Marketing For Power Packed Business Growth

The Apprentice - With Sir Alan Sugar

2008-03-14T14:46:00.003Z

The Apprentice has landed!

Can it really be a year since I last put metaphorical pen to paper to comment on The Apprentice?

Anyway, as you know I've now transferred this blog to www.business-powerpack.com where I've just posted my thoughts on the Sport Relief Does Apprentice show.

The second part of the show is tonight and I should have my comments on it and who was fired by Sunday at the latest.

Then of course we gear up for the "real" fun -- The Apprentice in its purest form as a long interview for those who believe they're pretty good at business. We'll see, shall we..?

Sign up for the feed here so you don't miss my comments on what happens and whether the firings are fair, or not...

Let the jousting commence!

Business Growth Smashes Through Inertia

2008-01-18T11:59:00.000Z

After taking this blog as far as I could I realised that I wanted some control over my own destiny.

Blogger has been good to me and has allowed me to try out blogging over quite an extended time (years!).

I continue with the same subject: Explosive Business Growth, on my Wordpress blog.

So overcome inertia and smash through to my new Business Growth site. Now!

By the way while you're there you can subscribe to get new posts via email. Easier than using RSS really.

Book Review: Six Discplines of Excellence

2007-09-12T08:18:00.000+01:00

As you know I've moved all these posts to my Business Growth blog which is where I'm posting new content.

The latest is a review of Six Disciplines Of Excellence, a book aimed at helping SMEs grow.

So go check it out and I'd love it if you'd leave any comments.

By the way currently the site is best viewed using Firefox as Internet Explorer seems to not display the blog theme as nicely.

Bye Bye Blogger, It Was Great ...

2007-08-27T22:11:00.000+01:00

It was great, while it lasted. I ca truly say Blogger helped me understand and appreciate blogging.

Anyway, at last I've moved...

I've had a very extended period of trying to write a few postings while I got the Wordpress implementation of the new blog sorted out.

Now if you wait...

You'll see this blog automatically transform into the shiny new Wordpress one. It's still not completely finished as there's a fair bit of housekeeping to complete on the new blog.

Wordpress allows more flexible publishing so hopefully you won't get 2 or 3 posts a day. Although if I get over-enthusiastic please bear with me - normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

My Alexa ranking and page rank has plummetted dramatically, although when I started this I was sure I could keep my page rank!

Still the content remains as good as ever, or at least I hope you think so.

I've had a private members blog for a while too and I may open that up to allow a few more people to join after I've converted it to Wordpress too - let me know if you're interested - email me at secretblog at acornservice dot com.

The new Wordpress version of this blog is located at http://www.business-powerpack.com and it's called "Business Growth And Internet Marketing."

Check it out and leave a comment about it, it'll be most appreciated.

See you there

One Thing Left Out Of Blogging To The Bank

2007-08-13T16:56:00.001+01:00

People have asked me why I keep the blogging to the bank banner going on this blog.

The simple answer is because at the moment it's the one thing that will pretty much definitely help people do better at blogging and at making money from their blog.

Does the book guarantee untold riches?

Not quite. In fact although it has a pretty good set of solid steps you can easily take to get blogging and making money it misses out one thing.

That one thing is the massive emphasis you need to place on choosing the right niche.

You can get a set of keywords that have 5,000 searches per month and you can have keywords that have 5,000,000 per month.

The 5,000 search niche might be ok to choose if everyone buys compared to, say, 1 in 100,000 buying from the 5,000,000 search.

However, all things being equal...

The money you make depends on the traffic you're exposed to. Which in turn is linked to the size of the niche you have.

So it's essential you choose the right niche.

IceRocket tags: Blogging to the bank 2.0, Rob Benwell, Niche marketing

Technorati tags: Blogging to the bank 2.0, Rob Benwell, Niche marketing

LiveJournal tags: Blogging to the bank 2.0, Rob Benwell, Niche marketing

TV Gets The Apprentice Look What The Internet Gets!

2007-08-08T19:20:00.001+01:00

It had to happen.

If you know anything about Internet Marketing you know there are always seminars running that pluck one person from the audience and teach them step by step how to make money from the Internet. And of course they do make money!

It's argued that television watching by the younger age groups is dropping as their attention is switched to the Internet.

The Internet Reality
TV Arrives?

The next logical step in teaching people how to use the Internet to make money in a seminar is to have an Apprentice-like competition, not on TV, but on the Internet.

So New York Times Best Selling author Joel Comm (The Adsense Code) is hosting an Internet-based reality show called "The Next Internet Millionaire."

Intriguing title.

The Contestants

And of course there are 12 contestants. They are:

Jason Henderson
Charles Trippy
Nico Pisani
Steve Schuitt
Thor Schrock
Jason Marshall
Jaime Luchuck
Carly Taylor
Christine Schapp
Debbie Ducic
Laura Martin
Alisande Chan

Plus, there's a veritable who's who of Internet Marketers who are mentioned in the trailer credits:

Mark Joyner
Armand Morin
Jeff Walker
Marlon Sanders
Mike Koenigs
Brad Fallon
Mike Filsaime
Ray Edwards
Dave Taylor
Perry Marshall
Rich Schefren
Heather Vale

Although noticeable by their absence were Alex Mandossian, Dan Kennedy, Michel Fortin, John Reese, Ken McArthur and the ubiquitous Joe Vitale.

According to "The Next Internet Millionaire" web site the whole thing kicks off on 15th August 2007.

And I'll be there to watch and comment on it...

...Only please let it be better than Tycoon!

IceRocket tags: The Next Internet Millionaire, Joel Comm, Eric Holmund, Jason Henderson, Charles Trippy, Nico Pisani, Steve Schuitt, Thor Schrock, Jason Marshall, Jaime Luchuck, Carly Taylor, Christine Schapp, Debbie Ducic, Laura Martin, Alisande Chan, Mark Joyner, Armand Morin, Jeff Walker, Marlon Sanders, Mike Koenigs, Brad Fallon, Mike Filsaime, Ray Edwards, Dave Taylor, Perry Marshall, Rich Schefren, Heather Vale, Michel Fortin, Alex Mandossian, Joe Vitale

Technorati tags: The Next Internet Millionaire, Joel Comm, Eric Holmund, Jason Henderson, Charles Trippy, Nico Pisani, Steve Schuitt, Thor Schrock, Jason Marshall, Jaime Luchuck, Carly Taylor, Christine Schapp, Debbie Ducic, Laura Martin, Alisande Chan, Mark Joyner, Armand Morin, Jeff Walker, Marlon Sanders, Mike Koenigs, Brad Fallon, Mike Filsaime, Ray Edwards, Dave Taylor, Perry Marshall, Rich Schefren, Heather Vale, Michel Fortin, Alex Mandossian, Joe Vitale

LiveJournal tags: The Next Internet Millionaire, Joel Comm, Eric Holmund, Jason Henderson, Charles Trippy, Nico Pisani, Steve Schuitt, Thor Schrock, Jason Marshall, Jaime Luchuck, Carly Taylor, Christine Schapp, Debbie Ducic, Laura Martin, Alisande Chan, Mark Joyner, Armand Morin, Jeff Walker, Marlon Sanders, Mike Koenigs, Brad Fallon, Mike Filsaime, Ray Edwards, Dave Taylor, Perry Marshall, Rich Schefren, Heather Vale, Michel Fortin, Alex Mandossian, Joe Vitale

4 "Why" Questions That Power Your Marketing Machine

2007-08-02T12:26:00.001+01:00

I've said this time after time.

Yet it bears repeating because so few businesses actually do it.

You need to know the marketing cogs, or "the whys", that power your marketing machine.

Why is it in my interest to listen/read/watch you/meet you? Also known as "What's In It For Me"
Why should I believe you?
Why should I do anything about what you say or offer?
Why now?

The answers you give to those 4 simple questions tell your prospects whether it's worth their while continuing a dialogue with you.

Does Blogging Answer The 4 "Whys?"

I'm busy, yet I make time to write my blogs.

Why?

Look at the "4 Whys" again:

What's In It For Me?

A blog is one way of allowing you to decide whether you want to talk further with me. You will learn about different business growth techniques and strategies in the blog. Strategies and tactics that can power your business forward, faster, more profitably. Implementing them makes you more money!

Why Should I Believe You?

This blog provides an inexpensive way to get good business growth advice. You can test all the relevant advice in your own business. When you find it works you've answered the second question yourself.

Why Should I Do Anything?

As Yoda in Star Wars says to Luke, "Do or do not... there is no try." Which means you can either do what the blog suggests or not do it. If you do it you find out whether the advice is useful. If you don't you're doomed to simply read stuff off the Internet to while away your work day. At which point I'd suggest you stop reading this blog because I'd rather speak to people who take action.

Why now?

Of course you've heard the phrase "strike while the iron is hot." The reason is that as iron cools down it loses its ability to be shaped. Similarly if you don't take action from the advice on this blog, and others, or more directly through my coaching you'll miss the opportunities that I guarantee you have in your business right now that are staring you in the face that you may be dimly aware of and yet could make you more cash that you're making now.

So think hard. Why this blog? If you've found the advice I give valuable let me know. Equally if you've found the advice really stinks let me know.

And finally, the bottom line behind this post is that you need to get your marketing message sorted out. Just doing that puts you ahead of so many other businesses and gives your prospects something they can understand about what they get from you.

Technorati tags: Marketing Messages, WIFM, What's In It For Me?, Yoda Quote

43 Things tags: Marketing Messages, WIFM, What's In It For Me?, Yoda Quote

BuzzNet tags: Marketing Messages, WIFM, What's In It For Me?, Yoda Quote

del.icio.us tags: Marketing Messages, WIFM, What's In It For Me?, Yoda Quote

Flickr tags: Marketing Messages, WIFM, What's In It For Me?, Yoda Quote

IceRocket tags: Marketing Messages, WIFM, What's In It For Me?, Yoda Quote

LiveJournal tags: Marketing Messages, WIFM, What's In It For Me?, Yoda Quote

Latest Business Thinking - Not Star Trek

2007-08-01T16:02:00.001+01:00

The latest business thinking is a phrase that marketers like to use when they're offering something that they want to appeal to people who must have the latest.

You probably know someone like that...

They must have the latest gizmo, drive the latest car, seen the latest film or used the most recent business school buzz phrase.

And of course the latest business thinking is a phrase that springs readily to an Internet Marketer's pen.

Particularly when talking about search engine optimization (SEO). Because SEO is a subject that gets talked about whenever a small band of people with web sites gets together.

And yet they all agree content is king!

SEO Self-Help

So how can they agree on that I wonder? "Content is King" and yet we still need Search Engine Optimization, surely that's not necessary?

Well of course SEO is necessary but it needs to be integrated with the content. So trying to "do" SEO on a web site or blog without paying attention to how you write copy is a complete waste of time.

There is so much that you can do to help yourself with SEO:

Write a title with the keywords in
Keep one page pretty much dedicated to one concept or product or service
Research and use the appropriate keywords as you write the content
make sure you do off-site SEO
Encourage appropriate inward bound links

Above all, write great content, publicize your site and the hits will come.

Then Bob's your uncle and I'm the coolest guy on the planet still!

Technorati tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimisation, I'm the coolest guy on the planet, latest business thinking

43 Things tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimisation, I'm the coolest guy on the planet, latest business thinking

BuzzNet tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimisation, I'm the coolest guy on the planet, latest business thinking

del.icio.us tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimisation, I'm the coolest guy on the planet, latest business thinking

Flickr tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimisation, I'm the coolest guy on the planet, latest business thinking

IceRocket tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimisation, I'm the coolest guy on the planet, latest business thinking

LiveJournal tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimisation, I'm the coolest guy on the planet, latest business thinking

Blue Sky Thinkers Buy Amstrad

2007-08-01T13:22:00.001+01:00

This story has been bubbling under for the last few days as Sir Alan Sugar and Sky agree details for Sky to buy Amstrad.

They've finally sealed the knot as reported in The Guardian.

Of course as an Amstrad shareholder I'm over the moon with the shares racking up a nice healthy premium.

And the good news for us Apprentice fans is that Sir Alan will stay in that role with Margaret and Nick as his faithful sidekicks.

Amstrad now becomes a division of Sky, still run by Sir Alan Sugar.

My immediate thought was that someone like Sir Alan may not take kindly to being told what to do. Because as an entrepreneur he's been used to having the buck stop with him.

Of course in reality, as he himself has said, his customers are the people who tell him what to do. So he is used to having a boss of sorts.

This purchase is definitely a "good" thing for Amstrad. The research resources and leading edge developers will help Amstrad get stuff to market for Sky more quickly.

Technorati tags: The Apprentice, Sir Alan Sugar, Amstrad, Sky

BuzzNet tags: The Apprentice, Sir Alan Sugar, Amstrad, Sky

IceRocket tags: The Apprentice, Sir Alan Sugar, Amstrad, Sky

LiveJournal tags: The Apprentice, Sir Alan Sugar, Amstrad, Sky

I'm Looking for Fitness Affiliate Programs

2007-07-30T17:21:00.001+01:00

I'm starting another blog about health and fitness and so I've been scouring the Internet so I can review useful programs.

Don't worry the Power Packed Business Growth Blog is still in the process of being upgraded, or should I say converted to Wordpress. And I may well not use my current web domain, for a number of Search Engine Optimisation reasons.

Anyway, I just had to share this with you:

In the constant fight for fitness a lot of people in the western world need to lose weight. Only problem with that of course is that you can easily get into the yo-yo diet vicious cycle.

Now, I don't normally do this...

I'm going to recommend you pay a visit to this site where they tell you how to melt the fat without losing the muscle.

Sign up for their ‘Big Fat Lies’ mini course. This course gives you the 12 most blatant, self-serving lies about weight loss. The sign-up form is about half-way down the page. I've signed up as an affiliate but I just think the email course is worth getting itself.

Let me know what you think.

Ok...normal marketing and business growth continues as I wrestle with Wordpress and new domains for this blog.

LiveJournal tags: Lifetime Fitness, health, weight loss

IceRocket tags: Lifetime Fitness, health, weight loss

Technorati tags: Lifetime Fitness, health, weight loss

Travel Counsellor

2007-07-25T18:49:00.001+01:00

I've just had an illuminating interview with David Speakman of Travel Counsellors. David originally set-up Travel Counsellors to do the administration for agents and allow the agents to do what they do best: organise holidays.

The company is now a multi-million pound one that's based in Bolton in the Northwest. David has handed over the UK operation to a management team and runs the Spanish operation in Spain.

I'm putting the full interview into the launch issue of Good Company but one nugget that really hit me and which I'd like to share with you is this:One of the doormen at David restaurants remarked,

"If You Don’t Let Them In You Don’t Have To Throw Them Out"

Obviously referring to the incoming customers. David took this comment to heart and realised that the same was true of taking on staff members. Why take on staff just because you have a vacancy? Instead it's better to have the management problem of too few staff compared to the management problem of how to get rid of a member of staff.

LiveJournal tags: David Speakman, Travel Counsellors, Travel Agents, Travel Consultants, Recruitment

Technorati tags: David Speakman, Travel Counsellors, Travel Agents, Travel Consultants, Recruitment

IceRocket tags: David Speakman, Travel Counsellors, Travel Agents, Travel Consultants, Recruitment

Tycoon: No Shock Winner

2007-07-24T11:24:00.001+01:00

You may remember from last time that Peter Jones had selected all 4 of the remaining businesses to go forward to the grand finale.

The grand finale looked extremely impressive and again the introductory credits were very like "The Apprentice" in appearance.

And yet...

Tycoon completely failed to impress. Kate Thornton was the compere for the night and did a reasonable job. Almost all the finalists were dressed in their finery.

The finale set looked nice and big and glittery. Up for the prize was the over £200,000 of profits made by all the companies since Tycoon started.

Then we were treated to half an hour of clips we'd already seen and mini interviews with the people involved, including Peter Jones with amazing stripped socks.

I'd advised closing Justin and Lauren down last week and I had a question over whether Iain's Helicopter business was sustainable.

The Tycoon Winner

In the end Iain won. Which seemed only fair as he'd made over half of the £200,000 profits available as the prize.

Was The Finale Worth Watching?

I can now give a big unequivocal no!

It was like watching paint dry. Who wanted to hear more of what we'd already heard?

There was no drama. There was no reason that the watching public (if any watched) should change their minds about one person or another.

I've never sat through such an insipid production before.

Peter Jones needs to get his production company to come up with a much better format than this.

It was almost as if a group of mates had gone out to the pub after watching The Apprentice and said how great Dragon's Den was too. Then said, "wait a minute, think how amazing it would be if we combined the two!"

As you know I love business programmes. And my reasons for watching, which may be different to others are as follows:

To learn about someone else's business
To learn how other people approach business problems
To learn what not to do
To see how other people think in business
Combined with a narrative thread that links the programme and the people together

So for me Tycoon failed to deliver any of my reasons for watching

As I've said before if Tycoon ever comes back I need to be convinced it's much, much better than this before I watch another second.

LiveJournal tags: Tycoon, The Apprentice, Dragon's Den, Peter Jones, Tom Thurlow, Justin Chieffo, Helen James, Cathy Caudwell-Todd, Elizabeth Hackford, iain Morgan, Lauren Pope, bags for life, Snap, VTox, Fruka

IceRocket tags: Tycoon, The Apprentice, Dragon's Den, Peter Jones, Tom Thurlow, Justin Chieffo, Helen James, Cathy Caudwell-Todd, Elizabeth Hackford, iain Morgan, Lauren Pope, bags for life, Snap, VTox, Fruka

Flickr tags: Tycoon, The Apprentice, Dragon's Den, Peter Jones, Tom Thurlow, Justin Chieffo, Helen James, Cathy Caudwell-Todd, Elizabeth Hackford, iain Morgan, Lauren Pope, bags for life, Snap, VTox, Fruka

BuzzNet tags: Tycoon, The Apprentice, Dragon's Den, Peter Jones, Tom Thurlow, Justin Chieffo, Helen James, Cathy Caudwell-Todd, Elizabeth Hackford, iain Morgan, Lauren Pope, bags for life, Snap, VTox, Fruka

43 Things tags: Tycoon, The Apprentice, Dragon's Den, Peter Jones, Tom Thurlow, Justin Chieffo, Helen James, Cathy Caudwell-Todd, Elizabeth Hackford, iain Morgan, Lauren Pope, bags for life, Snap, VTox, Fruka

Technorati tags: Tycoon, The Apprentice, Dragon's Den, Peter Jones, Tom Thurlow, Justin Chieffo, Helen James, Cathy Caudwell-Todd, Elizabeth Hackford, iain Morgan, Lauren Pope, bags for life, Snap, VTox, Fruka

Move From Blogger To Wordpress

2007-07-19T13:00:00.001+01:00

I've really enjoyed blogging with Blogger. But now I've hit a number of its limitations. One major one is a lack of good plugins to enhance the user experience.

Similarly I've decided not to transfer all my posts to my Wordpress.org blog because of the limitations there.

So I've decided to enhance the blog for us both and the blog is moving to my own domain: www.acornservice.com where my current web site is and will be powered by Wordpress blog software.

If you've any Wordpress templates you think that would particularly suit my blog style let me know. At the moment I'm thinking of going with the rather nice theme we're using for The Manchester Blog.

Anyway, I've been promising myself that I'll freshen my web site so I will see whether it's feasible to roll the blog transfer and freshen up into one project.

My only concern is that I don't lose YOU my dedicated reader in all this as the URL will be different and as I'm unlikely to post much for the next few days.

So to make sure you can still read these posts please subscribe by email at the top of this blog and you'll get the posts by email until you unsubscribe.

Or if you simply want me to let you know when the blog has been transferred send an email to me at transfer(AT) acornservice.(X) and replace (AT) with @ and (X) with com.

Then I'll email you twice (on 2 different days) to let you know the blog has been recreated. Then I'll delete your email from my system.

Either way spammers are unwelcome and your email addresses remain safe with me!

So sign up or send me an email and I'll see you on the other side on a refreshed Power Packed Business Growth Blog.

Technorati tags: move to wordpress, jim symcox, manchester Bloggers, Manchester blog

IceRocket tags: move to wordpress, jim symcox, manchester Bloggers, Manchester bloggers

Flickr tags: move to wordpress, jim symcox, manchester Bloggers, Manchester bloggers

Tycoon: Were You On The Edge Of Your Seat?

2007-07-17T12:21:00.001+01:00

You may remember in the first episode of Tycoon I suggested Tom and Elizabeth should both go.

...and they have.

I have very mixed feelings about this Tycoon series.

On the one hand it should be interesting to see apprentice entrepreneurs (appreneurs) work in their new businesses and start to make money on the other hand at times you're not sure what on earth they're competing for.

Take yesterday night's episode where Peter was going to decide who should go into the final.

Which out of the 4 remaining businesses would get canned?

If you haven't seen the episode yet, I'll reveal the answer at the end with the title "So Who Went Through To The Tycoon Finale?"

Suffice to say I was baffled by the criteria that Peter was using to establish exactly which business should go through into the finale.

Can Justin Chieffo Win With A Bag For Life?

Justin almost got an order from Sainsbury's for 60,00 bags for life and he also managed to find a much cheaper supplier of the bags.

I'm sorry almost an order is no order.

And 60,000 compared to Tesco's 250,000? Didn't Justin point out the size of Tesco's order?

And are Sainsbury's really the only other supermarket to express an interest in bags for life.

The most strategic and vitally important supermarket of them all was completely ignored - ASDA. After all they're owned by WALMART - the biggest supermarket in the USA and chain you'd want to get into to sell such a bag!

Justin seemed to be sitting back on his laurels. As an entrepreneur he needs to continually thinking of new ways to get his bags into shops. Plus what about putting ads on the bags?

My Advice: Close Justin down.

Can Iain Morgan Rise Above With His Helicopters?

Iain Morgan became a selling whirlwind and sold an incredible amount of helicopters.

Unfortunately, a good salesman does not mean he's a good businessman.

That said he had made the most money this week and it was around half the total that everyone else combined made.

My Advice: I'm undecided on Iain because you can see his business will saturate the UK market for toy executive helicopters. What does he do then?

Will Lauren Pope's Hair Extensions Win The Day?

Lauren continued to sell her hair extensions, despite her extension suppliers labeling the extensions Goosip instead of Gossip!

My Advice: Close Lauren down. I know extensions are currently fashionable my only concern is that a number of celebs appear to have stopped wearing them now. So it may be a declining market.

Helen James and Cathy Caudwell-Todd

Helen and Cathy only made a small amount of money compared to everyone else but have won deals to get into large garden centres with their clothes ranges.

I think the connection with Dragon's Den will help them too.

My Advice: These two are the ones I would vote for to win. I think that once their excessive prices had been pared down a bit for garden centres they've every chance of selling lots of gardening clothes.

Is The Finale Worth Watching?

I really don't know.

If Helen and Cathy can show large orders, or even sales from the garden centres I think they've got it sewn up for the few viewers who've stuck with Tycoon.

The criteria Peter appears to be choosing the finalists are unclear. And I suspect the same will be true in the final.

My previous Tycoon posting reveals my thoughts on whether I'd watch another series of Tycoon. Suffice to say that at the moment I'm terribly underwhelmed.

"So Who Went Through To The Tycoon Finale?"

After watching Peter invite Justin and Iain through because of their high sales figures and Lauren for her reasonable one it all looked curtains for Helen and Cathy.

Then Peter decided to let them all through.

So much for being on the edge of my seat with high drama!

Do You Stay In Business By The "Skin Of Your Teeth?"

2007-07-16T20:04:00.001+01:00

I watched a Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmare I hadn't seen last night.

On first walking in the restaurant (Morgan's in Liverpool) looked very well presented and had an unhurried air.

It soon became clear that all was far from well. Obviously!

It was being run by 3 people. A form of company abuse I've across several times before and often (but strangely not always) with the same effects.

Those effects are usually that because decisions are shared they don't get made properly. And in this case the mother and two sisters involved seemed to be forever treading on each other toes. None of them seemed to have any real idea what they ought to be doing at any one time.

Equally the chef they'd chosen was not a stickler for good food and would let completely incinerated sausages out to the paying punter!

And yet they had a second chef who produced an excellent sticky pudding and wound up, of course, becoming the head chef for the restaurant.

Now the thing that really interested me about this programme was that everything was being done as though the business was about to fail:

The owner was buying food for the chef to make on the day he was set to make it from a supermarket!
The owner would "help" everyone do stuff. Such as drying the dishes, waiting on, doing the accounts and goodness know's what else. You go the feeling she felt as though if she didn't get involved everything would collapse.
The owner wouldn't pay for food prep time

And of course Gordon Ramsey sorted it all out - got the head chef to cook with more focus and to put out good food, allocated the right jobs to the right people and scrapped the (as usual) pretentious menus - I mean mashed potato and apricot? YUK!

And on Ramsey's return a month later the restaurant was continuing to make a profit.

The moral behind this story is for a business to work it needs a unified strategy that all agree to and can contribute to. Anyone who can't needs to go.

Flickr tags: Gordon Ramsey, Kitchen Nightmares, Morgan's restaurant

Technorati tags: Gordon Ramsey, Kitchen Nightmares, Morgan's restaurant

Tycoon: Tom Gone, Elizabeth Next!

2007-07-13T15:14:00.001+01:00

After the first episode of Tycoon I pointed out that Tom should be sacked and Elizabeth given enough rope to hang herself.

Although I started watching the second episode I lost the will to live part way through and didn't watch the rest where Tom got his just desserts.

ITV management pulled the show from its prime time slot and shoehorned a shorter version into a later slot.

Thank goodness.

The editing has got much tighter and it looks as though they've inserted a few new clips of Peter's assessment of what's happening.

In this episode Justin Chieffo is appointed by Peter to look after his fellow entrepreneurs as Peter has to go away for a few days.

Elizabeth Gets Hacked

I think it's important that anyone on these reality shows needs to remember is that "they return to the real world after the show is finished." Elizabeth wearing a sticky label on her forehead with the word 'FRAGILE' on is not going to endear her to future customers or employers.

So what happened to Elizabeth Hackford?

4,000 bottle wrappers were the wrong colour
She was advised by the Portland Group not to use the name Vtox because it was too much like Detox
She didn't appear to like Justin "managing" her

Peter finally gave her the elbow.

And can someone please tell me why on earth they're talking to the doomed candidate on the end of the pier? What is the point?

OK, they're trying to get away from the boardroom firing scene as shown on The Apprentice. But a pier? Why couldn't they fire someone from Peter's Bentley? Or maybe in Peter's office?

And guess what? Lauren said that it was expected by the others.

Yes she should never have been in the contest!

Has Justin Chieffo Got Management Ability?

Like I said before my wife still believes his carrier bag dispenser is a good idea. So when Tesco ordered 250,000 she looked at me in triumph!

I'm still not persuaded. As I said last time you can use a carrier bag to carry spare carrier bags around in.

Anyway, you can't argue with an order. It could be Tesco wants to test it out.

Anyway, back to Justin's management ability...

It was tested to the limit in his dealings with Elizabeth Hackford.

He didn't help his case by telling her he had to have a meeting with her while she was already having a meeting with Grace, the ex-Big Brother contestant she wanted to use to endorse the drink.

Then he used the weak threat that he would tell Peter about her...

We also saw Justin with his feet up.

When Elizabeth told him he'd embarrassed her and flounced off Justin mimicked her holding a handbag and even said the word "handbags" - not very good for team building with the rest of the troops.

What impressed me most about Justin was that he still had £8,000 of the original £10,000 provided by Peter. Well done!

My Advice: You need people who can run a business. Someone who doesn't understand when to make a stand or not with an employee just can't at the moment.

If Justin doesn't get any further sales close him down next.

Iain Morgan

Iain Morgan is now demonstrating and selling his executive helicopter. It looks like fun but I wonder exactly how many he can sell.

Apparently he's going to try and get a large order from Argos next time.

My Advice: Iain still seems to know what he's doing from the ordering point of view. My only thought is the quality of the helicopter.

He does need to start selling volumes of the helicopters. A 20 helicopter order requires the same selling time as 2,000. So he would be better off with Argos or an upmarket executive gifts catalogue.

Lauren Pope

Lauren Pope met up with Philip Green at Top Shop. Of course Philip was involved in a meeting that would normally be beneath his notice.

Philip wanted Lauren to sell from his shop without him investing in anything. That would have meant a lot of work for Lauren and she was right to turn it down.

She did well to get an order for £47,000 from an online company in Leicestershire.

My Advice: Keep up the good work! And also do some promotions too.

Helen James and Cathy Caudwell-Todd

Helen and Cathy met up with Harrods Owner Al-Fayed and pitched to have their range sold in Harrods and to have their launch there too.

They successfully persuaded him and Peter Jones was ecstatic when they told him.

My Advice: I think these two could do well still getting their product into Harrods needs to be done as soon as possible to get the maximum exposure whilst Tycoon is still running.

Is It Worth Watching Now?

I am watching again but...

there needs to be more footage of the appreneurs (apprentice entrepreneurs) working with their suppliers and customers and not simply sitting down at their PCs - it's just boring otherwise
The Dragon's Den type investment decision meeting needs to be scrapped completely and the figures assigned for further investment provided to each person
Peter is (presumably) trying to pass on the skills he learnt as he rose to the top. So we need to see more coaching rather than focusing on his investment
They need to fire early when it's obvious one of the candidates isn't going to make it
Hire a voice-over who sounds interesting and interested in what's happening

As there's not much longer to go with this series I will continue to watch but I'd be wary about watching a second series, unless the suggestions I've made were implemented.

Otherwise I'd rather watch paint dry. Oh no, Big Brother's already done that one!

How To Make Money With Blogging

2007-07-12T13:57:00.001+01:00

I've been impressed by the way Rob Benwell's Blogging To The Bank 2.0 takes a step by step approach to showing how to make blogging pay.

So much so that I'm going to pay for 27 minutes of my Advanced Blog Coaching for anyone who orders the book through my affiliate link: Blogging To The Bank 2.0

With the coaching you can get help on any of these topics:

Choosing your blog topic
Using the free hosts (Blogger or Wordpress
Choosing a host for your own blog
Setting up Blogger
Setting up Wordpress
Choosing and editing templates
Using blog widgets
Choosing and using Wordpress plugins
Collecting email subscribers through Feedblitz
Collecting RSS subscribers through Feedburner
Creating good content
Blog SEO
How to attract more readers
Using Google Adsense
Setting up and Using Web 2.0 features
Squidoo
What to put in the sidebar
Making money with your blog

Whether you buy through me or someone else I'm sure Rob's no nonsense guide will help you improve your blog.

One caveat.

As I said in my previous post...

If you've written more than 200 posts in a year and you're currently making more than $100 per month from your blog you'll know almost everything Rob explains.

That said, I still managed to get some nuggets I'm using right now!

Technorati tags: Blogging to the bank 2.0, rob benwell, advanced blog coaching

Flickr tags: Blogging to the bank 2.0, rob benwell, advanced blog coaching

Manchester Blog Taking Lots Of Time

2007-07-12T11:30:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd better let you know what's happening because I've not posted for a couple of days.

I've been working on setting up and making prettier the new Manchester Bloggers blog in Wordpress.

There's a lot you can do with it and Wordpress has so many plugins that really help you improve the reader's experience.

So the Manchester Bloggers blog has been sucking up quite a quantity of my time.

Rob Baker (from ArtisanMC) is also posting to the site but had to deal with a heavy cold, followed by not being able to get in to post because I'd used a capital letter in his username.

Go post something now Rob!

What's Coming Up?

Well, I'm glad you asked me. I've got a few book reviews that are bubbling under:

Six Disciplines For Excellence (Gary Harpst)
The Obvious (James Dale)
Bright Marketing (Robert Craven)
How To Get To The Top (Jeffrey Fox)

I'm also writing a review of Monday's episode of Tycoon.

So sign-up for the email feed and you'll be getting those, and more, over the next week or so.

Technorati tags: Review, Six Disciplines For Excellence, The Obvious, Bright Marketing, How To Get To The Top, Manchester Bloggers, Jim Symcox

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Blogging To The Bank 2.0

2007-07-09T19:19:00.001+01:00

Rob Benwell has provided an e-book that reads well and will certainly benefit most bloggers.

Rob sets out 5 blogging commandments that are key to making money with blogging.

During his explanation on how to set-up and make money from your blog Rob notes that Adsense plastered sites wont make money. They just turn people off.

He also points out that whilst "cheating" the search engines can make your blog visible it's also not a practice he encourages for a longer-term blog.

As you'd expect Rob first emphasizes the importance of market and keyword research and then explains how to pick the best affiliate programs for your chosen market.

He underlines the importance of owning your own domain, although you can of course use two blogging platforms free of charge: Blogger and Wordpress.

Rob walks you step by step through the process of setting up a blog that is better than your average templated blog.

Rob notes his secret weapon to keep the new blog filled with useful content. Because after all content is what attracts traffic, the life blood to monetize your blog.

Monetizing Your Blog

Rob recommends two methods of monetizing your blog.

Tools Links

Of course someone who's been running blogs for a while had access to a number of tools. You get links to the tools. In fact while I was reading this book Rob emailed to say that he was putting more tools on the site as a bonus. One of which allows you to find dead blogs.

What do you do with dead blogs? Rob explains in detail in Blogging To The Bank and is worth the price alone for me.

Blogging Commandments

He also gives 5 blogging commandments that you must follow to give your blogs the best chance of being seen and read.

Other Reviews of Blogging To The Bank

Rob Benwell has cleverly provided 2 pre-written reviews to help affiliates say something about Blogging To The Bank.

I noticed a spelling mistake (yes I can be that sad sometimes) in one review and Googled it and found 7 lazy bloggers hadn't bothered to change it in reviews they posted.

That said the pre-written reviews don't say much. Which is a shame as I'm sure there's more that Rob could have put into the reviews without giving out his secrets.

Summary

In summary this book is aimed firmly at the beginner and advanced blogger alike.

If you've been blogging for more than 2 years you'll be aware of a number of the techniques that Rob describes. But you'll almost definitely find, as I did, that there are several things you kind of knew about and hadn't realised how much it could help pour in the cash into your blog.

My recommendation? Get Blogging To The Bank 2.0 and implement Rob's methods because I know they work as I've used some myself.

The bonuses Rob gives are all very worthwhile themselves. The dead blog finder software is the one I'm going to look at in detail next. So I'll see you then!

Technorati tags: Blogging, Blogging to the bank 2.0, Rob Benwell, Monetizing a blog

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Did You See The Manchester Blogger?

2007-07-06T22:50:00.001+01:00

That's right I've been a busy bee (bee, get it? One of the symbols of Manchester).

I've created a blog called Manchester Bloggers to give Manchester a chance to express itself, rather than through those doughty organs of state and newsprint.

Anyway, it's a chance for us to show Manchester in a variety of different guises, one's we'll find out as we go along.

It's only got one post on it at the moment. But comments are welcome (hint, hint).

And I'm also looking for contributors to the blog to really help make it interesting.

So check out Manchester Bloggers.

Technorati tags: Manchester Bloggers, Manchester Blog

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I'm So Annoyed I could Spit!

2007-07-05T14:35:00.001+01:00

I am so annoyed!

And for 2 reasons...

Feedblitz Form Failure

Now this first reason probably isn't Feedblitz's fault.

I was giving you the opportunity to sign up for fresh updates as my reviews for Blogging to the Bank and its bonuses are posted when I discovered that the form to sign up wasn't working.

Arghh!

How long had it been stopped?

Oh the agony. Readers, maybe even you, turned away at the subscriber door. And for who knows how long?

I suspect it all went belly up when I converted the blog to the new Blogger blog.

In the end I logged back into Feedblitz and discovered they now had an email sign-up widget that integrated directly with Blogger!

So yet another widget got loaded into the bloated form of my blog.

Ah well, it's sorted now so you can sign up for updates over on the top right column. Try subscribing, it's fun to get post details by email rather than having to visit the site.

Heck I even signed up myself so I can attest to its reliability and it's a spam-free service too thank goodness!

"Blogging To The
Bank Review"

The second reason was I had several unplanned events that prevented me from sucking the content out of Blogging to the Bank this morning as I'd planned to do the review.

A second Arghh!

So now it's radio silence while I continue reading "Blogging to the Bank" and trying out what Rob Benwell suggests.

Review coming soon....

Technorati tags: Blogging to the bank 2.0

Are You Curious About This New Launch Too?

2007-07-04T13:12:00.001+01:00

"Blogging To The Bank 2.0" is a fine example of a human trait that bloggers and a lot of folk on line demonstrate.

Human curiosity!

And guess what? I'm a fine example of that trait in action.

I managed to resist the temptation to buy the first edition of Blogging to the Bank. Because of course I thought I knew it all.

I Know All About Blogging!

Or do I?

After all Blogging to the Bank is meant to show you how to create a blog, write posts for a blog, get outsourced posts, articles, links and then in due course m0netize it. So I thought I knew it all.

In the end though I had to buy "Blogging To The Bank 2.0" just to see whether there's anything I'm missing.

So I'm going to write a review of it. In fact as it it comes with some interesting bonuses I'll review those too in another post.

And if the report and bonuses contain lots of stuff that I or your average Joe Blogger would know the review will be more warts than your average review because I'll be annoyed at forking out for things I know.

By the way, the bonuses include:

Ready Made Blogs
Powerpoint slides
Article Assistance
Blog Announcer Pro

If you want to get the reviews for "Blogging to the Bank " and the bonuses type in your email address and click the "Get email updates" button, here

Technorati tags: blogging to the bank 2.0, Rob Benwell, Review

LiveJournal tags: blogging to the bank 2.0, Rob Benwell, Review

Have You Become A Busy Fool?

2007-07-02T17:42:00.001+01:00

I received an email from someone today and I thought it was so extremely interesting that I would share it with you.

This person is very successful and works hard to make a good living for himself and his family.

I knew him before I went into my own business and I've done operational reviews for him and he's also given me occasional pieces of invaluable advice.

He Wants To Franchise His Business

He really wants to franchise his business and has talked about it several times over the years.

What it said was as follows(I've changed a few words to protect the innocent - they're in italic/bold font ):

"Jim ...

I have felt for some time now that I have become a busy fool! Keeping busy for no other reason than to operate a business and keep everybody else happy except ourselves.

The New guys sales should generate enough revenue to cover his cost. But that isn't really the purpose!

...business is totally absorbing both physically and mentally and currently does not generate enough profit to grow the business through franchising. With the previous salesman, the extra business he produced just put me under more pressure to do his projects, some of which were not even feasible and had to be re-checked.

This new guy is not just a salesman, he is an all rounder, like me, able to sell, deliver and handle difficult clients.

This will release about 50% of my time to focus on developing other more profitable avenues.

In theory this business should be perfectly franchiseable, because I am training new people to do exactly what I do; the hard part is training up and keeping your workers. They are the real challenge to this business, and want a lot of money, which is probably why most of the franchises involve the worker becoming the franchisee to keep him on stream.

The problem then becomes how do you find a good worker, who can sell (most good ones can't) and run a business as well..."

What Does All This Hard Work Mean?

Firstly this gentleman is a star salesman so he's able to make an astonishing number of sales, despite also having to help his workers deliver. That means he's extremely busy. And whilst the business makes him a reasonable income it's not enough to allow him to step back and think about what he can do next.

Normally the workers he uses are trades people who would have to sell themselves to get work. As it is he gets them a lot of work. That means the amount of selling they need to do themselves is much reduced. Therefore, if they're working more they're earning more and they have much less "dead" selling time.

As they are not part of his company he is acting as their agent and the profit he makes through their work is effectively a sales commission.

And I think he feels a pressure to continue to get sales so that they can all earn money.

Therefore, at the moment the business relies heavily on a star salesman. OK he's taken on another salesman and hopefully that means he can step back and think through the strategic steps needed to be able to franchise the business.

Is Franchising This Possible?

It's not impossible...

However, he has identified the major issue with the franchise route: good workers don't seem to be able to sell and run a business too.

The steps he needs to take are strategic. He needs to be the company people go to for the service he offers.

Once people come to him he has a franchisable idea.

How Do You Get People To Come To You?

There needs to be ways of getting repeat business and referrals from previous customers.

Repeat business means having a backend for selling other items or services to your customers. To reduce the risk of lost backend sales the backend should require little or no effort from the franchisee. And once set-up a backend should need little or no help from the franchisor.

The franchisee and the franchisor should each get a share of the backend generated by the franchisee's customers.

Once the backend is proved think what a massive benefit that would be to a new franchisee. And each franchise would generate a percentage of backend income to the franchisor.

Then of course he needs a referral system. He does get some recommendations from satisfied customers but getting referrals is simply not systematised. That means it's likely that he could get extra sales with less price resistance and less work.

The reason he doesn't think strategically is because he as he says he had, "become a busy fool!

Technorati tags: franchise, franchisee, franchisor, franchiser

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7 Questions To Ask Before You Use Coaching

2007-07-02T11:22:00.001+01:00

You may not have heard of Dan Lok, although he's the self-proclaimed number 1 website conversion expert and has a lot of people who back up what he says.

I've been a subscriber to his email newsletter for a number of years because I like what he writes and of course I also like to keep tabs on what others in the copywriting, marketing and coaching areas are doing.

Dan offers 1 on 1 mentoring and claims that many gurus offer it and then palm it off onto a fulfillment house where the chances of talking to anyone with any knowledge of Internet business is slim.

So to help decide whether a mentor is the right one Dan suggests you ask yourself 7 questions before handing over great wedges of cash.

The 7 Questions

Is it you who teaches me or somebody else?
What is your response speed to emails and phone calls?
What are the results you've achieved with other people?
Do you currently DO marketing?
Can my business partner or wife listen in with me for free?
Do you work one on one?
Is this the whole program or do you upsell to something else?

I'd also add 4 points to ponder before taking coaching:

The 4 Points To Ponder

Why do you want coaching? Because without that understanding you wont know whether it helps you or not
Are you willing to implement? Because without implementation you're throwing your money away
Can you make fast decisions? Because a plan without a start date remains a pipe dream
Can you afford it? Paying money out that should be paying your mortgage does not lead to successful outcomes because of the added pressure you'll feel. So if you've no money forget it.

What About My Coaching?

Having given you those points I just know some wag will ask whether my money is where my mouth is!

So here are my answers to the 7 questions...

Only I teach/mentor/coach the people I work with - this may change but only once I've trained people up to the point where they could answer the 7 questions the way I'm doing.
I'm usually available for phone calls during the UK working day and I usually respond to voice mail messages the same day and the same for emails.
Would a 50% profit growth or a 20% profit growth be useful? I have mentored companies that have done that.
I currently DO marketing, I run a blog and attract coaching clients through a number of different routes
Anyone in your business can take part in the coaching with you
I do work one on one
My mentoring is purely about delivering value through my personal coaching

If you can answer the 4 points to ponder then ring me on 0161 278 1919 to get started with your mentoring.

LiveJournal tags: Coaching, mentoring

Technorati tags: Coaching, mentoring

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Flickr tags: Coaching, mentoring

Gordon Brown Gets A Sugar Rush!

2007-06-29T22:39:00.001+01:00

As the Daily Telegraph reports newly crowned prime minister Gordon Brown has appointed Sir Alan Sugar to the new Business Council for Britain.

Yet another body that will meet and offer advice to the government that the government will simply ignore.

The council is tasked with advising Government the impact its policies have on the UK's competitiveness.

Don't you think that's rather strange when there are organisations that already fulfil that role.

Hold on let me think, which ones are they...

How about the CBI? They never seem backward at coming forward to make the point that this government has slowly strangled almost every business, school, university and charity with bucket loads of red tape.

Then again what about Business Link, doesn't it feed back what it finds from the people who use it?

Oh, hold on don't we also have the myriad Chambers of Commerce around the country. Aren't they meant to reflect the voice of their members?

What about newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and the rest of the media, including bloggers of course?! Surely they all comment on the impact government has on business too?

And then we have all the civil servants who deal with industry, commerce and anything to do with business. Are they all deaf? Or maybe Gordon Brown doesn't want to listen to civil servants.

Plus, how many business people already bend ministers and the prime ministers ear already? Are they going to be ignored too?

Finally, we're a democracy, so can't her Majesty's opposition provide feedback as to the impact the government has on us all.

Ok, rant over, normal service will now resume...

Technorati tags: Prime minister, gordon brown, quango, Sir alan Sugar, The Apprentice, CBI, Chamber of Commerce, Business Link

Flickr tags: Prime minister, gordon brown, quango, Sir alan Sugar, The Apprentice, CBI, Chamber of Commerce, Business Link

CBI fulfils that role already. And in fact and with a slightly broader range of

Why You Don't Make Money With Google Adsense

2007-06-29T12:35:00.001+01:00

This is a review of a jolly useful little category on Garry Conn's blog on making money online. It's called Google Adsense Tips and is one of several categories related to making money.

As I read through the postings I noticed that Garry has removed a number of links as part of his overall blog concern about using nofollow for links.

Unfortunately that makes one or two of the postings unusable.

However, the rest of the postings, with their comments, more than make up for it.

Why Google Adsense Doesn't Make Money

Google Adsense is used to display short ads on blogs and web sites. So much many of us know. Or maybe we don't?

Garry Conn reckons that if you've a blog about making money online - and let's face it almost everyone on the Internet hitting those sites knows lots about Adsense. And you're not going to make massive amounts of money from it.

As Garry also says there are a lot of blogs out there that would benefit from using Adwords that don't.

The real point that Garry makes is that us bloggers aren't going to make each other rich by clicking on Adsense Ads. Because we all know about the ads and pretty much ignore them.

No Adsense Ads - Does It Make Sense?

Garry has removed these ads from this site and uses them on his other blogs to target people who know pretty much nothing about the whys and wherefores of Internet Marketing and will click on the odd Ad and maybe even buy.

In fact to encourage us Garry even shows a couple of days Adsense earnings and each one is more than I've made in 3 months of restarting Google Adsense on my own blog.

Making Money With Google Adsense

The real value to Garry's posts is the sheer volume of interesting comments he gets. And the value increases because Garry discloses a lot of useful information about what he does to make money to cover the mortgage through Adsense.

The free consultancy that Garry gives out is great, on one post's comment ( and I'll let you find it within the Adsense category) he spells out step by step how to make money from a blog about gambling. And I don' think he gambles himself.

In summary a great category for a truly interesting blog. Check it out.

Oh, and before you go click my Google Ads!!

Technorati tags: Google Adsense, Garry Conn, Make Money Online

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Ever Despaired About Getting More Comments On Your Blog?

2007-06-29T11:37:00.001+01:00

Despair no more!

Garry Conn has redesigned his blog and come up with the natty idea of getting people to "sponsor" one of his categories and then to comment on it. He wins and so does the "sponsor."

Category Sponsorship

This is a great idea for Garry as the number of comments he's generated so far on his category sponsorship post is pretty good.

In fact I've actually spent almost the whole morning reading a number of intriguing posts on his site. Including one about "do follow" and "no follow" links with Andy Beard, amongst others.

And it's a great idea for the rest of us because Garry provides links back to the "category sponsor."

Check out my review of Garry's Google Adsense Tips.

Technorati tags: Garry Conn, Category Sponsor, Andy Beard, nofollow. dofollow

Mary Queen of Shops Triumphs Over Obstinacy

2007-06-28T17:42:00.001+01:00

In a strange way this short series with Mary, Queen of Shops doing a nice Gordon Ramsay to fashion boutiques has been fun and contrary to what I expected not always the same.

As I've noted before it seems it's invariably the case that the shop owners start off well then get into a rut and their shops become more charity shops than fashion houses.

Welcome To Fashionable Islington

Divorced couple Ruth and Anthony continue to run their boutique unhappily called "Comfort and Joy." Designer Ruth is producing clothes that compete head-on with major chains and she's trying to compete on price.

Not a good situation to be in.

When Mary suggests changing the name Anthony is not impressed and explains the name is a clever reference to a 70's Sex manual called "The Joy of Sex" by Dr Alex Comfort.

As Mary points out it's a book that the tribe the shop should be attracting wouldn't even have heard of.

So which tribe's that then?

Clever Mary Portas has realised that with Ruth designing and making her clothes for the shop the shop could clean-up by selling them to the individualistic woman shopper.

The first thing you notice as you walk in the shop is a central Berlin wall down the middle made up of hanging rails and topped by handbags.

On one side is Anthony's clothes a mish mash of designers sourced from around the globe. and the other contains Ruth's designs - some good, some not so hot.

Down With The Walls!

The first thing Mary suggests is removing the Berlin wall. Anthony is not impressed.

Then Mary suggests taking down the wall that blocks Ruth's design studio from the shop, so Ruth can go out and talk to the customers about the designs or simply say hello from the design table. And of course Anthony wasn't impressed.

In fact Mary got quite frustrated by Anthony's lack of enthusiasm for many of the points that at one moment she looked as if she'd throw in the towel.

Finally she takes Anthony material shopping to Liberty's and there she finds he's an absolute star for choosing exactly the right materials.

She also gives them both the chance to dress a side street shop window at Harvey-Nicks. And they do a good job of it. And of course Anthony is not impressed by what he sees as being "damned with faint praise."

After many moments of Anthony being under-whelmed, under-impressed and reluctant he relents and takes part in changing the shops' name to "Handmade and Found" (originally made and found and subtly improved by Mary by to Handmade and Found), designs and stamps the bags with the new logo and designs the new shop window and incorporates his designer buy-ins with Ruth's garments.

And The Result?

Of course the refit brought Ruth's designer backroom and her credentials out into the shop.

Anthony's materials really added something to Ruth's designs and they both found that they worked well together. The shop also become one unified shop rather than a shop with battle lines drawn between two talented and creative people.

The tribe they brought into to see the garments were very pleased and Ruth (if only she could see her own value) is able to charge more than she has been.

Technorati tags: Ruth Wilson, Anthony Wilson, Handmade and Found, Mary Queen of Shops, Mary Portas, Islington, individualistic shopper tribe, fashion

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Is This Your Definition of an Entrepreneur?

2007-06-26T10:36:00.001+01:00

"My son is now an ‘entrepreneur.’ That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job." - Ted Turner.

Do you tell people you're an entrepreneur, or remember this one, intrepreneur?

You can't really call yourself an entrepreneur because it's a label other people attribute to those that have started and run companies. So until other people start calling you an entrepreneur you're simply working in your business, like every other employed person.

I'm not saying entrepreneurs make a success of their businesses. It's just that they (and their families) take what is perceived as, and usually is, a massive risk to go into business for themselves.

So someone who has a job and buys and sells on eBay may become an entrepreneur, but until their whole life is on the line and income from their business feeds the family they're not an entrepreneur.

When Cortez landed in South America and was massively outnumbered some of his men attempted to steal one of his ships to go back to Cuba. To ensure no mutiny could happen again, Cortez scuttled all but a small one of his ships, by claiming they were not seaworthy. That meant he and his men had no choice but to defeat the Aztecs or die trying. History shows who won that one - Cortez!

In the same way an entrepreneur thinks only of the business as he sets it up and gets it going.

So my definition of an entrepreneur is "someone who thinks of an idea for a business and with all the resources at their disposal focuses on making that business move forward, either to success or failure - either one is a learning experience for them."

What do you think?

Technorati tags: Cortez, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, Ted Turner

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Have You Taken The Plunge Too?

2007-06-24T14:34:00.001+01:00

At last I've done it!

I may be mad but I finally decided to transfer to the new blogger widgetised template.

It meant losing some of the customisation that I'd built up in the previous template. Although to be fair I didn't lose that much.

And I'm gaining...

Labels!

So if you fancy stuff about Tycoon or The Apprentice they'll all be neatly labeled.

Hurrah!

Why did I decide to go for it now?

Because Internet Explorer wasn't rendering my customised template properly (my fault I know) but it was fine in Firefox.

By the way Firefox is now pretty much the only browser I use. I did use IE6 to check whether my blog displayed OK but I'm hoping that'll be less of an issue with this change.

Let me know what you think.

Wikipedia Tags: blogger Beta, blogger template, Internet Explorer, Firefox

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Richard Bandler, Peter Thomson, Steve McDermott and Me

2007-06-23T13:31:00.001+01:00

Richard Bandler (co-founder of NLP), Peter Thomson (owner of Achiever's Edge) and me (Power Packed Copywriting and Coaching) all have something in

common.

So what is it I hear you shout!

We're all on this blog in audio form.

Thanks to the existence of amazing technology I've put a BOXFILE in the sidebar of this blog that gives you a number of files that you can download, or just listen to online.

In no particular order they're

Richard Bandler - talking about NLP and other good stuff
Steve McDermott - very funny presenter and won European speaker of the year award a few years ago
Peter Thomson - an example introduction from his Achiever's Edge monthly CD programme
Me - an introduction to me and this blog (hear what I sound like, am I sincere - you decide!)

So have a listen and feel free to leave a comment, which was the best audio, who was the best speaker, what nugget did you personally discover?

43 Things tags: Richard Bandler Interview, Steve McDermont, Peter Thomson, Jim Symcox, Boxfile, NLP, Marketing, Great Presentations

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Wikipedia Tags: Richard Bandler Interview, Steve McDermont, Peter Thomson, Jim Symcox, Boxfile, NLP, Marketing, Great Presentations

Do You Know What is Better Than Just A USP?

2007-06-22T21:50:00.001+01:00

How often have you heard that every business needs to be
different and unique to its competitors? In other words it has to have a USP.

You've probably heard of the marketing term USP. Unique selling proposition or
unique selling point.

Has the concept got a little pedestrian!?

Everyone claims to have one. Unfortunately the USP is often stated as the company offers quality, speed or dependability. Features you'd want any company to provide as standard.

Having a USP is a good thing, if you get it right...

After all the attitude of trying to differentiate yourself from your
competition is a useful one for your prospects. It gives them something
they can latch onto to explain to themselves why they're buying
you.

The only problem with a USP is it's completely internally
focused. We're telling the customer how we're different.

We're saying we're special because we're the lowest priced, or we
offer a 20 year guarantee or we offer the largest range of colours
and so on.

Introducing the UCP

In addition to understanding why you're different you need to
create your own Unique Customer Position or UCP.

Your UCP is oriented towards your customers. So for example.
Let's say your USP is currently "we service more cars than any
other garage in the community."

That has no customer orientation to it, does it?

The UCP could be "we help customers to keep their cars in top
mechanical shape for longer."

That UCP addresses the customer concern that they want their cars
to be at their peak of performance for as long as possible before
needing another service.

That's a lot more interesting for a customer compared to the USP
of "we service more cars than any other garage in the community."

This idea of a Unique Customer Position is applicable to any
business and any industry,

The other point about having a unique customer position is that
you can easily use it during a sales call as the customer
immediately understands what you're talking about and the benefit
to them.

I don't think anyone else has ever used the term Unique Customer
Position in this context so you're heard it here first.

Technorati tags: Unique Selling Point, Unique Selling Proposition, USP, Unique Customer Position, Unique Customer Perception, UCP, Marketing

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Tycoon: Do They Think They've Already Won?

2007-06-20T17:10:00.001+01:00

As I warned in a previous post about Tycoon there are some interesting businesses being worked on over, possibly, the next 10 weeks.

The show is very Apprentice like: pictures of smart suited men in Bentley's, images of London and quick cutting between sweating "apprentice entrepreneurs" maybe we should call them "appreneurs"?

The appreneurs seemed to have thought they'd already won the competition by getting into the final 10 companies. Certainly that was the initial smug expression the competitors wore when they started the program. By the end of the first 2 weeks they looked distinctly more frazzled as Peter Jones looked worriedly at them and asked slightly searching questions in a Dragon's Den like meeting at the end of two weeks so he could decide which companies to invest a further £20,000 in.

So far it's a bit like The Apprentice and a bit like Dragon's Den...

So here's my twopence:

Tom Thurlow

Tom Thurlow seems to have taken a leaf from Richard Branson's book by starting a student's newspaper. Tom's vision was that the newspaper would be free to the customer and paid for by adverts. He managed to impress initially by calling the newspaper "Snap."

What he knew but didn't tell Peter Jones were:

Piers Morgan, probably the most famous news editor known, was starting a paid for newspaper for kids
Tom's printer wasn't getting a newspaper mock-up to show when he'd expected

Also the newspaper turned out to be a folded A3 flimsy piece of paper which looked to be uninteresting. And yet Tom claimed to be proud of it.

My Advice: Don't invest any more money in Tom and sack him because he obviously doesn't understand business yet.

Elizabeth Hackford

Elizabeth Hackford decided to go down the Innocent fruit drinks route but with a dash of Vodka in hers. So isn't that an alcopop?

Peter Jones wielded a bottle of drink that was exactly like hers. She claimed hers wasn't from concentrate, the one Peter had said "not from concentrate." So nil points for market research.

Peter advised her to come up with a great name to get attention for the drink - rather like "Death" as a name for cigarettes. So she came up with some really pedestrian names and after talking further with Peter decided on something that wouldn't sound too good in a bar, you know, "could I have a Fruka please?"

I noticed that she's got an equally insane name now on her web site: VTox. If you're an extreme sports junkie (like Elizabeth) and you know mountaineering terminology you could translate VTOX when ordering a drink as "can I have a Very TOXic drink?"

There's nothing wrong with a me-too product but there has to be something interesting about it - as Peter says - a good name.

All in all I was under impressed with Elizabeth "make it happen" Hackford. Particularly when she tearfully exclaimed that she would move mountains for Peter.

My Advice: Rename the drink, something like "Mule Kick." Also give her some more rope to hang herself with next week.

Iain Morgan

Iain Morgan actually seemed reasonably clear as to what he was doing: importing and selling radio-controlled toy helicopters.

Other than a few brief glances that's all we say of Iain until presentation time to bid for money from Peter to go forward.

So he produced a presentation that showed exactly why he needed every last penny of the £20,000 Peter Jones had to invest this week.

And of course he got it, because without further investment to import the helicopters he'd have nothing to sell!

My Advice: Seems to know what he's doing from the ordering point of view. My only thought is the quality of the helicopter.

Lauren Pope

Lauren Pope was producing "thicker, longer" hair extensions. To me they looked like nicely packaged hair extensions. I don't claim to be an expert in the product though. Peter thought that they would go well in Top Shop. Great...

Lauren wanted to go to China (I think) to investigate sources of hair for the extensions. She was disappointed when Iain won all Peter's investment money.

Again Lauren didn't really feature too much in this episode.

My Advice: Use the phone and ask for samples from a select few suppliers!

Justin Chieffo

Justin Chieffo is producing an environmentally friendly carrier bag dispenser. My wife immediately said, "that would be really useful." My thought was - isn't it just a carrier bag stuffed with more carrier bags?

Still it's certainly an interesting idea. It should mesh well with "bags for life".

That said I noticed that local Sainsbury's had a day when you could take as many "bags for life" as you liked. All the bags went and Sainsbury's didn't need anymore old throw-away bags? Well certainly all the "bags for life" went but I've not actually seen anyone using one. Even I have two in my car and haven't actually remembered to take them out to re-use.

So an interesting concept and one that all us environmentally concerned people are interested in...but we don't often do as we say do we?

That said whenever Justin is talked at by Peter Jones he gets very tense, anxious and looked incredibly worried. Rather like a tailor who's made the Emperor's new clothes and doesn't want to get found out.

He also tried to go for £15,000 investment for no other reason than to get rid of Ian. What a stupid thing to do when you consider the winner gets the profits of everyone else! So he's trying to cut his profits by getting rid of one company!

My Advice: Really hit all the supermarkets with the concept. But first actually target a few stores and ask if you can try it out there. Then present the results to the supermarkets. If the idea is going to work the supermarkets have the biggest vested interest (reduced costs) in getting it going. Then if the supermarkets show no interest bin the idea.

Helen James and Cathy Caudwell-Todd

Helen James and Cathy Caudwell-Todd had come up with a fun name for a range of gardening garments aimed at women. A good idea but one that was only hitting part of a big market. So Peter Jones suggested that they rename their range so they could take in men and kids gardening garments. The pair were most put out but on mature reflection realised Peter had a point and renamed the clothes SOD for men and SOD for women. They also paid a fair bit for some well produced polo shirts that looked fairly classy.

In fact they then went on to sell over a £1,000 worth of clothes from their web site in the week. The winner so far!

Peter had a lot of praise for them, particularly as they'd taken onboard what he'd said and made money too.

My Advice: These two are ones to keep. They're doing well we just need to see that they can capitalise on their early lead without having to pay for advertising and I can think of lots of different ways you could get PR for fashionable gardening clothes.

Is It Worth Watching?

I found the opening episode interesting.

My main concern is that Peter Jones is not great as a "balls of steel" entrepreneur's presenter. Maybe he'll grow on me but at the moment I believe he should have sacked Tom and didn't and going on what Elizabeth thought was OK with a name given her more of a hard time.

The other concern I have is that you didn't see any interaction with the businesses customers or suppliers.

Still it is week one, so like Tom and Elizabeth I'll see what happens next week.

google6c90b06a13c4ce4e

2007-06-18T18:17:00.000+01:00

This is a test post to allow me to find out how Google is indexing my site.

Cannes Lions - Becoming A Recruiting Ground?

2007-06-18T12:59:00.001+01:00

I wrote an article called "Do Your Adverts Sell?" in early September 2006 about the importance of direct advertising compared to branding advertising and how Cannes Lions are what Ad agencies chase rather than sales!

This year the Cannes Lion Award are 17th to 23rd June, so if you're not there now I suspect you already know you're not an award winner!

Suzanne Vranica, writing in the Wall Street Journal notes that Yahoo and Google are going to Cannes with hundreds of staff to pitch digital media as the medium to go for to the big, and not so big, Ad agencies.

At the same time the article notes there are executives going to recruit stars at Cannes to beef up their digital offerings.

Cannes Lions are probably the advertising equivalent of the Oscars. And like the Oscars generally they don't reflect how well an advert sells the product but how arty, or how much "impact" or how well designed an ad is.

Hopefully with the digital media's intense interest in analysis the Lions will begin to reflect the important ratio of (cost of Ad Campaign/Total Value of Sales-(Cost of Sales).

So good luck to Yahoo, Google and all the others sending out the digital advertising message and good luck to those agencies looking to recruit the young digital lions to their zoo.

Technorati tags: Cannes Lions, Advertiser Of The Year, Cannes, Wall Street Journal, Do Your Adverts Sell?, Yahoo, Google, Advertising Award

43 Things tags: Cannes Lions, Advertiser Of The Year, Cannes, Wall Street Journal, Do Your Adverts Sell?, Yahoo, Google, Advertising Award

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Sir Richard Branson And Kristina Grimes!

2007-06-14T16:03:00.001+01:00

Right Kristina you've done The Apprentice how about persuading Sir Richard Branson to put on another series of "The Rebel Billionaire" which you could go into and win!

But seriously, I'd be surprised if Richard Branson wasn't deciding whether to offer her a job. After all it's rare that you get to see a potential employee put through their paces so you can evaluate them at your leisure. And one that almost everyone had tipped to win.

Plus, and I'm sure this will appeal to him as the ultimate PR animal, if he asks Kristina to come and see him for a chat that's news!

And as for Katie Hopkins...

Hopefully she's stopped talking about herself as a pantomime villain now and recognised that she's shot herself in the foot with the way she's behaved. Sir Alan reckoned she was unemployable. I don't actually think that's the case. It depends on how she sorts herself out.

In Katie's case I'd say she's given the word articulate a bad name because she can talk smoothly about all manner of things - some of which she seems to think up and react to on the spur of the moment, rather like Simon Ambrose!

Anyway The Apprentice is pretty much over. I'll keep a weather eye on Simon and Tre (a good double act name), Kristina and possibly Katie and let you know anything I find that seems interesting.

Technorati tags: BBC TV, The Apprentice, Series 3, Sir Alan Sugar, Ifti Chaudri, Rory Laing, Sophie Kain, Jadine Johnson, Andy Jackson, Naomi Lay, Gerri Blackwood, Simon Ambrose, Katie Hopkins, Adam Hosker, Lohit Kalburgi, Kristina Grimes, Ghazal Asif, Tre Azam, Paul Callaghan, Natalie Wood

43 Things tags: BBC TV, The Apprentice, Series 3, Sir Alan Sugar, Ifti Chaudri, Rory Laing, Sophie Kain, Jadine Johnson, Andy Jackson, Naomi Lay, Gerri Blackwood, Simon Ambrose, Katie Hopkins, Adam Hosker, Lohit Kalburgi, Kristina Grimes, Ghazal Asif, Tre Azam, Paul Callaghan, Natalie Wood

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The Apprentice - I'm Shocked and Stunned!

2007-06-13T23:51:00.001+01:00

After 12 weeks Sir Alan finally made up his mind.

Rather than polishing a tried and true older apprentice he went for the one who claimed he would be malleable because he was "not fully formed."

So Simon Ambrose becomes the third apprentice and Kristina Grimes grits her teeth, gets her hair done and smiles during the "You've Been Hired" programme.

Interestingly Katie Hopkins was in the audience at "You've Been Hired" and Sir Alan suggested that she hadn't needed to resort to the tactics she did. If she'd wanted to get the job with Sir Alan I'd agree.

Anyway, the point is that Simon who has not demonstrated very much ability at anything except break dancing and, according to Tre, having a photographic memory gets the job.

Well done Sir Alan for popping Simon's belief that he's a good leader - no, I think not. Maybe in time, we'll see.

In the meantime I've got 38 weeks until the next Apprentice. So I'm looking forward to Tycoon on ITV with Peter Jones starting on the 19th June.

Another Week Another Personal Record!

2007-06-13T12:56:00.001+01:00

Last Thursday I was so excited because just as I left for a networking meeting I noticed that my blog had attracted 998 hits. I knew with the USA just waking up I'd get a few more so after my previous record of over 600 earlier I'd now hit another milestone - 1,000 hits in a day!

When I woke up the next morning I checked the traffic stats and found that I'd actually had 1,670 hits. A new record for the blog.

So a big thanks to everyone reading this blog. I used to think that simply writing because I like writing was its own reward but I've discovered it is truly fab to get such a great amount of traffic.

In fact I was quite disappointed on Monday to "only" get 691 hits, just kidding!

And I'm really looking forward to The Apprentice finale, which as I explained previously is entertainment and not to be confused with real business.

Wikipedia Tags: Personal Record, traffic increase, The Apprentice

Technorati tags: Personal Record, traffic increase, The Apprentice

The Apprentice:"I Hate It With A Passion"

2007-06-12T17:41:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I was talking with my brother Roddy about The Apprentice and he said that he "hated it with a passion." He believes it just doesn't reflect business.

As I said to him and others who commented in a similar vein, "it's entertainment, it's not business it's show business."

What I would also say is that Sir Alan makes it clear that "it's the job interview from hell." That's all it is, so it's rather like candidates going to an employer and taking tests to see whether they'll fit with the business.

So anyone who goes on this TV interview is effectively being interviewed by Sir Alan and a rather large number of other companies around the UK.

If you're good or even reasonable you become famous and as I said after the last series people like to work with famous people. It makes life slightly more interesting doesn't it?

Why else do you think Michelle Dewberry and The Badger were able to set up management consultancies and get work so easily? Why do you think Jo Cameron, the one we all thought was as mad as a box of frogs, could start up a HR consultancy and on and on...

So if you'd like to open your horizons The Apprentice is the programme to go for. Apply now and let me know if you get accepted. I'll be rooting for you next year!

The Apprentice Final Countdown

2007-06-12T17:35:00.001+01:00

The BBC have really been out scouring their Apprentice archives to capitalise on this years Apprentice success.

Last Sunday, just before this season's final we had "The Apprentice: Why I Fired Them".

This was Sir Alan explaining his reasoning behind each firing. Some of which we'd already heard as voice overs when the candidates were fired.

That said it was intriguing and we got to hear his opinion on each candidate and what they should have been aiming for when they were running each task.

Interestingly enough whilst Sir Alan agreed that Katie wasn't very nice he also said that he didn't always employ nice people in his organisation.

Katie Comes Unstuck

I understand that Katie has been fired by the Met Office (why they need a global branding consultant baffled me anyway). Of course with Katie's exposure (as she planned) she can still go for her own global branding consultancy selling The Emperor's New Clothes or even back to the roots with a Management Consultancy to tell everyone else how to run their business.

Tre Fired At Last!

DigitalSpy has an interview with Tre Azam and Lohit Kalburgi after they were fired.

Apparently Tre wanted to be fired because part way through the competition he realised that he didn't want to work for Sir Alan. Nice one Tre.

He also said that he did really like Simon but discovered he was two faced after watching week 11 and and that he was using hindsight to make himself look good. Which I think is actually a very astute comment.

I've already noted that Simon waffles in the boardroom until he can find some ammunition to throw at other people.

He also said that Simon had a photographic memory which should have helped him and his teams immensely.

Lohit's interview came across as being smug and boring.

Who Gets To Win The Apprentice?

We're left with Simon Ambrose and Kristina Grimes.

Their final task involves Sir Alan inviting previously fired candidates to work for one of them.

And remember some of the people who were fired needed some managing.

Having seen Simon as a project manager I don't believe he can bring his team together to win the day.

Also, previously Tre had supported, Simon but if Tre works for Simon I'd be surprised if Tre does very much to help someone he's called a "bit of a pr**k."

As Tre noted Simon is a "scatterbrain" and "logic and commonsense evade him a little bit."

Yes, I think we've seen that side of him.

Kristina is driven, she's no ties to hold her back and everyone says she's very loyal. Plus she's actually proven to be a reasonably competent project manager.

If it was me choosing I'd be tempted by Simon because he has potential that he's wasting. But then I'd wake up and realise that if he had potential why isn't he already using it?

And I'd hire Kristina.

Marketing Blogs Jostle For Top Ratings

2007-06-11T16:59:00.001+01:00

The coolest guy on the planet must still be Seth Godin because his blog bounced back to the top of The Viral Gardens top 25 Marketing blogs.

Every few months I like to see what's happening on the traffic front for other marketing blogs.

In May Mack Collier decided to change how he rated the top 25 marketing blogs on his The Viral Gardens blog.

Instead of using Alexa rankings he's now changed to a, possibly easier to understand, rating of the number of links into a blog.

That's meant quite a few changes in the table, as you can see below. Quite a few blogs have dropped out and others have joined.

The new entries in our June 2007 dip into the Viral Gardens latest top 25 are shown in red.

There are 7 blogs in the top 25 which weren't there in March 2007 (shown as ??).

Blog Name	June 2007 Posn (links)	March 2007 Posn (Alexa)	Oct 2006 Posn (Alexa)
Seth's Blog	1	1	1
Creating Passionate Users	2	2	3
Gaping Void	3	3	4
Logic + Emotion	4	13	15
Daily Fix	5	6	6
Converstations	6	7	16
Drew's Marketing Minute	7	9	??
The Viral Garden	8	10	10
Jaffe Juice	9	20	19
Duct Tape Marketing	10	4	2
Diva Marketing	11	19	20
Church of the Customer	12	14	9
Servant of Chaos	13	??	??
What's Next	14	15	13
Influential Interactive Marketing	15	11	??
Hee-Haw Marketing	16	22	??
Brand Autopsy	17	18	12
Community Guy	18	??	??
Flooring the Consumer	19	??	??
CrapHammer	20	??	??
Customers Rock!	21	??	??
Shotgun Marketing	22	??	??
Coolzor	23	12	7
Tell Ten Friends	24	??	??
CK's Blog	25	25	??

Blogs that have dropped out since I looked in March 2007 are:

Blog Title	Original March 2007 Position
Marketing shift	5
New School Of Network Marketing	8
Marketing Headhunter	16
Marketing Nirvana	17
Spare Change	22
Pro Hip-Hip - Hip-Hop Marketing	23
Experience Curve	24

The following blogs dropped out between October 2006 and April 2007: HorsePigCow, Emergence Marketing, Brains on Fire, Marketallica, Beyond Madison Avenue

When I last blogged about the top 25 marketing blogs I did wonder about combining a Technorati rating with the Alexa rating to see if the top 25 would change.

The only issue I have with using links is that you could see blogs encouraging more people to link into them to get into the top 25. Or maybe I've a few sour grapes!? Because I've only got a few links coming in and probably about 500 less than the lowest blog in the top 25.

Technorati tags: Seth Godin, The Viral Garden, Marketing Shift, Top 25 Marketing Blogs, Duct Tape Marketing, Creating, Gaping Void, Marketing For Power Packed Business Growth, Coolest Guy On The Planet

43 Things tags: Seth Godin, The Viral Garden, Marketing Shift, Top 25 Marketing Blogs, Duct Tape Marketing, Creating, Gaping Void, Marketing For Power Packed Business Growth

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The Apprentice Who Didn't Make Good TV But Won!

2007-06-11T08:30:00.001+01:00

Tim Campbell won the first series of Sir Alan Sugar's Apprentice. He wasn't the favourite to win because like Lohit he was "too nice". Well nice doesn't have to be boring does it?

I found this interesting video at a great short film site of him telling exactly how the Apprentice producers wanted him to act. He then also speaks about how he acted.

Put it this way - it's different to Katie Hopkins. Speaking of Katie... According to an article in last Sunday's News Of The World she thinks that the winner (ie her) of the Apprentice is not going to win it. Well the news is the winner is the person who Sir Alan hires. And Katie, here's some news for you - it ain't you. In the meantime check out Tim's video.

Technorati tags: Tim Campbell

Atlantis: The Shuttle Launches

2007-06-08T23:30:00.001+01:00

To its eternal credit the USA has kept faith with NASA and continued to send men and women into space.

After all without space activity how can we believe in Star Trek, or any variant of it?

Although the space programme is an important part of the global community it can also be part of a businesses PR campaign.

If you're a restaurant you could tie in food names, drink names and shuttle offers with launch dates and publicise it with your current customers and around about through the press and simply by word of mouth.

If you're a printer you could introduce space and shuttle-related postcards and artwork and offer it at shuttle launch times.

There are so many things that a business can do to tie into a major event, without being cheesy.

Have a go!

And by the way...

Do you know why I picked the shuttle to talk about? I checked Google Trends and found that shuttle launch was the 6th most searched on subject today.

That's why it's so important to keep your linked to a buzz in your market, or even outside, so you're ready to hang onto their coat-tails as that subject soars into orbit.

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin space company will undoubtedly be used to add PR to other companies in the group. and so it should, it's exciting!

Technorati tags: NASA, space shuttle launch, Virgin, Sir Richard Branson, Atlantis, Star Trek

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Mary Queen Of Shops Brings Fashion To Banstead

2007-06-08T22:20:00.001+01:00

The second episode of this 4 part series on fashion shops went very much like the first. The main difference was that the boutique concerned appeared to have more staff.

This time Mary Portas helped the shop's owner get rid of a vast swathe of old-fashioned gear that nobody wants to buy and is really just blocking everyone's view of the good stuff.

Yet again Mary concentrated on the shops tribe. This time it was "The Forever 40's. Interestingly the shop owner hadn't a clue who was buying her stuff. Or more crucially who she wanted to buy her stuff.

This is a recurring theme in almost any business you look at that's suffering from a lack of trade.

Mary persuaded her to buy designer stock and attract "The Forever 40's".

And of course the re-stock and re-freshed shop started to do very well.

Although I enjoyed this episode of Mary Portas pointing out the shops problems I'm beginning to think that all retail problems are the same. That is:

Owner sets up and runs shop successfully, then several years go by ...
Shop doesn't change with the times and
- continues to hold onto lines that don't move - sunk investment
- avoid change - just in case it's throwing good money after bad
- wont update - because it's money they need simply to survive
- Forgets who they want to sell to
Shop becomes overfull of different and diverse items
They continue to make a pittance for fear their customers will desert them

I look forward to the next episode when Mary will unearth a completely different problem to solve.

Flickr tags: Mary Portas, Mary Queen of Shops, retail makeover, the forever fourties, the forever 40's, customer tribe

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The Apprentice: Katie Suddenly Goes Media Savvy

2007-06-07T22:37:00.001+01:00

Check The Mirror for a story about how Katie has always wanted fame.

Certainly she appears to be keeping tight-lipped at the moment as the refused to do an interview with with another blog. One that ran interviews with all the other fired candidates.

Like I said, expect a new company announcement, a book serialisation of her time on the Apprentice and one on "How To Brand Globally."

I wonder how much Sir Alan's faith in human nature has been shaken?"

The final point the Mirror's Kate Jackson makes is:

Katie was yesterday unavailable for comment, with her representatives saying: "Katie is likely to sell her story to someone and hence won't be commenting."

The Apprentice What Katie Did Next

2007-06-07T10:43:00.001+01:00

After the interview round in week 11 Katie showed her true colours. She rabbited on about how she was going to move nearer to London. How her parents would probably fit in nicely by moving to be near to her and her sister to offer her support for her children. How she was committed... and on and on.

Then a few minutes later she realised that she'd just spouted a load of bullshit and didn't know whether her parents would move as she'd said. If they didn't she couldn't go anywhere for Sir Alan at the drop of a hat.

This really begs the question - why was she even in The Apprentice without resolving these issues first?

As she's told us she's the cleverest clogs in the whole wide world so yah boo sucks, she would have discussed the issuing of moving closer to London with her partner, her parents and any other of her "supporters."

So that means there are 2 possibilities:

she just flies by the seat of her pants, bull shitting all the time and doesn't consider the consequences of what she does, and therefore would be completely unsuitable for running any part of Sir Alan's business anyway
she planned it so that she would become famous to open her own business

Personally I think she wanted to become famous. Obviously that improves her brand image. I mean gosh she'll be able to start her own branding consultancy earning more than she could for Sir Alan.

What leads me to that thought?

For a clever person she's made some clearly outrageous statements that she must knew would be televised. She's become one of the best known of the candidates because of that, her back stabbing and flirting.

All I can say is watch out for an announcement around next week as The Apprentice concludes (to maximise publicity) as Katie tells the world she's formed her own global branding consultancy.

The Apprentice: Who Should Be In The Finale?

2007-06-06T12:46:00.001+01:00

We're down to the final 5 candidates for a job with Sir Alan.

They are, in no particular order:

Simon Ambrose
Tre Azam
Katie Hopkins
Kristina Grimes
Lohit Kalburgi

Let's do a reality check of who I would look at for the final. Will they be the same two as Sir Alan? Who knows...because the clever BBC editors are just giving us enough information so we form the opinions they probably want us to have.

Simon Ambrose

Simon is by all accounts very clever.

My thought is that he may be very clever but if his QVC showing is anything to go by he doesn't appear to think about what he does. For example:

He chose a folding wheelchair to sell on QVC - why? He needed more high volume, mid to high value items
He didn't direct his team when they were on camera - which is one reason why they sold very little and looked so clueless
He looked (as Sir Alan said) a "right pillock" because he was screwing the trampoline leg right in front of his groin so it looked very "odd"

Tre Azam

Tre appears to have managed to keep his temper in check more lately. However, he does appear to sulk when things aren't going his way.

In week 9 ( selling imported products) he was on the losing team and as Sir Alan said "cocked it up royal." He's definitely a doer. However, that seems to be at the expense of very much planning. So it looks to me as though you could point him at a task, tell him clearly what you required and he would do it

Tre was the project manager that week and made some very strange product choices. Particularly the air filter that seemed to give people who came close to it a shock.

He's also spent his time moaning about decisions when he's not project manager rather than getting on doing what he's been told. That despite being on the winning side the most times.

Katie Hopkins

Katie, Katie, the girl we all love to gasp in wonderment at as she outlines how people that rub her up the wrong way should be killed.

Katie - the flirt, personally I'd run a million miles before I got involved with her flirting, ugh!

Katie - the two-faced silent assassin - working on people to get them to point the finger at anyone else but her

Katie - the below the belt fighter. She took Adam on and made it seem as though he was a borderline alcoholic - when she drinks wine too

Katie - the global branding consultant who doesn't seem to understand branding or marketing

Personally I wouldn't trust Katie as fat as I could throw her. She's a complete snob which must mean she's making negative judgements about mass markets. And mass markets are those that Sir Alan is selling into.

Why is Katie going for this job if she's already a "global branding consultant" earning £90,000? She doesn't need the money, she thinks she's cleverer than almost anyone else in the world.

Kristina Grimes

Kristina has been very ambitious and aggressive in trying to become The Apprentice. She's resorted to underhand tactics to help her win - for example selling sweets to children at London Zoo so that parents have to cough up or risk a scene with their children.

She's also made sure that she's stood out at the expense of her team - as witnessed by her appalling presentation of the steam cleaner on the shopping channel task in week 10.

Lohit Kalburgi

Yay Lohit, level headed, nice, maybe too nice...

Lohit has quietly got on with the job all the way through this series. He sold when required, project managed when required and has kept completely calm at all times. Sometimes though he appears to lack any passion which paints him as bit of a grey man. And I suspect Sir Alan doesn't want a grey man on his payroll, he wants a mover and shaker.

The Final Two Prediction

The two people I'd take into the final task are Kristina and Tre. The reasons I exclude the others are:

Lohit - too nice, not demonstrated any assertiveness
Katie - back stabbing snob who thinks (wrongly) she's cleverer than the rest of the candidates and Sir Alan. Sir Alan wants shrewd, not clever!
Simon - he lies, he talks BS and blathers

Tre has improved over the weeks and Kristina had been a steady performer. Either could probably do a reasonable job for Sir Alan.

The Apprentice - Tre And Simon Show Their Friendship

2007-06-06T11:57:00.001+01:00

And so

to week 10's task...

This time the teams had to select a bunch of products and sell them on the QVC channel on TV.

The teams split so they each had two people presenting and one person producing and then the person producing did the selling while the team's couple did the producing.

Kristina Grimes was the team manager for Stealth with The Silent Assassin (Katie Hopkins) and Mr Who? (Lohit Kalburgi). Eclipse was managed by Simon Ambrose (The Blatherer) and contained Naomi Lay (Miss Bland) and Tre Azam (Motormouth).

The whole point of this exercise was to demonstrate street smarts when it came to choosing their products for their advertising slots. And for an extra twist the couple and the singleton in each team had to sell products found by the other part of their team.

The Rubbish Products That Were Chosen

The products for Stealth were:

Slimming corsets (Kristina)
Chocolate fountain (Kristina)
Plastic footspa (Lohit and Katie)
Steam cleaner (Lohit and Katie)

Eclipse's products were:

trampoline (sold by Simon)
Decoupage stickers (sold by Simon)
Folding wheelchair (sold by Naomi and Tre)
Leg hair remover (sold by Naomi and Tre)

Does Strategy Matter With The Apprentice?

And of course strategy...

Does anyone in The Apprentice understand the concept of sitting back and thinking for 5 minutes to get a much more effective bang for their buck?

And I don't mean Katie Hopkins laughable attempt to create a person that they want to sell to: Mavis a big-bosomed loser who has nothing to do but watch day time telly. I hate to use the word snob but I really do think that Katie has a very superior view that anyone who doesn't move in her circles is the lowest of the low. Like I've said before I don't believe she wants a job with Sir Alan - after all he's only a minor multi-millionaire within the view of a global branding consultant.

Why didn't anyone ask QVC what their best selling lines were and also what products were best suited to total beginners? I suppose the problem then becomes that the candidates look as though they don't know everything!

Also choosing products that were difficult to sell:

Electrical products - risk of not working - steam cleaner didn't work did it and was fiddly to set up
Specialist products - if they don't know the market don't choose them - Decoupage stickers because they're usually part of a card making kit
Risky products - as Tre said who's got £200 in their pocket and are simply waiting to buy a wheel chair?

The Winner Of The Worst Producer

The worst producer by a huge margin was Simon.

During training Simon had told Tre to talk about a red rug, so Tre talked about a different colour. The producer reminded Simon that he'd told Tre to talk about the red rug so Simon asked Tre to talk about the brown rug. Simon when you're producing you're not visible to the audience so there's no need for stage fright.

Simon didn't so much as not produce he basically blathered and didn't speak and looked like a rabbit caught in car headlights. I was surprised the QVC producer didn't just pull his team off their slot because he seemed incapable of helping his team. Unless of course that was his game plan. To leave Tre and Naomi without any useful information to impart to the audience and therefore not provide any benefits and so not to sell anything and therefore to be prime candidates to leave.

If the task had been to highlight the candidates ability to pull a team together Simon didn't just fail he failed "big style."

The Winner Of The Worst Presenter

Everyone except Naomi and Tre and to a lesser extent Lohit were cringe inducing.

Katie selling to Mavis was appalling. But at least she did what she was told to highlight the benefits of the products as Kristina told her.

I felt for Lohit as he tried to get included in the selling for ladies foundation garments. Trust me on this, men aren't interested in these types of garments and I suspect women don't want men to be.

Kristina went through her presentation of a chocolate fountain and came completely apart at the seams (including searing) as the steam cleaner proved more difficult to set-up or use than she realised. She kept saying Ok and Alright - which is something her producer (Naomi and Tre) should have picked up on during training and it meant we all started counting the number of times she said each one (OK > 12, Alright >3, then I lost the will to live).

But Simon wins this award hands-down. If anyone had been tasked with doing a bad a presentation as possible Simon would have won. Firstly he just didn't know what one earth the decoupage was about, what it was for or its benefits. Clueless springs to mind. Then once he'd given up on that he went to the trampoline and proceeded to really muck that sale up too. He just looked too manic and as for screwing in the trampoline legs right in front of his groin area - laugh I nearly bust a button!

So Who Got Fired?

Simon got fired right?

Well actually, no.

In fact Naomi got fired for choosing the stupidest products - decoupage stickers and the trampoline. An interesting one that because Tre had mildly suggested that trampolines had had their day but didn't argue further when Naomi extolled their benefits.

After all the task had been about choosing the right product to sell.

Personally I'd argue that the only product that was the right choice for the candidates was the chocolate fountain. Everything else was aimed at a very limited market:

Slimming corsets - people who are fat but want to appear slimmer
Chocolate fountain - still popular with people
Plastic footspa - everyone appears to own one and not use it - limited appeal
Steam cleaner - the number of people who want to steam their floor coverings must be limited
trampoline - how many people really want to exercise at home with this?
Decoupage stickers - these are usually sold to help people make birthday and special occasion cards - a small market
Folding wheelchair - people who need a wheelchair usually have one
Leg hair remover - It looked like an orbital sander and there was no clear benefits compared to wax, cream or shaving

And the nub of it all was that the product features were dutifully trotted out but no major benefit of owning any of them was given.

As an example: The Wheelchair

As Sir Alan said, "what brain-dead chose that?" But the team found a pocket at the back of the chair and said what a useful pocket it was for...something. Oh I know a mobile phone. No, that's not a benefit. Benefits of a portable wheelchair are many, here's 3 off the top of my head:

It's lightweight so one person can easily fold it up and put it in a car without needing anyone else around
When you arrive home it can be easily stored folded up so it doesn't get in the way
If you've visitors who need a wheelchair it's easy to keep handy for taking them into the garden or to nearby shops

As soon as Sir Alan gave Simon an opportunity to blame the rest of the team he was on it like a ton of bricks. Naomi was flabbergasted and Tre kept fairly quiet as Simon laid into their lack of support - ammunition provided by Sir Alan's view of proceedings.

So Why Didn't Sir Alan Fire Simon?

The reason that Sir Alan didn't fire Simon was because he didn't see what a chump he was as a producer and team leader. You could see Tre didn't want to make too much of an issue of Simon's massive shortcomings and Naomi allowed Simon to get away with being a bad producer, choosing one of the worst products - the leg hair remover - and presenting the products really badly.

He'd also been reminded that Naomi had mucked up being a project manager on an earlier task.

As he said he had to look at who he thought he could work with and Naomi just didn't look as though she could. So she had to go. Unfair if you simply look at the task but fair if you look at the aim of the whole show - an Apprentice to work with Sir Alan.

PS: The Apprentice Camel Stays On

Adrian Childs in the "You've Been Fired" program after The Apprentice was searching for a look-alike animal to represent Katie Hopkins. He managed to produce a camel's face and compared it to Katies. I laughed...

It seemed so perfect. What do you think?

Blogging Is Dead Says Google

2007-06-05T12:24:00.001+01:00

Shock Horror! Stop the presses!!

Google product manager Eric Case apparently reveals that blogging is dead!!

Apparently the shift is to Twitter where you get to tell everyone you know that "you're on the train", "down the pub", "on Every Street in Manchester."

Yes I'm on Twitter too but I don't expect that I'll be stopping blogging just yet.

Wikipedia Tags: Blogger, Google, Eric Case, Twitter

Technorati tags: Blogger, Google, Eric Case, Twitter

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Flickr tags: Blogger, Google, Eric Case, Twitter

Have You Managed To Tie Your PR to Paris Hilton

2007-06-05T11:18:00.001+01:00

Now this is a PR person's dream (isn't it Rob?).

A software company releases a new online game that relates to Paris Hilton and then gets their PR person to do a news release about it, complete with URL.

Do you think it's going to be on the news? You bet!

You can play the game here. Or get to put it on your blog or web site too!

Hint: If (when) the music gets too much press the loud speaker button on the large blue button below the game graphic.

Paris has to stamp vanity license plates as the guards watch her. Clinkerbell (her dog) trots along the belt as the plates pass to be stamped with 'PRTYGRL, ABUVLAW, DUI4ME, DRV2FST and the like. You move Paris between the different stamp-machines and need a good tiger finger to hit the plates just right. Too many bad plates or a squashed mutt and the lights go out and oh.oh...

The link to the game is here:

Paris Goes To Jail

Enjoy, share!

So this is a great example of viral publicity the company involved knew Paris Hilton was off to jail for a driving offence. She's in some segregated posh cells so don't feel too sorry for her.

The company wrote the game and then today as she toddles off to jail (she's there now) has released the game.

Do you think they'll get hits? You betcha! Nice one.

Technorati tags: Paris Hilton, The Prison Life, Viral publicity, viral marketing, PR, press releases, minigames

43 Things tags: Paris Hilton, The Prison Life, Viral publicity, viral marketing, PR, press releases, minigames

BuzzNet tags: Paris Hilton, The Prison Life, Viral publicity, viral marketing, PR, press releases, minigames

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