Christmas holidays!! - Christmas is virtually upon us and we're all getting very excited. If you need any last minute gifts, a snowflake reflector to pop into that stocking, we are here until 3pm on Wednesday, shut until the 29th of December, then there will be reduced office cover 29th - 31st of December. We will be back to work bright and early on Monday 4th of January getting ready to break all those New Year's resolutions!!

All that remains is to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. See you in 2010!

New Clearance Section - everyone loves a bargain don't they? We've just introduced a "Clearance Section" to our Website. You'll find lots of products which are either end-of-line, design change or end of season with at least 20% off. Take a look at our ghost reflectors which currently have 20% off the RRP.

University of Northampton launches social entrepreneurship degree

I have just learned through the SEEM (Social Enterprise East Midlands) newsletter that 'the University of Northampton has become one of the first universities in the UK to launch a degree in social enterprise'. The course fact sheet begins with a quote

“We don't hire people to bake brownies; we
bake brownies to hire people"
Guiding principles of Greyston Bakery, who make
brownies for Ben and Jerry’s Icecream

I like that. Social enterprises are businesses with a social aim. For them the people come first. The business arises out of the need. It's not just about making money. This is one of the themes I covered in my presentation at the university. We started our enterprise as Safe Kids Walking with the aim of promoting walking to school. To rephrase the above quote "we don't promote walking to school to sell high vis; we sell high vis to promote walking to school"

Get Active this Christmas

Did you know that according to a survey commissioned by the British Heart Foundation a third of children aged between 8 and 13 do less than an hour of exercise a week, with 20% thinking that only applied to them if you were fat! These are shocking statistics and over the Christmas break why not use the time to get out and about with the children and make the most of the time together. Even though its cold why not put on your high vis beanie hat and take the venus flyer and enjoy a good runaround with the children.

Promoting Social Enterprise & Co-operation at Northampton Business School

A while back I was asked to do a guest lecture for about thirty students studying at the business school. Originally I thought I'd do it and then Alison got interested and I could see she would end up doing it. However due to workload she decided not to go and so I had free rein.

I hadn't done a formal presentation with powerpoint slides and stuff for about ...ohh I don't know, 20 years? Anyway I picked a date in December as I thought we'd be a bit quieter then (fat chance)!

I learnt a lot in preparing for it. I guess I had it in the back of my mind for a few weeks mulling over a few ideas. A few weeks back, once Alison had pulled out, I had a vague awareness that I would actually have to go through with this and I did have a slight feeling of angst.

It was fun going back over the history of BrightKidz with Alison recalling how we started off as a campaign group promoting walking to school never with any idea of setting up a business. How we eventually realised there was an idea for a business selling hi vis waistcoats and how things developed from there to include reflectors, stickers, bags, umbrellas etc. How we started adding custom printing, invested in printing equipment. It was interesting to looking at where we are now and relating it back to our roots. How our green promotional merchandise range has developed organically out of our existing relationships with our customers.

Anyway I was determined to do as good a presentation as possible and followed all the advice on mentally preparing for this kind of thing. I visualised the presentation in my mind, mentally rehearsed it. Saw the room and the students, imagined the feeling of confidence giving the talk, imagined the feeling of elation after a successful presentation. When I arrived at the lecture room I was surprised it was actually so similar to how I imagined it would be even though I hadn't been there before.

Before starting the talk I followed a tip from my Tae Kwon Do instructor about concentrating on the first couple of moves of your pattern before starting as a good start sets you off in the right direction (literally in the case of Tae Kwon Do). I made sure I knew exactly how I was going to begin the presentation. This gave me a great start.

A major part of the presentation was to talk about what being a social enterprise meant to us and why we chose the worker's co-operative model. After the talk we had some questions and answers and I was impressed with the quality of the questions and discussion. The class was then split in two and asked to discuss a couple of problems that we have in the business at the moment.

Problem one was how we should brand our green range of promotional products. Should we use the brightKidz brand or should we develop a new one & how was I to promote the business. Did I need two business cards for example?

Problem two was how do we get secondary school kids to be visible? This question arose out of the discussions vision is to get every year 7 pupil issued with a hi vis rucksack, which I think is a fantastic product. There was some discussion over whether this would work.

Overall the presentation & discussion went on for about 2 hours and I was thrilled with the outcome. Well worth doing and hopefully I've spread the word about social enterprise and co-operation. The whole presentation was videod so hopefully I will be able to put a snippet on the website when I get a copy. I will also put the presentation on our website.

Incidentally I have just been tidying up my inbox and I found a link to a couple of presentations done by Divine Chocolate on social enterprise. If only I had seen them last week it would have given me some good ideas. On the other hand maybe it was better just to do my own thing. However I would recommend these presentations.

Just can't think what to fill those Christmas stockings with this year, then look no further as Brightkidz have some fun and funky gifts at very affordable prices. For all those Santa's helpers out there what about a great Santa zip clip or one of our other stylish clips. The flourescent colours show up really well in daytime and near dusk.

Also if you are fed up with all the old boring Christmas decorations why not deck your tree in festive rigid reflectors guaranteed to make a statement on the tree this year

Christmas Fairs - now that we have hit December it feels acceptable to talk about Christmas. If you are looking for a different stall for your Christmas fair have you considered one of our "Reflector shop packs". These are are great fund-raising idea and the pack includes a range of our fluorescent, reflective products for day, dusk and night time visibility at pocket-money prices in some of our most popular styles.

Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday - did you know today is the busiest day for shopping via the Internet - so don't be left out and go straight to BrightKidz and look at our fabulous selection of gift ideas for that special someone. The ruck sack covers are proving to be great sellers as they are shower proof, reflective, fluorescent and can be easily posted: any cycling adult or child would love this in their stocking.

Growth Readiness Programme

New season - New vision!
After being selected by the Regional Development Organisation EMDA to take part in the High Growth Readiness Programme, we held a full staff training session to decide on a company vision for the next 3 years. It was so refreshing and encouraging to see that the future needs of the business were identified not just by me but by the whole team.

We had been chosen for this programme as it was recognised that we had good potential for growth as a business. For this accolade we were provided with the consultancy services of EMDA to help us realise our vision.

After such a successful day we are looking forward to our next session where we will identify how we can realise that vision.

Gone Made for Armbands

Gone mad for Armbands - They seem to sleep for much of the year and then go crazy when we get to November. Our highvis armbands really seem to be a big thing this month....you folks out there are buying loads.

Safety and being seen near traffic is so important now that the clocks have changed, we want everyone to be bright. So this year we introduced a second size for children, a plain reflective armband to fit smaller arms. Its not just our plain high visibility armbands that are doing well.....our fun snake design armbands are a hit as well.

Off to the House of Commons - On Monday I went to London for the British Promotional Merchandise Association Academy graduation ceremony. This is the day when the studying pays off and I was presented with my certificate in Promotional Merchandise.

This qualification is the first professional qualification for the promotional merchandise industry. Having worked in the industry for several years, its a good way to prove on paper what I know!!

It was great to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in a while over a drink in such swish surroundings.

Road safety week is coming up at the end of the month, this annual event is organised by the road safety charity Brake. They are encouraging schools, businesses and communities to get involved in promoting road safety.

So with only 2 weeks to go make sure you are ready for your activities. Take a look at some of our great reflectors - why not even get one of our reflector shop starter packs and run your own stall in school or at work.

Its true the weather really does get colder following Bonfire night. This weekend I am going to have to dig out the winter woolies and definitely make sure that the kinds have their high vis for those journeys to and from school as the nights have now started drawing in. Living Streets, a national charity have reported the fact that an enormous 41% of children are driven to school in cars, despite the fact that the average distance to primary schools remains around one mile. So lets not let the darker nights be a barrier to children walking to school.

Be Bright be Seen is never more important than on Bonfire Night so that is why our gang will be wearing high vis beanie hats this November 5th, not only to be seen but keep those ears warm on a chilly evening. So do have fun this Bonfire Night!

What a busy week ahead! On Thursday I will be heading off to the Footsey social enterprise trade fair in Doncaster www.footsey.org.uk, where there will hopefully be lots of fellow social enterprise organisations attending. I am looking forward to seeing how our eco range is received and if any of our other promotional items make an impact.

I will return just in time for the children to break up for half term. I'm really looking forward to getting out and about this half term with the children, be it in a park or just riding the bikes. As such I often find it much easier to spot the children if they are wearing a high visability waistcoat or some reflective clothing.

Interesting fact for the day - did you know it is Tyre Safety Month and you can carry out your own tyre check by inserting a 20p. into the tyre tread, for more information why not check out their website www.tyresafe.org/tyre-safety-month/introduction/. Whilst you are checking out the tyres, also make sure that your car has all the essentials should you break down including some reflective clothing to be seen at all times.

Half Term is fast approaching and that means that the clocks will be changing. Whilst that is good for lighting fires and snuggling up warm, its not so good for school children walking home from school.

According to the AA boys are more at risk from having a road accident in the Autumn term, which can be attributed in some part to poor visibilty. However its not all doom and gloom as by using stylish fluorescent reflective clothing and accessories to increase your visibility day and night it can help to raise the profile of children walking home from school.

International Walk to School Month As we have now entered the month of October its time to get everyone Walking to School and what better way than to take part in International Walk to School Month. Throughout October, whilst the weather is still great, all schools and local authorities are encouraged to get everyone to walk to school. Back in 2007 42 countries took part, so why not you? Look at ways of walking to school be it on a walking bus, park and stride scheme or just with a few friends, everyone can do it! Even if you have to drive some of the journey, what about setting up a park and stride scheme, whereby you park in either a local pub/village hall safely away from the main school area and walk the last little bit. Lets see if we can make it a record breaking month.