Friday 29 October 2010

A message from The Centre for eBusiness:

Google is known as the most popular search engine around these days. But there is so much more to it than the simple search!

Whether you already rank highly on Google Search, or you’re still trying to get there, make sure you don’t miss out on the other applications that Google has on offer.

The Centre for eBusiness has published an eBusiness File reviewing what we consider to be the top free Google products - what they’re all about and what you might like to use them for. The list includes online document storage, photo editing software, website analytics and a library of past search trends, amongst many other things.

To download your free copy of the eBusiness File: Top Free Google Products click here. If you want to find out more about The Centre for eBusiness and the ways that we can support business people, visit www.centreforebusiness.eu or call us on + 44 (0)191 487 2002.

Thursday 28 October 2010

Creative lights receive top honours

THE BEST creative and digital work in North East England will be celebrated at the first annual SMACS awards.

The SMACS aim to highlight the region’s superb creative output in digital and print media, with awards for best website in the business, voluntary, student and public sector arenas.

Other awards include best online marketing campaign, best print advertisement and best mobile app.

The SMACS are organised by SuperMondays, a not-for-profit group that provides a range of support and opportunities to the North East digital and IT sector.

Ross Cooney, Managing Director of SuperMondays, said: “The digital and creative sector in the North East continues to play an important part in the regional economy, both in terms of job and wealth creation.

“The SMACS will showcase best practice in digital and print media, as well as highlighting some really exciting people and projects with enormous future potential.”

Nominations for the 2010 awards are invited from companies or organisations based in Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham and the Tees Valley. To qualify, projects must have been completed between 1st January 2010 and 17th December 2010.

The closing date for nominations is Sunday (OCT 31).

Members of the public will then be encouraged to vote online for their favourite shortlisted company and these votes will influence the judging panel’s final decision.


Story courtesy of http://www.bdaily.info

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010: A few of our activities

This year more than ever, Global Entrepreneurship Week takes on increased significance and David Cameron has already highlighted the importance of entrepreneurs in rebuilding the economy.

We share his thoughts when he says, “I can’t tell you how much I admire people who leave the comfort of a regular wage to strike out on their own.”

And, “When you think of a wealth creator, don’t think of the tycoon in a glass tower. Think of the man who gets up and leaves the house before dawn to go out and clean windows. Think of the woman who sits up late at night trying to make the figures add up to make sure she can pay her staff.”

If we can, you can shares the stories of ordinary people achieving and aspiring to achieve extraordinary things as they set up and build businesses across the North East.

During GEW, members of the www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk community will be sharing their experiences at a wide variety of events across the region.

Here’s a quick summary – please read on below for more information.

15th – Our entrepreneurs inspire students at Bede Academy
15th – The Accidental Entrepreneur
16th - Spark in the Park – Bouncing back from ‘failure’
16th – Entrepreneurship Inspiration Day
19th – New Unplugged event with Getting British Businesses Online


Inspiring Words at Bede Academy

Two brilliant members of If We Can You Can’s community will be speaking to the Year 7 and 8 pupils at Bede Academy on Monday 15th, giving them an insight into the life of an entrepreneur.

Mark Ions, Managing Director of Exclusive Human Resources and Gareth Mellor, owner of Gareth James Chocolatier will reveal the secrets behind their successes and how they have progressed their businesses from their original idea to where they are today.

If like Mark and Gareth you are interested in giving back to the wider community and help inspire and educate students as part of our Ambassador programme, please contact Will who will be more than happy to hear from you!


Accidental Entrepreneur

At a time when many in the public sector are under threat of redundancy it’s great to see that Iain Scott of Enterprise CafĂ© is bringing his unique approach to helping people develop an entrepreneurial mindset to the North East.

We worked with Iain at Chance to Change and his Accidental entrepreneur programme runs on November 15th at Hilton Newcastle Gateshead.

It’s not just for those who are leaving the public sector but anyone trying to get their head around exactly what is involved – personally and financially – in starting a business. And as Iain says ‘it’s not about a plan or an idea, it’s about starting the right conversations’.

We’ll be running follow up sessions for anyone who attends the Accidental Entrepreneur to help keep up the momentum – and we’re also looking for people who have come out of the public sector or have been made redundant to put people in touch with. So make yourselves known!

This is an independent, private sector event and there is a charge for attending. For more information and to book your place on the Accidental Entrepreneur please click here


Spark in the Park

We’ve put together a panel of entrepreneurs including Lynn Gate, Steven Smith and Ali McLean to inspire students, teachers (and anyone else who comes along) at St. James’ Park on the afternoon of 16th November.

It’s part of Newcastle Council’s Enterprise Package and the theme is ‘bouncing back’. So, we’ll be focusing on the old chestnut that ‘failure isn’t getting knocked down, it’s not getting up again’.

We’re looking for any interesting anecdotes to include on the subject of failure and getting up and at ‘em again – we would be enormously grateful if you could email through a snippet of your story or how you feel about the subject and we’ll use it on the day to add to the discussion.


Entrepreneurship Inspiration Day

The Executive Centre Newcastle in association with yours truly, Better Brand Agency, Business Link and Herdman Jones Associates are delighted to invite you to a FREE Entrepreneurship Inspiration day as part of the Global Entrepreneurship week.

The event will take place on Tuesday 16 November 2010 at The Executive Centre Newcastle: Cuthbert House, City Road, All Saints, Newcastle, NE1 2ET.

The day will be made up of helpful seminars and workshops (many delivered by our members such as Mark Easby and David Wilson) to provide you with invaluable support and advice to help grow your business and take your success to the next level.

We’re mostly looking forward to heckling Will during his star turn (and very much encourage you guys to come along and do the same), but there’s lots of other areas of interest beside this designed to get your cogs going and leave you feeling inspired and more informed. For more information on the event and to register, please click here


Make the Most of Your Website – Unplugged

To mark the closing day of Global Entrepreneurship Week, If We Can You Can is hosting an Unplugged event in partnership with Get British Business Online.

Details: Friday 19th November from 8:30am – 11am at the Regus Centre The Axis Building, Maingate, Kingsway North, Team Valley, Gateshead NE11 0NQ

Using our successful Unplugged format we will hear from experts in the fields of e-commerce, Search Engine Optimisation, Internet Marketing and Web Design. So far, confirmed to be in the hot seats are If We Can You Can member Darren Williams of Hair X-Tensions Ltd and Gary Boon from Shout Digital. More speakers are being confirmed as we speak, so watch this space!

For more information on the event please click here. And to register for what should be a really informative morning please click here

Monday 25 October 2010

Entrepreneurship Inspiration Day

The Executive Centre Newcastle in association with yours truly, Better Brand Agency, Business Link and Herdman Jones Associates are delighted to invite you to a FREE Entrepreneurship Inspiration day as part of the Global Entrepreneurship week.

The event will take place on Tuesday 16 November 2010 at The Executive Centre Newcastle: Cuthbert House, City Road, All Saints, Newcastle, NE1 2ET.

The day will be made up of helpful seminars and workshops to provide you with invaluable support and advice to help grow your business and take your success to the next level. We’re mostly looking forward to heckling Will during his star turn (and very much encourage you guys to come along and do the same), but there’s lots of other areas of interest beside this designed to get your cogs going and leave you feeling inspired and more informed. Below is an itinerary of this great event.

Today’s Itinerary

9.30 Registration and Refreshments

9.50 Welcome

10.00 Will McLean- The Entrepreneurs Forum: What do Entrepreneurs do?!

10.30 Nigel Jones- Herdman Jones: Understanding Marketing Strategy

11.00 Mark Easby- Better Brand Agency: Building your digital footprint

12.15 Lunch, networking and time for one to one appointments with our speakers

13.15 Mark Easby- Better Brand Agency: Social Media in Action

15.00 David Wilson- NE Money: A to Z of managing money

15.30 David Cliff- Gedanken: Beyond Survival; Strategies for Effective Business Thinking

16.30 End of event and opportunity for further networking and appointments with our speakers

Lunch and refreshments will be provided on the day.

To RSVP please contact Kristy Giblin kgiblin@cecoffices.com

New Unplugged event announced


To mark the closing day of Global Entrepreneurship Week, If We Can You Can is hosting an Unplugged event in partnership with Get British Business Online.

Friday 19th November from 8:30am – 11am at the Regus Centre The Axis Building, Maingate, Kingsway North, Team Valley, Gateshead NE11 0NQ

Using the successful Unplugged format we will hear from experts in the fields of e-commerce, Search Engine Optimisation, Internet Marketing and Web Design. So far, confirmed to be in the hot seats are If We Can You Can member Darren Williams of Hair X-Tensions Ltd and Gary Boon from Shout Digital. More speakers are being confirmed as we speak, so watch this space!

Darren started off running raves for under 18s and created a website to stream live raves in Stockton and host forums, chats and profiles on the country’s DJs and rave scenes. Within 6 months he had filled the music venue with 2000 people, regularly attending every month, and through the success of his website managed to attract a member base of over 26,000 members, with 900+ people online at any given time, and 3.5 million messages left in total!

Upon selling this website Darren then moved to help his partner with their current business selling hair & beauty products on to 30,000 customers around the world. Hair X-Tensions Ltd now boasts a huge international client base, turning over nearly one million pounds. Darren’s biggest investment to date has been for the domain name www.hairextensions.co.uk for £30,000 which went live in September and has turned over nearly half of that already.

Shout Digital is founded on an ethos of providing cutting-edge expertise, innovation and excellent client service and see themselves as the ultimate answer for all things digital.

Click here to register for what should be a really informative morning

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Following in the footsteps of Lord Sugar

NORTH East entrepreneurs aiming to be the next Lord Sugar will be given a helping hand to turn their business ideas into successful ventures at a series of Business Link conferences.

The ‘Start Your Business’ events provide an opportunity for anyone who is thinking of starting a business to get face-to-face advice from business experts on a range of specialist topics from finance and marketing to planning and law.

Delegates can also take part in interactive workshops and seminars, and access a series of free guides which are packed with practical information on how to start a business.

Julie Spowart, events manager for Business & Enterprise North East (BE-NE) which delivers the Business Link service in the North East says: “There’s a lot to consider when starting up a business so we’ve designed these events to help budding entrepreneurs get all of the information they need – all in one place and on one day.

“The information and advice will be delivered by business experts who have experienced first-hand how to run a business, giving delegates a valuable insight into what it takes to get started and be successful.”

One such expert is Michael Thompson, owner and creative director at graphic design and brand communications agency Urban Giants. Michael delivered creative marketing seminars at last year’s event and will be offering his advice at the 2010/11 series. He said: “I really enjoy taking part in the Start Your Business events. There’s something really exciting about being able to inspire people and play a part in helping them realise their ambition of being their own boss.”

The ‘Start Your Business’ events will take place across the region from November 2010 until March 2011 at six locations: Darlington, Newcastle, Peterlee, Alnwick, Middlesbrough and Sunderland.

If we can, you can will be supporting the fairs as usual - and many of our members have already generously donated some of their precious time to lend a hand and talk to other delegates about starting their own business.

If you would like to join them and help shout about 'If we can, you can', and give tips and advice to those that were once in your shoes, then please drop Will an email and let him know what your preferred times, advice area and venue will be. We would be enormously grateful for your support.