Author: Chesney

Idea Accelerator™ is for people who have the fire to innovate whether deciding to start something on their own or re-imagine and re-invent what they do at work. Hotwire your inner circuitry with the ideas and articles you find here.
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Will energy costs break your business?

I just got back from holiday when I saw something wrong in my local shopping centre. There it was: another empty shop. A business that had run smack into the wall. It was the video shop. Now, video stores have been under threat for a number of years. A whole chain went under administration in the UK recently (528 stores employing 4,000 people). But I’m not here to talk about the reasons why video shops are collapsing (hint: the rise of e-commerce) and retail chains going under (50 folded last year in the UK alone).

Ever-rocketing energy costs didn’t force that business to close. But not caring about it may have been just one of the many indicators of laxness in the business. For example, I never once saw the owner ever in his store. Says something, doesn’t it? Continue reading “Will energy costs break your business?”

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Something small like this can give your sales an instant rush

English: Picture of an authentic Neapolitan Pi...
Photo: Wikipedia

Walking past an Italian restaurant in a shopping centre, the owner came up to me with a round wooden board with piping hot Marguerite pizza.

“Please try a piece,” he said. I did. It was delicious. I had no intention of eating pizza, perhaps stopping for a coffee, but 20 minutes later I had a pizza in front of me and bit into my first slice. Continue reading “Something small like this can give your sales an instant rush”

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Sustainability is a symphony, not a grouping of raving solo acts

When I was a youngster growing up near the fishing harbour at Kalk Bay, if any of us became too big for our boots or foolish, one of the boys would catch us unawares and jet chokka (squid) ink into our face.

I won’t talk about the ungenteel language that spewed out so even the seals below would look up (wondering what the commotion was all about).

Although you can’t do that sort of thing in the adult world of business – whatever the size of your business – one sometimes one feels so frustrated by what happens in practising sustainable solutions that you’d like to spray some obnoxious fumes towards all the people who are falling all over the place doing their own thing. Continue reading “Sustainability is a symphony, not a grouping of raving solo acts”

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Introducing Marketing Lessons from Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne

Discover the sneaky marketing secrets of a drug-crazed, boozed-up heavy metal rocker (to quickly make your marketing $#$@ edgy online and off-line)

“I thought I was just going out, having a few beers, going home, shitting myself, then wetting the bed. Everyone did that, didn’t they?” – Ozzy Osbourne, “I am Ozzy”

Brutally frank autobiography. Jail time. Attempted murder charge. Stuff up the nose. Killing chickens. Biting a bat’s head off. The pain, the ecstasy and a mountain of money to live on in comfort and security.

The product so outstanding that even if you don’t like Black Sabbath or the solo Ozzy Osbourne, you’ve got to admire the brilliant achievement of the music.

But between the lines of Ozzy Osbourne’s outrageous, painfully honest autobiography you see the push to break through the over-crowded heavy metal market.

The early positioning, the clear understanding of the young adult market and the clever marketing methods and tricks to push concert and album sales.

It all ended up in selling more than 100 million albums both with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist.

Reading through the book, which must set some sort of record for openness and honesty in the autobiography genre, I was struck by all the marketing lessons that you won’t find in MBA courses and books written by the self-proclaimed marketing experts.

I’ve come up with 12 marketing lessons from Ozzy Osbourne. If you decide to subscribe below, you’ll get one lesson a week for 12 weeks.

You won’t find these lessons anywhere else.

I’ve used my marketing experience over many years, some of which was in FMCG, startups and small businesses and, yes, my MBA degree (which covers none of this stuff but at least embeds the principles), to give you what I can honestly say is a fascinating story of marketing.

I wish someone had written something like this for me to read and put to use … already years ago.

Are you ready?

I can assure you it’s not what you’ll expect.

Take the first step and enter your email below to begin.

It’s free.

 

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I wonder what would have happened to this mysterious musician without such a loyal fan base … wonder I do

After all these years ... seeing Sixto Rodriguez live (Photo: Chesney Bradshaw © 2013)
After all these years … seeing Sixto Rodriguez live (Photo: Chesney Bradshaw © 2013)

It’s the music. Compelling music that broke through the heavy metal and pop of the seventies.

Music that spoke almost in one mysterious riddle that helped unlock the angst of our youth … growing up in a time with seething below the surface … awakening to a perspective streetwise, injured, cynical yet alluringly beautiful. Continue reading “I wonder what would have happened to this mysterious musician without such a loyal fan base … wonder I do”

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Tales of horror from the zombie business survival guide

Source: Wikimedia commons
Source: Wikimedia commons

The other day I asked a supermarket employee the question, “Where can I get kebabs?” She didn’t say a word. She looked at me with glazed eyes without even acknowledging I was there. I repeated my question and this time she mumbled something – I didn’t recognise the language. It sounded like an ancient language from Transylvania. She walked away without a smile.

It suddenly hit me. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Shivering in my shoes, I realised who I had encountered. A zombie service staff member had infiltrated this business and was operating under the guise of a customer service representative. Continue reading “Tales of horror from the zombie business survival guide”

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Why you absolutely must innovate in a recession

Source: wikimedia commons
Source: wikimedia commons

What if I could write down a bunch of ideas for you on a piece of paper that would:

1) Get you more sales for your business in a recession
2) Increase your profits comfortably over your previous year
3) Cut the worry about your business you have most nights

Would you be interested?

Of course you would. And I’d be just as interested to see the look on your face.

But here’s the thing: Continue reading “Why you absolutely must innovate in a recession”

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Don’t treat small businesses this way

Small businesses help employ locals rather than putting people out on the streets
Small businesses help employ locals
rather than putting people out on the streets

We see all these campaigns to promote small businesses, like International Small Business Week, “Small Business Friday” and other conferences and initiatives that put the spotlight on small business. These campaigns are well-meaning but what impact do they make? What good do they do for the small business person down there in the trenches of a small village trying to eke out a living?

Really?

Small business is about every day slogging it out in the trenches, providing friendly customer service and thinking of what better services or products to provide customers. These grandstand platforms make everyone feel good on the day but what good do they do for small business and the other 364 days of the year?

Continue reading “Don’t treat small businesses this way”

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What’s the weakest link in your business?

English: TVCC Hotel Site Fire
Detect smoke early before you have a blazing fire on your hands. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The vulnerable spot, almost imperceptible at first, exposes a business to great risk.

A service business, 25 years old, one of the top such businesses in the country, employed an accountant who chiselled a large sum of money from the business. Strike one. The business accepted a large government agency contract, did all the print work, paid the supplier but the agency was never formed. The service business couldn’t recover their money. Strike two. Game over. Continue reading “What’s the weakest link in your business?”

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Is passion waiting to find you?

Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage route
Discovering one’s passion on the Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage route of 750 km

A friend who has been trying to find his passion went over to New Zealand and Australia for six months. He travelled in a camper van with his surf board and came back to South Africa with stories: travelling along scary roads up cliffs and in dense trees to surf spots, getting electrocuted leaning against a farmer’s cattle fence and even stumbling on a nudist beach by accident.

Yet after all his amazing adventures, seeing different lifestyles and meeting new people, he hadn’t found his hoped-for passion. You see, after years working in demanding corporate jobs and high-pressure sales promotions, he has taken time to figure out what he really wants to do. Continue reading “Is passion waiting to find you?”