Yep, I could go into every single business out there and establish my critique of what they're doing right and wrong. Businesses are ALWAYS suboptimised.
The trickier bit is to help them actually implement the necessary changes - while still fighting all the battles that represent 'being an entrepreneur'.
The old analogy of how do you drain the swamp when you're up to your neck in crocodiles... Sales falling, cashflow issues biting, bank managers threatening, motivation dropping, mortgage repossession looming. These are the realities of entrepreneurship c2009.
What these entrepreneurs need is not a heap of marketing theory and pointy criticism - it's practical & easy-to-implement advice on HOW TO GET IT DONE.
But then, as they say, those who can, do, those who can't, preach.
Showing posts with label entrepreneur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label entrepreneur. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Lunch with DLOG
As you can imagine I get emails daily from people asking for my help and advice and I try to provide assistance where I can.
But just occasionally I get email bombardments asking for a one to one meeting so insistent and relentless that I occasionally succumb - usually if accompanied by the offer of lunch and a couple of glasses of white wine. And so it was today that I enjoyed lunch with an entrepreneur in the City and provided my insights on where to take his family business.
During the course of our conversation it became evident that the entrepreneur in question was none other than DLOG who regular followers of my blog will know is a regular comment maker.
I guess it just goes to show that persistence (one of the great traits of the entrepreneur) pays!
But just occasionally I get email bombardments asking for a one to one meeting so insistent and relentless that I occasionally succumb - usually if accompanied by the offer of lunch and a couple of glasses of white wine. And so it was today that I enjoyed lunch with an entrepreneur in the City and provided my insights on where to take his family business.
During the course of our conversation it became evident that the entrepreneur in question was none other than DLOG who regular followers of my blog will know is a regular comment maker.
I guess it just goes to show that persistence (one of the great traits of the entrepreneur) pays!
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Differences of Opinion
Interesting as always to read the differences in opinion that media articles about me draw. Today's Sunday Times piece is no exception.
First, a negative email received this morning (what is it about being on TV that de-humanises you to the point people think they have the right to send you whatever nasty messages they feel like writing?)
"Hi Rachel
Have just read your piece in the ST...
Glad to hear you are getting back on your feet instead of your bike so to speak.
I was an avid viewer of the Dragons Den...I say in the past tense for a very good reason.
The main protagonists in this series...always appeared to be the most arrogant , conceited bunch of individuals.( including your good self)
My question to you is the following;
Was I being duped by a TV drama or was in fact the behavior of the so called judges on the program true to life ?
If the behavior pattern was true to life...( As I suspect it was) then you have learnt a lesson that should stand, somebody of your intelligence in good stead for a long time to come.
Sincerely"
The second, a really nice supportive message received later today:
"I just read Rachel Bridge’s article in today’s Sunday Times. Thanks for sharing with us again the emotion you felt during your battle to save Red Letter Days. I don’t doubt that anyone one of us would have done anything else in the circumstances.
I hope that your experience will eventually reverse the view that people have about business ‘failure’ (whatever that means). I hope in some way that as we develop as a nation of enterprise, we will all learn that the path is not as straight as some would have us believe and when we take the wrong turn because of our errors of judgment that it’s all part of our walk down that path. I hope that we will all learn that real failure only happens when we refuse to bounce back and try again because we have been so scarred by our experience fear has taken over.
I’ve struggled with the word failure particularly in the context of Rachel Elnaugh and Red Letter Days. To me the success has been the rise and development of your company, the fact that you pioneered a whole sector and the fact that you run the company successfully for 16 years. You didn’t fail Rachel – you took a wrong turn, you made the wrong decision (and even that is debatable). The real failures are the people who refuse to see the success of your achievement and the legacy that will remain with us for a long long time. I don’t think we need to wait for your obituary before we appreciate that.
As for things happening for a reason – you are absolutely right and as you say you are seeing a lot of value in what you are doing now. Somewhere in your epitaph the words ‘successful entrepreneur’ ‘legacy’ and ‘altruistic’ should appear. You name will always be engraved in business history Rachel and I’m sure you’ll be remembered for turning the tide not simply the so called failure of Red Letter Days."
One of the things I have learned post RLD (apart from those business lessons mentioned in the article) is that people's reaction is usually a mirror of the person who has written it. Nasty people feel the need to say nasty things; positive people always look for it in everything they say and do.
Thank God for the positive people!
Enjoy your Sunday.
Rachel
First, a negative email received this morning (what is it about being on TV that de-humanises you to the point people think they have the right to send you whatever nasty messages they feel like writing?)
"Hi Rachel
Have just read your piece in the ST...
Glad to hear you are getting back on your feet instead of your bike so to speak.
I was an avid viewer of the Dragons Den...I say in the past tense for a very good reason.
The main protagonists in this series...always appeared to be the most arrogant , conceited bunch of individuals.( including your good self)
My question to you is the following;
Was I being duped by a TV drama or was in fact the behavior of the so called judges on the program true to life ?
If the behavior pattern was true to life...( As I suspect it was) then you have learnt a lesson that should stand, somebody of your intelligence in good stead for a long time to come.
Sincerely"
The second, a really nice supportive message received later today:
"I just read Rachel Bridge’s article in today’s Sunday Times. Thanks for sharing with us again the emotion you felt during your battle to save Red Letter Days. I don’t doubt that anyone one of us would have done anything else in the circumstances.
I hope that your experience will eventually reverse the view that people have about business ‘failure’ (whatever that means). I hope in some way that as we develop as a nation of enterprise, we will all learn that the path is not as straight as some would have us believe and when we take the wrong turn because of our errors of judgment that it’s all part of our walk down that path. I hope that we will all learn that real failure only happens when we refuse to bounce back and try again because we have been so scarred by our experience fear has taken over.
I’ve struggled with the word failure particularly in the context of Rachel Elnaugh and Red Letter Days. To me the success has been the rise and development of your company, the fact that you pioneered a whole sector and the fact that you run the company successfully for 16 years. You didn’t fail Rachel – you took a wrong turn, you made the wrong decision (and even that is debatable). The real failures are the people who refuse to see the success of your achievement and the legacy that will remain with us for a long long time. I don’t think we need to wait for your obituary before we appreciate that.
As for things happening for a reason – you are absolutely right and as you say you are seeing a lot of value in what you are doing now. Somewhere in your epitaph the words ‘successful entrepreneur’ ‘legacy’ and ‘altruistic’ should appear. You name will always be engraved in business history Rachel and I’m sure you’ll be remembered for turning the tide not simply the so called failure of Red Letter Days."
One of the things I have learned post RLD (apart from those business lessons mentioned in the article) is that people's reaction is usually a mirror of the person who has written it. Nasty people feel the need to say nasty things; positive people always look for it in everything they say and do.
Thank God for the positive people!
Enjoy your Sunday.
Rachel
Friday, 20 July 2007
Marketing Tips #37 - 'The Art of Flattery'
I lost my PA two weeks ago.
In your world this may have been a disaster, but I've found it quite refreshing to be back in control again - in particular of all the speculative emails I receive each day.
An efficient PA will see these as intrusions to be fended off in the politest possible way (or in the case of my last PA, irritations largely to be ignored). However, as my business is now 'Inspiring, Motivating and Helping Entrepreneurs Achieve Business Success', each one is at best a customer - and at worst a small piece of market research/feedback from which, at minimum, I can learn something.
99% of these emails are pretty positive - from people telling me about their business, sometimes asking for direct help or investment or simply sending me a few lines of positive words.
But yesterday I received the following from one Fakeidee43626824@aol.com:
'losses of £4.7million and you give advice , are you sure'
In the media meltdown and hate fallout that followed the crash of Red Letter Days two years ago, I learned that the best way to deal with such messages is to use the Delete button. The cyber equivalent of a dollop of birdshit landing on the windscreen of life, these occasional 'hate mails' are almost always anonymous, sent from dodgy internet based email addresses senders and I suspect from people who have never got up off their butt to achieve anything in life - let alone experience how difficult it is to create a business from scratch and run it for 16 years.
[Alternatively it could have been Peter Jones, having a bit of fun... But I digress.]
And so the message languished in my Recycle Bin, until 40 minutes later I received the following:
Hi Rachel,
I've just been leafing through your website and I think you're a star just for taking the time to put together some useful tips for people like me to take a look at -- it's comforting to think that even hugely successful business giants like you have been through the same exhausting process as the rest of us in your climb to the top. And it's encouraging to know that we all have the potential to succeed, because sometimes, despite your very best efforts, you can start to wonder if you're really up to the task.
So thank you for your words of encouragement.
Best regards,
Marc Jardine==========================
Biznis Cards ::: Online Print Solutions
www.biznis-cards.com
OK, it's a bit OTT - and I would hardly describe myself as a 'business giant' - but once my new PA is recruited, I know where I'll be getting her business cards from.
Enjoy your day!
Rachel
In your world this may have been a disaster, but I've found it quite refreshing to be back in control again - in particular of all the speculative emails I receive each day.
An efficient PA will see these as intrusions to be fended off in the politest possible way (or in the case of my last PA, irritations largely to be ignored). However, as my business is now 'Inspiring, Motivating and Helping Entrepreneurs Achieve Business Success', each one is at best a customer - and at worst a small piece of market research/feedback from which, at minimum, I can learn something.
99% of these emails are pretty positive - from people telling me about their business, sometimes asking for direct help or investment or simply sending me a few lines of positive words.
But yesterday I received the following from one Fakeidee43626824@aol.com:
'losses of £4.7million and you give advice , are you sure'
In the media meltdown and hate fallout that followed the crash of Red Letter Days two years ago, I learned that the best way to deal with such messages is to use the Delete button. The cyber equivalent of a dollop of birdshit landing on the windscreen of life, these occasional 'hate mails' are almost always anonymous, sent from dodgy internet based email addresses senders and I suspect from people who have never got up off their butt to achieve anything in life - let alone experience how difficult it is to create a business from scratch and run it for 16 years.
[Alternatively it could have been Peter Jones, having a bit of fun... But I digress.]
And so the message languished in my Recycle Bin, until 40 minutes later I received the following:
Hi Rachel,
I've just been leafing through your website and I think you're a star just for taking the time to put together some useful tips for people like me to take a look at -- it's comforting to think that even hugely successful business giants like you have been through the same exhausting process as the rest of us in your climb to the top. And it's encouraging to know that we all have the potential to succeed, because sometimes, despite your very best efforts, you can start to wonder if you're really up to the task.
So thank you for your words of encouragement.
Best regards,
Marc Jardine==========================
Biznis Cards ::: Online Print Solutions
www.biznis-cards.com
OK, it's a bit OTT - and I would hardly describe myself as a 'business giant' - but once my new PA is recruited, I know where I'll be getting her business cards from.
Enjoy your day!
Rachel
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
The Blog is Working...
Just as Steve Clayton Steve Clayton: Geek In Disguise promised (see first post 'Blog Virgin' below), the Blog seems to be starting to work...
Scott Barlow at UKpreneur http://www.ukpreneur.co.uk/222/does-rachel-elnaugh-have-a-husband/ thinks I am hot, wonders whether I have a husband (since when did that bother most men?) and has asked me for a date, while John Crickett at eCademy http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=86577 has taken exception to my Blog about Peter Jones' new 'Tycoon' show, posing the question 'Jones vs Elnaugh: Who Do You Think is the Better Entrepreneur?'
That last one is an interesting one John, and tells me instantly that you are an 'Alphapreneur' - one of those ghastly males that is always comparing dick size and wanting to know who is 'the best'. Take my free entrepreneurial profiling test at my own website http://www.rachelelnaugh.com/m_17.asp and tell me if I am right!
But it's an interesting question though - who IS the best?
How do you measure?
Is Tesco a 'better' supermarket than Waitrose?
Is The Sun a 'better' newspaper than The Big Issue?
Is Easyjet a 'better' airline than Cathay Pacific?
All comments are welcome.
Rachel
Scott Barlow at UKpreneur http://www.ukpreneur.co.uk/222/does-rachel-elnaugh-have-a-husband/ thinks I am hot, wonders whether I have a husband (since when did that bother most men?) and has asked me for a date, while John Crickett at eCademy http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=86577 has taken exception to my Blog about Peter Jones' new 'Tycoon' show, posing the question 'Jones vs Elnaugh: Who Do You Think is the Better Entrepreneur?'
That last one is an interesting one John, and tells me instantly that you are an 'Alphapreneur' - one of those ghastly males that is always comparing dick size and wanting to know who is 'the best'. Take my free entrepreneurial profiling test at my own website http://www.rachelelnaugh.com/m_17.asp and tell me if I am right!
But it's an interesting question though - who IS the best?
How do you measure?
Is Tesco a 'better' supermarket than Waitrose?
Is The Sun a 'better' newspaper than The Big Issue?
Is Easyjet a 'better' airline than Cathay Pacific?
All comments are welcome.
Rachel
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
