A fairy tale weekend after all..

Question: Has the whole of the UK been on holiday for the past 11 days?

Well that is except me.. a little depressing..but nevertheless I still managed to get most of it off and visit Northern Ireland where I seemingly left something very dear to me behind..

..my dignity..

Yes, some where in a Belfast Airport currently resides my manliness.. if you find it.. let me know because one day it might come in handy..

Anyway, apart from a slow emotional train wreck which consisted of a realisation that it is entirely possible to describe your perfect girl for two years and then realise you actually already know her..I seemingly had a chance to recharge the batteries, play with some oddly shaped rocks and basically realise I can have my own fairy tale if I really want to.. who needs Kate Middleton.. HELLO PIPPA..

So, weird 3 day week over, its back to normality, and you might notice a cheeky little change to my blog. A friend of mine managed to mention, quite kindly, that on occasion I have a tendency to be arrogant.. which isn't true, seemingly confidence and arrogance are easily confused, but thats a rant for another day!

So in ode to that comment, which shall go on record at the one sure way to annoy me very quickly.. I have decided to take a leaf out of Prince William's book and announce myself the Duke of Newcastle.. yep.. two can play at that game sonny and I have better hair..arrogant or what??

Now yesterday was a strange day for me, one in which I felt a little bit of history was made and one in which I feel the West, namely America, let itself down..

You see, its hard to judge when you don't know all the facts, but let me express an opinion here..

While I feel comforted by the fact that Osama Bin Laden can no longer harm innocent lives, that comfort will no doubt be short lived. Al Qaeda by its very nature has many branches, many of which will have had little to no contact with a man on the run for the past 10 years. His removal as a threat will no doubt have an effect upon that organisation, as much as the loss of any figure head would, but it is now that diverse and spread out that his death will in reality be of little consequence.

It saddens me to think that as the figurehead for the free world, America and its President should rejoice in the death of any man without trial. As a beacon for the rest of the world to follow America cannot offer freedom with one hand and repression with the other, it must show the world that it applies its power fairly and is willing to offer even the gravest enemy the rights which that enemy would deny all others, it must follow its own moral code.

No man, whether elected or not has the right to take another's life, yet at some point, be it war or circumstance loss of life is inevitable, but to rejoice at the death of any man should not be applauded.

Yesterday we witnessed America fluff its lines, it had the chance to show the rest of the world how great it can be, how the worlds police man can police itself, instead it showed a hand we often choose to ignore... one we hoped had been left behind.. one of self interest, and yet the rest of the world and our own government did nothing to defend the freedom in which we all share.. yesterday was a bad day for us all.

On a lighter note, yesterday was also a day of many Bin Laden jokes.. many of which I can't repeat.. interesting how as America celebrated, the British decide to make light of the situation.. two slightly contrasting but ever telling differences between our two nations.. but the most telling difference was that half those jokes were pointed at America.. if ever Al Qaeda needed proof of which country is fighting terrorism for the right reasons they only had to look at facebook.

Now in between watching the Royal wedding on Friday I was actually thinking about something far more important than the chances Harry has with Pippa Middleton.. it seems our little Young Entrepreneurs Trust college is well on the way.. did you know we were starting a college in our spare time?

For evidence.. please see the below drawings of the new college building, which is a converted power station from the old coal mining days.. nothing like using the main staple industry of the past to fuel the future.

Its a massive project that will hopefully be a beacon to the rest of the country so please do let me know what you think here.

Picture 1: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22504193/Drawing%201.pdf

Picture 2: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22504193/Drawing%202.pdf

Picture 3: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22504193/Drawing%203.pdf

Can you help us? Let me know, we need all the help we can get on this one!

Can I run dovcor like a big company?

Now I was always told by a man much wiser than myself.. (he could have been a random man).. that the only way you can make money is to make other people do it for you..

"if you can't run your business from a laptop on a beach your not an entrepreneur"

Now I have been fortunate enough over my short time in business to meet some truly great young entrepreneurs, all of whom run their own successful businesses and are much more talented than I, but none of whom seem to run their business from a laptop!

Anyhow, in my eternal struggle to launch a brand (Will Ryles vs the world..) I have noticed that while I would love to delegate out all my day to day tasks, sit back and relax, I simply can't afford to!

What small business can employ an army of staff, surely we all rely upon the heroic actions of the man (or woman) at the top working at 900mph and doing the jobs of 5 people! (yes I did just compare myself to the likes of Superman).

But then I think.. is this what taking risks is all about... putting in the investment and hoping.. praying there will be a return?

Now on my journey into the business world I have learnt a few things, surround yourself with positive people.. don't take life too seriously.. and outsource! But I have also noticed that my ability to learn, mature and ultimately improve as both a person and a businessman are being held back by this supposed delegation dilemma.. how can you learn to manage without a team?

Luckily dovcor aside I have managed to find a way to prove this delegation theory once and for all. As you will by now know, I am leading a project called the Young Entrepreneurs Trust, which aims to bring budding entrepreneurs from all over the region (and eventually the country) together.

The team I have assembled around me is first rate for a number of reasons, firstly they are all experts in their own fields, finance, sales, web design but interestingly, they are all young entrepreneurs too, who truly have ownership over the idea itself, meaning the effort they put in is at the very least 450mph while sleeping!

I have been able to give them their areas of expertise to focus on, with general directions, not implicit "how to's".. and the pace at which we have moved forward is amazing..we are already discussing funding into the 100's of thousands, buildings and new events!

Hmmm I might have to take that risk after all.

Time moves on

Well you might have noticed I have not been blogging for the criminal length of time of 10 days! WOW..

A few things have been going on behind the scenes that have taken my time, both with www.dovcor.com and www.youngentrepreneurstrust.org.uk.

Ok, so firstly to my first love of sorts, Dovcor, Andy our apprentice has officially left the building! Now this leaves me in a dilemma, get out and sell, or let the company drift into chaos. Now even though Andy was a pain, he did actually help out in the office, and it seems with only me to do both our roles I am struggling to cope.

Luckily, we have a new apprentice starting on Monday Mr John "Neil" Diamond, so hopefully I will be released from the prison that is my desk and I can get back to doing my thing.

Secondly, the entrepreneurs group is marching forward at an amazing rate. I am building a brilliant team around me and quite honestly, I now believe more than ever that it will change the face of not only the North East but also the country. It is exactly what the current govnt is looking for and well, just a brilliant piece of private social enterprise.

But this is my problem. It is taking my time away from working in Dovcor, I need to bring in a second in command, I need some help! I think I will have to take on an apprentice to run the group admin wise, another cost!! Why do I do these things?!

On the Dovcor front, Andy leaving is not the only piece of news, if you go to the website and pick a product, you will see the info on the site has been updated. I have lots more plans, but as I am on my own creative wise at the moment its going to take me some time!

Also, I do have sad news for you all, two of the most lovely people I have ever had the pleasure to work along side have just lost their jobs. The office company they work for went down over the weekend, so these past few days I have been helping them empty the office and pack away things. A very sad process I can assure you. I do not think the recession, while it has massively affected our growth has ever hit home so hard.

BUT, we move forward, so we have just taken on a guy to run the South East sales for us, a major move as this is where 40% of our business will be done and it is so hard to find decent sales guys when you are a small company!! I am very excited, lets see how this one plays out.

The brochure is finally ready to print, I spotted a last minute epic spelling mistake, which put us back (Einstein or Einstien) so maybe next week I will be on the road full time pushing the Dovcor brand.. heres hoping to long days and plenty of wows!

Hmmmmmmm some how I think in the present client, even a free Ferrari could not persuade some people to try something different!

Am I out of the loop??

I did an interview this week for Business Quarterly Magazine. Turns out they are kind of a big deal, distributed to 10,000 business leaders from all over the region, both Chris Baxter (Geni) and Claire Barber (PR) think its a big coo.. but I have to admit, I had absolutely no clue what it was!

Now I put this down to complete inexperience in the entrepreneurs field, as you have to remember I am not exactly a business leader and really, I don't know any (or at least well enough to go through their post) so how am I meant to have come across it before.

Anyhow, the interview went great, they even said they could make me look like I am not slightly losing my hair! This could seriously improve my chances of meeting a future wife!

Interestingly though, I featured this week on www.ifwecanyoucan.tv in a video we shot a few months back about young entrepreneurs in the north east. Click here if you want to see me ramble on http://www.ifwecanyoucan.tv/home/resource/A9BE-LFA0-XZN7-7RIN-C4OJ about Dovcor and the need for a young entrepreneurs group in the North east. At one point I do say I have not seen one of my bathrooms finished, I have been told off for this!

Sadly as the manufacturer I am kept slightly out of the loop, as the shops/fitters are middle men in the process so I never meet the end customer. Its a shame I spend so much time on my products and never get to meet the person who uses them! I think I need to find a way of changing this!

As you can tell from the video, I am very passionate about helping young entrepreneurs from all over the region. Essentially I saw how organisations were ploughing investment in to creating entrepreneurs in schools but them dropping them in the deepend after school! I kind of realised some one should take up the mantle once these kids leave school, providing them with a launch pad and supporting them all the way through.

For this reason, while www.dovcor.com is my work, my hobby is now www.youngentrepreneurstrust.org.uk. We are now running the under 35's in business dinners once a month for all young entrepreneurs throughout the north east . Who said I had spare time!

When young people start out in business they don’t have years of experience to back them up. Usually the urge to go it alone is because they feel they have the raw talent to be better than the competition in their particular field, but from experience we know most are not experts in all the other areas needed to make a business tick.

The experience of starting a business is daunting no matter what the age, but we recognise that young entrepreneurs have a different set of social issues to the norm. Often young entrepreneurs can still be growing up, with friends that often do not understand the stresses and strains of running your own business. It can be both the most exciting and socially stressful moments of their lives.

The under 35’s in Business programme is designed not only to bring young entrepreneurs together socially, but also to provide them with the support needed to run a business by providing social and business mentors along with training to help them set up on their own.

Time to force my way into the loop I think..

What is this Adwords thing all about?

I can't say that this week has been the most thrilling of my life.. although I did venture to a swimming pool over the weekend, I haven't quite as yet managed to change the world... or even get a hair cut (note to self: hair cut first).

Well I say that, but actually I have both founded a charity, the Young Entrepreneurs Trust, and organised a new networking group to meet on the first Monday of every month in Newcastle as part of my world domination plans..and we reach 25,000 entrants into our competition to win a bathroom www.dovcor.com/comp.asp but it then if I measure success by good intentions I would probably be some sort of God right now... well at the very least Jesus.

Anyhow, after receiving some rather unwanted news this week, I decided to have a push with our website www.dovcor.com. Now whether its just me or not I don't know, but we have been piling money into our SEO over the past year for quite frankly shocking results.

As with anything, the slow climb to the top will take time, hopefully I will still be alive when this happens, although not at the current rate it seems.. but in an attempt to be pro-active I thought I would pick up on something I tried a few months ago.. google adwords.. a brilliant little system yell.com or some charlatan keeps ringing me up to tell me I cannot tame myself (maybe in hindsight they are right).

After reading a few articles on the internet it was with great enthusiasm I started playing around with keywords and traffic estimators, to come to the conclusion that google doesn't like the person that actually puts effort in..thats me by the way.

You see by my reckoning those that have a fat bank balance and are well LAZY.. could easily jump to number on on the google ads.. but for those of us trying desperately to do something different on a modest budget, life seems to be so much harder.

We could spend all the hours of the day searching in vain for that one overlooked mega keyword..only for google to screw us over in the process.. despite its claim.. google quite clearly does not love the little guy!

Now I am not going to profess to be some sort of expert at this, one nights googling doesn't make you a web god.. but when google says cost per click for bathrooms is £1, average number of clicks per day 1000, resulting in £1000 a day costs to us.. this seems obvious..

So how hard can it be to utilise a much cheaper keyword? Take the keyword bathrooms UK for example..a 0.04 cost per click, average clicks per day 200.. resulting cost £0... HANG ON this isn't rocket science is it? I am pretty sure google could take away the complicated analysis and simply replace it with such comedic phrases as.. jog on son.. or ..your avin a laugh mate..

If everything went to plan (according to adwords at least) I would right now be rolling in prospects, but some how I don't think so.. life just isn't that simple..