Going up, won a cup, off to a gig, a good glug, an Oz trip and a vacancy at Workhouse Marketing

Had a meet yesterday with our High Growth Consultant. It was a review meet as we have just finished our first quarter (Jul/Aug/ Sep) and I’m delighted to say that we are 14% up on the same three months last year. It’s been busy but our team has been producing some excellent work. Well done to the Workhouse Team.

I loved watching the teamwork at the Ryder Cup recently. I thought it was a fantastic tournament  and brilliant entertainment going right down to the last but one hole of the last match of the weekend. It was all about winning for the team, and our team won! It’s always good beating the Americans! Never mind Tiger.

The Manics are in Blackburn

Looking forward to a busy week, not only at work but in the evenings as well. Off to see Pinter’s The Caretaker at the Charter Theatre on Thursday, The Manic Street Preachers are playing King Georges in Blackburn on Saturday, and the Ribcaged Theatre Company are doing Requiem in Ribchester on  Sunday night.

Elder son Tom’s just come back from a 10 day break in  Cyprus, and is now pumped up and ready to take his shop into the big selling season. It’s going to be an exciting time for him and for us as we’re helping him put together a big Christmas promotion. He’s put a really nice range of wines together at The Whalley Wine Shop and all the anecdotal evidence, and the sales figures, are showing that he’s doing a good job.

Our sons Tom and Ben at Rib Field Day 1991

Younger son Ben, a designer  here at Workhouse, is also preparing for an exciting time at Christmas, as along with two mates he’s going travelling in Australia from November through to May next year. He leaves on Bonfire night, and will be over there when the England Cricket team compete for the Ashes. I’m looking forward to that. It’s always nice to beat the Aussies! Ben will have a great time, I’ve never been to Oz but everybody I know who’s been says it’s an amazing place.

Ben’s sabbatical will create an opportunity for a designer. If you know of anybody who might want six months work with the strong possibility that if they fit in well with our team the job will become permanent…then please tell them to get in touch with us. Contact Martin Meadows on martin@workhousemarketing.com

Tuesdays pluses and minuses….

Plus. Our bank is Nat West, and our bank manager is Simon Gill, and we had a meeting with him this morning. He is by far the best manager we’ve ever had. Makes us feel he’s always on our side, always up to date with what’s happening in our business, always straight with us, always polite, pleasant and nice to deal with, gives sound advice too.

Plus. We’re on the High Growth programme run by Winning Pitch. Our consultant is Jed Hassid. We had a meet with him this afternoon, and despite conspiring to thwart him at every turn and suck him into the minutae of our business, he manages to keep pointing us in the right direction and we’re making good progress to achieve good growth next year. It’s going to be an exciting year for Workhouse Marketing.

Plus. Finished a room set shoot today. All credit to Ange, Nicky, Woody, Rob, for making it happen and the pics look superb. Workhouse Studios doing the job it was built for.

Plus. New Stax gardening catalogue. Got first copy today, 164 pages, looks great!

Plus Plus. Heidi. The Studio. For working like Trojans.

Plus Plus. A couple of quick halves in the Ribchester Arms on the way home.

Plus Plus. Wins for both Welsh teams in the Championship Swansea City and Cardiff City. Both promoted to Premier League?

Minus. Calder Services. Came out to mend my boiler which was cutting out, changed a part and said it was fixed and off they went. Wrong, boiler still cutting out. Came back again today and changed a different part, and fixed it. Still charged me for the visit that didn’t work and the part I didn’t need…..a bit miffed.

Minus. The Lurgy. David Hibbert, Andy Constantine off sick. Hurry up back boys we’re missing you.

Minus. Holby City. Sat in Living room at 8.35 with piece of apple tart, looked up to see woman on operating table with chest cut wide open and all insides on view. Not needed BBC, honestly it adds nothing to the show.

Minus. Rain. OK God, enough’s enough.

So much to say, so much to do, and long live the Queen!

When I started blogging I thought that it would last about three days then I’d run out of things to say. But at the moment there seems to be so much going on that I don’t know where to start. We’ve just purchased a brand new, all singing, all dancing, software system that will basically run the entire business and we’ve started the training process. Nightmare or nirvana, no doubt all will be revealed in due course. We are on the High Growth programme run by Winning Pitch looking at all aspects of the business so we develop effective strategies, structures, procedures and policies to enable us to grow.  We are in the process of changing our accountant, they don’t know it yet but they show so little interest in us, I doubt very much if they even know we’ve got a blog let alone read it. What’s more they have cocked up the wages again this month (it is virtually every month now).

We have the Christmas do to sort out (delegated!), and the relatively famous Workhouse Christmas video to shoot that’s if we can come up with something which is better than the previous five. I’m amazed it’s five years since we started e-mailing video Christmas cards, ahead of the game or what!  I’ll try and retrieve the old ones and put them on this blog nearer the time.

We also have an important photo shoot in the photography studio this week and next, set build, classy styling, the works. We are heavily involved in the launch of Blackburn Youth Zone (Nicky is doing an amazing job), and we’ve just nailed the massive 164 page Stax Trade Centres garden catalogue (Our Stax team are equally amazing).This is on top of the fact that most of our existing clients are active and busy, and we’re winning a fair few new clients. We shouldn’t be surprised though, we have good people at Workhouse Marketing, and they’re doing a good job.

To switch subjects very quickly I didn’t expect to say this, as I’ve no strong views on the Royal Family either way, but I’ve been watching and enjoying ‘The Queen’ on Channel 4 this week.

Emilia Fox and Samantha Bond as The Queen on Channel 4

It started on Sunday and is on every night for 5 nights I think. It’s a sort of drama documentary incorporating a bit of modern history, and is really good mix of original footage, interviews with people involved, and a little drama with five different actresses playing the Queen at different stages of her life. It’s incredible to think that she has been on the throne for 56 years. Many things have happened during our lifetime, but the one celebration many of us have yet to experience is the coronation of a new monarch.

As a 12 year old I do remember the Investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle in 1969. In Briton Ferry, the town I was born and brought up in, in South Wales, we were given the day off school, we had this amazing street party and fireworks (mainly bangers) and the house was decked out with bunting, everybody was in fancy dress, it was just a fantastic occasion. I really hope we don’t have a coronation for a long time, but when it comes, I hope the country has just as good a celebration.

Investiture of Prince Charles

Great service from Business Link North West.

Business Link, the name for the Governments advisory service for small to medium sized businesses has had many guises over the years,and many critics too, but I’ve got to say I think the service I’m getting from Business Link North West at the moment is the best it’s ever been. And like most things in business it’s down to the quality of the people you deal with. Our contact there is Mike Wilson who is their Digital and Creative Sector Team Leader. His advice has been excellent and has helped us join the High Growth programme run by Winning Pitch, he is currently trying to help us find ways to invest in installing fibre optic delivered broadband to our rural location, and help us with our training requirements.

http://www.businesslinknw.co.uk/Aboutus/Pages/default.aspx

But what I like about Mike is that when he walks through the door he understands my business.He has always done his homework so when we discuss ongoing issues he knows exactly where we are with them and what we have discussed previously. He does the follow up well, he does the personal contact well, and he makes me feel he has always got time for us. Even though he was on holiday he came to the launch of Workhouse Studios, our photographic studio. And he has understood how much our fundraising for The Ribchester Calendar Girls means to us and went on-line and bought a calendar. Well done Mike. Good service Business Link North West.

Mark Jones. Workhouse Marketing. Workhouse Studios.

 

http://www.ribchestercalendargirls.co.uk/

Front Cover of the Ribchester Calendar Girls Calendar