Give Tuesday These Moments Back

Rachey said:
Oh that's shit :(

So are Moopy for or against the strikes?

I was reading that it could cost the UK hospitality industry £540 million this week. That makes me very sad considering how much the industry has already suffered in the last 2 years.
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100% for. I just took a detour home from the gym to give my local picket line a toot of solidarity.
 
Sheena said:
I've got a really annoying lovely friend who works in marketing/ branding and who has not been involved with any of my new company stuff and has now just torn apart everything that has been done branding wise so far on my new company, I think more because he thinks it's his "job" rather than actually trying to help. I mean, I think he thinks he's helping, but all it's done is make me anxious about the whole damned thing. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH.
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Share it with us and we'll all say nice things.
 
big ron said:
Share it with us and we'll all say nice things.
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Ha! I'm not sure I could cope if you didn't right now!

Thing is, I KNOW my branding/ website isn't ideal- but it's just a kick- off point which a mate has thrown up (!) in Wordpress for free- because I really don' t know where to start design- wise- and my other friend is talking as if I have a £50k marketing budget to start me off.

Believe me, I don't!
 
Did your friend at least give constructive criticism that is achievable at the moment? Or was it just a monstering?
 
ZenGiraffe said:
Did your friend at least give constructive criticism that is achievable at the moment? Or was it just a monstering?
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Hmm. It felt like the latter. I've had constructive feedback from people both in my industry (translation) and the sport industry, with the caveat that they know this is very much "on the cheap". Even the potential Danish client yesterday said "Love your website- really felt it represented "you", which is exactly what I was going for with the copy.

I'm also doing something rather odd, which is have two mirror sites- one aimed at sport translation and one generic, both with the same branding/ name. I'm not going to promote or index the generic one with Google- it's literally there for when ex- clients find me on Linkedin/ friends and contacts and so I can say "yes, I do cover that work", look here, without diluting the niche I want to build as "exclusively for the sports market" in my main brand, which is a fairly strong USP given that the research I've done suggests most sports translation is done by general translation companies who don't specialise. Marketing friend also lost his shit at that and now I'm questioning whether that is a silly idea, but I really have neither the time or money to set up a second separate brand from day one, but I KNOW I will pick up work on that side of things. He also didn't like the name, which I purposely didn't want to be sports related (cheesy and leaves no scope for change later down the line), and very much refers to me and my name- and I know my biggest strength is in me as a person rather than anything else.

BUSINESS FORUM NOW
 
Anyway, I guess I'm being shy...here is the sports site. If anyone has the time, take a look- genuinely don't be "nice" about it, that serves no- one, but am I just completely missing the mark here or is this perfectly acceptable (which is all I need it to be right now) for someone with no money who is just starting out?
 
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Rachey said:
Oh we DO need a business forum :o
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God we're getting old, but seriously, I do think that isn't a bad idea...

I certainly have lots of experience in loads of areas I could help people with and I'm sure there are millions the same. I guess it's not quite the right forum for it, but stuff does get lost in daily threads I suppose.
 
Sheena said:
Ha! I'm not sure I could cope if you didn't right now!

Thing is, I KNOW my branding/ website isn't ideal- but it's just a kick- off point which a mate has thrown up (!) in Wordpress for free- because I really don' t know where to start design- wise- and my other friend is talking as if I have a £50k marketing budget to start me off.

Believe me, I don't!
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No website its ever perfect, branding can always be updated. It sounds like the strength of your marketing to launch is you, and your personal relationships/references etc. Just chuck a basic one pager up and go out and do the talking. We had advertising clients for our now defunct ad tool before we'd even built it using a one page Wordpress template that took me half a day. As long as you're solving a genuine problem you'll be able to get clients without all the fancy bullshit.
 
Sheena said:
Anyway, I guess I'm being shy...here is the sports site. If anyone has the time, take a look- genuinely don't be "nice" about it, that serves no- one, but am I just completely missing the mark here or is this perfectly acceptable (which is all I need it to be right now) for someone with no money who is just starting out?
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It's telling me you're attacking me and trying to steal my information when I click that.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?
 
Sheena said:
Hmm. It felt like the latter. I've had constructive feedback from people both in my industry (translation) and the sport industry, with the caveat that they know this is very much "on the cheap". Even the potential Danish client yesterday said "Love your website- really felt it represented "you", which is exactly what I was going for with the copy.

I'm also doing something rather odd, which is have two mirror sites- one aimed at sport translation and one generic, both with the same branding/ name. I'm not going to promote or index the generic one with Google- it's literally there for when ex- clients find me on Linkedin/ friends and contacts and so I can say "yes, I do cover that work", look here, without diluting the niche I want to build as "exclusively for the sports market" in my main brand, which is a fairly strong USP given that the research I've done suggests most sports translation is done by general translation companies who don't specialise. Marketing friend also lost his shit at that and now I'm questioning whether that is a silly idea, but I really have neither the time or money to set up a second separate brand from day one, but I KNOW I will pick up work on that side of things. He also didn't like the name, which I purposely didn't want to be sports related (cheesy and leaves no scope for change later down the line), and very much refers to me and my name- and I know my biggest strength is in me as a person rather than anything else.

BUSINESS FORUM NOW
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That actually doesn't sound like the worst idea in the world, and you can always give it unique branding down the line when you have the time and money to do so.
 
Sheena said:
God we're getting old, but seriously, I do think that isn't a bad idea...

I certainly have lots of experience in loads of areas I could help people with and I'm sure there are millions the same. I guess it's not quite the right forum for it, but stuff does get lost in daily threads I suppose.
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We are old :D

I don't think I can offer a lot in terms of advice for business owners as I'm so new to it, but I would certainly appreciate somewhere to rant and vent and stress when needed, to people who are very level headed and neutral.

Also when I click on your website link it says it's not secure and won't let me go any further.
 
Star said:
It's telling me you're attacking me and trying to steal my information when I click that.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?
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Yeah, the certificate isn't sorted yet as it isn't properly "live"...
 
I promise I'm attacking no- one though, you're safe to click through to it!
 
With the www. it gives a 404 - you need to create a redirect from www. to non www. :D
 
big ron said:
With the www. it gives a 404 - you need to create a redirect from www. to non www. :D
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Yeah, my friend is sorting everything once it goes live/ gets indexed etc. Hopefully later this week...
 
Anyway, that isn't a bad website AT ALL. I've seen (and been responsible for) much much worse. I don't think the branding is bad either. Its pretty neutral.
 
big ron said:
Anyway, that isn't a bad website AT ALL. I've seen (and been responsible for) much much worse. I don't think the branding is bad either. Its pretty neutral.
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Which was exactly the plan. I REALLY didn't want something cheesy and I also wanted something text based- it's what I do!
 
I don't really know much about business websites as such, I only run our social media pages. But looking at yours @Sheena , it's very easy to navigate, nice and simple yet informative, and also comes across as friendly and down to earth.
 
Yeah, that's a good website. Easy to navigate, well laid out, plenty of CTAs without being sales-y... also your bio was authentic and fun without having any of that 'if Sheena was a cake he'd be a gluten free red velvet, yum! He loves walking and spending time with his eight cats' energy that seems to infect every 'about us' page these days.
 
ButterTart said:
Yeah, that's a good website. Easy to navigate, well laid out, plenty of CTAs without being sales-y... also your bio was authentic and fun without having any of that 'if Sheena was a cake he'd be a gluten free red velvet, yum! He loves walking and spending time with his eight cats' energy that seems to infect every 'about us' page these days.
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I'm so glad you spotted that, because I've done all I can to try and avoid that kind of SHITE.
 
Sheena said:
Anyway, I guess I'm being shy...here is the sports site. If anyone has the time, take a look- genuinely don't be "nice" about it, that serves no- one, but am I just completely missing the mark here or is this perfectly acceptable (which is all I need it to be right now) for someone with no money who is just starting out?
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I liked it and it was very acceptable. When boss's daughter was starting her own accountancy business she had the weirdest quirky website and all of her accountant friends told her it was too unprofessional and corporate clients wouldn't take her seriously but she wanted to keep it because it was "her" to a t. She got loads of corporate clients from it and they all said it was because her website stood out from the usual boring accountant ones. I'd love to show it to you but it no longer exists because she closed the company six years ago when one of those clients made her an offer she couldn't refuse to come and work for them. On that occasion being different from what's expected and making it more personal worked, and then some. If you're happy with it stick to your guns.
 
Floppet said:
I liked it and it was very acceptable. When boss's daughter was starting her own accountancy business she had the weirdest quirky website and all of her accountant friends told her it was too unprofessional and corporate clients wouldn't take her seriously but she wanted to keep it because it was "her" to a t. She got loads of corporate clients from it and they all said it was because her website stood out from the usual boring accountant ones. I'd love to show it to you but it no longer exists because she closed the company six years ago when one of those clients made her an offer she couldn't refuse to come and work for them. On that occasion being different from what's expected and making it more personal worked, and then some. If you're happy with it stick to your guns.
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Thank you! It’s a fine line between quirky and individual. Know your audience- mine is fairly professional and (in some ways) quite old fashioned, but you can shake that up a bit if you do it the right way. I don’t think I’m there yet- as I said, I don’t have the money- but I really do think personality is the way forward rather than a bland, corporate image.
 
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