Sporty Boy Business Blog

Can sport survive a European recession?

2011-11-10T11:05:00.000Z

Lots of talk about a possible recession, even a depression; crisises in the Eurozone and expectations that the UK unemployment rate will continue to increase. What will this mean for sport and the men and women who earn good money from their sporting prowess? If you consider the economics of English football, virtually every club needs a continuing income from TV rights and few can afford a dip in the level of income they draw down every year. It sems inevitable that if a recession kicks in, jobs are lost and/or incomes fall amongst the sports watching public, eventually the costs of watching sport - either through attending events, or paying for subscription TV channels - will persuade people to stop. It may be a short term measure, but it only needs a slight downturn to suddenly effect the viability of many sports.

Premier League football has so far seemed immune to world economic events, but clubs without incredibly rich owners are all vulnerable - even Manchester United. Other sports, such as Rugby Union, where the club rugby fan base has been built since the switch to a professional game look vulnerable due to high wages and a flaky fan base. Rugby League may well survive intact as it has a structure that appears capable of adapting to changing economic events. The salary cap is a key factor.

In 1984 the average basic wage in the English Football League Division One was 2.5 times the average national wage. In 2010 the average basic wage in the Premier League was £1.6 million; more than 45 times the average national wage. Surely that's a situation that cannot survive a severe economic recession!

A report from Sporting Intelligence provides a detailed analysis of footbll wages and is well worth a read http://bit.ly/ulr78H

Greedy Liverpool want more TV money

2011-10-12T12:41:00.000+01:00

Liverpool want to leverage their commercial strength in overseas TV coverage by dumping the Premier Leagues current collective negotiating strategy and negotiating their own TV deals, to the detriment of most of the other football clubs in England. Liverpool of course think they'll make more money as a result.

The response to this is best summed up here http://inbedwithmaradona.com/journal/2011/10/12/ian-ayre-i-am-very-disappointed-in-you.html

England exit the Rugby Union World Cup: Wales march on.

2011-10-08T13:59:00.000+01:00

So England exit the World Cup without ever looking likely to win the match against France and few will shed tears for an unloved team. The paucity of Englands play, the behaviour of their players, as well as historical enmities have made England the hate figures for this World Cup. Even in England support was patchy. The Daily Telegraph has commented in recent days about `this unlovable team', Rugby League fans never quite take to the Union fellows, and Danny Baker on Five Live this morning was bemoaning all the media attention paid to, as he sees it, `an incomprehensible game'. It should never have come to this. With all the resources available within the Rugby Football Union, we should be able to field a side that plays with flair and adventure and brings delight to rugby union followers the world over: England should be the Brazil of the rugby union world. And yet, we're far from that, and the world is happy when we lose. A sad state of affairs.

Wales meanwhile are the polar opposite; exciting, adventorous, passionate and likeable, and there is no silver spoon amongst their players. I'll be supporting Wales in the semi final against France (well my Grandad was born in North Wales, just over the border from Chester!) and a thrilling match it's bound to be.

Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau !

A strange football rivalry explained

2011-09-27T15:44:00.000+01:00

A good mate of mine is an avid Palace fan. He's such a big fan he spent one season in the late-1980s watching them home and away, every match over the season. He was single at the time mind you.

Over a pint I recall him telling me that Palace's biggest rivals were Brighton: it didn't make sense to me, there's at least 60 miles between the two teams, so it's hardly a derby and surely Palace would view Millwall, Charlton or Chelsea as more deadly rivals??

Well today the Guardian has revealed the story behind the rivalry and they put it down to Alan Mullery (one time Brighton manager) and Terry Venables (once of Palace) and their own `friendly' rivalry whilst at Spurs which carried over into their management careers.

The teams play tonight at the Amex Stadium, Brighton and a full house is guaranteed. I'm sure the atmosphere will be spicy!

Rugby Union World Cup a disappointment so far

2011-09-23T12:41:00.000+01:00

It started on the 9th September with the opening game between the All Blacks and Tonga and on and on go the group stage matches. Will many people have bothered watching todays match; Australia v United States, start time 9.30am GMT? I very much doubt it. There's too many boring, one-sided matches, shown at inconvenient times and I'm not sure what the organisers are trying to achieve! No wonder some players occasionally go AWOL down the pub. They too must be bored stiff..

The tournament kicks off properly on 8th October when the first of the knock out matches takes place. From then on we'll have some great matches up to the Final on 23rd October, which is what the World Cup should be all about, and from the 8th October we'll see interest in the tournament soar.

My view, for what it's worth, is that the final will be between the All Blacks and Ireland with the All Blacks triumphant.

Lancashire win it: at last !!

2011-09-16T10:19:00.000+01:00

Finally, finally, after 77 years of waiting, Lancashire County Cricket Club won the County Championship at Taunton yesterday with a win over Somerset. For all Lancashire fans, including the exiles in the south like me, it's a day we never thought we'd see, and we won't forget.

In all the years since 1934, Lancashire have come close to the title now and again but never quite made it, until yesterday. In my living memory Lancashire have had fantastic players: Clive Lloyd, David Lloyd, Farokh Engineer, Paul Allott, Michael Atherton, Wasim Akram, Freddie Flintoff and so many more, and yet it took a team of unknowns to pull off the feat. For that a lot of praise has to go to the team captain, Glenn Chappel and the team coach, Peter Moores. They engendered the spirit and technique that saw the team make it over the line.

Andy Wilson in The Guardian took the opportunity to sing the praises of all things Lancastrian, including naming the birthplace of the seven home born boys in the XI. I'd start buying the paper again if it reverted back to its old and proper title: The Manchester Guardian.

Well done again to all the lads at Lancashire County Cricket Club.

New deal with Reuters and Mirror Group signed

2011-09-16T09:56:00.000+01:00

I'm very pleased to announce that http://www.intosport.co.uk/ has agreed new licencing deals with Reuters and the Mirror Group, which means we will have an even larger archive of sports photographs to feature on our various websites and shopping channels. This new deal means http://www.intosport.co.uk/ now works with all the major photographic agencies in the UK.
We're working on the new images now and many will be live and available from October onwards.

A bad day for cricket

2010-08-29T20:32:00.002+01:00

I was at Lords today for the 4th day of the Test Match against Pakistan. The ground was maybe two-thirds full, and the atmosphere was as strange as any I've known at a cricket match. The news breaking overnight about some Pakistani players allegedly being involved in betting scandals dominated the conversations around me, but no-one seemed totally shocked. With Pakistan we have been here before.

When the teams took to the field, England received a warm welcome and the two Pakistani batsmen were not booed as many pundits had predicted; indeed I sensed a warmth towards most of the Pakistani players (Amir accepted). In my mind the hero of this mornings play was Umar Akmal, who played wonderfully for a score of 79 not out off 68 balls, well over 50% of the Pakistani total, amdist a mood of despair which seemed to eminate from his team camp. At the end he received as big a cheer leaving the pitch as did the victorious England team.

The allegations however have soured the series and left all lovers of cricket wondering how far and deep the problem of betting and match fixing really goes. Scyld Berry writing in the Telegraph writes a perceptive assessment of why these things still happen. Let's hope the ICC finally get to grips with this problem once and for all.

A worthy cause

2010-08-27T14:33:00.001+01:00

Test Match Special carried a feature during lunch at todays 4th Test, that featured some of the people involved with the charity Tickets for Troops. This charity is relatively new - founded in 2009 - and it's aim is to provide free tickets to big events to UK soldiers, sailors and airmen. Tickets for sporting events, music concerts, and events in the arts are donated for free by the event organisers.
Sport plays a big part and many leading clubs and sports associations across all sports have donated thousands of tickets so far. The FA, for example donates 1000 free tickets to every England match played at Wembley Stadium.

I think it's a great idea and we at intosport.co.uk which Tickets for Troops all the success in the future. You can find out more by following this link

Is English cricket really in trouble??

2010-07-29T15:38:00.001+01:00

The Telegraph has obtained copy of a report into the finances of English county cricket and on first inspection it makes bad reading: debts at the Test Match county grounds of £91 million combined, falling ticket sales at twenty/20 matches, a competitive tender process for Test Matches that eats into profits, plus few appearances by English test cricketers for their counties, adds up to big trouble says the reports authors, Deloittes.

The solution, according to Scyld Berry is for English cricket to make money by reforming around a small number of city teams and playing in a sort of twenty/20 super league - so instead of Surrey, we'd have south London; Lancashire in turn would become Manchester, no doubt followed by a nickname, never to be used by the paying fan: Manchester Marauders anyone??

The problem with this is that it misses one fundamental point. Why would a cricket fan from the Lancashire heartland of Accrington want to follow a team called Manchester Marauders? The answer is they wouldn't. Manchester just happens to be where the Lancashire ground is, but beyond that there is no connection, no bond. This wouldn't be the saviour of cricket, it would be it's death knell..

Gerrard gives Liverpool a massive boost!

2010-07-21T11:05:00.000+01:00

Steven Gerrard has almost certainly committed himself to stay at Liverpool for the rest of his career with his recent, positive statements about the manager, the Joe Cole signing and the season ahead. It's brilliant news for the club, fans and new manager, as there was a lingering possibility that Gerrard leaving would lead to an exodus of their best players.

The signing of Joe Cole also helps lift the air of pessimism that hung over Anfield since the end of last season. IF new owners can be found we could quite quickly see Liverpool reaffirming themselves amongst the top four clubs, even if one or two more of their better players head off to new clubs.

Live Test Cricket likely to stay exclusive to Sky

2010-07-21T10:57:00.000+01:00

The Guardian are reporting that the government will reject a proposal from a review panel on TV sports coverage to extend Ashes Test matches to a free-to-view audience. Since the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) first negotiated an exclusive deal with Sky in 2006, critics have said the game has become more elitist and viewing figures have fallen from a high in 2005 of 8 million, as those without subscription TV are excluded.

There are two sides to the story, however. The ECB rightly point out that the increase in money they earn goes partly towards improving the grass roots game. I can vouch for this; being a qualified cricket coach, my course was subsidised by Surrey CC and myself and numerous others are now part of a thriving cricket scene in Surrey. involving many children, plenty of whom attend state schools.

David Conn, also of The Guardian adds his, fairly predictable view to the debate, which is worth a read.

Ocado: not worth it..

2010-07-16T10:39:00.000+01:00

Two stories this week support the growing view that the pre-sale value of Ocado - the grocery home delivery business - is far less than the price the directors are looking to achieve. The Times ran a piece comparing Ocado's flotation next week, with the failed flotation of Fairfield Energy this week. The reason for the comparison? Fairfield Energy was seen as over-priced.

The Guardian today reports that an independent research group claims Ocado could be worth up to 60% less than it's valuation.

The problem is simple. Ocado makes no money, not pre-tax profit anyway. It might make money in the future, but no-one knows what it's true value is worth: it owns a massive, hi-tech distribution centre in Hertfordshire, a few smaller premises, a fleet of vans and sells on the internet. For many investors that doesn't equate to a business that can deliver a good return on investment in the years to come.

Amazon takes on the retail world.

2010-07-10T15:23:00.000+01:00

The news that Amazon is to start selling food in the UK sees the company diversify further away from it's core start up offering as a bookseller. This is a significant strategic move and it will bring Amazon even more into competition with the UKs traditional grocery retailers.

One must fancy Amazon to make a real go of this service, as everything they do so far seems to work very well indeed. The Amazon marketplace business has been a real success and it has so far avoided some of the problems faced by eBay. Watch out for Amazon moving into other retail areas in the next few years.

A poisoned chalice?

2010-06-30T11:57:00.000+01:00

As I write it seems certain that Roy Hodgson is to become the next manager of Liverpool Football Club. For Hodgson it will be the greatest challenge of his managerial career to date: expectations at Anfield far exceed those at Fulham, Blackburn Rovers or the various foreign teams he's managed. Only the Inter Milan job can match the expectation. Hodgson has had a couple of good seasons at Fulham, first fending off relegation and then taking the club to it's highest ever Premier League finish and a Europa Cup Final. That was done however, within the environs of a low expectation fan base - Premier League survival - and a generally disinterested media. At Anfield, both those factors are very different.

The other issue at Anfield that casts a shadow greater than expectation, is finance. Liverpool are in poor financial health, and it is probable that star players may be sold to drive down the debt, and replacements will be cheaper and less talented. That makes the job far tougher as expectation of a top four finish will remain.

The next season could be defining for Liverpool as a big club. If buyers for the club can be found who will pay the figure demanded by Hicks and Gillette, and are prepared to add some further investment into the club so the squad can be re-built and the new stadium started, then the future for Liverpool and Hodgson looks rosy. But, if no buyer is found and the club stumble onwards with the current owners still running the show, things look dire.

How not to market your company

2010-04-16T15:22:00.001+01:00

I subscribe to The Week - a digest of world news pulled into a magazine format. I think it's a great product and I believe it's doing very well on the news stands. The publishers of The Week also publish a magazine called First News, which is also a news digest magazine, but this one's aimed at children. In a recent copy of The Week there was an insert for First News offering 3 issues for £1, so I thought I'd subscribe for my ten year old son. That's where it all falls apart for the publishers.

To subscribe you go to their website and you're asked to enter offer code TWM3. But do this and you get an error message saying code not recognised. Now I used to work in magazines and I know that sometimes the IT Department and the Marketing Department aren't aways on the same wavelength and this type of error can occur. However in this instance it's been three weeks since I first tried to subscribe and it's still not working. I could ring them up and subscribe over the phone, but I've no intention of doing so. I'm going to monitor this code to see if they ever get it working.

Who knows how much this will have cost in lost potential subscribers, but it's certainly no way to market your product.

Man sues eBay customer

2010-04-15T12:01:00.001+01:00

In what is becoming a more common aspect of internet retailing, an eBay seller in the USA is suing a customer for libel after the customer left negative feedback on his eBay account.

The customer bought a $44 clock and claimed it was damaged when delivered. The item was returned and a refund given, but the customer wanted to warn others and left a message on the sellers account which said `Bad seller. He has the ethics of a used car salesman'. The seller is suing for $15,000 claiming a damaged reputation and loss of his 100% seller rating.

What is interesting about this case is the issue of allowing unfettered feedback and the limited options to refute such feedback due to a change in eBay rules. Approximately two years ago eBay changed their feedback system so that sellers could no longer leave negative feedback on a customers eBay account. This was done in good faith to protect customers and to improve customer service from sellers. However there have been unintended consequences. For example, some customers who are not satisfied with an item bought will immediately leap to their PC and give negative feedback, without giving the seller an opportunity to resolve the problem. In other cases some customers threaten to leave negative feedback - damaging a sellers rating - if they don't get the complaint resolution they want. The old adage `the customer is always right' does not always stand up to scrutiny. When a verdict on this case is delivered it'll be interesting to see what happens if the claimant wins. It could be a game-changer for eBay if sellers become more aggressive in defending their seller ratings.

You can read about a previous eBay libel case here

Will football become a political issue at the election?

2010-03-30T10:31:00.001+01:00

On Monday the Labour government announced a manifesto proposal that could change the face of English football if enacted, but of course, it requires Labour to be relected to government first! The proposal is to allow supporters `trusts' to take up to 25% ownership of their football club. In what circumstances this could apply is not yet clear, but I assume it would apply to clubs struggling with debt or which have problematic ownership issues. The intention is clear: some football clubs have become the toys of rich owners who may have limited committment to a club and it's traditions and whose main aim is their own wealth and/or ego. Supporters are the bedrock of a football team and they are the ones who will keep clubs going through thick and thin. It's about time the free market free-for-all in club ownership was reigned in. It'll be interesting to see if the Conservatives have any proposals of their own to put forward. For the full story see The Guardian.

The Times has a different take on the story, one that sadly looks more probable: in a nutshell they say, nothing will change; it's too late after 13 years of government; the legal obstacles will be too big; why would the Glazers' give up a quarter of their multi-million pound Manchester United business??

Man Uniteds Glazer problem

2010-03-12T16:02:00.001Z

Has David Beckham's wearing of a green and yellow scarf at the end of the United v Milan match on Wednesday become a cause celebre for the disunited fans?

It would appear so if you look at The Guardian's report this morning. Since the incident The Guardian reports United players have been banned from discussing the ownership issue with the press; the in-house TV station, MUTV is not allowed to report on the fans rebellion, and a steward with a record of serving the club for 19 years has been sacked for returning a confiscated rebel banner to a supporter. None of which will do anything to molify fans.

Many United fans have jumped on to the Red Knights bandwagon and are keen to see a sale. But why? I don't recall seeing any statements from the Red Knights about what might change for the better if they took over ownership of the club? Remember the promises Kraft made when they were bidding for Cadbury.

I'm not saying the Glazer's are good for United, but we don't know much if anything about what a Red Knights ownership might bring. As an Everton fan I've been so happy that Bill Kenwright has stuck around at Everton and luckily no big talking, big bucks owner has yet shown up.

Entrepreneur done good...

2010-03-09T14:22:00.000Z

Hamish Ogston, the founder of the insurance product provider Card Protection Plan (CPP), is due to make himself a great deal of money when his company floats on the Stock Exchange in a few weeks time.

Hamish is the kind of entrepreneur the country needs: he's built a business from scratch, seen it grow and prosper and is now to be fully rewarded for his enterprise and efforts. He's a great role model for all budding entrepreneurs.

On a personal note, I met Hamish whilst working for Which? magazine when we were trying to work out how CPP could work in partnership with Which? - nothing came of it, but Hamish gave me some work when I first left Which? about eight years ago and I appreciate that and have followed his career since those days.

You can read about Hamish's business success here Hamish Ogston business success

Bank bashing continues

2010-02-16T15:04:00.002Z

A number of meaty stories in todays press which highlight the ongoing imbalance in attitude between UK banks and their UK customers. Is this ever going to end?

The first one I refer to is about Barclays Bank making huge profits and consequently awarding large discretionary bonuses to staff in their investment arm business, Barclays Capital. Your ordinary Barclays branch staff also get bonuses, but they're much more at what we simple folk would call the `acceptable' end of the bonus culture.

The second story is about an IOD report which states that 60% of businesses have been denied lending facilities by their bank, and significant numbers of businesses are using directors personal credit cards to keep the business going.

Finally, another report says that the interest paid on credit card debt is at a 12 year, with a typical APR of 18.8%.

Strip the emotion from the debate - bankers are nothing better than pond life etc - and what we have is a severe social problem in the UK which needs to be addressed fast: rising unemployment, struggling small businesses, and an elite of bankers (and associated City trades) making astronomical sums of money. It all adds up to a country with some very big problems to sort out.

For me the question is simple: Do we want a country where there is a large and increasing imbalance in wealth? Or, do we want to change that and suffer as the country changes its economic tack away from financial services, to something else? The question is easy to supply, the answer very difficult to formulate..

Cricket on the Telly

2009-11-17T16:52:00.000Z

The issue of which sports events should be made available on free-to-air televison, such as BBC, ITV and 5 has been discussed at length since David Davies produced his report for the government last week.

The recommendation that future Ashes Test Series matches should be shown on free-to-air channels has proved to be the biggest controversy. The ECB and Sky TV are not happy that the rights deal they put together may well be torn up if the government accepts the recommendation. For the ECB the issue is one of money. Sky pay well for the exclusive rights and the ECB spend much of the income on developing the grass roots game. This has been a core objective of the ECB for some years, and as a coach at Farnham CC I've seen at first hand how some of this money is spent: subsidised training for coaches such as me, and subsidised training sessions for the boys and girls who play cricket. In my view it's been money well spent.

The dilema of course is about access to the game. Does the visibilty offered by a free-to-air channel outweigh the income from Sky? Will more kids take up cricket after watching an Ashes Series, on say Channel Four? And if they do, who helps fund their training?

David Conn is a very good sports journalist who writes for the Guardian, and you can read his take on the issues of TV rights on his blog

How to spot a dodgy ecommerce website

2009-11-16T21:32:00.000Z

At HoL Limited we're proud that we exceed all the legal requirements of an ecommerce trading business. It's an attitude of mind: we're in the business of offering a good service and being profitable as a result of what we offer. We don't rip people off!

Not all ecommerce traders have the same attitude and for some the business of making money is all about ripping people off. Here's a few tips from us on how to spot a dodgy ecommerce website:

Do they provide clear contact information? A telephone number and postal address should be shown. This is a legal requirement and details should provided in the `Contact Us' section of any website. If the only contact they want is via an email, chances are they don't like dealing with customers.
Do they offer a clear and visible returns policy? The Distance Selling Directive means that most purchases made online have a seven day cooling off period during which consumers can request a full refund, no questions asked. This should be clearly stated on all transaction correspondence.
Are they selling at `too good to be true prices'? This is not a crime, and maybe legitimate, but any website that offers products at prices much lower than those offered by rivals may not be all that they seem.
Do they have a secure payment system? The most commonly used is Paypal. If they ask you to pay be cheque, or even worse, by money transfer using systems such as Western Union, beware! These can be insecure and open to fraud.

Manchester United: the best supported club in Europe

2009-11-09T16:02:00.001Z

The Independent has a story on it's website which lists the best supported clubs in Europe. I was going to link to it, but gave up on that idea due to the Independent's website freezing every time I tried to follow the link.

I did manage to find the original piece about this on the Futebol Finance website which lists the top 50 and it's very interesting stuff.

No real surprise that Manchester United are the best supported club, with an average attendance over 75,000, but what is a surprise is the support the big German clubs are getting. At number two in the list is Borussia Dortmund (just under 75,000 average attendance), Bayern Munich are at five and Schalke at six, better than Arsenal and Celtic, the next two British clubs on the list.

My own club, Everton, are in a lowly 42nd position, and St Etienne in France come in at number 50. Thirteen of the 50 clubs are English and two Scottish.

Lloyds to help new businesses - apparently

2009-11-09T15:11:00.001Z

Lloyds Bank have pledged to help 300,000 new businesses according to their just published `2010 SME Charter'. This charter is a response to government pressure for improved lending facilities and better terms to small businesses. It is Lloyds' attempt to square the deal after taking in many ££ billions of state aid to keep the bank group solvent.

The report in todays Daily Telegraph is sketchy on detail, but from what I've read it's doesn't look much more than a sop to me. For example, Lloyds promises to meet `every reasonable request' for finance from `viable' customers and loans and renewed overdrafts will be pitched at a minimum 1.5% above the cost of funding. All very vague and difficult for business customers to pin down what it actually means - who but Lloyds will know what a `reasonable request' is?

Until the UK government (of whichever party) grasps the nettle and uses it's shareholding power to force through better banking practice, nothing is going to change and small businesses will continue to carry the costs of the banks' own poor management.

David defeated Goliath!

2009-11-09T14:52:00.001Z

Congratulations to David Haye on becoming the WBA world heavyweight champion after his points victory over the giant Russian, Nikolay Valuev.

I didn't think he'd win but he's proven me, the bookmakers and most boxing pundits wrong.

Apparently he may be lining up a fight against Vitali Klitschko from the Ukraine who is the WBC heavyweight world champion. I won't make any guesses on the outcome of this fight if it happens.

David v Goliath - it's what all the papers are calling it!

2009-11-06T21:41:00.001Z

On Saturday evening in Germany, a British boxer called David Haye will attempt to win a World Heavweight boxing title from a Russian guy called Nikolai Valuev. Nothing remarkable about that you'd think - ok maybe you're thinking, `when did Russians become Heavyweight champions and where are the Yanks?'

But this is no ordinary fight. The BIG story on this one is about weight - in one corner, it's David Haye weighing in at 15st 8lb; in the other, Nikolai Valuev at 22st 8lb! Only a mere 7st heavier than Haye. Plus the Russian is also tall: standing 7ft 2in tall compared to Haye's titchy 6ft 3in.

Now Haye is a good boxer but it would seem implausible he can win this fight with such a disparity in size and weight. That makes me wonder why are they fighting each other? I always thought boxing matches were organised by weight bands, and the very big guys (20st plus) fought for the super-heavyweight title. Is this really a heavyweght title fight or more of a freak show???

I wish David Haye well and hope he can match the exploits of the biblical David but I wouldn't put money on it

Orange to offer cash for old mobiles

2009-11-04T15:11:00.001Z

Orange the mobile phone people have set up what they've called a `Recycle & Reward' scheme, whereby they will value your old handset and offer to buy it off you for cash. The valuation takes place on the spot in Orange shops and if the phone is in working order they'll pay you up to £95 per handset (price is for a Samsung SCH900, as quoted in the Register). Even if the handset is worthless, they'll take it off your hands.

The scheme is part of Orange's social responsibility programme aimed at reducing the number of handsets being binned and on the face of it seems a good deal for consumers.

If they do buy something from you, they'll require your address and other contact details and it will be a way of adding to their customer database, so expect some marketing targetted at you if you do sell your old phone to them.

Is this Domain name theft?

2009-11-04T14:57:00.001Z

Hamley's, the London toy store, managed to forget to renew it's domain name http://www.hamleys.com/ reports the Daily Telegraph. According to the paper the name was snapped up by a company called Network Solutions, once it became available. Under new ownership Network Solutions directed any searches of hamleys.com to other rival retailers, such as John Lewis, Amazon and Argos. The Hamley's website was unavailable for six days, losing the company many £ thousands in lost sales.

I've just typed http://www.hamleys.com/ into Google and all is back to normal, so no doubt Hamley's has been forced to come to some arrangement with Network Solutions to get the domain name back.

This is not the first time a large company has failed to re-register a domain name. In 2003, Microsoft forgot to re-register Hotmail.co.uk and this was then bought by someone else. In this instance the domain name was given back to Microsoft at no cost.

It's a mad, mad world - this banking business!

2009-11-03T21:28:00.001Z

So the government has today announced another cash injection into the ailing British banking sector. Alistair Darling is putting another £39.2 billion into the bank accounts of RBS and Lloyds/TSB. I've got to admit the rationale for this is lost on me (and maybe it's lost on Darling too?) but apparently it's to do with securing the banks' future, even though I thought that was done last year when the previous ££££ billions were handed out. Who knows!

The Guardian put together a list of what other things the government could spend the £39.2 billion on if they chose to abandon these dinosaurs. It makes interesting reading. Here it is:

1,500 new schools, or 1,375 miles of new motorway, or fifteen aircraft carriers, or seventy new hospitals. Mind-boggling isn't the word for it!

Despite the banks hoping things will eventually get back to the normal, pre-credit-crunch ways of doing business, there's really no way that will happen. They're rubbish, they've been found out and a democratic society won't suffer it again..

West Indies cricket perks up

2009-11-02T21:44:00.001Z

Chris Gayle has been reappointed as West Indies cricket captain and Joel Garner will be team manager for the Windies team to tour Australia this winter.

The appointments follow the settling of a players dispute over contracts and image rights which resulted in a players strike. The West Indies Cricket Board was forced to select a team denuded of their best players, to represent the Windies in the recent ICC Champions Trophy. The result was a series of heavy defeats and early exit from the competition.

The dispute has been a disaster for Windies cricket and further damaged the reputation of Caribbean cricket. A good performance in Australia (such as avoiding a complete trouncing in the Tests) would go some way to rebuilding their reputation.

Sadly, for cricket lovers, the likelihood of the Windies recapturing the brilliance of their teams of the 1970s and 1980s is a very faint hope. Players such as Viv Richards, Malcolm Marshall, Clive Lloyd or Michael Holding will never be seen again whilst Windies cricket stumbles along, riven by internal arguments and splits.

FA Cup matches to be shown free on the internet

2009-10-29T14:19:00.000Z

Due to the demise of the pay TV channel Setanta, the Football Association (FA) has decided to show the FA Cup first round game between Oldham Athletic and Leeds United on the internet for free. This follows the recent experiment with the England U21 match against Macedonia.

Setanta had licencing rights to show live FA Cup matches, and since it's collapse the FA has been urgently looking at the options for selling the rights to other broadcasters as a means of recouping some of the revenue lost. So far, no broadcaster has agreed to pick up what's left of the Setanta package.

As a broadcast medium the internet may still leave a lot to be desired: during the recent internet broadcast of the Ukraine v England match there were complaints of poor image quality, loss of connections and problems with low bandwith capabilities.

However, with news that Sky TV are looking at selling Premier League goal highlights via it's iPhone app, it's almost certain the net will become a major outlet for football broadcasting within a few years.

A Short History of the Internet

2009-10-26T21:23:00.003Z

Can you remember the world before the internet? No email, no Facebook, no booking holidays online, no intosport.co.uk??

My first experience of the internet was at Which? in the early-90s when a colleague of mine - Alan Stevens - showed me the first developments of what was to become Which? Online. I was fascinated and since then most of my work has been web based. Incidentally, Alan is now doing very well with his own company, Media Coach as an expert advising business on how to use social media. Check him out.

The history of the internet began forty years ago, and The Guardian have put together an excellent piece about the internet at forty, from the first email to the first YouTube video. Amazingly, the first YouTube video is four years old! Yes! Only four!

The internet has created a social and business revolution that effects most of us in a good way and the Guardian article is well worth a read.

The Best Top Ten Sports Books (or Six actually)

2009-10-22T17:10:00.002+01:00

When we first launched intosport.co.uk we sold a wide range of sports books: titles such as The Rothmans Football Year Book, The Glory Game by Hunter Davies, and Celtic Miscellany all sold. We eventually stopped selling books as the margins were pretty poor and book selling is a price driven business where only the big boys (Amazon) make any money. A lesson learned early on; be prepared to adapt your business plan!

However, selling the books offered an opportunity to read some of the titles we sold and I did manage to read quite a few. That made me think about the Top Ten sports books I've read and what would be on the list. Having thought about it, I could come up with only Six books I thought brilliant, and here they are, in reverse order:

Number 6 - The Fight, by Norman Mailer - The story of the Rumble in the Jungle. The Heavyweight fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in 1974.

Number 5 - King of the World, by David Remnick - Another boxing book, about great American heavyweights - Ali, Sony Liston and Floyd Patterson - which captures the mood of boxing and America in the 60s and 70s.

Number 4 - The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino, with Paul Kimmage - The life of Tony Cascarino, a `much-travelled' striker who played for Ireland (despite not being elligible) and Millwall amongst many others.

Number 3 - The Damned Utd, by David Peace - a fictionalised account of Brian Clough's 44 days as manager of Leeds United.

Number 2 - A Lot of Hard Yakka, by Simon Hughes - the story of English County Cricket told by a journeyman cricketer.

Number 1 - Fever Pitch, by Nick Hornby - The story of Nick Hornby's days watching Arsenal with his estranged Dad and how football brought them together.

The Observer ran a Top 50 Best Sports Books feature in 2005. You can find details of some of the books I've selected, with more detailed reviews as well as forty four other books to consider.

Royal Mail postal strike (part three)

2009-10-21T20:08:00.000+01:00

Ok, the strike's on. I've just read an interesting and balanced piece in the Telegraph that gives the background to the strike.

Royal Mail postal strike (part two)

2009-10-21T16:00:00.002+01:00

As I write it looks like the planned industrial action by Royal Mail workers will take place on Thursday and Friday.

We've made plans to use DHL and UPS to deliver some of the larger items we sell. For us this is an expensive exercise, as we don't intend to pass these increased costs on to our customers, so we'll bear the full brunt of that increase. The difference in costs is striking. The couriers charge way more than double to send an item to a destination such as Birmingham, compared to the cost of using Royal Mail. Their cost structures make it prohibitive to send items to the more remote corners of the UK. For example, to send an item weighing 2 kilos to Inverness will cost £7.30 by Royal Mail recorded delivery. To send the same item using DHL would cost £17.24. These price differences highlight how important the Royal Mail is to SME sized businesses such as ours.

Sadly, there seems little interest from Royal Mail management, unions or government in finding a unifying solution to the problems effecting Royal Mail. Whilst these people play macho games, refusing to negotiate and failing to find agreement, the UK mail order and online retail business sector suffers.

Is the Premier League becoming more equal?

2009-10-19T22:39:00.001+01:00

For the past ten years I've viewed the Premier League as exciting as a night out in Farnham. It's been so predictable for so long: the top four clubs, obvious; relegation contenders fairly obvious; mid-table mediocrity also obvious. How boring is that?

Only four clubs have won the league title since the Premier League started in 1992-93 season (Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers) and since the 1995-96 season that has become three (Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United). The misnomer `Big Four' only applies because it's used to list the four English clubs entering the European Champions League. We've actually had a `Big Three' for more than 13 years and that has been bad for English football.

This season however, things might be different. The `Big Three' or `Four' have already lost more games than was expected and Tottenham and Manchester City look like making sustained challenges for the top spots. Sunderland, under the brilliant management of Steve Bruce have already taken points off Liverpool and Manchester United, though a defeat at Burnley maybe puts those successes into perspective. The feeling amongst the also-ran clubs is that a game against the `Big Three'or `Four' is not three points written off, but possibly the odd point or three gained..

The excellent Oliver Kay has written in The Times that the financial balance of power in the Premier League is being seriously tested by more competition and that for any of the `Big Four' that slip up, the financial implications are considerable. What price Torres, Fabregas, Drogba or Rooney if European Champions League football is not forthcoming?

BEACH BALL 1 - LIVERPOOL 0

2009-10-18T11:56:00.002+01:00

It's been described as the most bizarre goal in Premier League history. A shot by Darren Bent, deflected past Pepe Reina by ricocheting off a red beach ball, thrown onto the pitch by a young Liverpool fan, into the corner of the net. I watched it on Match of the Day and it was incredible! The consensus amongst the football pundits is that the goal should have been disallowed. In the Mail on Sunday, ex-ref Jeff Winter said `the goal should not have stood. By the letter of the law it is outside interference and a drop-ball should have been where the incident occured'.

Look beyond the goal and there are a couple of bigger questions to consider. Sunderland were by far the better side and had the better goal scoring opportunities. Steve Bruce is doing what he always seems capable of doing: take an also-ran Premier League team and turn them into something better.

Liverpool, without Torres and Gerrard, looked very ordinary in front of goal; they passed the ball around neatly in midfield but the attacking options were limited. The squad just isn't good enough to cover the loss of key first eleven players, and this has been the case at Anfield throughout Rafa's stewardship - remember his squad rotation policies of earlier seasons which probably cost Liverpool a league title?
Benitez is surviving on the past glory of the Champions League victory and the continued support of a small majority of Liverpool fans, coupled with a disorganised and unpopular Board. How long that support will last is now questionable. Next up, it's Lyon and then Manchester United at Anfield. Two losses and and it could well be the red beach ball that began the job of sacking Benitiez...

Americans watch more You Tube videos than search on Google

2009-10-15T13:06:00.002+01:00

This is the claim from a reputable research organisation, comScore. According to the stats, there were 10 billion videos viewed compared to 9 billion web searches in August 2009. Marketing products via social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube is a tantalising prospect for many but it's yet to work for most of us. The question, for example, is how do you persuade someone watching a video of Tottenham Hotspur to buy an associated gift, when buying maybe far from their minds? We need to see more activity from the social media owners to develop the selling opportunties available via their sites before marketing budgets start to move from search engines to social media websites.

Trade Fairs - Worth a Visit?

2009-10-14T13:47:00.005+01:00

I received invitations to two trade fairs this week. One was for the International Spring Fair at the NEC Birmingham in February 2010. The second was for the Ecommerce Expo at Earls Court on 20th and 21st October.

The Spring Fair is a massive event, probably the most important retail gift fair in the UK. Its a show case for companies (large and small) who sell into the gift market. I first attended in 2004 when we were in a pre-launch phase with intosport.co.uk. It provided a valuable insight into the UK gift market sector and we've built a number of key relationships on the back of meeting suppliers over a number of years. My last visit was in 2007 at the sister event - International Autumn Fair. I've not been since as I now know most of the suppliers and traders relevant to our core business. However, I think I'll pop along next February. One never knows if one will come across a new start-up gift supplier who has a great product you want to sell, so it's worth time out of the office on the off-chance.

If you're launching a gift based online business the Fair is a must visit and it's free if you register beforehand. If you've got gift type products to sell it might be worth exhibiting at the Fair. There is a specific area within the Fair for new start ups. The cost of exhibiting is less than in the main show halls and there are thousands of trade buyers in attendance and you only need one big customer to make the visit worthwhile.

The Ecommerce Expo is an event I've not attended before. I was sent an invitation to visit the Winbuyer exhibition stand, so I thought I'd pop along to the show and see what Winbuyer do. According to the Expo website the event focuses on acquisition, conversion, fulfilment and retention within the online retail sector. The organisers boast an impressive array of exhibitors - Google, eBay, and Lastminute.com are all attending for example. This has all the look of an `in and out' in twenty minutes type event: they'll be too many companies trying to sell the elixir of sales strategies that can't fail to work! I'll report back and let you know how it went.

Verified by Visa (and the Mastercard system whatever that's called..)

2009-10-13T12:29:00.006+01:00

Our payment provider service, WorldPay, has recently activated the Verified by Visa (VbV) system on all payments. VbV is an anti-fraud measure designed to protect cardholders and retailers from online fraud. It requires the customer to create and then enter additional password information once they've entered their card details, before the transaction can be accepted.

It would seem on the face of it, to be a good idea, however I do have my concerns. Firstly, will it in the short term deter genuine customers from completing a transaction? It adds an extra layer of complication when buying and it is known that people buying online do not like anything that slows the process down (pop-up ad users take note). Secondly, the launch seems to me to have been a very low key affair. I've seen no publicity campaign! No TV ads promoting the system. We had one email from WorldPay about the system prior to their launch. Do consumers know it's being used more widely and has to be complied with?? The Guardian suggests some concerns in this regard. Finally, how secure is the system? If it is fraud proof then maybe the extra hassle is worthwhile. Only time will tell.

Royal Mail post strike

2009-10-09T02:09:00.004+01:00

The vote for strike action by Royal Mail employees is an act of commercial suicide. There would seem to be no public support for the strike and the business sector has reacted angrily, with some very important Royal Mail customers, such as Amazon, taking their business elsewhere. The long term outlook for Royal Mail looks bleak: it's almost certain that some form of privatisation of the postal service will take place following the next election, which will cost jobs and elements of the post service so long taken for granted - the universal postal service could be one of the victims. Strike action merely brings that likelihood closer. Royal Mail management share equal blame for this state of affairs and yet both sides seem hell-bent on confrontation.
Like many businesses that use Royal Mail we're now looking at the other options available. It's a sad state of affairs as we've been happy with the service Royal Mail has provided, but our customers and us need a delivery service that can be relied on.

Google keywords and trademark law

2009-09-24T14:05:00.001+01:00

Earlier in the week Google won an important legal battle in the war with Louis Vuitton (LVMH) over the use of trademark keyword search terms. LVMH has been seeking to restrict the use of key search terms, such as `Vuitton bags' which can be bought by other companies bidding for the term. The LVMH argument is that rival businesses and even counterfeiters buy these terms and they believe this can be misleading for consumers.

The legal battle is far from over, but I'm hoping Google prevail. Large corporate brands have been trying to restrict many key search terms, some of which have only a loose connection to their core brand, as they attempt to control the sale of associated products.
Only a few months ago Liverpool FC tried to trademark the liver bird image (it appears on the club shirt badge). Thankfully the uproar in the city of Liverpool (led by many good Evertonians) stopped them in their tracks. For those that don't know, two liver bird statues have sat atop the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool since 1911.

The blog is back!

2009-09-24T13:31:00.000+01:00

I've changed the name to Sporty Boy business blog. I'll be blogging about the issues that affect my business and other stuff I find interesting..

Sky + (a lesson in customer service)

2009-06-01T16:17:00.000+01:00

We love Sky + in our house. My youngest son is obsessed with football and cricket and our TV viewing is mainly based around watching Sky Sports. Things however aren't so great if you happen to have a problem with your Sky + box, as happened to us this weekend. In a nutshell, we couldn't get the box to work. One call, two calls, three calls to their customer service department and still no joy. It looked like Sky and us were going to fall out altogether when at the end of our third return call they suggested we needed one of their engineers to look at the box: cost to us £65 for the call out. Amazingly the problem was resolved when on a fourth call to Sky we were put through to a guy who actually knew what he was talking about. Problem solved; viewing restored.

For Sky however, a fundamental problem remains. Too many of their customer service staff did not have the full information to hand on how to help us and there seemed to be no upgrading of our problem to more experienced staff, resulting in us going round in circles, getting more and more wound up. The problem wasn't complex (it turned out to be a very simple problem to sort out) and yet the service we received drove me close to cancelling Sky. It probably says more about Skys commercial approach to its customers and the realisation that if we, as consumers, want to watch top quality sport, we are stuck with Sky, and all that their customer service brings.

A small company like mine has to have a completely different approach to customer service. Firstly, we have to treat customers well as they are expensive to get and we want to keep hold of everyone of them: secondly, I like providing good customer service, even if there is a cost. Business is not all about nailing down every penny and extracting as much as you can from your customers without giving anything back.. We will do what we can to put any problems we've created right. I believe that way lies future sales and loyal customers.

Search Engine Marketing: a vast subject!

2009-05-26T16:04:00.000+01:00

For an e-commerce company like mine, search engine marketing (SEM) is a bread and butter issue: it's a subject I'll be coming back to regularly as my blog develops.

SEM is a form of marketing that aims to increase your websites visibility on the internet with the intention of attracting web users to view your site and ultimately purchase something from you. It involves you paying for inclusion on a search engine, using the pay per click payment model - ie someone searches for something, spots your search term and clicks through to your website. Each time this happens you pay the search engine a small fee in return.
You will find yourself bidding with other companies on search terms with the company paying the most per click featuring at the top of the search engine results and therefore more likely to be clicked.

If you're a tech or e-commerce company this will be one of the most important means of marketing your company to the world, so you need to give it a lot of thought about how you approach it and what you're trying to say about your company to the millions of potential customers out there.

Some simple pointers for using SEM;

1. Start with Google and focus on Google. The other search engines are bit players and you'll find the vast majority of your sales and/or leads come via Google. It's worth spending some money on other search engines, but get Google working for you first and focus most of your spend there.

2. Experiment with the search terms you use; from experience I've found that the most obvious search terms are also the most expensive - because they're obvious! And, as I've said, this is a bidding game. You may also find that many of these terms will lead you down blind alleys.. For example, I've been looking for a sun protective swimwear t-shirt (this is a top I can wear when I go swimming that will help stop me burning when I holiday in France this summer). I initially searched under the term - zoggs uk - as they are a leading brand selling swimwear items. After some minutes I found nothing on their website, or other sites paying for that same term. I then tried sun protective clothing and voila! I found a number of websites which I've never come across before, but who were selling what I wanted. The use of a very specific search term found me what I wanted and they got a sale...

3. Constantly review your search terms. If you find something that works don't rest on your laurels; it's a competitive market and others will soon find out that what works for you will also work for them, so keep reviewing! Also! Review how much you're paying per click. Don't get drawn into a bidding war to be in the top position as this can become very expensive..

4. If you have no experience of SEM consider using a specialist SEM agency to do the marketing for you. There are lots of these around. I've never used an agency so I can't recommend anyone in particular, however I tend to the view that you may as well go for a small agency (or one-man band), as what they do is fairly straightforward and large agencies have no magic wand in this regard. You also need to agree a maximum amount of spend per month, otherwise they can go crazy and you'll find yourself paying for hundreds of irrelevant search terms.

As I said, it's a vast subject and I'll be back on this time and again.

Take a look at the Telegraph Business Club

2009-05-22T12:59:00.000+01:00

I've found an interesting read is the Daily Telegraph Business Club - see my links below for website details. It's free to join (you need to register via email and you will receive a weekly email), and it covers a whole host of topics that many businesses will find of interest. It tends to focus on established businesses and the issues they face, but they do feature interesting case studies which start ups will find useful. They regularly invite industry experts to contribute on a range of issues; technology, law, marketing for example and one can often find something relevant. The website features a host of offers and ads from various `partners' none of which I've ever been remotely interested in. Definitely worth a look.

2009-05-22T12:20:00.001+01:00

The launch of the Chris Peers Business Blog

2009-05-22T11:58:00.000+01:00

Here are the first comments on the first day in the life of the Chris Peers Business Blog. Let me introduce myself. I am Chris Peers, and I am a Director of a limited company based in the UK called Home of Legends Limited. We sell sport, music and movie related gifts via websites such as www.intosport.co.uk (and others). We also sell via a retail outlet in Farnborough (more of which later).

My blog will be about daily life in a SME business in the UK (emphasis on the `S' in our case). I'll blog about all sorts of business related stuff and I'll let my readers know what I think about the world of business; the pros and cons. Hopefully I can provide some help and advice to people starting up in business: I found most advice we received when we started in 2004 to be basic and of little practical use. I'll answer some of the bigger questions which most business advisory services fail to answer..

So happy reading. I hope you eventually find me amongst the mass of blogs out there!

Chris