The Right Age!

I'm used to being the wrong age.

Most recently, I've been the wrong age for a career in research.  I've spent years doing it, but historically research has not been a career.  Rather it was an apprenticeship that had to be served by anyone wishing to be an academic. In the last few years efforts have been made to help researchers in the early stages of their careers, but I dropped out of all qualifying categories for "Early Career Researcher" a long time ago.

I'm also the wrong age for a lot of business advice and help.  Much of it is targeted at entrepreneurs under 30, and I passed that milestone a couple of decades ago.

I was therefore delighted when, one morning in May 2012, I heard an interview on Radio 4's Today Programme with a man who made cases for musical instruments. Rod Boyes set up Pinegrove Leather after he was made redundant at the age of 50 (an experience I was shortly to share).  He had been helped by the Prince's Initiative for Mature Enterprise. PRIME was established in 1999 to support prospective entrepreneurs over 50 who were threatened with unemployment.  Finally, unlike Neelam (a mere stripling in her 40s) I was the Right Age.

Bacon sandwiches are good for business

Business connections in Sheffield are lubricated by bacon fat. 

Once a month (usually the second Tuesday), SENTA (Sheffield ENTerprise Agency) holds a business networking breakfast.  Entrepreneurs and wannabe entrepreneurs gather to talk about business and to engage in the kind of juggling that usually goes on when people try to stand, talk, eat and drink, all at the same time.

I contacted SENTA at the recommendation of someone who had set up a consultancy a few years back and had found them to be helpful.  They were.  The course that Neelam and I attended offered similar material to Business Link's, but it was less formal and there was more opportunity to engage with the tutors, and the other people attending.  

Best of all though (from my point of view) were the bacon butties at the networking breakfasts.  Neelam (being vegetarian) is less keen.  Somehow croissants and Danish don't have the same appeal. 

Goodbye Business Link

In Autumn 2011 Neelam and I attended our final Business Link workshop.  Business Link was a business advice service funded by the UK government.  It offered excellent online resources and a generous free training and mentoring programme employing experienced and interesting business people who, in my opinion, it used poorly.

Business Link's training programme ended in November 2011 and everything went online, where it survived until October last year (it's now been replaced by Gov.uk).  While I'm a huge supporter of online resources, the virtual world is not yet so rich that it can fully substitute for real interactions.  Sadly though, in the case of Business Link, that's not as much of a loss as it should be. 

Sally and John, the two tutors I met, clearly had a lot of experience, which they were happy to share.  However, the sessions they took consisted of standard Business Link PowerPoint presentations.  These were informative, but didn't really need people to present them.  At the time, I remember commenting that they would have been more useful (and more interesting) if the sessions had followed a university tutorial model.  In other words, everyone who registered was asked to work through the presentations and accompanying exercises prior to attending, and used the sessions as an opportunity to consult a Business Link advisor, and to learn from other prospective entrepreneurs.  As it turned out, this is the model adopted by two of the other organisations from which Look-in-the-Bag has benefited: the Sheffield Enterprise Agency and PRIME.

Small business - big hopes

"Most new businesses fail within three years."
It's something we often heard as we were starting up Look-in-the-Bag.  We went to a lot of networking events, business start-up seminars and marketing days, and we learned a great deal about what new businesses did wrong that caused such a high failure rate.   

It's a well known fact that 92.3% of statistics are made up. Despite assertions to the contrary, most of us use a lot more than 10% of our brains, we are often more than six feet from a rat, and we don't need to drink two litres of water a day.

As it turns out, according to an OECD survey of start-ups that began in 2006, most made it past their third anniversary - despite the recession.  Businesses that began in 2005 probably had a higher survival rate.  According to Professor Jonathan Levie of the University of Strathclyde, they had a median life longer than the median tenure of a new job in Canada or the UK.

However, concern about the frailty of new businesses has no doubt played a part in encouraging governments, local authorities, universities and charities to offer help to people starting, or thinking about starting, a new business.

The odds of a new business surviving may be better than they're sometimes made out to be, but it can still be nervewracking thinking about how much it could all cost; and it's certainly confusing working out who needs to know what about your business.  At LitB therefore, we were happy to take all the help we could get and we came into contact with some very helpful people and organisations that I'll blog about over the next few days.

Campaign for Real Success Stories

I find few things more demoralising than motivational speakers.  Every time I hear another story of a dropout who left school with an NVQ in bird feeding*, a heart full of dreams, and a great idea, I cringe.  When I then learn that the great idea took root, grew and blossomed into a worldwide business empire, I just want to give up. 

Such people are exceptional.  Some are exceptionally talented, others are exceptionally lucky.  Either way, I would question the value of lessons based on exceptions.  It is highly unlikely that our business will turn us into billionaires.

[A chorus of motivational speakers addresses my inner ear:  You gotta belieeeeve Brother!  Believe the dream!  Cast out negative thoughts.  You too can make millions.  You just gotta belieeeeve!  Banish the doubt!  Stamp it out!  Know you can do whatever you want!]

Anyone setting up a business wants it to succeed but few people enjoy the staggering success of some of the examples routinely mentioned in business talks.  Examples based on more modest, less exceptional success would be less discouraging.


*OK - cheap shot.  NVQs are easy targets and not always fairly so.  I found my NVQ level 3 surprisingly challenging.

The cost of getting LitB on the go

It's amazing how many things you need to buy just to package and market the stuff you're selling, and it's frightening how expensive it can all get.

As well as getting scarves, bags and jewellery organised, we also needed to get business cards, address labels, product tags, and labels to stitch into things. 

One of the most surprising expenses was business insurance if we wanted to sell to the USA and Canada.  When we found out that it would cost an additional £500 we decided that North America could survive without Look-in-the-Bag products for a year or so.

The most annoying expense to date though, has been a recent hike in delivery charges.  We had found an excellent source of boxes that we thought were just about the right size for us (320x220x80mm).  They were - until 2nd April.

A recent survey organised by the BBC found that the UK's traditional three classes have now split into seven.  This development is being reflected in Royal Mail policy.  Our postal service used to offer a basic 1st & 2nd class service.  In recent years though, classes have multiplied.  For a while we've lived with big 1st & 2nd class, and small 1st & 2nd class (for both letters and parcels).  On 2nd April 2013, Royal Mail introduced medium parcels. 

When we took a package for despatch from the local post office and asked for a stamp, we were told to push it through a slot in order to determine its class.  It was tantalizingly close to fitting.  The package went part way, then stuck.  I asked at the counter how much more it would cost if we sent our box as a medium parcel instead of a small parcel.  "Three pounds" I was told. 

I gulped.  Our current postal charge of £4 barely covers our expenses as it is.  The box was stuck in the slot.  I pushed harder.  The post office woman shook her head.  "Sorry,"  she said, "it'll have to go as a medium."  I groaned, paid the postage, and wondered what to do with a large pile of boxes that are no longer quite the right size for us.

Beach Fantasy

Sand between your toes, the sun on your back, 

and the blue-green of a tropical sea.  

Wrap yourself in a daydream and relax.

The first time I ever tried snorkelling was nearly the last.  No one showed me how to ensure that the snorkel fitted properly, and within seconds I was coughing out seawater and desperately trying to understand the appeal.  I was persuaded to re-don mask and snorkel and put my face back down in the water.  I’m glad I did.  

I usually prefer mountains to beaches, but this particular beach was a short swim from a coral reef.  I’ve been an avid fan of natural history programmes since I was a  child, so the chance to (literally) immerse myself in one of nature's most stunning ecosystems was too good to miss.  

The experience of floating above intricately sculpted corals and shimmering fish is magical, but it is even better if it is followed by the experience of stepping out of crystal waters onto a sunlit beach and walking on soft white sand.  Unless of course, one stops to think about where the sand came from.