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7 - Glass Half Full 'New Year plans'
A former drinks PR's optimistic guide to life after redundancy.
New Year Resolutions: too many to stick to for another 19 days
Favourite beer tried: Old Ale from Hepworths, a comforting dark, malty ale that's just right for a January evening
New business meetings in diary for January: seven (not bad)
SO HERE we are, nearly two weeks into 2009, a year that surely nobody in business of any kind can be looking forward to. Even I find it hard to be optimistic for the UK economy when household names like Woolworths are shutting shop for good and Marks & Spencer is making redundancies. To say nothing of pub closures, which show no signs of abating this year.
That said, there are reasons to be cheerful at the Shiel Communications nerve centre. On just one day last week, I took three calls that could potentially lead to some work.
And I had a promising meeting with a food producer who contacted me after I'd left my details on their stand at the 'Taste of Christmas' show at Excel. Which just about made up for the three trains I had to take out to Excel on a bitterly cold night in December.
Despite this heartening start to the year, I know that if I'm to convert any of these leads into paying clients, I have to be flexible –and I'm not talking about the Pilates class I've signed up for (a New Year Resolution).
Better to do some work for less than my ideal day rate than do no work. If that makes me sound desperate, it's not meant to, just that I'm pretty sure working and getting results will generate more work, in a wonderful virtuous circle.
And here there must be some parallel with the licensee trying to grow his or her business? Don't you have to get customers into the pub, give them the best possible experience of it, and then encourage them to come back and refer their friends.
Easy to say, less easy to do, and I know that there are some hard-working publicans out there who have tried every business-building idea in the book and still can't make the sums add up.
Will more pubs close in Horsham this year, do you think? I'd love to hear people's views on pubs in our town – do we have too many, so that some may have to go under for the market to reach its level? Who should take over the couple of pubs currently empty in the town and do we need a different sort of pub?
New Year, same old resolutions!
Once again, I have set myself a long list of resolutions. Mid-December every year, I resolve not to make any but somehow find myself drawn irresistibly to the idea of reinvention and by 1st January, I'm all set to eat more healthily, de-clutter the home, write the great Horsham novel... and so the ambitious but ultimately unachievable list continues.
Which is why I'm now 12 days into a 'detox' that precludes chocolate, coffee and – it goes without saying – alcohol. And, before anyone accuses me of not supporting the industry that supports me, I should point out that I drank close to my body weight in December. To which fact I have witnesses, though whether they can recall much of last month is doubtful, come to think of it.
One resolution I don't make is to get to the gym more often in January. Though clearly, everyone else does. You can't get on a treadmill this week for all the new bodies building up a sweat, yet come mid-February, the place will echo once again with the sound of the few persistent exercisers – myself included - working out.
So I can't really resent the intrusion of these 'newbies', after all, their under-used membership fee probably subsidises my own. And don't think I'm being smug, I know well how hard it is to get to that place where you enjoy exercise so much you miss it. And how easy it is to fall off that treadmill...
Lost Monkey Caf
Like many people driving over Horsham's railway bridge before Christmas, I was intrigued by the signs advertising 'Lost Monkey Caf – opening soon'. So I made a point of dropping in soon after it opened, got talking to the owners Rich and Beth and, before I knew it, I'd offered to write a press release for their Grand Opening later this week. And, even better, they're offering my increasingly high-maintenance son a weekend job, for which he, and I, are eternally grateful.
And, even if I weren't being paid to PR the Lost Monkey Cafe, I'd still say that it's worth the detour if you're after a hearty breakfast, a mid-morning coffee or a hot meal or sandwich at lunchtime. Rich and Beth have done a great job of converting a disused warehouse into a smart but still welcoming 'meeting and eating' place.
Oh, and if you're wondering how the caf got its unusual name, it's a great story. But it's best to hear it direct from Rich, so why not pop in sometime and meet him?
www.shielcomms.co.uk
Ros Shiel was public relations manager for Beautiful Beer, a campaign funded by the UK's brewers and pub companies to improve the image of beer. She was made redundant last October after brewers slashed funding and is now working as a freelance PR consultant and copywriter. Ros lives in Horsham and spends her free time running round the park, writing blogs and drinking beer in the Black Jug.
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Weather for Horsham
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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