Blog archives for December, 2009

One local MD talks about his experiences of building up a successful company: how SEO (search engine optimisation) and VPNs (virtual private networks) have helped and how SMM (social media marketing) might be the way forward.

Manchester is a fantastic place with a great business history; unsurprisingly for the city that was at the epicentre of the industrial revolution, it seems to nurture endeavour and entrepreneurism like few other places can.

My company has been operating in Manchester for just over eleven years now, during which time we’ve witnessed not only the continuing expansion and improvement of the city centre, but also its communication infrastructure.

When we first started out in the business of re-upholstering prestige cars to our clients’ specifications, we took a lot of our orders by fax, or over the phone. There’s a surprising amount of word of mouth generated around what we do, particularly with all the millionaire footballers floating around Manchester, so we were able to maintain a good churn with the clientbase we had.

Then, with the boom of broadband, came the opportunity to market what we do to a larger audience than ever before. We put together a simple website with an enquiry form and pretty soon we were pulling in sales from much further afield (many of them came from the leafier suburbs of Merseyside and Cheshire, home to yet more footballers and high-fliers). We’ve now opened another dedicated sales office in Liverpool and business is better than ever.

Two things have helped us immeasurably in the venture over the last couple of years. Firstly, search engine optimisation, or SEO. We got a little agency in Manchester to put together our website for us and while I’m still not entirely clued-up on the exact science behind what they did, I know that by using keywords related to our business and building everything with search engine users in mind they were able to generate a lot of traffic (and ergo sales) for what was a relatively simple site.

The second thing we couldn’t really have done without, at least since opening the Liverpool office, is our VPN, or virtual private network. We share a lot of information between our two sales centres and needed a secure and fast way to give staff at both ends access to it all. I believe our managed VPN is much safer and more efficient than sending files over email. It is as though all of my staff are in the same room when using it, even though half of them have the misfortune of being stuck at the wrong end of the M62 (I’m joking!).

What will our next step be? Well, for now, we’ve got to make sure we keep trading well at a time when people are spending less on luxuries. Luckily the market for bespoke, wipe-clean patterns hasn’t bottomed out too much – I guess we’ll prosper as long as the car makers keep producing boring, grey interiors.

I am, however, interested in exploring a more creative field of web marketing over the next year. Buzzwords I keep hearing include viral and social and while at first all that made me think of was the common cold, I’ve been speaking to a few agencies who think they can produce some innovative social media tools and videos.

One idea I’m particularly keen on is a Create Your Own Upholstery-type application for Facebook or phones, which might appeal to our affluent female userbase (without wanting to cast aspersions on the creativity, or lack thereof, of our footballing friends), but I think this needs more development to set it apart from the crowd.

Time will tell how we fare as the economy continues to recover, but I’m still convinced that Manchester is as good a place as any for businesses to thrive.

Manchester is a fantastic city with so much to do and a place where it’s virtually impossible to run out of new things to try out. As the clubbing capital of the UK, it is home to high profile clubs such as Sankeys as well as long-running nights like Funkademia; not to mention being the birth place of the legendary Hacienda.

Manchester restaurants are top class too, and while the city might have lost its only Michelin star last year (putting it someway behind Tokyo’s staggering total of 261), the eateries that line almost every street of central Manchester are among some of the finest in the North West. Last week I went to one of my favourites, Shimla Pinks.

I heard a rumour that they were supposed to be moving this year but so far (with four weeks to go until 2010), it doesn’t seem to have materialised. Nevertheless, they’re still serving up fine dishes (their onion chutney is the finest in the country) and my number one choice – the South Indian Garlic Chilli – went down a treat.

My girlfriend is always one to try new things (she picks a different thing off the menu every time we go, but refuses to eat Korma – good girl) and she had an interesting special involving little pots of various Asian dishes, beautifully presented with rice, salad and nan.

Another new thing she tried out recently involved 80 balls and some nice little prizes. Did you know that our fair city is home to Buckingham Bingo Manchester, along with all those clubs, restaurants and bars? My girl went there recently with a few of her mates.

Apparently it’s like a more local version of the nationwide chains like Mecca (as well as ones in Didsbury and Trafford, Buckingham have got a few Liverpool bingo clubs too), but you can still win the big cash prizes including something called The National, which I thought Peter Kay had invented for that episode of That Peter Kay Thing.

I asked her if bingo wasn’t a bit of an older lady’s pastime, but she was adamant that the place had a good mix of age ranges inside. I wasn’t convinced, so I ended up going along to see for myself. True enough there were all types of people in there, not the normal stereotypes you think of when it comes to bingo clubs, but the first thing that blew me away was the prices in there.

Can you believe I got a pint for £2 and a plate of chilli and chips for less than £3? Amazing. True it wasn’t the same as Shimlas but not even Wetherspoons can beat those prices! As it goes we won £50 on the night we went down – I joked to my girlfriend that I was her lucky charm but she was having none of it. She took the money and banned me from going back (apparently I talk too much during games).

If you’re looking for a different sort of night out that’s a bit of a laugh – and one that won’t break the bank like going to a top club – you could always give the local bingo club a go.