Style on a Shoestring at Interiors Birmingham 2010

Interiors Birmingham 2010

Interiors Birmingham 2010 was a much more relaxed affair for me this year as there was no filming with Channel M. Instead I ambled around at my leisure, sourcing products, interviewing for a trends dissertation and meeting new contacts. Is this how it was? In my dreams! As per usual I raced around at an insane pace, trying to fit in all of the above, plus attending the seminars, tweeting, taking photos and still controlling the Rose Cottage site from a 120 mile distance :-) Women & multi-tasking, we’re the bomb.

My favourite section was Hall 2’s Thinking Space, which incorporated an area curated by designersblock, a section dedicated to New Design Britain and a stand created by Bimingham City University. Also here was the Seminar Theatre which had a packed schedule of speakers hosting talks on everything from colour technology trends to bar design. My interest was sparked by a talk entitled Style on a Shoestring by Julia Begbie from the KLC School of Design as it sounded perfect for the kind of miracles Moregeous is often asked to perform KLC run interior and garden design courses in London and regular readers of the Moregeous blog will know I’ve been on a one of their great fun and very informative day courses, plus I recently had a chat with the very approachable Jenny Gibbs, who set up KLC almost 30 years ago, at the BIID day in Manchester (Jenny is now president of the BIID – British Institue of Interior Design).

Julia Begbie - Style on a Shoestring

Eagle eyed readers may also have noticed that the Moregeous blog title has changed, with the words Styling on a Shoestring added. After listening to Julia’s talk, which essentially was all about realising a high end look at a fabulous fraction of the cost, I realised I’d just smiled all the way through it, recognising many of the interior, building and styling tricks recommended by Julia as already employed by Moregeous Design.

She began her talk by explaining what was meant by ‘Style on a Shoestring’. It wasn’t about cutting corners and cheapening design, but a recognition that times are are tough for the vast majority of people. Though clients want a high end look, they may not have a high end budget, may decide not to blow their limited funds because they are in rented accommodation or may be planning a move soon. They may prefer to invest their finances in other items such as pensions or cars, but still want a cool home. Lots of opportunities for designers to be inspired by design at the top of the market, yet cleverly translate it for their clients. Channelling the Chanel look via Top Shop, the runway look via the high street, if you like. Julia used lots of images to illustrate her points:

Example 1

Image by Piet Boon

The image above shows a bedroom from the portfolio of prolific Dutch designer Piet Boon - his work is To. Die. For. It’s a super stylish interior designed by Boon for his client, with the bed wall cladding (I’d imagine) fabricated from expensive timber. However, this look is SO easy to replicate. Local timber merchants all stock pine and timber cladding, which could be fitted to your bed wall and painted a luscious deep shade. PLEASE don’t leave the timber bare pine or it’ll look like the type of ropey sauna Avram Grant might visit.

I smiled at this image because this is just what we’re doing at Rose Cottage – below is the in-progress cladding I’ve just had fitted, which frames the bath panel and areas behind the WC and basin, and is soon to be painted a delicate Fleur de Lys shade to create the client’s dream shabby chic bathroom:

Moregeous, though half finished! shabby chic bathroom

Example 2

Using repeated mirrors; Living Etc image

Julia also spoke about the trick of repetition, which is used by designers to give power and drama to schemes. Instead of using one mirror, use several – you can see how this works to great effect in the Living Etc image above. This doesn’t have to be expensive when you shop at companies such as Ikea, or you could even buy second hand mirrors of approximately the same size and paint them all the same colour to create unity as well as repetition.

Smiled again, as below was a recently finished landlord makeover done on a very low budget, where I used 3 Ikea mirrors to add some interest to a room which lacked a focal point:

Moregeous landlord makeover using multiple mirrors

Example 3

Pedini kitchen image

Ikea kitchen

Some food for thought next on the heart of the home and you can see from Julia’s two images above how Ikea might have taken inspiration for their budget kitchen from the super glam Pedini image. I liked that Julia made this section personal by talking about her own kitchen refurb, her love of the crisp and minimalist Pedini image, but she explained that her budget ruled out a spend this high. Finding inspiration in high end design isn’t about stealing business from companies, because let’s be honest, not many of us could spend £20k on a kitchen before we’ve even considered the building and fitting costs. We would buy these kitchens if we could afford them, but we can’t, so we improvise!

We need to analyse the images we like, to see why we like them, and then work out which elements we can replicate. Julia said she wanted to organise a large digital image  for her new kitchen to ‘get the Pedini’ look and it reminded me of this Ikea kitchen I finished in 2007 for a friend of mine. Although the units were basic white gloss, the use of a bespoke glass table, granite worktop, splashback, chunky slate floor and digital blind personalised the space and gave it the elements of style which resulted in it being featured in a national magazine:

Moregeous kitchen with digital blind (Image Colin Poole) for Move or Improve magazine

Example 4

Bulthaup kitchen

Another image Julia showed was the above close-up of a Bulthaup kitchen, where a mixture of materials ensures interest and adds style – the chunky steel section contrasting yet complimenting the timber worktop. I cannot tell you how simple this is to do. This kitchen below was a house I redesigned in 2005 where I used the Ulriksdal Ikea oak kitchen, but had fabricated a 1400mm central steel section to house the hob. It worked brilliantly as any splashes from cooking hit the steel not the timber and food could be prepped  & chopped directly on the steel surface. I know this to be true because I lived and cooked there! Back then I think it cost me around £200 buying from a local steel fabricator, so expect an increase in material cost now, but it’s still way less than the Bulthaup model.

Moregeous Ikea Ulriksdal kitchen with steel insert, as featured in House Beautiful

Example 5

I was too busy writing to snap a shot of the sticker images Julia referred to next, but she mentioned companies like Rockett St George and 95% Danish who supply cool and inexpensive wall stickers to funk up your walls if decorating is not an option (maybe you rent or are shockingly bad at painting). A great way to change the look of a room or add a new vibe without spending too much money or time!

This is a rental flat we finished last year in West Didsbury which featured in 25 Beautiful Homes. The plain white wall of the living room was brought to life with 4 packs of Ikea wall stickers and a few crystals!

Moregeous rental flat for young professional female

Julia’s informed, accessible and interesting talk hit the nail squarely on the head for many of the interior designers in the room who don’t have the luxury of clients with endlessly deep pockets. Clever designers dealing with clients who have ‘normal’ budgets make sure they source at the top end, then add in their own and the client’s ideas, to come up with something unique – anyone can buy off the shelf! Follow the basic design principals and then mix it up a little, remembering that not everyone will like what you do, but as long as your client does, that’s what matters.

My digital blind client told me she smiled to herself every evening when she turned on the kitchen light and pulled the cactus down, she didn’t give a monkey’s what her more conservative friends thought! And that kind of feedback, as those blinking annoying adverts say, is priceless.

Twitter – can it replace ‘real life’ business support?

Reading Twitter, it’s easy to imagine that the power of positive thinking is all you need to get you through tough times. There are so many life coaches, networking gurus, social media marketing experts and motivational speakers tweeting endlessly about how fabulous life is, I’m at a bit of a loss as to how all of them can be making a serious living! If in fact they are.

I say this as almost everyone ‘real’ that I know is still finding business extremely tough at the moment. My property colleagues (and me!)are still battling against the banks and feeling the squeeze tighter every day, with very little room for manoeuvring and zero other options out there; shops and traders are seeing even fewer pounds rolling out of shoppers’ purses; independents are just about getting through by forming new alliances and trying radical marketing, helped by more people, hearteningly, opting to buy from local traders and supporting small business, but basic cash flow remains very tight; and sole traders, well, could life be any more challenging, with people and companies cutting budgets on everything from alternative therapies to delivery guys, image consultants to outside catering, handymen services to hair styling.

I wonder whether the businesses and traders out there who make stuff, deliver stuff and sell stuff just too busy to Tweet, or is it simply irrelevant to them as they fight to maintain their businesses? Are the Twitterers who tweet every five minutes really, as one delegate at Raw2010 said, simply ‘empty vessels making the most noise’?

On an anecdotal level, I know at least 2 people on Twitter who are absolute fruitcakes bordering on dangerous to know (you would avoid them like the plague in real life) but they’ve mastered the art of sounding proactive, enthusiastic and sparklingly positive in just 140 characters and are thriving in the Twitter community.

That said, I’ve also made some incredibly valuable and exciting contacts through Twitter, and talked to people I would never have talked to otherwise. Moreover real jobs have come from it, resulting in real money in the bank.

What’s sparked off this mini rant is that I was asked for help today from a young friend and the email made me feel simultaneously sad and angry:

Dear Sian

I was wondering if I could ask for your help on something?  ……. contracts will be ending this month……… I cannot afford to lose the money or the momentum that my business is now gaining.  If you hear of anything, will you let me know?

I have come too far to give up now, so if you hear of anything or think of anything, let me know.

I had a bit of a cry this morning…I am so passionate about this.  I can’t let it all go now!

Sad because I know how dedicated to success the person is, how passionate about her business, and it’s easy to read the fear in the words. Angry because it’s simple greed and negligence which has allowed our economy to crumble and fail hard working people like her.

So, a cry for help. Could she have put this on Twitter. No, I don’t think she or the majority of Twitter users would have dreamt of it. Why? Because being negative or showing weakness (i.e being honest!) isn’t considered good for business. Because most people building a new business or brand are worried about seeming weak or financially unstable. Because its maybe becoming a little too much about telling people how great you are so they want to be your follower, no-one wants to follow a whiney loser. Isn’t it daft. And this why  I can’t and Twitter shouldn’t be considered the be all and end all – people still need to foster, nurture and cherish solid contacts, people who know you and like you, people who will stand by you in good times or bad, who have seen you whoop with delight and cry in despair, and who will pick you up when you fall.

I don’t think you can be a true friend or a mentor on Twitter. It definitely requires a hot chocolate. Or a gin. And not a virtual one.

Hey, Sandra Bullock, fancy a stepmom swap?

The perfect Stepmom!

More step-mum cr*p to deal with this week. Bloody annoying. I’ve organised for the boys to watch Question of Sport being filmed in Manchester this week and am really hoping that isn’t ruined!

I’ve (willingly and happily) cared for my Hulk’s 11yr Steppy 1 on a weekly basis for nearly 7  years, however his BM loathes me. I mean REALLY loathes me, with a uncontrollable and insane passion which hasn’t lessened in the slightest with the passage of time. As many do, we plan childcare and dates around shifts & work, and also the Hulk’s 17yr old Steppy 2 also comes to stay, so he and his BM need dates in advance too; having fought through the courts to get access to Steppy 1, the dates have always had to be agreed six months in advance, by letter or now email. With, of course, the usual obstacles thrown in. But suddenly this Christmas, no agreement, no confirmations. Radio silence. So what does he do – still turn up on the dates he’s mailed? BM has randomly called the police in the past if she disputes dates, gone mental, shouting and swearing at school, throwing abuse etc. I remember one time she got the dates wrong and I actually got the finger for daring to look her way in the playground, in front of staff and children!

So finally we asked Steppy 1 to ask BM to confirm the dates and she promised to do so. Then didn’t. Asked again, more promises, no confirmation. So then the Hulk emailed, saying we need the dates, can’t get Steppy 2 sorted without them, so the boys miss out on seeing each other ( they get on GREAT, much love there). Given that Steppy 1’s BM, when married to the Hulk, looked after Steppy 2 for over 8 years, you’d think there’d be some compassion for that, huh? Oooooh noooooo, this was the mail returned:

I am agreeable to the dates provided.  Please note they could be subject to change with plenty of notice but I wont of course impinge on the dates you have booked to take (Steppy 1) away.  You will understand that its impossible for the dates to be set in stone.

Maybe now you and Sian could stop pestering (Steppy 1) about something which is out of his control.  What business it is of Sian’s in any event I fail to grasp.  Its rather like Des telling me to obtain the dates off you.  That’s something that just wouldn’t happen.  To tell (Steppy 1) that unless I confirm the dates he is unable to see (Steppy 2) is a tad strong.  Its not his fault you have to juggle your children around.

Lovely.

So now:

• we still can’t really rely on any of the dates,
• we’ve been reminded of whose ‘control’ it’s in,
• I’m reminded it’s none of my business even though I’ve been an integral part of Steppy 1’s life for 7 years, I love him and he loves me,
• Des (BM’s new partner and father of her baby) is relegated to being a piece of doggy doo on BM’s shoe, quite apart from the fact that  there is no comparison between what he and I have to organise,
• Steppy 2 is dismissed out of hand and compared to a sponge ball

I demand to know how Sandra Bullock’s bloke’s ex is a loony drug taking porn star with a prison record, yet they’ve all managed to get over it, sort their sh*t out and get on with their lives?!  Whilst I get a loony legal executive with control issues who refuses point blank to get over an irrational and deep seated hatred of anyone who doesn’t do things her way!

Oh Sandra, fancy a swap?

Making an Art Deco style mirror bath panel for Liner Luxe

This is an update to a post done last summer, with added photos to give a better “How to’ Guide!

A slightly more glam day today than yesterday’s sticky dirty skirtings, the landlord is painting the house himself to save some dosh, so I’ve to specify some colours today. He is absolutely forbidden to paint it magbloodynolia as he suggested over the weekend, if any magnolia paint goes near that house I will kill him.

Things changed slightly on Linen Luxe yesterday. The radiator, basin, wc and taps all arrived and are fabulous, but I’d to alter the positioning of the radiator, from the entrance door wall across the room to under the window, as it was a) hiding behind the door and is far too expensive to be hidden, b) stopping the door from fully opening and c) it’s so attractive that aesthetically  it looks better under the window. When renovating you must keep visiting your site and ensuring all the plans work, because with the best will in the world, drawings sometimes just aren’t enough.

The style of the suite and taps chosen by the client nods more to the Edwardian period than the 1930’s, but the dressing items will reflect a later art deco feel – the creams, limestones and blacks, and also in the shelving and mirror details.

The Drummonds site is a nice link – the mirrors and styling are 30’s true, but without it being too strictly period.

The client specified a steel not acrylic bath, so any fancy Art Deco styles were ruled out as they are very costly in steel. To bring some Art Deco styling into the limestone shaded room, the idea is to mirror the bath panel and if you’ve looked at the link above, they look fab, but can be a bit plain. However, can I find any art deco style mirrored bath panels on line?! No!!

So a bit of Moregeous innovation was required. First some inspiration on mirror styles:

But without the funny rectangular insert!

The first ones certainly reflect that art deco feel, but are a bit fancy pants, more for a living room / over a fireplace, however the last one looks just perfect.

And here’s how we did it:

The bath was fitted in place and a timber frame built to give it stability. Make sure the frame sits approx 2omm back from the edge of the bath to allow for a plywood panel and mirror to be fitted to the front of it, otherwise the mirror will not sit under the edge of the bath – more prone to damage and chipping. I’ve had the end of the bath panelled to tile onto, though you can also mirror this if you wanted, this end plywood can be screwed in place as it doesn’t need to be removed for access, unlike the main panel which you should be able to remove in case emergency pipe access for the bath is needed.

This is an image of the 12mm plywood cut to size for the gap, prior to it being mirrored. It needs to be slightly smaller than the space, and have four holes drilled in it, one in each corner . The glass company must drill holes in the mirror before glueing it to the plywood, so the screws can pass through the mirror and the plywood and into the frame, then have little silver caps popped over the neaten. This means you can take the panel off if required. Also remember that the holes in the ply must correspond with the holes in the frame, don’t just drill holes in the plywood when its off the frame in case your screws dangle about in thin air when it’s fitted. Also if you are having a bevel border on the mirror, the screw holes will need to be further in than your bevel width.

So, I took the plywood panel to Stockport Glass, and asked for a 6mm thick mirror with a 5omm bevel to be made and stuck to panel, and here’s the finished bath! The mirror should cost you circa £120.

Our completed Art Deco style bath panel in the Liner Luxe bathroom

Of course, if you are in the Manchester area and need some on-site help, just email us!

For more art deco mirror inspiration see: http://www.mirrorworld.co.uk/catalogue/Art-Deco-Mirrors.asp

Business: Raw 2010 – An entrepreneurs’ paradise right here in Manchester

“Forget everything you know about business!” heralded the Raw2010 web-site, “On 20th January 2010, the 350 top entrepreneurs in the region (i.e. the North West) will gather to listen, learn, collaborate and move the region forward.” Held at The Lowry, Salford Quays, listed as featured were illuminaries such as Theo Paphitis and Doug Richards from Dragons Den, and the event was supported by sponsors such as Business Link, Smarta, Pannone’s and Investec, amongst others.

Bloody hell, I thought, that sounds better than sorting out a tenanted flat and finishing my accounts, I’d better get an invitation. And with a wheedling skill honed over many years, get one I did, at a very late stage (it was a bit like getting one of Willy Wonka’s Golden Tickets). Furthermore I wasn’t too insulted at not getting an invite months ago ’cause apparently a famous female Dragon didn’t get one either and she’s FAR more successful than me

The Lowry, Salford Quays

I guess I also wasn’t so surprised that I wasn’t on a list to get an invite. As a self-employed developer / landlord in the property industry, who no longer directly employs anyone directly, I don’t have office contacts, functions to go to and organised events on tap, so the advent of social media / networking / Twitter has been a godsend. If it hadn’t been for female entrepreneur Shaa Wasmund (founded & sold mykindaplace.com and general all round business superwoman) tweeting about the event I wouldn’t be writing this blog having attended an inspiring, exciting, thought-provoking and ass-kicking day’s seminars and talks. So thanks Shaa, not for nothing does your name mean sunshine, something was certainly shining on me when I happened upon that tweet. We found we had something else in common; our outrage regarding the media treatment of a very sad incident on the M60 recently, but that’s a whole other blog!

I was rather late registering as it was so last minute and nearly missed the zebra on the way in, kinda liked him, he’d go nicely with my Genesis Cow Parade cow. Like all other attendees, I was presented with a nifty little Spotme networking device, which was sort of free iPhoney stalking buzzing diary for the day which not only told me where I’d to head for each session but also who was sitting next to me, within 3m of me, within 5m of me, etc. Never mind identity cards and terrorist legislation, strap one of those to every UK inhabitant and not only would the Spotme wipe out criminality, but there’d be no messing around when it came to stalking someone who tickled your fancy. I digress.

Part One : THINK

I’d missed Doug Richard’s first session on Future Tech and Thought Leadership which I was gutted about as everyone said it was tremendous. Next was a break-out session so I scooted off into my first seminar hosted by Ian Gotts called ‘Why Killer Products Don’t Sell’. The group of 350 had been split into three and, although interesting, the seminar I attended was largely about sales with a lot of jargon which I didn’t ‘get’. The message I did get is that it’s essential to figure out what it is you’re selling, who it is you’re selling to, and how you should be selling it to them.

I sometimes forget that I do have customers, as most of my design work comes via word of mouth, so if I want to grow my design business, which I do, I have to refocus on sales. I’ve spent a few years building a property portfolio and playing at being a tv presenter, but the present economic climate means I’ve got to get back to the business of making money (as the banks won’t simply give it to me anymore, the selfish gits ). Ian told an amusing anecdote about when he was involved in a business and for the first six months after injecting their capital, the VC’s kept sending him CV’s for a new finance director, as they clearly didn’t like the one he had, though Ian did. He finally reminded the VC’s that they were the cheerleaders not the team, and to p*ss off back to the stands. He also talked about the generational differences and how there is one technological generation gap between 40 somethings and their parents, but 5 technological generation gaps between 40 somethings and their kids – it’s no longer the case that the older generation sit the younger down and collectively say ‘listen son, this is how the world is’, because the world has changed so dramatically. Ian talked of the senior / junior roles as having irrevocably changed. Have they? Maybe technologically, but in terms of life experience and having ‘been there, done that’, I reckon an old head can always teach a young one something, otherwise why would mentoring be so valuable?

My Spotme buzzed insistently, chocolate cookies and smoothies first then off to rejoin the group in the Lyric theatre for a talk by Simon Clarkson from Advance Performance on the Wisdom of Crowds. A large vase of pounds coins had been placed in the Lowry foyer and everyone was invited to take a guess at how many were in there. The guesses ranged from 7000(?!) down to 120, and from memory I think 194 people guessed. The actual value was £749 and when all the guesses were totalled and averaged, the mean sum was 751 – freaky! The point of the talk being the question of whether the collective opinion is often right, because the average opinion is important and often accurate, an alien thought to a room full of single minded maverick entrepreneurs who go their own way and ignore the advice of others…. yet those 350 mavericks, me included, had all gathered together to basically do two things at Raw2010 – learn and network. And good networking leads to collaboration and the sharing of ideas – the very opposite of individualism. Hmmmm, there may be a point to this crowd thing but it still doesn’t mean most entrepreneurs will be any less convinced that in most decisions they are right and everyone else is wrong

More freaky however has been the subsequently gained knowledge that Simon and I were at the same school, albeit that back then he was a titchy lower schooler when I was swanning around as a superior sixth former.

Part Two : CREATE

John Bishop and Kanya King

The next speaker was Kanya King, the inspirational founder of the MOBO Awards. Having remortgaged her home to fund the first MOBO event, she knows just a little bit about determination and entrepreneurial spirit! Her talk was honest and passionate, about why she is where she is, and how she got there. Kanya spoke of how little support and advice she’d been given in her early years (I empathise on that one!) as her family were not from a business background, yet athough her mother repeatedly told her she was crazy in the early days, she was also her biggest fan and ended up following in Kanya’s footsteps and starting her own business at the tender age of 70. She talked about the importance of motivating your staff and how vital it is to both carve out a niche for your business, and to build a strong and consistent brand.

I got the feeling that Kanya, although very much an entrepreneur, is also a strong team player and gains strength from collaboration. She talked of an endless quest for customers, mentors, expertise, the value of networking, and above all help from others. Don’t think of networking as just loading cards onto a rolodex, she warned, it’s about fostering and developing relationships. Her message was that if you have a clear goal, self belief, aspiration and dedication, then success is only a matter of time if you never give up. And she had great hair. And a lovely necklace.

Host - John Bishop

Ahhhhh Google Wave. The source of many internet conversations. I had heard of it, but didn’t have a clue what it was, and after a somewhat cheesy video pitch from two semi-socialised nerdy types planning a faux barbeque, it appears to be a sort of conference call email which lots of people can join and amend in real time, adding images etc. Looked interesting. Some research threw up this article which isn’t too flattering though, and it hasn’t launched ‘properly’ yet so I’m sure they are working on the glitches. Funniest was the compere for the event John Bishop and his caustic comments about the video presenters, unrepeatable on a family blog but suffice to say he didn’t think the two had or would ever have enough friends to host a bbq and the male presenter was slightly excited to be sitting next to a member of the opposite sex There were quite a few people I knew there, and a colleague Richard from MakeUrMove was very inspired by the Google Wave idea.

The lovely Shaa Wasmund

Then came the second lot of three break out sessions hosted by different speakers and I chose Shaa Wasmund’s. She’d enlisted the support of colleague Doug Richard to speak about Thought Leadership and to try and sum up what it is, Shaa used Justine Roberts from MumsNet who had been a guest on GMTV that very morning. The MumsNet site is now so irrevocably linked with ‘mums’, that whenever a media story rears it’s head involving the same, they are asked for a quote or interview as Justine is seen as a thought leader in her field, hence her business is being continuously promoted. Some members of the audience baulked at this, rejecting the need for media whoring as necessary to business – one attendee used the phrase ‘empty vessels make the most noise’, which Doug didn’t like AT ALL and a debate ensued.  Of course, not everyone is media savvy and wants to sit on the GMTV sofa, but diluted, it’s about striving to be the best person possible to represent your business, the expert in your area. Isn’t that how you become recognised as the finest within your field? Isn’t that what all entrpreneurs are striving for? There was a lot of talk about Twitter and it’s pros and cons, with many people not really understanding what it’s all about yet. I liked this session, it’s still buzzing in my head two days later, and I couldn’t resist a thank you to Shaa for tweeting about the event (she promised the audience I wasn’t a plant). It’s amazing, how Twitter has made incrediblely talented business people like Shaa and Doug so much more accessible to the business community, yes, yes, I know they probably hate us really and think we are all stalkers, but it still FEELS great doesn’t it

Lunch next, which was a bit of a potato fest. John Bishop had everyone in stitches in the post-lunch warm-up session, linking in the menu with his disastrous appearance on Celebrity Mastermind where he came last with his chosen subject….. The Irish Potato Famine. Very funny man, I usually cringe a bit at stand up comedians but he is well worth watching, a bit naughty and not at all pc, thank god.

Part three : GROW

Dragon's Den victor Imran Hakim

Next up was an interactive session hosted by Bolton mega-success story, Imran Hakim, the inventor of the iTeddy featured on Dragon’s Den. We were asked to watch 3 short videos pitching new business ideas, then vote which one we’d invest in using the Spotme’s. Imran’s a great presenter but for me this was the most pointless part of the day, no-one could get their gadgets to work and vote, it all happened so fast, and I just didn’t see the reasoning behind what we were doing. Sorry! I’d have preferred to hear him talk about his journey and future plans tbh. It didn’t really give the audience clear advice or tips where to go to look for investment capital, but seemed to be there to plug the evening’s Envestors event, once you’ve run out of money from the 3 F’s as Imran said – Friends, Family and Fools

Apologies for image quality, no flash / tripod! The panel discussion commenced

Pearls of wisdom were then imparted from (l to r) David Pollock, Chief Exec of Cheshire based telecoms firm Chess, known for his voracious acquisitions appetite, the forthright Rob Cotton, Chief Executive of the Manchester based Software Escrow Services NCC Group and a man with strong opinions see this), then Nigel Wray, who is, according to the Sunday Times, worth £165m and is oft likened to an English Warren Buffet, and finally business angel Doug Richard, the Californian technology and software entrepreneur now widely recognised by the UK public for his role on Dragon’s Den.

First off was a discussion about growing your business through acquisitions, which was interesting though not directly relevant to me. After a bit of a debate the panel seemed to agree that acquisitions are a good way to grow a business if you avoid the trouble, i.e. people and staff! So growth through assert based companies = great, but going concerns are a pain in the arse.

In a discussion about mentoring, most of the panel, interestingly, said they hadn’t had one, with Rob saying that his father was his mentor, but there hadn’t been anyone else (John Cauldwell?!). Nigel said he’d only be a mentor to someone if he got shares in their company, not very altruistic that Nigel, but I guess these guys are super hectic running their companies. Doug also said he hadn’t really had a mentor per se. It was interesting watching the interaction between between Doug and Shaa, and clear to see the business respect there – even if it wasn’t a strict mentor ‘agreement’ it was clear there was something akin to a mentoring role at play, and surely that’s what mentoring is, an acceptance by both parties, explicit or implicit, that the one can look to the other for guidance and advice when the need arises.

I didn’t have a ‘proper’ mentor when as a young entrepreneur I started my first building company. Although the Prince’s Trust was great in many ways, our contacts were much, much older so there was no real connection and any mentoring I have benefitted from has been very ad hoc. I can name a number of occasions where I’ve benefitted from guidance from someone more experienced in business than I, who has ‘been there, done that’ and those incidents definitely helped me refocus, make decisions and get through tough situations. Rob suggested looking outside your business for a mentor, but I’m not so sure, maybe that’s an issue of trust and being fearful of exposing your weaknesses to those within your industry. Don’t try and make a mentor of someone who’s out to nick your customers and damage your business would be a good start, but shouldn’t it be more about what you’ll gain rather than what you might lose?

The panel talked about their biggest mistakes: Nigel said his was when the credit crunch lifted the veil from his eyes and he realised a very large investment in a major AIM housebuilder had gone down the pan; Rob admitted that as a cocky 27 yr old FD of a car dealership he’d arrogantly tried to teach the very experienced manager there how to sell cars with the result the manager walked out, as did his staff; David had an investment go sour when he got involved in an organic food company in 98 even though his instincts told him he knew nothing about organic food; Doug trumped all with a complicated buy out story where he’d agreed terms which included a 100 day clause and lost everything when the larger company went bump on the 89th day. We got the impression he was talking about a LOT of money.

The most entertaining slot of the day award went to a very brave choice  in guest – musician and Manchester legend Peter Hook, talking about how not to run a business, or in the words of his book, “What a f*ck up we made of it”. Brutally honest, candid and for me personally a fascinating insight into the background of the Hacienda, a club which was a regular night out during my misspent youth.

Peter told how he looks back now and hindsight, that wonderful thing we all love, tells him that maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to sign a 25yr lease on a building, in a property crash, at a rate of 17.5% over base (with the then hugely high base rate), whilst gangsters were running round the club shooting each other in the arse. Acquisitions in the Hacienda, said Peter, took place when switched on young wannabe gangsters watched as skinny white kids from Stoke made £5k a night selling E’s in the club, realised they were missing a trick, bounced the Stoke boys on their heads until everything fell out of their pockets and then said: you’re working for us now. Not quite the acquisitions carried out in David Pollock’s world. And very amusing. As long as you weren’t the kid being bounced on the concrete floor of the Hacienda.

For someone who estimated that, over 16 years, the total cost to him personally of the Hacienda’s mismanagement was £6 million, Peter was remarkably sanguine, to the extent that he’s opening up the old Fac51 building as a club again in the next few weeks. Is he a glutton for punishment / barking mad, or an entrepreneur determined to promote what’s great about Manchester, the latter I’d like to think. Maybe his story clearly shows that being an entrepreneur is a long term game – disasters, knock-backs and failures only serve to make stronger characters out of us, and none of it has put him off opening another club – maybe though that’s because his business model sounds like a lot more fun than most….

Chris Morris peaking at Raw2010

Chris Morris, CEO of Manchester based LateRooms.com, gave a very brief talk on the history of the company and some lessons learned. It was a great shame that time was running over and he had to cut short his first hand account of the phenomenal growth of the online bookings company, which was established just ten years ago in small offices in the city centre, was profitable since it’s first year and was sold to First Choice in ‘96 for over £100m. Many people wanted to ask him how such clear commitment to customer service seemed to sit so comfortably with rapid growth and it seemed clear from Chris’s passion for his business that going ‘above and beyond’ what was required by the customer has really paid off for them.

Shaa Wasmund being filmed at Raw2010

Shaa about to pounce and cut Chris Morris off!

So did they save the best ’til last?! Imran Hakim provided a suitably upbeat intro to the Keynote speaker Theo Paphitis, who I’d collared earlier for a quick snap…..

The grinning woman behind looks happier than Theo and I put together!

Bloody ‘ell, he started by saying, John Bishop’s gone home, Doug Richard’s gone home, what is this, the bloody graveyard shift? And he didn’t pull any punches after that either…. 50% of small businesses fail in the first 3 years he stated, a figure most of us knew, but when you realise that means 30,000 businesses failed in 2009 and an estimated 40,000 are forecast to fail in 2010, surely something more needs to be done to help them. Theo stressed over and again how massive a part of the UK economy are small businesses, yet little assistance is provided by government, there MUST be more done, or more will fail. He asked for breaks for small business, not for the government to ignore us; we need to be rewarded for long term investment, not the cutting of taper relief, we need capital gains to assist enterprise, not encourage short term gain.

Theo Paphitis on stage at Raw2010

On a positive note, starting a small business gives you better odds than the lottery, he said, with 150 out of every 100,000 start ups turning over above £2m in the first two years! Despite there being the obvious current financial meltdown, Theo was adamant that it was just as good a time as any to start a business.

He had some scary stats:

• By 2017, at the rate it’s going, the UK’s foreign debt will be 125% of GDP, the same as Greece’s was announced to be in Dec 09. This is sh*t, for those of you who don’t understand economics, I did some research.
• Debt in the UK has hurtled past the 1 trillion pound mark. A million seconds is 12 days, while a billion seconds is 31 years, and a trillion seconds? That’s 31,688 years. That’s a lot, to you and me.
• The interest on government debt is currently equal to the education budget, if when interest rates go up, it’ll be equal to the health budget.

He talked about this being a ‘weird recession’ and that is hasn’t really hit public sector workers yet, but has only been felt by those in the private sector. I’ll second that – every new tenant I’ve taken on in the last year has been a public sector worker: nurses, teachers, social workers,etc., all now renting apartments previously occupied by tenants in advertising, property, marketing, sales. It’s so noticeable, the difference in confidence, but I fear even that will change as the inevitable cuts hack through the public sector after the election. He said he was worried, as no politician will talk about it, about how bad it is and is going to get.

Firm indicators are needed, definite guidance, but no-one will give them – why would anyone start a business now, he asked, when things are so uncertain, and all the rules of the playing field could be ripped up and thrown away in a few months time after the election.

C’mon Theo, give us some good news before we all slit our wrists……

Oh, ok then, thumbs up for this news, said Theo: It’s all about passion, drive and ambition, running a business. And it’s all about the staff. If staff are happy and ‘belong’ to the business, then they will ensure your customers are happy and get great service. The work environment needs to be a haven from the world (stick with him on this….), staff already have pressure to deal with at home, so coming to work should be a respite, you shouldn’t be piling more sh*t on them when they walk through the door to the office / shop ( I love this way of thinking, it’s such a reversal of what happens in most companies!). There are a huge opportunities to start businesses right now, better to start businesses in bad times than in good! And like a true entrepreneur, he told us he’d set his retirement date. The day he dies.

So that was that, Raw2010, all in all, a great day. A few familiar faces, a few famous faces, and lots of fantastic new contacts. It ended with one question from the floor to Theo Paphitis :

Did he think an entrepreneur would make a good Prime Minister?

He mulled it over for just a few seconds before deciding a resounding Yes! His reasoning? That no-one in the Cabinet until very recently has actually ever had a proper job, and between them they’ve managed to make a right royal f*ck up of things (his words!), so an entrepreneur would definitely do a better job. I think you’re right, Theo, they are bloody useless cause none of them seem to have any sense of responsibility or accountability. Maybe it’s time for Minister’s Dragon’s Den – 5 minutes to pitch, with only yes and no answers allowed to any questions. They wouldn’t last 2 minutes, never mind 5

Life: Never mind the Priory, Hedgehog therapy is all you need

I AM adorable, and you WILL love me

Much of this week has been, in equal measures, stressful and boring. The latter because I loathe doing accounts. The former because I’ve more deadlines than any human should have to cope with. If I saw that bloody Moira Stuart from the tax adverts I’d drag her home and lock her into my understairs cupboard, tax doesn’t have to be taxing my arse. Even though my mountain of receipts was finally finished off and ready for the accountant at 1am last night, I’ve still a court case to prepare for and a college dissertation to magically conjure up for the end of this month.

Then last night the gear box dropped off my car, but even that couldn’t be straightforward. When the AA man arrived and shone his torch under the car, along with the shredded metal gear box we found a baby pigeon, shivering and unable to fly. Christ. Since December my kitchen’s been home to a lost ferret (http://wp.me/pyxPm-HH), then a gorgeous young cat abandoned to the elements at Christmas, and now a pigeon! Couldn’t just leave it, of course, so Charlie and I went skidding down the road chasing it with a large cardboard box and some bird seed, and it spent the night in the front room. What do you do with a poorly pigeon?! Bit of a dilemna as the local vet wasn’t really interested, but then my memory dredged up an article I’d read in the paper about a local wildlife heroine who has a Hedgehog Hospital. And there she was, on Google, Barbara Roberts, and the word heroine is spot on.

I’d a voiceover job to do in nearby Didsbury at lunchtime and Barbara suggested popping the pigeon over before I went, saying she was happy to look after him. I really didn’t know what to expect, but never did I expect to be so bowled over by the utter commitment of this lady to the wildlife she cares for. 400 hedgehogs. Yes, that’s right, 400. Poorly ones, blind ones, baby ones, three legged ones, you name a hedgehog that needs looking after, and it’s at Barbara’s house. She does it all on her own, with no help financially, is up at 5am every day, and in the springtime can look after up to 80 babies, all of which need hand feeding every two hours. She’s amazing! Plus she takes in other animals in the area which have been badly treated, there were parrots, finches, rabbits, and even a broken billed duck. After I’d finished work, Charlie and I went back, not many kids can say they’ve been to a hedgehog hospital!

This is former nurse Barbara, with one of her beloved hedgies.

What a delightful but unexpected way to spend a Saturday afternoon. How could you not fall in love with this lot? It was impossible to stay feeling stressed after spending half an hour there, and realising just how easy my life is compared to Barbara’s!

Somebody turn off the lights!

Ok, you can all go now, I'm off back to sleep!

A rare albino hedgehog which had been abandoned, NOT good household pets, they need to walk 8 miles a night to keep healthy! Cute as a button, a milky bar button, of course

Business: Why use 1 form, Manchester City Council, when 8 will do??

‘Do as we say, not as we do’ appears to be the mantra of Manchester City Council this morning in my office.

Manchester City Council have made a strong stand on ‘green’ issues and according to Richard Leese’s blog ( http://www.manchester.gov.uk/blog/leadersblog/post/337 ) they even have a grand title for this commitment:

” ‘A Certain Future’ – the name of Manchester’s Climate Change Action Plan, which was unveiled at a Friends of the Earth organised event last night at Manchester Central.”

Mr Leese ” also made it clear that the City Council is absolutely committed to a shared stakeholder approach to tackling climate change, sharing responsibility, sharing solutions, sharing the benefits. The big question of the night, given this was an audience of the committed, was how do we persuade the vast majority of not so committed individuals in the city to sign up to making their contribution. We’re not going to do it by brow-beating and bullying – we have to make energy saving easy for people and show that it is something they can benefit from. If you want to know more go to www.manchesterclimate.com but don’t expect a weather forecast.”

Tut tut to all those not so committed individuals in the city, those who waste energy and materials and don’t tackle climate change head on and with responsibility.

Errrrr, hang on. Shouldn’t they get their own house in order before they start preaching to the rest of us?

I use Enterprise Manchester Partnership Ltd to order skips, “an innovative public private partnership, joint venture company between Enterprise and Manchester City Council” i.e we used to have council employees to do stuff like empty bins, now the council use our money to pay these companies to do the stuff they used to do. That’s how I understand it anyway.

I order skips from them on an ad hoc basis, for various different properties as and when needed. As a user of skips, I now have to fill in a Duty of Care form once a year, to make sure I don’t poison anyone with toxic waste….. So that’ll be one form, one signature, one envelope, one stamp, job done. You’d think.

Except we’ve had had 8 letters, with 8 envelopes, 8 x 36p stamps, each containing three A4 sheets, and 8 self addressed envelopes, each referencing a different address, one-off addresses where the skips were placed in the last 2 years. Even though they will never be there again and Enterprise know that. So I called them up to ask why. “It’s the computer’s fault,” I was told, “It’s a computer error, it thinks each of those properties still has the skip there.”

Eh? No, it doesn’t, I said, it knows there is no skip there, otherwise you’d be chasing me asking for your skip back! It’s not a computer error, it’s how the computer’s been programmed. I asked the girl, don’t you think this is very wasteful and that it’s wrong that a company in partnership with the city council is wasting money and resources like this. And that’s partly tax-payers money right? If you are sending out repeat letters like this to every one of your skip addresses that would equate to hundreds and hundreds of pounds? “Oh yes” she agreed “I agree with you, it is a waste, I’m a taxpayer too.”

Bit ironic as this is their bumf on paper recycling haha http://www.enterprisemanchester.co.uk/?section=RecyclingPaper

She suggested that she go into my account and change the setting on it to only generate one Duty of Care form, but surely only one should be sent to every company to cover ALL their skips?? What a bloody daft system. Which we are partly paying for.

Don’t even get me started on council tax bills for landlords….do I really need the 376 booklets which come out with each bill EVERY time I get a demand for an empty flat (and anyway, why am I paying for council services on a flat that’s empty…..?)?

My shredder is wheezing with the strain of shredding unnecessary crap generated by Manchester City Council’s finest, Mr Leese, clearly you need to brow beat and bully your own partners and departments into carbon neutral submission before you take on the rest of the world.

Life: Today I’m attacking Sinitta with hedge trimmers and throwing Gwen Stefani overboard.

When you work for yourself and from home, three things are true:

1. You invariably look like shit unless you know someone is coming or you know have to leave the house. A little like this, in fact, although there is the added ingredient of overwhelming stress here:

Not a good look

2. For the work-from-homer, there is no water cooler / lunch break / quick chat with colleagues to break the boredom of the day. This is why Twitter was invented, though it’s been hijacked by Demi Moore.

3. The Daily Mail on-line showbiz pages are perfect for providing a little light relief: the chance to giggle at someone else’s cellulite perhaps, tut at Tiger’s extra marital revelations or feel superior to the disaster that is Kerry Katona.

But occasionally, i.e. today, the viewing of such pages is extremely counter-productive as a method of escape from the stresses of life. Occasionally, instead of feeling superior or mildly smug, you feel any one or a mixture of the following – jealousy, envy, resentment and downright hatred. Sometimes the pressure of life is so great that when you see other people having fun, enjoying life or doing something infinitely preferable to what you are doing, you just want to kill them.

For example:

How dare you look like shopping is such fun and your life is so great, Mylene, if I saw you on the street today, I would pour Immac on your coat and throttle you with your turquoise necklace.

And as for you Christina, sitting pertly like a 50’s starlet in the sun, I would pop your tyres, pour sugar in your gas tank and paint Tippex on your shades! Then steal your jacket.

Quite simply, the only way to wipe this ‘look how much fun I have in my life’ smirk off Sinitta’s face would be to take a hedge trimmer to her stupid leaves. And to her 6yr old plaits. I am not having fun this week, Sinitta, so I don’t want to see you hoovering in foliage, thanks.

So Abramovich has given you his yacht for a week, huh Gwen, any other time I’d have said good on you, but NOT TODAY! Today I would stand on the back of your flip flops, crush your pork pie and smear that bloody perfect lipstick all over your porcelain face. Then throw you overboard, keeping your cute child and selling him for a large amount of money on Ebay.

I feel slightly better after that.

I must now go make up with the Hulk after shouting at him a lot this morning.

Business: The January Blues, sorry, Accounts

Deep in the January Blues Accounts at the moment. Oh. So. Dull. I wish I was one of these people who could put everything in a black plastic bin liner and dump it on my accountants desk with a dismissive shrug of ’sort that lot out, and fast’. But I’m not.

I want to be outside with my mate:

Now just here looks like a good spot for a bit of nut burial

Second thoughts, do I bury it, or just eat it now, decisions, decisions...

A very good spot for watching out for those pesky magpies who keep nicking my nuts

But instead I am stuck indoors, suffering the January curse of the self-employed, buried under a mound of paperwork. It never ceases to amaze me how many paying OUT books I have, compared to paying IN books, or should that be book……

How can such titchy renovations create so many blinking receipts!!

I am drowning in documents. And slowly going mad. To the extent I thought the shredded paper looked pretty. Need to take a break….

Design: What would you expect to find in a shoe box?!

Minus 15 last night in parts of Manchester, quite ridiculous! The heating was fired up through the night, rendering us all dormice incapable of getting up at an early hour. It was only the postie knock which got us up, ok, got the Hulk up, and when he came back upstairs, he tossed a black box on the bed and said in a somewhat accusatory fashion “It’s a box for you, been buying SHOES???”

Now, like the rest of the world we are on an economy drive and new shoes are definitely crossed off the shopping list for the moment, but in my hazy state, I racked my brains – I must have ordered some whilst drunk? distracted? asleep?….

Rack your brains, Mia, when did I last order shoes?!!!!

Though not yet fully awake, I was conscious enough both to both try and maintain innocence and deny fiddling the household budget. However, with a guilty smile, I opened up the box, expecting to find something like this:

Mmmmmm, sauciness....

And even the cat was surprised when instead I found this:

I knew I hadn't ordered shoes!!

Guttering! I was delighted and exonerated at the same time, off the wrecking the budget hook and in receipt of the hot-off-the-press, perfect-for-a-listed-building cast iron look downpipe samples for Rose Cottage. The Hulk rolled his eyes with a ‘only you would be excited to get plastic gutters instead of shoes’ look on his face. The sample has been sent by Steph at Hunters Plastics and the product, Foundry Finish, isn’t even in the shops yet (that for me is more thrilling than the waiting list for boots on Net-a-Porter). It’s a guttering system designed to look like cast iron, but without all the draw-backs (heavy, expensive, hard to work with) as it’s made from plastic. Looks good too:

Am I a saddo? I am, I know it.

Do I care? Nope!