2010 and new horizons

We posted the news on The Escape Press site today that I am going part-time in my day job. Extra pressure for me and a whole new challenge that has been in the making since 2007.

For Escape clients, sorry, but you may have to still see me occasionally as I continue to add anything necessary to keep The Escape at the top of it’s game. That said, they guys there are more than competent to do everything they do without me sticking my oar in. For me, my main focus moving forward is to concentrate on two ventures.

Firstly, my passions over the past couple of years have been drawn towards retail with Truly Scrumptious. Basically, the salon my wife and I bought in 2005 has gone through quite a transition and is now holding it’s own. But for me, it will only ever really perform financially if we extend the brand to more sites. I am already in talks to buy salon number two, which should go through early next year.

That’s on top of the e-commerce website selling beauty products that we run complementing the salons. This is going into Magento in the next few weeks, so I’ll be looking to see how far we can push that side of the business too.

My other venture is Click 71, a company that I intend to leverage for other online solutions I want to develop and experiment with. Some of this may include external consultancy work for clients, but that’s not the main focus. I’d rather leave the web stuff to The Escape.

If I am honest, part of the reason I need to do the Click 71 stuff is to play more with the marketing experience I have developed over the past ten years; for myself with no constraints, rather than tied to clients needs, wants and opinions. It’s hard to do that as part of an organisation like The Escape.

Anyway, with a new baby on the way and a negative economy still hanging around, now is probably the best time to start a new venture… isn’t it?