Read one Irish entrepreneur's blog as she operates a business in Dublin
U2 Concert in Croke Park
January 31, 2005
I've always heard about the computer geeks who jam the booking lines for the major concerts. Now I'm one of them!
Today I secured 3 tickets to the U2 concert in Croke Park on 24th June, and I'm very proud of myself indeed. I missed their last gig in 2001, I was definitely not going to miss the chance to see them play in Croker again.
Like most people my age, I saw them play in 1987, and I tried to go see them play in 1985, but couldn't afford a ticket. I did see the fireworks over Croke Park though - from Howth Head with my first can of cider in hand!
Enough of my debaucerous past. I have tickets - good tickets mind you. It's a practical application of one's skill for entertainment purposes! I might be persuaded to sell.
Are You A Happy Camper?
January 27, 2005
At the launch of the Mintel Irish Lifestyles report, "The Cost of Being Irish", I discovered that I am a Happy Camper. In the report, Irish consumers are classified as happy campers
if they feel their lifestyle is better today than it was 3 years ago. And if their financial situation has improved over the last 3 years. In addition, Happy Campers are more convinced that Ireland is a better place to live.
People are working harder, with less job security, and less free time.
In terms of how we spend our scarse leisure time, we are going to the pub less often, eating out less, and watching less television . . .Our leisure time is spent on short breaks and attending sports matches. But this begs the question of what are people actually doing on those evenings when there is no match on and they are not on a short break to Ballyshannon or Berlin? They're not watching telly, or drinking or eating, and since family sizes are getting smaller, that doesn't seem to be an alternative leisure option either.
Ah well, we'll just have to wait until Mintel release the "Men's Lifestyles" report in July to find out more.
An interesting result for advertisers - it seems that it's the over 45's who are doing the bulk of the TV-watching on this island. That would be consistent with my own experience; my parents are well up on the latest forensic techniques and psychology of crime from a diet of UK and US drama series. If you're looking to advertise to younger people, the internet is the way to go.
The Mintel report notes a sharp increase in the Internet as a leisure activity, with a fifth of under 25's stating it as a lesiure activity. God bless broadband!
Incidentally, I'm still flabbergasted by the fact that the people who manage the Dublin Portal Website, Dublin.ie still haven't put anything up about Dublin being nominated as the top city to live in based on quality of life! When I was in Australia, a lot of Sydneysiders had their noses considerably out of joint about this. I would have thought that it was something to brag about on a website? Maybe those webmasters just don't have the same Braggability as me.
The Perfect Job?
January 20, 2005
Are you a Serious Shopper? Can you hold your own in a discussion of the relative merits of travelling to Aldi to save some euros on your washing powder? Do you know where to get the best deals in Dublin?
If so, then I've come across the job for you!
Now you might have to move to Krakow, Ho Chi Minh City, or Innsbruck, but that shouldn't be a problem because you'll be paid to shop! I know right now about 99% of my girlfriends are leaping up and down in excitement, and a large number of the boys too, read on to find out more....
Mintel is extending its team of service network associates...The work involves shopping for commonly available products in local grocery stores and checking soft drink fountains in fast food outlets to be added.
You get to go shopping and hang out at soda fountains and get paid for it! Quick - sign me up!.
Chance To See Another Hero
January 19, 2005
This morning I attended The Marketing Institute's breakfast seminar. Why did I drag myself out of bed on a mizzling dark morning? To hear one Gerry McGovern speak, that's why. And it was well worth it.
Gerry McGovern is a hugely successful internet consultant. He's Irish, and is up there with the greats of the internet world with the likes of Seth Godin. I first came across Gerry McGovern's writing a few years ago. The kind of thing I'd read, and be nodding and agreeing with wholeheartedly.
Gerry spoke about the commonalities that successful websites share in terms of their content this morning. A lot of the ideas he put forward were ones that I'm already familiar with, but he just has different names on them: "good links ask for the sale", I call it - intelligent hyperlinking. He mentioned how many US sites are now split testing the content to see what works best. Good idea. I have a site in mind that might benefit from that.
Slightly more excited and enthusiastic about the whole thing than others in the audience, I couldn't help myself and asked not 1, but 2 questions. There was one question I didn't ask however:
He said he'd choose ugly and profitable sites any day over beautiful and bust. I thought - why not go for a Brightspark site that's beautiful and profitable! Like Freedom Unlimited for example. Most of that Dublin life coach's business has come from the site and its high ranking on Google and Yahoo! Because it's an Irish business and 97% of Irish people use those 2 search engines, it is important to have a high ranking on them. Admittedly a lot more business is coming to Freedom Unlimited from referrals, that's down to Jackie's skill as a life coach and her pleasant and effective way of assisting people to get results. But Freedom Unlimited is definitely a site that is beautiful and profitable.
Aer Lingus Customer Service
January 14, 2005
Check the time - yes, it's jet lag lady writing again!
I actually had a very disturbed night's sleep and I put it down to Aer Lingus. I didn't mention that they didn't manage to put my boogie board on the flight from London. It arrived on a later flight and they are now trying to deliver the board to me. As I work from home, this shouldn't be too difficult.
The way they've gone about it seems very aggressive. I got a call from their customer service on lost items yesterday evening at 7.30pm. I was told that they had shown up at the house the previous evening, with the board, but nobody answered the door. No advance phone call to announce their arrival.
I explained that we were fast asleep at the time having just endured a long flight from Australia. The man was quite gruff, didn't really care, just seemed intent on getting rid of my board back to the rightful owner. So I can't really slight him for trying to do his job eh? (What a chilled out relaxed person I am post 6 weeks of lovely holidays!!)
The man asked if I would be in last night. I was. He said he'd get the board in the delivery van by 8pm and it would be with me by 9pm. I said great and then set about trying to stay awake until 9pm. Eyes were burning and pushing for closure. Stomach was churning and going into 'middle of the night mode'. But I stayed awake until 9pm. The van didn't come, I lunged into bed, and promptly feel asleep.
At 2 minutes past midnight, there was a ring on the door. Staggered to the door phone to find out that it was a man from Aer Lingus wanting to deliver the boogie board. What kind of delivery service is that? I have never in my entire life heard of a courier service that operates at 2 mins past midnight.
Because he was at the wrong entrance to the building, I couldn't speak to him on the door phone. Because of the late hour, I decided not to open the door and run downstairs. He persisted though - with a further 4 rings on the bell. His calling ended at 12.15am at which stage I went back to bed.
He wasn't finished though. No. I then received a voicemail message on my mobile telling me that he'd been to the building and couldn't get in. Is this man operating on Australian time also? After 9pm is not acceptable for strangers to come knocking on your door. I intend to inform Aer Lingus of this later on this morning when they open for business.
Good To Be Back
January 13, 2005
After a lovely holiday, it's great to be back in Ireland. When people in Australia shudder and ask "how do you cope with the weather?", I smiled and thought of days like today - blue sky, bright, crisp and cold. I know we've been very lucky because they had a tornado over Ireland earlier in the week. Today, however, it's dead calm.
I've got a mountain of paperwork to sort out, and a heap of interesting new projects to get stuck into. More on some of them later now that I'm back in blogging about work mode. And after 6 weeks rest, I'm full of energy and ideas and ready to get things underway. One of the main things I want to address in the coming weeks is recruiting a new staff member for Brightspark. We're looking for a marketing graduate with a couple of years experience who is keen to gain a specialist knowledge of internet marketing. The role is perfect for someone who is able for some real responsibility; a talented creative mind who is perhaps feeling lost in a large corporate. I'd like to be able to hand over work and clients to this person to manage the activity on their accounts and to spend time to ensure that they are always up to date on new developments.
If anyone reading this believes they would be up for this role, or if you know someone who might be suitable, please let me know. I'll be posting a link to the job spec as soon as I've had it OK'ed by my fabulous business coach - who knows a thing or two about recruiting the right people.
Got to go and take the Santa hats off this site at some stage. I might do it tomorrow morning when I'm awake and everyone else isn't. Jet lag struck this morning as I was up and about at 5.30am.