Hullo there- Thanks for dropping by.
Truebusiness is a blog, and it’s designed to be about the joys and trials of running a small business. My name is Nick Saalfeld and in the X-Factor-style auditions for the honour of baring my soul to you, I was the lucky winner because I both write and run a small business. Ideal qualifications, I think you’ll agree.
There are plenty of other resources for helping you to run your business, and I don’t intend to try to compete with them- although I will be mentioning lots of them as we progress. What I will be doing here is trying to be honest about the ups and downs of making a crust, as it happens to me. Think of it as a survey with only one respondent. It will therefore be unashamedly biased, and frankly, if I’m in a bad mood you’re going to know about it. Some people will call that refreshing. Others will cringe. What fun.
Seriously though, scanning through the first month’s posts, on the plus side there are already plenty of tips which I hope you will find useful, and a list of cracking websites you should visit. Among the tribulations, you will hear about my abortive trip to New York and the nasty business of “getting rid of someone”. (That’s firing someone, not a mafia hit). And that’s just in the first month.
I’m on the campaign trail too- I want every online business to have the decency to provide telephone support; and as we grow, we’re going to dig out the phone numbers that these companies just don’t want you to have. If you manage to wheedle out a hidden phone number for an otherwise recalcitrant online vendor, let me (and the world) know.
Finally, a word of thanks to the lovely people at the Microsoft Small Business Centre who are kindly sponsoring this blog- it’s very nice of them, and they have a whole raft of articles, tools, software and services for small businesses. Check them out, and if you’re so inclined, buy something. Their sexy new accountancy package, Office Accounting 2008, is very cool, and in some cases free. Thank you, Bill Gates!
Now, you can of course choose to just read my idle ramblings as I try to navigate the stormy waters of running my business. But I’d be very glad if you choose to participate, too. This blog is open to posting, and I would love you to contribute your thoughts, tips, helpful advice or rants. All are welcome. If you’d like to keep up with this blog, do subscribe, or get notified of updates by following me on Twitter.
Nice to meet you, and come again soon.
Nick Saalfeld
Super blog! I like it
Hey Nick, If ever a man was a natural blogger, that man is Nick D Saalfeld. Jolly entertaining….and a much needed reminder to us all that ‘all copywriters now, my own irreverent look at the world of copywriting, marketing et al, is always in need of a bank link.
[...] NHS Resource Centre profiles 3G Doctor as an example of Web 2.0 Technologies in Healthcare Nick Saalfeld sets out to find out what patients, doctors and policy makers are doing with collaborative and [...]
I just wanted to say how much I’m enjoying this blog. It’s intelligent, informative and totally relevant. Plus it’s great to read someone in this space who can SPELL! Well done Nick.
Hi Nick,
I really like your blog, I’ve just stumbled upon it through work but really enjoyed reading some posts.
I am trying to promote a competition for global entrepreneurship week for entrepreneurs, who have started up their own businesses in the UK. We are searching for all entrepreneurs who operate with social responsibility and ethical methods. I would like to ask if you could pop a post about the event to help raise awareness among as many small businesses as possible. We will be able to give training and coaching to some of the applicants to help them succeed. http://www.future100.co.uk
Thanks.
Nick,
Your blog is interesting but does not go far enough.
The UK,s problems are far more deep rooted and although George Osbourne has made a good start much more needs to be done.
Firstly the UK,s overall productivity per worker is abysmal ,perhaps 15th in the world at best.
Secondly even though we claim to work longer hours than anyone else in Europe the facts are otherwise.
The Management Consultancy Group PLC reviews a representative cross section of British businesses every year and assesses how much time British workers actually spend working and the reality for 2005 was that out of 220 working days a year the average British worker worked 88 of them.
By 2008 the figure had risen to 110 days with 17% of the wasted time being spent on the internet with the balance going on unnecessary meetings,organisation of holidays,social life and other non work related activities.
We saw in the past two winters how 20% of the population didn,t turn up for work when there was less than one and a half inches of snow on the ground and with the sorry excuse at the World Cup employers were lucky to get any work out of anyone before it became apparent that our sorry bunch of overpaid carthorses were incapable of winning at anything and lacked the will to win or even try.
Today a British employer will perhaps get 125 days of work out of his/her employees in the private sector out of the 220 working days they are paying them to work which is why so many of them choose better motivated foreign workers and would not use a British worker ever again.
The public sector is even worse and most local authorities are grossly overmanned to the tune of 55% andhave CEO,s who are grossly overpaid.
The case for abolishing District and Borough Councils and subsuming their functions into County Unitary Authorities and then outsourcing non core functions is overwhelming.
The police represent another example of public sector waste.
There are in England 43 constabularies wher in a small country like ours there only needs to be 12.
With police numbers at record levels why do we have rising levels of overtime?
The NHS had a £7 billion gbp cash injection under the Wanless review commissioned by Gordon Brown the most incompetent unelected Prime Minister we have had in years(it was he who sold our gold reserves at a loss of £2 billion gbp leaving the Chinese free to make a profit of £8 billion gbp and counting,it was he who wrecked private pension provision and company pensions whilst pretending it was all the fault of the American sub Prime mortgage crisis).
What was the result within the NHS- productivity going backwards at 5% per year and an increase in NHS managers of 225% since Tony Blair came to power which was preceded by a 189% increase in NHS managers since 1979 when Margaret Thatcher took office.At least 70% of these people are unnecessary as are virtually all of the unelected quangos.
Then there are the MP,s-Why do we need 659 of them,200 is the right number for a small country like ours.
In any case most of the time the House of Commons is empty unless they are meeting to discuss expenses.
There are exceptions like my own local MP Oliver Heald but they are rare.
The Post Office is another example of “Fred Kite” style trades unionism and gross inefficiency.
Under the last Government Adam Crozier the CEO received his full bonus of circa £2million gbp despite missing 13 out of 15 customer service targets and despite the postals strikes in which the whole workforce should have been locked out and sacked to be replaced with people on the dole.
Currently we have threats of tube strikes and the ongoing nonsense at British Airways at a time when the country is virtually bankrupt–hardly the sort of environment any foreign investor would want to get involved in.
Our schools are turning out one pupil in 7 who cannot read or write and a similar number who are so innumerate that they cannot read a bus timetable and the education system in the public sector up to age 18 is 47th in the world well behind Finland ,Singapore,Hong Kong,France,Germany, South Korea,Sweden,Russia,Norway,Sweden,Denmark etc,etc,etc.
In the Fens this figure rises to 1 in 5 yet we have an education system that claims it knows best and head teachers earning over£130,000gbp for producing failure and pupils unfit for life or the world of work in a world where the UK has a disproportionate number of old people who have to be supported by a dwindling taxpayer base.
Our Royal family is another expense we can do without,all Crown lands should be owned by the people and the Palaces turned into museums with the entrance fees and money spent by tourists turned over to the Treasury.
The sycophants ,Royal servants etc should be cut loose and the same should apply to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly where the proceedings are translated into Welsh at our expense and the disgraceful Barnett formula sucks money outb of London and the South East and gives £3000 a head to everyone living in Scotland.
On present form without tough medicine this country will be reduced to 3rd world status within 25 years unless the state is shrunk and millions of new businesses are created in new industries.
For this to happen the population,British business and the civil servants who remain will need to collectively learn that the world does not owe us a living and that we need to compete fiercely for our place in the world and our standard of living.
This means innovation,smarter working and an attitude an old boss of mine used to call “staying focussed and obsessed”-something I try to apply to everything I do.
Regards
John
(JOHN A GELMINI)