ApprovedIndex Blog

Best Construction Website: The Forklift Company

2012-05-15T09:33:21Z

The industrial and construction sector has been understandably slow to embrace the world of digital marketing - after all, their target audience have historically been late adopters of online technology. It gives us great pleasure then to single out www.theforkliftcompany.net as a stand out example of great website design in its field.

Who are they?

The Forklift Company is a Warwickshire based supplier of forklift trucks, access platforms and other warehouse and construction equipment. All their second hand equipment is reconditioned and refurbished. They have over 30 years experience in the business, they're CFTS accredited and supply everything with a 90 day warranty.

The Forklift Company have been Approved Index suppliers since 2009.

Why did they win?

Design - The industry-appropriate orange and yellows of the website are a bold choice. They're eyecatching and create an excellent contrast with the black and grey hues. This contrast makes the layour clear and the information presented easy to understand. The way the site is set out has been thought through well, with a home page that gets right down to business by showing a selection of available products and prices.

Navigation - The site structure couldn't be clearer with both top and side navigation bars making it easy to switch between information on the products and information on the company itself. The design really helps here, bold colour choices and a low level of clutter make scanning pages and picking your way through the site a simple process.

Content - As you'd expect from a site in this category the content is functional and to the point. There's nothing that doesn't need to be there while every piece of pertinent information is included. The product descriptions are especially detailed. This makes for a refreshing change - most websites go heavy on uneccessarily wordy write ups for the purposes of stuffing in as many SEO keywords as possible. The Forklift Company plays it straight, keeping the longer articles and extra information for the blog - which seems to be updated regularly and contains other kinds of content like industry news and infographics. It's to their credit.

Contact Options - Copious, though, like most suppliers in this category The Forklift Company has yet to embrace social media. There are no Twitter, Facebok or LinkedIn profiles available which is a missed opportunity and a shame considering they get everything else so right: a phone number and email address on every page, several contact forms, a 'Contact Us' page with map, a live chat facility and an SMS text enquiry service.

Pizazz - We've already mentioned how well The Forklift Company balance their content, keeping the site economically populated with vital information for existing and potential customers. They also have possibly the longest FAQ page I've seen outside of Google which I'll show here on its side for full effect:

It's chock full of great information for prospective buyers - explaining terms and acronyms, running through the uses of different trucks - which could have been split up into different keywords and spread over many pages which would have made the site flabbier and less easy to use. You could argue they could do with a contents section at the top with links to different parts of the page but nevertheless it's a great resource which is invaluable to potential customers.

All in all a visit to The Forklift Company's website is an uplifting experience and one which were happy to reward with a 2012 Approved Index Website Award.

Construction Honourable Mention: Smart Platforms

Smart Platforms is a nationwide supplier of self-propelled, truck and van mounted access platforms with branches in Birmingham, London and Manchester.

While the design is unpretentious and highly functional their website outdoes many in the industry by cramming in tons of high quality content and information. No option for customers is left out - there are demonstrational videos, downlodable brochures and plans for each product, copious images and a wealth of contact options for each branch.

The intention to provide a useful resource to customer is made very clear. With such a wealth of information already in place, a little attention paid to the aesthetics of the site and the ease of navigation could make it a real winner.

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If you're looking to produce and award winning website and need to find a web design company to build it then visist our main site for free advice and quotes.

Best Automotive Website: Fleetmatics

2012-05-11T08:23:50Z

The automotive category is - like the office equipment category - one in which you'd expect purely functional websites that are low on wow-factor and high on functionality. It was to our great and pleasant surprise then to find a site like www.fleetmatics.co.uk on which we've bestowed our 2012 website award for Best Automotive Website.

Who are they?

Fleetmatics is a global fleet management and vehicle tracking company with world headquarters in Dublin. They provide Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions which allow businesses to track a wide range of data on their fleet of vehicles in real-time.

Fleetmatics have been Approved Index suppliers since 2008.

Why did they win?

Design - As you'd expect from a company whose chief aim is to improve the productivity and reduce the operating costs of their customers, the design of the Fleetmatics site is chiefly functional. Elaborate graphic design is eschewed in favour of clean lines, clearly demarcated spaces on the page and large fonts to guide you to the relevant information quickly. The design, branding and layout is kept constant throughout the site reducing the possibility of user confusion.

Navigation - A primary navigation bar at the top of each page gives access to the pages about the business and the blog while a secondary navigation bar with drop down menus guides you through the content about the Fleetmatics product. It's therefore almost impossible to get lost on this site and incredibly easy to find the content you're looking for in super-quick time. Despite a host of widgets, pictures and videos the pages load very quickly.

Content - The Fleetmatics site is brimming over with vehicle tracking information. There are white papers (which cleverly require registration to download - a great lead generation tool which competitors should note) and copious articles which take you through the product features and benefits - all enhanced by images or videos. There's also a handy 'fleet savings calculator' which estimates how much you stand to save from vehicle tracking and loads of customer testimonials and case studies which provide empirical evidence to back up their claims.

Contact Options - Another element that this site gets bang-on. If you don't make it easy for customers to get in touch or register their interest you're virtually pushing them into the hands of your competitors. Why bury your first contact form in a deeper page when you can put it right on the homepage? That's exactly what Fleetmatics do here. The homepage also has phone numbers, invitations to take a free demo (again requiring registration), social media links and a clearly highlighted customer login button. These elements appear on every page. The 'Contact Us' page meanwhile gives the numbers, email addresses and locations of all their offices worldwide.

Pizazz - Maybe it's because it conjures up memories of playing games on a Commodore 64, maybe it's because we're suckers for a bit of dynamic content or maybe it's because it gives a clear and concise demonstration of the Fleetmatics product in the simplest way possible.

In any case, the Flash animation on the homepage is well conceived, well executed, really sucks visitors into the site and lets them know exactly what kind of website they're on before they even have to read a word.

In summary, Fleetmatics have got almost every aspect of their site spot-on and are well deserved winners of one of our Approved Index Website Awards 2012.

Automotive Honourable Mention: The Fuelcard People

The Fuelcard People are independent fuel card agents based in Oxfordshire. They'll help you compare the available fuel cards on the market, select the one that's best for your business and help you manage your account online.

We love the bold choice of colours on www.thefuelcardpeople.co.uk, the easy navigation, the clear contact options and the friendly, non-technical tone of voice used throughout the site.

What really stod out for us though was how The Fuelcard People use the wesbite to stress the people-led nature of their business through multiple references in the copy and a whole page dedicated to introducing every member of the team.

Well done The Fuelcard People for producing an eyecatching website with a thoroughly approachable vibe.

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Looking to get head and shoulders above your competition with a stand-out web design of your own? Then use our free service for comparing web design and development quotes at Approved Index.

Best Marketing Website: Creative

2012-05-08T09:17:57Z

In a category that we fully expected to be hugely competitive and in which our expectations proved to be accurate, we're very pleased to announce that www.creativenetwork.co.uk has won our 2012 award for best website for an Approved Index marketing supplier.

Who are they?

Creative is a marketing agency with a difference - while their head office is located in Cheltenham they also maintain a network of creative partners throughout the country. This allows them to provide nationwide coverage while maintaining the kind of customer service you'd expect from a local agency.

Creative are a relatively new Approved Index supplier having joined our network this year.

Why did they win?

Design - Converse to what you might expect in the marketing industry it's rather fashionable to have a low-key, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin style website which looks like it was put together just before the dot com bubble burst back in the early noughties, a website that says "we spend so much time and effort on our clients' campaigns that we don't have time to work on our own." Refreshingly then, Creative have bucked this trend by producing an excellent looking site with a strong visual theme that's carried through all its pages. The cartoon graphics are fun without being garish, the amount of text in relation to images is well balanced and the colours used are nicely understated so that the work they've done for clients is still emphasised over their own branding.

Navigation - The navigation bar at the top of each page makes getting around the site's colour coded sections easy and expands to allow naviagtion within those sections. The portfolio section uses space economically while still giving a greet feel for the work that Creative has done. The page load time is pretty good too.

Content - For a new site the amount of content is impressive. There's plenty of information on the different services that Creative provide while the blog carries a good mix of company news and general marketing tips and advice. The homepage carries a downloadable guide on how to draw up a brief for a marketing company - a nice touch which shows a customer-focused approach to content planning.

Pizazz - As we mentioned before it's rather unusual to find a marketing agency with a souped-up modern website but Creative have really pulled it out of the bag. What we particularly like (and you may spot a trend developing in our judging habits here) is their 'Team' section.

The site carries the usual plethora of contact options you expect from a top quality site but also goes one step further.

Each Creative partner has their own profile on the site with contact details so you can get in touch directly.

This personal touch makes Creative seem that much more approachable and really helps them to achieve their stated aim of providing a local-style service via a national agency.

In a highly competitive industry Creative have really delivered the goods with this new website.

We hope it brings them the kind of success that such cutting edge work deserves.

Marketing Honourable Mention: Outsmart

Outsmart are a creative marekting agency based in Yorkshire. They provide a full spectrum of services from graphic design through to planning and implementing advertising campaigns.

Outsmart are another marketing company that recognise the importance of putting together a quality website with a customer focused approach to content.

They provide a copious amount of information on their services and their ROI driven approach. Neither are they shy about putting some personality into the site with images of team members, a blog which gives you an insight on their charitable activities and a wide range of contact options and social media plug-ins for reaching out.

The site also looks good, has a compact structure which holds a surprising amount of content and doesn't keep you waiting for pages to load.

All in all outsmartagency.com is a lovely website for which we're proud to give Outsmart this honourable mention.

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If you're looking for a website design agency to give your online presence a face-lift and relaunch your digital marketing efforts then check out Approved Index's nationwide directory and free quotes service.

Best Training Website: Phoenix Training & Development

2012-05-02T08:49:31Z

The training category in this competition proved incredibly hard to judge - the field was full of quality sites delivering up comprehensive and in-depth content on a variety of training types. Eventually though a clear winner emerged and we had no choice but to honour www.phoenix-training.co.uk with our award for best training website.

Who are they?

Phoenix Training and Development is a London based company which delivers sales training, management and leadership training and team development workshops.

They have a simple philosophy: that their courses should make people better at what they do. They attempt to achieve this with a three-pronged approach to training whcih incorporates pre- and post-course aspects as well as the delivery of the training itself.

Phoenix have been Approved Index suppliers since 2008.

Why did they win?

Design - While on another site the pastel shades colour scheme could seem a bit old-hat, Phoenix manage to pull it off with aplomb. This is probably down to the way they use colour to demarcate different sections of the site and of each page. Clarity is king on this site. There's very little scrolling as each course and section of information is given its own page. Rather than employing stock photography (the ever-increasing bar charts that seem to be a staple of sales training sites) they've used genuine photography - a nice touch that really pays off. More on that later...

Navigation - The four colour coded sections make knowing where you are and getting around the site simple and straightforward. The ever present navigational bar along the top makes sidebars full of internal links redundant and they're wisely eschewed in favour of the presentation of vital information. The site is also fast - you're never left waiting for pages to load.

Content - Phoenix's site is chock-full of content for the training novice. There's a good length write-up on the content of each course, the Phoenix approach to training, the training facilities, a course calender and copious feedback from satisfied customers. In addition there's a regularly maintained blog with a host of contributors covering topics as diverse as tips for managers and making best man speeches at weddings.

Contact Options - If you want to get in touch with Phoenix you face very few obstacles. Even though the online chat feature was, er, offline when we visited there's still a prominently displayed phone number on every page (along with email and physical addresses). The 'Contact Us' page is well marked up with both on-page and downloadable maps (a useful feaure for training attendees). The ubiquitous contact form isn't neglected either.

Pizazz - So where's the coup de grâce? The element that puts this website head and shoulders above the competition? The cherry on the cake? A cursory look at the site might leave you dumbfounded - there are no video libraries, infographics or flashy widgets (the budget calculator is good idea but poorly executed). It's only when you look closer that you find where Phoenix really excels: in giving their company a human face.

Every member of the team and every trainer gets their own page on the site. From here you can read about them and email them directly. You also learn from their mugshots that the images on the rest of the site, including the home page, really are genuine photos of the team in action.

The site paints a picture of not only a company who look incredibly relaxed and happy to be working together but who are also really open about it and, most importantly for a training company, highly approachable.

Phoenix clearly understand their audience and have translated this knowledge into the delivery of their website. In an industry in which communication and human contact is central, they've managed to make their online presence as communicative and human as they can. Making the website the first step in building a personal relationship with clients is something all good business website designers aspire to - so hats off to Phoenix Training and Development for getting it spot on.

Training Honourable Mention: Process Management International

Birmingham and Dubai based Process Management International (PMI) have been delivering business process improvement training almost since the concept was invented. With their website www.pmi.co.uk they've made a great contribution to web based resoources on the subject.

While it may not achieve what Phoenix's site does in terms of creating a human story it goes above and beyond the call of duty when providing information for prospective training candidates or people who are generally interested in process improvement methodology.

Whether you're looking to undertake a course of Six Sigma Training or looking to implement improvement programmes in your own company, the videos, case studies and course breakdowns are comprehensive and illuminating.

They also provide a wealth of contact options and provide explicit dates and prices for all their offerings.

Overall, PMI have delivered a highly functional and informative site that manages to escape from the dull-looking, text only sites that seem to dominate in their field. Nice job, PMI.

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If you're looking to keep up with the Jonses above by building your own great business to business website, why not compare website designers and quotes for free at Approved Index?

Best Business Services Website: Workbooks.com

2012-04-26T09:42:27Z

After much deliberation we're very happy to announce that Workbooks.com have won our 2012 award for best business services website.

We found the depth, clarity and user-friendliness of this site unparalled in its category. Congratulations Workbooks on creating a fantastic resource for existing and prospective customers alike.

Who are they?

Workbooks is a fast-growing Reading-based provider of web-based CRM systems. (To the uninitiated, that stands for Customer Relationship Management). They provide small and medium sized businesses with CRM applications on a software-as-a-service model which means that their customers don't need to maintain and upgrade hardware and software themselves.

Workbooks have been Approved Index suppliers since 2010.

Why did they win?

Design - The design immediately strikes you as being clean and crisp - adjectives that are regularly included in website design briefs but rarely delivered. The layout of the homepage makes it immediately clear what the offering is and gives and indication of price all before you hit the fold. Video testimonials show that the company wears its customer service credentials on its sleeve - a point that's backed up throughout the rest of the site. What Workbooks should really be lauded for though is that they've managed to make a website for a fairly complicated product simple and uncluttered.

Navigation - Moving away from the home page brings the satisfaction that the same high quality is maintained throughout the site.There's a very clear navigational bar along the top that's maintained through every page and the navigational links for each subsection appear down the left hand side. This creates a matrix-like layout so you always know where you are and how to get to what you need. The site is also fast - pages download and display in super-quick time - which considering the amount of content, images, video and widgets is impressive.

Content - In a word? Phenomenal. We've got white papers, masses of articles, tons of videos all delivered in an efficient and understated manner. There are sections on features of the service, how to make the most of it, pricing, user support and customer feedback. Whether you're already a workbooks customer or thinking about becoming one this site delivers all the information you need quickly.

Contact options - With their live chat feature Workbooks start reaching out to you the moment you hit the site. They put the phone number, live chat and Twitter links on every page. Their contact pages are clearly marked up and include a contact form, different email addresses for different departments and a map. In short, all the boxes have been ticked.

Pizazz - As we outlined in our post on judging criteria we're not just looking for run of the mill B2B sites with nice graphics. In order to win an award you need to go the extra mile, you need a feature or characteristic that really makes you stand out from the competitors in your industry. In other words, you need a killer app. Workbooks.com has one in the form of their community pages.

These pages include: a comprehensive guide to using their CRM app; a blog for addressing common user issues and providing news; a forum where users can seek advice and guidance from other users and the technical team; a customer ideas section where users can suggest and vote for their most desired product enhancements.

This sort of customer support can't be replicated with little expense or effort and it makes absolutely clear that Workbooks not only care about their customers but that they're passionate about providing the best service that they possibly can.

Well done Workbooks for producing a site that puts user satisfaction at the core of the experience and for pulling out all the stops to get it absolutely right. The success is well deserved.

Business Services Honourable Mention: Northgate Arinso

Northgate Arinso have been around a long time and provide Human Resources software and services the globe over. As such you'd expect that their website, www.ngahr.com, to be pretty spiffy. And it is.

Despite being pipped to the post in their category by Workbooks, Northgate's site has the depth and quality of content to really make it stand out in a crowded marketplace.

The wealth of information they provide on their various products and services is well ordered and highly accessible. They also avoid falling into the trap of writing copy that's too targeted at an audience already well versed in the HR lingo - the content here will make sense to HR heads and SME owners alike.

The branding is well implemented, the contact and support options copious, there's a heap of video content for industry professsionals and a blog with a good variety of contributors.

An example to other large providers of business services that attention to detail really pays off.

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If you're looking for top quality web design for your business to compete with our 2012 award winners then check out Approved Index's free website design quotes comparision service.

Best Office Equipment Website: Neopost UK

2012-04-24T08:45:45Z

We are very pleased to announce that the winner of our supplier website award in the office equipment category is www.neopost.co.uk

Who are they?

Founded in the UK in 1924 Neopost has grown to become a global supplier of mailroom equipment and software including franking machines, letter folders, shredders and mail accounting software.

Neopost UK has headquarters in Romford, Essex and regional offices throughout the country.

They've been an Approved Index supplier since 2008.

Why did they win?

Design - Okay, there's nothing earth shaking here but in the office equipment category no one's going overboard on flashy graphics. The design is however unparalled when it comes to functionality. The layout is crisp, clear and precise with a contact form right there on the homepage so you can request quotes instantly. If you're looking to contact a supplier about a franking machine, Neopost UK are making it a hassle free proposition.

Navigation - With links on the homepage to their product catalogue, customer support centre, online shop and copious information on Royal Mail postal tariffs, Neopost aren't just making life easy for potential new customers but for existing customers too. There's a page on how to use their online account management system accessible right from the home page so that people who've just signed up don't need to go on a long hunt for information. This is good site architecture.

Contact Options - For potential customers there are a variety of contact forms to request information - including the short one on the home page - as well as telephone numbers to call. The customer support centre also provides a wealth of options, both online and phone based, for existing customers. It's easy to find the addresses and numbers of regional offices too. In general, you get the feeling that Neopost are ready to talk.

Pizazz - As we've already mentioned, in office equipment a functional website is pretty much all you ask for and there were many contenders for the crown of most usable. What tipped the Neopost UK site over into winner territory for us was this:

A whole page dedicated to corporate social responsibility.

This not only highlights Neopost's efforts to reduce their environmental impact through cutting their carbon footprint, waste and energy consupmtion but also shows that they raise money for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital - their nominated charity - and encourage their staff to volunteer for local charities.

It's the kind of thing we like seeing from businesses - especially ones who are big enough to not really have to bother - and the kind of thing that makes all the difference when it comes to dishing out the honours.

So congratulations Neopost UK on building a website about office equipment that's not only easy to use, on which it's easy to find contact details and which is jam-packed with useful information but which also highlights the importance of being a good corporate citizen.

It's an example to others in more ways than one.

Office Equipment Honourable Mention: Rijo42

Do coffee machines count as office equipment? We don't know. What we do know is that the folks at Rijo42 absolutely love coffee and that love shows through on their website www.rijo42.co.uk

It's not just the heart-shapes branding but a wealth of info on coffee machines and beans full of the kind of attention to detail that only true connoiseur can produce that shows us how much they care.

From videos on how their coffee beans are grown through to a blog that teaches you how to make the perfect cup, the content on this website is more than just froth.

It looks pretty nice too, don't you think?

So hats off to Rijo42 for a top quality coffee machines site which warrants them an honourable mention in the office equipment section of our website awards 2012.

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If you're looking for top quality web design for your business to compete with our 2012 award winners then check out Approved Index's free website design quotes comparision service.

The Approved Index Supplier Website Awards 2012

2012-04-23T14:49:12Z

In the age of online marketing a business website is a make or break feature. Done well it can capture your intended audience's attention and draw them into a relationship with your brand. Done badly it can turn off a potential customer in record time. And with platforms like Drupal and Wordpress making web design and development accessible to the masses there really isn't any excuse for doing it badly.

This month we've scoured the Approved Index directory to find the very best examples of B2B websites. All of our 400+ active suppliers were in contention and over the next few weeks we'll be presenting the very finest examples of online customer interaction from the following sectors:

Office Equipment
Business Services
Automotive
Training
Construction Equipment

and finally, the incredibly competitive categories of

Marketing
Internet Services

Approved Index suppliers are, in general, a pretty web savvy bunch so the standards have been high and most categories have presented a very hard decision.

The translation: you shouldn't be downhearted if you're an Approved Index supplier and didn't get an award. To double the amount of website love we can dish out though we'll also highlight an honourable mention in each category.

The Judging Criteria

We'll give full reasons for each of our decisions in the award announcement post but in the interests of transparency here's what we were looking for in our search for the best supplier websites of 2012.

At Approved Index we're all too familiar with the nexus that exists between buyer and seller and what can go wrong in that oh so delicate zone both at initial contact and in subsequent steps of the buying process. The website should present as few hurdles to the potential customer as possible while providing all the support and information they need to get them through the conversion process.

Design - A good customer facing website should make the presentation of information a priority. The layout should be clear and provide your users with everything they need while still being easy on the eye.

Navigation - Users should be able to work out easily how to get to the information they need and be able ot navigate there quickly.

Contact Options - The more ways you give your customers to connect with you the better - some people are more comfortable ringing in while others like to email. An online form can be the perfect solution in many an instance but leave users feeling cut off in others.

Content - Whether in the form of text, audio, video or pictures, content is king. No matter what your business does the visitors to your website can be described as looking for one thing and one thing only - information. A great business website provides as much information to its users as possible and always makes sure that the content is engaging, relevant and satisfies visitors' neds.

Pizazz - The least important factor to us but one which can make the difference between a really good website and a great one. If you can not only provide your visitors with a great looking, content paked, easy to use website with tons of options for following up but also do it with style and personality then you are truly a master of the B2B web.

The Announcements

Will begin tomorrow, so keep an eye out.

First up... Office Equipment.

This is exciting!

Is Cutting Red Tape the Key to Economic Recovery?

2012-04-20T09:14:39Z

With the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (or JOBS) Act having just passed in Washington, the drumbeat for cutting regulations for SMEs in the UK is reaching a deafening volume.

This recent article in the Birmingham Post has university professor Francis Green opining that "the total burden of business regulations on small business is excessive". He cites the fact that a small business spends, on average, £15,000 on employment tribunals (interestingly there's no time-frame for that average - is it over one year? Ten? Who knows - he doesn't give a source).

Many other proponents of regulatory roll-backs are joining in the chant - not least the UK government themselves who, not content with mere deficit cutting, can't wait to hear your red tape slashing suggestions.

So what's the real story? Are the UK's small businesses really drowning in a sea of red tape? Do they face too many regulations? Are those regulations the cause of stifled growth or is there perhaps another, larger millstone hanging around the neck of the UK economy?

58 Separate Regulations

That's how many rules a company with seventeen workers would have to comply with according to the Better Regulation Executive. I couldn't find the source for that statistic, also cited by Francis Green in the article above so I'can't provide a list, but let's assume that the figure is correct.

I'm sure you'll agree that it's reasonable to say that most of those 58 regulations are concerned with registering your company, conducting health and safety assessments and putting in place any H&S requirements as well as paying corporation tax, payroll tax and national insurance contributions.

No one but the most die-hard libertarian would argue that all these regulations have to be in place - a business has to be registered, has to pay taxes on its earnings and employee wages and has to not endanger the safety of its workers. The last one will invite contention for sure, but even if health and safety regulations were relaxed would you really want to bear the full liability for any accidents or injuries that took place on your premises? The laws aren't just there to protect employees after all.

So what's left? What I would argue are the real targets of the whole red-tape cutting brigade - employment laws. In fact most proponents make no bones about this and indeed increasing the period of time after which an employee can claim unfair dismissal from one to two years ha salready made it into law. It is claimed that such legislation will promote growth by allowing employers longer to decide whether a member of staff is worth keeping on.

But do employers really need that long? Or is this legislation merely aimed at making it easier to sack staff when the economy hits the rocks again? Is the reason that small to medium sized businesses can't achieve growth down to heavy legislation or is there a deeper cause to this problem?

4 Year Credit Crunch

The following chart shows how bank lending to SMEs, and small businesses in particular collapsed after the credit crunch and hasn't recovered since (in fact, for small businesses it continues to decline).

(Credit to Ripped Off Britons for the image)

This is despite project Merlin under which banks were forced to promise to lend £190bn to businesses during 2011 (including £76bn to small firms) - a promise on which they promptly reneged, forcing the government to promptly pretend they'd never made them promise in the first place.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, if you run an SME you'll know that you can make as many expansionary plans as you like, plot as much growth as you fancy and it will all come to nothing without the credit to finance it. Without finance businesses can't invest in new staff, new technologies or greater amounts of raw materials, no matter how many regulations are cut.

The Penny Drops

What the UK government is entering into is a race to the bottom. By refusing to take the banks in hand and instead attacking their own laws for protecting not only employees but their own tax revenues they're setting themselves up in opposition to other sovereign governments also trying to attract regulation (and tax) avoiding larger firms. And who among those larger firms are the ones constantly threatening to up sticks and leave for less regulatory heavy jursidictions? Oh yes, the banks themeselves.

Don't be fooled - red tape isn't being cut to help you grow your business. It's being done to make life easier for multi-national financial corporations. These are the very same businesses who are responsible for the current obstacles to economic growth - through the reckless lending and speculative activity that led to the credit crunch and record levels of private and public debt.

So the next time someone asks you to participate in a Red Tape cutting public consultation ask yourself, in the words of Roman consul and Censor Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla "cui bono?"

It's probably not you.

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If you're investigating non-bank forms of funding for your SME then be sure to check out invoice factoring - where you post your unpaid invoices as collateral against credit. It's more expensive than bank loans but can be a quick way to inject vital capital into your business expansion plans.

Boon or Blip: The Franking Industry & Stamp Price Rises

2012-04-04T15:58:53Z

As you will no doubt already know the Royal Mail last week anounced a big hike in the price of stamps and, therefore, in the cost of sending unfranked mail.

(If you didn't know you can read all about it here.)

On the face of it the increases of 30% and 39% respectively in the cost of 1st and 2nd class stamps would seem like a real boost for franking machine companies. As the cost of franked mail is increasing by only a few pence on single letters, surely SMEs all over the place will be rushing to lock in the savings that franking machines provide?

So far, so obvious - and the sheer volume of franking machine activity on the web over the past few days would seem to bear this hypothesis out. But longer term, what will be the impact on physical mail? Are franking machine suppliers really going to benefit from escalating mail prices or will it sound the death knell of their industry?

Could we in fact see a backlash against the use of post, with many companies who before would never have considered going digital being forced into it by the heavy hand of the Royal Mail and OfCom?

The first clues to such a backlash crop up in articles like this in Post & Parcel:

Dismay at "toothless dog" Ofcom over Royal Mail Price Hike

In which several parties, notably the Direct Marketing Association and the Forum of Private Business criticise the price rises and suggest that they "will drive more and more businesses away from mail to cheaper alternatives, which is concerning as mail volumes are already declining year on year." (DMA)

There are also concerns that users will abandon 1st class mail altogether leading to further hikes in the price of 1st class to keep it profitable:

"The quickest way for the Royal Mail to decline further is by pricing businesses out of their service. The costs of business are already high. There needs to be some respite not further crude hikes." (FPB)

And does this puff-piece in Link2Portal contain a note of despair from Pitney Bowes - old enough and large enough to detect a black eye for their own industry?

Rocketing postal rate will require SME rethink, warns Pitney Bowes

The quote in question: "Although digital communications undoubtedly have their place, traditional print campaigns are still critical for most businesses and are likely to remain so for many years to come."

Only time will tell...

Lights, Canon, Action! 5 Pivotal Photocopier Movie Cameos

2012-03-30T12:29:16Z

Should the Oscars have a category for 'Best Performance by a Piece of Office Equipment in a Motion Picture'? No. Of course not. That would be ridiculous. Nevertheless, some of our favourite Hollywood movies contain pivotal roles from normally innocuous office products.

How many of the following five photocopier/fax cameos do you remember?

(Warning: Here be spoilers. If you haven't seen a film in the last ten years then go and read something else.)

1. Best Death: Office Space

Some would argue the quintessential photocopier scene. Mike Judge's 1999 satire about three disgruntled office workers who decide to rip off their company via complex accounting fraud features what is probably the goriest movie death for a piece of electronic equipment since the T-101 decided to take a nap underneath an hydraulic press. The three colleagues take long sought after revenge against the MFP for ruining their long days by taking it out into the middle of nowhere and taking turns to pummel it into the dirt - all set against a Geto Boys soundtrack.

Tagline: Work sucks (but a lousy copier sucks more)

2. Best Character Introduction: Fight Club

The sinister photocopier again emerges as a symbol of white collar frustration and pent up corporate drone angst in David Fincher's seminal 1999 study of the modern male psyche. The narrator works for an insurance company and sees his life stretching out before him devoid of possibility - in order to liven things up he subconsciously creates an alter ego - the exotically amoral Tyler Durden. Before meeting Tyler for the first time we see, through the narrators eyes, subliminal glimpses of his soon to be unleashed dark side - single frames containing out of focus Tylers in the background. The first of these occurs while the narrator watches his colleague operate a photocopier.

Tagline: On long enough timeline the survival rate for every HPLJ9050 drops to zero.

3. Best Interrogation: The Wire

Okay, it's not a movie but it is HBO, so close enough, yeah? The urban myth of the police faking lie detector tests on ignorant suspects is an old one but in series five, episode one of what is probably the greatest cop drama of all time it's given a new twist. Dapper dressing Bunk Moreland tapes his frightened witnesses hand to a photocopier's glass plate in order to verify his answers. "The machine never lies, son" says Moreland to his terrified mark, who promptly confesses.

Tagline: Read between the lines. (Or maybe just clean your print head)

4. Best Causality Paradox: Back to the Future Part II

You'd have thought that where they were going, they wouldn't need faxes. Apparently you'd be wrong. When Marty McFly finds himself in his own living room 20 years in the future in Robert Zemeckis' 1989 sci-fi comedy sequel he sees his future self getting fired by his then boss for being goaded into a dodgy business deal by his friend Needles ("nobody calls me chicken!"). The message comes through on several faxes placed in Marty's, now I come to think of it, suspiciously 80's looking living room. But all is not lost - at the end of Part III, back in 1985, (the two films were shot together and intended as a single cohesive story) McFly overcomes his tendency towards proving his courage which ensures that he'll keep his mundane future job (?) and the message disappears.

Tagline: He was never in time for his classes... He was never in time for his dinner... Then one day he bought an Amstrad PF600.

5. Best Getaway Assist: The Usual Suspects

Oh agent Kujan, you came so close to catching the elusive Keyser Söze in Bryan Singer's 1995 neo-noir masterpiece. If only that fax machine had been a little quicker in transmitting the police artist's sketch of Keyser's face (put together from the description of the only other survivor). If only mobiles with cameras had been around in '95 then you wouldn't have needed a fax machine at all.

Tagline: Five criminals. One line up. No connection. Please hang up and try again.

Can you think of any more?

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Become a Small Business Social Media Guru in 20 Minutes a Day

2012-03-16T13:45:05Z

I thought I'd take some time out from our ongoing series on the small business in a recession to share some thoughts on social media and what the owners and managers of a small company can do to make it work for them.

Social media is prettiest girl at the marketing ball right now: everyone wants a dance. The reasons are clear: it's cheap and it's really, really effective. For proof, see this article on Social Media Examiner: 26 Promising Social Media Stats for Small Business.

How do I become a social media guru?

The short answer: get involved. Post often and post about stuff that excites you. Chances are, if you're revved up about something it'll have a similar effect on at least a few other people.

Here's the longer version:

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare and Google+ are fantastic for targeted marketing. When people share, like or Tweet your posts they distribute them to a network of connected people with whom they share certain characteristics. These characteristics might include ones which make them suitable to your business. For example, someone who's had a good experience with your company might decide to follow you on Twitter. The next time you Tweet an offer they might re-Tweet it to their followers who are all much more likely to be a suitable customer (due to what they have in common with the original customer) than a person picked at random off the street.

In order to capitalise on this effect you have to be active on social media platforms on a regular basis. It's no good Tweeting or posting a Facebook update once in a blue moon and expecting an uplift in website visitors or footfall in your shop or restaurant. Much of social media marketing is down to maximising your chances of catching the eye of the right person at the right time - prompting them to react by further sharing your content or acting on the invitation/offer. Your chances are increased the more often you put something out there. As your network of followers/friends etc grows this catch-the-eye effect becomes more likely due to the law of big numbers.

So, all I have to do is post constantly?

Sorry: it's a bit more nuanced than that. Constantly posting about nothing in particular will just turn off those followers you've been lucky enough to pick up.

The best thing is to be honest - post when you're genuinely excited about something that you want to share.

But I run a small business - I don't have time for this!

Yes, you do.

The most labour intensive part of the whole process is setting up your Twitter, Facebook, Google+ accounts. That'll probably take a couple of hours if you do it right and add plenty of profile information (after all, you want people to know that it's the real company, where you are, what your logo looks like, what your website address is etc). But you can spread this out into 20 minute chunks over several days if you really want to stick to the 20 minute rule (you're so pedantic!)

You more than likely have a smart phone from which you can access Twitter, FB and the rest. Why not set a reminder at regularly spaced intervals, say four times a day, to do some social media updating? Some of these reminders will end up being ignored, or you won't feel like you have anything to share at the time - but it will keep reminding you and getting you in the habit of thinking about it. You'll end up engaging with social media at least once a day - the absolute minimum if you're to achive guru status.

Pretty soon though you'll get the bug - when someone likes or reTweets your stuff and you know your marketing message is propagating out into cyberspace (we still say that right?) you'll want it to grow and grow.

Okay, I'm enthused. What next?

The actual posting only takes up about half of our alloted twenty minutes. What should you be spending the rest of the time on?

My answer: musing.

Yep, have a think. (In the marketing industry we call this strategising) You can do this over your porridge in the morning, in the shower, the car or while you're doing boring repetitive tasks of which most businesses seem to have one or two.

What should you be thinking about? Who are your customers and why do they like your company? What can you do to make them tell their (online) friends about you?

Don't be afraid to think outside the box: in fact, out of the ordinary stuff tends to be more likely to catch on. A cafe I visited recently was giving away free cups of coffee to anyone who checked into FourSquare while inside. You might think a cafe giving away free coffee is business suicide but if each of the people who took up the offer spread the message to 50 friends (who are likely to be local remember) that's a pretty good return on (i'm guessing) 30p's worth of coffee grounds, hot water and milk.

So think about what your business can do to get people Tweeting, Liking and +1-ing about you. You're probably an expert on your business sector so don't be afraid to share your knowledge with the world - people appreciate an expert, love to learn and love to share knowledge. Then stick it out there the next time you get a reminder and watch your social media influence slowly grow.

It does require patience and discipline, but, considering the outlay, the returns are practically infinite.

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Larger company looking for help with social media marketing? Get social media agency quotes from Approved Index.

Marketing: The First Cut is the Deepest

2012-02-29T11:26:08Z

Another area in which it can be tempting to slash costs in a recession is marketing. The marketing budget tends to take up a lot of space on a business's list of outgoings and it sometimes feels that those outgoings are strangling your margins. After all, what does marketing do exactly? What revenue does it bring in? It's just there because everyone else does it, right? Do those guys in marketing actually do anything all day long?

As we've discussed in previous posts, we believe that SMEs are the key to returning to economic growth and that small business innovation can't happen without taking a chance or two. Increasing your marketing efforts could be one such chance but it could also mean doing more with less - not marketing bigger, but marketing smarter.

So, before you get out that big red pen and start slashing budgets left, right and centre take some time to consider what marketing is, how you're doing it and how stepping up your marketing efforts could actually strengthen your market position in an economic downturn.

What's it For?
Marketing encompasses a range of activities from billboard advertising through to Tweeting. We're not here to tell you what method is best for your business - that all depends on what it is you sell and who your target audience is. What we want to convince you of is that marketing is effective and that it can bring in much more than it takes out - especially in a recession.

In a stagnating or shrinking economy large companies will cut their marketing budgets. But large companies probably had bloated marketing expenses in the first place - sponsorship of sporting events and TV commercials don't come cheap. But that doesn't mean you should cut yours as well. Instead you should be ready to exploit the opportunity that this presents.

What opportunity? I hear you cry. Glad you asked.

Marketing has to happen somewhere - in a physical space like on billboards or newspapers, in a digital space like on TV or on the internet. There's only so much of this space that people pay attention to, that registers on people's internal radar as they go about their day. During boom times we're literally bombarded with marketing messages 24/7 but as large corporations spend less on marketing they start to retreat from those spaces, leaving more room for smaller companies to start inhabiting that space and making their messages more effective (due to reduced competition) when they do.

And that's not all. Lower demand actually causes the price of advertising to drop. Never will you have a cheaper opportunity for, say, getting a TV commercial made than during an economic downturn.

How do I do it?
Now that we've given you the reasons we think that marketing shouldn't be the first casualty of your cost-cutting exercises, what advice can we offer on how to spend your marketing budget effectively?

It all boils down to two words: plan and measure.

Whether you're taking on a marketing company or keeping it in-house, your marketing plan should be thorough and well researched. Delve deep into your customer data to work out how your customers behave: what forms of media are they most likely to pay attention to? What's their typical job title, age range, income or marital status? Your specific plan will depend heavily on the insights you glean from information that customers have given you in the past so if you haven't been collecting this kind of data before, start now!

Your plan should set out exactly waht it is you're trying to communicate to the customer, which channels you're going to use to get that message out and should include clearly defined objectives and goals. 'Increase number of customers' is not a clearly defined goal. 'Make and publish 5 online videos in February' is. One size fits all plans won't do - make sure you have separate plans for the short, medium and long term.

Of course, drawing up a marketing plan is just the first step. Actually implementing it well is probably the more difficult part. In order to succeed you'll need to make sure that the plan's aims and objectives are communicated company wide and that everyone understands them. This is where a small company has the advantage over the corporates - in an SME everyone can get involved in marketing efforts. For example, using real staff in promotional videos not only saves money but customers love it too. Make sure everyone's on board and understands their role.

Now we come to measuring results. Measuring return on marketing investment (ROMI) is a fairly new area of study but there are several god books on the subject like Marketing Calculator by Guy Powell. It's a fairly difficult task to accomplish as there are incidental effects of marketing that can't be directly measured - like increased brand awareness. What monetary value can you attach to such effects and how do you measure them? It's not easy.

This is where online marketing comes into it's own. Tracking tools like Google Analytics allow you to see exactly how many new visitors have been attracted to your website and how many of those visitors turn into customers or prospects. You can also see how they got to your site (e.g. via a link in an email newsletter) making the task of attributing effects to different marketing channels much easier.

There are ways to achive this kind of tracking offline as well. Discount codes which you can change across different advertising methods, specific phone numbers or barcodes can all help you pinpoint exactly how a new customer heard about you. In order for such methods to work though, you have to get your staff to ask and record the information.

All these measurements can then feed back into your marketing plan, allowing you to scrap what isn't working and focusing your efforts on what is.

Ecommerce: If not now, when?

2012-02-16T16:02:58Z

In our last blog post we laid out the case for not following the predictable path of cost-cutting and downsizing that most businesses fall prey to during a recession. We argued that in the current business climate large companies are mostly locked into a beggar thy neighbour type strategy of cost reduction (in fact where they are pursuing growth, they're doing it through takeovers and mergers) and that small businesses hold the key to recovery through their innovation and risk taking.

Over the next few posts we'll try to suggest some ways in which small businesses can take measured risks in order to reap large rewards. We'll point to some potential avenues of growth that, while they do involve some up front expense to exploit, could lead to capturing some of the markets that the large corporates are too cautious to go after and emerging from the downturn in a much stronger position than before.

The first such suggestion is ecommerce.

Taking your sales online not only opens up your catalogue of products and services to a much wider audience who are suddenly only a couple of mouse-clicks away but also allows you to exploit the accessibility and cost-efffectiveness of online marketing channels. With only a few hours research any business owner is able to start taking steps to promote their business online - be it through social media channels like Twitter and Facebook or by tweaking your website to make it appear higher in Google search results (a process known as Search Engine Optimistion). With an ecommerce website in place, any successful marketing activity will drive customers directly to your place of business and potentialy result in sales.

As well as facilitating this have-a-go approach to marketing using tools like Google analytics with your ecommerce website make it possible to track exactly where on the interent your website visitors are coming from, which search terms they're using to find your site and which ones are actually converting into sales - allowing you to work out who your best customers are and tailor your marketing efforts for these kind of people.

Getting an ecommmerce website up and running won't be cheap - you're looking at an expenditure of at least £1k for a decent website. In straightened economic times and with bank finance so hard to get hold of we understand that that's no insignificant sum. But when you consider that online sales in 2011 topped £62bn while high-street spending dwindled, and that over the last year the number of small businesses trading exclusively online rose by 31%, you realise that getting your products and services online is a no-brainer.

Preaching to the converted?
Okay, we know we're writing a blog entry here and that if you've found our site because you're interested in the internet and business that you're probably trading online already. So, do we have a suggestion for you, the experienced e-commercant?

Yes: M-commerce.

Mobile phone users were the source of 2% of all ecommerce transactions in 2011 and with the proliferation of smartphones that figure is expected to more than treble over the next few years. With that in mind, ask yourself this: how mobile friendly is my ecommerce site and am I doing enough to embrace smartphone using customers?

If your site isn't optimised for use on a mobile device which has a small screen resolution, limited bandwidth capabilities and possibly no support for Flash you could already be missing out on a significant number of sales - especially if what you're selling is aimed at younger, more tech-savvy customers.

Whether you need to develop a mobile website or mobile app is a question to which you should give careful consideration (and you can get more advice here) but what's certain is that smartphones users are the future of ecommerce.

John Nash, Game Theory and the Small Business in a Recession

2012-02-03T15:11:51Z

What is the connection between Russell Crowe and the difficulty that small businesses are experiencing getting bank loans? In this blog post I'm going to attempt to find it but before I do we first need to solve the question thrown up by this post's title: are we in fact in recession?

The official answer is, of course, no: so far we've only experienced one quarter of economic contraction (in Q4 2011) when two are required for a recession proper. In addition, news today of accelerating growth in the UK services sector (FT - registration required) is causing many economists to revise their previous forecasts and predict a revival of UK economic growth across the board.

These predictions however are but one voice among many and it seems that the consensus is not as optimistic. Long term, the picture doesn't seem rosy - especially for small businesses. As the double edged sword of inflation causes costs to rise and consumer spending power to diminish, small business confidence is sinking lower and lower.

In such an economic climate the temptation is to batten down the hatches, cut costs and try to ride out the storm. Of course, the effect of many businesses doing this at the same time only leads to worsening economic conditions, higher unemployment, less household spending and increased chances of going out of business. Is there any way for a small firm to break the cycle?

This is where Russell Crowe comes in.

Okay, not really Russell Crowe but one of the characters he's played in the movies: John Forbes Nash Jr - mathematician, troubled genius, subject of the film 'A Beautiful Mind' and potentially the provider of key insights in how to manage a small business during a time of economic contraction.

Nash's principal field of study was game theory a branch of mathematics that studies circumstances, in games or otherwise, where the success of one 'player' depends on the choices made by other 'players'. One of Nash's most famous contributions to this field was the concept of Nash Equilibrium.

In very simplistic terms, a Nash equilibrium is a situation in a game involving two or more players where, for any player, changing one's own strategy without the other players changing their strategies leads to no benefit. In other words, every player is locked into playing the same strategy in order to avoid their opponents gaining an advantage - regardless of whether the combined strategies are beneficial to all the players overall. In some instances of Nash equilibrium, all the players could increase their pay-offs if they could all agree on changing their strategies to some new solution of the game.

(Those who've seen the film 'A Beautiful Mind' should think back to the scene in the bar where Russel Crowe convinces his horny mathematician colleagues to all agree to ignore the unattainable blonde and instead concentrate their attentions on her less physically well endowed friends. This way all of them get a fair crack at going home with a date rather than following their natural proclivity to compete for (and get rebuffed by) the blonde thereby ruining their chances with the other girls ).

The most famous example of a Nash equilibrium is the Prisoners' Dilemma where two prisoners are questioned independently. If both stick to their story then neither can be prosecuted but if one 'defects' and implicates his partner he escapes prosecution while the other goes to jail. The outcome that is best for both players overall is to stick to their stories but the Nash equilibrium has both players defecting - because each serves his own short term interests in doing so - and both players therefore facing prosecution.

So how do Nash equilibriums inform our perception of the current UK business climate?

Applying game theory principles to economics is nothing new - in fact, Nash was awarded a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994 - and I am a strict amateur so what follows should be taken with more than a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, I think there are insights to be gleaned.

Let us remember that the UK is no longer the workshop of the world as it was in the 19th Century. Manufacturing and exporting is no longer our main game. Economic health in this country depends to a large extent on consumer spending power. When that spending power is diminished, as has happened recently, large retailers and service companies take a hit to their revenues and start cutting costs. Which often means layoffs, leading to greater unemployment and further reduced spending on the high street. No individual large company can go against this trend as they can't spend money on growth when there is no market (i.e. employed consumers) to take their product. Large companies answer to their shareholders (read pension funds) who would see such risk taking as reckless and unwarranted. Each large company is locked into a strategy of downsizing and cost cutting until the economic situation somehow improves, even though the most profitable strategy all round would be for them all to spend more, pay more wages, raise consumer spending power and create a larger market for their goods and services.

So when does this cycle end? Inevitably when the reduced spending of large companies allows small businesses to start making inroads into the market space concede by those large firms. Almost always, small businesses lead the charge to recovery (FT).

So what lesson can a small business take from this possibly over-extended metaphor?

At the moment finance which allows small businesses to expand is incredibly hard to come by as the banks are trapped in a Nash equilibrium of their own (making). But there are opportunities out there for the small businesses who are brave enough to seek them out - small firms are not trapped in the same cost-cutting and employment slashing cycle as the publicly traded companies - and growth is possible.

I'm not advocating stupid risk taking or risk taking for its own sake but, if you've got a great idea and confidence in the abilities and resources of your company, now could be the time to attempt to break into the ground being rapidly vacated by the large companies. And alternative funding sources like those mentioned in the last post could provide the capital you need to do so (but be wary of venture capital funds).

Who knows, maybe Russell Crowe can save the economy after all...

January: A Mixed Month for Small Businesses

2012-01-31T10:00:00Z

The first month of 2012 is almost at an end. The days are getting longer and, while temperatures aren't showing signs of rising just yet, it's getting slightly easier to believe that spring will one day arrive.

But will 2012 be a springtime for British businesses emerging from the long winter of recession, or is the economic climate set to get harsher still?

January's business news provides rather a mixed forecast:

1. HMRC showing welcome readiness to resolve small business tax disputes. (DOF Online)
HM Revenue and Customs has (rightly) come in for a bit of a barracking in recent years. Making secret tax deals with corporations like Vodafone and fouling up PAYE tax codes for 1.4m people in 2010 has significantly undermined confidence in the government department. They've also repeatedly been accused of victimising small businesses in order to increase the tax take and help cut the UK deficit. A move by HMRC to introduce a new Alternative Dispute Resolution service aimed at small to medium sized enterprises is welcome then, as outlined in this article from Director of Finance Online, though time will tell whether the new system makes it out of pilot and how much good it will do.

2. Sma ll businesses are the 'real internet companies' says, er, Google(?!) (Telegraph)
In a rare display of humbleness for the search engine giant, Google exec Matt Brittin said at a conference in Brussels that online behemoths like Skype, eBay and Google istelf are not the 'real internet businesses' but that that title rests with SMEs, the 'unsung heroes of the economy'. It seems that Google doesn't mind a bit of competition after all - presumably as long as that competition isn't offering a product or service that Google itself offers and is too small to pose any kind of threat.

3. Small business lending still weakdespite project Merlin (Telegraph)
Project Merlin, an agreement between the Government and the top four banks (Barclays, Lloyds, RBS and HSBC) was finalised almost a year ago in February 2011. The terms were that those banks would lend a total of £190bn to business in 2011 including £76bn to small businesses. So how did they do? Not very well apparently. The banks not only missed those small business targets but also saw a drop in new business lending of 6.1% year-on-year in the three months to November. What are the prospects for this situation changing? Pretty bleak as even larger businesses are now reporting that bank credit is hard to get. As the banks continue getting their balance sheets in order to better cope with the Eurozone crisis small businesses are urged to try alternative sources of investment capital such as http://www.fundingcircle.com/ - a peer to peer social lending programme or http://www.crowdcube.com/ - a crowdfunding enterprise.

4. Auto enrolment pensions for small businesses delayed until 2017 (Guardian)
Those small business owners still grappling with this year's tax return (we hope you've remembered today's deadline) will be relieved to hear that the introduction of at least one administrative headache has been delayed for another 5 years. The auto enrolment scheme was set to bring up to 10m workers into pension schemes for the first time but the DWP have cited "exceptionally tough economic times" as reason for delaying the introduction of the programme - under which employees are automatically enrolled on their employers' pension schemes - until 1st April 2017 for companies with fewer than 30 staff.

5. Facebook to offer free ads to small businesses (Sky)
A generous month for internet giants indeed, January also saw Facebook announce a £4.2m giveaway of ad credits to businesses in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Individual buisnesses can get up to £83.16 each of free credits and there will also be free events run by Facebook and local Chambers of Commerce throughout the country explaining how to set up a business Facebook page and use it to engage customers. More sceptical heads might see this as a response to Google's recent introduction of brand pages on their new social network Google+ which, if used shrewdly by businesses, can have a similar effect to advertising.

Those of a less cynical bent are just happy to get free stuff.