To be fair to Rhys he seems to have taken the smart business decision to test the private hire market, without committing to substantial capital expenditure. It is surely sensible for any small business looking to expand to do so in such a careful and controlled manner. As Rhys readily notes - it is his money on the line - if he gets a decision wrong it is his cash that is lost.
There have been many examples (particularly in the private hire market) of firms expanding too quickly or starting new ventures with expensively leased vehicle only to find they don't have the cash reserves necessary to stay afloat long enough to grow that market. It looks like Rhys is taking the sensible approach and testing before committing. The very nature of such an approach may mean that some venture never get off the ground and sometimes Cityfox's approach to marketing such ventures raises expectations beyond a reasonable level. It is a fine line between promoting yourself well and over egging the pudding.
Where my personal 'goodwill' falls short is some of the language Rhys has used in his online 'marketing'. Rhys notes above that the term 'misleading' is being used too much. In my last post I was very careful to use the words "have the potential to unfairly mislead a customer as to the company's abilities and resourcing". I stand by that phrase and I think the recent rewording of the Splendour website is a tacit admission that this was the case. I feel there are other areas of the group's online presence has the same potential and in my personal opinion a quick health check of online content would be advisable, just to be sure it all genuinely respects the current (rather than once intended state of the business).
My big bug bear, and one that hasn't been acknowledged or admitted is the issue of plagiarising copy from other web sources. This is a personal bugbear, I am good friends with a copywriter and this is a very skilled job. Sometimes she creates copy for companies from scratch, sometimes she edits and corrects existing copy. The recent case of the Spurs tube posters being case in point why you can't rely on a designer to check copy! She often sees her copy lifted and reused in other website - companies benefiting from her skills without paying for them. Good copy doesn't come free and wholesale or partial plagiarism of another company's website is theft. It also raises the issue that text should be tailored to your business, copied text might look good at first glance, but can never really reflect your business. I'm sure the plagiarism issue will once again get side stepped, but I hope Rhys will take on board this criticism and act on it. I hope he also takes on board the spirit in which the above comment is made - I have used strong language like theft - but the intention was to do so constructively, not to be defamatory so that positive changes can be made and past mistakes not repeated.
There have been many examples (particularly in the private hire market) of firms expanding too quickly or starting new ventures with expensively leased vehicle only to find they don't have the cash reserves necessary to stay afloat long enough to grow that market. It looks like Rhys is taking the sensible approach and testing before committing. The very nature of such an approach may mean that some venture never get off the ground and sometimes Cityfox's approach to marketing such ventures raises expectations beyond a reasonable level. It is a fine line between promoting yourself well and over egging the pudding.
Where my personal 'goodwill' falls short is some of the language Rhys has used in his online 'marketing'. Rhys notes above that the term 'misleading' is being used too much. In my last post I was very careful to use the words "have the potential to unfairly mislead a customer as to the company's abilities and resourcing". I stand by that phrase and I think the recent rewording of the Splendour website is a tacit admission that this was the case. I feel there are other areas of the group's online presence has the same potential and in my personal opinion a quick health check of online content would be advisable, just to be sure it all genuinely respects the current (rather than once intended state of the business).
My big bug bear, and one that hasn't been acknowledged or admitted is the issue of plagiarising copy from other web sources. This is a personal bugbear, I am good friends with a copywriter and this is a very skilled job. Sometimes she creates copy for companies from scratch, sometimes she edits and corrects existing copy. The recent case of the Spurs tube posters being case in point why you can't rely on a designer to check copy! She often sees her copy lifted and reused in other website - companies benefiting from her skills without paying for them. Good copy doesn't come free and wholesale or partial plagiarism of another company's website is theft. It also raises the issue that text should be tailored to your business, copied text might look good at first glance, but can never really reflect your business. I'm sure the plagiarism issue will once again get side stepped, but I hope Rhys will take on board this criticism and act on it. I hope he also takes on board the spirit in which the above comment is made - I have used strong language like theft - but the intention was to do so constructively, not to be defamatory so that positive changes can be made and past mistakes not repeated.
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