NewsLetter

NORTH TYNESIDE BUINESS FORUM NEWSLETTER

Summer 2015North Tyneside Business Awards 2015 Page 2The Flip Chart Roadshow Page 4 and 5What it takes to be an online newsagent Page 7Tynemet delivering training with EE Page 8

Summer 2015

Summer 2015

Don’t miss the 2015 Business Awards

Sowing the seeds of business success

The hunt is on to track down the best biz on North Tyneside.

This year’s Business Awards promise to be the biggest and best yet, with exciting new categories aimed at businesses big and small. We believe virtually everyone will be eligible to enter at least one category.

Applications can be made throughout the summer and early autumn with the awards presented at a glittering prize dinner in early December. For more information, contact Sandra Kershaw on 0191 643 6000 or email business.forum@northtyneside.gov.uk

Business is blooming for a pair of budding North Tyneside florists.

Debbie Payne and Sharon Heatherington opened Gyp and Green Florist in Shiremoor in April and their budding business is beginning to grow.

“It was always our dream to have our own floristry business and after attending a workshop at The Business Factory we were inspired and ready to take the next step,” said Debbie.

The pair were guided step by step through the entire process by the Business Factory team who even referred them to Remploy and Tedco for additional support.

Sharon adds; “Our mentors were excellent; they were always at the end of the phone - and we phoned them often – giving us the confidence to turn our dream into reality.”

Gyp and Green Florists in Earsdon Road is open Monday to Saturday from 8.30am until 5.30 pm. The company specialises in all types of floristry, but feel a special affinity with creating funeral tributes. Call in or give them a ring on 0191 2532834.

Inside this issueDon’t miss the 2015 Business Awards p2

Sowing the seeds of business success p2

Let Mi shout about your business! p3

Rotational ambitions realised p3

Flip Chart Roadshow success p4 & 5

Affordable homes help regeneration p6

Exercise helps you and your job! p6

Online with Dinky p7

What it takes to be an online retailer p7

TyneMet delivers bespoke training with EE p8

Move from home to a professional

workspace p8

Tea and Networking at the Net p8

The Business Factory offers advice and support to anyone starting a business in North Tyneside; call 0191 605 3110 or visit www.businessfactorynt.co.uk for more information.

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Summer 2015

Rotational ambitions realised

Let Mi shout about your business!

An innovative initiative is enabling North Tyneside businesses and groups to communicate promotional messages to local consumers... For FREE!

Mi North Tyneside is a partnership with North Tyneside Council which promotes local business messages through their website, free to download smart phone apps, social media channels, push notifications and a weekly email newsletter.

Since launching in April 2014, the Mi North Tyneside platform has featured almost 800 local businesses, promoted over 1,300 local events and provided almost 200 exclusive ‘mi offers’.

Colin Munro, managing director of Mi NorthTyneside said; “Every type of business has something they would like to shout about whether it be items of news, offers, products or services, date specific events, we enable them to do that free of charge.”

A specialist North-East engineering firm is celebrating year on year growth and the creation of three new jobs following investment from the Finance for Business North East Growth Fund.

Rotational Engineering Limited, from Wallsend, secured £75,000 from the Growth Fund managed by regional fund management firm NEL Fund Management. It has used the money to exploit new and emerging commercial opportunities and enhance its long-term investment in staff training.

Pat Davidson (left) from Rotational Engineering Limited and Jane Siddle from NEL

The launch of Mi North Tyneside to a selection of Whitley Bay businesses.

Mi North Tyneside has a solid user base, with over 1,500 app downloads, 4000 registered users, over 4800 likes on Facebook and almost 3500 followers on Twitter. The company can also create bespoke digital marketing campaigns to reach in excess f 150,000 consumers.

For further information visit www.minorthtyneside.co.uk/businesses or to arrange a meeting contact Jonathan at minorthtyneside@mi-cnx.com

on successSet up in 1994 by Neil and Pat Davidson, Rotational initially manufactured the steel moulds used to make traffic cones, but quickly evolved to design and manufacture a range of rotational steel moulds, predominantly for use in the plastics market, and other bespoke items for customers in the UK, Europe and North America.

Company Secretary, Pat Davidson said; “NEL supported us at a time when the banks were not prepared to and the funding enabled us to secure contracts we would not otherwise have been in a position to compete for; without it we would have had to scale back operations and ultimately

make redundancies, instead we have taken on another apprentice and recruited two further members of staff.”

Lindsey Grieves, Portfolio Executive at NEL added; “NEL is delighted to have been able to contribute to this success story and would like to wish Neil, Pat and the team their every success for the future.”of charge.”

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Summer 2015

A flipping good way to find new clientsIf you ask local business owner Mark Robinson, of Roundabout Publications, which is the best and most cost effective way to find new clients, he will suggest that you take up flipping – and he’s not talking about pancakes.

For Mark, whose independent, family-run business publishes and distributes monthly community magazines in Monkseaton and Tynemouth, met several new potential business clients at the recent Flip Chart Road Show event which took place at TyneMet College on Tuesday 30 June.Over the past few years Flip Chart Road Shows have become well established as one of the North East’s most popular business inter-trading events; 40 businesses from across the borough attended June event meeting clients and gaining new business contacts.

The informal format put everyone on a level playing field as companies simply listed their products and services and company buying needs on their own flipchart wall which potential customers and suppliers read at their leisure.

In addition to the flipchart activity, the event welcomed professional guest speaker Warren Cass, entrepreneur and founder of Business Scene who provided the audience with tips on how successful business people build networks. The evening also included gourmet catering from TyneMet’s in-house professional chef and a free copy of Warren’s e-book.

According to Mark; The event was a good combination - Warren Cass’s talk was excellent and the structured networking session was a good way to find out about the other businesses present. I’ve made some initial contacts as a result and will definitely attend future events.” 

So, we look forward to seeing you soon Mark!

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Summer 2015

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Summer 2015

Affordable homes help regeneration

Exercise helps you and your job!

Work has started on 41 new and affordable homes in the heart of Wallsend to help the regeneration of the area.

Kier North Tyneside is developing the site of the former Wallsend Police Station and family centre on High Street East. It is part of North Tyneside Council’s ten-year drive to create 3,000 extra affordable homes across the borough and contribute to the ongoing regeneration of Wallsend town centre. 

The development, due to be completed in spring 2016, has been designed to recreate the traditional terraces of Wallsend with all ground floor apartments and houses designed to achieve Life Time Home standards—a design code enabling conversion of the home in the future.

Kier operations director, Jon Rukin, commented:  “We are proud to be working in North Tyneside on this development; it offers an excellent opportunity to deliver much-needed affordable homes in Wallsend. We have worked closely with

Ah the dreaded office job, constantly snacking throughout the day, getting by on gallons and gallons of coffee just to keep you awake… it sounds quite familiar doesn’t it?

the Council to develop high quality, thermally efficient designs, which will provide secure and economical places to live. We are also looking forward to delivering further projects within the borough as part of the Council’s long-term housing programme.”

Working in a fast paced environment behind a desk can be tough going, both mentally and physically, but luckily for you it doesn’t have to be like that because Xercise4Less has the answer.

Now we know you’re going to find this hard to believe and we’re pretty sure we can hear the sound of eyes rolling across the borough BUT, believe it or not, exercise can benefit you and your job!

Exercise is known to help elevate your mood, reduce stress and give you a sharper memory; not only that but you’ll have improved concentration, enhanced creativity and prolonged mental stamina, what’s not love about that? It’s time we all took 30 minutes out of our day and exercised, this way you can reap the benefits and be more motivated than ever! You never know, you might even come up with some ground breaking ideas and land the dream job you’ve always wished for, so what are you waiting for put down the pens and laptop and pick up the gym gear!

For further information on Xercise4Less call Lauren Rainforth on 0113 2038668 ext 153, 07875714400 or email pr@xercise4less.co.uk

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Summer 2015

Online with DinkyA local website design business is getting voluntary groups online thanks to Sector Connector.

Web design and development is something which many local community groups ask for help with. Fortunately, Sector Connector can call on businesses which have the expertise and motivation to help. One such business is Dinky Websites, which specialises in helping smaller businesses and organisations to develop effective and attractive websites. Sarah Hathaway, of Dinky Websites has been involved with Sector Connector and has supported several local groups to gain an online presence

What it takes to be an online newsagent!We chat to John Porrett of Benton based Unique Magazines.

How and why did you become an online newsagent?

The business evolved from my previous life working for the Mills newsagent group. Back in early 2000 I began to realise that an online newsagent could provide a much broader range of titles to a wider customer base.

An average newsagent serves customers in a half mile radius and can offer up to 400 titles. What’s more, as more newsagents convert to convenience stores, less and less space is given over to magazines which further limits choice. We supply over 3,000 consumer magazine titles, plus many more business ones, to individual customers and high profile clients such as M & S, Nike and Unilever all over the world.

Why do you think the online sale of magazines is growing so fast?

It comes down to the breadth of choice we can offer and it has been technology enabled. Increasingly individuals

and businesses want magazines which they can access conveniently on their phones, tablets and computers. However, as not all customers want digital copies, we provide printed magazines too!

What does your job entail?

It’s varied and covers every aspect of running a business. However, my main focus is always to ensure the team offers the best level of customer service that we possibly can. Around half our work is B2B and many of these clients have come to us through recommendation, we’ve been told that our customer sevice is second to none.

Are there any issues you need to be especially aware of?

Apart from a sound knowledge of the world of magazine publishing, you need to be aware of issues around technology and e-commerce and, when sending magazines by post, you need to remember that you are at the mercy of Royal Mail and that things can, and sometimes do, go astray.

For further information on Unique Magazines visit www.uniquemagazines.co.uk

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“When I set up Dinky Websites I wanted to provide websites for small organisations that might not have the budget or confidence to approach a large web design company.  In particular, I was interested in working with the charity and voluntary sector.  Sector Connector has been a great opportunity for me to do just that.  My portfolio now has a variety of charity and voluntary sector websites, mainly due to working with Sector Connector.” 

“I really enjoy working with people who know they need a website, but have no experience of developing one and helping them to build one that works for them.  I work with various organisations, including small businesses, but I particularly enjoy work that hopefully makes a difference in our community.  Thank you, Sector Connector!”

Sarah is currently working with a group of North Tyneside young people to develop a website for RVI based charity, Northern Brainwave Appeal.

For details on Sector Connector contact Ian Dougall on 0191 6432638 or email ian.dougall@voda.org.uk

Summer 2015

TyneMet delivering training with EE

Move from home to a professional workspace

Tea and Networking at the Net

The UK’s biggest network provider, EE and Tyne Metropolitan College have teamed in a collaborative effort to provide bespoke business training programmes. This is the first training programme of its kind EE has developed in partnership with a training company; it provides staff with a nationally recognised qualification - the ILM Level 3 in Leadership and Management. The programme was designed to meet the specific needs of EE and the college was selected for its outstanding reputation for delivering training solutions, supported by a recent Ofsted report.

Working at home can be either a lonely experience or a distraction with the hubbub of family life going on around you; but there is a solution! Bizspace has created three single-person offices at its Albion House business centre to help home workers who are looking to move. The development comes in response to an influx of enquiries from businesses looking to make the transition from home-working to a professional workspace.

Bizspace’s Cluster Manager for the North East, Jennifer Shields, said; “The new offices on West Percy Street have been very well received. It really is exciting to see such a buzz of new business activity in the North Shields area and to know so many start-ups are thriving.”

For enquiries call 0191 51050323 or email northshields@bizspaace.co.uk

Take a splash of afternoon tea and add a little networking and you’ll find you have changed a quintessentially British activity into a congenial business opportunity.

For further information on bespoke training and development opportunities for your business speak to a Business Development Consultant on 0191 229 5179 or email business@tynemet.ac.uk

That’s exactly what happened when 40 local business men

and women joined us for afternoon tea and networking at

The Net. The 28 May event enabled businesses from across

the borough to meet the new Chair of the Business Forum,

David Rose, Chairman of FuDa Hobart Rose, offer their views

on how the Forum can support business during the coming

year and provide feedback on the Business Awards so we can

make this year’s event even better. The afternoon culminated

in a delicious tea, the chance to catch up with colleagues old

and new and the opportunity to have a look around one of

North Tyneside’s most unusual and historic venues – what

more could you want?

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