Tag Archives: working practices

My Thoughts on Business After One Startup Year

Well, Velocity Digital is one today! I can’t believe it! I’ve worked with some amazing clients and partners over the past 12 months, and I have to thank each and every one of them! My quick thoughts on my first year in business and some tips:

  • I’ve learned more in one year that I have in the rest of my career combined
  • Pricing is hard, very, very hard
  • There are people out there that want you to fail
  • But the majority will be rooting for you
  • It is ok to make mistakes (I’ve not made many, but the key thing is being able to fix them)
  • Clients love a no-bulls*** approach and they should be prepared to be on the end of ‘spade is a spade’ approach. This works both ways!
  • Getting paid can be a drag, but professional invoices help!
  • You need to be prepared to shift your business functions in order to meet demand – Velocity is now quite different to my initial vision
  • If you expect praise, forget it, and never seek it
  • Always be ready to learn from your clients
  • Learn you client’s industry inside out, if you don’t you’ll struggle to offer the best solutions
  • Often the best projects are the ones you thought you’d get no satisfaction from
  • It isn’t all about satisfaction
  • It is the best choice I’ve made. The ability to do things your way without influence from above (not god!) is amazing

Just a slice of my thoughts! I had a party today, check out the wild, behind-the-scenes footage in the video below:

You can find out more about Velocity Digital here or read my latest social media, digital and content marketing posts here – Follow @mike_mcgrail

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Filed under Diary Entries, Velocity Digital

Rooms, mood hoovers, hubub and the effects on our work…

Where do you work?

I have the corner of an office which has very kindly been donated to me as I build my business. It is great to have a place that I can go to and get my head down and work. However, it doesn’t always suit me. See, there is another business in the room, their phones ring, they have conversations that I’m not part of related to their work, and my intuitive nature finds it hard to block it all out. That’s not their fault in anyway. I find this environment completely ok when I am doing admin, responding to emails etc etc. However, I can’t work effectively in it when I need to do the more creative parts of my job.

What do I need to be creative?

Noise. But a certain type of noise. This type of noise is the noise that is produced by a coffee shop. You know the noise I mean, you could describe it as ‘hubub’. People talking, coffee being made, background music that you hear but can ignore. I don’t know what it is about that environment, but it allows me to do my best creative work.

I’m currently reading the excellent ‘Decoded‘, by Phil Barden. It is a book about the science of marketing and why people buy. There’s a line from it I really like:

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Filed under Working Techniques