I Do Like a Whinge But ...

Well to be honest, like many people, I do like a bit of a moan about how tired I am, little things that go wrong, I'm too busy, I'm not busy enough, the list is pretty endless. But have I got anything to moan about really? I've got a long list of things that are going wrong with the building we've moved into. Yes the Palace Hub seems to have been built by people inspired by John Wayne, the early films of Clint Eastwood and who may be rather fond of Brokeback Mountain or Geordie builders anyway who are to building skills what Kevin Keegan is to football management. Yes they've done a lot of it, it initially looks good but it turns out sh** in the end.

See I told you I like a moan ...

Tuesday morning changed my perception on my regular gripes though. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council held their first business breakfast network and as a bit of a serial networker I went along. It wasn't massively attended with much of the audience consisting of Redcar council bods but there was a speaker and the breakfast was pretty good (much better than the Middlesbrough equivalent I have to say). So a bit of networking, a cuppa and a bacon bun later we were ready for the "inspirational speaker".

Now I've seen a number of "inspirational speakers" and most of them aren't. I didn't know much about this fella named Ben McBean (@benmcbean on Twitter) but he did live up to his billing. Ben was a Royal Marine who was blown up in Afghanistan losing most of one leg and one arm and nearly his life. Since being discharged he has used his compensation to build his own business and it is doing well. Ben didn't tell us how to grow our businesses and gain more customers, he simply told his story and highlighted that life is what you make of it and it is up to you to make a success of it or otherwise.

The lasting memory is of his photo just before his op after being injured. He knew he may die and couldn't think of the fantastic one liner we all want at the point so he simply had a photo of him taken with thumbs up and big smile. His limbs were shattered and he must have been in massive pain but he wanted to show that he was proud of what he had done and achieved. On surviving he has gone on to believe that you can achieve with whatever you have and what you want to do if you have belief and put in the effort. Ben is a truly inspirational speaker.

So on Friday I woke, felt miserable as I knew it's going to be a long weekend of work despite being a bank holiday and then in my mind up popped an image of Ben pre-op with a big smile and thumbs up. I immediately smiled and just cracked on - thanks Ben!

Sky Sports - The Scourge of the Freelancer?

I had a day out of our Redcar office on Thursday. With two morning meetings, one in Stockton and one in Middlesbrough, plus an afternoon meeting in Marton it seemed crazy to travel over to Redcar in-between meetings when I live in Middlesbrough within walking distance of the final meeting. So after the first two meetings I worked from home, somewhat like my pre-limited company, sole trader days.

There are big advantages to working from home. If, unlike Tad Web Solutions, you are a one-man band then there's a big saving on rent. You can sit around looking scruffy, the travel to the office is very short, you can play music as loud as you want and you you don't have to be polite to other people (yes I can be a grumpy bum).

But Thursday brought back memories of the downside and the reasons why I got office space in the early days of the company even though there was only me in it. I love cricket and there was a test match on. I'll often listen to the great institution that is Test Match Special whilst I'm in the office and it doesn't really affect my work. But at home we have Sky Sports who, adverts excluded, do have a cracking team and coverage of test cricket. So whilst I had my lunch I watched a good hour of cricket and I normally don't have an hour for lunch (more like 10 mins). I did manage to turn it off for the afternoon and crack on with some work but I also know that if I still worked from home and the last day of the test was close then I would be watching. In such situations I'm disciplined enough to go to the office and rely on TMS but not if there's a Sky Sports enabled TV in the room.

Well better crack on today (Saturday) as I've got some work to fit in and there's test match and Heineken Cup Final today.

Bank Holiday Week or 5 Days Work in 4 Days

When I was simply an employee, which feels like many moons ago now, I used to look forward to a Bank Holiday. Usually it meant a walk on the Moors with my wife and son as we all had a day off work or school and we could get out without being in a throng of people. Things are rather different now. My son's a bit older and my wife, who works as a carer, is usually with clients on a Bank Holiday - and yes that does include Xmas Day.

So on Monday I took it easy, did some work in my other role as Chief Examiner, popped to visit my mum and pottered with a few things that had nothing to with Tad Web Solutions. So how did that affect the week at work from Tuesday to Friday? Well it simply meant we had a week's worth of work to do in 4 days instead of 5 and I'm still catching up now.

So what did it involve? A brief outline is, draft web designs for Maxima Solutions and About Change Therapy, a meeting to explore a joint venture idea with Evolve Training Solution which has also turned into bidding for some web and SEO work for them, SEO work for our clients, some white label SEO work under the name of a partner company, BNI core group meeting (things are starting to move forward well there), further development work for PalaceFM and GiveItAGo plus the "usual stuff".

It's amazing how many visitors we get to our office now compared to Wilton, even though there's no parking. This week our visitors included an old friend Tony who just popped in, managers from Redcar & Cleveland Council, Paul from Peak Image, Aaron from Evolve Training, various Hub residents, a representative of Middlesbrough College, Ian Luck from Rock and Rollabilia who brought along the guy who originally signed Ozzy Osbourne to his first record label (we had Mike Leigh, ex-drummer from The Fall last week) and apologies if I've missed anyone. The Palace Hub is turning out to be a great place for networking and doing business - if you're interested in moving in there take a look at https://www.facebook.com/groups/redcarcreatives.

I Nearly Signed For The Boro!

Well I had a meeting with Steve Gibson. No, it wasn't that Steve Gibson so that title is a complete fabrication but it may have got your interest. In fact it was the business adviser we have in courtesy of Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council's Enterprise Team who is helping us look at generating more higher value sales. So the footy comeback at the age of 49 seems unlikely especially allied to my lack of fitness, poor eyesight and lack of ability.

Monday was busy with the launch of PalaceFM, Redcar's very own radio station currently only broadcasting via the Internet but they are looking at a FM licence. We created their website including the live player though not the app for mobile devices. Great to help out with a great project plus an enjoyable launch party on Monday night.

The rest of the week was largely taken up with working on the project with Cleveland Police and the first version could be launching very soon.

Apart from that there was referrals networking with our BNI core group on Wednesday morning and we're really starting to move forward now thanks to great help from directors Russ and Craig and ambassador Andy. If you want to grow your business and are in Cleveland then get in touch on Twitter and DM @BNI_Links.