Following on from our Blog of 8 March – ‘What Are We Doing About Exeter’s Triple Crown Status’ The Plum Consultancy is delighted to advise that the ‘Expect Success: Invest in Exeter’ logo is available for all local businesses to use on their websites, stationery and email signatures to promote Exeter’s extraordinary triple crown status in the UK.
With investment enquiries up by 250% since the campaign was launched in London 2 weeks ago, congratulations are to be extended to all those involved in obtaining these fantastic accolades. To capitalise on this opportunity, Exeter Chamber...
After a meteoric 2012 which saw Exeter-based bespoke software, mobile apps and web development agency Rokk Media Ltd reach its first decade, move to a purpose-built office and realise a doubling in turnover, it has continued to buck the economic trend in 2013 after securing major new clients and adding more members to the team.
New appointments in project management, web development and a key appointment at director level, all reinforce Rokk Media’s commitment to further extensive growth over the next few years.
New Marketing Director Ian Creek joins Rokk Media after...
With Social Media marketing taking on a life of its own in recent years, we at The Plum Consultancy ask what is relevant and what isn’t? How many people are drowning under the barrage of tweets, shares, likes, LinkedIn requests and Google+ notifications? Are they all meaningful or are tweets being re-tweeted within an inch of their lives and is anyone taking any notice or is it all going in the spam folder?!
We believe the considered approach is the only approach to have when using and dealing with Social Media for business purposes. Social Media is as much about relationship...
In the last 12 months alone, businesses being incubated by a partnership of five UK universities have raised some £30m in investment.
The figures have been unveiled by SETsquared , a collaboration between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. The organisation partners in enterprise activities and collectively supports the growth and success of new business opportunities through its five incubation centres.
SETsquared’s Partnership Director, Graham Harrison, shared the partnership’s latest success figures with MP David Willetts as he visited...
Of all the arrangements people use to conduct their business, none is more fraught with danger than the simplest: partnership. The problem is that the basis of any partnership is sharing.
That should be easy. Two partners, two shares. Generally fifty-fifty.
Well, it isn’t so easy. In the burlesque era, comic teams used a different formula. The straight man got 55 percent, the funny man got 45 percent. Why? The straight man was the agent for the team, responsible for getting the bookings, negotiating the b illing, all the nuts and bolts stuff.
How important is it to you to have a really good experience when you go out shopping, to a restaurant or at any time when you buy products or services? If you’re anything like us, the answer is – Very Important!
The whole experience means the difference between using a company once or returning several times for a repeat experience. How important is a friendly face, helpful advice or a pleasant telephone manner? And how objective are you about your own business’s image? Do you know what customers think of the experience your company offers? If you don’t you need to find out quick!...
The ability to listen to others is not, typically, the entrepreneur’s greatest strength. If you’re the oldest guy in the shop, if you’re the one others turn to when they want to hear about the “old days,” it’s time to find yourself an even older grizzly. When I first bought Mackay Envelope, I was twenty-six. My lawyer, the one I hired after I fired the young hotshot who told me not to buy the envelope company, was sixty. My accountant was fifty-eight, and my banker would admit to being seventy, but I think he was closer to eighty....
Apprenticeship completions over the next decade are forecast to contribute £3.4 billion a year to the economy through productivity gains by 2022. That’s according to a new report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) released today to mark the start of National Apprenticeship Week 2013.
The report, Productivity Matters: The impact of Apprenticeships on the UK economy, presents Cebr’s analysis of the contribution of Apprenticeships to the economy, examining current trends and future developments and exploring the productivity impact of Apprenticeships. Key...
Small firms' confidence has increased, but their investment intentions have fallen as the domestic economy and access to finance act as a barrier to growth, show the results from the quarter one 2013 ‘Voice of Small Business' Index from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The report, which surveyed 2,686 people in the first quarter of 2013 showed a welcome increase in confidence, moving from a negative reading of -5.6 in Q4 2012 to +6.3 in the first quarter of 2013. However, this optimism was tempered with caution as fewer businesses expect to grow this year – down from 56 per cent...
Ex- Dragons' Den panellist Doug Richard was on hand to give business advice to entrepreneurial University students on Friday. The event was held at the University’s Great Hall and was facilitated by Unite, their entrepreneur support unit.
During the workshop, which ran all-day from 9.30am until 5.30pm, Doug gave a series of talks which aimed to build up a ten-question-toolkit that students can use to help turn a brilliant idea into a success. To Richard, success is just about doing ‘a series of actions in a certain order’. He believes ‘entrepreneurship is learnable’ and wants to...
