The blowfish effect

AS ONE of its first clients, Nigel Fitzpatrick has reaped the benefits of conXhub’s technology in a big way. When the British expat co-founded Business Broker Spain, the benefits of adding landline numbers to mobiles soon made themselves plain.

“We were selling businesses –anything from bars to hotels – in different territories throughout Spain. We set that up 15 or 16 years ago and I think at one time we had about seven offices,” he explains.

“Obviously we were making a lot of calls, so we needed an office number, we needed a UK number, and at one time we had a French number as well, if I remember rightly.

“It was a very cost-effective way of making calls – and even though we were using our office number, we weren’t tied to the desk.

“We didn’t have to be in the office, simple as that. We could be at home or wherever, and it came directly through to our mobile.

“Equally, when we were making calls, we didn’t have to be in the office to make those calls from our landline number.”

Nigel based the business in the picturesque town of Javea on the Costa Blanca. As he recalls, he was probably one of the first people that conXhub founder Mark Trowbridge introduced to the service.

“It’s just incredible – really, really good,” he adds.

“From a business point of view, it’s all about the blowfish effect. Having multiple offices with those numbers makes you look very big, so that’s what we did when we first started out.

“We wanted to look as though we were big, and we ended up being the biggest, but it took a while to get there. So, I was very thankful for that.”

Nigel sold his share of Business Broker Spain to his partners in 2021, but that hasn’t ended his connection with conXhub. Far from it.

“We still use it as a family,” he says. “We have a Manchester number, so our friends or family can call.

“My father-in-law is elderly and can’t quite get his head around the fact that he’s making a local call on a Manchester number and it’s coming through direct to my wife’s mobile when she’s down on the beach, walking the dog. And it doesn’t cost him anything.”