Chairman's Blog Archives - Page 23 of 31

CEO’s Blog – Have I offended you yet?

Posted on 13 November 2018 by Martin Port

First, a warning: This post is going to be divisive.

Half the people who read on will think I’m talking sense, and the other half will think I’m completely wrong. It probably says quite a lot about me that I’m going to write it anyway.

I want to talk about political correctness, offence, and the modern workplace.

This all started when someone from an agency who works for BigChange came into the office. I meet everyone who works for BigChange, whether they’re on the payroll or external. I like to know who I’m dealing with.

I did what I always do. I asked about her background. What is your family like? Are you married? What have you been up to recently? She was shocked and complained to a colleague that I’d been asking about her private life. “What’s it got to do with him?” she asked. “Doesn’t he know it’s illegal to ask personal questions?”

I’m going to come out and ask what I’ve been thinking ever since that meeting: What is the big deal?

I’ve been in business all my life. I never went to university, so everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned my own way. When I’m employing someone, I want to know as much about them as I can. Every scrap of information they give me helps me build a picture of them as an individuals, their strengths and weaknesses, and how best to manage them. If someone is married with a stable family life, that tells me something about that individual. That’s not to say I wouldn’t give the job to someone who was struggling or had personal problems; on the contrary, that knowledge would help me understand and get the best out of that colleague.

I believe in creating a fair and fulfilling work environment. I would never discriminate against anyone. I don’t care about gender, ethnicity, sexuality, or disability, as long as you work hard and do a good job for me. But, these days, I’m starting to feel that I – and other company bosses like me – are instantly judged to be prejudiced dinosaurs. The revelations about Harvey Weinstein and now Philip Green haven’t helped. But we’re not all like that.

If I’m trusting a person I’ve never met before to join my business, why can’t I ask a few probing questions? We’re a family here, and I want to make sure that you’re going to mesh well with colleagues.

I’m sure that when we eventually take on a full-time HR person – we’re recruiting right now – they will have a quite a bit to say on this. But, for now, I stand by my interviewing style. Business is based on relationships and relationships are based on trust. How do you build trust without getting to know each other? If you want to ask me anything, go ahead. I won’t be offended.

Other companies go about this the long way round. They set psychometric tests and check people’s Facebook and Instagram pages for personal information. I don’t do that. I come straight out and ask what I want to know.

I feel we live in a time where political correctness is merging with the new culture of offence, which means that people are more likely to be upset and insulted than ever before. How can we live in a time where people are free to be whomever they want to be, yet as a society we aren’t allowed to notice or ask questions about it because that’s too personal or discriminatory? Surely openness should go both ways?

In business, the contradictions are coming thick and fast. We are told to aim for a diverse workforce but god forbid you say you’re looking to hire a woman for a role. If I’m emailing in a hurry, and send a one-word reply to an urgent email, suddenly I’m a tyrannical boss. If I don’t reply because I don’t have time to compose an essay, I’m negligent. Everyone wants laughter and banter in the office but if a joke isn’t to an individual’s taste, suddenly managers are forced to mediate, which is a total waste of everyone’s time.

Am I alone in finding all this slightly ridiculous? Do people have nothing better to do than become obsessed with small slights these days? What happened to giving others the benefit of the doubt?

Sometimes I feel like I can’t say anything without offending someone. Maybe I should say I’m offended that people find me offensive, and see where that gets me…

I’d love to know what my fellow business owners think. Please get in touch, whether you agree with me or, even better, if you don’t!

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

CEO’s Blog – Join me in banishing phones from the meeting room

Posted on 3 November 2018 by Martin Port

Technology is amazing, It can make us better people, help us complete tasks faster and more effectively, and has brought about incredible opportunities that would never have been possible a decade ago.

But it can also be poisonous.

This week, I’ve been talking to my wife, Amanda, about this contradiction. She is increasingly worried about the effect that too much technology – an overdose on smartphones and social media – has on young people. If you’re interested in what sparked our conversation, it’s this video by Simon Sinek on “The Millennial Question” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vudaAYx2IcE&feature=youtu.be

The statistics are quite shocking. Young people’s anxiety levels are going through the roof. Loneliness is a major concern. The younger generation seems to be getting more and more isolated.

I’ve started noticing some alarming trends in the workplace too. People always bring phones to meetings and are constantly distracted by new messages or social media posts. Team members tend not to pick up the phone and call clients; they want to do everything over email these days. They are increasingly sleep deprived because of staring at the “white light” device screens emit late at night. This not only creates stress, it also means that many people struggle to focus.

I’ve been in business for over 40 years, so I have seen the impact these trends are having over time. It worries me. So I’ve decided to do something about it.

Ban phones from meetings

I’m initiating a new campaign at BigChange to ban phones from meeting rooms. Unless someone on the team needs a device for note taking, or to demo an app update, all phones will be going into a box at the start of the meeting, and they will be returned at the end.

The world will not end if we are separated from our phones for an hour or so. I really want to encourage people to focus on the matter at hand during meetings, and to break the hold that devices seem to have on my team members. It’s like they’re physically attached to their smart phones.

Recognise that social media and phone use is an addiction

When we think of addiction, we think of gambling or alcohol but phones and social media can be just as problematic, and just as bad for our health. I was shocked to learn that getting “likes” and texts can give the brain a surge of dopamine, which is the brain’s “reward” chemical. If you don’t get your hit, it can cause a chemical imbalance, which manifests as depression and anxiety.

From now on, at BigChange, we want to recognise that too much technology can be damaging. I want to help educate my team about the importance of “unplugging” and having time away from devices each day. I’m looking at ways that we can use coaching and workshops to reduce our dependency on our phones.

I will be part of the change

I have to hold my hands up. I’m a big part of the problem here at BigChange. I often check my phone late at night and send emails at 2am. There is also a total lack of separation between the workday and our downtime, because we carry our emails and Whatsapp groups (that’s one I don’t do) with us wherever we go.

I thought that it didn’t matter when I sent emails as long as I made it clear that I didn’t expect an immediate response. But I understand now that it’s not that simple: when you see that nagging red bubble above your inbox, telling you there’s a new message, it’s hard to ignore.

I’m going to work hard to change my email habits so that I’m not contributing to my team’s work stress. I already take a phone break for 25 hours each Friday night / Saturday, because I observe the Sabbath, but I’m going to try and take a break from emailing through till the end of Sunday too.

This really is an urgent issue. I would like to start a movement and encourage more company bosses like me to help their people conquer technology addiction. Not just because employee productivity will soar if we look after our team members’ mental health and help them to focus at work, but because we risk damaging a whole generation of young people if we don’t act now. The phone was invented to encourage conversation but now it seems to kill it dead.

Let’s fight back.

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

CEO’s Blog – Department for Transport today published figures today revealing that there were 1,793 reported road deaths in Britain in 2017, five a day on average

Posted on 27 October 2018 by Martin Port

Leaders for Life was developed by BigChange in partnership with road safety charity Brake, and is supported by the racing driver Nicolas Hamilton and several prominent business leaders.

BigChange and Brake launch life-saving campaign for safer driving at work

BigChange offering free driver monitoring technology to inspire road safety improvements
Campaign supporters include road safety charity Brake and British racing driver Nic Hamilton (Brother of Lewis)
Official figures published today reveal that 1,793 people were killed on UK roads last year
Leeds, UK, 27 September 2018 – BigChange, the mobile workforce management technology company, today announced the launch of Leaders for Life, a new campaign designed to turn business leaders into role models for road safety and reduce the number of people killed on Britain’s roads by people driving for work.

Department for Transport today published figures today revealing that there were 1,793 reported road deaths in Britain in 2017, five a day on average, and 170,993 casualties of all severities.

Leaders for Life was developed by BigChange in partnership with road safety charity Brake, and is supported by the racing driver Nicolas Hamilton and several prominent business leaders. BigChange is offering its driving analysis technology free of charge to the leaders of medium and large UK businesses, to help them understand how safe their driving is and take steps to improve it.

BigChange is providing its driving analysis technology free of charge to business leaders so that aspects such as speed, braking, acceleration and cornering can be evaluated. It will provide confidential feedback on leaders’ driving habits and donate £1,000 each month to Brake on behalf of the best and most improved drivers. BigChange’s technology is already used to monitor the driving habits of 20,000 company drivers in the UK.

BigChange aims to recruit more than 1,000 business leaders to support its campaign by acting as role models for road safety by the end of the year. Des Evans OBE, formerly managing director of MAN Truck & Bus UK, Richard Burnett, Chief Executive of the Road Haulage Association, and the British racing driver Nic Hamilton are among the leaders who have already agreed to take part in the campaign.

Martin Port, CEO of BigChange, comments: “The technology now exists to monitor how safely people drive in a cost-effective and non-intrusive way, yet far too many companies simply pay lip service to road safety and do nothing to encourage better driving by their employees. More than 500 people are killed each year by people driving for work in the UK, we are launching Leaders for Life to reduce this number by making business leaders role models for road safety.”

Mary Williams OBE, chief executive at Brake, comments: “More than a fifth of all deaths and serious injuries on our roads involve someone driving for work. This statistic is a stark illustration of why CEOs must make safe driving a priority for their business. Brake is proud to support Leaders for Life, a fantastic initiative from BigChange, which helps CEOs to lead by example and promote safe driving behaviour to their employees.”

Nic Hamilton, racing driver and ambassador for the Leaders for Life campaign, comments: “The place for rapid acceleration, driving quickly, braking late and cornering at speed is for the track, not the road, and even for racing you have to earn your stripes and complete a test to get your licence. It’s fantastic to see BigChange and Brake engaging business leaders as role models for safer driving in this campaign. I am delighted to be supporting the Leaders for Life campaign and I would urge all business leaders to sign up and play their part in reducing risk on Britain’s roads.”

Business leaders wishing to be ambassadors for safer driving can register to support the Leaders for Life campaign at https://www.bigchange.com/leadersforlife/.

ENDS

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

CEO’s Blog – Sound the good news klaxon – BigChange celebrates record quarter

Posted on 26 October 2018 by Martin Port

Reading the headlines in the newspapers you’d be forgiven for thinking that the UK is going to hell in a handcart.

Brexit. The spectre of recession. Talent shortages. Britain’s economy is under siege. This is why I am delighted to announce that BigChange is bucking the trend to post a record third quarter.

So far this year, new contract wins have surpassed the £10m mark, a 50% increase on 2017. We have welcomed 170 new customers into the business over the last nine months. Our existing customer base remains loyal and committed to our service too: we now have a total of 800 customers in the UK, Scandinavia, France, Cyprus, Australia and the US.

We couldn’t have done it without you!

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all our customers, existing and new, for your faith in us and your continued commitment to BigChange. Over the past few months, I’ve been blogging regularly about the ways that BigChange hopes to make a difference to your business. Here are some of the highlights:

You can read some of our customer case studies, featuring incredible brands like Housing Unit, FSH, Complete Business solutions and GAP Group on our website www.bigchange.com/about-us/news-blog/

I also want to thank the spectacular team at BigChange, who have worked tirelessly to support our incredible growth. We now employ more than 90 people between the UK and France. As a testament to our internal talent, we have promoted many team members this year, helping them to progress in their chosen fields and careers. We continue to introduce lots of new talent to the company to make sure we can support our future growth.

As mentioned last week in my blog Pain and sorrow of recruitment, we are looking to recruit another 25 people over the next 12 months. These roles include: developers, project managers, business advisors, and RoadCrew customer support. Finding great new people is always a challenge so if you, or someone you know, are keen to join a fast-growth tech company in the UK’s greatest city – Leeds – get in touch!

Our commitment to innovation

I’m excited to announce the launch of our new Business Advisory team, which will focus on helping our customers to meet their growth goals, helping you to get the most out of the BigChange service offering.

This team will offer regular review meetings, workflow integration optimisation, training, report writing, custom reports and automation to help deliver further return on investment to our JobWatch customers. Interested? Contact the RoadCrew team for further information.

The innovation doesn’t end there. We have now launched our booking app, and have seen an excellent take up. It will revolutionise the way your business manages both planned and reactive bookings.

Our lab development team has been hard at work developing new features such as our new Collaboration tool, which allows two separate companies to share a job. Collaboration manages the whole process, from booking to scheduling jobs, and even takes care of health and safety and workflow using the managing company’s own templates. At a recent shop floor day, I connected two companies in the door industry using our new tool. I look forward to posting an update on how that relationship benefited both firms. Other developments include:-

Rating Tables – will allow users to price jobs based off worksheet questions, allows bespoke pricing and quoting on site.
Worksheet icons answer type – hugely popular for faster worksheet completion and easier to understand for users moving from paper systems with tick sheets.
User event logging – enhanced audit trails of users log in activities, exports and various other interactions.
Collaboration – ability to pass jobs from one customer to another and passing worksheets via this method.
Photo history and multiple file upload on devices – view all historical photos on device at job location and upload multiple photos or files on devices in one action.

Other notable changes; Incoming call popup. Shared credit limit to descendent contacts. DSAR – data subject access requests now possible in one simple action via admin section. Enhanced Sage 50 link

A great place to work

We are also excited about our new office at Thorpe Park Leeds. We were getting a bit cramped at our old site so it’s been a dream to move into this 10,000 sq ft modern building. Moving was a headache read my blog I Survivor office move but it was worth it to have this great working environment for both the team and our customers.

We must be doing something right. We keep winning awards for our success!

Recent notable awards include: The Deloitte Technology Fast 50, The Sunday Times Tech Track 100, The LinkedIn Top 10 Startups to Watch Outside London , The Brake Fleet Safety Innovation Award, SHD 2018 Logistics Award “EDITORS CHOICE AWARD” BigChange in partnership with Silentnight Beds. We were also shortlisted for the IOD CSR award this year, and hailed as “one to watch” in the LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme, supported by The Telegraph.

Charitable work

Last but not least, BigChange continues to support many charitable organisations that are close to our hearts. We now donate to more than 25 brilliant charities that do incredible work in Leeds and beyond.

I was proud to be made an ambassador for Transaid after personally visiting Zambia with the charity earlier this year. I saw for myself the incredible work done on the ground fighting malaria in Serenje and visited the driver training school in Lusaka. If you want to support this great cause, find out more here: http://www.transaid.org/

Thanks for tuning in to this update on our progress. Normal blog service will resume next week!

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

CEO’s Blog – The pain and sorrow of recruitment

Posted on 20 October 2018 by Martin Port

As an entrepreneur, you face new and complex challenges all the time. But however hard you try, there’s just one problem that never goes away. How to consistently find enough brilliant people to meet the demands of a growing business…

I know this is an age-old problem but it’s one of my biggest sources of frustration right now. I don’t think there’s ever been a tougher time to recruit people. Unemployment is at a record low in this country; just 4pc of the population is out of work. That’s great but it also means that competition for staff is at an all-time high. No wonder wages are rising at their fastest rate for almost a decade right now.

I feel as though I’m personally responsible for a good chunk of that salary rise, by the way. Not because I’m paying over the odds for our people at BigChange but because of the sheer number of people who have applied for a job here, only to be offered an extraordinary pay rise by their current employer to keep them. Around 60pc of the people we try to bring on are lured back by an offer they can’t refuse: more money; a better job title; and very little extra work to do to earn it.

It takes a very special kind of person to leave a steady 9-5 at a big company to work at a fast-growth start-up like ours. I don’t sugarcoat it for prospective staff either. The hours can be long, and the role is always varied. We pay well and there are great perks, but if you just want to clock off early, this isn’t the place for you.

We need to recruit three or four people a month to meet the needs of this growing company. These roles are across the business, from customer services to sales, development to professional services. We’re even trying to recruit a HR director to help expedite all the other hiring we need to do (does this sound like you? Drop me a message).

Right now, we are spending around eight hours on each new prospect, which is a huge waste of time when they go back to their existing employer, who panics and promises them the earth.

I’m trying to work out how to solve this problem, and increase the proportion of candidates that turn into team members. So this is my new strategy. I’m going to throw money at the problem. If we don’t use an agency, which means we can raise our salary offers by 15-20%. We currently incentivise our team members to recommend new people by giving them £500 for each new hire. I’m raising this to £1,000. I’ve got a copywriter putting together a full-page job advertisement to run in the local paper. We need to be better at shouting about all the opportunities here: many of our people have gone from a starting salary to £50,000 within four years. That’s got to be attractive idea, right?

We have also started hiring more people than we need for certain roles, and opting for starters who are bit more junior or less experienced, and training them up in-house. I’m planning to start attending more job fairs, and using social media – like LinkedIn – to source great talent. We already give out a wave of share options to existing employees each year but perhaps that would be a sweetener for new starters too? Am I missing anything? If you have any ideas, I would be delighted to hear from you.

There are 90 people at BigChange right now. These people are my priority. I don’t want them to get stressed out and overworked because we can’t hire enough new team members. At the same time, you only want to employ the right people for the business. We don’t want people who are being forced out of their last job because of issues there. We want the people who are at the top of their game, and excited about the next chapter of their career.

Recruitment is a major challenge but I’ll tell you this: I’m not revising any of my growth plans for BigChange. We’re going to keep going, winning new business and punching above our weight in our sector. I just hope that we find the solution to our people challenges soon, or I’ll just have to start cloning the stars in my organisation… Actually, is that an option?

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

CEO’s Blog – Don’t let the blockers hold you back

Posted on 4 October 2018 by Martin Port

In business, as in life, there are always people who are resistant to change.

Now that I’m on my third business, I have realised that these obstinate individuals pose a real risk to the growth of an innovative company. They are far more dangerous than they may at first appear.

You know the kind of person I’m talking about:

“We’ve always done it this way and it works fine.”

“It can’t be done.”

“We’re too busy to try that.”

As a leader, it is my job to make sure that everyone in my team is pulling in the same direction, and that they are united by a common goal or dream. It is also my job to help my colleagues deal with blockers on the customer side. Here’s how you do it.

Spotting a blocker

If only this were easy. Unfortunately, blockers come in many guises. The most obvious is the “negative” blocker, who always finds a reason why something can’t be done. But there are also “silent” blockers, who hinder change simply by withholding an opinion or refusing to engage. “Agreeable” blockers are by far the trickiest customers to deal with. They will agree with your plan for change and even seem to be fully behind you… Then do all they can to block you behind the scenes.

Remember that blockers often think that they are indispensable to the business. Look out for arrogance or stubbornness. One common thread amongst blockers is that they refuse to be transparent about their role – they may be lax on paperwork or process, because they feel they are above these petty tasks. If they seem mistrustful of other departments, and are quick to criticise colleagues, that may reveal a tendency to block. If their idea of what constitutes their role is too narrow and intractable, that’s another dead giveaway.

Blockers rarely have original ideas, so ask your team to suggest innovations that could improve the company – or tweaks that would improve current processes. Individuals who consistently fail to contribute any new ideas may be blockers.

Avoid hiring a blocker

You can weed out blockers at the interview stage, if you know what you’re looking for. Ask prospective colleagues to tell you about a time they have effected change at their previous company. You want to gauge whether this individual is someone who gets excited about bringing new projects to life.

Ask how they have dealt with resistance from others – and make sure questions are open: nothing that can be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

It’s great when you find a new member of the team that isn’t afraid to question the status quo – but be wary of people who are simply argumentative or intolerant. Body language can be revealing: arms folded, or sitting back in their seat? This could be evidence of a disengaged individual.

Can you rehabilitate a blocker?

Not every blocker is a true blocker at heart. You can’t change people’s nature but there are instances where someone who isn’t a blocker may behave like one. They may lack motivation, or need more responsibility.

One way to tackle a blocker in your midst is to give them an opportunity to talk about why they are frustrated in their role. Allow them to make their own suggestions for ways to improve performance. It may seem counter intuitive but sometimes, giving a blocker more control over the change – and incentivising them to be invested in its success – can help.

Some blockers are simply insecure and reluctant to let others shine in case it draws attention to their failings. Training that helps the blocker address gaps in their skillset can help. But it’s important to know when the case is hopeless. Watch out for individuals who say things like: “This place would never survive without me” or “What I say goes”.

Encourage new ideas

One way to ensure that you don’t start harbouring blockers in your organisation is to create an environment that encourages new ideas and collaboration. A great way to do this, according to one of my senior managers, is to hold regular problem-solving meetings that involve people from across different departments. By throwing people together in this way, they learn a new appreciation for the challenges and stresses faced by colleagues.

As a leader, we also have to guard against our own blocking tendencies: don’t let ‘no’ be your first thought when new ideas are presented. If someone suggests an idea that has been rejected before, take the time to explain why – but maintain an open mind. Maybe the situation has changed?

Blockers exist in almost every organisation. Don’t let them hold you back.

I’d love to hear your views and strategies for managing those who are resistant to change. Share your experience of dealing with blockers in the comments below.

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

CEO’s Blog – Turn your business into an empire. Plug into the BigChange network

Posted on 26 September 2018 by Martin Port

BigChange collaboration allows companies to allocate jobs to their partners.

It tracks all the paperwork, monitors issues like health and safety, takes care of billing and scheduling, and updates all parties on the progress of the jobs in real time – giving a sense of control and transparency.

Imagine that you run a plumbing company in Scotland. Your local customers love you and want to work with you on a nationwide basis, but you don’t have the resources to take on contracts in Wales or down in London. Through BigChange, you can now collaborate with other plumbing companies in other areas and sub-contract out the work.

I can’t overstate the potential of something like this. Small businesses can act like big companies – at the touch of a screen. They can reach an almost unlimited scale, bolting on other services and growing their empires. Think of the savings in travel costs if you could sub-contract out work at the other end of the country?

Virtual companies could be created, drawing on the expertise of other firms, using their sales and marketing expertise to grow and thrive.

UK businesses could expand overseas using this system – something that many entrepreneurs may find useful post-Brexit. You could find a contractor in Australia for your customer and watch the job being done in real-time.

In the past, collaboration like this has been bogged down in paperwork, email and endless phone calls. The mist falls over Paper Town and it’s hard to know what’s going on. With JobWatch, it’s all clear and paperless, and your partners appear like an extension of your own firm. Your customers even see the same screen if they log into the booking portal to check which jobs have been completed. Your partner company invoices you, and you invoice your customer as usual – all through BigChange.

It’s that easy.

We don’t charge our customers anything extra to collaborate, but we benefit because we believe that the collaboration feature will encourage more customers to join us. That’s the beauty of a business like this: by focusing on making our customers more successful, we succeed too.

If you are interested in receiving more information on how you can expand your network please email [email protected] for more information.

All The Best

Martin

Martin Port

Founder & CEO

Tel +44 113 4571000

Direct +44 113 4570966

Mob +44 7973 671779

Email [email protected]

Web www.bigchange.com

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

CEO’s Blog – Your problem isn’t a lack of ideas – it’s too many of them

Posted on 19 September 2018 by Martin Port

Focus. This is the most underrated term in entrepreneurship today.

Concentrating on your core business – consistently doing what you already do well – may sound easy. The reality is that it’s very hard.

There are always distractions out there. Sometimes, these distractions are disguised as great business strategies or innovative projects. They rarely are. They are follies that suck up time and money and make you and your business less efficient.

I was reminded of the importance of focus recently, when reading about the woes at John Lewis. This is a business that is beloved by customers and employees alike. It’s been going for years, has an incredible track record, and is generally seen as the ‘rock’ of the high street. But suddenly, it’s making losses and posting 1,800 redundancies.

The management has blamed Brexit but I think there’s a different reason. John Lewis has been distracted from what it does best: selling goods that people want to buy to customers who want to buy them.

If you look at John Lewis’ model, it’s become confused in recent years. The business made an investment in Ocado over a decade ago, sustaining losses that – luckily – ended up in profit when it sold its stake in 2011. This once-in-a-blue-moon success seems to have convinced John Lewis that it is a venture capitalist, and it’s been backing lots of start-ups through its accelerator programme, JLABS. In the last year and a half, it has even moved into the service engineer space. It is my opinion that they’ve totally lost the plot there.

Can you imagine British Gas opening a department store? Or Homeserve selling wallpaper? John Lewis has no experience running a home services business. It’s completely foreign to the industry they know.

I think that all business owners, me included, should heed John Lewis’ cautionary tale. It’s easy to get carried away with a new idea. When you have shareholders to please, it’s tempting to keep announcing clever things that lift the share price that day. But it’s nonsense: long-term, the business will suffer.

I do some mentoring through Connect Yorkshire. There have been many times I’ve found myself sitting in front of someone turning over £1.5m, making £300,000 profit, with just 15 employees, who says to me: “I’ve got this great idea to do something completely different with this business.” Why? It’s because we entrepreneurs bore easily, and we love a challenge. But that’s the antithesis of good business practice.

I’m not infallible either. At BigChange, I nearly lost focus recently. A company approached me, offering to add drones to our product set. It sounded so exciting: hi-tech drone deliveries! I was tempted for about an hour but something kept bothering me: none of our customers have ever asked about drones. And I don’t believe in first-mover advantage in business. The pioneers often fail and it’s a later mover that wins the day – the second mouse gets the cheese, as they say.

As an entrepreneur, when you are considering a major move outside your comfort zone, ask yourself three questions.

1.) If the time and money it will require to launch this new idea were instead invested in your core business, listening to customers, and making improvements, would the return be higher?

2.) Have your customers said – explicitly – that they would pay for this new product or service? Not that it would be nice to have, or that it’s an interesting idea, but that they would spend cold, hard cash?

3.) Is someone already doing this better than you ever could?

I’m not trying to squash innovation. We need to be imaginative and keep trying to improve things for our customers. But we need to do that while maintaining focus on the sweet spot: the thing we are good at that customers consistently want to buy.

Right now, we’re selling our software to 25,000 mobile workers in the UK. But the UK market size is an estimated 7m people. That’s our focus, and I shan’t be getting distracted from that.

What’s yours?

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

CEO’s Blog – Don’t let anti-social media ruin your day

Posted on 12 September 2018 by Martin Port

I’ve had two issues last month that have taught me a lot about the weird and wonderful world of social media.

My first shock came last week, when I spotted a post from a colleague on LinkedIn. To spare everyone’s blushes, I won’t give too much detail but it contained an expletive, and tackled a controversial theme, referencing both me and BigChange by name.

The second post was also on LinkedIn. This one was published by a valued salesperson, who was frustrated after several appointments had been cancelled. This individual was asking if anyone wanted a last-minute meeting, and gave specific times when they were free.

Neither of these were major issues. They weren’t defaming the business. There were no sexist or racist comments. There was no nudity. Yet they both worried me, and I asked for both to be deleted.

Social media can be a brand wrecker, and I haven’t spent five years building a business I love to see its reputation tarnished by a thoughtless remark. The first post contained a swear word, which could really put off some of our clients. It was also being purposefully controversial, in a bid to get more views. That’s fine, but it wasn’t BigChange’s battle to fight, and as I hadn’t been asked permission, I was deeply unhappy about it.

The second post made us look like some small, flighty outfit just at a time when we are looking to win enterprise clients. August is always a tricky time because so many people go on holiday, but salespeople should never moan publicly about that, or tout for appointments: it just looks desperate.

I don’t monitor my employees on social media, and never will. It’s not my business what they post about their private lives – unless they reference BigChange or circumstances related to their employment. You just trust that people will use common sense, don’t you?

I’ve started questioning myself too. I recently posted about Love Island on LinkedIn – who I would hire from the show. It was a light-hearted commentary on a topical issue but again, I have to ask myself, does it show BigChange in a frivolous light?

This has all been a major wake-up call. I have enlisted the help of my employment lawyer Richard Parr from Blacks to change our terms and conditions to ensure that social media concerns don’t keep me up at night.

We now have an eight-page document that outlines what we expect from our people. It’s all pretty straight forward: no defamation, no bullying or harassment, no misuse of company information, and nothing that could damage our reputation. But having a document like this protects both BigChange and the employees, because we all know where we stand.

A few years ago I met a man called Gerald Ratner at a health farm. He became famous after calling the jewellery sold by the Ratner Group “total crap” at an Institute of Directors conference. After the speech, the value of the Ratner group plummeted by around £500m. This was back in 1991 but imagine how much faster a faux pas can spread on social media today.

I feel like we’ve just had a watershed moment at BigChange, and luckily, we’ve acted fast enough to prevent doing a Ratner ourselves.

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

CEO’s Blog – I, survivor of the office move

Posted on 6 September 2018 by Martin Port

We’ve just moved office – BigChange’s third move in five years.

Each time has been more painful and expensive than the last but this latest relocation – a stone’s throw from our last site – is more than just a new address. It’s a new chapter for BigChange.

We’ve invested in a lot more space, giving us the room to grow from 80 people to 150. The building is bright, painted white, and tastefully decorated. It’s the kind of place I’d been happy to invite any customer – from a small business owner to the chief executive of a FTSE 100 company.

In total, I’ve spent nearly £250,000 on this move, which has taken about three months to arrange. Having survived this hugely stressful process – which is second only to moving house – I thought I’d share a few lessons that I’ve learned along the way.

Negotiate your heart out

If you are signing a five-year lease, you should be able to negotiate for 20pc off the rental price. This will cover all the money you’ll spend on the fit out and relocating all your employees and IT. I think this is pretty standard, and most landlords are willing to offer this as a rent-free period at the start of the lease.

Call the council

When you are moving office, you could be entitled to a rates holiday of up to six months. We have now vacated our last building, although we still own the lease till January. So we called the council and took advantage of the rates break, which means we’re slashing that overhead by half. We’re also deferring rates on the new building until we’re fully moved in, which will be towards the end of September.

Never commit for more than five years

There are two reasons to avoid long-term leases. First of all, you don’t know how quickly your company could grow over the next few years. Five years is probably the maximum you can plan for with any accuracy. Also, a long lease is a liability that weighs down on your business. If you want to raise or borrow money, a 10-year lease could make you less attractive to backers.

Invest in great chairs – but buy second-hand

I want my people to feel comfortable at work. It’s important to me that feel their best. That’s why I decided to buy in top-of-the-range Herman Miller chairs to ensure that everyone is sitting comfortably at their desks. But these chairs are not cheap… they can cost £1,000 a pop. This is why we found a company to source them second-hand, slashing the cost by at least 75%.

Consistency looks professional

We have created an open-plan office here, which means all our desks are on show. We’ve invested in new desktops for the whole team but used the same second-hand sourcing partner to get the bases for us. An added bonus: these desks are adjustable so that my colleagues can choose whether to sit or stand.

Create a space that works for you

The new office has been crafted around the needs of our people. It is open plan but has secluded pods for when individuals want to call customers without being distracted. We have bought in two amazing coffee machines, and created a chill-out area, which feels a bit like our own Starbucks. We have also invested in frosted windows. We’re on the ground floor and the new rules around GDPR mean that we have to ensure there is no way passers-by could glean customer data through our windows.

Remember to budget properly

We opted for a move that was about half turnkey solution – managed by the landlord – and half sorted by us. It was the best way to ensure that the office looked and felt exactly as we wanted it to. About a quarter of our budget went on technology – sorting out the internet, installing the right cables etc. Another quarter went on desks and furniture. A quarter went on partitioning and painting the walls. The final quarter was spent on presentation, everything from the signage to our video wall, which will be used for demonstrations. A local artist, created our signage. It’s cool but understated and we love it.

Stagger your move

We didn’t try and move everyone to the new office overnight. We moved one department at a time, starting with the teams that have the least direct contact with customers. It was incredibly important to me that BigChange’s day-to-day business was not disrupted by this move. By the time we moved our customer service team, we knew there were no glitches, the wifi was up and running, which meant there was a seamless transition.

We’re all moved in to the new premises now, so why not stop by for a coffee and a look around? We’d love to see you.

Martin Port
Founder & CEO