Work started last night on updating all of the content on www.outside-ideas.com. We’ve been making tweaks to our web text and business offering over the past month and have started to upload content. We’re going to have a load more pictures and a load more relevant which in turn should hopefully boost us up the search engines. 

We also want more people contacting us, we have decided to include call to action buttons on lots of pages. 

Check back next week to see how we’ve got on.

We’re thrilled to announce that Outside ideas has secured our third client in two weeks. Active Autos have taken a full branding and sales package including logo and identity design, website design and promotional materials. 

I paid a trip to google London today. The place was incredible. Beanbags, pillows, hammocks and telephone boxes seemed to somehow fit seamlessley into every room. The place was buzzing and I have to say, I was too after the experience. 

We were there to listen to Google UK’s managing director Matt Brittin and marketing director Dan Colby talk about ways that business could speed up in a slowdown.  Google suggest that whilst the economy slips, businesses that use the internet to market to their customers are in a strong possition to gain momentum.  The pair talked about how the slowdown is fuling online growth as bargain hunters now search online for the cheapest option before making purchases. Apparently we’re up to 17p in every pound spent online. 

They talked about the need for businesses to cut costs whilst remaining proffesional and introduced the room to the brilliant google apps suite (oi already use it) which is similar to microsoft office except its all hosted on the internet. 

There are loads of free tools that google have made available to businesses that enable them to get online and perform better online, a great resource is google.co.uk/webmasters which provides great advice for webmasetrs on how google indexes and crawls websites and ultimately ranks your site. 

They also suggested ways of increasing market share by directly targeting niche customers with google addwords. 

To find out more about what was talked about, you can visit www.google.co.uk/speedup

About a month ago, my girfriends car was on its last legs. We happened to pass by a local garrage one sunday to find a man tinkering with a car. I explained the problem and asked if he could fix it. The next morning Roy (the man with the spanners) arrived and set about on the car.  He’s old school and found lots of issues, largely as a result of a build up of grime. Roy spent all day on the car and cleaned every point and cable. It now runs perfectly. 

I’m pleased to announce that Oi has been asked to provide a quote for active autos, for a full corporate identity / web design / sales promotion service.  This is very good news!

We today signed an exciting contract with AJ Machinery ltd to produce their very first website.  Over time the owners had come to realise the importance of being able to profile their current stock online. They spend a good edeal of time each day emailing pictures of machines to clients, the new website, due to be finished at the end of the week will allow them to upload their inventory to the site and save a great deal of time.

Press releases for Oi smile went out today to loads of media companies. We’ve had interest from the Southern Daily Echo and several other local papers. We’re hoping that someone will see the nice side of the Oi Smile campaign and choose to write a story. Can you help spread our story? We’re looking forward to a nice bit of publicity in the run up to Christmas.

Today we had a special visit from Matt Callaghan and we have to say, it was our best meeting in months! The economic development team support small and medium sized businesses that operate in Hampshire. We think that a meeting with them is an absolute must for any small company starting out. Matt gave us some great practical advice on places we could go for information, for grants and support for our business. Thanks Matt.

Our long awaited meeting with Angela Beeston from business Link happened today. What a lady, she’s a dynamo of Ideas and we had a great time generating ways of increasing our awareness amongst our audience. Angela gave us some great advice on networking events, ways of presenting our information and what we should do over the next few months in terms of getting ready to make money.

She also helped us set goals and encouraged us to sign up to supplier matching, a free service from business link which puts you in touch with the suppliers of services you need. We found Angela to be a brilliant business link adviser, she had some great banter and some even greater advice. Outside ideas look forward to a long lasting relationship with Business link and especially with Angela.

We highly recomend a meeting with Business Link for every small business.

Outside ideas visited Bristol today to support young up and coming artist DBO in his work. DBO was amongst 40 of the UK’s top British Urban painters on show at this fantastic event. DBO was thrilled to be included on at the event and sees his inclusion as a step closer to his dream. DBO recently sold 2 of his pieces at an auction along side the likes of Banksy and Inky. Whilst his pieces didn’t quite make millions this time they still managed a very respectable £450 each. His work is only going to get more valuable folks, get it while its hot.

Make you’re mark is a fantastic organisation that encorages British youth to get involved in enteprise. We’ll be responsible for raising the profile of entrepreneurship within Hampshire and to encourage more young people into a life with them as the boss. WHAT A BRILLIANT ORGANISATION. We’ll be involved with enterprise week coming up on the 18th November so give us a shout if you need some help with your event.

Check them out at www.makeyourmark.org.uk