This weekend I went back to where I grew up to join the family business in celebrating their latest achievement. My parents and brother run a garden centre and this weekend they opened their new retail shop, an impressive 1200 square metres of barn-style building complete with underfloor heating and impressive ranges of giftware, clothing and garden furniture.
Well according to Ganesh Selvarajah, an adviser at the government-backed business support service Business Link, the holy grail for small retailers is knowing how to target new customers. He directly answers a question about this on the BBC website and he makes some interesting suggestions to one small business owner about the demographics of the area they live in, and the potential of targeting the Eastern European community.
As a marketeer by profession I probably spend more time than most thinking about audiences – both potential audiences and those which aren’t worth bothering about which is equally important to consider.
Last night I spoke to one of my friends, a recent graduate, who has been unemployed for a number of months – a situation I remember well after leaving University, unlike my contemporaries, without a job in the city lined up. We chatted about the sense of worthlessness, the fear and panic that at not having money coming in, and the difficulty in knowing who to turn to. Whatever the latest stats on youth unemployment (out next month) are – they won’t show the real effect that this these problems are having.
Yes its true. Well its true in the sense that a man with a laundry business dressed up as Superman and washed some clothes on the plinth in Trafalgar Square.
Even Superman has to do his washing
What a great example of how a small business can punch above their weight and get national exposure – off the back of his appearance he got a great piece of coverage on bbc.co.uk. Journalists love to hear about small businesses doing big things – and we have some top tips for how to promote what you are doing on our Global Entrepreneurship Week website.
We all have our favourite, inventive entrepreneurs. Men and women who were driven by ideas that were far-fetched at the time, but that have now become an established part of our social and work lives.
However, it is worth remembering that not all new enterprises need to be driven by a shiny, glistening new idea.
Independently owned, flourishing small businesses up and down the country operate around a core idea that is unremarkable – making sandwiches or providing IT solutions, for example.
These are the people I like to think of as Everyday Entrepreneurs.
The Independent today devoted two of its pages to the so-called ‘bubblebath baron’, Mark Constantine – founder of cosmetics firm Lush and all round entrepreneurial extraordinaire.
Constantatine’s rapid rise to entrepreneurial success is inspiring – after he chanced upon an article about the Body Shop in a local newspaper Mr. Constantine sent some unsolicited homemade soap samples to Body Shop founder Anita Roddick. Fifteen years later, he stands at the pinnacle of a £150 million cosmetics empire.
What is particularly notable about Constantine is that he has put the money generated by his entrepreneurial activity in the service of a number of green and humanitarian causes, albeit those with a somewhat millitant stance.
Nominations for the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion 2010 have now opened. Lord Mandelson suggests that ‘recipients of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion (QAEP) are outstanding individuals who are inspiring tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and giving them the skills and attitudes they need to succeed’ and that ‘they hold the key to unlocking Britain’s entrepreneurial talents and they deserve all the praise and thanks we can give them.’
Last year’s winners of the Award included Make Your Mark Ambassador Jamie Murray-Wells and longstanding MYM friend Charles Cracknell, as well as others including lecturers, teachers and practitioners. If you feel that someone deserves recognition for their role in promoting enterprising skills and attitudes then nominate them now!
So sad to see Coffee Republic to go into administration this week, let’s hope they find some buyers. At least one of our Ambassadors cites them as the inspiration for setting up her business, so it just shows that even good and inspiring business people don’t neccessarily last for ever (at least in their current guise – true entrepreneurs will bounce back!).
Do you think there are too many coffee shops on the high street, what innovative business ideas could use their shops and replace them on the high street?
What an inspiring story for anyone else on the dole. 18 year old Josh found himself out of work and bought an ice-cream trike off ebay for £1000 as a way to make money. He’s hiring the trike out for weddings and fetes. Brilliant!
It’s very rare that I watch a programme which really inspires me but last night I was lucky enough to catch Mary Portas Queen of Charity Shops and it honestly left me buzzing. I’ve been thinking for a while that charity shops should be taking advantage of the recession and making it sexy to buy second hand goods from them. And as I mentioned in my last blog I did ‘grow up’ in a retail environment so I’m probably inclined more than some to get over excited about the programme.
Yesterday saw the finale of the Make Your Mark in the Markets competition and a few of us trotted along to find out more. We ended up in the very plush surrounding of a parliamentary reception and chatted to some of the finalists whilst sipping tasty juices and eating scrummy cakes.
It was then time to find out who the winner was so we all trooped into the hall. After a suspenseful silence (as suspenseful as some of the best reality talent shows, only with more cake) Denise announced that Matthew Crawford of Easy’Nuh was to be crowned king of the Markets!
When Howies got bought out by Timberland I wondered if it would retain it’s ability to be entrepreneurial. Happily so far it doesn’t seem to have dented their enthusiasm for innovation and the latest to be launched is Teepay – a site where designers upload their t-shirt designs and, if they receive 30 orders, their order is printed and the designer receives a commission for each one. A great idea which is very new and I can’t really believe that it hasn’t been done before. If only more companies would innovate themselves out of the recession! Customisation is a trend which has been around for a while but seems to still be allowing companies to innovate – like Adam from Looks Could Kill, a young business which is proving to be very successful and an inspiration to many.
Being green fingered myself and a lover of good food I was particularly pleased to be alerted to the story of Andrew Johnson in the Guardian. He was made redundant in 2004 but is now running a business expected to turnover more than £1m next year.
His business is Living Salads, a great supermarket alternative to the chlorine filled bags of salad you get offered. His living alternative works in a similar way to the pots of herbs you are probably used to buying.
Great idea and a great business – well done Andrew. A great inspiration for anyone else who has been made redundant and fancies going it alone!
If you consider yourself a retail queen, get your entries in for the fantastic Specsavers Everywoman in Retail Awards! Supported by us, Everywoman (the UK’s leading provider of training and resources for women in business) and Specsavers, the awards aim to highlight the contributions women make in their field.
The awards, now in it’s second year, hopes to encourage more women to pursue a career in the retail sector and winners will benefit from gaining support and recognition from those in the world of industry, government and media. For more information check out our website and make sure you get your entries in by Tuesday 2 June!
Well we think it is if you have a strong idea, but don’t take our word for it. Mark Dixon, founder of Regus office spaces, tells Working Lunch he’s noticed a lot of start-ups appearing during the recession.
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