I’M on a business development drive.
I thought about leafleting firms on industrial estates.
I considered putting cards with photos of me in a sexy pose in phone boxes.
And if you doubt I can strike a sexy pose, then you are wrong.
I used to have a Filipino yoga teacher who taught me quite a bit.
Although the arthritis in my knee means I can’t get my head between my legs as well as I used to.
And getting back up without help was also a problem.
So I decided that when it came to developing business opportunities I would go for lunch to Sous le Nez for two days in a row.
The basement restaurant in Leeds city centre opened yesterday after six months.
Its social media accounts must be controlled by an over-enthusiastic youngster as a post last weekend shrieked that there were “only six sleeps” until the restaurant reopened.
Now I know there was plenty of excitement from the business community about the reopening of a well loved waterhole, but that is going a bit far.
But if their social media bod wants to combine modern with traditional, perhaps they could post a photograph of a drunken diner slumped in the doorway with the comment: “U ok hun?”
Bearded bon viveur Robert Chamberlain, who owns the restaurant, told me he was grateful for the support provided by Chancellor Rishi Sunak to businesses like his and so he has been keen to pass on the benefit to customers.
The VAT reduction from 20% to 5% on food served in restaurants is now reflected on the menu.
Unfortunately it doesn’t apply to the wine list.
Sous le Nez appears not to have lost its ambience despite some changes which include staff all wearing face masks and tables being more distanced.
Business development opportunities are more challenging because you can’t wander over to any old table you like or gather in a throng around the bar.
But given the first people I saw in there were a recruiter and several property agents in jeans and Schöffel gilets then I wasn’t that bothered.
There was also a bloke with a neatly trimmed beard wearing what looked like pyjamas who ate with his mouth open and used his knife when gesturing to a waiter.
I thought that might provide me with a business opportunity.
As well as providing media and communications training, perhaps I could add a course on table manners.
We’ve all got to be more flexible in business these days – I’m told it’s called pivoting – and so where I used to train people on how to deal with the media, how to network and how to present in front of an audience, I’m now helping firms in different ways.
I’ve spoken to plenty of people who have admitted that they find video calls on Zoom and the like pretty challenging.
It might be fine as a communications tool for a team who know each other but what about if it is a business pitch to a potential client who you are meeting for the first time?
It is not easy and a few simple but effective techniques can really help.
In the same way, many firms have had to cut their public relations and marketing budgets due to the current exceptional circumstances.
They’ve either had to reduce spending with an outside agency or let their inhouse resource go.
But in most cases, they want to continue to communicate.
And that is where I can help, giving training on individuals or teams on how to identify, create and deliver positive stories from a business to the media.
The avalanche of negative news brought about by the Covid pandemic and subsequent economic challenges means that there has never been more of an appetite for good news stories from businesses.
If I can help, give me a call or drop me an email.
Alternatively I’ll be in Sous le Nez at lunchtime today.
And if anyone asks, it’s called business development.
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REPORTS that former footballer Alex Scott is to replace longtime host Sue Barker on A Question of Sport has created plenty of headlines.
And from what I read in the press, it has also led to Scott being targeted by “racist trolls” on Twitter.
That is sad because no one should ever be judged purely on their sex or race – just on whether they can do the job.
I’ve never been convinced that Alex Scott makes a good broadcaster because she lacks spontaneity, insight and humour.
But then so do most ex-footballers.
Although when Sky Sports put her alongside the inane Chris Kamara on Goals on Sunday she coped pretty well.
What I thought was interesting was Gary Lineker’s response to the news.
He congratulated her and told his 7.6 million Twitter followers: “Smart, knowledgeable and perfectly qualified for the role. Oh… and if you have a problem with Alex getting the job, you might just be part of the problem.”
Despite taking a £400,000 a year pay cut, Lineker is still the BBC’s biggest earner, it is just that now he has to share his number one spot with Radio 2 Breakfast Show host Zoe Ball.
But in the bizarre world of the BBC, what is taken with one hand is given by the other.
In agreeing to the pay cut he was then offered a five year contract at £1.3m a year to continue presenting Match of the Day.
I struggle to see why he is valued so highly.
In the first MOTD show of the new season last Saturday, Lineker’s schoolboy exchange with pundit Ian Wright saw him sniggering so much he struggled to introduce the next match highlights and failed to properly deliver the name of the commentator.
But that is what is classed as “banter” these days.
My suggestion to the BBC would have been a simple one.
Why not replace Gary Lineker as Match of the Day host with Alex Scott?
They would have saved themselves a fortune, got rid of another middle aged white male presenter and I’m sure she can read from a teleprompter and deliver scripted “bantz” just as well as he does.
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Parky’s video clip of the week
This week’s video features veteran Yorkshire businessman Mike Firth.
A gruff, tough Yorkshireman on the outside, Mike is a thoughtful, caring man with a heart of gold.
He and his wife and adopted daughter feature in a new video from Adoption UK promoting the benefits of adopting children and the diversity of many families that do it.
My relationship with MIke goes back 20 years to when he put on the Yorkshire International Business Convention in Harrogate.
Every year he brought together 1,500 top business people to listen to a range of big name speakers including former US presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton as well as Mikhail Gorbachev, Colin Powell, Elle Macpherson and George Foreman.
When Bill Clinton came to Yorkshire in 2004 Mike stopped journalists entering the convention to listen to him and I penned a furious rant in several columns of the Yorkshire Post.
What I didn’t realise that soon after Mike moved into an office in the newspaper building and I came face to face with the burly, shaven headed entrepreneur in the car park.
It is fair to say that I was trembling as he approach me, but he laughed off my comments and I’m a huge admirer of his and we have since become good friends.
And he got his own back the following year by making me sit through a whole routine by Cannon & Ball.
Have a great weekend.