This got me thinking – what should Clintons have done once they saw the warning signs?

Essentially, they should have spotted the overall shopping trends in the UK, and internationally, then acted quickly. The current trends are away from the High Street and onto the internet and mobile devices. But more than a usual internet shop front (which the Clinton Cards website has), they should have built a desktop and mobile application which enables people to design their own cards, then Clintons would post them. That’s what I did for my wedding anniversary with Apple’s Cards application for the iPhone (that’s the card you can see in the image). That’s also what sites such as moonpig do. I’ve never seen any advertising for a personalised cards feature on the Clinton Cards web site (it is there), and, as far as I know, there are no desktop or mobile applications. I wonder whether they only offered the internet service as a token effort because other web sites have it, and still hoped that people would come back to their shops on the High Street. This way of thinking led to the administration today.

I don’t know whether Clintons would be rescued. There’s too much competition from supermarkets and other High Street shops, and they don’t have a strong enough internet presence to make it count. We shall see.

There are other blogs out there putting the case forward for a Mayor. I too, think it’s a good idea. What has struck me, though, is the attitude of Nottingham City Council.

Apparently, they have spent a considerable sum on posters asking voters (tax-payers, payers of wages for the Council etc.) to vote No in the election. At what stage did the Council ask me (a tax-payer, payer of their wages) whether I wanted them to spend that money on an election campaign? Answer: never. They should have saved the money to spend on services, and let the public (tax-payers … you get the drift …) decide for themselves.

But the biggest sign of hypocrisy so far has been that the Council are using the cost of a Mayor as a reason to say No. This is the same Council that refuses to tell the Government, and us tax-payers, how much they spend per year on everything (the only Council to do so) because it costs money to produce! If money and costs are their motivation for not having a Mayor, they should stop their hypocrisy and tell us how much they spend.

I think they are afraid to reveal their spending because so much of it goes on publicity. I’m not actually against this. Nottingham has had a bad press over the years, so we needed to do something to bolster our image and the Council branding works really well for me. But most people would see it as a waste of money, which is why I think the Council haven’t published the data.

The other reason is power. Should we get a Mayor, some members in the Council will lose their power, and they don’t want that. Nobody likes to lose power when they have it.

So, at the moment, I intend to say Yes to having a Mayor. The more say the public have, the better. I just wish Nottingham City Council would stop their hypocrisy.

This weeks Apprentice (a BBC tv programme here in the UK where candidates compete for an investment from Lord Sugar) was an interesting demonstration of two schools of thought when it comes to retail and business generally.

The first team, lead by Laura, chose to stock as much as they could in the shop, even if the prices were cheap. This is a common retail technique – pile ‘em high and sale ‘em cheap. Most supermarkets go for this model, and although profits are high, sales have to be high to make the profit. Laura’s team made about £700 profit if I remember rightly.

The other team was led by Tom, and he chose to only stock a small amount of items and go for things that sell at higher prices. His strategy reminded me of Apple – when Steve Jobs returned in 1997 he slashed the product line so Apple made fewer products. Their retail stores
reflect this minimal outlook – only stock certain items. Apple is now the most valuable business in the world (after being nearly bankrupt before Steve returned in 1997). Tom’s team won, having a profit of over £1000.

Some people in Toms team questioned his strategy, but Tom stuck with it and won in the end. He (and his team) did make some mistakes along the way (it’s only natural in this type of environment) but he led them to victory.

Here is a lesson in business – sometimes the cheapest isn’t what’s best, and the “pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” only cheapens your business. You might make a profit, but at what cost to your reputation?

I was struck, however, by an item on the BBC tv programme Click, which showed what the city of Bordeaux, France, were doing to encourage people within the creative industry as a whole. There were a number of festivals, places where start-ups could show their products, and the council itself opened up part of it’s buildings as a tech hub so people could get together, rent desks and so on.

I’m all for the approach taken in Nottingham, where different organisations put on events which are sponsored by the City Council, but these target individual areas (such as gaming) and not the creative industry as a whole. I would like to see the Council organise a conference for the entire industry (with seminars in the individual areas) and maybe open up some office space for start-ups to rent. (Antenna do this, and I’ve heard good things about it, but would like to see the Council take a lead). Ultimately, I would love to see Nottingham become the Tech City of the north. What do you think?

To the app

I decided that I would try the Cineworld iPhone app. When I fired it up, the web site had loaded, so I persevered with the web. I selected the cinema, then the film, and then the web site showed a “Processing” dialog so I couldn’t choose the time. I went back to the iPhone app, selected the cinema, film and time and finished the transaction there. When I looked back at the computer, the web site had finally finished loading.

The only negative aspect of the mobile app was that I still needed to type in my card details. (I guess if I logged into the Cineworld app, I might not have needed to.) I would much prefer to use in-app purchases for this kind of thing – let Apple do the card processing, as they have done already!

Where are we going?

This led me to a certain conclusion – there are a lot of new web sites being developed, but it seems apparent to me that mobile is where it’s going. It might have been server issues that meant the Cineworld site was having problems, but the app would be accessing the same server (I’d be surprised if it wasn’t) and it was quicker using the mobile. I had thought the selection process on the web site was Flash, but it isn’t – it’s Javascript, so it shouldn’t have been a problem (a lot of web sites I visit have Flash banner ads, and they are annoyingly slow!). Apps for smartphones seem to me to be quicker, and you can take them with you. Even mobile web sites are a no-go, as I would have had the same issue.

Also a no-go are apps that are actually web sites. Again, these would present the same problems (the Smarta app is particularly bad at times). I’m talking about native phone apps, developed specifically for the phone and only using web servers when they need to.

I considered a web site for one of my projects, but think native apps are the way to go. As the number of mobile devices rise (both in number of hardware choices, and numbers of units sold), now is the time to learn to program natively for the smartphone and release those killer apps…

Polypipe approached Rare last year to develop the site because customers were using one of Polypipe’s web sites (Rare developed the Free Your Walls web site) and it was felt they should be offered products and services from other business divisions to complement their project.

This web site is quite unique in that all the designers and developers worked on it at some stage. There are some plans to take the web site even further after its initial launch.

You can visit the site at homesolutions.polypipe.com.

1. Rachel used what she had – and didn’t complain about it

Rachel’s apartment in Paris (where the series is filmed) is small. Really small. Her kitchen is 3 sq meters, and her cooker (stove?) looked smaller than a laptop. It’s all she has to create her dishes. She opens her flat as a restaurant for people to dine in. Yet she never complained. There was no “If only I had a larger kitchen”, or “This place is too small to invite people into”. She used what she has, and gets on with it.

In business it’s easy to think “If I had more money I could do this …” or “If I had larger premises / more facilities I could do so much more”. Use what you’ve got and get on with it.

2. Rachel used her limitations to their advantage

As I mentioned earlier, Rachel opens her flat as a restaurant and can only serve two people eating. She doesn’t see this as a problem however (at least I don’t think she does) but uses it to her advantage. By only serving a couple of people at a time, she’s got a reputation that has spread throughout France and the rest of the world.

Most companies try to sell to everyone. Whilst that may suit your business, sometimes it’s better to aim for a niche. And sometimes the niche is so small you might think you’re not noticed. Use it to your advantage. Serving two at a time  might mark you out as different than your competitors and give you the edge. You could sell your product for a limited time, or only aim for people in a geographical area, and see where it leads. It could give you the buzz you need.

There are many other business lessons we could learn from Rachel (get to know your suppliers, source locally etc.) but these aren’t limited to the Little Paris Kitchen so haven’t mentioned them here. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to the next programme.

Rachel Khoo’s web site.

A design is not a prototype,
but it is a plan for moving forward.

A prototype is not a program,
but it is a test for your assumptions.

A program is not a product,
but it is a milestone towards progress.

A product is not a business,
but it is the first fruit of an idea.

A business is not profits,
but it is a team behind your back.

Profits is not an exit,
but it is validation of your work.

And an exit is not happiness,
but happiness is not a destination.

Happiness is a journey.

From SwissMiss - from an answer on Quora by Tony Chu.