In through the outfield

Wheelie cleaning up in business

When I show potential customers round the Business & IP Centre I like to give little demonstrations of some our key databases.

I often start with Cobra (Complete Business Reference Adviser) from Cobweb. This is an essential encyclopaedia of practical information for starting, running and managing a small business. And includes more than 4,000 fact sheets, plus local area profiles and guides to writing business and marketing plans.

In order to illustrate how wide their coverage is, I ask for suggestions for obscure small scale business ideas. When Wheelie Bin Cleaner was suggested I had to supress a laugh at the idea for this as a serious business. However on entering the terms into the search box, Cobra came straight back with BOP477, a four page report. Included, were such gems as:

“Anyone considering starting a wheelie bin cleaning service will need to be comfortable dealing with the sights and smells contained in both domestic and commercial wheelie bins. Some of these bins may not have been cleaned or disinfected in some time, and may have contained all manner of rubbish, including food and sanitary waste.”

So I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when reading my local paper the Mid-Sussex Times this weekend to see a report headed “Paul’s cleaning up”. Apparently Crawley resident Paul Fraser cleans the dirty bins using a jet wash in the back of his white van, and charges £3 for a monthly wash.

If he had access to the Cobra report he might be considering joining the National Association of Wheeled Bin Washers. A membership association, which endeavours to promote high standards in the industry.

Business Start Up Show indicates increased interest

I spent the today on the Business & IP Centre stand at the Business Start Up Show at Olympia. This year they have moved into the larger hall and our stand was significantly busier than last year.

It seems that the recession is encouraging people to think about starting their own business, as predicted in one of my previous postings.

I met a City based lawyer who was positively relishing the prospect of being made redundant from her well paid, but boring job. She could wait to start investing her redundancy money into a business venture.

I was also rather suprised to see that Skype had a large stand at the show, but a company representative assured me that Skype are making a healthy profit. Although their computer to computer calls are free, they don’t cost Skype anything. For calls to landlines they share the profits with the local phone company.

Celebrating books in the British Library

On Tuesday evening I decided to pop over to the Conference Centre to have a peek at the event being chaired by Sue MacGregor (who used to be a stalwart of the BBC radio Today programme).

The title of the event was ‘A source of inspiration’: conversations with British Library readers, and is a part of the programme to celebrate ten years since the St Pancras building first opened.

And what an impressive line up of readers the panel was:

The eminent historian Dr David Starkey, who spoke of his work as the Guest Curator of the Library’s forthcoming exhibition on Henry VIII opening next April.

Professor Martin Kemp spoke of using technology to make items understandable, citing examples of Leonardo da Vinci’s work, and challenging the audience to consider that digitisation should be about “digital exposition, not just digital storage.”

The award-winning architect M J Long was also on the panel. She has particularly close links with the Library; her firm Long and Kentish designed the Centre for Conservation, and with her husband, the late Sir Colin St John Wilson, was joint architect of the Library’s St Pancras building. It was interesting to hear her talk about how they imagined people studying in the variety of spaces they created, and to see how this had been successful in reality. Also the reward for using expensive, quality materials, wood and marble, which were standing the test of time well. I have to agree with her assessment. After ten years of heavy use, most of the building still appears new or nearly new. Even the heavy oak and leather chairs have plenty of life left in them after supporting thousands derrières.

Last, but by no means last - as far as I was concerned, was Tim Campbell, winner of The Apprentice television programme. He explained how the Business & IP Centre has provided him with crucial information for setting up The Bright Ideas Trust, a social initiative to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. He described the Library as a “a hidden gem”, and his own desire to publicise the business resources to young people who might not otherwise come in.

The evening ended with a heated debate between David and Tim about increasing access to the British Library. David was worried about damage to the unique items in the collection through over use. Tim wanted to see more people benefiting from making use of our content.

All parties agreed that although increasing access to rare material through digitisation was a good thing, it was not a substitute for the need for subject experts to explain and educate readers.

Christmas sells - Christmas sales

During a spot of television watching the other evening I couldn’t help noticing how many times the word Christmas was used during the advert breaks. I know that Christmas starts earlier every year in the hope that business will reap the benefit. But this was almost as though the word was being thrown at the viewer as some kind of mantra. The irony is that almost all of these pleas to worship at the cult of Christmas commercial consumption ended with a hastily tacked on half price offer.

By chance, on the same day I read about a character who has well and truly bought into the ‘Christmas spirit’, by celebrating Christmas day every day since 1994. His name is Andy Park (aka Mr Christmas) and he estimates to have consumed 117,600 brussel sprouts, 5,110 bottles of Champagne, and opened more than 230,000 Christmas cards. He has also worn out 37 electric ovens, and 23 video recorders by watching the Queen’s Speech every day.

However, this year the electrician from Melksham, Wiltshire, is being having to cut back due to the credit crisis.

Divorced Mr Park said that this year the postage is so dear he is having to deliver his cards to himself by himself, instead of relying on the Royal Mail. Also he is being forced to downsize his turkey from 14lb to 9lb.

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10 million hits per hour for the new European Library

The new European digital library Europeana proved to be so popular with 10 million hits per hour that it crashed within 24 hours of going live, according to the BBC report.

According to their home page, they hope to be back by mid-December.

In the meantime you can get a sneak preview from here.

I find it ironic that in the midst of news stories about the closure of both school and public libraries in the UK there is still a great deal of demand for library material from potential customers.

Make a Wave Awards - closing date 12 December

The second round of the Make a Wave Awards 2008-2009 from Ogunte and UnLtd

(The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs) closes on 12 December Open to Women!

So if you are a woman with  “bold, fresh and ground-breaking ideas to help solve issues emerging in the communities of their choice, in the UK”, why not apply for an award of up to £1,000?

They are made to women in the UK who can show that a very small amount of money, paired up with a resourceful brain, can be used to make a difference.

“We are looking for ideas that fit with the values of UnLtd’s mission to reach out and unleash the energies of people who can transform the world in which they live. UnLtd call these people social entrepreneurs.

Your ideas need to be aligned with Oguntê’s Women in Social Leadership vision: inspiration, entrepreneurship, networking, confidence, and sustainability.”

DOWNLOAD SPECS Make A Wave Award - (Word Doc

DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORM 2008-2009 (Word Doc)

The Wattson goes global

It was great to hear from Richard Woods (one of the co-founders of DIY Kyoto) last night at our Going Global event on the continuing success of the Wattson energy monitor. I first mentioned their product back in February of this year, soon after it had beaten the iPod nano into 10th place in the Stuff Magazine cool gadgets of the year awards.

They are now moving into the global market place with the help of ethically manufactured Wattsons from China. This has enabled them to reduce the price to a very attractive £99.95, which means they now have a three week waiting list.

It was interesting to hear how some of their customers have become addicted to the product with a couple of weeks, and become devoted to getting a blue glow (indicating a less than average use of electricity). Some use it to check to see if they have left any unnecessary appliances switched on as they leave the house.

One surprising change they had to introduce to their marketing was to include a light bulb in their photos for scale. It seems some some customers wanted to order a Wattson to replace their coffee table. Perhaps this could be a niche expansion of their product line.

Although Richard explained that the key to their success was to design a product that would be so desirable people would want to buy it, and then find out what it would be used for (the Apple iPod approach), I like the way they have very simply spelt out what this new product has to offer for the customer.

* I can save you up to 25% on your electricity bill
* I’m good for the environment
* I’m quick and easy to install
* I measure electricity in the whole house
* I can go anywhere in the home
* I use up to four watts and cost £4 a year to run

Bravely Going Global at the British Library

I’m just back from our ‘Inspiring Entrepreneurs’ event Small companies, global ambitions with Brent Hoberman,, co-founder of lastminute.com, launched online interiors site mydeco; Asif Rangoonwala, founder of baked good suppliers Eurobuns; Dawn Gibbins, founder of Flowcrete flooring and the Barefoot lifestyle brands, and Richard Woods a co-founder of DIY Kyoto. who sell the ‘wattson’ energy monitor.

Once again the chair Matthew Rock managed the tricky task of giving everyone a say and finding time for lots of good questions from the audience.

Highlights of the evening were:

• Noticing how punctual the audience was tonight compared to our event on Ethical Fashion. Something to do with the credit crunch or the nature of those attending.
• Meeting both existing clients and entrepreneurs such as Ed Wray, designer of the BarbeSkew who had some revealing insights into the entertainment that is Dragon’s Den.
• Hearing how important it is to understand how your product benefits your customer and also their customers.
• Thinking of sections of a larger company as kingdoms, and giving the ‘kings’ freedom to manage without interference.
• Employing mavericks as managers (that one came from Dawn Gibbins, who was an amazing speaker. So much enthusiasm, energy and honesty.
• Meeting an entrepreneurial librarian, Jennifer Smith the co-founder of OneIS.

Credit checks are critical in current climate

Not my words, but those of Clive Lewis, Head of SME issues at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

He urges small businesses to invest in new credit checks on their customers to ensure they are aware of any potentially ‘bad apples’.

“Nobody can hide from the difficult credit situation any longer. Critical to coping with it is rigorous credit control – and that means having up-to-date credit references,” says Clive Lewis.

“Whilst many small businesses are diligent in carrying out credit checks on new clients, the information obtained is only of any use if it is up-to-date. In the current credit crunch climate, customers’ creditworthiness can change rapidly, so it has never been more important to ensure data on your customers is valid.”

Lewis concluded: “Credit information is available online at the touch of a button, so there is no excuse for not being bang up-to-date. Avoiding a bad debt can more than justify the cost.”

I agree with Lewis 100%. However, what I can’t understand is why for the six months we had a free credit rating service available in the Business & IP Centre, only a handful of our customers made use of it.

Top tips from ICAEW

•  
  Get regular up-to-date credit information on major customers and periodic updates on smaller accounts
• The credit limit (as suggested by the credit check) shows the
  maximum amount which may be owed by your customer at any one time -
  make sure your sales don’t exceed this limit; and ensure you have in
  place robust internal procedures for dealing with customers who exceed
  their limit
• Assess your payment terms – make sure you have agreed when you
  will receive payments and remind your customers about the payment
  deadline
• Don’t be afraid to chase your customer for payment – waiting
  politely will not help protect your business and your shareholders
• Remember: a sale is not a sale until you have received payments!

Online Information Conference 2008 - Clay Shirky Keynote Preview

As a first-time speaker at the Online Information Conference in London in a couple of weeks, I was intrigued to see the organisers have posted up a preview video of the keynote speaker on YouTube.

“Clay Shirky , Author of ‘Here Comes Everybody‘ and thought leader on the social and economic effects of internet technologies will open the 2008 conference with a keynote address that examines ‘Every piece of information is a latent community.’

One of the absolutes of information is that people don’t just like to have it, they like to share it, discuss it, argue about it. In the digital world, we now have media that can both transmit information and coordinate people at the same time; one potent side-effect is that published information can call a topic-specific community into being, by linking together the people who gather around it.”

It sounds like it will be an interesting and controversial topic.