Popstar treatment

We have something a little different with todays deal.  I think its fantastic, our kids were forever trying to sing like Hannah Montana and with the Recording Studio Sheffield they can no at least try.

We spoke to Max at the studio and negotiated a deal which would normally cost £299 down to £49.  This gets people from Sheffield 2 hours of studio time, including working on the artwork for their CD and also a digital mastered CD from a professional sound engineer. http://www.sheffielddealoftheday.co.uk/index.php/frontend/campaigns/single/58/49-instead-of-300-for-a-2-hour-recording-studio-experience-plus-a-professionally-mastered-CD.-84

Being a small little family business from Rotherham, we are trying to do things a little differently, we are trying to get more family deals on and we are trying to get the right deals.

Only time will tell if we can do this........

Its been a long time....

It's been a very long time since my last blog.  In fact many things have happened the coalition government made it into power, I left my previous career and had been on job seekers allowance since July and massive tradgedies have hit New Zealand and Japan (amongst many others).

Since then I have launched a brand new business called City Deal of the Day Limited. http://www.sheffielddealoftheday.co.uk is our first website.  We have now been trading for 5 weeks and had many ups and downs in that period.

We obviously had to launch the business on a very very limited amount of money, so we begged and borrowed from friends, we are in the process of selling our house and we also received a start up grant from UK Steel Enterprise .

We run what is known in the business as a "Group Buying Website", along the lines of Groupon and Livingsocial who are the main players.  They define group buying as a way to lever discounts from suppliers as everyone forms together to get the best discount.  In my view this is a load of crap, what we actually do is offer Daily Deals, so in essence we are a Daily Deals website.  We currently offer daily deals in Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and pretty much anywhere in South Yorkshire.

It's gone well so far, we are in need of investment to grow the business and launch into other areas, but we have had some great deals in Sheffield on so far and these include an F1 experience, hair & beauty and meal deals.

As a small family business with no budget, we can't compete financially with the big boys, but we can utilize local knowledge which is how we hope to grow.  We hope to improve relations with large local companies and expand in this way.

Sales Forecasting - Where dreams are made...

Not a massive amount to report the last few weeks.  I have had various quotes back from web design companies that are looking at winning my business.  I am still in the process of getting my business plans ship shape and these are coming along nicely.  I have also had 1 more idea which I think could potentially be the golden ticket of the 4 plans.

I've come to the forecasting and profit and loss (p&l) side of the plans, and this is very difficult for me to predict/forecast.  I went onto companies house and download accounts from some relevant companies to find out what they are turning over, so I am using these to get to my final figure.  I find it difficult to say how many people will come to my sites and pay.  I have done year ones forecast and I'm halfway through year 2's figures.
The figures I put down are very very important, they are the numbers that investors will look at to see if they will make a gain on their money.  They will need to see enough return to enable an exit strategy should they need to make a quick win.  I think what i've put down is okay, but i'm going to get the advice of some business people for any help.

On another note, i've come across a company via a friend that will get certain sites up and running for a stake in the return (along as a certain number of people register), it looks like an interesting concept for one of the ideas so im going to find out more.  Even if its an option for a couple of years its definately worth looking into.  When i've got the information back ill post on here how it works.  I just need to see if they can support the methods that I am to launch.

I am still trying to get my meeting booked with Rotherham Enterprise also, trying to work it around work is the hard part.

Picking the right help

I've not much to report on the business plan front.  I downloaded some business plan software, but its very Americanised and not that straight forward.  I do have a template for a business plan that I got from the enterprise shows, So I will look at using this one I think unless anyone recommends any good software.

I have been in contact with a company that has quoted me for the web design, and they run a business start up practice where they give you £25k worth of start up support in exchange for a stake in the company.  I'm waiting for a call with the main person to find out the ins and outs.  They will get it so your start up company is investor ready.  I'm quite interested to learn more about this as it could be the perfect help that I need.

I have received a few quotes for my website from different companies and they range from around 13k up to 80k, so im going to get this business plan 100% when I get all of the quotes back.

This week i'm going to push forward with finding out more details on this company and also look at forecasting for my business.  I have downloaded some accounts from similiar companies so that I can try and accurately try and get the best figures.

People you meet on the way to starting a new business

So today I want to talk about the various people that you come across when you start a new business and generally in everyday business.  I've put together a few relevant nicknames so what they do sounds more apt.

1. The Chastity Belt - This is someone that will do what ever they can to block your hard efforts, they are kind of like a gatekeeper when you make a sales call.  They often think they are more important than they are.  However they think they can stop your plans they try, often (like with gatekeepers) these can be swerved and easily bypassed by speaking with more relevant and informed people.  The Chastity belt will always try to stop your access to the promised land!
2. The Brutus/The Messenger Pidgeon - This is someone that will stab you in the back if you let them but can also be used to send drips of important information to relevant people when needed.  The Brutus is someone that wants to be in an important place and will do whatever they can to get to this position no matter how unethical.  They are often found fairly closely behind the chastity belt (see above)
3. The Mourinho - These guys are important and very useful people to know,  they know all the business tactics to use and are often very successful.  They will often be high up in a company with having self importance.  They genuinely want people to succeed and will help with planning and guidance.  An example of these would be business advisors such as the business link advisors.  They have generally been there, seen that, done that. They are brilliant at plans and tactics.
4. The Font (Of all knowledge) - These people are guys that you would assume had written the book.  These are the big doggs, the lynchpins.  They have succeeded in business and can pass down valuable advice and often don't mind sharing this advice.  They can generally inform or guide you on stuff such as Finance, Marketing Options or other valuable business tips.  These guys are brilliant and will help you all the way.
5. The Samaritans - These are the people that are willing to help you no matter what.  They may not have the relevant skills or experience but they are willing to put their time in often for free.  They are usually likeable people and workers.
6. The Sukubus - These people will latch onto your business and try and claim all they can from it.

Used in the right game plan all of these resources can be used in the right way.  You meet them all the time, you just might label them differently.

Great Help From People Around Me

I'm new to this business lark.

I did business studies at school, but it was probably 8 years too early for me.

I am the Jack Rodwell of the business world.  I have great potential.  I have alot of skill.  I just lack experience, but one day I could be world class! :)

Im a novice when it comes to stuff from the HMRC or Companies house I just don't understand it, and i'm sure im not alone in this thought.

I don't know how i'd ever put together a water-tight business plan to a brilliant investor.  After all Investors have been there done that, they will know every little fault in my business plan inside and out.
They will have the Financial knowledge that I am pretty much dyslexic on.  I'm rubbish with numbers!

BUT, I keep coming across fantastic people that keep teaching me stuff, whether its to do with servers and web design, or whether its to do with organisations that can help me progress.  Everyone seems to help.

A guy I work with is being a fantastic help.  I won't name him as he probably won't want to be.  He has been a breath of fresh air in my work, he really knows his stuff.  He was also part of a new business enterprise initiative and he is helping me without a second thought.  He is giving me some great advice, and I will definately take it on board, he's also helping me with the hard forms from Companies House and the HMRC.

I've also had a call today from Rotherham Enterprise, I met them at the Enterprise Show in Sheffield run by business link.  They work very similiar to business link, helping Rotherham business's to get to a stage where they are ready and set for the market.  Im due to meet their adviser to talk through my 3 plans that i have put together.  Those plans could quite easily turn into 6 at the drop of a hat, so times are exciting.

The forums that I talked about in earlier blogs are also proving to be a good find, they are providing me some brilliant ideas and inspiration aswell as some sound knowledge.

I have a difficult couple of weeks coming up with some private stuff that is business related, but I can't talk about this on here.

The missus is at a templespa party tonight and i've just got in from basketball, so im just chilling out writing my blog.  Im on atkins diet so im shattered, but i'm still full of ideas which is great.

Interesting and Valuable Day

So today I went to http://www.theenterpriseshows.com/ which are being run by Business Link Yorkshire and help entrepreneurs interesting in receiving help and guidance when starting their business.  I learnt some valuable tips and got some great advice.

At these shows they have various stands from different companies ranging from Banks and Solicitors to local organisations looking at helping you through the stages of your start up business.  I am now expecting a call from a Rotherham Based company that looks to advise startup companies and also a business link advisor who will hopefully help me with my business plan.  I have also emailed a company there who specialise in web design for a quote on the different sites that I am looking to operate.

I went to visit a couple of seminars and while there I bumped into Michael Ord and Gemma Baldan of www.frooly.com which is a start up business which received £1m in start up investment.  They were both doing a talk to local entrepreneurs which was quite interesting and very funny and gave me some good tips on how to get the best from what I want to do.  The business that they run is a Social Networking Site designed to promote the best independent local business, and I think Frooly has the potential and the idea to become huge.  You can follow them on twitter with @whatisfrooly

I also had a bit of a brainwave on the way home, and I need to research this a bit further but it basically a new way for small start up companies to get business.

Anyway, the heavens have opened and what was a lovely sunny day earlier looks quite mental and I may need to build an arc.

Useful Tools for Start Up Companies

Over the past week or so of writing my new blog I have been given some useful information and resources by quite a few people.  These are becoming a great help and some of the things that I thought would be straight forward look like being far from that.  Great that I now know because it means that I should be able to get everything air tight.

I was put in touch with 2 business forums which basically help business people with answers that they may not know.  This is ideal for a start up business such as myself, as many of the questions and terminology thats used is like speaking in toungues!!!  The 2 forums that I have been put in touch with are www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk and www.freebusinessforums.co.uk/ and I've had some great responses from people that are willing to help and seem genuinely knowledgable.

I am also attending an event run by Business Link Yorkshire and it is basically talking through and giving advice to young people about starting and developing a business, the website to the event is www.theenterpriseshows.com/.  I'm looking at getting lots of tips on business plans and hopefully network with some interesting people.

All in all this could be quite an important week in my longterm plans.

I shant be beaten!!!!!

So im still messing around with this server trying to get the site up and running, ive had my database go missing, ive had table and settings sql go missing and now im missing some kind of smarty file!  Never again will I curse the lads in IT........Saying that they are trained, im merely a monkey trying to do an IT Geeks job!

I've decided I wont let it beat me, im learning new things all the time so for me its actually been a good experience.  I might not no everything about it but the site is nearly up and running, I just have to find out how to install this smarty.php file!

Business plan wise nothing had happened, I need advice from external people and I need to know the best companies to get quotes from so that is going to be a longer process.  I don't mind this, I want it to be right when its done.

I am going to go to an event thats planned by Business Link Yorkshire that is designed for start up businesses which should be good.  They should be able to give me more tools.

I also want to say a thank you to Gemma Killeen an old school friend that got in contact after reading my blog and gave me some good advice and Dave Dingvean who was interested enough to offer his service.  Its much appreciated.

Luck or Karma?

Sooooo, once again companies house sent me out an Annual Return to send back to them (I've still no idea what it is, what it does, or what relevance it will have to them.  I think they just charge it yearly to make more money).  Once again they have failed to send me online filing passwords which means that its costing me more money than it should and it also means that i'm 2 days late in sending the information back to them. Its really frustrating and then they even have the most antiquated methods of payment.  I can pay by cheque or by postal order.  I think someone should tell them that its the year 2010 and there is a thing called the internet that allows people to pay for stuff and there is also something called a Ninendo Wii, its like an atari (with Pong) but without the wires, it must be magic!

Sometimes things just dont seem to be set up for start up or web orietentated business's. Alot of the jargon they use is also a ballache.  I don't know if im supposed to dedicate shares to myself, or distribute them.  Am I company secretary or a director or secretary general!??!?!?  THIS is why I need someone with experience to get advice from!

Sometimes I believe in Karma and other times I dont.  For instance, when I used to live in Peterborough I would go out alot and not maybe concentrate on my career and I never got any breaks.  Then as soon as I moved to Sheffield (The day I moved up I got made redundant) things started going really well and within 6 months I had a new house, a new car, a baby on the way and a wonderful girlfriend (Now Mrs Clarke).  It got me thinking that Karma must be playing a part...........Until I see people that don't deserve things getting the good things! 

Over the weekend we had a really good viewing on our house, but we found out today they had gone for another house even though it was a straight choice!  Now thats Karma........Or is it?

Local Resources

So the aim of getting my business plans to market is to create 1,2 or 3 profitable businesses so that I can easily support my family in the future.  There are lots of resources available to start up companies and people looking for help.

One main company that people know about are Business Link, they help start ups with things such as Grants and Advice.  Other things available to people are things such as business angels, here in Yorkshire there is a company called Yorkshire Business Angels, they are basically a group of investors looking to make money out of start up companies and help young entreprenours.  They are kind of like the Dragons Den people, but without the sarcasm of Duncan Bannatyne and they dont sit in a chair with £100k next to them.

I aim to take advantage of as many of these local resources as I can over the next couple of months, they should be able to provide me with the knowledge that I need to get the results that I want.

On another note, I have some kind of forms that need to be back with companies house by the 20th.  I have registered with webfiling and was expecting some passwords to get mailed to me.  I still havent received these and im sure it was the same lasttime.  I find this ridiculous as these forms by all account are quite important so ill need to chase these tomorrow.

I have already had some enquiries following the writing of this blog which is great, its good that people take an interest and want to get involved.  Hopefully I can get to a stage where I can give a definate answer on the way forward for the business soon.

On another note, hopefully the www.pimpyourpic.com website will finally be back up and running after a year out tomorrow, I managed to transfer everything to the  server myself, im just having problems with putting the database on here too, so im waiting for a good friend of mine to find the file and show me what to do next!!!

In the beginning there was............

So, I keep trying to remember back how all of this started.  It feels like i've been planning it for ever!  PYP was an idea that stretches back 6 years ago, I have been back and forward trying to think of the best way to do it.  I have met numerous designers, some flash based, some psp.  Ive written about 4 plans of different products to do.

I first paid for a designer 4 years ago when I got some bank charges back, it cost me around £2500 and it never really came back like I wanted so its been left on the backburner.  Things change now, im focussed and I know what I want and how to get it.  I just need some guidance along the way.

Today seems to be the change in the seasons, its gorgeous today.  I've already been to Rother Valley with my family, Everton have just scored a penalty after 2 mins and it looks good enough to light up the temporary BBQ.  Today is the day where the plans need to change.

I have 2 other plans that I need to get up to scratch, one seems to be a new idea but is fairly obvious.  No one has done it right.  The second could be a brand new thing, ive seen things that touch on the subject but nothing concrete.  All this has come about because of my current job, I think of new plans, I think of new ideas, I try to create.

The IT Crowd - Im a Server Servant

So today I have been trying to get www.pimpyourpic.com back online.  Its not completed, nowhere near, but I need it to have a presence.  I have spent alot of time and money getting it to this stage already.  I've paid developers to mess around with a script and i've also paid for a brilliant designer to come and design me a fab logo.

The problem that I have at the moment is that i'm not a developer, I don't do servers, I don't do website script, I only have very basic knowledge.  This means that i've had to do alot of reading and messing about.  I've signed up to a free hosting service www.000webhost.com and this seems to be going well so far, i've downloaded the script that the designers originally cobbled together, i've pointed the domain at the correct server, i've even FTP'd the script over to the website............ All of this not bad for an amateur!  I know have to figure out how to get the database up and running.  Im just gonna go in fresh, I had a database of around 100 people, I dont even know how people found the site but they did!

I'll spend the weekend messaging the people that I believe can help me with my business plans, influential people, business people, people to look up to and learn from.  I'll ask for their advice, i'll take their notes, i'll use their information and then hopefully i'll have the right tools in place to put the 3 plans that I have into progress and then hopefully on the right path to a wicked business!

Wheels in Motion

So im onto day 2 in figuring out how I get my ideas to the marketplace.  I have found a free hosting company to host www.pimpyourpic.com, i've just got to configure how to get the website live.  Its all techie talk and some of it needs simplyfying for non web developers like me!

I've posted to my LinkedIn account asking for people who can help with my business plan and I have had some response.  I have 2 main people in mind who I want some advice from and I will be approaching them over the next couple of days.  My mind is made up and I want to succeed.

When I get home to my beautiful wife, I have to explain that I need to go on the laptop for quite along time, to do an FTP transfer.......Infact scratch that, she is doing a temple spa party.  www.templespa.com/sharonclarke (Free Plug - I dont mind selling out)

Hopefully by tomorrow, ill be 90% towards uploading the website and have a better idea on how to progress with my business plans.

Out of Adversity

So following yesterdays bad news I have decided that I need to push on with my business plans that I have. I have been working on these ideas for over 4 years. I put plans for 2 of my ideas to my company back in September but although they are interested in them, they are not in any rush to move forward. I therefore need to take the initiative and push for these.

Today I have decided to look at the plans and get them viable for going to a private investor to help me along the way. I dont have much money, but I have alot of ideas and sometimes that is more valuable.

Im playing basketball tonight, so I doubt ill have much time to do this tonight, but Im already working on different things.......