Coffee culture comes to Tunstall

I’m one of the few people in the world who actually wanted a Starbucks to come to the local area because it seemed more of an insult not to have one than to have to suffer the decline into clone-town Britain. Now, of course, there’s one in Hanley, so I can get my sneaky fix without Tunstall or Burslem having to be so blighted.

But actually, coffee culture has now come to Tunstall in an even better way, with a new Clarice Cliff themed café/restaurant opening at the top of the High Street.

Clarice Cliff is, of course, Tunstall’s most famous daughter who became renowned for her art-deco ranges in the 1930s. Sometimes looked upon with a sadly typical Stoke sneer for her relationship with ‘the boss’, she was an extremely talented and single-minded designer who deserves a tribute in her home town. Rather than a museum, a restaurant seems somehow more fitting, where the pleasure of food, drink and good pottery can be enjoyed to the full.

As well as holding theme and charity nights, Clarice’s serves a full range of food and all-day breakfasts, also providing the weekend shopper with a place to go and enjoy a latte with a friend. Well worth checking out.

How ethical is your business?

“Kindness” might not be the first word you associate with successful business. Indeed, in the era of The Apprentice, you might think kindness is the last quality that will get you anywhere. But growing numbers of businesses are finding that thinking a little more responsibly has bought them unexpected rewards.

Social responsibility covers a number of different areas but essentially involves thinking about how your business, large or small, has an impact on everything around it. You don’t have care much about the environment to see the advantages of saving energy – with energy costs rising all the time, switching lights and computers off can save companies a small fortune.

And what about teambuilding? The idea of sending everyone on a teambuilding exercise may at least unite everybody in your business in hating the idea, but involve an adopted charity and you’ll find the thousands you could have spent on a consultant doing much more good. The Donna Louise Trust have been extremely successful in engaging local companies by offering decorating and gardening days in which businessmen can get away from the boardroom and reconnect over a genuinely valuable activity.

Fundraising, far more than memos, also has the power to unite teams, and payroll giving provides employers a way of supporting tax-efficient philanthropy amongst staff.

Even if you think you have nothing to offer a local charity, least of all money, some creative thinking can unlock the value within your company that can be of much greater help than the small cheque you hand over, begrudgingly. Can you give a local church some surplus but high quality stock to sell? Can you offer your time and skills? Local companies have made films free of charge that can be used for further fundraising and promotion of charities. In return, the charity may be able to create connections for you, helping to raise the profile of your business.

Try this exercise with someone else. List five ways your business could beome more ethical. Then with each of those five, list five ways you could implement the idea. As you go on, your ideas will become more creative. I tried this in a group talking about an organic supermarket, and before we knew it we had ideas for a number of other spin-off enterprises, promotion for the business and ways of involving the local community. It was impressive how much money we could have made and I nearly packed everything up to open my own in Burslem.

It also highlighted how many things the business-owner was already doing ethically that he may not have thought of as being part of a ‘corporate social responsibility’.
With consumers and jobseekers increasingly making decisions based on their trust in a business, it can only do your business good to promote everything you do to improve the world.

Ideas to improve your business’s social standing

• Contact the Business Brokers. They can discuss what you already do and find ways for you to get more involved painlessly in all sorts of community initiatives.

• Contact your favourite charity’s fundraiser with an offer to help somehow if they need it. They’re bound to think of something creative and it will give you a push to get round to doing something

• like the neighbour with the sugar, offer to help new businesses in your area in some way – if they’re successful they will give you business later

• Think about whether your spending choices are benefiting other local businesses, the community and the environment more widely

The Bizfizz effect in action: Tracey Mace

Gardening has opened up a new future for Bizfizz client Tracey Mace, who is now helping people’s gardens to blossom across the city.

Mother-of-three Tracey suffered from post-natal depression after the birth of her third child in 2000. She had ongoing problems with depression and although she trained as a nursery nurse, she was unable to cope with the work, suffering anxiety and stress and eventually leaving her job in May 2006.

Tracey went to Brighter Futures in Hanley – a drop in centre for people with mental health issues (there is also one in Burslem) where she met Melanie who became her support worker. Melanie took Tracey to meet Steve Gaunt from Jobcentre Plus - an incapacity benefits personal adviser. He was able to help Tracey sort out her incapacity benefit after she resigned and work through her options to help her get back to work. Tracey was then referred to Growthpoint, a gardening project for adults with mental health needs, and quickly discovered a love of gardening. She started working three hours a week and her manager suggested she might be good enough to start a business.

When she told him about the idea of a gardening business, Steve knew it was the sort of passion that Carolyn Powell, the Bizfizz coach, might be able to help nurture.
Working together Steve, Carolyn and Melanie were able to help Tracey go it alone with Garden Angels, a specialist gardening service that caters for vulnerable people such as the elderly and lone women.

Tracey said: “Because of what I’ve been through I know how people feel alone in their homes and I updated the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) check that I had from my nursery career. Most of my referrals are now coming through Growthpoint and I have seven clients already since starting the business in October. The Bizfizz panel was also a huge help, Carolyn gave me a huge sheet of ideas and I’m still working through them – when I’ve got time!”

The Jobcentre were able to advise Tracey about the work she could do to aid her rehabilitation and still remain on benefit. Tracey is on supported permitted work. This meant that she did not have to make the leap straight off benefit.
Tracey said “If I do just less than 16 hours per week and earn under £88.50 a week I can retain my benefit. That’s enough work for me to take on anyway. I’m not trying to grow a big business with employees, I just want to be able to earn some extra money and do something I enjoy”.

Tracey is completing a course in horticulture and has recently taken on an allotment in Stoke, which her children come and help with – her youngest daughter is a determined apprentice Garden Angel.

For somebody battling depression, the challenge of a new business has given Tracey new hope. “I didn’t want to go back to my old jobs and I now have discovered something I love doing. The business doesn’t make the depression go away but it is giving me a challenge that I’m really thriving on. I feel like I’ve got a future now.”

The Bizfizz effect in action: Rob Pointon

It's all very well being really good at something, but can you make money from it? Less than six months ago, Rob Pointon was just another talented artist wondering whether he’d ever make a living from his painting.

Now, with a string of commissions from local businesses, he has become one of the best showcases for the Mother Town’s new network of trade and art. He credits Carolyn Powell with giving him the belief that he could make it as an artist. “She came up to me while I was painting on the street in Burslem. You could tell she genuinely believed I could do something.”

Rob is confident in his own ability and hard working, but also modest and
unnassuming. He came to Burslem with no more desire than to paint, with no idea of the network of trade that bubbles behind a town that many have written off.
A spot at the Burslem Arts and Crafts Festival followed and now Rob’s paintings are frequently descibed in the Burslem Arts shop as ‘investments’ – high praise for such a young artist and two have already been snapped up. A show at Leek was a sell-out.

His unusual style of paintings often gives the effect of a fish-eye lens and people often assume, incorrectly, they are done from photographs. Rob is an expert on perspective and lectured in it before leaving art college in London. Like many before him, he found his talent was recognised, but that didn’t necessarily mean the money followed. As you’ll only discover from him website, Prince Charles has one of his paintings, but “he didn’t pay for it. It was a condition of the course I was on that he could have the painting free of charge if he wanted it.”

As an old fashioned painter with an obvious love for the scenes of Burslem, Rob is now working on paintings for several local shops, restaurants and businesses.
Beyond painting, he is able to turn his hand to illustrations, graphics and cartoons, all with very distinctive styles. The Bizfizz panel provided the starting point for Rob’s new business. Looking at his paintings and his series of cartoons for Stoke City’s programme, they brainstormed pages of ideas for revenue-raising.

Today, you’ll normally find him working away in some corner of Burslem, juggling a range of projects, from animations for Junction 15 in collaboration with Karen Sayle of Big Red Animation, a Christmas card for one of Staffordshire’s biggest businesses, a cartoon for Local Edition, logos for different companies and a series of commissions for Staffordshire Housing. All at once.

It means his exhibition planned for November in the School of Art has taken a new turn, when he will celebrate the network of businesses that have given him his first big break and turned him from an artist who was praised into one who could
create a real business.

He will not forget that it was the simple but convincing message from the Bizfizz coach that gave him the convidence to start his business.

“Carolyn was the first person who really had faith that I could be self-employed.”
Rob’s work can be seen in Local Edition, at www.robpointon.co.uk and at Burslem Arts, 7 Queen Street, Burslem.

A directory of Bizfizz clients has been produced for the 4 October event: call 525570 to enquire about availavility.

The Bizfizz effect

A WEALTH of new media brands, a recording studio, shops, a new pottery, art, flower and card shops, mechanics, gardeners and joiners, even flying machines... doesn’t exactly tally with the popular image of Burslem and Middleport, does it?

Many new local businesses, in one way or another, credit their existence to the Bizfizz project, which breaks down barriers to entrepreneurship. The project in Northern Stoke-on-Trent, started by the Civic Trust, has over 80 involved clients less than ten months into its first year. Clients include existing businesses and new enterprises. Whether it’s finding premises or providing motivational support, the Bizfizz coach Carolyn Powell and her panel of around 40 local people have made Burslem and Middleport buzz with new ideas and action.

Local Edition is just one of the projects that has been supported by Bizfizz and we bring you this special feature in preparation for a celebration event in October. If you want any more information on the event or on the project, just give Carolyn a call on 01782 525570.


How Bizfizz works:
the Local Panel

KEY to the local Bizfizz operation is a panel of 20-30 people who act as a network for the entrepreneurs, helping them unblock problems and providing key information and contacts.

It is not a management committee, but an advice and networking group. It consists of well-connected and experienced people from the community and the wider area who can make a practical contribution. Each panel member introduces the coach to ten additional contacts, thus helping the coach to widen their contact with potential entrepreneurs, and to gain an overview of local skills and resources available locally.

The panel includes local peoples with different backgrounds: community leaders and activists, head teachers, faith group leaders, councillors, local entrepreneurs and business people from the wider area, people with expertise in key areas such as IT, marketing, book-keeping, premises, bankers and other finance providers, people from regulatory authorities such as planning, environmental health and the Inland Revenue. What brings them together is a mutual passion for the area where they live and work.
The ability to unleash local expertise and resources is the main difference between Bizfizz and other business support. That’s why Panel members are asked to contribute not only in their professional role but using all their personal experience and knowledge. For example Local Panels are very helpful with finding premises, identifying waste materials that can be used by other businesses, and linking entrepreneurs with common interests.


How Bizfizz works:
the coach

HELPING people pursue their passion is the first step for Bizfizz. These are the hidden entrepreneurs who could be generating wealth for a community and removing the barriers that stand in their way is what Bizfizz is all about.

Bizfizz places a business advisor and counsellor in the heart of the community. We call them Bizfizz coaches since their role is not to do the legwork for local entrepreneurs, but to help people discover their own potential as entrepreneurs. The coach will usually be an experienced entrepreneur, with some experience of giving advice and support to businesses and a strong commitment to our approach. The coach gets to know the community thoroughly, through extensive personal introductions as well as visiting local clubs and pubs, societies, schools and faith groups to introduce them, and let everyone know that they are available to support local entrepreneurs.

We believe that every business needs an entrepreneur, someone who will drive the business forward. The coach’s job is not to sit on committees, or provide money, training or premises but simply to support entrepreneurs. The coach does this by helping people to follow their passions.

Nobody is good at everything. Some of us have no head for figures or flair for marketing. Bizfizz coaches encourage entrepreneurs to create a ‘virtual team’ of supporters to help them with those aspects of the business they feel less comfortable with. For example, if accountancy is a particular weak spot in an entrepreneur’s skill portfolio, an intensive training course may not be the best use of an entrepreneur’s time. Why not find a local professional who might be prepared to defer up front payment? Or a local mum who is taking evening classes in book-keeping whose fees might be lower? Or even agree to share financial risk by profit sharing rather than paying set fees?

Our coaches provide their services for free, but they are free in another sense. They are not constrained by having to ration the amount of time they give to the entrepreneurs or by notions of ‘professional distance’. Within reason, our coaches can do whatever it takes to help the entrepreneur succeed.
This is an edited

version of information from the national website at www.bizfizz.org.uk.
The Bizfizz programme is coordinated by the Civic Trust and the New Economics Foundation.

Get into the media!

If you have something really interesting to say, you’ve done something of interest or you have an area of expertise, then Local Edition – and other media outlets – will want to hear from you.

As Richard Swancott explains here, you can build a PR campaign with nothing more than some time.

THERE seem to be some pre-conceived notions of what PR actually is. Opinions vary from ‘spin doctoring’ – someone pulling the strings from the background – to schmoozing with editors in swanky restaurants, to organising booze-filled celebrity parties.
Sadly none of those are true, at least not in Stoke-on-Trent! Instead, PR is all about telling the people you exist, and creating a positive image of your company in their minds.

The big companies all have their own PR experts on hand, to make sure they are never out of the news. But there’s no reason it can’t work for a small business, or a start-up business, as well.

And here’s the best bit – you can do it yourself and it doesn’t have to cost anything. All you need to understand is who your market is, and which newspapers they are likely to read, which radio stations they listen to, and so on. Then you can put together a newsworthy story, and if you send it to the right person, you have a good chance of getting featured. The right person would be an editor, or a presenter – names and contact details are readily available on the web.

The difficult part is catching their eye. They get hundreds, if not thousands, of emails every day, so you have to grab their attention, and the only way you can do that is by putting together an interesting story.

You need to know what stories go into your target publication, or onto your target radio show. It could be something like an event you’ve organised, or a big contract you’ve secured, or some money you’ve raised for charity.
One thing you have to do is dedicate some time to it. If you are prepared to research your targets, think about newsworthy stories, and write press releases, this could really work for you.

• If you need some helpful advice on how to get publicity for your business, contact Richard Swancott at MarketCare Public Relations on 01782 416371, or 07880 733138. You can also contact me via email at richardswancott@marketcare.net.
• Local Edition offers basic PR services inclusive to sponsorship. More information.

So, you want to be an internet millionnaire?

A few prospective clients have started with this motivation, and unless they work hard and work smart to get it they will be disappointed. To make the web work takes a lot of effort, dedication and commitment. However, if you tackle your online business in the same way as any business, you have the chance to make a mint.

The starting point would be to do your research. If you’re selling something, make sure you know who else is selling it and how, what their unique selling points are, their prices, their market – does this sound familiar?

It is! You’d do the same for any business and the fundamentals still apply. Research, research, research until you have a set of products, and know their unique selling points to market them.

Pricing is important. If your item is in a quality/unique market then you can charge a bit more, but if it’s competitive what’s your value add on the product? What will make people choose you and not the other guys? You need to get into the minds of your customers, your market. It’s easier said than done but it’s crucial to your presence online and offline. If you haven’t got a name then now’s the time to get it.
So you have your products at the right price, your unique selling points, your message, a logo even – an identity. Then you need to build an internet strategy. The e-commerce web site is one part of this – the tool to sell and deposit the cash into your account.

But how do you get people to know about you and your website? PR, search engine positioning (SEO), Pay per click (PPC), email marketing – they are all good ideas, but why should you use them? You need a strategy to tie it together, so they are all moving with the same message at the same time.

Some web companies can help to draw this information into a plan for the future, and then work with you through the plan and ensure you can monitor the growth of your online business. We have been working with one client continuously for 12 months, and they have grown from nothing to thousands of pounds worth of sales. This has come from a small team that has now doubled in size.

They have achieved this because they have done their research, they have secured funding and capital, and utilized this through constant development of their online business. And they have also built a team of great partners, that can react and be proactive to develop and support the growth of the business, and have worked incredibly hard to achieve this. This has not come without cost but if you look at everything on price then you’ll often get cheap advice.

Thankfully in Stoke our business overheads are lower than many other parts of the country, to some degree thanks to the business support available in this area, and still to some degree lower cost of living than the south. Also, Stoke has some pretty smart creative workers, who are doing well in the new media world. So if you have a great idea that you really are committed to building, you have the connections in your locality to make a difference.

Jellifish won Best Agent Website of the Year at Carphone Warehouse’s annual awards. For further details or to discuss web development contact Amanda Bromley or Angela Hassall at info@jellifish.co.uk or 0870 6260023


GETTING ONLINE: Some of the business websites making a splash from the local area

Burslem Antiques – fully searchable and very comprehensive, it has a clear purpose and encourages further interaction through an email
collectors’ club

Vinila - a really stunning website out of Queen Street, Burslem, that nails its target audience and takes them straight to their credit card. Your editor is fighting to resist.


Tunstall Garden Buildings get special credit for being the only retail site that comes up if you type ‘Tunstall’ into Google. It also does very well on a search for ‘sheds stoke’, the sort of vague language with which online browsers expect to find you. Another clear, well designed site.

Junction 15 - If you’re going to
be down with the kids and make videos for them, you need to be on Myspace. Your editor despises this messy corner of cyberspace but she can see why Junction 15 are there, showcasing all their cool videos and picking up more work in the process.

Business Q&A

Carolyn Powell, the Bizfizz coach for Burslem and Middleport, answered our (frantic) start-up questions


What is the biggest mistake people make when starting a business?
There are probably two main areas of concern when people are starting a new business, the first one is whether they have researched the market sufficiently to establish why people will use their business – is there anything similar out there? – how is their product/service different to what already exists?

Any business must have a product or service which is tangibly different to what’s already on offer, otherwise they will struggle. There is a well worn expression which sums this up ‘There may be a gap in the market, but is there a market in the gap?’
The second area is when there are not sufficient funds put aside for marketing. There have been many very good businesses/products where all the money in setting up has gone on premises, equipment and stock and there is nothing left for marketing.
Without this crucial expense the business will struggle in the early days, this in turn causes cash flow problems and before the business has got going it’s already in difficulties.

There are many things which would-be entrepreneurs believe that they need, which in fact they can do without, or make do until the money starts coming in, it can of course depend on what type of business they are in, but largely this tends to be true of many.


How can I test my business idea?
Research, research, research... Going into business, in whatever field, you must research the market. With the benefit of the internet this has become much easier than it used to be – look at the competition: What are they doing? How are they doing it? What are they charging? How are they perceived by their customers? How do they market their business? What is their unique selling point? How will yours be different to theirs? What specific skills do they have?
You have to try to be objective in your outlook, this is not always easy, however with time and support this can be done.

Help! I’m drowning in paperwork and don’t know what to do! Nobody mentioned this when they said you should follow your dreams. What can I do?
Drowning in paperwork is a common difficulty for new businesses, much of it is getting into good habits from the very start, expressly making time for the tasks so that they do not build up and become overwhelming.
There are excellent support services out there particularly to help people with these issues – Voluntary Action in Hanley (Tel. 683030) will give good initial advice.

Bizfizz column

Carolyn Powell introduces a new column designed to spread information to everybody interested in the local area and business.

FOLLOWING the hugely successful ‘Meet the Entrepreneurs’ event at The George Hotel on 4th October, many of the Bizfizz clients have been very busy with the new contacts and networks they made that evening.

I had hoped that this would be the outcome of the evening, however it even surpassed my expectations and brought about an awareness of the amazing things happening in Burslem to lots of people, many of whom might have merely seen the empty buildings and not been fully aware of what the real picture is.

This new regular column in Local Edition is hopefully going to be a way of spreading information which I gather as a by-product of the Bizfizz business coaching in the area. Sometimes my clients have vacant premises, job vacancies, new and exciting ideas that they want to share and information which is of community interest. I hope to share this information with you through Local Edition.

Whilst there are many empty buildings around the area, many have rental values which are beyond the reach of start-up business. I have some clients with varying sized empty premises from a tiny part retail/ part office space of around 500 square feet, another first floor office, to a super building with two offices, a reception area and a workshop of around 2000 square feet close to Burslem Town centre. These different premises are being offered to start-up businesses at really affordable rents because their owners feel they wish to help get the regeneration process moving. If anyone is interested in further information about premises, just give me a ring.

One of the issues that concerns me deeply is that there are some members of our local community who have simply given up on any hope of achieving anything, and have, over time, lost confidence and the belief that for them, life can be anything but a rut of poverty and unemployment and definitely no future. This understandable and serious spiral of discontent may seem to be a fact of life; however, there is something about to happen that may be a first step to giving hope to those who thought they had none.
Funding is being sought by a small group of people, including me, who hope to offer a chance for local people to access anything they may need to change their situation; for example it could be something to help with confidence building, learning a basic skill, help with form filling through to getting an educational qualification.

What we need to know is – what could be offered that would really make a difference to your future prospects?

What dreams have you given up on – what would have to happen to make them real?

If you could do anything – what would it be?

Please let me know your answers and give me the chance to help develop a project that can really make a difference.