MP shows the Wright way for the FSB

Shropshire Branch

MP shows the Wright way for the FSB

David Wright MP bought himself closer to the Telford business community, recently, by listening to and taking up causes from members of the Federation of Small Businesses at the recent Shropshire branch networking meeting.

On a warm night at Meeting Point house in Telford, David Wright MP answered questions from members on VAT, finance, the local council and future policies to see the country out of recession, there was also discussions on how the Shropshire business community can become more powerful, and approach the council in stronger ways.

David took on board a lot of the comments, offered his view on most and assisted in looking at ways forward.

Ray Hickinbottom, membership manager and event organiser for the branch said “we are a non-political lobbying group for small businesses, and David Wright MP very kindly offered his services to come and listen to how life is on the shop floor so to speak, indeed one of our members had a call from the MP in regards VAT, just as he was about to pose the query in the House of Commons. It is part of our series of events, our main aim is to bring the issues real people are experiencing, into sharp focus to the people that need to know, and our thanks go out to David for making the time to see us.”

The conversation was free flowing and everybody got to make their point at the meeting, it was local business owner of a logistics firm and FSB member, Ben Coates, that posed the VAT question, and he added “I recently spoke to the VAT office with regards setting up a monthly payment scheme, rather than new businesses having to find a huge lump sum every 3 months, however this was not available, when I mentioned it to Mr Wright he seemed to agree that the idea of enabling new businesses to budget this way, made sense, and of course it would help with Cash Flow.”

“I wrote to David as he asked me to, then I received a call three weeks later, with the question that was to be asked. The MP said he was about to table it and was outside the chancellor’s office as we spoke. Without the FSB I would feel isolated, so I have to thank my local branch for offering me the chance to move my idea forward.”

Ray added, “Since we met with David, he has invited us to take a group down to parliament for a tour, and has also booked a committee room so we are able to move discussions forward, we are not committed to any political party, our ties are firmly with the local business community who we represent.”

Up and coming FSB events include:

Monthly Networking meeting at Meeting Point house, 21^st June, 19^th July and the yearly social event, September 20^th, venue to be arranged.

Please feel free to contact FSB Shropshire on the following:

Ray Hickinbottom – Membership Manager – 07733 603052

Ben Coates – Committee member – 07738 715038

Twitter: @fsbshropshire

Facebook Group: FSB Shropshire group

The ABC Solution, growing you, Part II

So we now have the website set up, the business is live, but where do we start, luckily with Utility Warehouse, it is all explained to you in several free training sessions, I believe the fee is worth the money alone just for the training and personal development, with a complete online training schedule and superb interactive training class rooms, it really can be a dummies guide to your new business.

But who do you have behind you and who says they are any good? The Company is Telecom Plus, based in North London, and operates only from this main office, it was founded in 1996 as a telecommunications business. Its first product, launched in 1997, which was a least cost call routing ‘Smart Box’, a gadget that plugs into a phone socket and then routes the calls to alternative networks at a cheaper rate than British Telecom Since then, the company has added to its portfolio: a full landline telephony service, mobile telephony (piggybacked on the T-Mobile network), broadband, gas and electricity (the company is licensed by OFGEM), and a Cash Back card (a pre-paid Mastercard).

To date, the business has grown to over 375,000 domestic and small-business customers, around 30,000 of whom are also Distributors, signing up new customers under a Multi-level marketing scheme in return for a residual income.

In March 2009 the Company was awarded the prestigious title of “Company of the Year” at the Quoted Company Awards annual dinner.

In February 2011, Which? magazine named the Utility Warehouse as the UK’s ‘Best Energy Supplier’ for the third year in a row. It also names the company Recommended Provider for Home Phone. Which? named the Utility Warehouse ‘Recommended Provider’ for Broadband in September 2010, and awarded it a ‘Best Buy’ for Home Phone and Broadband in Dec 2008, Feb 2010 (renewed in August 2010).

Trading as The Utility Warehouse, Telecom Plus has no shops and does not advertise on television or in the national press. The entire operation (including call centres) is based in North London, with around 450-500 staff.

So as you can see, this is something special, and at the presentation evenings you learn more about the people behind the business, but if you can’t wait just google Charles Wigoder.

Thank you for reading part II, I will update again later this week, to get involved as a customer please visit www.theabcsolution.co.uk and as an interested distributor please visit http://www.telecomplus.co.uk/biz/videodir/home.taf?exref=G62804, also don’t forget businesses you aren’t left out, your page is http://www.telecomplus.co.uk/business/?exref=G62804.

The Utility Warehouse Pig

BK Business Solutions Launch

At a recent exhibition, Director Ben Coates was told, the press releases you send through are impressive and ready to go, why don’t you do more?

Well here is the news, Ben Coates has taken up the challenge and is ready to hit it head on, all he needs now is customers, but with this standard of writing, the creativity and designs, and enthusiasm it surely won’t be long.

With a major contract already in the offing, the future looks bright, but Ben doesn’t just want it for himself, he wants to create employment and be a design/PR studio, aspiring to the famous Mr Paparazzi, Darren Lyons, he is off to London in search of experience that will hold him in good stead on his return a few days later.

He proved the contacts that BK have this week when he tweeted about the media’s vehicles outside Ryan Giggs house had been attacked even before it appeared on Sky News as Breaking News, Ben said “I have always been told it is not what you know but who you know, well in PR it is both, you can know the whole world, but if you don’t know how to portray a story then there is not much point, I have my own ways of thinking and for customers my ideas will definitely be unique, I can manage their image, create a new one, or re-launch an old one.”

Ben believes with the increase in social media, old marketing ploys that work have been forgotten, “I have a broad spectrum and experience of all types, different campaigns work for different people, but as long as all is monitored for their impact then all must be explored and discussed. I also believe that press exposure is under used, with so many cost cutting exercises going on in the media circles, papers now rely more and more on PR companies and marketing businesses, if they have one contact that they can get several stories from, or adverts booked it assists them and helps save our local papers.”

“The link back to social media is that the more the press release is posted across the internet, the more Google rankings you earn and this helps your search engine optimisation., campaigns must be consistent and that is what we will assist with, and we will also install monitoring systems so we can evaluate the impact of each part to see where the money that is tight, is better spent.”

BK Business Solutions can be contacted on 07738 715038, or through the website, www.bkbusinesssolutions.co.uk, and you can follow the tweets on @bkbusiness, Ben’s personal tweets are on @bencoates130776.