M & A Rainmaker

It was amazing to have a tour of the new Jetts 24 Hour Fitness Gym on Oxford Road Manchester.

This is the entrance ….. and the back looks like this ….

and this is the where Jetts intends to have outdoor exercises …..

It is a superb location and as you can see surrounded by apartment blocks and restaurants and cafes.

The people walking around the square are very affluent and multi cultural.

 

Once through the front door and reception you proceed down the stairs to this fabulous space …

and here are just a few images from inside …

the equipment and layout is top class and really on point …

There are some excellent initial offers to join this Jetts HERE.

This is the third gym for this owner and more to come for him.

We were able to take new franchise owners for the Midlands area around this gym and they talked to Manchester’s owners. There will be rapid expansion in the Midlands too now.

I have recently had some pretty bad experiences with so called Hotdesking facilities in Birmingham, UK and this got me thinking about the subject.

I think part of the problem is that they are more experimental models than professional businesses and the people that are running them are just not up to the task. Simple questions,enquiries,suggestions and even help given get very weird responses and you just wonder where these people have been, are coming from and why they are suddenly hosting Hotdesking facilities. Desperation springs to mind ??

In all the years that I have been meeting people in Birmingham in hotels I have never experienced any negative issues. In fact the reverse. As I cast my mind back over hundreds of meeting I can only remember positive experiences.

Over the last year I have used The Malmaison and Marco Pierre Whites in particular. Both are great but of course MPW has the advantage of the amazing views. I have always had good service at the Ibis Chinatown and there is another hotel where I had amazing support from staff with my laptop connectivity – will update soon.

It really begs a few questions:

– Why would you use a Hotdesking facility rather than e.g. a Hotel or Coffee Bar ??

– What are the most important criteria for a venue to meet with somebody ??

– What is the best place to open up your smartphone, notepad or laptop and get a bit of work done ???

There are probably a few other questions that could be asked aswell.

I am going to leave this article for further updates soon.

Which Business Networking Meeting is the best in Birmingham at the moment ??

I take a trip to the Grosvenor Casino on Rebecca Hyslop’s recommendation to try out this networking event and find it very interesting and professional

I have not been to a networking meeting for some time ( I think the last one was in Burton on Trent a couple of months ago ) and certainly the Business Biscotti meeting at the Grosvenor Casino on Broad Street in Birmingham was the first networking meeting that I have been to in Birmingham for a year or more.

I was introduced to Biscotti by Rebecca Hyslop of Push Media Marketing who runs a number of networking meetings in Birmingham.

I very rarely go to Casino’s so that was also a novelty to me( I think the last one was in Biarritz ).

I hoped that the meeting was going to be more fun than formal – obviously productive aswell – and knowing Rebecca I was pretty sure that it would be.

Online research prior to arriving at the Biscotti meeting indicated that although there was a website, social media activity appeared limited. The Biscotti name piqued my curiousity but I have only just found out that the name is based on the first meeting where Biscotti biscuits were made and served.

I parked in The Nautical Club just down the road and walked around to Broad Street and the entrance of the Grosvenor Casino.

The receptionist was absolutely lovely and I proffered photo id in order to get a Casino card. The receptionist phoned down for the Manager, Paul Bradford, to meet me.

I met him at the bottom of the stairs leading onto the Casino floor and he led me to the group that was assembled, chatting at the bar area.

With Rebecca, the receptionist and Paul I had definitely had a very professional and positive introduction to this networking meeting.

The first person that Paul, very kindly, introduced me to had actually seen me speaking at an event in Marco Pierre White’s recently – so that was a great start.That was Glenn Richardson of Photo Booth Hire.

A chat with someone else and then an introduction to someone who turned out to be with Mattioli Woods – where I am a client !!!! Bit of a surprise and an opportunity to praise them a bit – my account manager there has been brilliant actually.

I loved meeting next with Raphael from HNS Signs – a company that I had come across on twitter during #lichfieldlocal hour run by Sarah Morley. Raphael gave me his bosses card, Michelle Henry, and a lovely booklet promoting their work.

As I get into this post I am thinking about who I met, and what made them memorable and what contact information I came away with. Later on I will say who contacted me and how.

My primary interest is what people are doing online. Their ” Internet Presence ” as I call it. ( A combination of web/blogsite and social media accounts ).

I then met Personal Trainer John Wang ( 07795437716 ) who it turned out had seen me at a Market United Kingdom presentation. Someone at John’s gym was an Unfranchise Owner. ( Actually franchises were much in evidence in this meeting ).

Whilst sipping a glass of water Mike Bowden walked over to chat. ( I am grateful to Rebecca Hyslop for doing a tweet after the meeting that contained Mike’s contact details as well as other peoples ). As well as being a Life Coach Mike was a martial arts practitioner and I go to a Kick Boxing class at Burton Kick Boxing Academy with Chris Squirrel so we had something in common there.

On coming to chat to Rebecca ( and the lady from Best of Birmingham who kindly looked after my laptop bag and coat and another lady from Grosvenor Casino’s ) I got into a conversation with Tom West from Central Telecomms. and Richard Murphy from Bank House Corporate. My background is in Telecomms and M & A so this was an interesting conversation.

I decided to leave after that as it was Remembrance Day and I wanted to spend some time at The Nautical Club and The National Memorial Arboretum.

I should point out that I was given 6 business cards but I didn’t give out any as is my approach of late.

Tom West from Central Telecomms. was the first person to contact me ( by twitter and Linkedin ) and he didn’t have any of my details so I was most impressed with this response. Later on he sent me information on the company. Stellar responsiveness !!!!

Rebecca did a tweet after the event that included ( probably ) every person that had a twitter account that she knew who was at the meeting. This was very useful.

After connecting with people there I had a few conversations.

I also established email communications with Michelle and Raphael at HNS Signs – they just look so well sorted as a company.

All in all this was a great event with some great people at it and I would recommend to anyone ( as I am doing here ).

Getting any guarantees of being found on the Internet through search results or otherwise is always useful when assurances are hard to get

The SEO girl brings a refreshingly different approach to a business proposition regarding being found on the Internet

I have always thought that the sign of a good SEO company was one that put it’s money where it’s mouth was and ranked for the things that it ought to.

The SEO Girl, Claire Taylor, who is Business Development Manager at UK search company SmartRank UK, is highlighting their offer to Midlands based businesses.  ( Note SmartRanks U.S. sister company Market Leader SEO also offers the same proposition in the U.S. ).

This announcement comes hard on the heels of Smartranks global Digital Marketing partner Centripetal Network Consulting – creators of the Digital Marketing Ecosystem making a similar announcement based on their partnership with Claire and Smartranks.

This market was long overdue a shake up and it is even more amazing that this announcement and guarantee has been made post the Panda and Penguin changes by Google.

VIDEO HERE >>>>>>>>>>

Centripetal Networks Nine Figure Mentor, Chris Windley, talks about the launch of this guaranteed SEO service – applicable to people in Birmingham UK, the West Midlands, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Cheshire, Mid Wales, Leicestershire, Herefordshire and Staffordshire.

If you have been to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery recently you will have noticed that the Anglo-Saxon Golden Hoard found near Silicon Crossroads ( the junction of the old Watling Street and Rykneld Street – now the A5 and A38 ) Lichfield is missing.

The good news is that it is away doing a great job of promoting Staffordshire ( the old Mercia ) the Lichfield area and Silicon Crossroads to America.

As this article says the Saxon Hoard has gone to the National Geographic Museum in Washington D.C.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-15496704 .

Washington D.C. is not one of the recognised ” Startup ” centres of the U.S. although Baltimore ( Maryland ) recently raised $84 Million via an innovative online auction of tax credits ( see  http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-03-15/news/bs-bz-invest-maryland-funding-20120315_1_tax-credits-investmaryland-program-christian-s-johansson ) in yet another example of U.S. startup funding initiatives.

There have also been a number of other ” Startups ” in the area e.g.

Cerecor Biotech http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2012/04/04/cerecor-biotech-startup-headed-by.html

SemaConnect  http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2011/11/28/annapolis-startup-semaconnect-raises.html

WooFound http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/technology/2011/11/baltimore_startup_woofound_rai.html

MoodleRooms http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/technology/2011/06/startup_story_baltimores_moodl_1.html

Nearby Pennsylvania also has a long standing history of investing in Startups:

http://www.prlog.org/11837942-ben-franklin-program-invests-650000-in-central-pa-startups.html

The SiliconCrossroads VCT founders  actually invested in Pennsylvania Startup eschoolmall ( now esm solutions ) some years ago  http://www.esmsolutions.com/SchoolDistrictsSolutions.aspx

New York ( not far away ) is also a recognised startup centre.

Washington is a place that we British can easily get confused about ( although most of us recognise Washington D.C. we may not know exactly where it is – just West of New York ) and there are 2 or 3 Washingtons in the U.S.

Similarly many Americans probably don’t know where Birmingham or Staffordshire is ( a couple of hundred miles North of London would probably work – which would be a short car ride for many Americans ) so it is great news that the Saxon Hoard is increasing awareness of Staffordshire and the Silicon Crossroads area ( Lichfield, Tamworth, Walsall and Sutton Coldfield ).

Well I do – but then again I don’t – according to the applications that tell you who has the most Twitter followers in e.g. Lichfield or Birmingham or London or the World  –  like Twitter Elite

http://tweet.grader.com/location/?Location=lichfield%2Cstaffs%2CUK

and Twitaholic

http://twitaholic.com/top100/followers/bylocation/Lichfield,+Staffordshire,+West/

I do, in that if you look here

http://tweet.grader.com/@cwindley

I have a Tweet Grade of 97.4 and ( currently ) 2,278 followers but I don’t appear on the list ( at the time of writing ) produced by Tweet Grader in the first link that I detailed above.  Philip John has that honour currently. (  philipjohn )

Out of interest the person who has the most followers in Birmingham

http://tweet.grader.com/location/?Location=birmingham%2CUK

is an 18 year old Economics student called Aluna Sagita Gutawa with over 1.1 Million followers !!!! ( How ?? Why ?? )

Philip and I have never met ( to my knowledge ) but he and I do have a common interest in WordPress blogs it seems. ( Where I am writing this ).

Does it matter ????

Well actually the number of followers ( like e.g. the number of Facebook likes or the number of email addresses ) does actually have a monetary value, small though it may be. ( For example I recently heard the co-founder of U.S. based start-up Twylah talk about a dollar value for the number of email addresses something was emailed to ).

What does matter is visibility on the Internet and being found on the Internet via search engines like Google.

Tweets are also being turned into website pages that can attract ” traffic ” ( visitors and users ) and rank on Google. Here is my Twylah page for example:

http://www.twylah.com/cwindley

( Twylah is in beta at the moment so you have to request a Twylah page )

If you don’t think being a Tweep is very interesting then you might find being a ” Twyp ” of more value 😉

You might not think very much of Lady GaGa either but she is a ” Twyp ”

http://www.twylah.com/ladygaga

along with a whole host of other celebrities

http://www.twylah.com/featured.

GaGa’s ephemeral Tweets have been turned into a much longer lasting web page ( with the invitation to download her music ).

Translated into something that might interest the average Lichfieldian ?? well it’s another way of getting ( global ) visibility for your Lichfield based business.

Connecting with and communicating with people is important and so is being found.

Contract and Civil Litigation Experts, Pegasus Legal LDP, are topping the Google search rankings for Consumer Law Expert searches aided by Birmingham news collection service My Birmingham News

http://www.mybirminghamnews.co.uk/tag/midlands/

A blog posted here

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2012/01/17/consumer-law-experts-in-birmingham-midlands/

was picked up by My Birmingham News within hours of it being posted and both the M & A Rainmaker and My Birmingham News posts were ranking high in Google searches within 24 Hours.

Both posts demonstrate the power of WordPress based websites in achieving high rankings for users.

Pegasus LDP is a young and innovative legal organisation which complements high technology methods of marketing.

Building on the foundation of the WordPress post higher rankings were achieved by utilising social networks like Linkedin, Google +, Facebook, Twitter and digg to feed into and support the WordPress posts.

This advanced marketing technique utilises the 3 main drivers of high ranking websites

– On page SEO

– Relevant Content creation

– Links

added together with perceptive keyword selection in order to get the attention of relevant searchers.

For further information on Pegasus LDP go here:

Contact Ms O’Connor and Pegasus LDP here

http://www.pegasusllp.co.uk/contact-us.php

A new Cisco based Hosted Telephony service is available, via selected Cisco partners, in Birmingham, U.K.
Cisco Hosted Telephony ( otherwise known as Hosted Voip, Voice or  Hosted Unified Communications is particularly suitable for small and medium sized businesses and those with many small offices ( or small numbers of telephony users in each office ).

A representative from Cisco Systems comments:

“We are seeing an increasing demand for managed and hosted solutions in the voice space and this is especially the case for smaller businesses with less than 20 employees. FutureLine have a refreshingly new approach by addressing the key fundamentals of quality, security and ease of use and deployment. This is all underpinned by partnering with Cisco who fully understand how to manage different media provided by the various consumption models.”

Andy Brocklehurst
RSM Cisco Small Business UK

For more information please contact Clare at Futureline

http://www.futureline.net.uk/contact.html

for the chance to win an ipad go to

http://info.futureline.net.uk/win-an-ipad/

Engineering company Aardvark Engineering has a new shareholder

Who is Chris Windley, multi-millionaire entrepreneur and Mergers and Acquisitions specialist.

Chris wants to get in touch directly with all customers and explain his strategy for the company for the future.

Under Chris’s guidance Aardvark Engineering will set on a new course and before this strategy is outlined he wants to talk to all Aardvark customers.

Call Chris directly on 07881 500002 as he is keen to hear your views.

from this website here

http://www.birmingham-airport-guide.co.uk/