1000 video views on The Good Entrepreneur

Yup, we got there this morning. And we are no.2 in the charts. That's fine, the key thing now is to prepare for the next few weeks to make sure our plans are watertight.


I'm in London this week, and have just seen some energy-efficiency products being sold in a large, out-of-town hardware store (B&Q), which got my attention (see dodgy picture taken on mobile, left).

However, they're being sold just like Home Depot do in the States, i.e. not all in one place and just a fraction of what the store stocks. How do they expect people to engage with these products when they're sold like that? There's still no-one doing what we're suggesting, even in the UK which is ahead of Spain on these things.

Good.

Oh yes, and the competition dates have slipped a bit, now not announcing finalists till September. I guess this gives us more time to polish everything...

By the way...

...have to say I'm a bit disappointed with some of the candidates getting their friends and supporters to do critical posts on the other entries to try and make them look bad. It's happened to us twice now, once from Ireland and once from Germany. Don't tell me these posts were just coincidence - they weren't, in each case the posters live a few miles from another entrant.

In each case I've just given polite answers. I've also noticed it happening on other entries (one poster from Holland posting on a German entry if I'm not mistaken).

I'm not going to play that game and post back on their entries, it doesn't make anyone look good.

Stop, please.

Definition of entrepreneurship

This is what it feels like:

First, you are on your own. For a long time. People think you are weird, crazy and even a bit laughable.

Then suddenly, something happens...the tipping point...(watch this right till the end)



As they say on the YouTube video, it only takes one guy to start a party.

Jeez, 45 entries now...

...I liked it better when there were just 10 entrepreneurs going for 10 places on the shortlist. But we now have 750+ views of the pitch video, which can't be bad. 9 days left for people to get in their entries.

Climate change in Copenhagen

Ok I know on the competition site we probably can't do political stuff, but on my own blog I can do what I like! So for anyone in the UK, here's a link to a campaign for getting a climate change deal in Copenhagen.

Please sign! Yes, yes it's for the Labour Party, but after all they do run the country. For the moment.

9 days down, 13 days to go, over 600 video views and still no.1

Just to note that as of today, 18 July, we've been no.1 on The Good Entrepreneur's Most Popular Entries for almost all of the last 9 days, with a couple of short breaks - not bad. We're also the most viewed video. However there are some other very good entries, and there are still 13 days till the entry phase closes.

Besides, it doesn't really mean anything with regard to the competition, so we really need to be focusing on the idea itself (which we are). We are now starting to prepare the ground for any grillings we might get on the business idea at any point over the next few weeks...Luis and I will have lunch on Tuesday to brainstorm this.

The competition is definitely hotting up, there are now 31 entries. So we could be talking about a total of 50.

We're number one so far - but let's not get carried away...

Well I know we shouldn't read too much into these things - the popularity ratings on The Good Entrepreneur are not obligatory reading for the judges, after all, and it's hardly a random sample of people - but this is obviously pleasing. We went to no. 1 later on the first day of launch, then spent a little time as no. 2 and no. 3, but we have now been no. 1 since Friday and have pulled slightly ahead of the other entries (average rating 4 vs. 3.5 for the entries in 2nd and 3rd positions).

There are now 15 entries, and I'd guess at this rate we will be talking about a maximum of 30 entries, although there could be a last-minute surge. I'm delighted, although it would be quite ambitious to expect that we will be able to keep this up for the next 3 weeks as new entries come in.

Also nice was the fact that the comments have been almost overwhelmingly positive (not that we're against a little healthy debate). But there's still a long, long way to go, we need to impress the judges, not just the visitors to the website, encouraging though it might be to see these figures.

Straight in at no. 5

There are now 14 entries, and after less 1 day up on the site we are already rated no. 5 out of 14 in the ratings...

But we need to be better, so please rate the video NOW!

The BGreen entry is IN

What a day - I now have told everyone I know and have ever known in my whole life. The video is up on the site (although slightly mangled in the aspect ratio, which I'm trying to get CNBC to fix).

Please go and look at it as soon as possible on http://www.goodentrepreneur.com/The-Competition/Entries-Pool/Climate-change-retail-stores and register, rate and comment! It takes less than 5 minutes including viewing the video.

By the way, there's a reason for not posting it here (or in YouTube for that matter) - if people don't view it on The Good Entrepreneur site, then it doesn't increase the "number of views" (and they may not remember to rate it either).

Thank you all for your patience.

And for those interested...

...this is my aforementioned little girl, Zoë.

Bless.

Why we're doing this

Here, by the way, is a river from the valley to the south of Marrakech, in the foothills of the amazing Atlas mountains. If global warming is not curtailed, this river probably won't be here in my lifetime, is my guess, or at least certainly not in the lifetime of my little girl. And that would be a damn shame.

1 month of prep, almost there now

Ok, it's almost there. Have had a short break during the last month to Marrakech with the family and now it's down to work for this competition. The video will be ready this week - possibly even tonight - and then it'll be time to ensure as many people as possible see it and rate it (hopefully highly!) It's been through a couple of iterations and have got comments from as many people as possible. If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well...

So far there are just 10 other entries. This is good!