Winding Up
Posted: Mon 3 December, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »Many of my regular readers will remember the fun I had in 2005/6 with the company I was working for, particularly Arsehole Boss and the like. One of the main things that was always an issue with the company was that Arsehole Boss ran through the money that had been invested in the company like it was his own personal bank account, and that no-one seemed to care.
All told, that company had (it turns out) $9 milliondollars invested in them. And what’ve they got to show for it? Absolutely fuck all.
How do I know this? Because over the weekend I got an email and letter from the company, because I still own some stock in the bunch of twunts. Not that I ever expected it to be worth anything, but it was part of the job package.
And now they’re not getting any more funding, so they’re holding a fire-sale. They’re asking for offers on the various products and websites etc., basically “no offer not considered”. I’m really tempted to make a complete take the piss offer for one of the sections, just for fun.
As it turns out, looks like I got out of that company at just about the perfect time.
Networking
Posted: Sun 2 December, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Introspective, Own Business, Work-related | 1 Comment »Part of the entire process of developing more work for myself is the networking thing. I’ve almost certainly whittled on about this before- and almost certainly will do again- but it’s something I have to keep doing, and it’s interesting (to me, if no-one else) to see how things develop.
I’ve been a member of LinkedIn for about a year now, as well as Freelancers.Net and Cambridge Refresh.
In addition, I’m now working on getting added to more local networks, like the “Produced In Norfolk” and “Norfolk Network” sites, both of which seem to cater for the kind of things I’m doing. I think the real downside of this is that it all costs – although that’s OK so long as it gets some business coming back in. If it doesn’t, then it’s probably not worth renewing come 2009, I suspect. Then again, that’s all part of the big adventure, discovering that works, what doesn’t, which contacts are good, which aren’t.
The thing is, while I’ve made contacts through things like LinkedIn and Freelancers.Net, I haven’t had any business from them. In fact on that score I’d say LinkedIn is worse, because at least on Freelancers I can still ask and answer relevant questions, and build up the “brand recognition” of my company name due to the Google indexing of the forum, whereas with LinkedIn it’s more about making contacts without the extra “brand” cachet.
In fact, all my actual business in 2006 and 2007 has been generated by either personal contacts, word of mouth, or recommendations from clients and agencies where I’ve got a pre-existing relationship. So that says to me that actually while the “brand recognition” stuff from the forums is useful for “references”, it’s still the personal networking side that generates the actual business.
Spreading the Load
Posted: Thu 29 November, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Work-related, Writing | 3 Comments »Back at the start of the month, I was thinking about whether I should have another writing area, this time on the website for my business. At the time, I kind of ended up deciding not to.
Only I’ve been thinking about it since then, and well, I’ve changed my mind. So as well as D4D™ and the semi-regularly updated one on my photography site, there’s also now a blog-type thing on my business site. Yeah, talk about making a rod for my own back.
Thing is, they’re actually all very different – and it does make sense to be doing it this way. D4D™ was always meant as more of a place to vent, and that’s fallen a bit by the wayside of late. The photography one is more related to that side of things. And the business one isn’t actually going to be a blog at all- at least in the context of “daily/weekly updating, area to dump one’s brain”. Instead it’s a place where I can put larger pieces (well, that’s the aim) so maybe once or twice a month, but still using WordPress to do the deed.
Anyway, I’m going to see how it goes – it should help with spreading the load a bit, if nothing else. And of course if they don’t work out, I can just delete them from the site. But it’ll take some time before I decide to do that, most probably.
Getting Out More
Posted: Wed 28 November, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Own Business, Photography, Work-related | Leave a comment »With the current workplace closed for business between December 21st and Jan 2nd, I’m probably going to make use of some of that time for going out and getting some photos – well, that’s the plan, anyway. I suspect we’ll also have a bundle of work on the house to do, and there’s also the private work to be done still, but I hope to get at least some time outside with the camera.
Then again, that’s also something I want to be doing more during 2008 anyway. I’ve got some very specific ideas and bits I want to do, but also just the random stuff I’ve been thinking about, and a couple of projects. If nothing else it’ll be a good way to take time out from the manic workload that’s looking like happening.
Among other things, I know we’re up in the Lake District in March/April, and over in Ireland in June, staying in a cottage on the Ring of Kerry. Both weeks should be opportunities for lots of photos, regardless of the weather.
As it is, I’ve recently uploaded my 100th photo to the portfolio site, and with a bit of luck I’ll be able to double that in 2008. Of course, one can sometimes wonder whether 200 or more photos on a portfolio site is a good thing – while it displays consistency, style, projects etc., is it too much content to wade through for a prospective client or agent? That’s what I don’t know – although I hope I’ll find out before long.
Work Generation
Posted: Tue 27 November, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Work-related | 3 Comments »In 2008, I’m seriously thinking about doing a lot more freelance and self-generated work, rather than contracting all the time. It’s one of those “big leap” things, but as more stuff keeps coming in, it’s looking like it may just be pretty feasible. And I’m also getting into the entire “self-promotional” thing too.
For example, during the weekend just gone Herself was running a stall at one of the local craft/gift fairs – it wasn’t a brilliant fair in the end, but she’s made some money out of it, so it could be worse. I went over on the Saturday, and did some chatting to other stall holders, distributing my business cards as and where necessary/relevant, and it seemed to go OK. Of course, I won’t know for sure ’til they get in touch, or I chase them up, but still, it’s a start.
To be honest, I really don’t like this part of being self-employed, of doing the publicity bit, making the contacts and so on. You wouldn’t believe it if you saw me, because I’m actually not bad at it. I just don’t like doing it – but I see it as one of those “got to be done” tasks, and as such I get on and do it – the sooner it’s over the better so long as I’ve still done a good job of it.
There’s likely to be a lot more of it over the next year too, what with one thing and another. I’ll be pimping myself round the small(ish) local events, I’m going to carry on using things like LinkedIn, forums and the like to establish myself, and also making more use of both new and existing clients for word-of-mouth purposes. In addition, I’ll be doing those letters in the next couple of weeks, sending them out on spec and seeing how we do.
I’ve still got something of a time-cushion at the moment, in that I don’t really have to start finding more stuff again now ’til the new year – but then, that’s only five weeks away, so I know that I do need to start getting my finger out. It’s just that at the same time, while I know I’ve got to, I haven’t yet got round to having to.
I know, I know, I’m burbling on with no real point to the post. I was hoping that writing it down would go some way towards making me decide to pull my finger out. Maybe it still will – at least it’s got my head working in that direction.
Where’s Good?
Posted: Sat 24 November, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »Back in May 2006, I launched the first version of Where’s Good, which I planned/hoped would be a restaurant review site where people could become reviewers, recommend their favourite places to other people, and possible organise events and meetups based around those places.
To date, it really hasn’t worked out all that well. It’s a nice idea (or at least I think so, and so did some of the people I spoke to at the time) but it just hasn’t taken off. There are a couple of other ‘restaurant review’ sites around now, such as Hardens (which seems to be getting most of the business) but at the same time there were a couple of others that were due to launch around the same time as Where’s Good, but have never got past the holding-page stage. (For example, the Where Shall We Eat site, which just never seems to have done anything.)
Now, I’m not laying the blame at any/everyone else’s door for the lack of success – in fairness I’m the primary culprit. Where’s Good is a good concept (I think) but the design is frankly bad, and while it all works and works nicely (and fast) I suspect it just hasn’t got the right feel or interface.
In short, I need to do some work on it. (Wow, that’s becoming some kind of mantra for me at the moment) I need to have a think about how to make it work better and how to make it more appealing.
I think that I’m probably going to relaunch it in the first quarter of 2008, (i.e. between January and March) although I could wait ’til May, and do it on the anniversary of the initial launch and see what happens. In the meantime I need to figure out a lot of things about the site, including how to pimp the bloody thing out to the world. Well OK, probably initially to the UK, with potential for expansion.
In the process, I’ll be aiming (of course) to keep the sixty-odd reviews that *are* in the system – no point starting from absolute scratch again, after all, but most probably with a bundle of new ideas, a new design and the same old concept.
We’ll see.
Patent Application
Posted: Fri 23 November, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, Work-related | 1 Comment »Over the recent weeks I’ve been looking into applying for a patent on something, in collaboration with a friend. For obvious reasons, I’m not going to go into too much detail about exactly what we’re going to patent – that’ll have to wait a while ’til the application is done and registered, at least. Quite possibly even longer than that.
You see, one of the things we found out is that getting the full patent can take up to four years. So it’s quite possible that we couldn’t get the final sign-off – even if we applied right now – much before 2012. That’s a ridiculous amount of time.
And OK, it could come through a lot quicker than that, perhaps even halving the time scale. But that still makes it about 2010.
Now I do understand that there’s probably a whole heap of searches and procedures to go through, and endless hoops of bureaucracy, but bloody hell, up to four years. Talk about wheels going slowly.
Personally, I think it’ll be worth it. The idea is something that neither of us has ever seen, or heard mentioned anywhere. It’s got endless possibilities, particularly during Autumn and Winter (Ha, that’s got you thinking, hasn’t it?) and it’s got a fair number of applications once everything’s been patented. (or at least applied for and registered)
Will it make us millionaires? (Rodney) Probably not. But the thing is, you don’t know ’til you try. And when all’s said and done, well, it could make money, most probably in licensing etc. Time will tell- in this case probably a lot of time- but in the long run I think it could be a worthwhile venture.
(This last paragraph was brought to you sponsored by Clichés ‘r’ us)