Was it small business or the internet that changed my life?

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Jon Stow
Seafront bikes

Seafront bikes

It is no secret that I started my own business after the world of employment left me, and I could not get another job. There was no grand plan. I just got “on my bike” to get some money coming in.

Back then, 2002, the main way of getting business (I thought) was advertising. I have written before about the money spent on directories such as Yellow Pages and Thomson Local. They were a waste of time and that was because they really said nothing about my business apart from listing it under a category, but also because customers were actually talking to each other, exchanging information on-line, and yes, getting out of the door and networking.

I did not have much idea about social media in those days, but they were early days. I wonder how much I would have become involved if it had not been for business needs. Would I ever have “done” Twitter and Facebook? I suppose it was the other way round as Facebook was first, but I “do” Twitter a lot more.

It is not as though I ever was exactly afraid of computers. I am a techy sort of guy. I had a Sinclair ZX81, a BBC computer and an IBM AT PC running DOS. I programmed in Sinclair BASIC and in MS BASIC, not very well, but I had the enthusiasm. I frequented bulletin boards. It did not make me social.

In 2003 I had realised that face-to-face networking might be a good idea. I had a business coach who thought it was, though he had not tried it. I went to the local Ecademy group, and three days later met Thomas Power at a seminar in London. He and Ecademy taught me so much about networking, on-line and off-line that it is hard to imagine a business or personal life without it.

I have become a very social person, and social media and on-line marketing are how I get most of my business. Of course the biggest benefit is in making so many new friends; real friends who have helped me as I hope I might now and again have helped them.

I know a lot of employee techies who do not really “get” social media. They may mess around on Facebook but I wonder if they have really made new friends as I have, or whether they just interact with the old ones. Some techies view all social media with disdain and are paranoid about personal security and identity theft. They know how everything works, but they cannot see the purpose or the potential, only the low-risk threat.

For myself and my business there is a great world out there, I have made a lot of real friends I could not have found in any other way, and I am grateful. I think I am a totally different person from the one I would have been, stuck in a job in town. I feel I am happier and more at ease with myself as an independent player, and have been set free by the tools I first found through Ecademy. Being in business brought me to social and business networking. Would the second have happened without the first? I don’t know.

Has your life been changed in the same way?

Posted in Referral networking, Social media, Start-up | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Burying the bad news

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Jon Stow

iStock_000005618867XSmallGoogle is being required by the European Court to allow individuals to request that certain personal information about them will; not be found in a search. This does not mean that if you already know the web address where such information is to be found you cannot see it. It is just that Google cannot lead you there.

This is rather worrying and one wonders exactly whose rights are being protected here. This article states: “the BBC learned that more than half of the requests sent to Google from UK individuals involved convicted criminals.” Well, if I want to know whether my potential client has a criminal conviction, or to make a quick judgement as to whether I should see the person in the first place, I think I have the right to be forewarned.

On a non-business level, surely we should have the right to find out whether our new love is a criminal or dangerous? Fortunately I am not in the dating market, and we are very happy, thank you.

This brings us to consider how much information about ourselves we should share on the good old world wide web. I am very active on various social networking sites, particularly Twitter. I have a moderate number of friends on Facebook; not thousands, you understand. This is because I do like to have some idea who everyone is. Most of the hundreds I have met, and if not then either my friends I have met know these others, or they are quite famous bloggers who have allowed me the honour of being their friend.

Also on Facebook, I do not believe in sharing every personal detail as some do. Some things are private, although there is really nothing in my private life I am ashamed of (honest, guv).

I tweet a lot. It is mainly business-related content, though not salesy stuff. I do let slip some geeky and technology related material, but that is me. I do not usually tell anyone what is going on at home – not even what we are having for dinner.

I have several websites, all of which have some information about me, mainly business. The exception is the health issues I have blogged, and that is because I believe people, and especially men, need to be conscious that they are not invulnerable to becoming ill.

You will have gathered that if you type “Jon Stow” into Google or any other search engine, there will be a lot about me; more than about all the other Jon Stows. I have a high profile, and nearly everything you will find on the first few search engine pages will be fairly recent and probably no more than two or three years old. You will get tired after that. There is nothing I have to hide anyway, going back however far you wish.

Some people have had embarrassments in business though, or even worse. Someone I have worked with quite a few years ago is not at all active on-line. He has one business website and as far as I know is not at all active in social media. Consequently one frightful business mess which did not reflect well on him always comes up on a name search. This financial scandal, in which my ex-colleague may in reality have done nothing wrong, took place fifteen years ago. Because his name is not very common and because even that long ago newspapers and trade magazines published on-line, the stories will be on page one of any search.

I think it would be in the interest of this guy to be very active on social networking sites, at least for a year or so. The search engines like newer stuff. The old embarrassing stuff can be buried further down, and perhaps not come to light on a cursory search for this individual’s name.

I enjoy the positive benefits of my higher on-line profile, because they lift me up the scale of being noticed. It just occurs to me that negative stuff can be buried with a bit of work, while avoiding restricting our rights to know what we should about people, and without restricting our personal freedom.

What say you?

 

Posted in Blogging, Customer relations, marketing, Social media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Not turning up

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Jon Stow

Pookie & pondMy wife and I have had problems recently with business people not turning up when they said they would. First it was the pond guy, who said he would come on the Saturday morning, but didn’t. Then it was going to be the following Saturday, and it was only on the third Saturday that he appeared.

He had been responsible for putting in the pond and when we have problems we expect support. The trouble for him is that if we get another pond person in to help, she or he will ask why we have not stayed with our first pond guy. If we are truthful, word will get out and a reputation will be damaged, even if it is what one might call self-harm.

We have had the same issue with a “tree surgeon” who failed to turn up to inspect the damage he caused on his first visit. He was obviously a “cowboy” as we can now see, and it is a pity his bad reputation did not go before him. It will certainly go after him.

Of course doing a bad job is going to affect anyone’s reputation. People who do a good job when they do turn up still damage their reputations badly if they fail to make meetings or assignments.

Going the extra mile will always help the standing of any business person. Turning up at the right time is the essential first step towards perfect service.

Posted in Business planning | Leave a comment

The End of Business Cards?

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Jon Stow

I checked my drawer the other day to see how many business cards I had left from the last print. To my surprise it was a lot more than I had thought.

This leaves me with a dilemma. In one sense, I need my cards updated. My business has evolved, and although the call to action on the reverse side is still relevant, it does not precisely chime with my favourite niche.

On the other hand, I am not handing out many cards these days. Once upon a time when I started with breakfast networking groups, we handed out loads of cards, gave other members a supply to give to their contacts, and generally hoped they would bring referrals. Now, I mostly give cards to people who actually ask me at networking meetings and elsewhere. I think that is because everyone is now aware they can find everyone else on-line, or at least they should be able to do so.

A deterrent to handing out many cards is the likelihood we will get on people’s email mailing lists. I guess we know if we go to a trade exhibition and get asked for our card that is because we will be put on the trader’s email marketing list. I do not feel guilty about unsubscribing from those, but when someone I meet while networking adds me to their email list, I feel worse about unsubscribing even though I did not give them permission to add me in the first place.

The reality is that there is much less call on my supply of business cards. I am more reluctant to hand them out and do not feel I am expected to. My contact information, my skills and my businesses’ niche services are on-line for everyone to see. Do we really need to order 1500 cards at a time as I did several years ago? In five years’ time, will I need any at all when there will be some app for each of us to pass our details and spread the word?

What do you think?

Posted in marketing, networking | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Is working in your business just a chore?

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Jon Stow
Look around!

Look around!

This morning I went out for a walk in the woods, as I often do. It has been a lovely day today. The birds were singing and the woods are lush and green. There were plenty of squirrels, babies and adults, going about their business. There were thrushes and spectacularly smart, colourful jays.

A woman came walking the other way, with her dog. She was oblivious to her surroundings. She had her earphones plugged in, listening to her music. She stared straight ahead. She did not look at her dog. She did not look at me. She did not see the wood or the trees or the wildlife, and certainly she did not hear it.

We do not have a dog now, but I was brought up in a house in which we always had dogs. The reason to have a dog is for the companionship and for the pleasure of taking it out for a walk. I know this.

Yet to this person, walking her dog was clearly boring; a chore. She took no pleasure in exercising the animal which probably thinks much more of her than she of it. What is the point of her having a dog?

I wonder about people who see running their businesses as a chore. If they are getting no pleasure from it, what is the point of allowing it to occupy their lives?

You might say that the point is that they need the money. My point is that if running the business is such a chore, they cannot be doing it right.

Are they working all hours? They need to cut down.

Could they be more efficient in delivery, thereby cutting the hours worked, cutting the cost of delivery and increasing their profits that way? They have to consider whether they are not charging enough for their product or service, or maybe it is the wrong product or service.

Perhaps they should change what they provide. Perhaps they should change everything because it is no good living a life of drudgery. It is no good seeing work as just a chore.

 

Posted in Business planning | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

No regrets – but learn!

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Jon Stow

I guess we all have memories of matters we could have handed differently. Should I have gone to that college? Should I have tried harder with that girlfriend and might I have married her? Should I have chosen that career? Should I have taken that job?

The truth is that we will never know the answers to those questions, so there is no point in having regrets. We had an education, we may well be in a happy relationship now, we have made the best of our career and have probably been successful. What is there to regret? We must have learned lessons along the way.

Each time we chose a path, we did not know where it would lead, or where we would have ended up if we had gone the other way.

I have made many mistakes in business. I have wasted money on advertising. I was once scammed out of some money by a bogus “magazine publisher”. I did not accept offers of help when I should. I misjudged a client who never paid me all he owed, and it was quite a lot too.

We have to take our mistakes on the chin. As long as we learned a lesson each time, we have gained in experience and will know better next time.

It is no good beating ourselves up. Lessons learned are profitable and lead to more profits for our business by avoiding mistakes in future.

You don’t have any regrets, do you?

Posted in Business planning, management | Leave a comment

Avoiding taking the rough with the smooth in your business

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Jon Stow

iStock_000020557146LargeI started writing On Our Bikes to help others who, like me, found themselves with no work and had to go out and find it as an independent business person. I had no experience of running my own business and had not expected to have to do so.

It was for me a really tough position to be in, especially when like many, I expected that someone was bound to want my services. Of course I did not understand that clients have to be convinced that they need us, and understand our value to them.

Someone I have known for quite a few years through social media and face-to-face networking is Rory Murray. He has written a great Kindle book, The Saw-Tooth Dilemma (this is not an affiliate link) on getting work as a consultant and how to avoid the “feast-and-famine” scenario so unfortunately familiar to independent service providers and consultants.

Here is my review of his book on Amazon:

“Rory has written a roller-coaster account of his feast and famine experiences in work opportunities, and most importantly he tells us how to avoid them. This is a very personal account which would help anyone who is unemployed, who is a contractor or a consultant without a guaranteed stream of work. You will learn how to apply your social skills to gain work and how to use the on-line networking sites to best effect.

I cannot recommend this book more highly.”

Other reviews are here.

This book gave me a lot of food for thought, and I have run my own businesses for a dozen years now. We are all learning all the time, or we should be.

Do buy the book and download it onto your Kindle, PC, Mac or whatever device you choose. As I said, I am not on commission for this. I must really mean it, don’t you think?

Come back and tell me what you think of it.

 

Posted in Business planning, marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Forgiving the tyre-kickers

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Jon Stow

 

Ford Model T

Ford Model T (Photo credit: Jon Stow) – Don’t kick these tyres

Most of those who inquire after my services know what they want. They know that what I do will give them value. If they do not understand that, I hope I am able to persuade them of the value they will get.

Just now and again I hear from people who do not know what they want. They may think they might. It is a bit like wanting a car and thinking “luxury” in their mind’s eye. After going to the showroom they realise they only want to be able to get from A to B, and perhaps choose a cheaper option in an older basic model used car. That is fine and it will probably work, but they will not get the care and attention and after-sales service that a dealer in new cars will give as part of their three or five year guarantee.

I get prospects like that. My firm offers a great all-round service (I would say that, but we do our best to make it true), but if someone wants the basics and is scouting around for the best deal based on price, all they want is their papers filed and no after-care. So I forgive, refer them to a provider of basic services, and warn them against going with the cowboys.

Some people do just want the basics. Maybe that is not what they need and they could do better, but persuading them against their mindset will not result in retaining them as clients for very long.

I forgive the tyre-kickers and send them on their way. What about you?

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Sales | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

School’s out

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Jon Stow

The last bell

When I was at school, back in the mists of time, even when the last bell rang we could not pack up and leave the classroom until we were dismissed by the teacher. It might be different now of course. However, a desperate rush for the door would not seem to indicate much enthusiasm for the subject we were being taught.

Not far down the road is the main office of a local vocational training centre. At 5pm there is a veritable stream of employees and possibly some students out of the door and down of the road, many lighting cigarettes or on their phones as soon as they step out of the door. I find that very surprising. I would guess that there is not much job satisfaction there if everyone is so eager to get away, but it seems these people are not alone. The Cabinet Office has apparently found that there is a huge variation in job satisfaction.

Getting satisfaction

Of course I am not surprised that those in authority have more satisfaction than those that do not, and clergy as top dogs work mainly at their discretion, helping people, which must be rewarding. However, farmers come pretty high despite lower incomes, and I suspect that is not so much because they are in charge of others, but because they are actually self-employed and more in control of their own destinies unless weather takes its toll.

We small business owners do have a considerable advantage in having job satisfaction, don’t we? We make our own decisions, do not have reason to resent the boss (unless we really hate ourselves), take time off when we decide to, and should anyway be running a business we enjoy.

I did not originally choose to start my own businesses, but I am so glad that it happened. After all, as referenced in the BBC article, while we should make good profits, our social well-being and life satisfaction are the main elements in being happy in our work. That stems from our independence rather than dependence on less considerate employers. Aren’t we lucky?

Posted in Business planning, management | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Here’s not looking at you

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Jon Stow

Even walking down the street, there are people with whom we have a connection. We exchange glances and we smile. We smile about the weather, their child, our dog, the shop window we peer through. We recognise those we pass as individuals and we even form a vague impression as to what sort of people they are, even if we cannot know.

Then there are other people with whom we cannot have a connection. They avoid our smile and look away. They may have headphones plugged into their ears. They may be looking at their phones, so risk bumping into us or the nearest lamppost or road sign. They hardly know we are there. They do not acknowledge our existence, even fleetingly, to avoid bumping into us.

Small business owners must realise that our clients and prospects are a bit like that. To me, clients are far more valuable if they engage with us and see us as welcome allies to be valued. We do not need to work for those who do not extend us a welcome or common courtesy. Have you ever visited a customer or prospect who does not even switch off the TV, or even mute the sound? I have, and I do not want that sort of client who is rude, does not know any better, does not see me as an individual and does not think of his guest.

Clients who engage with us and are prepared to have a proper business relationship are the clients I want. I will make sure my business does the very best for them, for they are our referrers and advocates, and therefore our unpaid marketers. If we like our clients that much, we will recommend them to others too.

You cannot beat having genuine relationships in the course of business, can you?

Posted in Customer relations | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment