All’s fair in love and war
Last week’s award was great to receive, and I must admit we have spent our Venturefest winnings already. But you’ll be glad to hear that the money has been invested wisely (partly going towards a new and long-overdue laptop for the business).
And the business now has a new team member - Paul started with us last Monday. He’s a marketing consultant who, in his other job, works on editing blogs for reality TV shows, so his expertise will be invaluable to me in helping to shape our brand and PR activity. He will be focusing on the digital side of marketing, which should free me up a bit to manage the sales more efficiently. So though I am still unsure about employing someone full-time (I am putting off getting my head around employment rules and laws - bit of a nightmare), Paul will be a real help on a part-time basis.
On the publicity front, I received an email from Capital Radio as a result of our marketing push for putting 2,000 samples out to media peoples’ desks in London for their ‘perk at work’. The email said what an excellent idea it was, to thank us for ‘helping to keep us hydrated’ and to tell me that the samples went within about two seconds! So I have asked if we can come along and take a short film of people enjoying the product, so fingers crossed that’ll come off.
More specifically, the award money was used for our new marketing email system which will allow me to send out e-newsletters to those who have ‘opted in’. The template will be designed by me, though is proving a bit hard to fathom (the enewsletter company would design it, but at a cost), and I have 2,000 email addresses ready to receive it.
Good news – we have now officially been awarded the MoD contract! O2GO will be supplying troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with a trial amount (10,000 sachets which will last them 4 to 5 days) of O2GO in their ration packs. It’s called a final product field test, which if it goes well, we will get a further order for in April. This is great, but ethics do always have to be considered – it is a great opportunity to help people to stay hydrated in a war environment, where it matters, but what about corporate social responsibility and my views about war? I always wanted to be an ethical company and don’t want to jeopardise that in any way. Nevertheless, this fantastic news and really exciting for the product.
Sainsbury’s update… I haven’t had data for over a week, so our recent London brand-to-hand marketing (giving away 50,000 vouchers) can’t be measured (we have no idea how many people have cashed in their vouchers). But from Sainsbury’s’ internal system it seems as though we have sold nearly 4,000 units. Anyway we got a re-order of a quarter of what they originally ordered (not expected for ten more weeks!) so it may be that we are selling really well and they need to restock. We’re not a huge company, and to buyers, O2GO are just a small annoyance. I have so much emotion invested in the business, but I’m not from Nestle or a big player, so to the buyer I am only a name on a spreadsheet.
Business and Valentine’s Day can mix – after a lovely evening with my wife (yes I did remember), she highlighted something that I had not yet thought about, to do with what I and the business had achieved. She said that I had single-handedly achieved so much, which I never think about or reflect on properly. Day to day you’re fighting the fires, enjoying the
moment, but you don’t step back. I’ve invented a product from scratch that nobody else has thought of, got it on the Sainsbury’s shelves and won a government contract for the MoD, pretty much by myself (OK with some tactical help – you know who you are!). It’s true that successes need to be shouted about and it sometimes takes someone else to remind me how I have achieved as an entrepreneur and how far the business has come.
So you could say that on Valentine’s Day I fell back in love with the business again (how’s that for a closing line?).
