Launching and Running an Ad Business - Part 1

As we steam towards OME's 4th anniversary (May 2010) i thought i would jot down my thoughts on the lessons i have learned along the way.
NB this mail is written in warm glow of a good first quarter and a certainty that we have survived the recession and are in a position to flourish so more positive than i sometimes feel. But we have made and continue to make plenty of mistakes - so this is not - "how clever am I" - its more "have a look at some of the pitfalls and also things that went well"

1. Pick your Partner/key personnel carefully

Most people go into business with a partner for lots of different reason but primarily as it can be pretty lonely, scary and occasionally miserable when you start out. I admire those who go completely alone - but know that i could not possibly have done it. It is a form of marriage and the same fault lines will appear as in any close personal relationship. The same things you initially liked about them - may well be the things that make you want to smash their face in after a few years (its an analogy - not a real example...i think). I should take this opportunity to thank my business partner Mr Sean Paterson - who is better than me at most things but quieter about it. We have sort of complimentary skills which is cool but essentially i trust him completely which is good as he looks after the money (that decision took about 5 seconds)

2. Get your idea and execute it violently

Inspiration probably won't come - you won't come up with such an amazing idea that will have people flocking to your door.(if you do come up with something new - it will be copied by 5 people very very quickly). So just work out what your product/service is - check that some people may want to buy it - and then just do it. talk any one and everyone through what you do - once you have done that - find more people or same people again and repeat the sales pitch. Try to never stop doing this.

3. Be brilliant at what you do (or at least try very hard to be)

Your best source of business will be recommendation - so don't be a bullshit artist who does all the above in point 2 and then fails to deliver. It will kill you stone dead. People bought into us in first 2 years as they believed as a small business we would work hard for them and they believed in us as individuals that we knew our stuff and would apply our expertise to help them. I believe we repaid that in spades.

4. Core Business or Diversification

I fundamentally believe that you need to be focused on your core business - but my advice is to be flexible about the definition of that core business. I would say in Years 1 and 2 - we were digital media agency and now we are a digital recruitment business. Not a quantum leap - merely a natural evolution.

5. Focus on stuff that clients will actually pay for

this is very much linked to digital recruitment media world - there have always been fascinating developments in the last 4 years and it has always been possible to have 2.5 hour conversations with clients and suppliers about them but ultimately most of the proposals which resulted were never and would never get signed off. Social engagement stuff in 2008 did not get signed off, Myspace + Secondlife proposals never got off the flip chart.
If your business model depends on the cutting edge make sure your pricing model reflects the time put in. Or concentrate your efforts on things that can and will deliver quantifiable results/business.

6. Take time off - don't work too many weekends - be nice to your family

Launching and running a biz is incredibly important but its also not as important as life. You probably went alone to free yourself from being in the grip of the corporate world - shite bosses etc - and hopefully earning better ££. Don't just recreate that corp world in your own business and if the work is taking all your free time too - you are either doing it wrong or pricing it wrong. Go and do something else.

Anyway - Part 2 to follow soon - would love to have any comments on any of this

Events/TRU/Seminars

Sadly i am not going to make it to theRecruitment Unconference this week which will heavily focus on social media and recruitment and latest trends and predictions for what is happening in digital recruitment world. I am sure it will be a great event (many of the top people in our industry are contributing) and i wish them best of luck. I have a very good excuse in that i am getting married on Friday but it has got me thinking about events and what i bust a gut to attend as opposed to attend if i can.
My "rules" are as follows
1. "Its about clients, stupid" - our business is funded by clients - i attend events where i can meet new and old ones and hopefully make some connections that can turn into future business. Many events are supplier led where i am the client - which though nice to be popular - don't offer me valuable new contacts as our supplier relationships are generally very strong already.
2. "preaching to the choir" - connected to above. I am part of the vanguard of the recruitment digital community and it is populated by charming funny interesting people however though i find it enjoyable mapping the future of our industry at a seminar or over a beer - it does not necessarily pay the bills. and i find myself disappearing up my own backside as i extol my latest thoughts on any and everything.
3. I love OME events. Funnily enough as we organise our own breakfast seminars (2010 programme coming soon - new media partner recruited) - i occasionally have an insanely petty jealousy about other people's events and quality of info provided. I am aware this says certain things about me - most of which are not positive. It has a parallel to my eldest daughter wanting her birthday party to be best - only she (at 8) is a little more mature than me in her attitude.
4. "What about now" - some of these events (by their nature) get too caught up in the future and therefore little practical application now - or next 2 years. In digital - "the next 2 years" is an awfully long time. Our success as a business has been based around PRACTICAL application of digital techniques - combining innovation with effectiveness and probably erring on latter. Most senior HR people want to be at forefront of the latest effective techniques - virtually all don't want to be the first to do it though.

Anyway - this is not a negative slant on attending events (i think) - whenever i do attend - i meet great people and always pick up a few morsels of food for thought. It just explains why i have attended a lot less in the last year.
PS can someone send me the notes from the sessions?

Jan 2010 - an OME picture

OK - some messages from the frontline - lets turn this around by starting with the

Lowlights

1. We lost a client through a procurement process (pettiness prevents me from naming them). I can bitch that the competitors offered free artwork and design, that i suspect it was a bit of a stitch up based on previous relationship etc but it still stings. And i think they will soon realise what they are missing or in other words... we will never hear from them ever again.
2. OME website still not done (all our fault) i could claim business with client accounts but still not good enough
3. I seem to have a had more petty spats with media suppliers than is desirable - i feel this sort of conflict could be easily avoided if suppliers just simply agreed to what i want them to do immediately without comment. I did actually apologise twice in January which is twice more than i can remember in 2009.

Highlights

1. Phenomenal month for revenue - 100%+ year on year.
2. This was based on the beautiful combo of more from existing clients and new clients kicking in (welcome Cote Restaurants, PGC, Decision Resources and a major new retailer - Sean always wants to keep things secret!)
3. Bethan Tresize our new account manager (started October) is brilliant - she is organised and intelligent and has got into the OME ways remarkably quickly
4. Working on new products/projects - making some small revenue from Twitter, some great, cool careers site work, and bizarrely a burgeoning print media business
5. The whole busy vibe of the office, our clients and media - meant that i have not enjoyed my work as much in ages (point 1 may have influenced my happiness levels)

so on basis of 5 highs versus 3 lows - high points win easily

In and Out of Love with Twitter

2009 saw me as an absolute Twitter evangelist - really enjoying the interaction, connectivity and wealth of useful and useless but interesting info that was out there. The last few months have seen a change in my professional and personal views (i don't pretend here to be giving an industry view - its just my personal feelings and how i use it.)

Professional - why i love it

1. I have a network of people who are not friends(a few are) but people i know and the info we share can be really useful and impossible to get without scouring sites and conducting arduous email conversations.
2. I think its going to be the big thing in recruitment communications - i just know it will (is) work really well - and create a genuine conversation between employer/recruiter without the pitfalls of a site like Facebook
3. We are seeing really nice experimentation - trial and error - low cost pilots. That shows nobody has got it 100% right yet but there will be a good set of data to make some improvements next quarter
4. It really does cost almost nothing - but does require application and thought - the best sort of combination. These digital new things that cost a lot and deliver little are very passe in 2010.

Personal - why i don't love it
1. The chatter has become rather tiresome - the "journey into work" problems interest very few
2. Clearly everyone i follow has a more interesting life than me - their saturday night consists of theatre/abseiling/art galleries/truffle hunting - mine consists of being too tired to switch over from All Star Mr and Mrs
3. Their relationships are great too and their children perfect....(just like mine, he says quickly)

In summary - the personal stuff is all a little self publicist oriented (and yes i know this as i am self publicist extraordinaire)

But the professional side is going to be fascinating and brilliant

Anyway - have to go as need to book my table at The Ivy on saturday night with Brangelina, Michael Jackson and Elvis.

In Praise of MonsoonCareers

I really like how Monsoon Accessorize are running their Twitter recruitment account (let me declare an interest - we work with them on some media stuff - but not this). It feels exactly what a company should be doing at the moment (given budget restrictions)
- posts jobs - but not just bare text
- it has a tone of voice which reflects company and rec team
- it is up to date and busy
- its not trying to blast in and get 1000 irrelevant users - it seems they are happy to organically grow it and let it take (a directed) life of its own

anyway - enough of being positive - i will find something to criticise now

In Briefs

1. Louise is running UK rec blog of the year again (i was shortlisted last year) so vote here. When i look at the blogs - i thought that Digital Recruiting should have won last year but this year (the DigRec Collective have lost a bit of blogging motivation) i think that Peter Gold's blog is the one i find most interesting and relevant stuff on.
2. Had a very important re-tender last week which went successfully. Although - we were up against an individual and an organisation that i massively respect so my natural pessimism was partly preparing me for the worst. It has made me think that we have to a) keep innovating and progressing and b) keep the very high customer service/satisfaction levels in order to retain our competitive advantage. I think its fair to say the competition is coming - the bad news for them is that we will make sure we have moved it on again next year.
3. Have decided to have a massive blow out for company xmas do - everyone has worked so hard this year in difficult circumstances - we are going to Arbutus for lunch on Dec 10th and then onwards and upwards from there. There will be talk of going to a club and being out till 3 am - although i expect i will be a broken man and in a cab by 10.30.
4. Our most satisfied customer at moment is MinistryofWaxing - who have been quoted in Mail and interviewed on radio today related to Simon Cowell waxing story. The media found their details via our rather super SEM campaign. Have booked myself in for a pre-wedding treatment - probably not the Boyzilian though.
5. Presenting award tomorrow at IPAC awards - its a gentle re-entry into what was a large revenue stream of ours - where we advised media owners on their digital classified products (mainly launches such as key103jobs, supplychainonline etc). Its at Vinopolis - so have a feeling it might get messy - but then its December tomorrow isn't it....

Making Money out of Digital Recruitment

Its been a month of meetings, proposals and tendering. If i looked at the money in as opposed to effort out - it probably does not tally but we have added 2 new clients (welcome PGC and Dixons) and it feels better out there even if feelings don't pay the bills. Overall we are still up year on year so the team deserve a very nice blow out for the Xmas bash this year. But 4-5 more good weeks to go before any let up.
Anyway - in this process of meetings i have been able to see many other proposals from other agencies both traditional recruitment and digital specialists (non recruitment) and some interesting ways of making money seem to get slipped in to the deals. Most common listed below.
1. Campaign Management - these costs generally are far too high - either the agency is getting a bad deal from a 3rd party or they are trying to make the margin here. Reporting is incredibly important and a key part of any campaign we run but the costs need to be proportionate - i don't think there is any justification for 20% of media bills for this service - discuss....
2. Appalling media buying - again 2 possible reasons a)cant negotiate with media or more likely b) marking it up massively. Now in the interests of full disclosure - when we have achieved huge discount on certain deals i am sure on certain occasions we have kept part of it (with agreement from client) but its silly when you are trying to charge a big Monster 12 month deal out at 10% discount for instance.
3. Production charges. You absolutely need to charge a rate for work you do - but its silly to charge occasionally v high prices for 30 seconds work.

Interestingly - what i don't tend to see is proper charging out for the expertise involved in planning buying managing a digital campaign - that is the real value but the industry still seems shy to price accordingly.