My Downing Street visit

What a fantastic evening Thursday 11 February was. This was the date that I, along with approximately 100 other entrepreneurs and business people, where invited by Gordon Brown to attend a celebration for SME's at No.10 Downing Street. I had been invited in my capacity of a successful business person/entrepreneur and an example of a business that has been helped by Business Link.

Via the wonderful world of Twitter, I already knew a couple of people who were attending, Claire Young (from The Apprentice) and Nadine Hill, The Dream PA, as well as Julie Meyer, BBC's online Dragon, from Dragon's Den and John Cowell (Simon Cowell's brother) and fellow Business Link advocate, Penina Shepherd from Acumen Business Law, so felt pre-prepared for what lay ahead.

Spookily, on the train heading down to London, I spotted a lady wearing the same outfit Nadine had described as her Downing Street outfit on her blog - and yes, it turned out to be her - we were both sitting on the same train carriage!

Later that evening, once having had my bags screened and body scanned, I was finally walking down the world-famous street - it was amazing. I hate the over-use of the word 'surreal' but to be so close to such an iconic house was 'surreal' - you could be mistaken to thinking you were just seeing a great studio backdrop.

Parked immediately outside of the house was Sir Alan Sugar's car and it was there, on the steps of No.10 that I had my photograph taken - see above.

Once inside we left our personal belongings with security and then headed up the stairs punctuated along the way with paintings and latterly photographs of every Prime Minister our country has ever had - again, another awe-inspiring spectacle.

Just as I arrived at the top of the stairs and into the Reception Room the first person I laid eyes on, and looking back at me was Sir Alan Sugar. We then went into another room where I met Claire Young, Mike Kershaw, from the prestigious event solution company, The Concerto Group amongst others.

Unfortunately The Prime Minster was called away at the last minute, so we had the pleasure of Lord Mandelson who gave a short address thanking us all for our great efforts during an incredibly difficult time and identifying how the Government and businesses can work together moving forwards.

After this address, I then mingled with the other guests including John Cowell, from Cowell Consulting before the party drew to a close.

Suffice to say it was an amazing evening, one which I will always remember, not only for the honour of being invited, but for the great people I met whilst I was there. Next stop, the Queen's Garden party....

Limited time special offer for retailers - 24 boxes for £24

Farm shops, delis, cookshops and online retailers, we have a special offer in the run up to Christmas on Count On It food labels. 24 boxes for £24. Shipped in a full colour, shelf ready display box, Count On It labels are the ideal stocking filler for the foodie in your customer's lives. Email lyndsey@count-on-it.co.uk to order yours, or if there is a local retailer you'd like to buy them from let me know too.

BBC Easy Cook features Count On It labels

How exciting, BBC Easy Cook magazine has run a great feature on Count On It labels in their latest edition (Issue 24). The feature in their 'Easy Food News' page highlights it as a 'best new product to make time you spend in the kitchen quick, easy and fun'. The write-up and image sits alongside Jamie Oliver's Red Nose recipe book, BBC Good Food website and Waitrose Cooks; Ingredients range. As well as being available from Lakeland, Count On It labels are available online at www.count-on-it.co.uk.

Website revamped and relaunched

Count On It's website has now been fully revamp and relaunched ready for Count On It hitting the press and Lakeland's shelves in the new year. Thanks to Gary at Netronyx, the site is slicker and more user friendly and clearly shows the features and versatility of the product. The press campaign is well underway and with our new celebrity endorsement (more about this shortly), we are hopeful that Count On It will go from strength to strength. Feedback on site always welcome.

website revamp

Armed with new photos and we working on updating Count On It's website today. It seems we are potentially losing webviewers at the splash page - we need to grab their attention with product in first few seconds and use powerful messages to persuade potential customers that Count On It is for them. We also need to improve the SEO rating of the site - again we are going to use as many key phrases in the body of the text, to get it further up the search engine lists. Need to simply and inexpensively improve the power of Count On It's website - this is one great big learning curve .....

Count On It to help with the credit crunch!

Count On It is targetting the food and lifestyle press to highlight how these food freshness labels can help people can get the most out of their food, reduce their edible food waste and save them money.

With the percentage of families eating out once or twice a month dropping from 72% to 37% this year, more people are choosing to entertain at home. By buying good quality ingredients, families can enjoy restaurant quality food at a fraction of the cost - but only if they manage their food more effectively.

With up to £610 per year of edible food waste being thrown away by the average family - huge savings can be made if they learn to value their food more. Count On It can help families eat all of their food products, safe in the knowledge it is still fresh and safe to eat, it can be used on leftovers - why not cook a larger portion of food and save the rest for another day - just pop the leftovers in a food container, stick on a Count On It label and then refrigerate or freeze - an instant meal, whenever you need it.

Count On It food freshness labels, will go on sale at Lakeland stores across the country during December 2008 and will be available online and in the famous Lakeland catalogue in January 2009.

For more information about Count On It and how it can help save money, visit www.count-on-it.co.uk

Count On It's PR campaign targets baby retail market

Count On It is a food freshness label that ensures mums peace of mind when preparing baby's meals. It tells you at a glance if baby food or milk is still fresh and safe to eat or if it should be thrown away. Simply peel off a label, stick on the food product, scratch off the date of opening or storing and relax.

Count On It's PR campaign is underway and we are targetting mums to be and new mums with our key messages in titles such as Practical Parenting and Pregnancy, Mother & Baby, Pregnancy & Birth and Junior magazine and online parenting forums to name a few.

We are now actively looking for retailers in the baby retail market and would welcome the opportunity to discuss details with you further. I can be contacted at lyndsey@count-on-it.co.uk or via the website http://www.count-on-it.co.uk. I look forward to speaking to you soon.

Food Festival - our first field test

Here I am at the East Midlands Food and Drink Festival ready to meet my public. What a weekend, despite the rain, wind, flooding etc, the event was really busy and we got to meet loads of different people, all with a love of good food. Count On It went well, obviously as a brand new product we had to sell the concept, but we had a great conversion rate - for every 2 people we spoke to, one purchased. We also made some good commercial contacts, small local producers who wanted to put Count On It labels onto their product, to encourage repeat purchasem, nursing home managers who wanted to use it in their kitchens and Pampered Chef, who believed it complimented their product range. For all enquiries, contact me at lyndsey@count-on-it.co.uk.

Lakeland - Count On It on shelves in January 2009

Major retailer and other stuff

Great news, the major retailer wants to stock Count On It, in their 2009 catalogue and across their stores nationwide. This is such a great result. Started to contact other smaller, local retailers to get there interest - they seem a little reluctant at the moment, I need to make sure I swot up on how to close a sale (this is such a massive learning curve). Getting some renewed interest from Local Government too, several of them are hoping to do roadshows around their counties to encourage consumers to be more waste aware, especially when they are shopping at their local supermarket. They are proposing handing out samples of Count On It for customers to use with their weekly shop - this is such a great idea, Count On It wins, the consumer wins as they save food and money and the supermarkets win as customers are more likely to eat their products in their prime and repurchase, the supermarkets will also benefit as they will be showing their committment to reducing unnecessary food and packaging waste and the impact it has on their environment and on their customers pockets - and obviously Local Govt wins, less waste, less bin collection, less landfill, reduce costs in waste disposal.

Ignorance is bliss?

Food waste is a huge problem, we all know it is because we are all constantly being encouraged to recycle, compost, use leftovers, meal plan, all sorts - but why do we all think it is someone else's problem? WRAP statistics claim that 9 out of 10 people are adamant that they do NOT waste food, yet these very same households are throwing away nearly 90KG of avoidable food waste each year. Wasting food does not mean you are a bad person, it just means that you have got used to decades of affordable food, but this is changing, food IS getting more expensive, so most of us will have to wake up and smell the coffee. Value food more and save some money in the meantime - oh and don't forget your Count On It labels to help you achieve all this!