Bandar+

It dawned on me when throwing out a bowl of fermenting fruit, that although I bought a heap of the stuff a week or so earlier, I hadn’t actually eaten one piece.

Realistically I knew I wouldn’t eat as much as I bought, so why did I?

Over the last month I’ve started to pay more attention to my twitter accounts and what I’ve found has been incredible.

Today I attended a great training day by JFDI - A company specialising in New Business training and consultancy for Marcomm agencies. Their motivational manta is hidden within their name - 'Just F****** Do It'

I've spent the last few months building and beginning to implement a New Business Strategy for LONDON Advertising. Although I enjoyed the freedom and responsibility, I've been worried that I'm missing the obvious, going in the wrong direction or queuing up to fall into a number of other pitfalls. One of my concerns was I had extended my remit too far - Looking at internal culture, agency positioning, online presence, intermediary relationships and all marketing materials. 

The session today covered the main elements of a New Business strategy. I was delighted and surprised to find that my self guided mission into the world of new business covered  almost exactly the topics that JFDI suggest, I had also approached them in a similar way to the methods and perspectives suggested. 

This however, wasn't an ego inflation exercise and I'm not claiming to be a natural strategy expert (I think my 4 year Management and Strategy degree may have played a small role)  but it was a great way to confirm my confidence in my strategic direction and reenergise myself about the development I can achieve at LONDON. 

Being part of the New Entrepreneurs Foundation has a wide range of benefits – Great Networking, Continuous Challenges, A fantastic peer group of likeminded individuals, and not to mention the incredible lunches at our training days.

This list goes on (and isn’t all about food), however something struck me on Friday when attending a NEF training session...

No matter who you are or what you know, often the simplest lessons can achieve the biggest benefit.

In fact, I may go as far to say that the more you know, the simpler a lesson need be.

  Before I commence a philosophical waffle I will cut to my simple point with a simple example.

  Often the best practice for life, love and business is logic. If it is not logic then a great answer is never too far away – many issues such as confusion, rifts and even unnecessary innovation can arise by over labouring points and losing sight of basic knowledge, methods and understanding.

  On Friday we looked into Effective Thinking Environments, relatively simple suggestions for creating productive environments to think. Factors such as attention, not interrupting, trust in time keeping and enabling a thinker to explore ideas. None of these or the other factors seems groundbreaking, but when enforcing these rules within a conversation the results are quite remarkable.

  Not only does this allow the speaker to think on a deeper level it enables the listener to gain a broader understanding of the speaker’s perspective.

Last night I attended an event hosted by the AAR (Advertising Agency Register), an advertising intermediary, between clients and agents.

It was a great evening, great location, food, drink and people – The perfect recipe for a nice evening, Right? – Well...

The evening was a panel Q&A with four clients, Morrisons, Magners, O2 and M&S, and the audience was about 90 advertising professionals, the majority of people working in new business.

I was slightly overwhelmed first entering, as an Advertising newbie, as everyone seemed to know everyone – Turns out the industry is extremely incestuous. The night started well and I was oblivious to any tensions or ill feeling.

Half way through the discussion a lady at the back stood up and voiced her opinion. Soon after someone else stood up and started with, ‘I totally disagree...’ There was no malice in her voice and she continued to raise a good point.

As she was speaking however the lady behind seemed astonished that anyone would disagree with her. Along with a few delegates surrounding her, she proceeded to speculate on the second lady’s motives and personally discredit her.

At that point I realised that although the majority of people knew one another, almost everyone in the room was in direct competition, fierce competition.

The night ended with the usual pleasantries and was in fact a great event. The clients gave an interesting perspective on approaches and pitching and it was genuinely nice to meet my counterparts in other agencies.

The most interesting part for me however was the temporary crack in the chummy veneer. Previously I have worked in highly competitive industries but the fact that staff tend to move so freely between agencies and because many agencies work together on projects, there is an additional interesting element to the relationship with your competition.

10 Minutes walk = 2 Hour commute

Flexible Hours = 9 – 6.30

Working in a specialist area = Blindly entering a new industry

99p Baguette = £4 Sandwich

Welcome to LONDON

I’ve spent the last 4 years in Birmingham City Centre, studying at Aston University and building my businesses. My plan was always to live and work in Birmingham. I’d worked hard to build a fantastic network, I was part of a great incubator office and had even sourced my accommodation for the next few years. Then...the New Entrepreneurs Foundation flew into my inbox. After reading the first few lines of the description I knew I had to do it.

The changes above are just a few of the many I’ve experienced in the last two weeks. I’ve been placed with LONDON Advertising which is a fantastic small agency based in London Bridge. My position is ‘Head of New Business’ and I’m lucky enough to have a huge amount of autonomy and the assistance of a great intern, Oliver.

Although the changes I’ve listed above may seem a little negative the program so far has been fantastic. LONDON is a fantastic agency to work for, small enough to get a great insight into the bigger picture, yet large enough to have impressive accounts and exposure.

I’ve got to be honest, at first, starting at LONDON was a shock. I was very much thrown in at the deep end and didn’t have the carefully planned introduction I was expecting. However within a week I was already feeling at ease within my new role and managing to have some great interaction with agency prospects.

I will, without doubt, learn a huge amount from my time at LONDON Advertising. But for me, the true value of the NEF was realised on Thursday and Friday when we had our first speaker and workshop events. Spending the day with 27 other like minded individuals in a similar situation was hugely motivating and beneficial.

I’m excited to know that this is merely the beginning and I’m ready to learn as much as possible, wherever possible throughout this year with the New Entrepreneurs Foundation.

My aim for this year is to gain the knowledge, skills and experiences that I can use to fast track my entrepreneurial development over the next 3 years to benefit my various ventures.