Help Me Help You...
I only want two clients
Whilst I only need two clients at any one time for this to work for me (working with two businesses for a year each), I have goals to change the experience and landscape of purposeful Founders and Leaders in London and the South East of England, if not further afield, who want to survive and do good.
I’d love to do this via this blog, my newsletter and podcast… by sharing ideas about how to make one's business more sustainable, fun and fruitful... how to be environmentally conscious, dutiful to your people and true to a heritage you are proud of.
Responsible Citizenship
I'd like to inspire peeps to punch with or above the big boys and girls in business - to feel that as an independent supplier, you play an important part in British, European and Global trade and history. Indeed, it is your duty - and can be your joy - as a responsible business citizen (do see Citizens by Jon Alexander) to show up in a conscientious way and influence your industry with your worthy approach to growth, people, the environment and community.
I can't quite decide who to target specifically (niching / positioning and all that…), so I'm considering running quarterly 'FOCUS CAMPAIGNS' dedicated to the different kinds of businesses I'd be more than happy to offer my services to.
Here are a couple of them:
Owners of Old Buildings
You are the Manager of a beautiful old BnB pub in Kent. It was bought 10 years ago by an investor, thus saving it from dereliction. The owners have little interest in the business other than that it does bloody well. That is your task. You are competing with a number of excellent pubs in the area. You are fully aware of how picturesque the pub is, and that its history - having been the pit-stop of a well known Robin-Hood type smuggler all those years ago - is fascinating, but you feel like a rabbit in the headlights when it comes to marketing… the pub’s website is pretty awful in comparison to your competitors, and you have no idea where to start in terms of upping your branding game. Your employees are a pretty miserable lot, made up of an uninspired - and uninspiring - chef and “gap yar” kids who come and go.
You watch with envy as the likes of The Pig make their millions… with their beautiful allotments and delux Shepherd’s Hut accommodation, and organic spa treatments in a greenhouse. You wish you were able to tell the Smuggler story to the local kids, but don’t feel right running school trips to a pub. You have no idea how the Story of the pub could make for doubling the income, or how the hell you’d convince your owner to invest in a better website to tell the tale, a more compelling recruitment and retention approach to staffing, more robust customer loyalty programmes in terms of a regular event programme in partnership with the local arts organisation, or an education outreach programme for local, deserving young people in the area. All things that are more than possible and would absolutely put you on the map…
Owners of Farm Land
You’ve inherited a Farm. Your family cannot afford just to farm any more and so you’ve made the bold and brilliant move of diversifying your land to accommodate a glamping site, yoga studio and cafe. You run corporate team-building days to help support the environmental challenges and wildlife impact dreams you have, which - on your land - you are able to influence. You have gone quite a way to provide services and education to your local community and businesses but no-one really knows what your needs are as a business in order to survive/thrive or how effective you can be in terms of employee engagement, environmental good work or community care.
Treehouse at Beneath the Branches, Sussex - thanks to Canopy & Stars
The worst case scenario is that you have to sell your land and some property developer will turn it into flats.You understand the country’s housing need, and are somewhat lacking in confidence, therefore, about how important it is for your land to be maintained in the greenbelt. You are also vegetarian, which - coming from a family having bred livestock for centuries - feels a bit disingenuous, and so you’re battling with a heritage of the kind of farming and use of the land that you are not sure you are comfortable with anymore.
… But the children who come to see the sheep and goats and pigs, and the local white middle class mothers who love the yoga retreats you run, and the local farmers and environmentalists who very much appreciate your care and attention to the hedgerow, and the local politicians who appreciate your contribution to the tourism landscape in Bedfordshire - thanks to your glamping efforts - are all rooting for you…
That industry prize could be yours…
Perhaps you can leave the land to your kids after all, feeling like you’ve done good by them and in also in the world …
We can do this!
