A few disclaimers to start with; First, I am not an accountant, second, every business is different… although the problems that most businesses, especially FMCG businesses face are pretty similar. What I am is an entrepreneur who set up and successfully exited a business with 95% equity (my mum had Continue Reading
articles
Do your values Zuck?
The other day I was listening to Mark Zuckerberg on The Tim Ferris podcast talking about values and he made a really good point that really got me thinking. Values have been important to Pooch & Mutt from day 1, they have always been integral to the business, but like Continue Reading
9 tips to successfully run a company remotely
A few years ago I was recruiting a member of the Pooch & Mutt sales team and had a chat with one of our advisors. I told him that we were being asked by some candidates if they could work remotely and asked if he thought it would be a Continue Reading
How to make better business decisions by playing poker
In the pre-pandemic world, I used to meet up with friends maybe once or twice a year and play a game of poker. For me, this was less about the poker and more about the occasion, seeing people, having a chat… as we all know men find it very difficult Continue Reading
The future of Brand Purpose in a Purpose-washed world
According to Entrepreneur.com “80% of Purpose-led brands outperform the market” According to Deloitte Insights “Purpose-driven companies… grow three times faster on average than their competitors” According to Forbes “Consumers are 4-6x more likely to purchase, protect and champion purpose-driven companies” And therein may lie the problem… the cat is out Continue Reading
7 reasons why Dragon’s Den has had its day and needs replacing
There’s a new series of Dragon’s Den on TV, but very little has changed. Very little has changed in the 16 years that it’s been on the TV. Dragon’s Den infuriates me. It is probably the most high-profile business show on TV. It should be about encouraging and championing entrepreneurship. Continue Reading
An introduction to Behavioural Economics
About 10 to 15 years ago “everyone” was talking about Behavioral Economics. (Obviously by “everyone” I mean a select few people in marketing and business circles, but it was a big thing). Dan Ariely published “Predictably Irrational” in 2008, which was the first book I read on the subject, in Continue Reading
7 Books for all Entrepreneurs
I love reading both read and listen to books a lot. The recomendations below are normally available as paper books, kindle books and audio books. These are my “must-read” books for all entrepreneurs out there. I should empasise that these are my choices based on what works for me. I Continue Reading
How to structure a P&L
This may not be the most exciting topic, but it is something that comes up a lot with the people I work with on a mentoring/ consultancy/ coaching basis. To start with, there are many ways to structure a P&L. I am sure that people will argue for different ones. Continue Reading
Russell Crowe and Oliver Reed teach marketing – Are you not entertained?
What is marketing? There is no defintive answer to this, despite the billions spent on it every year. The American Marketing Association gives the definition, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society Continue Reading
Why the Queen’s Gambit is mental poison
The Queen’s Gambit is one of Netflix’s biggest successes of 2020. More than 62m households watched it in a month. I was in one of them and I loved it too. I was rooting for Beth all the way and (spoiler alert) wished I could be in the crowd outside Continue Reading
Does innovation win?
Innovation is often praised and discussed as something that we should be aiming for, something that is always valued, but is that really the case? Are real innovations rewarded? Let’s start by looking at some real innovators and what happened to them. Alan Turing Alan Turning basically invented the computer Continue Reading
How do brands really grow?: Seth Godin Vs Byron Sharp
I’m a huge fan of business books and have probably read more than I ever needed to, some I have loved, some… not so much. Some I liked the main idea, some I didn’t, but me liking the arguments and them being right are very very far from the same Continue Reading
The biggest mistake in writing company slogans
The biggest companies in the world all have slogans, so you should have one for your company too… right? Maybe… maybe not. We all know the slogans or tag lines of the big, successful companies: McDonalds – I’m lovin’ it Nike – Just Do It KFC – Finger Lickin’ Good Continue Reading
(My) Key points of Stoicism
A few years ago I went to see a Derren Brown stage show, in which he quoted Seneca, “You stop caring what people think about you when you realise how seldom they do”. This really struck a nerve with me, as it seemed so simple. A couple of weeks later Continue Reading
Raconteur: Putting sales at the heart of strategy
Pet food brand Pooch & Mutt puts sales centre stage to accelerate growth. Founder Guy Blaskey says: “Instead of spending hours debating between two products or marketing approaches, you can stick both on Facebook or Google and with a £50 ad budget find out what customers think.” Mr Blaskey believes Continue Reading
The Telegraph: How to navigate the bumpy road of scaling-up
Guy Blaskey is the founder and managing director of Pooch and Mutt, a dog food brand that he set up in 2008 and is now registering an annual turnover of £4.5m. He admits that he made many mistakes before unlocking the keys to growth. “When I started, I thought that Continue Reading
5 ways to name a brand
There is no right or wrong way to name a company or a brand. There are plenty of successful brands with terrible names (Google!!!) and plenty of brands with great names and no success. The 5 points below describe 5 different approaches. In very basic terms, the higher up the Continue Reading
The Grocer: How Robots will affect the future of food manufacturing
An edited version of the comment below featured in The Grocer and is available to subscribers here. In terms of jobs, if you believe Yuval Noah Harari, then all jobs are at risk in the future. AI would be a far better doctor or lawyer, and definitely a better buyer or marketer. Humans have Continue Reading
The Telegraph: How to successfully outsmart big competitors as a small firm
Guy Blaskey, founder of independent pet food business, Pooch & Mutt, is challenging the goliaths of the market, Mars and Nestle. He launched the business in 2008 with two health supplements for dogs – the brand’s only products for the first few years. “This gave us a good understanding of the Continue Reading
Smarta.com: Business advice from Ancient Rome
This article by Guy Blaskey was originally published on smarta.com Stoicism is a school of philosophy that is looked over by many philosophy professors and students. Unlike other schools of philosophy the stoics were less bothered with searching for the meaning of life, and more bothered with how they should live Continue Reading
Sage: Going for Growth
This article was written by Guy Blaskey for the e-book “Going for Growth” published by Sage. Before we start to look at marketing for growth it makes sense to look at marketing in general, what is, why it exists and where it has come from. In ‘the good old days’ Continue Reading
Evening Standard: How you can find out is your product will be successful before spending (a lot) of money on it.
This article by Guy Blaskey was originally published by the London Evening Standard If we knew what products were going to be huge successes and which were going to be total flops before we spent money on them it would make business life a whole easier. It’s difficult to predict the Continue Reading
Virgin: How to make your ideas work
“I work on the basis that if you ask friends and family they will tell you what you want to hear, and if you ask anyone else they will tell you what their ‘predictable’ and ‘rational’ self would do, but anyone who has read Dan Ariely’s ‘predictable irrational’ knows this Continue Reading