And have finally cracked getting the contact forms to import automatically into Highrise! [party].

I’ve also followed up on the videos and done some of the fairly significant amount of testing we need to do on the site to make sure that all the processes are running properly – going through each of them as if I was a client – which we’ll carry on with once I’m back…:-)

I’ve also put my first process recommendation on the Process Map – first draft page…:-)

https://indigobrave.backpackit.com/pages/2093169-process-map-first-draft

I’m quite excited about having cracked the import to Highrise – it was fairly complicated. I think it’s going to make some massive differences – I’ll be doing more work on getting the best out of Highrise when I get back – once we’ve also got Tungle integrated with the IB availability calendar, I think we’ll be seeing some massive efficiency gains…:-)

I finished writing up the Exceptional Team white paper, creating it as a pdf and loading it to the site – you can see it here:

http://www.indigobrave.com/reports/exceptionalteam.pdf – Laila, Vanya, it would be great if you had time to read it (since it’s going out to the world in your name and helping build your reputation!) and give feedback…:-)

I also added it to the three relevant autoresponders (which reminds me, I must do a site map at some stage so you can see just what a beast of a website you’re now sitting on…:-)).

I set up a new page to promote educational workshops and set up a new contact form for enquiries about educational workshops:

http://www.indigobrave.com/home/?page_id=381

I did a bit of work on the layout of the white papers in general, making the quotes a bit more visually appealing, and spreading them through the text.

I set up a new page to promote health workshops and set up a new contact form for enquiries about health workshops:

http://www.indigobrave.com/home/?page_id=383

I ran through all the automatic emails that we currently send out, and checked that they were all up to date – and updated a couple of old ones which needed new details.

I completed setting up the full autoresponder for business contacts, and will complete health and education when Laila and I have finished the content generation.

I sent Kate purchase details for the Dragon Dictation, which she’ll process when she gets a chance to breathe. I also sent her my invoices for the last four weeks, which I hope she’ll process before bothering to breathe…;-)

Joined the update call, which was interesting and useful – it seems clear to me that we’re all going to have increasing amounts of fun and satisfaction as we get everything running more efficiently and start to grow the company properly.

Here’s to the next six months!…:-)

A couple of good talks with Laila – got some excellent new content finished for one of the white papers, and also covered a lot of organisational/aims stuff.

Put up a draft Process Map for IB which I hope will help us identify some efficiency gains, and sent Laila a written summary of the ground we covered.

Went live with the new design for the website – still waiting for one slight change to the logo (to remove the graded blue background, which looks a bit blocky at the moment) but otherwise I think we’re there in terms of design, and now just need to do the last few bits of content generation.

Got confirmation from Dragon Dictation that their professional version allows the importing of mp3 files – after the new content Laila generated yesterday, I think that is a definite must for us, so will talk to Kate about getting it processed before the end of September.

A very productive chat with Kate (most of which we did outside IB time!).

More work on the website, which is waiting for one last image before it is ready to go ‘live’. [And the content that Laila and I are going to generate tomorrow morning!]

Downloaded a huge amount of video files (more to come as well!), so will be able to start doing some initial work on those once we’re back from Sherwood.

Gosh, that doesn’t look like much, does it?! But the website work was very time-consuming – I’m confident you’ll agree it’s been worth while, though…:-)

Contacted Dragon Dictation again to get confirmation about importing mp3 files.

Did a quick proofread on the Health page – thanks to Kate for spotting one necessary change…:-)

Otherwise, I’ve been working on a site redesign which I think will kick us on a level in terms of professionalism – I hope you’re all going to like it, and I’m sure it’s going to make even better use of our new content…:-) It’s mostly finished – with luck, I’ll be ready to give a preview when Laila and I talk on Wednesday.

Did 4.5 hours today (well, a bit over, but there was no way I was letting Highrise beat me!).

I got a set of subscription confirmed thank you pages set up for all the different categories we’re collecting leads in.

I set up the Health email list, set up a thank you page with a workshop promotion on it, and did a first draft ‘sales’ page for health professionals at:

http://www.indigobrave.com/home/?page_id=38

I closed a lot of pages to comments that had been left open previously – boring, but necessary, and kept the sidebar under control (pages that you don’t want showing in the sidebar need to be set up not to show).

And then I got to grips with Highrise – which I’m quietly confident now means that all incoming forms from the website will also create (or add to) contact details in Highrise. If we also get the workflow in place to make sure that the notifications sent by the forms to IB staff also get forwarded on to a Highrise ‘create a task’ address, we will then be able to see ALL outstanding contacts just by clicking on Tasks in Highrise. I’ve posted a note on Backpack suggesting how we can use tags to make this even more useful.

So, at the end of this week (I’ve done my hours for this week and next week, because we’re going to be away next week), our overall position is:

The website is just about ready to start promoting…:-))

We need to add one sector-specific white paper each to the Health and Education sections. We also need to get one existing white paper filled out a little bit more – I have about five points I need to ask about, so it shouldn’t take long at all.

I recommend that we set aside some time in the week beginning 30/08/10 (when I’ll be doing double hours again, because we’re off once more the week after!) to get those white papers completed by doing phone calls via Skype that I can then transcript. It would also be excellent if we can (again on the phone?) get some good content for three or four training emails – which will give us 3 or 4 months breathing space on the monthly email). Once we’ve got the white papers and the first few emails ready, we will then have a COMPLETE contact-gathering and relationship-generating structure in place for us to start promoting.

It’s not the end of work on the website, of course! I also want to: add powerful testimonials to key points in the relationship structure, test different ways of presenting background information and more details about exactly how and why IB workshops are so effective, and of course start adding video and audio to the relationship structure as well. I also want to package the free products we create in a number of additional ways, and look to develop more valuable products for us to give away.

But once we’re up and running (by the end of w/c 30/08/10?) I’ll be splitting my time between fine-tuning the website and strengthening our offerings, and actually starting to promote them – which will be fun, because that’s where we start to get new visitors, and new leads, and test the effectiveness of this new approach…:-)

I’d also like to thank Kate for her enthusiasm and her ideas – it’s been a real pleasure starting to get to grips with the systems side of things, and I think we’re going to make some enormous gains in terms of time and efficiency over the next few months…:-)

Today has been a really valuable concentrated blast on the website and the subscription systems.

I’ve put forms on all the pages where they need to be (apart from Health).

I’ve done thank you pages for all the forms, with ‘upsells’ on all of them to encourage further interaction – and forms for those upsells, and thank yous for them as well [rolls eyes and gets confused].

I’ve set up pages to promote the RDC workshops (well, to promote signing up to find out when the next dates will be ‘ahead of the general public’…:-)) and to promote the Free Monthly Training (aka our monthly newsletter, but no-one really likes the sound of a newsletter any more – monthly training sounds much more worthwhile).

I’ve made requested alterations to the Basket Brigade page and initial suggestions on the executive summary page in Backpack, and helped get Sarah up and running with her email.

Not as long a report as previous days! But believe you me, those email lists and thank you pages and contact forms are real time swallowers – everything has to flow properly from one to the next – in fact, I’ll have to do some carefully mapped run-throughs of all the new ones before close of play tomorrow, to check that there aren’t any hiccups.

Fingers crossed, by close of play tomorrow we’ll have a website that is only missing two white papers and a handful of additions to one other white paper for us to be in a position to start to promote it…:-)

Today, I tidied up some of the internal references on the website, did some further evaluation of the possible booking systems with Kate, and got some questions sent off and replied to for one of the suppliers – and set up a trial account with one we can test for free.

I set up an online form for the Basket Brigade, which will send email to admin@ – it can be seen here:

http://www.indigobrave.com/home/?page_id=217

and I set up www.indigobrave.com/basket and www.indigobrave.com/Basket to send people to that page.

I checked the RSS that was showing the contents of these work updates – and switched it so that the RSS links will only show the contents of posts that are put in the News category.

I set up a trial account with Tungle that might be a good option for allowing schools to choose dates for AimHigher workshops in realtime online – it will integrate with a Google calendar, so Kate is going to set up a separate Google calendar for IB availability for AimHigher workshops. Coupled with the booking system, this may well free up a lot of admin time, and also automate reminders to schools.

I did a first draft of the Education page to push visitors into making contact with us:

http://www.indigobrave.com/home/?page_id=36

I think it will be effective – obviously, we need to get the third report in there, and the autoresponder form set up.

I finished adapting the existing white papers for Education and Health as far as possible – I need to get some Health testimonials, and get a few points answered by Laila for one of the two papers.

I’m currently feeling very confident that we’ll have the website in good, contact-collecting shape by mid-September at the latest, and can then start building relationships and pushing for new visitors…:-)

Looked into process mapping tools and found one that I think might be useful – have shared it with Kate, who already has some very useful content from Nicola based on Kate’s handover notes – I think we can already see some quick wins in terms of automated reminders – and I’ve set up a page on Backpack to keep track of improvements we make.

I’ve also done a bit of research on ways of using Backpack, put a tagging pattern in place for the pages, and stuck a note on Backpack to explain it – essentially, it works like a folder system, with the tags on the right hand side of the page letting you drill down to a shorter selection of pages…:-) See: https://indigobrave.backpackit.com/messages/84702-organising-the-pages-page

I had a look around for video editing software – and have decided to have an initial shot at a free package – Kate’s going to send me the CD with the files on, at which point I’ll give it a good workout and see if it does enough for our needs. It might do – we just want clear, good quality material without too much clever stuff, so fingers crossed we won’t need anything else.

I’ve started adapting two of the white papers that we’ve got ready for the business section for use with education and health too, which will save some production time, and leave us just needing at this stage to add one extra white paper each.

Have looked in more detail at Highrise to try and understand it well enough to see how best to use it for our workflow systems. I’ve seen a very good-looking open-source CRM package, which is a bit technical in terms of installation, but I’ve got a friend who’d be able to do that for us – but I think we ought to have a go at seeing how far our systems will run through Highrise, since we’re already in there, and I think with a bit of thought it will provide pretty much what we need. I think I’ve got to know it quite a bit better today, so once we have the process maps we can start looking at what role Highrise ought to play.

I’ve run through a function audit (pretty much a kind of mini-process map) on what’s in place on the website so far – want to make some minor changes to what’s presented when, so I needed a map of what exactly is happening at each stage/page/action.

Have written a first draft sales page for business workshops which will be promoted in the white papers and also on the thank you page for when people subscribe to the monthly email:

http://www.indigobrave.com/home/?page_id=167

Haven’t had time to wrap up putting the relevant forms in there, will do that tomorrow…:-) Will also write the RDC sales page encouraging people who are interested to sign up for an Advance Release list – by promoting that consistently to all our contacts, we should be able to reach the point where you can fill up workshops just by sending a ‘New date available’ email out to the list…:-)

And mercy of mercies, it sounds (from the lack of screaming) as though madam might *just* be going to sleep within about an hour of her bedtime – result!

Looked at a range of options for recording Skype phone conversations (so that we can do white paper and training email production via chats with Laila/Vanya that I can then transcript and use as core material) – found what looks like the strongest package, and then managed to find a way to get it for free (by taking out a trial for LoveFilm.com which I’d been thinking about giving a whirl anyway)…:-)

I’ve implemented and tested it and it’s working beautifully, so we’re good to go with content production via phone.

Oh, forgot to mention that I upgraded the software the website runs on yesterday – just FYI.

Had a great chat with Kate, which I think has given us both some really clear ideas about how we can help take Indigo Brave forward over the next 12 months, and what needs to be done at which stages.

We’re thinking in terms of 1) optimisation of current practices 2) low-hanging marketing fruit 3) new marketing approaches for a wider market and then 4) one-to-many training solutions to make faster growth possible. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

At this stage, I’d just like to confirm my overall understanding of IB structure/functionality.

The way I see it, we have two directors (and one non-exec director) – we then have Kate fulfilling the business manager role and myself focusing on the marketing work (+ systems support and overflow admin if necessary) – then Charlie, Sarah and Daina on specific tasks, reporting to Kate.

This looks excellent to me – we have the right skills in the right places, and I think the next year will see some very significant growth for IB.

I’d be very grateful if the directors could confirm for me that I’ve understood properly – and I’ll also just like to mention at this stage that one of the most common problems I’ve seen in organisations of all different sorts and sizes is communication outside the management structure. I think it will be very important to channel all the management through Kate, and all the marketing through me.

Kate and I will be having a progress chat on Tuesdays, and Laila and I are going to have a weekly chat as well – time tbc. I also hope that we’re going to see some regular patterns with people doing very brief blogs on their daily work, which will help us all understand what’s going on at any one time, and I hope that we can start to see the real power of Backpack for helping share and organise information.

I’ve finished up for today with an extensive look at a range of booking systems – I’ve collated the best for Kate to have a look at on Backpack, and we’ll then chat about them when we talk on Tuesday to see which we feel we should try out first. There’s some powerful looking stuff in there, so I hope we can help make the booking process much faster, and even more effective…:-)