Its been a bit weird for a few weeks.
Things have been relatively quiet since the end of January, since I talked over my systems with a family member of my business buddy, tinkered with my pricing and visited another retailer. I've been really focussing my energy with my business buddy and coming up with more daft ideas for businesses... this time something to do with flirting...
Its been quiet because my test is now the critical element to my forward progression and I want to focus on making that happen. BTW, I've got a training session with my retailers in evening this, so we should be "go" on by later on this week...
I've known for a while just how much is at stake here with the test. It will define how much more work I put into this. It will define whether or not I take a career break. It will define whether in fact I could leave my current job. It will define all my hope & expectation for the future. It will justify my faith & thinking over the past 2 years.
I wonder what I'll do if it doesn't meet my expectations. Am I emotionally married to this idea or will I see the reality? Will I tinker with it or will I kill it outright? I have set some criteria so when the results come in I can be clear & honest with myself.
And that's really why I've not pushed forward on a number of fronts: my systems, incorporating the company, finalising pricing, finalising source of supply, developing my marketing plan to name a few from my list of things to do... They're all been put on hold because I need to know how much I've got to play with, how big an idea is this, if anything at all.
I kind of feel I'm hedging my emotional bets, waiting for the payout in a couple of weeks.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Frustrating Fatherly Feedback
I had brunch with my dad last Sunday in a lovely gastro pub in Walton Street. Very nice sausages & mash, washed down with some Rioja.
As I've previously indicated in my blog, my dad is a big emotional driver in my life. He represents my hero and my antithesis in many forms.
He was born just before the start of the Second World War in Scotland in a working class family. He was brought up during the war in Ireland, and got into an equivalent of a grammar school in Glasgow upon his return. Although he never went to University he became a Civil Engineer (though some would say he is rarely civil!!), and after a stint working in a large multinational construction company building large capital projects like oil refineries, motorways and power stations. After that he set up his own construction company which he sold 13 years later and has been effectively retired since he was in his 40's. He has a lifestyle that many are deeply jealous of and that frankly I aspire to in some ways, but in others I want to completely avoid. I aspire to the success he has been able to drive in his business life but not necessarily the lifestyle that he leads or some of the types of personal relationships he has.
My dreams of being like him started when I was a kid - he still owned the company and I dreamt of working with him at some stage, taking over the company, and building it further. And straight after school my first ever job was working for the old company (although he had sold it 7 years before I started work) and it was too emotional for me as everybody treated me as some kind of prodigal son. At that point I knew I had to find my own stride...
And that stride doesn't necessarily fit with his own sense of what my stride should be... He didn't understand why I wanted to work for the old company and I think he thought I might embarrass him, so he went a bit ballastic. And his "ballistic" nature didn't stop there... When I went to Uni he thought I should be studying PPE or Finance or something like that. I wasn't interested in that kind of thing (can you imagine me as an accountant!!!!!) and my subject choice at University infuriated him and I recall endless rows on the phone about my choice of subjects. But low and behold on graduation day, and subsequently, he's never questioned my degree ever again. I think he was just proud I got a degree. It was exactly the same when I started playing American football... "why don't you play rugby and get a blue". But he has been proud to introduce me to people as an American footballer, especially if they are American. It lends some credibility to his time living in America. So it seems the choices I make are not alwyas the choices he himself would make, and he struggles to understand why I would make those choices. That's my perception of the past, and also my way of rationalising his views onto me.
Its not just in the past - throughout my new business adventures, he has at times shown that classical negativity. Before I told him my business plans, I asked him how he knew it was the right time to start his own business. From memory he just saw the opportunity to make money. It sounded very matter of fact and simplistic, nothing like my roller coaster of emotions behind why I want to start my own business. Perhaps we have a very different gait to our strides...
When I told him my business plans his first thought was about intellectual property and that anybody could copy it the minute after I launched it -it took me several months to change that record. Then it was him joking that I needed x millions to get it started. Now its about giving up a settled and secure job to start something risky at the riskiest time of the economic cycle. He also asks me why I don't do something similar to what I do now in my corporate job but out on my own...
And I don't know what he really thinks of the idea. But it is the thing he asks me about first. I think he is genuinely intrigued by the idea, just conveying all his worries on to me.
And despite all the "negativity" I still very much value his opinion. He has made me think about things in different ways, sometimes leading me to change my thoughts and sometimes entrenching my thoughts. My desire would be for a little more positivity, a little more support, a little more "yes, and...". That's something I need to make sure I offer to others who are trying to start out too...
As I've previously indicated in my blog, my dad is a big emotional driver in my life. He represents my hero and my antithesis in many forms.
He was born just before the start of the Second World War in Scotland in a working class family. He was brought up during the war in Ireland, and got into an equivalent of a grammar school in Glasgow upon his return. Although he never went to University he became a Civil Engineer (though some would say he is rarely civil!!), and after a stint working in a large multinational construction company building large capital projects like oil refineries, motorways and power stations. After that he set up his own construction company which he sold 13 years later and has been effectively retired since he was in his 40's. He has a lifestyle that many are deeply jealous of and that frankly I aspire to in some ways, but in others I want to completely avoid. I aspire to the success he has been able to drive in his business life but not necessarily the lifestyle that he leads or some of the types of personal relationships he has.
My dreams of being like him started when I was a kid - he still owned the company and I dreamt of working with him at some stage, taking over the company, and building it further. And straight after school my first ever job was working for the old company (although he had sold it 7 years before I started work) and it was too emotional for me as everybody treated me as some kind of prodigal son. At that point I knew I had to find my own stride...
And that stride doesn't necessarily fit with his own sense of what my stride should be... He didn't understand why I wanted to work for the old company and I think he thought I might embarrass him, so he went a bit ballastic. And his "ballistic" nature didn't stop there... When I went to Uni he thought I should be studying PPE or Finance or something like that. I wasn't interested in that kind of thing (can you imagine me as an accountant!!!!!) and my subject choice at University infuriated him and I recall endless rows on the phone about my choice of subjects. But low and behold on graduation day, and subsequently, he's never questioned my degree ever again. I think he was just proud I got a degree. It was exactly the same when I started playing American football... "why don't you play rugby and get a blue". But he has been proud to introduce me to people as an American footballer, especially if they are American. It lends some credibility to his time living in America. So it seems the choices I make are not alwyas the choices he himself would make, and he struggles to understand why I would make those choices. That's my perception of the past, and also my way of rationalising his views onto me.
Its not just in the past - throughout my new business adventures, he has at times shown that classical negativity. Before I told him my business plans, I asked him how he knew it was the right time to start his own business. From memory he just saw the opportunity to make money. It sounded very matter of fact and simplistic, nothing like my roller coaster of emotions behind why I want to start my own business. Perhaps we have a very different gait to our strides...
When I told him my business plans his first thought was about intellectual property and that anybody could copy it the minute after I launched it -it took me several months to change that record. Then it was him joking that I needed x millions to get it started. Now its about giving up a settled and secure job to start something risky at the riskiest time of the economic cycle. He also asks me why I don't do something similar to what I do now in my corporate job but out on my own...
And I don't know what he really thinks of the idea. But it is the thing he asks me about first. I think he is genuinely intrigued by the idea, just conveying all his worries on to me.
And despite all the "negativity" I still very much value his opinion. He has made me think about things in different ways, sometimes leading me to change my thoughts and sometimes entrenching my thoughts. My desire would be for a little more positivity, a little more support, a little more "yes, and...". That's something I need to make sure I offer to others who are trying to start out too...
Born In A Storm
Being from Scotland I do enjoy the odd bit of Tartan Rock, and the title of this entry comes from a line in Deacon Blue's first song on their debut album Raintown, and it was the first thing that popped into my head when I was thinking about my dilemma.
I think about and am asked constantly if starting a new business in a recession is actually a good idea. Times are definitely tough as any self respecting reader of Robert Peston's blog will no doubt attest. Its tough for companies and individuals who have been purveying or using debt and their associated partners that use debt as a marketing tool to actually sell their goods like car companies, carpet & curtain shops. Even yesterday with the announcement of US job figures these stories are no longer just economic data - they're real people with families and mortgages, with hope easing out the door with every other day they don't have a job.
I remember a recent study into long term happiness, and it indicating that no matter life's events, people return to an equilibrium of happiness. Time it seems does heal. Except for one thing... long term unemployment...
And the thought of redundancy and unemployment is beginning to enter my world. A friend in the States' job has been made redundant, my company has announced a future cost saving initiative which indicates job losses at some stage, so its all becoming more real.
So how could I ever think about establishing a business in the wilds of a global economic storm?
Actually what better time to start? Have I gone completely mental - here's some thoughts...
Demand will be weaker in a downturn, so any sales during this part of the cycle show that this idea really does work. And if it doesn't work, I haven't built up a false luxury of success just because people have loads of cash spilling about.
The reward is actually greater - Reading blogs & articles on recession, it all seems to be about keeping lean and being keen. Keeping costs right down to the minimum - and I mean the minimum! How can we get away with what we need? Literally questioning and challenging every single pence in the proposed budget. And then fighting hard for every single pound earned - fighting to get it and fighting to keep it! And we all know that winning hard has a better feeling than winning easy.
Investment dries up - Investment will be harder to find, but that actually may be a good thing. If investment was plentiful, as it was 2 years ago when I first had one of these ideas, then my business plan reflected that with spend, spend, spend to build awareness and get scale quickly. Now with money tighter I've worked hard to understand what I can do myself to build small and build up. I'm more likely to sort out all the problems first when its small and not risk losing a fortune, and then once the problems are ironed out make money in the short term, prove that it works, and then once its working & making money then look to scale it up (only if the numbers fit!).
And there's evidence to support the idea that recessions can be a good time to start - Microsoft & Oracle both started in recessions, and both were "revolutionary" companies, bucking the established way of making money in their sectors, finding new, better & more efficient ways to make their businesses work versus the more conservative companies. But that doesn't necessarily prove the rule. Nobody ever celebrates the failures, they just get buried without the fanfare...
I think about and am asked constantly if starting a new business in a recession is actually a good idea. Times are definitely tough as any self respecting reader of Robert Peston's blog will no doubt attest. Its tough for companies and individuals who have been purveying or using debt and their associated partners that use debt as a marketing tool to actually sell their goods like car companies, carpet & curtain shops. Even yesterday with the announcement of US job figures these stories are no longer just economic data - they're real people with families and mortgages, with hope easing out the door with every other day they don't have a job.
I remember a recent study into long term happiness, and it indicating that no matter life's events, people return to an equilibrium of happiness. Time it seems does heal. Except for one thing... long term unemployment...
And the thought of redundancy and unemployment is beginning to enter my world. A friend in the States' job has been made redundant, my company has announced a future cost saving initiative which indicates job losses at some stage, so its all becoming more real.
So how could I ever think about establishing a business in the wilds of a global economic storm?
Actually what better time to start? Have I gone completely mental - here's some thoughts...
Demand will be weaker in a downturn, so any sales during this part of the cycle show that this idea really does work. And if it doesn't work, I haven't built up a false luxury of success just because people have loads of cash spilling about.
The reward is actually greater - Reading blogs & articles on recession, it all seems to be about keeping lean and being keen. Keeping costs right down to the minimum - and I mean the minimum! How can we get away with what we need? Literally questioning and challenging every single pence in the proposed budget. And then fighting hard for every single pound earned - fighting to get it and fighting to keep it! And we all know that winning hard has a better feeling than winning easy.
Investment dries up - Investment will be harder to find, but that actually may be a good thing. If investment was plentiful, as it was 2 years ago when I first had one of these ideas, then my business plan reflected that with spend, spend, spend to build awareness and get scale quickly. Now with money tighter I've worked hard to understand what I can do myself to build small and build up. I'm more likely to sort out all the problems first when its small and not risk losing a fortune, and then once the problems are ironed out make money in the short term, prove that it works, and then once its working & making money then look to scale it up (only if the numbers fit!).
And there's evidence to support the idea that recessions can be a good time to start - Microsoft & Oracle both started in recessions, and both were "revolutionary" companies, bucking the established way of making money in their sectors, finding new, better & more efficient ways to make their businesses work versus the more conservative companies. But that doesn't necessarily prove the rule. Nobody ever celebrates the failures, they just get buried without the fanfare...
Monday, 2 March 2009
Any old iron
The other week, I accompanied my business buddy to a Trade Fair where his competitors exhibit and where he would exhibit in the future.
I went with hope rather than expectation as I really wasn't sure what would come of the visit. I think my business buddy was in the same frame of mind.
But it was good to see. Good to see all the junk that people sell. Jeez! You name it, this place had people punting it... candles, lingerie, swords, pot pourri, picture frames, garden furniture...
And while we were there we talked to the competitors and gleamed a great deal of information just from idle chat - their levels of distribution (about 1,000 independents and also some nationals); their levels of margin they offer on their products(50%, i.e. double the wholesale price + VAT); their promotions & support (some "show specials" with specific off shelf display point of sale).
So it was quite a good visit just from learning about the competition point of view but also about the clear level of expectation has now been set if he was to exhibit there next year.
We left the exhibition, not buzzing about the opportunity for his idea but for a completely different idea, born from seeing so many other crappy products that other people are trying to sell!
I went with hope rather than expectation as I really wasn't sure what would come of the visit. I think my business buddy was in the same frame of mind.
But it was good to see. Good to see all the junk that people sell. Jeez! You name it, this place had people punting it... candles, lingerie, swords, pot pourri, picture frames, garden furniture...
And while we were there we talked to the competitors and gleamed a great deal of information just from idle chat - their levels of distribution (about 1,000 independents and also some nationals); their levels of margin they offer on their products(50%, i.e. double the wholesale price + VAT); their promotions & support (some "show specials" with specific off shelf display point of sale).
So it was quite a good visit just from learning about the competition point of view but also about the clear level of expectation has now been set if he was to exhibit there next year.
We left the exhibition, not buzzing about the opportunity for his idea but for a completely different idea, born from seeing so many other crappy products that other people are trying to sell!
Three for Three
A Couple of weeks ago I took my test proposition to one more retailer just in case my test retailers declined to take the test forward after the delay I've had.
My delivery was confident, perhpas too brief and too polished as it brought a relatively non-plus response at first. Niether positive nor negative, just a "I don't know what to make of this".
But that was just my perception really, as he accepted the test and was keen to progress.
So I've pushed some buttons and made some POS. I've tried to sort out my systems but I don't think its going to happen in time for this renewed test.
Immediatley following my meeting with the retailer, I was worrying about what needed to be done, and it wasn't until I met up with my business buddy did I realise that I had a 100% record of gaining test partners. Now that is something to celebrate.
Of course, I started to ask why is it 100%. Is it the cash guarantee? Well to some degree it must have an impact but its probably not all down to that, as if the idea was crap they still wouldn't take it on. I think the idea, the proposition and the clarity all combine together to make it relatively compelling.
So in a few weeks time I should have the results...
My delivery was confident, perhpas too brief and too polished as it brought a relatively non-plus response at first. Niether positive nor negative, just a "I don't know what to make of this".
But that was just my perception really, as he accepted the test and was keen to progress.
So I've pushed some buttons and made some POS. I've tried to sort out my systems but I don't think its going to happen in time for this renewed test.
Immediatley following my meeting with the retailer, I was worrying about what needed to be done, and it wasn't until I met up with my business buddy did I realise that I had a 100% record of gaining test partners. Now that is something to celebrate.
Of course, I started to ask why is it 100%. Is it the cash guarantee? Well to some degree it must have an impact but its probably not all down to that, as if the idea was crap they still wouldn't take it on. I think the idea, the proposition and the clarity all combine together to make it relatively compelling.
So in a few weeks time I should have the results...
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Action Man
Last week I met with my business buddy for the first time this year, with New Year resolutions ringing in my ears as loudly as the bells themselves on New Year's Eve.
Following on from my life coach session, I knew I had to gain the momentum back and my solution was to develop a list of actions and make my commitment to my business buddy to achieve them.
My list of things to do was...
Following on from my life coach session, I knew I had to gain the momentum back and my solution was to develop a list of actions and make my commitment to my business buddy to achieve them.
My list of things to do was...
- Finalise my launch budget
- Contact my test retailers
- Chat through my systems needs with my business buddy's contact
- Research Companies House for details on my competitors
- Develop my pricing structure
- Buy some of my competitors product & test them
And after my weekly catch up with business buddy today, I'm happy to report... actions done!!
The inertia has been broken and the momentum is beginning to build...
Is The Price Right?
Perhaps before I need to, I finished my pricing structure today for my customers who in turn will sell it on to consumers.
I looked at my pricing in two ways - one where the retailer could just buy a bundle now and again, whenever they felt the need (like Pay As You Go with mobile phones) and the other a longer-term assured price built on a contract with a minimum spend per month. With the PAYG option a discount would be offered for the size of the bundle which is bought each time. For contract customers, a similar type of discount would be offered, though with the contract the discount is applied to the annual spend of the retailer.
And depending upon a number of variables that the retailer is willing to accept, a further discount would be offered. I thought of the key things that I think will drive sales for this product but might need additional incentive for the retailer and have offered fixed levels of discount in return for these elements.
I looked at my pricing in two ways - one where the retailer could just buy a bundle now and again, whenever they felt the need (like Pay As You Go with mobile phones) and the other a longer-term assured price built on a contract with a minimum spend per month. With the PAYG option a discount would be offered for the size of the bundle which is bought each time. For contract customers, a similar type of discount would be offered, though with the contract the discount is applied to the annual spend of the retailer.
And depending upon a number of variables that the retailer is willing to accept, a further discount would be offered. I thought of the key things that I think will drive sales for this product but might need additional incentive for the retailer and have offered fixed levels of discount in return for these elements.
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