[00:00:00.04] - Gordon
Hello.

[00:00:09.11] - Taylor
Hello.

[00:00:09.25] - Gordon
My name's Gordon from Drayson Design.

[00:00:11.26] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.

[00:00:13.22] - Gordon
And welcome to "This Week With Taylor and Gordon," a weekly podcast and vidcast, where we talk about things that have affected our businesses over the last seven days. And thank you very much for joining us.

[00:00:24.24] - Taylor
Welcome back.

[00:00:25.20] - Gordon
It's been a very interesting week. I've had lots of things arrive that I ordered last week. Things to do with the new 3D printer, which has been all very exciting. They basically had a sale and gave me the difference between what I'd spent and what the sale price was as a gift card. So I had, I think it was £170 to spend on stuff to do with my 3D printer. So I got lots of filaments, a few screws and things that I can then use for models that I can make. And I've still got money left over because their sale is being done with flash sales, which is like two-day sales, or until they run out of something. And I've been saving up for those to see if there's anything of interest. And I'm glad I did because there's been some good things that have come along.

[00:01:26.05] - Taylor
Nice.

[00:01:26.19] - Gordon
So I've been busy doing all that. So it's been very exciting. My new printer is very, very good. I'm very excited with it. So for those of you who are listening to this, you won't see this, but I've been printing infill patterns for models as well as the holder for it as well. And it's looking really good. I shall be putting those with all my other swatches of all the filaments that Bambu sell. So if you're looking for a 3D printer, so far, my experience with the Bambu X1C has been excellent. Right, let's get on to our topics. What would you like to talk about today?

[00:02:10.07] - Taylor
So this week I want to talk about tidying up loose ends. So I've had a lot of projects that have almost been done and finished, but they just need the last bit of touches. And it's always the case that the last 20% of the project takes 80% of the time. It's where you have to make sure that you've not missed anything, make sure that you've finalised everything, make sure everything's working, make sure you haven't missed anything. I've had a lot of these projects, both personal and client projects, that I've I spend a good portion of time working on them, and then I leave them like, "Okay, cool. It's almost done. Just need to finish it." And then it just never happens or it gets left because other things become important, or again, I need to make progress on other projects. And so, what I've been doing is I've basically just been knuckling down and focusing on getting these over the line. It's been a lot of work, but it's been good because I know that now I've got a few things off my plate and I don't have to worry about them because they've already been finished or I've had a meeting and shown the client where we're at and given them an update, which is obviously important. So, I'm in a lot better place and it's helping me get things under control, mainly.

[00:03:31.25] - Gordon
So, because you've got yourself in a situation, which I think you've had a few times before, where you haven't finished a project and it's languished for a period of time. What are you going to put in place? What system are you going to put in place to make sure that doesn't happen? Because obviously, if your project is not finished, your customer is not happy, you haven't got paid. So you need to put something into place to stop that happening. Have you got any ideas on how you can make sure this is the last time?

[00:04:08.22] - Taylor
Yeah. So, I've put in systems to track projects a lot better. A lot of these projects are stuff that were pre this system and things like that. I've now put in things to stop over committing or taking on too many projects, but that doesn't fix the issue that I'm in where I've got maybe slightly too many from before I put those systems in place. At the moment, it's just trying to wipe the slate clean and get to a point where I can then start going forward, make sure that I do have time, I do have the capacity and things like that, so it doesn't get to this situation again. I'm trying to be a lot more conscious about what I take on. If I don't have the capacity, then just to say no. It's sometimes scary, but I think it's important.

[00:04:58.24] - Gordon
Well, instead of saying no, you could say, "Yes, but I can do it in three months time."

[00:05:05.08] - Taylor
Yes.

[00:05:05.25] - Gordon
"My schedule is full until then. If you're happy and it's a project that's not urgent, then I can book you in for that." And leave it up to the customer because quite often they'll come to you because either they've used you before or you've been recommended to them. And that is often one of the important reasons for them wanting to work with you. And it's not just that they have a project that they want someone to do, it's that they have a project they want you to do.

[00:05:35.20] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:05:36.10] - Gordon
I always feel it's nice to let them make the decision.

[00:05:39.15] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:05:39.29] - Gordon
You say, "Look, this is my schedule at the moment. I can fit you in starting in three months. If you're happy to wait, then I'll get you booked in now."

[00:05:48.19] - Taylor
Yeah. So, I've started to do that with projects. When I quote them and send a proposal, I've said, "Look, I can't start for a month or whatever." That's helped a lot because I don't then get people to say yes, and then I've got a project to take on straight away that I don't have the capacity for. And it has helped because it meant that projects that have been starting, are just now starting, I had time to finish off those projects.

[00:06:17.25] - Gordon
The new ones that you're taking on since you put processing in place, are they more on track so you don't get to an 80% finish and then leave them?

[00:06:29.00] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:06:29.18] - Gordon
Okay, perfect. Good. So the systems are working then?

[00:06:32.17] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:06:32.23] - Gordon
This sort of thing is the sort of thing that you don't realise you need until you get to a situation like that. And then you just need to put processes in place to stop it from becoming a real problem for your business. So well done for that. And I think it's something that you tweak and you change as time goes on, doesn't it?

[00:06:53.28] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:06:54.14] - Gordon
Just a simple checklist before you release a project to the customer is a really good thing. I used to have checklists for things that I would need to load into my car when I go off and do a show. And it's really good because you look at it and it gives you peace of mind that everything that you think you need, you've actually got. And if you've missed something, it will be on that list and you can then make sure you take it before it becomes a problem.

[00:07:25.01] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:07:25.12] - Gordon
Good. Anything else you want to say on that?

[00:07:27.10] - Taylor
I don't think so.

[00:07:28.22] - Gordon
How long until you've got all your past projects clear and you're moving forward just with new projects?

[00:07:36.07] - Taylor
So I have a couple of projects that are about to start or have just started, but they're only in the beginning phase. So a lot of it is, either not part... I don't have anything to do for the first part or I'm waiting on the client, and things like that. I'm hoping within this month or so that I'll have everything finished off that needs to be finished off this month. Then going forward, everything else will be stuff that's on track to finish when it's supposed to.

[00:08:05.24] - Gordon
Perfect. Very good. My topic today is looking at your brand from the customer's point of view. So, something that I've been doing recently is, over the years, for my children's magic shows, I had a logo which was like a globe with a bunny rabbit on the front of it, which was something that a school friend of mine designed for me, and I paid them for, when I was at school. I was using it for a long, long time. And I changed my branding to the jigsaw pieces that I now use, which is, originally it was "Gordon's Party Piece," which I thought was quite a nice play on words. But it's since changed to Gordon's Magic. So that's what my brand is now. Gordon's Magic is the brand. And I quite like that because it works on two different levels. It's the magic of Gordon, but it's also Gordon's Magic, which are quite... Gordon is magic and Gordon's magic. It works really nicely. And so over the last five years or so, I've been slowly changing things over. Because the problem I have as a small business is I have things printed in bulk, and you get 10,000 of something printed at one time.

[00:09:42.05] - Gordon
And it's really bad business for someone who's a small business to just take 7,000 flyers and just because you've changed your branding slightly, throw those out and get new ones in. It's not good for the environment, it's not good for cash flow. There's many, many reasons why it's not good. So slowly transitioning over to a new brand is the way I chose to do it. So, one of the first things I did was to update things that are easy to do, things like my letter heads, which get printed every time I print a letter. So that's just in the computer. So I had the design, update the artwork, job done. When my flyers ran out, I redid them with the new branding. So now my flyers are done. I have name stickers that the children get with their names on when I do a children's party so that I can actually refer to a child by their name. It's much nicer than saying, "Taylor, come over here. I've got a secret I want to tell you. You're going to be the star of this next trick." Whatever it is, rather than, "Oh, you in the white T-shirt?

[00:10:54.27] - Gordon
No, not you. The other one. No, the one behind." That's never as nice, is it? It's much nicer to be able to talk to people with their name. So I have little name stickers, and I send them out with my confirmation. Parents will either write them before the children come to the party, or they'll give them to me at the party, and I'll write them as they come in. It gives me a chance to say hello to people. And they had my old telephone number on, which hasn't worked for a while. So when they ran out, I reprinted those and I put my website address on. And so it's been going along in stages. And my banners, I've got two roller banners that I put either side of me when I'm in a hall or a big open space. And they have all the jigsaw pieces on, which is lovely. They've got my colours, red, yellow, blue, primary colours, and they work really well. The heading, though, has changed. I had a different typeface, which I used for my previous branding, and I basically just brought that over and just put Gordon's Magic in the old typeface.

[00:12:02.01] - Gordon
Since then, I've changed the typeface and it's been slowly creeping through everything. And the banners that I've got are really good quality banners. They've lasted me about seven years, I want to say, something like that.

[00:12:15.02] - Taylor
That's good.

[00:12:16.21] - Gordon
In fact, what I should have done and what I am doing now, is I'm writing the month and the year on the boxes of things that I get that come in. So I know for example, which ones are the oldest. If I've got a load of flyers or whatever, I can use the oldest ones first. And more importantly, I can see how long they're lasting me. So I know how many I ordered, and I know how long they were until I ran out. And that way I know how many I'm using and I'll know what to order for the future. And so I decided it was time to get two new banners because the ones I've got were just starting to curl at the edges and bits were coming off and they weren't quite as good as they should be. Now, I really liked the banners I had. I paid about £110 per banner, which is a lot of money for a roller banner because you can get these little square ones with little feet that pop out and they're cheap as can be, but they'll last you six months, especially the number of times I use them.

[00:13:28.08] - Gordon
I need something that's a bit higher quality than that. So the ones I've got have got weighted bases. They've got a space in the front for the poles that fold down. It's got a really nice movement. It's got this fake metal-looking plastic on the sides, which give it a nice shiny feel. There's no legs to turn out. They're really nice banners. And so I ordered exactly the same ones again, but I updated the header. So we're now using the new branding, and it now matches my flyers, which is wonderful. And the other thing, I think I mentioned a while back, I got some new bags made for my boxes. I have a box that's got all my magic in, and I like to look after it. So I put it inside a bag, lift the bag up and close it all up. And the bag needed replacing, which I got done a little while ago. And the problem with that is that there's some lining in this bag. And when I put the box in and lifted the bag from underneath, the lining managed to catch the bottom of the box and ripped a chunk of the wood off, which was...

[00:14:43.12] - Gordon
It has seen better the days my box. And it's also got my old logo painted on it. So that's not ideal. So I have been thinking for quite a while now that I need to put a bit of attention on this box. But the problem is I'm using it all the time, especially this month. I've got something like 20 shows this month, and so it's going to be needed nearly every day. So, when do I get my box fixed up? Well...

[00:15:16.13] - Taylor
When you go on holiday.

[00:15:16.24] - Gordon
When you go away. Yeah. I'm going away in August, and so I have arranged with a magician friend of mine who is also a prop builder to fix it all up for me. So he's going to sand it all down, get rid of all the paint, back to bare wood. He's going to fill all of the bits that need filling, make sure I've got proper edges on everything again. He's going to put new casters on the bottom, which are going to be rubber wheels, as opposed to the metal ones I've got at the moment. He's going to paint it all in one colour, so probably a nice glossy colour.

[00:15:55.04] - Gordon
And then my thinking at the moment is I'm going to get some vinyl print, which has got Gordon's Magic. And again, that's going to be my new branding and the jigsaw puzzle, and that's going to go on the box to finish it all off.

[00:16:10.01] - Taylor
That'll be good.

[00:16:10.15] - Gordon
So yes, it's going to be done while I'm away. I've got a few things to organise before I do that. But that's going to be the finishing part of my look for my children's show, because then that's the banners sorted, which is a big part of it. Then the box. As I probably, if you remember from a while back, I was getting some of my props renovated as well and repainted and things. That's really good as well. That was just maintenance. I'm really quite pleased about all this because it's the sort of thing that I always say, and I'm sure others are the same, "I'll do it when I get round to it." But the problem is that's what people see. They see my box, they see this chunk of wood that's been torn off the bottom and they think, "are we getting the quality we're paying for?" I'd like you to think the answer to that is yes.

[00:17:12.20] - Gordon
And the only way I can make you think that is if I don't have a box with a chunk of wood off and paint that's needing to be redone and other bits of paint that's come off and been filled in with black Sharpie and stuff. Just little minor updates and repairs when really I need to just do the whole thing and make it better in one go.

[00:17:34.14] - Taylor
It's interesting because I drive a little Toyota Aygo, and when I go to clients and stuff, it's fine. Most of the time, if I'm going to go to see a client, it'll be the office, no one really sees the car. But when I was talking to an estate agent and I was like, "Why do you spend so much money on buying a nice car?" It's like, "Well, when I'm turning up to a million pound plus house, you want to give a good impression and look like, okay, this person can deal with probably my biggest asset that I own, or vice versa. This person, okay, this person does know how to deal and sell a house."

[00:18:15.02] - Gordon
Well, it's the success thing, isn't it? If they turn up in a really nice car, you go, "Okay, this guy knows what he's doing. He's successful. We're going to put our trust in him." I think that's what it is. It's the trust and the appearance, isn't it? And that's exactly what I want. I want people to come in, look at my setup and go, "Wow, this is going to be good!" Even if they don't know who I am or they don't know what I'm going to do. They're just going to look at it and go, "This is going to be good!" And if you've got people on side right from the get-go, it's very difficult to mess that up. You can, but it's very difficult. You've got a good first impression. So I shall probably come back to you end of August, when it's all done and things are starting to get a little bit quieter again, and let you know how my box looks.

[00:19:08.07] - Taylor
Nice.

[00:19:09.01] - Gordon
That's everything from me. Is there anything you want to add?

[00:19:11.11] - Taylor
That's everything as well.

[00:19:12.11] - Gordon
Thank you so much for joining us. As always, Please like, share and subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube.

[00:19:18.23] - Taylor
You can also go to our website thisweekwith.co.uk to find all of our past episodes and find something we may have spoken about. If you're new and only listen to the first couple of episodes or the most recent episodes, we've got over 200 episodes that you can go and watch and find something we may have spoken about just by doing a search.

[00:19:38.29] - Gordon
Yeah, and if you would prefer to listen to us instead of watch us, then we're on all the major podcast platforms, just do a search for "This Week With Taylor and Gordon." And you can also get us on your smart speaker by saying, "play This Week With Taylor and Gordon." We'll be back with you next Friday. Until then, my name is Gordon and I'm from Drayson Design.

[00:20:29.13] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from the Creative Tinker.

[00:20:29.26] - Gordon
Goodbye.

[00:20:29.28] - Taylor
Bye.

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