Free Seminar and advice with help for businesses wanting to expand and develop their customer base.

Tired of working alone – try one of our seminars and we will share our experience with you in exchange for you sharing your concerns with us!

Over 70% of small businesses in the UK have developed creative solutions to strengthen their company during the recession, according to research commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The study shows that 77% of small companies have adapted their business to cope with the downturn with 26% adjusting working hours, 33% investing in additional staff training and rewards and 65% exploring new product areas.

Just under 50% of respondents that made changes to their business did so to take a pro-active approach to the challenging economic climate and 37% said it was so they were ready to capitalise on the economic upturn when it occurs.

“In the face of a global downturn small businesses have developed and applied practical changes to get the best out of their people and enhance their business,” said Lord Young, Minister for Employment Relations.

“Entrepreneurship: Bridging Global Boundaries”

At least 300-500 participants from over 70 countries are expected to attend

We invite you to submit papers, case studies, workshop and/or symposia
proposals that deal directly or indirectly with:

What Is New In My Business?

…A Complete Change Of Emphasis

That’s What !

However, more recently I joined a business offering the opportunity either to save money or to make money, in the area of telephony and power utilities. It has been simmering on the back burner while I gently announced it to my Will and Probate clients and others as an option they might like to consider.

Well no more! Of late I have had far more interest in Utility Warehouse Discount Club than in Will Writing etc. and it is becoming quite exciting. So I will go with the flow and announce to the world at every opportunity

Utility Warehouse Discount club is not just a club, it is an 11 year old company that has come of age. Without having a professional sales force, or an advertising budget, and refusing as it does to give any kickbacks to the like of U-switch, it has caught the attention of Which magazine in 6 separate editions this year, and they rate the company as just about the best for customer service, customer satisfaction, value for money, and billing; and now we also offer cash back on everyday shopping too.

Please take a look at my website www.bjutilities and give me call.

What other company would actually give you a triple value guarantee to be cheaper than B.T. and British Gas, and the 6 Regional Electricity Companies, AND invite you to try its services without any attempt to tie you in for a fixed period contract.

250,000 satisfied customers cannot be wrong can they?

P.S. Our services are not restricted to domestic customers either. We do good things for businesses’ bottom lines too.

B J U Utilities

Brian Williamson
For Wills. Inheritance Tax, and Estate Planning Or To Reduce All Your Utility Bills in One Go.
Brian@bjwills.co.uk
www.telecomplus.org.uk/savewithbj
37 Beaumaris Road
Sawtry
Huntingdon, Cambs. PE28 5SF
brian@bjwills.co.uk
www.bjwills.co.uk: www.telecomplus.org.uk/savewithbj
tel: 01487 831853; 0800 90 20 429
mobile: 07929 942507

In response to suggestions that the UK is already in a recession, Business Link has issued its top ten steps to help local businesses prepare to survive the economic slowdown.

Following its announcement of a free business ‘health check’, the Government funded support organisation has reported that enquiries received from trading businesses into its Information Centre in October are up 100% on the same point last year. Also on the increase are requests for information on redundancy and liquidation, with 10% of callers seeking information on these areas compared to a negligible number in previous months.

Pat Smith, chief executive of Business Link in the East of England said:

“On the basis that we are seeing an increase in customers coming to us who are already feeling the pinch, there will be many more out there who are either trying to weather the storm alone or who do not realise that by taking action now, they could avoid problems further down the line.

“These steps are really just a starting point for anyone who is worried about the future of their business. The next stage is our ‘health check’, which takes stock of where a business is currently and looks at what needs to be done to move ahead. We know that businesses who take advice from Business Link have better survival rates, so our message is simple: call us now on 08457 17 16 15.”

Ten point plan for recession survival

1. Mind your cashflow
Understand exactly what your finances are telling you. Issue invoices promptly and chase up debtors; don’t buy more stock than you need; negotiate longer credit terms with suppliers; shorter ones for customers; fill up gaps in your forward order book; and keep in touch with your bank.

2. Cut your costs
Look for savings in every part of your business. Making your business greener isn’t just about saving the planet, it’s also about saving you money. Do you turn equipment off at night? Is every business journey necessary? Are you taking full advantage of your tax allowances?

3. Credit check new customers
It may take only one major customer to go bust to jeopardise your business. Protect yourself by conducting rigorous credit checks on new customers and agreeing clear credit terms up front.

4. Focus on retaining customers
When finances are uncertain, consumers cut their discretionary spending, so do all you can to keep your customers coming through your doors. Loyalty schemes, small discounts and regular communications are just three ways of letting your customers know you value them.

5. Provide outstanding customer service
Consumers appreciate businesses that give them more for their money, especially when times are tough. Efficient service, fast delivery, flexible payment terms, and so on, can persuade people to spend with you rather than a competitor.

6. Increase your marketing
When competing for a smaller pot of money, it becomes more important than ever to tell people why they should come to you. You don’t have to break the bank, but be sure to shout about your business.

7. Concentrate on products and services that sell
Don’t put your efforts into trying to sell things that are untried or that few people will buy; stick to profitable favourites. Don’t be tempted to slash prices either – if demand for your offer is not price sensitive, you will be giving your profits away.

8. Train your staff
Your staff are one of your greatest assets and could be the key to retaining customers and keeping your business running. Training is important to their personal development and the productivity of your business, so don’t be tempted to scrap your training plan.

9. Streamline your operation
Consider moving to smaller premises, or subletting your existing space. Sell off excess equipment and look at staffing – are your people concentrated in the right areas? Will flexible working be more cost efficient? If considering redundancies, remember that it’s bad for morale and replacements may be hard to find when business picks up.

10. Sell online
An online sales or marketing channel will expose you to a larger marketplace for minimal cost. Plan and resource online selling properly, including providing payment security, attracting visitors and meeting orders swiftly.

For further information visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/east/healthcheck

ABOUT BUSINESS LINK

• Business Link in the East of England provides information, practical advice and support to help people to start, run or grow their business
• Our clients fall in to two main categories:
  - Those running or working in established small and medium sized businesses
  - Those who want to start their own business
• Both clients groups can access independent, impartial and, in most instances, free help and support from Business Link in the form of:
  - Free one-to-one help from an experienced business adviser (for established businesses only)
  - Workshops and briefings on a range of business subjects such as business planning, sales and marketing, legislation, developing people
  - Telephone and online support through our Information and intelligence centre
• Business Link in the East of England works with businesses and entrepreneurs in the 6 counties in the East of England: Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire
• Business Link is a government initiative to promote enterprise, funded in the East of England by the East of England Development Agency

How would you feel if your landlord could come into your house and any time to search through all your belongings and use the information gained for their own benefit?

That is what you are permitting when utilising some of the convenient sites provided by some of the major internet players. One can almost hear “Thanks for telling me who your friends and contacts are! What sites are you visiting? Oh yes and what was that you bought yesterday? – Nice track, maybe you would like more from the same artist? ” and so on.

We currently accept this in return for the benefits we gain. We even exploit it ourselves when optimising websites. However, there is an increasing trend to have on-line writing, spreadsheet and presentation programmes, even file sharing for collaboration. Do we as businesses want others to also be able to access these and utilise some of the information for their own purposes -or would we rather have control of our own data?

To find out more about how this might be countered, I joined an information sharing and brainstorming meeting at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge (http://www.lucy-cav.cam.ac.uk/pages/thecollege.php ) at the invitation of fellow HBN member Dr Jo Stanley, expert in Intellectual Property (IP) issues. As usual, I was wearing three hats – interested individual, my company Milton Contact Ltd (www.miltoncontact.com, www.miltoncontact.co.uk) and active member of the Huntingdonshire Business Network (www.hbn.org.uk).

Professor Paul Krause of the University of Surrey (http://www.cs.surrey.ac.uk/profiles?s_id=2013 ) gave a brief overview of the ethos and aims of a European wide project involving “Digital Ecosystems”, a term that had piqued my curiosity but otherwise meant little to me prior to the meeting. The other two attendees apart from Jo and myself were Amir Razari, the researcher working on the project, well informed and with a streak of humour glinting in his eyes, and Will Spinner, Principal Economic Regeneration Officer of the Peterborough Regional Economic Partnership (http://www.preppeterborough.org/). Will was keen to find out if “Digital Ecosystems” could provide a means to a addressing both Peterborough’s ambition to improve its business ranking as a UK city and address the social issues that exist.

In an attempt to level the playing field, Digital Ecosystems have been one of the elements being developed within a Framework 6 European Commission R&D research program called REDEN (Regions for Digital Ecosytems Network http://reden.opaals.org/doc/reden-mission-draft.pdf) and is now fully supported by the OPAALS network of Excellence (http://www.opaals.org/).

Harking back to the original idea behind making the internet available to all, the basic principle is to provide open sourced web based flexible tools that allow sharing of information between individuals, groups or regions by having a common http interface, to stimulate a knowledge based economy in the EU .

In simple terms, for example, all you would need is an internet browser – to securely access and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations and data without hidden restrictions or unwanted access to your data.

I say “for example” as the end user applications are deliberately left vague, for good reason. The idea is not to be prescriptive but to provide basic tools and networking ability and allow the users to evolve systems that work for them (hence the Digital Ecosystems in the project title). Users could be groups of like-minded individuals, collaborating SMEs or even geographic regions.

The hope is that these tools will act as seeds for major paradigm shifts in social or economic activity. Just think of the success and social impact of texting, which arose unexpectedly from the use of a simple service utility left over in mobile phones in high technology culture Japan, when only telephony was the original intention; of Mobile phone communication providing a giant leap over the limits of land line telephony in Africa.

From a small business perspective, I could appreciate the potential benefits. I’m acutely aware of the impact of large commercial players locking you into their systems – most businesses use a Microsoft Windows operating system (96% in 2006) and Office for routine activities; Graphic design is dominated by Adobe Illustrator; PayPal is the first simple assistance for financial transactions that comes to mind and I am sure you can think of others. Furthermore, there are not only cost implications with their use, but also a regular need for updates, or even more frustratingly, changes in operating systems that dramatically curtail the previous accessibility of other software you are using or just require valuable time for refamiliarisation. 90% of businesses are micro-businesses of 1-5 employees and especially at startup, the financial and time burden of existing systems can be disproportionately large in their impact
Collaboration and communication tools are also important to me as an active networker with both local and international contacts. It is now hard to imagine working without Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Google as current communication tools for voice, text, images and data.

As Paul’s talk progressed, I therefore began to grasp the concept and see the benefits of commonly accessible, open sourced, online or peer to peer networked systems that only required an internet browser and were otherwise independent of the operating system (Windows, Mac, Linus) on individual terminals.

Will was keen to understand how a digital ecosystem could bring benefits to Peterborough. Peterborough is a city with excellent infrastructure links to the road and rail arteries of the UK and situated close to the manufacturing and industrial centre of the Midlands. Strengths include food production & processing, environment and advanced engineering. However the labour market affected by an increase in elementary occupations; skills attainment was still below the national average and the absence of higher education facilities hampered the local R&D and technology base resulting in few high-tech start-ups (Peterborough sub-regional economic strategy
http://consult.peterborough.gov.uk/portal/planning/pet erborough/cs/cspo?pointId=36413). It was going to take decades to build up the necessary physical infrastructure in the form of a local university and provide incubators for new businesses with space for them to grow.

The brainstorming began. Two main themes became apparent offering applicability of digital ecosystems to Peterboroughs unique challenges.

1. Enabling communication: With the near ubiquity of broadband and mobile access to the internet, physical proximity of businesses or individuals became less of an issue. There is already a growing familiarity of social networking via the web, particularly amongst the younger generation. Providing knowledge and lo-cost materials, a range of target groups could be given access to Peterborough based open sourced network tools. Whether Hi-Tech entrepreneurs, students, parents taking maternity or paternity leave, disadvantaged groups -the principle would be “here’s a set of tools that allow you to communicate with like minded people – now see how you can adapt and use them to fulfil your needs (and discover new ones and their solutions!)”.

2. Fostering innovation and ideas: Following on from point 1, Communication is an excellent breeding ground for innovation, whether at the intellectual level regarding cutting edge science, finding complementary skills and synergies in business or simply discovering a new need that you can or could answer with your idea, product or service.

For information, practical advice and support to help you run or grow your business, Business Link is the place to go.

Whether your business is established, or you are just starting out, we can provide you with independent and impartial support to help your make the most of your business.

Business Link is your gateway to:

Free one-to-one business advice with an experienced business adviser, who will

• Identify and analyse your business needs
• Develop and customise a plan of action
• Provide a summary of support services required to meet your needs
• Support you in the implementation of your plan

• Mailing lists selected to meet the needs of your target market
• Company information and/or more extensive company reports
• Potential sources of grants, finance and/or subsidised business services
• General business and market intelligence

• Understanding business legislation and regulations
• Starting your own business
• Winning public sector contracts
• Successful marketing for growth

Contact us on 08457 17 16 15 or visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/east

- Those running or working in established small and medium sized businesses

- Those who want to start their own business

- Free one-to-one help from an experienced business adviser (for established businesses only)

- Workshops and briefings on a range of business subjects such as business planning, sales and marketing, legislation, developing people

- Telephone and online support through our Information and intelligence centre

 In response to suggestions that the UK is already in a recession, Business Link is offering a free business ‘health check’ to all small or medium sized businesses.

- Those running or working in established small and medium sized businesses

- Those who want to start their own business

- Free one-to-one help from an experienced business adviser (for established businesses only)

- Workshops and briefings on a range of business subjects such as business planning, sales and marketing, legislation, developing people

- Telephone and online support through our Information and intelligence centre

Towards the end of last year, Business Link reported that enquiries received from trading businesses by its Information Centre were up 100% on the same point last year. Also on the increase were requests for information on redundancy and liquidation, with 10% of callers seeking information on these areas compared to a negligible number in previous months.

Dominic O’Sullivan of Business Link said:

“On the basis that we are seeing an increase in customers coming to us who are already feeling the pinch, there will be many more out there who are either trying to weather the storm alone or who do not realise that by taking action now, they could avoid problems further down the line.

“Contacting our information centre is just a starting point for anyone who is worried about the future of their business. The next stage is our ‘health check’, which takes stock of where a business is currently and looks at what needs to be done to move ahead. We know that businesses who take advice from Business Link have better survival rates than those who don’t, so our message is simple: call us now on 08457 17 16 15.”

In addition to the health checks, Business Link will once again be running its programme of workshops and seminars for those who are either looking to move into self-employment, or established businesses that are looking for information on tools such as marketing, PR and finance control.

All workshops are free and they take place on different dates at a variety of locations within easy reach of Huntingdon to enable business people to attend at a time that fits in with their commitments.

For further information on events visit the website www.bookevents.org or phone the events booking team on 0845 601 1000. For all other enquiries telephone 08457 17 16 15 or visit the Business Link website www.businesslink.gov.uk/east .

ABOUT BUSINESS LINK

• Business Link in the East of England provides information, practical advice and support to help people to start, run or grow their business

 • Business Link is a government initiative to promote enterprise, funded in the East of England by the East of England Development Agency

Dominic O’Sullivan of Business Link said:

“On the basis that we are seeing an increase in customers coming to us who are already feeling the pinch, there will be many more out there who are either trying to weather the storm alone or who do not realise that by taking action now, they could avoid problems further down the line.

“Contacting our information centre is just a starting point for anyone who is worried about the future of their business. The next stage is our ‘health check’, which takes stock of where a business is currently and looks at what needs to be done to move ahead. We know that businesses who take advice from Business Link have better survival rates than those who don’t, so our message is simple: call us now on 08457 17 16 15.”

In addition to the health checks, Business Link will once again be running its programme of workshops and seminars for those who are either looking to move into self-employment, or established businesses that are looking for information on tools such as marketing, PR and finance control.

All workshops are free and they take place on different dates at a variety of locations within easy reach of Huntingdon to enable business people to attend at a time that fits in with their commitments.

For further information on events visit the website www.bookevents.org or phone the events booking team on 0845 601 1000. For all other enquiries telephone 08457 17 16 15 or visit the Business Link website www.businesslink.gov.uk/east .

Contact us on 08457 17 16 15 or visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/east