Thursday 30 January 2014

Funny isn't it how it sometimes takes an "outsider" to make you realise something great about your home town.

A couple of days ago - a friend of a friend had some family from outside of the UK come and visit them.

So they did what you do. They took them on the "tourist" places are where they live. And they were amazed at how beautiful their town and the surrounding countryside really were.

This happens more than we think - and I believe that this same process (which I am sure has a clever psychological name) is what drives us to miss out on local opportunities and the potential of our young people (not just in this country but in the world...) i.e. we see them everyday and we take them for granted.

It's why we don't just book a taxi and go to a local hotel or tourist spot every weekend. However, "oustiders" not having this mental fatigue (which might be the term) they can see the opportunity and the brilliance that we miss every day.

The local dingy pub with weirdos in it, you always walk past, for someone from abroad might be an amazing cultural experience mixing with people telling stories and living the real British lives they read about in books.

Anyhoo, the point of this is not about cultures per se, it is more that a Swedish company (and I am rather proud that it is a Swedish company as I am genetically half Swede) has some to Manchester as, as their CEO puts is

"Manchester is a fast-growing, forward-looking city that has invested in developing its reputation as a global digital and creative hub."

This company  PlaygroundSquad, has come to Manchester and The Sharp Project, as "The UK is the centre of game development in Europe so moving our model over here is a natural step for us..... Manchester is
an exciting place to be and we are delighted to bring our specialist training to the city and reach out to the talented young people who live here. We want to mirror our success in Sweden and create jobs and employment in this growth sector here in the UK."

So the Swedes want to bring growth to the UK through teaching our young people how to make computer games isn't it amazing how it takes someone else to support the next generation of UK gaming creation.

By the by the gaming sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, something that could help the UK economy and something I am rather passionate about.... so this is said for a reason.

All this is possible due to The Sharp Project director Sue Woodward OBE who is rather wonderful herself.

She is quoted in said: "It's fantastic to have persuaded Magnus to make Manchester the first overseas home for PlaygroundSquad. They were targeted as they are world leaders in gaming training. This is the final part of The Sharp Project jigsaw.

"Five years ago we planned to introduce a games facility to the building. It was always part of the plan, so it’s great to see it come to fruition. The Sharp Project is fast becoming a hub for gaming and skills associated with all kinds of creative digital content from network drama to forensics.

"Our talented tenants are producing material for a multi-platform world, a world that once was so fragmented but one we have created under one roof. That was the whole point of The Sharp Project - to shift the north from analogue content to converged media. Job done."

Job done indeed Sue, job done. It doesn't take an outsider to see that.

I wonder if they will be making mobile games? Now that is something Manchester needs to realise the potential of.... see a lovely blog about when I met Ian Livingston with Dojit games a year ago.

And perhaps more importantly what he is now doing since then.... spoiler alert he is starting a school.  


Monday 27 January 2014

Treat different people differently... but how?

We are just doing some customer research at Justaxi - a mobile phone app which helps you get the best price taxi service in Manchester - and so this blog by Seth Godin is rather well timed.

He has a great point - but in a way - he doesn't have the answer.

His point is treat different people differently.

"Don't teach your students as if they are a monolithic population of learners. They learn differently, they have different goals, different skills, different backgrounds.

Don't sell to your customers as if they are a fungible commodity, a walking ATM waiting for you to punch. Six of one are not like half a dozen of the other. They tell themselves different stories, have different needs and demand something different from you.

Different voters, different donors, different employees--we have the choice to treat them as individuals. Not only do they need different things, but they offer differing amounts of value to you and to your project.

The moment your policy interferes with their uniqueness, the policy has cost you something.

We used to have no choice. There was only one set of data for the student body, one way to put things on the shelf of the local market, one opportunity to talk to the entire audience...

One of the biggest unfilled promises of the digital age is the opportunity to go beyond demographics and census data. Personalization wasn't supposed to be a cleverly veiled way to chase prospects around the web, showing them the same spammy ad for the same lame stuff as everyone else sees.

No, it is a chance to differentiate at a human scale, to use behavior as the most important clue about what people want and more important, what they need.

It's a no-brainer to treat the quarterback of the football team differently from the head of the chess club. We treat our bank's biggest investor with more care than someone who merely wants to trade in a bag of pennies. Instead of reserving this special treatment for a few outliers, though, we ought to consider what happens if we offer it to all of those we value.

The long tail of everything means that there's something for everyone--a blog to read, a charity to donate to, a skill to learn. When you send everyone the same email, demand everyone learn from the same lesson plan or try to sell everyone the same service, you've missed it.

A very long time ago, shoe salespeople realized that shoes that don't fit are difficult to sell, regardless of what you've got in stock. Today, the people you serve are coming to realize that like their shoe size, their needs are different, regardless of what your urgent agenda might be.

So.... what does this mean for an taxi comparison app like JusTaxi - in truth - I don't know. I know that it means that perhaps we aim for personalization but how we do that - is in the hands of the techies - which means.... we will have to ask nicely and tread softly.

Perhaps bringing in the Facebook and social login's will make a difference as the more we know about each customer the more we can personalise the offer. But how much can you personalize the best price on a taxi in Manchester?  

Wednesday 22 January 2014

13 Things I will teach my daughter about the world...

A really lovely blog from Dharmesh Shah Founder and CTO at HubSpot - a company I love - and a chap who I met at SVCuk a couple of years ago.

I really nice chap to be honest with you.

Here he lists 12 things he wants to teach his 3 year old son. I add one in here as important to be. As 13 things I WILL teach my daughter (who is also only 3..) 

1. Gather knowledge… but also gather knowledgeable people.
You can't know everything. But you can know enough smart people that together collectively know most of what you need to know.
Work hard on getting smarter. Work harder on getting smart people on your side.
Together, you will be able to do almost anything.

2. The memory of work disappears like the memory of pain – all anyone remembers are results.
Experience is valuable – to you. Experience yields skill and skill helps you do things and get results. These results are what other people care really care about.
Focus on racking up achievements, not just years of service.

3. Take responsibility for outcomes.
Occasionally someone will intentionally try to screw you, but a lot more often you’ll do things to screw yourself. Learn to take responsibility when something doesn’t go well… and then to immediately start thinking of ways you will do better next time.
Hopefully she is sharing the achievement of this lesson.

4. Share credit for accomplishments.
Most of your great accomplishments will be the result of both your efforts and those of others. Learn to recognize this -- and share the credit.
You will also find that..
The more you are willing to share credit for great accomplishments, the more you will achieve great things.
5. Celebrate your achievements, then move on.
When you achieve something, it's important to take a moment, reflect — and even celebrate sometimes. But, don't bask too long in the glow of success. Be gracious, be appreciative, be thankful… but always feel you could do even better.

6. Don’t expect life to be fair. Life just is.
You will often think “That’s just not fair…” especially when you didn’t get your way or things didn’t turn out like you hoped.
You should always treat people fairly. You should expect to be treated fairly. But don’t be surprised when you aren’t treated fairly.
Never expect life to be fair. To paraphrase Yoda, “Do or not do. There is no fair.”
You may not always receive what you put in, but roughly speaking the more you put in the more you will receive. Which is fair enough.

7. See ‘boring’ as a springboard to success.
What appears to be the boring thing to do is almost always the responsible thing to do. What seems like drudgery actually builds the foundation for success. The people who achieve the most do a lot more of the boring stuff.
Routine, rigor, attention to detail, chugging away day after day... those are the path to eventual success. Elite athletes? They’ve put in thousands of hours working on fundamentals. Elite entertainers? They’ve put in thousands of hours of practice.
Successful businesspeople? They’ve put in thousands of hours of effort and hard, often tedious work.
Do the tedious, mundane, “ordinary” stuff better than anyone else – that’s what will make you great.

8. Don’t think you’ll always get a trophy.
Everyone doesn’t deserve recognition. Everyone doesn’t deserve praise. We don’t all deserve awards.
Think of it this way: Do you praise everyone you know?
If you want a trophy, earn a trophy.
You’ll enjoy it a lot more than any of those participation trophies you tossed in your closet.

9. Don’t expect someone else to boost your self esteem.
No one will automatically believe in you. Why should they if you haven’t done anything yet?
If you want to feel great about yourself, achieve something great. In the meantime, use any feelings of inadequacy to make you work harder. Instead of complaining, put your head down, work hard and prove everyone wrong.
Why do you think so many “outcasts” wind up being so successful? They have something to prove.
Go prove yourself – especially to yourself.

10. Understand that amazing overnight success is amazingly rare. And overrated.
As Mark Cuban says, everyone envies the overnight successes, but no one envies the five years in the garage that led to “overnight” success.
And even if you could strike gold in a few months, are you prepared to manage that gold? Early struggles, effort, and desperation forms a valuable foundation that gives you the skills to maintain long-term success – and gives you the fortitude to handle adversity.
Because there will always be adversity.

11. Know when to stand-out and when to fit in.
School was in part a journey of discovery and exploration. (That’s why you got to take electives.) School was designed to help you figure out who you are.
School’s out. No one will help you find yourself. They want to find out how you can help them.
Learn to be part of a team and to fit in when necessary. Once you do, the people around you will be more than happy for your individuality to start shining through.

12. Count yourself lucky to have 3 or 4 great friends.
Social networks are fun, but your real friends are the people who will take your calls at 4 in the morning. And actually listen to you.
And actually help you.
Work hard to find them. Work harder to keep them.

13. Do something amazing as we live in amazing times.
As Seth Godin beautifully put it - “How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?”

Now let's hope her Daddy, can do something remarkable with a geo location mobile app called JusTaxi which helps people book the right price taxi for them right now and hopefully adds a bit of value more into this thing called life. 

Thursday 16 January 2014

20 business lessons you don’t want to learn the hard way but you probably will.

Inspired by an old colleague of mine - this is a post stolen from someone else (i.e. found on Forbes)

It's all about failure and lists 20 things you shouldn't have to learn the hard way. Ironically, I 'learned' a few of things when working with the colleague who inspired me - especially number 9 and 13.

A lot of the other ones, like the first one, I learned all by myself - the hard way.

I keep it here to remind myself - especially about number 20 - enjoy :) 



1.       You can’t do everything on your own. Building a team is essential because there are only so many hours one person can devote to a business. Exactly when you reach that limit depends on your other obligations. If you’re a young single person, you might be able to do everything for a year or two. But if you have a family, your dedication will eventually hurt those relationships. Build a team that can carry on when you’re not around.

2.      You may think your product is perfect, but your clients won’t. Listen to user feedback: Your opinion may not be the best one. The key takeaway here is “release your product early and release it often.” You won’t know if you have a great product until it’s in the field and users are beating it up. It’s like some of the contestants on American Idol. They think they’re talented, and their friends and family think so, too, but when they get on a bigger stage, their flaws become obvious.

3.      Do one thing really well. Entrepreneurs try to be everything to everyone, but it’s hard to be the store that sells bait and baby toys and vintage Beatles albums. Specialize, and you can charge for what you do provide. That said, if there is a skill or service that would make your core product better, provide it.

4.      Get paid before you hand over a project to a client. This is especially important if you provide a service. Once you turn over that contract or website or design project, you won’t have much bargaining power. When I was a graphic designer, I watermarked all my projects and hosted websites on a private domain until the bill was paid.

5.      Undercharging is not sustainable. You think, “I don’t need to charge $150 an hour, I can charge $70 and make way more than I was making as an employee!” But you might find out a short time later that your “great” rate is unsustainable. By the time you pay taxes, employees, business licenses, insurance, etc., that $150/hour is looking more realistic. Compete on quality, expertise and your niche focus (see #3) instead of price. When competing on price alone, the clients who are price-shopping will always leave for the person or company that undercuts you.

6.      Patience and flexibility help you survive the lean times. ShortStack started out as a side project at my web and graphic design studio. We weren’t a software development studio, but when a client asked us for a software product, we didn’t say no. We were patient, scaled slowly — partly out of necessity — and it allowed me to build with company without debt.

7.      Build for your actual market. All of my software-building experience so far has been in answer to a demand. It is purely opportunistic. If you’re an app developer and you think “Wow, I think xx industry could use xx,” you might be disappointed. Put another way: I would never start a restaurant without having worked in one…for a long time!

8.     Never enter a partnership without a buy/sell agreement. No matter how well you think you know someone, you just don’t know when he or she will want to retire or do something else. Even if it’s on amicable terms, know how you can get rid of one another when it’s time for one of you to move on.

9.      Be grateful. Appreciate loyal customers who show you there is a demand for what you do. There is no dollar amount you can put on brand advocates. Good will translates to loyal customers.

10.  Look after those who look after you.  ShortStack, who wrote this piece over referral’s  but it’s very much under the radar. They want people to recommend the product because they like it, not because they’ll say anything for a dollar. If they notice someone said nice things about them publicly, they might send them a t-shirt as a thank you. If they do it again and again, they might say, “Hey, you should become a referrer and earn a percentage of the business you send our way.”

11.   It’s not a sale until it’s paid for. This sounds obvious, but I’ve known small business owners who get very excited about orders and/or meetings with prospective clients. But until the money for those products or services is in the bank, it doesn’t count.

12.  You’ll make more money being “wrong” than proving you are right. Rather than fight with an unhappy customer and say, “You’re using it incorrectly,” or “You don’t know enough CSS to use our product,” we just refund their money. In the long run, these people consume so much of the support team’s time and energy that it’s more cost effective this way. They’re not our ideal client, and that’s OK.

13.  People don’t leave companies — they leave management. This lesson goes for both employees and customers. A manager will lose staff if the employees think they’re not being listened to or valued. Customers will stop using your products or services if they are dissatisfied with them. The quality and reliability of your products and services is a reflection of management.

14.  The way you present your business should be a reflection of your audience. If you have serious clients, be serious. If you have hip, fun-loving clients, have a sense of humor. You have to find your niche and build your content to suit them. For example Constant Contact and MailChimp do essentially the same thing, but their marketing content reflects very different client bases. (Ed. Something we have to think about more at Justaxi - a mobile app which helps people get the best taxi price... we have many competitors but hopefully not for the new market we are aiming at with our new marketing.)

15.   Agree on scope in advance. Have a clear contract before work begins. Once a project goes beyond the documented plan, charge for it. If you agreed to build a website with 10 pages, but soon the site is 20 pages, the client should pay you for them. If your contract makes that clear at the outset, it is easier to control scope creep.

16.  If your company sells a variety of products, make sure you know how to use/operate every single one of them. It might sound like a tall order — depending on how many products your company sells — but learning to use what your company sells will help you look at things with fresh eyes.

17.   When you think you’ve tested your product enough, test it some more. Never release a product until it has been tested and tested and tested by people who don’t work for you. 
 
18.  Understand how social media networks work. When Twitter was first available for businesses, I’d see people use it like an ad in a newspaper. If you go on a channel and use it the wrong way, it could do more long-term harm than good.

19.  Save up. You can operate at a loss for a number of years but you can only run out of cash once. Have a rainy day fund that has at least two or three months’ operating costs in it. And have a line of credit available, even if you don’t plan to use it. Having a CPA look at your books once a quarter is also a must. (Ed. I do it daily for JusTaxi - but we are a mobile app so it might be different for everyone else.)

20. Always let the CFO pay for drinks. Cheers!

 The last one I managed to do just before I left my last client - but it was over Christmas so I cheated a little ;)



Wednesday 15 January 2014

Your biggest problem is NOT your product's lack of awareness or brand power. It's.....

It's ...something deeper than that. 

This is a wonderful blog from Seth Godin which gets to the crux of marketing and the problems people often have about the way they think about it...

This is mainly due to the fact that most people consume  A LOT of marketing - which makes them believe that they know about it - it's a bit like eating lots of food in great restaurants and then thinking you can be a chef. 

It is not to say that you cannot become a food critic - but A LOT of critics are not creators. 

Seth here is talking about the strategic point of marketing and a deeper fact of business i.e. that marketing is not here to make a bad product good and if you think it is that is a problem. 

As Seth says it  client's often say.... "Our biggest problem is awareness"
If that's your mantra, you're working to solve the wrong problem.
If your startup, your non-profit or your event is suffering because of a lack of awareness, the solution isn't to figure out some way to get more hype, more publicity or more traffic. 
Those are funnel solutions, designed to fix an ailing process by dumping more attention at the top, hoping more conversion comes out the bottom.
(Ed. This is old school marketing and what we used to do....with things like newspapers.)
The challenge with this approach is that it doesn't scale. Soon, you'll have no luck at all getting more attention, even with ever more stunts or funding.
(Ed. But you can change the conversion rates a little but this also doesn't scale quickly enough.) 
No, the solution lies in re-organizing your systems, in re-creating your product or service so that it becomes worth talking about. 
When you do that, your customers do the work of getting you more noticed. When you produce something remarkable, more use leads to more conversation which leads to more use.
No, it won't be a perfect virus, starting with ten people and infecting the world. But yes, you can dramatically impact the 'more awareness' problem by investing heavily in a funnel that doesn't leak, in a story that's worth spreading.
This IS modern marketing - this is social marketing. People have to talk about this. Which is why at Justaxi - a geo location mobile taxi comparison app - we are changing our product as much as our marketing. 
On this note if you would like to vote for our new slogan for 2014 - click here to Facebook Vote - you have until 7pm on the 16th.... so not long. 

Monday 13 January 2014

Born or made? Entreprenurs. Discuss.

After a rather turbulent Christmas and New Year. I have been left asking myself about employment vs. entrepreneurship. Whether you really can be an "intrapreneur" and in truth, whether I have a mental problem or something wrong with me. The reason being is that I have left my rather stable world of employment to work as a consultant for a start up once again. This despite knowing the risks involved. 

And you know what..... I couldn't be happier. Well I would be happier if my last employer and I can see eye to eye on the subject of some money still owed to me - rather a large amount as it happens. 

It is this disagreement again and the fact they didn't seem to see it as a problem that prompted my leaving, not the team I left, not the ideas that we had, not the speed of progress made, not the changing of the world or the changing of the seasons. 

Yet, something deep inside me puzzled me about my leaving, so it was with interest that I read the below about entrepreneurship, as it might just be that I don't have a mental problem, it might just be a gene inside me, a gene, called the e gene.  

Recent research by Amway has revealed that, to become a successful entrepreneur, you must be in possession of the 'e-gene', which is categorised by six different personality traits as identified by Chris Coleridge, an innovation researcher at the London School of Economics. And you see - I have several of them - if not all of them.... to an extent. 

The six traits of entrepreneurship are: 

Difficult background - left on a doorstep when I was two, taken into two care homes, adopted by a loving family (of a different race and religion)

Minority/disadvantaged group - originally rather poor - mixed race - luckly adopted see above.

Disability - mild dyslexia (yes I couldn't spell that without spell check - why is that word so silly anyway!  I also wear glasses (very strong ones) and I am a bit odd socially (great on stage but not in groups.)

Risk-lover and optimist - I would say the latter rather than the former, but looking back on it - not starting a career till 36 and always running my own businesses from 16 probably says "risk" 

Independence and social distinction - fiercely so  to the extent it has become a disability (see above) and what else motivates a man to write a blog like this :)

The need for achievement and power- again former rather than the latter. (See above see above)
However, an important distinction it that - power is something - I care not one jot for - and am a firm believer that power simply corrupts - the less of it in the hands of men the better (and I do mean men here not men as mankind.) The more power to the people rather than to man made bureaucracies (and again I mean man made not woman made.) 

Coleridge argues that a combination of these six traits can be identified in all "successful" entrepreneurs. Which brings up the subject of success which creates another points. As many / most entrepreneurs are failures for a long time, some argue that it is that ability to be a failure in the eyes of the world and still love what you do, still continue, still work at it and become successful that is another characteristic (and even a necessary part of the process.)

But isn't this the same of all artists and creators? When looking into the "Over night success stories" from musicians to comedians you often see the magic 10 years and the irony of them being called over night successes.  However, back to Coleridge's e-gene traits. According to the research, Richard Branson has four of the traits – disability, risk-lover and optimist, independence and social distinction, and need for achievement/power, whilst Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, possesses three - difficult background, minority/disadvantaged group, and independence and social distinction.

"Having researched entrepreneurs' personalities and traits, most of the successful possess an effectual logic – an approach to solving a problem that starts not with the desired end but with the available means, limiting the risk of failure," he adds.

Which pretty much sums me up.

And for the record I have all six traits - which cannot be healthy. 

But not everyone agrees (which is good otherwise the world would be boring) as serial entrepreneur Jonathan Richards believes that an entrepreneurial mindset is the sum of all our experiences and it is not something that we are born with.

"An entrepreneur is created when an idea comes together with a person who is happy to balance creativity and management; understand, live with and manage risk; evangelise the idea in the face of negativity; and stay responsive and positive," he says.

However, if you see the six traits, less than half are you born with. 

Former Dragons' Den judge and founder of School for Startups Doug Richard also believes that nobody is ‘born’ an entrepreneur and that entrepreneurship can most definitely be taught.

But he would as he teaches it. And very well might I add. Sometimes with my help.

What Doug says is...

"If you give a group of people a violin, certain people will have a natural ability of course, but that becomes irrelevant if everybody is given a chance to learn and practice. We all need to do exactly that in whatever we choose to do professionally or otherwise. Nobody can claim to be born an entrepreneur, and nobody wakes up one day with a successful business and brand. Hard work, mistakes and a determined attitude combined with the right support at the right time are the not-so-magic formula."

After reading the Outliners book and others it would seem that 10,000 hours should do the trick and then everyone would be entrepreneurs. The problem with this thinking is that some personality types, many of whom I have met now as I have had a job, simply wouldn't want to ever become a entrepreneur.

Perhaps entrepreneurship it is like greatness. Some are born great, some make themselves great and some lucky ones through clever marketing and PR have greatness thrust upon them! :)

Either way it is with the spirit of an entrepreneur I create my consultancy contract for working with a geo location mobile software specialist start up called Justaxi.  They have a great technology, an eager investment team, some real pedigree in entrepreneurship on the board, a great culture and new team (lead by me) and an amazing £1 billion market to aim at.

I am going to do their marketing and business development, bringing in social and mobile, maybe even a bit of augmented reality, definitely some gamification for the app experience and loads of digital guerrilla marketing ... as a consultant at first.... but you never know I might let them employ me :)