Off to Uni...

So as you may or may not have noticed/ been bothered about, I have not posted for a long time. I have been very very busy doing other things you see, things like going on holiday with my mates and driving Land Rovers round fields. I have also been busy sorting doctors appointments out, money out, all of that stuff, so that I am ready to go off to university on saturday. Yes I repeat, saturday.

Now while you may think that must mean I am very nearly ready, and while I keep telling myself I only have to pack my clothes now and I am ready to go, it far far away from the truth. One of the things I have found myself to be very good at over the past 18 years is hoarding things away in the deepest darkest depths of my room, thinking that one day they may come in handy or one day I may want to look at it or something like that. Well I have managed to sort out about 15 million drawers and a few feet of floor space of stuff into 1 box. For which I am very pleased about!

Next on the list is stuff that I want to take with me. And this is where it appears my mum and I differ. Bearing in mind the size of my room is really small, I am trying to be as frugal as I can be, knowing full well that I have to live in it and do all of that stuff in it too, I have to spend more time in it than I have to spend in my room at home.

So I am seeing all this stuff go into a "to go" box, and trying to put it somewhere (in my head) in the room at the other end, and so far I have about half of my floor space covered too. My Mum on the other hand thinks that there is loads of room and that it will all fit in with room to spare. So, we will soon find out who is right won't we?

Whilst I would like to tell you I am quite enjoying university preparations that is farm from the truth. Trying to decide if you will need something and if you won't and if it is worth taking is an incredibly different job for anyone. I will definitely be more happy when everything is in and in place, and I can go down the pub with my new flat-mates!

Anyway I will sign off now as I still have loads to do and not a lot of time to do it in!

Thanks for reading, tarara bit!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Spotting Business Opportunites

One of the many reasons why people are unsuccessful  and it is something that I have harped on about before, is that people become blinkered to their idea and sooner or later it will fall and they will have to find something else. We live in a world where everything changes and develops at such a speed. Sometimes new things have been developed before the old idea has even been realised.

This is something which we have to consider as businessmen too. I say businessmen in the fact that, no matter how big or small you are working on, you are showing and developing skills and mentalities of a business-lie manner and this is something which you have to be aware of. You may only be selling some kit-kats on the school playground but there are still a set of basic principals that you have to follow.

And this is one of them. You have to constantly self-assess yourself, your sales techniques, your products, and the wider market around you. For example, going back to the kit-kat example: It isn't going to be long before the kid over there gets the same idea and starts doing the same stuff as you. and then you have competition. And then you have to think about where you are going to head.

You have to decide whether you think you can move the idea you have onwards and upwards so you become a "market leader" of the playground, or whether you think there is money to be made elsewhere. Now persisting with 1 idea is hard work and not always 100% effective. Sometimes you just don't play your cards exactly right and everything goes down the pan.

My advice is when you get yourself into this position, you need to start thinking about something else. Always have 1 more idea in your mind, so you know there is always something to move to and somewhere to develop. This is a critical part of business. And this is where your 2 categories come in.

Let's take Peter Coates, my local butchers. They are currently in the 4th generation of the family business, about to hand down to the 5th. That is through the persistence and reputation in their area of expertise. The quality of their meat is very good, and the reliability of the sources that they get their meat from are also tremendous. Not only that, but everybody is aware they butchery their meat on their own on-site abattoir and this adds to their established reputation.

However, let's take Alan Sugar on the other hand. Started his life right when the world of audio technology was growing and booming, selling hi-fi equipment. He had that cavalier philosophy of ditching an idea and moving on as soon as he got any competition or opposition. and it was that that lead his busniess to grow, develop and become what it is today.

The difference between the two is the difference between persisting with one idea or moving between ideas and growing upwards all the time. The thing is that hi-fi equipment is not something which is highly skilled to make, it's not a craft like carpentry or stonemasonery, which is where butchery sits. So people are less worries about established reputation and more worried about price and value for money.

You can only make this decision, but my advice to anyone who is selling some bits and pieces small time, would be when it gets tougher, move on. I am not saying move from selling sweets to your mates to selling selling seed treatments to farmers, but just take the other fork at a crossing point.

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146