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.
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Sunday, 23 September 2012
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.
Sunday, 16 September 2012
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.
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.
Monday, 10 September 2012
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.
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.
Monday, 3 September 2012
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.
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.
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