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Last chance to enter 2009 Barclays Trading Places Awards

LAST CHANCE TO ENTER BUSINESS HERO AWARDS

 

There is just over a week left for business heroes to enter the 2009 Barclays Trading Places Awards – a national award celebrating men and women who are turning their lives around by choosing to start up a business.

 

The Government backed Barclays Trading Places Awards recognise business heroes who are no strangers to overcoming adversity – whether it’s dealing with illness or disability, facing challenging family responsibilities head-on, or turning their back on benefits.

 

Last year’s winners, cider makers Toloja Orchards, invested their prize money back into their business and have seen their turnover treble since winning the award.

 

Founder Kevin Sweet set up the apple orchard with his wife Nikki in 2005 after being made redundant several times and overcoming heart surgery. Their award-winning cider is now sold in over 60 outlets.

 

Barclays Marketing Director for Local Business, John Davis, said: “Trading Places is a celebration of inspiring people who have struggled through adversity to get their businesses up and running – and that’s even more relevant in today’s turbulent times.

 

“We know it’s tough out there at the moment but we want to tell entrepreneurs they don’t have to make the journey alone. We are committed to doing everything we can to help, and the fact is we’re supporting more businesses, and with greater lending commitments, than ever before.”  

The awards are open to everyone who has been trading for a minimum of three months and a maximum of three years, with an annual turnover of less than £1 million and a story to tell.

 

This year’s national finalists will be competing in three new categories – Triumph over Disability, Success after Unemployment and the Spirit of Inspiration Award – before hoping to be named the 2009 Barclays Trading Places Winner.

                                                                                                           

Each category winner will also walk away with £5,000 for their business, courtesy of Barclays, and all national finalists will receive £2,000 worth of computer software from awards supporter Microsoft.

 

Another new addition for 2009 will see the awards partners coming together to offer everyone who enters a range of business support and mentoring packages.

 

Helping to launch Trading Places Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, said: “An enterprising culture can create jobs and transform communities – all of which is vital during these uncertain economic times.

 

“Through initiatives such as Barclays Trading Places Awards we can honour the next wave of entrepreneurs who have overcome personal barriers, driven change and made their ideas a reality.”

 

Other award partners are Jobcentre Plus, youth charity The Prince’s Trust, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the NFEA and Leonard Cheshire Disability.

 

Entries for the Barclays Trading Places Awards, now in their fifth year, must be in by 22nd May. Nomination leaflets are available by calling 0800 085 3203 or visiting www.barclays.co.uk/tradingplaces.


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Kickstarting the economy with values and integrity

 

Free Webcast:
Kick-starting the Sustainable Economy

The world of business is changing.  Consumers and entrepreneurs are favouring businesses with genuine values and integrity. At the same time, opportunities to develop businesses with an environmental and green agenda are increasing. This panel discussion features five truly inspirational entrepreneurs, who will discuss the burgeoning sustainable economy and take questions from the audience and our online viewers.

A partnership between the British Library Business and IP Centre and HSBC Start-Up Stars.

Speakers

Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project
Paul Myers, president of the World Fair Trade Organization
Safia Minney, founder and director of Fair Trade fashion brand People Tree
Albert Tucker, independent consultant and formerly of TWIN TRADING, a founding partner in Café Direct and Divine Chocolate
Anne MacCaig, CEO of leading Fair Trade brand Cafédirect.
How to watch

Visit the website www.inspiringentrepreneurswebcast.co.uk/

 

 

 


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Why does your business need an effective Website?

Currently an estimated 17 million UK Households have internet access and countless businesses today have an internet site meaning more and more business is done online.

So should you be worried about the growth and increased usage of the internet? Well, all the information available suggests that if you are not spending time on setting up or improving your website, your competitors certainly will be and the chances are that sooner or later you will lose business as the usage of the internet grows.

The biggest issue I face when searching out new customers to build my small (but perfectly formed) Web Design business is people’s perception of their web presence.  Many businesses now attend web design courses for a day or two and then proceed to develop a website.  After publishing their wonderful site onto the World Wide Web (don’t hear that in full so often these days I feel) they sit back and the website is left to gather Virtual Cobwebs maybe updated annually!  To them it’s the best thing since sliced bread; it’s a tick in the box, job done and cheap to as they did it themselves!  So when I tactfully highlight any issues or make development suggestions, my views are not always welcomed.

Creating, developing and maintaining an effective website (effective being the keyword there) is a time consuming task and that’s a fact!  So if you are developing your own website is that really the best use of your valuable time?  There is obviously a cost involved by getting somebody else to help but surely there is a cost as far as your own very valuable time spent too?

Ask yourself why would people come to your web site?

Does it offer them interesting, up to date and useful information relevant to your business?  If not, why would they come to you and not go to your competitors?  On the Internet today content is most definitely King so long as it’s well written and relevant.

In short Effective Websites:-

  • have relevant content and lots of it
  • have a good clear style
  • are well structured
  • are easy to navigate around
  • use relevant quality images
  • only have relevant links
  • can be easily found by customers
  • work as hard as you do in developing your business

So how can a business afford not to have an effective well managed online presence?   Especially when your competitors are increasing their business and profits by developing their own effective websites.

 

Roly Harrison -
RTBH Web Design Services - (extremely competitive rates for RTS members - just ask!)

 


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