PR on a Beermat

Make some noise!



Why Beermat?





The book The Beermat Entrepreneur appeared in 2002, and I became a fan at once. It captured the spirit of small, entrepreneurial business better than any other book at the time.


Three core ideas run through the Beermat book:


- Business is about people. It’s the people you work with, ‘cornerstones’ and sparky, imaginative employees, and good relationships with customers and suppliers that make an enterprise. That work should be fun. Hard, sometimes, but always done with spirit and zest.


- Clarity is essential. Clarity of purpose and clarity of communication. No hiding behind management-speak or, when dealing with non-technical people, technical terms.


- Business should be ethical. Your aim is to create value for your customers and, of course, profit for yourself. The two go hand in hand in a ‘Beermat’ business.


The authors, Mike Southon and Chris West, went on to write a series of Beermat Guides including Finance on a Beermat, Marketing on a Beermat and Sales on a Beermat


I got to know Mike and Chris, and we worked together on a Beermat guide to PR, which was published as an ebook back in 2007.



MIKE SOUTHON AND CHRIS WEST





Mike Southon is a serially successful entrepreneur, best-selling business author and one of the world’s top authorities on entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship (entrepreneurship in large organisations) and sales, especially for non-salespeople. He is co-author with Chris West of The Beermat Entrepreneur, The Boardroom Entrepreneur and Sales on a Beermat.

Mike has spoken at over 1,000 live events all over the world and provided face-to-face mentoring to more than 2,000 entrepreneurs. He is a visiting Fellow at Regent’s University, specialising in entrepreneurship and employability.

His specialist subject is The Beatles, detailing their entrepreneurial story and explaining how your passion can also be turned into a lasting legacy. He has fronted several bands, some of them with Chris West on drums. www.mikesouthon.com

Chris West is the co-founder of ‘Beermat’ and editor of ‘PR on a Beermat’. He has been a professional writer for many years.

Under his own name, he writes on business, psychology and history. He has also written crime fiction, humour and poetry. His most recent books are Eurovision! A History of Modern Europe through the World’s Greatest Song Contest and The Karpman Drama Triangle Explained (an examination of how we can find ourselves acting out the roles of Persecutor, Victim or Rescuer, and how we can stop doing so and act more authentically). Chris has also ghost- or co-written a number of business and psychology texts. Check out his website: www.chriswest.info