Crowdfunding goes live

I’ve mentioned this before, but I believe that there are many links between swimming (especially open water swimming) and business. In fact I believe that there are many lessons from open water swimming that can be applied to business.

I’ve set up a new blog to explore this further – http://open4bizblog.wordpress.com/ – and my goal is to write a book on this topic.

To help me with the book I’ve set up a crowdfunding page and it has just gone live. I’ve already received some great feedback for this and the project has been backed by people already. Please check it out: https://www.sponsume.com/project/open-business

And here’s the launch post I wrote on the other blog:

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I wrote the text, shot the video and submitted the forms. And now my crowdfunding site is live. Please check it out here:

As you can see I’ve chosen Sponsume as the platform I use, hopefully you’ll like it, find it easy to navigate and back the project.

The reason behind the crowdfunding is to fund additional research for the book, additional swimming (as part of the research) and allow me to spend some time dedicated to actually writing it.

For you, what it means is that you you’ll be able to pre-order the book, or if you represent a business be a sponsor with your company details included online and / or in the book itself.

Please do have a look at the project here – https://www.sponsume.com/project/open-business – and if it’s not for you, please do forward it to any friends or colleagues that might be interested.

Thanks

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Open for Business

When I’m not swimming I run a PR and Communications agency (actually the agency came before the swimming as I’ve been running it for six years now). As my swimming has developed, improved and grown in stature so too has the business. I’m convinced that not only are those things related, but that there are wider parallels that everyone can draw between open water swimming and business.

Many of the lessons that we get from the swimming can be applied to our business lives – and can help us to create better and more successful businesses.

So I want to bring those lessons to businesses and have started to present to businesses for an internal meeting, or to groups of businesses or start-ups at business events and conferences. If you’d like to find out more about this get in touch, or see more here.

I have also started to write a guest blog for the excellent open water swimming magazine H2Open. In these posts I explore the themes and lessons that we can take from open water swimming and apply to business:

H2Open online

Nothing Great is Easy – using Captain Webb’s quote I show that, like a channel crossing, businesses can be affected by outside factors, but that doesn’t have to mean you are blown off course.

Time to Get Your Face Wet – practice for the experience, but sometimes you just need to get on with it – in swimming and in business.

Taking the plunge in business – “Both open water swimming and running your own business, while growing in popularity, are outside of the norm. They both require a degree of bravery to set off and, if you will excuse the pun, take the plunge…”

Let me know what you think.

Taking the plunge in business

For a while now I’ve been a big believer that open water swimming can provide some lessons for people in business and especially people looking to start their own business.

It’s certainly an unusual angle to take, but the level of preparation and dedication required to succeed at either is comparable. So too is the fact that it’s still considered to be an unusual thing to do that requires courage. As someone that has done both (and continues to do both) I think we can take the examples from swimming to create engaging stories for business people.

As part of this, I have written my first article for the excellent H2Open magazine. In this article I look at some simple lessons taken from open water swimming that can be applied to starting a business:

“To me, some of the biggest lessons can be applied to business and especially for people running their own business. Both open water swimming and running your own business, while growing in popularity, are outside of the norm. They both require a degree of bravery to set off and, if you will excuse the pun, take the plunge.

However, that pun is a clear example of the link between the two activities. Much of the language of business can be applied to open water swimming and vice versa.”

I’m not going to post the whole article here, instead please do go and read it on H2Open’s site.

However, if you’d like to hear more about this, then I am also starting to speak on this topic at business events. If you’d like to chat about an event you might be running then you can find more information here.

Haircuts

I went for a haircut the other day and asked for my usual cut: “Just like this, but shorter.” While I was sat there in the chair (noticing just how much grey was falling onto the floor) I realised that I only have three settings for my hair:

– Thug – cut that bit too short and it makes me look as if I want to start a fight in every pub I go into

– Business – just the right length – usually lasts at this length for about a week if I’m lucky

– Hippy – aaargghh, it’s too long – it rests on the collar of my shirt and feels all yucky

The problem of course is that without a personal stylist following me around permanently when I go for a haircut I have to take it right to edge of Thug, hopefully just staying within Business, so that it will last as long as possible before turning into Hippy.

It’s tough being a bloke sometimes!