Mike's Blog

Government makes the right decision

2009-05-13T08:31:00.004+12:00

The government makes the right decision not to spend the extra $1 billion on the tunnel through Mt Albert. Tax cuts is where the government needs to concentrate. This gives more money back to those that work or own businesses. These people the most likely to use the money to grow the economy, ie work harder or reinvest in their businesses.

Some thoughts about newspapers and changes I have seen

2008-07-09T12:17:00.002+12:00

One of the tasks I do daily after I have glanced at the articles in the Herald is to take a look at who is advertising and in which sections. Those that are using print are a starting point for leads for my sales team.

I noticed in the Herald business on Tuesday 8th July 2008 that there appeared to only one ad, ie a Pacific Blue ad. The rest were internal promotions for the publication. My observation over the last year or so is the "news" papers have had to change their focus. Less and less are people like me (connected to the web at home),using the paper to get news. We get the latest news via the web. I believe that this fundamentally changes the type of reader. If I am not reading the paper for "news" then what am I reading them for. Apart from leads I do read it for opinion and entertainment. What has concerned me is the quality of the opinion I read. My view is that not all reporters have the skill to produce great opinion pieces. It feels like the so called "old fashioned reporters" are a dying breed.

If I were a advertiser that uses newspapers as a medium I would be watching and seeking greater data on who reads the papers and the context in which their advert might be seen.

There is no monopoly on good ideas...

2008-07-05T16:08:00.003+12:00

With the election ceratin before mid November it is one the best times ever to promote your ideas to those seeking to have power after the election. It is one thing to moan about what the existing government is doing or has done and another to contribute to possible solutions. We still have no idea if National have some fantastic list of policies that will turn the economy around and suddenly make NZ the most attractive place to live and do business in the world. Just because a person is an MP or wants to become one, does not mean they somehow have a connection to the collection conciousness of the universe and thus all good ideas. Send your ideas to them all. Attach no emotion to the outcome of sending them such as they will happen or be attributed to you. Just send them.

For me it's a big list but I would start with doing everything I could to reduce government spending and reduce tax rates.

When considering spending advertising dollars...

2008-05-01T09:07:00.003+12:00

We now have four publications and have another two we are looking to launch before the end of the year. One of the tasks I do most days is flick through other publications to get a feel for which companies are doing print and in what types of publications. As an advertiser my self I also have an interest in which mediums might work for my Trade Centre business.

It's perhaps marketing 101 for those with heaps of experience but at the moment I keep coming back to three key considerations:

1. What's the reach of the medium, how many people see it - the number of eyeballs.
2. Are they the right eyeballs- that is - are they likely to buy my product or service
3. What context is my message being seen in. For me there are two parts to this. Firstly do I want my message seen in this style of medium and secondly would the reader be expecting to see and be receptive to my message in this medium.

As the economy perhaps gets a little tighter I would expect that those spending the marketing dollars will start to consider the above more closely. We should see a shift to more targeted advertising which might be slightly dearer per eyeball but in my view better value for money.

No Silver Bullet......

2008-02-04T08:25:00.000+13:00

In many areas of both my personal and business life I see myself and others searching for the "silver bullet" solution, ie the great warrior on the white stallion coming over the hill to save the day. The politicians seem to seek that killer 'one' policy that will get them the votes and thus get them in to power. Businessess seek that one killer ad that will increase sales and then hopefully get them the bottom line the owners say they want. Even in sports we quite often hear the "one thing" the player or team needed to do better was.....!

I have a much stronger view now that we need to take the "no silver bullet" approach to improving our lifes, both personal and business. For this to happen requires that bit of effort we quite often don't have the energy to do. What is required is for us to analyse and write down the components of our business. What are the bits that make up our business. In short this might look like this for one of my magazines. Print quality, editorial, images, design, distribution, layout flow, ad placement, ad quality, website, etc. From this list I can then review each component with the view of always seeking improvement in EACH AND EVERY AREA. That's the killer, seeking improvement in each and every area. If I was to be lazy I might just say, get a better design company and then hope that was the answer. My experience to date is that this will not be the answer.

New magazine for the city centre...

2008-01-05T16:20:00.002+13:00

In line with our other publications we are starting a new magazine for the CBD area of Auckland City. This is a magazine for those that work and live in the centre of town. I have two reasons for starting this. One is to provide great information to those of us that work in the city.Secondly, a very targeted medium/avenue for those of us that have businesses in the city. For businesses that have just a single or small number of outlets, so much of our marketing dollar is spent on our messages going into the hands of people very unlikely to buy or use our service or products. My new publictaion will only be distributed in the CBD and into the hands of those most likely to use a CBD product or service. If you live or work in the centre of town keep an eye out for "City Central". First issue should be out October/November.

More exporters head offshore to manufacture...

2007-12-12T11:30:00.000+13:00

Naturally we hate to see jobs leave New Zealand in the form of manufacturing as seen in the Herald this morning. However stopping this is a bit like trying to get Aucklanders out of cars and onto public transport or convincing the labour party that taxing high income earners does not motivate them to earn more, work harder and spend their live in this wonderful country.
There is no silver bullet to keeping smart people in New Zealand. However if it's a great place to live and bring up families then they will stay. The definition of 'great' is the key. For me 'great' includes safe, friendly, clean, easy to do business, great health and education and a future that will be cool for my kids. For me we are safe, friendly and relatively clean. However we are not an easy country to be in business. Our taxes are high, the paper work is out of control and local governments have their spending out of control. With regard to health, plane loads of people flying to Aussie for health care says it all. With regard to education, I am scared. My kids are just starting school, they love it. I however have a feeling that we are squashing all out kids down a single education platform/funnel. Lets stop the underfunding of the higher income areas and give it to the poor areas. What are we trying to do, create a country of average people!

Pick up the phone rather than email...

2007-12-08T07:35:00.000+13:00

Cullen's comment in the house about John Key being rich reminds me of the way emails can be used for the "brain explosion" quick replies. If you want things to be done faster and with the right meaning then pick up the phone. It's so much faster than the 6 emails currently used to make meeting times.

The trick to getting things done is getting things done!

2007-12-07T11:04:00.000+13:00

The Nike saying "just do it" is such a good byline to use a mantra. Want to get lots done then do lots. If you need to make lots of phone calls, then pick up the phone. It's not a trick. Just get on with things one at a time. Do not hesitate just do! Good luck and have fun.

Selling and sales staff... what I have learnt

2007-12-06T08:10:00.000+13:00

Working with my business partner Travis over the 6 months we have attempted to distill the sales process down the a "system" or "operations manual". I was stimulated to do this after reading the E-myth Revisted that talked about systems being a key for growth. If you want to employ more people and have them do "things" in line with the company's values then you need systems for them to follow. Hence I have coined the phrase for me: "System will set me free". In sales what we have discovered is that you need to make 20 calls a day of which 2 are to new prospects, ie the other 18 are follow up calls and calls to existing clients. We also believe that you should make as many of these calls in the morning when your energy is higher and use the afternoons for sending material and having appointments. This was reconfirmed when I was interviewing a potential new team member who had been int he business for some 35-40 years and she, without prompting, talked about the 20 calls a day rule she had learnt back in London. Great coincidence!

You are out of mind when you are our of sight

2007-11-13T17:14:00.000+13:00

If you are in sales you will realise that as soon as you have either left the office of your client or off the phone you are more than likely gone from their mind within 10 seconds, actually probably 2 seconds. Why 2 seconds. They will be on to the next meeting or next phone call. If it's neither of these then it will be checking their emails and stressing about how many unanswered emails are in their inbox. Clients and potential clients expect the sales person to keep in touch. You will get more sales talking to more people - so obvious but done by so few. My photocopier just broke down, where are those copier sales people that were ringing me every week, that I forgot about after they got off the phone and after I binned their brochures! Please ring me.

It's worth looking at the stats....

2007-11-02T19:08:00.001+13:00

An interesting stat that has reached a new high is the number of return visitors to New Zealand. For the first time just over 50% (50.08%) of all international arrival into the country have been here before. This means there is an opportunity to build brand loyalty. This might also mean that these people want to experience things that are a little different to any previous trips. It might also mean they are a little more confident with their travel plans and are more likely to travel as an independent traveller. I think operators need to promote more in New Zealand that offshore.

Less is more.....

2007-11-01T08:01:00.000+13:00

Last night a spent a few hours looking at ads and finding leads for my sales team. One of the the things that hit me more and more as I looked through publications was that in many cases the best ads had less information in them. This lead me down the cliche of "less is more". This saying holds some truth in lots of areas. For advertisers I suggest doing better ads in less mediums and shorter clearer messages. There is too much clutter in many of the ads. My mind was going into melt down with the overlaod of content in some of the ads.