Open University.

[Falstaff]

Dan, You have clearly identified that your business has reached a critical position and you don't know how to go forward or stop it from failing. I've seen this a lot with new businesses where the owner hits the plateau, and does not know how to get beyond it. There are in fact, several critical business expansion shelfs as/if businesses get big.
Both my brother and my cousin did OU MBA's and benefitted hugely from it. Both seperately retired years early with nice pots. Neither had particularly good academic qualifications but by hard work and the time discipline required, succeeded and learnt how to apply it. (The time discipline required is very hard - eyes on the prize.)
However, in the short term, there are business development consultancies that could provide advice and early focus. There are small ones, one/two man bands that specialise in retail, and could prove to be a worthwhile investment to save your business while doing your own OU.

Before committing time and effort to media and marketing you need to identify/focus on who you are trying to attract and why. Marketing and promo is very important but unless focussed can be a loser not a winner - e.g. SEO peddlers are a waste of money. Blogs and Insta's require constant new content and feeding or will detract from a business, and are time-hungry.
You also need to do a business risk/opportunities review ("SWOT"-lots of how-to on the web) That might give you a whole new perspective. Are you purely retail, do you need to move into supplying other businesses/trade, supply chain risks - transport, alternatives, local suppliers, are you a grower or purely a seller etc. , staffing risks/benefits etc.
This does not have to be some advanced uni knowledge/research. Just a step back and cool look at the business and what positives and potential negatives there are. It's a bit more than a fag packet review but is basically just commonsense on a few pages.

 

[Dan00001]

You have your head screwed on right. You're not looking to learn for learning sake but to grow yourself to better grow your business. You have an end game I think which is a better business and a means to get there through knowledge. If that makes sense.

Can I just point out that the benefit of OU is the credit system. You say you are looking for a degree but there are two potential levels before that and IIRC two levels after with their postgraduate courses from post-grad diploma to full masters. Where you stop is up to you.

I say that because you might find the you get what you need from OU for your business and future success after two years of courses or need the 6 years for a part time honours degree. That is all your choice and TBH there might be no point going further if you have the business knowledge, ideas, etc before the honours degree stage.

Just a thought, take from it what you want.

Thank you, mate, you are spot on, I want to level up my knowledge and ability to run my own business, and while I'm doing that, I may as well get a certificate at the end of it to help with a change of career if I ever have to, fingers crossed, with a massive bit of luck, we will succeed in our current business.

 

[Dan00001]

I suggest you take a step away from yourself mentally- it psychological but adopt a different version of yourself, think of an alternative version of yourself whom IS a skilled speaker and presenter , it should feel slightly different because you're presenting from a different part of your brain - the creative side , imagining the full confident , vocal , gregarious , extrovert version of Dan. Once the presentation is over you can revert to your 'true' self - but the truth is both versions are you, one is just less practiced and feels strange - like new trousers.

Over time and experience of doing it the two versions will become closer and closer until they identify as being the same.

Head tricks!!

Yes, I'm naturally slightly introverted. I need to go outside of my comfort zone, which I think always helps in other aspects of life, too. Thank you for the advice.

 

[Dan00001]

Dan, You have clearly identified that your business has reached a critical position and you don't know how to go forward or stop it from failing. I've seen this a lot with new businesses where the owner hits the plateau, and does not know how to get beyond it. There are in fact, several critical business expansion shelfs as/if businesses get big.
Both my brother and my cousin did OU MBA's and benefitted hugely from it. Both seperately retired years early with nice pots. Neither had particularly good academic qualifications but by hard work and the time discipline required, succeeded and learnt how to apply it. (The time discipline required is very hard - eyes on the prize.)
However, in the short term, there are business development consultancies that could provide advice and early focus. There are small ones, one/two man bands that specialise in retail, and could prove to be a worthwhile investment to save your business while doing your own OU.

Before committing time and effort to media and marketing you need to identify/focus on who you are trying to attract and why. Marketing and promo is very important but unless focussed can be a loser not a winner - e.g. SEO peddlers are a waste of money. Blogs and Insta's require constant new content and feeding or will detract from a business, and are time-hungry.
You also need to do a business risk/opportunities review ("SWOT"-lots of how-to on the web) That might give you a whole new perspective. Are you purely retail, do you need to move into supplying other businesses/trade, supply chain risks - transport, alternatives, local suppliers, are you a grower or purely a seller etc. , staffing risks/benefits etc.
This does not have to be some advanced uni knowledge/research. Just a step back and cool look at the business and what positives and potential negatives there are. It's a bit more than a fag packet review but is basically just commonsense on a few pages.

Thank you, that's a massively helpful. One thing I often have plenty of, is time. We get our busy periods throughout the weekdays, but our very busy times are weekends. Through the week I often have a lot of time between serving customers to study.

I know that with content creating, and how algo's work, it really has to be regular content or not worth doing at all. But it is definitely something that I want to try. We have a Facebook group with about 13,000 members, and I want to (obviously) increase the number of customers and sales, both within the group, and bring in new customers who have not heard of us before.

We currently buy in 99% of what we sell. I make up hanging baskets to sell. If we can move on to our piece of land, I would erect poly tunnels to grow certain plants to go in hanging baskets, and maybe veg, but I'm not interested in becoming a large scale grower, I couldn't compete with Holland, but could certainly increase our profits by growing some plants and veg. I want to take us online selling, and I'm very interested in wholesaling plants. We do currently supply every year to a number of pubs and clubs, and we supply hanging baskets and Christmas tree's to a local council every year. I would like to expand this to perhaps landscapers and even small shops who might buy just a few trays of plants here and there etc.

Thank you for your advice, I'm going to have a read of it again and do some reading.

I'm booked on to the Business & Law Access module, and looking forward to it. It's given me a boost in motivation to learn and better myself.

 

[TeeDee]

Just thought I would come back to this thread with some alternative thoughts. Food for thought maybe.

I've had to chase a Plumber and Builder now repeatedly. For several months , to not just turn up but to quote.

I think if you are in a trade where you can not chase customers , where you can pick and choose , set your own working terms , quantity of projects and customers will still wait in line patiently to get their project attended too - you are simply in demand.


Now I'm not saying that is professional behaviour by the trades guys I am chasing - but its a fundamental rule of life - Supply and demand. They can afford to be choosey , to be somewhat lax and non committal - and they are their own boss.


Guess If i had my time again - I would consider a Trade as something to have under my belt to rely upon as potentially being my own boss as opposed to become a degree employee with my 'value' and experience being assayed by a H/R department.

 

[Chris]

Just thought I would come back to this thread with some alternative thoughts. Food for thought maybe.

I've had to chase a Plumber and Builder now repeatedly. For several months , to not just turn up but to quote.

I think if you are in a trade where you can not chase customers , where you can pick and choose , set your own working terms , quantity of projects and customers will still wait in line patiently to get their project attended too - you are simply in demand.


Now I'm not saying that is professional behaviour by the trades guys I am chasing - but its a fundamental rule of life - Supply and demand. They can afford to be choosey , to be somewhat lax and non committal - and they are their own boss.


Guess If i had my time again - I would consider a Trade as something to have under my belt to rely upon as potentially being my own boss as opposed to become a degree employee with my 'value' and experience being assayed by a H/R department.

I’ve considered similar in my recent reevaluation of things. The problem with doing this later in life when you have a mortgage and everything is that you’ll need about 3 years of experience in the form of an apprenticeship to be a plumber or electrician worth your salt. There is lots of training available including ‘intense 6 week courses’ and things, but the consensus seems to be that this is a money maker for the training providers and increasing cowboy tradesmen rather than really giving people good access to the trades.

 

[TeeDee]

I’ve considered similar in my recent reevaluation of things. The problem with doing this later in life when you have a mortgage and everything is that you’ll need about 3 years of experience in the form of an apprenticeship to be a plumber or electrician worth your salt. There is lots of training available including ‘intense 6 week courses’ and things, but the consensus seems to be that this is a money maker for the training providers and increasing cowboy tradesmen rather than really giving people good access to the trades.

No I agree - Everything is harder when you get older ( well.... nearly everything.... " that " kinda naturally diminishes... ) - I guess maybe I wrote this in case there were any younger minds reading this that although felt the somewhat societal peer pressure to ' do the uni thing' were less convinced it was the correct path for them personally.


One seems to offer a large amount of debt at a young age to carry forward with comfortable terms of repayment and the other seems to offer 3 odd years of low wages to learn a skillset.

Starting on neither path means one will automatically enjoy where one ends up but I guess that is true of many things.

 

[demographic]

My wife did her masters degree through the Open University not so long ago.
It was quite humbling to see the graduations up at Glasgow where many people had overcome significant hurdles to achieve their goals.
One lass even came up to recieve the degree of her father who had died just after completing his course.
Think I got a bit of dust in my eyes round about that point in the proceedings.

 

[Dan00001]

Just thought I would come back to this thread with some alternative thoughts. Food for thought maybe.

I've had to chase a Plumber and Builder now repeatedly. For several months , to not just turn up but to quote.

I think if you are in a trade where you can not chase customers , where you can pick and choose , set your own working terms , quantity of projects and customers will still wait in line patiently to get their project attended too - you are simply in demand.


Now I'm not saying that is professional behaviour by the trades guys I am chasing - but its a fundamental rule of life - Supply and demand. They can afford to be choosey , to be somewhat lax and non committal - and they are their own boss.


Guess If i had my time again - I would consider a Trade as something to have under my belt to rely upon as potentially being my own boss as opposed to become a degree employee with my 'value' and experience being assayed by a H/R department.

Like most things, I think trades move in cycles. I remember looking into plumbing when I left school, I didn't go down that route, but it was a good trade back then, but not like it is today. What probably happens is a trade earns just an ok living so less demand to be in that trade which eventually means less tradesmen to service the demand from customers which means the tradesmen can charge what they like/pick and choose their work etc. That is where we are today. This will likely cause an influx of people wanting to be plumbers, until the supply of plumbers outstrips demand from customers and then all of a sudden plumbers are competing for work and they can no longer charge whatever they want and the cycle repeats.

That said, I think Geoffrey Hinton, when discussing the future of Ai, was asked what the most future proof profession is in regards to Ai, said plumbing.

I was talking about this with a friend recently, who is a plumber, and is doing extremely well for himself, fitting heat pumps, and he was telling me he has a friend who is a general practitioner who is fearful over the future of his job and thinks he's only a few years away from Ai being able to replace him.

 

[Dan00001]

I’ve considered similar in my recent reevaluation of things. The problem with doing this later in life when you have a mortgage and everything is that you’ll need about 3 years of experience in the form of an apprenticeship to be a plumber or electrician worth your salt. There is lots of training available including ‘intense 6 week courses’ and things, but the consensus seems to be that this is a money maker for the training providers and increasing cowboy tradesmen rather than really giving people good access to the trades.

The other thing I've considered is, If I have to work at 70, am I going to be comfortable doing a trades job such as plumbing? Is my body going to be up to it? I think I would be happier in an office job at 70.

 

[slaine_23]

Hi,

I'm considering enrolling in open university. Has anyone here enrolled in open university? I'm highly motivated but I've not had any formal education for 20~ years. I'm unsure whether to complete a 30 week 'Access Course', which is like an introductory course aimed towards people like myself who have been out of formal education for a long time, or whether I jump straight in to a degree?

Thanks you.

I’d suggest looking at postgrad course not just undergrad. Some PG courses might be of more direct interest and you don’t always need a degree in the subject, experience counts too, so can be a more effective way to upskill.
Lot of work, so be prepared.

 

[slaine_23]

I have a question - sorry if it feel like a thread HiJack

If you were going to employ someone new - and you had Two candidates - One with a degree unrelated to the industry that they were applying for an the other without a degree but equally no experience of the industry that they were applying for - would you favour the graduate?

And If so can I ask why?

Certain roles - or the level or grade of the role - require certain levels of qualification, so sometimes the fun folks from HR will block the more experienced but less qualified candidate. A bit mad perhaps but there you go.

 

[TeeDee]

Certain roles - or the level or grade of the role - require certain levels of qualification, so sometimes the fun folks from HR will block the more experienced but less qualified candidate. A bit mad perhaps but there you go.

I can see that being beneficial and specific where the field of degree being studied has a certain over match or direct applicable contribution to trade or industry one is applying for.

It just baffles me a little when jobs in engineering ( example ) are being applied for by individuals with a degree in ( equine studies -example ) and that they are potentially deemed more suitable for a role without qualifications or related experience.

 

[oldtimer]

Go for it. The OU changed my life. I did my BA in the 1980s, made a lot of friends, increased my self confidence and was sponsored for an Advanced Diploma at Cambridge on the back of it.

 

[Dan00001]

I'm all booked on to the business & law access module which begins next month. Looking forward to it.

 

[Dan00001]

Just an update..

I'm half way through my second week of the Business and Law access module, actually I've today completed the second week (unit 2).

I am glad that I took the access module, it's been a nice ease back in to education. So far it's been quite heavily targeted towards 'learning how to learn' and has helped me with things that I was dreading, more the academic side, note taking, answering questions and general writing stuff down and keeping a learning notebook etc. I feel a million times more confident in these areas already, even though I know I have to work on certain areas, I know which areas.

It's funny, and quite a shame really, because in school I was smart but I hated it, I hated learning, I hated studying, revising, writing, but now at this stage in my life I cannot get enough of it, I'm enjoying every part of it, currently. Anyway, no point dwelling on the past, I just need to concentrate on doing things today to improve my chances in the future.

Oh, while I want to study business to help me with my business, I'm taking a serious liking to law, but it's early days.

 

[Pattree]

I got my last academic qualification in my late 40’s together with a cohort of similar age.
We agreed that University is wasted on the young. (Not really and it might have been us that were wasted at the time )

Very well done.
I think an awful lot of University students realise in their first year that there were a vast number of subjects, many available to them, that they didn’t know about.

 

[Dan00001]

I got my last academic qualification in my late 40’s together with a cohort of similar age.
We agreed that University is wasted on the young. (Not really and it might have been us that were wasted at the time )

Very well done.
I think an awful lot of University students realise in their first year that there were a vast number of subjects, many available to them, that they didn’t know about.

Thank you mate, your last point is something that I have always said was either poorly explained in school, or not at all, the different opportunities and jobs that are available. I still don't know now.

 

[Dan00001]

Just another little update, I handed in my first TMA (Teacher Marked Assessment) on 6th November which I scored 92% in. I have my second TMA to hand in in 2 weeks.

I'm taking a massive liking to the law side of this module and even considering doing a degree in just law.

 

[TeeDee]

Just another little update, I handed in my first TMA (Teacher Marked Assessment) on 6th November which I scored 92% in. I have my second TMA to hand in in 2 weeks.

I'm taking a massive liking to the law side of this module and even considering doing a degree in just law.

Well done Dan, 92% coming straight of the gates!!! Impressive M'Lud!!