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! 

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!