I had a great time in Barcelona with the Carbonsaver MD Glenn Wilkinson. On Thursday we accessed the circuit and walked the track, it was great to see the company that provides such an excellent backbone to all Square Pear’s web projects connected with the ambitious F1 team Marussia. Here you go VPS.NET We have attached a photo we took from the practice session on Friday.

A great short break, lots of action in the race and looking forward to now getting back and pushing the business forward.

Here is a Pear that started t all off. I was at the Barcelona F1 Grand prix when I was about to it into some fruit when I realised that it was a PEAR! The fruit I didn’t even eat 5 years ago prior to starting Square Pear Design and Marketing.

Here is a pear before it was Squared Off.

Running a business is hard at the best of times, so its important you organise yourself and your staff with the best tools possible.  Here are a list of tools that help us keep productive, keep on top of our invoicing and keep on top of our cash-flow.

1. Capsule CRM

Every business not only needs to note conversations with customers but also pipeline possible sales, future sales and consistent account management.  I think it is fair to say that here at Square Pear we have tried pretty much every cloud based crm out there.  With clients across the world we have found it important to keep the conversation in the cloud rather than local database.  Capsule CRM not only does this for us but has some clever integrations with other services such as Freshbooks, Mailchimp and Wufoo.

2. Freshbooks

I have to say I am a Freshbooks evangelist!  I love the system, simplicity, integrations and price of Freshbooks.  I pay £20 a month for a cloud based invoicing system that is the business.  For me there is no comparison.  Freshbooks also integrates with Wufoo forms, Mailchimp, Capsule CRM and also our accounting software Kashoo.

3. Kashoo

We have only just started using Kashoo for more stringent financial accounting.  I have come to the conclusion that in order to reach true success we need to measure everything.Freshbooks can do this to a degree but Kashoo imports from all major banks along with the likes of paypal and can even convert currencies.  We do work all over the world and use paypal to claim payments in the likes of Australia, USA, Canada.

4. Wufoo Forms

We adopted Wufoo forms last year to collect data off our website and also to link into our Capsule CRM account.  This is a brilliant way to get leads, allocate them and follow them up.  We have tried countless forms but Wufoo serves Square Pear the best.

5. Basecamp Next

Basecamp is the leading online project management system out there.  Run  by the brilliant company 37 Signals this is a top notch tool.  Recently we merged to Basecamp Next becoming one of the first adopters and I have to say it was a pain free process.  Basecamp Next allows me to communicate, schedule changes, project manage my clients design requirements effective.

6. Google Apps 

How could we create a list like this and not include Google in it?  I started using Google Apps for all documents and email back in 2010.  Since the change, the email has been delivered consistently, no downtime.  Google allow me to have Freshbooks, and Capsule CRM available with 1 link in my email account. Another positive to going Google for mail and docs.

Often in a ultra competitive marketplace such as web design, how do you find the right web designer to work with your business on your project? It’s a good question and one that shouldn’t be made lightly. I have compiled my list of do’s and don’ts when looking for a decent web design firm in UK.

Here is my list of best practices.

• Look at their website – Does it look business like?
• Do they have a blog?  When was the last time they updated?
• Do they have twitter? What are they talking about?
• Are they doing it as a part time income stream?
• Can they provide a portfolio? Is it on their website?
• Can they provide real customer testimonies that can be validated?
• Are they on other directories that check on their quality of work like The Best Of and The Chamber Of Commerce?

Once they have provided all of the above then have a conversation with them and ask for a price.  Once we are at this stage I would suggest the following set of questions:-

• Have they mentioned anything about return on investment?
• have they mentioned about market research?
• Have they spoken about SEO, Social Media and Route To Market?
• Is the price inclusive of the entire project?
• Are there any additional charges?
• How are you invoiced?
• Can you pay via card / bacs / cheque?
• Do they ask for a deposit?  (Normally designers that take a deposit are more business like?)

The reason I suggest questions like these is because you don’t just want a nice looking site you need a great looking site that gets lots of traffic that converts into paying customers.

For advice on Web Design Firms in the UK call 01204 265002 for a free consultation

Today we are in the age of smartphones and other tablets. Most people I know especially in business have smart phones and can access all kinds of data on the go. I have been attending quite a few events recently with fellow business owners.

We have previously found conversations around SEO, web design and other services that Square Pear offer as further down the line conversations. This last 3 months however we have been talking the Mobile web and how business owners now need to look at building in a mobile web and mobile marketing strategy. This has been received positively with us getting a number of enquiries for mobile website conversion from each event.

Square Pear’s Web Design Service Starts At Only £99 get in touch and let us help you take advantage of the mobile web

Square Pear recently had the pleasure to help a fantastic charity doing some great work across Greater Manchester.  We had the pleasure of helping Street Soccer change their web presence in line with launching as an Academy.

After an initial meeting with Directors Andy and Simon it was apparent that Street Soccer Academy had an excellent print branding and the web presence needed to be brought into line with this standard.

We decided to provide the following:

• Web design to mirror the print standard.
• User friendly interface.
• Social media automation.
• CMS installation
• Initial training so that Street Soccer Academy could take ownership of additons and amendments.

The project was such a success that we have worked on 2 more projects since then to help Street Soccer’s web presence moving forward.

Google bought Motorola this week and why does this make any difference to the standard business on the streets in England?  If you look at what is happening in the market place.

• Microsoft partner with Nokia
• Apple already the market leader in mobile technology.
• Google now have Motorola – (Google TV implications)

The investment in mobile technology is now heightening and recently more mobile devices (phones and tablets) are now outselling pcs.  You don’t have to too bright to work out this is where businesses will be spending some of their budget.

How do we take advantage? Call Square Pear on 01204 265002

Stephen Estes: Google’s Motorola Acquisition Shifts the Battle

Most companies try to defeat their competitors by beating them at their own game. Great companies change the game and the playing field. Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility does just that.

Publish Date: 08/16/2011 19:56

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-estes/google-motorola-acquisition_b_927841.html

Today, Square Pear had the first meeting of many with David and Gaynor Ramsden and The Best of Bolton.  We believe that Square Pear are one of the best value Marketing Agencies in Bolton and we are happy to be put to the test.

We decided to partner with the best of brand because of their undoubted success promoting local business solutions to local businesses.

We are excited by the partnership and look forward to working more closely in the future.

LOCATION, MOBILE AND COUPONS.

Trend 1 – People are nosey beggars and want to know where you are, what you are up to.

• Facebook Status
• Twitter
• Foursquare
• Facebook Places
• Google Lattitude

Trend 2 – Mobile Apps For All The Above

All of these want to utilise the power of the user on the move.  All different apps have been birthed and with the birth of html 5, its not longer a necessity for companies to have an app but have a location based service.

Trend 3 – People are offer crazy

• Look at the fastest growing in the world ever – Groupon (They promote offers)
• One of the most popular websites in the UK is Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert (Promoting offers)
• There are plenty of others but the big boys are now jumping on.  Facebook Deals and now Google Offers which is being trialled at the moment in certain parts of the US.

There are some interesting statistics flying around the internet and trends that local businesses should take notice of.

At the end of September 2009, there were over 418 million people worldwide with internet access (Over 52% of the total population of Europe). This compares to 105 million users in 2000 – growth of 298%

Total UK online population stands at 46m (UKOM, September 2010)

64% of C-level executives conduct six or more searches per day to locate business information. (Google, Forbes, BtoB, June 2009, June 2009)

74% of Internet users perform local searches. (The Kelsey Group)

Its clear that the internet is still growing in prominence and the amount of local search terms coming through Google, Yahoo and Bing is growing! For today’s article we are specifically going to concentrate on Google places because Google has 91% of the UK search engine traffic.

1. Google Places

Google have just integrated their new Google places / Maps page on the front page of Google for most business industry searches.   This means the standard local business can now compete for front page Google listings and connect with local customers for the market they are operating in.

There is data to back up that a customer looking for a local provider will type in a location after their keyword.  For example “Accountants in Bolton.

How to rank highly in Google Places?

1. Claim your page - The first action any business needs to take is to check that you claim your places page.  The majority of businesses don’t know Google have created them one and that they are missing out on free traffic.  The image shows how you can tell if you have claimed your places page or not. If you listing doesn’t say verifiied listing but says ‘business owner ?’ you need to take action!!

2. Places listing 100% complete

This is where lots of companies fall down.  The places page needs all the correct information and your lisitng needs to be filled out completely.  Complete listings get priority on rankings so its important to do.

3. Reviews

What your customers think and say about you is important and Google seems to think so.  Its important that you get at least 5 reviews as a minimum from your clients and get them on Google Places, Yelp, Qype etc.  Google does look to these reviews in the rankling process, the more reviews you have the better.  In addition it builds trust with a potential client.

4. Citations

Where your business is mentioned on other directories and places on the internet is essential.  Google also involves this in the ranking process, and you need to make sure that the numbers and all address details match up.

Why is all this important?

Google Places has a prominent place on the front page of the Google search engine now for your keywords.  Your potential customers are seeing lisitings from your competitors.

The increase in the use of mobile phones for internet browsing is on the increase and is one of the large trends of 2011.  Customers look for a service provider to call from their iphone.

Everyone has their phone on them these days probably more so than taking their wallet.  Google Places sets you up for the mobile internet without having to create an iphone app to reach your potential customers.

** Google has a set of best practices to follow to optimise your listings, if you try to cut corners or do this incorrectly it could harm your listing.** For advice or a free consultation call Steve on 01204 265002 now!