Happy 4th of July. Happy #indepenceday to you - whatever it means to you. For me it means....

Today is a great day - it's Independence Day in America.

It's also my last full official day for Justaxi - Manchester's taxi comparison and booking app. 

It's been a great time and an amazing experience, which has taught me a great deal. 

I truly appreciate everything that in just six months this start up has taught me about marketing, about myself and about the wider world around us. 

So it is with this thinking I am going to do something to use my skills in marketing and start my own company, which will  specialise in mobile games and tackle some big ideas for society whilst doing so.  

The plan is to make games which help people become better people. Whatever that means. 

Mia as Elsa in nursery. 

Anyhoo - as I was listening to the words from a song from Frozen this morning (and singing along with my daughter Mia) I realised three things: 

1. Mia is the inspiration for the company / new start. 

As I want her to be great and learn through games. 

And I want her to learn to be independent as well. 

2. Mia is already great. 

She is already becoming a character. 

And I want her relationship with games and technology to be a positive one.... 

Not one which will make her sick or overweight. 

3. That the Frozen sound track rocked. 

And that this song was great too. 

Here are the words to part of it :) 


"It's funny how some distance,


Makes everything seem small.


And the fears that once controlled me, can't get to me at all


It's time to see what I can do,


To test the limits and break through.


No right, no wrong, no rules for me.


I'm free!"

(Listen to the rest here - go on you want to) 


Kinda sums up me for today. So Happy Independence Day to you... 

Whatever it means to you. 

To me it means quite a lot this year. 

OK Seth I will. All about taking action after #Fasterclass

#FASTERCLASS

Seth Godin wrote a great blog today and a great one yesterday as well about TIME. Which I referenced at the mid point of my #fasterclass talk sponsored by Justaxi yesterday. 

The #fasterclass event was a great success and the subject of another blog. 

Here I just mention Seth's blog today (as he is virtual marketing mentor of mine) and then at the end - for those of you with TIME - I copy and paste his previous blog. 

This first blog is about "getting rich quick" (well it's a play on this meaning the opposite)  - which is about what James Welch from OVG talked about with his scientific approach to creating a buzz in a city i.e. it takes hard work but if you give more then you create success. 

To reinforce my point and his  - I am going to comment and act on all of the ideas below in reference to Justaxi, Fasterclass, and my own life in marketing. 

Get rich (quick)

Enrich your world by creating value for others.

- I do with my marketing. 

Enrich your health by walking twenty minutes a day.

- I will walk home from the tram everyday rather than getting a taxi from the office (sorry justaxi.)  

Enrich your community by contributing to someone, without keeping score.

- I will do #fasterclass again - even though it was really, hard work. 

Enrich your relationships by saying what needs to be said.

- I will tell our partners what we will do better next time as a group. 

Enrich your standing by trusting someone else.

- I will trust our partners to take what I say on-board.

- I know Chris Marsh will - pictured right...  

Enrich your organization by doing more than you're asked.

- I think I do this already with Justaxi but I can do more. 

Enrich your skills by learning something new, something scary.

- It is time to learn about networking and data science. To become a bit more James. 

Enrich your productivity by rejecting false shortcuts.

- I will put in the time needed to learn deeper mobile analytics from today. 

Enrich your peace of mind by being trusted.

- OK I will take your word for it Seth - and do some more Calm time as well. 

The connection economy pays dividends in ways that the industrial one rarely did. 

Which is exactly what Chris Marsh was talking about at #Fasterclass. 

Seth's second blog is about TIME - which is what I was talking about. 

"I didn't have time"

This actually means, "it wasn't important enough." It wasn't a high priority, fun, distracting, profitable or urgent enough to make it to the top of the list.

Every few days, Twitter and Facebook soak up a billion hours of 'spare' time. Where did that time come from? What did we do before social media was here? Weren't we busy five years ago?

Running out of time is mostly a euphemism, and the smart analyst realizes that it's a message about something else. Time is finite, but, unlike money, time is also replenished every second.

The solution has nothing to do with giving people more time (you can't) and everything to do with creating more urgency, more of an itch, more desire.

Which is a lovely point - nicely mixing with my talk last night for #fasterclass all about speed of marketing - and marketing for the moment. 

A big thanks to Justaxi Manchester best priced taxi app, for sponsoring last night and allowing me to speak there. 

For UKFast for being the venue with some great food. 

And all the companies involved, and especially the speakers who made the event possible - that's Sabine from Apadmi, James from OVG, Chris from UKFast and Dan (that's me) Sodergren from Great Marketing Works. 

Extra special bonus mark for Sabine who got the first blog up there with her notes from the event - all about the role of mobile 

Which is nice as we are a mobile taxi app :) 

Justaxi is Manchester's taxi farecomparison and mobile bookings app - no need to call a taxi - the app gets you the best prices for taxis in Manchester instantly.

No need for taxi numbers or remembering your local Manchester taxi services website - our app find the best taxi prices for you depending on where you are. 

With our app you can book your taxi in Manchester, even by credit card and paypal. It's easy with Justaxi – Manchester’s taxi booking app.

And... if you are really lucky, like the Online Venture Group (picture here) is you can use a promo code and get your mini bus for free. 

Spring springs - but have I sprung too far? A blog on working too hard... and hard working too.

May ALWAYS creeps up on me. I don't know about you. Spring springs and sometimes I don't even notice it has done - so deep is my winter mental slumber. 

However, a lovely day out yesterday at the local park and farm, with my wife, Leanne and my daughter Mia snapped me out of it. 

Whilst running to get ice cream, pulling branches to create flower showers, and stroking baby lambs I realised a few things. 

These 'things' had been introduced to my mind a few hours previously whilst waiting for the bath to run - when I got a chance to literally flick through Re-work. A classic book by 37 Signals. 

2 pages literally jumped out at me.  One on Workaholism which I fear I might be slipping into again under the guise of 'start up zeal' and the other is something I think the whole team I am working with needs to ask itself - why do we do what we do? 

Both are BIG thoughts for now 9.00am on a Monday morning. I hope they inspire you to act before spring has gone.... :) 

Workaholism

Working more doesn’t mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more.

Has there ever been a time when you’ve felt wildly overworked? I’m pretty sure everyone will answer in the affirmative to that question. Now let me ask you this:since you are your own boss, why do you choose to work yourself like a slavedriver?

While you could probably give me any number of reasons to validate your workaholism, the simple fact is that overworking is not necessary. There is always a better way — a more efficient way — to get things done. You just need to figure out what that way is and apply it to your business.

I grew up with a father who was obsessed with his work. He dedicated more to his business than he would now say was healthy. I am determined to avoid the same mistake he made — I am passionate about leading a balanced life that involves work and play in equal measures. I am sure you feel the same, and yet so many of us still overwork ourselves.

Our culture celebrates the idea of the workaholic. We hear about people burning the midnight oil. The pull all-nighters and sleep at the office. It’s considered a badge of honour to kill yourself over a project. No amount of work is too much.

How many times have you come across someone who acts as if their ridiculously long working hours are something to be proud of? Can you actually recognize times when you have acted in that way yourself? It’s utterly absurd when you stop to consider it — why should working too hard be something you’re proud of? Wouldn't building a successful business while working reasonable hours be more impressive?

You may say it’s all very well and good to say that one should work less, but how do you actually go about doing it? Well, I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I think Rework offers some quite compelling statements for you to consider carefully:

• Workaholics wind up creating more problems than they solve.
• [Overworking] isn’t sustainable over time. When the burnout crash comes — and it will — it’ll hit that much harder.
• [Workaholics] try to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them. They try to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force.
• No one makes sharp decisions when tired.
• Workaholics aren’t heroes…The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done.

I like that last one especially. Give it some thought.

Reasons to Quit

It’s easy to put your head down and just work on what you think needs to be done. It’s a lot harder to pull your head up and ask why.

No one likes giving up. It can be relieving to do so but it’s rarely a good feeling. After all, we live in a culture that directly associates giving up with failure. If you stop trying to do something, you have failed in your endeavor.

That may be the case, but I’d rather fail than carry on regardless. Surely applying yourself to something that will eventually fail is far more of a failure than recognizing the futility of your efforts and calling it a day ahead of time?

If you ever feel like you are going down the wrong path or that the work you are doing is not necessarily in your business’ best interests, take a moment to ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the motivation behind what you are doing?
• Who benefits from what you are doing?
• What problem are you solving?
• Is what you are doing useful?
• Are you adding value?
• Is there an easier way?
• What could you be doing instead?
• Is it worth the time/cost/stress?

These are great questions for anyone working in the start up to ask themselves, or any business for that matter. Is there an easier way? Who really benefits from what you are doing? All BIG questions for our team meeting today. Time to get "springing" into action at Justaxi in Manchester. 

What people really want is for you to hear them and to do the right thing.

On the dawn of one of the most important focus group's of my life with my client JusTaxi - Manchester's taxi fare comparison app. 

And my birthday being tomorrow as well, Seth Godin's blog below is a wonderful piece to reflect upon.

"Most of the time, people don't want a refund or a bonus. What they really want is for you to hear them and to do the right thing. What if every manager and every customer contact in your organization bought into that?

Here are some things you can do that don't cost any money (but they certainly require effort):

Treat your employees with care and respect

Be consistent in your actions

Keep your promises

Grant others their dignity

Give credit

Take responsibility

When wrong, offer a heartfelt apology

Don't be a jerk

Take the time to actually listen to people

Volunteer to handle the issue

Care"

We do a lot of these at Justaxi - Manchester taxi fare comparison app - but perhaps at Great Marketing Works - Dan Sodergren - doesn't do enough of them. 

Tonight I will do this - a simple action list.

Taken from a blog of someone who has a book coming out which I think I will buy if on Kindle. 

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.

Distinguishing the “trivial many” from the “vital few” can be applied to every kind of human endeavor and has been done so persuasively by Richard Koch, author of several books on how to apply the Pareto Principle to everyday life. Indeed, the examples are everywhere.

Think of Sir Isaac Pitman, the inventor of shorthand, who discovered that just 700 words make up two-thirds of our language (further validated by Zipf's Law).

Think of Warren Buffett’s philosophy, quoted by Mary Buffett and David Clark in The Tao of Warren Buffett, “You only have to do a few things right in your life, so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” 

The authors continue, “Warren decided early in his career it would be impossible for him to make hundreds of right investment decisions, so he decided that he would invest only in the business that he was absolutely sure of, and then bet heavily on them. He owes 90% of his wealth to just ten investments. Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do.”

Now that IS a book I have read. And took to heart. 

The advice in there is similar to what can happen with software and mobile apps - two things I love - as often you can have an app that tries to do too many things and therefore does nothing well. The same can be said for software and even computer games. Often simple is best. 

Which is something we are finding out at JusTaxi - Manchester's taxi fare comparison app - as under my (and others) thinking we removed half of the screens and at least two features / functions. This resulted in a 200% increase in numbers of people booking the best taxi prices in Manchester on our app.  

On a different but similar vein, about not being overwhelmed, Greg McKeown who wrote this article says - he recommends a simple action list.

1. Before you leave the office today, write down your top six priorities for tomorrow on a Post-it note.

2. Cross off the bottom five.

3. Write down your priority on a Post-it note and put it on your computer.

4. Schedule a 90-minute window to work on your top priority — preferably the first thing of the day.

5. Every time you are about to check email, Facebook, Twitter etc., write down what you are about to do.

Let's see how this goes. 

Three habits I wish to pass on to my daughter... to make her richer...

Maybe not richer as a person (who knows) but when she follows them (and that's you honey if you are reading this some years after I first posted this) then she will statistically make more money because of them.

They come from a great blog from...Janrey Cantos the extended version is here. One of the main differences between wealthy people and poor people are their habits.

Our habits will determine our results in life so it is very important for us to study the habits of highly successful people.

Based on a study by Thomas C. Corley involving 233 wealthy and 128 poor people, we can learn interesting habit differences between them.

Wealthy – defined as those earning at least Php 7.2 million per year ($160,000).
Poor – defined as those earning at least Php 1.35 million per year ($30,000).

(Remember these figures are from Feb 2014. In case you are reading this in 2024 and inflations gone crazy)

Habit #1. Maintain a to-do list. 

• 81% of the wealthy do this 
• Only 9% of the poor do this 

These figures tell us a lot. Not all but most of the wealthy people maintain a to-do list. They know how to prioritize and they focus their attention and energy to accomplish what is on their list.(Mia you have probably already seen Daddy's to do lists for a few years now...)

Habit #2. Read 30+ minutes each day. 

• 88% of the wealthy do this 
• Only 2% of the poor do this 

As Daddy always said (well I will do from 2014) “Leaders are readers.” As a leader we must be a learner by reading a lot. I spend at least 30 minutes a day learning more and more about digital marketing.

Habit #3. Listen to audio books during commute. 

• 63 % of the wealthy do this. 
• Only 5% of the poor do this. 

Mia - so if you are not into reading physical books (or if it is all holograms by 2024) then listening to old fashioned audio books is a better option for you. You can search some amazing podcasts on iTunes and listen to it for free.

The Digital Marketing Podcast By Daniel Rowles & Ciaran Rogers is pretty up there in my mind - and hopefully I will get to appear on it talking about how at JusTaxi - Manchester's taxi fare comparison app - we did what we did with geo locational marketing and social media advertising.

What Janrey - the writer of this original blog - likes to do is "download podcast episodes into my tablet for me to be able to listen anywhere and any time I want even when I have no mobile connection. "

A really good tip Janrey and one I am using from today. In fact as I type this :) 

Mia - my last thought is: 

That hopefully with me and your mum by your side - you will become healthy, wealthy and happy. But if I am not there with you - I want you to remember - that if you want to become one of the wealthy (and that IS an IF), then read the above and develop some of the habits that will eventually lead you to riches. 

Here are 7 P's I can believe in from James Caan from Start up Loans

In my marketing training courses, I laugh about how bad the 7 P's of marketing are.

They maybe a teaching aid - but not a great learning aid - and add very little to real marketing on the ground.

But.... Here are 7 P's I can believe in from James Caan who's start up loans company got Great Marketing Works to do a social media training workshop for their clients the other week.

Small world... the great 7 P's for starting your own business.... I wonder which ones we have at Justaxi - Manchester's taxi comparison app?

The full article is here... 

Perseverance

No one is going to become a millionaire overnight and there are plenty of entrepreneurs, including myself, who have suffered failures. If you fail the first time around then don’t just give up. Pick yourself up, dust yourself down and then start all over again. I believe you never stop learning and growing and even the low points have been important to my development.


Patience

Every journey has to start somewhere and businesses have to be nurtured and developed. It takes time and effort to build up a successful company and you should not expect to make huge profits immediately. The main thing you should be focusing on is getting a stable foothold in the market and making people aware of your brand. All the best companies take time to develop and you need to understand that Rome was not built in a day.


Positivity

There is a very thin line between confidence and arrogance but everyone who is successful in life has to have their fair share of self-belief. Business is about making people have confidence and belief in you and the service or product you are offering. If you do not believe in yourself then how are you going to get other people to believe in what you are doing?


Prudence

I have always been a big believer in keeping overheads to a minimum. Of course, being successful in business comes with its rewards but in the early days you should put as much back into the business as you can. When those payments first start coming in don’t fall into the trap of splashing out on expensive items that are not necessary; concentrate on the basics. The first rule of business is always to keep a close on eye on profit margins so you can build a company that is going to survive if and when the hard times come along.


Panache

Obviously, you don’t want to be the kind of person who stands out in the crowd for all the wrong reasons but there is no harm in having a bit of style and panache. Business is all about selling yourself as much as anything and I believe even in the business world, people like someone who has a bit of character and a certain sense of style.


Perceptiveness

If you understand what makes other people tick then it can be a great help when it comes to sealing that all important deal or landing a new piece of business. Making a successful pitch or presentation is all about being able to understand exactly what your client wants and then being able to deliver on your promises.


Passion

The most important quality of all. You should wake up every day raring to get out there and do business. It’s tough but it should never feel like a chore and you should have absolute belief in your ability and your business. If you want to be the best at anything then you have to really care and even make some personal sacrifices along the way. If you're not prepared to dedicate yourself to the business it then there is no point in setting up on your own.

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Ok we have 5 of them.... I would like us to be a bit more perceptive and passionate. As I truly believe that with the right customer feedback, the right branding and marketing and the right app experience we can create some new and amazing for taxi rides not just in Manchester but in the world. So it's not just about getting the best taxi prices in Manchester but something else.

An app that could really help people too i.e be safer and be happier. Both more important that money saving, don't you think?  What do you think?