This Business and Moment...

randomshenans said:
We sell to universities/ colleges/ schools. Buyers different from CIO, Head of Online Learning, head of educational technology, or even in some case learning designers (depends on size of org).. anyone who deals with the management or delivery of online learning material / courses for that organization.
Click to expand...

Have a look at http://iwanttoconnect.co.uk/

They are a small company I used to work for that specialise in developing learning material for the visually impaired. Susan Day, one of the directors was/is a teacher and has hundreds of contacts in the UK.

They were interested in online education/learning and made a start on it but they don't have the people to do it.
 
randomshenans said:
Happy to chat though!

@Phate, Web Summit is meh for us, but thanks! We did their US version, which was ****, but it was in Vegas so I enjoyed everything else :p It's just a bit too generic tech for us now, the conferences I need to be at are the pure education ones, where the attendees are all basically our potential customers (all unis and colleges).
We sponsored BbWorld and InstructureCon last year, both big and both cost me a ton. It was great for marketing and getting our name out, just needed to capitalise on the exposure more!

Spend some time on your model, it'll clear your head and help keep you focussed on the future. Chin up and keep pushing.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, thought it was worth a mention :)

I wanted to attend it this year (especially with it being in the building quite literally next door to where I work) but I couldn't - next year I intend to. Either as a guest or business. :)

Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm going to spend a little time on it tonight. Even if its half an hour, it will switch my brain off from the stresses of the day job and get me to focus on something I'm very excited about. :)

Every little helps.

Once the model is complete I'll be sending you some questions no doubt and looking for thoughts! :D
 
So, had a job description for this job that I was told was mainly website/SEO/pushing online sales:

I T Technology Supervisor
Job Description
Reporting directly to the Company Directors, the Information Technology Supervisor oversees all aspects of systems/programming/administration, and/or computer operations. Based in a large Waste recycling centre with 3 sites in north Shropshire, and will assist in development and implementation of goals and company policies in preparation of budgets and equipment acquisition programs.

This is a hands on role in a fast growing company. The Information Technology Supervisor’s duties are primarily administrative in nature but also involve professional information technology work, including cable & hardware/software installation. You will be expected to interface with, public/private agencies, outside consultants and others and may assist the Company Directors by developing, proposing and implementing information technology solutions for a variety of issues within a diverse business.

General direction is provided by the company directors. Responsibilities include management & maintenance of Company server/client PC’s website hosting, and development, weighbridge & Sage accountancy/Payroll software systems, IP based phone systems and CCTV across three sites.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
- To oversee, train, and evaluate system users; provide technical advice and assistance to staff; select and supervise the work of contractors on site.
- Supervise the development of plans and estimates for systems development and major enhancements of the Company’s services & systems.
- Ensure the correct backup and security polices and systems are maintained across the company’s data management.
- Assist in the development and implementation & SEO, of all company website/s, assist in the preparation and administration of IT budget; participate in the preparation of equipment acquisition and improvement programs.
- Coordinate resolutions to technical problems and system changes that affect the company’s goals.
- Perform other related or non-related duties as assigned.

Ability to:
- work alone and with others to achieve objectives set out by company directors.
- Manage, plan, assign, and supervise the work of a diverse staff in the accomplishment of multiple projects.
- Manage multiple technical projects and adhere to deadlines.
- Use a variety of automated computer hardware and software systems.
- Communicate effectively, verbally and in writing.
- Exercise analytical skills in providing fact-based details to support ideas, recommendations, and analysis
- Coordinate with Company Directors and across departments to identify opportunities for shared use of information systems and technologies and improvements.


QUALIFICATIONS:
You will require experience & core skills in:

- Problem solving utilising limited resources and research.
- Use of computers, computer applications, and software, including computer-based CCTV systems.
- Website design build and maintenance
- SEO
- IT cable infrastructure including fibre optic
- Project planning and management techniques relating to the development, acquisition and installation of information technology and /or other industrial machinery
- Budgeting for planned improvements


EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

Any combination of education and experience that would likely provide the required knowledge and skills will be considered.

Experience:

At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in the fields of network IT administration, application programming/planning , staff management, computer operations or similar field in a information systems environment, including at least one year as a project lead or team leader.
Experience is essential in Windows Server and small business networking environments.


Education:

A good standard of Maths English and Science or university qualification in computer science, information systems, business information systems, business administration or a closely related field.

SPECIAL QUALIFICATIONS

Driver License:

Possession of a valid UK Full Driver License at the time of appointment

No salary info, what would you be expecting if that was you? based in the midlands.

Now, a lot of that I've a basic knowledge of, things like CCTV I can read up on research but I have limited knowledge of project management, no knowledge of cabling and limited knowledge of Windows Server but I am working through the Virtual Academy courses.

I will be going in for a chat I think but it'd be nice to know what sort of salary that would require which I know will be difficult as it's so varied. But I may negotiate a lower salary + training on top of it to work towards the higher. Look at project management and IT related qualifications. I know they are a good company to work for and it's a family business mentality so they may be up for that.
 
I suppose as a smaller company you expect to be doing a bit of everything. It does seem very varied in the role specification though. If you hate where you are and this gives you more money/ experience etc. why not.

@Phate, how's your canvas coming?

I had a meeting with a VC last night. They're really nice, like to lead rounds and more "partner" with companies, which is nice. I need more revenue though, which is what I know. It's my major to do...

Paid someone on Fiverr to do an editable responsive email template for me, matching our branding. I was looking at doing it myself, but the time spent could be used to, you know, sell something. Or try to.

Have to have a problem solving meeting with Arizona State Uni beginning of next week, see if they are still having some integration issues. Then getting to demo to a number of faculty about roll outs. See how it goes...

I've got a contact in Singapore (which is a market I'm eager to get in to as well - they love new tech), I just dropped him a "Happy New Year" reminder about contacts I asked for in Singapore to try and sell to. He's asked if I can be in Kuala Lumpur in April as his new role is to bring new Tech in to Malaysia. See where that goes... I said if that time there is packed with selling the **** out of our stuff, I'm in.

Also trying to find out who will be at SXSWEdu this year, potential customer wise and see if I can wangle any discount. It's Austin Texas beginning of March and I'd like to get there, but NEED to arrange meetings prior to that to make it worth the cash.

It's been a busy week.
 
randomshenans said:
@Phate, how's your canvas coming?
Click to expand...

Hey man,

It's been a tough week for me. Struggles with my day job are bringing my moral down and fatigue on the up, coupled with my gf having odd issues at her job. We get home and neither of us are in the mood to do anything. Plus we're also planning a wedding so that is taking up some time, understandably :p

However, I have been doing the odd bit of research during the day when I have moments at work. Things I've found this week:

- Business card & branded stationary supplier
- Business name almost decided on (well I'm pretty set on it, I just want some more broader opinions) Domains are available, I'll be purchasing them soon then setting up email addresses
- I have 4 potential website templates which I've found. I will be sitting down on Sunday after I've finished the canvas to trialling/testing them out.
- Discovered what my competitors charge, so I've got a ballpark figure when calculating what I can charge and earn.

So I've been active on it, just not as much as I would have liked, but its still all more things ticked off...

Other things going on:

- I aim to have the canvas finished by Sunday night (it is 80% there) and then delivered for the middle of next week to the investor. I am looking to meet up with him in the next 2 weeks to discuss his feedback and options.
- Tomorrow I've got lunch with a friend who has a lot of business contacts. She's going to give me details for some very useful people, including decent Marketing & Sales. These are crucial.
- Logo design
- Investors daughter who I've spoken to this week (who's business could send work my way and vice versa) is keen to see the business model as well and then sit down and discuss how could be best for us to work together.

So things are ticking over and getting done. My 6 month renewal on my current work contract is March 10th. If I've taken the plunge to do it full time it has to be before then. That's my own target.

Things sound super busy for you. I might send you a LinkedIN message with an idea for the business name, see what you think of it if you don't mind? :)
 
First week done at the new job and it's turning out to be a tough gig. The job was undersold to me and I have slight concerns that I might be a bit out of my depth here. I'm running a multimillion dollar contract, which in fairness, I expected to do but initially in a 2ic capacity.

I have a feeling that everyone is trying to distance themselves from this particular project which include my direct manager. We're tracking well behind program, contingency nearly chewed up and we're only 3 months in with a year remaining.

Guess I can see this as a challenge and a unique opportunity to gain some value experience.
 
Probably why they brought you in in the first place. I have been lumped with a project that no one wants when joining somewhere. It's great, clearly think they can lumber the new guy with the dead duck. Just try and get your head down on it and salvage what you can.
 
Think I'm in the doghouse. I was working until 2:30am last night/ this morning and the wife was fine with that, I got a ton done but there is always so much to do. SO she said she didn't mind if I cracked on tonight as well.
So, I'm still going now and she's gone off to bed with a tight lipped smile saying good night. I feel I'll get the brunt of that at some point...

I just have a **** ton of data to get through for an email campaign I want to launch on Monday, but I need to make sure it's all ready. I get she wants to see and spend time with me though. Bah. I have wine so I'll power on... just wanted to vent.
 
Ooops mate! She'll see the benefits when Emotuit is hugely successful and you're rolling in da money like a playaaahhh :p :D

Anyway...so on Sunday I spent time finishing my business plan and model/canvas - what an eye opening and fun experience that was.

I need to do a little more detective work to add to it, but overall its basically done. I shall be sending it off this week for thoughts & feedback to the investor/Uncle. See if he thinks it's a yay or a nay, that's exciting!

At the end of last week I met with my colleague and explained the business, she has friends in Marketing & Sales she met with over the weekend. She's going to get back to me this week about what they think of it and then possibly arranging an informal meet up for some free friendly advice in the next couple of weeks.

In the mean time this week I shall be:

- Sorting out a logo
- Testing out different websites, I've lined up 4 to try out and test

Also, have spoken to HR as I remember something about a clause in my contract meaning if I take income from another business it automatically voids my current contract here. So we're discussing a "no objection" statement as initially I won't be taking a salary and it shouldn't affect my work here.

So the current synopsis is lots being done but lots to do!
 
It's a thoroughly good/ worthwhile process to go through as even if you think you have everything sorted and you're 100% right on everything, it makes you go and test that and really have it all solid.

Wife is fine actually, she just wanted some chilled sofa time with me but she's been really good.
I have nailed things this weekend and tried to keep that momentum this morning but started badly as I was on a demo call for emotuit at 10am with a company in Japan interested in a partnership and had double booked myself here at my contract to meet our new group boss, which I ended up turning up late to. Whoops. I've spent the rest of today being a corporate suck up and shaking hands and back slapping with high ups in order to play the game and make myself as visible as possible. I suppose you have to play the game...

Annoyingly I am trying to play catch up now on emotuit stuff I set out for today. Got to get an investor slide deck updated and out to GSV labs, which is a great accelerator in LA. I have a relationship with them from about 18 months ago but we had no product then, and they really focus on companies with product and some sales and really growing that through partnerships with unis and colleges and schools. This is what I want; to get as much of us out there as quickly as possible to hit this 10k MRR (monthly returning rev) as this is the sweet spot for the investment we need (looking for about $1m) to grow dev team, sales, finance (I ******* hate that ****) and move over to the US.

Scored a meeting with the chief analytics guy at the Texas Uni System (they have a statewide system that controls from above what groups of unis do, it's more cost affective etc.) which covers over 14 Unis. I am made up with this one as we spoke last year but couldn't ever meet. Now I am heading to SXSWedu in March based in Austin where they are, so I'm aiming to have a sweet demo, and then massage a deal come march... it's the aim anyway! Would make the trip worthwhile!
 
I'm currently doing some work with my dad around the management of Spares and Managing Stores along with various Maintenance and Reliability Audits.

Completely different to my usual thing but something to fill the time while i'm looking for a new job. Doing absolutely horrendous stuff at the moment trying to market a training course in Spares Management we've got coming up in March. Pretty much just using LinkedIn to cold call people pretty much.

Apologies to any Engineers in here who might get caught in the cross fire! Though if you do come spend your money!
 
Whats your tactic then? I notice you post quite a few articles. Just connect with as many people as you can and hit them that way?

I tried sponsored ads as had a $50 credit. Maybe it was my advert but i only got 9 clicks from 60,000 impressions. Glad i wasn't paying!
 
Last edited:
Linkedin Advertising is a complete waste of money. Complete. Utter worthlessness. I once left a campaign running by accident and it cost me $1500. Oops. What did I get from that? Nothing. Not a thing.
I do a fair amount of articles, or try to, as I am trying to be better at putting content on the company site in general, and then cross posting to things like medium, linkedin, and then linking back to our site. Also, my tactic is "the more you look like you're an expert in your field, the more people listen" so I connect with as many people in my industry as I can. Yes, I have a few people say "Have we met?", to which I respond, we haven't but I was hoping we could in the future, or that I am very much an open networker and was hoping to expand my network and hoped that they didn't mind my reaching out.

With Linkedin the more connections you have the more you can see. Simple. So it makes sense to have a large network. I have... 4980 connections (that damn last 20 I'm going to get!) and I'll use it as a database to look people up, find them, try and add them and either message from there, or send them an email. Email is prefered as I can track this more.

I've tested; facebook, twitter and linkedin for marketing and advertising. Same campaigns etc. and facebook gets easily the most "responses" as in likes, or clicks through to site, but the audience is broad and we're niche, so useless for real targeting.
I found the best way to reach my audience is direct email.

My go to tools are: Streak for Gmail (pipeline management), Mixmax for Gmail (used for mail merges, campaign sending and email tracking), and clearbit/ zapier to join them.

I add a contact I've found on Linkedin in a Uni I wish to approach, create a "Box" in streak for that uni that filters all emails from that domain to that box to track it. Zapier then knows I've added a contact to a box and takes that email, looks it up on clearbit (finds all info about a person it can online) and creates a contact in my Google Contacts, in a certain contact group, which is then used to email campaigns from Mixmax.

I can then see how many people opened it, who opened it the most etc. Which, in this case was our latest news. So not expecting a reply, but the ones who have opened it most (one has 4 times) I'm like ah, I'll drop her an email or phone her to follow up...

Screen%20Shot%202017-01-17%20at%2010.34.42_zps3ppay7ur.png


Sorry, long post there... :o

Not saying I'm right, depends on your audience and what you want to get out of it. Just try some things and monitor the efficacy.

Pancake.
 
Ah thats very interesting. I'll have to have a look into it. How do you find the emails for the people? Try and get it from them direct on Linkedin or just find the general format from google and use their name and hope for the best?

My dad bought/was given a few contact databases a while back and whilst a lot is outdated we've used Sales navigator on Linkedin to target specific job roles (as with you our product offering is quite niche)

We've then been using an Access contact database and populating it with company/personnel fields but your way sounds much better. Particularly as you can track the emails. I imagine you may be more willing to fund these tools though which i'm trying to avoid. Mainly why i'm using Outlook and Word for mail merges!

Can MixMax send mail merges with an attachment? Word doesn't so had to find a VBA script to add the attachment to emails when they're in my outbox.

In hindsight i wish id not done it my dads way as he wanted to attach a PDF with course info but with peoples reluctance to open attachments (or email servers blocking them) it would've been much better to put all the info into the email body.
 
I use a paid version of mixmax but it's not a lot and I use a custom html template for my emails, but you can use all sorts and include attachments.

For finding emails, the clearbit app for gmail is great for finding people, or if I know the domain, I can 99% of the time find their email online if clearbit can't find it. Something like "firstname lastname site:www.domain.com" or build on that.
 
Yeah thats generally what i've been doing and it does work a lot although i'd had a fair few returns. Too many people with silly double barrel names!

Maybe helps for you as University lecturers will be listed online much more than employees at private companies.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom