BUSINESS CONNECTOR Spring/Summer 2016
Chartered Surveyor Joe Jordan who has been involved in some of Belfast’s most iconic development projects, considers alternative methods of investment that could provide respectable return in the current economic climate.
BUSINESS CONNECTOR magazine
Dr.Gerard Prior, Acordia Business Network Director, congratulates Acordia member Jonathan Rogan of MXA Digital on his successful collaboration with the Bank of Ireland at their Digital Jungle Roadshow in Newry April 2016
Indeed, at the forefront of helping local firms, is the modern & progressive now located in Belfast, Bangor and Lisburn. And as we continually have to dig deeper within ourelves for strength to deal with the toughest challenges, Business Coach and author Penny McClean, explains how ‘personal’ change is key. MXA Digital provide 7 Tips on improving Google positioning, ItsEzee Web Sites advise not to lose your ‘core message’ and Precept IT, put emphasis on innovative solutions. Also, in this edition, Almus Property suggests that alternative strategies are needed for property investors in the current market. As for this Tech driven communications arena we now operate in, TextpertMedia highlights the power of Texting, and IP solutions emphasise the ‘Critical’ nature of our telephony. And whether it’s a coffee in the sushine, or a full blown event, 29 Event Catering can provide the facilities, or go to your venue to cater for any event!
In this edition, some top Northern Ireland professionals, working at the cutting edge in the local market give their insights and advice on a wide range of business issues.
Finally, leading Commercial Photographer, Connor Tilson, explains the aim of excellent photography. In a world where images mean everything in getting your message across on multiple platforms, our images must make our market !
All contributors to The Business Connectors Magazine are practicing professionals. They can provide practical advice and offer tailor made business solutions.
BUSINESS CONNECTOR magazine
The Acordia Business Network - Belfast - Bangor - Lisburn!
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To generate more new business through networking, and to learn the marketing skills needed to generate new business in their normal geographic market, Acordia members are well ahead of their competition.
Of course, the opportunities for referrals, collaboration with other businesses and generally getting new ideas & support, go without saying!
Acordia allow only one member per profession in each group in order to prevent conflicts of interest. We have a diverse membership and anyone wishing to join Acordia should contact us to find out if your profession is already represented.
The Acordia Business Network is dedicated to making sure its members are kept up to date with the latest trends in business while at the same time, facilitating high level Strategic Networking across the network.
Acordia is keen to attract only individuals who seek to participate in our professional networking process, and we therefore take care when admitting new members.
Acordia attracts quality Brands to its membership as well as local SME’s and all transfer knowledge, and support each other’s business in diverse ways.
Acordia also prides itself in being the only truly ‘Strategic’ networking organisation in Northern Ireland with its own uniquely devised Advanced Networking training as well as training in advanced Business Improvement & Persoanl Development Skills.
Building Business Knowledge & Skills Developing Strategic Partnerships Gaining Sales Referrals Personal Development
Find out how the Acordia Business Network can help you Grow your Business - Contact: connect@acordianetwork.com www.acordianetwork.com +44 (0)754 601 7062
North Down & Ards: Belfast: Lisburn:
Blackwood Golf Centre, Bangor Weavers Court Business Centre Island Civic Centre , Lisburn
Tuesday Mornings Wednesday Mornings Thursday Mornings
08:00am (Breakfast Meeting) 09:15am 08:00am
Life Reconnected - A Hero’s Journey by Penny McClean - Available on Amazon
I really want this to happen, yet it keeps eluding me, why? I couldn't possibly do that; Could I? How can I feel more confident in marketing my business or developing my career? How can I get more balance in my life? Or maybe you just want things to be different. Well, life can change in a single click - and not just in the digital sense.
Life Reconnected offers coaching around these and many more questions. A coaching conversation where whatever has directed you to me, you can expect a dedicated and professionally trained coach who from day one focuses on you. Someone to confide in and to whom you can admit that actually things in your life are not quite as amazing as you have everyone believe.
Coaching is not about solving problems, although problems will be solved. It is not primarily about improving performance, attaining goals or achieving results, yet all of that can happen through an affective Co-Active coaching relationship. Coaching is about , and empowering people to find their own answers; then encouraging and supporting them on the path as they continue to make important life-giving and life-changing choices. Coaching is a way to achieving a deeper level of human communication - where the coach will discover and promote a client's mission, purpose and specific agenda, so the client ‘gets clear’ about their very personal shape of fulfilment.
Working with Life Reconnected begins with a complimentary Coaching Appraisal Session. A chance for you to try coaching with me. Is coaching for you? And do we feel we work well together?
...’ The appraisal session gives us a chance to answer these and other questions. Thereafter, I work with individuals for a minimum of six months, two sessions per month. Coaching sessions are either via telephone, Skype, or in person by prior arrangement. Whichever is best for you!
pennycmcc@gmail.com Tel. 07891708936
BUSINESS CONNECTOR magazine
By Jimmy Roberts
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Everyone knows that we are in a fast moving digital age, and no-one wants to wait any more! Instead, everyone wants everything today. The growth of the Internet has facilitated this “now” demand and every business needs an online presence to showcase their products and services in the 24 hour shop window which is the world wide web. No matter what you offer, accommodation, food, professional services, home furnishings or even a nursing home – you will benefit from a website. Your services can be highlighted, your location identified and you can sell your products and receive payment to promote your business
However with all this opportunity comes competition so your website needs to attract customers, inform and be easy to use.
All too often websites are designed with so many that the core we have 15 years’ message is lost. At experience of building and supporting business websites. We understand small businesses and their needs and all our sites are created to give maximum exposure on the web. We utilise the latest “Responsive” technology to ensure your site looks great on Mobile, Tablet and Desktop. If your website is not mobile-friendly then it will not be viewed by the 38 million smart phone users in the UK, thereby losing you valuable custom. What’s more, all our sites are self-editing – YOU can make changes, add special offers, replace images, and add pages all with the help of your local consultant based in Belfast. This gives you peace of mind that your investment is protected and always working to promote
Finally - That investment! Our entry level site, professionally designed, costs only £200 +VAT and a low monthly subscription of £20+VAT. As your business grows a simple upgrade to a multi-paged site or to e-commerce is a small step.
BUSINESS CONNECTOR magazine
By Alan Stewart
has got off to a great start for Northern Ireland based IT specialists Precept, when they were notified today of being chosen as a finalist for the 2016 PCR Awards.
Belfast based Cloud IT specialists Precept IT have been providing IT support and services to businesses across Northern Ireland since 2002.
The prestigious awards will take place on Thursday 10th March at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington.
Organisations, particularly small to medium sized businesses across Northern Ireland face the challenge of achieving more results with limited budgets, Precept IT drive efficiencies through innovative use of technology including tablet applications, cloud hosted software and access of data globally.
Precept were selected in the highly competitive UK reseller of the year category. The Frontline awards recognise excellence in customer-facing organisations, whether they are on the High Street, online or dealing with businesses. The winners of these awards will be those organisations that have best represented the UK technology industry to the outside world.
This year there are 24 awards across four categories – a new panel of judges for each award will place their votes in the New Year. Sponsored by BullGuard – See more at: http://www.pcr-awards.com/award
Tell us how Precept IT can Help Your Business! www.PreceptIT.com 0800 122 3010 info@PreceptIT.com
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BUSINESS CONNECTOR magazine
Sponsor Acordia Business Network Event
Clare McKeveney from Bank of Ireland opens the Business Networking Meeting at Weavers Court Business Park Belfast.
Author, Psychologist and Certified Coach, Penny McClean, provides inspirational evidence on the Power of Coaching.
Acordia Director Dr Gerard Prior shows how a ‘Professional’ networking process can deliver real business improvements.
Some attendees, engage in discussions around the training slot topic: How Business Professionals Network!
North Down & Ards: Belfast: Lisburn:
Blackwood Golf Centre, Bangor Weavers Court Business Centre Island Civic Centre , Lisburn
Tuesday Mornings Wednesday Mornings Thursday Mornings
08:00am (Breakfast Meeting) 09:15am 08:00am
…Keep your Customers - Interested… Informed… and Buying…
So Why is SMS Your Best Modern Marketing Tool? ● 89.9 Million UK mobile subscriptions ● 97% of SMS marketing messages are opened within minutes ● SMS coupons are 10 times more likely to be redeemed than regular coupons ● A low Cost way to build customer loyalty ● Most users aim to keep their mobile phone numbers for life. Text messaging is an instant and powerful communications tool when you need to promote to your customers - Instantly! Text Messaging is the Fastest way to Strengthen Relationships and Boost to your Business. Text messaging for business or SMS (Short Message Service) is the quickest and most reliable way to get your message across! Start off by collecting existing and prospective customer mobile numbers… How? TextpertMedia will show you the techniques for building a powerful mobile number database.
To stir up business in a hurry, create a special promotion and let your best prospects know right away with a text. Give your customers the right offer and they will come flocking to you! Promote a new product or service with instant SMS messages. No lead time and no expensive advertising copy needed. Just a simple text message. Send coupons directly by text. It’s the cheapest way to send, and it’s 10 times more likely to be acted on!
Let Textpert Media Do the Work to Boost Your Response Rate and Build Your Business Fast! Call Us on 07923444875 or Text WIZARD to 61216 and we will call you!
BUSINESS CONNECTOR magazine
BUSINESS CONNECTOR magazine
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In response to being asked to provide catering solutions, and holding events in establishments without their own catering facilities, Owner Joanne Brennan felt there was a gap in the market that she could easily fill. The bulk of Joanne’s business comes from Funerals and Christenings, and she also provides catering solutions for Weddings, Birthday Parties and Corporate Events. By offering great food at reasonable prices while delivering exceptional customer service, Joanne has been able to gradually grow the outside catering arm of her business while maintaining the existing offerings at both Cloud 9, located at the Ulster Flying Club Newtownards, and Nineteen Coffee House, located at Blackwood golf Centre, Bangor. Going forward, Joanne intends to offer, not only her ‘menu’ of ‘simple’ catering solutions, but also a complete event organising service where the company will take events from the initial stages of planning, right through to delivering the complete package.
IT’S WHAT I DO To me the best commercial photography takes the chaos of the multi-dimensional world and transforms it into two dimensional perfection - a photograph. My clients want images that meet their needs precisely and eloquently. Whether that means images that are true to their corporate style; or photographs that cast a fresh light on their products, premises, people or services; or capture a whole new concept. The aim is the same; photography that makes their market sit up and notice!
connortilson.com
7 Things You Can Do Now To Improve Your Search Engine Ranking
You will need a Gmail account setup and you need to place a piece of code on your webspace in order to prove you own the website. After that Google starts to return valuable data to you about how people currently find your site, what keywords they used, if they clicked on your site, who links to your site and more. Over time you can gain real insights into how your website is performing.
If Google Search Console is mostly concerned with how users found your website, Analytics will tell you what they did when they got there. Google Analytics will provide lots of really interesting data on what people do when they get to your site, where they went, how long they stayed and when they left. This can be incredibly useful in finding out if you have, for example a shopping cart system with a check out page that is too complicated. Analytics can highlight that users leave your site at that page, now you know the problem is there you can get it fixed and increase purchases!
When Google looks at your website, it crawls around following links it finds and tries to work out what your website is about. One of the stronger signals you can give to Google is to use H1 and H2 tags effectively. You need to include your target keywords in the H1 and H2 tags. For example, if you have an online shop selling pet food, you will want to include the keyword "pet food" in your H1 and H2 tags of your page.
Another strong signal you can give to Google about your website subject is by using keywords in the address bar – the URLs of your website. For example Google visits 2 websites, both selling pet food, let’s call them Smiths and Jones. Website 1 has the URL structure www.smiths.co.uk Website 2 has the URL structure: www.jones.co.uk Just like a human reading each URL in turn, Google can read that one URL is about pet food whereas the other is just a number. Easy to see which is a better signal!
Google officially announced that it now receives more searches from mobile devices than it does from traditional desktop computers. With this is mind it’s common sense that your website must be mobile friendly. You can achieve this in one of 2 ways: have a mobile version of the website or by creating a ‘responsive’ website. A responsive website is a site that re-positions and re-styles content dependent on which device it is being viewed on. So if somebody is viewing your website on a mobile device like a phone, it will automatically reformat the content to make it easy to read. The responsive website is generally easier to manage as it is the same code, whereas a mobile version sometimes involves running effectively 2 separate websites.
Creating great content about your industry is a brilliant way of generating more leads and improving your website ranking. The more pages and content you have on your site the more Google has to read and decide that you are an authoritative source for your industry. People love to share good content. The shared content then acts as an ambassador for your company on the internet and can drive more traffic to your website – and more traffic means more potential leads.
Social Media is very powerful in terms of SEO. If you have more likes, shares and comments on your blog post then it’ll give a positive signal to Google that people find your content useful and interesting.
BUSINESS CONNECTOR magazine
Almus Partners - Development and Asset Management Professionals
Almus Property Partners (APP) was set up following detailed consultations amongst property and investment professionals looking for alternative methods of investment that could provide a respectable return in the current economic climate. With low interest rates, high rental demand and rising capital values there hasn’t been a better time to consider investing in the property market. APP was developed with this in mind, specialising in partnering with private equity investors seeking a greater yield on their available assets. However, with the recovery of the market in its early stages it’s important we select properties that best fit our commercial criteria. APP undertake profiling of price against; condition, location, market trends and demand to maximise the assets value in order to achieve the greatest return possible for investor(s).
Almus Property Partner’s Joe Jordan is a chartered surveyor with over thirty years of experience in the property sector in Ireland/UK and mainland Europe. A former president of the ‘Belfast Chamber of Commerce’ he has sat as a nonexecutive director on a number of committees. Joe is considered an expert in Adding Value, Project Management, Asset Management and Planning. APP works continuously to build trusted relationships with private equity funders, developers, banks, housing contractors, receivers and estate agents to locate the best investment opportunities across the island of Ireland and the UK. Utilising these key contacts allows APP to identify the best property investment opportunities as and when they become available.
Joe Jordan
BUSINESS CONNECTOR magazine
A As well as delivering a number of advanced features – you begin saving money immediately as only one line is needed, your traditional telephone line is redundant! Our phone system functionality is hosted on our private, multi-redundant nationwide network. We provide broadband connectivity, IP phones, calling plans, and advanced calling features to create a united communications system.
For businesses that currently rely on traditional premises based phone systems, Hosted Voice for Business offers significant cost savings, superior flexibility, and advanced functionality with all these advantages and more, many businesses have held back only because they anticipate a challenging transition process.
Fortunately, we’ve taken the pain out of switching with a unique level of simplicity and convenience from sales and installations all the way through to ongoing customer support. Making a change to your business communications system takes a bit of time and effort, but it doesn’t have to be a hassle. With on your side, there’s never been a better time to give your business the advantages of Hosted Voice for Business. Our attractive packages can even offer cost savings to existing users of VOIP, why not give us a call and begin to save money on your business telecoms.