Creating PR for your shop

This afternoon we were visited by a very friendly freelance journalist doing a piece on the village for the local newspaper. Nothing we had arranged, he just popped in out of the blue. A very friendly and interesting chap, we had a good chat about our village, the kind of place it is too live, how warm and welcoming it had been, what goes on etc etc.

During our conversation, which I hope helped him with his article, a number of things came up in conversation which prompted his remark “that is a story in itself” and which got me thinking.

Many people have perceptions of journalists that I believe are unfounded. Many people being so worried in their belief that if they speak to someone from the press they will “twist what I have said”. However we have to remember that many journalists are our friends and neighbours and need to have a constant feed of interesting stories to do thier job. Just as we need supplies and customers on a regular basis to survive in ours.

So what has this got to do with our shop our other rural businesses? I bet that in most villages and rural communities there is much going on that would be make a good story for a local journalist to report on. But beacuse of many factors, we as business owners do not think to mention to our local media.

• Have you recently started a local delivery service?
• Have you started to stock any unusual products or more local products?
• Is there a local event that you are provided support, products or services to?
• Have you started a blog or a new website?

These are all things that could potentially be the basis for a short piece in your local newspaper. And all you need to do is make a call to them and ask if it would be of interest to them. As simple as that.

Overtime I would recommend building up a list of local press contacts and even begin to write out the basis of articles to consider.

Another area to consider – does your local press have a “villages” or “community” section where you can provide input as the local reporter as to what is happening week to week or month to month in your village. If not why not suggest it to them.

Providing imput like this will not only gain you some free local publicty it will also provide vital support to your local newspaper.

I would love to hear of any more suggestions for the type of things that you beleive would make an interesting story for your local newspaper (or TV/radio). Please post your comments.

The Big Switch

In the light of this weeks announcement from British Gas with details of their vast profits we decided, being British Gas customers (for electricity) to check whether we were being charged over the top for our electricity. And it was by great co-incidence that the latest edition of Convenience Store magazine arrived on our doorstep with an article all about the increases in utility costs for retailers and details of how to compare and switch. We immediately got online to Makeitcheaper.com and having studied their website gave them a call.

The phone was answered very quickly and politely and after giving some very brief details from our latest bill, the young man we spoke to advised yes we could make some savings. Not as much as others he admitted but savings were still there to be made. He advised all we needed to do was check the expiry date of our current contract and get back to him and he could do all that was needed for us to benefit from the cheaper rates.

With utility and others costs continually increasing, this is one service we will certainly be taking advantage of as in order to ensure the survival of our rural businesses we all need to ensure that where costs can be saved we take advantage of them. Although we must also bear in mind many of us also survive on the service that we provide to our customers and we will also have to take this into consideration when looking to switch – what level of service will we get from the new provider.

However it’s not going to take much thinking about as when we first took over the store it took British Gas about 5 attempts and numbers of different contracts later to get our details and billing set up correctly - we must have given them our bank details at least 4 times before they managed to set up a correct DD.

For any other village store or rural business out there we would recommend getting your last utility bill out and spending just a few minutes to see if your can make any savings. At the end of the day it may make a big difference.

Best wishes

 Rob & Ali

Hello world!

The last year has been one very interesting journey.

Until 12 months ago I, Rob was a successful marketing manager for a large financial services company. Alison (Ali) had previously worked for the same organisation but had been at home for a while running a small home based business and taking care of our two children.

We lived on the outskirts of Birmingham in a 3 bed semi and I did the daily commute either into center of Birmingham or to one of the London or regional offices of my employer.

 Then life suddenly took a 180 degree turn. I took redundancy and we moved to a small Staffordshire village called Elford and re-opened the old village shop – what a departure and what a beginning of a journey.

 We are now a year down the line and thanks to the great support of family, friends and the villagers we have a great little shop up an running again and providing the village with a re-added sense of community within our walls (and on the pavement outside).

 We have started this blog as our journey has had its ups and downs, its highs and its lows, but so far has been a life changing experience and one we would like to continue to share with anyone either embarking on a similar journey or already on the road and whom would like to be part of our new on-line community and support the fight for survival and development of village stores up and down the country and indeed further afield.

Village stores and businesses have an important role to play in the rural community as we have found and we are proud to be part of this. We hope this blog will lead to the sharing of ideas and support for others and ultimately help the voice of the rural business to be heard.

 We look forward to your input and support.

 Best wishes

 Rob & Ali