4 Part Music Blog

It’s probably one of the most common phrases you hear. “Oh I can’t do that I will be at work” or “Sorry I’m late I had some work to get done”.  The thing is though, no one ever seems to have any time nowadays and a lot of this is attributable to “work”.  Speaking to those of an older generation than myself I’ve discovered that it didn’t always used to be this way.

Back in the mid 20th century, your average middle class blue collar worker would go to work at 9am and finish at 5pm having taken the 1 hour lunch break.  No one was ever seemingly in much of a hurry and yet all the work got done.  Coupled to this communication took longer. There were no computers, emails, internet, mobile phones twitter or any of the other “communication” means we take for granted today.  Ok there was the telephone but other than that everything had to be typed and posted.   Based on this, it could be assumed that everything will have taken longer. To send a purchase order, it would have to be typed, sealed in an envelope and sent by post to a supplier for example.  Nowadays a quick email is usually all it takes.

So if we can do everything so much faster today, then how come we don’t all have buckets of time available to do things other than “work”?   I often debate this when I reflect on the day and consider how much time I have given over to “working”.  I suppose one obvious reason is because everything is faster then you can do more in a day. So where before you would send a letter and then have to wait a few days for a response, now you can send an email and even if that person is on holiday the chances are they will get it on their Blackberry or iPhone and then respond within a few minutes.

In my opinion it comes down to knowing when to stop.  Going back 50 years, it was accepted that office hours were typically 9-5. I realise there are still some companies who adopt this policy but it is less widespread. Because there was no other means of communication then once you had left the office that was it. Which meant everyone could enjoy their leisure time.

The danger now is that even when you finish work at 5pm and leave the office you have so many opportunities to communicate.  Get in the car to drive home and you find your hands free car phone available to you.  Arrive home and there’s most likely a “web enabled” computer which will enable you to check emails. If you cant get to your home pc, then that’s ok because all your emails will be delivered to your phone.   Therefore many people never stop “working”.

Obviously it would be easy for me to say, just turn your phone off when you get home and instead of switching your computer on go out into the garden or go for a walk.  I’m sure many people do this, but the danger is what everyone else choose to be doing.  What concerns me is that currently I believe we still have the choice to “switch off”, but I think in the not to distant future it will be normal practice for everyone to always be connected to everyone else.  I personally think that would be a shame.

And on that note, at 10.32pm I am going to switch my computer off and go and do something which is not “work” related!

For the last few months I have been recording a monthly podcast with Lesley Anne Hornbogen of “On the Go”.   Lesley Anne is a virtual assistant and she see’s a monthly podcast as a means of communicating with her client base and new prospects.

However, a podcast is not simply an audio version of an email newsletter (at least not the traditional type of email newsletter which is often no more than a sales pitch!).  In the business world, a podcast is an opportunity for a business owner to “speak” to their clients or prospects and give an insight into not only their business but talk about their experience and current news items affecting their business as well.  I’ve so far recorded 3 podcasts with Lesley Anne and we have discussed a range of subjects including Networking, Social Media and the role of a Virtual Assistant.

Now, you would be forgiven for thinking that Lesley Anne and I presumably meet up in a recording studio to put together the podcast.  I think almost without exception every person that I meet and say I’m involved with a recording business immediately asks “wheres your studio?”.  But no, these podcasts are currently all recorded in Lesley Anne’s kitchen with us sat round the table.   Welcome to the world of on location recordings.

By doing this series of Podcasts with Lesley Anne, I am hoping to show that with the right equipment and setup you don’t actually need a “studio”.  After all, what exactly is a recording studio other than 4 walls, some microphones and other recording equipment?  Actually, there is a bit more too it than that, but the point is we carry everything needed to turn almost any space into an acoustically treated studio environment.  Luckily for me, Lesley Anne has agreed to be “experimented” on and we have tried various different setups.  I am particularly pleased with the 3rd podcast and would welcome any feedback.

You can listen to Lesley Anne’s podcasts by visiting the samples page of our website. Or alternatively for more information on our audio recording services please visit the main site here.

Last night I attended the first meeting of the Wiltshire Business Club which has recently been formed by Phil Hendy of PAH Accounting.   A familiar name in local networking, I first met Phil at 4 Networking in Devizes.

The Wiltshire Business club has been formed to bring together local business in Wiltshire (obviously!).  The first meeting last night was extremely well attended and I met up with some familiar faces and some new businesses.  The format of the evening combines some traditional networking ideas along with some new concepts. I particularly enjoyed the “blind meeting” where everyone was paired up for a ten minute appointment by picking a raffle ticket.  I found myself talking to Helen Silver of the Property Styling Company who used to boss me around when she was in charge of 4 Networking in Bath and I was merely the humble servant that is Operations Assistant.   Since then we have both moved on, Helen is a now an area leader for 4 Networking whilst I have currently let my membership lapse.

Further information on the Wiltshire business club can be found on their website.  I would recommend it to any Wiltshire based business. There is no date set for the next meeting but I will update this as soon as I have been made aware, or indeed someone with more information may well add a comment below!

I have spent the last few months going to really quite a lot of “networking breakfasts” using my passport membership with 4Networking. Through this “networking” I have met a lot of business people and also made a lot of friends.  So therefore I should stand up as most “4Networkers” do and pronounce it the best thing since the invention of the wheel.

To do this, however, you need to define what counts as success.  Part of the 4N ethos is 50% social and 50% business.  This to me seems an excellent idea – people buy people after all.  Certainly on the social front I have made a lot of good friends and some good business aquaintances and via the networking group I found a photographer for my wedding, an accountant for the business, a duplication house to produce our CD’s and 2 customers.   So on balance that’s not too bad then.  Always remember, finding good suppliers is just as good if not better than finding customers!

However, if I take a purely economic viewpoint and add up the cost of membership, the cost of breakfasts and the cost of travelling to the breakfasts then I am probably currently around £500 out of pocket.  With the membership renewal looming this makes for an interesting challenge. My accountant would probably say its not financially viable to renew.   The thing is though, networking is a slow burner. You can’t just turn up and instantly expect everyone to give you business, even if like me your business is fairly unique – I feel sorry for all the accountants, business coaches and solicitors!!  I have always been clear at networking meetings that ultimately I’m not interested in selling to anyone in the room. Only once did I find someone at the breakfast who happened to run a string quartet.  Realistically classical musicians dont do networking meetings!  So therefore I need to know who people know and in order to get that, they need to like and trust me enough to pass on their contacts.  From this comes the whole 4 Networking concept of Meet, Like, Know, Trust which is quite possibly the best thing Brad Burton has ever come up with and definately sums up the way to approach networking.

Will I renew my membership to 4N? Yes I most likely will regardless of whether it makes economic sense because in the world of recordings and music it’s all about who you know.  If I can pick up the odd customer along the way then so much the better, but even if 4N produces no further customers, it will have a value to me personally.

If you want to find out more about 4 Networking then take a look at their website http://www.4networking.biz/

So goes the strapline for 4 Networking which for anyone who isn’t initiated in this is all about business networking. Some would argue its actually all about having breakfast!   I was reflecting on this yesterday whilst attending a networking meeting at Chippenham which due to refurbishment of the usual venue was held in one of the members houses and as an aside raised £140 for charity!    As for the 50% social versus 50% business, this isn’t far off the mark. I probably see the meetings as entirely social and after 9 months of membership count a lot of 4Networking members as friends.

One of the good friends I have made through 4 Networking is Michael Palmer of Ignite Photography – www.ignitephotos.co.uk

No that’s not Mike, but its one of his photos taken at the Chippenham 4Networking breakfast which being in Ellie’s house had the addition of her two cavalier spaniels!

Use of audio on a business website is an ideal way of adding a personal touch to your business.  It’s widely accepted that people buy people before products and services.  By using short audio clips on your website you can give your customers the chance to get to know you before they consider your business.

Nowadays this even more important as competition is getting tougher in the vast majority of businesses, particularly with the economic climate being what it is.  By offering on location recordings for web audio we give you the opportunity to speak to your clients before you meet them and give them an overview of your business in your own words.

Think of it rather like an email newsletter but in spoken form.  The biggest benefit of an audio file is that your customers or prospects can download this and listen in their own time.

As part of my commitment to 4 Networking I am giving a series of 4 sight talks (an insight not a sales pitch into a specialist subject), and I have taken as my title “Does a Duck’s Quack Echo?”.  The idea originally came about as I was trying to find an amusing take on the world of recordings without actually just preaching to people about what recording companies do!  Of course the danger of an amusing or intriguing title is that the actual content of the presentation has to live up to people’s expectations.

The Duck talk had its second outing at 4N Cribbs Causeway this morning and went reasonably well I think.  I’ve developed the theme slightly this time and focused on the idea of questions which don’t necessarily need to be asked but in asking can lead to a positive result.  The concept behind this is the idea that many businesses once they become successful stop trying to push the boundaries and make changes to their operation. Now of course, this may be no bad thing, lets face it, if you have found a solution that works then some might argue it would be foolish to change it.  My point however is that the world and the business which goes on in it, is always changing. It is therefore important to keep questioning everything.  Just because you have happy customers today doesn’t mean they can’t be even happier tomorrow.

At 4 Part Music, we are always asking ourselves, what can we do to improve the quality of our recordings and therefore the quality of the service we provide to our customers.  There are of course many days where we do not necessarily have an answer to this question – again I am not proposing change simply for the sake of change.  But nevertheless it is important to keep asking the question. That way you can ensure you are always one step ahead of your competition and one step nearer to your next job.  Remember, in business you are only as good as your last job. It therefore always needs to be your best job!

Nutritionalists and other health experts have long been telling us that its important to have a good breakfast.  There are plenty of statistics around which aim to prove this fact and show how we will all be far more awake and be able to concentrate after a bowl of cornflakes or some egg and bacon.  The trouble is many of us don’t have time in the morning to prepare a fry up or make our own bread and all the other things that go with a healthy breakfast.

Falling into this category myself I decided to do something about it so joined 4 Networking, which combines a bit of business with a spot of breakfast. By doing so I was then able to go and have breakfast at one of around 200 locations throughout the UK, four days a week.   What attracted me most, apart from the idea of a cooked breakfast 4 times a week, was the premise that the meetings are 50% social and 50% business.  I admit, I was initially sceptical. Lets face it how many musicians, choir masters or music directors is one likely to meet at such events which to my mind are aimed at accountants, solicitors and independent financial advisors? 

However, I also take the view that nothing ventured nothing gained.  So back in September I signed up for a years membership and along with that took on the post of Operations Assistant at the Bath group – if a job’s worth doing then its worth doing properly.  With its combination of the online forum and the networking breakfasts 4 days a week 4N provides a great chance to interactive with other people from a wide variety of businesses.  After 6 months we have already gained a number of suppliers and this week will be doing a recording which arose as a direct result of a 4N meeting.   It’s certainly not the be all and end all of business promotion but is becoming an important part of the marketing mix and one which I will continue to develop over the forthcoming months.

Over the last few months I have become increasingly aware of “twitter” as the latest “must have” social networking tool.  Looking around the 4 Networking forum it seems everyone is twittering at everyone else and apparently we must all let the world know our every move.  In principle I’m not against this and last year I eventually relented and joined facebook. As a social networking site it seems to me to be about right.  You can interact with your friends, share pictures  and let people know what your doing.

However, to my untrained eye, twitter seems to be a cut down version of facebook and is nothing more than a short message which tells all your friends what you’re doing at any given moment.  Well, that seems entirely reasonable but I just wonder if anyone actually cares what I’m doing.  Currently Jules is writing a post for the blog and in a little while Jules will go and put the kettle on.  Who actually needs to know any of this?

Moreover there appear to be a lot of people who are on every possible social networking site which must mean they spend most of the time just updating their status which surely doesnt leave much time to actually do whatever it is their status says they are doing at the time!  I’m not saying I won’t twitter, I just need to think about it a bit more first!