NEIL JOHNSTON

Bruno Mars = Best live band performance I’ve ever seen on #xfactor . Genius

hey @piersmorgan time for another @rickygervais interview me thinks! C O N T R A V E R S I A L

RT @andrewrennie: Some more excellent work from @StoreVanMusic showing the potential of iOS devices. #SVMiPad http://t.co/QyTTuPix

RT @terminal: iBand HD | Amazing! 24 Piece iPad Performance In School | #SVMiPad http://t.co/2o5YOIyh via @youtube

I like being able to refer to myself as an entrepreneur, it sounds ace and it’s implications are great!

Today was an office day. Which Sound’s thrilling, I know :) but an integral part of being an entrepreneur…

Currently office life is busy, there’s a lot to do over the next 6 weeks so there’s no shortage of things to get on with. And from what I’ve learnt from business thus far, it’s that business has a great ability to stop you in your progress and throw in a curved ball… today was one of those days, a curved ball day.

Around noon, I recieved a phone call from a good freind of mine who’d happened upon a new rival company to my own. It’s always a funny feeling hearing someone phone and say those words, “Isn’t this what your company does Neil?” and the emotions start to run through your head…

“Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap”… which then casually evolves into “FIND and DESTROY them”… “Who are they? Where have they come from? What’s their website like?” etc etc etc…

Now my area of business isn’t entirely unique and I know of quite a few competators in the locality that offer similar services to our own in education. However, discovering a new one always creates a rush of panic around me…

I know that we offer the best, I just want to make sure that continues…

So the hunt begins…I spend an hour or so chatting this new business over in the office, phone a mate, chat it over with him, start researching…

When you’re in this panic state, you’re longing to find enough information, and it is STAGGERING what you can find!

I knew within half an hour the names of the directors to this rival offering, I even knew where they lived, (same town as me!) I knew where they went to university and what previous jobs they’d had (isn’t facebook wonderful) and much to my delight I knew they hadn’t yet registered their company name as a limited company! Whilst I was fighting back the urge to buy the business name in it’s incorporated form before they had the chance to, I realised it was getting a bit rediculous!

So I stopped. There’s something about business that means you have to be ruthless, you can’t just be nice and accepting all the time, you can’t just let people take over. I find that hard, especially in these situations. I want to see young entrepreneurs succeed, do well, I do not want encourage failure!

So whilst I evaluated my moral obligations in this situation, I gathered my thoughts and came to a conclusion…

Today may have been a curved ball, but a learning curve is the outcome…

Today I’ve learnt that my knowledge of my business is better than that of my new competition. I’ve learnt that I am comfortable in the knowledge that hours and hours of work is needed to make this type of business a success. I’ve found with 4 years experience here, that I need 2 parts to the make-up of my business, because financially, 1 part takes a good 10 years to bring home some serious cash… and I’ve learnt that I’ve made and learnt from the mistakes this new company is yet to make. 

Most importantly however, I’ve learnt that 90% of my business is me.

There are no copies, no duplicates, just different ideas and personalities. I will ensure that my company goes one better on any competition - but whilst any new company may attempt to take our business, our ethos, or our image. They won’t succeed to take 90% of what we’re about. Regardless of how hard they try.

Bring it on me hearties,

I’m ALL OVER IT.

Neil.

Today I received the Keystation Mini 32 from M-Audio/AVID, a new, exciting solution for portable audio performance/composition…

The user interface is excellent with a few added extras you wouldn’t expect, plus the key distribution and size is just perfect for playing on such a small device. I strongly see this being a much better alternative to the Korg Nanokey set-up, due to the much more playable key distribution.

You’ll no doubt see me debut this product at the various Apple store shows coming up over the coming months here in the UK and the US.

Already rocking mine with my iPad 2 and GarageBand!

Nice one, M-Audio!

RT @piersmorgan: Love this picture, these people are the REAL Great Britain: http://t.co/6E3VGje #riotcleanup @Lawcol888