February 2006 - TIYB Interviews YE-Mag / Redwelly Media



This Is Your Business's Site Editor - Glenn Watson interviews Sam Fletcher - Managing Director of Redwelly Media


TIYB
4 issues released to date, how does it feel to have a publication out there that you have designed from concept to print?

YEM / Redwelly
My background is in the publishing industry. I worked for 3 years at a national educational publishers working on all sorts of things from childrens fiction books, to school textbooks, I then moved onto a national publishers working as a production manager with 6 titles to manage. Although 3 were already established, I re-branded them to bring them up-to-date and designed one of them from concept with my design team. The feeling is completely different for my own title. Your Entrepreneur Magazine is something that is now part of me, especially on deadlines - I literally live and breathe YEM.

TIYB
What have you learned and how can you apply this to your main business?

YEM / Redwelly
I have learned an enormous amount from YEM - although I had managed 6 titles simultaneously in a previous role, I never had to worry about the content of the magazine, as there was an editorial team to do that. I have learnt quickly about many aspects of journalism and publishing a magazine; from dealing with PR agencies, to selling advertising - from approaching organisations to work with us to promote their services to interviewing people for our main feature, mainly I've learnt a lot about the different challenges small businesses face. Due to the nature of the magazine, I meet lots of entrepreneurs, and budding entrepreneurs - really energetic people who are passionate about what they do, rather than people working for someone else, who hope to move on to something better in the future! I learn something new everyday - for example about the variety of funding available for businesses - assistance with starting up, taking on employees and even help with marketing. This in turn also allows me to assist clients looking for creative work, as I can suggest various funding options available for their projects.

TIYB
What motivated you to take up the challenge?

YEM / Redwelly
When I set up Redwelly Media in February 2005 the plan was to set up as a creative contract publishing company, but since then, things have changed. I was approached by companies to do creative work for them, and so the contract publishing was put on hold. After 3 months of trading, I still wanted to go ahead with my original plan but knew I couldn't jepordize the creative side. I planned and planned how I could make it work - at this point I didn't have any staff so my days were very long and my nights extremely short! Eventually I began to think about all of the support agencies around the region that someone somewhere along the line had referred me to, such as The Princes Trust and Enterprise Agencies. All of a sudden it seemed to fall into place and I decided to launch YEM - to promote such agencies, but also to act as a flagship magazine for the contract publishing side of Redwelly. Again things have changed, the magazine is receiving such fantastic feedback, I have had to bring on a communications manager to project manage YEM, but also to deal with all of the other things involved in running a business, I also have a full time sales executive who works on selling advertising in the magazine and have also employed a junior designer, who designs the adverts, editorial and also works on creative projects. This allows me to take on extra creative work, without having to plough all of my energies into YEM.

TIYB
How important was teamwork/collaboration?

YEM / Redwelly
Extremely important. Without my team, YEM wouldn't exist. In the beginning, there was just me in an office, then I took on a sales executive to handle all sales for YEM while I concentrated on creative projects. At this point, we both carried out interviews and sourced case studies but my partner also helped out with writing the features up. In issue one, we met our main feature, David Brint of Footie Chick, at a Football match! Imagine that, we happened to get talking to one of his staff who suggested we interview him and it went from there! I had my parents proofread the first copy and a family friend (a teacher) double check it all. It's a good job we have family and friends because I only had to fork out for a few bottles of wine and a couple of boxes of chocolates for their efforts!

Teaming up with affiliate agencies has also been important to YEM. We distribute through enterprise agencies, the Princes Trust, the Asian Business Federation and have now got some branches of Barclay's Bank to distribute to their clients. Without this, we wouldn't be able to target the all important start up market who really really need the advice thats in the magazine. YEM is like a business tool, the most popular pages are the listings pages (Business Directory, Web Directory & 'Show Me The Money').

TIYB
Young Entrepreneurs have access to more advice than ever before. Do you think this information will reduce the number of businesses failing in Y1?

YEM / Redwelly
It's not just young entrepreneurs who have more access, but all entrepreneurs. The problem is, agencies such as enterprise agencies and The Princes Trust are perceived to be for young entrepreneurs only. In reality they are aimed at everyone - even The Princes Trust who although mainly assist 14-30 year olds, are always looking for established business owners to become mentors to pass on their experiences. I don't think more advice reduces failures, because many people still wont listen to advice properly - they rush into things because they are too eager, or because they don't understand all aspects of running a business. We find everyday that most people know about their specialist field and not much about other areas. I admit myself, I know lots about graphic design, printing and publishing but not much about bookeeping, so I have an accountant rather than attempt it myself. This is one ethos of YEM - to educate people about the other areas of running a business, such as accountancy, law, marketing, branding etc

TIYB
What business planning tips would you like to pass on?

YEM / Redwelly
Buy a subscription to YEM! On a serious note, talk to as many people as possible and attend as many workshops, training courses and networking events as possible - many are free. Call your local enterprise agency, www.nfea.com is the national federation of enterprise agencies and contains details of local agencies. Even if you just have an idea at the moment - talk it through with someone impartial - not your family - somebody neutral. You can get so caught up in a business idea that sometimes you need to be brought back to earth - my most important tip would be to listen to criticism and act upon it. Take it as a positive rather than a negative and you can't go wrong!

TIYB
Given the number of young entrepreneurs in the UK but the relatively low percentage of these networking online, do you think enough is being done to encourage networking?

YEM / Redwelly
In our area, there is a scheme called the Get Set scheme - this is a grant for people starting up and they hold monthly networking meetings for members. I think the problem with networking is not the encouragement of it, but the fact that people are wary about what happens there. Also with start-ups, they don't necessarily have the money to spend on networking events. I think there should be more free events, in fact we will be holding free YEM networking events in the future. We already support a free one that takes place in Lancashire & Greater Manchester every other month and is advertised in YEM. I attended a speed networking event - like speed dating - last week and that was good. It forced people to talk to everyone and then you had the opportunity to talk to people later on in the evening.

TIYB
What business red tape (if any) prevented you from growing or starting earlier than you did?

YEM / Redwelly
Nothing really stopped me from starting up or growing. The problem is the time it takes to sort all of the admin involved. New legislation is coming into force though, to make it easier for people to start up - for example, the new legislation will mean that people registering a business through Companies House will no longer need a Company Secretary!

TIYB
Do you think the cost of compliance is restricting growth in small businesses?

YEM / Redwelly
I think that in some cases it is restricting growth, for example we recently undertook some creative work for a client who then dropped the bombshell that they had applied for part-funding for the project and we needed to get onto the relevant consultancy list - the whole process has held up the project and we have to pay to get onto the list. On the other hand, compliance is often a good thing, as it lets people grow slowly rather than too quickly which can result in failure. I think that lots of paperwork can sometimes be a pain but in my case, it forces me to structure my day and I now I have dedicated time for preparing quotes and the all important aspect of chasing invoices!

TIYB
Where would you like to see Redwelly Media and YEM in 12 months time?

YEM / Redwelly
Now that I have someone to project manage YEM, the plan is to launch a second edition later this year and then every 6 months thereafter until we are nationwide. The concept will remain the same, with each region having its own YEM to satisfy the different business communities. We will have to take on more staff to accommodate this, probably researchers as well as more sales staff.

Redwelly will continue to bid for creative projects too - in just 12 months we already have Birminham City Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Sutton Coldfield College and The Princes Trust as our clients so the plan is to market Redwelly as a creative agency more aggressively in the marketplace. We have been working on a new brand to differentiate Redwelly from YEM, as lots of people don't realise that we are a creative agency, but believe we are publishers. Redwelly Creative is being launched at the end of Jan/early Feb to let people know that we do actually do other things!