Support For Business in South Wales
I’d just like to take moment to mention the Centre for Business. This is a business support agency that over the last 30 years has helped to create over 10,000 businesses and supports over 8000 existing businesses. These are pretty big numbers, but this is not a case of get lots of numbers and hope for the best. Its a case of help lots of businesses because the quality of service is good.
Part of my work involves finding good things and passing on the good news.
So why not take a look at the recently upgraded Centre for Business web site – there is a lot of good material here – hope you find something of use for your business here.
http://www.centreforbusiness.co.uk/
You might wonder why I am endorsing Centre for Business. Well a couple of things have happened that reminded me that this was something that needed to happen. To start with I have received first class advice over the years from their business advisors. The second one is that I have been working directly with the Centre for Business on a number of projects and as a result I know that they work hard on the behalf of their clients and finally – the recent web site update – which I find clear and easy to use prompted to think – perhaps I should write this piece.
Planned Social Media Courses for Small Business
I run regular Social Media Courses for the Centre for Business. These are aimed as introductory courses for members of small businesses who are not sure as to how to approach Social Media as a business and marketing tool. The objective of the day is to highlight the advantages of the various options available, what you need to think about when building a social media strategy and how to go about it. The course is full of hints and tips and adjusts itself to the needs of the delegates. I’m finding that this approach allows me to focus on overall needs of the attending business members.
If you would like to know more and talk to someone about attending one of these courses please take a look at this page on the Centre for Business Web Site:
http://www.centreforbusiness.co.uk/social-media-for-small-business/
Planed course dates are
- 27th February 2013
- 20th March 2013
I’ll create another update as soon as more dates are planned
Petals Training–Additional Training Services
Petals Training have a new and additional website. Whilst the original Petals Training Web Site continues to thrive this new site focuses on a fuller description of the expertise of the members of the Petals Training Team. You see each member of Petals Training is a first class train the trainer, but also has and additional area of specialism. These include IT, Business Skills, Personal Development, Complementary Therapies and Health and Safety. As you can see this is an impressive list that deserves space of its own.
For this project we decided to base the new web site on the original Petals Training theme. Keeping things like menu design and base typography but changing some layout options – for example the left and right hand columns have been removed. In doing this it was possible to create a web site that looked like part of the same family of web sites but which had enough of it’s own identity to better support the new set of services. From a development and budget point of view this greatly cut down on time and cost.
The site is built on a content management system, features are responsive design theme and creates a network of web sites between all the activities run by the members of Petals Training .
Micro-Businesses are let down by their Websites
If you run a small business I just want you to spend a moment taking a look at this short article on the IT Donut Web Site.
My apologies for the long link – but all you need to do is click.
It cites recent research that highlights two problems.
- Micro and small business typically have 5 unchanging pages on their web site that do not represent the company.
- Most people would not do business with a company that has an out of date or hard to use web site.
The solution to this problem is to get a managed web site and to make frequent updates.
This is traditionally seen as being very expensive and out of the reach of a small business.
This is actually not necessarily true. There are some very cost effective methods of achieving this.
Here are 3 steps that would help solve the problem of an out of date website.
Update your web site to being content managed using an open source content management system. This removes software costs from the equation whilst still delivering you a high quality experience.
Put time aside to think about news information that your customers will find interesting. Write these down ready for inclusion on your web site. The same is also true for any information about your company or products. By clearly writing these down you are saving money and time with a web developer
Find a friendly freelance web site developer who is willing to make updates for you for a low fee based on your notes.
The key to solving the problem of a bad web site is to keep things current. It is something that sounds impossible – but is actually not to bad once you get a good working practice going.
Leave a commentMicro Business Support in Wales for 1 penny
If you are a micro business then I may have good news for you. For a limited period Microzone Wales is offering a one year subscription to its services for 1 penny. This is not a scam and there is no catch. It is simply an exceptional introductory offer.
Microzone Wales considers a Micro Business to be be
- A single proprietor start that is less than 2 years old
- A home based on lifestyle based business
- A turnover of less than £100,000
This is what you get for your penny
- Up to 3 years of free banking with the Natwest
- A free legal advice line
- A digital version of the South Wales Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Magazine
- Access to business networking events at a discounted price
- Discounted business supported services
If this sounds at all interesting you can find out more at: http://www.microzonewales.co.uk/
Quick disclaimer – I do work for microzonewales – which is how I now this offer is currently running.
Leave a commentWhat Does 1 Billion Users Mean For Your Business?
This week Facebook achieved 1 Billion users – an impressive feat in any terms. That means there a whole lot of people using it (about 1 in 7 of the global population) and with that many people it must be essential for you to make it the mainstay of your online presence.
The answer is not a definite yes. It’s more like a maybe and it should never replace your web site.
First – why it should never replace your web site. You do not control Facebook or its future. You cannot predict what Facebook will do next. Its next move could be bad for your business. Online you should never base your business on the actions of another company. Especially when that company has a share price that is falling and it coming under pressure. Since launch the share price of Facebook has dropped from $38 per share to only $21 (at time of writing) and Facebooks founder Mark Zuckerberg has had his personal fortune reduced by $8billion (approx.). This is a company with financial issues to solve. Ask yourself – should you bet your business on something that is losing value? When it comes to your web site – you should be in control of your own destiny.
So how about using Facebook for marketing?
Well the number of Facebook users makes it a valuable marketing tool. So yes you should look at Facebook for marketing. You need to be where the people are and that is where they are at the moment so indeed base a marketing strategy on Facebook. Just don’t make it your only strategy and don’t make it long term. Facebook marketing works very well for some businesses and some products, but there are other social networks that work better for other scenarios. Before focussing on one social network do some research and figure out where you will find an audience – then make sure you can reach that audience. Sheer size does not mean that the right kind of people are using Facebook in the right kind of way to suit your business. You cannot get away from the old fashioned reality of researching your marketing before starting it. Facebook may or may not be the best place for you. You may be wondering why I said don’t make it a long term strategy. That is because the web moves fast. It has multiple markets, and social networks come and go at an alarming rate. Nothing has ever been as big as Facebook before – but size is no guarantee of security. No company is too big to fail. If you are advertising online you need to be agile and check to be sure you are in the right place.
Do the above warnings make me a Facebook hater?
No – I do use Facebook and on a personal level it has been useful to me. However I am also a very experienced Internet user. I have lost count of the number of services and web sites I’ve been part of that are either no longer useful or not longer there. I have seen companies base a strategy on one horse – only for them to discover that it was the wrong horse to back. The Internet is fast, fun, cool and exciting but when you are looking to use it for business you need to be cool, analytical and always have an exit strategy up your sleeve. You need to be responsive in your approach and put your business first. Don’t be impressed by big numbers. They do not necessarily mean anything.
Leave a commentSocial Media For the Small Business
I’m just taking a moment to report that this week (On Thursday the 20th to be exact) I had a successful day at the Centre for Business in Newport. I’ve been working with the Centre for Business to create an introductory course to social media usage for the small business. Our aim is to push past the myths and difficulties to help business discover how to best make use of the ever growing and much vaunted social web. The approach we’ve taken is to build knowledge, to try out systems and to also look at individual needs. The result is a highly interactive course that helps small business member assess and understand their needs. It is not a course that prescribes a single solution. Its a course that gives the attendees the power to make good decisions.
The result of Thursday was some excellent feedback from the delegates – for that I thank you. I also noticed that the course achieved its aims as it became apparent that a number of different strategies were going to be employed by the course delegates. To me this excellent news.
As a result I am now looking forward to the courses future sessions.
If you are interested in learning about social media at the Centre for Business why not give them a call on 01633 254041 to learn more
Leave a commentUsing Open Source To Beat the Budget
Sometimes I work on Government funded projects and sometimes the client is much smaller. This is about a much smaller client. One of my longest standing and most regular customers is closely associated with the Abergavenny Kickboxing club. Abergavenny Kickboxing is doing well – its members are winning National Level competitions. As a result the club felt that it needed its own website. They had a small budget for graphic and web design but weren’t sure how to get started.
They asked my for help and we together we came up with a plan. It broke down into these steps
- Based on an existing logo we’d create a new logo and top banner from the club
- Existing flyers would be repurposed as part of the sites graphic design and placed in a rotating banner.
- We’d use an open source CMS as the page foundation – one that club members had little experience with.
- We’d take an existing open source theme and make a few changes that would make it more suitable for use on the clubs web site.
- Club members would edit the web pages.
The result would be something that matched the club needs, be quick to develop and stay in a tight budget.
In effect what we’d done is make use of one modern computings most wondrous things. Open source software – something that cannot be sold but which can be legally modified. It creates nothing less than a vast reserve of opportunity from which growth and progression can happen. In this case it’s helping a successful club grow by allowing the construction of a low cost web.
Its also true for small business. You do not need to design everything from scratch. You can save money and time by adapting what exists to suit yourself. The end result can be effective and offer a useful experience to your users / customers.
Leave a commentMicrozone Wales–Support for the smallest of businesses
First a disclaimer. I have an interest in Microzone Wales it is web site that I work on. I’m also the kind of business that it is designed to assist. This gives me a twofold interest in the site.
That said if you are a Microbusiness in Wales then this is a site you should be looking at. I’d better explain what a Microbusiness is defined as being. This is a small business turning over less than £100,000. To register as a Microbusiness you also have less than 3 staff members.
So what do you get? Well how does free banking, legal advice and access to events and information from the South Wales Chamber of Commerce sound. Its not a bad combination. It covers the basis of professional services that can be expensive for small businesses to access.
The site itself is a venture between the South Wales Chamber of Commerce and the Centre for Business who have teamed to provide the first business support facility the smallest of businesses in Wales. The hope is to encourage the growth and activity of business in Wales.
Personally I applaud this step forwards. There are a lot of very small businesses and they do deserve good support and its an idea with great potential.
Are Social Networks Like Newspapers?
I was letting the massive design change that Google wrought on Google + last week sink in and was considering about the many comments it had attracted when a thought struck me. Have we reached a tipping point in social networks that will allow several to be viable for a business to use and if that is the case do we need to thing about Social Networks now in terms of how they are used and not in how many people they attract.
I extended this though a bit and came up with this – do we now have to consider social networks the same way in we consider newspapers.
Here’s how the thinking works
Facebook: Has mass market appeal with the largest base of people using it. Yet it mostly focuses on gossip, jokes between friends, mass advertising, celebrity culture and photographs. Is it right to think of Facebook as being a Tabloid?
Twitter : Full of links to titbits of information, fast to read, easy to digest information – is this like one of the glossy Sunday magazines that so many papers put out.
Google + : Discussion is the centre of attention with a high level of adoption by enthusiasts, journalists, photographers, writers, artists and other creative types. Google+ offers powerful image display tools and a sophisticated set of tools for image and video display. Due to its focus on discussion and attention to detail Google+ feels more upmarket than Facebook which makes Google+ more of a broadsheet.
This change of perspective means that its no longer about betting on the biggest or the most public network. You need to think about delivering the right message to the right network to get the results that you need. It also means that you can no longer think about betting on which network is the winner. There is no winning network, just an audience you need to try and reach.
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