Create Your Business

I can’t help but look for ways to improve peoples businesses, even when I’m not getting paid for it! It’s like a compulsion. I’m sure you do it too, but in your head.

I went paintballing this weekend. All day event with a few 14 year-olds and an OAP. Seven of us in total, I booked it a few weeks ago. I have mentioned it to a few people and some were not really interested, but most commented within the range ‘I’d like to have a go at that’ to ‘How can I book a paintballing event?’

The paintballing was arranged as a birthday treat for my lad. We had been meaning to book it for ages but just never got round to it. One day a couple of months ago we at the local shopping centre and noticed a couple of guys with a stall. Direct sales, selling paintball vouchers. 8 Tickets for £50. I’m sure they make their money simply from commission. Incidentally, I spoke to a friend who had one of these stalls over a weekend an did about £20k worth of sales for £1700 rent! This shows that there must be some demand for paintball, if only more people knew about it.
We eventually ended up with 16 tickets for £50 and then went home and booked the date online. Yesterday was the day. It had been lashing down for weeks prior to the day and we feared the worst. I even called up the mobile number provided (well done, nice touch!)
to make sure that it wouldn’t be waterlogged and called off.

Mistake No. 1: I had no idea how adverse weather would affect my booking.
How to fix: FAQ on the website - dead easy!

Those of you that go paintballing will know that weather doesn’t affect bookings, only your ability to see through the mask!

We arrived in the rain, had a great time in the rain, and left in the rain. It rained a LOT. No problem, its only water and we got muddy. Whats not to like?

There were over 80 participants there on the day. Mostly groups of friends, colleagues or other parties. Mostly like us, where 1 person booked and the others were guests. Everyone seems to have a fantastic time. I would imagine lots of people would like to book to go again, or recommend the activity to a friend.

Mistake no2: Unless you were one of the dozen or so people who made the booking, you would not know how to re-book.

The Fix: Provide a goodie bag for all participants with a voucher, leaflet or some promotional material in there. Easy.

They did ask for names, addresses & e-mail addresses on the ‘I won’t sue you if I die’ form, but I couldn’t read my own let alone anyone elses, if they bothered to fill that bit in.

So I’m going back to work on Monday to tell my colleague, I booked the painball at a stall that isn’t there anymore, I don’t have any leaflets to remind me of the website address or any phone numbers. But I did have a great time, and will suggest that she books and goes too. Lets hope the website is well optimised for ‘Paintball Wolverhampton’ or I have just been working for their competiton.

The moral of this story? Make it easy for people to buy from you. Make it dead easy for people who bought from you and want to buy some more, or recommend you.

Ahh, finally got round to recovering my password for the business blog. I have soooo many usernames, PIN numbers and passwords floating round in my head, not just mine but the nature of the work I do means that I have to try and remember customers usernames and passwords too.

Being greeted by ‘You have 17,976 comments awaiting moderation’ doesn’t fill me with rampant excitement either.

Ever had one of those days?