14 posts tagged “book”

Thinking about going into business?  Running your own show?  Amazing the world with a new product, maybe destined to be a brand, or service that blows the competition away.  Here's my 20 second MBA course for you, as featured in my book.

It's called the Harvard Rule of 4.

Your 20 seconds starts, NOW!

1.  NO ONE has it
(Whatever you're thinking about doing, secure a USP for it).  ie, "My _______ is the only _______ that ________."  (our Azor is the only razor that bends.  our shaving product is the only shaving product that's an oil/serum/hybrid oil).

2.  EVERYONE will have it
(You're looking for repeat customers, remember.  Anyone can set up a one hit wonder company.

3.  It's priced for PROFIT
(Aim to ensure your GP1 or gross profit margin is north of 50%).

4.  It's priced for SALE
(ie, the sandwich you're selling isn't £4.99 when Tesco are selling theirs at £99p, unless you've made it 'freshly on the premises, like Pret).

Having a book out myself, I was interested to see what would happen with the pricing of the new Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol, out yesterday in the UK yesterday.

For a nanosecond, it had an RRP of £18.99.  Bit of profit there.

Then Tesco went for volume, retailing it in-store & online at £7.00

And Amazon.co.uk countered at a super-low £4.99.

Now, I don't know how much it costs to print hardback books, but it looks pretty expensive to me.  And I can't see there is much profit being made selling it at £4.99.

Not so much a case of The Lost Symbol, more The Lost Profit.  Looks like eBooks (via Kindle, Sony or other eRreader) will be the future - no print cost, no distribution cost, and you know what - the Author will be able to pocket the margin because the book...

...won't actually need printing.

Batteries (or charge) still required though.

I was delighted to read the comment below on my blog earlier today from Ross on my book about King of Shaves, and building a great business in tough times.  The original blog comment link is here, and the I've also reproduced it below.

It's quiet.  I can see blue sky when I look up straight up, and my world is eerily calm.  But everywhere around me, a storm is raging.  Competitor brands which were once viewed as impossible to uproot, disrupt are having their strategies questioned, the instant world we live in is only accelerating the windstrength of change and the only thing that is constant is 'Change is happening Faster'.

My team and I are living in the eye of a brand Hurricane.

Since launching King of Shaves back in 1993, with a single shaving oil sold at Harrods in London, King of Shaves products are now sold internationally, on an ever increasing basis.  Our retail sales have increased 40,000% from our first year sales of just £500 in year 1, and our growth shows no sign of abating.  Indeed, by the end of next year, our 17 year growth should be 72,000% up on our first year.

How has this happened, in a market that isn't growing in size, with competitors worth billions of dollars?

It's the power of a Hurricane brand.  One that changes the rules of the game, one that continually Zags and one that continually reinvents itself to be better, but without an increase in cost to the consumer.  King of Shaves, in my mind, is now a Category 2 Hurricane, and increasing in force.  Since launching our Azor 'hybrid synergy' system razor last year, we've got nigh on 10% handle market share, and sales of replacement cartridges have jumped from just 2,500 per week to nigh on 50,000 per week.

And this is before we unleash an integrated awareness assault in the UK, to show consumers that not only is King of Shaves changing the face of shaving for better, forever, but the brands it competes with are becoming increasingly out of touch with their consumers, despite spending tens of million of pounds to protest their relevance.

Gillette are currently running press advertisements proclaiming (in essence) that the Mach3 is no longer a good razor, that their Fusion is so much better (yet fail to point out the cost or replacement blade cartridges is twice as much) whilst Wilkinson Sword, having launched their combined razor/trimmer product, are finding it is having little impact on increasing the all important replacement blade sales.  Plus, the fact that almost since launch, it's been sold on deal, at half price, in the same way that Gillette have resorted to selling their Fusion range at half price.

Could you imagine Apple running an ad saying "look, this (old) Mac is no good, buy our (twice as expensive) new one?"  No way.  Yet, because sales of Mach3 cartridges are resurgent, as consumers get the fact they don't have to use an over-bladed, over-packaged, battery powered expensive razor to get a great shave, then Gillette have to do something.  Spend money on a bit of brand in-fighting...  Duh.

Meanwhile, in the eye of the hurricane at King of Shaves, I watch what's going around me with no small amount of 'shock & awe'.  We HAVE to be getting our market share from somewhere with our Azor, because no way are men shaving more, in fact, they're shaving less, with the advent of increased informality at work, and the growth in trimmed beards - goatees and the like.  We have our competitors applying their high performance system razor handles to disposables (the Quattro disposable for example) which is thrown away after use - so wasteful, and we have Bic, which should be thriving in a recession, going backwards as people eschew disposable (landfill) razors despite them costing less.

Our Azor, which is shortly to be joined by the Azor S - the first ever razor optimised for sensitive skin (courtesy of it's unique Bendology Technology reflex hinge - is going great guns, being adopted by Generation Now as opposed to Generation Then, and the look, feel, style, design - the 'DNA' of the Azor is winning people over, young and old, richer or poorer - in the same way iPod and iPhone have.

Plus, we have more 'Same, but Better' (read my King of Shaves book on this) coming.

The internet, and the instant interactiveness of it, is clearly fuelling our growth, without 'trying' our followers on Twitter are over 1,000 now (Gillette have just 32 as of 08/09/09) as well as the increasing lack of satisfaction with Gillette, and it's reputation for being the self styled 'best a man can get'.  The best your dad could buy, is maybe more apt.

When we unleash our TV campaign later this month, I believe we'll move up a notch, from a Category 2 brand hurricane to a Category 3 one and further disrupt and unnerve our competition.  After all, razor advertising has looked pretty much the same since I was a young lad, 35 years ago - whilst almost everything else in the world has changed its look, feel and relevance to today's consumer.

But, where shaving is concerned, Gillette's motivation to move on the status quo, being pretty much a global monopoly has been zero, and Schick Wilkinson-Sword have simply tail-gated Gillette, sometimes running into their bumper (fender) with regard to 'we shave closer' law suits, that are (hopefully) a thing of the past.  With Energizer (who own Wilkinson Sword) having just bought Edge & Skintimate, the shaving can brands from SC Johnson, I'll be interested to see what the 'Schick-Wilkinson-Sword-Edge' brand looks like (we're King of Shaves, The Future of Shaving and Gillette are still the self-styled 'Best a Man can Get') and what innovation SWSE bring to the market.

I like where we're living.

However, I'm no way complacent.  "One thing Will" you might say to me, is "Hurricanes eventually lose their strength and peter out - is this going to happen to King of Shaves?"  Well, my view is this - not any time soon & NOT on my watch.  Gillette have been in business over a hundred years, we're seventeen years young next year, and I believe our Hurricane brand has a long way to track as yet, zagging unexpectedly and keeping its momentum and building strength year after year.

King of Shaves' Hurricane Azor is here to stay.  And if you're competing with us in shaving hardware or software, best you batten down the hatches.

Launched last Wednesday, I was delighted to see that the King of Shaves Book book has jumped a further 2,000 places on Amazon today, now ranking in 'Management' & 'Job Hunting'.  Excellent!

BA Business Life also ran a great piece on King of Shaves & I, entitled 'What I've Learned' too - cracking month.  (Thanks Gav!)

Link to BA article here

King of Shaves Azor continues to grow strongly - and be sure to look out for our first TV advertising campaign coming later this month - as I'm in the middle of reading 'The Greatest Show On Earth' - Richard Dawkins latest bestseller - I know he'd be proud...!  Watch this space.

On behalf of Management Today, John Woodward, CEO of The Busy Bees children's nursery chain reviews my book, 'How to build a great business in tough times' - the King of Shaves story.  Many thanks John, I'm glad you enjoyed the book, feel it is a good, worthwhile read and I agree with 99% of your views :-)

"The King of Shaves story is enthralling, inspirational and fun, ... This book is a good read, useful as a reference text, and well-timed in a difficult recession.  King is forever the opportunist".

Well, you have to be - don't you? 

John's full review (copyright ManagementToday) is here.  I was also delighted to see the book prominently displayed in Waterstone's, High Wycombe (Eden Centre) today, and took this pic of my son, Cameron with it.

"Keep the child inside (and alongside) you...work hard, and be nice to people".

Earlier tonight, my book was 66,000th selling book on Amazon.co.uk
Now it's 6,341, having risen 60,000 places in just over 2 hours, and doesn't go officially on sale until tomorrow!
Thanks Jeff Randall, Sky News - really looking forward to seeing how high it can go!!!!
You can order it here.

I was delighted to be invited on Jeff Randall's business programme on Sky News this evening, to launch my book, 'How to build a great business in tough times - the King of Shaves story'.

I enjoyed the interview, and even more the fact that Jeff is an Azor fan!

The book is on sale at WH Smith from tomorrow (3rd September) as 'Business Book of the Month, and is available to order online from Amazon & Play.com as well as other leading book retailers. 

The book is published by Headline Business Plus, the publisher is John Moseley and my agent is James Wills of Watson, Little.  I hope you enjoy reading it, and more importantly, that it contributes to you fulfilling your business or life dreams, aspirations!

The King of Shaves Story on WH Smith Shelves now, Business Book of the Month. (original blog post)

'How to build a great business in tough times' - the King of Shaves story is now on WH Smith shelves, and even better, is 'Business Book of the Month'. I snapped this pic when I saw it at WH Smith in Gatwick Airport this morning, returning from my holiday at Kingfisher, Grenada WI! It's also available to order from Amazon, link here!

Surreal!