Being an entrepreneur is hard but to me the hardest part of being an entrepreneur is using the word “no”. To some, saying no comes naturally, to me, not so much. As a result, I have become a “yes” man. My default instinct and answer is to say yes. I know I’m not the only one and the lack of … Read More
Love Mondays
One of my favourite TV ads is the Reed.co.uk “Love Mondays” ad. The premise is that for you to love Mondays again you need to find the right job. This makes perfect sense and the people who came up with that should have received a bonus! But, is a job what you need? In London there is a huge push … Read More
Branding, what’s your story?
The other day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about my brand, SixBerries. “So, why SixBerries?”, he quizzed. My answer didn’t impress him and we had a discussion about what makes a good story for your brand. My story is simple and personal. I was born with twelve fingers, six on each hand, so when I … Read More
On Failure
Business is hard. Having a family is hard. Losing weight is hard. Life is hard. I’ve spent 40 years failing and I used to think that it was a bad thing. No matter how much I read or spoke to people my self assessments constantly produced a plethora of proof of me not being good enough at anything. This is … Read More
On mediocrity
Apparently, mediocrity is a virus. It is even worse than that though, in today’s society it appears to be the accepted truth. We start everything with perfection in mind but somewhere in our journey we settle for good enough. In business, mediocrity can be a killer. It may not happen immediately but it happens eventually. So how then can one move … Read More
3 reasons your software project fails
Between 30% and 70% of software projects fail. That’s a massive spread but even on the lower end it’s still an incredibly high failure rate. What’s even more disturbing is while software tools, platforms and resources have improved and become more available projects still seem to fail at an alarmingly high rate. You may think that your project eventually got completed, … Read More
5 things start-ups can learn from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign
I’m not a fan of Donald Trump. I have never met him personally but his public persona over the many years I’ve seen him in the press has led me to believe he is not the type of person I would want to lead my country. That being said, his presidential campaign and eventual success in winning the American Presidency … Read More
Start Up Life Year 1: Lessons Learned
The last twelve months have been a bit of a blur. I now sleep less, do more work, have less money and I am less fit than I was a year ago. However, I have learned a lot, consulted for several start ups who are on the brink of great things, helped out companies I used to work for, became … Read More
Recent Presentations
I was recently asked to give a number of presentations in Trinidad to entrepreneurs and students on starting up a business, investment and modern web application development. Unfortunately, these presentations weren’t recorded but I’ve decided to make the slides available (links below). My first presentation was done over Skype on behalf of the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) … Read More
Customer Retention and why I’ll never rent from Budget Cars again
Customers are the most important thing in business. Without them, in their various forms, there is no point in having a business. Most people seem to focus exclusively on customer acquisition and tend to forget that customer satisfaction and retention are just as important to the growth and well being of the business. I’ve got two examples for you, first … Read More