'Your Business - Your Games!'

With the Olympics looming, I went along to an event to find out how the games will affect businesses, and how they can get benefit. Seems there are all sorts of opportunities for businesses - large and small in the build up to London 2012...

Hosted by Business Link, British triple jumper Nathan Douglas who hails from Oxfordshire spoke about his experiences as a professional athlete and hopes for 2012.

It's an Olympic fact:...'an estimated £1billion of additonal visitor expenditure will be generated in the South East as a result of the London 2012 Olympic Games.'

Even if your business is not competing to win contracts for the Games, those businesses who have won contracts may very well need help too! Contracts are advertised on websites including: http://www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/, http://www.businessportal.southeastiep.gov.uk/ and http://www.competefor.com/


The Olympics is certainly proving a popular theme for all sorts of business activities, events and promotions in the run up to the games.

Look out for local as well as national events taking place and opportunities for regional and local businesses to get involved. For example, The Olympic Torch will visit Oxford (7 July), Reading (10 July), Southampton (14 Jul) and a series of other locations (see www.london2012.com/olympic-torch-relay) for all details. Also, in Oxfordshire the Tree of Life cultural event will be on 9 July in Stonor Park. The games are also due to be shown on big screen in public spaces across the county. Go to http://www.oxfordshiregameon.co.uk/ for a calender of local events.

NB: Of course, there are very strict guidelines surrounding all mentions of the games, key phrases to do with the games and of course logos. Full copyright guidelines are on http://www.tourism2012games.org/

New article published: Buildbase's Two Wheel Challenge

It was inspiring to meet the man behind Johnson's Buildbase's 10-strong team who are saddling up for a four-day cross-channel charity challenge to raise £250K for Macmillan this summer. It's a huge challenge for them and a great fundraising goal for their business, so I wish them all the best!

Read how they are preparing for the Macmillan London to Paris cycle ride, what's motivating them to help the charity and how people can get involved too here pages 88-89.

Planning tips - it's necessary but not always boring!

What better use of staying indoors in the warm than thinking of your goals for the next season and beyond...

A little time spent in some strategic and creative thinking can make a huge difference to the success of your PR and marketing plans for the short and longer term. Planning cycles take different shapes depending on the type of business, its customers' requirements and seasonal pressures for example. Plans must be adaptable and allow for reactive measures as well as driving proactive strategies to make a difference to your businesses' overall goals. However, some basic principles apply to planning ahead effectively - whatever the type of business or 'season' you are in.

Now is the time to start planning ahead - here are a few tips to help get into planning mode for success in the new season:

1. Review! What worked well over the past few months/year, what didn't and why? Ask your team for their feedback and ideas. Flag any pitfalls to aviod in the new season, and re-use tactics that worked well (adapting or re-freshing as necessary).
2. Big thinking... What is your overall big idea? What are your key strategic goals for the new year/season ahead? Re-visit your business plan - have your strategic aims changed, and how can you use the many varied tools of PR and maketing to help you achieve your business aims? Think short, medium and long term.
3. Refresh your goals. Once your strategy is clarified (if needed) or re-confirmed, set clear, measureable objectives to support the strategy.
4. Hit the target. Have your target markets shifted? What changes have happened or are currently happening in your industry that you need to take account of in your planning and what changes might come into play soon that will affect your target audiences and your business? Arm yourself with up-to-date market knowledge that will help you make informed decisions.
5. Get creative! Have some fun thinking of creative ways to fulfil new goals or tackle goals yet to achieve. Involve others in some creative thinking time and reward good ideas. Make it visual - use a big board to record ideas or create a colourful 'brain map' or spider diagram of ideas flowing out of a central aim or goal. Tackle one goal or challenge at a time to think about a range of different possible solutions and ideas.
6. Resource your plans... Now you know what you want to achieve next, do you have the support and skills sets in place to get it done? Draw in experts to fill in any gaps. Also think about staffing needs as far in advance as possible to ensure you get the pick of the crop when it comes to hiring talent - whether on a temporary, freelance, contract or permanent basis.
7. Build relationships. People are important! Take a few moments to think about what relationships are important to your business and why. Do you need to review your stakeholder contacts, do you need to nurture some key relationships and are there some new contacts you should be making in order to help drive your new business plans and strategies forward?

Obviously there is a lot more to be said on this topic, and some very specific ideas to put in place in order to create an effective PR plan. Hopefully these pointers might inspire some forward planing that will help reap results. Happy plannng!