Phew – that was hard work!
Just thought I’d write up the events of the last couple of days, before I forget!
I’m really pleased with how much we achieved, but it wasn’t all plain sailing.
The biggest issue was about permission from all the various authorities, which we thought we’d sorted weeks ago, but we were nowhere near sorted. There were so many organisations we didn’t even know were involved or that we had to contact!
Here are all the parties that have some authority in the area we were working (MEN Arena/Victoria station and surrounding areas):
MEN Arena incl their security/safety staff
Victoria Station management and Network Rail
Landlord of the building the Arena is in (SMG Europe) and their agent (DTZ)
Manchester City Council & Greater Manchester Police
NCP Car Parks (with direct access to the Arena)
CBeebies show promoter
BBC Children’s TV
I ask you! We had cleared things with some of them, but others just kept coming out of the woodwork! On the first day, (Thursday) we were refused permission from the landlord to stand in an area that was considered a fire exit, but were given permission on Friday morning to go inside the Arena foyer area itself (which is still their land), only after they’d cleared it with the Arena safety staff (who keep track of numbers of personnel in the building) for fire safety purposes.
Great news, eh! Well so it started, but then we were stopped from handing out crayons to the children going into the concert, because the Arena staff were worried that they would crayon all over the walls and furniture. I was completely dumbfounded but had to obey them and we were told to come back after the concert, and we could hand out to children/parents leaving the concert. This also applied to those other entrances from outside where we were handing out crayons. So we went back at the end, and carried on, taking care just to hand out to those leaving the first concert, and not those arriving for the next concert!
All going well, then we were told that our permission had been revoked. By this time I’d had enough, and wasn’t just going to obey them, I needed to know their reasons, and had to speak to the decision maker. After speaking to the Safety Manager at the Arena, I was told it was actually the promoter who was upset because he said we were taking business away from their merchandising stands. I countered by stating that as we were handing out to those exiting the Arena, they had already passed all the merchandising opportunities, so it wasn’t a valid argument. And then I got told that it was actually the BBC and the Head of Children’s Entertainment that wasn’t allowing us to do it, because the parents may think we have something to do with the BBC or have been recommended by them. What?!! Would parents think the same of all the traders selling cowboy hats and sparkly shiny things too? Because believe me, I’ve bought some of these things (at CBeebies Tweenies concert last year) and the quality is extremely suspect. Which certainly isn’t something you could say about our business. The crayons all have the necessary safety mark and the website certainly won’t cause anyone any harm.
Well at that point, I just gave up. I’d had enough of fighting, and to be honest we’d probably already managed to distribute 6,000 of the 7,500 cards we’d brought over the two days. Plus the fact it was absolutely torrential rain outside, and the girls were soaked.
I reckon we covered over 50% of those attending the 4 concerts in total. So that’s not bad. And it also proved to me that the figures of attendees that we were told by our PR company (before we parted company) weren’t correct.
When I’m reflecting on this, the thing that astonishes me about it all, is that no-one seems to know who you have to get permission from. I suppose if you are a large company and do this type of promotion all the time, then you know automatically what you need and from whom. But it was our first time, and as a small company, I had to do the legwork myself. Our PR company had no idea, it was obviously not something they’d done before for any of their clients – another reason why I’m glad they’re no longer acting for us, they just don’t have the specific experience we can benefit from. The promotions agency we hired the staff from, told us it was our responsibility to obtain all the necessary permissions. And I just got passed from pillar to post when trying to speak to these organisations. I think we were a bit of an anomaly for them. We weren’t trading/selling, or collecting donations. And we didn’t have a large fixed stand or were interviewing people. We must have had a bit of a novel idea!
However, on the positive side, we got a great response from parents and kids. They were delighted to be receiving packs of crayons and were quite happy to take the cards to see the details of the competition. One telltale sign is that over the 2 days, when I was circulating around the whole of the station, outside on the streets, the car park and in the Arena itself, I only picked up one card off the floor. All the rest had been taken home.
So hopefully the parents really appreciated the crayons, the kids made good use of them, thus allowing the parents to relax (“…..& now you can relax” is our strapline, and we included it on the crayon packs) and over the festive period they’ll remember/be bothered/have access to enter our competition.
Well, more news of that in the New Year when our web programmer can tell us how many people have registered their email address on our holding page. I'll also tell you then exactly how much it cost us to do this promotion, just so you know!
Next week is mega busy again. Got to get more content entered, as the final deadline is now mid Jan for media & editors. And we’ve got to prepare our promotional mailing to referrers. Lots more address/contacts research to do, sticky labels to print and envelopes to stuff! And this is twice over! Once for the jigsaw and once for the invitation that is being sent a couple of days later. The first mailing has to be ready to be posted on Tue 3 January, and second one on Thursday 5 January.
We also have to prepare the media packs and I want to do a newsletter for our team and other stakeholders, to update them on all recent events – which have been numerous! Not a very restful time planned then, but very very exciting, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Now I'm off to peel vegetables, wrap presents and write cards in time for 11 people descending on us tomorrow for Christmas dinner. By the way, Luke had a lovely birthday party yesterday - amazing how you can knock up a buffet for 20 people an hour after you've finished upsetting the BBC!
And I didn't mention how much Ross & I are both aching! Poor Ross, he had to go to work last night aswell! Our feet, legs, arms, shoulders and back are all sore. We can't say we haven't struggled for our cause! And if that's anything to go by, we deserve to be successful eventually.
Kirsty
entertainthekids.com
24 December 2005
22 December 2005
I'm so nervous!
Well this is it, it’s the morning of Thursday 22nd December and the first day of our promotional work outside the CBeebies concerts in Manchester. This is an ideal target market for us, because these are parents/carers who:
- have pre-school children (and therefore several more years before their kids are 11, our cut off age); and
- have bothered to find out about the concerts (therefore are likely to be internet users or research activities for kids); and
- are willing to pay for their kids’ entertainment
A couple of months ago we were discussing this event at length, weighing up all the pros and cons of doing it, compared to the cost, and eventually, after much deliberating and soul searching, we decided to go ahead with the promotion.
Our aims of today and tomorrow are:
- to make our market aware of our brand and the website’s launch date
- to drive people to the holding page (www.entertainthekids.com) to register their email address, so we can email them when we launch. We are trying to build up our database.
So we had to think of something that would get attention, would be favourably received, and would meet our aims. At first we were just going to hand out crayons (kids need occupying before the concert starts and in the interval, and will probably have a programme with some colouring pages in it), but after discussing this we realised that just presenting them with our brand, wasn’t sufficient to get them to go to the website. So then we decided that we would also hand out a card (business card size, so they can put it in their purse, pocket etc, and hopefully not just throw it away) giving details of a competition.
Even this took ages to decide upon. We wanted to make the prize something that people would value, and would be bothered to enter, because there was a really good chance of them winning – that’s why we’ve offered 50 free memberships as prizes. And we put a deadline on it of 1 January 2006, because it’s a memorable date, people will hopefully get chance to do it over the Christmas period sometime, and yet it instills some urgency in them to get on with it!
So you can see an awful lot of thought has gone into this promotion.
We’ve had 10,000 packs of crayons delivered (see last week’s diary), and 7,500 cards (which look great by the way – thank you Andy at Fluid Creativity!).
We originally looked to family and friends to help us find some volunteers to distribute the crayons, but in the end decided to do it professionally. So we’ve booked 6 promotional staff from Oz Promotions in Manchester, who so far have proved to be very professional. I’ve got the names and phone numbers of the team, just in case we can’t find them at our meeting point. We have allocated 2 staff to each of the 3 possible entrances to the venue, and as some are outside, I’m praying it doesn’t rain today or tomorrow!
I’ve packed 8 bags with crayons and cards, and have bought Santa hats for everyone. We had a nightmare with branding the bags (again, see earlier diary), so decided in the end not to bother, and we are just giving them plain black bags with long shoulder straps so they can put them over their shoulder and across their chest. So the Santa hats are being used instead to get some attention. The car is packed with spare crayons and cards, in case we run out and I envisage Ross and I will be circling around the team filling their bags up during the day.
I’ve printed off our home page for each of the team, so I can brief them a bit about who we are and what the website will do, and I also think I’ll offer them a bonus if we hit a target of emails registered by 1 January 2006 – just need to confirm this with Ross later this morning.
So here we are. The first big promotional event we’ve done, which we’ve spent a fair bit of our budget on, and I’m very very nervous! It's the first time that our assumptions about our market will be tested. Are we thinking the same way they are? Have we made the correct decisions? Will it pay off financially (which we won't know until after launch) or will it be a complete waste of money, time and energy?
I will update you again in the New Year, when we’ll know how successful the promotion was, and then we’ll be right on top of our Preview Evenings to potential referrers and our presentations to the media.
By the way it’s my father in law’s birthday today, and Luke’s 2nd birthday tomorrow – not a busy time at all really!! Stop the world, I want to get off! Wish us luck! And Happy Christmas!
Kirsty
- have pre-school children (and therefore several more years before their kids are 11, our cut off age); and
- have bothered to find out about the concerts (therefore are likely to be internet users or research activities for kids); and
- are willing to pay for their kids’ entertainment
A couple of months ago we were discussing this event at length, weighing up all the pros and cons of doing it, compared to the cost, and eventually, after much deliberating and soul searching, we decided to go ahead with the promotion.
Our aims of today and tomorrow are:
- to make our market aware of our brand and the website’s launch date
- to drive people to the holding page (www.entertainthekids.com) to register their email address, so we can email them when we launch. We are trying to build up our database.
So we had to think of something that would get attention, would be favourably received, and would meet our aims. At first we were just going to hand out crayons (kids need occupying before the concert starts and in the interval, and will probably have a programme with some colouring pages in it), but after discussing this we realised that just presenting them with our brand, wasn’t sufficient to get them to go to the website. So then we decided that we would also hand out a card (business card size, so they can put it in their purse, pocket etc, and hopefully not just throw it away) giving details of a competition.
Even this took ages to decide upon. We wanted to make the prize something that people would value, and would be bothered to enter, because there was a really good chance of them winning – that’s why we’ve offered 50 free memberships as prizes. And we put a deadline on it of 1 January 2006, because it’s a memorable date, people will hopefully get chance to do it over the Christmas period sometime, and yet it instills some urgency in them to get on with it!
So you can see an awful lot of thought has gone into this promotion.
We’ve had 10,000 packs of crayons delivered (see last week’s diary), and 7,500 cards (which look great by the way – thank you Andy at Fluid Creativity!).
We originally looked to family and friends to help us find some volunteers to distribute the crayons, but in the end decided to do it professionally. So we’ve booked 6 promotional staff from Oz Promotions in Manchester, who so far have proved to be very professional. I’ve got the names and phone numbers of the team, just in case we can’t find them at our meeting point. We have allocated 2 staff to each of the 3 possible entrances to the venue, and as some are outside, I’m praying it doesn’t rain today or tomorrow!
I’ve packed 8 bags with crayons and cards, and have bought Santa hats for everyone. We had a nightmare with branding the bags (again, see earlier diary), so decided in the end not to bother, and we are just giving them plain black bags with long shoulder straps so they can put them over their shoulder and across their chest. So the Santa hats are being used instead to get some attention. The car is packed with spare crayons and cards, in case we run out and I envisage Ross and I will be circling around the team filling their bags up during the day.
I’ve printed off our home page for each of the team, so I can brief them a bit about who we are and what the website will do, and I also think I’ll offer them a bonus if we hit a target of emails registered by 1 January 2006 – just need to confirm this with Ross later this morning.
So here we are. The first big promotional event we’ve done, which we’ve spent a fair bit of our budget on, and I’m very very nervous! It's the first time that our assumptions about our market will be tested. Are we thinking the same way they are? Have we made the correct decisions? Will it pay off financially (which we won't know until after launch) or will it be a complete waste of money, time and energy?
I will update you again in the New Year, when we’ll know how successful the promotion was, and then we’ll be right on top of our Preview Evenings to potential referrers and our presentations to the media.
By the way it’s my father in law’s birthday today, and Luke’s 2nd birthday tomorrow – not a busy time at all really!! Stop the world, I want to get off! Wish us luck! And Happy Christmas!
Kirsty
20 December 2005
How to save the planet!
I think the best ideas to save the planet will be long-term - getting the next generation involved so that they just become used to doing things that are environmentally friendly. It worked in Australia for the 'slip, slop, slap' health promotion, and it has been proven time and time again that you need to change the kids' attitudes before you'll make any major difference in society.
So here's ten ideas below for children to get involved with, whether they're your kids, your nieces/nephews or neighbour's children.
1. With your children, build a compost heap and recycle your kitchen and garden waste
2. Show them how worms break the waste down, by building a wormery in a plastic bottle, so they can observe the worms at work
3. Give your children responsibility for splitting the recycling piles between newspaper, plastic bottles, cans etc. Help them decorate and colour the boxes that they are kept in, labelling each one for each type of waste
4. Make it an 'event' to go to the recycling station every week - same time, same place, so it just becomes a habit. Preferably with a small 'treat' afterwards, so they link it with positive things
5. Encourage a love of nature wherever possible - collect natural materials and make a collage, or make home-made environmentally friendly cards, make bird feeders and nesting boxes
6. Make your own recycled wrapping paper and always try to buy recycled paper and cards
7. Teach your children about organic growing - start with growing carrot tops in water, and cress/grass in eggshells, then progress to giving them a patch of land or a container tub to grow their own flowers or vegetables without using chemicals
8. Water is a lifeline for sanitation, hygiene and health. Children should learn how vital it is to those in developing countries and how lucky we are in UK, yet we waste so much. Did you know that the average person in the UK uses 135 litres of water every day, but the average person in the developing world uses 10 litres of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking. This is the same amount used in the average flush of a UK toilet. On current trends over the next 20 years humans will use 40% more water than they do now (source www.WaterAid.org). See if they can guess how much water is in a bath, or get them to carry water from one container to another, on their heads, just like they have to do in many parts of Africa and Asia.
9. Conserving energy to minimise carbon dioxide emissions. According to the Energy Saving Trust (www.est.org.uk), each household in the UK creates around six tonnes of carbon dioxide a year which is enough to fill six hot air balloons (10 metres in diameter). So involve the children in doing some small but effective things - If everyone put an insulation jacket on their hot water tank, we'd cut carbon dioxide emissions by 600,000 tonnes - enough to fill around 120,000 hot air balloons. If everyone in the UK installed one energy saving light bulb, we'd save enough carbon dioxide to fill the Albert Hall nearly 2,000 times.
10. Plant a tree to encourage oxygenation, home for our wildlife and to build a lovely environment around us. The Tree Council hold special days if you want to join an organised event, or if you want to set up a family tree scheme by helping to build a new forest. www.treecouncil.org.uk
Kirsty
So here's ten ideas below for children to get involved with, whether they're your kids, your nieces/nephews or neighbour's children.
1. With your children, build a compost heap and recycle your kitchen and garden waste
2. Show them how worms break the waste down, by building a wormery in a plastic bottle, so they can observe the worms at work
3. Give your children responsibility for splitting the recycling piles between newspaper, plastic bottles, cans etc. Help them decorate and colour the boxes that they are kept in, labelling each one for each type of waste
4. Make it an 'event' to go to the recycling station every week - same time, same place, so it just becomes a habit. Preferably with a small 'treat' afterwards, so they link it with positive things
5. Encourage a love of nature wherever possible - collect natural materials and make a collage, or make home-made environmentally friendly cards, make bird feeders and nesting boxes
6. Make your own recycled wrapping paper and always try to buy recycled paper and cards
7. Teach your children about organic growing - start with growing carrot tops in water, and cress/grass in eggshells, then progress to giving them a patch of land or a container tub to grow their own flowers or vegetables without using chemicals
8. Water is a lifeline for sanitation, hygiene and health. Children should learn how vital it is to those in developing countries and how lucky we are in UK, yet we waste so much. Did you know that the average person in the UK uses 135 litres of water every day, but the average person in the developing world uses 10 litres of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking. This is the same amount used in the average flush of a UK toilet. On current trends over the next 20 years humans will use 40% more water than they do now (source www.WaterAid.org). See if they can guess how much water is in a bath, or get them to carry water from one container to another, on their heads, just like they have to do in many parts of Africa and Asia.
9. Conserving energy to minimise carbon dioxide emissions. According to the Energy Saving Trust (www.est.org.uk), each household in the UK creates around six tonnes of carbon dioxide a year which is enough to fill six hot air balloons (10 metres in diameter). So involve the children in doing some small but effective things - If everyone put an insulation jacket on their hot water tank, we'd cut carbon dioxide emissions by 600,000 tonnes - enough to fill around 120,000 hot air balloons. If everyone in the UK installed one energy saving light bulb, we'd save enough carbon dioxide to fill the Albert Hall nearly 2,000 times.
10. Plant a tree to encourage oxygenation, home for our wildlife and to build a lovely environment around us. The Tree Council hold special days if you want to join an organised event, or if you want to set up a family tree scheme by helping to build a new forest. www.treecouncil.org.uk
Kirsty
What has happened to customer service?
Written on 18 December 2005
I’ve had a very annoying week this week. I really feel that customer service is a thing of the past for most companies, especially when their customer is a small start-up company, who is really having to watch every penny.
I can see that the business we are giving to others is obviously minimal compared to the level of orders they usually get from established businesses, but how short-sighted are they? How do they know that in 12 months’ time we could be making the same large orders, when we are more established. Well you always remember who’s let you down, so bear that in mind when you are dealing with customers yourself!
There’s been a few incidents this week which have caused the above rant. And after the PC World fiasco last week, I was in no mood for them!
Firstly, I rang the printing supplier on Tuesday. We had travelled over to St Helens (Merseyside, a good 90 minute journey for me) the previous week to see the (supposed final) artwork and the bag samples for some screen printing we wanted doing on some bags for the promotional work we are doing on 22nd and 23rd December. When we got there, the artwork hadn’t been done, in fact what had been very hastily printed off was something that bore no resemblance to our logo at all, and the colours were completely different. Now I remember how much care we took with our logo, branding and the colours, and I’m quite protective of it now I think we’ve got it right! So I was not impressed at all. One bag we should’ve seen a sample of hadn’t arrived, and the other bag just wasn’t suitable. So we left it with them that they would email me the final artwork and the quote, for both the bags and 2 fleeces we left with them, and came away. I should’ve received this email on Monday. So by Tuesday, nothing had arrived, and I rang them up. The salesman I had spoken to wasn’t in, so I was put through to a printer (I think, but he may have been a designer, he didn’t say who he was). He told me it wasn’t possible to screen print in the number of colours we needed (3) onto the bags/fleeces. Not sure why, I didn’t even stop to ask. I was furious. Why had no-one rung me? We were up against a tight deadline, and I’d just been ignored. Charming.
Second incident, again due to printers. We were supposed to collect some promotional cards when we met our mentor on Thursday (which itself went very well, but more of that later), as they have done the design and dealt with the printers. Despite giving us a due date of Thursday, they then informed us that the cards were still drying, and so they wouldn’t arrive until Friday. Apparently, the factory was too cold, and the drying was taking longer than anticipated. I ask you, British Rail and leaves on the track ring any bells? Okay, so not a disaster, and they did arrive as promised on Friday. But still a bit niggling.
Then on Thursday evening we had to do to the UPS depot to collect 10,000 packs of crayons, again for our promotional event. Now I’ll give UPS their due. I’m very impressed with their service. We had missed the attempted delivery on Thursday morning, so rather than them attempt a second delivery on Friday, we arranged to collect them from the depot. And our promotional supplier, Angus Limelight, helped us out with tracking numbers etc, so we could arrange this. He really tried his best and I thank him for this.
However, when I looked at the crayons I was a bit disappointed. The branded packs were smashing, really good quality. But the crayons themselves were about 2cm shorter than the box, and when they were laid side by side, they were quite a bit narrower than the box. It looked like we’d put the wrong crayons in the box.
After speaking to Angus Limelight about this, he told me it was really difficult to get crayons in such small quantities, and the choice around the world was very limited. I appreciate to him, and worldwide crayon suppliers, that 10,000 packs is small-fry, but to us it was a massive investment. And it took a lot of discussion and research before we made the decision to go ahead with this promotional event, simply because of the cost to us. (see diary post on November 10th).
I suppose I blame myself, because I didn’t ask enough questions about the product. I knew the size of the box, but just assumed it had been measured to match the size of the crayons. Well I’ll know in future to ask a lot more, and think of every possible thing that may not be as I expect.
I think the motto here is just to keep on top of your suppliers. Confirm every detail of your purchase order, put everything in writing, and keep chasing them and double-checking delivery dates until it arrives. Insist on good customer service, even if it means you make yourself a nuisance. Good suppliers won’t mind because they’ll realise the possible lifetime value of your business with them.
The last things we’ve already ordered, for our preview evenings in January, are due to arrive on Tuesday and Thursday next week. I’ll be really hassling about them keeping those delivery dates, because if we miss them, we are right on top of Christmas, and I bet most suppliers are closing down on Friday. We have a lot to do over the Christmas break, and we really need these deliveries to plan ahead for the first week in January.
Some excellent news this week. We met again with our proposed ‘mentor’, and went through the nitty-gritty of the deal with him. Everything seems fine. Just one minor change to the documents for tax reasons, and he should be signing this week. So more about him and his planned role in our business next week.
Kirsty
I’ve had a very annoying week this week. I really feel that customer service is a thing of the past for most companies, especially when their customer is a small start-up company, who is really having to watch every penny.
I can see that the business we are giving to others is obviously minimal compared to the level of orders they usually get from established businesses, but how short-sighted are they? How do they know that in 12 months’ time we could be making the same large orders, when we are more established. Well you always remember who’s let you down, so bear that in mind when you are dealing with customers yourself!
There’s been a few incidents this week which have caused the above rant. And after the PC World fiasco last week, I was in no mood for them!
Firstly, I rang the printing supplier on Tuesday. We had travelled over to St Helens (Merseyside, a good 90 minute journey for me) the previous week to see the (supposed final) artwork and the bag samples for some screen printing we wanted doing on some bags for the promotional work we are doing on 22nd and 23rd December. When we got there, the artwork hadn’t been done, in fact what had been very hastily printed off was something that bore no resemblance to our logo at all, and the colours were completely different. Now I remember how much care we took with our logo, branding and the colours, and I’m quite protective of it now I think we’ve got it right! So I was not impressed at all. One bag we should’ve seen a sample of hadn’t arrived, and the other bag just wasn’t suitable. So we left it with them that they would email me the final artwork and the quote, for both the bags and 2 fleeces we left with them, and came away. I should’ve received this email on Monday. So by Tuesday, nothing had arrived, and I rang them up. The salesman I had spoken to wasn’t in, so I was put through to a printer (I think, but he may have been a designer, he didn’t say who he was). He told me it wasn’t possible to screen print in the number of colours we needed (3) onto the bags/fleeces. Not sure why, I didn’t even stop to ask. I was furious. Why had no-one rung me? We were up against a tight deadline, and I’d just been ignored. Charming.
Second incident, again due to printers. We were supposed to collect some promotional cards when we met our mentor on Thursday (which itself went very well, but more of that later), as they have done the design and dealt with the printers. Despite giving us a due date of Thursday, they then informed us that the cards were still drying, and so they wouldn’t arrive until Friday. Apparently, the factory was too cold, and the drying was taking longer than anticipated. I ask you, British Rail and leaves on the track ring any bells? Okay, so not a disaster, and they did arrive as promised on Friday. But still a bit niggling.
Then on Thursday evening we had to do to the UPS depot to collect 10,000 packs of crayons, again for our promotional event. Now I’ll give UPS their due. I’m very impressed with their service. We had missed the attempted delivery on Thursday morning, so rather than them attempt a second delivery on Friday, we arranged to collect them from the depot. And our promotional supplier, Angus Limelight, helped us out with tracking numbers etc, so we could arrange this. He really tried his best and I thank him for this.
However, when I looked at the crayons I was a bit disappointed. The branded packs were smashing, really good quality. But the crayons themselves were about 2cm shorter than the box, and when they were laid side by side, they were quite a bit narrower than the box. It looked like we’d put the wrong crayons in the box.
After speaking to Angus Limelight about this, he told me it was really difficult to get crayons in such small quantities, and the choice around the world was very limited. I appreciate to him, and worldwide crayon suppliers, that 10,000 packs is small-fry, but to us it was a massive investment. And it took a lot of discussion and research before we made the decision to go ahead with this promotional event, simply because of the cost to us. (see diary post on November 10th).
I suppose I blame myself, because I didn’t ask enough questions about the product. I knew the size of the box, but just assumed it had been measured to match the size of the crayons. Well I’ll know in future to ask a lot more, and think of every possible thing that may not be as I expect.
I think the motto here is just to keep on top of your suppliers. Confirm every detail of your purchase order, put everything in writing, and keep chasing them and double-checking delivery dates until it arrives. Insist on good customer service, even if it means you make yourself a nuisance. Good suppliers won’t mind because they’ll realise the possible lifetime value of your business with them.
The last things we’ve already ordered, for our preview evenings in January, are due to arrive on Tuesday and Thursday next week. I’ll be really hassling about them keeping those delivery dates, because if we miss them, we are right on top of Christmas, and I bet most suppliers are closing down on Friday. We have a lot to do over the Christmas break, and we really need these deliveries to plan ahead for the first week in January.
Some excellent news this week. We met again with our proposed ‘mentor’, and went through the nitty-gritty of the deal with him. Everything seems fine. Just one minor change to the documents for tax reasons, and he should be signing this week. So more about him and his planned role in our business next week.
Kirsty
Let's get on with it!
Written on 9 December 2005
This week has definitely been much less traumatic than last, and looking back on it, I actually feel we have made some good progress.
Technology issues at the weekend. We really needed to upgrade our scanner as it just wasn’t performing well and was causing us some real inefficiencies. I roped in Ross, as his technical mind is far superior to mine. After a visit to PC World, we were exasperated! No-one there could tell us about the scanners’ functions, capabilities or what all the technical jargon meant.
They were busy, and, as always it’s a nightmare trying to find anyone to help. We were passed from pillar to post, from a salesman who knew nothing about scanners at all, to someone who was just responsible for demonstrating and flogging a 3 in 1 printer/fax/scanner, which was just too slow for our needs, and anyhow we only wanted a scanner. He then sent us to the business customers’ area, and of course there was no-one around. So we managed to find a manager who was supposedly directing staff to the required customers, so we waited, and waited and waited, and then walked out. One hour wasted and PC World have lost a sale.
Thankfully Ross knew of an independent company called Scan Computers, who luckily are based just down the road. So we went there instead. Should’ve gone their in the first place. We thought PC World would have a broader range and someone we could ask questions to, but obviously not. Scan helped us out, only had a few models in stock, but we found what we needed and came away much happier. I finally managed to install it on Thursday, as I’d just not had the time without Luke around, before then. It works great. Now I just need to get my memory on my computer upgraded, because it’s starting to plod.
Also had a great coup when we got an email from Denise Robertson, the agony aunt on This Morning. We’d written to her back in September to see if she liked the idea of our site, and she’s finally replied with some fantastic comments. So they’re going straight onto the holding page, along with Kym Marsh’s comments!
We’ve also managed to subscribe (courtesy of Venturepoint, the company organising the MEN Venture Awards), to ResponseSource.com which is an email notification system for journalists to contact PR companies with their requirements for features/case studies. I’ve already replied to 3 journalists, so you never know, we may be in print soon. Think we also have to find a cuttings service too, we can’t possibly keep track of all these publications ourselves, and we need to know when we make it into print, so we can track our marketing work.
Today’s major task is to go to the printers to see the design for our screen printing, choose the bags we require for our promotional staff to hold the branded crayons in, and get our fleeces printed with our logo. All with Luke in tow!
I really feel that we are beginning to make progress again with the PR/marketing, something that I really thought had become stagnant over the past few weeks, as we had mistakenly begun to expect the PR agency to fulfill this role. Oh well, you live and learn!
Next week we are meeting our ‘mentor’ to agree terms with him, but more about that later. And I’ve got nearly 2 full days to concentrate on finishing off the content for the site. Can’t wait! I’m under pressure from Ross now who’s now managed to enter over 1,000 items in the database. Let the contest begin!
Kirsty
This week has definitely been much less traumatic than last, and looking back on it, I actually feel we have made some good progress.
Technology issues at the weekend. We really needed to upgrade our scanner as it just wasn’t performing well and was causing us some real inefficiencies. I roped in Ross, as his technical mind is far superior to mine. After a visit to PC World, we were exasperated! No-one there could tell us about the scanners’ functions, capabilities or what all the technical jargon meant.
They were busy, and, as always it’s a nightmare trying to find anyone to help. We were passed from pillar to post, from a salesman who knew nothing about scanners at all, to someone who was just responsible for demonstrating and flogging a 3 in 1 printer/fax/scanner, which was just too slow for our needs, and anyhow we only wanted a scanner. He then sent us to the business customers’ area, and of course there was no-one around. So we managed to find a manager who was supposedly directing staff to the required customers, so we waited, and waited and waited, and then walked out. One hour wasted and PC World have lost a sale.
Thankfully Ross knew of an independent company called Scan Computers, who luckily are based just down the road. So we went there instead. Should’ve gone their in the first place. We thought PC World would have a broader range and someone we could ask questions to, but obviously not. Scan helped us out, only had a few models in stock, but we found what we needed and came away much happier. I finally managed to install it on Thursday, as I’d just not had the time without Luke around, before then. It works great. Now I just need to get my memory on my computer upgraded, because it’s starting to plod.
Also had a great coup when we got an email from Denise Robertson, the agony aunt on This Morning. We’d written to her back in September to see if she liked the idea of our site, and she’s finally replied with some fantastic comments. So they’re going straight onto the holding page, along with Kym Marsh’s comments!
We’ve also managed to subscribe (courtesy of Venturepoint, the company organising the MEN Venture Awards), to ResponseSource.com which is an email notification system for journalists to contact PR companies with their requirements for features/case studies. I’ve already replied to 3 journalists, so you never know, we may be in print soon. Think we also have to find a cuttings service too, we can’t possibly keep track of all these publications ourselves, and we need to know when we make it into print, so we can track our marketing work.
Today’s major task is to go to the printers to see the design for our screen printing, choose the bags we require for our promotional staff to hold the branded crayons in, and get our fleeces printed with our logo. All with Luke in tow!
I really feel that we are beginning to make progress again with the PR/marketing, something that I really thought had become stagnant over the past few weeks, as we had mistakenly begun to expect the PR agency to fulfill this role. Oh well, you live and learn!
Next week we are meeting our ‘mentor’ to agree terms with him, but more about that later. And I’ve got nearly 2 full days to concentrate on finishing off the content for the site. Can’t wait! I’m under pressure from Ross now who’s now managed to enter over 1,000 items in the database. Let the contest begin!
Kirsty
04 December 2005
Advent Activities
Children are going to be eating enough chocolate over Christmas, so if you don’t want to start them on 1 December with the standard chocolate advent calendar, how about doing something different this year? A few ideas below to build up to the excitement of Christmas……
Build a nativity
Each day make another piece of the nativity scene, and gradually build up your model every day until Christmas. It doesn’t have to take very long, for example:
1 Dec – get a cardboard box, cut off one side, and let the children decorate it for the stable
2 Dec – collect some grass, and leave it to dry, so it can be used as straw
3 Dec – make some lambs. Use cotton wool balls, draw on their eyes with black pen, & matchsticks for legs
4 Dec – make some shepherds or wise men or Mary/Joseph – for all the people, cut out a shape from card, leaving a rectangle tab under their feet, so that it can be turned backwards as a stand
etc
Handprint advent wreath
Draw around your children’s hands at least 8 times and cut out. Use green paper or get them to colour them in afterwards, to make green leaves. Cut out a disc of cardboard, and stick the hands around the edge of the disc.
Roll up pieces of coloured paper (or plain paper that has been coloured in by the kids), to make a thin tube. Make 4 of these to be candles. Stick on some orange/yellow paper to be the flame.
You could make a candle each week, and build up to the 4 weeks of Christmas, ‘lighting’ the last one on Christmas Eve.
Advent paper chain
Make a paper chain, with 24 links of paper strips taped together. Number each from 1 to 24. And write an activity for the children to do on that day. For example, make/write Christmas cards, buy present for xxx, decorate the Christmas tree, hang up the cards, collect evergreens from the garden to decorate the picture frames, wrap up presents, make/write gift tags, bake some Christmas shaped biscuits etc!
Build a nativity
Each day make another piece of the nativity scene, and gradually build up your model every day until Christmas. It doesn’t have to take very long, for example:
1 Dec – get a cardboard box, cut off one side, and let the children decorate it for the stable
2 Dec – collect some grass, and leave it to dry, so it can be used as straw
3 Dec – make some lambs. Use cotton wool balls, draw on their eyes with black pen, & matchsticks for legs
4 Dec – make some shepherds or wise men or Mary/Joseph – for all the people, cut out a shape from card, leaving a rectangle tab under their feet, so that it can be turned backwards as a stand
etc
Handprint advent wreath
Draw around your children’s hands at least 8 times and cut out. Use green paper or get them to colour them in afterwards, to make green leaves. Cut out a disc of cardboard, and stick the hands around the edge of the disc.
Roll up pieces of coloured paper (or plain paper that has been coloured in by the kids), to make a thin tube. Make 4 of these to be candles. Stick on some orange/yellow paper to be the flame.
You could make a candle each week, and build up to the 4 weeks of Christmas, ‘lighting’ the last one on Christmas Eve.
Advent paper chain
Make a paper chain, with 24 links of paper strips taped together. Number each from 1 to 24. And write an activity for the children to do on that day. For example, make/write Christmas cards, buy present for xxx, decorate the Christmas tree, hang up the cards, collect evergreens from the garden to decorate the picture frames, wrap up presents, make/write gift tags, bake some Christmas shaped biscuits etc!
Have a wizarding time
Harry Potter mania has struck again, so use this theme to entertain your kids (& their friends if you want to make a party of it) for an afternoon…..
Wizarding makes
Making a cloak or wizard’s cape:
The material:
If you have some old sheets you can cut to size & dye black in the washing machine, then great, but if you don’t have the time, consider getting an old adult’s shirt, turning the sleeves inside out (or cutting them off) and sealing the armholes up (sew them, sellotape them or glue them!)
Decorate it:
Get the kids to decorate with felt tips, draw a crest on paper & pin or glue onto the back, add sequins or glitter onto the collar, glue tinsel around the edges etc etc
The wizard’s hat:
Use old wallpaper (turned inside out if it’s patterned) or wrapping paper and make a cone with it, glue or sellotape to hold in place. Get the kids to decorate with sparkly bits, foil, paint, glitter etc
The all-important wand:
Get a dead twig, as curly and knotted as possible, or a few chopsticks tied together, or even a roll of newspaper, covered with papier mache (flour, water mixed into a sloppy paste added to more newspaper bits stuck on). When it’s dry it can be decorated, again with ribbons, wool, tinsel, foil, glitter, stars and anything else you can find!
A Wizard’s feast
Okay, so it’s not exactly a balanced meal, but great fun for a one-off! Serve in old glass jars, or on tin foil
Eyes of newt – squirty aerosol cream with a raisin in the middle
Bashed beetles – small lumps of cornflakes or rice crispies covered in chocolate
Slimy pond sludge – green jelly
Wriggly worms – cold spaghetti (esp if cooked in boiling water with red food colouring)
Witches fingers – cocktail sausages
Blind eyes – half boiled egg, remove the yolk and add a grape or pickled onion instead
Bats’ wings – chicken wings (cooked!)
Dead bugs & flies – raisins frozen in ice cube trays of water, and added to drinks
Mixing Potions – lemonade coloured with green food colouring
Dragon’s blood – blue coloured water
HAVE FUN!
Wizarding makes
Making a cloak or wizard’s cape:
The material:
If you have some old sheets you can cut to size & dye black in the washing machine, then great, but if you don’t have the time, consider getting an old adult’s shirt, turning the sleeves inside out (or cutting them off) and sealing the armholes up (sew them, sellotape them or glue them!)
Decorate it:
Get the kids to decorate with felt tips, draw a crest on paper & pin or glue onto the back, add sequins or glitter onto the collar, glue tinsel around the edges etc etc
The wizard’s hat:
Use old wallpaper (turned inside out if it’s patterned) or wrapping paper and make a cone with it, glue or sellotape to hold in place. Get the kids to decorate with sparkly bits, foil, paint, glitter etc
The all-important wand:
Get a dead twig, as curly and knotted as possible, or a few chopsticks tied together, or even a roll of newspaper, covered with papier mache (flour, water mixed into a sloppy paste added to more newspaper bits stuck on). When it’s dry it can be decorated, again with ribbons, wool, tinsel, foil, glitter, stars and anything else you can find!
A Wizard’s feast
Okay, so it’s not exactly a balanced meal, but great fun for a one-off! Serve in old glass jars, or on tin foil
Eyes of newt – squirty aerosol cream with a raisin in the middle
Bashed beetles – small lumps of cornflakes or rice crispies covered in chocolate
Slimy pond sludge – green jelly
Wriggly worms – cold spaghetti (esp if cooked in boiling water with red food colouring)
Witches fingers – cocktail sausages
Blind eyes – half boiled egg, remove the yolk and add a grape or pickled onion instead
Bats’ wings – chicken wings (cooked!)
Dead bugs & flies – raisins frozen in ice cube trays of water, and added to drinks
Mixing Potions – lemonade coloured with green food colouring
Dragon’s blood – blue coloured water
HAVE FUN!
A tale of two halves
We always knew this week was going to be important. Ross and I had decided back in October that we were going impose a deadline upon ourselves for entering content. So we decided we would both clear this week of other work/activities and aim for 5 full days of working on the business.
I booked extra childcare for Luke, and Ross took holidays from work. So apart from a couple of hours here and there, with things that couldn’t be avoided, we have pretty much worked full time on the site. And what a difference it has made!
In terms of my emotional state, I just felt so much more relaxed in the evenings, feeling that I had really done a good day’s work. Unfortunately the house is a complete tip!
Content has been added apace. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning were very productive. However, things slowed down a bit from then on, because we were having trouble with the scanner. It just isn’t up to the job of scanning the volume we need to, and at the speed we want to go. So after a lot of messing about and time wasting, we’ve decided to invest in another one. We’re off to the shops this weekend to have a look at what’s around. In the meantime I’ve managed to get nearly all the content entered, that doesn’t require any attached scanned images, and I’ve just got a couple of categories left (arts/crafts, colouring/puzzles & kids parties). Ross has also made great progress with Days Out, and has nearly entered 1,000 venues now.
So the story of the second half of the week starts to unfold…
Besides the technology causing frustrations, we also had a couple of other major business issues to deal with.
Firstly, another website has launched doing exactly what we are doing, albeit to a much lesser degree and on a smaller scale. However it’s a bit disconcerting that it’s so like our offering, and I’m wondering if we shouldn’t have been so public about what we were doing. I thought we’d left it late enough, so that someone else couldn’t get in on the act before we launched, but I suppose if you already have the main requirements of a website (from an affiliated company) and an existing customer base, it doesn’t take long. This particular site is run by another trading company, who are of course advertising all over the place, so it is a bit distracting. This is exactly one of the things we are staying away from, it’s one of our Unique Selling Points (USPs) that we don’t have any advertising on the site that distracts you from the content, and also we don’t have links that take you completely away from our site.
Having looked at the site in some detail, I don’t think it’s going to pose us much of a threat. Technically it’s not great. Links are missing, search results are returning incorrect activities for the search parameters you have requested, and the content is absolutely minimal. They are relying on others providing content, which could take an awful long time to build up. Whereas we are putting the hard work and long hours in ourselves to ensure that there’s a minimum of 2,000 items already on our site when we launch. Then we will be adding more every week aswell. We believe we had to launch with a complete offering from the start, especially since we are charging our members. But every search will return at least 8 items that are relevant to those search parameters. Most will return a minimum of 25 items. This is something we are taking great care (& therefore time) over.
But at least it shows us that someone else also thinks there is a big gap in the market for our idea!
We had another blow on Thursday. We had got to final stages of agreeing the legal contracts with Fido, the company we had chosen to be our Public Relations advisors, and had a meeting to conclude the deal, one way or another, and the result is that unfortunately we’ve decided to walk away from them. The deal had just changed so much from the initial discussions we had with them, and what they wanted, compared to what we were willing to offer, were poles apart. They were quite adamant they weren’t going to budge one inch.
It’s a real shame, mainly because I think we have completely wasted three months of potential marketing time, which we’re never going to get back. I had sent over several press releases with themes of wizarding activities, and advent, and nothing has happened to them at all. But also because I think the relationship has just totally broken down now, and there’s no way Ross & I want them to be a part of our company. We just won’t be able to work with them in the future, even if we could thrash something out to resolve the deal.
This is something that I was concerned would happen once lawyers got involved. I have worked with lawyers on many deals (I have advised countless businesses on buy-outs, buy-ins, mergers, disposals & fundraising). It is always the case that lawyers advise you of the most risk that you could be facing. Don’t get me wrong, that’s great, that’s exactly what we pay them for. But then it’s up to the client to judge the commercial risk, and what they are prepared to accept in those particular circumstances.
The lawyers don’t always know the full story about the full strength of their client’s negotiating position. I had hoped that our lawyer and their’s would discuss this deal between them, which is the usual way things go. Things are normally much smoother that way, but is does mean that you incur more fees. When the clients negotiate the deal between themselves, it usually means things end up getting more heated, simply due to the inexperience of the parties who are doing the negotiating. In fact I felt that they made a couple of classic mistakes in our meeting.
Firstly, they completely misjudged the strength of their negotiating position. They thought they were invaluable to us, and we were worthless in the scheme of things. They totally missed the point that we don’t actually need a PR company at the start. Yes, it would be useful and we would certainly benefit. But we started the PR work ourselves before they were involved, and made huge strides forward. (getting on startups for instance!) Since they have been ‘on board’ (or not actually on board as it turns out) nothing has happened, because we took our foot off the pedal, thinking they were taking care of it, when actually they were waiting until the legals were signed.
Secondly, they stated at the beginning of the meeting that their offer was non-negotiable. They didn’t want to enter into negotiations (when in fact we already were, because it was nothing like the first offer we discussed!) and actually backed themselves into a corner. I asked them several times to clarify that this offer was ‘take it or leave it’ which they confirmed. Very foolish. I actually teach negotiating skills to accountants who are acting for clients, and this is one of those things you see inexperienced negotiators do. They didn’t leave us with any option or any alternative route to go. Their offer was certainly not acceptable, so after just 30 minutes in the meeting, we left it!
Oh dear, what a shame. However, Ross & I actually feel a sense of freedom again now. Not only have we regained part of the company’s shares that we thought we had handed over, we actually feel in control of the PR again. We had been getting a little concerned about how things had been going, and now we have more determination than ever to make a success of this business. We have a couple of other options with PR advisors, so we’ll investigate those. But it’s not the end of the world if we don’t use any external advisors for the moment.
So onwards & upwards! By the way, I’ll include the wizarding activities and the advent activities on the next blogpost, in case anyone who has children would like to use any of them! May as well make use of the work I’ve done!
Kirsty
I booked extra childcare for Luke, and Ross took holidays from work. So apart from a couple of hours here and there, with things that couldn’t be avoided, we have pretty much worked full time on the site. And what a difference it has made!
In terms of my emotional state, I just felt so much more relaxed in the evenings, feeling that I had really done a good day’s work. Unfortunately the house is a complete tip!
Content has been added apace. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning were very productive. However, things slowed down a bit from then on, because we were having trouble with the scanner. It just isn’t up to the job of scanning the volume we need to, and at the speed we want to go. So after a lot of messing about and time wasting, we’ve decided to invest in another one. We’re off to the shops this weekend to have a look at what’s around. In the meantime I’ve managed to get nearly all the content entered, that doesn’t require any attached scanned images, and I’ve just got a couple of categories left (arts/crafts, colouring/puzzles & kids parties). Ross has also made great progress with Days Out, and has nearly entered 1,000 venues now.
So the story of the second half of the week starts to unfold…
Besides the technology causing frustrations, we also had a couple of other major business issues to deal with.
Firstly, another website has launched doing exactly what we are doing, albeit to a much lesser degree and on a smaller scale. However it’s a bit disconcerting that it’s so like our offering, and I’m wondering if we shouldn’t have been so public about what we were doing. I thought we’d left it late enough, so that someone else couldn’t get in on the act before we launched, but I suppose if you already have the main requirements of a website (from an affiliated company) and an existing customer base, it doesn’t take long. This particular site is run by another trading company, who are of course advertising all over the place, so it is a bit distracting. This is exactly one of the things we are staying away from, it’s one of our Unique Selling Points (USPs) that we don’t have any advertising on the site that distracts you from the content, and also we don’t have links that take you completely away from our site.
Having looked at the site in some detail, I don’t think it’s going to pose us much of a threat. Technically it’s not great. Links are missing, search results are returning incorrect activities for the search parameters you have requested, and the content is absolutely minimal. They are relying on others providing content, which could take an awful long time to build up. Whereas we are putting the hard work and long hours in ourselves to ensure that there’s a minimum of 2,000 items already on our site when we launch. Then we will be adding more every week aswell. We believe we had to launch with a complete offering from the start, especially since we are charging our members. But every search will return at least 8 items that are relevant to those search parameters. Most will return a minimum of 25 items. This is something we are taking great care (& therefore time) over.
But at least it shows us that someone else also thinks there is a big gap in the market for our idea!
We had another blow on Thursday. We had got to final stages of agreeing the legal contracts with Fido, the company we had chosen to be our Public Relations advisors, and had a meeting to conclude the deal, one way or another, and the result is that unfortunately we’ve decided to walk away from them. The deal had just changed so much from the initial discussions we had with them, and what they wanted, compared to what we were willing to offer, were poles apart. They were quite adamant they weren’t going to budge one inch.
It’s a real shame, mainly because I think we have completely wasted three months of potential marketing time, which we’re never going to get back. I had sent over several press releases with themes of wizarding activities, and advent, and nothing has happened to them at all. But also because I think the relationship has just totally broken down now, and there’s no way Ross & I want them to be a part of our company. We just won’t be able to work with them in the future, even if we could thrash something out to resolve the deal.
This is something that I was concerned would happen once lawyers got involved. I have worked with lawyers on many deals (I have advised countless businesses on buy-outs, buy-ins, mergers, disposals & fundraising). It is always the case that lawyers advise you of the most risk that you could be facing. Don’t get me wrong, that’s great, that’s exactly what we pay them for. But then it’s up to the client to judge the commercial risk, and what they are prepared to accept in those particular circumstances.
The lawyers don’t always know the full story about the full strength of their client’s negotiating position. I had hoped that our lawyer and their’s would discuss this deal between them, which is the usual way things go. Things are normally much smoother that way, but is does mean that you incur more fees. When the clients negotiate the deal between themselves, it usually means things end up getting more heated, simply due to the inexperience of the parties who are doing the negotiating. In fact I felt that they made a couple of classic mistakes in our meeting.
Firstly, they completely misjudged the strength of their negotiating position. They thought they were invaluable to us, and we were worthless in the scheme of things. They totally missed the point that we don’t actually need a PR company at the start. Yes, it would be useful and we would certainly benefit. But we started the PR work ourselves before they were involved, and made huge strides forward. (getting on startups for instance!) Since they have been ‘on board’ (or not actually on board as it turns out) nothing has happened, because we took our foot off the pedal, thinking they were taking care of it, when actually they were waiting until the legals were signed.
Secondly, they stated at the beginning of the meeting that their offer was non-negotiable. They didn’t want to enter into negotiations (when in fact we already were, because it was nothing like the first offer we discussed!) and actually backed themselves into a corner. I asked them several times to clarify that this offer was ‘take it or leave it’ which they confirmed. Very foolish. I actually teach negotiating skills to accountants who are acting for clients, and this is one of those things you see inexperienced negotiators do. They didn’t leave us with any option or any alternative route to go. Their offer was certainly not acceptable, so after just 30 minutes in the meeting, we left it!
Oh dear, what a shame. However, Ross & I actually feel a sense of freedom again now. Not only have we regained part of the company’s shares that we thought we had handed over, we actually feel in control of the PR again. We had been getting a little concerned about how things had been going, and now we have more determination than ever to make a success of this business. We have a couple of other options with PR advisors, so we’ll investigate those. But it’s not the end of the world if we don’t use any external advisors for the moment.
So onwards & upwards! By the way, I’ll include the wizarding activities and the advent activities on the next blogpost, in case anyone who has children would like to use any of them! May as well make use of the work I’ve done!
Kirsty
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