At the start of last year we felt physically sick at the thought of what the recession might bring, but it was out best year yet and we met all of our goals. Woohoo, even I tried to celebrate! As for this year, we already have a good amount of work in the diary, but the never ending quest for more will continue. We’re going to hire a business development person this year, but more on that in the coming weeks.

The thing I wanted to comment on was what’s going on in the High Street regarding the “sales”. Like most people we went to the sales over Christmas anticipating the bargains galore. 70% off in some cases! It was all rubbish and I didn’t buy a thing. Apart from a shirt in Zara. I’ve noticed a few strange things happening and I wonder if it’s a general market trend or me being cynical? Firstly many of the retailers seemed to only display their cast-offs in the sale i.e. the stuff they hadn’t sold previously. So, yes it might have money off, but it was rubbish in the first place. Surely to feel like you’re getting a bargain you need to feel that you’re saving money on something you actually wanted? Secondly, the quality of a lot of stuff I looked at seems to be lower than it has been previously. We all know that most of our clothing now comes from low cost countries (I have been looking to buy some Loake shoes recently. Proper shoes, by appointment to the Queen no less, but even the Loake website states that the style I want is “hand crafted in India”!), but it seems to me that the quality is getting worse. The final observation is that this new era of low cost is also coming at the price of service. Much of the High Street seems to be a jumble sale and the approach seems to be “pile a load of rubbish on racks at slightly cheaper price than before and if it’s not in stock or in your size then tough”. The likes of Tesco are a bit cleverer of course - you can still “save” money if you now buy two tins of Roses for £10 (whereas last year they were £5 per tin anyway) or three bottles of 2litre Coke for £3 (who wants 6 litres of Coke? Said the Columbian...). Anyway it made me think about our business. Should we be offering three coaching sessions for the price of two? Maybe. Should we advertise 70% off our consultancy rates on the website (only for this to apply if you spend a minimum of £100000 per year with us)? Perhaps. Our business is built on adding value to the people we work with. We aim to add value and make your life easier as a basic product. If we start to reduce the quality it’ll soon die. We do flex our rates, but that reflects the different clients we work with and the industry sectors they are in. If we started using consultants or trainers with less experience (like the bigger consultancies interestingly!) and charging you a bit less we would soon have a much bigger problem on our hands. The basic psychology of sales is that they make people buy more because they think they are getting a bargain. If what they are buying is no longer a bargain then surely the business cannot be sustainable for the long term. Richard Branson is right – give the customer what they want and deliver it cost-effectively and with great service. We hope that in 2010 people continue to refer us based on the good work we do. We do not want to get sucked into competing purely on who is the cheapest. My Loake shoes are never in the sale, but I’ll still buy them....