Been a While!

I've not posted for about a month as I've simply been too busy with work, family and a bit of downtime.

So here goes ...

It's nearly Xmas and by previous years' experience both as a sole trader and as a limited company, we would have no work between about now and mid-Jan. This year is looking different with ongoing projects to work on to complete in Jan, a couple more that may start before Xmas and others to crack on with in Jan.

A good place to be.

And as Matt is back from Uni, it's a weekend of a catching up and family time, with a cracking win for Boro thrown in.

bye and Up The Boro.

A great day off

My last post was about work-life balance and I've spent much of today on the life side of the see-saw. I spent a chunk of the morning, and an hour or so later, sending out invoices (always an important task) but the rest of the day doing "family stuff".

So far that has involved a trip to Durham for a beer, a meal and a wander with Matt who I miss immensely. A great few hours and fantastic to see that he's both working hard and partying hard, the perfect combo for student days (not sure of the nose damage from drunkenly walking into a wall though.) It will now be the long time of 6 days before I see him again as we are off to England v All Blacks next weekend.

And now a wander to my mum's as my brother and his wife are up.

A very pleasant day!

Work Life Balance

I have become acutely aware that as I'm working hard on growing the business I've been slipping back into the doing lots of work and not having time for much else. In the last week I've been making an effort to address that balance, whilst still working very hard, and made some time for friends and family.

Midweek I've had a couple of meals out with friends and on Saturday I spent a pleasant day with my wife walking on the North Yorkshire Moors incorporating a very pleasant lunch on the way.

So my first thing is to recommend three establishments that I had very nice meals in:

• Meze Lounge in Middlesbrough for great Turkish food
• Jadoo in Saltburn for fantastic modern Indian cuisine
• The Board Inn at Lealholm for great pub meals, the lamb's heart casserole was very tasty

The result of taking time out. I've enjoyed myself, am in a better frame of mind and as a result have produced just as much work but in less time. I think there's a lesson there for me! 

That' all your getting as I have time off to do.

Improving Where You Live and Work

My office is on the seafront at Redcar, stunning views and a lovely office but Redcar has a few problems.

The High Street is slowly withering with Marks & Spencers being a very recent departure. Now that's nothing new for a northern town but some towns are faring a little better than others. For instance Middlesbrough is doing a bit better. In part this is due to the council's free parking initiative. It also has Baker Street with a set of fantastic, local independent shops, cafes and bars. There's vintage fayres in the Forbes Building also. Some great things going on to make a local town centre somewhere to visit. Middlesbrough does however have a massive student population to make a huge difference.

So what of Redcar? Local businesses have put a petition together and some stats that the parking policy of the council is damaging local business (and some visitor parking at the Hub might increase the number of residents as well). Unfortunately RCBC are not the most responsive of councils.

It's easy to moan and do nothing. BUT there is an alternative and it's massive chapeau to Fred Redcar in being proactive in making things better from beach clean ups to murals and much more. Lots of initiatives, none of them massive on their own but when combined they make a difference and get more people to get involved and take control.

So if you are a Redcar resident or business, get involved. See http://www.facebook.com/FredRedcar for more details

Working on the Business Rather Than in the Business

We're growing, turnover will have approximately doubled from last year, we have a new member of staff, Peter's hours have been increased and there'll be a profit!!

I've still got no time though and need to sort this out. The reason is I now spend more time doing "business stuff" than do "geeky stuff". An inevitable transition from giving myself a job, which in reality is what the early business stage is, to running a business.

There are lots of consequences to this:

• Time planning is difficult - I still need to do technical stuff and have just started putting time aside where nothing will interrupt this
• I need to systemise the business so that other people can do what needs to be done by following a system - but this takes time to do
• I need extra staff , freelancers at this stage, when we get busy
• New staff have to have time spent with them in the early days
• I need to ensure I have time out for family friends and enjoyment
• I need time to think through what I want, reflect and plan

How do I feel about all of this? Knackered but excited! I'm enjoying it even though I'm working long hours. I work with a great bunch of local businesses in our BNI chapter, people I like and who help me in and out of business, people who make a difference. My routine of review, reflection and counselling on a morning not only helps my business but my personal life, making sure the important things and people out of work have some of my time, and running my life in line with my beliefs.

So to some up, I'm knackered, excited and happy!

Might change my mind on that next week as Peter is on holiday so it's going to be mental.

Holidays, Phones and Switching Off

I'm off on holiday for a long weekend in the Lake District on Thursday and back in the office on Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to a few days off from what has been a very busy year. I'm staying in Borrowdale and will have no mobile reception from our accommodation based on past experience.

The big question is: do I take my work mobile phone?

My current thinking is no as the only way I'll pick up any messages is if I make an effort to when up a fell, which rather spoils the enjoyment of a days walking. The last time I was in the Lakes was for a short weekend break in December and I spent half an hour atop Loughrigg fell answering emails on my phone. So our accommodation has wireless, I can answer any important email whilst having a cuppa on an evening and ignore anything else until I return to the office on the Tuesday.

So the plan is:

• Take my personal phone with me
• Take my iPad with me and deal with emails on an evening
• Leave the works phone at home
• Set up an "I'm on holiday, phone the office message" and leave everything in Peter's capable hands
• Leave Peter my personal phone number in case of the office collapsing or some such major catastrophe

It's difficult as the owner of a micro-business to leave it alone even when on holiday. This will be the first time I plan to do it, a bit scary but I deserve a break.

Apprenticeships - Good or Bad?

We've just offered an apprentice contract to a local young person, This will be the 3rd apprentice employed by Tad Web Solutions with the following 2 going as follows:

• Apprentice 1, good for a week or so, then rarely turned up and left when they didn't get paid for their no shows
• Apprentice 2, Peter Calvert, bright, keen, great attitude, now been working at Tad Towers as a "proper employee" for over 9 months

So what's in store for number 3?

Well we can guarantee a proper, level 3 training course, on the job training, some interesting work to do and some boring work to do, a review after 3 months to see if we and they are happy, a review after 6 months with a wage review as part of that, and if they're good and we continue to grow there will be a job at the end of it.

So why the question good or bad?

From our point of view we took out a lot of time to arrange interviews to suit the 5 shortlisted applicants but only 2 showed up, which is a real pain and disruption for a micro-business like ours when you understand that our time is what makes money and we did also take time to read CVs and draft interview questions that were for all candidates but also specific questions for each candidate based upon their experience and interests.

On the plus side there is funding we can tap into so that the apprentice's wages are covered. Makes them sound free but we have spent around £2k this week on hardware and software licenses so they have everything they need plus Peter and myself will be taking time out of productive work to help them and teach them as we go along.

On the plus side we may get another person who starts contributing to the business in 6 months time and in a year or so becomes an important part in growing the business.

So from the apprentice point of view is it good or bad?

On the downside they will be on apprentice minimum wage, which to be frank, is a pittance - but we can't afford to pay proper wages to someone who is not fully contributing to the commercial side of the business. There is also the case that there is much evidence that many companies use apprentices as cheap labour with no intention of providing future employment - but that's not the case here.

On the plus side, there is some kind of wage, the opportunity to gain a good qualification, the opportunity to learn new skills and gain experience, and in many cases the opportunity for a job at the end of it.

So I have pangs of guilt about the wage we'll be paying in the early days but then I am expecting to have someone longer term who we provide with a good job that is reasonably paid. 

It gives a very small company like ours an opportunity to provide a post for a young local person who wants to get into the digital creative sector that we simply couldn't do without the apprentice programme. We hope to expand and hope we have found the right person to be part of that. We intend to pay more than the minimum wage in 6 months when some real work is being done for clients and we hope to offer a real job at the end of a year or so.

So in a year there'll probably 2 members of staff who get paid more than me!!

The Early Mornings Have Extended to Weekends Now

My routine of an early start during the week to do a bit of personal development, reading, planning, etc. has now just developed into waking up early anyway. I don't plan to get up early at the weekends unless I am planning on doing something specific so a lie in is fine. Today's lie in lasted until 6am - just awake and feeling quite lively so got up anyway.

Sunday mornings are quite nice. Jane usually leaves the house by 7 if she's working, Matt's not up until well after 10am so there's time and space to think and reflect. So this morning I've started planning the next 3 years of Tad Web Solutions as our year end is end of September. It doesn't feel like we've been going nearly 3 years now but it does feel like we're making a profit consistently for the first time which is nice as I pay myself every month and can start paying back that director's loan which it owes me :)

So the change in personal routine is a lifestyle change that has just become part of my normal routine. Do I like getting up early? Yes, I feel much more awake during the day, the downside is on a night out I want to go home early to sleep.

Will I continue with early mornings on a weekend? Yes as it seems to happen naturally.

Might be different next Sunday though after a day at the test and a night out in Manchester!!

Switching Off is Important Too

I had a complete day off yesterday, probably the first one for some time as weekends generally involve a fair bit of work as well as some relaxation.

So yesterday was a trip to the lovely city of Edinburgh with a bunch of friends and a number of its hostelries. An early start saw the 8 o'clock train from Darlo which became quite eventful once the ladies from Newcastle on their way to a birthday celebration in Glasgow joined. They introduced me and my to the joys of vodka jellies for breakfast - very enjoyable but not for a workday.

So a great day out, drank too much obviously and didn't expect the beer prices in Edinburgh but sometimes you just need to let your hair down and enjoy yourself. A good day was had by all I think.

How's the New Routine Going?

A few weeks ago I wrote about my new routine:

"I now have a new regime in place, up at 5am (OK 7am on weekends), classical music on the headphones, bit of reflection, do a journal, focus on the day, bit of reading all before getting to work. Going well so far, much more focused and productive at work, generally more positive and in a much better mood but it has one downside, I'm shattered by 10pm."

I can report that is still accurate though occasionally the tiredness has been worse due to World Cup watching. So all good. Also business is really picking up, is this a coincidence? I believe not as I'm more confident and ready to take opportunities as they pop up no matter how big those opportunities are.

So having read "The Leader Who Had No Title" and made a number of changes as a result I have added the following titles and made further changes as a result:

• 18 Minutes - Peter Bregman
• SUMO  - Paul McGee

I'm now reading "The Chimp Paradox" by Prof, Steve Peters and a definite one for me with my "ability" to fly off the handle! Only read section 1 so far but fascinating and useful stuff, at this stage I now understand myself better and therefore how I can live my life to make me happy.

Where do I get all these reading suggestions from? Mr. Russ Sawdon, the Big Cheese (oh OK, Executive Director), BNI Durham & Teesside - many thanks Russ. BNI is not just about finding business but has people, tools and workshops to help make you and your business better but only if YOU want to take those opportunities - it's doing both for me.

Staff Holidays

Peter is having a week off next week so it's going to be a busy one. Hence I'm working a lot of the weekend so a quick blog before the Holland match and a glass of rosé (well it''s obviously not all working).

Interesting how short staffed it will feel one person down when there's normally only 2 of you in the office anyway, though we have had three recently with Jack in via the University of Teesside Boost scheme. The good bit is Jack has finished the project we gave him to do so I can use his services to help out a bit.

As we also run #ClevelandHour on Twitter, Jack's "job" was to create a matching website and the result is at http://www.clevelandhour.co.uk:

:

We're very pleased with it so a big thanks to Jack McIntyre. If you want to register your local business on there it's free so please do.

If all the potential projects we have in the pipeline come off soon we may well have Jack working with us over Summer (though I'll have to pay him rather than the Uni) as well as a new apprentice. We're moving forward and it's a lot of work but very exciting.

On The March

A short post this week as I am going on a march - no the title isn't some business guru's idea of moving your business forward.

Today the EDL have decided to march through my home town of Middlesbrough spreading hatred and poison. As a proud Teessider and Boro lad I'm really not happy with this.

I'm going on my first political march for many years and it is in opposition to the EDL and here's a few reasons why:

I am an atheist, my friends are Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikh, of no faith, Pastafarians and probably of some faiths that I have missed out as I don't really care what faith my friends are.

I am a socialist (not as strange as it may seem for a business owner), my friends are anarchist, communist, socialist, liberal, green and there's even a good few conservatives in there. PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE NO FASCISTS IN MY CIRCLE OF FRIENDS AND NEVER WILL BE.

I'm sick of groups like the EDL, Britain First and other fascists conning the unaware into liking them with "support for our troops" posts etc. My father was in the RAF in WW2. He fought fascism then and these groups follow the very people he fought against and dishonour forces personnel with their sham support.

My home town has great potential to thrive based on its people, and its people are a diverse group of races, religions, beliefs and countries of birth. My home town welcomes all who want to be part of a history that started with primarily foreign-owned industry built on the labour of people from around the globe. The people of Middlesbrough are many and varied and that is one of our great strengths.

Today I will honour someone no longer with us who was a veteran of WW2. He fought Hitler in a uniform and Moseley's fascists out of it on the streets of Teesside. The least I could do to honour my father's memory and that of all WW2 veterans is to oppose fascism on the street's of Middlesbrough today. So that's where I'm going now

Challenge and Response

No I'm not talking about authentication systems, one for you geeks there, but challenges that pop in business and how you deal with them.

I've got my new optimistic head on permanently these days and am working very hard to change my typical response to any setback (or opportunity). Those of you who have known me for a long time know that the typical me would be a very quick and rather impolite response to any setback. I've read a few books on businesses/personal improvement which talk about the process as:

event -> response -> outcome

... or variations thereon. That has been my normal course of action with the outcome not necessarily a good one as a result. I'm now really going for a different approach (OK not always, I am human and slip back into bad ways sometimes, but I'm getting better at it) which is ...

event -> pause -> decide on desired outcome -> response -> outcome

... and in general the outcome is better. Every setback often provides an opportunity or at least a lesson to learn that improves how you operate.

Why rattle on about this now? I've applied for a wage subsidy via a Tees Valley Unlimited grant to expand the staffing at Tad Towers and aid our growth as I genuinely planned to increase turnover 5-fold over the next 2 years and was confident of doing that. I'm now in year 3 of the world domination plan and this is the 1st year of profit which is not untypical for a business, especially one that starts mid-recession. Any road up, I've been turned down as I'm not credit worthy.

Now I'm sure the criteria say I'm not credit worthy after all the business owes me, as a director, a pot of cash. We have a very small loan which was used for furniture and software purchases when we moved but other than that the business only owes me money. I'm not sure those criteria are well formed then as they seem to say that any small business looking to grow cannot unless it's already making a profit, in which case I wouldn't need the wage subsidy - Catch 22. Well it's out of my hands, and I may possibly have misrepresented the true facts as the letter only tells me I'm not credit worthy with no explanation, decision is made and business continues.

So what's the plan. Simply I will find the money from other sources to fund another member of staff and for Peter to take over the complete management of our small business clients whilst I work on hitting the bigger ticket stuff. We're looking at sorting out a new apprentice also in the next few weeks.

On Thursday I popped to the post box on the way to meet a visitor at reception and opened the letter informing me of my unsuccessful grant application. Never mind, I've got a visitor coming in who seems keen to provide some small opportunities (or so I think) as an ambitious local business and I'll work out the plans regarding funding staff later. 2 hours later my visitor has outlined some very ambitious plans that he would like us to take part in.

So no guarantees obviously but I'm amazingly excited, and a little nervous, about what this could mean for my business and will make sure we make the most of the opportunities. It seems my growth plans may be lacking ambition!

And just where did I originally meet this mysterious visitor? He popped along to our little BNI chapter at Redcar.

Father's Day

It is Father's Day today and I have all kinds of mixed feelings.

First my dad died a good few years ago and I always think of him on this day. It also means I avoid listening to Billy Bragg, if "Tank Park Salute" passes through my ears I will start uncontrollably blubbing and I'm a Northern bloke so that's just not the done thing.

Secondly, Matt always gets me something and I really do appreciated this. It's more appreciated that he puts a lot of thought into it and getting something we can share in together. Yes it was beer and crisps for sharing whilst watching the England World Cup match. The beer has been saved for Thursday's match as we were already into a nice Merlot/Malbec blend by midnight. To be honest he usually gets me beer and crisps every year which we share even if it's just watching the news - he knows I am very happy, as long as it's some decent beer.

Thirdly, I do really think that Father's Day, Mother's Day, Easter, Xmas et al are largely just marketing tools these days to get people to spend ridiculous amounts of money on rubbish (not that beer and crisps are rubbish mind!). I know for some of those events there is still a religious significance for some but that's not the case for most of the population and certainly not for me. I appreciate a few nice beers, I like a small inexpensive but thoughtful present at Xmas or on my birthday but more than anything I appreciate a bit of time just enjoying being with people I care for.

So what of today? Well we did share the crisps in England's World Cup match and I've been to visit my mum. Other than that a bit of work and a bit of relaxation.

Thoughts on D-Day

I often drivel on about stuff that has happened to me or stuff that I've done but we are 2 days past the 70th anniversary of D-Day so there are more important matters to discuss.

I don't have any relatives who were involved in D-Day but my parents both served in the RAF in WW2 and my now deceased Dad was in the infamous Imphal Valley in Burma.

I also know they were in units side by side with Poles, West Indians and Africans amongst others so it pains me immensely to see the plethora of people re-posting content from Nazi organisations like Britain First and the BNP in support of our veterans. The immensely brave D-Day veterans, who deserve our eternal gratitude, fought to rid Europe of the evil of fascism and many lost their lives doing so. We now see those following the very ideology that those brave veterans fought against using their memory to gain publicity from the re-postings of people who, in the main, are making a very genuine but horrific mistake in doing so.

I posted the following on Facebook:

Copied from James Lees who copied it from Mick Clements but everything said is absolutely bang on and says exactly how I feel when I see this fascist drivel posted on here in the name of our fallen soldiers.

While we commemorate the brave soldiers from all the allied countries, including the commonwealth, who fought on D-Day, let’s also take a moment to remember what they were fighting for. It was not for ‘patriotism’, Britain or anti-Europeanism. It was a fight against Fascism and all it entails.
When ‘Britain First’, the EDL, the BNP, UKIP or any of the racist and bigoted factions try and hijack that fight for their own political agenda it makes me sick. The sacrifice that those courageous men made was in response to an evil man who exploited antipathy towards Jews, Gypsies, Ethnic minorities, Gays, Unions and the Unemployed to control the population and who offered hatred as a solution to his country’s problems. These groups wish to peddle the same ultra-right ideology and the fact that they choose to do so by exploiting the very men who fought against such prejudice and intolerance is shameful. WW2 was described as the war to end all wars. Sadly humans still continue to destroy each other in armed conflicts the world over but Europe, at least, has lived without war since. If we return to days of obsessive and subjective patriotism, hatred of other races and colours, intolerance of religious or sexual persuasion and the demonization of the unemployed, the poor and the needy then we truly do dishonour every man that lost his life on those beaches on that day 70 years ago. Say NO to Fascism – that’s how I will commemorate them.

It succinctly sums up how I feel.

On 28 June the fascist EDL will be holding a national march in my home town of Middlesbrough. I will be joining the counter demonstration to protest at these modern day Nazis taking to our streets to preach hatred and division. I'm very proud of my Dad, not just for his fight against fascism in uniform but also because he fought on the streets of Teesside against our home grown fascists in the guise of Moseley's Blackshirts. I honour his memory and the D-Day veterans by continuing that fight against fascism.

Making an Exhibition of Yourself

On Tuesday we had a stand at an event organised by Redcar and Cleveland Council's Enterprise Team. I'm always a bit sceptical about the benefits of doing this - does the work that comes in justify the costs of exhibiting? My experience is that this is borderline if you take into account costs for stand, print costs and staff time.

This one was a little different as we didn't have to pay to exhibit. We did have to get some new printed materials though but this needed doing anyway and provided the stimulus to get ourselves organised for this, including some great new banners designed by Peter and printed and delivered by Smooth Print (www.smoothprint.co.uk).

Has anything come from it? We've got one small contract that has covered our print costs, got a couple of other leads and made some new contacts - so that makes it a successful half day. Would it have been worth it had we been required to pay a few hundred pounds to exhibit? Probably not.

The jury is still out in terms of exhibiting, at some point we'll do a paid for stand at a larger event and then carefully analyse the costs and benefits. Does anyone else have a view on this?

My New Routine

I have recently read a book, don't be shocked, entitled "The Leader Who Had No Title". It's fiction but is simply aimed at getting people to be what the title says. Now I'm not claiming I am some kind of leader but it has a straightforward message and guide to changing the way you view your life and what you do and it simply hit a nerve with me. Essentially it has the following points (though espoused rather more eloquently than me):

• Stop being a victim
• Honestly look at the challenges you face
• Confront them and take the necessary action to overcome them
• Continually make small improvements to everything you do and it will over time make a fundamental change to your life 

So quantitative change becomes qualitative change for any of you students of Hegelian Dialectics out there (that bit isn't in the book),

I now have a new regime in place, up at 5am (OK 7am on weekends), classical music on the headphones, bit of reflection, do a journal, focus on the day, bit of reading all before getting to work. Going well so far, much more focused and productive at work, generally more positive and in a much better mood but it has one downside, I'm shattered by 10pm.

Luckily on Thursday when I popped over to Saltburn for a comedy gig, Mark Steel was excellent and very funny so I easily got past the 10pm deadline. (And there's a comedian who will understand the Hegelian Dialectic.)

I shall reflect on this new routine in a few weeks and let you know that it's still gong well.

A Bad Week Or A Good Week?

It has been "one of those weeks" where lots of things have not gone as well as hoped for. A number of issues have cropped up, some business, some technical and some personal meaning the week has not gone as well as expected.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

It may sound crazy but it's good and here's the reason why.

If everything simply goes swimmingly well as a small business and as a person then you're just pottering along in your comfort zone and things will be OK. But if you want to be great then there will be setbacks and challenges (and that sums up this week). It's all in your mindset how you deal with the setbacks and challenges.

The week has thrown up a few obstacles on the path to being great. Obstacles are just pointers to the fact that you need to change your route in order to reach your final destination. So what this week has shown me is a few changes I need to improve my business and personal life, nothing drastic, just small improvements that will make a difference. And lots of small incremental changes over time make a huge difference.

So now I've been all philosophical I'm off to make some of those changes - if you don't act on those changes you may as well not know you need to make them.

Client Knowledge and Designing for the Web

A few interesting conversations this week regarding web projects we're working on at the moment that illustrate some of the issues in providing a user experience that meets the client's needs.

We have been working on a website for a local company and the draft design has turned out to be fine but requiring a few small design tweaks which is the norm. But this is often the point where translating the customer requests into design becomes problematic and in this particular instance two requests are problematic for different reasons.

One request was for a particularly tacky and annoying effect with some text. Technically it's straight forward to do but NOBODY should have that on a website unless it is a website showing some effects that you really shouldn't have. Ultimately the client gets what they want and we can only advise but the jury is still out on this one. There are websites we have created that clients are very happy with but our credit says "hosted by" not "created by" as we're not very keen to have people thinking that's what our websites look like!

The second request for an alteration shows the misunderstanding many have of how websites are displayed and the request was along the lines of can you make that section 5 centimetres high. Those of you who are tech-savvy can chortle now. The height in cm is dependent upon your screen size, screen resolution, etc and will be different on different devices. A similar point comes in more commonly as something like "my logo is a different colour on my PC and my friend's laptop, can you make sure it's the same on all screens as I'm not happy with that." Unfortunately our quest to ensure that there is only one screen type with fixed settings available for every web enabled device has failed, sorry folks.

Another website we have worked on has a very wide range of users adding details via the user interface which means users with very different levels of expertise. There needs to be a level of very basic IT skills to use any website, and we've just change the UI this week to make it more basic, but there are also people wanting more complex functions. There's a difficult balance to be had but due to the nature of the site we're going for simplest interface we can to capture the information required. It's a massive compromise with a site like that and essentially we're trying to make everyone "sufficiently satisfied" as it's impossible to make everyone happy, certainly at this stage in the project. Given more time and a bigger chunk of development cash there would be more opportunity to develop alternatives for different user levels, if all goes well that may happen in the future.

George is my Friend

OK he's not, but he was very accommodating in letting me have my pic taken with him at the end of the photo opportunity for Cleveland Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner launching the Give It A Go website and also the app which will be public soon.

It's nice to finally get this in the public eye as it's a bit of a scoop for Tad Web Solutions to be creating a web-based application and associated mobile app for a high profile project. It could lead to developing this project for a wider audience and also gives us some proof of a big project that we have developed thus making it much easier to get other big projects.

So here's the main players, George Friend (Boro's player of the year for you non-sporting people), Barry Coppinger (Cleveland's Police and Crime Commissioner), Sgt. Peter Graham (the man with the vision for the whole project who we have worked closely with), my Samsung and our app (alpha testing version and working well) on the phone.

So organisations can register at: http://cleveland.giveitago.net/orgregistration.php which is also going to have some major updates over the next week. The public launch will be in summer.

I'm off now to enjoy some family time over the Bank Holiday weekend but in the meantime why not Give It A Go?

Should You Cut Prices To Get Business?

My answer is a resounding NO.

Why? We are a service industry and we provide a very good service. Our charges are largely based upon the time we spend to create the project our client wants and our fees are pretty much bang in the middle for a quality web agency (which suggests maybe we should charge more!).

There are some costs that we incur for every web project  namely domain, hosting and usually a small number of stock images. Yes we're not cowboys, if we supply the images you will have a legal right to use them - no unexpected demands from Getty Images or similar, though that has happened on a couple of occasions where clients have supplied their own images!!

Some projects have extra costs incurred such as professional photography, video, animation, graphic design, licensed plug ins, mobile app fees, etc. and these are obviously passed on to the client. Larger projects, e-commerce sites and more complex projects may have significantly higher hosting fees due to space, bandwidth and/or security requirements and again price reflects this.

But other than that it's based on a pretty accurate estimate of how long we will spend working on the project - and when we get the price wrong it's somehow never in our favour and we honour our quotes.

Do we ever lose the opportunity to get contracts as we're too expensive? Yes, it's cost us a couple of contracts in the last year since I significantly increased prices. They were both bottom end contracts amounting to a couple of days worth of work. On the other hand, before increasing our prices a year ago we lost a few potential large contracts because we were too cheap and the assumption was that the quality would not be up to standard. We now get more higher end work, same daily rate as bottom end projects but larger longer term contracts meaning less new clients are required for the same return.

Can we compete on price at the bottom end? No. I used to try but when some student is knocking out sites from their bedroom for £100, there's no way we could compete. However, we do get plenty of opportunity for new customers when their cheap option has disappeared leaving them with an out of date site that no longer works properly on a domain registered to the web designer not the website owner. (but I digress).

So why am a rattling on about this now? We recently bid for a smallish website with a local company who got 2 other quotes. I received a call saying we were a couple of hundred pound above the other quotes and if we could drop our price to match they would give us the contract. Now even though we're busy there's a natural tendency to do that to guarantee the job.

My response? After a little thought I simply replied that we give genuine quotes that are not open for negotiation unless an alternative is required that requires less work on our behalf. The quote is what we will charge for the work requested and we would very much like to work with the client, but if they felt that they would get BETTER VALUE elsewhere then we understand and they should make the choice that they feel is the best one for their business. If that isn't us we hope they get a great service from their chosen provider and we would always be happy to help them in the future if we were able to.

The result? We got the contract. It's about the value proposition not the price - taken me 2 and a half years of running the business to learn that lesson!!

So now for a Saturday of watching Matt play in Boro Colts final game of the season, in fact his final Colts game, and then off to watch MFC's last home game via a beer or two in the Star.

Hoping for some exciting publicity next week but I'll bore you with that after the event - should be in Tuesday's Evening Gazette I think.

Another Long Weekend, It's Becoming a Habit

OK This one is a long Bank Holiday Weekend meaning 2 more 4 day weeks, and yes that generally still means doing a full week's work but with only 4 days in the office.

So there's work to do this weekend. This includes chasing up clients with overdue payments, a constant issue, doing some planning, getting the Middlesbrough Midweek Cricket League site ready for the new season with fixtures, etc. online, getting the accounts up to date and doing a few tweaks to the mobile app for the Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner. Last but by no means least is putting together my 10 min slot for our BNI chapter on Wednesday (and putting the door prize somewhere where I won't forget it this time).

Not all work though. Off to watch Matt play for Boro Colts at Billingham today which will see the temporary return of some of the lads from elite academies as well. Should be a good catch up with some of the parents as well. Tomorrow got a meet up with family and Monday, weather permitting, a walk on the Moors with Jane.

Should be a good weekend.

Was the Long Weekend Off a Good Idea?

The answer is it's in the balance.

On the plus side:

• I got to spend a bit of quality time with Jane which is a rare thing with both our work commitments
• Had a "nice" walk in the North Yorks Moors which is always good for the heart and soul
• A good day out at the pub and watching footy with mates
• A wander around Durham Cathedral which is a beautiful place to visit again and again

A "nice" walk in a bog in the fog

On the negative side:

• There was a shedload of work as an examiner I also had to do which involved early morning and late evenings to fit in
• As always there's calls and emails to deal with even with Peter in the office. It's amazing how many clients choose mobile as their first choice for calling
• I missed 2 days of work which has to be caught up with

On Monday we went to Durham and obviously I turned off my mobile devices as we went round the Cathedral but for most of the day I was answering emails and phone calls. Who is at fault for this? Me! I should just turn the things off and wait until I get back to work.

So this weekend will be spent, in the main, catching up with work - feel like I've not been off! Need to get my head right so that time off is time off. Peter can deal with anything urgent (or mundane) in the office, I have complete confidence in him so why do I worry about answering emails and calls?

Need to get this right for my summer break.

Holiday

I'm having a long weekend off so very brief this week.

What is a long weekend off? Well apart from writing a quote, catching up on some reading, writing an exam paper and two assignments it means a bit of walking on the moors and on Saturday, beer and Boro.

Until next week ...

Gaining New Clients

Just a short post as it's a busy weekend writing exam papers and sneaking off to North Shields this afternoon to watch Matt play for Boro Colts against Percy Park.

So a quick discussion on gaining new clients.

We are now focussing on a much tighter set of services and using trusted partner companies to deliver the associated services our clients want such as video, SEO, Adwords and animation. Our key offerings are:

• Web design which includes responsive designs for mobile
• Mobile web design
• Web-based applications
• Mobile apps
• Other software

As the business has evolved it's the web-based applications and mobile apps that we are concentrating on in terms of our marketing effort. 

Why?

The reason can be summed up as "doing more work, chasing less clients". Building applications is a much longer process and therefore we need less clients to generate the same income plus there are ongoing licensing fees that generate longer term income and provide upselling opportunities as clients will often want to add extra functionality over time.

Does that mean we don't do brochure style websites? Of course we still do them and the majority of our clients are still small businesses who want a simple website with a few bells and whistles or an e-commerce solution for a small retailer. And we're very happy to provide that service for them.

So why don't we concentrate on those clients in our marketing efforts?

1. To break even we would need to find around 50 new small website clients per year whereas for the right applications projects that could be 2 new clients.
2. For small website clients after creating the website, there is rarely any further income stream other than hosting and we don't make money on that. We do offer support and upgrade packages but many clients are happy with what they've got for a few years. This means we have to find 50 new clients every year to stand still.
3. Application clients generally sign up to an annual licence fee which generates income year on year. They also often want to add features to an application and therefore we have further paid development work year on year from the same client.
4. Often the application development process creates modules that are reusable in other projects and this makes us competitive when bidding for work for similar projects.
5. We are now known widely enough for the smaller websites to come in without making a big effort to find them.

I must stress that we still make a big effort on creating the website for any client regardless of price, this is purely a cost/benefit decision on our marketing activities. We charge the same daily rate on the projects so in terms of delivering an agreed project the cost/benefit outcome is identical.

So the result is that the focus of our marketing work is the bigger ticket applications. The focus of our day to day design and development work is every single client regardless of the size of the project - we see providing a great service on small projects as the prime marketing activity to gain 50 new small website clients. 

If we aren't marketing for smaller websites do we still get those jobs?

Yes we do and we do still use social media, networking and word of mouth as marketing tools for that work even though we do not focus on it. This week we have had four enquiries regarding small websites that came from:

• Our BNI Chapter
• An old neighbour from our days at Wilton Centre
• Our Palace FM advert
• A Google search

Two of those are now agreed contracts, the other 2 are considering our services and we are very hopeful of one being agreed next week and this could lead to two more projects.

So the strategy seems to be right, it looks like we will be able to get 50 new small website clients this year anyway. We also have interest from the largest application project we are developing with other organisations looking to buy into it with development fees and licensing fees for each.

Time will tell but the marketing shift plus being around for a couple of years and developing a good reputation seems to be moving us forward well.

The Importance of Intellectual Property

I spent most of the week working on one project which is a bit of a flagship one for us and developed for a local client. This includes a website and a mobile app which we are now developing as stage 2 of the project. The initial work was begun to "help out" the project when it was struggling to move forward and most of the work on the web application has, in reality, been done for very little payment. I'm not saying we haven't been paid at all just that it was done at a reduced rate due to the nature of the project plus our costs became significantly greater than planned.

Why was that?

It's a great project to be involved in but there are limits to what we will do for reduced rates, after all there's wages and rent to pay. It also became clear that once completed there would certainly be potential for the commercialisation of the project. So as it progressed we became acutely aware that we needed to protect our commercial interests should the web application, and now the mobile app, be of interest to other parties and advertisers.

The solution, use an IP lawyer. We didn't have to search too much as IP Contracts Solutions occupy the office next door to us. So we have a contract in place that asserts our ownership of the applications, the licensing fees payable to us annually, the sell on terms and obliging the clients to use us for any future developments.

Your average website doesn't work like this, that's more of a case of pay an amount up-front, maybe some interim payment and  final payment on completion and at that point the client takes ownership. In this case we have done a lot of unpaid work to get the project off the ground and expect the benefits of that should it get sold on - and there is already interest pre-launch. So my top tip - get an IP Lawyer you can work with, and I highly recommend IP Contract Solutions.

So what is this application? I can't say at the moment but phase 1 is rolling out with our client getting other organisations involved in it. Stage 2 is the public launch which should be at the end of April and we are told there may be involvement of Middlesbrough FC alongside us and our client.

But you'll have to wait for more details.

Do Givers Gain?

Any of you who have ever been to a BNI meeting will know where that title comes from but it is sparked by what I've been up to plus today's post and link on Google+ by David Laud of i2i Business Solutions LLP which makes interesting reading (http://time.com/18659/the-five-paths-to-being-the-best-at-anything/).

The article is particularly interesting to me in that the section on "Givers" says research shows that you are more likely to end up at the bottom in terms of satisfaction with your life if you are a Giver but you are also more likely to end up at the top. It seems the key to getting to the top as a Giver is balance - give but don't spend all your time giving, after all you have your own goals, ambitions and jobs to do. The other key difference between top and bottom is that successful Givers are surrounded by "Matchers", people who give in an expectation of receiving in return. If you are giving and surrounded by Takers you will plummet to the bottom.

Why is this relevant to me at the moment? Those who know my business will know that I'm a member of BNI, a business referrals organisation with the philosophy of Givers Gain. We work on the principle that by finding business for others that giving will be reciprocated. Each local chapter is populated by Givers though in reality we are also Matchers as we believe we will receive also.

Does it work? Certainly for me. We have done work for fellow members of our Chapter but also for their business contacts. Over time that will lead to doing work for the business contacts of those people and so our business network and client list expands.

But it's bigger than that. We had a regional training session last Tuesday with close to 200 businesses involved. I belong to a fairly new chapter so have not met most of those businesses but from the stats BNI keeps I know I am one of the top 10 performers in the region in terms of what I give to others in BNI. So that should mean I gain more without expecting anything in particular from it. At the regional gathering I was given the opportunity to tell all the other businesses what we do and the kind of client we are looking for. I was also used as an example of how to write a profile on BNI Connect (think BNI LinkedIn) and therefore had my profile raised even further.

Did I expect any of that - No. Did I ask for any of that - No. But the organisation is based on Givers Gain and those great opportunities were provided by others who get the philosophy.

Has that event generated any business for me? It has in that I changed what I ask for as business in terms of contacts and products we provide when I was talking to a bigger audience and that has led to a new and substantial piece of work for someone in my own chapter. More importantly, I have a new set of contacts who in some cases have connections with the next level of clients we want to talk to and who also offer services that would be of use to our current and future clients. I have already started meeting some of those to discover how I can help them and, of course, in return they will try and help me. I'll be arranging more meetings soon.

So onwards and upwards. I'm getting quite excited about the future possibilities for Tad Web Solutions Limited - the hard work may be paying off.

The Customer Experience

A short post this weekend as I had a day off yesterday (Friday), which just means I'm working from home today to catch up, or at least until the 6 Nations kicks off.

Last week I was at Customer Experience Training from BNI. Whilst there is an element of relating this to our BNI chapter and the experience we give to visitors, the training was not specific and can be applied to our own business.

The key lesson can be summed up that excellent customer service is provided by "going the extra mile" but that this can be done at with little or no cost. So there's lots of little things that can be done day to day such as:

• Using people's names when you talk to them on the phone
• Being friendly and welcoming
• Simply being honest and helpful

But that should be standard, how do we turn that into something a little special at Tad Web Solutions? 

We have already implemented a little "Thank You" process when we complete a project and get paid. So for companies with a few employees you are likely to get a little batch of cupcakes delivered as a sign of or appreciation, or if you are a sole trader you will receive an alternative.

One area we could improve on is our own visitor experience. Our visitors are generally existing clients or potential clients and hopefully we give them a good experience once we meet them after Reception have told us they're here. But there are 3 real problems we could improve on:

1. There's no parking at our business centre (despite the original promises from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council), the nearest parking must be paid for and is a couple of hundred metres away
2. The Reception staff are not very welcoming, we get told this quite often (yes they are supplied by RCBC - there's a theme here)
3. If there's only one member of staff in our office, then the visitors are left to themselves whilst a cuppa is made as the kitchen is not in our office.

So how do we improve on that, other than continuing our push for visitor parking?

1. Send our visitors  a pdf with where to park and our mobile numbers. Ask them to text us when they're 5 mins away and we will nip out to the car park, pay for a place via mobile and have an umbrella for when the weather is inclement.
2. We then walk them to the building and take them up to our office avoiding the Reception staff
3. Have our own kettle and small fridge so drinks are ready when the visitor arrives

Small things that will simply show that our customers matter.

Are Business Advisers Any Good?

The answer is...

... it depends on who the adviser is.

Tad Web Solutions is nearly two and a half years old. It started out as I switched from working as a sole trader/freelancer and decided to do the Web thing full time and seriously. Once I'd made that decision I needed some help as I was a pure techy and had never run a real business.

This was the days of Business Link and I secured 40% funding for business/marketing support and was furnished with a list of potential suppliers. This was quite enlightening as to the different approaches taken by those potential suppliers and also the differences in price.There were 3 broad approaches:

The first (relatively inexpensive) and very poor approach was to receive an email with an outline of what would be done without even having a conversation.

The second and most common (average price) was to pop in for a quick meeting, explain how they would help me increase conversions from leads to sales plus get more for each sale.

The third was an interview at some length over the telephone (most expensive) that asked me detailed questions about what I do, my plans, problems, etc. and then a fairly detailed plan for working together was sent to me.

So guess which approach worked? Yes, the expensive one. not because it was expensive but because it was thorough and bespoke. Even though I struggled at the time to pay for it, and the fee was double any other quote, I knew I would be working with someone who would make a difference. And it was the correct decision.

If you would like to know who we used, it was David Laud at i2i Business Solutions Llp and I thoroughly recommend him.

Since then we have had other business advisors supplied, for free I hasten to add, via Redcar and Cleveland Council with various levels of success including one who I told not to come back after a brief meeting (no names but he just talks jargon-filled bollocks). We've pretty much fulfilled the early years plan we drew up with David and that has got us to a level where we need to plan again, and move forward to the next level.

Then a few weeks ago there was a free workshop on Business Growth at The Palace Hub and I was very impressed by the person running it (and believe me I'm not easily impressed). At the end he said there is free support from him available if Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council agree. So off I went to ask for it based upon the fact that Peter has recently gone from apprentice to "proper job" and I intend to grow - and hey presto support available.

So before you ask, why not use David Laud? I would happily do so, David is worth every penny, but our new support was free to us (paid for by the council) and I am from Yorkshire after all! (Sorry David)

We have now had 3 meetings with Ross Golightly from Sphera Consulting with the aim of setting growth targets for the business, planning for them and implementing strategies that will ensure we meet those growth plans. Ross works with business who are looking to grow rapidly and in broad terms the plan is that in 3 years our turnover will increase 7-fold, so very ambitious but also very achievable. The final plan for long term and shorter term are not yet written and in place, though they will be shortly, but we have already introduced a couple of very simple strategies Ross has suggested.

What have those 2 simple strategies done:

1. Cash flow is much better (and Feb is always a bad month, but fine this year - annual insurance gets paid and Jan is a slow month for work completed and invoiced)
2. Got £500 of extra business this week that we normally would not have got (if that happens every week that's £26k a year)

There was no extra work to improve cash flow nor gain the extra business (though that will involve an extra day's work that is charged to our clients) and are very minor tweaks to how we operate not some major part of a strategic plan.

I'm really looking forward to doing the more strategic stuff as the changes so far come under the "bleeding obvious" heading even though I would never have made them without encouragement from Ross, who I've really enjoyed working with

The lessons:

• The right support can make a big difference to your business
• Cheap is not necessarily best, sometimes you get what you pay for but it is definitely worth the expense
• Free can be great - but it can also be garbage
• Don't be afraid to pull out of a support package where you feel it is of no use, even when it's free - your time is money
• Councils do offer some great business support but chose which you use, it's all about the person/company supplying that support

And watch this space and see us grow.

What's 'Appening

A lot of last week was spent working on the early stages of a mobile app (see what I did there!) for iOS and Android. It's something we're planning to do more of as:

1. It is enjoyable
2. It creates longer term projects
3. It generates larger fees as they take more time to develop than your average website

So developing apps provides stability and income due to the time required to develop one but with a background in systems analysis and design and programming I also enjoy making mobile and web applications more than simple websites.

Had a day off yesterday watching sport (well drinking mainly) and had a really enjoyable day only spoilt by being at the Boro match. A great Six Nations match between England and Ireland with proper test rugby - loved it, the win also helps.

OK off to watch the Olympics ice hockey final, then got some work to do for Serco - yes we actually have a client that big!

A Yarn About Loose Ends

Along with meetings the week was spent trying to tidy up a few loose ends at the end of projects along with starting the design of an e-commerce solution for Ripping Yarns and allow me time to begin creating a mobile app next week for a major project we are working on.

One thing I find frustrating, though it's worse for Peter as he's the one generally working on these projects, is when you reach a milestone in a project, show the client for feedback or to supply content, wait for 4 weeks for their opinion/content and then they will want everything completing in 24 hours from when they get back to us. I know they're busy also but we need to schedule work and can't drop everything for them.

So what's the solution?

It's not a cure-all but we have changed our terms to address this. So any new contracts will require a signed purchase order that includes the following terms:

• Agreed milestones with agreed dates
• Agreed response times from clients with milestone deadlines only valid from our end if these are met
• Detailed list of what will be provided by us
• Detailed list of what we require from the client (e.g. images, logos, content, etc.)
• Payment of 50% of the agreed fee plus VAT upfront
• For larger projects there may be a further 25% of payment upon completion of a specific milestone
• Final full settlement within 28 days of completion
• Financial penalties if final payment is late

Why have we set all this up? 

Well we have clients who have agreed work that has only started a year after agreement as they "get their stuff together" or similar. I doubt this will happen very often when people have paid in advance. We also have clients who we have to chase many times to get the due payment.

It is likely that we can schedule work more accurately when clients have signed up to a schedule AND paid in advance. I spend a lot of time chasing up clients for the elements they are providing us with, the plan is that that time will be greatly reduced and project throughput will increase significantly which will allow more time for me to generate more work and increase turnover. Time will tell!

More Rugby

I'm pretty much having this weekend off except for this blog and a short piece on using social media for business that I will write tomorrow for NBSL.

So it's a short blog this week as I recharge the batteries via the power of beer, wine and rugby.

Last week saw a number of meetings with existing, new and potential clients and the work continues to come in apace which is great. We're very hopeful of some fairly big contracts coming in the next couple of weeks also - hope I'm not tempting fate there.

We also went to the opening night of the new exhibition in the Palace Hub Gallery, more great artwork from local creatives on show. It will be a travesty if it's not kept open come the new financial year.

Right off to watch Ireland v Wales, then off to Saltburn, Hoegaarden in hand, to watch the days main event followed by a few beers. Tomorrow is Boro Colts v Ponteland with our team captained by Matt (proud dad moment there) and I'm sure Jane will let me stay for a few beers and to watch the France v Italy game at teh club.

6 Nations Opening Weekend

Working (and blogging) this morning but today is the start of this year's 6 Nations Rugby which is a big annual event in our household - OK I have to admit that Jane doesn't concur with that. So this afternoon is out watching Matt prop for Middlesbrough Colts followed by France v England on TV. Difficult decision, stay at the rugby club or dash home and watch it? One could get a bit messy alcohol-wise and the other will be more sensible. Matt's already opted for the rugby club but I'm tilting towards home but depends on who is at rugby and my distinct lack of willpower.

So a much more relaxed weekend than of late even though we're very busy. It's been a manic week and next week looks no different. Really happy with that but I've taken a conscious decision to timetable in downtime at weekends as I haven't been doing that and 7 days a week is not good for your health.

So what's been going on at Tad Towers? Well the view from our office is as stunning as ever and we've had a good few visitors this week to talk about potential and existing projects including a knitting shop, a new food distribution business, a kitchen supplier, Ross Golightly from Sphera Consulting who is providing us with some business support funded by the Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council Creative Industries Project (many thanks for this) and a representative from Cleveland Police (it wasn't me!).

Can't say much about plans with most of those who are clients/potential clients but we have signed a contract with the Police and Crime Commissioner and that project should now develop very quickly and we are very hopeful for the funding coming through to develop a mobile app as part of the project. It's a really worthwhile project that so far has actually cost us money but has the potential to generate income by developing the app and may become BIG if everything falls into place. Regardless of anything it's been a good experience working with a public sector body - and seeing how slow that process is compared to the private sector! - and the police officers we've worked alongside have been really good people with some great ideas (I know my old comrades won't be happy with that statement as well!).

Ross Golightly has been great even after a short meeting asking about some of our business systems, I already know there's lots to be done that will improve lead generation, sales generation, cash flow and more. It's scary to find out how little you know when you want to grow your business to the next level! We're meeting a again in a few weeks for a longer session, I'm looking forward to it but with some trepidation as I know there'll be a lot to do to improve and grow, but that makes it exciting as well.

... and in other news, it was great to meet up yesterday with David of i2i Business Solutions and Martin of World Sight Media to move our joint project forward, another exciting development. In fact one of several really interesting projects some of which are underway and others are just potential at the moment. I feel we're starting to really move towards the place I aim to be in year 4 (we're in year 3) which is business with a turnover well into 6-figures and making a 4-figure profit every month. Maybe I can start paying myself a living wage soon, ha ha.

The Year Has Begun

A strange title for 25th January but there is a reason for it.

In previous years both as the owner of a limited company and as a sole trader I never really had any work to do between mid- December and the end of January. I used to twiddle my thumbs, catch up on paperwork, maybe redo our own website, put nothing that directly earned money.

This year has been different in one main aspect in that we have had work on the go from 2nd January when I returned to the office. We're busier than we've ever been and there are a number of reasons for this I think:

• We've been trading for 2 years so more people know we're here
• Many organisations in Redcar and Cleveland like dealing with local businesses and we're now seen as a genuine player in the Web field over here
• The economy is picking up
• Being part of BNI Links Chapter in Redcar is generating regular work that means there's a constant base level of work so the the old peaks and troughs have become peaks and a good general level of work - it's a massive part of our growth strategy in terms of generating work directly and providing a great support network
• I'm learning to do business better, after all I'm naturally a geek not a businessman, again BNI training and events they are involved in have massively improved my business skills (still a long way to go though)
• Outsourcing of stuff that's not our core - print design, animation, servers, bookkeeping, payroll, personnel policies, H&S policies, contracts - all to local companies who do that better/more efficiently than me and my team (we'll give you a list at the end of our local suppliers)
• People come into our office and it has a great Wow Factor - there's space in the Palace Hub so get yourself in there if you're a creative business
• BNI and the Palace Hub have provided us with a set of quality collaborators that allows us to pitch for bigger and more complex jobs that we can't do purely on our own
• A lot of last year was spent trying to move up the level of work we do so that projects are generally larger. As we primarily charge for our time this means they take longer to complete and therefore there is also a more constant level of work.
• Peter has grown in confidence and learns very quickly. He now does a lot of work unaided which has freed me up to bring work in
• And you know what, we're really good at what we do

So why do I say the year has now begun?

Well despite having a good level of work to do the new contracts weren't coming in until this week, which has been a great week for new customers. 

We've taken over the management of websites for local accountants and a joiner including search engine optimisation work for both and a massive clean up of the very malicious code for the joiner whose site was blacklisted by Google - it's now fully functioning and safe to use.

We've also won new contracts for a website for local companies including roofers, a crime writing site, an office supplies company plus some further e-marketing for a wedding company in Wales. There's also an agreed contract for a wedding event company subject to their funding application which we expect to be successful.

Next week we've got meetings regarding potential work for an e-commerce solution, updating and managing a website for a children's play centre, meeting with our two partners in a planned social media venture and an eBay shop to sort out for a client. Lot's of other quotes out awaiting client feedback and funding applications including a couple of nice 4 figure sites, a 5 figure site and early talks on a complex site that would integrate with back office software.

So a big thanks to our suppliers, collaborators and just people and organisation who have helped us get where we are and are taking us forward. A list is below, massive apologies if I miss anyone as it is Saturday morning at home and I don't have a list of everyone with me. 

Suppliers and Collaborators

• Ambrose & Co Accounting Solutions
• BE Group
• Binary Techniques
• BNI Durham & Teesside
• Cake Temptations
• Dee Danks
• Di Fox
• i2i Business Solutions
• JG Office Supplies
• Nash Russell
• Peak Image Photography
• Philxam
• Redcar & Cleveland Council/Palace Hub
• Richardson Removals
• Smooth Print
• Sphera Consulting
• World Sight Media

Thank You!

Wigs in Wigton

A quick post today as I've got a lot of work to do and want to pop and see my mum and try and sneak in a bit of Heineken Cup after a day gallivanting in Cumbria yesterday.

Matt's first away trip since 2012 rather strangely and bus to Wigton kindly supplied for free by Middlesbrough RUFC. Always have enjoyed the away trips for Matt's rugby especially when there's a coach to get there, good banter, great set of parents and coaches and at Wigton there was a great bunch of opponents and supporters from the opposition. Big difference with the colts is that the players drink more than the parents. It was great to meet up again with old friends and make some new ones in the joint age group team.

So the match saw a first half with Boro playing poorly and being down 24-5 at half-time, a fair reflection of the game at this point despite some random reffing which more often than not was in our favour. Second half saw the same set of players move up a notch and be more aggressive and play some good rugby. Pleased with a really good 2nd half scrummaging performance from Matty, really dominant and not bad for the world's lightest loose-head. Young lad on the wing from our U-16s is a bit special as well. With about 5 mins to go we had gone ahead 24-27 and had all the momentum but a sending off (ref was more than justified in his decision) left us on the back foot and we went down 31-27.

Barring the embarrassment of the sending off incident, it was a great game and Boro colts should be really proud of their 2nd half performance, some wins to come if they play like that for 70 mins.

As for the wigs, Wincey seemed too comfortable in his, reminding him of his Kajagoogoo days.

Laters!

What No Rugby?

I was expecting a nice day off and a trip to Ponteland to watch Matt play for Middlesbrough RUFC colts but after a pitch inspection it's off. Matt's probably more disappointed as he was planning a Saturday night out in Newcastle with mates but declined as he had a rugby match on Sun - impressive dedication. I'm secretly quite glad as his formerly knackered knee is a little swollen, may have been overdoing the gym this week.

So a bit of work and general business doings and then I'll watch the Heineken Cup on Sky Sports.

It's been a busy week but largely of meetings and catching up on admin and planning. It was also the week when Peter switched from being apprentice and general dogsbody to Small Business Manager (and better paid general dogsbody) - great to have Peter on a permanent basis, he'll play a big part in our growth.

Another thing playing a big part in our growth is BNI. I've never had a January where I'm not concerned about being able to pay wages and all bills - well this is it. Obviously we're not awash with cash but I have no worries this month and one thing BNI has done so far is remove any deep troughs in activity, there's always something ticking over. I expect over the year to have given a significant amount of business to my fellow members and as it runs on the Givers Gain philosophy that will only be good for us, we all grow together.

We had our first BNI meeting of 2014 over breakfast on Wed, great to see all the folks again, we've got a great set of people at Links Chapter and always good to see them. That very evening most of us went to BNI training at the Riverside Stadium - not only does BNI generate business it provides lots of free training to help you run your business better and also get more from BNI. Great event and got to meet lots of people from other chapters also resulting in a bigger personal business network.

If you've not been to our BNI chapter come a long and have a look and see how we can help you, we are especially looking for an IFA, electrical contractor, florist and photographer who we can pass business to.

OK so rugby hasn't started on TV yet so time to put some quotes together. A busy week next week with meetings with some other businesses and public sector organisation, hopeful of some decent sized contracts from them.

Happy New Year

Here's a very quick post to wish everyone a peaceful, healthy and prosperous 2014. I hope you all had a great break, I had a bad cold and didn't get anywhere near as much achieved as I meant to and hence am working all day today (Sunday).

So that's it until next week :)