Having sold my business of 17 years to Pinnacle Telecom Group PLC in October 2011, I was looking forward to the challenge of being part of a larger group; a new role which included integrating the existing IT businesses and defining the strategy and services for the future.

However, things didn’t connect or fall into place as I had hoped. Fairly early on I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t for me and I made the decision to leave the group.

Having owned OCD for over 17 years, the prospect of working within another organisation was interesting, but ultimately not for me.

That said, the CEO, Alan Bonner, and the Finance Director, Darron Giddens, are two fantastic people who are determined to build a business of real scale and take care of clients’ needs the way they should.

Over and above becoming part of another organisation, the realisation that I’d been in the same business for over 17 years also played a large part in my decision.

A couple of people told me they believed I was making a mistake; that it was too early and I should give it more time - these are people I respect and whose opinions are important to me. However, my gut told me it was time to make a break.

There are many times in the past I’ve ignored my gut feeling only to look back and regret that decision – I needed to trust my instinct this time. So, I made the decision to move on and start afresh. Now I’m looking forward to growing a new business with all the excitement that brings.

While I believe it was the correct decision to sell OCD and for it and the team to become part of the larger group, it’s important for me that I start a new challenge. The potential for Pinnacle Group PLC,  the team and their clients is extremely positive and I look forward to their continued progress.

My new business is Blinkered. We Specialise in Digital Marketing Solutions to promote your business, find new prospects and win new customers. Our focus is:

• Sites – Creating websites that project the best image, help visitors find the information they want and take actions you need – Get Noticed!
• Search – Moving you to the top of Google, Bing and Yahoo for the phrases that are important to the success of your business – Get Found!
• Social – We help you create and be part of the conversations you need to be involved in for the success of your business – Get Engaged!

You can get more information on our full range of services at www.blinkered.co.uk

A couple of final things for this post.

I’d like to thank my clients – some of whom have been with me since day one – for their business, loyalty and trust. I’ve made some great friendships along the way and I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve them over the years.

I’d also like to publicly acknowledge the team at OCD for their hard work, loyalty and for caring so much about how they take care of clients’ needs. I wish them all the best for the future as part of Pinnacle Group PLC.

Now for the next chapter…

All the best for 2012!

I stumbled across Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Computer) commencement address at Stanford University on June 12, 2005.

I thought it was very poignant and great reminder to all of us to make sure we aren’t selling ourselves short or simply settling when there is so much more there for us.

Don’t leave it too late and end up with regrets.

Excerpt from speech below:

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart”.

You can watch the 15 minute address Here -> http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/video-critique-steve-jobs-stanford-2005/

K

Times are tough and generating new business can be difficult, the sales cycle is certainly longer now.

In a recent blog article I talk about the danger of the “cheapest deal” click here to find out more.

OCD provide IT support from their Glasgow base for Businesses and Charities throughout Scotland and the North of England.

This is the latest book by John Jantsch author of Duct Tape Marketing and well known small business guru.

The purpose of the book is to educate you on the best ways to build your business or at least a large proportion of your business around referrals from friend, clients, prospects suppliers and strategic partners, you basically create a strategy for referrals.

The book is a fast and enjoyable read – it’s not particularly Americanised as many of these book are.  The tips, advice, processes and steps are equally applicable in the UK or indeed anywhere else in the world as they are in the US.

The introduction tells you the book will “show you how to craft a strategy that compels customers and partners to voluntarily participate in your marketing, to create positive buzz about your products and services to friends, neighbours and colleagues.

John warns that this isn’t a weekend project but something that will require you to look at your business and marketing in an entirely new way.

That said, let’s get on with the main points in the book.

How do you know or when do you realise, you are successful?

What does it mean to you and why is it important?

I find it incredibly interesting what drives people and why it drives them.

For many people the definition of success is one or a combination of the following:

• Contentment
• Happiness
• Financial Security
• Job title
• Size of their house
• Where they live
• Owning their own company
• Love
• Kids
• Health
• And so on…..

Given we all measure success differently, even brothers and sisters or very close friends, why is it so varied?

I find it amazing how many people complain about how bad they’ve got it, how hard their life is and how dissatisfied they are with everything that happens to them and around them.

Whether it be their job, their house, their car, their working hours, their pay, their boss, their colleagues, you get the idea.

I know it’s hard (and not a habit) for many to reflect on and actually appreciate how great our lives are.

It tends (in my experience) to only happen however when we watch a TV program, read a news story or perhaps hear a radio broadcast about something terrible that’s happened to someone or some town or city before we sit back and think, “You know what, it could be so much, much worse right now”.

When we have that rare moment of reflection, we think about the fact we have a roof over our head, we have some money, we have some food, we have our family and we are healthy.

We appreciate what we have and how important the people around us are.

I get asked frequently whether or not the Cloud* is something that companies should consider / change to / replace their existing solution with.

Many people hear the term and sometimes the hyperbole which can surround it at times and find themselves unsure and confused as to what they should do.

The simple fact is like anything in life, Cloud computing is the answer and a great solution for some companies and it’s not for others.

First you need to understand the company and what they are trying to achieve, what their goals and drivers are and how the people in that company need to work to deliver the best results for them and their Clients.

Once you get to the bottom of that (and many other things), you can start to look at a technical solution to support the business.  That may result in a recommendation for Cloud based computing, on premise or potentially a combination of both.

To be sure, there are some great solutions which are Cloud based, CRM systems, email systems, accounts systems to name a few.  Some of these are

Read an article in the New York Times this morning which I found interesting and got me thinking.

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/a-treatment-for-declining-sales/

How many times or how often (if at all) do you get someone to come in and look at your business with a fresh pair of eyes?

It’s so easy to be complacent and think:

• You know everything that’s going on in your business.
• You know how your staff feel.
• You know what your Clients think.
• You’ve got all the bases covered!

It’s been a long time (circa 3 years) since I went through this process.  I can remember getting good results from this, both from a staff buy-in point of view and also what else we could be doing to improve our service to Clients and generating more profit.

Time moves so quickly and any business that’s not moving as fast internally as the external market moves is going to go through a very difficult time and potentially fail.

The investment in a “fresh pair of eyes” could pay you back many fold and seems like a huge amount of common sense to me.

So, my questions are:

• Do you see value in this
• Are you going to do it?
• If not why not?
• Have you already done it?
• If so, how often and what were the results?

Kevin

I received the following from James Andrew from Shirlaws.

It’s an update from Darren Shirlaw on the “W” shaped business plan seminar he ran.

Hopefully my first post isn’t too far away from what he says in this!

Click below to open the PDF.

Preparing your business for change Darren Shirlaw

I attended a seminar in Glasgow a week or so ago by the coaching form Shirlaws.

The main purpose of their seminar was to (obviously) secure new Clients for their firm of coaches by talking through various pre-existing or potential future situations you may experience.

In a fairly subtle fashion they show how their coaches and systems can help you better prepare for and take advantage of opportunities.

I know a few people who speak fairly highly of their experience with Shirlaws and rate what and how they do things (Scott Alison being one).

I’ve never used them myself, however, I’ve used another business coach organisation by the name of ActionCoach and it did add value to my company.

Like all of these things, we may already know what, why and when we should do things intellectually.  However, many of us consistently fail to do these things on a regular basis, if at all.

Having someone (like a business coach) in place who we set goals with and have to “report” to at regular intervals, can help provide the necessary motivation to get things done, particularly in a business where there is one main decision maker who is not used to answering to anyone else!

Anyway I’m chuntering on and that’s not the point of my blog today.

The point is that Darren Shirlaw (the founder of Shirlaws from Australia) spoke about the worldwide recession and how he believes it will be a double dip “W” shaped recovery.

His belief is based on the fact the last 3 recessions have been very similar to this one when you examine the economic charts.

They have been similar in both timescales and shapes from dips to recovery, to flat periods and dips and recoveries again, sometimes down to the month of a rise or fall.

I’ve drawn a basic chart of where we are at present in the cycle (a few months after point E/F) and where it’s likely to go (According to Shirlaw).  There is another chart further down the post showing how we compare to previous recessions.