Of all the things I had planned to do over the last few days, I don’t think I’ve got any of them done. My task list has just grown again overnight it seems, I’ve just got Luke to bed, after cooking & eating tea (later than usual because my husband had to work overtime again – how blissful that must be to get the opportunity!) and now I’m starting work at 7.40pm.
Today’s just been one of those days (again). Up to my eyes in pumpkins, witches & ‘trick or treaters’, and Luke didn’t have his lunchtime nap, so there was no chance from 4pm onwards, as the door bell never stopped ringing. I don’t mind the kids calling, in fact I love it, but it was just typical that I had loads to do at some point today (ie when Luke was asleep) and it just didn’t happen.
However, one piece of progress was that we went to the bank to sign up all their forms for the account & the loan.
So now I’m off to read a ton of legal documents, the report from Fido, and try to plan tomorrow. Luke’s in nursery, so I’ve got a full day to work – yippee!!
I just hate it when I’m so snappy, but I’ve just got to get some of this work off my task list or I’m going to collapse under the weight of it. If anyone thinks working from home is easy, think again!
Kirsty
entertainthekids.com
31 October 2005
28 October 2005
Introducing new members of the team
Met up with our first Regional Manager, Sharon, yesterday for a ‘training’ session. The Regional Manager’s are going to be responsible for entering the ‘local’ content to do with Days Out & Places to Go.
We have an ideal candidate in Sharon, as she is a registered childminder and mum herself to a (nearly) four year old daughter. Sharon is responsible for Greater Manchester, and she lives in North Manchester herself. In our business plan we set out the role of regional managers as follows:
Excerpts from the company’s business plan:
Regional managers live in the region for which they are responsible. Their roles are to be the ‘eyes & ears on the ground’. In particular they must:
· continually research, input & update the local activities in their area;
· assist in developing the referral network (including planning & promoting the launch party for their region); and
· be available to provide interviews/photo opportunities for their local media
The personal attributes of the regional managers are all likely to be as follows:
· Enthusiastic & upbeat
· Confident & considerate
· Witty & sociable
· Ambitious, self-motivated & organised
They are likely to be parents themselves, and have probably held professional roles in a previous employment.
All regional managers will be compensated for their time by being gifted a shareholding in the company. This decision has been made because it is likely that the quality of the personnel the directors wish to attract, will not be motivated by a low hourly rate, akin to the minimum wage. As the company’s cashflow is restrictive, it would not be able to compensate them with a paid salary, at the levels they are likely to be used to.
You’ve got come up with ingenious ways of getting the best people when you can’t afford to pay them!
Sharon was always going to be involved because I’ve known her for years, and have worked with her before when she was (an excellent) office manager.
In a fit of enthusiasm, I’d already emailed to Sharon (& to Jen, our RM for Greater London) tons and tons of information about us, including our full business plan. In hindsight I’ve realised that I’ve completely overwhelmed them, because they just haven’t time to digest the information, and the really important stuff just gets lost amongst the interesting, but less important, stuff. All of our RMs are going to be busy people themselves, as they will all be parents, and are probably also doing some other employment or self-employment.
So before yesterday’s meeting, I drew up an ‘Information Pack’ which just contained the following information:
Mission statement, first year objectives & USPs (total 1 page)
Regional rollout programme (1 page + 2 pages detailing regions)
RM’s role (1 page)
Local content categories & sources of information (2 pages)
Instructions to create new resource/delete/edit (1 page)
PR activities – successes & planned (1 page)
I printed it all off and put it all together in a folder. This gives them enough information about the business, what they are going to do, and how well we are already doing, and is hopefully sufficient information to get them excited about working with us. It seems to have worked with Sharon.
I’m meeting Jen on 22 November, so if she hasn’t ploughed through the emails by then, I’ll give her one of these packs instead, and she can bin the emails!
Yesterday’s training threw up some interesting things. First of all, we couldn’t logon to the site (either back end admin database, or front end) on Sharon’s computer. It turns out it’s probably something to do with the firewall that NTL have, as she is on NTL. Accsys are looking at a way around it. But that kind of threw our plans for entering some content. Luckily Ross lives about 2 miles away, so we packed everything up, including Sharon’s daughter, and hotfooted it over to Ross’s computer!
She came up with some ideas to make entering content a bit easier (and therefore quicker), and just some things from a user’s point of view. She takes no prisoners when it comes to using websites! If she can’t see what she wants within about 3 seconds, she moves on! Phew! What a great way for us to test the site though! She also gave me a real insight into the childminding market, and ways we may be able to attract them.
So I’ve now got a list of things that I need to speak to Accsys about, to see how difficult, time consuming (& therefore costly) it will be to incorporate the changes she’s suggested.
Unfortunately my other lives seem to be getting in the way again at the moment. I’ve got my VAT return to do this weekend (for my training/consulting business) and I’ve got a full set of course notes to write for early next week too. So priorities may have to shift for the next few days.
26 October 2005
P,P,P,Pick up a Pro!
It’s suddenly dawned on me how grateful I am that I’ve got a team of professionals around me who are experts at what they do. We had a meeting yesterday with Laura from Fido, and she just clarified our thinking a little bit. We had this idea to hand out free packs of crayons to potential members, but when we worked out the costings, we realised that it was going to be difficult to estimate how effective the PR had been.
Our key target at the moment is to capture email addresses on our holding page, so that when we launch in March, we can directly tell these people by email.
So whilst we had lots of great ideas for PR, we need to now prioritize them according to their cost and likely effectiveness. It’s so tempting to do something now because it may be seasonal, but instead maybe we should be a little patient (something I really struggle with usually!) and use it next year, when it may be more appropriate to the stage of the business’s development (ie after we’ve launched).
So we are just tinkering with the crayons idea to see if there’s any way we can make it really work for us. And thankfully I’ve also got a great promotional team on board (OZ Promotions) who really understand the way promotions work, and so they’ll be able to give me the benefit of their experience too. Also, our promotional merchandise company (Angus Limelight) will be able to give us ideas about other potential (& cheaper) products that may also do the job for us at a lower cost.
Also, I’ve just had an email from Nick our lawyer, who has sent over the draft of the Deed of Assignment, which Champion Marketing (our creative designers) have to sign, in order to give us ownership of our logo & website design. It does of course make a lot of sense, but it’s not something I would have thought about if we hadn’t appointed someone with his calibre. He also pointed in the direction of a great trademark agent who is searching the market for any potential threats in that area.
Phew, there’s no way you can run a business on your own, and it pays dividends to use the best experts you can afford. I’m sure this will be money & time well spent. Much like last night, Patrick Kielty was very funny!
Our key target at the moment is to capture email addresses on our holding page, so that when we launch in March, we can directly tell these people by email.
So whilst we had lots of great ideas for PR, we need to now prioritize them according to their cost and likely effectiveness. It’s so tempting to do something now because it may be seasonal, but instead maybe we should be a little patient (something I really struggle with usually!) and use it next year, when it may be more appropriate to the stage of the business’s development (ie after we’ve launched).
So we are just tinkering with the crayons idea to see if there’s any way we can make it really work for us. And thankfully I’ve also got a great promotional team on board (OZ Promotions) who really understand the way promotions work, and so they’ll be able to give me the benefit of their experience too. Also, our promotional merchandise company (Angus Limelight) will be able to give us ideas about other potential (& cheaper) products that may also do the job for us at a lower cost.
Also, I’ve just had an email from Nick our lawyer, who has sent over the draft of the Deed of Assignment, which Champion Marketing (our creative designers) have to sign, in order to give us ownership of our logo & website design. It does of course make a lot of sense, but it’s not something I would have thought about if we hadn’t appointed someone with his calibre. He also pointed in the direction of a great trademark agent who is searching the market for any potential threats in that area.
Phew, there’s no way you can run a business on your own, and it pays dividends to use the best experts you can afford. I’m sure this will be money & time well spent. Much like last night, Patrick Kielty was very funny!
25 October 2005
Take a deep breath!
Change of plan today. Was due to meet Sharon to progress the local content for Greater Manchester, but her little girl has been up all night, which doesn’t bode well for Sharon being alert either! So we’ve rearranged to Thursday.
Which means I’ve got a few hours to enter loads of content into the site, I want to finish off music & rhymes and gardening sections so that there’s plenty of content, no matter what age you are searching for.
Then I’m meeting Ross to deliver our business plan for the MEN Venture Award (for young entrepreneurs) and then a meeting with Fido to go through the proposed promotional exercise planned for December.
We are running out of time on this one, as there’s a five week lead time for delivery of the promotional stock, and we need to make a decision if we think the whole exercise is viable or not. This is where we really start to take a leap into the unknown – taking a commercial risk by spending a fair chunk of our bank funding on a speculative project. I know that's the main purpose of the bank funding for us, but it still makes you nervous, actually going ahead and spending some of it - what if it's wasted?
I suppose we can only weigh up all the costs and potential benefits, and then make an informed judgment. I’m really glad we’ve got Fido on board, because this is where their experience will help us. We should be able to measure the effect aswell, it'll be the number who register their email address with us on our Holding Page over the Christmas period. Plus the more general raising of our profile won't hurt either, but that's harder to measure and is just a bonus.
We also need to decide whether we should be having corporate Christmas cards or not, something else that needs deciding upon quickly.
Then we’re off to Patrick Kielty’s show tonight, now what have I done with those tickets??!
Kirsty
Which means I’ve got a few hours to enter loads of content into the site, I want to finish off music & rhymes and gardening sections so that there’s plenty of content, no matter what age you are searching for.
Then I’m meeting Ross to deliver our business plan for the MEN Venture Award (for young entrepreneurs) and then a meeting with Fido to go through the proposed promotional exercise planned for December.
We are running out of time on this one, as there’s a five week lead time for delivery of the promotional stock, and we need to make a decision if we think the whole exercise is viable or not. This is where we really start to take a leap into the unknown – taking a commercial risk by spending a fair chunk of our bank funding on a speculative project. I know that's the main purpose of the bank funding for us, but it still makes you nervous, actually going ahead and spending some of it - what if it's wasted?
I suppose we can only weigh up all the costs and potential benefits, and then make an informed judgment. I’m really glad we’ve got Fido on board, because this is where their experience will help us. We should be able to measure the effect aswell, it'll be the number who register their email address with us on our Holding Page over the Christmas period. Plus the more general raising of our profile won't hurt either, but that's harder to measure and is just a bonus.
We also need to decide whether we should be having corporate Christmas cards or not, something else that needs deciding upon quickly.
Then we’re off to Patrick Kielty’s show tonight, now what have I done with those tickets??!
Kirsty
24 October 2005
Inspirational!
I think Ross & I have just done the most inspiring thing ever – it’s a ‘vivid description’ and has really motivated us both. It’s something you have to do as an individual really, and it helps if all members of the team have something that’s similar!!
It’s a creative approach to setting your goals. We decided to split our goals into short term, medium term & long term. The short term is a list of specific objectives, which are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic & time-based) and will be achieved within one year after launch. The long term goal is basically our vision, where we want to get to, the ‘end-goal’ in five years’ time. So the medium term, in three years, had to be something we could imagine, but not too specific.
I’d read about this ‘vivid description’ in a book I’ve been given by Allan Wilson (Jen’s husband). It’s been written for Tenon, the accountancy firm, by Robert Craven, from Warwick Business School, which specialises in SMEs. The book is called ‘Kick-start your business – the fast track to a leaner, fitter organisation’ and it’s quite practical, not just loads of theory. Although I’ve seen many of the concepts before, it does no harm as a refresher, but there’s also lots of new ideas that I haven’t seen. Yet another book I’m reading now, and another page in my notebook with lots of scrawled ideas from it!
This vivid description seemed such a good idea, that Ross & I decided we had to do our’s this weekend, as we’re currently updating our business plan (for the third time!) to enter it into a competition which has been launched by Manchester Evening News and Venturepoint, a new organisation set up to support new companies in Manchester.
What a laugh! It’s really difficult to do, to rack your brains and imagine where you will be in 3 years’ time. You have to create a pictoral image in your mind, and then write it down on paper. What’s going on around you, describing the environment you are in, the sounds, the people who are there. Ross has written his at an award ceremony (I haven’t seen it yet, but I assume we’re winning something!), and mine is based at our 3 year anniversary party at Centerparcs, with all the families of our team members around us too. Crystallises everything and makes it seem attainable. It’s like everything going from being a bit misty, to being in technicolour. Because it’s a creative image, it stays in your mind in a different way to more formalized objectives. So now we’ve got a good mix of short term, medium term and long term goals.
We also wrote our mission statement. Thought I’d list it below so you can see what we are all about. Something else that just focuses you as a business.
““To be recognised as a valuable & necessary resource for parents/carers, to support those who are caring for young children, ensuring enjoyment for all , to be able to contribute practically and financially to the wider community and charity sector, and to provide tremendous job satisfaction and personal gratification for the whole team”
Hmmm – onwards & upwards then!
Kirsty
It’s a creative approach to setting your goals. We decided to split our goals into short term, medium term & long term. The short term is a list of specific objectives, which are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic & time-based) and will be achieved within one year after launch. The long term goal is basically our vision, where we want to get to, the ‘end-goal’ in five years’ time. So the medium term, in three years, had to be something we could imagine, but not too specific.
I’d read about this ‘vivid description’ in a book I’ve been given by Allan Wilson (Jen’s husband). It’s been written for Tenon, the accountancy firm, by Robert Craven, from Warwick Business School, which specialises in SMEs. The book is called ‘Kick-start your business – the fast track to a leaner, fitter organisation’ and it’s quite practical, not just loads of theory. Although I’ve seen many of the concepts before, it does no harm as a refresher, but there’s also lots of new ideas that I haven’t seen. Yet another book I’m reading now, and another page in my notebook with lots of scrawled ideas from it!
This vivid description seemed such a good idea, that Ross & I decided we had to do our’s this weekend, as we’re currently updating our business plan (for the third time!) to enter it into a competition which has been launched by Manchester Evening News and Venturepoint, a new organisation set up to support new companies in Manchester.
What a laugh! It’s really difficult to do, to rack your brains and imagine where you will be in 3 years’ time. You have to create a pictoral image in your mind, and then write it down on paper. What’s going on around you, describing the environment you are in, the sounds, the people who are there. Ross has written his at an award ceremony (I haven’t seen it yet, but I assume we’re winning something!), and mine is based at our 3 year anniversary party at Centerparcs, with all the families of our team members around us too. Crystallises everything and makes it seem attainable. It’s like everything going from being a bit misty, to being in technicolour. Because it’s a creative image, it stays in your mind in a different way to more formalized objectives. So now we’ve got a good mix of short term, medium term and long term goals.
We also wrote our mission statement. Thought I’d list it below so you can see what we are all about. Something else that just focuses you as a business.
““To be recognised as a valuable & necessary resource for parents/carers, to support those who are caring for young children, ensuring enjoyment for all , to be able to contribute practically and financially to the wider community and charity sector, and to provide tremendous job satisfaction and personal gratification for the whole team”
Hmmm – onwards & upwards then!
Kirsty
22 October 2005
Hello, are you still there?
I know I’ve not posted anything since Monday, but I’ve got my excuses!
We’ve had a remarkable few days, and I’m not sure I can quite take it all in. Ross & I keep having to pinch ourselves. It’s finally all going well, after so many frustrating weeks of not getting anywhere quickly, so why are we still so nervous? Believe it or not, I’m actually getting a little frustrated at the lack of criticism – too many positive comments about us and our idea is just putting so much pressure on now!! How bizarre is that!
Anyway, to fill you in. We went down to London on Wednesday evening, and after I’d done some ‘proper work’ ie presenting a seminar on Thursday morning, we had some great meetings in the afternoon. We’ve secured the interest of editors of parenting magazines, and they’ve agreed to review our site in January, and even provided us with a comment! They also gave us some useful feedback and some areas for us to develop or think about a little more.
So hopefully that is a real investment and we might get some positive PR in their magazines around March (they have a 2-3 month lead time). Now we’ve really got to get on with inputting lots of fabulous content so it’s not a disappointment when they do review it. All this market research is great fun, but there’s no point at all, if we don’t get on with the actual site itself.
We also had a smashing meeting with our lawyer to make sure we had covered all our commercial risks, and sort out our shareholders agreement. We need to look at trademarking pretty soon too. He’s great. Very good (I’ve worked with him lots of times before when I’ve recommended him to clients) and yet easy to talk to, and quite flexible on fees aswell! He knows our situation with cashflow, so hopefully we’ve struck a deal that’s fair to both of us, but I know he’s agreed much lower fees that he usually would for the work he’s doing for us. Really chuffed he’s part of our ‘team’.
Then we met up with Jen, our newly appointed Regional Manager for Greater London. Quite an amazing story how we came to be introduced – I actually trained her husband on a course a few weeks ago and we just got chatting about the site. But she’s just perfect for us and we had a really lovely evening. I’m sure we could’ve talked all night. Looking forward to having her on board, and I’ll meet up with her again over the next couple of months when I’m next in London.
The next morning we found out that www.startups.co.uk want to publish a weekly round-up of this blog – so welcome to any new readers from there! I’ll have to write a ‘catch up’ for the first edition I think.
Then on our way home we collected the market research questionnaires from our old primary school. It was absolutely amazing! Really similar results to that research we’d done a few weeks ago at Luke’s nursery. Same response rate, around 20% (pretty good, apparently you would normally expect 10% for questionnaires), and once again it looks like we’ve got our pricing spot on.
Last night I managed to speak to a high-flyer in the website world, who very kindly gave me half an hour of his time to pick his brains. I’d approached him to be chairman, but unfortunately his contract precludes him from taking any other commercial roles, but he did agree to talk to us. So I gave him a quick overview of who were were, what we were doing, our USPs, our successes so far, and our challenges. He probably told me the most useful thing he could have done – he didn’t think our business model would work! He said if we manage to charge members to use the site, we’d have achieved what many had tried to do already and failed at. I’m not sure that’s strictly true, but it certainly threw down the gauntlet to us! It’s not borne out by all the market research we’ve done, with parents and professionals, and I’m still a great believer that websurfers are more and more prepared to pay if it means they will get quality, relevant information for their needs. He also recognised that the environment for an internet start up is completely different nowadays to where they found themselves back in 1999 at the height of the dot.com boom. And that led to me rethinking our approach for advertising the site, simply because what they did (predominantly a national radio advertising campaign) is not necessary appropriate to us now.
And last but not least, we’ve spotted a competition for budding entrepreneurs which is just down our street! So we’ve decided to enter that. I need to submit our business plan, so I’m going to look at our original plan from last month (which was mainly written for the banks) and update it. I want to get it in by end of next week. The deadline’s 4 November, so we’ve only got a couple of weeks anyway.
Phew, so am I excused for not doing a blog entry since Monday?!!!
Kirsty
We’ve had a remarkable few days, and I’m not sure I can quite take it all in. Ross & I keep having to pinch ourselves. It’s finally all going well, after so many frustrating weeks of not getting anywhere quickly, so why are we still so nervous? Believe it or not, I’m actually getting a little frustrated at the lack of criticism – too many positive comments about us and our idea is just putting so much pressure on now!! How bizarre is that!
Anyway, to fill you in. We went down to London on Wednesday evening, and after I’d done some ‘proper work’ ie presenting a seminar on Thursday morning, we had some great meetings in the afternoon. We’ve secured the interest of editors of parenting magazines, and they’ve agreed to review our site in January, and even provided us with a comment! They also gave us some useful feedback and some areas for us to develop or think about a little more.
So hopefully that is a real investment and we might get some positive PR in their magazines around March (they have a 2-3 month lead time). Now we’ve really got to get on with inputting lots of fabulous content so it’s not a disappointment when they do review it. All this market research is great fun, but there’s no point at all, if we don’t get on with the actual site itself.
We also had a smashing meeting with our lawyer to make sure we had covered all our commercial risks, and sort out our shareholders agreement. We need to look at trademarking pretty soon too. He’s great. Very good (I’ve worked with him lots of times before when I’ve recommended him to clients) and yet easy to talk to, and quite flexible on fees aswell! He knows our situation with cashflow, so hopefully we’ve struck a deal that’s fair to both of us, but I know he’s agreed much lower fees that he usually would for the work he’s doing for us. Really chuffed he’s part of our ‘team’.
Then we met up with Jen, our newly appointed Regional Manager for Greater London. Quite an amazing story how we came to be introduced – I actually trained her husband on a course a few weeks ago and we just got chatting about the site. But she’s just perfect for us and we had a really lovely evening. I’m sure we could’ve talked all night. Looking forward to having her on board, and I’ll meet up with her again over the next couple of months when I’m next in London.
The next morning we found out that www.startups.co.uk want to publish a weekly round-up of this blog – so welcome to any new readers from there! I’ll have to write a ‘catch up’ for the first edition I think.
Then on our way home we collected the market research questionnaires from our old primary school. It was absolutely amazing! Really similar results to that research we’d done a few weeks ago at Luke’s nursery. Same response rate, around 20% (pretty good, apparently you would normally expect 10% for questionnaires), and once again it looks like we’ve got our pricing spot on.
Last night I managed to speak to a high-flyer in the website world, who very kindly gave me half an hour of his time to pick his brains. I’d approached him to be chairman, but unfortunately his contract precludes him from taking any other commercial roles, but he did agree to talk to us. So I gave him a quick overview of who were were, what we were doing, our USPs, our successes so far, and our challenges. He probably told me the most useful thing he could have done – he didn’t think our business model would work! He said if we manage to charge members to use the site, we’d have achieved what many had tried to do already and failed at. I’m not sure that’s strictly true, but it certainly threw down the gauntlet to us! It’s not borne out by all the market research we’ve done, with parents and professionals, and I’m still a great believer that websurfers are more and more prepared to pay if it means they will get quality, relevant information for their needs. He also recognised that the environment for an internet start up is completely different nowadays to where they found themselves back in 1999 at the height of the dot.com boom. And that led to me rethinking our approach for advertising the site, simply because what they did (predominantly a national radio advertising campaign) is not necessary appropriate to us now.
And last but not least, we’ve spotted a competition for budding entrepreneurs which is just down our street! So we’ve decided to enter that. I need to submit our business plan, so I’m going to look at our original plan from last month (which was mainly written for the banks) and update it. I want to get it in by end of next week. The deadline’s 4 November, so we’ve only got a couple of weeks anyway.
Phew, so am I excused for not doing a blog entry since Monday?!!!
Kirsty
17 October 2005
It's a new week
Wonder what this week will bring? Can’t believe how much we achieved last week, but now it’s about tying up all loose ends and getting things moving.
Really varied task list today, which includes finalising meetings for London, Luke’s tots club, projections for another project, chasing outstanding debtors for fees and hopefully getting hair done – just looked at my roots & I can’t have important meetings this week looking like this!! Hope Mum can babysit or else I’ll have to postpone until tomorrow when Luke’s in nursery, although I was hoping to use tomorrow for another 20 things, including a meeting that’s likely to take up all the afternoon.
And I’m also working on getting us a non-exec chairman – just a small thing to fit in.
Got my car MOT’d too! Yes, progress has definitely been made!!
Kirsty
Really varied task list today, which includes finalising meetings for London, Luke’s tots club, projections for another project, chasing outstanding debtors for fees and hopefully getting hair done – just looked at my roots & I can’t have important meetings this week looking like this!! Hope Mum can babysit or else I’ll have to postpone until tomorrow when Luke’s in nursery, although I was hoping to use tomorrow for another 20 things, including a meeting that’s likely to take up all the afternoon.
And I’m also working on getting us a non-exec chairman – just a small thing to fit in.
Got my car MOT’d too! Yes, progress has definitely been made!!
Kirsty
14 October 2005
A day in history
Not quite sure if yesterday really happened! So much progress in one day. Oct 13th will go down in the history of this company!
First of all we finally got permission to do market research at a primary school (knew that persistence would pay off eventually!), then we heard back from RBS who have agreed to provide us with a loan facility (not quite as much as we asked for but should be enough), then we had a fantastic meeting with our new PR partners, Fido PR, who are taking a stake in our company in lieu of fees, and then we firmed up the appointment of our Greater London regional manager. Wow!
So now things are really taking off and I’ve had to think about the shareholders agreements, the roll out of the local launches around the UK and the legal implications. Now that’s what I call progress!
Hopefully will meet up with Jen (our London regional manager) and our lawyer next week whilst we are in London doing our focus groups. Time to go, been on the computer sending emails, typing up documents etc since 7.15 and Luke’s had enough of being in the study and wants to go downstairs for breakfast! Think I’ve run out of bread for toast – eek!
Kirsty
First of all we finally got permission to do market research at a primary school (knew that persistence would pay off eventually!), then we heard back from RBS who have agreed to provide us with a loan facility (not quite as much as we asked for but should be enough), then we had a fantastic meeting with our new PR partners, Fido PR, who are taking a stake in our company in lieu of fees, and then we firmed up the appointment of our Greater London regional manager. Wow!
So now things are really taking off and I’ve had to think about the shareholders agreements, the roll out of the local launches around the UK and the legal implications. Now that’s what I call progress!
Hopefully will meet up with Jen (our London regional manager) and our lawyer next week whilst we are in London doing our focus groups. Time to go, been on the computer sending emails, typing up documents etc since 7.15 and Luke’s had enough of being in the study and wants to go downstairs for breakfast! Think I’ve run out of bread for toast – eek!
Kirsty
13 October 2005
STOP PRESS
Now I am really worried – we’ve just heard that our old primary school are going to distribute our market research questionnaire to the parents of their 220 pupils.
Fantastic news eh? But I think on the basis of past experience we are really due some bad news soon. like I said, I’m really getting worried!
Fantastic news eh? But I think on the basis of past experience we are really due some bad news soon. like I said, I’m really getting worried!
Sssshhh!!
Don’t say it too loudly, but we are having quite a good couple of days at the moment. No big let downs or disappointments, just slow but steady progress. It’s like taking little baby steps, one at time, without trying to do anything too outrageous. So we tiptoe (rather than ‘plod’) on.
I mainly seem to be following things up at the moment, lots of phone calls, trying to get through to the people I need to speak to and hope they can assist in whatever I’m asking them for. A bit frustrating, and at times you feel like your pestering, but sometimes it does work as long as you are always friendly and polite.
We have a meeting this afternoon with a PR company we quite like, to try and work out how we might be able to work together to the benefit of all of us. Should be interesting.
K
I mainly seem to be following things up at the moment, lots of phone calls, trying to get through to the people I need to speak to and hope they can assist in whatever I’m asking them for. A bit frustrating, and at times you feel like your pestering, but sometimes it does work as long as you are always friendly and polite.
We have a meeting this afternoon with a PR company we quite like, to try and work out how we might be able to work together to the benefit of all of us. Should be interesting.
K
12 October 2005
On a short lead
It’s so frustrating!! Another step forward and three back - yet again!
Sometimes I think I’m dealing with think I’m dealing with it really well, and I’m almost laughing at these little setbacks, because I know I should expect them. But other times they really get me down and it takes an iron will to plough on, taking the positives and trying to improve upon or change the negatives.
After being so pleased with myself for setting up our focus groups for next week, one of our key members has cancelled due to another meeting. Hopefully she may be able to send a colleague, I can only ask. So now I feel I’m back to square 1 and I’ve got even less time to sort it. We’ve booked our travel, Ross has time off work and there’s no way I’m just giving up completely….well not just yet!
No need to ask what my task list looks like today!
Luke is in nursery all day and I’ve got 2.5 hours this morning before I have to leave for a course in Hull, and I won’t be home until 7pm. So I’ve got to write this quickly and then get on – loads to do. Of course, I’m not only trying to progress the business, but I’ve got 2 other projects I’m helping out with (also both contingent work and no guaranteed income yet) and then there’s the small issue of my own existing training business, which is desperately short of cashflow due to the quiet time over the summer holidays.
So my task list for today is split into 4 different areas, and that doesn’t include anything for the house/car – which still hasn’t had its MOT by the way!
Later,
K
Sometimes I think I’m dealing with think I’m dealing with it really well, and I’m almost laughing at these little setbacks, because I know I should expect them. But other times they really get me down and it takes an iron will to plough on, taking the positives and trying to improve upon or change the negatives.
After being so pleased with myself for setting up our focus groups for next week, one of our key members has cancelled due to another meeting. Hopefully she may be able to send a colleague, I can only ask. So now I feel I’m back to square 1 and I’ve got even less time to sort it. We’ve booked our travel, Ross has time off work and there’s no way I’m just giving up completely….well not just yet!
No need to ask what my task list looks like today!
Luke is in nursery all day and I’ve got 2.5 hours this morning before I have to leave for a course in Hull, and I won’t be home until 7pm. So I’ve got to write this quickly and then get on – loads to do. Of course, I’m not only trying to progress the business, but I’ve got 2 other projects I’m helping out with (also both contingent work and no guaranteed income yet) and then there’s the small issue of my own existing training business, which is desperately short of cashflow due to the quiet time over the summer holidays.
So my task list for today is split into 4 different areas, and that doesn’t include anything for the house/car – which still hasn’t had its MOT by the way!
Later,
K
10 October 2005
If you don't ask, you don't get!
I’m sure there’s a theme running along here – anyone who gives up easily need not apply!
They say it’s good for you to get out of your comfort zone once in a while. And I so had to do that today. Dealing with the media is not something I’ve ever had to do, and to be honest, I was pretty overawed by all those journalists and editors in London. So I think I’ve done pretty well today overall.
I had 2 courses booked on Thursday 20 October, but there was a chance that one of them would be cancelled. Bad news in one way, because it meant I wouldn’t get paid, but good news in another, because it would give us a perfect opportunity to spend half a day in London on our project that we’ve entitled ‘Ask the Experts!’ It’s a type of focus group/market research, but on a one-to-one basis.
So when the course got cancelled last week, I thought I’d better get on with planning what we are going to do on our afternoon fact-finding mission! Once I’d checked the train times and booked them, there was no looking back really. Ross had already booked the time off work. And so I woke up this morning thinking I’d run out of time to delay any more, and I really had to start trying to book the meetings with some potentially very influential people for our cause.
So after taking a deep breath (quietly, Luke was asleep next to me!), I drew up my shortlist, found out their email addresses and drafted an email to them. Then redrafted it and redrafted it, then just pressed ‘send’. Oh well, I thought, it either will happen or it won’t! And it has!
Almost immediately I got a couple of very encouraging replies back and we have scheduled in one definite meeting already, and have one that just needs firming up. Still got a few replies to wait for – or not! If they don’t reply I’ll pick some more that I want to speak to, and try them aswell. It’s a shame that we’ll have quite limited time and most of that will probably be spent travelling around London, as they appear to be based in all corners of the city. But we want to make the best use of the time we have.
It’s timed pretty well for them I think. Unfortunately it’s half term week, so some key people will be on holiday. But the monthly publications have sorted their bumper December issues by now, and the weeklies/newspapers are well into an active time for them. And we will still have time to amend the site or our product based on the opinions we get from them, before we finalise the site.
Now I need to sit down and carefully plan what we’ll be asking them and what our presentation will look like. Eek! This is a really important time for us and I don’t want to mess it up. Another deep breath…..
And I’m still chasing the primary schools to try and get some market research – just have to try again tomorrow!
They say it’s good for you to get out of your comfort zone once in a while. And I so had to do that today. Dealing with the media is not something I’ve ever had to do, and to be honest, I was pretty overawed by all those journalists and editors in London. So I think I’ve done pretty well today overall.
I had 2 courses booked on Thursday 20 October, but there was a chance that one of them would be cancelled. Bad news in one way, because it meant I wouldn’t get paid, but good news in another, because it would give us a perfect opportunity to spend half a day in London on our project that we’ve entitled ‘Ask the Experts!’ It’s a type of focus group/market research, but on a one-to-one basis.
So when the course got cancelled last week, I thought I’d better get on with planning what we are going to do on our afternoon fact-finding mission! Once I’d checked the train times and booked them, there was no looking back really. Ross had already booked the time off work. And so I woke up this morning thinking I’d run out of time to delay any more, and I really had to start trying to book the meetings with some potentially very influential people for our cause.
So after taking a deep breath (quietly, Luke was asleep next to me!), I drew up my shortlist, found out their email addresses and drafted an email to them. Then redrafted it and redrafted it, then just pressed ‘send’. Oh well, I thought, it either will happen or it won’t! And it has!
Almost immediately I got a couple of very encouraging replies back and we have scheduled in one definite meeting already, and have one that just needs firming up. Still got a few replies to wait for – or not! If they don’t reply I’ll pick some more that I want to speak to, and try them aswell. It’s a shame that we’ll have quite limited time and most of that will probably be spent travelling around London, as they appear to be based in all corners of the city. But we want to make the best use of the time we have.
It’s timed pretty well for them I think. Unfortunately it’s half term week, so some key people will be on holiday. But the monthly publications have sorted their bumper December issues by now, and the weeklies/newspapers are well into an active time for them. And we will still have time to amend the site or our product based on the opinions we get from them, before we finalise the site.
Now I need to sit down and carefully plan what we’ll be asking them and what our presentation will look like. Eek! This is a really important time for us and I don’t want to mess it up. Another deep breath…..
And I’m still chasing the primary schools to try and get some market research – just have to try again tomorrow!
06 October 2005
One step forward?
You’ve really got to have persistence when you’re trying to set your own business up…..and look at the broader picture and longer term, so you don’t get down-hearted at the little things that happen.
We’re really struggling to find a school to allow us to research their parents. But we’re still trying! I’m trying to get hold of the head at the school me and Ross both went to. I think my calls are probably being avoided, but I’m determined to get to speak to her. After speaking to the secretary, emailing in our questionnaire (with lots of suitable disclaimers to distance the school from any involvement or perceived recommendation of the business), then Ross following up with a call to the secretary to see if the head had approved it, we’ve just go nowhere. The secretary was quite shirty, which I think just isn’t on.
There’s no risk to the school whatsoever, and we’re even offering something in return – either a donation to the PTA, or my services in running some sort of enterprise workshop for the older children (I’m already CRB cleared for children’s work, so they should have no problem with that issue).
I will keep trying to speak to her. Other schools have said no, and glibly wished us good luck. But how can they mean that if they’re not prepared to help us. Frankly I think our old school has a duty to support their past pupils whenever they can. And hopefully I’ll persuade her of this!
Alternatively, I’ve approached our minister who is a school governor of the school that I’d quite like Luke to attend actually. She’s given me the name of the head at that school and said I can use her name as a ‘way in’. She’s not in until Monday so I’ll ring her then and see if she is more willing to help. There’s got to be a school out there somewhere.
On a more positive note, we had a really good meeting with Royal Bank of Scotland today. The manager totally understood our offering and is just our ideal customer. She has a 2 year old boy and is expecting another and we got on really well. So hopefully that will be progress to allow us to do some great PR – because I’ve got loads of fantastic ideas on that front!
And I still haven’t managed to get my car MOT’d – maybe tomorrow?
We’re really struggling to find a school to allow us to research their parents. But we’re still trying! I’m trying to get hold of the head at the school me and Ross both went to. I think my calls are probably being avoided, but I’m determined to get to speak to her. After speaking to the secretary, emailing in our questionnaire (with lots of suitable disclaimers to distance the school from any involvement or perceived recommendation of the business), then Ross following up with a call to the secretary to see if the head had approved it, we’ve just go nowhere. The secretary was quite shirty, which I think just isn’t on.
There’s no risk to the school whatsoever, and we’re even offering something in return – either a donation to the PTA, or my services in running some sort of enterprise workshop for the older children (I’m already CRB cleared for children’s work, so they should have no problem with that issue).
I will keep trying to speak to her. Other schools have said no, and glibly wished us good luck. But how can they mean that if they’re not prepared to help us. Frankly I think our old school has a duty to support their past pupils whenever they can. And hopefully I’ll persuade her of this!
Alternatively, I’ve approached our minister who is a school governor of the school that I’d quite like Luke to attend actually. She’s given me the name of the head at that school and said I can use her name as a ‘way in’. She’s not in until Monday so I’ll ring her then and see if she is more willing to help. There’s got to be a school out there somewhere.
On a more positive note, we had a really good meeting with Royal Bank of Scotland today. The manager totally understood our offering and is just our ideal customer. She has a 2 year old boy and is expecting another and we got on really well. So hopefully that will be progress to allow us to do some great PR – because I’ve got loads of fantastic ideas on that front!
And I still haven’t managed to get my car MOT’d – maybe tomorrow?
05 October 2005
Time and space....to think
I suppose I'm quite lucky in that I have enforced periods of time alone. No, I'm not at Her Majesty's pleasure! I work all over the country, and often have a 2, 3 or 4 hour drive.
It's amazing what ideas you can come up with if you just spend a little time thinking through something. I get quite excited when I have a gem of an idea, and then I develop it in my mind, allowing it to expand into something which could be quite special.
I think this has benefitted our business to a massive extent. How many good business ideas have you had, or who do you know who has had a great idea, only to see it developed by someone else later on...and then they're kicking themselves, aren't they?
The difference between successful people and those that aren't, is that successful people actually get on with it and do something. And to be able to do that, you need time to think about your idea and take it to the next stage. Here's me talking about 'successful people' and we haven't even launched yet!! But I'm so convinced we've got it right, I'm sure we'll get in that elite group one day.
You've heard them all saying it, Richard Branson, Stelios etc, you have to take some risks and get out of your comfort zone. But I think that as long as it's a measured risk, and you know what you are really getting into, then you're not being foolish. After all, I have a mortgage and a baby, and I'm not going to risk our stability for wild idea.
But we have taken it really steady, researched, developed and asked a lot of questions about ourselves and to others, so we are sure we are heading in the right direction. Now that just makes good business sense.
Yesterday I was travelling for 3 hours each way to Bristol and back. And on the way home I had yet another new idea, and the tingling sensation happened again. I was trying to make notes for myself so I wouldn't forget what I was thinking (you know what I'm like about lists and lists), so I was scribbling on my hand because I was driving!
You've got to be careful that you don't lose focus, but when you get a really good idea, that's timed right for your business, then you have to go with it. So this morning I've been researching (again!) to make sure I’m going down the right path. And By Jove! I think I’ve got it!! Another cog in the big wheel.
But I’m not telling you what it is until I know if it’s worked or not…..so watch this space!
Kirsty
It's amazing what ideas you can come up with if you just spend a little time thinking through something. I get quite excited when I have a gem of an idea, and then I develop it in my mind, allowing it to expand into something which could be quite special.
I think this has benefitted our business to a massive extent. How many good business ideas have you had, or who do you know who has had a great idea, only to see it developed by someone else later on...and then they're kicking themselves, aren't they?
The difference between successful people and those that aren't, is that successful people actually get on with it and do something. And to be able to do that, you need time to think about your idea and take it to the next stage. Here's me talking about 'successful people' and we haven't even launched yet!! But I'm so convinced we've got it right, I'm sure we'll get in that elite group one day.
You've heard them all saying it, Richard Branson, Stelios etc, you have to take some risks and get out of your comfort zone. But I think that as long as it's a measured risk, and you know what you are really getting into, then you're not being foolish. After all, I have a mortgage and a baby, and I'm not going to risk our stability for wild idea.
But we have taken it really steady, researched, developed and asked a lot of questions about ourselves and to others, so we are sure we are heading in the right direction. Now that just makes good business sense.
Yesterday I was travelling for 3 hours each way to Bristol and back. And on the way home I had yet another new idea, and the tingling sensation happened again. I was trying to make notes for myself so I wouldn't forget what I was thinking (you know what I'm like about lists and lists), so I was scribbling on my hand because I was driving!
You've got to be careful that you don't lose focus, but when you get a really good idea, that's timed right for your business, then you have to go with it. So this morning I've been researching (again!) to make sure I’m going down the right path. And By Jove! I think I’ve got it!! Another cog in the big wheel.
But I’m not telling you what it is until I know if it’s worked or not…..so watch this space!
Kirsty
04 October 2005
Checking out the competition!
It was an exciting couple of days after I'd first thought about the concept of entertain the kids.
But I was dreading the fact that I might find that someone else had already done it, and although I was a pretty intensive internet user, I just hadn't come across it yet.
So I decided that I needed to spend a few days just trawling the internet to see what else was out there.
I found that parenting websites tended to come under one of the following groups:
1. Home-made webpages. Usually set up by a US parent (Brits don't seem to have as many personal websites yet as the Americans do), containing their thoughts and ideas. Tended not to have any search functions, and very limited content, just one or two pages with a dozen or so ideas specific to a particular type of child. So if you are looking for something for a one year old boy, you might just find things that suit a 7 year old girl.
2. Portals/webrings - personally these sites drive me mad! They are just links and links to other sites for advice, health, shopping, reviews, and more portals! I just end up going round and round in circles and hardly ever come across any original content, and before I know it, I've spend an hour getting nowhere fast. Loads of pop-up ads and banners too, and you end up clicking on them aswell - usually by mistake!
3. Women's sites - these tend to be all things to all women! Really good sites with loads and loads of content, but often quite difficult to navigate, and you know what you want is there somewhere, but hard to find and often quite slow. Lots of advertising too.
But the fantastic news was that I'd not found anything that was as specific as I was thinking. This allowed me to refine my idea to the following USPs:
- quick to load
- no obtrusive banner ads or pop-ups
- excellent search facilities for age groups, location & type of activity
- keep focused. No advice, shopping or health pages.
- lots and lots of original ideas, so that if you search for a certain criteria, you'll get at least 10 different ideas returned
So that gave me the confidence to take it a bit further forward.
Now I just had to think about the costs and income a bit more.
If I wasn't having advertising on the site, how would it make money? And just how much does it cost to build a really good website and how much would the marketing cost to promote it?
The Strategic Business Plan starts to be written.....
Kirsty
But I was dreading the fact that I might find that someone else had already done it, and although I was a pretty intensive internet user, I just hadn't come across it yet.
So I decided that I needed to spend a few days just trawling the internet to see what else was out there.
I found that parenting websites tended to come under one of the following groups:
1. Home-made webpages. Usually set up by a US parent (Brits don't seem to have as many personal websites yet as the Americans do), containing their thoughts and ideas. Tended not to have any search functions, and very limited content, just one or two pages with a dozen or so ideas specific to a particular type of child. So if you are looking for something for a one year old boy, you might just find things that suit a 7 year old girl.
2. Portals/webrings - personally these sites drive me mad! They are just links and links to other sites for advice, health, shopping, reviews, and more portals! I just end up going round and round in circles and hardly ever come across any original content, and before I know it, I've spend an hour getting nowhere fast. Loads of pop-up ads and banners too, and you end up clicking on them aswell - usually by mistake!
3. Women's sites - these tend to be all things to all women! Really good sites with loads and loads of content, but often quite difficult to navigate, and you know what you want is there somewhere, but hard to find and often quite slow. Lots of advertising too.
But the fantastic news was that I'd not found anything that was as specific as I was thinking. This allowed me to refine my idea to the following USPs:
- quick to load
- no obtrusive banner ads or pop-ups
- excellent search facilities for age groups, location & type of activity
- keep focused. No advice, shopping or health pages.
- lots and lots of original ideas, so that if you search for a certain criteria, you'll get at least 10 different ideas returned
So that gave me the confidence to take it a bit further forward.
Now I just had to think about the costs and income a bit more.
If I wasn't having advertising on the site, how would it make money? And just how much does it cost to build a really good website and how much would the marketing cost to promote it?
The Strategic Business Plan starts to be written.....
Kirsty
03 October 2005
Research research
We've tried to do our own market research, simply to cut costs. The experts say that a surprisingly small number of answers will provide a good reflection of the market's opinion in general. Apparently the General Election opinion polls are carried out with just 1000 people and they are usually pretty accurate.
We've managed to get a good response from Luke's nursery, and are now really trying to get into a primary school, to get them to allow us to research their parents. We've made it as easy as possible for the school. We'll print the questionnaires, which are only one sheet of A4. We will drop them off and pick them up, and they include a disclaimer for the school - they can't be seen to be recommending our business. But so far, we haven't had any luck. Ross is following up the schools who haven't replied yet, and I'm holding out that the school that both Ross and I went to will agree to it.
We've also approached some celebrities and are absolutely delighted that Kym Marsh (Hearsay, Loose Women, mum to 2 young children) has given us a comment and allowed us to use her name, and she hasn't charged a fee! We've put the comment on our site and our holding page, and we'll add some comments we've had from other parents too. Testimonials are so important I think to give us credibility.
Technology is moving on apace isn't it? We are already looking at the next phase of our business (way before we even launch!) to take advantage of the mobile technology developments, and the audio visual products such as podcasts. Did I say I wanted a business that didn't need updating regularly? I think all businesses have to be impacted by some changes in the wider world, and you've got to constantly look to the future, or you'll be left behind. But we need to focus on our current business aswell, to make sure we launch with a really good quality product.
So it's all about research at the moment - market research from potential customers, researching the future technologies, aswell as the tons of research we are doing for loads of different technical things like the wording of our editorial copy, software to do certain searches on the site, and the payment processing facilities from providers like Worldpay.
And then there's the research for the content of the site. Because when I first set out with this business, I thought I'd have more than enough ideas myself to fill the site, but after really scrutinising our categories, I've found that I should put a lot more for certain age groups and certain activities. So I'm off to do some more of that now.
Well, that's after I've picked up Gregg's car and paid for a new clutch, because it decided to break down on the M62 on Saturday! And Gregg's at work of course. Good eh?
Kirsty
We've managed to get a good response from Luke's nursery, and are now really trying to get into a primary school, to get them to allow us to research their parents. We've made it as easy as possible for the school. We'll print the questionnaires, which are only one sheet of A4. We will drop them off and pick them up, and they include a disclaimer for the school - they can't be seen to be recommending our business. But so far, we haven't had any luck. Ross is following up the schools who haven't replied yet, and I'm holding out that the school that both Ross and I went to will agree to it.
We've also approached some celebrities and are absolutely delighted that Kym Marsh (Hearsay, Loose Women, mum to 2 young children) has given us a comment and allowed us to use her name, and she hasn't charged a fee! We've put the comment on our site and our holding page, and we'll add some comments we've had from other parents too. Testimonials are so important I think to give us credibility.
Technology is moving on apace isn't it? We are already looking at the next phase of our business (way before we even launch!) to take advantage of the mobile technology developments, and the audio visual products such as podcasts. Did I say I wanted a business that didn't need updating regularly? I think all businesses have to be impacted by some changes in the wider world, and you've got to constantly look to the future, or you'll be left behind. But we need to focus on our current business aswell, to make sure we launch with a really good quality product.
So it's all about research at the moment - market research from potential customers, researching the future technologies, aswell as the tons of research we are doing for loads of different technical things like the wording of our editorial copy, software to do certain searches on the site, and the payment processing facilities from providers like Worldpay.
And then there's the research for the content of the site. Because when I first set out with this business, I thought I'd have more than enough ideas myself to fill the site, but after really scrutinising our categories, I've found that I should put a lot more for certain age groups and certain activities. So I'm off to do some more of that now.
Well, that's after I've picked up Gregg's car and paid for a new clutch, because it decided to break down on the M62 on Saturday! And Gregg's at work of course. Good eh?
Kirsty
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