Blog: Weekly E-zine: The Long and Winding Road

Posted by Mike Southon on 27/11/2009 09:02

This week:

1. Marketing Masterclass with Chris West and David Frew - Thursday 10th December, 9:30am to 13pm, Russell Square, London
2. Sales on a Beermat Training Event with Mike Southon- Thursday 14th January 2010, 9:30am to 13pm, Russell Square, London
3. Weekly E-zine: The Long and Winding Road

1. Marketing Masterclass with Chris West and David Frew - Thursday 10th December, 9:30am to 13pm, Russell Square, London

For business owners and senior managers with some experience of marketing, who want to be better marketers and are not afraid to challenge their current marketing strategy. Lively and interactive, this workshop will leave you with ideas and tools you can use immediately to move your marketing up a gear.

Topics will include:
- Orientation: mission / core strategy, product range, USP, positioning and market mapping.
- Planning the next step: new products or new markets (or both)?
- Which route to choose and how to go down your chosen route successfully.
- The 'nuts and bolts' of drawing up a marketing plan and running successful marketing campaigns.

Fresh coffee plus a breakfast danish on arrival, and other refreshments are included in the price.

Delegates will also receive a signed copy of the book Marketing on a Beermat.

The Masterclass costs just £99 exc VAT per person.

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT: register between now and 1st December using code earlybird312 and get 20% off! (Look for "Click here to enter a promotional code" on the registration form)

Find out more and register here:
uk.amiando.com/marketingmasterclass2.html

2. Sales on a Beermat Training Event with Mike Southon - Thursday 14th January 2010, 9:30am to 13pm, Russell Square, London

Mike Southon, co-author of best-selling book "The Beermat Entrepreneur", invites you to a sales training event!

Based on the best-selling book "Sales on a Beermat", this event is suitable for everyone. If you don’t consider yourself a salesperson and hate to sell, but you have to sell to make a living, then this course is for you! If you love to sell, this course will still help you develop your skills.

This workshop will:
- show you how to double your revenue immediately
- show how anyone can be involved in the sales process, without feeling sleazy or dishonest
- teach you how to generate more leads and close them more effectively

The event costs just £99 excluding VAT.

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT: register between now and 14th December using code mikem312 and get 20% off! (Look for "Click here to enter a promotional code" on the registration form)

Find out more and register here:
uk.amiando.com/salesonabeermat.html

3. Weekly E-zine: The Long and Winding Road

This is my column that will feature in Saturday's Financial Times, which can be found in the entrepreneurship pages of the Money section. You can also find my columns on the FT web site here: www.ft.com/mikesouthon

Fans of Sir Paul McCartney are eagerly looking forward to his European Tour, the latest celebration of his long and successful career as a musician. What is sometimes overlooked is his status as also one of the UK's most successful entrepreneurs.

There is a wonderful moment on his 2002 Back in the US DVD. McCartney starts All My Loving, and the camera cuts to ecstatic members of the audience, both young and old. Notable is one man about my age, who is clearly taken right back to watching The Ed Sullivan Show in the sixties, and tears well up in his eyes.

I am currently touring Universities as part of the NCGE's 'Make It Happen' programme, and I explain to the young delegates that this is a perfect example of how they can become successful entrepreneurs. If they can achieve this level of personal engagement for their products and services, then people will turn into loyal customers for life.

McCartney's own career followed the classic route of the aspiring entrepreneur. At first he was driven only by his passion for playing the music he loved, and was later delighted to realise he could actually earn a living this way.

The Beatles' success soon meant that they were able to take on extra staff. Neil Aspinall, an old class-mate of McCartney’s, bought an old Commer Van for £80 and charged each band member five shillings for carrying their equipment.

The band soon came to the attention of Brian Epstein, who signed them to their first management contract, promising to get them a recording deal. The Beatles later secured recording and publishing deals, and even started their own entrepreneurial organisation The Apple Corporation, a very ambitious venture encompassing a record label, films, publishing and a retail clothes operation.

Looking back with expert hindsight, it might be argued that the various deals the Beatles signed were less than ideal, and that the Apple Corporation back then, while well-intentioned, lacked focus and experienced business management.

But like all successful entrepreneurs McCartney learned from this experience and all his ventures are now extremely well run. The Beatles's legacy is now expertly managed by The Apple Corporation, run until 2007 by Aspinall, the one-time roadie.

Not only has the original Beatles material been carefully digitally re-mastered, their brand has also been successfully extended into Love, the Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas and The Beatles Rock Band computer game. This game works at every level; for its target market of teen game-buyers it works perfectly, while Beatles enthusiasts of my generation appreciate its assiduous attention to detail.

The Beatles signed away their publishing rights back in the sixties with little understanding of the full implications or of their own artistic longevity. McCartney now has his own publishing company, MPL Communications which owns and administers the rights to a large back-catalogue of songs from Buddy Holly to Grease as well as his own solo material.

The McCartney brand has also been successfully extended by others, notably his late wife Linda's range of vegetarian food products which were the first and only option for many years, and his daughter Stella's fashion, perfume and skin care enterprises.

So I will indeed be cheering on Sir Paul McCartney at the O2 arena just before Christmas, and I am sure mine will not be the only dry eye in the house as he fires up his many hits.*And as a loyal customer of one of the UK's most successful entrepreneurs, I am indeed hoping Santa will bring me a copy of his new DVD, Good Evening New York City.

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I would like to thank the following organisations for supporting this e-zine:

THE LOCAL BOOKKEEPER
Bookkeeping and plus sum!
www.thelocalbookkeeper.co.uk

SMITH AND WILLIAMSON
Tax & business advice for entrepreneurs
www.smith.williamson.co.uk/entrepreneurs

FD UNLIMITED
Finance director services for dynamic companies
www.fdunlimited.com

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Until next time!

Mike Southon
mike@beermat.biz
07802 483834

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mikesouthon
More columns at www.ft.com/mikesouthon

This article © Mike Southon 2009.
All Rights Reserved. Not to be reproduced without permission.

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Blog: Weekly E-zine: The Long and Winding Road

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