Sleeping Giant Media presented to business students at Canterbury Christ Church University in Broadstairs

Canterbury Christ Church Uni

t. 01303 240715 e. [email protected] w. www.sleepinggiantmedia.co.uk

Focus

- I talk about setting up a business quite a bit which is because it is my background

-Not everyone wants to do this, but the principles and challenges I talk about apply in corporate life too

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mailto:[email protected]


http://www.sleepinggiantmedia.co.uk


https://adwords.google.com/professionals/profile/org?id=017702451200549020354








What business is really about


There is no perfect situation

- Imagine you are 65

- Imagine you had a recipe for how to cook a dish that your friends liked

- Imagine if you then had to convince existing restaurants that it was better than theirs

- Then for the privilege of using your recipe they had to pay you a percentage of the profits

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How many issues do you see?


Thats the KFC story

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but I am too young

- There is no right time or wrong time to start a business

- There are however lots of excuses

- Too young, too old, not enough knowledge, not enough money, not the right location

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Introduction

- Take you through the last 5 years of starting and then running a business

- Talk about some business systems and process’ that are important

- Look at some of the more personal requirements

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My story


What I would like to tell you

- Created a business plan

-We got all our legal elements sorted

-We followed the plan to the letter

-We knew exactly what we were doing

- It was really easy

-We made loads of money and lived happily ever after

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The reality


What we do

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We focus on delivering more relevant visitors to our clients

websites














What we do

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With the ultimate focus of getting them more customers and growing

their business














What we do

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PPC SEOSocial

Website














SGM vs the competition

- Client performance

- Client retention

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Technology

Customer service

HighLowLow

High

Giant Sized Gap













Where it began


Year -1

- Part time

-Working full time, studying a masters degree

- Put together a business plan

-Kept the costs low - built up a few clients

- Planned the processes

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2008














Best laid plans

-Who is it for?

- The point of the business plan

-Main things to include

-General road map plan

- Financial forecast

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Getting started

-Keep your overheads as low as possible

- Reduce risk where ever possible

-Don’t worry too much about planning every detail

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Year 1 - Full time

- Long hours

- Pretending to be bigger than you are

-Understanding the concept of running a business

-All hands on deck

-Very exciting!

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2009














Year 1

- It is about learning what business is all about and how it works

- There isn’t really anything you can do to prepare for that, it is just a case of doing it

- Just try and learn it as fast as you can

-Academic models help to give you a frame of reference and a start point

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Year 1.5

-More structure, more process

-No tie’s (getting our own identity)

-Money coming in

- Important to reinvest money back into the business

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2010














Year 2 - 3

- More established agency, structure, and tone

- Managing and monitoring staff becomes more challenging

- Legal elements

- Managing the growth

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Building a team

-Decentralized structures

- Bottom up approach

- Less structure and more of a collaborative approach

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Management

Directors

Executives














Building a team

-Decentralized structures

- Bottom up approach

- Less structure and more of a collaborative approach

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Management

Directors

Executives














Year 4

-All about the team

-All about marketing and building a brand and asset that is bigger than 1 person

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t. 01303 240715 e. [email protected] w. www.sleepinggiantmedia.co.uk 24

ClientsSleeping Giant Media

Staff growth

20132012Would you feel comfortable referring SGM to other companies?

Are you happy with SGM's service?

Average customer service rating

Client questionnaire October 2013

275% 10 out of 10 10 out of 1094%

personalities IG


Year 4

- Challenges we face

- Retaining quality of service while scaling

- Internal communications and knowledge sharing

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Moral

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The practical stuff


Model

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Financial

People

Clients Innovation














Internal technology

- Cloud based computing

-Online document storage

- Time sheeting

- Cloud based CRM - mobile integration

-Apple based

- Fibre optics in the building

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External change

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Talk of algo change

Algo to reduce value of low quality links

Algo change Algo changePenguin 2.0

coming

Out reach planning














Long term objectives

-Utilisation of technology to help client retention and management

-Continue to build knowledge sharing within the business

-Monitor external technology change and adapt the business

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Set goals

34

0

40000

December January February March April May June July August September October November

Profit

2011 2012 2013 Projected

Key targets:

Over £200k np

Retention of 100% positive months

Office moveRecruitment of

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Over 33% profitability

It’s not business, it’s personal


What you need to be successful

- “It not personal its just business”

-What attributes I have found important in order to be “successful”, and things that I am still working on

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What success takes

- 1. Awareness

- 2. Emotional Control

-3. Invincible determination

-4. Positive perspective

- 5. Continual learning

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Awareness

-Know what you know

-Know what you don’t know

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Emotional control

-Don’t let your decision making be changed by your emotions

-Make your emotions work for you not the other way around

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Invincible determination

- You are the biggest blocker to your success

-Overcome your own inner fears of failure

- Set your goals and don’t deviate

-No matter who tells you that you can’t do something believe you can

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Positive perspective

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- You can’t control external events

- You can control how you view them

- You can help develop a positive attitude


Continual learning

- Every day the challenge is different and you have to stay on top of it

- The only way you can is by learning every day

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Thanks for your time

-Please don’t hesitate to ask any further questions as we would be happy to answer them

Business

Sleeping Giant Media presented to business students at Canterbury Christ Church University in Broadstairs