A year or so ago, a longstanding friend and client, Tarma Rowles, called me up wholly excited with her idea: to auction horses online. She asked us to build a system like Ebay.

Daunting, yes but we like a challenge. The system we branded Hauctions is now live and is slowly but surely taking seed in one of the most conservative trading sectors. In five years, we believe this international trading platform will account for a substantial share of the world’s horse trading. That is a big belief but the opportunity is there.

Transparency
Tarma supplies Spanish (Andalusian) horses across the world, with clients ranging from the Khartoum family to the couple with a teenage daughter in Essex. Her idea seeded after hosting telephone bidding between two interested parties in one of her horses. It compounded her awareness that a horse is only worth as much as people deem it worth. An online auctioning process would enable a horse’s true value to be obtained, rather the a subjective or hopeful value applied by the vendor.

But the advantages only begin with the age old principle of auctioning. The horse world has many rogue traders and opportunists and an online system, where buyers and sellers are openly rated, provides a degree of transparency fenced out of the private sale. Buyers and sellers are openly rated. Sellers’ information is put on the record by being published online rather than conveyed in a stable yard or over the phone and later denied.

Communications between vendor and buyer are recorded through the system. An in built escrow service provides financial assurance. Additional informational and related transporters, local vets etc. are are automatically displayed for each horse. Yes, buyers are advised to inspect the horse and of course have the horse vetted prior to bidding. However, the process and the reputations are there for all to see.

Puppy Farms
I have a neighbour who bought his Labrador puppy from one of those puppy farms in the Welsh Borders. Loveable as she is, she soon grew to suffer hip and behavioural problems. Rogue breeders would be rooted out by an online system, and pet buyers can be automatically warned of the costs and commitments required in owning any animal. We rarely admit it, but many pet breeders breed for the money. However, the majority want to ensure their pets find a good home. Again, buyer and seller profiles and feedback would make the process transparent. Have they owned pets before? Has a reference been uploaded from their local vet? Etc. Bidders would have to accepted by the vendor prior to entering the auction.

As you can imagine, the system we have built is highly complex, with private messaging, escrow payment systems, profiling, account management, automated bidding, buy now, multiple currency conversions etc.

But as it grows in reputation and adoption across the equine world, I do believe we are paving the way to apply this software to the smaller animal.

MOCK UP ON A HAUCTIONS ENTRY

Consider the advantages of Hauctions listed below. Imagine these applied to lovely Labrador puppies:

Vendor Benefits

• No payment unless sold (and only 3%!)
• Access to global markets
• Horses realize true value (no pressure to accept first offer)
• Cut out the dealer or agent commission
• No time wasters or hagglers
• No abandoned deposits
• Just five minutes to post a horse for sale to global markets
• No need to take horses to sales
• No advertising, entry or registration fees
• Minimised risk (payment secured in escrow)
• Opportunity to provide more details, pictures and video than any advert allows
• Freedom to sell privately if auction fails reserve, or sell at your ‘Buy Now’ price at anytime
• International network of Hauctions® agents who are able to video, photograph and list your horses if required

Buyer Benefits 

• Opportunity to find your ideal horse from across the world
• Opportunity to review and compare horses in detail and at leisure
• Buy direct from breeders, trainers and owners
• Buy in the knowledge the horse is fetching market value
• Opportunity to ask vendor questions and to arrange viewings ands vettings
• Transparency of sales record and buyer rating of breeder, dealer or private seller
• Preview and buy without sales pressure or intimidation
• Minimised risk due to payment only being released to vendor once horse leaves premises.

Matthew Rymer
Managing Director, The Marketing Farm Ltd.
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The Lazy Cow in Salisbury is a wine bar, restaurant and hotel sprawling an old timbered coaching house opposite the Cathedral.

As their name suggests, they major on the Cow’s opposite. However, they have taken their meat offering one step further than I have seen outside London. I think it is genius. In the restaurant they show off an upright  glass doored meat curing freezer in which a range of cuts, tagged with hand written brown string labels describe the cut and the number of days the meat has been dry aged. Harrods Food Hall would be proud to have so many cured meats on view. Diners can see and select the meat they want from a whole range of cuts, ages and breeds.

Premium Price
Their chef, Max, explained to me their so called ‘Dry Aging Room’ allows them to buy in premium meats from Argentina and USA that they then dry cure. How ingenious! For the investment in this cabinet, which cures by rotating between a -2 freeze and a +2 thaw, they have a showpiece feature and can offer an exceptional eating experience at a premium price. They have created a talking point and I would assume by sourcing overseas maintain a substantial margin on cost. It is a win, win and win. And let’s not forget, the process can only improve the beef so there is no wastage.

Dry Aging Process
Only the higher grades of meat can be dry aged, as the process requires meat with a large, evenly distributed fat content. The key effect of dry aging is the concentration and saturation of the natural flavour. The process changes beef by two means. First, moisture is evaporated from the muscle. This creates a greater concentration of beef flavour and taste. Second, the beef’s natural enzymes break down the connective tissue in the muscle, which leads to more tender beef.

MENU EXTRACT: Prices from top: £50, £52, £60, £56, £50, £48

I can see this catching on.

Matthew Rymer
Managing Director, The Marketing Farm Ltd.
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I am very fortunate to be able to run from my Mac to dance through the moods and lights and the highs and lows of the encircling Cotswold Hills.

I took this first picture last week, when Spring was warming our backs, and it prompted me to look through older pictures taken on runs, when I have felt the need break into a tune, yank out my iphone and snap a view.

A selection of our latest news and advice is posted below but please do contact us for initial recommendations. That bit is free and we welcome all challenges.“

Matthew Rymer, Managing Director
February 2012
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Mobile Friendly
More than a quarter of online shopping sprees taking place on mobile. Apple iOS devices shoppers accounted for 79% of mobile purchases in December 2011. Throughout the month, mobile share of online shopping sessions grew steadily, rising from 23% at the beginning of the month to 31% by 31 December.

Mobile shoppers spend more than desktop shoppers: During the month of December, average order value on mobile devices was £111.86, compared with £102.20 on desktops.

Shoppers purchasing from their mobile devices represented just over 8% of total sales. On Christmas Day, 43% of all shoppers were on a mobile device and on Boxing Day the number declined slightly to 40%. iPad and iPhone dominate mobile shopping: just over 97% of the sales originated from an iPad or an iOS-enabled device in December 2011.

We have just launched our mobile friendly Bunbury Boards eshop, providing personalisation, gift messaging and wrapping.

Features
- bespoke design
- unlimited categories with categories management
- drill-down navigation based on custom attributes
- search engine and SEO friendly urls
- multiple sorting options for products
- user accounts
- orders management
- customers management
- contact form
- shopping cart
- unlimited custom text pages
- shipping and tax estimation based on destination
- google sitemap
- unlimited number of images for each product
- inventory management
- transactions management
- multiple payment options, such as PayPal integration
- multiple shipping methods
- billing address and shipping address, user editable
- dashboard for authenticated users, where they can see their orders statuses
- various detailed reports: orders, products in carts, abandoned carts, most viewed, low stock
- featured products
- search
- two display options for products: List and Grid
- seo optimisation
- Up-selling and cross-selling
- newsletter sign up
- newsletter sending and subscribers management
Advanced Features
- custom product options, including ‘Gift wrapping’ and ‘Custom engraving text’
- multiple currencies and currency rates management
- add to wishlist and wishlist management
- products comparison
- product tags
- catalog price rules and shopping cart price rules, such as coupons or discounts based on quantity or price
- integrated blog
- polls
- products reviews
- customer reviews
- integrated backup tool

Please do contact us for advice on how we can help your online sales. 

It is the quality not quantity of enquiries that matters. All too often the quality of enquiry reflects the quality of the website. Just as the High Street shop front filters the passing shopper, so should your site.

We recently launched a new site for Competitive Car Leasing, partner to some of the leading fleet funding companies in the UK. Since going live, the new site has attracted a better value customer and is achieving a substantially improved enquiry to sale conversion rate.

Karaoke is passé, whist drives a crusty old hat of half eaten memory, dominoes flat on their backs. The surge of quiz nights have been ruined by the roaming swots who chase any pub quiz in a 50 mile radius to pick up some appreciation of their marbles (and pinch the £20 cash prize). Even giving a red eyed drunk three weapons to throw over dining gastros to a red eyed bull is proving increasingly unpopular.

There is light. There is a future. Peter Kay’s latest tour netted him £20 million. Lee Evans earnt £12 million last year. Comedy has come of age. If these guys are the new stadium celebrity, then expect a full house. For the last 20 years we have been rearing celebrity smitten wanabees gasping for ten minutes of fame. Give it to them, I say!

The pubbers and clubbers are tired of singing like a star (or at least listening to others trying to, even if they think themselves Madonna), and karaoke machines are now two a Volvo at car boots. Speed dating has retreated behind firewalls and screens where people can touch type their lies, and most skittle alleys are now swollen by 52 grey anoraks lifted from a coach chassis and placed in front of microwaved lasagna and chips.

So it is time to set another game to pull in this x-factored generation. A game for which pea brains and cheesy grated voices are no barrier. In fact, the more stupid the participants are, the more deformed, dumb or distinctly odd, so much the better. For this is comedy and they just need to be funny. Never mind if the audience laugh with or at them. The clapometer is the only judge.

Bring on the comedy night where locals each perform a ten minute comedy act. Phew! What a challenge that would be! Could I be funny for ten minutes? How would I attempt it? I can make people laugh in seconds but only in a Mister Bump accidental unwitting way. Jokes escape me like water through a sieve and if stumped to be witty I am a hybrid of Mr Slow and Boring. Would I play a caricature, recount a story, or clumsily poke fun at a friend in the audience and turn red as they jeer ME! Not Him! Ever been to a wedding where the Best Man has screwed up, turning the Groom to a red, the Bride to a scowl and all the parents to horror (they had no idea he had done that!).

Comedy is hard and a talent. But so is singing in tune. Pubs should give it a go. Laughs all round, especially if the bar take is good….

Matthew Rymer
22 February 2012

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I think it terribly sad this country’s atheist movement is determined to ban prayer from public office. If only they simply put an ‘O’ in the word ‘God’ to make it ‘Good’, they might understand better the value of prayer.

For me at least, after much soul searching, I have realised the simplicity of God. He is the discovery and worship of the Good in oneself. Prayer helps us to connect to ourselves, and desist the temptations of the demons that circle us all. The tragedy of Whitney Houston is but the latest all too sad illustration that material success is no route to happiness. Indeed, materialism and outer success can too easily distance the heart from the soul. It is in the demonic nature of drink and drugs to distance the two further.

I do, however, understand why atheists have a problem with religion and in most part their intentions are laudable. The history of churches, the corruption, the slaughter and power broking hardly make a case for them.

After a golden few months of abstinence last year and setbacks since, I am committed to a lifetime teetotal. I met up with an old friend, Alex, yesterday, who I used to party with years ago. He has not had a drink for two years and he glows. He is even wittier, smarter and more generously spirited than I remember him being. He will be a great support and with me all the way. I am very excited and crystal clear on my decision. For the next few months I am now focused on concreting this decision, growing clients and business and completing my novel. However, I cannot but resist planning a large May Garden Party celebration to look forward to. Invites will be sent out shortly! Most people can dance with the devil but I danced too closely for too many years it contaminated my Good. Rather usefully, once you see the devil in the drink, you can no longer enjoy a drink so it becomes a no brainer.

Pie Heaven
We were particularly pleased to conceive and produce the first point-of-sale literature for Myles Salmons’ Cotswold Pudding and Pie Company. Myles is an exceptionally cheery Cotswold character supplying a growing number of delis, farm shops and farm markets with a mouthwatering range of handmade pies, puddings, hams and cheeses. He lives for his hunting and his pies and talks of both with equal passion.

Horse Dating Online
We are on the brink of launching Horses4Homes, the first online screening system to match unwanted horses with suitable new homes. The ambition is to help the many people who, for various reasons, can no longer provide for their horses. In today’s economic climate, this is becoming an increasing problem. One of our senior programmers, Marian, has been doing a fantastic job working with our client to create a watertight system.

New Projects
I am delighted we are about to embark on another major new software build for our telecoms client Total Telecom. We are bound by confidentiality agreements not to reveal more but suffice to say it follows a series of successful builds for this highly successful company, ranging from online helpdesks to their customer billing system. There is no better client than a returning client!

Online Promotion
Next week we start an online promotional campaign for our house charity, Talking2Minds, a fantastic charity set up my friend, ex SAS soldier Bob Paxman. The charity continues to be very underfunded for the success it achieves in treating veterans with PTSD. Read more on Testimonials.

British Medical Journal
We are delighted to have won our first project for Informatica Systems, a subsidiary of the BMJ Group. They provide decision support and benchmarking support tools for doctors and develop systems for primary care data extraction and analysis. More pressure for me to stop smoking!

Safe Trading
Last Autumn we suffered the loss of our trading platform licensee, EMS, due to a miscreant Director. Then followed trips to Latvia, New York and other places to consider an array of approaches for what had proved a highly secure and valuable system upon which many telecoms traders around the world depended. I made the decision to only consider licensing to a capitalized corporation with financially backed deposit insurances, proper fiscal procedures in place, and a management board with broad experience and a stellar reputation.

In December we agreed to terms to exclusively contract with a new organisation led by the highly experienced telecoms visionary and business leader, Eric Pomeroy, supported by Dan Kerning as CEO. These are leading a team who are united in their objective of providing a failsafe escrow and financial solution for the trading community.

We are particularly excited because we had spent two years developing and testing a new and improved multilingual and multi currency platform and we will now see this come to fruition in