I have just spent 2 weeks in my homeland at the foothills of the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. It’s a magical place. It’s the land that time forgot and long may it stay this way. Anyone who knows me, knows just how important my time there is. Considering the hectic duties of our Manchester business UKFast, a place which is aptly named, I can’t remember a moment where we have ever come up for air. Yet, inspite of craving the intensity and fast paced business life, I never tire of the Welsh countryside and there’s not a more beautiful time of year. Time out is so important and the bigger UKFast gets the more I realise I need the complete switch off. I… Read the Rest »
It was not an easy decision. There has to be a degree of emotion attached to a sponsorship deal and if it was left to pure passion and there were no financial penalties to staying, I am sure I’d do everything in my power to stay. That’s certainly how we felt at the end of last season. Each season, we review the effectiveness of the relationship and the benefits of a symbiotic relationship with a sports club. There are a great many things to consider, performance on the field, management, community contribution, hospitality, the list is endless. In spite of a poor 09/10 season and some drastic management restructuring we decided it was the right thing to remain with the club regardless of potentially difficult… Read the Rest »
I blogged last year about the Government’s overspending. It was described to me in plain and simple English. “For every £3 the government earns, they are spending £4.” So to break even they’d have to reduce spending by 28%. Watching the BBC’s political programmes this morning, it shows just how oblivious today’s politicians are with basic accounting principals. To compound the huge problem of overspending there are politicians drumming up unrest against necessary cuts in expenditure. What is even more worrying, it is clear that councillors from certain regions seem hell bent on deliberately cutting frontline services in the knowledge that it puts significantly more pressure on communities, in the hope that it reflects badly on the current government. In business, if you overspend, you… Read the Rest »
That old question that I must have heard a thousand times, “so, what is your exit strategy?” always makes me smile. As if you’d tell someone you barely know. I always say, “well I’ll be leaving work at about 7pm this evening.” I hear this question 3 times a week. I think it is important to know where you are going. Businesses need direction. I am a great believer in goals and raised a laugh at the How-Do convention recently when I admitted my wife and I have a “50 year plan.” But why not? I work on the principal that you need to know where you are going. What is wrong with mapping out your life to when you are in your 90′s. You… 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 »
So here I am lying on my back looking at a blue sky, watching the clouds change shape. An airplane appears and disappears leaving nothing but a trace in it’s wake. And the question is “what do I do next?” Mid recession, with no clear understanding of how long is the tunnel or how dark it might get, I am drawn back to the hypnotic clouds. There are some things in life you can’t predict or influence, “weather” you want to or not. But do these unpredictable elements stop you from going about your normal business or day to day lives. Of course not. Only in extreme cases, but even these are “blips” and they cannot halt progress. I am reminded of Earl Nightingale and… Read the Rest »
Internet business is strengthening. As MD at internet hosting provider, UKFast, I have the luxury of being able to observe the fortunes of thousands of businesses. Of the quarter of a million domain names on our network, not one is complaining about the recession. On the high street decreases in spending are evident. You may well spot boarded up shops and buildings to let, which leads to concerns for the economic climate. However this is much more likely just to be due to the natural shift in consumer activity. The offline to online shift has been taking place for a number of years. More people than ever before are shopping online – in 2007, e-shoppers spent £370m online in just 24 hours on the second… Read the Rest »
Four major British employers including Yell and Virgin Media have announced plans to axe over 5,000 jobs this week, as businesses fear the recession. I have found myself contemplating the implications of panic sacking. Will companies actually benefit from this move? Personally, I think not. Companies that make their employees redundant to save money over the period of recession may be able to balance their books but they don’t think of the long term consequences. The downturn isn’t going to last forever and when in a year or so the economy regains its strength, these companies will have whittled down their pool of talent. Apart from this, companies that have grown and been successful until this period of economic slowdown also face losing valued members… Read the Rest »
Peter Jones of the Dragon’s Den recently stated that we are talking ourselves into a recession. I wholly agree with that sentiment. Whilst the newspapers bemoan plummeting house prices and wail about the soaring cost of living, our spirit becomes downtrodden and people forget what it is to fight. Think positive. Things aren’t as bad as they seem in the hyped-up media. Businesses can still thrive in the current economic climate. Mass psychology determines the directions of markets in the same way mob mentality determines whether a Big Brother contestant is liked or not. Because people sell as soon as they think a market is going down, it will decrease in value. Market recession is a self fulfilling prophesy. The rate of growth in the… Read the Rest »
