2012 - A Year of Establishing Ourselves

Tad Web Solutions Ltd started trading on 1st November 2011 so as we hit New Year's Day in 2012 we had only been going for 2 months and very few people had heard of us. Starting up a company in a very competitive market was either brave or foolish but we're still here so maybe I'm a lucky brave fool! The aim for 2012 has been to establish the business whilst making sufficient money to pay the bills. The key to this has been providing what our customers want with a big dollop of good old-fashioned customer service. I think many in our industry forget that whilst we are teccy businesses we are also a service industry and being technically great, which we are, is only half the battle.

January was a little strange with the year starting with an attack on one of servers which took a day or so to sort out but meant the year got of to a dreadful start. But all was fixed and that problem did not rear its ugly head again that year though there were a couple of days when the data centre in Manchester that houses our server had problems meaning a couple of half days off. This year we're looking at options for relocating our servers to the North East with another company looking after the physical management.

February saw us having the services of two French students from the University of Teesside with both working on separate side projects of ours with mixed results. One of our students did a good job, worked hard and was great, even if the side project is not progressing. The other was a bit of a waste of time and resources but we'll put that down to experience.

March saw the start of a more concerted effort to get involved in networking events to get the business known started with the Middlesbrough Breakfast Exchange at La Pharmacie which has developed a few contacts for us over the year. On a personal note the month also saw my son captain Middlesbrough RUFC under-16s in a Yorkshire Cup semi-final victory in a fantastic game of rugby against Otley on a bog of a pitch - the very pitch where the North of England beat the All Blacks. Proud rugby dad recollection number 1.

April saw a very brief return to lecturing as a (paid) favour to a friend who was stuck for someone to deliver some thermodynamics lectures (yes in a previous incarnation I was an engineering lecturer and I have an honours B.Sc. in Physics). Proud rugby dad recollection number 2. The month started with Matty captaining Middlesbrough U-16s in their 4th Yorkshire Cup final in 4 seasons. Unfortunately with 2 England players unavailable they lost to a great York side in a thrilling game but in 4 years of junior rugby, 3 Yorkshire Cups and one runners-up is a great return. Strangely this was my proudest moment as a rugby dad as the way Matty and the whole team conducted themselves after a heartbreaking defeat was exemplary and shows what a great game ruby is off the field as well as on it. A good post match was had with the brilliant folks from York RUFC who were deserved and gracious winners - and we had a fantastic post match party in Picton which was really the end of an era as the team has broken up for a variety of reasons including a big number of players going onto bigger and better things. Some of them really could be stars of the future and I will always look out for them at a much higher level.

May saw us creating a few Wordpress sites as we switched to using this as a CMS for new sites where there was nothing "unusual" required. The beauty of Wordpress is that it is open source, easy to use and so many web agencies know how it works so it has portability unlike a bespoke CMS. Sometimes clients need more than an off-the-shelf package and it is enjoyable creating something from scratch. May also saw the end of my briefly resurrected teaching career as the academic year came to an end. I was offered a permanent contract but that would have made it rather difficult to run the business.

June started with a trip to Strasbourg, pleasure not work, including the 3rd and deciding cricket match in a 10 year series between our old ICI cricket team and the Strasbourg Strollers. With one eye not really working and not having played for a number of years, I opened the batting with little hope. Unfortunately we lost and modesty prevents me from saying who top scored in the match (ahem!) but a great game and fantastic hospitality by our hosts saw us finishing the game fielding in the rain rather drunk whilst being filmed by local French TV. June also saw the departure of our French interns.

July saw us meeting with people from Redcar & Cleveland Council to begin discussions about moving to the Palace Hub when it is completed. We also had Cameron from Macmillan College in for a week's work experience and he was great, we will be happy to have other school students in next year on the same basis. The month also saw our first contact with Russ and Craig from BNI which has led us to join as part of the core group for Redcar and East Cleveland and we believe this will play a big role in the growth of the business.

August would normally include a holiday but as my wife had recently changed jobs she didn't have any holidays due, so a couple of cheeky days off were had to match her days off and we did a few walks on the North Yorks Moors and Upper Teesdale. The month also sadly saw the loss of a great bloke, Keith, who I had got to know through my son's rugby and he is still sadly missed by all.

In September we verbally agreed terms for a move to the Palace Hub with a December moving in date. We also got involved with Redcar Council's scheme for 'critical friend' support between creative industries in the area where we got paid to help another creative look at their business. It was also the first Bounce event at the Riverside Stadium where regional businesses got together to share the good news about how well the North East economy is doing, to build networks and to help each other. I'm looking forward to the next  one. Proud rugby dad recollection number 3. Matt started playing in the front row for Middlesbrough RUFC Colts (U-19s) when his age group should have been U-17s. Some great moments, particularly when a very young Boro front row tipped their much older and massively bigger opponents over the top of the back row to take a scrum against the head and set up a try. Matt also made the North Yorkshire U-17 squad.

October saw Steve joining us as Web Developer and making a great contribution to the company. The month also saw us pitching at a large law firm for a mobile web contract. The pitch went pretty well but we didn't get the contract, losing out to another company with what was in our opinion a very misleading quote on time-scales. Still we'll stick to our guns of being honest with potential clients even if we lose the occasional contract as a result...

... and honesty pays as we got a contract for a mobile site for the same value anyway.

The penultimate month of the year saw a lot of mobile work as we developed OUCH! and also a mobile version of Future Roofs. This is a growing area of the business and a key area for other businesses to have a mobile web presence. We also did some work for one of our neighbours down the corridor in Wilton Centre, now that does make it easy when you need to have a meeting with your client! November also saw our BNI core group starting to grow and we are expecting a launch around Easter.

And so to December. We attended the Tees Valley Skills event in the concourse of the Riverside in sub-zero temperatures all day, not an enjoyable day. We also delivered a day at a school in Shildon as part of the Get Creative project which was hard work but a good day. We launched our new website and the OUCH site. We got a loan from UK Steel Enterprise - for furniture and equipment when we move, which has been postponed to February as the building is not finished.

Obviously throughout the year we did a lot of work on new and existing websites, graphic design, e-marketing, networking and more. We survived, took on new staff (and another one coming in January) and established ourselves. We made a lot of new friends along the way and continued to work with a lot of long-time friends - to all of you thank you for making it an interesting and enjoyable year.

After a few days off over the festive season I've recharged the batteries, which has been great but now I'm raring to go and feel the need to be working again, so off we go. Tomorrow I'll post on what I thinks will be the key issues in the New Year but in the meantime I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve.

It's Christmas

Yes it is, to quote the words of the great philosopher Noddy Holder.

Had a busy week which has been a little disrupted by socialising but much busier than usual for this time of year - which is a great thing. A large part of the week has been getting the Ouch! website up and running. This is primarily made for smartphones on m.callouch.co.uk with the main domain as a back up.

I'm not totally happy with the design of a few of the mobile pages and we'll redesign those at the start of Jan.

The week also saw a few meetings to sort out funding and training for Peter who should be starting with us as a Social Digital Apprentice and will be working on our social media and e-marketing strategies and who, we believe, will make a big positive impact on our business.

We also had a photographer in from our local newspaper, The Evening Gazette, as we are shortlisted in their Business Accelerator competition which is part of a national competition - so look out for me and Steve gurning into a camera if you live in the Tees Valley.

Last night I was out for a curry with a bunch of ex-colleagues, and good friends, from my days at Longlands College which used to be THE engineering college in the region. Great night with great people and something we don't do often enough.

I'm off now to do my husbandly duties and visit the in-laws, lucky me.

Have a great Xmas dear readers and I may even find time to do a tedious "review of the year" in my next post.

Really Busy, Really Short Post, Nearly Xmas

Very busy week so a really short post.

Lots of work done, weekend working again, great day with some fantastic young people at Sunnydale Community College in Shildon on Thursday and a great day of corporate hospitality from the Agile Group watching a Boro victory at the Riverside on Saturday.

Another busy week coming up, want to get all the key jobs finished for a few days off over Xmas.

Off now, back next weekend.

Another Weekend Working

Great to be really busy but I'm really looking forward to a few days off with Mrs E and Matty over Xmas, even if our Xmas day will be 27th Dec as Mrs E is working Xmas Day and Boxing Day, as will many other people in the caring industries. So the Bank Holidays will be work days for me and I'll match up my days off with Mrs E and really enjoy those days.

So another quick review of what we've been up to. Last week amidst the usually stuff of adding to websites, new websites, SEO, etc. there were a few extra things.

We launched the new design of our own site - still a few tweaks to do but it's somewhere near. There's always something that could be improved but it's OK at the moment and we'll update it with some new icon sets and content over the coming weeks. A big thanks to Steve who has done this whilst I've been on with other projects.

Tuesday saw me "do my bit" for the Redcar & Cleveland Council website being videoed for the Hub section of their website, It was done by Vicky who I used to teach BTEC Engineering to around 25 years ago - small world.

Thursday we had a stand at the Tees Valley Skills event -- unfortunately after our experience of sub-zero temperatures all day in the Riverside concourse, this is an event we have no intention of repeating. Very disappointed with the way it was organised, hopefully they will review this and if there is another one it will be better for those involved. It was supposed to continue until 6pm (I'd been there since 07:15 setting up) but the organiser's had no choice but to shut early as we were all voting with our feet and leaving from around 2pm due to losing all feeling in our extremities.

The main thing I've been working on is a mobile website for injury claims. I'm well chuffed with it and hopefully if all is agreed it will launch this week.

Busy, Busy, Busy and Planning to be Busier

Loads of work done and still to do on an exciting mobile web project we're working on - all will be revealed pre-Xmas but we're really pleased with the way it's going. Steve's been finishing off our own redesign for our main site which we'll launch next week, we've decided to redo some icon sets we use but we'll launch it and make a few tweaks after. The official launch was planned to coincide with our move to the Hub on 10 Dec but as that's now mid-Feb so we'll get it on-line anyway.

Steve's also been doing some work on the site we're setting up for the Tees Valley Skills event at The Riverside on Thurs 6th Dec - we're having a bit of interactivity to allow the young people attending to put a stylish CV on-line. Due to the time each person will have with us, there are limited design options but what we've set up will allow each person to personalise their 4 page mini site with images and text and we'll leave these on-line so they can point prospective employers to them.

I've done a bit as well this week including a number of meetings which potentially could lead to big increases in our work. We've had a provisional meeting to plan a collaborative bid with a couple of other Tees Valley companies for some future prestigious work, early stages yet but exciting stuff. We also had a trip to Tyneside to discuss providing a regular service for a company there, who also have an outpost on Teesside, for creating plug-ins for their web based software packages which are used by some very prestigious clients across the globe - again very early days but we're really excited at the prospect of working with them. Last and by no means least is our participation in the BNI core group for East Cleveland. We got a good number of guests along this week and it seems like there'll be a significant jump in numbers in the next couple of weeks. This means there is a group of great businesses we'll be finding referrals for to help them increase turnover and we know that they'll all be doing the same for us. We believe we'll make a significant difference to small and medium businesses in our area and help grow the local economy - if you'd like to be involved then get in touch.

The last week also saw us make time in a busy week to fit in some express design and print of business cards for Agriplus Ltd of Stokesley who wanted new cards designing for an event they have on today (Sat 1 Dec). We created a few draft designs, tweaked one of them for final design, got it all agreed, printed and delivered to them in a couple of days and they seem happy with the results.

You can't beat old-fashioned quality customer service and we do endeavour to consistently deliver that. In a very competitive market we believe it's one of the things that really does make us "a tad better than the competition".

Data Centres, Don't You Just Love 'Em (Er, No)

A short blog for this week as I have to work all weekend to catch up after yesterday's disaster.

So, first things first, a BIG APOLOGY to anyone who has a site hosted by us for the downtime yesterday. We have our own dedicated servers but they're not shoved in the back of our office but are located in a data centre in Manchester in NW England (we're in NE England) and the physical management is covered by 34sp.com who we pay for that service whilst we control the software remotely.

Well yesterday a little after noon UK time we got a call from a client saying their website was down. So we checked it out or in reality didn't as we couldn't get on the server nor on our own site which is located on a server in that data centre. Checking on the 34sp status page (http://status.34sp.com/) at that time was impossible as their site was down also and their phone lines were permanently engaged. A short while later their site was back online with their status page telling us that there was a fibre break - the detail is still on the status page.

Later we found out that the problem was a failed management card in the data centre and there was no replacement available. Then when one was delivered it was the wrong one but eventually a full service was resolved some 11 hours later. Hopefully Messrs. Laurel & Hardy have been sacked and 34sp.com have replaced them with some decent technical staff. They also didn't do themselves any favours by their lack of updates online via their status page and twitter feed with their tweets only appearing when some of their clients, myself included, were making many public tweets about their poor customer service and the fact that their competitors were picking this up and contacting us.

Obviously a large part of our day was taken up with dealing with our clients who were understandably concerned re the lack of website and/or email. Luckily we have a pretty understanding bunch of clients who trust us but it's not helped when events beyond our control cause problems and then our providers seem to be telling porkies or didn't understand the problem - we shall see if any compensation is forthcoming (I'm not holding my breath) but if they provide us with a month's free server management we will pass this on to our clients with a month's free hosting - though not to those who weren't affected I should point out, i.e. some e-commerce sites whose servers were not affected.

Where there are problems with individual domains (e.g. where the owner has forgotten to renew) we will contact the owners. If there are more general issues such as server moves or server maintenance then we normally post a message on our site plus an email out to all clients. In such instances we will also post on our Twitter account http://twitter.com/IanE1111 which will also provide a source of information when we have no other avenue, like yesterday - so please make a note of that. Why not follow us on Twitter anyway and read even more of my nonsense?

Websites for Mobile Devices

The mobile web is a growing market sector and any company who do not have a mobile enabled version of their website are missing out on good and ever increasing numbers of potential clients. An Ofcom report of March this year showed that around 12% of all website visits come from mobile browsers and this is a big increase on the previous year, a fact that fits the statistics we get from Analytics reports from our own and clients' websites. Around 40% of all adults use their mobile phone to browse the Internet some of the time and this figure rises to over 70% for 16-25 age group.

So what are the key points to consider?

• Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod) currently have by far the biggest share of the mobile web market
• If you have any Flash on your site these devices do not show it (without a bit of jiggery-pokery)
• Mobile screens are generally smaller so a mobile enabled website should take this into account
• Mobile users do not generally want pages and pages of content but a simple site with key information
• Mobile phones allow people to ring direct from your website with a simple click if coded correctly

How is a mobile website constructed? There area few options:

1. Responsive design, where a website stylesheet will respond to the device and/or screen size to serve a version of the site that fits the device screen and may even hide some content for mobile devices like tadwebsolutions.co.uk
2. A completely different version of the site served on a special domain such as tadweb.mobi
3. A completely different version that is automatically served to mobile devices on a subdomain such as m.futureroofs.co.uk

The latter solutions is our preferred option and this week we have created the mobile version of the website of a flat roofing company in South Yorkshire, Future Roofs. There main website looks like this:

This now redirects to a mobile version of the site based upon screen size and or mobile device type to serve the website at m.futureroofs.co.uk.

A nice clean and simple version maintaining branding with a simple click to call action button.

We're also working on a much bigger mobile project which took up a lot of time last week, but is not yet in the public domain (and won't be for a few weeks), and this includes animation and will work in an app-like manner on all devices.

So what are you waiting for? Contact Tad Web Solutions for a great mobile website.

The Boro Feel Good Factor

Middlesbrough Football Club have certainly created a feel good factor across Teesside this week. A number of commentators suggest that the Olympic feel good factor is good for business in the UK and hopefully our very own Teesside version from Friday's football match v Sheff Wed will have the same effect. A big thank you needs to go to Steve Gibson and all at MFC for Friday night's great event.

Let me be clear, football is not my favourite sport, it comes below rugby union, cricket and rugby league in my list of sports to watch BUT in terms of the Tees Valley and it's profile as a region the ONLY sporting club known by many outside of the region is Middlesbrough Football Club. Therefore MFC is very important to all of us working and running businesses here.

Having said footy's not my favourite, I was brought up as a Boro fan. My Dad was big footy fan, played at a reasonable level and even played for the RAF in a 1-1 draw with an England team. He, like me, was Boro born and bred. He watched legends such as Mannion and Clough before I was born. He took me to my first match at Ayresome Park, a 2-2 draw against Sunderland in 1971 when I was 7 years old. Up to that point I was a fan of Dirty Leeds who were the top side in the country at a time when footy on TV was very limited. I was hooked (we were sat behind the goal in the East Stand and if he hadn't used his foot to block a Hickton shot that was destined for my face I might not have been).

Some great times followed, Jack Charlton's promotion team as a kid, as I got older and with most of my mates being footy fans there were great booze and footy trips away (Jamie Pollock's winner at Roker Park being a particular favourite), Juninho et al playing some sublime football, amazing Uefa Cup comebacks and more.

Once my son was old enough I switched from going with my mates and had a season ticket with my son, thus forcing him to change his very young allegiance from a TV Man Utd team to the Boro in the flesh and thus condemning him to a life of pessimism.

And then it all went wrong. I don't hate Gordon Strachan - I find him funny and the way he left Boro without compensation shows him to be a decent and honourable man - but I think he almost killed the club. It reached a point where I didn't even bother looking for the score on a weekend never mind not bothering with attending a match or even Ali's commentary on local radio.

Now that's changed. Mogga's in charge, local youngsters are playing and the players who aren't local have bought into what Teesside is about. Friend, Haroun and even the Mackem Leadbitter are all adopted Teessiders, one of us, following in the footsteps of adopted greats like Juninho and Mendi. It's a local club again and matters immensely.

Friday saw the club listen to the fans, the hard times we're having, and reduce prices for a match we could all watch on TV. There was a buzz on Teesside throughout the run up to the game, tickets started selling, people who haven't been for years came back, people brought their mates - it was like the Olympic buzz but for our own team and our own area. And what a performance, the team were fantastic, pride, passion, team spirit and skill - what a night.

Everyone is talking about it, local pride and belief in the club, the players and ourselves  and our region plus a great showing on TV to the nation. The start of something great on and off the pitch? I hope and believe so (though I won't be at the next home match as it's England v Springboks on TV, I did say rugby union is my favourite sport and it is England). I'm still a part-timer but I've now been to 5 home games this season which is the most for many years.

A massive thanks to Steve Gibson, the players and all at the club - I spent many years at Ayresome singing "We Shall Overcome" and I really think we will - as the club will play a big part, along with SSI re-opening the steelworks, in the rebirth of Teesside.

Not the Most Productive Week

Partly my fault and partly circumstances but last week wasn't the most productive with the best part of two days midweek taken out of my schedule with another cheeky day off, this time walking on the North Yorks Moors, and a doctor's visit including a bit of minor surgery (nowt worrying or too scary but takes time). The sneaky days of walking, which are in reality a delayed "summer" holiday, are now done until over Xmas when, weather permitting, I'll be out again.

So the week was mainly finishing off some work including a website news section and some artwork plus following a few sales leads and doing some networking. All of that was productive with some new work confirmed and artwork complete plus some new sales leads from the networking and new people met but not much done in the way of creating new websites.

The coming week will see some graphic design being completed, a mobile website done and taking part in the Start Up Britain Bus Tour as a "successful entrepreneur" to help advise young people who are thinking of setting up in business - never really thought of myself in those terms before but I suppose I am.

Monday will be mainly written off with a hospital appointment - doctors and hospital within a few days - sure sign I'm getting old (time for the knackers yard).

The Lakes at Last

Due to Jane starting a new job we didn't get a summer hol so I missed out out on an annual walking trip to the Lake District and had not been there since 2011 - and it is my favourite place on Earth. So when Jane suggested that on her day off on Thursday we should go to the Keswick, dump the car, bus up to Honister and walk back to Keswick there was only one thing to do! Schedule rearranged, up early and off we went. We arrived in glorious sunshine and, although it got colder and duller around lunchtiime, we had a great day of walking, there's even talk of a repeat event on Tuesday taking in Haystacks, weather permitting. Now Steve has joined us it makes this possible as the office is covered - day off midweek and catch up at the weekend.

The other highlight of the week was lunch with David Laud of i2i Business Solutions at Capaldis in Middlesbrough. Always great to meet up with David who played in big part in giving me the confidence to set up Tad Web Solutions and planning how we would grow. Capaldis is a great venue and there was a real free lunch (thanks David) and hopefully we will be able to work together on some ideas in the near future.

I did some "proper work" as well - including a new news blog for Henrietta Hire who provide classic wedding cars and chauffeurs in South Wales and some extra pages and SEO work for Aileen Coupe, a counsellor in Loughborough.

I also had a trip out with Matt for his MRI scan on his knee, all done with no fuss - unfortunately we still have no idea when he gets to see the consultant to find out the results. He'll be to old to play rugby again by the time we find out he's fit enough to play.

Lost Contracts and New Opportunities

Well last week we were informed we didn't get a key contract we pitched for which is a real disappointment as we were quite hopeful and looking forward to working with the company. I hope their chosen supplier does a great job for them and they've kindly provided some feedback which will help us with future pitches.

Still as one door closes others open and the experience is leading to a bit of a rethink on our marketing plans over the next year. We've had some business support from Jenny from Rainbow's End fully funded by Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council's Creative Industries project which has helped greatly in distilling out what we do really well, what distinguishes us from our competition, the messages we need to get out to potential clients and areas to focus on over the coming months.

This coming Tuesday sees David Laud of i2i Business Solutions kindly giving up his lunchtime for a business meeting with me. David has a lot to answer for as he is the person who I engaged to look at developing my part-time web design business into something better - leading me to set up a limited company in a recession and work longer hours and earn less than I did as an employee of others before! I love every minute of it and David's advice was excellent, hopefully he can help me take things further forward as we continue to grow our influence and staff.

On Friday I met up with Martin of World Insight Media of Saltburn. Whilst we have an overlap in the services we provide, we also have some separate skills that we could provide for each other as an enhanced service to our customers. Martin struck me as very likeable and ethical guy and we are exploring how we can help each other.

Last week saw us adding cookie compliance code for a client and adding an opening times management system to the website of The Pottery Loft, an arts & crafts centre and cafe in Billingham (and a great place to take the kids for a fun session).

We also completed our Small Business Solutions website - we are aiming to simplify working your way around our services and the Small Business Solutions site has a series of packaged options for purchase to provide the ideal solution for a new or micro business launching on the web, including e-commerce and e-marketing packages. We're also open to tweaking these to the needs of any new business so contact me if you don't see what you want - we're only too happy to help or pass you on to someone who can if we don't provide the service you require.

We also had another meeting to set up a business referrals network in Redcar and East Cleveland which was the biggest yet (even had to move to a bigger room) and had a couple of businesses keen to be involved more long term which is great - things are really moving forward with some great people and dynamic businesses. We also seem to have sorted out all the issues re funding a new apprentice and have interviews on Tuesday morning for a new Social Digital Apprentice via Middlesbrough College's partnership with the Digital Youth Academy.

The rest of the week saw a morning of sitting around in James Cook Uni Hospital for people to poke around with Matty's knee - we're not really any the wiser but at least he's walking around now and we're booked in for an MRI scan (or a sit in a hospital for hours) on Wednesday evening. My back and neck is still knackered so painkillers and no booze for over a week now :(

The Walking Wounded

With Matty having knackered knee ligaments and on crutches and me having something wrong with neck shoulder and arm (suspected trapped nerve), we're like a doctor's waiting room - so any GPs who are after a website for their practise should get in touch.

In between moaning like an old aching man, I had 5 visits to potential customers last week plus a couple of telephone enquiries to follow up. There hasn't been a single "no" yet but there are still 2 answers to come in and both of these are projects we'd very much like to be involved in. So fingers crossed for both of those and we may have the result by the end of next week. Still plenty of work in the pipeline to be cracking on with.

Last week saw a few website updates, a few Adwords accounts researched and set up, some SEO work, adding Google +1s for clients, a new microsite for Anglia Landscaping concentrating on Cambridge Landscaping, and a chunk of networking along with writing quotes.

We also had a meeting with Carl from Middlesbrough College to progress us employing a Social Digital Apprentice. Middlesbrough College is the only college in the area who provide this kind of apprentice in conjunction with the Digital Youth Academy. We've got a few issues with funding mainly due to a cock-up by Redcar Council's Routes to Employment people earlier in the year but there may be alternatives we are exploring this week. It will be a great opportunity for some young person as our plans are to make this post long term and also good to have a new person help drive us forward.

Next week involves the excitement of spending hours at the trauma clinic with Matt on Wednesday morning - better take some reading material.

Not the weekend I expected

Well today's plan was watching Matt play rugby for North Yorkshire v South Yorkshire in York but due to a ligament injury at training on Thursday he's hardly walking never mind smashing into people. Real pity and hope he's walking and playing again soon. So got out for a walk on The North Yorks Moors this morning instead.

The week has seen a lot of SEO analysis for a group of clients we manage with ideas for boosting visitors and conversions to sales. As part of this we have added some jquery animation and action buttons to a range of websites we have for Henrietta Hire, a wedding car company in South Wales.

The week has seen a couple of new clients come on board for new websites plus a good number of new sales leads including a very prestigious potential client we hope to be helping - we'll know more on that next week. Tuesday sees our new Web Developer, Steve, starting with us and we're glad to have him on board as things are getting busy.

We're also looking to start a Social Digital Apprentice, ideally from the Redcar & Cleveland area, and have a meeting with Middlesbrough College to explore this further. The role will involve e-marketing along with some face-to-face and telephone follow up calls. So if you are interested, or know someone who is, contact us via our website.

Last Wednesday we had a great networking meeting, with a lot of help from Russ Sawdon and Craig Moore of BNI, as we try to get a referrals networking group going in Redcar & East Cleveland. A few referrals are already passing round at this early stage and we had a few visitors along, some of whom seem interested in getting more involved.

The weeks "big event" was taking part in a photo shoot for Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council's press release for the Palace Hub, the new creative industries centre that we will be moving into when it opens in December. So look out for details in the local press with a photo of me along with Dee from Purple Tree Creative Productions (radio advertising) and some councillors - ever the self publicist!

Unexpectedly Busy Weekend

I got an email on Wednesday asking if I would write an assignment and exam on Internet Security for NCC Education, who I do some examining work for, with a deadline of Friday 5th October. With a busy week last week and another busy next week that meant a planned Saturday exam writing and a couple of evenings to polish off the assignment and Sunday set aside for watching Matt play for Middlesbrough Colts down at Moortown.

As luck would have it Moortown cried off and Matt is playing, by agreement, a year down for the under-16s rather than 2 years up for the under-19s, this time at home at 3pm. So exam done on Saturday, assignment done on Sunday, freeing up some time during the week - handy as tomorrow is an early finish to go with Matt to North Yorkshire training.

The week saw us working on a new design for a new website for an existing customer plus finishing off a local plumbers website, adding cookie compliance code to a customer's site, changing some old Flash animation to a jquery version so it works on iOS devices, creating some new jquery animations for another client and some graphic design work for another existing client.

There was a fair bit of networking as I attended the Grow Your Own Talent event at Redcar College, which gave details of the support available for employing staff, and Middlesbrough Breakfast Exchange where I met a few new people and hope to develop business relationships with them.

On the employment front, our apprentice has left and we wish Chloe well for whatever career path she aims for. We have re-advertised the position and we are also planning to employee our web developer work triallist Steve and that should be formally sorted in a week or so.

A busy week coming up with the usual work, some networking, a great publicity opportunity (look out for news on the Hub, Redcar in the local media over the next few weeks) plus Matt hopefully playing for North Yorkshire next weekend. May even find time to go to the Boro footy match on Wednesday.

Meetings, Tours, Websites and More

On the website front our two main jobs were the completion of a website for a local builders in Cleveland and creating a mobile version of a London tree surgeon's website.

Meetings have been many and varied. Wednesday saw a get together of a small group of businesses at Wilton Centre aiming to launch a BNI chapter in the near future in Redcar & East Cleveland. There is now a small core signed up, largely thanks to the help of Russ & Craig from BNI, and things are now starting to push forward with a decent amount of business already passed between us even though we haven't started yet! I've got big hopes for this as a springboard to push forward all the businesses involved once we launch.

Thursday saw us getting some free business coaching from Jenny Evans of Rainbows End Coaching due to funding from Redcar & Cleveland Council. It's always good to have someone taking an external look at the business and after a couple of hours with Jenny we've got a few things to get on with and a clearer view of how to get to the next level. I'll be meeting up with Jenny again in a couple of weeks to take a further look at progress, it's been really useful.

On Friday I had a meeting with a representative of the Shaw Trust who organised a placement with us for Steve Walker as a Web Developer. Steve's been with us so far for 4 weeks working 2 days per week and doing a great job. We've got a few loose ends to tie up, but from the meeting we aim to employ Steve, initially on a part-time contract and, when our growth plans become successful, as a full-time Web Developer. Thankfully Steve already knows this as I know he reads the blog - wouldn't be the most direct form of communicating the news!

On Tuesday we had a tour of the full seafront development at Redcar. We've already had a tour of the Palace Hub, where we plan to move to in December, but not the other bits of the seafront. Whilst it's not complete yet it looks brilliant, I absolutely loved the seating area created to match the scars out to sea including colour and alignment. There's a lot of thought gone into it and I think the whole development can make a big difference to economic regeneration of Redcar and Cleveland, I'm excited to be  part of it.

And that's about it. The Elcoate family are shortly off to Middlesbrough Rugby Club to watch Matt play for the Colts against a strong Huddersfield team followed, at least in my case, by a couple of pints of Black Sheep. Should be a good afternoon.

Sundays back to what they should be

Yes rugby is back and we've been down to York for most of the afternoon watching the North Yorkshire U17s trial with Matt and his team mates. A good afternoon with the parents of the other Middlesbrough triallists and the parents of the York players who we miss seeing this year as our U17s are playing for the U19s. Always good to see the York folk as they have some top players and are a great bunch and great to see James, ex-Boro player and ex-schoolmate of Matt who was outstanding today. Good performances by the Middlesbrough lads as well so fingers crossed for a call up.

I've had a full weekend off, apart from a few emails, which is the first one for some time. Saturday saw a blitz chess tournament in Middlesbrough Central Library (yes some of us Smoggies can read) as part of the centenary celebrations and a quick dash to the Star for some beer and a pick up of my free ticket to watch Boro in the footy championship followed by more beer in the Star - well it would have been a little impolite to not pop back afterwards.

The working week, a mere five days in the last week, saw a couple of new websites begun which will be finished off early next week. One is for a local plumbers and the other for a local building company. More on those next week.

I spent Thursday at the We Are Bounce Event at The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough. This was a great event aiming to get Tees Valley businesses working together to bounce out of the double dip recession and beyond. We were all confident of continuing to grow the success story that is the North East economy but that the national media want to hide. If you haven't done so already, check out the stats on the balance of payments up here and you will get a different picture to the doom and gloom. There were some really good speakers, chats with other businesses we already know and getting to know some people we didn't know previously. We've got meet-ups planned with a few of these new business contacts in the coming weeks to see how we can work together. A very useful event.

Still busy.. ... but rugby is back

Another busy week with a couple of important and fruitful meetings taking place amidst the general chaos. We had a meeting with the bods from Redcar & Cleveland Council to finalise details of our move to a new office with a sea view in the Palace Hub in December - contracts should be across in a few weeks. We also had a meeting aiming to set up a business referral networking group in Redcar which was very productive and things seem to be moving forward on that front.

The week also saw the end of our "critical friend" sessions with Graham, The PC Man Redcar and hopefully our discussions can help keep him busy with his PC & laptop repairs and builds.

We finished a budget micro-website for a local plumber and this week we'll be transferring that design to his main website plus doing some SEO work on that. We also got commissioned to create a mobile-specific website for a current client, including removing the Flash animation to make it suitable for iPad and iPhone plus three new small website for another client to push specific services they supply.

The week also saw me frantically finishing off writing a number of assessments for use on computing degree courses throughout the world. It's been a rush to meet the required deadline (today) but finished them at lunchtime - means a lot more free time at weekends and evenings (as if) and hopefully getting paid for it soon.

Two really good parts to the last week. Firstly a call from a very satisfied client at Anglia Tree Contractors  letting us know that web sales have gone up dramatically since we created their new website - always pleasing to know that the work has been a success for our clients. Secondly the return of Sunday rugby at Middlesbrough RUFC for my son Matt. As there's no U-17 team this year he's playing U-19 colts which is a step up in size and physicality. The Boro front row, including Matt, were all U-17s and performed really well against opposition that were a good 5 stone or more per man heavier. Great game, great performance and great 46-5 win - capped the week off nicely.

Busy ...

Which is a great place to be but means just a quick post as I haven't done one for a couple of weeks.

On the work front we've been doing the usual SEO, Adwords and site updating plus visiting a few potential clients. We've also started a new website for a local plumber which should be ready in a week or so plus three new prototype designs for finalising with clients. We've also engaged a business adviser to look at our sales funnel (got the jargon already) and improve our lead generation plus sales conversion rates - got to pay the new staff somehow (if at some point they stop being "sick" but that's another story). We've also done some work on our prototype application which we really hope to launch via a new company by the end of the year. Other than that just a number of potential sales to follow up.

Other than that it's been assessment writing in my "other job" as a Chief Examiner at weekends and evenings though I did manage to wander out and watch a couple of Boro footy matches where I was rather impressed - which is a big change. I may even go to a couple more.

Last Friday was much sadder as I was at the funeral of a friend and absolutely top bloke. Keith will be missed dearly by all who knew him at Middlesbrough RUFC but we shall still be meeting up with his grandson Chris on match days who is a chip off the old block and  made his grandfather immensely proud.

Working All Weekend

Just a quick blog post this week as it's normally done at weekends and in my "old role" as a sole trader I still work as a Chief Examiner for an international computer education company and have some tight deadlines to meet regarding assessments I have to write. So that's this weekend's activities dealt with (though I did sneak in a bit of time to watch the Wallabies v All Blacks match on Sky sports).

Bit of a mixed bag last week with a largely finished website uploaded plus an ancillary site for our tree contractor clients for selling their seasoned logs as firewood in the Cambridge/Newmarket area.

We also had a number of meetings including one with a local graphic designer who we plan to team up with for joint work, a freelance web designer who we may use and a business adviser - plenty to follow up on there plus a visit a potential client for an e-commerce website. There was also some prototype website designs, some Adwords work, SEO and a bit of mentoring work - a busy time.

The coming week sees a few meetings regarding potential freelancers, networking, providing a bit of work experience for someone on a disability back to work scheme, and when I'm not in meetings some web design, further work on the prototype application, trip to the bank, Adwords, SEO, exam writing all weekend and probably a brush up my a**e to sweep up whilst I'm walking around!!

Good to be busy though :-)

A Short Week & A Shorter Summer Holiday

It's only been a short week this week, which has simply meant cramming five days work into the available days. The office was shut on Friday (my Summer Holiday of 1 day) as I took the day off to spend some time with my family including a really great walk up in the Pennines in Upper Teesdale past Low Force, High Force (below) and beyond.

Work saw the iPlayer getting some use again (back to normal next week now the Olympics are over) plus completing the tree contractor website and creating the prototype designs for three new websites. We also worked on some SEO on a few websites and the Adwords account for one of our clients plus added code to a client's websites so that they comply with the latest "Cookie Law" - if your site doesn't comply, contact us.

The week was also Chloe's first full week with us and saw the assessor in for an afternoon to set up her Level 2 NVQ. Hopefully Chloe will rattle through that and we can help her achieve a level 3 as well during her apprenticeship.

We also had an informal networking meeting at The Wilton Centre which saw four businesses come along as we aim to set up a new group in Redcar. A useful meeting which will be repeated in a couple of weeks - so if you operate in Redcar or East Cleveland and are interested, drop me an email via our website.

Next week sees us meeting up with a web designer who has just moved into the area with a view to adding him to our small list of freelancers who we engage on specific projects, plus a meeting with a shop owner to pitch for an e-commerce site and a meeting with a business advisor. A busy week with a couple of websites to finish off as well, plus a bit of mentoring to do.

At least there's no Olympic distractions...

... and on that subject Mo Farah = legend.

Apprentice, Olympics and Cricket

The title pretty much sums up the week.

Wednesday saw Chloe our new Sales & Marketing Assistant begin her apprenticeship with us. We're happy  to see Chloe join the team and she seems like a great addition. However, we have taken it a little easy with BBC iPlayer getting some serious use for key Olympic events during work hours.

This weekend saw a trip to Headingley for the Test Match and a good day with my son and part-time Marketing Assistant Matt and a bunch of good friends, some of whom I only meet up with once or twice a year. A good day's cricket on Sat with a superb innings by KP plus far too much beer, especially as we piled into a pub straight after play to see a great night of athletics on the TV for team GB..
... and what a night it was.

Golds for Greg Rutherford, the wonderful Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah. Loved watching them all but the highlight for me was being in a pub where 99% of the faces were white and everyone screaming at the TV in support of Mo and celebrating the win of a black man named Mohamed who came to Britain from Somali. One in the eye for the racists and xenophobes and for me one of the things that makes Britain great.

Loving the Olympics and how well Team GB are doing - only another week and then we can start working normally again.

The Olympics and Work

Well what a fantastic opening ceremony created by Danny Boyle, absolutely loved it. Quirky, interesting, good music (mostly), funny and very British. A fantastic job by all involved and I think we trumped Beijing big style.

Problem is there are going to be some great Olympic events in work time over the next couple of weeks so it will either be go somewhere with a  TV or hit the BBC iPlayer during work hours. I certainly intend to make sure some time is taken during work time for the big events at Tad Towers (as I seem to have just christened our office in Wilton Centre) - I intend to watch them so only fair that the same applies to all staff. Need to get the event timetable out and plan the viewing. The other problem is getting all the work done!

We've got some interesting work coming up - some more development on the location-based prototype which is ongoing plus we've got a new plumbers website to make and an e-commerce site for a new boutique in Middlesbrough that is coming soon. We've nearly completed a new site for a tree contractors/tree surgeon in Suffolk - it's gone live but we're waiting for the last couple of bits of information from the client to complete it.

Wednesday sees Chloe joining the company as an apprentice Sales/Marketing Assistant and we look forward to her playing a role in the future growth of the company. Chloe is our first full-time permanent employee, had temporary ones previously, but we are looking to take on another apprentice but this time on the digital side of the business to aid with design and social media marketing. We will continue to use freelancer web developers and graphic designers in busy periods for the moment - so if you fit that bill contact me at Tad Web Solutions Ltd.

We've also got a few exciting potential projects coming up including new websites locally, as well as those agreed above, plus elsewhere in England and Scotland. We're also doing a bit of mentoring via Redcar & Cleveland Council and got a meeting regarding a very exciting new project that we're hoping to get involved in.

Looking forward to a busy week and hopefully seeing a few medals for Team GB.

New Websites & Apprenticeship Plans

We completed three new sites for clients last week with a microsite for an oil storage tank company plus a new website for a pest control company in Surrey and a new site for a wedding car company in South Wales.

All three of these companies were looking for budget websites and as part of our Small Business Solutions we were able to create sites on-time and within budget.

The week also saw us making the necessary arrangements for our new sales/marketing apprentice to start on 01 Aug, assuming she agrees to the contract. So grant funding arranged, terms and conditions arranged, training provider organised and job offer and associated paraphernalia sent out. Still got sort out payroll with our accountants and then all is go.

We also have an advert out for a new social digital apprentice through Middlesbrough College and would be looking for a new starter in September. Busy and exciting times.

Media Portrayal of Young People

A really enjoyable week with our school work's experience young man Cameron and work triallist Chloe.

Cameron learned really quickly, pity he's got another year at school as if he was interested we'd offer him a social digital apprenticeship. If we need someone in a year's time and Cam is interested then we'd be keen to offer him a post. Considering he's not done any design before, by the end of the week he created a simple site on his own including some php form to mail and lightbox - great effort in a week.

http://www.teesadstest.co.uk/Scaffolding/index.html

Chloe was great, fantastic attitude to work, punctual, smart and bright. We've got some paperwork to do but we will be offering Chloe an apprenticeship and look forward to her starting with us if she accepts.

So two great young people. I watched a bit of a programme during the week, no idea what it is called but included some of the Apprentice old folk, that pits young v old in the world of work and guess what...

.. yes, young people are rubbish. What a pile of b*ll***s. Nothing against old people but we have a huge pool of young, intelligent talent who are demonised by much of the media and being treated like crap by this Government making it too expensive to study but hard to get a job. Well hopefully we can be one of the many employers who have faith in our young people and provide them with the opportunities they need.

Was a bit of a mental week for me, with 3 sites just about made (still a couple of final tweaks) as well as looking after Chloe and Cam and hopefully making their week worthwhile for them. A few important meetings that might have a big effect on the business in the long run including a 6.45 meeting start and a lot of very late nights to keep up with the workload. Going to make time early next week for a post work beer with friends and a catch up.

Lots of work again next week, including the weekends, but will sneak out for a walk over the North Yorks Moors tomorrow a.m. The office will seem really quiet for a week as there's only me in - will drive myself mad as I get on my nerves, God knows how bad it is for others who have to put up with me.

The Hub, New Contracts & New People

Another week has gone by where much of the work was meeting with people and talking to existing clients regarding new websites and upgrades.

The exciting part of the week was a visit to The Palace Hub in Redcar. It's still a building site and won't be complete until December but you can see the building taking shape. Adrian from Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council kindly took some time out from a very busy schedule to show me around, including a look at where our office would be with a cracking view out to sea. It was all very impressive, apart from me looking like a short & fat Village People lookalike in hard hat and high-vis jacket, and we plan to move in subject to contract. Exciting times ahead.

We also discussions with existing clients and will be creating three new websites as a result of those discussions to add to the four we are already working on. The new sites are a tree contractor's site for our client's new company in Newmarket, a complete upgrade of a Surrey client's pest control site and an oil storage tank site for a client based in the North East. We have spoken to a number of freelancer's we know and plan to use a small number of trusted people to come into our office and help with any new projects.

This week sees us with two new people in the office. Cameron is doing 1 week's work experience from school and we're planning on getting him to build his own personal website which will showcase his skills - we'll see how that goes and post a link when done. We've also got Chloe coming in for the week for a work trial. We've already interviewed Chloe and were impressed, if all goes well this week we will be offering her an apprenticeship and we believe that she can make a big impression on our sales figures in the long term. We've also created the job description for a social digital apprentice and the adverts for that should go out shortly - if you're interested call us on 01642 438173 for more details.

Future Plans for Growth

Last week involved a lot of meetings and events largely aimed at developing the business to the next level. As a result there will be some major changes to the way the business is organised and, hopefully, some new staff coming on board.

On Monday we were at the launch of social digital apprenticeships at Middlesbrough College where the keynote speaker was Penny Power talking about the Digital Youth Academy. Seems as though this was the "World Launch" with Middlesbrough College being the first organisation to sign up. We're meeting with a representative of the college next week to discuss being one of the first companies to employ a social digital apprentice - so watch this space.

Tuesday saw us at a meeting organised by Redcar & Cleveland council for creative businesses. The plan is for businesses to mentor each other and we're keen to be involved - it's always good to have a fresh view of what you are doing. Tuesday also saw an informal meeting with Simon Brown of Faris International which was really useful on getting a view on where our business stands now and some great ideas for taking it forward.

Wednesday saw a meeting with a young web developer with a view to getting him involved with us on specific projects either as a freelancer or on a project by project contract. As we aim to grow we are looking at freelancers to fill the gap between now and requiring more full-time permanent developers - if you fit the bill contact us for a chat. We also had a meeting with a rep from Redcar council's Capital Projects Team with a view to moving into the Hub at the end of the year. As it stands this looks like a great prospect and we have provisionally booked a new, larger office with a sea view - we're going for a look next week and will make a decision within a couple of weeks whether we sign up for the move or not.

On Thursday we went to the Middlesbrough Breakfast Exchange for the 2nd time. Both times have been enjoyable and we have made new business contacts and had a free breakfast! What more could you want?

Friday saw us conducting interviews for a new marketing & sales apprentice. we think we have identified someone with great potential who will fit in with our company. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will welcome a new member of staff who will play a big part in the future growth of Tad Web Solutions.

Oh and we did some work for our clients as well - it's been a very busy week.

Cricket, Chess & Adieu

Cricket on TV no less - no not T20, pro 40, England v Windies or any such low level performers but the Strasbourg Strollers v ICI Wilton C Team (yes that's us) on French TV. After around 37 years of playing competitive cricket I finally make it on to TV (albeit French TV) as a cricketer when I'm fat, old and half blind. Mind you I am seen taking a wicket on TV!! My French language skills are not great and despite our several minutes of fame I think it's more of a "what are these mad English ****ers doing in the rain" piece - and we lost match which also meant losing the 3-match 10 year series, 2-1 - great fun though.


After returning back to Blighty I had a chess match for Middlesbrough in the Northern Counties Chess Union Major Club Championship final in Heywood, Lancs (oh the glamour of it all). A bit of a trek, including a flat tyre, for a game of chess but we won which made it almost worthwhile (it meant I missed watching Boks v Eng 2nd Test which did not please me).


On the work front, today is the last day for our two French interns so an early finish for a quick couple of beers to say goodbye. There's still a lot of work to do on their two projects so we're looking at how we can progress these. Our thoughts at the moment are that unless we source some funding with our business partners then the projects will be developed in slack time which is not ideal, we have funded most of the work so far so business partners need to kick in with their share plus funding applications or we go it alone on one project and take the plunge to develop it as a commercial application. 


We're interviewing for a marketing/sales apprentice next week, the idea being that a few months down the line, when they can work more independently, we will increase sales sufficiently to take on a new web designer/developer and expand. Yes we're in a double dip recession but after a month of things quietening down as everyone hears the news and stops spending, orders are coming back in plus we have a number of other potential sales leads to follow up as well. We aim to use freelancers on short-term contracts for specific projects in the period between now and requiring a new full-time developer in order to meet peak needs. To that end we have meetings with a small number of freelance developers in the next couple of weeks.


The last couple of weeks has seen us adding solutions to websites so they meet the new "Cookie Law", if your site does not comply give us a call on 01642 438173 and we will give you a very reasonable quote to provide a solution for you. We've also been developing new sites for a pest control company based in Surrey, a local windows company and the e-commerce section of a first aid training site which we hope to complete in the coming week,  along with the usual SEO work plus some mentoring training via the Experience Bank as I look to get involved in that.


We're also meeting up with a Redcar & Cleveland Council representative next week regarding their new Hub on the seafront. We've expressed an interest in moving premises there and we're meeting to firm up prices, what's included, incentives, etc. so that we can make an informed decision on whether a move would be beneficial to the business or not.

The Week is Too Short

Had a great long weekend in Strasbourg with great friends (and Dougie) even if we did lose our cricket match. Modesty prevents me from letting you know who the top scorer was but when the fat, old, blind bloke top scores it shows that the team decision to stop playing league cricket was right.

When you run a business the downside of a nice long weekend is that you have the same amount of work to do just in a much shorter time so instead of the usual Mon-Sat, I've got Wed-Sat and Saturday has to stop early for a very important event (beer and Boks v England on TV). So a short posting this week.

A Nice Long Weekend

So we have a long Bank Holiday weekend and we're making the most of it by shutting today (Friday 1st June) and reopening on Wednesday 6th June, even though I'll be at Leeds with a client that day.

So what are my plans for the weekend? A traditional escape to a republic for a game of cricket. I'm off to Strasbourg with a bunch of friends to play the third and final match in a 3-match cricket series against the Strasbourg Strollers which has stretched over some 15 or so years. At one-all in the series it's the deciding match but as we are all old, knackered and blind we're not too hopeful of a victory. It's also a celebration of the fiftieth birthday of one of the team - should be a good weekend

Obviously, as always, the mobile will be on for emergencies - please try and have them early in the day as later on I may make no sense at all (so you may not spot the difference).

Have a great weekend.

Work Experience & Wordpress News Section

Things area bit hectic at the moment so a brief update on what's gone on over the last week or so.

Last Friday saw a young guy named Ben in for works experience. Ben is an FE student at Redcar College who wants some work experience in sales and marketing. He seems bright (and was bright enough to contact me direct with a CV) so we're giving him a few days experience one day per week and if all goes well we'll offer him a part-time job with us - part-time as he wants to continue with his studies and go to Uni. So on Friday Ben did a bit of market research for us and this week will be making some sales calls - I think he may have a bright future.

On the workload front there was a fair bit of SEO updating and we also created a news section for Future Roofs who are already one of our clients. They were after a budget section of their website to add news pages so we suggested Wordpress which we have set up and added some of their branding. It was also one of those weeks with lots of meeting that are all productive long term but make you feel like you've not done any real work!

The best and saddest part of the week was Sunday at Bishop Auckland where my son's rugby team, Middlesbrough U16s, won the Bishop Auckland 10s. Matty didn't play due to his concussion the previous week but we had a pleasant day out supporting his team mates. Winning a well run tournament is always nice but it was Lewis Boyce's last game for us as superstardom beckons with a professional contract coming in the Summer. Remember the name, Boycey already plays as prop for England U16 and U17 and could go all the way at adult level - a smashing and humble young fella as well and I really look forward to watching him at club and country level in the future. Good luck Lewis.

Mobile Website, GPS and more

I've not blogged for a pretty eventful fortnight where all kinds of things have been happening so where to start? Perhaps a chronological route through the last two weeks will do.

We manage the website of the Middlesbrough Midweek Cricket League which was created a few years ago and is a simple template site that has been "developed" (hacked together is more accurate) over the years with little planning as it has always had the "oh, could you just add ...." elements right from the start. A lot of the functionality, for example a fixture list, is generated via javascript from arrays which is not ideal but not a bad method considering the ad-hoc nature of the early site development. So having saved the results and tables from last year we had the task of updating the arrays plus generating the template for the bottom division which always has an unusual number of teams and this year did not match any previous year since the website started. There are also changes to make regarding each club's contact details, sometimes the club name and updating their history. We also update the results throughout the season. It would be nice to have the time to redo the whole site at some point via SQL and PHP.

As an ex-player who is now too old and blind to play it's good to put something back.

We've also created a new mobile version of our website at tadweb.mobi. We already generate a simplified version of our main site at tadwebsolutions.co.uk when visited by mobile devices with smaller screens but now have a link to our genuine mobile site. Anyone looking for a  mobile version of their site can contact us and we can provide either or both options for them.

Last week saw us pay our first visit to RSPB Saltholme to collect some GPS data and images for the prototype location based application we are building and it's great to have Saltholme as partners in this exciting project. As always it was absolutely freezing but initial data is now stored ready to use.

We also received an email and CV from a young man who wants to gain experience in sales and marketing and brought him in for a chat. We were very impressed with his attitude and intelligence and Ben will be coming in on Friday's for a few weeks and then we will review whether we are right for him and he is right for us. He is in full time education for the next year or so meaning the relationship will be part-time but hopefully all is successful and we can employ him until he heads of to uni in a year or so, or longer if he stays in the area.

A Quiet Week

Last week was one of those weeks used mainly for catching up on "stuff" that needs doing but doesn't feel very productive, the main example being getting the accounts up to date - an exciting process if ever there was one. This has also involved the related topics of "arguing with my accountant" as they've got it wrong again, and "where did I put that invoice" that I've already paid.

I shall keep mum regarding the identity of our accountants but when I was self-employed, tax returns seemed to involve them choosing a random number and then waiting for HMRC to adjust later which either meant a large and unexpected payment from me at short notice or, very occasionally, a nice rebate.

So far since we became a limited company they have only run payroll and VAT. VAT has been great, I keep my accounts using Sage Instant and run the VAT routine so I know how much we need to pay. I then send the Sage back-up file to the accountants who run the same routine on their version, generate the same report and then charge me for it. Payroll too has been OK except for the end of year P35 where my accountants have me down as paying less than they told me to pay during the year which is the actual amount I had paid. They also didn't tell me about the employer NI break I was entitled to and only found out via a fellow business owner and we applied it after paying out initially.

If I ran my business as haphazardly as they do I'd have few customers (I now expect a series of replies along the lines "What do you mean IF?"). Nearly as bad as solicitors, don't get me started on them!!

Google Adwords in Our Good Books

The bank holiday weekend is over and it was a nice little break to relax for a few days, even if I did work all of Good Friday to meet some deadlines. So relaxing done it's back to work even if the week is a little shorter.

Last week saw us largely concentrating on SEO work and Google Adwords for a number of clients. We've had a bit of a problem with Google regarding some new Adwords accounts using vouchers Google sent us. We use these for clients who are considering delving into the world of pay-per-click advertising on Google so we can see what we can achieve for their proposed budgets. Apparently we have "violated advertising policy" on a  couple of accounts but after an exchange of emails over a week or so the Google Adwords bods seem to have changed their minds and reinstated accounts with an apology. Fair play to Google, whilst it has been a bit of a pain they have listened and acted rather than simply fobbing us off - so they are back in my good books for dealing with the issues in a professional and courteous manner which, in my experience, is fairly rare for huge corporations.

We've also been developing the prototype designs for a garden temples website that should be launched shortly and a landscape gardening company in East Anglia. Our interns, Matthieu and Guillaume, have been working hard on their projects and marketing assistant Matt has been doing some market research for a directory site. Also we have been chasing up a few sales leads and getting our accounts up to date before that becomes too big a job!

Finally, a big get well to young Will G in the ICU at James Cook University Hospital - an inspirational young fella who has been seriously ill and we wish him the speediest of recoveries.

A Proud Father

I'm going to give droning on about what the business is up to a miss for a week and talk about rugby, and specifically Middlesbrough RUFC under-16s and York under-16s.

Yesterday, the aforementioned teams, with Boro captained by my son and part-time staff member Matt, played in their third Yorkshire Cup final against each other in three years. York, had been beaten by us in the two previous finals and Boro had also won the final against Sandal at under-13, so were aiming to make it 4 in a row. This year York turned the tables on us with a fantastic attacking performance running out deserved winners 32-21.

I watched 70 mins of skilled and committed young men in an immense physical battle that will have left most of them aching somewhat today. What I also saw was respect for each other and the officials, tears from the losers and joy from the winners. The losers were honourable in defeat and the victors humble in victory. There were joint team photos after the presentation, parents and coaches from the losing team congratulating those from the winning team and a pride in the performance and the conduct of both sets of players.

We often hear stories of how bad the youth of today are supposed to be - well if I could be half the man that those young men of Middlesbrough and York are I would be very proud of myself.

If only footballers could act in the same way.

Location-based Applications

I had a meeting with Toby Collett at RSPB Saltholme regarding the development of our prototype location-based application. We're developing this with a view to securing some investment for a new start-up company in partnership with three others across the North of England. We aim to develop a range of accurate location-based data for use with any location and have requested that the RSPB Saltholme reserve allow us to use their fantastic reserve as our prototype area.

We're still awaiting the formal written agreement but all has gone well and it is our intention to produce a prototype that will be useful in gaining investment into our project but also provide Saltholme with some features that will enhance their visitors experience. Toby was a pleasure to meet and a great help and I also managed to sneak in an hour's birdwatching before I sloped back to do some work.

This week has also seen the launch of the new website we have created for Life Aid Training Ltd, a new local company that offers certified first aid training and defibrillator and CPR courses. There's still a few tweaks to be made which we will make early next week when our client comes in to the office.

This week has also seen us upgrading the Spirit Seekers website to allow visitors to search for their paranormal events by county.

New Venture Developments

We were up in Newcastle this week meeting with 3 business partners discussing a joint venture that has been developing over the last few months. This is still a pre-start-up business and no firm decision has been made on whether it will start up but some market research has been planned and we at Tad Web Solutions Ltd are in the process of developing a prototype for proof of concept and to enhance the market research by getting the views of potential customers and users.

The project includes the use of mapping software and the collection of data via GPS and to this end we have obtained a developer API key from Ordnance Survey so that we can create a prototype that utilises their maps. We also intend to use Google Maps to give two alternative views. We have already developed some of the functions we require for the display of data and are planning to have a test area to use.

Ideally we would like to develop the prototype for a genuine area where we can provide a range of functions based upon that location in conjunction with the managers of that area. To that end we have provided a proposal to a local organisation and hope shortly to get the go ahead to start the work. We are quite excited about the possibilities of this and believe we would create something of use for our land management partners.

It's all a bit hush hush until we get agreement and the exact nature of the project will not be revealed until the new joint company is launched. However, the prototype development, which is largely being carried out by Matthieu, will be useful for location-based services we could offer our own customers even if the market research points to the new venture not being economically viable as a stand alone company.

Plumbers Directory & a Vodcast!

We've made our new plumbers directory live at www.uklocalplumbers.co.uk and from next week will be giving away (yes, giving away) a limited number of free, lifetime listings in each town. This will be rolled out county by county, starting with our own county of Cleveland - so if you are a plumber or know a good one get them to contact us and get their free listing. The site will list plumbers in each town and they will have their own full page listing including banner, description, offer, testimonials and a small number of images.

We have also added our first vodcast to our website which is the first in a series on social media for Facebook and uses examples from one of our clients, The Pottery Loft, who do a great job promoting their business and interacting with their customers on there. Our Facebook for Business vodcast is also available on YouTube.