business

Orange's latest billboard marketing campaign in London is quite remarkable, as it asks you to search for "I am" to find out more.

So that means that at least through out the campaign they must have paid every major search engine every time a respondent wants to find out more about their product offering.

To me, this is surprisingly stupid. Is it that difficult for those coke snorting marketeers to find a reasonable (sub)domain and add some non-vacuous content? Crikey.

I guess Hutchison 3G have the same problem when people search for 3. I guess if you don’t understand the Web you’ll get punished by Google.

I’m disappointed to hear Nokia aiming to re-invent itself as an Internet company.

Yes, Nokia re-invented itself before from rubber boots. And yes shifting boxes like what Dell does is kinda boring (and not very profitable). However I still think the mobile hardware industry has a long way to go before reaching the sort of unsexy stage the commodity PC market is in.

Right now I think Nokia should restructure. Nokia has something like 100000 (~65000 in Finland last I heard) employees and its the kind of company that would not miss a tenth of those employees. Nokia needs to concentrate on paying talent more money for a start.

Innovate in the mobile hardware space Nokia. I think there is much more to be done here and I really think they could take on the Iphone with their excellent maemo developer platform (urm, with a GSM chip would be nice).

I don’t think they should necessarily do software or a browser, let alone get into the Web “Internet company” game. Any Nokia Web service I’ve seen has been god awful. They have a legacy of crap Web applications that I don’t see how Nokia can get a fresh start on the Web.

Nokia.mobi is supposed to be one of the most popular mobile Web sites, receiving billions of hits. Have you ever visited this Nokia.mobi site? It's absolutely embarrassing. I assume the reason why anyone visits it, is that it's the default homepage on the devices they sell.

Recently we’ve seen Nokia getting into the ad business and into retail and spreading itself even more. Cut the fat and focus on hardware and commit to an open software platform like maemo please Nokia.

The money you spend on purchases whilst holidaying in the USA, cannot be redeemed. Whilst in almost any other country this is possible.

Some companies like Macys basically give you a 11% discount if you can prove to them you’re a traveller. E.g. Hotel card. Sales tax in California is 8%. Good deal. Purchases bought from the Internet and delivered to your hotel are also often sales tax free. So if you’re staying for few a days, its probably a worthwhile method of buying a camera.

Back in the UK I’ve been trying to better understand tax. I’ve been advised for a startup company contract out your employees and you don’t have to worry about their taxes. That saves a lot of pain. Before continuing, if you are thinking of running a business, get an accountant who will act as an agent for your business. If you are crazy, try and figure it out yourself, like what I’ve been doing.

Now I’ve been trying to get a VAT number for Webconverger. Webconverger is incidentally now a Limited Company, however that doesn’t give you a VAT number. You still need to apply for one.

Why do you want a VAT number? It seems to make lives of European clients less painful. These events have taken place over many weeks.

1. Spend an hour or two familiarizing yourself with the UK’s tax site
2. Find a number of a contact centre.
3. Manage to get through. Though inform you they can’t give advice. Finally they said I probably just need a TAX registration form
4. Get post with a fat booklet that seems to be the same material on the website and note saying they are out of stock of the VAT registration form
5. Week later, registration form comes through.
6. Form says you can register online. News to me.
7. Find “e-services” under “do it online” which seems applicable to Webconverger.
8. Find out later that the form is not for UK businesses, “VAT on e-Services Special Scheme is only intended for businesses based outside the EU supplying electronic services to private individuals within the EU.”
9. Try find the right form on the Website. After a couple of hours… I think I found the VAT registration form
10. Register. Get told that they need to send a PIN to you by post. Later an confirmation email (thoroughly confused) arrives and it looks like I can eVAT register. I’m hopeful.
11. Fill in the form to point where it seems that I need a business bank account. I hate business bank accounts because they seem to charge like crazy, unlike personal accounts.
12. Eventually call up friend’s accountant. Accountant tell me not to VAT register unless the business turnover is greater than 60k

Not sure how clients report that weren’t charged VAT, though nevermind.

While purchasing a couple of USB sticks from ebuyer.com(E), via Google Checkout(GC) I was surprised how many emails they sent me.

1. GC – order receipt
2. E – order confirmation
3. GC – you’ve received a note from E
4. E – Payment processed
5. E – Order dispatched
6. GC – Your order has dispatched (sent twice?!)

I guess it is a minor improvement they’re not sending any PDF/Word attachments of invoices. This is still all too common.
I now notice on my Internet Banking application on Barclays I get these cryptic reference codes when money goes out like:

REF 195 6847321804 BCC

Anyone know how I can make that useful?

Time and time again I come across a business model based on Pay as you go (PAYG), which I don’t like.

I can see it being useful in some industries like mobile, with its low buy in cost and cost visibility. Though that usually comes at a cost. For example mobile calls on PAYG are more expensive than being on a contract plan. However PAYG is really convenient as you don’t have to go through credit checks, direct debits etc. to setup an account. Perfect if you are a teenager.

Admittedly there are some other good features of PAYG in the mobile industry, like showing roughly how much a mobile phone device actually costs. With mobile contracts in the UK the phone is often bundled into the contract. So “cost visibility”, knowing how much you are paying for the mobile device and the calls can be really difficult to know.

Anyway, last week I was chatting to a someone who was offering a PAYG hosting service framework. For example, he claims with his system is cost just 60-something pence yesterday to run his Website.
Ok, that might get some managers wet, but I do not want to pay extra if I out gun typical limits.

The fact is I am a power user. I smash typical bandwidth limits for breakfast. I upload, I serve, I create.

PAYG plans punish me for doing something out the ordinary. Imagine Google on a PAYG Internet plan?

Hence I love Dreamhost. As with a typical cheap account I can tranfer huge amounts as typical users don’t use their accounts as heavily as mine. All for less than 10USD a month.

With T-online’s Web&Walk and Three’s unlimited internet plans, this is the trend. People did not want to pay per byte, hence these recent “ground breaking” developments of flat rate (contract) plans. So that’s why I say no to this type of PAYG.

In the spirit of open business, I’ll entertain you with a couple of business ideas I’ve had of late.

• Mister Tea – a tea stall/shop that makes English tea properly. I had to visit cafes around East London for Internet to find the way most places serve English tea is deplorable. First they think you’re an idiot for ordering tea (instead of a trendy cappuccino), then they charge you 1.50GBP for some hot water and give you a choice from some stupid stale organic tea bag collection of brands you’ve never heard of. I am looking to setup “Mister Tea” from a tea stall around Liverpool Street Station with perhaps a Vicrtorian Tea Urn if I can find one.

• On site Bicycle repair – for those that have had to repair a bicycle tire puncture, you’ll know that it is not easy! I propose a business that acts like the AA or RAC for cyclists around a populated area like East London. I think female cyclists would especially enjoy this service. I should just advertise this service with my mobile number in some magazine and see how it goes.

• The ‘Mobile Web’ NoAds output and leveraging voice input – Since the iPhone will hopefully concrete the Web platform on mobiles, I was thinking of a suitable Web application without an (annoying) ad supported revenue model. Some sort of syndicate where one pays 5GBP a month for a set of managed Web applications that accomplish important use cases very well on mobile UAs. Another angle to this is tying this into voice calls. For example, the customer wants to change the weather widget to Paris and get another calendar feed into his schedule widget. Ring customer services and they’ll sort out the customer’s configuration, so the customer does not have to input any text on his/her mobile device.

I buy my shoes from J shoes in Wadebridge, Cornwall. Excellent store. Last December I picked up a pair of blue crocs for 20GBP, which I’ve raved about. A couple of days ago my sister went to get a pair too.

They now cost 30GBP at J shoes and I asked why are they more expensive. They said mine were on sale and besides they have received complaints from another store that J shoes were selling Crocs too cheap. Then they casually commented that Crocs HQ has now forced J shoes to sell at 30 GBP.

Ummm, isn’t that illegal to fix prices?

Staff immediately fell silent. I am really disappointed people let this happen. Show some backbone people.

8/6/2008 update: More than a year later I need my Cayman Crocs to be replaced. Still the shoe sales seem fixed on 30GBP. Even on sites like Amazon UK!

I have heard J shoes have been “getting around” the Crocs price fixing demand by offering a 5GBP gift voucher with purchases of Crocs at RRP. Very sad!

17/16/2008: I have taken up a complaint with the Office of fair trading. However the office have put the onus on me to provide evidence that Crocs are violating the Competition Act, i.e. proof that Crocs are:
* Anti-competitive
* Abusive

After talking with an employee of the Enquiries and Preliminary Investigations Centre at the Office of Fair Trading, she recommended I “shop around” for another type of shoe.

I have a loss of confidence in the services the UK government supply. Israel for example is taking action. Ultimately J shoes should be feeding the OFT information they need to prosecute Crocs.

My mother has a new Website advertising her soft furnishing services.

She offers a personal local service, where Cornish residents lacking some amazing interiors should call her up for a chat. She would also love to hear from interior designers with clients in Cornwall. My Dad helps out by installing and hanging the curtains.

She is incredibly knowledgeable about all things textile. She founded Bilbo Fashions in South Africa in 1973 and headed up the successful firm until 1996. So she knows the rag trade very well. I love going shopping with her as she spots good clothing with good fabric and quickly works out how much it would cost to make, hence determining its value for a potential purchase.

Right now rich kids are considering what to do in their gap year. Many charities offer attractive placements for “volunteers” to work in different parts of the globe for a price.

Lets begin by saying paying to work anywhere in the world is just fucking stupid.

I’ve choked on my beverage when I heard some kid went on some placement in Australia for 2000 GBP. His friend said, he ended up paying 6000 GBP to this company by the time he left!

That is just crazy. It is super easy to work in Australia and get paid.

People who know me well or just briefly know that I hate charities. If they’re not operating tax free scams, they’re paving the way to hell with their “good intentions”. They take thousands of pounds from vulnerable gap year adventurers and throw them into poorly organised projects. I loved the Guardian headline Are these the new colonialists?

I doubt any gap year students read this blog, though my advice is this. Get a lonely planet guide for the country/region that most takes your fancy, get your flight tickets and just go there. Happy travels.

Time and time again I see a common GPS misconception. Anyone who has done some geocaching will have noticed these problems.

GPS isn’t very reliable in bad weather and in cities. In fact anywhere with a poor view of the satellites required for a location fix. It also sometimes takes a fair few minutes for a fix once the device is activated.

For example on the BBC show Meet the Dragons an invention which used GPS to log co-ordinates when people fall overboard is flawed.

If someone falls off a pleasure boat it’s probably in bad weather. GPS probably won’t work then.

Whilst I was in New Caledonia I did log co-ordinates of my friends who went snorkeling. This isn’t that useful as currents can be really strong and it really isn’t easy to spot submerged people even in quite calm seas.

Sonar doesn’t really work until someone is under the water. If someone has fallen off the boat in seas and under water, you best be a really good swimmer and at the kiss of life too.

Whilst I am here, I would like to also criticize the “Meet the dragons” show for encouraging patents. Patents should not be required to run a successful business. It’s not the idea, it’s the implementation. The show is actually really about implementation. Getting that capital, help & expertise. It should concentrate on that.

Finance isn’t very relevant to software companies I like to think. One should be able to hash out a workable implementation that can grow from there with very little financial resources. If you do need a little money for an office and some kit, normal banks should be able to help. I don’t see why you need as much as 100k GBP that many of the featured entrepreneurs seem to require.