Finding a Way

I applied for a job.

It isn't a recoil in horror moment, I promise.  Working on my businesses is still the best decision I've ever made and I'm still doing that, but this is different.

It was for a senior marketing role with my 2nd love Oldham Athletic.  A job I make no qualms about admiting was my 'dream' job 5 years ago.  I even went so far then as applying my cheekyness to arranging a meeting with the then Director of Marketing, Sean Jarvis to discover more from him about how he had made such a position, and how I could get into football marketing.  In a way I wasn't interested in general football marketing, I just had a burning ambition to be involved in my club.

Similarly, I don't mind admiting that my ambitions have changed on that front.  Certainly one of my dream goals is not just to have a marketing job with my club, but own it!  Ok, I'll rephrase that (I'm not that stupid), have a piece of it.  It may seem a silly goal, but for me it frames lots of smaller goals into a very exciting an tangible conclusion.

So why go for this job?  Well one thing I've realised over the past few years is that there are certain key things any business needs whether it is serving customers, providing a service, selling a box or playing football.  These are:

• A clear vision filled with positivity
• Clear effective communication with customers and staff (placing their needs at the heart of decision making)
• Innovative thinking
• Persistence

All seemingly simple things and so often missing or muddled.  And that it is a lack of those that I've noticed at Oldham since the owners known as TTA (The Three Amigos) came face to face with the stark reality of life at Oldham Athletic.  Over the last few years there has been a steady decline from within the club and that doesn't just apply on the pitch.  I should at this point point out that I have a great deal of admiration for TTA and indeed some of the staff within the club for what they have done and there has been plenty especially in terms of financial support.  They deserved more for the efforts they put in. But there is no doubting that so much concentration has been on 'old' methods of selling the club.

And that is where I can see so many possibilities.  As you all know I'm definately in the 'glass half full camp' and although you can't suddenly fill a stadium with clever marketing ideas (we are a cynical bunch us football fans when it comes to our own club), you can put the structure in place so that when the day comes when the on-field product flourishes, you are ready to maximise the off-field opportunities.  After all the success or failure on the pitch is fundamentally they key to any off-field successes.

Oh how I'd love to get into the club and just seeing what could be achieved.  After all for anyone out there willing to give it some investment the picture in many ways is quite an interesting one.  Certainly in terms of divisions the club could go lower.  But in terms of crowds in my opinion we're now pretty close to the bottom.  As the economy still struggles to recover, outside of the Premier Greed there is an increasing supply of out of work footballers, which will make lower wages a reality in the lower divisions eventually.  This again brings costs down.  Financially the club is fairly stable and certainly in no danger having cut its cloth accordingly over the past few years. In Paul Dickov, Oldham Athletic have a young, ambitious manager keen to mould a squad of young, hungry and talented individuals into a winning team.  A new stadium could be on the way, and there is an owner who wants to sell.  All these add up to a tasty looking investment for someone with deeper pockets than me.

So I applied to get in through that class door, it wasn't to go back to working life, it was to try and inject a little of the entrepreneurial spirit into a business that means so much to me.  A business that I want to see thriving even if that doesn't always translate to trophys and promotions.  A business that I want others to feel the way I do now 100 years in the future.

I didn't get it!  But that's ok, because the way I see it, it could be me making that decision in a few years time.

What a lucky shot: football and business opportunities

It's nearly football season time again. The time when every football fan in the country experiences a massive high of expectations in that last 10mins before kickoff.  A feeling only a relative handful will continue to feel for the remaining 9 months of the season.

For those of you who are not followers of our national sport you will be quite justified in dismissing the upcoming months as yet another year of pointless running around with a pigs bladder.  But there is no getting away from the fact that football as a sport, way of life and increasingly a business, is a key strand of our local and national pysche.

Take Burnley, many non-football fans in the town (of which there are very few) will point to the glorious industrial past, ringing singing tree and the beautiful pennines as major selling points.  But few will be able to argue that the town has been put back on the map of England in a major way by the promotion and season in the Premiership that filled the past year.  Even those businesses that didn't benefit directly from the increase in the football club's spending in the local economy will have seen the benefit that having a team in the Premier League with the eyes of the world focused upon it brings.

It is certainly a benefit that Blackpool will feel this coming season as they emulate Burnley by taking their turn in the 'big league'.  Without doubt it is an opportunity that must be taken, as an Oldham fan I can vouch for that.  Our town saw our Premier League opportunity come too early (before the big money really arrived) and despite 3 seasons in the top division our team now prepares to embark on it's 13th consecutive season in League One (or division 3 in old money).  As a club and a town Oldham didn't take the opportunity to maximise the chance they had, and that is really where a business lesson lies...maximising opportunities however big or small they may be.

Luck plays a part with all opportunities, and rather than declaring that luck has nothing to do with business I like to look on it another way.  Luck or LUCK really is all about maximising opportunities and how do you do that?  Well through LUCK:
L - Location, getting yourself out there and speaking to as many people as possible, mentioning your aims, your goals and your challenges and where you're looking for help.  Be on the field.
U - Understanding, know your chosen field as well as you can, who are the players, where are the opportunities
C - Contacts, speak to people, network (both in real-life and on social networking sites), draw up a list of the people you would really like to speak to and mention them to everyone you know...you've played the Kevin Bacon game right??
K - Knowledge, know your subject, be an expert, you don't need to be working in an industry for years to know about it, do your research.

Or to bring it back to football, Rooney worked hard on his skills and that enabled him to score 36 goals in total last season.  But he also used a big slice of LUCK...he knew where he would score most goals and got himself there. He worked in training on where the opportunities best arrived for him. He had some excellent teammates, and he knew exactly how he needed to strike the ball each and everytime in order to take advantage of the opportunities that came his way.  (World Cup aside of course!!!).

So increase your chances of scoring by using your own slice of luck, and take a leaf from Burnley and maximise the opportunities when they arrive.  And any time you get that feeling of complete optimisim in the 10 mins before kick off hold on to it...it will get you through those cold winter Tuesday nights at home to Gillingham.

Dragons Den; Inspirational business show or Takeshi's Castle in suits?

The new series of Dragon's Den flew back onto our screens and brought the usual mix of the wierd, the misguided and the tearful.  But how do we view Dragon's Den?  Is it an inspirational business show or is it just another ritual humiliation show in sharp suits (in most cases without the crash helmets...most cases!).

Dragon's Den actually originated in Japan, the land of Takeshi's Castle, a show who's format set the bar for more recent shows such as Wipeout.  It was first broadcast there in 2001 under the name Money Tigers, but first broacast in the UK in January 2005.  It is the UK format that has spread across the rest of the world.

But now entering it's 8th series, has the Dragon's Den programme changed, not in format or style, but in the minds of those viewing the programme?  Now we know the likes of Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne and Theo Paphitis, not just on screen but by the plethora of books, sites, blogs and programmes has the 'inspirational' story gone.  There were times in the last series when each of the characters lived up to their charactures...brilliantly spoofed by Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.

There was a time when the Peter, Duncan, Theo, Deborah and James (et al) by their mere prescence and associated backstory would generate the kind of inspirational feelings that made the dream of running a successful business a reality.  Even those entering the den sparked the 'I could do that' feel, yet there were times in the first episode of the new series that you got the impression that 'good for TV' had taken over.  It almost lifted a veil.

The dragons, because of what they've achieved will alway be an inspiration as individuals, that isn't in question.  What is though is this, does the format create inspirational feelings to go out and start a business?  Sadly as a long time fan of the show I fear not. 

What we are left with is ritual humiliation on a par with watching Japanese gameshow contestants being pummelled by massive padded swings.  Sometimes it is eye-wateringly hilarious, and other times a strong feeling of pity just pervades everything.  A few forgotten numbers here or there and that's all that is required for the humiliation to begin.  Big Brother is ending because we've tired of watching people putting themselves up for similar humiliation, so is it time for a change in format or even putting the dragons back in their respective castles?

There was an exception to this general feeling that has been gathering momentum over the last few episodes.  Kirsty Henshaw gave a great demonstration on just how to inspire anyone to start a business.  Taking 2 (and a half) jobs to pursue her dream, fantastic.  A real inspiration, especially to women of all ages, much more so than any WAG or TV star.  But, Kirsty's fantastic success was slightly tinged with a fear for me, that we are about to embark on a Dragons Den series with more 'journey's' and weepy stories than inspirational stories.  Kirsty and her story was the perfect balance, and perhaps began to restore some of the balance between inspiration and humiliation!

So what did we learn from Young Apprentice?

With the dust still settling on the winning task on Junior Apprentice I’ve been delighted, but not surprised by the candidates performances. The show did much to showcase some fantastic young business people, all offering different levels of maturity and skill, but bags and bags of enthusiasm.


And it was no coincidence that the teams managed to pull in some record breaking Apprentice sales records. Stripped of mature ego’s (something I sure we’ll see lots of in the Apprentice show proper) the youngsters often identified the key points quickly and, without a sense of fear, threw themselves into the tasks. So many times in the show proper mature ego’s not mature people, have let their desire to be seen override the basic key points related to the task.

The show produced a worthy, if slightly surprising winner in 17 year old Arjun Rajyagor who scooped a prize purse worth £25000 for his future business career. Surprising only due to the fact he didn’t leap out as a winner in the early tasks, but came flying to the front in the last couple, just pipping Tim Ankers to the final decision.

It was the correct decision for me, certainly out of the final four of Arjun, Tim, Zoe Plummer and Kirsty Cleaver.

Tim showed a level of maturity unsurpassed by many of the others, but a definite role on future episodes of Countryfile look assured for the sheep-shearer turned sharp suited TV natural.

Kirsty lived up to her name, cutting straight through so much nonsense and was never a shrinking violet, despite her lack of inches.

Zoe was an intriguing character, her of the Human League bob and rolling eyes. Despite annoying almost every viewer I’ve spoken to and most of the other contestants, she displayed a ruthless sales instinct. She would quite probably be able to sell ice to the Eskimos.

The Twitter-sphere was alight with running commentary on the tasks, and it was clear that all the contestants have good futures ahead of them, whatever their chosen field.

So what have we learned? Well as many of us know already, there are a fantastic group of young people working their ways through the education system who aren’t out to jump on any bystander with a knife. The bad rap that many youngsters get was dispelled in huge quantities by driven and hungry young people looking already at their futures. Yes, there was more than a touch of toe-curling regurgitation of classic Apprentice lines “I’ve been working for this all my life” said one 16 year old – an interesting concept!

There was for me one salient lesson for all of us whatever your chosen path.

Discover that childlike enthusiasm for business; go jump in a few puddles, bump down the stairs on your bottom and run as fast as you can down the road. And once you’ve found that inner child take a look again at your biggest challenges and tackle them with all that youthful energy.

Where have all the mentors gone?

Us entrepreneurs are interesting beasts.  Full of our own ideas and thrust to put things into action, but for many of us there is a bit of a hole that needs filling. 
As many a Sir David Attenborough programme will tell you, so many other species in this world learn from those that have done it before, nearly always a parent, but occassionally a wily ally or two.  How to swim, how to fly, how to dig yourself a den, how to defend it, and how to live to fight another day.
And so it's also the case with entrepreneurs, there are so many places and people to go to for advice and help.  So much so that it can rapidly become white noise.  Particularly over the past few years as the government and authorities have understood that enterprise is central to the prospects of our great town/region and country.  Certainly I myself have benefitted from advice when I was starting up, much of it though, I have to say, pitched at such a low level that I left never to return.  Indeed, one advisor sat and listened to me outline my plans, produce marketing plans and other strategies and could do nothing except to ask why I had even asked to see them. Such was level of detail I had already been involved in.  But I would wholly defend these types of agencies and the work they do in dispensing advice and helping each and every person looking to start a business.

But what about those of us who are looking for a mentor? Someone who really has been there and done it, someone who you can approach with an idea or a query relating to your business. Someone who sits outside of these local advisors and isn't restrained by targets to increase jobs/businesses in the local area.  What about those mentors who really have taken a start up business and taken it national, or understand the 'think big' mentality, but also know the very practical pitfalls. Those that have thought big and made it happen, where are they?  I guess I'm talking about someone you can pick the phone up to and ask for advice.

And how does someone like me get to speak to them, meet them and be mentored by them?

I confess I don't know the answer to that. Perhaps it is different for everyone.  But I am one of those people who likes to learn from others, and likes to bounce ideas off.

As someone pointed out to me, the ideal mentor is someone that you respect in business and someone you can create a clear structure of support with.  I agree with that, There has to be both of those things in order to really benefit both parties.  As someone who has done a little mentoring myself I know that I as the mentor feel more fulfilled when I'm learning as well.

After all when the tiger cub is taught how to run, catch and eat it isn't kept close.  It is sent out into the big wide world to fend for itself - but always with some valuable lessons and advice.

Why am I here??

It's been a testing time recently, and in a lot of ways these are the times when you have to take stock and ask yourself good questions. So I'll start with - Why am I here?

Well taking that as the lead I thought I'd let you know why I started this blog.  The theme that 'Starting a Business in the Credit Crunch is Great' sounds a very positive one, and so it should be.  As I listened to the debate on BBC This Week last night on cynicism or scepticism and (I think it was Michael Portillo) it was said that scepticism is heathly (questioning of motives) and cynicism is a disease, a debilitating mind set which is all too often these days the first and primary response.  I have to agree to a point, it is becoming so much easier these days to be cynical and the glass half empty response is given more credibility than a glass half full response.

It has been a tough 18 months for the country for all kinds of reasons and even from the 'half-full' viewpoint that is the reality.  However, that's where I do draw the line (after a bit of a moan of course).  Recent events seem to me to show a growing mindset from some quarters that we are looking back and down as the norm.  Now as someone who does a bit of walking I've yet to achieve much in the way of distance by walking this way.  I'm pretty sure that isn't what Run DMC and Aerosmith were meaning either.  If you travel forward whilst looking back and down it doesn't take long for you to hit something or end up with something nasty on your shoe.

I started this blog to say look, I'm here and I'm looking forward.  There may be a recession, but then there is never a wrong time to take control of your life, dream a dream and go for it.  I've mentioned my Dr Pepper moment before and I'm not sure if I was extremely cynical that I'd have been able to give a measured and positive response to 'What's the worst that can happen'. 

I started this blog not to say, look at how well everything I touch is going, let me just put that point to bed now.  It's been tough and very, very loney running the business, and for someone who has boughts of depression that isn't a good combination.  But you know what? I wouldn't change it! I'm now doing something that makes me happy.  That isn't to say it just puts me in a happy mood, I have a genuine deep feeling that this rocky path is MY path, it's taken me a while to find it but it's the right one for me.

So whilst times are tough and the air of cynicism is seemingly growing it is up to all of us as individuals to do the things that are guaranteed to make us happy, learn from mistakes (but don't be afraid to make them) and raise our heads and turn them forward.  Then we'll all get where we are going a lot quicker and with a few less (smelly) bruises!

Being social in real life

Headed home from my mastermind group tonight (that's mastermind as in the group principle advocated by Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich as oppose to a group that meets to put each other in a black leather chair and ask searching questions...I've started so I'll finish)...after an interesting discussion and ideas on Social Network/Media.  We were coming up with ideas for three different businesses tonight to do with Social Network/Media and it got me thinking about the latest 'marketing black art'.

Now I call it 'black art' as being a relatively new arm of marketing it holds a lot of fear for some people.  But it really shouldn't.  In fact give it another 2-5 years and aspects of Social Networking/Media/Marketing will no longer be known as that, they will have reverted to just marketing.  And for those of you filled with fear and confusion when terms like blogs, linking, buttons, updates etc etc I give you the line to ease your mind...

Forget the technical terms, its just a different way to speak to your customers.

Honestly that is all there is to it.  By all means create a proper plan (to prevent ps poor performance) and dedicate resource to it, but most of all embrace it - don't be scared of it.  For the generation or two (yikes) below me - the next raft of employees and employers - the above terms are second nature.  So put aside the fear and meet it head on.  Start learning, using and engaging - you'll find the new marketing black arts will soon merge into all those other marketing black arts that have been scaring us for years.