PLAT4ORM is being hand delivered to over 5,000businesses in Norwich and the surrounding area by local success story EF Distribution which lists Argos as one of its many satisfied customers! In time it will also be available online and we estimate that 20,000 people will get to see a copy in one format or another. What you hold in your hands is by no means the finished article however and we welcome your views, submissions, suggestions and criticisms to enable us to achieve a really notable landmark – sending you the second edition ofPLAT4ORM magazine! Wishing you a peaceful and prosperous 2012.

The PLAT4ORM TeamSpecial thanks to Norwich Kitty & Time Associates for their input on this publication.

For all sales / enquiries please call 01603 383410 or email sales@gmepublishinglimited.co.uk.

Graphic Design By Dcypha Digital Media

All Content Copyright © 2012 GME Publishing Limited

WelcomeWelcome to PLAT4ORM, the foundation for betterbusiness. Why are we launching a business to business magazine in the midst of one of the worst economic periods ever experienced? In our opinion small to medium sized local companies need a hand, a platform if you like for getting their message across. What we hope to produce therefore is a publication that is not only informative and educational but cost effective to advertise in too.

More than anything we aim to be positive in our outlook, ‘talking up’ Norwich and Norfolk based businesses at every opportunity. Please get in touch and tell us your success story or let us know what particular marketing strategy is working for you. Despite all the doom and gloom there arebusinesses that are bucking the trend and doing well at the moment.

know the same ‘third’ person - “isn’t it a small world?!”

Similarly, once you get to know someone, if you can’t do business together you’ll be surprised just how often someone else you know can potentially work with them, and it’s only natural then to offer a referral.

Even with networking and networking opportunities it’s simply not possible to know an expert in every field of course. But by building up your network of contacts you give yourself the best possible chance of sourcing specialist help when you need it.

At a recent Norwich Kitty event diversity ranged from a market research consultancy to a lady who provides doves that are released to mark special occasions!

This simple example highlights how a smallinvestment of your time, say two hours in the case of a weekly Kitty meeting, will not only enable to you to build a valuable list of potential suppliers butprovide you with a fantastic opportunity to make new business contacts who may need yourservices.

The networking group has already produced a unique product from the collaboration of different people’s skills resulting in this business magazine. More projects are bound to follow as a result ofsub-groups being formed between Kitty members.

PLAT4ORM magazine was forged by five different companies, who each added their own expertise to create a leading edge business-to-business communication tool. What better testimony to the expert professional services available in this area?

We intend to introduce our 20,000 plus readers to many of the outstanding professional services that the Norwich business community provides. PLAT4ORM will feature ‘Business Services’ in each issue and your experiences and input would be welcome.

Get in touch on 01603 383410 or via email to: editorial@plat4orm.com and tell us of your hints and tips on the subject of ‘better business’.

Getting yourbusinessout thereNorwich Kitty

he Norwich Kitty was formed in September 2011 for those wanting regular networking opportunities without the astronomical fees

sometimes associated. It provides new start-ups, prohibited from joining some networking groups due to business sector exclusivity clauses, with a viable and affordable alternative. As our events are held in traditional public houses we thought that business resource would be better referred to as a ‘Kitty’ and be the obvious USP to attractprogressive entrepreneurs open to new ideas.

Backed by a powerful, high ranking business directory, with over 10,000 indexed pages and an online business forum, the Kitty networking events are a great way for local businesses to meet face to face.

The best networking groups operate as exchanges of business information, ideas and support. The most important skill for effective business networking is listening and focusing on how you can help the other person rather than on how he or she can help you. This is the first step towards establishing a mutually beneficial relationship.

“What do you do?” How many times have you used this as your opening line at a networking event? This should be avoided at all costs as it can give the impression you are only interested in quickly identifying people who would benefit from your own products or services.

In fact, the key to successful networking is to get to know people. This is one of the reasons the Kitty works as well as it does, it provides a natural environment to relax and get to know likeminded people. It makes much more sense than rushing around swapping business cards, during a 10minute break between speakers!

Ask yourself how often you have started to talk tosomeone new only to quickly establish you both

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people in your company that training takes two main routes: additive and curative. Additive training is where new tasks or procedures are incorporated into the existing role. It could for example be a new way of recording information, sending invoices orsomething very specific to the actual job role. It is very dangerous just to give out written instructions and expect them to be carried out 100 percent.

Curative training is for when one or more members of your team need to become better at what they are doing. Often used when people become almost complacent and standards slip...

“A trick too far for an old dog?!”

These people may fall into two main camps in your business:

1. The Sceptic“I’m too busy and important to undertake training…”

2. The Technophobe“The way we currently do things is fine...”

In both cases it is the fear of personalembarrassment or loss of status amongst their peers that needs addressing first. Why not try and get them involved in the planning of the training?

Glenn Hoy outlined for us hisview on this aspect of training: “It’s not often easy to get people to have an open mind about being told they are not doing their job as well as they could. By providing additional training this barrier can be broken down as your viewsbecome less a criticism and more practicalassistance. Please do not see this as an opportunity to simply appraise their performance but as one to help increase the overall effectiveness of yourbusiness through its key resource - the staff.”

PLAT4ORM will feature Training and Development in each issue and your experiences and input would be welcome.

Get in touch on 01603 383410 or via email to:editorial@plat4orm.com

Helping yourbusinessby helpingyour team

es, we know that you’re aware that acompany’s biggest asset is its staff and that their well being and development are at the

top of your priorities.

We also know that for many small to medium sized businesses having the time and budget to helpvaluable team members become better at what they do and learn new or develop existing skills is easier said than done.

The other ongoing dilemma for many business owners is finding the time for more training for themselves.

We asked Sales and Marketing training specialist Glenn Hoy of TIME Associates his views on the subject. He told us, “There is no magical cure or instant fix for this, however Norwich is well served by companies who provide a whole range oftraining and development options. Either as bespoke ‘in house’ courses or by way of open workshops or seminars.”

The TIME Associates approach is to suggest to companies that they undertake a simple buteffective ‘Training Needs Audit’. This will quickly identify the topics that need to be addressed first without creating a scatter gun approach and almost doing training for the sake of training. If you would like a FREE copy simply email: glenn.hoy@timeassociates.net

Getting the team involved

An issue that constantly crops up when looking at training is what to do with more experienced staff; they often have a ‘you cannot teach an old dog new tricks’ attitude that makes them less thanwilling participants.

We recommend that it is made quite clear to all

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ignorance, which is not much help in business. Knowing that you don’t know and ignoring it is something else entirely.

Learning offers a solution. Learning can be donethrough many mediums. For example, you can read books and search the internet, shadow a friend or watch a video. These methods work some of the time for some people, but there is just no substitute for learning in a group or one to one. Face to face is always best. As a Business Support Specialist, qualified trainer and coach, I am a passionate advocate of life-long learning for everyone. Having the right information, acquiring the relevant knowledge and skills and applying your knowledge and skills to your best advantage, will help to ensure that you achieve your aims and objectives. In effect taking our own advice, NWES has embraced change and the challenge it represents by developing a new training and development, advice and support service for sole traders, micro, small and medium sized businesses through to larger organisations.

The best thing is that BEST Support is inexpensive, with the benefits of your investment in training and advice considerably exceeding the modest cost. In any case, best training and advice is always worth paying for.

So, if you need assistance with managing change, planning for or growing your business, personal and organisational development and training, you know where to come. BEST Support is ready to help. We can be contacted here –

W: www.bestsupport.org.uk

E: info@bestsupport.org.uk

T: 0845 373 1125

Jean McNeil is a Business Support Specialist for BEST Support. She has over 25 years of experience and is a fully qualified trainer and assessor and internal verifier for NVQs up to Level 5. She is a Master Practitioner of NLP and a registered hypnotherapist which brings an interesting slant to her training. She has been described as a motivational and dynamic trainer, able to bring clarity tocomplex subjects. ‘De-mystifying the mystifying’.

OpportunityisnowhereJean McNeil - Business Support Specialistfor BEST Support

any business people have told me that they are very concerned about the impending changes to Business Link reported in the

press. To despair over the loss of Business Link’s training and advice service is perhaps a reflection of our appetite for “something for nothing”.Although I agree that funded services are important I also recognise that every gravy train eventually hits the buffers. It’s time to stop grieving and to move on. Successful entrepreneurs all recognise that survival in business depends on embracing constant change and even on becoming thecatalyst for it.

There is funding for some services. NWES is the largest and best known enterprise agency in the country and celebrates its 30th anniversary next year. We have helped thousands of businesses to form, grow and prosper, providing advice, training and support, particularly at pre-start, start up and early growth stages. NWES has been awarded funding to deliver certain services so you cancontact them on 0845 66 99 991 to check if they can provide the assistance you are seeking.

As a ‘not for profit’ company we ourselves faced the fact that changes to funding for business start-up and growth training would have significantimplications for both us and our clients. But there is more than one way of looking at change.

Opportunityisnowhere

Perception is everything and how you look at change makes all the difference. We perceive that ‘Opportunity is now here!’ – what do you perceive? Not only does opportunity exist but more important-ly the need also exists. It is a sad fact thatapproximately 74% of small businesses fail within the first year of trading and a high percentage of those that survive the first year fail to grow and hang on by their finger tips. In my opinion, failure results from doing the right things wrongly, doing the wrong things or doing nothing at all. Notknowing what you don’t know equals blissful

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• Have you got a special offer this week? Twitter and ipatter are good places to broadcast this. • If you need more space then Facebook andespecially Google+ give you the space to expand your thoughts further.

• Through all of these sites you can refer people to a blog that you have written or to an interesting website or article you have found.

It is easy to sign up and start using these sites and all of them are free to use at the basic level. It is best to have a steady, regular presence rather than send 50 messages on one day and none for the rest of the month. Always be aware that what you say is in the public domain and never write anything that you would not be happy for the whole world to know. As Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon said,

“If you make your customers unhappy in the real world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”

Using any of these sites can help drive traffic to your website and/or generate enquiries about your business. This may not happen overnight. Through social media you can build up relationships with people so that they grow to like, know and trust you and will therefore consider using your products or services. Using social media is also a good way to alert your existing customers to new developments, products or services. People havealso found that using social media has helpedincrease their ranking in Google searches. Anexcellent book by Heather Townsend titled ‘TheFinancial Times Guide to BusinessNetworking: How to Use the Power of Online and Offline Networking for Business Success’ provides more detailed advice on using social media.

Will social media really benefit your business, i.e. find you new customers or increase your sales?Jez Middleton from Adventure Safety Training (www.adventuresafetytraining.org.uk) has found that social media has been beneficial to his business:

“I have used ipatter to increase my Google rating; it has brought me up the ranks quickly without the

In my opinion: Social media - not just a waste of time Mark Barton / Services-plus

here is a lot of talk about ‘social media’ but what is it? Social media refers to websites where people interact with each other, and

many businesses are using them to promote their products and services. There are over 500 different social media sites on the internet. For the purposes of this article let’s keep it a bit more manageable and look at some of the more well known sites. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are perhaps the three best known international sites used bybusinesses in the UK. One site with a strong local base that is expanding its presence further afield is ipatter. Then there is the ‘new kid on the block’, Google+ pages.

The different sites each have a different approach or culture. Facebook started as a socialfriendship site but is now also being used forbusiness purposes and some people use it instead of having a website. LinkedIn is more akin to having your CV on-line and much of theinteraction takes place through discussion groups. Twitter consists of conversations using a maximum of 140 characters per message, whereas ipatter allows you one message a day of up to 3,000 characters. Google+, like Facebook, allows you to create pages specifically about your business, but also allows you to filter your messages to, for instance, your suppliers or your customers. Writing your own blog linked to your website is another form of social media.

Here are some of the ways that you can use social media: • Are you looking for new employees? Why not start your search on LinkedIn? Here you will find on-line versions of people’s CVs andrecommendations on the quality of their work.

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need for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). I don’t know what they do but it works for me. I have had posts that have had a huge amount of views,” he says. “When I search for other businesses often an ipatter post or listing will be one of the first entries to come up on Google. Ipatter has found me about 10 new customers (individuals booking onto first aid courses) in 2011. “I have found that I get lots of contacts fromcustomers and potential customers throughFacebook and Twitter. I’m not saying that they don’t look at my website, but they decide to contact me through Facebook or other social media. This will then be transformed into email communication and potential meetings and bookings. “LinkedIn has also worked and has started several communications and found me potential customers for 2012. They have connected with me and seen posts on there and then contacted me to find out more about what I do and to arrange meetings.

I have found social media takes time to pay back (about a year) but it is working for me.”

There are plenty of Norfolk businesses on thedifferent social media sites. Are you ready to use social media? If so choose your site or sites, find some people you already know and announce your arrival!

Mark Barton

mark@services-plus.co.ukwww.services-plus.co.ukTwitter - markbnorwichLinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/markbartonukFacebook - http://profile.to/mark-barton/Google+ - http://ow.ly/8mHKjGoogle+page - http://ow.ly/8mHQk

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government concentrates on reducing the national debt, and then keeps spending within its means. That’s it; nothing else will solve the problem. The detail is politics, so I will leave that to our political masters. I believe our responsibility is to ensure they do it, support them when we think they get it right and argue against them when we think they have got it wrong.

Watch Out

There are real dangers, in particular for property investors. Depending on their individualsituation, many have debt, and unless contracted to long term fixed rates, they are at risk from interest rate rises. As the UK economy is currently on its knees, the likelihood of rate rises seems slight.

However, there is a risk of inflation and even hyperinflation. This may at first seem a ridiculous statement to make, but just look at the facts; hyperinflation is generally caused by: 1. Very high government borrowing 2. Printing money to cope with meeting the debt. This decreases the value of existing money creating a multiplier effect where people lose confidence in money and keep demanding wage increases. 3. A reluctance, and, or inability to deal with the debt

Does any of this sound familiar?

There are some who are dealing with thisuncertainty by investing in hard commodities, normally gold, silver and other precious metals, but that’s another article, another time.

This article was written by James Ewles on 29th November 2011. James is the Managing Director of Oracle Financial Services and this article reflects his own views and opinions and does not constitute financial advice.

Sources:

guardian.co.uk, ukpublicspending.co.uk, debtbombshell.com, ifs.org.co.uk

The wider picture: Where has all the money gone?James Ewles, Managing Directorof Oracle Financial Services

he UK is arguably in very serious trouble. I often get asked by investors in all asset classes for my take on the future. I have been

reassuring them that, although the situation seems bad, it’s often the media kicking up a storm and creating copy.

Things are starting to look different now. The problem is debt. It’s great if governments use debt wisely and build infrastructure to provide realsolutions for people or business, for example;building roads, rail, and communication links which all help the UK economy grow. The problem comes when government use too much of their income to fund services which don’t provide any economic benefit.

Welfare is one area that’s a real problem. In June this year, George Osborne announced savings to the welfare budget of £11billion by the end of thisparliament. Left unchecked the welfare bill would rise to £192bn by 2015. The cost of welfare has risen 45 percent in the last decade alone.

The total UK government debt is currently around £909bn, it is expected to rise to £1.2 trillion by 2012, that’s £1,200,000,000,000. It currently costs about £45bn to pay the interest on this loan, this is almost as much as it costs to run all our schools, just think for a moment of the economic benefit of doubling the school spend. This is a great example of how we could use the money we currently use to pay our debts to invest in the future.

The Options

The only option is for us to make sure that our

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off the supporters and rightly so – I wasn’t fully fit, I was a bit overweight, I was sluggish. It got to thestage where I thought ‘Right, I’ve got to roll mysleeves up otherwise this could be the end of mycareer’. I got myself so fit it was untrue and lost astone and a half in weight - it wasn’t until the endof that first season that I started to play decent football.”

The fact that Roberts had to work so hard to win over City fans only makes the following seven years even more special, he says – and after just a few minutes of speaking to the Welshman it is clear that his feelings towards the club and the city where he still lives have not wavered since.

But the former Leicester striker although a part of Nigel Worthington’s promotion winning side of 2003-04 was not considered good enough towarrant a place in the Northern Irishman’s plans for the Premier League, much to the disappointment of the Norwich fans.

The 35-year-old had contributed eight goals in his last season and as he openly admits, the decision not to extend his contract and give him one last shot of playing in the top flight took Roberts some time to get over.

“It’s something that doesn’t eat away at meanymore – but it took a bit of time, I was bitterly disappointed. I still think I had something to offer, I could’ve done a job off the bench with 20 minutes to go in the Premier League, I’m sure of it. For a couple of years it left a bad taste in my mouth but I don’t think about it anymore.

“I saw Nigel when Wales played Northern Ireland last year and had a good chat with him. I don’t hold any grudges. A lot of people come up to me and say the manager made a big mistake in letting me and Malky (Mackay) go that season. But he was doing what he believed to be best for the club and I can only say fair enough.”

It could have all been so different of course had City held on to a 1-0 lead at the Division One Playoff Final in 2002. For 12 tantalising minutes, Roberts’ thumping extra-time header at the MillenniumStadium was the most important goal he had ever

Photo courtesy of Lee Blanchflower www.leeblanchflowerphotography.co.uk

‘Doing the business forNorwich’ - Iwan Roberts talks exclusively to Melissa Rudd

ith Norwich City currently surpassing all expectations in their first Premier League campaign for six years, talismanic striker

Grant Holt is often the talk of the terraces.

But there will always be a place in any Canary fan’s heart for the club’s former Number 9 who adorned the shirt for seven seasons. With 96 goals to his name, the club’s third all-time top scorer Iwan Roberts still enjoys legendary status in Norfolk.

Yet a few games into the 1997-98 season, it would have been difficult to convince the Carrow Road faithful that Mike Walker’s big money summersigning from Wolves would prove to be anything other than an expensive flop – and nobody was more aware of it than Roberts himself.

“I’d been brought in by Mike for a lot of money (£850,000) and was labelled as the final piece of the jigsaw ahead of a season where we were going to push hard for promotion,” he says.

“It was a very tough first season. I took some stick

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after the post was filled was disappointing. Just a phone call or letter to say ‘thanks but you’re notright for the job this time round’ in consideration would have been appreciated. I told him that Ideserved to be treated with more respect after seven years as a player.”

Roberts has found his feet as a commentator and pundit for BBC Wales, although he has not yet ruled out a crack at management. “I think I would like the chance one day but there are so many ex-players wanting to do the same and only so many football clubs. At the moment I really enjoy what I do and have been looked after well at the BBC so mediawork is something I want to continue with.”

Despite only hanging up his boots in 2005, Roberts says money has changed the game dramatically in recent years. “Players have become more detached from reality, I don’t think they mix with the public like we used to.

“Take the Carlos Tevez situation. Refusing to play? It drives me mad. He is being paid millions to do something that fans would do for free. I’ll tell you what, if he was in our team in 2003/04 there would have been players queuing up to have him by the throat and I’d have been first in line. It shouldn’t happen when you’re part of a squad trying to move in the same direction.”

Honest, old-fashioned and fighting for the cause – it’s no wonder Iwan is still a fans’ favourite.

scored. But a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat against Birmingham followed and dreams ofPremiership football faded quickly, as did Roberts’own thoughts on the goal. “We lost the game, so itdoesn’t mean anything to me,” he says.

“I think more of the two goals I scored at Crewe in my final game. I had never scored on the last day of the season in 20 years and the first one was a peach. I had certainly never hit one like that with my left foot in my life! Oh and the couple I scored against Ipswich at Portman Road to win 2-0 meant a lot for obvious reasons.”

As for the current crop of Carrow Road stars, Roberts remains an impressed observer of both the players and the man at the helm Paul Lambert, who he believes has learnt from one of the best in his former boss at Leicester, Martin O’Neill. “I loved playing for him, he just had the knack of getting the best out of the players and was the best man manager I have ever worked with. Lambert played under Martin at Celtic and you can see how similar his management methods are – he has assembled a great squad and got them playing confidently.”

Warming the manager’s seat in the dugout at Carrow Road was a job that Roberts applied for in 2006, although the club’s conduct in dealing with his application was in complete contrast to theprofessionalism the 43-year-old showed during his time as a Canary.

“I got a phone call from the club secretary Kevan Platt a week after Peter Grant was given the job. To not get an acknowledgement of my application until

phone call or letter to say ‘thanks but you’re not