Tag Archives: social media

September 21, 2012 · 1:01 pm

That Launch Feeling

Well my first ever business went live yesterday. The feeling of seeing it sitting there on the web was amazing. Its taken 8 weeks to get to this point (fairly fast I think!) and the past week has been a tough one due to hosting issues. We had to launch the site via tethering on my iPhone as our hosts (UK2.net) decided to block our IP addresses for no apparent reason. Anyway, the site is live and has had some great feedback and that my friends, is all that matters.

I was nervous in the lead up to launch, a lot of work has gone into the site and the proposition and to put it out there for all to see was fairy daunting. Natural I guess!

I do intend to keep this diary updated – it’s a great way for me to keep track of my journey and thoughts and it would appear that a few people actually enjoy reading it, which is rather nice.

In the meantime, you can visit the Velocity Digital site, read the blog, follow Velocity on Twitter and join in on Facebook too. Or you can chose to do none of those. It is entirely up to you.

Do you like the Velocity ninja star? All Velocity Digital branding and site design/build was handled by corporatePRM.

You can follow My Startup Blog on Twitter for tweets about startup, tech, marketing and more…

You can follow me on Twitter too. I tweet about social media, digital comms, technology and a tonne of other stuff…

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September 20, 2012 · 10:57 am

We Have Lift Off! Introducing Velocity Digital…

Hello! Well, here I am, finally in a position to launch my business…

Velocity Digital is my first step in to the world of entrepreneurship, it has been an amazing journey so far and I’ve really enjoyed charting it on this blog. Velocity Digital is a social media, digital and content marketing consultancy. I’ve been working in marketing and specifically the digital side of the field for many a year now, and in the past four years, social media and content marketing have become a massive part of what I do. Having my own business is something I’ve always wanted to do and to be launching my consultancy is the culmination of years of dreaming and planning. I cannot wait to get stuck-in and start making some serious magic happen for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

I intend to keep this diary going and will strive to update it as often as possible. That’s all for now. Bring it on.

Keep up to date with Velocity Digital on the Velocity Blog.

If you would like to discuss working with me, feel free to drop me an email.

Later!

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September 5, 2012 · 8:30 am

Big Startup Question – How do You Charge for Ideas?


A lot of what I will do for clients is based around coming up with ideas – whether that be ideas for blog, video or image based content or thoughts on how they can make better use of their digital and social media platforms. As I wind my way towards launch, I’m asking myself how I can supply ideas and at the same time ensure I receive my reward (payment!) for those.

A scenario

This will be easier to explain if I spell it out in a scenario…

I am lucky enough to be contacted by a new retail brand, they have created a set of great kitchen utensils aimed at the serious home chef. Let’s call it The Super Awesome Kitchen Utensil Co. They want my help to come up with ideas for content across various formats that will target their market and inspire them to get involved with the brand and of course, the products. I’m excited at the prospect, as retail goods, especially lifestyle orientated ones are perfectly suited to the social and digital media space.

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August 31, 2012 · 12:15 pm

Diary of a new entrepreneur – Week 5 (31.08.12)

Week 5 in my startup journey and things are hotting up…

On-track for launch

I’m pleasantly surprised to say that I am still on-track for my launch date of September 10th! I always expected this to move and it may well still, but my fingers are crossed that the 10th will be the day the real fun starts!

The kindness of people

I’ve been amazed at the willingness of people to help me over the past 5 weeks. From expert tax advice to simple things like sourcing paper for stationary, I’ve been inundated with helpful offers from people with no ulterior motive other than being kind. What goes around comes around and I’m sure I’ll be able to help others in the future. A lot of this help has come from my online network and mainly via Twitter. Taking the time to build relations via social media is a no-brainer for anyone starting a business.

A deluge of junk mail

On the other hand, I’ve had a serious amount of junk mail from office supply companies, accountants, window cleaners(!), training companies etc etc all of which I am assuming have found my address via Companies House. Such a waste of paper! Of course, I am recycling it. Direct mail has zero effect on me, perhaps this is due to my largely digital persuasion, but I just find it more of an irritant than anything else.

Business cards

Does the world still need business cards? Unfortunately, I think it does and will continue to do so for a number of years. When I get a card, I input the details into my Mac contacts and then recycle the actual piece of card. I was recently speaking at an event and handed my card to a lady who used an iPhone app to scan the details and then handed me my rectangular tree-based product back. Until apps that allow us to bump phones and swap details are the norm, then I think we do have to carry cards. They can make a great statement and I spent a fair amount of time working with my designer to come up with a visual I ‘m happy with. I’ve ordered my cards on moo.com, a great service, if you want a 10% discount, use this link.

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August 13, 2012 · 11:19 am

That Special Monday Startup Feeling

Happy Monday folks. I’ve never dreaded Mondays, mainly due to the fact that I love what I do for a living, but the past two Mondays have seen me jumping out of bed with some serious energy and a will to really get the week started with a bang. Since I marched in to the startup world, I’ve found myself waking up earlier than ever with my head buzzing in anticipation of the day ahead.

Building something

That feeling of knowing that everything I do in a day is working towards building a business that will bring to life my ideas and ambitions is one that is hard to describe. If you could can it, you would be a zillionaire in no time. It is a different mindset to the one that I had when I was employed. It must be that feeling that pushes entrepreneurs forward when things are tough Does it ever fade? I guess I’ll find out.

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August 11, 2012 · 10:56 am

Diary of a new entrepreneur – week two (August 2012)

So week two in my new life as a entreprenuer is coming to an end and it has been another mind blowing 5 days!

What is my proposition?

Setting up a ‘digital marketing and communications consultancy’ is all fair and well, but what does that actually mean and what will I offer? That is the question that I have been overcoming this week and after lots of relecting on what I can do very well and what I perhaps need to develop further in, I have managed to write a solid list of the services that my (name to be revealed soon) consultancy will offer. I found writing a few lines about each service in a way that a leyman could understand really helped define the exact type of work I will be carrying out. So the services are sorted. What’s next? Pricing, that’s what.

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August 11, 2012 · 9:59 am

Diary of a new entrepreneur – week one (August 2012)

I’ve reached the end of my first week setting up my digital marketing and communications consultancy. Everything has been a little bit accelerated after the agency I was working for kindly allowed me to cut my notice period short. I announced my breaking from employment via Twitter that day and within hours I had people contacting me wishing to (potentially) use my services. The fire that gave me in my belly was huge! This week has been a mixture of nailing down the name of my business, getting tech sorted, meeting with potential clients and writing of proposals. It is hard to describe the feeling when I wake up every morning knowing that everything I do that day is going towards building my own business. I’ve always wanted to do this and now that I am starting out, I have to say it feels very natural.

The Name Game

The toughest task so far has been naming the business. Every name I came up with already existed. I wanted something that would sum up the digital world, make an impact and of course be memorable. It then came to me as I was reading a book – the title of which really appealed, I thought there was no way it would be free. I thought wrong and it was. I’m keeping that underwraps for now. The company is now officialy registered, I did it online with Companies House and it fely bloomin’ great!

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