It's back to reality now, Charlotte won fair and square and after speaking with her before the results, I can't think of a better person I'd rather lose to. Many congratulations Charlotte! I'm looking forward to that celebratory drink.. With a £5,000 prize we could go wild - just put it down to marketing expenses...
I've been doing the usual marketing activities this week and got a couple of orders from people YAY! So it's clear that this activity does pay off. We are also recruiting sales people throughout the UK. It would be good to get someone in the North East as well, to take over what I'm doing, so that I can concentrate on managing it all. If you know anyone who might be interested in a sales role with Funky Wood please ask them to email: enquiries@funkywood.co.uk and I'll send more details to them - even part time would be good.
On a personal note my little girl had her first week at nursery. My heart felt completely ripped out when she was crying that she didn't want to go and leave me. Then again a few days later when she was skipping up the school path saying, 'Bye bye mummy!' We hadn't even GOT to the school door! Kids are so fickle!
I met up with the North East Chamber of Commerce and signed up to their networking events, so hopefully I'll be able to meet new contacts and generate more business through that. There's also a couple of property networking groups - 365 Property Developers for one.
Thank you to everyone who voted for us in the competition. It was the most fantastic ride, really enjoyed it and the people at ifwecanyoucan are brilliant. Thank you for the opportunity. (Sounding like The Apprentices now when they get fired :-) )
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Monday, 14 June 2010
Doorframe Specifications
The results are in and being counted, tense moments...! Thanks again to everyone who voted for us. I had a lovely chat with Charlotte from Harvey & Hugo on the telephone last week and she's such a nice girl. Hopefully we will stay in touch and be able to bounce ideas off each other.
I've been to see some architects who really liked our products but they were a little concerned about the fire-rating on the doorframes. Being a non-joiner, I didn't have a clue so said I would look into it and get back to them. As soon as I got back Eddie said that they weren't fire-rated as they are but we could make them fire-rated by adding intermittent strips. A whole new world opened up to me and I found out about fires, fire-ratings, fire controls, - are you still awake? :-)Eddie already made the wood thick enough to withstand a fire for 30 or 60 minutes, so all we have to do is insert an intermittent strip if needed, so it's no problem. I have to communicate this to the architects, interior designers, and property developers that I've already contacted. It's a great way of contacting them again and getting our name in front of them. Maybe they will think of using Funky Wood in their next project - let's hope so!
We've had some fantastic feedback from our previous customers. They have loved the product and loved the service. So we're obviously doing something right! Rule no. 1 the customer is always right. Rule no 2 in any event that the customer is wrong it's because of something we've done. The only time this doesn't apply is when you get the odd person about to make a large order, BUT they won't give you a landline, their address, and their full name.... Then they want to pay you by credit card and get it delivered to a different address than on the card.... What happens is the person who's credit card they are using refuses the transaction about a month after processing it, you get debited on your business bank account, and the thief walks away with your goods. In the event that this ever happens then I think the following process is best:
1. take their credit card details and the address they want it delivered to
2. phone the bank and tell them that you have details of a stolen card and that the person should be contacted to cancel this (and any other) card.
3. phone the police and tell them you will be making a delivery to a thief and this is the perfect chance to catch them red handed.
4. get one of your babies extremely bad nappies and post it to the address they gave you. With the police waiting to nab them, I believe a good job is done and maybe they'll learn. :-)
PS - if you want an extremely bad nappy to send to someone like this then let me know. (Can see a new business idea sprouting here.... 'www.badnappiesforbadpeople.com' :-) )
Of course the best way is to ask to speak to them in person via the landline and only deliver to the cardholders address. Having it happen to us once we have controls in place now to make sure the person paying is legitimate. You live and learn and I wish we'd never had to learn the hard way, but there you go.
Good luck to everyone with the competition. I'm not very confident, Harvey & Hugo is a brilliant company and Charlotte is such a professional, friendly person. I'm sure she will do really well with her business and her future.
I've been to see some architects who really liked our products but they were a little concerned about the fire-rating on the doorframes. Being a non-joiner, I didn't have a clue so said I would look into it and get back to them. As soon as I got back Eddie said that they weren't fire-rated as they are but we could make them fire-rated by adding intermittent strips. A whole new world opened up to me and I found out about fires, fire-ratings, fire controls, - are you still awake? :-)Eddie already made the wood thick enough to withstand a fire for 30 or 60 minutes, so all we have to do is insert an intermittent strip if needed, so it's no problem. I have to communicate this to the architects, interior designers, and property developers that I've already contacted. It's a great way of contacting them again and getting our name in front of them. Maybe they will think of using Funky Wood in their next project - let's hope so!
We've had some fantastic feedback from our previous customers. They have loved the product and loved the service. So we're obviously doing something right! Rule no. 1 the customer is always right. Rule no 2 in any event that the customer is wrong it's because of something we've done. The only time this doesn't apply is when you get the odd person about to make a large order, BUT they won't give you a landline, their address, and their full name.... Then they want to pay you by credit card and get it delivered to a different address than on the card.... What happens is the person who's credit card they are using refuses the transaction about a month after processing it, you get debited on your business bank account, and the thief walks away with your goods. In the event that this ever happens then I think the following process is best:
1. take their credit card details and the address they want it delivered to
2. phone the bank and tell them that you have details of a stolen card and that the person should be contacted to cancel this (and any other) card.
3. phone the police and tell them you will be making a delivery to a thief and this is the perfect chance to catch them red handed.
4. get one of your babies extremely bad nappies and post it to the address they gave you. With the police waiting to nab them, I believe a good job is done and maybe they'll learn. :-)
PS - if you want an extremely bad nappy to send to someone like this then let me know. (Can see a new business idea sprouting here.... 'www.badnappiesforbadpeople.com' :-) )
Of course the best way is to ask to speak to them in person via the landline and only deliver to the cardholders address. Having it happen to us once we have controls in place now to make sure the person paying is legitimate. You live and learn and I wish we'd never had to learn the hard way, but there you go.
Good luck to everyone with the competition. I'm not very confident, Harvey & Hugo is a brilliant company and Charlotte is such a professional, friendly person. I'm sure she will do really well with her business and her future.
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Thank You
The competition results are getting closer and I want to thank everyone who has voted for us. We won't forget you! That is, if they ever tell us who you are, if they won't just tell us yourself so we can personally thank you. We won't bombard you with SPAM, we think SPAM stands for Stealing People's Ard-earned Money, so we hate the stuff! Having said that, if you are interested in our products then let us know, we can come and see you, show you samples, send samples through the post, come and see your property with a range of products and give you our advice, or even draw up some designs for your doors, which will be unique to you. Phew that was a long sentence!
We are often asked where we make all of this contemporary wood, so I thought I would share it with you. Our HQ are an office in our garage, which Eddie converted into a room. We make everything at my dad's place. He has a few acres and barns, so he very kindly lets us use one of the barns as our workshop. We hope that with more orders we will be able to get some official premises, with a shopfront, and offices.
This week we are continuing with our brand awareness, marketing strategy, and product development.
Please keep the votes coming in, we need your vote! Vote Funky Wood! Ppppllllleeeasssseee!!!
We are often asked where we make all of this contemporary wood, so I thought I would share it with you. Our HQ are an office in our garage, which Eddie converted into a room. We make everything at my dad's place. He has a few acres and barns, so he very kindly lets us use one of the barns as our workshop. We hope that with more orders we will be able to get some official premises, with a shopfront, and offices.
This week we are continuing with our brand awareness, marketing strategy, and product development.
Please keep the votes coming in, we need your vote! Vote Funky Wood! Ppppllllleeeasssseee!!!
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