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At dotUK we have have worked with a number of projects over the years that have had funding sourced throught the local Teesvalley and North East Business Link advisors, obviosuly this is an avenue that is changing with the closure of regional Business Advisory Service, so we're taking the opportunity to re-publish an update we have received this morning;
"Following recent Government announcements regarding the future provision of business support, I would like to update you on the services we’re currently delivering and clarify the range of support available now to you and your customers.
The Government announced last month that the regional Business Link advisory service will close at the end of November 2011 and will be streamlined into a national Business Link web-based offering and contact centre.
However, until then for the region’s Business Link service, our priority is to continue working on behalf of North East businesses whilst working with the Government to ensure that there is a smooth transition to the online support at www.businesslink.gov.uk and the accompanying contact centre.
We’re keen to emphasise that the Business Link service will remain open for business until the end of November and will continue to offer the same level of support and guidance for new and existing customers across the region.
The Business Link team here has consistently delivered exceptional results and we remain committed to offering the very best advice and assistance to existing businesses and budding entrepreneurs across the region. That support, which can be accessed by calling 0845 600 9 006 or visiting www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast, includes:
- Intensive face-to-face advice and support for established businesses looking to develop and grow
- A range of tailored events and seminars at venues across the region
- Access to information and advice for all businesses in the North East by telephone, email, newsletters and Business Link's website.
- Start up support for budding entrepreneurs, which includes tailored workshops to encourage people to start new enterprises in the region.
The Business Link service is one of the many contracts we deliver here at Business & Enterprise North East. And through all of our services including the North East England Investment Centre, The Regional International Trade Office operated on behalf of UKTI and Compete North East, this year, we remain focused on expanding the North East’s private sector – continuing to make businesses more competitive, creating sustainable jobs and helping more budding entrepreneurs start successful businesses.
The Business & Enterprise North East team is now actively working with key regional partners to develop the next generation of business improvement services, driven by the needs of the North East’s business community.
Over the next few months there will be some profound changes to business support and Business & Enterprise North East will be working hard to improve and stimulate the opportunities available to the region’s business community. As well as the services currently on offer, we will also be introducing new services, initiatives and sources of information to help SMEs fulfil their potential.
Although we’re now diversifying and developing our markets, our key focus continues to be on helping more businesses in the North East to start, succeed and grow. We will continue to make sure that the services we operate in the region and the relationships we have built with you, our local partners, generate the greatest possible impact."
If you have any projects in mind that might be eligible for funding, or Business Support here in the North East then please don't hesitate to contact us. We can still operate with you and put you in touch with a local Business LInk advisor who will be best placed to advise as to the current situation.
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Originaly published in the Northern Echo as 'Nigel focuses on crafty business idea':
A KEEN photographer who was recently made redundant has launched a business which transforms family photos into works of art.
Nigel Dawson, from Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, has created Crafty Canvas after bouncing back from losing his sales job.
The company turns photos into wall art by printing them onto canvas after customers have cropped them on the Crafty Canvas website.
The business will also act as a gallery for photographers, who can upload their own pictures to the site and sell them to the public as potential canvases or large gloss prints.
Mr Dawson said: “I had always had the dream of being my own boss as I always seemed to be working hard for other people’s gain.
“There is a great sense of freedom that comes with creating your own destiny.
“What differentiates Crafty Canvas from other businesses in the market is that we have given customers the unique ability to crop their own pictures, so they will always get the best possible print for them.”
Mr Dawson, who was born in Blackpool but moved to Teesside after meeting his partner, Jill, on a skiing holiday, is a passionate photographer who honed his skills on an Open University course.
Crafty Canvas prints cost from £19.99 to £129.99, and are produced entirely in-house.
Mr Dawson added: “I would like to say a big thank you to Business Link and Andy Flisher, from Dot UK, for designing the website.”
For more information, visit craftycanvas.co.uk"
Related Links:
Crafty Canvas is a bespoke Ecommerce and Canvas printing solution created from scratch according to Nigel's specific requirements. It utilises a robust PHP, Apache, and MySQL framework for the Ecommerce and Image Processing functions, but introduces Ajax and Jquery functionality to improve the user interoperation and introduce functionality such as image cropping within the user interface that would otherwise not be available to the end user.
The site is hosted on our managed hosting platform which uses virtualisation to allow as to scale services according to usage requirements, and to offer high availability options that would not normally be cost effective.
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SEO, and it's related analytics and research is time consuming. Time consuming means expensive for the client, and whilst cash flow is good, even if sold is not necessarily profitable. So one thing we're always on the look at as is means to automate and simplify, and SEO software is an area where no one has quite got it right.
There are levels of expectation, from the end user, through the webmaster, to the SEO professional managing multiple clients, all our needs and requirements from a piece of SEO Software differ.
One that's doing a good job for us, and many of our clients is Sheer SEO. It's a web based application, which offers the ease of access from anywhere that we expect, but as SEO Software it's fully functional and available on a 90 day trial, it's features include;
- Rankings Tracker
- Page Rank
- Directory Submission
- Twitter link tracking
- Backlinks watchdog
- Master Account (One account for multiple sites)
- Competitor Tracking
There is also a White Label feature, and from our perspective it's very easy to deploy for clients to watch, query, and understand their own data, whilst allowing us to analyse in greater depth and plan campaigns accordingly. There are no doubt features missing, certainly at the Pro end of the market, but for day to day use we're struggling to workout what they are!
So if you budget won't stretch to a fully managed SEO campaign, and we won't pretend that is something that can ever be offered on the cheap and done properly, we can highlighy recommend Sheer as the SEO Software of choice to help your market your website, and help us help you promote it further.
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It's easy to do, yet so obvious, but with all the hours we but in designing our clients websites, working on search engine optimisation strategies and improving other peoples google rankings we sometimes forget ourselves! Well, we do Web Design, we're in the North East, so we naturally we're promoting our selves as North East Web Designers, and you can help, please!
One of the sites we regularly use and promote is Free Index, where we're listed under dotUK - North East Web Design and to get us top ranking as Web Designers we need your ratings, so happy clients, please do us the favour. The favour returned of course is that we highly recommend you sign yourselves up as business owners and promote yourselves, it costs you nothing, the gains are immeasurable. And of course if we've used your services in the past then drop your contact here at dotUK a mail and we'll be sure to further return that favour and rate you too.
dotUK are North East based Web Design, Ecommerce, Managed Hosting and Virtualisation and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) specialists
and are located in the North East of England (Yarm (North Yorkshire) and Stockton on Tees (Cleveland)).
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Today’s pre budget statement announced a 2.5% decrease in the VAT rate from the 1st December until the beginning of 2009. Whilst great news for business it also brings challenges for business’s and organisations of all sizes. From the 1st in house accounts systems, e-commerce web-sites, point of sales solutions will need to reflect this new VAT tariff.
As a Sage Partner with over 15 years experience in the market we are ideally placed to help business make this transition, if your existing accounts package cannot handle this change, we can provide and upgrade and migration service to make this transition as pain free as possible.
In addition our web development team can help with modifications to your ecommerce system and make this transition hassle free.
For further information on this or any service please call 08450 379319 or contact us
dotUK are North East based Web Design, Ecommerce, Managed Hosting and Virtualisation and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) specialists
and are located in the North East of England (Yarm (North Yorkshire) and Stockton on Tees (Cleveland)).
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