Me and Owain had a good old chin-wag to try and get our heads around where things are going. In just over four months our tenancy will end at The Innovation Centre where we are currently on the Enterprise Inc scheme. This will mean by the start of July we will have overheads whether it be some kind of shop space or if even if we remain in The Innovation Centre.

I think if we both looked at our business plan now, we would barely recognise it. In the whirlwind of starting up your own business, planning can sometimes be put to the very last minute or if you have planned – completely ignored.

The importance of planning has been drilled into my cranium throughout my whole education. However, I get the feeling that when I plan something I get too comfortable and I can overlook things as we move forward.

I’m not knocking planning. But as I’ve said before, in this game you can have a few people chuck you ideas and have your head completely turned. What planning does do though is keep a record of the things you’ve thought about – even if they are put to one side, they may come into play later.

There are a lot of things me and Owain make decisions on very quickly, sometimes too quickly. Sometimes things just need to be resolved. Sometimes you go with your gut – if you fail, your hailed as an idiot, if you win, you’re a winner!

We have to make a huge decision on where we are going to be come July. It will require planning for sure. However, the decision may be made on gut.

Labels: business plans, decision making, Dominic, fishbowl3, gut reactions

This is not a remake of the acclaimed film with Alec Guinness ‘The Man in the White Suit’. Rather it is evocative of a lesson I learnt. I met up with a member of BNI who whenever I see him, wears a pink shirt. However, this was a one-to-one meeting, and it was a Thursday, so he wasn’t sporting the pink shirt which I’ve known him to wear regularly.

The pink shirt only makes an appearance at any networking event. Why? Well it certainly gets him noticed – this is a bright pink shirt. You only have to see him wearing it a couple of times and you instantly remember him. Finally, if you happen to be in a busy networking room, you don’t have to see where he is, but if you’re looking for him, ‘he’s the man in the pink shirt’.

We finished our meeting and he left me with a few business cards. ‘Why’ I inquired. ‘Because when you’re happy with our services, you’re going to want to tell your friends’. Perhaps some of the oldest tricks in the book, but these are good habits for me to adopt.

Labels: Dominic, fishbowl3, networking events, networking tips

A quick update regarding what has been happening at Head & Griffiths HQ. This week has been focused around (once again) refining the website in terms of uploading content and making it generally more accessible for potential customers. Somebody told me the other week that a website is always going to be work in progress, which makes reasonable sense – but this is a horrible thought for me and Owain at the moment though!

Morale is high once again. As soon as we hit February, we started to make sales again. This is particularly positive for us as generally January and February can be bad months for retailers.

Both myself and Owain are now trying to find a good middle ground in terms of where we are based from July 2010. We need a space which can work both as an office as well as a place for clients to visit.

This is certainly something although quite far in the pipeline, we need to discuss sooner rather than later.

If you have been lucky enough to have raised capital then you will know how important it is to keep your investors on side and happy. As for us at Head & Griffiths I have known our investor for a while and have a good relationship with him. Times have come though when being inbetween him and my business partner has been difficult. As Dom is really creative and image orientated that can sometimes be a different perspective to that of our investor. This then leads to me having to try and arrange some middle ground which both parties will be happy with.

This situation often leads to the best outcome as its had input from three different mindsets however it can also be draining trying to come to a suitable resolution. One other aspect of being in the middle which is not always easy is when I delegate work to Dom that has been suggested by the investor but it gets overseen and the next time we meet the same problem is highlighted.

I guess its not easy to be in the middle of different characters but its really important to have the differing opinions which gives insights into the thoughts of our range target demographics.

Labels: fishbowl3, january, owain, sales, update

As you may be aware, I have already written a blog about networking. If you’re not, then the title maybe a bit of a give away! I want to take this opportunity to add a few more things I have learnt since.

Recently I attended a different chapter of BNI at Leicester Tigers Rugby Ground. The other chapter I had been to was the De Montfort chapter. Both chapters you might think should be very similar if not the same. However, that couldn’t be any further from the truth.

The BNI networking event at Leicester Tigers had more people, willingness to make connections, develop relationships and make referrals work. It generally had more of a buzz about the place. The lesson learnt here is shop around! The amount of money you can spend on some of these networking events, you better make sure it’s the right one. However, if a BNI event jumps out at you, it’s a good idea to get in there quick. If another company who do suits gets in before I sign up I would be ‘shut out’ of joining the same chapter.

Before that on Wednesday night I attended a ‘Networking Nosh’ evening. This was really informal in comparison to other networking events I had been to. I came out feeling a little unsure how necessary it was attending the event. It was only on Friday after speaking to Owain that I realised it had been a good idea to attend. Owain had met a few of the people I had met on that night at another networking event. Networking is about developing relationships. People are not necessarily going to be interested in you on the first meeting. It may take four or five meetings before someone makes a significant step into a purchase or whatever it may be. Being a familiar face to people installs trust and confidence in you and your business.

I got two referrals on my first visit to BNI and I’m really looking forward to waking up at 6.00am and going along this week! I just have to make sure I’m original in my approach during my minute spiel.

Labels: Dominic, fishbowl3, networking events, promotion

We recently held a suiting event in our office block this week (video 29/01/10). Its our first event this year and our first of this kind. So its important to learn and grow so the next one is 100% better. If this happens after each one then one day we will have the best suiting events ever!!

Lessons Learned

1) More than two pieces of correspondence with the invited people is likely to bring more people
2) Have more suits so people can look at a wide variety
3) A range of media is probably more appealing (if people have more to do and play with they are more likely to be intrigued)
4) Have attractive members of the opposite sex wearing our clothing and conversing with potential leads
5) A little bubbly... I should think a relaxing glass of something sparkling next time will make everyone feel more comfortable and that’s what it’s all about.

We did take away some great feedback and have some interesting ideas to work on so things are likely to be moving on quicker. The likely changes

- More content on the site
- More manikins at suiting events
- Free consultations for anyone interested
- A range of support videos for people intending to buy suits and shirts

Labels: fishbowl3, lessons, promo event