Judith Morgan, Wealth Coach for Entrepreneurs

Cool URLs and Cool Websites and Cool Business Ideas

When out and about driving in my car, I find out a lot about popular culture and what's going on in the world from billboards, from the news, from radio - I'm a radio tart flitting between Radio 2 (for Terry Wogan, Steve Wright and Chris Evans) and the commercial channels (Classic FM, Magic, Heart etc. depending where I am in the UK and my mood).

Last week I noticed a very cool URL as I was driving in North London JunkAndDisorderly.com - now don't tell me that's not a FAB URL - memorable, I can still remember it from Friday!   And if I wanted my rubbish clearing, I'd be ringing them as they obviously have a sense of humour and an eye for a cool URL too, like me.   They don't have a particularly cool website but no matter, it's done the marketing job.   I saw them, I remembered them, it reminded me easily where to go if I needed rubbish clearance and I could find them speedily on the web this morning.

My other favourite URL from last week was something I heard about on Chris Evans' show.   His wife had a baby last week, Noah, and we were all on tenterhooks for a while as the baby was a tad overdue. On the day Noah was born, a conversation broke out about the things new mothers want to eat and drink, having been denied them for the prevous nine months or so - shellfish, soft cheeses, pate, wine etc.  And yes, you guessed it, someone has created a site which supplies hampers to new mums.   Its called - wait for it - Mummy's Little Hamper.co.uk.   Now if that doesnt strike you as a cool URL, then you are not old enough to remember what it alludes to or know what it means. Genius.

And finally, the weekend papers had a couple of wonderful ideas - sites that re-cycle trainers into new footwear.   What a brilliant idea!   Check out WornAgain.co.uk and FairDealTrading.com from whom I bought a paid of ethical pink sneakers only this morning!   That's the thing about good marketing; I'm a sucker when its done well.   It's rude not to buy.

Tonight, Matthew, I'm Going To Be... Duffy

Well, I was going to be, but someone beat me to it!   Let me explain.

There's this STONKING Great Little Business in London's Soho and also in Manchester apparently.   It's called Lucky Voice and its what they call private karaoke.   In Soho, its underneath Yo Sushi and you can eat sushi while you sing if you wish.   We don't.   We are very serious singers and we get stuck straight in at 6.30 until 10.30 for four hours of karaoke.   And drinking.   I dread to think what last night's bar bill was, even though I was only on the lime & sodas, as ever.

Does four hours sound a lot to you, bearing in mind we are stone cold sober when we start?   Well, here's the first rule of karaoke... no matter how many hours you have booked, it's never enough.   When they throw you out, you are bereft and beg to stay, all to no avail as they are hard as nails.

Why else is Lucky Voice a Great Little Business? 

The Elite Entrepreneurs Make Me Cry

During last week's Mastermind meeting of the Elite Entrepreneurs Club, I had to reach for the tissues not once, but twice!   One of my clients, with whom I have been working for a couple of years, came up with his best idea for his business yet.   An idea so stonking and so brave that I was in awe and the tears came quickly.   Another client managed to do the same thing to me, her achievements are awesome.   You both know who you are - thank you for making me cry, no really!

I wonder if anyone else other than a coach could know how precious it is to be present when your client emerges as an even better version of themselves?   More confident, more successful, more energised, more powerful.

One of the team even said to me "are we doing this next year?"   With results like that?   You betcha. I couldnt stop this work now if I wanted to.   Just to be present to the magnificence of my clients is a unique honour.   Not to mention the fun we had at the party the night before!

The Elite Entrepreneurs Club will indeed start again in September 2008 when we will re-convene a Wednesday Group and a Friday Group.   If you would like to talk to me now to make sure you get one of those precious seats in one of our EEC Mastermind Groups, then please don't delay, email me today.

A Great Little Business Discovered in Clapham

Uber business coach, Chris Barrow, says that there is an opportunity to create a life-long fan when something goes wrong between you and your client.   Instead of ducking and diving and trying to justify what your client considers to be a f**k up and standing tall in your defensiveness and having a row, go the distance to sort it out and they will love you forever.

Just such an opportunity came up recently for Clapham Removals, who I hired to take my living room furniture into storage over one weekend while the wooden floor was being varnished.   The sofa went off with four legs and came back with only three!

Coming hot on the heels of several weeks of long-running disaster sagas surrounding my move to beautiful downtown Streatham Hill, this wasn't exactly the last straw, but it was pretty close to.  Tottering on the edge of sanity, I addressed the issue with one of da management on the Monday morning and to cut a long story short - he sorted it for me.   I reported to him where I bought the sofabed and which model it is and he negotiated with Highly Sprung for a replacement leg.   Yes, I chased and chivvied a bit, but yesterday (about 4 weeks after the little upset), the long-suffering guy from Clapham Removals triumphantly arrived with 4 new legs and fitted the missing one and now I have three spares.  Result.

And here's the good bit.   Until they had sorted out my feet, they didnt charge me for the service they had provided to me.   How brilliant is that?   Many thanks to all concerned.

Why else is this good?   Because when my Elite Entrepreneurs come NEXT month, they won't have to sit on a wobbly sofa - sorry team!

Small Biz Heaven in the World of Catflaps!

Never wanting much to move from my office chair and doing the work I love, I turn to Google for the solution to every problem.   And just having recently moved house, there have been a fair few such challenges of late. Last week's was who was going to come and bring a catflap with him and install it so Mitsy could start to enjoy the wild outdoors in Streatham Hill and thus liberate me from kitty litter duty?

Bless Google, she came up trumps again.   And within a few moments I found Colin The Catflap (as he shall henceforth be known, at least to me) and it wasnt hard because his URL is CatFlapFitter.co.uk. I couldn't get Colin's 0800 number to work but no matter, he had a client contact form to fill out on his (slightly dodgy) website and he returned my call the same evening.   He made an appointment to fit the flap on a Thursday lunchtime, he turned up when he said he would with the flap we had agreed upon in advance having discussed my needs, he replaced a panel in the door, upgrading it to a better quality UPVC in the process and he presto!   Mitsy is free.

Now to the neighbourhood cats, foxes and squirrels in her garden, but that's another story for another day.

Lessons I have learned from this.   Get your keywords in your URL whenever possible and don't obsess about your website being perfect as long as its visible high enough up on Google for me to find you with ease.   Do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it including calling them back when they have gone to the trouble of leaving their contact details at your website; be reliable.  Get great testimonials from raving fans and you will be in smallbiz heaven for as long as you want to travel the length and breadth of the UK installing catflaps or whatever it is that you do!   More power to Colin's catflap fitting elbow.   Another Great Little Business.