Jetts Manchester Oxford Road is open – points to rapid expansion in UK

Posted by Chris2 on July 28th, 2024

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.

Silicon Crossroads and Silicon Crossroads VCT – Lichfield, Staffordshire

Posted by Chris on March 25th, 2012

Silicon Crossroads is the High Tech. business area established between Lichfield, Tamworth, Sutton Coldfield and Walsall in Staffordshire, England, U.K. The crossroads referred to is the ancient crossroads of Watling Street ( the A5 ) and Rykneld Street ( the A38 ) which cross one another just below Lichfield.

Notably Tamworth is dominated by Tamworth Castle and Lichfield by Lichfield Cathedral and these are ancient seats of power in Middle England.

The recent discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard may well add to the evidence for the Lichfield and Tamworth area being an area of influence and innovation and Silicon Crossroads and the Silicon Crossroads VCT continue this tradition.

The Silicon Crossroads VCT is a High Tech. Investment fund with a particular focus on areas like Social Media, Inbound Marketing and Cloud Computing.

We have established strong connections with entrepreneurs, business angels and venture capital funds in some of the main innovation areas in the U.S. and Canada like Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Vancouver, Austin, Toronto and other emerging High Tech Innovation areas like Baltimore.

Aside from Early Stage funding the VCT provides support for start up and early stage companies from the U.S. and the U.K. Included in our support services is ” Outsourced Business Development ” to assist companies to identify target customers and sectors  and to establish contact with them using state of the art Marketing techniques like Inbound Marketing, the creation of Internet Marketing Ecosystems and therefore the use of Social Media and Social Business Media.

It became obvious a few years ago that the rise of companies like Salesforce ( SaaS CRM ) , Google ( Search and Social Media ), Facebook ( Social Media ) and Twitter ( Social Media )  would give rise to other companies like HubSpot ( Inbound Marketing ) , Hootsuite ( Monitoring multiple social media channels )  and Twylah ( Twitter brand pages ).

It was less obvious that there would be such huge angel and venture capital investment in the U.S. but there has been and it is only increasing.

There has also been a revolution ( from necessity ) in funding methods for start ups in the U.S. with companies like KickStarter and the concentration of Angels and so called Super Angels onto lists like AngelList.

In addition companies like SecondMarket have created liquidity in markets like pre-IPO shares and debt.

You can get more information on some of these companies via this blog and my Twylah page   http://www.twylah.com/cwindley.

This is a holding page for more information on Silicon Crossroads and the Silicon Crossroads VCT and websites, blogs and Twylah pages will be developed for these over time.

My contact information is on this blog on the Contact page.

Boiler Room Scammers BETTER than typical stockbrokers !! Fraud Squad update

Posted by Chris on September 1st, 2011

Following the first in the series of Fraud Squad last Friday which focused on Boiler Room Scams many people are making comments like ” Well they would not have caught me out with that scam “.

Actually the thing that might have alerted experienced stock and share investors to the scam was that firms like Anderson Munro, Milton Hayward and Westernfield Holdings gave out too much information !!

Let me explain:

In the early 2000’s I invested a lot of money in stocks and shares, particularly in high tech stocks. ( I also invested a lot of money in high tech companies directly and through I.P.O. share purchases). My reasoning was that there would  be a resurgence in the Nasdaq after the dot.com crash of 2000 to 2002. In this I was correct, see:

http://forecastchart.com/historical-nasdaq-100.html

which is a 36 year graph of the Nasdaq ( High Tech ) stockmarket.

Anyone with a ruler can see the growth trend in the Nasdaq over the last 36 years with the main recent  deviances being the dot.com boom
( upwards ) and the 2008 recession ( downwards ). Anyone who invested in the Nasdaq itself in around 2003 has had a good ride ( with a few bumps ) over the last 8 years or so.

I had 2 main share/stockbrokers at the time one in the U.S. and one in the U.K. The U.S. one being ( wait for it ! ) Lehman Bros. and the U.K. one being Merchant Securities (  http://www.merchantsecurities.co.uk/ ). As I am sure most of you will know Lehman Bros. was a main casualty of the 2008 crash ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_of_Lehman_Brothers ) but I am pleased to tell you that I had sold all the shares that I bought through Lehman’s before they did !!

I also had a couple of brokers that I used to a lesser extent in the U.S. and the U.K.

Was the initial approach of Anderson Munro and the other Boiler Room Stockbrokers unusual ??

No. Merchant Securities and one of the U.S. brokers that I used contacted me in exactly the same way that Anderson Munro did. They obviously all had a list of people ( a database ) that they had obtained somewhere. They bought a list from somewhere or they stole a list from a previous broker where one of them had worked. Actually some of the approaches that I had ( especially from New York based brokers ) were more aggressive than “Victoria Mayer’s approach” ( the apparent name of the person who contacted me ).

Was their ” pitch” on the initial phone calls unusual ??

No. Not only was the pitch typical but it was actually fairly refined, well researched  and focused. Typically brokers will give you some general pitch about how they are experienced, have ” unique ” access to ” hot ” stocks and a proven track record of success ( without any details ). Anderson Munro claimed that they were operating in two ” hot ” sectors, firstly the ” Far Eastern stock market ” ( which they had specialist knowledge of as a Tokyo and Hong Kong based broker ) and secondly the ” Clean/Green Energy/Technology ” market. Within this they were promoting shares in a particular company (   http://www.byd.com/ ) that renowned investor Warren Buffett had invested in (  http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/13/technology/gunther_electric.fortune/ ).

What about checks on the Boiler Room Scammers versus checks on real brokers ?

I went to Lehman Bros. because they were a ” renowned New York broker ” . This seems somewhat laughable given the events of  2008 but at the time Lehmans were right up there with J.P. Morgan and Merrill  Lynch as ” THE ” firms to be with ( not just for general stock purchases but also for I.P.O. stocks ). I did not check with the F.S.A. ( for U.K. ) or Finra ( for U.S. ) that any of these firms were “legitimate” and “registered”. Because I had not checked for the other firms ( who I traded with for years ) I did not check for Anderson Munro either. The one thing I would always do with new brokers is to make the first trade small. ( This is one thing that saved me from massive losses with Anderson Munro because one of the main mistakes that they made with me was trying to get me to  move from BYD shares, which Victoria had spent ages convincing me to buy, to other shares which did not have the same  ” support “.  They also tried to get aggressive with me when I would not move – which led to me telling them to ” get lost “).

Were their procedures unusual ?

Yes. If anything their procedures were stricter than a ” normal ” broker in that they wanted I.D. and various forms filling in ( they did not concentrate solely on ” getting the money in ” ). Many legitimate brokers that have contacted me have moved very quickly from initial pitch to ” getting the first investment/puchase done “.

They also involved a ” back of house ” function ( in my case a guy called Max Clarke ) to get the admin. work done. ( Typically you would not even speak to back of house people for some time at proper brokers – the broker dealing with you probably preferring to keep control of a new customer ).

Would you normally see the share certificates of the firms that you bought shares in ??

No. Most brokers that I dealt with held my shares in a “nominee account “. I would get a copy of a ” Buy order ” when I bought shares ( as I did with Anderson Munro )  and this would detail the name of the company whose shares I bought e.g. BYD, the price at which I bought those shares, the number of shares and the total value of those shares.  Then you would get ” statements ” showing your holdings, share price at that date and the total value of those shares. You would also be informed of dividends that were awarded for those shares.  When you sold your shares with a normal broker you would get a ” Sell order “.

Anderson Munro and Milton Hayward actually went to considerable lengths to have ( fake ) share certificates printed and issued although I did not get any. Had I done so this might have appeared unusual to me. Less ” experienced ” investors were probably comforted to have copies of these fake certificates.

Stock certificate

So, the unusual thing about these Boiler Room Scammers is that in a couple of respects they were better than normal brokers !!!

So, How do you choose a Stockbroker ??

After getting scammed by Anderson Munro I continued to get calls from other U.S. and U.K. brokers. I advised them that it was probably not the best time to be calling me and explained why. This prompted them to explain to me how to check that brokers were legitimate using the FSA in the U.K. and Finra in the U.S.

Some people would say that you obviously would not use any broker that calls you up and says that they have a great opportunity – if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is too good to be true etc etc ( see interview with Motley Fool Director in comments below ) .

ALL stockbrokers claim to be ” the ones that have the best research and therefore are most likely to find YOU a stock that will increase in value rapidly “.

Actually most stockbrokers are pretty useless at picking stocks ( in the same way that most fund managers are pretty useless at managing funds )  and they all rely on the same information which means that lots of people actually know about the ” potential ” of that stock which means that it is already priced in which means that it will not actually rise as much as they say – probably.

So, whilst I am not saying ” go with the brokers that call you ” what I am saying is that it is actually very, very hard to find one that is going to give you really good advice.

Return on Internet Marketing spend using HubSpot

Posted by Chris on February 25th, 2011

The reason that I recommend that my clients use HubSpot Inbound Marketing software is because I want them to be in control of thier Internet Marketing spend and investment.

When researching for this article I quite liked this post here

http://www.wsiwebpro.com/roi-formula-internet-marketing.html

which offered a ” Common Sense ROI strategy ” which basically was ” Increase the traffic to your website OR increase the conversion of traffic to leads OR both “.

Within that simple advice are hidden some basic things that some people just do not understand.

As I have said in earlier blogs the key to a website is how often it is found by the right people ( for the product or service that you are supplying ) and it is of lesser importance what it looks like as long as it converts visitors to leads well.

As very few Internet Marketing and Website Design companies understand this very few of them ask a critical question ” What ( words and phrases ) are you trying to be found for and who are your likely customers??  ”

In fairness those that do often struggle to get a response because thier clients simply do not know the answers to these questions. ( The answer to the first part of the question requires that the client put himself in the mind of thier client and think what they would type into Google in order to find the product or service that they provide . The answer to the second part of the question requires that they understand the typical profile of thier target customer. )

When you have your website being found by lots of the right people then you have TRAFFIC !! The you only need to convert that traffic to a lead. ( To be a lead you need some information about the enquirer e.g. name and email address. )

Conversion of traffic into leads is an art that I will not go into here.

The reason that I recommend HubSpot Inbound Marketing software to my clients is that I want to know ( and they need to know ) how much traffic they have; how it is increasing ( hopefully ! ) over time and where that traffic is coming from.

Is it coming from e.g.

Direct Traffic ( someone just typed in the name of your company – implying that your name is well known for that type of product or service )

Organic Traffic ( implying that you ARE being found for the words and phrases that you have optimised for )

email traffic ( implying that you are getting people signing up to your blog/website and your email camapigns are working )

Referrals ( implying that other people are spotting and highlighting and propagating your information )

Social Media ( implying that people are following your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin pages and that they are following these back to your blog/website ).

etc etc

Once we know what is happening to our traffic and where it is coming from we can fine tune to get more and then to convert that traffic into leads and then, all importantly, into sales.

Once we know how many of what product or service we sold ( at what price and profit ) we can work out what our Return on Internet Marketing spend is.

Midlands based engineering company Aardvark Engineering gets new shareholder

Posted by Chris on May 15th, 2010

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.

Hosting Sector – Money starts flowing in ??

Posted by Chris on February 3rd, 2010

see
http://www.megabuyte.com/newsletter/&id=1901

10 M&A deals that might happen in 2010

Posted by Chris on January 4th, 2010

according to

Top Ten Digital M&A Deals For 2010

IT services and solutions provider 365iT appoints Pieter Hooft as non-executive director

Posted by Chris on December 19th, 2009

IT services and solutions provider 365iT appoints Pieter Hooft as non-executive director

Appointment of Non-Executive Director

Basingstoke 21st December 2009: 365 iT plc, the IT services and solutions provider, is very pleased to announce the appointment of Pieter Hooft as a non-executive Director of the
Company.
Pieter Hooft is currently Managing Director of UK Investments for LMS Capital plc, the LSE listed international investment group. He has over 15 years’ investment experience in
management buyouts and development capital in the UK and across Europe.
Commenting on this appointment, Peter MacLean, 365 iT’s
chairman and chief executive, said: “I am delighted to
welcome Pieter to the Board. He has extensive experience of
helping companies achieve rapid and profitable growth and I
look forward to his contribution to the Board and to his
expertise and support for the continued development of the
Group.”
Pieter previously worked at Apax Partners and JPMorgan
Partners. Since joining LMS Capital in November 2006, Pieter has joined the boards of
Updata Infrastructure Holdings Ltd, Entuity Ltd, Kizoom Ltd, ITS Engineered Systems Inc and
First Index Inc.
Pieter is a Dutch national and is fluent in French and German. He was educated in The
Netherlands and at HEC Paris.

Notes to the Editor
365 iT plc was founded in 2005 and now employs over 85 people. Through its wholly owned
subsidiaries (365 iTechnology Ltd, 5i Ltd and 7 Global Group Ltd), the group provides an extensive
range of IT services and solutions that address the nine strategic functional areas in IT operations and
management: IT Managed Services, Unified Communications, Business Continuity, Data Backup, IT
Security, Virtualisation, Networks, Storage Solutions and Infrastructure solutions.
Enquiries:
Stephen Bean
Marketing-Alliance,
Tel: +44 (0) 7747 100000
www.365iTechnology.com

Berkshire Hathaway Stock Split coming

Posted by Chris on December 4th, 2009

The Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704007804574575481948503664.html

and Harry from Laidlaw & Co.

http://laidlawholdingsplc.wordpress.com/

are saying that Berkshire Hathaway are going to do a stock split later this month.

Could be a safe investment bet ??

Anderson Munro invests in Internet veneer of respectability

Posted by Chris on December 2nd, 2009

Lets look at how the “boiler room stockbroker”  Anderson Munro achieves a veneer of respectability on the Internet to prospective investors .

If we Google Anderson Munro as follows

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1R2ADBR_en&q=anderson+munro&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

we can see that the website comes up at the top followed by the use of various press release sites which promote different investment themes like investing in Verizon, A.T.&T, o2, Intel or car battery manufacturer BYD.

Anderson Munro selects these ” bait ” themes because of thier brand and respectability.

BYD, they will tell you, was invested in by Warren Buffett – which is actually true.

As we know most people only look at the at the first page of Google and mainly at the top few natural listings. So the aim of the person at Anderson Munro who is posting all of these themes on press release sites is to dominate the front page and as many following pages as possible and to get free, natural listings as far as possible.

There are no Adwords posts so this is a possible area for someone else to get on the front page of Google and interrupt Anderson Munro’s false veneer.

This was pointed out as a possibility in the stumbleforward blog here

http://stumbleforward.com/2009/04/09/readers-story-milton-hayward-scam-ripping-off-people/

So, the Anderson Munro internet promotion approach is to set up a website and then surround or support it with Press Releases via Free Press Release sites. These Press Releases will pick up the various themes promoted by Anderson Munro’s cold callers when they call the database of prospects that they have.

The Anderson Munro press releases can also be further promoted through sites like Digg.

This is a simple but effective Internet promotion technique. Promote the name Anderson Munro and then the theme.

Other companies employing a similar approach include

Westernfield Holdings who are discussed here:

http://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16737

http://www.englishforum.ch/finance-banking-taxation/61492-investing-carbon-credits-cold-calls-westernfield-holdings.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090524212659AAhtZaF

http://migger.net/2007/05/31/unicorn-ventures-advarsel/

for example or just Google

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1R2ADBR_en&q=westernfield+holdings+scam&meta=&aq=0c&oq=westernfield+scam

and also check out

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1R2ADBR_en&q=macmillan+frasier+scam&meta=&aq=0&oq=macmillan+frasier

and

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1R2ADBR_en&q=milton+hayward+scam&meta=&aq=2&oq=milton+hay


Copyright © 2007 M & A Rainmaker. All rights reserved.