Lets be honest, we would much rather be where the photo was taken than sitting at a desk reading a blog, however, The truth is that less than 24 hours before this photo was taken, The island of Kos suffered a huge electrical thunderstorm which knocked out just about everything and caused chaos, everything is not always as it seems !

We here in the world of the wizard are going through a process of change, clients are changing, the things we are being asked to support are changing even quicker. and more than everything else, a sense of realism is creeping over everything, yes, things are starting to improve, yes, it seems that the worst is behind us. The truth is this, its been a truly awful couple of years, the markets have contracted, jobs have been lost, salaries and wages have stagnated and lives have been put on hold.  We are lucky on this western European island to have the chance to get back on the horse before our European cousins,  how you achieve this is up to you, but it will be easier with a wizard on your team, and we all know where you can find one of them !  Enjoy your holidays!

Summer is coming, we know this as one of the wizards is packing the bucket and spade and heading to the beach this week, but will it be a warm balmy salad days kind of summer, or the kind we used to call "drookit" up in the land of the purple heather ?

The business forecast is mixed that's for sure, we have definite signs of those green shoots in the South, but if the numbers from the North are to be believed, that growth is probably an infestation of weeds. The Economy in Scotland has developed its own momentum, a sure sign that the disconnection of the union is already underway at least on the high street. We don't have a view on Scottish Independence, save to say that if the old border rises it will bring opportunities and challenges in equal measure on both sides of the divide, I can almost hear the sales pitch of the "cross-border specialists" already. Companies will appear from nowhere offering advice and assistance in trading with "that lot across the border" and there will be an ever growing market in "exchange"

The next few months will shape business on these islands for the next decade, the new mortgage rules are going to slow the housing markets for a while, but there will be "workarounds" available within weeks which will speed it back up again. The traditional bucket and spade lag in the economy will be marginal as we just don't make enough "stuff" anymore, the commonwealth games will raise some interest and activity, although they aint quite London 2012, and the end of the summer will be all about the people of Scotland and the answer to the will they or wont they question. There is no doubt that Britain as a whole is in a better place than the rest of Europe, at least economically, whether that's luck or judgement is anyone's guess, but the simple fact is that the decisions we all make in the coming weeks and months will be critical to our business lives.

If your expecting a plug for the services of the wizards, it isn't coming this time, just a wee bit of free advice, If the sun is shinning, start looking for an umbrella and if its raining outside, prepare for warmer times ahead, nothing stays the same forever

How many times have you been told that "its not what you know, its who you know that matters", whether its joining a golf club, getting a table at a restaurant and importantly getting that next job or that new contract ?

Well, we hate to buck the trend, but, what complete guff ! Who you know might open a door or two, it might even get you an interview if your really lucky, but it wont get you the job, that we can promise you. Your knowledge base is what separates you from the rest, the network of contacts that you've developed is great, but its pointless if you don't have the skills to deliver.

If you are in business, and your name isn't Getty, then you need around you the skills that people expect of a modern day business, that means you have to be able to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing, you need to have good selling and marketing skills, you need to be a fast thinking problem solving over achiever, and that's before we talk about the product or service you provide. Being able to do all of this tells you that really when the chips are down, its about what you know, not simply who.

Us wizards are currently working on a wide range of projects, from TeddiBons to Steam Pods, Hand painted ceramic and porcelain tiles to complex extract cleaning processes for buildings and boats, in all of these and more we are building a business hand in hand with the people who invented the product or the service they sell, people who realise that they know their subjects, but they don't know everything about making it work as a business, you can make the argument that knowing Wandwaver is simply another "who", but if you ask our clients, we think they'll tell you its the "what" we know about practical business support that really matters

This week the Wizards attended a BNI meeting en masse, experiencing first-hand the collective benefit of gathering like-minded people who are trying and succeeding to forge stronger and better businesses.

It was this event that inspired Wizardom to think about the collective, and, how the power of collective thought can produce more effective results than a single minded approach, however focused that approach may be, collectively when we visit a problem, an issue or an opportunity we can experience a different angle or perspective and therefore we can find a more beneficial solution. We have long known at Wandwaver that every business will experience barriers to progress, however the application of a collective approach will often produce a route past the barrier but in fact it can also open new un-thought of opportunities.  Here at Wandwaver we believe our experience in developing solutions to overcome those barriers is our unique selling point. We have developed our network through years of experience in many industries both from the personal experience of our people and from our growing network of clients and contacts like those we have encountered at BNI meetings.  That experience, gained from the collective, helps us deliver practical business support to large and small organisations, in turn helping them overcoming their barriers.

Contacting Wandwaver for business growth, development and support has many benefits; one of its foremost is the benefit of the collective experience of our clients and contacts. We leave you this time with a question, would you like to see your sales increase by 700%? That’s what happened to a Wandwaver client only this week, to find out how, drop us a line.

Us wizards are never usually big softies, but we make an exception for these cute little guys and their mates, they are "TeddiBons" created and sold by our client TreeBon at www.treebon.co.uk and from Friday the 4th of April the whole TeddiBon clan will be appearing at Serpentine Green Mall near Peterborough in Cambs. Its worth telling a bit of the TreeBon story.

TreeBon was a business successfully selling sweet trees,  and they really are pretty good too! However, it was a very slow burn market, and very labour intensive producing bespoke products time after time, so the people behind TreeBon came to Wandwaver for some help, and after a bit of ruminating on all things confectionary, along came the idea for the TeddiBon family. It has taken 3 months of work, planning, sourcing products and viewing locations to get the mix just right, but, and you'll have to trust us here, these little bears and their mates are just brilliant, with 3 limited edition named trad bears and a range of a  jellycat options available for kids of all sizes to name as they take them to their new homes.

Understanding that business needs to constantly change and improve its-self is well known, but in this age of apparent digital information overload, where do you go for support ? You can join BNI or one of the other networking orginisations, you can try Google, although your as likely to get back spam as answers for any question more complex than " what day is it? " or you can look around you at the resources already available to you, the very fact that your reading this means that you've heard of the wizards just like Karen and the team at TreeBon had. Practical Business Support is just one more click away

Many owner / managers starting a new business come out of so called "big firms" somewhere like the City of London, tired of the endless commuting, the cynical employers and bosses who are sometimes better described as "bonus sluts" the new business owner is usually somewhat of a battle scarred veteran in the world of commerce with an idea or concept that they genuinely believe will work as a business

Building a successful SME is challenging, the most obvious challenge being that what ever you specialise in, whether its computing, finance, a trade or even selling teddy bears. chance's are you have the specialist knowledge for that function, but in setting up your business, you have to very quickly learn about all the stuff that needs to happen in a Company. Some of it is going to be new to you. Marketing and sales, accounting and record keeping, hiring the right staff, Invoicing, negotiating terms with suppliers, dealing with the banks, getting your bills paid, and that's without even thinking about your product or service, it can be daunting, but there is always the experience you have already gained in previous employment, the only thing that has really changed is that you now have to make all the decisions.

There are many drivers for setting out on the road of self employment, and they can be those mentioned above, or the positive desire to make/build/inspire/lead or even just the desire to look in the mirror in the morning and be proud of the person you see, what ever it is that drives you, be sure of this, you will be living a life more interesting than most !

Just been listening to the CEO of ao.com on BBC breakfast, telling the world of his plans, which largely seem to be about "internationalising" the business, this closely follows an English teacher on the same show last week talking about the modern teachers need to exude "professionality", these little gems got us thinking.

When talking to clients about "The Wandwaver Way" one of our key messages is keep it simple ! Too many business get caught up in their own exclusive worlds using corporate speak and industry acronyms to communicate the most basic requests or instructions, it happens because the speaker feels the need to demonstrate their membership of the "in-crowd" but at best its meaningless babble and at worst its off-putting and counter-productive to the listening victim. Communication is an art form and if its done well it creates a positive image of your products and services, using clear simple words that are direct and tell the exact story is one of the best tools you can use. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by the use of corporate speak or insider industry terms, they are confusing and often misleading, and here's the rub, if the client doesn't understand what your trying to say, they are not going to buy !

We know there are "experts" out there who will expound on the benefits of drawing clients into a belief circle, how teaching them the insider phrases will tie them to you in some almost Machiavellian way, Psychobabble my friends ! we are much more inclined to believe that the repeated use of TLA's demonstrates a deep seated sense of inadequacy and a need for a lengthy spell on the psycho couch!

Keep your messages simple, your client will understand you, and in that understanding might well decide to buy from you, job done ! 

You might reasonably ask why we might link the end of the first financial quarter with the first great festival of horse racing of 2014, well, it goes like this...

Business at any level is a gamble, you should shorten the odds through effective planning, and in depth preparation, there are many curve balls out there just waiting for us all, so you might as well at least think about how you might handle them, what resources you might need, and, how you are going to continue to move forward when faced with a couple of challenges, What will you do if the client goes on sick leave? How are you going to react when the job gets scaled up or down? What happens when your supplier lets you down, do you have a back up? A professional gambler researches the field, the conditions and the market and lays money where those factors coincide in their favour. When you come to look at your first quarter results in a month or so, will you have backed a winner?

Here at Wandwaver we like to think we can read most markets and help our clients back the right mover, but if all else fails we will probably go twenty quid each way on Last Instalment in the Gold Cup !

Enjoy the Festival !

Walking is Better than Talking !

So What is the difference between Wandwaver and "normal" coaches, mentors and providers of support ?

We could say " Just look at the costs" but the reality is so much more. Here at WW we openly admit that much of what we use in support of our clients has been learned by us down at the coalface, and frequently by mistakes made in decision making, resourcing and implementation, this really is at the heart of what we are all about. There is very little point in giving a client a great pep talk, loading them up with new ideas and sending them off to implement them if we are not prepared to be practical and get involved in the process changes and the implementation its-self. That's why we talk about "Practical Business Support"


We are entering a critical period for business in the UK, as clients try to grow and secure, pick up new clients and markets, recruit and train new staff and bring new products and services to the marketplace, but lets not be fooled by the TV telling us that things are already so much better, tell that to the millions still seeking work, the small businesses who cant raise finance from the banks, the owner managers working ever longer hours trying to juggle the day job and the requirements of managing the firm. We are still along way from the land of milk and honey, opportunities do exist, and more so now than for the last 5 years, but each step forward has to be considered and forethought, each element of the ground work completed with care, and then at the point of delivery its critical that the client gets what they expect ! 

In very simple terms its all about The Planning, The Preparation and The Performance, what we here call

The Wandwaver Way