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.