I can spill the beans about this great big strategic idea of mine now, because we’ve decided to abandon it, after realising that we really had to focus on our core product offering and the launch of the site.
We’d found out that there was a company for sale in a related field to ours, selling software to childcare organisations. It had gone into liquidation, so obviously wasn’t in a good state. However the software itself really appealed to us, plus the skills and contacts of the former directors, who may have been willing to be involved with the handover.
I felt that the pricing of the software, and the business strategy in general, was completely wrong. The former directors had their hands tied a bit due to having to recoup their overheads and costs of development, so if we could start with a clean slate, I was sure we’d be able to use this software, and the customer base, to develop our own company aswell.
The synergies were fantastic, and in theory it would have made an ideal acquisition for us. However, after spending the last few weeks on this, I think it’s still going to take quite a bit of time investment from us, which is all time away from developing the site and our existing business, so we’ve decided to walk away.
The timing of this was just awful for us. The bank are bound to be nervous that we haven’t even started trading yet, so are going to be reluctant to lend us further funds to purchase any further assets, and whilst there are potentially other ways to finance the deal, at the end of the day you’ve got to admit that the bank have every right to be nervous. And much as it pains me in a way, I’ve got to walk away from this one.
My background is corporate finance, and I’ve assisted countless companies to buy businesses, so the process itself doesn’t worry me at all, in fact it’s quite exciting! It’s generally accepted that there’s always a higher risk of acquisitive growth than organic growth. ie buying a company to grow your business quickly, rather than just waiting for the natural, but usually much slower, growth of your own businesses. However as long as you do thorough due diligence, investigating all the risks, financial, commercial, operational, legal etc, then you can make a judgment about whether you are willing to take those risks. But you need to be able to make an informed judgment with as much knowledge as you can get.
Our risks were mainly operational & commercial. I was fairly confident that my financial projections were achievable, based on the existing customer base, and my (albeit limited) research of their market and reputation. The legal due diligence would have been taken care of by Nick (our lawyer), and if we couldn’t prove title, trademarks etc, then the deal would never have happened anyway. So that didn’t concern me either. Our biggest worry and risk was the investment of management time, both during the acquisition process itself and after we’d bought the assets. The knowledge gap was considerable, and we’d have needed my time, Ross’s time and Lee’s time to understand the software/technology and the market and customers. This market, whilst it still has huge potential for growth, is governed by legislation and public policy that I’ve never had to get to grips with before. So these would all be key areas for us to spend time on.
After tracking down the liquidator, we made the initial approach, and found that they had appointed a sales agent, who duly forwarded the information pack. After a few questions back and forth, we then took part in a conference call two weeks ago with the liquidators, the sales agent and one of the former directors, and were generally quite happy at that point. So we put together a business plan and made a conditional offer.
Our conditions were the usual ones, subject to raising sufficient finance and satisfactory completion of all due diligence. However we added in one more condition, which concerned the involvement of the former directors. They had said they were willing to be involved on a consultancy basis to assist with handover, however I was insistent that if the acquisition went ahead, it had to be as part of some sort of partnership with the former directors. I didn’t want them to be involved as a temporary measure.
In my view, we needed them on board permanently, taking responsibility for running and developing that division, reporting in to the main board. I’d hoped they would be keen, as they wouldn’t have to walk away from something they’d spend years of their lives developing, and yet wouldn’t have the full responsibility of running a business. This was the only way we would have reduced the largest risk that we’d identified.
I’d based our offer on just one year’s worth of earnings (ie profits). Businesses are normally valued on a multiple of earnings, so if you offer 4 times earnings, you are effectively saying you are prepared to wait for 4 years before you get your investment back. Because of the risk associated with the insolvency, and therefore the potential damage to the brand with both its existing customers and the wider market, I wasn’t prepared to wait any longer than 12 months. Also, due to both the technological nature of the product, and the legislative nature of the sector, I didn’t want to assume that we’d be able to use this product in its current state for longer than one year either. Ideally we wanted to bring it online, linked to our website, but after Lee had a conference call with the company’s IT contractor, it became obvious that this wasn’t going to be a simple process. We’d have to invest further considerable time and money to develop this product for the web, so it then becomes another investment decision.
The sales agent informed us that our offer was ‘sound and not unreasonable’, however the deadline for accepting offers was extended several times, as he was waiting for a further offer, from a ‘late entrant’. This meant that it was getting closer and closer to our planned launch date, and it began to concern me that the process itself was just going to drag on and so distract us from other things we could be doing to develop and promote our own business.
Plus the fact, the directors did not appear to want to be involved in any form of partnership or permanent position, and whilst we may have managed to negotiate something that suited everyone, it wasn’t going to be a quick process. We certainly needed to meet with them face to face to discuss this, and that meeting didn’t appear to be being progressed by the sales agent. I guess he was waiting to see whether our offer was the strongest before trying to organise that, and instead he wanted us to clarify what role we wanted the directors to undertake, so he could try and negotiate between us and the directors, and therefore assess the strength of our offer.
This just wasn’t something I was prepared to do by email, it needs to be a round-table discussion. I think things can be explained much better face to face, and you can more understand someone’s viewpoint, emotions and wishes if you can see their face, body language and generally start to build a relationship with them. Email is fantastic for many things, but negotiating an emotive deal which is based upon personal issues, is not one of them. So we found ourselves in a ‘catch 22’ situation.
After a few hours of mulling this over, I rang Ross and we agreed we’d withdraw our offer. So I sent the email to the sales agent on Tuesday, and haven’t heard anything since! Perhaps the offer from the other interested party arrived and was better than ours, so we’d have had to walk away anyhow. That’s fine, because I was very sure of what I was prepared to pay for this, and I wasn’t going to be persuaded to pay anymore. Good luck to someone if their business model shows they can pay more. I wasn’t prepared to risk it.
Maybe we’ll hear next week, because we’ve offered a much lower amount for just one of the software products, that we can easily use on our site. If the sales agent doesn’t sell all the assets to one purchaser, he said he would sell them individually, so we may still be in the running for this one.
So, back to our own business. What’s happened this week then? Well lots of planning for the exhibition in March. Ross and I had a meeting on Saturday and now I feel much happier that we are organised. We’ve got to things I hadn’t even thought about initially, such as writing a health & safety policy for the stand and training our team, obtaining public liability insurance, getting all our equipment PAT tested for electrical safety etc etc. Ross is planning the layout and design of the stand. And I’m doing the admin stuff. Plus we had a trip over on Sunday to check out some hotels, and find the venue itself.
Looks like most of our team will be there on at least one of the days. So it’ll be great for everyone to meet each other. Everyone’s met me, some have met Ross, but that’s it! So it’ll be an ideal opportunity to get together. Plus, we have a new Regional Manager for Liverpool & North Wales (which includes Chester and Warrington too). She’s called Mel, and she’s got a 19 month old son and lives near Warrington. She came along to one of our preview evenings, and liked what she saw so much, that she said she may like to be involved. Perfect! So I trained her yesterday, and now she’s ready to start!
After our meeting with Lee’s designers last week, we met at their offices on Tuesday morning to have a look at their concept, with a mock-up of the home page. I have to say it’s fab! We discussed a few things on it, made the odd change, but now we’re there! I was insistent that it still had to be a calm site, ie not too busy or difficult to navigate. And they’ve managed to do that, whilst making the look much more modern and eye-catching. Have a look at our new logo on www.entertainthekids.com . It’s just a bit brighter and bolder than the earlier one. They’re now working on the programming itself, so hopefully we’ll have some parts of the new site to look at next week.
Our two journalist students have both written their first articles for us, and are now doing a bit of research for us.
And that’s about it! It’s certainly never dull around here!
Kirsty
entertainthekids.com
24 February 2006
17 February 2006
The thing I’ve been dreading
Remember last week how I said that we were going to launch with version 1, and gradually rebuild the site? Well, it’s amazing how much can change in a week!
It was ‘cards on the table’ time yesterday, when Lee told us we really need to rebuild it now. And I agree it’s ridiculous trying to manage with something that is just causing his team too many inefficiencies to develop, it’s just a complete waste of time. And so we’ve bitten the bullet, and yesterday we decided we’d overhaul the site before we launch, and yes, you’ve guessed it, the launch date is no longer 1 March!
However, it’s absolutely, definitely, without a doubt, going to be Monday 13 March, so we’ve only slipped a few days. I’d always said ‘March’ launch date, but was hoping it would be very early March. Partly because I suppose I was kind of expecting something to happen, and wanted to give us plenty of leeway just in case. I’ve seen it so many times with businesses, whether they’re technological or not, that planned timetables nearly always end up moving a bit. But I’m having nightmares about “Boo!” Do you remember that fashion retail website that was so hyped up in the early dot com days, apparently the launch date got moved so many times and it was months and months late by the time they’d launched. However, their budget of £ms is hardly the same situation that we’re in now, but still it does keep cropping up in the back of my mind.
We have set a March 13th deadline, which is going to be very tight now, because that’s the start of the TOAST awareness week that we’re supporting and also the week of the Harrogate Bambinos exhibition. So there’s no way at all that we can’t be live by then!
It does give us a couple more weeks of time to enter more fantastic content though, so that’s an advantage. And we’ve secured the services of a couple of journalist students to help us with this. They’re going to be doing a mix of researching, entering content and writing press releases. So it’s excellent experience and exposure for them too.
Our beta testers are now testing the site and completing our questionnaires. They’re coming back with some really useful comments, lots and lots of positive things too, which really keeps our spirits up. I think they’re going to be so useful to us, to road-test the site as we continue to develop it.
We had a great meeting with the Princess Royal Trust for Carers this week at their Northern office, and it looks all positive for a charity partnership with them. It will work in their favour too, that we have delayed launch for a couple of days, because it will give them more time to get the proposal through their internal structures. If they could be on board with us right from launch, it would be excellent.
My big strategic idea (see diaries end Jan/early Feb) is still rumbling along…and it took a very interesting turn for the better this week, but that’s still not resolved one way or the other, so I’m not spilling the beans just yet! Hopefully more news about this next week. I think its time for me to write a new team newsletter too. The team has changed so much since the last one at New Year, amazingly only about 7 weeks ago, because a massive amount has happened in between. As we’ve lots of new team members it’d just be useful to start communicating with them a bit more effectively, and the newsletter is one way of doing it in a lighthearted but thorough way, making sure you get all the information out to everyone. It’d be good to issue one just before launch (ie now!), and then one just after we launch. Another thing for my task list.
But for now, it’s Friday morning and Luke has been great occupying himself for the last couple of hours, so I’m off to give him a bit of attention. Then probably a quick trip to the shops is called for, or I’m in danger of becoming Old Mother Hubbard!
Kirsty
It was ‘cards on the table’ time yesterday, when Lee told us we really need to rebuild it now. And I agree it’s ridiculous trying to manage with something that is just causing his team too many inefficiencies to develop, it’s just a complete waste of time. And so we’ve bitten the bullet, and yesterday we decided we’d overhaul the site before we launch, and yes, you’ve guessed it, the launch date is no longer 1 March!
However, it’s absolutely, definitely, without a doubt, going to be Monday 13 March, so we’ve only slipped a few days. I’d always said ‘March’ launch date, but was hoping it would be very early March. Partly because I suppose I was kind of expecting something to happen, and wanted to give us plenty of leeway just in case. I’ve seen it so many times with businesses, whether they’re technological or not, that planned timetables nearly always end up moving a bit. But I’m having nightmares about “Boo!” Do you remember that fashion retail website that was so hyped up in the early dot com days, apparently the launch date got moved so many times and it was months and months late by the time they’d launched. However, their budget of £ms is hardly the same situation that we’re in now, but still it does keep cropping up in the back of my mind.
We have set a March 13th deadline, which is going to be very tight now, because that’s the start of the TOAST awareness week that we’re supporting and also the week of the Harrogate Bambinos exhibition. So there’s no way at all that we can’t be live by then!
It does give us a couple more weeks of time to enter more fantastic content though, so that’s an advantage. And we’ve secured the services of a couple of journalist students to help us with this. They’re going to be doing a mix of researching, entering content and writing press releases. So it’s excellent experience and exposure for them too.
Our beta testers are now testing the site and completing our questionnaires. They’re coming back with some really useful comments, lots and lots of positive things too, which really keeps our spirits up. I think they’re going to be so useful to us, to road-test the site as we continue to develop it.
We had a great meeting with the Princess Royal Trust for Carers this week at their Northern office, and it looks all positive for a charity partnership with them. It will work in their favour too, that we have delayed launch for a couple of days, because it will give them more time to get the proposal through their internal structures. If they could be on board with us right from launch, it would be excellent.
My big strategic idea (see diaries end Jan/early Feb) is still rumbling along…and it took a very interesting turn for the better this week, but that’s still not resolved one way or the other, so I’m not spilling the beans just yet! Hopefully more news about this next week. I think its time for me to write a new team newsletter too. The team has changed so much since the last one at New Year, amazingly only about 7 weeks ago, because a massive amount has happened in between. As we’ve lots of new team members it’d just be useful to start communicating with them a bit more effectively, and the newsletter is one way of doing it in a lighthearted but thorough way, making sure you get all the information out to everyone. It’d be good to issue one just before launch (ie now!), and then one just after we launch. Another thing for my task list.
But for now, it’s Friday morning and Luke has been great occupying himself for the last couple of hours, so I’m off to give him a bit of attention. Then probably a quick trip to the shops is called for, or I’m in danger of becoming Old Mother Hubbard!
Kirsty
10 February 2006
Oh heck - we need a complete redesign!
Not exactly the news you want to hear from your webdesigner (& Chief Technology Officer), just weeks away from the launch of your website.
I think I just laughed!
We met Lee yesterday for an update, and he explained the situation…
One member of his team has spent the last 3 weeks trying to make the last few amends on the site before we launch, pretty much working full time. This work has taken ages because they didn’t design the site in the first place, and there’s certain approaches they use to build websites, design the coding and generally just lay things out, that haven’t been followed by the previous designer/ programmer.
So it’s causing them no end of headache to even make small changes on the site.
There’s nothing else for it, but to completely rebuild the site from scratch. In the long run, this will make much more sense, as we’ll be able to add functions and content to it much easier and quicker in the future.
However, there’s no way I’m delaying the launch now. We’ve done too much, have a great site from a member’s point of view (albeit a bit of a nightmare to work with for our programmers), and we’ll gain nothing by delaying the launch for another month. Plus the fact we’ve got too many promotional events lined up for March now, which will be completely wasted if we’re not live.
So we’re going ahead with the current site, as version 1. And we’ll just rebuild and redesign the ‘back-end’ much quicker than we originally thought we would need to. It will also give us the opportunity to ask our members what else they’d like to see in version 2.
The focus groups thought the site looked great, had superb content and was unbelieveably good value, so I want to get it out there as soon as possible. I had a comment from a reader of my diary the other day that said “The site is everything that a mother will need. I am sure that you know that”. She’s from Luton, and so now we’re talking to her about becoming our Regional Manager for Herts/Beds/Essex – I like enthusiastic people! We also had an email just wishing us luck, from someone who has recently set up their own business, so good luck to Payroll Excel too!
So now over the next day I need to go through the changes that have been made, and check for any bugs/misunderstandings etc.
I finally got to meet up with Wendy, our Travel Editor on Monday evening in London. Had a lovely evening, and I think we’ve really got some good ideas to progress in the next few weeks. She’s sorted out quite a few holidays for her team to review over the next couple of months. We’re trying to get a good spread, in the South, the North and Scotland, Wales and Ireland aswell. Also a mix of hotels, leisure parks, city breaks and seaside holidays.
We finally made a decision about which baby show we are going exhibit at. And we went with the larger one, Bambinos in Harrogate, North Yorkshire on 18/19 March. It’s going to attract over 5,000 visitors, so should be a great opportunity to meet customers face to face! (www.ottimoevents.com)
So now we’re into the realm of planning the stand, and I’ve approached a local college to see if any graphic design students want to design some posters for us as work experience. Another completely new area for me!
We are having a prize draw competition for anyone who becomes a member over the weekend. And so far we’ve already got offers of prizes from DIG (a new attraction in York), some books/DVDs from Magic Wanda, and we’re hoping to get a family holiday and some baby toys aswell! Any offers, please email!!
Also met the Charity Director of TOAST this week, and have agreed that we are going to support their National Obesity Awareness Week in March, to encourage parents to get their kids more active, and away from the TV/computer/games console. There’s a real lack of practical advice out there, and our site can just provide tons of ideas for parents. Hopefully our joint approach will mean we’ll get some extra publicity. We’re also going to be featured on their website every month. We’re collecting a few publications now where we are going to provide regular columns.
OK, off to the library now with Luke to take his books back! Could really do with him having another day in nursery (he’s back to just 2 days a week) because I’ve got so much to do at the moment. But I’m just going to have to organise myself a bit better (and work every evening possible when Gregg’s home!) because he’s getting a bit clingy and I think he needs me around a bit more. Now where are those books.....?
Kirsty
I think I just laughed!
We met Lee yesterday for an update, and he explained the situation…
One member of his team has spent the last 3 weeks trying to make the last few amends on the site before we launch, pretty much working full time. This work has taken ages because they didn’t design the site in the first place, and there’s certain approaches they use to build websites, design the coding and generally just lay things out, that haven’t been followed by the previous designer/ programmer.
So it’s causing them no end of headache to even make small changes on the site.
There’s nothing else for it, but to completely rebuild the site from scratch. In the long run, this will make much more sense, as we’ll be able to add functions and content to it much easier and quicker in the future.
However, there’s no way I’m delaying the launch now. We’ve done too much, have a great site from a member’s point of view (albeit a bit of a nightmare to work with for our programmers), and we’ll gain nothing by delaying the launch for another month. Plus the fact we’ve got too many promotional events lined up for March now, which will be completely wasted if we’re not live.
So we’re going ahead with the current site, as version 1. And we’ll just rebuild and redesign the ‘back-end’ much quicker than we originally thought we would need to. It will also give us the opportunity to ask our members what else they’d like to see in version 2.
The focus groups thought the site looked great, had superb content and was unbelieveably good value, so I want to get it out there as soon as possible. I had a comment from a reader of my diary the other day that said “The site is everything that a mother will need. I am sure that you know that”. She’s from Luton, and so now we’re talking to her about becoming our Regional Manager for Herts/Beds/Essex – I like enthusiastic people! We also had an email just wishing us luck, from someone who has recently set up their own business, so good luck to Payroll Excel too!
So now over the next day I need to go through the changes that have been made, and check for any bugs/misunderstandings etc.
I finally got to meet up with Wendy, our Travel Editor on Monday evening in London. Had a lovely evening, and I think we’ve really got some good ideas to progress in the next few weeks. She’s sorted out quite a few holidays for her team to review over the next couple of months. We’re trying to get a good spread, in the South, the North and Scotland, Wales and Ireland aswell. Also a mix of hotels, leisure parks, city breaks and seaside holidays.
We finally made a decision about which baby show we are going exhibit at. And we went with the larger one, Bambinos in Harrogate, North Yorkshire on 18/19 March. It’s going to attract over 5,000 visitors, so should be a great opportunity to meet customers face to face! (www.ottimoevents.com)
So now we’re into the realm of planning the stand, and I’ve approached a local college to see if any graphic design students want to design some posters for us as work experience. Another completely new area for me!
We are having a prize draw competition for anyone who becomes a member over the weekend. And so far we’ve already got offers of prizes from DIG (a new attraction in York), some books/DVDs from Magic Wanda, and we’re hoping to get a family holiday and some baby toys aswell! Any offers, please email!!
Also met the Charity Director of TOAST this week, and have agreed that we are going to support their National Obesity Awareness Week in March, to encourage parents to get their kids more active, and away from the TV/computer/games console. There’s a real lack of practical advice out there, and our site can just provide tons of ideas for parents. Hopefully our joint approach will mean we’ll get some extra publicity. We’re also going to be featured on their website every month. We’re collecting a few publications now where we are going to provide regular columns.
OK, off to the library now with Luke to take his books back! Could really do with him having another day in nursery (he’s back to just 2 days a week) because I’ve got so much to do at the moment. But I’m just going to have to organise myself a bit better (and work every evening possible when Gregg’s home!) because he’s getting a bit clingy and I think he needs me around a bit more. Now where are those books.....?
Kirsty
Less than 4 weeks to go!
(written on Friday 3 Feb)
Oh heck, it’s February. The last month we aren’t yet live (is that English?)
We had the last three preview evenings this week, and again had a superb response. Some really good feedback, lots of ideas, some great contacts, and even an offer from an investor! - which we haven’t pursued by the way – yet!
We may have to rewrite the planned rollout programme, because it looks like we have identified some potentially great regional managers in regions we weren’t planning on launching yet. That was always a possibility, and ideally I’d rollout the local information to the whole of the UK immediately, but that would bring with it other challenges. Such as:
- Information systems. We need to know exactly how to keep the information current, where to get it from and how to be as efficient as possible when organising it and ourselves. We can’t offer up a near-perfect system to a new regional manager until we’ve experienced it ourselves, hands-on, in the Greater Manchester region at least. So that’s a work in progress, and can’t be rushed.
- Managing teams. If we have another 20 people on our team, we will need to ensure we have sorted all the training, motivational and operational issues. We’re not there yet, simply because it’s not been a priority so far, and is something that needs planning strategically. The regional managers are such a key part of our business that I want to make sure I get the right people, and that they absolutely love being a part of this. This isn’t trial and error, it’s got to be right first time.
- PR. To promote the site thoroughly around the media in each of our regions would be very time consuming. I’m realizing that just to manage the national publicity campaign and try to focus on Greater Manchester aswell is proving challenging. It’s taking up a large proportion of my time at the moment. So to attempt all regions at once would mean we wouldn’t achieve the best results for any region. You only launch a region once, so we need to make the most of it every time.
So today (Friday) I’m meeting with Lee to discuss the way forward. We’ve a lot of ideas from the preview evenings, and we need to see what’s possible from a technical and time perspective.
We’re no closer to deciding which show we are going to exhibit at in March. We have a preference now though, but it all comes down to cashflow. There’s potentially some extra cash coming our way (not from an investor!) and if that happens then we’ll be laughing. But we won’t know for another week or so yet. So the decision’s still on hold for the time being.
In terms of my big strategic idea I mentioned in the last diary entry, I have made some progress. My problem was that I wasn’t an expert in the area concerned, and I needed to get some advice from someone who was. So I’ve used my local contacts in Manchester at one of the world’s largest consultancy firms, to get to the right person in London, who in turn has directed me to a member of his team who specialises in this area. She’s now making some of her own enquiries, to see if there’s any mileage in my idea, and we should hear back from her next week. Having been a professional advisor myself, I’ve met many people who have suffered for not getting the right advice (not mine, I hasten to add!), and wherever possible you should always use people who are experts in their field. So hopefully we’ll get an answer either way quite soon, and we won’t be wasting our time ‘going around the houses’ if it’s a non-starter.
We’ve been looking for a ‘charity of the year’ to support. We particularly wanted to support a young carers charity to provide respite care for those children who can’t do normal kids’ things, because they have other responsibilities most of the time. Occasionally they get some respite, where someone else takes over their responsibilities for a while, so they can go and enjoy some leisure activities or a holiday, just like ‘normal’ kids do.
It’s something I feel quite passionate about. I’ve always done some sort of voluntary work, ever since I was 13. I think that whenever you have an opportunity to give something back, you should do so. I’m a firm believer in ‘What goes around, comes around!’ There’s a few ways we think we can help raise funds and we met a PR consultant for the Princess Royal Trust for Carers last week, and have now arranged to meet the trust themselves at their North West regional office. The meeting’s in mid-February, so hopefully we can pursue this quite quickly afterwards, because I’d love it to be all in place by launch. They specialise in supporting carers, and have many young carers projects around the country, so it seems an ideal match for us.
We’ve now started requesting information about family & children’s events/exhibitions/activities for March onwards, and have been added to quite a few PR company’s mailing lists if they have appropriate clients. This is by far the easiest and quickest way for us to keep our content updated, but not every venue has a PR company, so we’re going to still have to sort out our system for obtaining all the information and keeping it current. Finalising and refining our system for this is the subject of this weekend’s management meeting!
By the way, if you know any leisure venues/attractions etc, please also add me onto their mailing lists kirsty@entertainthekids.com
Wow – it’s picking up apace now!
I’m not sure this diary writing and reviewing events is therapeutic or if it’s just plain terrifying me!
Kirsty
Oh heck, it’s February. The last month we aren’t yet live (is that English?)
We had the last three preview evenings this week, and again had a superb response. Some really good feedback, lots of ideas, some great contacts, and even an offer from an investor! - which we haven’t pursued by the way – yet!
We may have to rewrite the planned rollout programme, because it looks like we have identified some potentially great regional managers in regions we weren’t planning on launching yet. That was always a possibility, and ideally I’d rollout the local information to the whole of the UK immediately, but that would bring with it other challenges. Such as:
- Information systems. We need to know exactly how to keep the information current, where to get it from and how to be as efficient as possible when organising it and ourselves. We can’t offer up a near-perfect system to a new regional manager until we’ve experienced it ourselves, hands-on, in the Greater Manchester region at least. So that’s a work in progress, and can’t be rushed.
- Managing teams. If we have another 20 people on our team, we will need to ensure we have sorted all the training, motivational and operational issues. We’re not there yet, simply because it’s not been a priority so far, and is something that needs planning strategically. The regional managers are such a key part of our business that I want to make sure I get the right people, and that they absolutely love being a part of this. This isn’t trial and error, it’s got to be right first time.
- PR. To promote the site thoroughly around the media in each of our regions would be very time consuming. I’m realizing that just to manage the national publicity campaign and try to focus on Greater Manchester aswell is proving challenging. It’s taking up a large proportion of my time at the moment. So to attempt all regions at once would mean we wouldn’t achieve the best results for any region. You only launch a region once, so we need to make the most of it every time.
So today (Friday) I’m meeting with Lee to discuss the way forward. We’ve a lot of ideas from the preview evenings, and we need to see what’s possible from a technical and time perspective.
We’re no closer to deciding which show we are going to exhibit at in March. We have a preference now though, but it all comes down to cashflow. There’s potentially some extra cash coming our way (not from an investor!) and if that happens then we’ll be laughing. But we won’t know for another week or so yet. So the decision’s still on hold for the time being.
In terms of my big strategic idea I mentioned in the last diary entry, I have made some progress. My problem was that I wasn’t an expert in the area concerned, and I needed to get some advice from someone who was. So I’ve used my local contacts in Manchester at one of the world’s largest consultancy firms, to get to the right person in London, who in turn has directed me to a member of his team who specialises in this area. She’s now making some of her own enquiries, to see if there’s any mileage in my idea, and we should hear back from her next week. Having been a professional advisor myself, I’ve met many people who have suffered for not getting the right advice (not mine, I hasten to add!), and wherever possible you should always use people who are experts in their field. So hopefully we’ll get an answer either way quite soon, and we won’t be wasting our time ‘going around the houses’ if it’s a non-starter.
We’ve been looking for a ‘charity of the year’ to support. We particularly wanted to support a young carers charity to provide respite care for those children who can’t do normal kids’ things, because they have other responsibilities most of the time. Occasionally they get some respite, where someone else takes over their responsibilities for a while, so they can go and enjoy some leisure activities or a holiday, just like ‘normal’ kids do.
It’s something I feel quite passionate about. I’ve always done some sort of voluntary work, ever since I was 13. I think that whenever you have an opportunity to give something back, you should do so. I’m a firm believer in ‘What goes around, comes around!’ There’s a few ways we think we can help raise funds and we met a PR consultant for the Princess Royal Trust for Carers last week, and have now arranged to meet the trust themselves at their North West regional office. The meeting’s in mid-February, so hopefully we can pursue this quite quickly afterwards, because I’d love it to be all in place by launch. They specialise in supporting carers, and have many young carers projects around the country, so it seems an ideal match for us.
We’ve now started requesting information about family & children’s events/exhibitions/activities for March onwards, and have been added to quite a few PR company’s mailing lists if they have appropriate clients. This is by far the easiest and quickest way for us to keep our content updated, but not every venue has a PR company, so we’re going to still have to sort out our system for obtaining all the information and keeping it current. Finalising and refining our system for this is the subject of this weekend’s management meeting!
By the way, if you know any leisure venues/attractions etc, please also add me onto their mailing lists kirsty@entertainthekids.com
Wow – it’s picking up apace now!
I’m not sure this diary writing and reviewing events is therapeutic or if it’s just plain terrifying me!
Kirsty
02 February 2006
entertainthekids.com sets parents a challenge!
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
entertainthekids.com is delighted to suggest a range of activities, for parents to entertain their children this half-term, no matter what the weather or the budget constraints. The challenge……to ensure no-one ever hears the strains of “I’m bored!”, or the endless beep of the X-box!
“There is a phenomenal range of activities and events available for children and parents this half term.” said Kirsty McGregor, co-founder of entertainthekids.com. “The hardest thing for parents is getting hold of this information, in a relevant form, from just one point of reference. There are so many places to find listings of events that it can take hours to actually find something useful for your child’s age, location and your budget. And not everyone can afford, or would choose, to visit a major theme park everyday”. entertainthekids.com is a new concept, as it will provide this one-stop-shop for parents, simply providing them with loads of inspiration. But until it actually launches in March, Kirsty has suggested some ideas from their website to make this half-term holiday a ‘walk in the park’!
Museums
Don’t just assume museums are dreary, dark and dusty places. Most have special workshops or tours for children in the school holidays. For example:
entertainthekids.com is delighted to suggest a range of activities, for parents to entertain their children this half-term, no matter what the weather or the budget constraints. The challenge……to ensure no-one ever hears the strains of “I’m bored!”, or the endless beep of the X-box!
“There is a phenomenal range of activities and events available for children and parents this half term.” said Kirsty McGregor, co-founder of entertainthekids.com. “The hardest thing for parents is getting hold of this information, in a relevant form, from just one point of reference. There are so many places to find listings of events that it can take hours to actually find something useful for your child’s age, location and your budget. And not everyone can afford, or would choose, to visit a major theme park everyday”. entertainthekids.com is a new concept, as it will provide this one-stop-shop for parents, simply providing them with loads of inspiration. But until it actually launches in March, Kirsty has suggested some ideas from their website to make this half-term holiday a ‘walk in the park’!
Museums
Don’t just assume museums are dreary, dark and dusty places. Most have special workshops or tours for children in the school holidays. For example:
- The Hat Works Museum in Stockport, Cheshire is providing a jewellery workshop for kids every day during half term, where for £3.00 boys and girls can design and make some ‘funky jewellery’ to take home.
- Children under 12 are admitted free to The Scottish Museum of Country Life (adults £4.00), 170 acres of a working farm and museum, situated between Glasgow and East Kilbride. Just like a normal farm, there’s something happening at all times of the year, and you can even take a ride on a tractor trailer up to the Georgian farmhouse.
- At the Pitt Rivers and the University Museum of Natural History in Oxford, every afternoon from 15 - 17 February, there’s magic in the air, looking at magic in the world around us, and magic that people create, plus activities about mythical creatures, witches and even charms that ‘Muggles’ will enjoy! Another free event for children.
The great outdoors
No matter what the weather, kids love getting outside and it’s guaranteed to wear them out! Don’t worry if it’s cold or rainy, dress everyone appropriately in woollies and wellies and get some fresh air away from the central heating. Combine it with a ‘nature walk’ or a ‘scavenger hunt’ or just a ‘silly walks day’, and the children will remember it long after they go back to school.
Inside the house
Tents and tunnels always create a sense of mystery and make-believe and before you know it, a few hours have whizzed past.
Dig out all those empty cardboard boxes left over from Christmas presents, or pop round to your local supermarket and ask them for some they’ve finished with. Open up both ends, and tape them together, crossing them over in places, and to make it even more fun, you could lie materials on the base (bubble wrap, carpets, towels) or hang things from the ‘roof’ such as ribbons, toy spiders, wet gloves and balloons.
Add a couple of chairs with a blanket or sheet thrown over, and you’ve got yourself a scene from a planet in outer space, a battle scene from medieval times, or a maze of secret underground tunnels in a fairytale castle!
Ends
23 January 2006
Notes for editors
entertainthekids.com launches in March 2006, and is a new concept in parenting websites, helping parents & carers find inspiration from the hundreds of ideas on the site, covering arts & crafts, days out (major attractions and very local), games, kids parties, gardening, outside activities, music and lots more. The site will also provide regular reviews of family holidays and suggested activities when travelling with children.
Parents are able to search for exciting activities based upon their child’s age (birth to 11 years old) and their location. The site will also provide lots of inspiration for seasonal activities relevant to the time of year, eg mother’s day crafts, things to do on a windy day, Easter activities etc. It also includes details of sports, children’s pre-school and after school membership organisations & clubs.
To request a complimentary media membership (to be issued end January 06), to review the site, or for further details, please contact Kirsty McGregor at kirsty@entertainthekids.com or telephone 07867 982561.
Kirsty is also offering to redraft the above press release for any regional publication that would prefer some more local events to be listed. Please contact her if this is appropriate.
Announcing our imminent arrival
Written on Friday 27 Jan
I’ve had a real sense this week that we’ve now started telling people that we exist, and what we’re going to be doing. And it’s actually quite nerve-racking.
The thought that, after all that planning, secrecy and decision-making, we are now opening ourselves up for scrutiny, announcing what we’re going to be doing, and then just holding our breath for the reaction.
We’ve had the second week of preview evenings (6 out of 9 now done), and those in themselves have made me feel quite exposed. I’m an experienced trainer, so the nerves don’t get to me because I’m presenting using the PC in front of a group of strangers. It’s more that I’m looking straight at people’s faces when I tell them about our ‘baby’, the thing we think is really fantastic, and I’m imagining they are (or maybe they really are) just sat there thinking “well go on then, show me what you think is so good, try to impress me!” You’ve got to appear really confident, when in actual fact underneath you’re quivering!
Thankfully, they’ve all been, without exception, just so worth our while. We’ve had amazingly positive feedback from all of them, but we’ve also acquired some very useful contacts. Not just for the marketing of our site, but also for the operational side aswell. Although the numbers have been a lot lower than we expected (I booked rooms with capacity of 50, and we’ve had much less than that), but they have been worth every penny of the cost. That’s even without the general profile raising and marketing from the mailings we’ve did with the invitations.
Still 3 more to go, so hopefully we’ll have more feedback and good comments from those too. I’ll report back next week.
Lots of ideas have been generated from the preview evenings, some good, some not really appropriate or not so good. However all have been welcome, and we will be making some changes to the site to reflect some of these comments.
However, the time this week I felt really vulnerable, was when I’d sent out a press release to the national media. It was meant to be introducing our brand, by offering ideas for parents about how to entertain their children in the half-term holiday - I'll post it on the next blog entry in case you want to read it. And after I’d sent it, it suddenly occurred to me that it made us quite exposed. We had told so many people, with hundreds of contacts themselves, what we were going to be doing. What if someone else decided to jump on the bandwagon and had a far larger marketing budget behind them than we did? What if they stole our ideas?
Then, I pulled myself together! After all, you can’t keep yourself and your ideas a secret for ever. And our idea has been done before anyway, in a different format (and obviously not as good!), so let’s tell the world I say!
We’ve been discussing our site changes with Fluid and progress is being made slowly but surely. I really want to instruct our beta-testers next week, and then shortly after we can issue the media packs. We’re reaching a critical time, and ideally we would have already done this by now.
Another piece of fantastic news is that we’ve appointed a Travel Editor. Wendy Sloane, a freelance journalist for many parenting, women’s and travel publications, is going to edit our Family Holidays pages for us. Whilst we aren’t providing a database of children’s holidays as such, it’s still an area we need to cover because so many people are asking us about it. We were thinking we’d leave it until after we’d launched, but the appointment of Wendy has allowed us to provide it from launch. So she’s currently commissioning various journalists to review some breaks over the half-term holiday, and we’ll have these articles in time for our launch in March. This should help us get some
We’ve also been considering exhibiting at some Baby Shows in March. There’s a large show in Harrogate (albeit an unknown quantity because it’s the first time it’s been run), and a couple of smaller shows in Cheshire and down at Kempton Racecourse. We’d like to be able to let people use our site, so the big logistical problem (and cost factor) is accessing the internet. We have a few alternatives, but none of them are particularly cheap. Cost is obviously a key concern for us, so we’re just holding fire on that decision for a couple of weeks.
So all in all, it’s been a great week, can’t quite believe we’ve crammed everything in that we have. Next week is the final run of Preview Evenings, and I’m currently investigating a few major strategic initiatives, so if they get anywhere, I’ll let you know about those too.
Kirsty
I’ve had a real sense this week that we’ve now started telling people that we exist, and what we’re going to be doing. And it’s actually quite nerve-racking.
The thought that, after all that planning, secrecy and decision-making, we are now opening ourselves up for scrutiny, announcing what we’re going to be doing, and then just holding our breath for the reaction.
We’ve had the second week of preview evenings (6 out of 9 now done), and those in themselves have made me feel quite exposed. I’m an experienced trainer, so the nerves don’t get to me because I’m presenting using the PC in front of a group of strangers. It’s more that I’m looking straight at people’s faces when I tell them about our ‘baby’, the thing we think is really fantastic, and I’m imagining they are (or maybe they really are) just sat there thinking “well go on then, show me what you think is so good, try to impress me!” You’ve got to appear really confident, when in actual fact underneath you’re quivering!
Thankfully, they’ve all been, without exception, just so worth our while. We’ve had amazingly positive feedback from all of them, but we’ve also acquired some very useful contacts. Not just for the marketing of our site, but also for the operational side aswell. Although the numbers have been a lot lower than we expected (I booked rooms with capacity of 50, and we’ve had much less than that), but they have been worth every penny of the cost. That’s even without the general profile raising and marketing from the mailings we’ve did with the invitations.
Still 3 more to go, so hopefully we’ll have more feedback and good comments from those too. I’ll report back next week.
Lots of ideas have been generated from the preview evenings, some good, some not really appropriate or not so good. However all have been welcome, and we will be making some changes to the site to reflect some of these comments.
However, the time this week I felt really vulnerable, was when I’d sent out a press release to the national media. It was meant to be introducing our brand, by offering ideas for parents about how to entertain their children in the half-term holiday - I'll post it on the next blog entry in case you want to read it. And after I’d sent it, it suddenly occurred to me that it made us quite exposed. We had told so many people, with hundreds of contacts themselves, what we were going to be doing. What if someone else decided to jump on the bandwagon and had a far larger marketing budget behind them than we did? What if they stole our ideas?
Then, I pulled myself together! After all, you can’t keep yourself and your ideas a secret for ever. And our idea has been done before anyway, in a different format (and obviously not as good!), so let’s tell the world I say!
We’ve been discussing our site changes with Fluid and progress is being made slowly but surely. I really want to instruct our beta-testers next week, and then shortly after we can issue the media packs. We’re reaching a critical time, and ideally we would have already done this by now.
Another piece of fantastic news is that we’ve appointed a Travel Editor. Wendy Sloane, a freelance journalist for many parenting, women’s and travel publications, is going to edit our Family Holidays pages for us. Whilst we aren’t providing a database of children’s holidays as such, it’s still an area we need to cover because so many people are asking us about it. We were thinking we’d leave it until after we’d launched, but the appointment of Wendy has allowed us to provide it from launch. So she’s currently commissioning various journalists to review some breaks over the half-term holiday, and we’ll have these articles in time for our launch in March. This should help us get some
We’ve also been considering exhibiting at some Baby Shows in March. There’s a large show in Harrogate (albeit an unknown quantity because it’s the first time it’s been run), and a couple of smaller shows in Cheshire and down at Kempton Racecourse. We’d like to be able to let people use our site, so the big logistical problem (and cost factor) is accessing the internet. We have a few alternatives, but none of them are particularly cheap. Cost is obviously a key concern for us, so we’re just holding fire on that decision for a couple of weeks.
So all in all, it’s been a great week, can’t quite believe we’ve crammed everything in that we have. Next week is the final run of Preview Evenings, and I’m currently investigating a few major strategic initiatives, so if they get anywhere, I’ll let you know about those too.
Kirsty
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