The fish episode quickly settled on the theme of morally disgusting food and started banging home the message that scientists believe that by 2048 we’ll have totally depleted our natural fish stocks and our national institution of ‘cod and chips’ will be a thing of the past. Due to Riley’s silly reporting my wife wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not and asked if I thought it was true.

The answer being that whilst it might well be true, I don’t believe it will happen. Instead I believe that the law of supply and demand will ensure that fish stocks last considerably longer. Using my favourite fish, cod, as an example lets consider what I believe will happen. Firstly demand for cod is strong and likely to remain so for as long as the price is affordable. The supply on the other hand is dwindling, reduced by the fishing quotas aimed at reducing the level of overfishing and overfishing itself.

The law of supply and demand therefore suggests the price of cod will rise. Now a strong demand, limited supply and rising price should immediately get any entrepreneurs attention. It suggests there is a profitable business opportunity for anyone who can increase the supply. So sat there watching the program a business idea came to me: cod farming.

Now I know we farm salmon, so why not cod? Sure it might not be economically viable at the moment, but as the price of wild cod rises it would no doubt become more financially attractive with the bonus that it should make anyone interested in sustainable business ideas fell like they’re helping to sustain the species.

A quick look on Google today suggests that it’s definitely a feasible business idea, an article published by the North Atlantic Fisheries College titled The Atlantic Cod: The Potential For Farming In Shetland takes a good look at the entire business, explaining that some cod is already farmed.

Photo by: Joost J. Bakker

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However, unlike death and taxes, meetings are not out of your control. You can pretty much define the nature of your meeting, the way it is run, and who attends.

But few of us do this. Instead we just arrange a meeting and wait for people to show up. This is why meetings are often on those ‘top ten fears lists’ (usually closely behind death and lunch with the taxman) that you see now and then. No one likes them. They hurt.

There are some things you can do to make your meetings more productive and valuable. We are not talking about dressing up as a chicken and playing team games (we’ll save those for corporate retreats). Instead, we are talking about you, holding a meeting with your team and/or clients, and making it rock.

How? Well, we’ll start with basic stuff, and then go onto more radical ideas that may test your comfort zone. The ideas are all tried and tested, and they make happier meetings. Combine all five, and you’ll probably never hate meetings again…

Start on time

Not difficult, this one. Start your meeting late and it just makes everyone feel depressed.

Clients, especially, will appreciate you getting this bit right. Do it wrong, and your attendees will think you don’t value their time.

And then your meeting will move up one place on that list we talked about, just above ‘ten minutes with the dentist’.

Keep to timings

Assuming you’ve started on time, keep your eye on the clock. Everyone has the agenda (right?) so no one will be surprised if they are asked to stop speaking so you can get to the next bit.

Again, it’s a time value thing.

Keep to agendas

Most people hate meetings because they feel nothing gets done. If you have an agenda that is important, stick to it. If the meeting wanders, it is hard to argue that your meeting is anything other than an unstructured chat. Fuzziness leads to nothing being achieved, which kills authority.

No chairs

Told you we’d get radical. Research states that meetings held standing up means decisions being made in 34% less time. That’s a win-win for everyone.

Voluntary attendance

And this one is for the hard core, the leaders who want to make a real difference.

Tell your team that attendance to the meeting is voluntary.

This really works.

Think about it. If business about your company is being discussed, the team will need to know.

Ask the team to volunteer items for the agenda, and tell them they can come if they want.

What do you think will happen?

Exactly. If people have created the agenda items themselves, they will want to turn up. Do this enough times and you have a company that wants to meet and has things to say. This works exceptionally well with the smaller business model, where teams can still grow.

Go forth, and meet

So try all of these ideas, or just one. They all work, some more immediately than others. But try them soon, because the business world needs rescuing from the curse of the boring and pointless meeting.

This is a guest post by Sahail Ashraf of The Smart Homeworker.

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Why do you give away your business ideas for free? Is it because free business ideas are bad business ideas?

I give away “free” business ideas because I have, read about or come across more business ideas than I could every possibly execute myself. Besides business ideas in and of themselves are essentially worthless, it’s difficult to protect business ideas and pretty hard to sell business ideas (for much more than a few pounds/dollars). The value created by a business comes from the execution of the business idea, not the business idea itself.

So is a free business idea a bad business idea? Maybe, maybe not. What makes a business idea good or bad largely depends on the environment in which the idea will be executed and the person or persons executing the idea.

So the business ideas on this blog are freely available because the success or failure of any business you build based on one of these ideas will depend on what you do as the entrepreneur executing the idea.

Asking John:
Do you have a business question you would like me to answer? If so you can Ask John or or you can ask on the forums where you’ll get both my input and that of your fellow entrepreneurs.

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I’m short of cash but a business consultant/web designer/marketing expert has offered to help me out in return for equity. Should I accept his offer?

No you shouldn’t. Never and I mean NEVER pay for any business expense with equity. To explain why lets look at what that equity will really cost you.

What equity really costs you

As a small business:

Lets say your small business hires a consultant for what would have been a £5,000 consultancy project, but instead of paying them the £5,000 you offer them a 10% stake in your business. You then work hard on your business and generate profits of £30,000 and £50,000 in your first two years. As you’ve taken tax advice from your accountant you’re taking a small salary out of the business and relying on dividends to top up your earnings. After two years you sell the business for £40,000, which reflects the profit levels minus the equivalent of your salary.

In this case you’ve actually ended up paying the business consultant: dividends of £3,000 in your first year, £5,000 in your second year and £4,000 from the proceeds of the sale of the business. In total that’s £12,000, or £7,000 more than you would have paid in cash.

Had you paid for the advice, but borrowed the money:

• on a credit card at 30% interest it would only have cost you (assuming you made no interim repayments) a maximum of £8,450;
• from a bank at 12% interest it would only have cost you (assuming you made no interim repayments) a maximum of £6,272.

In other words paying in equity has been the equivalent of borrowing the £5,000 at an extortionate 55% interest per year.

As a high growth startup:

Let’s assume you hired a consultant to do some work that, had you paid cash would have cost you £12,000.

If you offer them 10% equity, it costs you no cash now, but you’ve given away 10% of the business. As the business is a high growth, cash hungry business the profits are re-invested and no dividend payments are made. But as a result your business is successful and you sell in three years time for £1M. You’ll only see 90% of that and you’ll have paid the consultant £100,000 for £12,000 worth of work.

Conversely if you’d borrowed that £12,000:

• At 30% interest and not paid a penny of it back until you sold the business, it would have cost you £26,364 for the same advice.
• At 12% from a bank, again not paying a penny back until the business was sold, it would have cost you £16,859.

In effect by using equity you would have paid 103% interest per year.

It doesn’t stop there however, because, in both cases, as well as the financial cost you’ve also given away some control of the business (I am assuming of course that they’ve insisted on a suitable shareholder agreement to protect their share) and made it harder to seek external investment in the future (because there are more parties that need to agree a valuation and dilution of their share).

In short, don’t ever pay with equity. If you really need the product or service, find the cash another way, and preferably not by using credit cards!

But what about the risk?

Now I’m sure someone will argue that by paying with equity, rather than taking on debt or using their own capital the entrepreneur has minimised their risk. Which they have, but it’s a very, very expensive way of minimising the risk. I’d also argue that there are better ways to address the risk.

Addressing consultancy project risk:

• Precisely specify the problem to be address, the deliverables resulting from the project and how success will be measured.
• Ask for and check references. Make sure the references relate to projects like yours, not unrelated projects.
• Ask the consultant to guarantee their work against the specification you have provided.
• Tie part or all of the fee to the achievement of agreed performance milestones.

Addressing investment project risk:

• Test the idea before investing.  See How To Start A New Business for more on testing business ideas before implementation.
• Precisely specify the project, the deliverables resulting from the project and how project acceptance will be managed.
• Tie the majority of the payment to satisfactory acceptance of the project.

Finally don’t forget that paying with equity introduces the risk that the supplier is offered another project halfway through yours, that pays cash. If they decide that the cash is more attractive, you’ll be left in the lurch.

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Below you will see some of the templates we have built for our clients recently, you will see that they all match there website in terms of feel and branding. To give you the edge and help you make the right first impression ….. ……. …….

Now, my written English is not perfect, but when I write a sales letter, I do not mix up “their” and “there”. Such mistakes may seem trivial, but these and similar errors lead to ambiguity. Ambiguity in sales materials, potentially, leads to misunderstanding. In the sales process, misunderstandings are often expensive (but profitable for the lawyers).

What to Do

• Double check letters and emails for accuracy and for grammatical errors which may cause confusion.

• Get someone else to proof-read leaflets, mailers and brochures that you have written – once you have written some text and reviewed it yourself a couple of times, you start to see the words and the meaning that you intended – rather than what you actually wrote.

• Put written work to one side for a couple of hours and then re-read it before committing to print.

• Make sure that your spell-checker is turned on and is set to the appropriate language. Here in UK, I always use “English (UK)” – as opposed to “English (USA)” – the subtle differences can make a real difference depending on your audience.

• Do not place your trust in your spell-checker alone. A correctly spelt word can still be a typing error –with just one letter misplaced. There is only one letter difference between “Free” and “Fee”. Both are spelt correctly, but one will not pay the bills!

• If you struggle with common words and phrases, write yourself a handy hints guide and keep it near your keyboard.

Further reading:

• The Elements of Style by Strunk & White – [John: An excellent book that everyone should own. I really must read my copy again.]

• Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss

This was a guest post by Paul Fileman of Results-Zone. Results-Zone bring extensive knowledge and experience gained in Blue Chip organisations to businesses like yours. They ensure that your business is fully exploiting a well thought through operating plan. They work alongside you and your team – as business results managers. They ensure that your team and your business are elevated to the results-zone. They bring you “hands-on” experience – similar to employing high quality management skills without the risk or costs in recruiting full time employees.

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I have a business idea. To open a new art and design gallery. I can see how it looks, but the main problem is, I have no idea how to make it happen.

Starting an art gallery is not something I’ve ever done, or ever considered doing. There are two good reasons for this: firstly I know very little about art; secondly I know absolutely nothing about this industry. I suspect anyone asking me for advice on how to go about opening an art gallery probably knows even less, so my advice is simple: don’t do it.

If you really, really want to start an art gallery then your first step should be to get some experience working in an art gallery and to become an expert in the type of art you wish to sell. Note, that’s not an expert in the techniques used to produce it (although you should know more than most) but an expert in whose work sells well, who buys it, why they buy it and how much they’ll pay for it.

I suspect that there are two key aspects to running a successful art gallery: knowing what art to sell; and building a contact list of art buyers.

It might also be worth buying or borrowing a copy of the book How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery

Asking John:
Do you have a business question you would like me to answer? If so you can Ask John or or you can ask on the forums where you’ll get both my input and that of your fellow entrepreneurs.

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So what is a niche website idea?

An idea for a website targeted at a particular niche market.  A niche market is a focused targetable segment of a market, or for those of you that prefer the version in English rather than business speak, it’s a small highly focused market. Some examples might be: bushcrafters, strongmen, Olympic weightlifters, left-handed guitarists, vegans and so on. Think about your hobbies and you’ll probably come up with quite a range of ideas for niche markets.

If you think a niche website is the business idea for you and would like to know how to find and develop niche website ideas, then I’d recommend you start by reading my post: how to find niche markets.

So what are the benefits of niche websites?

Some entrepreneurs set out to change the world. I prefer to find a market, preferably an under-served niche market and then deliver what that market wants. That way you have a targeted market, who in the case of online businesses, will be looking for you (through the search engines) and you’ll face little if any competition.

Consider the examples I gave earlier and you might, especially if you have any interest in weight training, wonder how a vegan would manage to eat enough protein to be a strongman (or maybe that’s just the way I think). You might then wonder if there are any protein bars for vegans. If you used the Google Keyword Tool you’d find that around 1,000 people per month search for “vegan protein bars” (plus related terms) and if you then check Google’s search results you’d find there are only nine websites directly competing for the term and only two of those actually sell the relevant product.

You’ve then found a small niche market that is barely competed. Now that market alone won’t make you rich, but do that several more times, offer more products to the same niche market or find a bigger niche market and you’ll be able to make a very good living.

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I was working on a business idea with and someone who I shared the idea with took my idea and my business name and started the business. Is this legal.

It’s morally questionable, but yes, it’s perfectly legal (see the post Can I Steal Someone Else’s Business Idea for more information). I’m sorry, I know it’s not what you want to hear, but business ideas are for all intents and purposes impossible to protect, as I explained in the post How Do You Protect A Business Idea.

What you can protect however is the execution of the idea, and it is details of that, that you should keep close to your chest.

Asking John:
Do you have a business question you would like me to answer? If so you can Ask John or or you can ask on the forums where you’ll get both my input and that of your fellow entrepreneurs.

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Objectives and Take-Away

• Write down the objectives of the talk – from the audience perspective.

• Write down the Take-Aways – the 3 or 4 things you want the audience to remember at the end of your presentation. This gives you two advantages:

  • The audience has something to focus on

  • When you rehearse and find you are 10 minutes over time, this list is the ultimate guide to cutting irrelevant content.

Storyboard

Sketch the main points on a scrap of paper. I usually draw a grid to represent the number of slides or visual aids. Then add in a summary point at the front – tell them what you are going to tell them. And one at the end – tell them what you told them. Here is a grid that I might use for a 15 to 20 minute talk.

The introduction is the point where you confirm the audience objectives for the presentation. You have been granted time to make this presentation for a reason and you must already know what your audience’s objectives are – but it pays to double-check and to confirm.

Outline

Now you have enough detail to start to write the outline of your talk. Refer back to your objectives and Take-Away list as you go – to ensure that content remains relevant to the audience and to your objectives.

Script / notes

If your outline makes sense, you can now start to add details to each of your points. I try to void a verbatim script for the final version and use bullet point notes. Use a system that works for you. Think in terms of:

• Evidence, facts and data to support your point

• Clarification of complex points to prevent misunderstanding

• Anecdotes that support your point

• Questions you will ask the audience to check that you are meeting their objectives

• Interaction, especially for longer sessions, keeps audience interest and reinforces the points you are making

Visual aids

Now produce any slides. Make them visually appealing. Avoid large amounts of text that you may be tempted to read verbatim – the rule of 6 is a helpful guide – max 6 bullets per slide, max 6 words per bullet. Better still, use graphics and images that reinforce and support the points you are making. Beware the complex features of PowerPoint – if animations add clarity then use them – sparingly. There are lots of web guides to help you with PowerPoint.

Rehearsal

Rehearse your talk. Stand up to do this. Time yourself. Mark sections that need more work as you go.

Refine

Go back to your notes and refine them. Fix the errors you found in the first rehearsal. Cut back on the content to get into the time allowed. There is nothing worse than reaching the end of your allotted time with 40% of your content remaining.

Rehearsal

Rehearse your talk again. Check the timing. Make sure the visual aids add value to the content. Get someone to act as your audience and to offer constructive suggestions at the end of your rehearsal. In particular, ask your helper to tell you the 3 things they remember having listened to your talk. Their list should match the Take-Away list you wrote down when you started this process. If necessary (and it often is) – go back and refine your content again. Then rehearse again and check the timing. If your presentation is in a large, unfamiliar, room to a large audience, finding time for a dress rehearsal at the venue is well worth-while.

Back-up x 3

Make back-ups of any files you have created. I usually go for 3, plus the computer that is being used on the day. For major events, a back-up PC is a good plan too!

This was a guest post by Paul Fileman of Results-Zone. Results-Zone bring extensive knowledge and experience gained in Blue Chip organisations to businesses like yours. They ensure that your business is fully exploiting a well thought through operating plan. They work alongside you and your team – as business results managers. They ensure that your team and your business are elevated to the results-zone. They bring you “hands-on” experience – similar to employing high quality management skills without the risk or costs in recruiting full time employees.

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So obviously anyone writing a book on time management would be excellent at it. Better still when trying to promote their book they’d understand the limits placed on other people’s time and would do their best not to waste their time.

Apparently not because yesterday I received this email:

Hi, I wondered whether you might be interested in receiving info on a free ebook that we have developed?

We feel it could be helpful for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards.

Name removed to protect the guilty

To which I replied:

No idea. You haven’t told me what it’s about….

to which the reply was:

Thanks John.

As a blogger myself I receive a fair few emails from people asking to review stuff, so didn’t want to send through lots of info unless it was of interest in principle.

Please feel free to download a review copy from here: URL removed to protect the guilty.

I have also included below a press release for your information.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Kind regards.

Name removed to protect the guilty

Which still didn’t tell me what the e-book was about! OK fair enough when I opened the attached press release that did and I was shocked to find it was about time management! I mean really how can you expect to promote a book on time management – or expect me to give it a good review, when you waste both your and my time with poorly thought out emails?

Here’s what would have been a better approach, one single email that said:

John.

We’re just published a new FREE e-book on time management.

You can download a review copy here: URL

If you would like to promote the book please do so using: URL

Many thanks for your time.

Name.

Now that would suggest to me that you understand time management and that you respect the value of my time. I might then have been prepared to spend some of my time looking at the e-book, but instead like most busy people I save time by trusting my gut and making a judgement on first impressions (unfair maybe, but that’s life).

So what are the best time management books?

Hard to say, as I don’t have time to read them all but the following are generally considered to be good time management books:

• Eat That Frog!: Get More of the Important Things Done, Today!
• Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity by David Allen. Very highly thought of, but not really a book I personally liked.
• Do it Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management

Photo by: lrargerich.

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