Case Studies
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Helping small businesses to help themselves
     
Focus of study:
  Support & guidance
Sector:
  Mixed
Impact:
   Local & National
     
Deirdre Alsey took on the role as IT Manager at the Greenwich Enterprise Board in March 1999. Up until that point she had been working as a freelance IT Consultant and many of her clients had been asking about the Internet and getting online. Deirdre gained the TMB accreditation in May of this year. This case study is a personal account of how she has helped small businesses through developing a series of courses.
 
Business Opportunity
 
I was aware that the owners of small businesses were concerned about whether they should have a web presence but didn't know where to get started. They were also being charged large sums of money for web sites which they then found that they couldn't maintain and update without extra costs. One thing Technology Means Business clarified for me was the importance of understanding what my clients needed and what they could maintain in their daily operation as well as their budget.
Greenwich collectables is one small business that has benifited from TMB adviser intervention.
  
 
Our Response
 
Web Sites
 
We won a bid to Skillswork for regeneration funding to set up and run an integrated short course called "Getting your Business Online". As small businesses are always short of time I ran it for half a day a week over five weeks and each session covered a different topic with a balance between theory and practice. The course covered everything from choosing an ISP, types of account, planning and designing a four-page site, adding graphics, and using email. I visited companies prior to the course to start them thinking about the purpose of their site and free workshops ran afterwards to help them complete a small promotional site. The course has been very successful and has helped over 200 businesses. Some decided that they didn't want to design a site for themselves but still found the information invaluable when dealing with web designers.
Selling Online
 
Once the businesses had a promotional site, I started being asked about e-commerce and selling online. I did some research into the various e-commerce solutions that best suited the needs of our client group to enable them to take control with no ongoing costs. I set up a 2 day course called "Setting up an Online Store" which provided 1 day's training in creating a catalogue and adding images. Day 2 covered issues such as credit card processing, security, e-marketing strategies and budgets. I also set up an online store on our web site www.geb.co.uk so that applicants could book courses online.
 
Outcome
 
The course coincided with the crash of the dot.coms and confidence immediately fell. We carried on stressing that the small businesses who already knew their business and their target audience could add this facility as an extra resource for clients and this has proved to be the case. They were all alarmed by the reluctance of the banks to offer merchant agreements and the very large transaction rates charged by banks and credit card companies, which made it very difficult for SMEs to be competitive. As a TMB accreditation adviser I felt it was essential to help my clients identify their business needs first, and to only recommend an ICT solution if it was needed, so that the SME was not wasting money but making a good investment to enable them to complete with other businesses.
 
Benefits
 
One particular company, Greenwich Collectables (www.greenwichcollectables.com) attended the e-commerce course and have now set up an online store. Lynn Lennon and Steve Mead the joint owners said how delighted they were with the support they had received and how they made more money at 9.30 in the evening through their internet orders than in a whole day standing in the shop! They have since attended an email marketing course and now regularly email their clients with special offers and regular newsletters.
 
 
In order to help local businesses promote themselves we have set up a portal for Greenwich (www.greenwichgateway.com). All our clients who complete a web site have a free link on the site, as do all local businesses with web sites. For those who don't want to design a site themselves, we offer a web design service where we design, host and maintain a site.
 
This is one example of how an adviser with TMB accreditation is helping small businesses; why not contact an adviser in your area to find out how they can help you?