I usually can't get going until the second week of the New Year, can't remember to write the correct year on cheques, that sort of thing. This year was different. I crashed into it well refreshed, though slightly hung over, and started work with relish. Plenty of orders to process!
I've made enough this month to pay the heavy fees to keep the Intenational Patent cover in force, and even got an Australian patent application in place. Australia is the home of the rotary airer - probably their only invention, so it seemed right to take the Rotaire to them.
The next problem is to get through the winter, when people don't think of drying outside and sales will be low. If only they realised: some new users found they could dry their clothes in the sub-zero temperatures we we've been experiencing this Season. The problem after that is to afford new stock, as levels are dangerously low on some sizes, and completely out on others. However, I seem to be faring surprisingly well in this Global Squeeze (why won't anyone call it a slump? It clearly is!) so long may my good luck continue.
Oh yes, I got a call from a buyer at Argos too...
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Sunday, 28 December 2008
The Breakthough!
Thank you Chris Evans and Foxy! My best Christmas present was on the 5th December when I went to London to be interviewed on the Chris Evans Show. It was very lucky to be on Drivetime Radio 2 at the beginning of the Christmas season; on a friday evening at 6.30. It could hardly have been bettered. My three minutes of fame were very pleasant and barely intimidating at all. Chris genuinely thinks I am going to be very rich.
I spent the rest of the night over a bottle of brandy with a good old friend called Nigel, who I haven't seen for years, and I woke in the morning to a call from my wife saying that the website had crashed; a customer had phoned to tell us about it. I rushed home to find that it had indeed exceeded its bandwidth in one night! It meant that a lot of people were unable to see the product, but I already had more orders than I had had in the previous month! I got the site back up when the host site returned to work on monday morning and the orders just kept coming. It was only two days before Christmas that I was able to stop, amd take breath. Since then I have enjoyed a full Family Christmas with my delightful family and partners and I am feeling well replenished for the next stage of the development of the Dryline.
If you want people to know about something these days you have to shout very loud and get a vast crowd of people to hear you; the proof is in this brief window of time. Three minutes exposure equals three weeks of work. I have had wonderful feedback from the customers, genuinely pleased to hear of someone working against the tide of depression and bad news, who has a simple yet effective idea, one which some of them had envisaged but not carried through, and one which simple stunned others with its obviousness.
Thank you all for buying from me, and trusting in the change it can make to your lives. It works!
I spent the rest of the night over a bottle of brandy with a good old friend called Nigel, who I haven't seen for years, and I woke in the morning to a call from my wife saying that the website had crashed; a customer had phoned to tell us about it. I rushed home to find that it had indeed exceeded its bandwidth in one night! It meant that a lot of people were unable to see the product, but I already had more orders than I had had in the previous month! I got the site back up when the host site returned to work on monday morning and the orders just kept coming. It was only two days before Christmas that I was able to stop, amd take breath. Since then I have enjoyed a full Family Christmas with my delightful family and partners and I am feeling well replenished for the next stage of the development of the Dryline.
If you want people to know about something these days you have to shout very loud and get a vast crowd of people to hear you; the proof is in this brief window of time. Three minutes exposure equals three weeks of work. I have had wonderful feedback from the customers, genuinely pleased to hear of someone working against the tide of depression and bad news, who has a simple yet effective idea, one which some of them had envisaged but not carried through, and one which simple stunned others with its obviousness.
Thank you all for buying from me, and trusting in the change it can make to your lives. It works!
Saturday, 22 November 2008
After Tesco
Last weekend I tried something very challenging: to spend the weekend in the local Tesco car park! I discovered that they rent out space in their car parks to businesses wanting to display their products, so I signed up with risk assessment and all to a two day campaign - which cost £600!
I had high hopes of interestingTesco customers and using Tesco's incredible customer profiling system to discover the demographics of my buyers. However, although we had a fair amount of interest I have only had one enquiry, which has not yet resulted in a sale. Most of the weekend was spent hanging around trying to keep warm, although the miserable wet and windy weather on the sunday did prove the point: the washing on the lines stayed dry.
It was an expensive piece of advertising then, but at least it put the Rotaire name and the product in the minds of thousands of people who otherwise may not have known about it, and next time their washing gets soaked they may look it up. It was fascinating to see the operation at close hand, a constant flow of shopping trolleys in and out of the store, the busy times and the less busy times - there was never a slack period. The car park nearly always full, the lively people going in, and the same people coming out devoid of interest, looking at the pavement. A large number thankfully used ther own bags; others emerged with six or eight of the things. Despite the weather, many went shopping in tee shirts, obviously coming from overheated houses to a heated car and a heated shop woth barely any contact with the outside world. Truly it was a watering hole for the masses.
As Edison once said, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." It is a very steep hill to climb if you want to introduce an entirely new concept.
I had high hopes of interestingTesco customers and using Tesco's incredible customer profiling system to discover the demographics of my buyers. However, although we had a fair amount of interest I have only had one enquiry, which has not yet resulted in a sale. Most of the weekend was spent hanging around trying to keep warm, although the miserable wet and windy weather on the sunday did prove the point: the washing on the lines stayed dry.
It was an expensive piece of advertising then, but at least it put the Rotaire name and the product in the minds of thousands of people who otherwise may not have known about it, and next time their washing gets soaked they may look it up. It was fascinating to see the operation at close hand, a constant flow of shopping trolleys in and out of the store, the busy times and the less busy times - there was never a slack period. The car park nearly always full, the lively people going in, and the same people coming out devoid of interest, looking at the pavement. A large number thankfully used ther own bags; others emerged with six or eight of the things. Despite the weather, many went shopping in tee shirts, obviously coming from overheated houses to a heated car and a heated shop woth barely any contact with the outside world. Truly it was a watering hole for the masses.
As Edison once said, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." It is a very steep hill to climb if you want to introduce an entirely new concept.
Sunday, 19 October 2008
The Season is Over
The season is over as far as rotary washing lines are concerned - gardens in general suffer from neglect in winter, and garden centres quieten down. I always thought it would happen, but when the orders dry up it is uncomfortable. So I am brushing up on my marketing, and spending the time available to raise the profile for winter.
What I have to do is to peruade people that an airer with a dryline is an all-year round external drying facility, which is true. Even when the temperature dips near freezing the clothes come in iron-dry. A little damp but nearly all the water has been removed. It relieves households of loads of damp washing taking the energy from the indoor environment and replacing it with moisture. This is of course desirable.
I have gone back to Mike West's brilliant seminars on marketing enabled by MAS-WM, the regional support agency for manufacturers, in order to get my plan together. It is a really black art, and it shows for instance why Tesco is so efficient. Their tracking system is positively Machiavellian, and enables them to predict what will be sold from their shops and when. I won't bore you with the details but it is very clever indeed. What I need is a means of contacting likely customers to enable me to communicate effectively. I also need to spend more time displaying the product in public places, because it is only when people can see, touch and consider the Rotaire Dryline that they actually get the idea - something you can't communicate through a website. Then they realise what it could mean to their own lifestyle.
I spent Saturday in brilliant sunshine reading the course notes and talking to customers in a Co-operative car park with the Dryline on display. It proved to me that the time taken was worth while, even though I am unable to make actual sales on their premises. However, a lot of people were interested enough to take a leaflet. We shall see how many follow through to purchase.
What I have to do is to peruade people that an airer with a dryline is an all-year round external drying facility, which is true. Even when the temperature dips near freezing the clothes come in iron-dry. A little damp but nearly all the water has been removed. It relieves households of loads of damp washing taking the energy from the indoor environment and replacing it with moisture. This is of course desirable.
I have gone back to Mike West's brilliant seminars on marketing enabled by MAS-WM, the regional support agency for manufacturers, in order to get my plan together. It is a really black art, and it shows for instance why Tesco is so efficient. Their tracking system is positively Machiavellian, and enables them to predict what will be sold from their shops and when. I won't bore you with the details but it is very clever indeed. What I need is a means of contacting likely customers to enable me to communicate effectively. I also need to spend more time displaying the product in public places, because it is only when people can see, touch and consider the Rotaire Dryline that they actually get the idea - something you can't communicate through a website. Then they realise what it could mean to their own lifestyle.
I spent Saturday in brilliant sunshine reading the course notes and talking to customers in a Co-operative car park with the Dryline on display. It proved to me that the time taken was worth while, even though I am unable to make actual sales on their premises. However, a lot of people were interested enough to take a leaflet. We shall see how many follow through to purchase.
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
The Autumn Show
The Malvern Autumn Show was blessed with some of the best weather this year. It was worrying that it was the wrong weather for selling Drylines, which was, of course, why Fran and I were there. However, a small electric pump, some troughs and a length of pipe gave a good simulation of what happens when it rains. Last year, at the same show, people didn't understand so readily the reasons for owning one. This year most of our 1000 leaflets were taken away, and we sold nearly £1000 pounds of dryline covers. Dressed in our corporate fleeces we talked until we forgot what day it was, but we were praised for our low key sales technique. In other words, we didn't press folk to buy: just gave them the facts.
It seems that the credit crunch (as it is affectionately known) energy price rises and a growing ecological awareness have influenced the public to be receptive to new ideas. If that is so, long may it last. The awful weather this summer may have influenced them as well.
A day later more orders than ever are going out of the door, and there is good reason to be optimistic. It is not easy to introduce a new idea without national media support, and I hope that winter does not blind potential buyers to its benefits. In this country gardens are strictly for summer, and garden furniture does not sell through winter. It has a much closer relationship to the home and kitchen (or utility room) than to the outside world.
It seems that the credit crunch (as it is affectionately known) energy price rises and a growing ecological awareness have influenced the public to be receptive to new ideas. If that is so, long may it last. The awful weather this summer may have influenced them as well.
A day later more orders than ever are going out of the door, and there is good reason to be optimistic. It is not easy to introduce a new idea without national media support, and I hope that winter does not blind potential buyers to its benefits. In this country gardens are strictly for summer, and garden furniture does not sell through winter. It has a much closer relationship to the home and kitchen (or utility room) than to the outside world.
Sunday, 14 September 2008
A long wet summer
If anything, this summer has been more miserable than last summer here in the UK. Certainly in Malvern we have experienced record rainfall through August and into September, with barely a glimpse of sun or moon through the overcast skies. The plants have put all their energy into growth and not into flower or fruit, and I only saw one bee all summer! Yet some people still insist that global warming/climate change is not happening - and happening rather fast.
I got an e-mail to a list of prominent Greens (although I don't know why I was included) from a man in America who insisted the the Physical Society had changed their opinion (50,000 scientists can't be wrong!) and now thought it was "not proven." He insisted that we Greens had no proof; where were our double blind trials, etc etc. He really ranted, if emails can rant. When I responded that he was clutching at straws he went as far as quoting me and giving out my personal details! Then he ranted again.
I decided to check the Physical Society website where I found that they had not (contrary to an internet rumour) changed their opinion but held fast to their view that the changes were moving fast. I wrote to him quoting the website and politely suggested he should get his facts right. I have not had a reply...
Here in Malvern we are establishing a Transition group, to enable the community to adjust to the new circumstances in their own way in advance of the changes to come.
My contribution, the Rotaire Dryline, is now available in 32 different shapes and sizes to enable people easily to dry their washing without using energy or finding their washing wetter than when it went on the line. It has sold very well through the summer and purchasers have all expressed happiness at finding a solution to a lifelong problem. This summer has been an excellent proving ground, and they will find that it works in winter too. However, I expect that sales will drop off in winter, as the British tend not to think about their gardens until Spring. I hope I am wrong because it would make a significant (4 million tonnes of CO2) contribution if tumble driers weren't used - and that is just in this country.
I got an e-mail to a list of prominent Greens (although I don't know why I was included) from a man in America who insisted the the Physical Society had changed their opinion (50,000 scientists can't be wrong!) and now thought it was "not proven." He insisted that we Greens had no proof; where were our double blind trials, etc etc. He really ranted, if emails can rant. When I responded that he was clutching at straws he went as far as quoting me and giving out my personal details! Then he ranted again.
I decided to check the Physical Society website where I found that they had not (contrary to an internet rumour) changed their opinion but held fast to their view that the changes were moving fast. I wrote to him quoting the website and politely suggested he should get his facts right. I have not had a reply...
Here in Malvern we are establishing a Transition group, to enable the community to adjust to the new circumstances in their own way in advance of the changes to come.
My contribution, the Rotaire Dryline, is now available in 32 different shapes and sizes to enable people easily to dry their washing without using energy or finding their washing wetter than when it went on the line. It has sold very well through the summer and purchasers have all expressed happiness at finding a solution to a lifelong problem. This summer has been an excellent proving ground, and they will find that it works in winter too. However, I expect that sales will drop off in winter, as the British tend not to think about their gardens until Spring. I hope I am wrong because it would make a significant (4 million tonnes of CO2) contribution if tumble driers weren't used - and that is just in this country.
Sunday, 17 August 2008
A rainy night in Georgia
You go away for a rew days and what happens? The Russians invade Georgia; honestly, you can't take your eyes of things for a minute without them going wrong!
In 1956 they did something similar to stamp their authority over Hungary, so 50 years on nothing has changed. They are punishing the Georgian government for wanting to join the EU. So what will the West do? While everyone's eyes have been on the Olympics Russia has declared its intentions of being No 1 in Europe and the West will make some pitiful noises; what else can they do? Declare War?
If everyone is going Green to avoid global catastrophy then who is counting the CO2 emissions from all the wars that are currently occurring? I think governments should walk their talk.
In 1956 they did something similar to stamp their authority over Hungary, so 50 years on nothing has changed. They are punishing the Georgian government for wanting to join the EU. So what will the West do? While everyone's eyes have been on the Olympics Russia has declared its intentions of being No 1 in Europe and the West will make some pitiful noises; what else can they do? Declare War?
If everyone is going Green to avoid global catastrophy then who is counting the CO2 emissions from all the wars that are currently occurring? I think governments should walk their talk.
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