3D printing

Posted by clive on J May 2013
Posted in: Misc.

3D printing has suddenly become a hot-topic everywhere, catalysed it seems, by someone printing themselves a working gun.

What opportunities for your business (or for a new business aligned to your outside interests) do the advances in 3D printing present to you? Is it time to reassess your business strategy or diversify with a start-up?

And how beneficial it could be for a good old fashioned and sensible measure  like the ‘Balance of Payments’ if we could repatriate at least some of our manufacturing back from China et al

An answer for small retailers?

Posted by clive on J May 2013
Posted in: Misc.

Chatting to a mate today who runs a small shop, he was bemoaning the retail situation and lack of High St footfall.

But nevertheless, he would also like to expand by opening a new shop but the property costs are simply untenable. Happily for him, online is not a real competitor, with a static 3% market share.

So is the answer to small retailers like my friend a ‘store-in-a-bus‘, a bit like the mobile libraries of yesterday?

No rent, no rates, a mobile bill-board when driving about. Perhaps some parking issues to manage though.

Nevertheless, I quite like the notion

Managing goals

Posted by clive on J March 2013
Posted in: Misc.

It seems to be a fact of life that most of us are so busy dealing with day-to-day matters that our life and business goals tend to get left on the shelf, perhaps until we get a nasty shock that forces us to reappraise things.

One way to rectify this is simply to write them down and stick them on the wall. But does that work? If it was that easy, we would have just done it surely. Aren’t life goals more like the cliche of eating an elephant – they have to be done one bite at a time. Which brings us back to never truly committing to make it happen – it is all too intimidating; procrastination is the line of least resistance.

But I am not here to talk about life coaching, but some software. Developed by a German to manage his Olympic sailing campaign, (have a look at this amazing, scary footage to see why it takes some effort ) it is a great tool to help record, break down and manage all sorts of goals, whether business, personal, family, spiritual, sport whatever. You can also track progress which becomes immediately visible, delegate tasks and more. Attach data files, audio, video, pdfs, Office, etc too. The online version enables collaboration with associates.

It is even better than powerpoint for presentations sometimes (as the narrative need not be time-linear) and certainly has replaced mind maps in my life.

Whilst I would be very happy if anyone clicks the link below and buys a copy, (its not expensive either) this is more an exhortation to think about personal goals then do something about achieving them. On the way, if you can join the community that shares its templates for success, even better. If you would like my input on growing a business, managing pubs and restaurants or improving your dinghy sailing just shout.

To investigate further, the link is here

Rules for failure in business

Posted by clive on J March 2013
Posted in: Misc.

If you want a business to fail, here are some top tips. If you don’t want to fail, avoid these errors:

1. Don’t bother understanding what your business is truly about. There is a legendary story about the MD of Rolex denying all knowledge of the state of the watch business, declaring “Rolex is in the luxury business”

2. Believe your own propaganda. Being in the right place, at the right time, with the right business model, might be a sign of true entrepreneurial genius. But is that as likely as you got [even deservedly] lucky? Even when you have notched up 20 hits and no misses, in different sectors and methodologies, Murphy’s Law can still get you.

3. There is a wise sailing rule: spend a lead to save a lead. Of course, in business,you do not need to reinvest in the business, you can just keep on keeping on, taking the dividends. Not.

4. Believe selling is somehow unsporting, unBritish or somehow beneath you.

5. Believe you cannot sell. Surely someone loves you unconditionally – see, you sold them…

6. Be optimistic as to time frames, of course it will come in on time and budget, whilst exceeding specification.

7. Don’t worry about managing cash, finances or understanding how cash flows through your business model. As an example, overtrading is where you go bust through profitable growth, but you spend cash faster funding stock and suppliers than you get the cash in from customers. Faster you grow, quicker you go bust

8. Everyone else is just as honest/ethical as you. I never case to be amazed how mischief can come from the most unlikely characters

9. Recruit only Yes-men, muppets who lack the bravery or intelligence to disagree with you

10. Assume your customers only want what you want to sell them. This was the first lesson I learnt in business, from a Noddy and Big Ears story. Noddy did not like Jelly Beans so would not sell them in his sweet shop until the consultant hero Big Ears pointed out his error.

11. Manage the urgent not the important

12. Marketing is 100% bullsh1t [this comes easy for a bean-counter to say!] OK, 80% maybe 🙂

13. Never think about business risk Business may be about reward in exchange for risk, but the latter is negative thinking so should not be indulged.Besides which, life is so much more fun when nasty surprises keep biting your arse

14. Never bother getting (or better yet, ignore) professional advice on things you know nothing about

15. Ignore succession, you are going to live, fighting fit, forever. And anyway, someone coming after you and making a greater success of it would be disrespectful to your memory

and finally for now…

16. Ignore change. Everything is always the the same. Who needs to adapt and evolve?

Business risks to avoid

Posted by admin on J July 2012
Posted in: Business tips.

One of these is not good, 3 is worrying, and five or more is a serious problem:

  1. A failure to assess, monitor and plan for the risks facing the business
  2. Reliance on very few suppliers or customers, or even a narrow market segment (record-labels anyone?)
  3. No succession or contingency planning in case key individuals become unavailable (through illness, departure etc)
  4. Using overdraft or other short-term funding on long-term assets (withdrawal of bank funding is becoming an increasing occurrence and the consequences could be terminal)
  5. Growing too quickly (it is not unheard of for the capital required to fund stock and debtors to exceed the funding available from taking credit from suppliers and banks)
  6. Inadequate monitoring and reporting of the cash position and future cash requirements
  7. Accounts that arrive too late, are inaccurate or focus solely on the distant past. Also beware if the key business indicator (such as order-book) is not part of the traditional accounting process and not regularly monitored, particularly for decline
  8. A business model at risk of being undermined or superceded by the internet, other technological changes or cheap competition from China
  9. Exporting/gifting your Intellectual Property to China, India et al
  10. Non-existent or sycophantic management team – no one who dares put an alternative view to the boss (or they will not listen)

Starting a new business venture

Posted by admin on J July 2012
Posted in: Business tips.

Start-ups are a hot topic: and tempting when salaried employment is hard to come by.

  1. Research your idea before committing time and money to it. Just because you think it is a good idea does not mean the rest of the world will. So ask your target audience if they would buy from you, not your loving family and friends.
  2. Research your own character. Are you the right personality type?
  3. Cost your time. if you can get from set-up to revenue generation a month earlier, what is that worth? Hopefully a lot more than skimping a couple of quid by not delegating mechanistic stuff like government form filling.
  4. Do not let the box-tickers tell you you need a formal business plan. You don’t.
  5. But you do need to understand how your business will work from every angle – use the Business Model Generation canvas, with lots of post-it notes so you can assess several variations. When you get the version that seems to work best, do document how things are going to work
  6. You will now have lots of tasks in mind to do. Document and manage them using Goalscape – it allows you to also record and easily visualise progress. It is worth thinking about the critical path too – no point doing lots of quick things first, and only starting the the long, delay causing task when the others are done!
  7. All this will also highlight the multiple skills that will be required. If you do not feel confident on sales/marketing/IT/accounting/Tax/engineering/etc/etc, we can help you find someone who is
  8. Funding is always a challenge (if not impossible to get) for start-ups. So “bootstrap” as much as you can. Don’t leave your old job until you have dedicated lots of weekends and evenings to your new idea – keep the cash coming in as long as you can. If you still need funding, look to friends and family (an uncomfortable step perhaps, but they are your best bet: offer them interest, annually paid, of at least twice what they currently receive – if you cannot afford 6% in the long term you need to go back to the drawing board!) but do not hold it against them if them cannot oblige. It is far easier to obtain funding if it is to buy equipment or for other business development purposes than it is if the need is to fund salaries, yours or someone else’s. ‘Equipment’ means tooling, and the like. The swanky office, laptop, furniture or car must wait until you are making profits. In the meantime, its ebay and the spare room for you. The best way to save money is not to spend it!
  9. Customer service is fundamental. Make sure, above everything, that you return calls or respond to enquiries promptly and efficiently. Don’t bullsh1t – only make promises you can keep – then make sure you do. Infinitely better to under-promise and over-deliver than the other way around.
  10. Chose a bank where you can develop a personal relationship rather than just become a number on a screen. But always bear in mind that a bank managers default approach is “what happens to me if it all goes wrong”
  11. If this will be your first company, you will be amazed at the number of bear-traps government departments have created to fine you for non-compliance with something. There are lots of free web-sites that will send you email or SMS reminders
  12. Unless you sell online, do not get hung-up on your website design. You do not have to spend a fortune on it. Save the designer fees and get an SEO guru on the case instead. Far more bang per buck. You need to know that static websites are not really going to help much with your marketing. To get noticed, you will need a blog based site like this one that is based on WordPress. Google is a monster that needs regular feeding with new content

A marketing lesson from Nigerian email scammers

Posted by admin on J June 2012
Posted in: Misc.
Well, how counter-intuitive is this. I love it.
Even wondered why all those mis-spelled, laughable spam-fraud emails come from West Africa, and Nigeria in particular. Surely, their very source flags their untrustworthiness.Well yes and no. They are actually being surprisingly clever. They know that most of us will ignore their missives – but in doing so, we, the 99.99% majority, filter ourselves out of their random sample. Whereas anyone who is sufficiently ignorant to take them seriously and respond has by definition self-selected themselves as a gullible victim in waiting.

The scammers could not possibly follow up every response if we all pursued their offer, so their weird logic actually helps them select their mark(s).

This has got me wondering how I can apply this upside-down logic (ethically of course) to benefit my own businesses.

The research paper this comes from is here

Buying a new smartphone?

Posted by admin on J June 2012
Posted in: Misc.
In the statistically unlikely event you were going to opt for a Nokia or other winphone7 device, reconsider, or at least wait a while.
MS have announced these phones will not be upgradable to Winphone 8 when it comes out in the autumn. What is worse, they have been prevaricating on answering this question for months although it is hard to imagine they have not always known the answer.

So, Nokia 600-900 owners, you have been cast adrift, albeit with a small paddle of a compromised new version 7.8 (from 7.5)

Microsoft, I despair of you. Is there anyone left at Redmond who understands the concept of, and need for, customer trust?

I want MS to provide a real choice in this arena. I want to want one above an iPhone. I think Win8 could be really interesting. Am I the only one who wants to slap Steve Balmer before handing him his P45?

I’ve been saying for some time that MS are on a slippery slope, but why to they keep pushing on the ski-poles?

Doh! Schoolboy marketing error 101 reinforced

Posted by admin on J June 2012
Posted in: Misc.
I have been quite busy on sailing website forums, partly ‘cos I love it but mostly to promote my book.
The signature I was using just pointed to the website and not a lot was happening frankly.

Then, a couple of day ago, I changed the sig to less subtle, rather immodest, Great new book for Club Sailors and sure enough, my inbox is pinging satisfyingly with sale notifications.

Now I need to work out what else to change

PS Whilst I am at it, its still not to late (at the time of writing) to receive one for Fathers Day for the dinghy sailor in your life