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Guest blogger – Katherine Clarke

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Work related learning is something that we have always been keen to get involved in. It can be hard work at times but equally proves to be a very rewarding way to give back to the community. You will understand why I was so happy to receive the following email and wanted to share it in our blog.

So it is with great pleasure that I introduce Katherine Clarke as our guest blogger for September. Katherine successfully completed her work experience at Telcare in 2009. Her willingness to get ‘stuck in’ and become part of the team was not only refreshing but an absolute treat for us. In no time Katherine became a valuable member at Telcare, so it was with open arms we welcomed her when she returned during the summer of 2010. Recently Katherine stepped in to provide holiday cover and it was on this occasion that she told me just how useful the experience at Telcare had been to her.  Over to you Katherine ……

“I recently completed four A levels at Dartford Grammar School for Girls and am now preparing to move to, and study at, The University of Birmingham. Despite being really busy I was delighted to be offered the opportunity to complete a few days of valuable work experience at Telcare. This was my third period of work experience with the business in the space of two years.
At the age of 14 I chose Business Studies as one of my GCSE subjects, and continued to study it up to Advanced Level alongside Economics, Human Biology and Geography. I had always been unsure as to which subject I would most like to study within higher education. It was when making this decision that I spent a few weeks of my summer holiday within the Telcare office. From the point of view of a Business Studies student Telcare proved to operate in a way in which I had studied in my text books. It was as if I had stepped into one of the case studies and was seeing first-hand the ways in which a family run business operates.
Being able to sit within one space and observe, as well as actively partake in the different functional areas enabled me to appreciate how important communication and efficiency are to a firm. For instance, I had read about the importance of providing customers with an honest and reliable product or service and was aware that marketing was an integral key to building a relationship with the public. Nevertheless witnessing the ways in Telcare presents itself to current and potential customers through competitions, exhibitions, news letters, their website, social networking sites and of course this blog allowed me to appreciate the reasons why businesses invest in marketing and the response that they receive.
It was after completing my second period of work experience within Telcare that I decided to read Business Management at university level. As I began revising for my AS exams I read and re-read my Applied Business textbook, however in hindsight it was my work experience that contributed most to me gaining an A in the exam. Amongst other questions the paper asked to give examples of financial programmes and their function/importance as well as name and describe various methods of advertising and the ways in which a business utilises them. Whilst many of my peers could name ‘Sage’, the financial programme mentioned in the textbook, I was finding it difficult to condense all of the information I had learnt from being taught how to use the software by the staff at Telcare.
My work experience continued to aid me during my final year and without a doubt contributed to me gaining an A in each of the three coursework modules. I believe that work experience is a vital tool to be used, whether it helps an individual like myself confirm their ambitions or allows them to realise that the type of job isn’t suited to them. I am extremely grateful for the time I have spent with the team at Telcare and can’t wait to let them all know how I’m finding university life!”

Wow thank you Katherine! We are all very proud of you and wish you a great time at university. Come back and see us soon!

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Ladies Who Latte

Monday, August 15th, 2011

We attended the launch of the Maidstone Ladies Who Latte networking group last Thursday which was organised by Emma Thorpe of Munro Consultancy.

Within the first five minutes of arriving at the Hilton Hotel, it was clear that Emma had some very supportive ladies on her side. A steady stream of arrivals meant that the furniture had to be re-arranged in order to accommodate a larger than expected crowd. Almost immediately we were introducing ourselves and our colleagues to each other and excitedly discovering the many talents in the room. The professions included a photographer, a hypnotist specialising in dyspraxia, a representative from Save the Children, a debt collection agency, a graduate recruiting agency, business coaches, dieticians and so much more. I’m not sure that I got to talk to even a quarter of the group! The location also played a part in making the event a success; it always pays to book a venue like the Hilton as it offers a certain confidence when considering factors such as an easy to reach location, parking and pleasant surroundings.

I certainly feel that Emma should be congratulated on organising a very enjoyable event and wish her every success for future meetings. I left feeling inspired by the willingness of these ladies to support one another and that is one of the reasons I shall be returning another day to join the Ladies Who Latte.

If you wish to attend a future meeting, they are to be held every 2nd Thursday of the month at 10 to 12 midday at the Hilton Hotel, Maidstone.

Pictured above left to right is Emma Thorpe (organiser) from Munro Consultancy, Victoria Nobes from Telcare and Katie Peck from Peck Nutrition

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Guest Blogger – Emma Thorpe

Friday, August 5th, 2011

The female portion of the Telcare team has received an exciting invitation to a new networking group called Ladies Who Latte. The first meeting will be held on the 11th of August. The lady responsible for setting up the group is Emma Thorpe of Munro Consultancy, who happens to be our guest for August. Emma has all the details so take it away Emma……….

Hello, I’m Emma Thorpe and I run my own Business Support Service called Munro Consultancy. I specialise in marketing implementation, put simply, I help your business clarify your marketing plan and then carry out the work on your behalf. This means you can be happy in the knowledge that your business is being promoted consistently and effectively, while you are out of the office concentrating on your customers.

I have also set up a new ladies networking group in Maidstone called Ladies Who Latte. I am a business owner and also a mother, and my challenge is getting to networking at a time when I am not doing the nursery run. Ladies Who Latte’s ethos recognises and works with these challenges and provides an event which is mid morning in order to give ladies like me the chance to do some serious networking! So if you realise that I am talking about you, then please come along to our first meeting! Held at the Hilton Hotel, Maidstone, it runs every 2nd Thursday of each month from 10am to 12noon. So, come along on the 11th August and all you have to pay for is your coffee!

emma@munroconsultancy.co.uk

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Summer Customer Draw

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

The summer customer draw has now taken place and the winners have been announced in our summer newsletter, which will be with you by the end of the week or alternatively you can read it here

http://www.telcare.co.uk/newsletters/summernewsletter2011.doc

A M&S gift card to the value of £50 awaits the two winners. Simply email Lisa at lisa.settle@telcare.co.uk to claim your prize.

Our customer draw takes place once a quarter and is in recognition of your loyalty.

The autumn draw will take place in October, good luck.

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Guest Blogger – Gill Monk

Monday, July 11th, 2011

It gives us great pleasure to introduce one of our suppliers, Gill Monk of All Health Matters Limited. Gill has just returned from a week in Ghana where she was carrying out some work for one of the oil companies. She is our guest blogger this month and explains a little about the subject of Occupational Health.

If your computer breaks down, you call in the computer guys. If your telephone system needs replacing, you call Telcare. If your company van fails to start, you call in a mechanic. These ‘assets’ are fundamental to the running of your business. But what do you do if a member of staff is off sick? Accept a medical certificate and ask the rest of the team to work harder to cover the empty chair?

Your staff are the greatest asset you have got – without them there is little point in having the best product in the world because there is no one to make it, sell it, pack it, distribute it and get paid for it. Healthy staff are self-financing. Sick staff are a costly business.

‘Occupational Health’ is all about looking after the health and well being of your staff and therefore the health of your business, and here at All Health Matters, we are passionate about your business health.

You are possibly aware of the reactive services available – sickness absence management, referrals to an Occupational Health physician etc. These services are there to help you manage a sick employee, to help them return to the workplace and carry out meaningful duties, but are you also aware that for relatively small cost you can introduce some proactive measures? Seasonal flu vaccinations, pre-placement medicals, DSE Assessments, drug & alcohol testing, Health promotion programmes, Health Surveillance activities are just some of the initiatives we can offer. Health surveillance is especially important if your staff are exposed to noise or to respiratory sensitizers or skin irritants for instance. Regular surveillance programmes have the effect of not only helping your staff to keep well and to feel valued but also serve to protect your company from future insurance claims.

I have just come back from a week in Ghana where I was contracted to do some work for an oil company. Being a UK company operating overseas in a hazardous industry, they adopt all of the UK standards towards health and safety and put great emphasis on the fitness of their staff. The conditions over there are of course quite different to the UK, but the drive to keep people well and at work is exactly the same.

As OH practitioners, we work closely with Health & Safety and HR professionals, providing the medical advice which supports these two important areas of people and safety management.

Talking of safety, before setting off for Ghana I was given a very comprehensive what-not-to-do and etiquette handbook which included such advice as “Don’t give or receive gifts with your left hand”, “Don’t shake hands with your left hand”, “Don’t point or wave with your left hand”. I am really glad my husband didn’t come with me because he is left handed and would probably have been arrested!

A piece of safety advice was to “only get in a company car and only after the driver has shown you his official company ID”. On my arrival in Accra airport at 9pm on a tropical (98°) Sunday night, I was met by a driver who showed me his ID and so I gladly went with him. He took me across a pot-holed, dusty, makeshift car park with cars everywhere and no apparent traffic control, to what I can only describe as a campervan. He slid open the side door and shoved my case and me inside, sliding the door shut behind me and then wandered away! You can no doubt guess how I felt when a man who had been crouched down in the drivers seat started the engine and drove away with me. For the next 10 minutes I was quite convinced that I was being sold into the white slave trade or that they liked their women big and white! When we slowed to let some traffic through, I got ready to jump and shouted over the noise of the engine about my concern that my guide was not with me, but the driver shouted ‘Nana is following in a car’ and for some reason I was comforted by that! True enough, when we arrived at my hotel, there was ‘Nana’ waiting to ensure I was checked in before leaving me in my four-star hotel. I naturally told my hosts about this the next day at the office, but I made a big joke of it and got them all laughing so they didn’t suspect I was pretty scared at the time. (I suspect though that the ‘top man’ took the message on board and will ensure it doesn’t happen again to anyone else).

Another safety fear in Ghana is Malaria which is endemic in Africa and my host company are insistent that all staff travelling or living there undergo intense training in malaria prevention, symptoms, treatment etc. They provide everyone with mosquito repellent and a malaria testing kit with clear instructions on its use and until you have completed the training they won’t allow you to travel. Every office and hotel they use is air conditioned and the turn-down service includes a room spray. I have to confess to being very impressed by their diligence and foresight and felt comforted by it. Wherever I go in the world, the mosquito population normally see me coming and are lined up at the airport waiting to greet me with their little proboscis’s twitching with excitement. I normally come back more bitten than tanned, so I was overjoyed that African mossies found me tasteless and uninteresting (could be due to the amount of deet and my bicycle clips of course).

In business, I often meet managers or business owners who, when learning what my company does, view me with a degree of suspicion – they see us as being “yet another nose trying to get into their trough”, but nothing could be further from the truth. As my client the oil company has proved, those with a more realistic view of the world, with perception and wisdom, see OH for what it truly is – a tool to maintain a vital resource and with which to repair an asset which is broken.

So if you care about the people you employ and whether driven by legislation or desire you want some OH advice – call me Gill Monk on 07968 233890, email gill@allhealthmatters.co.uk or log on to www.allhealthmatters.co.uk

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Half way there

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Just in case you hadn’t realised, we’re in July! Shocker I know!

Half of 2011 is done and dusted and the other half is ready to go. A great time for reflection, looking back on what’s been said and done and then tweaking your plans for the next 6 months. I read advice (somewhere) that said ‘take the lessons learnt yesterday and invest them in tomorrow’; it’s definitely something worth doing.

So who went to the Kent Invicta B2B Exhibition last week? The answer is loads and loads of you! It really was a busy event. We had a stand in the Kent Suite and had a steady stream of visitors all day. It was amazing hearing so many croaky voices, we simply talked ourselves hoarse! Great testament to the Kent Invicta Chamber, this was their 25th year of running the exhibition, so well done to them. The camera crew at Kent Business TV were there filming and you can see us all in full swing here: http://www.kentbusinesstv.com/events/kent-invicta-chamber-business-exhibition-is-a-great-success/

The winner of our champagne was Michael Doree at Portal Tax Claims. Michael was extremely pleased to get his hands on the champers, apparently he never wins anything, so it was his lucky day! Cheers Michael!

Last week we had a work experience student placed with us from The Howard School. In addition to spending time in the office, he was given the chance to attend the B2B Exhibition with us as well as The Sales Roadshow at the newly opened SusCon building in Dartford. I would like to thank all those that took time to include and speak to our student, every little helps. He went back to school with an interesting CV.

The Sales Roadshow was a success too, full of interesting FREE tips relating to selling, presenting, social media and SEO. If you missed it look out for the next one at www.facilitator.co. You can also get to take a look at the fabulous SusCon Building at www.suscon.uk.net they have an open day on 15th July.

Last week’s thunderstorm kept the help desk on their toes. We were flooded (excuse the pun) with calls from people who had been left without power. Fortunately most of the situations were temporary although we did have a call from one company whose telephone system had been well and truly zapped. The Telcare team quickly came to the rescue and installed a new system, having them up and running in no time. So welcome to A1 Glass in Strood, not the normal way of gaining a new customer, but glad to have been able to help.

Next week you can read about our guest blogger’s alarming moments in Ghana but until then get reflecting!

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Remember the old days when summer followed spring?

Friday, June 17th, 2011

As I write, I’m wearing a thick jumper complete with scarf and have just returned from a journey on the M20 where the rain was so heavy that I could barely see through the windscreen. Welcome to June!

The weather may be disappointing but fortunately I am happy to report that June so far has been a pleasing month for Telcare. We have been installing new telephone systems, upgrading old ones, helping an existing customer relocate and another to expand. Among our new customers we welcome three schools and a doctor’s surgery. In addition to the off site jobs, the office based team have provided excellent support to our engineers and customers alike.

An exciting time this week was when our customers, Shrek the Musical, invited us to the official opening night at the Theatre Royal. Walking down the ‘green’ carpet was certainly an experience. The show was very funny, even hilarious in parts and the deserving cast received a standing ovation as the curtain went down. By happy chance it was a rain free evening so the after party, held under the stars at Somerset House, was a perfect way to end a most enjoyable evening. We are truly grateful for the invitations.

Yesterday I attended a lunch hosted by Lloyds TSB at Chilston Park. The speaker was Penny Power of ecademy. Penny’s presentation focused on social media and the ‘know me, like me, follow me’ theme. It was an informative talk and I returned to the office having learnt a thing or two. Which reminds me are you following us on Twitter yet?

Still to come this month we have the Sales Roadshow on the 28th, this should prove to be a worthwhile event packed with tips and free advice from experts in the sales field, see www.facilitator.co for more details. On the 29th it’s the Kent Invicta Chamber’s 25th annual Business Exhibition at the Ashford International Hotel. You can find Telcare on stand 65. Please do come along and introduce yourself we will be pleased to meet you. For more details and directions go to www.kentinvictachamber.co.uk

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Guest Blogger – Jason Hulott

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Lisa Settle, Telcare: I am pleased to say that Jason Hulott has agreed to be our guest blogger for June. The very well connected Jason is the owner of Speedie Consultants, who quite frankly we couldn’t live without. Speedie are basically responsible for designing and maintaining our website, but to try and explain the value they provide us in a single sentence really doesn’t do them justice. So let me hand you over to Jason, who will give further insight into Speedie and let you know about some exciting new plans …

Jason Hulott, Speedie Consultants: Summing up what we do at Speedie Consultants in a few words isn’t easy, but, in a nutshell, we are internet marketers. We help businesses make the most of their online presence whether it is redesigning their website and making it search engine friendly; writing blogs and articles, and getting organic links back to websites to drive traffic and improve a website’s credibility within Google; writing and distributing press releases to announce a new product or service; and consulting with businesses, highlighting gaps in their online marketing strategies etc. We work with a range of companies across a range of industries, helping them maximise their online presence, as well as enhancing the visitor experience.

It is a real pleasure to help clients such as Lisa, who start off with a basic knowledge of and interest in internet marketing, then, as time goes by, they become really enthused and as passionate as we are about it! Now that’s a job well done!

We hope you’ll enjoy our Blog on social media marketing and I hope to speak to some of you soon on one of our social media training courses.

Your Business and Social Media
One of the latest buzzwords around in the online marketing field is that of social media. With more and more smaller businesses now starting to see the benefits of advertising online and having a web presence to enhance their business, social media is seen as a good way to market a business online.

While this is certainly true, most smaller companies tend to fall foul of one of two things:

  • information overload or;
  • lack of a clear strategy.

Let’s look at both of these in turn, as solving these issues can be the difference between social NETworking and social NOTworking.

Information Overload

No matter where you turn you are being told that you should be networking on this site or have a profile on that site. You are told that you need to build “likes”, “followers”, “connections” etc. It can get quite overwhelming. And because of that you try – but fail to do anything meaningful. Or if you do start something, you soon move onto something else when you meet someone at a networking event who then says “Oh you need to be doing this and that…” Arghh!

On top of that, you read stuff – newsletters, articles, Facebook posts, blog posts all saying similar things – where to start.

Hopefully the following simple step by step instructions may help you see and understand what you really need to do. Actually understanding why you should be doing something can be key to running a successful ongoing social media campaign.

The first thing to do is to think about your audience and where they are. Are your customers on Facebook, are they other businesses (If so, Facebook might not be the best place right now – LinkedIn might be). You see by looking at where your customers already hang out will give you some focus.

Then think about how you feel comfortable communicating with them. Are you happy with the written word? If so, blogs are a good way to spread a social media message. Do you like the idea of running a video show? In which case, recording video blog posts and posing them via Youtube might be a good strategy for you and your business. This will allow you to focus. Once you have preferred methods – you can create a plan…

Lack of a clear strategy

Investing time in your social media activity without a plan is like going on an expedition to the Amazon without a map. Not a good idea. Decide what you want from your social media activity and be precise. Do you want more leads? If so, tailor your activity so that you share knowledge about your products and services with people who want to connect with you and who are therefore more likely to enquire. It should be stressed that social media marketing is not a hard sell.

Have an activity plan that has specific targets. For example: I am going to post three blogs a week, I am going to connect with 10 people in my field each week, I am going to share knowledge on four related sites this week, I am going to write a guest post for another site. Whatever it is, make it something that is easy to follow – and something you stick with consistently

With your new found plan, this means you can easily rebut anyone who then says to you that you should be doing this or that. Bounce the idea against your plan and see if it adds to your targets – if it does, look to include it – if it doesn’t, simply ignore it.

The main key to social media is to stick it and try to be consistent – social media is a long game not a quick win. It may be seen as a free way to market your business and it can be. But there is a time cost, so make sure you are prepared to invest that time wisely.

Social Media Training course

To try and help business comes to grips with social media and put it all together into some kind of plan, we have created a 6 week course aimed at educating business owners so that you can do all of this stuff yourself or at least be knowledgable enough that if you need to hire someone to do it, you will know what needs doing. To find our more about this course please visit: http://www.speedieconsulting.co.uk/services/training-courses/social-media-course/

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Telcare at the South East Business Show

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

See Lisa talk about Telcare – Footage taken at the South East Business Show

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Guest Blogger – Paul Andrews

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

I am pleased to introduce you to Kent Entrepreneur Paul Andrews, as our guest blogger for May. Among other things Paul hosts the Business Bunker Radio Show. Paul tells us how the show came about and how it’s evolved to become a popular resource for many Kent businesses.

In October 2010 I was asked to appear as a guest on a BBC local radio breakfast show. This is the kind of interview I’ve done many times since winning the Kent Entrepreneur of Year award back in 2009.

On the show we got into a heated debate about how business and enterprise is portrayed in the media. I felt that where business was covered at all it almost exclusively focused on large corporations and on negative news stories.

I made a comment that said I felt there was a need for a local radio show that focused on SME’s and the good things that happened in the local business community. I was told that there was no call for such a show.

I didn’t believe it! I asked around a few people and whilst most people in business felt that they would like a business show they didn’t really expect it to happen.

I was bemoaning this state of affairs to a friend who then graciously reminded me that one of my favourite sayings is “if you want something doing, do it yourself” !

So I began an investigation. It quickly became apparent that a full blown FM licence was virtually impossible to obtain to cover the whole county and was prohibitively expensive. After some research I found Romney Marsh FM a small not for profit, community radio station with a restricted broadcast licence. They only broadcast a couple of months a year to the Folkestone, Hythe and Romney area; however they broadcast all year round via internet broadcast.

We quickly arrived at an arrangement where I lease studio space from them for one hour per week. We set up a website ( http://www.kentbusinessradio.co.uk) to enable listeners to tune in and with very little training on the equipment and no radio presenting experience we did a pilot show.

Our first broadcast went out on Tuesday November 2nd, it was a fairly dull affair only really saved by having two fabulous guests on the programme, John Botting and Roger McKerlie.

The feedback from the show was very encouraging so I decided to go with it. We commenced regularly broadcasts from the following Tuesday right up until end of December. We were then off air for a couple of weeks while the studio was relocated to new premises and brand new, state of the art technology was installed.

I also quickly realised that we needed to lighten the feel of the programme and introduce some fun and banter. So we now have the “Bunker Crew” of co-presenters, Jo Dodds, Jules Serkin and Audra Lamoon who take it in turns to present the show with me. We’ve now had more than 40 guests appear on the programme talking about things as diverse as ice cream, investment start up funding, hypnotic persuasion skills, social networking, QR codes, anti fraud measures, leadership training and auction houses.

The format of the show consists of fielding emails and phone calls from SME owners and managers telling us about their new products or services, contracts they’ve been awarded, new premises or awards they’ve won. We also list a round up of networking events, seminars, conferences and exhibitions that are due to take place. We also occasionally get a roving outside broadcast report from an event, seminar or conference courtesy of Maggie Langley of Office Hounds. Of course the major part of the show is given over to the two guests who talk about their field of expertise and the kind of products and services they offer.

Whilst it is very hard to give a definitive figure, as we have people listening live, people who use the listen again feature, people who listen via other websites and outlets and also for a few months a year on a general FM broadcast, we estimate our total listener base to be around 5,000 on average and growing all the time.

The show is exclusively promoted by social media, twitter and LinkedIn. We recently did an analysis for a show sponsor to see how many people in our region actually saw a message promoting that weeks show. The message was seen at least twice by 168,000 people which is phenomenal reach and shows the power and potential of social media.

One of the most gratifying aspects of The Business Bunker is the feedback we get from guests and phone in callers who report good things as a result of being on the show.

Some examples Tempnetwork won a big staffing contract within hours of appearing as a guest, MyTsafe and GNTFraud Solutions were introduced to each other and realised they could develop joint offerings. SDI and Livewire Performance were introduced and made a series of training videos together, on the day CivicBoom.com appeared on the show they had 799 extra website visits, 3 new Hubs established and gathered 5 news stories. Cloudminds had 6 membership enquires following the show and many more people and businesses have gained work and important new contacts.

These are the things that make doing the show really worthwhile. Building a strong business community and an economy for Kent is one of the key goals and we are really making a lot of headway in that direction.

We’ve also managed to raise awareness of a number of charitable and community based activities which is also very gratifying.

So that is the Kent Business Bunker Show. As far as I know the only business talk radio show dedicated to SME’s in a specific region, another ground breaking first for the Kent business community.

We have been aided and very well supported by a number of Kent Businesses who have either promoted the show and/or sponsored programmes and some such as Telcare Ltd who have done both. We are very grateful to Telcare and others for helping us get to were we have in such a short time. Having just celebrated our 20th episode (have we been on as long as Coronation Street yet?) we look forward with anticipation to the next 20.

So if you run a business in Kent and would like to let the business community know about it, or if you have something you’d like to share or maybe you are running an event please don’t be shy, we exist to promote Kent Business so call in live on a Tuesday afternoon between 1-2pm on 01797362000 or email bunker@kentbusinessradio.co.uk and tell us all about it.

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