Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

vivatifosi

In spite of Pastures' assertion that the reason we all signed off early was because we had lives, my reason was that I spent the next three hours in a smaller room, erm not well:o. I don't drink either... Not fair! Still, I'm pretty confident that I'll come out the other end of this Christmas break without putting any weight on.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

In spite of Pastures' assertion that the reason we all signed off early was because we had lives, my reason was that I spent the next three hours in a smaller room, erm not well:o. I don't drink either... Not fair! Still, I'm pretty confident that I'll come out the other end of this Christmas break without putting any weight on.

ewwwww.... TMI.

PasturesNew

OK, 2011 and my new Genius Plan (you can't keep a serial entrepreneur down) .... should have done this years ago, but it's like everything in life, sometimes you just don't see the opportunity, just the barriers.

So, I've identified (since last Wednesday) a great business opportunity, then today "the break" seems to have appeared and there's a free course in something in a week that I'm trying to book onto, which will enable me to understand and see if I have the skill, which isn't really a skill (any monkey can do it really) .... and I might be entering the fashion accessories market with my "Business in a Box" idea. It's a potential business I am sounding out, that I believe can be run from a shoebox. The Business in a Box concept, means a small, completely portable business. No premises, no equipment, no storage needed.... just a box of stuff. OK, in reality if it works out I'd need a bigger box than a shoe box, but it's 100% portable.

No further details, have to see if I'm rubbish at it next week.

I'll use the free course to get full costings and timings + take some snaps so I can at least write an article about it, which in itself should yield a few bob.

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

- is that you have a much larger viewing area so the cost per head for the viewers attending is significantly lower. The viewing area in London only takes 250,000 people.

We could see the big Ken ones from Hampstead (plus others up and down the river). I guess the people there now still can....

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

Morning all! How's the heads?

Last year's cost £315k. I'd say there were a lot more this year so the cost was probably higher, however a big part of the cost is crowd control. The big advantage Sydney has over London - apart from being far more spectacular a location - is that you have a much larger viewing area so the cost per head for the viewers attending is significantly lower. The viewing area in London only takes 250,000 people.

Just one year, I'd love to be in Sydney for theirs. Gen, do you know whether you are allowed to charter a boat for it?

You can take a boat onto the harbour and indeed very many do. It is a harbour and you only pay fees if you moor. Some of the in-Laws have gone out on a boat for the weekend, parking up on 30th to get a good spot.

There are rules about where you can put down an anchor and how close you can be to the other boats and stuff. The harbour authority send people round to enforce things and will tell you if you have to move and give some advice as to where there may be some spots. It's all very good humoured if you do as you're told.

There are plenty of people that will charter you a boat with or without a crew. Most of the really good land based areas are alcohol free now so forget a bottle of champers with the picnic.

There are 2 lots of fireworks, the kids' fireworks at 9pm and the 'proper' ones at midnight.

vivatifosi wrote: »

Gen, if you're still around, have you heard the rumours swirling about this morning that 'Arry is trying to sign Becks to Spurs? I know its been around for a few weeks, but all the chatter is about it this morning.

I have heard the rumours too. I suspect the idea would be as much to be a coach/mentor for Lenon as a player as Lenon seems to have lost his way a little this season.

mostlycheerful

PasturesNew wrote: »

OK, 2011 and my new Genius Plan (you can't keep a serial entrepreneur down) .... should have done this years ago, but it's like everything in life, sometimes you just don't see the opportunity, just the barriers.

So, I've identified (since last Wednesday) a great business opportunity, then today "the break" seems to have appeared and there's a free course in something in a week that I'm trying to book onto, which will enable me to understand and see if I have the skill, which isn't really a skill (any monkey can do it really) .... and I might be entering the fashion accessories market with my "Business in a Box" idea. It's a potential business I am sounding out, that I believe can be run from a shoebox. The Business in a Box concept, means a small, completely portable business. No premises, no equipment, no storage needed.... just a box of stuff. OK, in reality if it works out I'd need a bigger box than a shoe box, but it's 100% portable.

No further details, have to see if I'm rubbish at it next week.

I'll use the free course to get full costings and timings + take some snaps so I can at least write an article about it, which in itself should yield a few bob.

Mmm, Pastures, well done, that's interesting, where there's a will there's a way. You've defo got advanced practical understanding of computers and net and business concepts and you're certainly bright and sparky and motivated and lively and you can add up figures and research stuff and all the rest of it so I expect you could make a go of anything like this. You've got all the necessary experience and nous so go for it tiger. Yes, you could do very well. And do let us know how you get on, well, I expect you will, as that's inspiring.

Your site about selling articles and all that other stuff is very interesting. Have you considered calling yourself a consultant and charging £50/hour and a couple of grand per report advising people and businesses how to do all that stuff on your site? And that would be entry level consulting, as I'm sure you know, a lot of consultants charge 5 and 10 times that much, y'know, top brain for hire doesn't come cheap is the attitude to purvey if going in this direction. I would have thought that there's a market for it and you could probably bowl in and get some clients with a bit of advertising and marketing. At the moment you're generously giving away all that info that's taken you years to find and research for free, which is very nice of you, but would it be worth pricing it as expensive? You'd only need one or two jobs a month at that level to be laughing. Just a thought.

Oh, and one more while we're at it, a few years ago a friend of a friend got a £20k website build job and paid his mate £5k to do all the work while he pocketed £15k just for managing the job, again I would have thought that you could tap into that kind of market if you set your mind to it. Well, if you wanted to. I s'pose maybe you don't want to get tangled up with clients and their expectations and deadlines and all that. Except that you've mentioned applying for jobs so servicing the needs of clients would only be about as stressful as doing a full time in house job and with consultancy clients you could pick and choose your jobs, probably. And ones you don't want or that are not appropriate to your skill set you can just say no and refer them to some other bods who might be grateful of the work. Etc. Woof woof.

PasturesNew

mostlycheerful wrote: »

Have you considered calling yourself a consultant and charging £50/hour and a couple of grand per report advising people and businesses how to do all that stuff on your site? And that would be entry level consulting, as I'm sure you know, a lot of consultants charge 5 and 10 times that much, y'know, top brain for hire doesn't come cheap is the attitude to purvey if going in this direction. I would have thought that there's a market for it and you could probably bowl in and get some clients with a bit of advertising and marketing. At the moment you're generously giving away all that info that's taken you years to find and research for free, which is very nice of you, but would it be worth pricing it as expensive? You'd only need one or two jobs a month at that level to be laughing. Just a thought.

Consulting, as I see it, is 10% knowledge and 90% Shine N Bluff. Ideally a consultant will be a tall, slim, attractive, male, with confidence ooooozing out of their slick suit. A good firm handshake and ability to get on well with people and network extensively.

Unfortunately, I am "a worker", somebody who does the stuff, quietly, in the background. I don't socialise, I can't network.... I offend and confuse people, who quickly shuffle off and decide I'm odd. I can talk for England on my subjects, but don't have the confidence to say "so pay me £50/hour because I'm worth it"... even though I am (and more)



So, I know all this stuff, can do all this stuff..... but the people-based skills mean I am not the right person for the role of consulting.

mostlycheerful wrote: »

Oh, and one more while we're at it, a few years ago a friend of a friend got a £20k website build job and paid his mate £5k to do all the work while he pocketed £15k just for managing the job, again I would have thought that you could tap into that kind of market if you set your mind to it.

If I had the ability to "sell", I'd be doing that. I am not a sales person. See previous answer

I also am not a website builder, nor programmer, nor designer.... so couldn't even do the geek bit. I am actually ideally suited for the mid-role, project management, so taking the promises the shiny guy made to the client and translating that into geek-speak for the designer, so the right thing is produced, that's functionally perfect, on time and to budget, flagging up inconsistencies with promise/ability from the first spec.

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

Unfortunately, I am "a worker", somebody who does the stuff, quietly, in the background. I don't socialise, I can't network.... I offend and confuse people, who quickly shuffle off and decide I'm odd. I can talk for England on my subjects, but don't have the confidence to say "so pay me £50/hour because I'm worth it"... even though I am (and more)

I do back of house consulting Pastures. I often don't meet the customers, which suits me, I just do the research. It's possible, its just about finding the right partner that gets you. As there isn't really a geographic element to what you do, you can do it anywhere and it doesn't matter where your partners are.

Also, although you may not think it, on this and other threads you're networking. There are plenty of people on here who would put a job your way if they thought they had something suitable.

mostlycheerful

PN : “I am actually ideally suited for the mid-role, project management, so taking the promises the shiny guy made to the client and translating that into geek-speak for the designer, so the right thing is produced, that's functionally perfect, on time and to budget, flagging up inconsistencies with promise/ability from the first spec.”

Yes, precisely, and, yes, as we’re discussing and as you know, those are top skills and your level of skill and experience and knowledge is worth a lot if it’s plugged into the work.

PN : “Ideally a consultant will be a tall, slim, attractive, male, with confidence ooooozing out of their slick suit. A good firm handshake and ability to get on well with people and network extensively.”

Well, ok, sure, yes, presentation is part of the package, so how about teaming up with someone who’s got the polish and the presentation skills as your agent, or representative, or possibly even business partner, and they get the work in and interface between you and the clients while you do what you’re good at and generate the reports and explaining the stuff? You can certainly present yourself well and articulately in writing so if the face to face schmoozing end of stuff is not your forte then why not recruit someone to do that client facing stuff for you? There’s plenty of nice intelligent bods right here on MSE who know where you’re at and what you’re about, just one or two of them could probably get you some jobs in and set the ball rolling, surely Shirley.

vivatifosi

Just saw this Pastures. I know its in the wrong part of the UK, but given that you like SEO and Property, thought this might be up your street:

http://jobview.monster.co.uk/Search-Engine-Optimisation-SEO-Officer-Job-York-Yorkshire-UK-91923376.aspx