Joshua Simons

As a prelude to another long passage, may I just point out that this isn’t intended to come across like a self-aggrandising, image-crafting social media post, for meaningless likes and recognition. It’s arguably a totally selfish undertaking, to put a personal marker in the sand, and to have something to…

I recently sat down with Alex Chisnall of Virgin StartUp to talk about the Chicken & Blues journey so far, as we celebrate our 4th birthday, and what launching a restaurant brand actually means to us as people. I always find it refreshing, being asked to speak at events, or…

Random: The way potatoes were made popular in certain parts of Europe is arguably one of the most cunning displays of marketing and packaging of a product in history. During 10 years launching and running nightclubs here and abroad, it, at times, stunned me that certain customers were so drawn towards the…

Locals to Bournemouth and Poole were shocked and disappointed recently at the sudden closure of Rajasthan, a family-owned and run Indian restaurant which had traded successfully for over 20 years from its site on Penn Hill. High quality food and service had always been its trademark. We ran multiple promotions for…

I regularly spend time reading about successful people and successful companies. One thing is for sure, there are multiple similarities amongst the best of breed in the entrepreneurial world. However, I’m going to put aside the clichéd and more obvious characteristics, including, but not limited to; work ethic, willingness to…

I received a message from a nightclub promoter in London this week. After digesting it and looking back at my time in the nightclub business throughout my twenties, I felt inspired to write this blog. This blog is about myths. Human history suggests that we have no natural instincts for…

After doing some research into human perception and its impact on consumer behaviour recently, I came across a story that has changed the way I think about business. The story is about the Eurostar train, so brilliantly told by the legendary advertising executive, Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland. A lesson in framing;…

We recently completed a deal on our 3rd Chicken & Blues restaurant. I suppose we can label ourselves a ‘group’ now. Maybe a ‘brood’ or ‘coop’ would be more suitable? Going from 1 to 2 restaurants was hard. Going from 2 to 3 has arguably been harder in many ways. I presume,…

An old colleague of mine, @adamgoswell (Digital Manager at Lush Cosmetics), and I were chatting recently, exchanging a few business and marketing ideas, as we often do. He sent me a link to buy a book and suggested that, whilst he sees us implementing some of the techniques already with our businesses,…