When we set up UKFast I could have only dreamed of a day like today. I am a big dreamer, but this was not something I’d have ever been able to visualise. Sat here on the Necker Belle with my daughters Tegan and Poppy, my wife and business partner Gail, the girl who has stood by my side throughout all the tough times, waiting for my team to arrive. You might at first think that it is easy to get carried away and think we’ve made it, but to the contrary, this trip is intended to help design the vision for the future. There is also a little holidaying thrown in for good measure, but ultimately we have a job to do. The owners of… Read the Rest »
Typing away on my iMac, plugged into iTunes on my iPhone, its difficult to comprehend how he did it. Every now and then, along comes someone special. They are special because they see the challenge and not the uphill struggle. There is no doubt, Jobs was aiming high. He enticed John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple’s CEO, asking, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?” To change the world, you have to set out with this objective and it’s clear that early on Jobs understood the balance that style plays in the role of marketing and brand development. He understood the creation of the… Read the Rest »
When we set up UKFast in 1999, no one really knew what to expect. There was huge excitement at the birth of a new industry which was reflected on the stock exchange and the first internet millionaires were created without really producing any viable products. A massive downturn ensued and people thought, that was that. Back in 2001 after the bubble burst, no one could have predicted how technology would evolve at such a pace. In a decade everyone’s lives have changed. The internet is bigger than TV, Radio and Press put together and it’s just the beginning. Google came out of nowhere, (or rather a garage in San Francisco) to challenge Microsoft with alternative ways to search the net providing innovative ways to advertise… Read the Rest »
“Rupert Murdoch has bigger balls than you Lawrence.” That was a comment from Nick Jaspen from How-Do the great online resource that keeps Manchester upto date with the latest business news and current affairs. I had described Murdoch as a dinosaur at a round table event held at UKFast. It wasn’t meant in a derogatory way at all. Find me a man who didn’t love dinosaurs as a kid. They were incredible species. The biggest, the best, the fastest, the most aggressive, they were just awesome in every way. Then one day, poof, they are gone. All we are left with are memories from people who have picked up the pieces of times gone by. There is no doubting Rupert Murdochs achievements, but I still feel… Read the Rest »
What is hosting? It is a good question. I often wonder how and why I ended up in a career so similarly named to one I had been involved with in a previous life. As an event organiser, I essentially hosted parties for businesses. It involved the ultimate in commitment and service, a degree of attention to detail you seldom see and passion to keep you striving when the going gets tough. First up, last to bed….. it is a thankless task behind the scenes of a busy event. The business I had that specialised in this field I sold to Granada at the end of the 90′s. they did me a massive favour. I stayed and learnt so much about bigger business, “how to… Read the Rest »
After a focus group with fellow entrepreneurs in the design, creative and PR sector recently, I left analysing why so many businesses were owner operated and they relied on the owner for everything. Bank managers, strategic advisors accountants, business consultants have all said to me at some point, all small businesses are about the “owner-operator” and take them away and they fail. I have always hated this attitude and could never understand it. Until today and after sitting with fellow business people and for a change I was the MD of the biggest business there, I could see how they arrived at their theory. We were discussing training. A subject I am passionate about and one I do not feel I am an expert at as… Read the Rest »
We ran one of our graduate recruiting days last week at UKFast and we started off by asking all the graduates to stand up, introduce themselves and tell us, who their most iconic person is and also tell us about something they have achieved which they consider momentous in their life. It is a good ice breaker and for those of us assessing the candidates, it starts to give you a snap shot of what is to come. A young lady stood up, and I don’t have her name to hand and she described her momentous achievement as creating a small shop on ebay and selling a variety of things. When she sat down, I immediately asked, “so why are you here?” At first I… Read the Rest »
Well it’s out! For a few months we have been sitting on the news that UKFast are officially the main sponsors of Sale Sharks Premier rugby club. So why a sport sponsorship deal? It was not an easy decision spending millions of pounds of a hard earned marketing budget in one go, with the recession still firmly gripping society however I felt it important to take the opportunity and be decisive. Its a 3 year deal and when an opportunity as large as this comes up, in my opinion you grab it with both hands. It is also important to look beyond the economic downturn. The credit crunch will not last forever and it is important to stand by what you believe in. For those fans who… Read the Rest »
I had a couple of great discussions yesterday with an SEO expert who challenged UKFast on their “fast servers deliver better results” message. Google actually reduces your cost per click on faster sites and penalises you, charging you more if you have a slow site. FACT. (See the quality score rules in your Google Adwords account.) Why is this? Is Google acknowledging that faster sites give the customer a better experience? Absolutely! Is traditional SEO as we know it dead or is it evolving at such a pace that it has caught a large proportion of the SEO enthusiasts and internet users by surprise? Could it be that speed has always been a major deciding factor in ranking and no one knew about it? Or… Read the Rest »
