Running a Healthy Business?

Sorry for the hiatus. Silence does not necessarily mean inertia: in our particular case it stems from a period of frustration when we found ourselves attracting, ahem, the wrong sort of business.

There was the IT man who had used his redundancy cheque to set himself up as a consultant and sat in his spare bedroom waiting for the ‘phone to ring. When it did, it was usually someone trying to sell him the sort of services he was offering. We suggested that this was a hint that he should do some marketing. Maybe he took it and maybe he didn’t. My bet, sadly, is that he is still sitting and waiting for the eldorado of a client who has heard about him by osmosis and wants to make him rich on the grounds that he is a nice guy who deserves better.

Then there was the Antipodean nurse leading, erm, an alternative lifestyle and harbouring a complex grudge against the NHS involving animals. We never quite gathered what business she was in or wanted to start; it was all we could do to keep up with the twists and turns of her private life.

Could it get worse? It did. We had our very own stalker…but perhaps we would be tempting fate by talking about him as if he had stopped. Sufficient to say we had to set Tricia on to him, and measures do not get more extreme than that.

Talking of Tricia, she is organising an inspired event on the The Bridgwater Trading Estate, Bridgwater, on June 14th, designed to put us in front of the larger, more established business we are best qualified to help. Being among other things a health professional, she is used to talking to companies about their provision for staff. Why not, she suggested, combine a health check for personnel with a health check for the business itself? Free, of course, so what’s to lose? You stroll five minutes down the road, pick all the brains you need to solve whatever problem is bugging you, network with the neighbours and walk away with ideas, leads - and your wallet intact.

Contact us if you’re interested and we’ll send you an invitation as a reminder.

Back on-online and blogging

As I have been without broadband for a while, there has been no opportunity to update the TCC blog - until now. With an in-box of 4,346 it may be a while before I can let you know how busy we have been with new and potential clients meeting us in Starbucks on a Tuesday evening. Until then, this from Chris:

What I love about our Starbucks’ “clinics” is their sheer unpredictability. One moment, a basket-case – going nowhere, struggling with the basics, not even sure he is doing the right thing – the next, an assured industrial chemist with a timely product, a marketable CV and the kind of get-up-and-go that needs no getting-up and pushing. Her product is cosmetic, her point of difference, a green, organic formulation. Her business plan concentrates on a B2B route to riches but we think she could double her turnover with a consumer range, marketed direct through a website with the kind of photography which makes you want to eat the products (they’re herbs and vegetables, after all). We’re on the starting-blocks; now we need her to fire the gun.

More news as it comes in...

I am just about in place when Hurricane Tara hits Starbucks. She is a therapist and fashion designer who pulls off the additional trick of appearing to talk to myself and Martin Bowe at the same time and on different topics before plumping for Martin. Sensible choice – particularly if you are setting up in business for the first time, as she is. But as what? Fearful of what a therapist crossed with a designer might turn out to be, Martin tries to keep his options open by sticking to the catalogue of requirements from the bank, the Revenue, VATMAN and assorted lawyers and bloodsuckers. He is brilliant and immensely reassuring. Still, he looks hugely relieved when Hurricane suddenly decides she has heard enough, veers round like a Tennessee Twister and demands of me, “Now tell me how to market my business!”. I look nervously at my watch: I have seven minutes before Starbucks staff stretch the European Working Time Directive to breaking-point. I play for time neither of us have. “Which one..?” I quaver. “Oh,” she says dismissively, “I’ll do the therapy in the gaps between couture commissions.” I don’t know whether to be more gobsmacked by her cheek or her energy. In a headlong dash through the chapter headings of marketing, we touch on market positioning, research, corporate identity, advertising, PR and promotions. And I mean touch. I ask her if she can give me a word-picture of the sort of clients she attracts and she goes off into a diatribe about plastic surgery which puts me in playful mood. Wrong! I am instantly classed as an unreconstructed pervert and chauvinist with the intelligence of a Sun-reading mollusc. Departing in a swirl of designer chiffon, she manages to insult Martin’s dress-sense while praising his accounting savvy. Sounds like we have things the right way round.

Mug Shots, Macmillan and More

Well, it's been a busy few weeks for The Coffee Consultants...

First, we have all been shot by the lovely Caroline Wood in order to have some new photographs for our web site. Caroline had arranged for us to hold coffee mugs for some of the shots - "mug shots" let's call them - as well as individual and group, formal and informal versions. All this with good humour, energy and fantastic results in around a couple of hours. What a professional. Check out our website to see the finished results and Caroline's if you need something similar.

Next was the Macmillan Coffee Morning. We managed to raise a tad under £250.00 with the help of Starbucks and the town hall. A mixture of business people, local shoppers and toursits dropped in for a coffee, chat and a good cause. Thanks to all who came to meet us and support Macmillan.

Finally, our client list grows as does the range of people dropping in to Starbucks for a free consultation on a Tuesday evening in Wells. Next blog is from Chris, about one such session.

Stop Press: Coffee Consultants Shot!

Breaking News: Last Thursday all eight of The Coffee Consultants were shot somewhere around Godney in the Mendips. More news as it comes in...

Blogging For Coffee - Part 3: The Coffee Consultants Go Live

Here's the third and final part of Chris' excellent summary of the birth of The Coffee Consultants:

The Coffee Consultants may sound like an eccentric, even confusing, choice but consider this:

- Coffee is the legal stimulant of choice at work, at home, on the road.

- It is a completely classless drink, appropriate for an almost limitless range of occasions, and – unlike alcohol – devoid of any nuances or obligations beyond “Let’s talk”.

- Some great inventions have been triggered by coffee. The Lloyds Insurance Exchange began in a 17^th century London coffee-house.

The Lloyds example was particularly instructive: merchants meeting away from their offices, discussing the risks of trading with the New World and the Indies without the usual constraints of a professional appointment.

Without its cost, too.

Taking the example on board, we determined that the first contact of prospect with partners would be the antithesis of all the false perceptions and phobias about consultants. It would be on neutral ground, where there would be no feeling of obligation, and after work, so that there was no interference with business. Cups of coffee (or tea if they insisted) would keep the meeting informal – but above all, it would be FREE.

The point that no meter would start ticking until the prospect had met the partners, tested their mettle and received constructive advice for his or her business is central to the concept. So too is the holding of the first, crucial meeting in a relaxed, informal atmosphere, away from the phones and pressures of an office.

Our instinct was to find a locally owned and run coffee-house that was central to the Mid-Somerset area. We found one that was right in every respect except that it closed at 5.30. Starbucks, the default choice, not only stayed open much longer; it turned out to have a policy of support for initiatives that help local business, and welcomed The Coffee Consultants concept with open arms.

We have our own section at the back of the shop, with arm-chairs, a coffee table (natch) and a sign visible from the entrance saying “The Coffee Consultants, every Tuesday, from 5pm”. There is a roster on the website which shows who will be there – and there is always a partner from each side of the consultancy – broadly, marketing and financial – to ensure we can answer as wide a range of questions as possible.

Sometimes the question asked begs a dozen others; sometimes it is so complex or multi-faceted there is insufficient time. If so, the prospect is offered an additional two hours of consulting with the most appropriate partner(s) for a flat fee of £100.

Again, if more time is needed and wanted, The Coffee Consultants put together a fully costed proposal setting out objectives, structures, MO and accountability. This is a team that has sat in the chair, faced the challenges, overcome the disappointments, bought and sold businesses and motivated themselves (and their customers) anew.

To convey some idea of the band-width of appeal, The Coffee Consultants are currently working with a wedding dress designer and manufacturer, a pub, restaurant and hostel business and a photographic retailer making the transition to a fully digitised future.

You could say that they have nothing in common, and on the face of it you would be right. But all are businesses determined to embrace change as a function of growth and all recognise the sense of delegating essentials they do poorly – or not at all – to concentrate on what they do best.

We are here to provide that essential boost to business development, across a range of disciplines rarely found in one place and almost never for free.

The Macmillan Coffee Morning

Wow, what a fantastic group of people the other Coffee Consultants are to work with. No sooner the decision - the action. At a recent meeting we decided to support the Macmillan Cancer charity and its worldwide coffee morning planned for the 29th September. With only a few weeks to arrange things we have managed to secure The Mayor's Parlour as a venue (situated right in the heart of the throbbing metropolis that the locals refer to as "Wells"), Starbucks to donate free coffee for the event and for us to create and print invites for the local great and good. Whew! The aim is to raise as much as money as we can for Macmillan whilst also raising our own local profile. A double whammy if ever there was one.



So come on down to The Mayor's Parlour on Friday September 29th in Wells - donate as much as you can to Macmillan for the free Starbucks coffee - and come meet The Coffee Consultants. See you there.

Blogging For Coffee - Part 2: From Grey Cells to The Coffee Consultants

Whilst I continue to nag my fellow Coffee Consultants for blog material, Chris seems to be more than making up for the others. Here is a picture of Chris and I at a local BNI exhibition and the 2nd part of Chris' "Blogging for Coffee" a short history of The Coffee Consultants



Blogging For Coffee

I had introduced a possibility to the group, an aesthetic medicine practice linked to a clinic specialising in treatments for painful or unsightly veins. Together, we came up with a concept for a seminar which was predicated on the very high failure-rate of practitioners entering the field, usually from the NHS.

We saw the seminar as a template for a future, parallel enterprise to sit alongside corporate consultancy. It happened, and as an exercise in showcasing our complementary skills it was a success – but not enough people attended to convince us we had the right formula.

For about five minutes, we howled at the moon, cursed the ingratitude and stupidity of those who had turned their backs on us and told each other that the breakthrough was only just around the corner.

After that, the professional default kicked in. Viewed dispassionately, we had a proposition for business but it was incomplete. We could teach or help people manage, market, advertise and sell but what about the key discipline of financial control?

I must confess to having avoided accountants for most of my life because they speak a language more complex than Mandarin and seem intent on putting me in the frame for the National Debt. But – and it is a big but – they are the only show in town. Accounts are mandatory, not optional, and there are lessons in the figures only a fool intent on business suicide would deny.

Our problem was that most accounting is historic. It presents a detailed picture of the recent past, and we were seeking for a partner who could make the process of financial review constructive – someone who, like a Roman soothsayer, would fish around in the entrails of a balance-sheet and deduce necessary or valuable changes of direction.

We had a false start with a large regional player. The tax partner we met was at pains to stress that his drive and energy had transformed his firm from a sleeping pygmy to a giant which was beginning to rattle the cages of the nationals. We took him for a man for the bigger picture, but when we presented to him he chose to see our proposition as a request to him to open up his client-list to approaches from us. He could not see that what we were proposing was an equal and mutually advantageous partnership that could create an innovative, fully integrated business development consultancy.

Two other failures followed in short order before we found the partner we should have approached in the first place because he was right under our noses.

Martin Bowe was also a stalwart of BNI, an Oxford-educated tax accountant with an entrepreneurial streak, who had broadened his Probusiness practice to include a management accountant, an HR professional and a book-keeper. Although the synergies were less obvious, the chemistry was there from the start of discussions. Tricia, the HR lady, had a background which located her close on the business GPS to Martin Lambden, but the other Martin and Fiona, his management counterpart, could see reciprocity and added value in a marketing proposition which Nick or Trevor would articulate while they identified the funds and justified the spend.

Without an accountancy partner, in a region without a consultancy culture, Grey Cells were too easily dismissed as an expensive option or overhead; with Probusiness, we were demonstrating exactly the financial responsibility consultants are condemned for avoiding.

New game, new name. We become The Coffee Consultants. Why? The answer to this and other questions will be found in Part 3 of "Blogging For Coffee"

Double excitement at the Starbucks clinic

Chris is on a role at the moment - here are his notes from last Tuesday's session at Starbucks:

Instead of being penalised by Health & Safety we have now been patronised by them! A consultant with huge knowledge, obvious ability but a stuttering practice came in looking for a sales boost. He has embarked on one interesting line of attack – a questionnaire designed to pin-point areas of customer ignorance and omission – but really needs to go back to his basic proposition. Do people understand what an H&S consultant does? Do they know what their obligations are under the legislation? Challenging business owners with the requirement – and the fine for ignoring it – would be one helluva way to kick off a website. Or an advertising campaign.

Next up, our first American client. There is a glorious commercial irony in using a homegrown US concept like Starbucks to attract a smart businesswoman from LA. She turns out to be quite extraordinary – a former White House staffer, a charity fundraiser and advisor to not-for-profit companies, and now a professional business coach and mentor looking to work both sides of the Pond. Depending on how much time she wants to give it, and the readiness of clients to accept “distance learning” by Skype and e-mail, we see some potential in a joined-up approach with therapists and out-placement specialists, but it is a crowded marketplace. Tricia, our HR specialist, and Trevor will be doing lunch with her to explore further