Are you in the festive spirit yet?

 

Don’t worry, neither am I. I do find it difficult to get too worked up about the festive season in general.

 

Don’t get me wrong. It was great as a kid and even more magical when our kids were young, reliving Christmases past and present through their wide-eyed excitement.

 

But the constant television ads – with the exception of the rather clever John Lewis campaign – and reminders wherever we go in the shops with Noddy and chums belting out ‘It’s CHRISTMAAAAAS’ all gets a bit well, wearing.

 

It doesn’t help either having a birthday just before Christmas – on the 21st by the way – a wee reminder that I am another year older.     

 

Business wise this time of year can become very frustrating starting with the run up to the Christmas/New Year period. Trying to source new orders after mid December – about now – is very difficult. Then Scotland shuts down for a couple of weeks and it seems to take a further...

On Tuesday 29 November I attended Advocating Enterprise, a special event staged by Business Gateway Tayside at Dewars Centre in Perth.

 

It was without question the most humbling and inspiring business event I have ever attended.

 

The talks by Gary McEwan (Chief Executive, Enterprise North East Trust) and Ross Tuffee (Co-founder of DogFish Mobile) were both excellent. But their talks were overshadowed by the inspirational and truly outstanding presentation by Jamie Andrew.

 

In January 1999 Jamie, and his close friend, flat mate and climbing partner Jamie Fisher, successfully climbed the North Face of Les Droites in the French Alps. Then a severe storm closed in and trapped the pair on a tiny ledge near the summit for five days. Eventually a remarkable rescue was effected by helicopter.

 

Tragically, Jamie Fisher lost his life. Although Jamie Andrew survived he suffered severe frostbite and hypothermia and as a result had both hands and...

You never know who you will meet at business networking events and this week I had two firsts.

On Tuesday, I had the great pleasure of attending the first Stirling Business Connections networking event which was very well organised by Raimonda from Maxi Cleaning Services and hosted by Patrik at the rather splendid Mediterannea restaurant in Stirling.

There was an excellent turnout and I was delighted to meet many new people and hear about their businesses.

My first, first was when I met a Funeral Director. The very charming Willie Chrystal from Chrystal Funeral Services and I very much enjoyed our chat and finding out a bit about Willie’s background and career path.

My second first, was on home turf at Let’s network Perth when I met Helen Grant who is a crime novelist. We didn’t manage to chat for long but I hope to find out...

The end of the year looms large. Business at Legends Promotional Products remains buoyant with some big orders clinched and regular customers returning for repeat business.

It is easy to get caught up in the here and now  so I am doing as much forward planning as possible  for 2012 and identifying organisations I would  like to work with or build links to. A number of meetings have been arranged over the next few weeks but I still need to chase a few more

This week I was delighted to fulfill repeat orders for Derek Wilson from Distribution Unlimited, the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Perth & Kinross Association and Kilgraston School.

I enjoyed a great chat with Derek about how he has built his door-to-door leaflet distribution business through high levels of customer service and word of mouth.

Stewart Campbell from Tigershark.tv has very kindly produced a short video for my YouTube Channel which will be posted shortly. Last summer Stewart was commissioned to produce the official...

Tuesday was a good day. I hopped on a Megabus in Perth and headed for Glasgow - £7.50 return! - to the B2B Roadshow at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

There were some really good seminars and I particularly enjoyed Erick Rainey’s presentation ‘Speaking Isn’t Speaking  - It’s Marketing.’ So much so that I have signed up for Erick’s Speakers Boot Camp Level 1.

We can all communicate better and I am really looking forward to this two day course and improving my speaking skills.

Ruth Badger gave an inspiring keynote speech. Best known probably for her appearance on The Apprentice, Ruth left school age 16 with little in the way of qualifications but a real desire to be rich. At 33, she is a multi millionaire. Her story is a fascinating one.

And master networker Colin McKeand led a very useful Netinwar, peppered with loads of useful business networking tips.

There were plenty of opportunities to network and I enjoyed many really good conversations with business owners, which has...

In addition to operating Legends Promotional Products I am also one of three Directors – along with Stephen Gorton of Fraktul and Mark Riddell of m3Networks - who run Let’s network, a not-for-profit business networking organisation.

Let’s network was founded less than two years ago and this month’s Perth event was a real coup for us. It was a joint event with Scottish Television. With STV’s support and generosity we were able to run a free event for our members and offer a £5,000 advertising package in a prize draw.

Needless to say this attracted a great deal of interest and the event ‘sold out’ in less than 24 hours. 72 businesses were represented and enjoyed a fantastic morning’s networking at Perth Business Centre. We also heard a fascinating presentation from Bobby Hain, STV Director of Channels, about how STV is thriving in the digital age and the cost-effective opportunities available to advertise with the company.

...

This week’s musings are reflective and centre on ‘The Man Who Thinks He Can’, an inspirational poem written by Walter D. Wintle.

 

If you think you are beaten, you are;

If you think you dare not, you don't.

If you'd like to win, but think you can't

It's almost a cinch you won't.

 

If you think you'll lose, you've lost,

For out in the world we find

Success being with a fellow's will;

It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are:

You've got to think high to rise.

You've got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize.

 

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger or faster man,

But soon or late the man who wins

Is the one WHO THINKS HE CAN!

 

I am not a huge poetry fan but this gem dropped in to my Inbox late in the week and resonated.

 

Many thanks to Phil Olley, motivational keynote speaker and business...

A few months ago I was lucky enough to win an award after nominating Perth College’s excellent Centre for Enterprise for one of their training courses which I attended.

This was a first class Sales Training course run by Jackie Wade from Winning Sales.

The category was:

Impact Award   - Micro Business/Sole Trader

 and we were Highly Commended at  Scotland’s Colleges Award Ceremony in Glasgow.

Incidentally, the prizes were presented by the very impressive Fraser Doherty, founder of SuperJam. Fraser - who is younger than my son! -  is a young man who is clearly going places.  

I had never had any formal sales training before and Jackie’s course was both thought provoking and highly motivating and resulted in me taking action to address some areas of weakness.

These actions had a big impact on my business early in the new year, normally a slow time to do business, and resulted in me trading with nine new customers in February alone, which was fantastic....

...

Another busy week at Legends HQ with some highs and hiccups along the way.

 Orders fulfilled, new orders placed and quotes requested. A bit of fun  and some firefighting.

A typical week in other words.

The highspot was Let’s network Perth but a close second was being able to scribble notes for this blog sitting in my shorts in the warm sunshine.

At Let’s network Perth almost 50 popped along for a spot of informal business networking at Perth Business Centre. Great to meet some newcomers and catch up with an old friend from primary school days – neither of us had changed one bit…..

There was a prize draw for a 12 month banner ad on the Let’s network website won by Gavin Bryan-Tansley from Video Effect Plus.

And we were delighted to announce that next month’s Let’s network Perth will be ‘sponsored’ by STV – making it a free event for our members with an advertising package worth £5,000 to be won in a prize...