It's all a big foggy!

My working time has really been thrown out this week. I was in London on Tuesday and got fogbound at Heathrow, and the plane was delayed for several hours. I finally got home at 1am. I was so tired on Wednesday, and Luke must have sensed it, because he didn’t sleep at his usual time, so I didn’t get chance to get the work done I’d wanted to. So I got more ratty of course! But after a good night’s sleep last night, I am fine and firing on all cylinders again.

This week has been a bit frustrating generally, as there are some key areas of our business where we just aren’t quite there. Legals, negotiating final bits of deals etc.

But I suppose we have made some progress if I look back over the week. We’re finalizing our arrangement with our mentor and Venturepoint, and the last amends on the site are actually being done as I write, in particular the Worldpay online merchant account. It’s so gratifying to see the functionality and design changes taking effect. Just small things, but they give it a much better look. Sometimes when you’ve been looking at the same thing for weeks and weeks, it’s hard to stand back and be objective. We’ve also had the artwork now for some promotional gimmicks we’re using, and so they are ordered. After all the ‘umm-ing and aaah-ing’ about the cost and whether we should do it, I’m glad it’s finally underway.

On Monday we had a look around Venturepoint’s office space. This would really be useful for us for meetings. It’s not ideal having to meet people in hotels, or rely on them to host the meeting at their offices all the time. Plus it’s quite central for Fido, us and our mentor.

I’m trying to plan in a regular management meeting for all of us to get together once a fortnight. If it’s a set date in the diary then it is more likely to happen, rather than having time drifting in between each meeting. I think they are very useful as they provide a focus for getting things done, especially if you have to report on progress. But I insist on structured meetings. I can’t cope with those meetings that just go on and on. I always set an agenda for a meeting, have action points (not minutes) with responsibility and timescale attached. It just drives your workload much better and ensures you prioritise – it’s me and lists again! Also saves me having to keep everyone ‘in the loop’ all the time. You lose track of who knows what, and with our business structure, all our team should have a good knowledge of everything, not just their own particular area. It will all overlap, and anyway we are all responsible for making sure we hit our goals.

Met up with Jen whilst in London, our Greater London regional manager. Was glad to have sorted the technology, so we could look at the site on my laptap in the hotel, by using my mobile phone. I know, the technology’s been around for ages, but it’s only recently that we decided we needed the ability to do this, particularly with the preview evenings/focus groups coming up in January. And I definitely only have your average user’s technical knowledge. So really chuffed that it actually worked! Made such a difference being able to train Jen whilst showing her things on screen. Sharon (our Greater Manchester regional manager) made some suggestions when I trained her, and it’s fab to see that those have been implemented. Will make entering content a bit easier.

We have been talking about a few business changes. We have an annual membership but are thinking of offering a single month’s membership, which may suit some people better, and may entice those who don’t want to commit to a full year until they know what they’re getting. I’m setting the price at about one third of the annual membership price, so then again, some may go for the full year just to make the saving.

But we are going to have to think about this carefully. We need to convert those who pay for a single month into annual membership, so we are really going to have to market it well to them, probably using emails. This is where our mentor is going to come into his own, and I can’t wait to get things moving on this area.