Adodo: May 2020

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Friday 29 May 2020

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“Weekends don’t count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.” -Bill Watterson #weekends #makeitcount

Thursday 28 May 2020

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Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/branded_news/11E7A/production/_105883337_giraffe_pa.jpg

The owner of Giraffe and Ed's Easy Diner is to close 27 restaurants putting hundreds of jobs at risk.

The brands will enter a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) and close almost a third of their 87 restaurants.

Boparan Restaurant Group (BRG) said sales had improved at the chains since they were acquired in 2016, but several sites remained unprofitable.

Tom Crowley, chief executive of BRG, said: "The CVA is the only option to protect the company."

He added: "The combination of increasing costs and over-supply of restaurants in the sector and a softening of consumer demand have all contributed to the challenges both these brands face."

The proposal to enter a CVA will be put to a creditor vote, with advisers from KPMG overseeing the insolvency process.

BRG snapped up Giraffe from Tesco in 2016, before combining it with Ed's Easy Diner, which it had bought in a pre-pack administration the same year.

The two brands form a combined entity, which in the most recently available accounts had annual turnover of £67.1m with underlying losses of £1.6m.

The company owns 70 branches of the two chains, with 17 franchised restaurants unaffected by the CVA.

Will Wright, restructuring partner at KPMG, said: "This CVA seeks to address the cost of the company's leasehold obligations across a number of unprofitable sites, and if successful, will put the business on a surer financial footing."

Creditors will vote on the proposal on 21 March with at least 75% needed to approve it for the CVA to proceed.

BRG also owns other brands, which are not involved in this CVA. These include fish and chip restaurant Harry Ramsden and the upmarket Cinnamon Collection.

It is also the master franchisee for US brand Slim Chickens, which first opened in the UK last year.

BRG is owned by "chicken king" Ranjit Boparan, who also owns the 2 Sister group, which supplies food to supermarkets such as Aldi, Asda, Co-op, KFC, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose.

Last year, rising costs and tougher competition led to several restaurant brands shutting branches, including Prezzo, Jamie's Italian, Byron, Carluccio's, Gaucho and Gourmet Burger Kitchen.

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How can small business owners build community with social media? Check out this read: https://bit.ly/3etg2Oy #smallbusiness #socialmediamarketing #socialmarketing

Wednesday 27 May 2020

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Why waste time on digital marketing when you're so much better at sales, managing, and running your business? Take a look at why outsourcing your digital marketing to places like Adodo Consultancy Services Limited may truly be in your best interest. http://b2c.news/1HL7kp

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Social Media Marketing

Industry Report

In our 10th annual social media study (44 pages, 70+ charts) of 5700+ marketers, you'll discover which social networks marketers most plan on using, organic social activities, paid social media plans, and much more! Get this free report and never miss another great article from Social Media Examiner.

Tuesday 26 May 2020

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"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." - Neale Donald Walsh

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Some car buyers are being overcharged by more than £1,000 when they take out a loan to buy a car, the UK's financial watchdog has warned.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the industry practice of allowing dealers to set their own interest rates was costing consumers £300m a year.

Dealers overcharge to boost their commission, the FCA concluded.

But the Finance and Leasing Association said the watchdog's survey was "based largely on out-of-date information".

Conflicts of interest

The regulator launched its investigation into the car finance market in April 2017 after there was a rapid surge in consumer credit led by car dealership finance.

At the time, it said it was concerned about a lack of transparency and potential conflicts of interest.

In its final findings on motor finance, the FCA concluded that the widespread use of commission models, which allow brokers discretion to set the customer's interest rate and thus earn higher commission, can lead to conflicts of interest that are not controlled adequately by lenders.

It said the practice can lead to customers paying significantly more for their motor finance.

Jonathan Davidson of the FCA said: "We found that some motor dealers are overcharging unsuspecting customers over a thousand pounds in interest charges in order to obtain bigger commission payouts for themselves.

"We also have concerns that firms may be failing to meet their existing obligations in relation to pre-contract disclosure and explanations, and affordability assessments.

"This is simply not good enough and we expect firms to review their operations to address our concerns."

Problem finance?

Four-fifths of new car finance deals are now what are known as Personal Contract Purchase, or PCP.

Instead of buying a car outright, a PCP allows consumers to rent a car over a three or four-year period.

At the end of the period consumers can buy the car for its residual value (known as a "balloon" payment), hand the car back, or roll over the residual value into a new PCP on a new vehicle.

But problems have arisen because lenders have allowed brokers to set interest rates on the PCP agreements.

The FCA estimated that on a typical motor finance agreement of £10,000, higher broker commission can result in the customer paying around £1,100 more in interest charges over a four-year term of an agreement.

'Considerable progress'

The FCA said it was assessing the options for intervening in the market.

Options include strengthening existing rules or other steps such as banning certain types of commission model or limiting broker discretion.

In the meantime, the regulator said it would deal with individual firms where problems were identified, but it expects all lenders and brokers to review the way they do business to make sure they comply with the law and treat customers fairly.

The Finance and Leasing Association (FLA), a UK trade body for asset finance, consumer finance and motor finance, said that the FCA's survey work was "based largely on out-of-date information, and therefore does not reflect the very considerable progress the market has already made in moving away from such structures".

The FCA analysed contracts between lenders and dealers from 2013 to 2016 and examined lenders' data from January 2017 to July 2018.

The FLA added: "We look forward to working with the FCA as it modernises its regulations in line with market best practice."

Monday 25 May 2020

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Now is the perfect time to start something new! Dream Big! Make this week worthwhile. #mondaymotivation #dreambig #startsomethingnew

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Is your Sales Process mainly manual or is it push button automation? Here are 5 ideas. https://clik.site/AI-in-sales/ #salesautomation #askadodo #ai

Sunday 24 May 2020

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Social media does, in fact, help get the word out about your business. But even more important than the exposure, it provides you with the opportunity to grow relationships with your target audience. Let Adodo Consultancy Services Limited help you with your social media strategy. Visit us at https://adodo.co.uk #socialmediamarketing #socialmediastrategy

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A single mother herself, this contributor starts out with the tip, 'You're not alone.'

March 1, 2019 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Some years ago, early in my career, I was just starting a demanding new job when I had a conversation with my then-boss that is forever etched onto my brain. My son was 6 at the time, and I thought it best to proactively mention that in the case of an illness or emergency, I might need to leave work early to tend to him.

I had had my son in my fourth year of college at UCLA and was a young, single mother trying to juggle many responsibilities while providing for my child.

Though I see now that there was no reason to disclose this fact to my leadership -- I should have had every right to take care of my child when necessary -- I thought at the time that I was doing the right thing, being transparent. Unfortunately, my boss’s reaction was jarring.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a son?” was the curt, annoyed reply. This person was visibly flustered that I had a personal obligation that might, on occasion, distract me from my work. And, what’s worse, this person was a woman.

Hoping for support from our fellow women

This woman was also very career-focused, with impressive work experience, yet sadly someone who would never be an advocate for me as a single, working mom. Not in that moment, and not at any time after.

That's too bad because, as mothers, we hope and expect that our fellow women will embrace and uplift us -- especially when we're simultaneously juggling two jobs, as full-time worker and full-time single parent. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with this boss and still isn’t the case for so many women today.

The lesson I took from that experience is that the battle for support, acknowledgment and understanding is very real, very present and not something to be expected just of our male bosses and counterparts.

Thankfully, I’ve never been the type to let these kinds of experiences weigh me down. I retain them as important lessons but don’t allow them to color my attitude or steal my joy. While I’ve encountered my share of naysayers, I’m fortunate to have been supported and uplifted by a great many men and women throughout my life. I wish the same kind of support, resilience and optimism for every one of the 10 million single working mothers in the United States today.

That’s not to say we don’t have every right to feel drained by the demands of our dual responsibilities. After all, recent studies have shown that we single working moms are putting in approximately 100 hours of labor every week, between work and home. But I want us to take a moment to acknowledge our courage, strength and perseverance, and to find the positive in what can seem like a hopelessly exhausting situation. These four steps are a good start.

1. Know that you're not alone.

Women today comprise approximately 47 percent of the American workforce. An estimated 70 percent of American mothers with children under 18 participate in the workforce, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and 75 percent of that group are employed full-time.

Of course, nearly all working mothers juggle “second shift” responsibilities at home -- caring for kids, managing the household, cooking, cleaning, caring for relatives, engaging with the community and more. Some of us have help from a partner, and some of us don’t. And those of us doing it all alone are often stressed to the gills in an effort to get it all right.

According to a study from Pew Research, 8 in 10 adults surveyed said that women face a lot of pressure to be an involved parent (as compared to only 56 percent who said the same about men). A 2018 study on motherhood from Welch’s found that the average working mom’s day begins at 6:23 a.m. and doesn’t stop until about 8:31 p.m.. That translates to approximately 14 hours of nonstop work and home duties. And let’s not forget: Our work doesn’t stop when the weekend comes or a holiday arrives.

2. Count your achievements.

Take out a piece of paper and make a list of what you’ve done in the last week. Start with your work tasks, the mundane as well as the noteworthy. Then start listing your household and childcare tasks. Include that third load of laundry and the second reading of a favorite bedtime story (the one in which you performed all the characters’ voices, by request).

Don’t forget the nutritious meals you prepared, the life lessons you've taught, the appropriate discipline you've doled out, the picking up of all those pesky Legos. And, finally, include everything you've done to take care of yourself and others: the skincare routine you dutifully carried out, even though it was 11 p.m. and you were dead tired; that call you placed to the aunt you haven’t spoken to in a while; your successful efforts to avoid the doughnuts in the breakroom in favor of a healthy lunch.

Then, when you’ve combed through your memories of the week to include everything you’ve done, take a step back and examine the list as an outsider looking in. Try to see the list for what it really is -- the achievements of a woman who is killing it. A real-life super hero.

3. Push for benefits for working parents.

hankfully, a growing number of businesses are waking up to the workplace needs of single working moms. Smart companies are expanding their benefits and culture to accommodate parents' unique challenges, and reaping tangible benefits (including better employee engagement and lower turnover, as seen at Google). Then there are companies, like Nike and Patagonia, which offer onsite child care for employees -- a major draw for single mothers and parents overall.

Smaller companies can't necessarily afford on-site daycare but some of the things they might consider are:

Breastfeeding rooms/storage
Flextime options
Paid maternity leave/adoption leave
Back-up child care

Moms (and dads) should push for these benefits and offer positive feedback to their employers when they get them. Having a safe place to leave your child on those federal holidays that many companies don't offer, for example, can be a major stress reliever.

4. Celebrate yourself.

For all that you did this week, and all that you do throughout life, you deserve more than just a pat on the back. Frankly, you deserve a deep-tissue massage, a bottle of rosé and an uninterrupted Netflix binge. But if those things aren't possible today, just take a moment and seriously acknowledge your efforts.

Don’t let the critical voices -- whether outside or inside -- bring you down. You may not be doing everything you’d ideally like to do, you may be tired every day, and you may sometimes feel like you’re failing. But I’m here to tell you that I see your achievements and your sacrifices, and many others do, too. To the single working mother discouraged by the lack of support at her workplace, or the mom who is desperately reaching for a helping hand, I say: You are more powerful than you can even imagine. And you’re demonstrating your awe-inspiring power every single day.

Friday 22 May 2020

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The founder and chief executive of fashion chain Ted Baker, Ray Kelvin, has resigned following allegations of misconduct, including "forced hugging".

Mr Kelvin had been on a voluntary leave of absence since December last year following the misconduct allegations.

These, which Mr Kelvin denies, are being investigated by the company.

In a statement, Mr Kelvin said the company had been his "life and soul" but "the right thing to do is to step away from Ted".

He said the past few months had been "deeply distressing" but he would support the team wherever he could offer "helpful advice".

Mr Kelvin, who owns 35% of the company, will not receive any severance pay, and any bonus payments he has earned for the past three years' performance will lapse.

In December, employees launched an online petition accusing him of inappropriate comments and behaviour.

The petition, on the workplace website Organise, said that more than 200 Ted Baker staff were finally breaking their silence after at least "50 recorded incidents of harassment" at the fashion group.

Staff claimed that as well as engaging them in unwelcome embraces, the brand's founder had asked young female members of staff to sit on his knee, cuddle him or let him massage their ears.

At the time, Mr Kelvin said that it was "only right" that Ted Baker's committee and board should investigate.

Mr Kelvin founded Ted Baker in 1988. It now has around 500 outlets in the UK and overseas.

Who is Ted Baker's Ray Kelvin?

Born in 1955 in north London
Started work in uncle's shop aged 11
Founded first store in Glasgow in 1988
Expanded to Manchester and Nottingham, then to London in 1990
Married twice
Awarded CBE in 2011

Moving forward

Ted Baker's acting chief executive Lindsay Page will continue in the role and the board has asked David Bernstein to act as executive chairman to provide additional support.

Mr Bernstein has indicated that he will continue in this position until no later than 30 November 2020, by which time a successor will be appointed.

In a statement, Mr Bernstein said: "As founder and CEO, we are grateful for his [Ray Kelvin's] tireless energy and vision.

"However, in light of the allegations made against him, Ray has decided that it is in the best interests of the company for him to resign so that the business can move forward under new leadership."

Mr Kelvin's statement said: "Difficult though this decision is given that Ted Baker has been my life and soul for over 30 years, I've decided that the right thing to do is to step away from Ted and allow the business to focus on being the outstanding brand it is so it can face 2019 with fresh energy and renewed spirit.

"As a shareholder in the business I'll support Lindsay in his leadership and be available to him and the team wherever I can offer helpful advice.

"I'm extremely proud of what we've achieved in building Ted Baker to the global brand it is today. Thank you to every single colleague, customer, supplier, and investor for your commitment to the business. We couldn't have done it without you and I'm so grateful.

Stockbrokers Liberum said Mr Kelvin's resignation was helpful to the company, describing his departure as "unfortunate but understandable". It added there would be minimal disruption to the business, which had "a strong team".

Shares in Ted Baker fell 4% when trading began on Monday, but quickly rebounded.

The company's shares had fallen sharply last week after it issued a profit warning, which it said was due to currency movements, product costs and a writedown on unsold stock.

It said full-year profit for the year to 26 January would be about £63m, compared with forecasts of £73.8m.

The firm's shares were also hit late last year by the hugging controversy.

Are you a current or former Ted Baker employee? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

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It's FRIDAY! Wishing you a bright and cheery weekend! What colorful plans do you have on the schedule? Share below! #weekend #colorful #happyfriday

Thursday 21 May 2020

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"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." - Zig Ziglar

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Is your GMB listing working for you or against you? Let's discuss https://clik.site/consult15/

Wednesday 20 May 2020

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Engineering Business, Case By Case

I’m an engineer, by background, so at the core I’m inspired by helping people build new things. Even though I now work primarily with large bankers I still haven’t given up my engineering mindset.

Working with large investors and vendors of technology I’ve seen up close how they analyze new technologies hoping to break into the enterprise system as new vendors or as business opportunities.

The hard truth is that 99% of vendor spend by these companies is going to enterprise providers who are already in the system!

It’s much easier and less risky to renew a five year contract than it is to take a chance on an unproven newcomer.

However, this created a situation where less new technologies were being developed, and that’s where I came in as a business analyst.

I worked as a go between for new technologies and CTOs. I work with both sides to showcase technologies and the business cases behind them. The hope is to give more start ups a chance and to improve the standard of technology across the board.

As a close observer of this process, here’s the best advice I can offer to small businesses and new companies working to break in.

[embedded content]

Pitfalls To Avoid When Starting Out

One of the attributes I need to test for with young companies is to see if they are on the right track, and if their development process is working towards a product that’s going to be a fit with enterprise businesses.

A critical component here is what their advisory board looks like and if they are venture backed or not. These board members should have strong relationships already in place in the enterprise world.

If you’re not venture backed then you need to be on the look for these individuals within the technology network you’re a part of.

For example, if you are focusing on Health Care then you want the makeup of your advisory board to have enough expertise and relationship capital to get you those key meetings as your product develops. This needs to be done early on so the track record has had time to grow.

Don’t Try To Sell Too Early

A lot of companies want to jump into a sales cycle as early as possible. I strongly caution against this – don’t try to mimic the large vendors!

What typically happens here is that companies will spend hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars, of their capital into recruiting seasoned sales people from places like Cisco or IBM.

These folks actually have no idea how to make sales for small start ups! They’re used to the style and treatment big vendors have already earned. This can mess up everything from your cash flow to your marketability.

Strategizing For A Quick Win

Before you go and build a demo, it helps to do some thought experiment style strategizing on what’s going on within your target enterprises. This is why you need board members on your side who can lend their expertise.

If there’s leadership within an enterprise that’s trying to make a dramatic change, then they’re looking for immediate quick wins. They’re looking at the next quarter, not the next five years.

If you’re going to come in with a demo or test solution for them, then figuring out how you can make them look good before their next internal review is going to go a long way. Again, this is where relationships come into play.

It’s imperative that your point of contact with the company has the ability to say yes and sign the check. If not you need to get those relationships in place first.

Once that’s taken care of, build the demo that will give this person the success they’re looking for and you’ll be on your way.

Action Steps

Build an advisory board of experts with experience in your target segments of the enterprise world.
Don’t waste funds on hiring salespeople who don’t understand small start up sales.
Leverage your relationships to understand the biggest problems facing your target enterprise customers.
Produce a demo that solves one of their biggest immediate challenges and produces a big win for them.
Ensure your contacts have the power to sign off financially.

Result You Will Achieve

Insight into the business practices of enterprises and how to position yourself to join their system as a startup company.

Mentor: Manoj Govindan

VP – Corporate Development of Levvel IO. Manoj has helped 100s of young VC-backed tech startups navigate and scale enterprise.

This article is based on an EHQ interview with the mentor.

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'The rich are different from you and me,' F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said. Apparently they're different from one another, as well.

March 1, 2019 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

To the average person, "millionaire" and "billionaire" sound similar; they're both people with money, right? And, indeed, both have access to far more wealth than the average citizen, and neither may have to worry about money ever again.

Furthermore, because entrepreneurship is often the route to wealth accumulation, both may have earned their way to riches the same way. Yet while their monikers "millionaire" and "billionaire" sound the same, there are in fact significant differences between the two.

For starters, the difference between a million versus a billion dollars is immense. To put it in context, consider that one million seconds amount to 11.5 days, while one billion total 31.5 years!. A billionaire could give his or her wealth away and make 1,000 new millionaires overnight.

Further, there are 2,200 billionaires on the planet, according to a CNBC report; and while some of these wealthy elite gained their status from a family inheritance, many of the top-ranked billionaires are entirely self-made through entrepreneurial endeavors. So, what separates these hyper-successful entrepreneurs from millionaires, who are also considered successful?

The billionaire factors

These are some of the most important factors distinguishing billionaires from millionaires:

1. Goals and commitment

First, it's important to consider the billionaire’s goals and commitments. Very few people become one accidentally; instead, billionaires tend to relentlessly pursue wealth, and refuse to compromise to achieve it. Consider the entrepreneur who grows an innovative tech startup for a few years, then gets an acquisition offer from a major tech company for, say, $15 million.

This isn’t exactly rare; Alphabet makes a dozen or more such acquisitions every year. A “typical” entrepreneur might cash out and take the $15 million as a personal victory (and early retirement). A billionaire, however, setting his or her sights higher or living out a commitment to the business's core idea, might reject the $15 million in hopes of obtaining something better, or growing the business further.

Though these rejections don’t always pan out, you can’t become a billionaire by settling to be (just) a millionaire.

2. Scale

What should also be considered is the scale on which billionaires operate. If we consider profit as a product of both efficiency and impact, then the more locations your business reaches, the more money you’re going to make. Owning a chain of restaurants in one state might make you a millionaire, but you’ll need to change the world on an international scale if you want to be a billionaire.

3. Repetition

Billionaires rarely make their riches by starting just one business. In some cases, they experience a crushing failure and apply the lessons learned from that failure to future endeavors (see: Bill Gates’s Traf-o-Data). In other cases, they settle for selling a company for a few million dollars, only to roll those funds into bigger, better startup ideas (see: Elon Musk’s path through Zip2, Compaq and X.com).

They’re not only willing but eager to repeat the entrepreneurial process over and over again to achieve success.

4. Budget and self-control

There’s a reason why so many lottery winners end up losing everything. It’s because poor financial habits and decisions end up bankrupting them no matter how much money they start with (conversely, good financial habits and financial decisions can put you ahead even with a modest income).

Billionaires -- when they first reach millionaire status -- tend to avoid spending lavishly or wasting their money, which makes it easier to grow their wealth even more and retain what they’ve acquired. Some even take this practice to an extreme: Warren Buffett, for example, still lives in the Omaha, Neb., house he bought for just $30,000 in 1958.

5. Passion

You don’t become a billionaire by just "getting the job done." That level of wealth requires you to constantly come up with new ideas; adapt and refine your ideas when challenged; and put in long, hard hours throughout the entire process. While plenty of millionaires can certainly be described as passionate, their level of passion often pales in comparison to that of billionaires (think: Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Oprah Winfrey, Meg Whitman).

Passion was always a big motivator for people like these, and kept them moving forward even after their initial success.

Is luck a factor?

Is luck a factor in the success of a billionaire versus a millionaire? This is a hard question to answer, and one that’s been examined in at least one scientific study. Luck is objectively hard to measure, because virtually any positive or negative development for a business might be considered good or bad luck. For example, if you beat an unknown competitor to market by just a few days, is that considered mere luck or the outcome of your tenacity?

While luck is almost certainly a factor (depending on how you define it), it isn’t the only factor, nor is it the most significant. A simple stroke of luck isn’t enough to justify a thousand-fold increase in the monetary success thousands of entrepreneurs enjoy; rather, that success is a product of these fortunate individuals' different mindsets and practices.

Tuesday 19 May 2020

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Monday 18 May 2020

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“When life gives you Monday, dip it in glitter and sparkle all day” -Unknown #glitter #Monday #sparkletoday #optimistic