PLATFORM - July 2024
Insights Briefing
PLATFORM | UK Startup Week - Paul Lancaster
Platform has people attending from all around the North East from Newcastle to Gateshead and Teesside to Carlisle. Best to think of the North East as a collective. This event is a platform for new and growing businesses and always looking for people to talk and have fireside chat about journeys in businesses.
There is the North of Tyne Business Support Fund where can get 50% grant funding towards projects between £3,000 and £8,000 with Grow with NBSL but will be fully allocated in the next couple of months for any SME with less than 250 people and less than €50 million in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland funding any external expertise so is worth applying if doing this but there is also a Sunderland Business Support fund but if not in those areas you could encourage someone there to apply for this to help you. North East Create Growth Programme is a series of workshops to become more commercial and investment ready and matches you with great mentors many of which are angel investors.
ukstartupweek.com has events and posts and also did poll on preferred channel for learning about growing business apart from LinkedIn is YouTube and there are videos from events on the Startup Week Channel on the YouTube channel including short form video with a video from Steven Bartlett. Sunderland Startup Week will be next year in June 2025 and will be a five-day festival with super early bird ticket for £50 and you can get tickets now.
North East BIC - John Forth and Debbie Simpson
John & Debbie both work at the North East BIC or Business Innovation Centre and have most of their activity in Sunderland and are funded through the local authority but they do offshoots North of Tyne and in Durham but Sunderland is booming at the moment and they are relocating businesses to Sunderland and there's things like Crown Studios coming too.
North East Business & Innovation Centre is build on the site of an old ship yard with over 130 businesses on site and ethos is to bring businesses in and want to see them grow and develop and move into larger units. There is a lovely feeling about the BIC and want to help each other and signpost people to the best possible support. They also have a new innovation centre Growth Lab Darlington and also Sunderland Software City is part of the North East BIC.
North East BIC is collaborating with other businesses to build up momentum and create new businesses in Sunderland. It has had an economic impact of over £2.5 billion over thirty years and has experiences people behind it. They have an innovation grant for Sunderland so if have clients or partners who could benefit from this grant then can introduce them which is a 40% contribution up to £40,000 but it does need to be innovative in some way,
Many businesses have benefited from BIC including some who say they would not be here today without them and have had businesses benefit from Innovation Grants to help their business grow. Growth Labs events such as Customer Service in the Sheepfolds in Sunderland, Strategy Execution Masterclass with Reclaro and Marketing for Growth with a panel coming up and all these events are free.
Enterprising North covers North East Combined Authority with free support and mentoring and available until March 2025 with a bespoke 1:1 Support with online learning platform to improve business skills with support tailored for you and there is a drop-in in Gateshead.
Tech Disreputability : It's not if, it's when - Mark Renney
We build businesses because we want freedom, want to exit and have financial independence and build a team. Are you building freedom or a prison? Have you been awake at 4am thinking why are you doing this? Are you thinking about a team member who may be leaving or there's someone you've not sacked as you need the revenue they generate. When build a scaling business you become trapped when you want freedom, they had someone who worked 60 hours a week and without them the business would collapse, if starting a business what is the outcome.
We build businesses because we want freedom, want to exit and have financial independence and build a team. Are you building freedom or a prison? Have you been awake at 4am thinking why are you doing this? Are you thinking about a team member who may be leaving or there's someone you've not sacked as you need the revenue they generate. When build a scaling business you become trapped when you want freedom, they had someone who worked 60 hours a week and without them the business would collapse, if starting a business what is the outcome.
VITES framework for disruption which is five key areas to look out for with the first is Vision is do you have a clear vision, mission and objectives and measure this and why does the business exist. Innovation, review how you decouple growth from people and increase revenue per head in the business over time and this creates question about how are you removing inefficiencies. Temperament which is there has to be a better way to do this, making mistakes is par for the course and allow for innovation and measure self against this. Execution, do you have presence in the market, to create £100,0000 in under 12 months with an automated version of your service and could you de-risk your Minimum Viable Product. Scalability - Mark does videos talking about this, are you people dependent to deliver your service, can you take time off - if not then it is reliant on you being there and want to increase the amount of time you could take off from the business.
Why this matters is they believe that the North East economy will grow quicker with more scaling businesses innovating in tech such as traditional sectors who could automate their processes but there may be enough businesses for this to matter.
Show & Tell
Cluarantonn : The Bridge to Podcasting - Peter Bull
Cluarantonn is the bridge to podcasting, the founders are Dawn Young, who is the CEO of Cluarantonn and is a full-time podcaster of Scottish Murders, Scottish Digest and The Blue Way. Peter Bull, CTO of Cluarantonn is a software developer and writes articles about events like this on rogueplanetoid.com and is a part-time podcaster of the RoguePlanetoid Podcast and Talking Inspiration coming soon.
Podcasts, if you don't know is video or audio you can download or stream to watch or listen when and where you want, their podcasts include those from Dawn including their first, Scottish Murders, which is a two-time award nominated victim focused true crime podcast about murders of Scottish people or people in Scotland which was the inspiration behind the company as Dawn struggled to know what to do when starting a podcast and want to share the things what they learned. Scottish Digest covers the brighter side of Scotland about places to visit and The Blue Way with stories of those on every facet of law enforcement. There's also Peter's RoguePlanetoid Podcast and coming soon will be the mostly studio-based podcast Talking Inspiration.
Cluarantonn offer a free thirty-minute quick chat which allows potential, new and existing podcasters who may have no idea what to do or what to do next the chance to speak to them to find out their general needs or for small businesses and freelancers to speak to them about products and services related to podcasting. They also offer a paid sixty-minute power hour for podcasters to get answers to their questions along with specific information to help with what to do next.
Existing Podcasters can subscribe for £25 per month to join Cluarantonn's community where they will re-share any social media posts for their episodes, join monthly group sessions to share knowledge which will include some of the small businesses and freelancers, and recieve regular tips. New Podcasters can subscribe for £59 per month and will get everything existing podcasters get plus helping arrange promo swaps, helpful guides, email with any questions and get two 1-to-1 sessions support per month plus 20% off power hours after their first month for additional support if needed.
Small businesses or freelancers can work with Cluarantonn to offer their products and services to podcasters that need them, and, in many cases, will help get people ready for those services which can including editing, studios, brand design and more. When we refer anyone for a product or service, Cluarantonn accept a commission for that referral which will be an agreed percentage or flat fee as part of a signed referral agreement. Cluarantonn can also enable businesses to get their business name and mission out there and support their community of podcasters with advertising or sponsorship.
Cluarantonn is Gaelic for thistle wave and reflects CEO and co-founder Dawn's Scottish roots. Their logo features the top of a thistle, a hidden C from their name and the logo resembles a podcast microphone, the foundation of the business held up by a small bridge a reference to their slogan, the bridge to podcasting. Their branding was designed by Christelle from The End of Nowhere who is also one of the small businesses and freelancers offering products and services and offers a discount for anyone coming from Cluarantonn helping people get great value from the products and services on offer from some of their small businesses and freelancers.
Cluarantonn launched in May at The Podcast Show in London's Business Design Centre with their stand sharing their missing with those there asking about help with podcasting, including people working on other stands and front of house as well as many small businesses and freelancers wanting to work with Cluarantonn. Dawn and Peter from Cluarantonn also volunteered to offer support as part of the show's Creator Advice Lab and Dawn talked on stage about Ethical Diving into True Crime Podcast Investigations.
You can always start your podcast by recording audio on the smartphone you probably already have with you today and if you want to be on camera, you can even record video. You could record just a few minutes or longer but is a great way of beginning your podcast without having to spend any extra money and you can always use a headset with it to improve the audio. The best way to start your podcast is just to give it a go which they could do as soon as they got back from the event.
When you've recorded a podcast, you can always edit out any mistakes or long breaths but another thing worth doing is audio or loudness normalisation of around -15 LUFS, many audio editing applications such as Audacity will do this, which will make you sound more consistent and professional and means your listeners won't be reaching for that volume control throughout your episode because it is too loud or quiet in parts.
Once you've recorded and edited your podcast when you're publishing on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube there will usually be an option for you to provide a trailer, this can be a short 30-second to around minute or two of audio or video telling people what your podcast is about as they'll be more likely to watch or listen to your podcast.
Cluarantonn aims to build a community of podcasters and support them with power hours or with subscription tiers offering the support they need including joining a community of podcasters, group networking chats along with 1-to-1 support. Cluarantonn then aims to connect podcasters when ready to a network of small businesses and freelancers offering products or services where we will earn a commission as well as allow podcasters to be supported with advertising or sponsorship from businesses which helps them too by getting their name out there.
If you or anyone you know wants help with starting a podcast, have an existing podcast, or are a small business or freelancer offering a product or service that could help them then can visit cluarantonn.com to arrange a free Quick Chat or email contact@cluarantonn.com and Cluarantonn is also on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Unlock Quantum Growth Based Marketing - Jamie Ahmed
People don't buy products and services they buy outcomes that fulfil their needs. If can get curiosity gaps such as in True Crime Podcasts. They have clients spending thousands of dollars on Facebook advert to get them to nine figures, but everyone can do this as emotions drive behaviour. Marketing is not about convincing people to want what you have it is about helping them realise they need what you offer to solve their “Bleeding Neck” problem.
You can tap into existing demands and with the power of emotional marketing is where you can identify the emotions that drive your target audiences decisions and can craft your message to develop content that resonates with these emotions to create a strong connection. You can measure impact and adjust your strategy for maximum emotional impact.
Features and benefits vs motions - people buy with emotion and reason with logic so need to speak to that emotional subconscious mind first with beliefs, emotions, habits, values, protective reactions etc so they love it but don't know why. Conscious processing speed is 40-50 bits per second and sub conscious processing speed is 11,000,000 bits per second. Could have “Seamlessly manage tasks with our productivity app” vs “Don't let inefficiency hold you back - our productivity app ensures you'll never miss a deadline again” or “Discover the secret behind #1 sales reps.
Finding emotions in messaging with the “So what?” method with this you keep asking So What, you could go deeper if needed, be specific don't say confidence when you mean courage, evoke emotions by choosing words that trigger desired response, research customer's dialogue as their language patterns will reveal their thought processes and then can test and refine by continuously experiment with different phrases to optimise your message. Need to rapidly build connections such as building confidence and empowerment or belonging and inclusivity to emphasises feelings.
Leverage Facebook's algorithm, understand CBO/ACB to not fight against the algorithm so organise ad sets to leverage the learning capabilities by giving it ammo and not disarming it and should split ads by emotions with ad sets and then can monitor performance and regularly review metrics and adjust strategy for optimal results. They have spent over $1.5 million on a campaign then $672,000 which was more active and high performing.
Understand audience emotions and conduct research along with So What? Method and craft emotionally resonant messages and use customer language to craft messages that evoke messages plus test analyse and optimise performance based on feedback. Get content from reviews by looking from long reviews and seeing what people are saying.
Selling on value: the secret to sales success - James Dawson
They have worked in corporate entities and wanted to do it themselves and help organisations to achieve better results in sales and negotiation. They do programmes on influence and persuasion that has massive impact and consequences on sales. The value of reciprocity is when you help someone, and it comes back around to help you.
Founders are great at selling their solutions but are they great sales leaders and how can anyone compete with the founders and pros and cons of technical experts who sell etc. Founders start a business it is usually just themselves and have a great idea and can talk about their idea but when bring people in when it grows and once you add in people the founder becomes head of operations, finance, commercial and people - it is people that become drain on time so can't do as much as other things. You will be dealing with things that are nothing to do with work so but most important job is to help people to help your business so need the right help at the right time.
Sales is the most common thing founders don't want to let go of, founders get away with selling and can evangelise what you do but it isn't the best way to sell and need to scale in a more structured way but people can be reluctant to get help with selling but it is an area where you can benefit from. You need to brief those people if they are selling and avoid mistakes and make sure doing things with best possible way.
DISC personality profiling based on Conscientious, Dominant, Steadfast and Influencer aspects to determine this based on Task and Logic along with People and Emotions or see who an Introvert or Extrovert is and where the dot lies the more extreme your personally traits are and with sales there can be 1 in 3 hit rates. You need to assess the personality traits of people and need to have good awareness of yourself - choose to become more aware of how you communicate, soften language and think about the impact you are having and fear driver is the most powerful such as sudden change and have awareness of your tendencies and tendencies of people you're trying to influence, assessment of the skills.
Start a conversation first and show genuine interest in the person, have you had someone connect on LinkedIn and sent a spammy pitch is quite common. People like to buy but don't like to be sold to so people are naturally inclined to avoid that so think about someone coming in to a sales meeting so do not sell at all but start with a conversation and find out what their actual needs are and it has to be a genuine interest as your intentions always show through.
Openings decision makers hate is small talk, questions straight away, benefit claim openers, quality claims, statements of intent. Talk to them about their situation, have a brief introduction and get to business about them and their situation and ask questions that resonate with their personality type. Creating rapport with small talk doesn't work but you can take the lead by asking what a client wants from the meeting and then ask what they really want to achieve and then ask questions about their situation where they can say if it is okay to ask questions where they think it is all about them but handover control of the conversation to you.
People quickly answer three questions when they first meet you. Do I like this person, do I trust this person, can I respect this person - trust is the most important factor in how people evaluate you, have to make a good first impression by resonating with the individual. If a client doesn't trust you, they won't want to deal with you. Trust is built in the emotional brain and respect is in the logical brain so must resonate before we establish credibility and mut first create that personal connection before talking about business or ourselves. You can just talk about yourself and what you do for sixty to ninety seconds, and credibility comes from how you structure your conversation, just ask great questions to seem like giving great insights.
After you have identified needs and asked if they would do business with them people expect you to do solution selling but the most the customer defines the solution and the more that we respond to that solution the more we are perceived as a commodity. You need to first uncover the pain that the solution will remove you need to have them tell them the solution they want. It is about developing a solution to a better defined problem and can do this with power and pain questions to empower prospective client to talk about what matters to them and then get them to think differently about them.
People make buying B2B buying decisions even more emotionally than B2C buying decisions as if you get the wrong solution for a business could cost job and reputation so need to appeal to the buyers emotional needs, show how these correlate to critical business issues. If you hear symptoms you need to get the critical business issues and reflect these back to your solutions. Need to think about how goals are impacted and why this is important. There are sales principals and need to understand the sales circle with steps and goals to achieve and can try things and do it and can still be your authentic self with strategy, process, systems and people. Always take advice and mistakes come from not thinking things through properly and want to get this right as early as you can.
In Conversation With...
Rachel Hodgson speaking to Manila McLean
When Manila decided to go to University, they were strategically aware, they wanted to get into business and tech and had their first computer was a Commodore 64 but they didn't come from a tech family. Their first degree was in Computer Science and business and went onto graduate training programmes and were asked by University of Strathclyde to do a PhD and the decided to go into commerce at that point instead with Standard Life. She also worked in the Prison service and there had been an old firm game between Celtic and Rangers so there was a riot and were wondering what was going on!
Manila mentioned at Standard Life one role was launching one of the first ecommerce platforms, they would take paper details and rekey this into the system and saw the need to automate this to make a digital platform which was Corporate Pension Zone to allow employee pensions to be submitted and was one of their proudest achievements and is still running today.
How did they make decisions for suppliers? It is about understanding buyers problems and what problem can you help to solve through storytelling not showcasing the solution you want to provide and have emotional alignment were a part of their most successful pitches.
Manila said they have joined a tech startup that is starting to grow and took them to pitch with Newcastle Strategic Solutions where they had worked previously so was interesting to be on the other side of that sales pitch.
What can a non-execs can offer a scale-up? They can bring to the table is challenge thinking about running of operation and being an introducer and know how brands work and give insight on how to sell products into a big financial services organisation.
What was steepest learning curve? Manila's steepest learning curve was when working at Tesco Bank which was just after financial crisis and were on RBS platform and they needed cash and Tesco Bank were cash rich so bought out the 50% stake and build out a platform with six million existing customers and had 50 when first started and bought products to build platform ab aim was to build best customer experience to bring across customers from RBS but that ambition was not right at the time. They said to those RBS customers was a new experience and then they had more traffic than ever, and people needed to re-register and there was a bit of a crash but should have asked what should have happened that day was to instead have replicated the original experience and then build a way to a utopian experience instead and realise what is the most important thing right now.
When did they feel like they've become a big cheese? Manila said they don't feel they have made it, but they do realise they have had successes and learning opportunities and helped career development with businesses.
Did they have any mentors? Manila mentioned they have had loads of mentors and it comes in different guises at different stages in a career, the businessperson is one part of whole life so need different ones throughout. Think about work as a game of chess and next moves and how you move around your business. Think about psychology of business and emotional intelligence and draw out what other people are good at and helping move things forward.
How is it different in a small business to a large business? Manila mentioned that every organisation has politics and they thought with small ones they wouldn't have this, but they had seen things that surprised them. It isn't the same process governance but the disciplines are the same but the biggest difference is about having the right person at the right time such as having the right CIO at the time, in their last organisation there was a time they couldn't have done that role but when they did it they had the resources to allow them to do that.
What about the pace of change? The pace of big corporates can be quite frustrating as when dealing with large organisations it can be between 12 and 36 months to onboard an organisation on a product and that is when things slow right down. Initial adoption can be quite quick but really slow and can often be due to regulations that this process slows.
What pivotal moments and mindset changes have they had? Manila said before their first C-suite role they focused on delivery and getting things done but became a broader requirement and mindset change for them.
How did they become a non-exec director? They were pitched by Docstribute a couple of years ago but saw the product wasn't there yet but had followed them, they were in-between roles and liked the ethos and saw where product was now and had a good fit to help them but their objective is to move into a portfolio of non-exec roles and this takes time so they need to build up that experience to be in an advisory non-exec role.