Exploration of the concept which would grow up to be Savvy Business got the go-ahead at the May ’07 board meeting of the company I was then running, Griffiths Legal.  My first job was to talk to USP Content (where I already had links) about taking on the studio production. 

 Then, after the American trip, came the research – and lots of it. 

 Extract From The Upcoming Book, ‘On Sound Foundations’ – Chapter 8: ‘Onwards And Upwards’

“I needed to understand the big picture, which meant getting to grips with lots of statistics about media trends generally, on- and off-line, and then drilling down into the specifics of podcasting.

“I also needed to approach the kind of professionals we would need to help us make the programmes, to see what they thought of the idea and – all-importantly – how willing they would be to buy into it.

“In the event, although I dreaded trying to process all the numbers, the global research was easier because I could do most of it on the web.

“The individual side, on the other hand, proved a little trickier logistically.

“First – and for me most feared – were the cold calls.  Within a few days of rejection after rejection, I soon realised I wasn’t the woman for that particular job.  It needed a professional.

“When Rob introduced Sue Ellen, of Direct Marketing Services, at the Savvy launch in May ’09, he described her as ‘a lady who lunches’, because I’d told him we’d met at an all-female networking event.  Actually, I was wrong.  Sue had called to invite me on behalf of the network, but she didn’t make it to the meeting herself.  It just shows how the memory can play tricks, doesn’t it?

“Fortunately, I kept hold of her name and number and in September ’07, I called her for help.

“By October, Sue was beavering away in the background, setting up phone appointments and meetings for me with potential expert panellists.  I spent a lot of my time whizzing all over the country.

“I was so keen to grab every opportunity that I must admit I wasn’t terribly time-efficient over that period.  I spent a whole day travelling up to York to have lunch with someone and did an overnighter in Liverpool for two meetings.  It was worthwhile, though, perhaps not always financially, but in the chances it gave me to meet people I would never otherwise have made contact with, and to discuss the project and get their feedback.”

“That was the question I kept asking myself through the Spring of 2009.  I was busy preparing my presentation for the launch of my new company, Savvy Business.  I knew the story backwards, of course, so that was no problem.  The only thing I couldn’t decide was – where did it start? 

 “Well, officially, it was in July 2008 when we launched the first version of savvybc.com; but, really, it was when I first had the idea in April 2007 – although, no, actually it was when I made my very first legal podcast in August ’06 … or was it 2005, when I first found out what a podcast was …?

 “I finally decided to pick up the story in 2006, although in fact its roots go back much, much further – all the way back to a pushchair in 1969 – and beyond.”

 I wrestled with a similar issue when it came to the starting point for the book.  In the end, I went way beyond that pushchair, to 1939, when Mum became an evacuee and Dad a POW. 

 Why?  Because my parents perfectly illustrate one of the main themes which runs through the book, my speaking engagements and life in general – the choice between being a survivor or a victim.  Yes, I did say ‘choice’.  We talk about someone being a “born survivor” don’t we, but are they?  Are survivors, or victims come to that, born or made?  Wearing my ex-noncommittal-lawyer’s hat, maybe I should say I don’t know – it’s probably a bit of both; but actually, my own experience has shown me we often have more choice in the matter than we know and sometimes become ‘victims’ simply because we don’t know all our options.  I used to see myself as a victim – someone to whom life happened; someone stuck in the backseat on her own journey, while other people drove.  These days, I do my best to happen to life – and I’m definitely behind the wheel!  The change was my choice and one I’m so glad I made.  It led directly to that “EUREKA!” moment  at 5.00am on 6^th November ’09, to the book and everything which looks set to follow.

At 5.00am on 6th November 2009, after yet another sleepless night, wondering why I seemed to be working my socks – and various bits of my anatomy – off just to stand still, I stood in my kitchen, coffee pot in hand and it hit me – no, not the coffee pot – the revelation! THE ANSWER! “EUREKA!” The lights went on and I saw it all – where I’d been going wrong, how to put it right – and more!

“So that’s my core skill! I thought, amazed – “I know how sound works!” Here I was, more than a year and a half after my decision to make the leap – and leap it certainly was – from law into business podcasting, finally realising that I know how sound works. Yes, I am a bit slow – especially at five in the morning!

The truth is, I knew how sound worked, how people used it and what it could do if they used it properly long before that moment – I just didn’t know that I knew. As I poured that much needed first cup of coffee, pieces of a jigsaw which had been floating around my head for nearly two years, never quite forming a picture, suddenly clicked into place and I saw the image clearly – the image of my business, how it came to be and where it could go. I spent the next several weeks redesigning services to fit that picture.

Before 6th November, the most positive response I had to my marketing efforts tended to be, “I’m really interested in what you do, but I don’t get it.” Now it’s, “I’m really interested in what you do – when can we talk?” Like most of the changes I made to our offering, it’s a small shift on the face of it – with a huge impact.

Nineteen years ago, someone said, “You should write a book” – but I was only twenty-three then and probably knew even less about life than I did about writing. So although I gave it a go, it didn’t happen. In November last year, I was planning a series of books about starting and running a business; but after that 5.00am “EUREKA!” moment, they were pushed aside by something else which insisted on being written “NOW!!!” From a pure business perspective, the timing was all wrong. I should have waited until we were truly out of recession, until the company was more established. In fact, I probably should have waited until I retired, but this book would brook no argument – the words fell out faster than I could type! The baby was coming, whether I or anyone around me liked it or not!

It started life as a practical guide to business podcasting, against a background of my experience as a lifelong media junky and obsessive communicator; but it evolved into the story of my forty-year apprenticeship in sound – the foundations on which my company and everything we now do is built. It also tells the very personal story of my development of the “womble” principle – of which, more later.

I finished the book last Thursday evening. Over the next couple of months, as I prepare for publication, I’m going to tell you a bit about how it came together and some of the things I learnt from writing it – because I did learn. Two people, both dear friends and close colleagues, have been slightly less than fulsome in their support for the project. I think that’s mainly because they’re applying cost/benefit analysis principles, looking at the amount of time this kind of undertaking demands, against the likely financial return. On that basis, I’ve just “wasted” three and a half months of evenings and weekends – but I know I haven’t. Even if no-one else ever reads the finished product, it was worth writing because it helped me work out what I’m about, how I got here and where I’m going.

I wasn’t trying to be clever – I think in pictures and that was the picture which kept coming to mind. (The fact that someone who works primarily with sound, and has a guide dog, thinks in pictures may seem a bit odd to you, but that’s another story!). Anyway, it rang a few bells with the audience on the night.

As time went on, others started asking me about putting some podcasts together to help people at different stages of business – start-up, expansion etc – and eventually the two ideas came together (or should that be “collided”?) shortly after 5:00am last Friday, 6th November 2009 and “The Savvy Business Mountain Guides” were born. I’d already written an ebook, on an aspect of law for non-lawyers but this time, I thought, I could do something a bit different and combine the book with some audio and audio-visual material so that contributors can, literally, speak for themselves. I’ve run it past several people and so far the response has been fantastic – what do you think? Constructive criticism is as good as enthusiasm – so let me know.

It’s a major project, which I must be mad to take on at this stage in my own business life – but then, as I said to a fellow business author last week (who is in the process of completing her second book) – “You don’t have to be bonkers to go into business – but it certainly helps! The trick is to find the method in your madness, so you can infect other people with it”.

I’m aiming to get the first book launched within the year. Over the coming months, I’ll keep you up to speed with how it’s going, who I’m talking to and, no doubt, what I’m learning from the exercise. If I can work out how to upload multimedia material here, I’ll do some of that by way of audio and perhaps even some video.

If you want to get involved, email me at sherie@savvybc.com.

OK, a bit of self promotion. The new website is now coming along well and I hope to launch it in time for next month’s newsletter.

It will not only provide more information on the services that ITFS offers to all clients, but will also have links to all of the previous newsletters plus selected other articles that I have written on specific overseas trade issues and/or countries.

Since my web designers also receive a copy of this newsletter, that’s a bit of added pressure for them!! Luckily they already know my target date and, to be fair, anything like this requires both parties to work together, so I still have much inputting to achieve this goal.

If you’d like to attend, but have not yet received an invitation, drop me a line at sherie@savvybc.com.

Get Business Savvy

“The People Business”

Launching the Savvy Business Community

Come and help us celebrate!

When?   Monday 11th May at 6:00 PM

Where? At The Wine Tun, 2/6 Cannon Street, London EC4M 6XX – by St Pauls Cathedral (http://www.davy.co.uk/winetun)

Why?     You will be able to:
o See presentations by the core team behind the Community
o Get a guided tour of the new website
o Meet founder members
o Find out how the Community could help your business
o Network with businesspeople from across the South-east region and beyond
o Have a drink on us!

RSVP by 3rd May 2009.

For more information, please email sherie@savvybc.com or call 0844 371 2941

In case you’re wondering (as I was) a tun of wine is eight gallons. I don’t expect to get through that much on the night – not before the presentations anyway!

It’s an “invitation only” event –so if you’d like to join us but aren’t yet on the mailing list, please, let me know. I’ll post a copy of the invitation here when it goes out.

Of course it’s a business event – but for me, it’s more than that. It’s the culmination of two years’ work to effect a major career change (into something I’m convinced I’ve always been much better designed for than law) and the chance publicly to acknowledge and thank the people who have supported me through the transition, helped me lay the all-important foundations for Savvy’s future – and who will hopefully be part of the company and the Community for a long time to come. If that sounds very personal, I make no apologies – it is.

Sherie