Archive for August, 2010

Showmans show 2010 & more on guttering

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

After my article a few weeks ago on how to gutter a marquee it was pointed out that I’d left an important part out – remember to pull any slack material of the gutter out away from the marquee as far as possible. If you just leave the extra material in a heap on the floor then the water won’t be taken far from the marquee and more importantly you’re probably kinking up the end of the gutter in the marquee.

For anyone unaware The Showmans Show is a must-visit for any marquee hire business. Every supplier to the trade has a stand there, it’s where you meet all of the required contacts/suppliers as well as keeping in touch with any new products that are coming on to the market.

The show is at Newbury Showground on 20th & 21st October

We’re going to have some new ideas and products available, we’re working on them now so I won’t mention them just in case they don’t get through testing in time!

Thanks for reading

Spencer

Posted in marquee hire advice, showmans show, starting out | Comments Off on Showmans show 2010 & more on guttering

Back to work

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Apologies for the late blog, I’m now back at work and can confirm once again that looking after children is far harder and more tiring than putting up marquees ever was.

This is all about passing on advice so you don’t make the same mistakes I did and one of my (many) mistakes was lifting. As someone who puts up marquees I assume you’re well aware of the need to bend your knees not your back and to avoid twisting when carrying a heavy load. What you may not have thought of is which shoulder you always carry stuff on, invariably you will favour one.

In my many consultations with back specialists and physios after my injury it became apparent that the muscles were completely out of balance and were making dealing with the injury very difficult. This was purely from carrying everything on my right shoulder.

So short and simple message today – if you want to avoid joining me in my pilates class every week (think James Nesbitts Yellow Pages ad on Yoga) then look after your back and share the load over both your shoulders.

Thanks for reading

Spencer.

PS 4m wide marquees are now back in stock

Posted in health and safety | Comments Off on Back to work

Marquee swags and holiday

Monday, August 9th, 2010

I mainly use this blog to pass on advice or tips that I’d have liked to have known when I was starting up a marquee hire business. I sometimes use it to announce new products as i. they’ll be designed with hirers in mind and ii. I need to make a living! Very occasionally I’ll use it to make announcements.

This is one of the latter.

Marquee swags: We make roof linings in large batches, when people order a marquee swag upgrade we then take a made roof and add the velcro so the new swags can be attached (or left off to still use as a pelmet finish).

We’ve had several instances where people have ordered roof linings and assume that we remember/look up the fact that they need velcro on for their previously purchased swags.  Please don’t do this, always always specify you require velcro when ordering new roof linings -we offer it free but we don’t offer it as standard.

I’m away next week (there’s a barrel of cote de rhone red with my name on) but the factory’s still open (some might say running more efficiently in my absence) if you want to order anything.

Thanks for reading

Spencer.

Posted in marquee hire advice, marquee linings | Comments Off on Marquee swags and holiday

New Marquee Hire Websites and stock photos

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

When you first start up a marquee hire business something you always struggle with is photographs for your website. Obviously we supply a few to get you started but really you want a wide selection showing a variety of marquees and effects for customers to see but until you’ve done a marquee like that you haven’t got any photos of it.

One solution is to buy some ‘stock photos’ (I can’t recommend one particular site so just google it to see what I mean).

If you’ve been in business for a while and suddenly a new business pops up who look as if they’ve already done wedding marquees similar to the Beckhams then this is probably the answer, they just bought some stock photos.

Saying this, you do have to be a little careful here.

  • The photos look good. That’s why you bought them after all but..
  • Chances are the photos aren’t of your style of marquee. What if someone comes along as says – I want one of those!

You also have to be careful of misleading customers (even Burger King are at it). My personal view is by all means use them but be very very selective on the photos you buy. Choose ones that show people having a good time at a wedding/party for example rather than one that shows an unknown marquee in detail.

Thanks for reading

Spencer

Posted in advertising, marquee hire advice, starting out, websites | Comments Off on New Marquee Hire Websites and stock photos