Tom Barton reports on vineyards toasting success from ITV Anglia on Vimeo.

Hello,

You hear people moaning that there is nothing to do in Felixstowe (or any home town to be fair) and maybe it’s because you’re not aware of what’s going on.  Who’s fault that is, I’m not sure, but I have come across this little gem after looking at the Trimley Station Website this morning.

There is a PDF Download saved here for a full list of stuff you can do and much of it seems free.

On Saturday, 8 September and Sunday, 9 September people will be really spoilt for choice. Martello Tower P will offer tours, while Coastwatch will take people on to the top of the tower from where their volunteers keep an eye on the beaches and beyond.

Other buildings open include Cotman House, The Court, Felixstowe Town Hall, Landguard Fort, the transmitter block at nearby Bawdsey Manor, and Trimley Station.

Fancy a walk for an hour or maybe three?  There are guided walks too.

The interview itself went very well and can be heard here.  I made mentions to the School For Social Entrepreneurs, Lofty Heights and Social Colours.

SUBJECTS COVERED ARE

• What is YoungVoice,
• How does it help young people,
• Self development websites,
• How do websites get found on Google,
• What is a corporate social responsibility,
• Cloud accounting and Drop Box file storage,
• What you put out on FaceBook and Twitter,
• Social impact measurement.

Download link for the interview is here for you to listen to.

Thanks to Phil Pethybridge and his amazing editing, file reduction and production of the clipped and greatly reduced file download!

I used Sage for around 15 years, and my accounts dept’ still do for my Kitchen and Worktops business.  When I started Andy Proctor LTD a few years back, I needed something that did the job of my kitchens accounts staff, but wanted to keep the businesses seperate.  However, I didn’t want the overheads of another “bookeeper”.

At the time, I was looking to do my first iPhone app and the developers said they are playing with an API and FreeAgent.  The developer that made my very first e-commerce website 8 years ago also used FreeAgent and still invoices me today using FreeAgent when we work together.  The thing I noticed was his efficiency at chasing un-paid bills.  I now know why, as I use FreeAgent and it’s fantastic.

I can do a job for a customer and before I leave, open the notepad on my iPhone and record the time I started and finished and quick note of the work done, then email that to myself.  This means I don’t forget to invoice them.  When I am at my PC, I copy the notes from the email in to an invoice and set the hours and rate and send it!  It is sent as a professional PDF with a logo and a snappy looking layout that you would expect from a high class business such as mine!

FreeAgent then chases with a polite, personal email template I have saved, reiterating the values, contacts, dates and how to pay if it goes un-paid.  It also attaches the PDF invoice.  I have different terms for different customers.  Say 28 days, then a reminder, then another 10 days after that, then one every 3 days after the 10 days.

I was on a coach once traveling to London.  I took a call from a customer and emailed the supplier during the call to order the product and sent it (drop ship).  I then logged in to FreeAgent on my iPad, raised the invoice and it sent the invoice all withing 5 minutes.  I was able to hang up the call knowing FreeAgent would chase it for me and give me a monthly statement too.

I am writing this blog today as I have just added the  system to my FreeAgent account.  It took 4 mins with minimal installation and requirements.   This will alow me to add a card payments link to my invoices, in the default email template for customers to pay by card.  I can now get rid of my 2.5% and £25 per month merchant facility with 1% charges! – It’s a no brainer…

Thanks FreeAgent, you save me money, effort and worry as well as doing my HMRC, VAT, Duty, liability, profit and loss, cash in hand and much much more!

You won’t find a better Internet service provider than Heart Internet. They are simply the best out there for customer support and service.

I contacted Heart about 3 domains I had purchased for 3 young people waiting to take possession of the domain and they gave an answer within 5 mins, they offered advice and support that was brilliant. I asked them to help even more and they did. Heart Internet aren’t just a domain registry company. They a very good at customer service and following up their commitments and promises.

They are simply brilliant. Number one…

I then had a website go down in its entirety. I contacted them again stating the website was down and they logged in and fixed it within minutes. Sure, it was during office hours so they would have had a full contingency of staff, but I think that’s worth blogging about and praising HeartInternet.

I have been logging in to other Internet service providers for my customers such and 1&1 and Go Daddy and I can say they are all poor compared to Heart. The fact that you can buy a domain, install WordPress and many other platforms and have a live site within 2 hours is almost scary! The whole flow and navigation is perfect once you are logged in and I never struggle to work out or find something.

Well done Heart Internet, you work here is done and I will be telling allot more people in the WordPress tuition classes that I offer about you. I am training the future WordPress Developers In our area and I will suggest they all use Heart Internet as their service provider.

Well done! Number one…

I had the pleasure of meeting 3 young men who were given the chance to make, develop and take away the skill of website development and their own WordPress websites yesterday using the YoungVoice way of learning.

They are 3 young men who are part of the Lofty Heights loft clearance service and Olive, the founder, wants to give them more than just work and income, but skills and personal development.  They were handed to me at 9am with no skills in websites, adding pages or even having ever hit the publish button on any platform before.  By 3pm they had not only set up a Gmail email account but purchased the domain from the registry themselves on the YoungVoice hosting account, installed WordPress on the domain, forwarded emails and then made the their own websites from nothing at all, to something glorious.

• http://www.shahabali.co.uk/
• http://www.webbers-barbers.co.uk/
• http://www.davidolding.co.uk/

The key moment is when they were able to install the Colorway Theme and then see their website, half an hour after starting on it, looking like a professional and business class website.  They have been shown WordPress in a way that they can adapt, change and amend the websites ongoing for as long as they choose to keep updating it.  They have been shown “how and why”, not just “how to” and they can do this from any PC on the Internet.  I also showed them why they need to consider SEO and how it will lead to work for them.  We also did adding a CV as a download and how they can change the website, for the person they may be wanting to connect with that week!

We did not cover blogging as they didn’t have any content, but they do have the skills to add this and show it on the website should they wish to. 

Also, with it being live, I can re-visit their website watching their development and so can you! 

I really enjoyed the day and to give my understanding to three others, with real gratitude and thanks is very warming.  I unfolded the elements and made sure the impacting moments where correctly delivered to keep motivation and interest and that they were excited and surprised at what they had achieved.  The way the project runs means that ensured I listened to the individual needs of the student and gave them something to last, giving R.O.I. for Olive and her requirement for personal development.

More young people should be given the chance to experience the empowerment of their own website to show themselves off.  Maybe you can copy the link for this post and email to some-one who is involved with young people that would get allot out of this type of personal development?

http://www.andyproctor.co.uk/one-day-wordpress/

Contact us for more information and check out the YoungVoice website and our YouTube channel

Quality Change is the capacity to transform ‘negative’ situations, or circumstances, into something beneficial for one’s self and others. ‘Quality transformers’ are people who can turn walls of resistance into bridges of understanding and keep crossing them, who can change any obstacle into a stepping stone of success and can reverse the niggling, paralysing dragons of doubt into radiant self-confidence, dissolving the thought ‘impossible’ from the mind. I’m nothing special but going to the School For Social Entrepreneurs has been

People do this all the time, for all kinds of reasons and if this can be done for the benefit of the community, changing the community to provide services and education for the people that may not have had this opportunity, we are giving more people a chance without segregating them on income or situation.

This is what a social entrepreneur does. Social entrepreneurship is the work of social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change (a social venture). While a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur focuses on creating social capital. Thus, the main aim of social entrepreneurship is to further social and environmental goals. Social entrepreneurs are most commonly associated with the voluntary and not-for-profit sectors, but this need not preclude making a profit. Social entrepreneurship practised with a world view or international context is called international social entrepreneurship.

My website project YoungVoice is to enable young people to have access to websites, as well as education in not only maintaining the website, but maybe, if they have the inkling, to make websites for other young people.

Buying my products enables the philanthropic ethos of my business values and my corporate social responsibility to be fulfilled and that’s a good thing. I might even have a few beers Thursday!

It’s been a while and I know I’m guilty of not doing something I preach; Regular relevant updated content! I guess it’s like the electrician with the broken floodlights and the bricklayer with his garden wall still not finished…

It’s been a fascinating few months for me with YoungVoice and doing my mentoring course has been fantastic. I’ve been helping out with a few local businesses and it’s really rewarding. Speaking to them has made me look at my own businesses too, so that’s a reward in itself without the good that the mentoring itself does. Being able to help a local business with its main sales coming from a website has been perfect with my online trading history. YoungVoice giving another young start-up sole trader i’m helping a free website has been nice too.

YoungVoice has a brilliant volunteer at the moment. Rachel. Rachel came at 9am and on her first day we purchased her a website for £3.99 at 10:30am, then I showed her how to build the website, looked at what she would want a website for and left at 3pm with a full online website. Rachel had seen how to buy the URL and make the website, administer and have something tangible to take away ongoing. This made me feel brilliant and she felt empowered and rewarded to want to do more for herself ongoing. On her 4th afternoon with me, she will be making a website complete from scratch for another lucky person getting a free website from YoungVoice, made by someone learning how to make websites! 

I’ve been talking to a school academy and a local college over the last few months. The head masters and executive headmasters have said “we need people like you to come in to schools and be entrepreneurial and show business skills”. So I went along at their request and spoke to their staff. It’s not come to much. One meeting in Ipswich was very disappointing as they didn’t understand the need, as they aren’t entrepreneurial or business like enough to relate to it – so won’t happen. The very thing the pupils need, they won’t embrace until its been done and they can see the results. Would the results be enterprises, employment and stability two years after leaving school – yes. Is this their measurable financial duty? Probably not. The most proactive and visionary is Felixstowe Academy but what skills they employ of mine has yet to be decided and it’s now the 6 weeks holiday.

I also graduate from the School For Social Entrepreneurs East in two weeks. This has been a fascinating and amazing experience for making me a “social entrepreneur”, more open to doing good with my business ventures and focusing on one project, not the many I used to try and do all at the same time! I’d like to use the graduation to pitch to the room full of Ipswich shakers and 3rd sector movers and it could be an interesting afternoon. I’m having a stand at the post graduation market place at The Hub and if I’ve got the request for stakeholders and a business plan right, it could be interesting for YoungVoice.

I’m currently working for a company in Felixstowe for 10 weeks, one afternoon a week. I’m doing thier website ‘in house’ so I can pick up the language used, terminology and fully understand the needs of the website.  I’m also adding a CSR to the business I am working with, passing on SSE values!

Thanks for reading my blog and well done to Dayle Bayliss for winning the Archant Anglian Business Awards with her win of Young Business Person of the Year.  

The Haulage website i’m working on, also optimised for mobile viewing by the drivers, can be seen live here.  Thanks also to Kim Christofi for her very kind gifts that she brought back after our 8am e-commerce consultancy chat the other morning.  I was given lunch and a bottle of wine as a thanks for the insight and support I gave her for her website.

Unfortunately no-one from Felixstowe will be carrying the torch as none of us seem to do enough for the community maybe? (A shame Bruce isn’t still Alive)

So line the streets just like the carnival but with about 20 times more people and look out for a converted horse box with a camera hanging out of the back. You’ll be live to millions watching someone who doesn’t normally jog try and keep up.

The reason I worry about the runner holding the flame is that it’s a 25minute journey to Foxes Marina, then a boat trip to Ipswich Docks and the next place on the map is 17:39 start at the quay in Ipswich.  So unless they are using a speed boat and the lock gate is open, the runners will need to get a shift on as we won’t want to be late for Ipswich as they might cut our electric off!

So get the kids to make paper torches and get yourself up the town and down the front and shout RUN as loud as you can to the person who doesn’t normally jog!

If you are quick and you are still sober, you can get your ass to Hollywoods or Cardinals Park for the end and see it all again, leaving the evening to go clubbing on a dirty Thursday with union jack paint all over your face!

Keep up Nanna!

This is a once in a lifetime experience and if you’re in to this sort of thing, then go and enjoy, spend money in the town and shout “Andy Proctor websites, Selffit Kitchens, Bloomfield’s Removals and Coe’s Menswear” to the world as it passes! I hope this information has been both useful and entertaining and you add it to your Facebook wall as part of the excitement and fever that is the 2012 games! Please use the social media buttons below, to share this post.