Own goal

Wrexham fans should never be allowed to buy their own club an article by Stephen Cleeve

It is easy to sympathise with Wrexham fans, I have lost count of the number of times that the Robins have nearly gone out of business and that’s just in the year or so that I have had involvement with the club. So that we can get up to date we need to go back to the start of the problems.

These problems started when the old guard; Pryce Griffiths, sold out to Hamilton and Guterman in 2002. Originally the club existed on a lease granted by the brewers Wolverhampton and Dudley which they inherited when they took over the brewers Marston Thomas & Evershed. Guterman and Hamilton purchased the freehold of the stadium from the brewers and then hours later transferred the ownership into Damens Limited which later changed its name to Crucialmove Limited and increased Wrexham FC’s rent from a peppercorn to £ 30,000 per annum. Guterman’s and Hamilton’s plan was simple; to take the Racecourse into their own private company and then sell it lock stock and barrel to B&Q for a mere 19 million pounds. However in 2004 Guterman and Hamilton fell out, a court case occurred and evidence from this trial showed that the main point of their partnership was to make money out of Wrexham FC’s property assets, and these important facts that came to light would be used to Wrexham’s advantage later on.

In the same year administrators were appointed to stop the Inland Revenue liquidating the club over a large unpaid tax bill. Whilst the club was in administration, the administrator took the previous directors to court to reverse the ownership of the Racecourse; on the basis that no EGM was held, other directors were not informed and essentially the transaction was good for Guterman and Hamilton but not good for WFC, as directors they held a responsibility to act in the best interests of the football club.

The money for this court case came from Wrexham winning the LDV vans trophy in 2005, so never knock the smaller cups again, as without this piece of silverware the club would have in all probability dissolved. The judge agreed that the transfer of the ownership of the Racecourse to Crucialmove Ltd was only to the benefit of those interested in the exploitation of property assets and he allowed their handiwork to be undone.

The club was bought out of administration by Geoff Moss, Neville Dickens and Ian Roberts and neither the fans nor the new owners would be happy with the arrangements. The club soon got into debt again, due to poor decisions business decisions both on and off the pitch so the new owners sliced off a part of the land and sold it to themselves, clearing the debt in the process. New student accommodation went up, now owned by Moss and Roberts and with terrible planning decisions made by the local council that gave no safeguards to Wrexham FC, the development never benefited WFC. The council had failed their football club miserably.

Before the WST managed to get an agreement with Geoff Moss to buy the club there was an assortment of possible buyers who had looked at the situation. Colin Poole who owned the infamous Claims Direct (its demise caused him to be struck off as a solicitor), myself and the only buyer the WST engaged with in a serious manner was Stephanie Booth who has subsequently had her hotel company placed into administration.

Mrs Booth eventually fell out with the WST, Poole found supporters at his house when he hosted a show jumping event and decided investing in Wrexham was not worth the grief and I decided that the WST seemed desperate to go it alone and as I was viewed by them as an ‘outsider’ there was no point in continuing. In recent times an ex player and Phil Wynn a local councillor have thrown their hats into the ring but even with their late arrival it seems that the WST bid will win the day.

Now within days the WST or to give the organisation, its full title, the Wrexham Supporters Trust is to buy the club. The WST has just over 1,200 members, so not even a third of the average gate this season, are members of the trust. WST members have in the past, been accused of bullying and shouting down any dissenter (even if that person is a loyal Wrexham fan) almost humiliating them into submission, speaking out against the trust or siding with any other bidder is deemed a crime, so much for democracy. A fans pole on a website recently backed this up.

That aside why is it such a bad idea for a well meaning group of fans to run and own the club that they love?

Firstly they are under capitalised, so to solve this problem the WST suggested that the current owners sell the stadium to the university next door for £300,000 more than I was going to pay for it, the sale to include the training ground. With the extra money Geoff was to give a kickback of £500,000 to the trust essentially clearing the debts and handing over a solvent business. The university could not believe their luck and worked overtime to get the deal done, the last thing they wanted was anyone changing their mind, to them it was prime real estate that they could use to expand their facilities.

The deal was completed in record time and Wrexham FC again find themselves tenants of what should be their own stadium. This is a massive mistake in my opinion, it’s extremely short sighted and is typical behaviour of a board with too many egos and not enough careful analysis of what the future has in store.

What were the alternatives? I had agreed with Geoff an option where I had 5 years to purchase the stadium, paying no rent in the meantime. My plan was simple, work up a scheme to develop the kop end which allowed the university classrooms which could be converted into conference facilities when not in use. I would have financed this by granting the university a 30 year lease and with grants and loans available a new stand could have been built giving the club a revenue stream, essential in today’s markets. You cannot just rely on match day revenue.

I would have sold small squares of the pitch to fans at £100 each to ensure that the stadium would be safe from any future developers and with a bit of money from me and a restructured business model the money would have been raised. Instead I am told the university will develop the opposite stand first as it already abuts their property.

Clearly the good news is that they have great maintenance teams, and groundsmen so the costs of upkeep will be zero but the bad news is the University have a duty as a charity to maximise their assets, their are no guarantees to the universities own future, a rival educational establishment may take them over and they may take a hardline view over maximising returns and frankly who can blame them.

Wrexham football club is not their problem.

WFC have also lost all non match day revenue, Xmas parties, weddings, conferences etc for ever which will make the club very unattractive to any clued up future investor as their are no assets to sweat, no income streams just match day revenue and merchandise which just isn’t enough. The WST have also been evasive about the terms of the lease, it’s length and rent etc which they should not be.

Firstly they need a lease under league regulations and secondly that document has got to be lodged at the land registry which is a public record. Add in the fact that the WST have not communicated to their members or the wider fan base how corporate match-day revenue will be devised or split between the University’s catering staff and it appears that their communication lines are murkier than any previous owners.

I always think that football clubs should always own their own stadiums, it gives them complete control of their own assets.

They become masters of their own destiny, after all why in the UK do we buy our own houses? The WST have sold their major asset and lost control of sponsorship opportunities, naming rights (the university have already taken these, clearly they are on the ball) and corporate revenue ( executive boxes are rented as offices as an example).

So that’s their first major error and it’s a big one. Secondly who is going to run the club, all the board members have jobs, indeed the reason the deal could not be completed last week was due to their legal man Rob Parry being in China for his day job. It will need a professional team, surely they would have sorted these people out over the last 4 months but still they have not told the fans who they are. So far their only appointment is an ex policeman called Green who is used to spending and allocating government money paid for by the public, a totally different prospect to running a private company.

So their communication lines are poor and their treatment of non members almost abusive. I received countless messages on twitter and red passion( a fans forum) supporting me but saying they could not do so publicly as they would get lots of abuse, one or two told me they were told not to post positive comments about my ideas as it undermined the WST’s bid. That said, the man responsible for the RP board, a chap called Robert should be put on the football clubs board, without his intervention the club would probably not exist. Recently Wrexham had to raise a £ 250, 000 bond and while the trust did nothing Rob did.

I have no idea if Rob is a trust member or not, but he took a proactive approach; the trust could have been the spearhead of the appeal, the guys that banged the drum. They didn’t, they saw it as the previous owner’s problem, and it’s this petty mindedness that needs to change with immediate effect.

The trust has over £ 400,000 in the bank and with decent gates and no debt they will have no money problems this season. They intend to launch a share issue but typically have not released plans of how this will work. Clearly as they don’t want anyone but them having control, the number of shares you buy will probably have little effect on the number of votes that you have, so in essence the guy who invests £ 100 will have the same number of votes as a £ 50,000 investor, so where is the incentive to buy more shares?

Outside of the WST there are many fans who don’t believe that the trust can run the club, clearly they cannot voice their opinions but the fact that most fans are not members of the trust would back this assertion up. My plan was to give the supporters a stake in the club and let them oversee things with a golden vote on key issues such as keeping the stadium under the clubs control. The WST may argue that I could fail and of course they may be right, but the key difference under my model, is that they would still be in place looking over the shoulder of any new owner and of course they would still own their own ground.

Clearly a good FA cup run, promotion, a large player sale or a sell on fee for an ex player being triggered will change things radically in the WST’s favour but if none of these events come to pass it is my guess that the club will run out of money in February 2013. The problem is, is that there is no alternative, the board members want the club and they want majority control. There seems little incentive for any level headed business man to give away large sums, as he will have no control over what happens to his cash, he has the potential to be the fall guy if all goes wrong, he would be dealing with a team of just enthusiastic amateurs, and the WST would blame him for any problems that may occur in the future.

I accept there have been a few successes of fans running their clubs but there are also far more failures. Supporters of Rushden and Diamonds sold their stadium in exchange for sorting out their debts to Keith Cousins, who then let someone else run the club. The club failed just a few months ago and now Kettering play in their shiny home. It didn’t work for Bournemouth either although it did for Wimbledon, but here there were significant private investors many with good business experience.

A new chapter is about to open in Wrexham’s somewhat turbulent history and I hope that my predictions are wrong and they make a big success of it and return to the football league where they belong. I have real doubts that they will. There is an old adage which I reminded journalists of when they asked me at the time for my views on the potential WST takeover; “Be careful what you pray for”. I still stand by that.

Stephen Cleeve

Stephen Cleeve is soccer crazy and sells football memorabilia and keepsakes

Are you talking to me? you are...

I don’t want to admit to how long I have been helping clients with confidence issues and recommending they attend Toastmasters without myself being a member.

Not that I would recommend something useless to clients, I have heard nothing but glowing reports about this amazing organization from people I trust to make sensible recommendations to me.

But it’s becoming more and more important to me to truly be able to get into the heads of my clients and put myself into the same line of fire I’m asking them to stand in.

So, it was with heavy-lidded eyes, due to that background brain jitter that comes with knowing I had to be up and out by 6am that I dragged myself along to Toastmasters early morning meeting in Covent Garden.

A mixture of tiredness and a lame excuse (it’s my first time) led me to decline the opportunity to be a tabletop topic speaker, which is one of three slots in the meeting where you are invited, at random, to speak on a topic given to you on the spot.

Alas, my excuse was not passed on to the person choosing the tabletop topic speakers (I can’t even say that at 7am) and, as I sat watching, cosy in the knowledge that I wouldn’t be picked, my name was called out.

Boom! What an unexpected gut-wrencher! I can’t remember the last time I felt nerves like that, even though I only had about 10 seconds to register it as I left my seat to take the floor.

I’m well used to public speaking, being a trainer of many years standing and I’d even put myself down as one of that particular breed of sicko who enjoys it but this was something else. My voice was shaking, I had no idea what was about to come out of my mouth but I went ahead and stood up there anyway.

And it took me to a place that I always aim to help my clients with in a bid to enhance their confidence – yes feel the nerves, yes be uncertain but do the scary thing anyway!

Avoiding a situation that gives you the fear can only serve you for so long – eventually, if you want to progress you’re going to have to grab that fear by the cojones and push on through. This is a sometimes indigestible truth: doing the thing you’re most scared of starts to ease the fear…

For me personally, as someone who likes public speaking, it taught me something else. Complacency in anything you think you’re quite good at (the guys in that Toastmasters group humbled me considerably on that front) leads to lack of improvement, lack of striving for better and to staying stuck.

In either case, it’s clear to me that confidence can only grow when you push, even just a little (I was only speaking for 25 seconds today!!) past your point of complacency.

The reward for pushing past this point is growth. I think I added a good inch and a half’s worth to my confidence today….

Sarah Rourke

You can find Sarah regularly building women’s confidence  (men and students too!)  helping them get the job they want at  www.sarahrourke.com

This is not my sentence! If it was I wouldn’t be writing this

No, one of my friends said this and it’s making me wonder….

23 years ago I got to know a group of women who meet once a month for cake and coffee. Although they are all older than me, the thought of coffee, cake and a good conversation made me join. Over the years we became good friends despite the age gap – and we always have great cake, coffee and fantastic conversations.

Recently the conversations have turned to computers and the internet. Of us seven women, three have a computer. One uses Skype to talk to her children, the other one surfs the net but very carefully as she is always petrified of email hacking or a virus. I am the only one who needs the computer and internet for work.
During our last meeting one of my friends blurted out “I am sick and tired of being told I need a computer! I don’t want one, I don’t need one, but everybody expects me to use email and check things out on the internet!” Then someone else joined in and added that we should all go back to pre-internet days. My reply that I would not get enough work was pushed aside with the comment ‘Well, you can do something else!’ You can imagine how it turned into quite a hefty discussion/ argument.
Anyway, my friend complained that people generally didn’t give out phone numbers or addresses anymore and only email addresses or websites. She moans at everybody who mentions the words computers, emails or websites. And so she goes on and on and on….
Don’t get me wrong, we usually get on extremely well, and not once have I told her to get herself a PC. Well, maybe since she started moaning, I have mentioned it once or twice, or even three or more times (couldn’t resist it ) and it is HER CHOICE not to get one, so does that give her the right to moan to everybody who does use the web?
How do you speak to friends like this?

Angelika, who couldn’t offer German tuition via Skype to people around the globe, if it wasn’t for the internet.

A guest post from my fellow Remarkable Deborah Hanchey

Have you heard the buzz about Infusionsoft marketing automation software but don’t have a clue what it is? You are not alone!

Who uses Infusionsoft?

Since it began ten years ago, Infusionsoft has continually epitomized small business growth, increasing to 7,000 accounts and 23,000 users. They don’t just talk about growing a business, they have done it. Whenever bumps in the road threatened their success, they backed off, regrouped, and came back better customers.

A look (I wanted it to be quick, but it wasn’t) at the Infusionsoft Case Studies page produced an incredibly diverse list of business owners using Infusionsoft:

• Veterinarians
• Dentists
• Musicians
• Music Teachers
• Videographers
• Graphic Artists
• Online Retailers
• Certified Public Accountants
• Attorneys
• Vending Machine Companies
• “Mompreneur” Play Studios
• Dan Kennedy
• Wedding Planners & Guides
• It Providers
• Barber Schools
• Auto Detailers
• Marketing Strategists
• Fitness Experts
• Software Developers

Okay, but why do they use Infusionsoft?

The Infusionsoft website is a wonderful resource. They just recently redid it, and it is one of the most user-friendly sites available. In the website footer, I found this explanation of marketing automation:

MARKETING AUTOMATION
Infusionsoft is a complete marketing automation suite that enables small businesses to capture more leads and nurture their customers to develop lifelong, profitable relationships. Infusionsoft’s small business CRM solution includes a smart lead-nurturing system that automatically sends the right message to the right person at the right time. It also boosts business efficiency by combining CRM, email marketing, lead nurturing and e-commerce into one software system. Infusionsoft saves time and money by automating workflow and business operations, and puts small business growth on autopilot to achieve the entrepreneurs’ quest for freedom.
MARKETING AUTOMATION AND SMALL BUSINESS CRM
Small businesses’ marketing automation needs are distinct. Infusionsoft’s small business CRM solution is integrated with advanced marketing automation delivered in an easy-to-use interface that propels growth in small businesses.

Say what?
If you are a marketing expert, you probably understood every word of that, but if you are a small business owner who just wants to run the business and knows little about marketing, it is a foreign language.
Testimonials from satisfied customers say it best. These are their comments about the outcomes of their Infusionsoft experience:

• Increased revenue
• Increased cross sells and upsells
• Shortened sales cycle
• Reduced work week
• List growth
• Lead and customer management
• Increased conversions
• Personalized client relationships
• Referrals from happy customers
• Automated shopping cart
• Automated billing
• Automated reminder calls
• Automated scheduling
• Automated workflow
• Centralized CRM, eCommerce, and Email Marketing
• Fewer employees

Infusionsoft is expensive!
Infusionsoft may seem a little pricey – $199 a month without a shopping cart or $299 a month with one, but if you are a small business and you want to get bigger, you should seriously consider the investment.
At first, users were required to purchase a “Quick-Start Bundle” for $2,000. Thinking that doing away with this would increase sales, the Infusionsoft team removed that requirement. What they learned was that without proper training, most people have no idea how to implement the many features of Infusionsoft and will cancel their program. Because of this, they recently brought it back. For the first 60 days you get
• your own marketing mentor
• assistance transferring data
• assessment of your current marketing processes
• a custom marketing automation plan (M.A.P.)
• help launching your first campaigns
• two “flex-blocks” of services

This ensures that your business marketing will be off to a strong start, and if you continue, growth (and revenue) will quickly recover your investment and much more.
Deborah Hanchey, is the owner of Infusionsoft Services – http://InfusionsoftServices.com and is dedicated to achieving spectacular results for your business using the Infusionsoft automated marketing system.