Guilty

Feel very guilty that I haven't updated this blog for over a month and notice that we have had 537 hits which is 216 more than a month ago and so I must get to it!

Later though..... !!

Hit Counter

The last time I looked at the hit counter was Sept 23 - one whole month ago. The blog was registering as having had 321 hits then and now the number is 448 - which is about 4 hits a day - not great, but not terrible either!

Where does the Time Go?

I can't believe its been so long since I last wrote a blog entry and when I look to see what I've been doing it feels like a lot of time spent doing nothing particularly productive.

One success however, is my Twitter account. I now have 140 followers and the number rises every day. Sometimes I spend a couple of minutes at a time reading other people's tweets and retweeting some of them and at other times I can spend half an hour to an hour messing about going to the different links and reading stuff on line.

Is it productive or not? Hard to say, because I don't think any of my tweets have translated into direct sales BUT I am building a network of on line contacts some of whom will one day think about buying a Treasure Trail maybe - meantime, I am on the word of mouth marketing mission!

Web Hits

Our web hits are going up and up - check out the graph!!

A - Z of Treasure Trails

The things that amuse........

A - Aaron - our fabulous designer!

B - Bewdley - one of the nicest places we have in our catalogue of Trails : http://bit.ly/33OzdR

C is for craft fairs - one of the outlets we use when selling our Trails direct - here is where we plan to go next: http://bit.ly/OFhOn

And D is for David, my wonderful husband who works with me in the business x

E is for Everyone - our Trails really are suitable for all ages and abilities, many are pushchair and wheelchair friendly too!

F is for Friends and Family - our brochure says - do you like playing games with Friends and Family ??!!

G is for the Golden Valley - one of 4 Driving Trails in our catalogue http://bit.ly/vmvdG

H is for Herefordshire, the county we are based in http://bit.ly/40ZBk

I is for Icecream - one of the things you can do along the way is to have one! Local is best :-)

J is for January, the month that Treasure Trails has its annual conference and all the licensees get together! This year in Bournemouth!

K is for Kidderminster - a much nicer place than I first thought - it needs exploring! Use a Trail - http://bit.ly/wiCWJ

L is for Ludlow which is out of our area, we need a new licensee to take on Treasure Trails Shropshire - know anyone? Please RT

M is for Monmouth - which is out of our area, we need a new licensee to take on Treasure Trails South Wales - know anyone? Please RT

N is for Newsletter, Blog, Twitter and all the other marketing stuff I try and do to encourage repeat biz ! http://bit.ly/4dqDK

O is for Organised Events - a Treasure Trails specialism - drawing on my HR background! http://bit.ly/4yyJnF

P is for Personalised Gifts - we do a fab line in personalising the Trails to make them unique to the individual. http://bit.ly/1OvM0a

Q, always a hard one and the best I can think of is Q is for Quirky - all our licensees are quirky, & the quirkiest of the lot is our MD!

R is for Ross on Wye and Redditch - both at the extremities of our patch! http://bit.ly/2jRSBR

S is for Spy Trail - our newest format and the easiest of the lot to write! Try our Malvern Hills one! http://bit.ly/7BN0A

T is easy, its T for Treasure Trails! http://bit.ly/ggtBW

U is for Upside Down - our posters feature an upside down man! Told you about the quirky didn't I !

V = 5 (as in the roman numeral) & the amount U pay 4 a Treasure Trail - just £5 per Trail - gr8 value 4 a day out with friends & family!

W is for wheelchairs 14 of our Trails are written to suit wheelchair users and further 6 are pushchair friendly as well!

X is for Xray (how original), but Megasight, our TT Superhero is so called because of his xray vision - he can see clues, others can't .....

Y is for Youth Hostels - one of the outlets that stock our Trails thanks to the Leominster YHA http://bit.ly/sDqo7

I've decided Z is for Zaycation, what they said everyone would be doing this year in a french accent - & therefore great for TT biz!!

Surveys

I created a survey and am really pleased with it - have had 8 responses so far - please do it and make my day!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=MtJhb_2bChcNA3wrytmYC_2frw_3d_3d

Thanks!

Statistics

I love statistics don't you? I find they help drive a business as long as you aren't slavish to them. Anyway, I've been doing our end of months stats and here is a snapshot of where we are against current targets and over last year's numbers:

So far this year we have sold 16% more Trails directly to the public than overall last year and we have sold 9% more over the internet - using the www.treasuretrails.co.uk website.

We have achieved 70% of our annual target and the next three months are our busiest in terms of sales in the run up to Christmas, so there is no reason that I can see why we shouldn't achieve 100% + of our annual sales target.

We have had a steady increase in the number of hits to our website and compared to January of this year, August had 47% more hits than in January! September numbers look as though they might a record for us and that's before the Superhero Challenge drives people into the website - which should start next week when the leaflets and posters are distributed.

Its all looking OK!

The Prince's Trust Superhero Challenge

So busy with getting stuff done for the Superhero Challenge taking place on November 1st in Worcester that there is no time for anything else, including blog writing!!

The posters are ready to print and the leaflets are organised and the little business cards are almost done, so we can now move onto the next steps which is to ensure the activities are all lined up and the booklet is ready to have the artwork created by our super duper designer - Aaron! If you need any artwork done, then let him know - he is fab at it and we are delighted with all that he has done so far.

Have updated the web page and are now ready for the first lot of cheques to arrive. Take a look : www.treasuretrails.co.uk/trails/worcestershire/theprincestrust/

Quite a mouthful!

No time to stop and pontificate - back soon......

Hit Counter

Writing a blog is a weird thing to do isn't it when you think about it - why on earth would anyone be interested in the musings of a 50 something, self employed mum of grown up sons?

Seems one or two are though as the hit counter that David installed on the blog site is up to 321 today! A significant number -> 3 2 1 Thunderbirds are go!! But because it is rare to get comments on the blog entries, I really don't know who reads it; whether they read it regularly or if it is one of those that people stumble across, are bored by and stagger on!

Anyway, I've decided to watch the hit counter and see how many hits I get on average per day/week and go from there! But if you do have a comment, then I'd love to hear it! Meantime, 3 2 1 Treasure Trails Are Go!!

Twitter

I've decided I really like Twitter and we are starting to get some benefit from it.

Successes we have had with Twitter are:

1) Had an opportunity to give a prize to the organisers of the http://www.mumpreneurconference.com/, and an invite from them to send 100 leaflets to go into their goodie bags + our logo will go on their web page soon. I would never have known about them and for the price of a stamp I get all that "free" advertising - fantastic.

2) Had a local hotel contact us recently asking how they can get involved with the Trails - followed up with an email which I now need to follow up with a phone call. To get a hotel contact us rather than the other way round gives me much more confidence that they are interested in what I've got to say/sell!

3) I know more about what Treasure Trails Hampshire is up to than any other area of the TT business as they are the only other part of the Treasure Trails business that uses Twitter.

Small but satisfying.

There are lots of websites giving advice on how to get the best of out of it and what the point of it is, but in a nutshell, I think as a follower it is a way to get bite sized bits of information from an organisation or person you find interesting and as a twitterer you can give interesting snippets of information to your followers, bearing in mind that people buy people! More on this to come.

Treasure Trails Newsletter

Just finished writing the Treasure Trails newsletter that goes out to all customers that have signed up for it....purpose is to remind them about us and drive them to the website to buy another Trail. Got to keep in mind the purpose! Not sure I achieved that, but anyway - this is what went into it this time:

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Shopping Days 'til Christmas
Amazing how the days and weeks whip past at this time of year in the run up to Christmas isn't it. However fast or slow it comes everyone's thoughts start to turn to what presents they need to send and we'd like to let you know that Treasure Trails make fantastic gifts!

They are good for those hard to buy for people in your life.....husbands, brothers, sons, uncles, grandparents, in-laws, like to cousins, neighbours.....

They are also great as stocking fillers and tree pressies, because they are such a reasonable cost at just £5.00. In our house, £5 is the limit on items that go into the stockings or hang off the tree.

They make a brilliant and unusual secret santa gift because they suit all ages and both sexes!

Finally, they are a fab standby to have in the house ready wrapped for the person you forgot to buy for and who appears with a pressie on Christmas Eve and if you don't use it, then just unwrap it and give yourselves a walk on Boxing Day!

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Personalised Trails
Thinking about pressies for people, we've created some personalised Trails this year that have gone down exceptionally well with both the givers and receivers and we'd like to quote some of the feedback we've been given.

"I have been extremely impressed with the organisation of the Treasure Trails, Amanda was very helpful and within a couple of days of placing my order a personalised trail came through the post. The photos and information I had given were cleverly woven into the trail and makes a fantastic gift" - Wendy, April 2009, Redditch

"The Trail for my friend has arrived in the post today ~ thank you for turning this around so quickly. I can't wait until Sunday when we give it to him; I just hope that we get to go on the walk with him! Yours has been such a personal and friendly service. It was so good to be able to make suggestions and that you were so kindly tolerant of the changes that were made. I will definitely buy more Trails for friends; they're like Cluedo for grown ups and you get fresh air and exercise too! My thanks to David too .." - Maggie, August 2009, Kidderminster

Its fab, fab, fab and I love it, thanks so much! - Claire, August 2009, Hereford

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The Prince's Trust Superhero Challenge
On November 1st, 2009 we are involved in an event in Worcester in aid of the Prince's Trust. It is aimed at primary school children, but all ages will get lots of fun from it and tickets go on sale at the beginning of October!

Not only are there clues to find answers to just like a normal Treasure Trail, but there are activities to do as well - like go karting, wall climbing, rugby and cricket skills, fire hose challenges and mask painting, to name a few!

To secure your ticket, which is £20 for a group of up to 5 people, click the link below to be taken to the coupon which you can download and print on your own printer.

Not too long and not too boring hopefully!

Treasure Trails Website

Today the plan is to continue work I started yesterday, which is to refresh and update the Treasure Trails Herefordshire and Worcestershire website pages.

I've just had a browse through them and they are in fairly good order, but there are some pages that could do with updating - like the ones where we quote our customers' comments and the ones where we show what articles we've had in the news. In fact, we've had lots of articles published but we only have the ones up to September 08 on the site - can't believe a whole year has passed since we added to those pages!

I also spent a while yesterday adding all the logos of the organisations that are sponsoring the Prince's Trust Superhero Challenge event we are working on and today I need to add the links to their websites. Once that's done, I can email them all and ask them to add links to our site so we can get a flow of traffic and hopefully pick up some sales and increase the awareness of Treasure Trails.

Best get on with it!

Admin - Show - Admin

Another Monday spent sorting out after a show and generally getting on top of all the admin that piles up when you are out enjoying yourselves!

On Saturday we had a good day at the Droitwich Spa Salt Day. Salt Day celebrates the town’s historic association with salt, which can be traced back to the Iron Age. The Romans knew Droitwich as ‘Salinae’ and they were in Vines Park close to us with their bare legs and full armour marching around importantly!!

We proved the importance of a good pitch too on Saturday because we started off behind the Statue in Vines Park and next to the band stand, with the Guides on one side of us and a lot of nothing on the other side. Three stands up from us was a corner spot which was empty as the exhibitors hadn't turned up and after a couple of hours when we had only sold less than a handful of Trails, the organisers asked us if we would mind moving to the corner spot - which we did and our sales went up from there! In the end we had a really good day and beat our average sales which is always a good thing!!

Sunday, we spent checking on some Trail Trouble. We'd had some feedback from a customer about the Hay on Wye Trail. I quote verbatim "Clue no 17 seemed impossible to find! We looked several times and came to the conclusion that the notice/plaque has been removed and therefore was impossible to find the answer. Might need checking from your pointof view! Great entertainment - a granny, a mum, an aunt and two teenage lads all enjoyed it. Brilliant entertainment." So any excuse to go to Hay and we set off to see if the clue had been moved.... but no, there it was albeit a little overgrown and maybe you had to know it was there, but there it was anyway in all its glory!

Had a minor problem on Sunday though, I knocked my breakfast smoothie over the laptop and consequently the w sticks a bit now... I was lucky though, it could have been more than just a sticky w!!

To Grade for Difficulty or Not !`

There has been much discussion internally in Treasure Trails this week about whether we should grade the Trails for difficulty or not.

The arguments for include the fact that some areas get a few people responding on their feedback that they found Trails easier/harder than other Trails they’ve done and it’s definitely put them off. It confuses our customers as they don’t have that sense of consistency. But it only surfaces for people that try Trails in different counties. Putting a difficulty rating not only gives the customer some level of comfort that they’re choosing the right Trail (and if you think about it, a defence from criticism ala “well you did choose the difficult one!”) but actually also forces us to develop some consistency between us. This becomes the impetus to get there. We’ve had some Dorset customers who thought the Hampshire Trails were too easy and some of Hampshire's repeat customers love the Trails but want something harder now. A difficulty rating backed up with some simple defined standards solves this very easily. It wouldn't be too difficult to develop some guidelines between us that define what makes Trails difficult/medium or easy. For example, cryptic clues or clues that require prior cultural/educational knowledge should be only set on difficult/extreme/expert trails. We can agree that all between us and then that immediately improves our consistency. It will provide fresh new challenges to our regular customers, who may have done lots of Trails and may start to get a bit jaded.

And the arguments against are that part of our marketing spiel and the TT ethos is that the trails really are suitable for all ages – Devon TT met recently FOUR generations (included Great Grandma!) of one family who had all been out trailing at the same time. We've also had a comment through the Trail rating process recently which said -> "Great entertainment - a granny, a mum, an aunt and two teenage lads all enjoyed it. Brilliant entertainment."

We try to mix the level of difficulty of clues within each Trail, including a few easier clues for kids and to get a novice Trailer started, and some harder ones to provide more of a challenge as well. From the numerous returning customers we have, and from the feedback we receive via the answer submission and directly at shows, we think we’ve got the mix of difficulty about right. People like the fact that they are able to get the right answer - eventually!

So, in conclusion, the feedback rating already proves that everybody’s Trailing experience is different, which makes the rating somewhat meaningless. If the majority give a Trail a rating of between 8 and 10, and then one person gives it a 5, do we rush out and change the Trail? Likewise, we could run into the same problems with levels of difficulty.

There is of course nothing to stop a couple of lines being added in the About The Trail bit in the booklet itself or on the Trail home page, indicating the level of difficulty.

What do you think?

Stourport Carnival

Off to Stourport Carnival in the morning. The weather forecast is suggesting that it will cloudy and windy tomorrow which is great news because we always do better when its not raining!!

Apparently the carnival includes a big parade with floats and marching bands, an evening river carnival, plus a host of activities and entertainment for the whole family to enjoy over two days!

Stourport itself is "a unique Georgian canal town in the heart of the Severn Valley" and of course Treasure Trails has a really great Trail around the town for just £5.00. Like all our Trails, it can downloaded from the website www.treasuretrails.co.uk or come and find us on Saturday on the carnival field and we'll sell you the booklet.

Hope to see you there!

Other People's Blogs

Found a blog entry talking about Treasure Trails today which was very heartwarming to see. I do love it that people always seem to have a wonderful day out with friends and family when they do one of the Treasure Trails.

Have a read for yourselves : http://amidesignsjewellery.blogspot.com/2009/09/treasure-trails.html#comment-form

It really is fantastic to get independent views and this one of the best type of testimonials to get because there is nothing in it for her! We also get feedback and comments from customers when they submit their answers onto our website and here is a selection from the last couple of week's comments :

"Excellent trail. Very good for all ages and dogs! With regard to refreshments on route, please be aware that some of the pubs are not open all day"

"Took longer than stated. Everything else great. Looking forward to doing next one"

"Very enjoyable"

"I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was for me one of the best days of my summer holiday! Thank you so much!"

Bargains Work

Interesting tale.... in today's post was a completed Hereford Trail together with the answer and a cheque for £6 and a request for the Ross Trail. On examination of the Hereford Trail, we realised it was one we had sold at half price ie £2.50 because it was an old version of the Hereford Trail which had "Trail Trouble". In other words, one of the clues was missing and we'd written the answer on the booklet itself and because one of the clues was missing and we didn't want to just chuck the booklet, we made a decision recently to sell them off to cover the printing and prize fund costs.

This lady obviously enjoyed the Hereford Trail so much, she decided to buy the Ross one at full price plus P & P..... so David was right all along, bargains work!!

Christmas Fairs, Markets and Shows

Spent the last couple of hours searching for shows, fairs, markets and places to sell our Trails in the run up to Christmas. If anyone knows of any that are coming up, I'd love to hear about them. Meantime, look out for where we are going to be by checking our Fairs and Shows page on www.treasuretrails.co.uk/trails/herefordshire/shows/

Castle Lodge Hotel

Last night we went to the Grand Opening of the Castle Lodge Hotel in Ross on Wye which has been taken over recently by Helen, Steve and Georgina. We were made very welcome and enjoyed meeting up with the mayor and his wife Sue as well as Jane from Visit Herefordshire and the proprietor of a gift shop in Ross called Crows Nest. The hotel has a fab sounding seafood restaurant and I noticed lobster on the menu - looks like a great place to go for a special occasion!

Helen invited us after seeing us talking at the Tourist Information Centre in Ross last March and has kindly taken a stock of our leaflets to display in the hotel foyer - hopefully the word continues to spread and the leaflets attract new customers.

Busy Busy

Its not that we aren't doing anything to report, its just that we are so busy the blog keeps falling off the end of the To Do List!

The Prince's Trust event that is taking place in November is keeping us the most busy as well as a few bits and pieces of Trail Trouble here and there.... seems there might be an issue in the Hay on Wye Trail and last night we checked on the Ledbury Trail and need to sort out a couple new clues for there as a plaque has disappeared and the Talbot Hotel is covered in scaffolding and the clue is missing off the front of the hotel.

Meantime, we are looking forward to next Monday's Pershore Plum Festival and hope its a sunny day. Sales of the Mystery of the Missing Plum Tart aren't as buoyant as we'd hoped but nevertheless some of them have sold which is great news.

Now, must get on as I've got a newsletter to write and get out to all our customers before the bank holiday weekend!

Treasure Trails on the Telly !

One of our colleagues has got Treasure Trails on the TV.... this Friday on BBC1 Northern Ireland at 8:30pm or on Sunday evening at 10:30pm. The programme is called Northern Exposure and features Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker and his fiancée - businesswoman and model Danielle Bux - who this summer have been visiting Northern Ireland to uncover hidden gems and give you great ideas for something to do or someplace to visit. One of their great ideas is doing the Treasure Trails Murder Mystery in Armagh. Its fab to have a celebrity endorse the product and well done to Allan in Northern Ireland. We've set our tape ready!

Keeping Up with Stuff

There is so much to do when running a small business that sometimes its hard to figure out the priorities!

Currently on the list of things to do are:-

Following up with retailers and B and Bs who stock our Trails to see if they need more stock as we go through the summer holidays
Following up with Broadfield Court to see if they have made a decision about going with a bespoke Trail
Creating and preparing for the big Prince's Trust Event we are running in November - have a wonderful Super Hero created - here he is - working name Mega Sight.
Selling direct through All Saints Church and then the Herefordshire Country Show over the last couple of weeks (which is why there has been no blog)!
Preparing for the next set of shows coming up
Listing schools to contact to find out if they are holding Christmas Fairs that we can sell at
Sorting out Trail Trouble in Hereford East - a sign has been broken off, and Trail Trouble in Bromyard - a shop has closed down!
Writing and emailing out another newsletter for customers which I want to get out before the bank holiday
Following up on leads picked up at the shows (including setting up a meeting if possible with the events manager at The Blind College.
and last but not least
Writing interesting blog entries!

Phew - worn out, think I'll have another cup of tea!

Rain Rain Go Away

Can't believe its still raining. Luckily this week we are selling Trails from the South Chapel of All Saints Church in Hereford High Town and are under cover - its not that warm, but at least its dry!

Sold a few yesterday and picked up an order for a Personalised Trail - someone's hen do in three weeks time, so we need to get cracking on making it just right for them. They are going to plant some of the clues and use some of the established Hereford Murder Mystery clues, so it should end up as a really nice mix of clues and challenges for the six girls that are going to work out who murdered Dr Love!

The new leaflets are working well and we've decided to blow the budget on a new banner as well - which hopefully will arrive in time for the Pershore Plum Festival event on 31st August. The Mystery of the Missing Plum Tart - the Trail we wrote especially for the Pershore Plum Fair - is selling well and we are starting to get answers into the prize draw. The prize is an evening meal for two at the Angel Inn in Pershore High Street - lucky winner!

This weekend we are at the Herefordshire Country Fair - so do drop by and say hi! In fact, if you come and see us as a result of this blog and quote the web address, then we'll give you an exceptional deal on a Trail of your choice from the Worcestershire and Herefordshire catalogue.

The Prince's Trust Super Hero Challenge

Met up with our man from the Prince's Trust today and agreed the theme for the event due to happen on Sunday, 1st November in Worcester. Theme is Super Heroes - so we are calling the event, The Prince's Trust Super Heroes Challenge! Website is set up now - have a look www.treasuretrails.co.uk/trails/worcestershire/theprincestrust/ and we are working on getting the artwork sorted out for the leaflets, the registration form and of course the Challenge Booklet itself.

Its all very exciting and we are so pleased to be involved in driving it through to a successful conclusion. 10,000 leaflets will be printed publicising the event and to enable people to register to be part of the event, they have to go to our website and give us their email address - more people to send our newsletters to!

We have another meeting on 8th August and hope to have the artwork ready by then and at least one of the activity zones finalised and looking like the finished product.

Got to keep in mind of course we are holding the event in November and it just might rain on it..... but there again, if we were doing it in July we'd have to bear the weather in mind too!!!

Brides and Hen Parties

Normally I am not great at following through on stuff and quite often don't finish things - but have managed to use my time today to create and finish (!!) a newsletter for brides and organisers of hen parties. If you want a copy of it, let me know and I'll add your email address to the master list! Have put some pics in it too of hen parties we've got involved in recently. Would share them with the blog but can't remember how to upload pictures - will have to check with my IT expert!

White Lilies & Sally Kingston

I met a very sweet lady yesterday who has just set up in business as a wedding planner. She can provide help with organising a wedding maybe just for consultation or management of the wedding day itself, not necesarily organising the full wedding. If you know of anyone who needs such a service, then get in touch with her via her blog : http://whiteliliesevents.blogspot.com/

I also met a lady called Sally who makes the most fantastic headdresses and corsages - she is waiting to hear from you too! Her website is www.sallykingston.com.

Probably my only venture into wedding fairs this year!

Wedding Fair

Just got home after spending the day at a wedding fair in Great Malvern. It was a trial for us to see if we could sell the hen party trails and if it would be worth exhibiting at wedding fairs. The jury is out - but had a really nice day meeting all sorts of nice people both stall holders and punters and sold some trails too!

Congratulations

Congratulations to Poston Mill Park who won the Award for Excellence in Leisure and Tourism. We look forward to selling them some of our Trails for their guests and visitors!

Retail Orders

Just pulled together two Retail Orders that came in at the end of last week. One is for Harvington Hall; a beautiful moated medieval and Elizabethan manor-house south-east of Kidderminster. They want to stock our Trails in their visitor's shop and their initial order is for 28 Trails. The other is for the Treasure Trails Shop which is opening for 8 weeks for the summer period on a holiday park near St Austell in Cornwall. We are giving them 20 Trails to sell on our behalf. Feels good that we are getting volume orders out.

Princes Trust

Very exciting day today (and yesterday had some excitement too). Met Mr Marley this morning in the Little Chef just off the Junction 5 of the M5 and talked through his ideas of running a Treasure Hunt in November in Worcester and he has asked us if we'd like to collaborate with him which we would! Will be lots of work, but also potentially lots and lots of publicity which is brilliant. More on this as time goes on.

Meantime, today we are up on the front page of two websites -> http://www.herefordshirehealthyschools.org.uk/resources/parents.html
and
http://www.threelittlepigsgiftshop.co.uk/ where you have to scroll down and click on the Mystery of the Missing Plum Tart

Yesterday, we set up a deal with a B&B on a sale or return basis - their target market are the 50+ and the young exec couples, so our Trails should do well there. Thanks Somerville House!

School Fairs

We attended two different school fairs at the weekend. Both very enjoyable and completely different! The first one was inside a very upmarket marquee and we shared the space with Smallprint as well as people selling handbags and jewellery and the usual craft stuff. As always Treasure Trails was a little bit different. We had a lovely pitch right next to the cake stand! Always a winner!

The second school we went to we were outside next to the band in our own marquee which as requested, we decorated with the American flags as it was 4th July and the fair had an American theme. We didnt' do quite so well there in terms of one to one sales but we did meet the owner of The Christmas Shop in Bewdley who bought our Bewdley Trail with a view to stocking in her shop. Fingers crossed her partner agrees to stock.

No shows now until the end of July as we concentrate on contacting B&Bs and asking them to stock Trails and/or leaflets for their holiday visitors.

Newsletter

We are starting work on our summer holiday newsletter to remind our customers that we exist and doing one of our Trails is a great way to spend time with family and friends and won't break the bank either! We really hope we get people to log onto www.treasuretrails.co.uk to make their selection, but of course, they can always phone us instead and we'll post them out.. Treasure Trails Ltd sends out a newsletter about 4 times a year. The one we are sending out over the next few days will contain a quiz as well as news and is celebrating our first birthday as a business as we have been trading now for 12 months!

Look out for it in your email and if you would like a copy and don't think you are on our customer database, then let us know.

Feedback

"I bought the Great Malvern Trail last year and gave it to some friends for Christmas. They did the Trail recently and told me they really enjoyed it and it was the best Christmas present they received!" - John from Malvern gave us this feedback when we met him at the Bromsgrove Carnival in June 2009

Pershore Plum Festival

Just back from delivering copies of the newly printed Mystery of the Missing Plum Tart to various outlets in Pershore. There is lots of publicity about them already and watch this space for more! In the meantime, check out these web links.....

http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/search/4458969.Plum_celebration_gives_taste_of_town/search4458969.print/search4458969.print/search4458969.print/

http://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/search/4458969.Plum_celebration_gives_taste_of_town/

http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/search/4461704.Join_in_our_mystery_trail/

If anyone wants to write a story about the Mystery, then get in touch... meantime I wonder who dunnit :-).

Schools Sports Partnership

What fantastic weather we had at the weekend for the Bromsgrove Carnival and 10K run. Lots and lots of families were out in Sanders Park enjoying the entertainment and the sunshine and we gave away virtually all the leaflets we had with us! Sold lots of Trails too, although more on the Saturday than the Sunday. Made some good contacts including a lady from the School Sports Partnership who took the Kingsland Trail and an old Tenbury Wells Trail to show to her boss and colleagues with a view to getting something going for the local Bromsgrove Schools. She was very enthusiastic, so we will see.

Also met a lady who wants to organise a family get together for her uncle's 50th and thought a personalised set of Trails would make a perfect pressie for him.

And we met a guy who bought our Great Malvern Trail last year and gave it to someone as a gift and told us "it was the best present he had ever given someone, they really really enjoyed it". All very encouraging!

Bed and Breakfasts

This morning a bed and breakfast owner that we met way back in March phoned to ask for a stock of leaflets! Feels great to receive a call asking for stock, rather than constantly pushing from our end. Anyway, I have agreed to go and see them and talk about various options including writing a bespoke Trail for them, so am delighted with that.

Have also spent the morning looking for a camp site near Bromsgrove as we will be at the Bromsgrove Carnival this weekend and need somewhere to stay. Found one and its all booked and paid for, so fingers crossed for the weather!

Next item on the list is to plot a route which includes as many B and Bs as I can find in the Bromyard area and then go and pay them all a visit and talk about a possible sale or return deal so that we can continue to build AWARENESS of the product and service we provide.

The Three Counties Show

Wow, what a big show the Three Counties Show is! We had a great time there with a really nice pitch opposite the fire and rescue guys and between a jewellery stand and a crocs stand both manned / owned by great guys who were fun to be around. We spent some money and we made some money - always a good balance! The weather was fine and we only had one or two spots of rain on the Sunday although it was very windy on Friday and Saturday and our rather flimsy marquee held up very well......

We experimented with a couple of things including putting a poster up about the fact that the Trails are wheelchair and pushchair friendly and that worked well with getting people to stop and chat. Instead of putting all the Trails in the spinner in alphabetical order we tried putting them in their Trail types - ie all the Murder Mysteries together, all the Spy Trails together and all the Treasure Maps together and again I was happy with the result - people spent more time browsing the spinner and exclaiming when they saw certain towns, whereas when they were labelled up as Glos Trails or Worcs Trails for example, they only looked at those ones.

Highlights of the weekends was the phone call we received from the Evesham Journal who are doing a piece on our Mystery of the Missing Plum Tart and wanted a photo of us holding a plum pie! The other highlight was the one hours consultancy with a marketing expert (Hannah) from Business Link who brainstormed with us both at the stand on how we could drive Awareness of Treasure Trails because until we have driven Awareness we won't get the volume sales we are looking for. She had some great ideas and once we are over the next couple of very busy weeks, we can start working on a new marketing strategy!

Next stop Bromsgrove Carnival next week - come and see us there!

Garden Festival

We had a really lovely couple of days at the Garden Festival at Hellens Manor. The sun shone on both days and as we were under cover we stayed cool and didn't burn unlike some of the other stall holders. We had a steady stream of really nice people coming through and met a lady who is now considering taking on the Gloucestershire License; we also met a lady from the Wye Valley Life Magazine who may decide to do a feature on us;we met another couple who thought they would investigate taking the License for Kent and of course we sold some Trails! Some of the other stall holders were fun and we enjoyed especially meeting Clare and her Mum and Dad and friend Linda and wish her lots of luck with her Tea venture. We were very impressed with the Cafe Green's juicer and have plans to get one - maybe there will be some of sale at the Three Counties Show. Another stall holder near us will also be at The Three Counties, so we will renew acquaintance then.

This morning we've had the go ahead from Emma, for the Kingsland School Trail and so need to get down to the printers and deliver their order for 100 Trails. Feedback was that the Trail looked very professional!

The Garden Festival

Sun is shining and we're all ready for a great day of selling at The Garden Festival in Hellens Manor! Apparently, we are under cover near the composting people and food stalls - sounds like an ideal position. Hopefully lots of people will come and see the show and find our stand and BUY!

Preparing for the next few shows!

We have 10 show days coming up over the next four weekends and have put in a lots of work to prepare for them and made some investments! We've put in an order for another batch of Trails to be printed and so replenished stocks of our most popular Trails. We've ordered 2,000 of our new leaflets and we've also ordered a couple of t-shirts all of which should hopefully arrive in time for our biggest show - the Three Counties which is next weekend. This weekend we are at Much Marcle and the Garden Festival held in the grounds of Hellens Manor which we are looking forward to.

Have also finalised the Kingsland Trail so it is now ready for testing by our PTA contact, Emma and hopefully the weather will hold and she will get out to it this weekend.

Lots to do, and so little time!

Business Awards Part 2

Well, the three judges have just left.... we had Peter Hands, the Chairman of Visit Herefordshire, Viv Hudson, MD of the Hotelshop and Linda Smith from the Chamber of Commerce and they were with us for over an hour talking about Treasure Trails and offering their thoughts about how we could continue to expand the business. It was informal and fun and we really enjoyed the discussions. Whether we get to the next stage or not, who knows, we have to wait and see!

Also today we got a call from a gentleman wanting to buy our Bewdley Trail - he heard about the Trails on local BBC Hereford and Worcester Radio and so we've had a listen and I came across ok I think.... feedback from a friend was that I came across very professionally but fun and approachable as well. Now we have to work out how to capture it, as it is only available on line for another 3 days!

Business Awards

We heard this morning that we didn't get short listed for the most promising new business award, but we are assuming that is because we are on the short list of 3 for the award for excellence in leisure and tourism. We've been given the names of the judges who are coming on Monday and we know one of them and know that he is supportive of us and our product, so fingers crossed.

We have sent the proposal through for a bespoke Trail at Broadfield Court and will start the discussions/negotiations in a week or two with the manager there.

We are ready to have Kingsland independently tested and Emma has agreed to do it that for us. And we've completed the artwork for our new leaflet. On Monday, we have a big print order going through with the stock of 7 of our Trails needed to be replenished and the Mystery of the Missing Plum Tart - the bespoke Trail written for the Pershore Plum Festival also ready for printing - so its all go!!

Chores in the Sunshine!

I had three chores to do today and all they all involved being out and about in the sunshine! This life is really good especially when we call it work! I had to drop off some Trails to the shop in Hampton Court Castle - they are going to see how well they sell and then hopefully will order some more! I had to go to Tenbury Wells to sort out some Trail Trouble - the answer to clue number 2 was on a sign high up on the wall of a building, but the sign has come down, we think it was vandalised and so I had to take some photos of other signs nearby and rewrite clue 2. Finally, I had to make my way to Kingsland and test the Trail that David has written (all in rhyme) and make sure that the clues worked and the directions were clear. The Trail is a really nice one with lots of picture clues and I think the families of Kingsland will have a lot of fun with it.

Radio Interview

Last Thursday proved great fun - I left home and drove to Bromsgrove to meet up with a few members of the Creative Women group. When I was only a few miles from my destination, I realised the car needed oil - not a problem, I thought, buy some oil, open the bonnet and put it in! Easier said than done as I couldn't get the bonnet open and was worrying about being late..... so I drove to my destination and on arrival, said I had a problem and that I needed to call the AA. Sue, one of the founders of the group came to my rescue and managed to open the bonnet (just like that!) but then couldn't get the oil cap off......we decided to let it all cool down and maybe it would contract!

It was time to do the interviews. It was such entertainment listening to the two ladies who had their interviews before me and watching them trying to get it all right so that it could be edited later...for example, the interviewer, Max, asked a question and in answering it, we were supposed to change the question into a statement - he would say "What do you do?" and rather than say, "I make Treasure Hunts, I had to say - "What I do is to make Treasure Hunts..... ". when it was my turn I had little difficulty in telling him all about Treasure Trails and the product and business that we have created as I am so used to doing the pitch at shows and fairs..... what will be so interesting is to hear what he does with it!

Anyway, once all that was over, it was back to the problem of the car! We (Sue) finally managed to get the cap off and I am ashamed to say the dipstick was dry! In went a litre of oil and off I went to get some more and drive back home again, thanking my lucky stars that the oil light had alerted me to the problem!

Will let you all know the date of when Treasure Trails Herefordshire and Worcestershire gets featured on the radio!

Shortlisted for an Award

Fantastic news to report this morning. We have just heard we've been short listed for the Hereford Chamber of Commerce Award for Excellence in Leisure and Tourism! There are only three businesses in the short list, so we are naturally delighted. The awards ceremony is on 17th July and we've been urged to get our tickets soon! On 8th June we get a visit from the three judges for a chat about the business and to convince them that the gold award should be ours!

Can't wait to shout about it all.... think I'll start by telling Andrew Easton tomorrow as part of the interview on the radio that he is doing with me.

Even if we don't get the gold or silver, the fact that we've been short listed I think is excellent and we can start to put that on our Trails. Must go now and look out for a jpg of our logo and a picture or two to send through to the Chamber of Commerce for their news bulletin.

Admin

Its amazing how much admin is necessary when running a business! I am having a catch up day on all the little bits of paper that have piled up on my desk! There are various shows that we are attending in the future that I need to put links on our website to their website; there are personalised Trails to complete and bespoke Trails that need finalising; there is the wash-up to do after our day in the Maylord Centre; money to account for & sales to record; equipment to put away until next time etc. We need to make some decisions about where to advertise to reach people before the summer holidays as well and its a toss up between Primary Times and the Hereford Times. I also need to write a proposal for someone who wants our Trails to help them with fund raising for ChildReach. I need to find a cheap B&B for when we do the Bromsgrove Carnival to save us travelling back and forth as it is a two day gig and I need to choose the music for the radio show that I am featuring in soon! See what I mean - so much to do and so little time! Best get on with it! Meantime, hopefully, as its now half term all our customers have been onto www.treasuretrails.co.uk and chosen a Trail to do in the nice weather........

Kingsland

We've just been picked by a local PTA to create a Challenge for their parents/families to raise some money for the school. We are delighted to be associated with the school and hope that by creating the Challenge for them we can work with them to create a Trail for the school itself in the grounds along the same lines as has been done recently in Devon. Can't wait for the opportunity. Meantime, they want 100 booklets, so we need to get cracking!

Its been a busy week one way or another as we are also in the process of creating a 12 page booklet for 18 hens that want to see the sights of Hereford and we are also preparing several of our Trails for reprinting as we've run out of stock and need to be prepared for the Three Counties.

Tomorrow we have a stand at the Maylord Centre - the shopping centre in Hereford - and as it is the start of half term, hopefully we will sell lots of Trails! Weather forecast is good for the weekend and of course that always helps with the on-line sales too.

Local Radio

Got some very exciting news today - our local radio has asked the Creative Woman group - see blog entry below - to bring together a small group of women to showcase their businesses that they can air over a week - apparently, they want the individuals to talk about what they do and their products and choose a piece of music, saying why they chose it. This will then go out on the Andrew Easton Show during a lunchtime. Creative Women have asked me to involved. Wonder what I should chose music wise - would be great to find something that was relevant to Treasure Trails! Any suggestions greatly appreciated..... will let everyone know the date of broadcast assuming I get that far.

Hereford Spy

We are running out of stock and have decided to try out a new local printer. We need more of the Hereford East Trail amongst others and we have decided to rename it Hereford Spy. We don't think "Hereford East" sounds especially interesting and we think that Hereford Spy might be a more attractive name. If you've got an opinion, do let us know!

Every time we do a new print run there is always something to change in the Trails. This time, we are adding in the 2008 Silver Award that Devon won for their customer service. Treasure Trails has won two other awards as well:

Gold Winner of Best Leisure Pursuit in Cornwall in 2006!
Highly Commended for Best Activity Provider in Devon in 2007!

Treasure Trails Herefordshire and Worcestershire have entered the local Chamber of Commerce business awards and it would be fantastic if we were short listed and eventually won something too! Watch this space......

Women in Business in Leominster

As part of the marketing strategy that we wrote at the beginning of the year, we thought it might be worth trying some networking groups and events to meet local businesses with a view to sharing our message about Treasure Trails to a wider audience than the people who come to markets, festivals and fairs. Our first foray this year then was for me to attend a networking lunch held in The Forbury in Leominster by the Women in Business group a couple of days ago. The lunch was a delicious goulash and rice with lettuce followed by a very tasty rhubarb crumble. I met a couple of nice ladies one of whom took my card as she is the director of a local children's charity and thought that Treasure Trails might be a good contact for them and the other was a local retailer who gave me some ideas about writing articles for magazines like Country Living. After lunch, there was a talk from a lady who works for a local accountants and whose expertise lies in tax planning. Her talk was about the implications of this year's budget for small businesses and although most of what she talked about was aimed at limited companies, rather than partnerships or sole traders, I did find it interesting. I haven't decided whether or not to join the group, but I do think that it is necessary to attend networking events several times before people start to connect with what you do. I have written to say thank you and offered to do the after lunch talk, so hopefully that will be taken up!

Bromsgrove Carnival

We have a stand at the Bromsgrove Carnival in June and yesterday they put us on their Facebook page and on Twitter, which is very exciting. We are reciprocating by putting their links into our web pages too!

Preparation for a Hen Party in June

Over the last couple of days I have been working on creating a 12 page booklet for a group of hens that are coming to Hereford over the 14th – 16th weekend in June. I’ve written a shopping challenge, a photography competition and a quiz to go with the Hereford Murder Mystery Trail and am now just waiting for the hen’s personal information so that I can personalise the Trail itself. The aim is to give the hens a thorough look around Hereford whilst having some fun and interacting with each other in teams. It has also been written in such a way that the bride to be can take part as all the answers are sent to her in a sealed envelope and it is up to her not to cheat! Each team will appoint a leader who will then mark the other teams’ scores as some of the answers may be subjective – particularly with the shopping challenge and photography competition! I really hope it works well for them. We have had hens use our Trails before and we have personalised them, but we haven’t offered the 12 page booklet before. I did get a call a few weeks ago from a guy that I met at a networking event who told me he’d seen a bunch of hens running round Ross on Wye at the weekend and we knew which group it was as we’d personalised the Ross Trail for them and it felt good that someone was interested enough to call and tell us!

UGO Winner

I have just written two slightly different press releases and sent them off to the Hereford Times and Your Chronicle, which is a Dudley, West Midlands based newspaper. Why am I sending to Dudley I hear you question.... .well, the press releases were about the winner of the UGO (University of the Great Outdoors) Trail that we wrote around the stands and activities at Hampton Court. The winner lives in Brierley Hill, which is in the West Midlands and she has chosen two free Trails as her prize. We are just waiting for her to get back in touch and tell us which ones she wants. It will be great because it will mean two days out for her and her family and friends - once again bringing money into the local economy. We remain convinced that the majority of people who do our Trails are day trippers although it is difficult to prove from the limited information we get through the Treasure Trails "where did you hear about us" questions when someone buys a Trail on line.

Creative Women Showcase

Last night I went off to the Creative Women Showcase with my close friend and Treasure Trails tester. The Showcase was being held in the Atrix Theatre, Bromsgrove and was a chance for local business women to show each other what they are up to. When we arrived there was chaos, but we got set up quickly and were sandwiched between a company offering drumming as team building and a photographer. Close by was an acupuncturist and an organisation who offer Salsa classes which my friend signed up for!

The people who came and chatted were lovely and we gave away a lot of leaflets in a bid to increase our on-line sales - which is this month's target as we did so badly on last month's league tables and we don't want to get down to the bottom spot. Even Gloucestershire beat us and the patch isn't currently active.

I did meet one lady who was keen to understand the licensee deal and planned to look at the website with a view to taking on Warwickshire and building a Treasure Trails business there which would be great as we are very isolated in Herefordshire and Worcestershire right now!

University of the Great Outdoors

We spent the Bank Holiday Weekend at the University of the Great Outdoors (UGO) where we had a stand set up in the marque. It was a great position because as people walked through the entrance we were there in front of them! We had written a mini Trail for the UGO which was published in the middle of the UGO booklet. The weather was not kind which was a pity for the organisers and some of the attraction providers but initial estimates suggest around 3,500 people attended over the 2 days. We sold around 35 Trails and picked up some useful leads.