Took a call last week that resulted in a meeting yesterday with a business development consultant. This is part of a 'Start Up' business development initiative by the Government to give people advice on self-employment, starting a business and ongoing development. If you're in a similar position you may, or may not know that you are entitled to ten hours free consultation with experts in the fields of business law, accountancy, sales & marketing, development etc. Thereafter you pay, but I would say that getting a third person perspective on the first eighteen months was interesting and other views and ideas are welcome. In hindsight I would have paid for the information. I don't have a monoploy on good ideas, despite what former colleagues might think!
Anyway, a few ideas to take forward with regard branding, affiliates and a vision of where this is going. Self fulfilling prophecies actually tend to be so be careful of what you wish for!
Took ten minutes at lunchtime to watch Working Lunch on the beeb. A good programme to drop in and out of. The item involved the renaissance at Marks and Spencer, 'M&S' since Stuart Rose took over as CEO. What I find amazing is that the share price increased the day he took over and they are now worth four times the value. The synopsis by the economist interviewed of what he has done since taking over seemed like what anyone would do with the slightest acumen. I'm sure Philip Green has/is making enough money not to be crying too much about his offer not being accepted prior to the Rose takeover but that business was an absolute sitter for improvement. "It's not just any business development plan, it's a Marks and Spencer development plan" :)
My desktop computer hard-drive has started playing up. First the thing would not give me access to the folder I use mostly, the message bumbling something about invalid directories and corrupted disc, then this morning the computer insisted on performing a hard drive analysis before it would start up. This all reminds me of the last time my PC went down so I'll have to drag the most important files onto a CD just in case. It's a scandal though that these things seem to last less than two years.
The delivery mileage Clio Trophy I bought this week will be here on Friday. That's a real one-off and the price will surely set up some chatter in the Internet forums. Always amusing to see every armchair car dealer imparting their knowledge of pricing :) It's £13495 or near offer - find me another one!
