May 06, 2015

5 things to do this weekend

Wow! We're based in a fabulous part of the world. It's easy though to just save going about and doing something slightly different until special times like Bank Holiday weekends.
How would it be if we treated every weekend like a bank holiday?
Would it make the working week seem different?

If you are looking for a little bit of inspiration here's our top tips for things to do this weekend


1. The Paper Bridge at Patterdale

This really is one that you have to see this weekend, because it probably won't be here next week.
Paper Bridge is a "striking river-spanning construction, made entirely of locally sourced bright red paper". Devised and created by Steve Messam with paper from cumbrian specialists Thomas Cropper, the artwork can only be seen via a short 2 mile walk into the stunning Grisedale Valley in Patterdale.
For more information http://www.stevemessam.co.uk/paperbridge/

2. Solway Aviation Museum

Just 4 miles from Warwick Mill lies a real local gem. Solway Aviation Museum is a delight, housing  a collection of aircraft, aviation artifacts and displays that reflect Britain’s position as a world leader in aircraft design and innovation at the dawn of the jet age. It is run entirely by enthusiastic and knowledgable volunteers, including David Kirkpatrick, of ADT, based at Warwick Mill. Even if he wasn't there we'd recommend it. 
www.solway-aviation-museum.co.uk

3. The Hallé at the Sands

One of the Uk's finest orchestra's return to conclude the season with a mouth-watering programme, this time with Markus Stenz at the helm. The Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma, one of classical music's rising stars, is sure to provide a thrilling performance of an audience favourite Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto before the concert concludes with a real treat in the form of Mahler's Symphony No.1, also known as the Titan.

4. The Reading Rooms at Walton
Tucked up in Walton is one of Cumbria's newest and best kept secrets.
From the outside, you would never guess that you would open the door into a bright, funky comfortable little coffee shop and cafe. Home cooked food, cakes and great coffee. 
For those with small children the play ground next door will provide bribery enough.
Walkers, cyclist and dogs all welcome.

January 28, 2015

Being your own flexible friend

Many years ago, I was astounded when a colleague used the quote “there are only two things certain in life, death and taxes” in a sales pitch. My astonishment was largely due to its use as an argument on the return on investment of an advertising campaign in young women’s magazines, a medium where death and taxes are rarely, if ever discussed. Personally, if the use of philosophical quotes in business is your thing, then I would much prefer everyone’s favourite 1st century BC Greek philosopher Heraclitus who said “Everything changes and nothing stands still”.
Change is most definitely a constant and in the last few years of economic challenges this has been ever truer. There is no doubt that the businesses that have thrived are the ones that have understood this and adapted to the market conditions.
The need for change and flexibility has in itself created new markets and industries. The growth of outsourcing for example is prevalent in most sectors. As a result Oxford Economics in their 2011 report for the BSA estimated turnover across all ‘outsourced’ sectors to be in the region of £207 billion, equivalent to 8% of total economy-wide output. In the process these activities directly support around 3.1 million jobs, equivalent to 10% of the UK workforce.

Angela Stringfellow of CODA Concepts writing for American Express, said “At the end of the day, it's flexibility that allows a business to completely shift its core focus to accommodate market demands”. If we take this to be central to success, how does a business balance flexibility into a business plan?

The answer does not lie in our aims, targets or success criteria but in the solutions we find within our business. 
Best use of Technology
Certainly the use of technology, particularly mobile and internet based applications has created an environment that allows businesses to be far more adaptive to client’s needs and requirements. This does of course require you to have good mobile and broadband connections which even in our semi-rural environment at Warwick Mill we have proved to be more than possible.
Flexibile working for better results
The same technology also allows for flexibility with staff. A report by McKinsey commissioned by Sir Win Bischoff of the Agile Future Forum, examined the  economic impact of what they describe as “agile working” on companies to see if there was a business case for less structured working patterns. The report "showed that in the areas the report reviewed there were benefits equivalent to 3% to 13% of workforce costs, with further potential to increase that by a further 3% to 7% and, in some instances, sales uplift to 11%. At the same time it allowed costs to be decreased with KPMG, giving the example that it saved £4.7m during the recession by offering flexible working hours to staff rather than making redundancies. 
Geographical flexibility
Agile working doesn’t just mean flexibility with working hours but also geography, be it the ability to work at or closer to home, the working environment and the physical conditions. Being in a semi-rural environment and in a listed building with modern facilities provides a unique benefit for the employees of the companies based here that goes well beyond their salary.
Flexibility or Customer Service
If, as Angela Stringfellow says, we need flexibility to accommodate market demands, sometimes flexibility means ensuring that outcomes happen now. In other words, good old fashioned customer service and none of us need external reports to understand the benefits this has on our business. Over Christmas a client in the mill had come to the realisation that the serviced office space he was using wasn’t meeting his requirements. We came up with the solution of moving him on site to one of our workshop spaces where internet and phone lines were possible. An agreement was struck and the client moved on Christmas Eve.  Delighted with their new workspace and the speed of delivery,  this provides the perfect example of how change creates benefits for all parties; for the client a better working space, for us a client with longer commitment to the site as well as the goodwill benefits and hopefully their own ongoing recommendation.
Given the fast pace that all businesses operate in, the Business Village model that Warwick Mill operates in provides a degree of flexibility that is uncommon. How ironic that our historic mill buildings provide potentially the best most modern environment for business two centuries later.

December 11, 2014

The Rise of the Virtual Office.

This month we’ve had some extremely valuable feedback, much of it regarding the impact the mill building has on their customers. This in itself is not surprising; our 200 year old sandstone built textile mill is architecturally stunning. What visitors to the building aren’t necessarily aware of is that of the 69 companies that operate from the site, 20 of these do not have a physical presence, choosing instead to utilise our Virtual Office services. This figure is a marked increase on recent years without any significant marketing of the service. The increase therefore is simply due to a higher demand for these services.  However, when analyzing how, or even why, this is the case, the answers are varied.

The advantages of a Virtual Office differ from business to business. For many, a virtual office simply provides a prestigious address, ensuring not only is there somewhere for post to be sent, but that they the address used has a positive impact on their business. This might be because their business is based at home but they want to give the appearance of a larger operation, or to circumvent any negative perceptions they feel a home address might give. For a number of our clients it could be because their work is contentious and for safety reasons they do not want to use their home address.

A recent report showed that Cumbria had an extremely high percentage of small businesses and that this figure was growing. Looking at the companies who use our service this only provides a partial answer as some of our clients are quite large with physical addresses elsewhere in the country. For these companies the benefits are based around providing an address in the county when tendering for business without the costs for an actual hub.
For some companies, the virtual office is more than simply an address, but also a way of ensuring good quality office services at the fraction of the cost of employing staff and having a physical office. Some clients use us on an almost daily basis to provide reception duties ensuring that all phone calls are dealt with in a professional yet personable manner. For these clients their overheads are minimized as are any HR issues.  

Cost effectiveness is frequently a deciding factor in many of the decisions in taking a virtual office, but not just the capital cost. Being part of serviced accommodation, many of our companies find that it gives them access to meeting rooms and other facilities but in a way that they only pay for the time that they need. This cost effectiveness is not just a driver for sole proprietors. Where an operation is spread out cross a distance or with several workers based either in the field or from home, the virtual office provides a central base that allows each person to continue with their operational duties, unhindered by dealing with the day to day admin of answering calls for whomever else in the business. This also allows, when practical, for staff to choose their own working hours which can lead to greater productivity, especially if working across different time zones.

Looking back at the names of the companies who have used Warwick Mill’s virtual office services over the past few year, it is evident that some have used our address as they have established themselves and have grown to take actual office space within with business centre. Others remain as a virtual office and will continue to do so for some time to come. Some companies come and go as their business needs change. It is something we’d like to shout about more, but discretion is a major factor of the virtual office. This is one where you really will have to take our word for it!

November 10, 2014

What’s the worst than can happen?

Later this month it will be 5 years since the Cockermouth floods of 2009. As well as the tragic death of PC Bill Barker, the unprecedented flooding ripped through the town leaving hundreds of people without a home and businesses without premises. Post flood, whilst many took the opportunity to upgrade their premises, not every business survived.
Sadly this is not unusual. The London Chamber of Commerce states that 20% of all companies will suffer fire, theft, flood or storm damage, power failures, terrorism or hardware/software disaster. Of those without a business continuity plan:
43% will never re-open
80% fail within 13 months
53% of claimants never recoup the losses incurred by a disaster


One of the benefits of serviced offices is that they provide an easy solution to disaster planning with much of the thinking being done for you. Warwick Mill Business Centre has significant experience in disaster planning. This was of course put to the test in 2005 when floods hit Carlisle. Thankfully the mill was not affected and as a result became home to a number of businesses.  Companies such as Encompass moved their now flooded city centre offices here, taking advantage of heated offices, furniture, working phone lines and internet connection allowing their business to be back up and running within 24 hours.
Our own disaster and contingency planning means that we have become a resource for other businesses where disaster planning is critical to their business. Some of these use us as an agreement to take space in the event of a disaster; others take a physical space on a permanent basis. This office is used as a satellite but also the control centre in the case of a disaster spreading the risk.
As the adage goes, failure to plan is planning to fail so perhaps it is time to check your businesses disaster plan.  Plans can be as detailed as your business requires but should at the least cover the following 5 key areas:

Program Management – ascertaining your preparedness program, understanding the regulations that your program must cover.
Planning – Assessing what the risks and hazards are for your company, conducting a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and examining how you can reduce and prevent risks and hazards
Implementation – Writing your preparedness plan ensuring that you cover resource management, emergency response, crisis communications, business continuity, Information technology, Employee assistance, Incident management and what training is needed to ensure that plan can be carried out effectively
ProgrammeTesting
Programme Improvement – identifying review dates and future evaluation.