their money management to her husband while she ran the household. But on top of finding her way through the legalities she searched in vain for anything personal from him like a letter, a message or a diary. Like most of us, they hadn’t had the time or felt the need to talk about possible accident or death, she wasn’t even sure whether he was an organ donor or would prefer burial or cremation – and it was as if so much of his personality had died with him.
It really got us thinking.
There had to be a way that you could record all of the important stuff that’s either boring or difficult to talk about, somewhere to leave last wishes and personal messages, along with lists of all your income and expenditure and all the contact details in one safe place – if only to make it easier when you need something in a hurry or move house.
I have one friend for instance who couldn’t get at her insurance details to make a claim last year in the floods, because the water in her cellar had swollen her wooden filing cabinet shut!
Gradually, as the website began to take shape, we realised there were other services that would sit well alongside the financial and last wishes sections; and so Your Nutshell really began to take shape.
The website now offers a complete picture of a person’s life – past, present and future.
The financial section, for instance, has an added benefit to anyone running a household. Once you’ve filled in how much you’re paying in and out every month, these figures then automatically populate a twelve-month budget forecast, so you can see how changes in your mortgage repayments or salary in three months, for instance, might affect next year’s holiday. It could play a vital part in riding out the dreaded credit crunch.
And there are a couple of more light-hearted, but equally important, elements.
One is Your Year in a Nutshell, which is set up like a kind of diary but which can be used in any number of ways. As you can upload pictures, video, sound and documents into any part of Your Nutshell, I use mine before I go travelling to store my emergency numbers, maps and copies of my travel documents. If a bag goes walkabout I only need to get online in a cyber-cafe and I can download everything I need really quickly. And when I get home I can upload my pictures and write everything up while it’s fresh in my mind. Then next year I can look back and see all the things I dragged out in my suitcase and never even unfolded, so I don’t do it again!
Another section is Your Life in a Nutshell, which is an ongoing memory bank, and sits nicely alongside the current fascination for family tree research. We’ve written literally hundreds of questions to get people thinking, everything from your own schooldays to things your grandparents might have shared only with you.
And some people are starting new Nutshells as gifts for babies, recording first words or wobbly steps on their phones and uploading them. That's some pressie to hand on when they’re old enough to understand!
Your Nutshell stays private, secure and password-protected, but if members want to share something with someone else, they can. For instance, if someone else is going on holiday to somewhere I’ve been, I can give them access to those specific parts of my files for a week, or a month, or however long I say, wherever they may be in the world; and they can download my pictures and print off my files as well if they want to.
We're not daft, it's not for everyone. And of course, you can keep everything stored on your own computer at home or in the office without needing a Nutshell. But at least on Your Nutshell those files will still be there for you to get at, even if your own PC goes kaput!
Having said it's not for everyone, there are endless ways people can use their Nutshells. We’ve got all sorts of examples on the website that people have told us about, from students going away from home for the first time keeping private diaries and learning to manage their budgets, to a vicar recording the subject of his sermons so he doesn’t repeat himself too often! It surprises even us sometimes, how inventive people are.
And it’s really exciting to think that something that started round a dining table in Dursley is now being used by people all over the world to record their year’s events, their memories, their last wishes and their financial details, in a Nutshell!
PS of course I'd love to have millions of members - so please have a look at the home page which has videos and examples of how other people use theirs (it's the button - "What's in YOUR Nutshell?") - but we're also keen to find alliances with synergistic businesses, from Will writers to IFAs to Banks to Mortgage Advisors and anyone else who might benefit from mutual promotion or sharing routes to market.
Thanks for reading!
Becky
becky.hoyle@yournutshell.com
Date: 08/07/2008
Category: BUSINESS ADVERTORIAL