Thanks for Waiting

Sorry for the delay - seems that my New Years resolution to post more often seems to have fallen by the wayside, as so many resolutions do. In my defence I'd like to say I've been busy, & I have, but that's no excuse, so I won't say it, I'll just try & bring you up to speed with all that's been happening.

Word is spreading. Slowly, a lot more slowly than I'd like, but it is spreading. I think I've mentioned before that marketing is not one of my strong points. In fact, I think it is the Devil's Work, a Black Art understood by just a select number of robed acolytes, who, if this were a few hundred years ago, would have been burned at the stake for their seemingly magical ability to conjure up custom using nothing more than incantations & cantrips, otherwise known as copy & straplines.

My own foolish efforts have done little more than part me from my money, & as I don't have much to be parted from, I've stopped being foolish. I can't claim that I have begun to be clever but I have taken to using Guerilla Tactics. Jay Levinson's book is all about low cost or no cost marketing, so I am starting there. I have negotiated a deal with a young lad who lives more locally to the school than me for him to print & distribute flyers for me. I'll email them over & he will pin them up in all the places where people spend a little time - coffee shops, libraries, swimming pools, places like that.

I have begun taking ads in the local parish magazines. Most of them come out every 2 or 3 months & reach about 1500 - 2000 people. Ads costs £50 or so (for the whole year) so they definitely qualify as low cost. I'm not sure the ad is any good yet, but these mags often have a waiting list, so I'm getting the space first then tinkering with the copy.

I'm also exploring what I have taken to calling Synergistic Marketing. That's where I try to get someone else to promote us to their customers. When I was doing my research for this thing, the one glaringly obvious facet (that I still missed) of almost every other school I saw or visited, was that they were part of another business. Doh! Seems so simple now, but they all have an existing stream of customers already. And I didn't notice at the time, but now I have, so we need to replicate that by trying to do things with other businesses that will benefit us both, without costing any money upfront. You know, where the whole is greater than the sum. Synergistic, like I said.

So, we're trying to put together a butchery class for the customers of the local butchers (of course), plus we're trying to persuade a couple of other businesses that one of our classes would make a great prize for their customers. One of those businesses is a national chain, so I can't say too much just yet, but if it comes off, well... that would really be something. We're doing a similar thing with a local magazine, I've been put in touch with a local restaurateur who might want to do something & just this afternoon, I had a call from a man who owns 3 retail outlets who wants to talk to me about running a more professionally oriented class. So there's opportunity everywhere it seems, just hope we can bring 1 or 2 of them to fruition.

That's some great feedback

This is so good, I had to share it! I found this site called issuu that lets you convert pdf files into something that looks like a book. The feedback section of the Just Cook website was getting a little chocka so I thought I'd have a go at using this thing & here's the result.



Not bad. Not bad at all. Go get one for your website from http://issuu.com/ & don't forget to tell them I sent you.

The Monkey in the Trees

Wow. Is it March already? I guess time really flies when you're working a full time  job for money plus another one for your dreams.

Hopefully I will find the time & discipline over the next couple of weeks to post a few updates about the highs, lows & progress at the school but for now let me leave you with a few words of encouragement from Chris K (probably soon to be CK, copyright infringement lawsuits from Calvin Klein aside), that happened to land in my inbox at about the right time - thanks Chris & if you read this you can send this monkey those cases of Twisted Pit now...

Hey Tim.  Just came across your blog.  Tough stuff, but you know, resilience and positivity always win the day.  Sounds like you're back on track.  

For what it's worth I have built our olive oil business over the past 3-years while holding down a full time job and the CEO of a software company.  It's essentially two full time jobs...the day starts at 6am with a (sometimes) 2 hour commute to Toronto, and ends close to midnight after deliveries, new retailer setups, and customer communication.  Saturdays are spent doing tastings at retailers and Sundays are spend reacquainting myself with my oh-so-patient wife and kids.  There's been many a times when my adventurous side screamed for me to throw caution to the wind, quit the day job, and go for broke on the oil.  However, a good friend counselled me to be like "the monkey in the trees"....never let go of the vine you're holding until the next is firmly in your grasp.  I've heeded his advice and am glad of it.  The oil business hasn't grown as fast as it potentially could have, but three years in and we're just a few short months away from full sustainability.  Consider your move back in to the workforce as an investment in your business.  Simple as that.  And then drive at it as hard as you possibly can.  Keep going my friend!  You are well on your way.

Chris K