Hello everyone
Been a little while since I uploaded to this blog, but want to carry on the topic of my last post. Here are some more great books which have helped me and think can help you!
BOOK - It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be by Paul Arden. Another well known book, so I thought would be worth a read. Very different from other books, very short snappy chapters covering many areas. The chapters include "Don't take no for an answer", "How to improve your strike rate" and " Do not covet your ideas". It will certainly make you think about your business a bit differently and well worth a read.
BOOK - What sport tells us about life by Ed Smith. I found this book really interesting by former professional Cricket player Ed Smith. Not really about business, but is about mindset and also about sport which is well up my street. Ed analyses the mindset of Zidane when he famously headbutted an Italian defender in a world cup final, and later said he would do the same thing in his mothers honour.
BOOK - If I could tell you one thing by Richard Reed, I heard about this book after listening to his interview with Rob Moore on the disruptive entrepreneur podcast. Richard interviewed lots of people from different walks of life to hear about how they got to where they are now. He speaks with Simon Cowell, James Corden, Andy Murray, Bill Clinton and many others. Some interesting stories and theories from some really successful people, worth highly recommend!
So that is it for now, will do a part 3 though as I think it is important to share knowledge or in this case others knowledge!!
Please do share your recommendations too!
Saturday, 20 May 2017
Monday, 17 April 2017
Ups and downs of a start up - Knowledge is power.
Happy Easter Break, nice to have a few days off to take it easy to reflect on things you are up to and things you are looking to do in the future, as well as eat a horrendous amount of chocolate and cheese in my case.
Being a one man start up myself, it can be a lonely place from my experience. You can have a lot of people around you and helping you, however in the end of the day it is your company and you need to make the decisions yourself. I have found several books, podcasts and articles very helpful and inspiring, so here is a list of the ones I would recommend!
PODCAST -Rob Moore - The Disruptive Entrepreneur. Downloadable on iTunes or direct from www.robmoore.com. A regular up-loader, Rob's podcasts include interviews with different interesting people including a World record holding body builder to the founder of Innocent Smoothies. Rob also does 10 to 20 minute episodes that cover a range of topics including cash flow, use of time, self belief and marketing. Well worth a download, Rob provides insight into being in business alone.
BOOK - The Lean Start up by Eric Ries. A world renowned book, the Lean Start up provides great insight into life in business with theories, as well as real life examples such as 'pivoting a business' and ' avoiding a product launch failure'. The book isn't too full of jargon ( which I appreciated ), and gives some great nuggets of information!
PODCAST - How I built this is a great podcast which is hosted by Guy Raz. Guests include business starters such as Haim Saban who created the Power Rangers amongst others and is now worth BILLIONS, Steve Case who created AOL, Richard Branson ( Virgin) and Jim Koch ( Sam Adams Beer). Some great and inspiring stories and well worth a listen, You can also send in your start up stories and could potentially have yours read out at the end!
BOOK - Richard Branson - Losing my virginity. Richard Branson doesn't need an introduction, this book is the early stages of Branson's career from starting a school newspaper to creating Virgin airlines. It wasn't always plain sailing for the billionaire, which may give you some comfort if you are having a tough time!
So there is 4, but there will be plenty more coming. If you have any which you think will be worth listening to or reading then please do share!
I have a nice Bank Holiday!
Saturday, 1 April 2017
Dust has settled on my latest event!
So it has been a while since I blogged in this particular blog, 3 months in fact ( just call me Carlos Tevez!). It has been a busy 3 months for me personally and professionally. I spent the majority of January travelling up and down the coast of Australia with my lovely girlfriend. We spent time on overnight buses, internal flights, staying in hostels and meeting great people; as well as staying on a boat for 3 days while travelling around the incredible Whitsundays. The trip was every bit as good as I thought it would be. It Not only did we get to see some amazing place and meet some great people, it made me realise how important it is to see the world and also take yourself out of your comfort zone!
The trip made me really appreciate 'down time' and the importance of 'letting your hair down'. It has also given me a thirst for more, I have heard of the term 'the travelling bug' and I can fully understand the feeling. It also made me want to really concentrate on Live Sport Talks when returning to British Isles. I had made notes from the first 2 events, these notes included areas such as:
What worked?
What didn't work?
What can I do more of?
How can I grow Live Sport Talks?
Here are a few of the notes I made:
Get away from your laptop sometimes and get out into the world!
I meant this by going to various events, market your event in person and of course network ( have posted about this in the past!) I still believe there is a place for traditional marketing, such as flyering at events and meeting people. At university, we were told that 1 in 100 flyers were even looked at let along read. You could argue that how many Twitter posts are actually looked at and read? I took this on board, and got a few hundred flyers printed ( Vistaprint are great for this, cost me about £20) and wore one of my promo t shirts and flyered at sporting events. It may seem easy to flyer, which it is but you have to prepare yourself to not take people not taking a flyer personally as well!
Got to get a good start selling tickets to give the event a fighting chance
I use Eventbrite to sell tickets to my events. Their charge a bit more than others, but they provide unrivaled analysis in my opinion. They also provide great content on event planning and promotion. They provided a great post about consumer behavior when purchasing event tickets, this was very interesting as it shows there is a spike when tickets first go on sale then a quiet patch then another spike as the event draws closer. Not to mention the ticket buyers that wait for 2 or 3 days before the event. I realised how important it is to get a good start when selling tickets and to really create a buzz about the event.
The importance of partnerships
I have dedicated a post to partnerships, I have had success in the past by working with the likes of British Swimming and British Gymnastics, so I was keen to get to work with England Hockey when planning my next event.
So our latest event, we was very lucky to have 3 of the Gold medal winning Hockey players from Rio! We welcomed Hollie Webb, Shona McCallin and Shona McCallin as the guests which was fantastic. The girls done a great job on the night and provided some great insight into Rio and their journey. We had a great crowd, 50 plus people at a great venue at St Katherines Docks in London. We have received great feedback since and had some people congratulate me on the night which was great.
Have been busy posting photos and video footage since the event, and we have had great deal of coverage. Now I am reflecting on the latest event and trying to work out what to do next!
If you are interested, check out the photos at www.livesporttalks.com!
The trip made me really appreciate 'down time' and the importance of 'letting your hair down'. It has also given me a thirst for more, I have heard of the term 'the travelling bug' and I can fully understand the feeling. It also made me want to really concentrate on Live Sport Talks when returning to British Isles. I had made notes from the first 2 events, these notes included areas such as:
What worked?
What didn't work?
What can I do more of?
How can I grow Live Sport Talks?
Here are a few of the notes I made:
Get away from your laptop sometimes and get out into the world!
I meant this by going to various events, market your event in person and of course network ( have posted about this in the past!) I still believe there is a place for traditional marketing, such as flyering at events and meeting people. At university, we were told that 1 in 100 flyers were even looked at let along read. You could argue that how many Twitter posts are actually looked at and read? I took this on board, and got a few hundred flyers printed ( Vistaprint are great for this, cost me about £20) and wore one of my promo t shirts and flyered at sporting events. It may seem easy to flyer, which it is but you have to prepare yourself to not take people not taking a flyer personally as well!
Got to get a good start selling tickets to give the event a fighting chance
I use Eventbrite to sell tickets to my events. Their charge a bit more than others, but they provide unrivaled analysis in my opinion. They also provide great content on event planning and promotion. They provided a great post about consumer behavior when purchasing event tickets, this was very interesting as it shows there is a spike when tickets first go on sale then a quiet patch then another spike as the event draws closer. Not to mention the ticket buyers that wait for 2 or 3 days before the event. I realised how important it is to get a good start when selling tickets and to really create a buzz about the event.
The importance of partnerships
I have dedicated a post to partnerships, I have had success in the past by working with the likes of British Swimming and British Gymnastics, so I was keen to get to work with England Hockey when planning my next event.
So our latest event, we was very lucky to have 3 of the Gold medal winning Hockey players from Rio! We welcomed Hollie Webb, Shona McCallin and Shona McCallin as the guests which was fantastic. The girls done a great job on the night and provided some great insight into Rio and their journey. We had a great crowd, 50 plus people at a great venue at St Katherines Docks in London. We have received great feedback since and had some people congratulate me on the night which was great.
Have been busy posting photos and video footage since the event, and we have had great deal of coverage. Now I am reflecting on the latest event and trying to work out what to do next!
If you are interested, check out the photos at www.livesporttalks.com!
Monday, 2 January 2017
Ups and downs of a start up - Things I learnt from my first 2 events part 3
Thank you to those who read my first 2 posts, for those who haven't please do! To summarise, I have launched Live Sport Talks which is a series of live events with different Olympians. I have had my first 2 events, which featured 3 time Olympian swimmer Joanne Jackson and Britain's most successful female gymnast Beth Tweddle as our guests. Running the first 2 events, I have learnt a lot about running events as well as running a business. In these posts, I like to share little bits that I have picked up from running my start up that may be of assistance.
Plan your time
One thing I do find, something I work hard not to do is sometimes I find myself working on a completely different task to the one I originally set out to do. We are in a world now where there are a lot of distractions, such as email and social media. It is easy to drop a task and work on something completely different after receiving an email. I have worked in sales, so I am used to dropping everything if a call comes through. I have now have a physical to do list, where I add all tasks I need to do that day, this ranges from small things to important things. I think sometimes the small things get forgotten about such as maintaining the website etc, so I always add these in to my list. Checking emails is another one, of course it is important to keep up to date with your emails however try not to become a slave to them. Here is a good article about managing email http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/7-ways-to-avoid-being-the-slave-of-your-inbox/ . I try to get on with a task and check emails every couple of hours, rather than sitting and waiting and dealing with an email. If a task is that important, they would normally call you anyway!
Network
I have posted about networking back in August (bit of networking), but thought I would go over some more bits I have picked up since then. I listened to a great podcast about networking, it was by Rob Moore, his website is here http://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/about-progressive-property/. You tend to go to these events and have some great conversations and take back heaps of business cards, however don't really get in touch with them again. I am guilty of this, which is a great shame. I have made the conscious effort to scan all the business cards on this app and get in touch with people. Even if you don't go into business with these people, it is worth building your network as you never know when you may need different people in different areas. I do like going to these events, as you meet like minded people who you can give tips to as well as receive tips from them. I urge you to go to more events in the future, and not get stuck behind your computer!
Right so that is all for this 3 part blog post. I hope you benefited from some of it, if you have any tips for me then please feel free to get in touch. Will keep posting at different stages of my start up!
Happy January people!
Plan your time
One thing I do find, something I work hard not to do is sometimes I find myself working on a completely different task to the one I originally set out to do. We are in a world now where there are a lot of distractions, such as email and social media. It is easy to drop a task and work on something completely different after receiving an email. I have worked in sales, so I am used to dropping everything if a call comes through. I have now have a physical to do list, where I add all tasks I need to do that day, this ranges from small things to important things. I think sometimes the small things get forgotten about such as maintaining the website etc, so I always add these in to my list. Checking emails is another one, of course it is important to keep up to date with your emails however try not to become a slave to them. Here is a good article about managing email http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/7-ways-to-avoid-being-the-slave-of-your-inbox/ . I try to get on with a task and check emails every couple of hours, rather than sitting and waiting and dealing with an email. If a task is that important, they would normally call you anyway!
Network
I have posted about networking back in August (bit of networking), but thought I would go over some more bits I have picked up since then. I listened to a great podcast about networking, it was by Rob Moore, his website is here http://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/about-progressive-property/. You tend to go to these events and have some great conversations and take back heaps of business cards, however don't really get in touch with them again. I am guilty of this, which is a great shame. I have made the conscious effort to scan all the business cards on this app and get in touch with people. Even if you don't go into business with these people, it is worth building your network as you never know when you may need different people in different areas. I do like going to these events, as you meet like minded people who you can give tips to as well as receive tips from them. I urge you to go to more events in the future, and not get stuck behind your computer!
Right so that is all for this 3 part blog post. I hope you benefited from some of it, if you have any tips for me then please feel free to get in touch. Will keep posting at different stages of my start up!
Happy January people!
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