And we’re off!

The fundraising has been put on hold for the moment, simply because I’ve not had chance to complete our new business plan. Most of my time is taken up with PR and marketing – I reckon about 80% at the moment.

Of course it’s all worthwhile, and especially now we’ve had confirmation that several articles about us are going to be published in print (incl the Evening Standard’s Home & Property supplement, in the Really Useful Column on Wednesday 3rd April), on websites, and I’ve got various groups distributing our cards. And it’s all making an impact and we’re getting results from it.

However we began to recognise that this can’t carry on for much longer, because it’s taking my time away from the strategic planning which is crucial to the development of the business as well.

So we’ve taken the plunge……we’ve employed a PR agency (again!).

I met Caroline from Crush Communications at a networking event a couple of weeks ago, and I was very impressed with her. Not least because, one of her client’s was also there (a fashion designer and image consultant), and she was singing her praises. She assures me she wasn’t paid to attend the event by Caroline!

Caroline contacted me after the event, which led me to discuss a potential project we were planning and which we would like help with – an Easter competition, primarily with the objective of getting media coverage and attracting new members.

So Ross & I met Caroline and her partner, Vanessa, at their offices in Manchester yesterday. After a productive meeting we’re now working together! Partly due to our previous experiences with PR firms, we didn’t want to tie ourselves in to a long-term arrangement, until we’d seen the results they could get. And because of the structure of the fee arrangement we agreed, which is much riskier than a normal assignment for them (but I wasn’t prepared to work on any other basis than the one we’ve agreed), they are happy too to work on this short-term assignment as a test for them as well.

So both sides are happy!

Now I’m just confirming the prize – a luxury spa weekend for 2! Which ties in nicely with our strapline (…& now you can relax) and putting together the information for the press releases, which will be issued by Crush on Monday afternoon. Perfect! So far, so good.

If things work out well, then I’m sure we’ll consider working with them on a longer term basis, because we’ve been impressed so far, and we do seem to get along well.

From the website content side, things are especially ramping up on the travel reviews. We’ve got a fantastic range of holidays planned in for the next 8 weeks, which will make those pages really diverse.

The Easter activities are being continually uploaded as we speak, and I’ve got another 30 songs to input, and we’ve got another 10 or so arts & crafts activities to upload.

Looks like we have been joined by a celebrity too! Lizi Botham is from CBeebies’ SMarteenies, and she’s just started a children’s arts/crafts party business called ‘Bizi Lizi’. Co-incidentally she’s from the same town as me, so we’ve been in touch and she’s going to provide some activities for the arts & crafts pages too, in return for us using her logo next to them on the site.

I presented a training course (still paying the bills just!) to a group of young accountants last night, about the benefits of networking and building contacts. And I used quite a few examples from the website where I’d met someone, or got in touch with someone, because there was an opportunity for both of us to benefit from some arrangement – usually linked with PR for one side or both. It’s all about contacts! Seeing the opportunities and having the guts to do something about it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that easy. Simply because you’ve got to be on top of everything you’re trying to do, you have to be mega organised to keep track of who you’ve contacted, then follow them up. I’m sure I’ve missed quite a few things where I’ve not followed them up. Must trawl back through my ‘sent items’ box and make a list of things to follow up. Yes, another list!

We met Lee on Tuesday and started to look at our statistics – hits, page impressions, exit and entry points, conversion rates etc. It’s not very helpful at the moment because the figures are skewed by people just being nosey, and also a lot of PR companies who are wanting to see if their client is listed on our site. I guess when they find out they have to pay to get that information, many don’t.

We’ve had a good click-through from my diary – so thank you for having a look! But I’d love your feedback if you did go and look at the home page. Did you join? If not, why not?

- Was it the price (£3.50 for a single month or £12 for a year)
- Was it too fussy and you got bored?
- Did the copy not grab you enough?
- Or did it just not apply to you as you don’t have kids and you were just looking because you read this?

Please let me know – it all helps!
kirsty@entertainthekids.com or www.entertainthekids.com

Another baby show tomorrow, this time in St Albans but we’re not exhibiting with a full stand, so we won’t get the same impact we had at Bambinos. I really must look at the full list of baby shows and decide which we’re going to do. Otherwise they’ll be full and we’ll have missed the boat.

Next week will show us what impact we’ve got from the press/media coverage. It will be very interesting to see the results. We’re also going to combine it with a targeted direct mail campaign to potential introducers (mainly nurseries & kids clubs) with another competition for them – the highest number of members referred by one introducer will also win a luxury spa weekend! One day I’ll get to go on one of these myself! So I’m off to the stationers now to buy more envelopes and cartridge ink to start printing all those labels again!

Kirsty