2012 could be a magnificent year here in Guernsey, or maybe it will be the same as 2011. At the end of the day though it will be down to you as to how your year pans out. You can sit somewhere down the line of carriages and watch the world go by or you could go up front and do a bit of driving, making sure your personal train is on the right tracks.

It is all too easy to be a passenger and go where fate decrees but perhaps some will grab 2012 by the scruff of the neck and say,”Hey this is going to be my year and I am going to make good things happen.”

Let’s start with the resolution that we are going to win something big, we can forget that one.

Second let’s think about what we are doing and if we are happy as we are. If you are happy with your life, stop reading right now and enjoy the next 12 months. If however you aren’t happy with your life, let’s resolve here and now to see what you can do about it.

Third, a word of caution, don’t just dump everything you’ve got and think the grass will be greener somewhere else. Life isn’t like that. It is far better to make the most of what you have got and work smarter or adjust things in your life to enjoy your time a bit more.

It may be as simple as not making the bed when you get up and not having a cooked breakfast thereby making the start of your day a bit easier. It could be catching the bus to work, saving the stress of parking and saving the cost of petrol. It may be staying to lunch instead of coming home and finishing half an hour earlier – ask the boss! There are a myriad of things you can do to give yourself more time and then you can think what you are going to do with that time.

You could find a hobby which pays, enjoy your sport a bit more and win some prizes, maybe you’ll write that book you always wanted to write. Whatever you do with the time you save – enjoy it. You may just find that after spending time, doing something you really enjoy, one day you can spend all your time doing what you enjoy.

However the longest journey starts with a single step so as in all good plans take your resolutions one step at a time and pace the change. Who knows by this time next year a resolution to enjoy life more will be the last thing on your mind.

And of course if your ideas involve a business, come and talk to us here at the Guernsey Enterprise Agency. Call us on 710043 or email us on info@gea.gg.

Happy New Year.

Tina and Peter on the GEA stand

GEA at Chamber event 

During the highly successful Global Entrepreneurship Week in November, the Chamber of Commerce ran a business event entitled “It’s all about Profit”.

Tina James of the Agency was involved in the planning of the event and during the day both Peter and Tina spent time talking to delegates about their businesses and explaining how the Guernsey Enterprise agency can help. 

This was a good example of how the Agency and the Chamber can work together to promote and support Guernsey businesses. 

We look forward to working on similar initiatives in 2012.

This time of year can be difficult for some businesses while for others it is the most important part of the year. Once it is over it is time to take stock and assess the future. This is where a chat with the Agency or perhaps your accountants or some other professional advisor can come in useful.

The New Year is also a time for those all important New Year resolutions. If you are already in business and want to make achievable plans for the future you need to be able to take stock of where you are, where the business is and then define a plan for the year ahead.

If you are thinking of starting a business you need to assess your personal situation and decide if you can afford to undertake the enterprise, whatever it may be, and consider what the impact might be if the business were to fail.

Whatever your thoughts or ideas about the future for your business it is worth sharing them with someone. Here at the Agency we offer free, confidential and impartial advice to start-ups and existing businesses so make the resolution to give us a call and see if we can help you make a success of the New Year.

Have a great time and keep safe.

For more information about the Guernsey Enterprise Agency, visit our website at www.gea.gg. To make an appointment call us on 710043.

PS: We are Open between Christmas and New Year and you can call us on 710043 on all normal working days over the festive period.

Elizabeth College Students and the GEA Dragons

As part of one of the Elizabeth College Business Courses, two Advisors from the Guernsey Enterprise Agency paid a visit to the school and “grilled” the students about several proposed “businesses” they were intending to set up to raise money for Charity. Each business would run until the end of 2011.

The businesses ranged from selling food and drinks, through to lunch time entertainment and sports gear hire, all to run during the school lunch period. 

One entrepreneurial team had a slightly different idea. The proposal was to offer to print the student’s school number on their school t-shirts and it was this idea that impressed the judges more than all the others. Though the stacks of money in front of the “Dragons” would have been more use in a board game than in reality the questions and suggestions were real and hopefully the students all appreciated the time given by the team from the Guernsey Enterprise Agency. 

Peter Walters of the GEA was impressed by the work put in by the students. “Each group gave us a business plan and made a presentation as to how the business would work, who would be carrying out each role within the business and the proposed returns we could expect to see. Both Tony and I were impressed at the level of sophistication involved and the thinking that had gone into each project. We hopefully met some budding entrepreneurs of the future.”

He continued. “It will be interesting to see when the earnings are added up which of the teams made the most money for charity and whether our prediction came good.” 

For more information about the Guernsey Enterprise Agency, visit our website at www.gea.gg. The Guernsey Enterprise Agency offers free, confidential and impartial advice to start-ups and existing business; to make an appointment call us on 710043.

David Stanley, Patent Attorney

It has been a remarkable year for the Inventive people of Guernsey with dozens coming to see David Stanley during his frequent visits to Guernsey. 

Each month David, who is a Patent attorney based in Alderney, takes time to spend a day with the Guernsey Enterprise Agency in their office and meet with people who have ideas for new products or questions concerning how to protect  their ideas, Intellectual Property questions or copyright issues. 

This year David has been busier than ever and the highlight was a well-publicised drop in session in September when 11 individuals came along to meet David and discuss their ideas. He has held a couple of sessions in the island since then and had several appointments each time. His diary is already filling for his first visit in 2012. 

David commented. “It is always a pleasure to come to Guernsey and meet potential Inventors and entrepreneurs. The range of ideas I see is remarkable and a true testament to the inventiveness of Guernsey people. If I can help people in any way I am delighted. Sometimes it may be that the idea has already been proposed which can be disappointing but if it isn’t, and there is enough creativity within the idea to make it patentable we can offer a range of services to our clients or offer them guidance on how they can do some elements for themselves. Most importantly inventors should be sure to keep their ideas confidential, if they are thinking of patent protection” 

Tony Brassell of the Guernsey Enterprise Agency is extremely appreciative of the service David offers. “If David didn’t come to the island like he does we would have great difficulty in pointing people to the right resources to help them with their ideas. The fact that David does what he does for us, for free, is incredible and from the feedback I get he has been really helpful to everyone he sees.” 

If you would like to make an appointment to see David Stanley and discuss your ideas then call the Guernsey Enterprise Agency on 710043 and we will arrange a time in his diary.

Ends 

For more information call the Guernsey Enterprise Agency on 710043 or visit our website at www.gea.gg.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is as it says a Global initiative promoting entrepreneurship amongst people to help them grow their businesses or start a business.

The initiative in Guernsey has been designed to fill the week with activities. The main event is the Chamber of Commerce seminar on the 19^th November entitled, “It’s all about Profit”. That event is being held at St Pierre Park and will run all day from 8.30 in the morning. The Guest speaker will be the inspirational  Zef Eisenberg and more details about costs and how to register can be found on the GEA website and the Chamber of Commerce website. 

The full programme for the week is as follows:

Monday 14th November 10.30 – 12.30  - Adrian Machon of Machon Accounting covering accountacy questions.

Tuesday 15th November 10.30 – 12.30  – David Cherry of Cherry Godfrey  to answer questions on insurance and leasing.

Wednesday 16^th November 10.30 – 12.30  – Keith Bell of Babbe’s will be in the office to answer business based legal questions.

Thursday 17th November 8.30 – 4.30pm  – Chamber of Commerce Seminar entitles “Its all About Profit” at St Pierre Park.

Friday 18^th November 10.30 – 12.30  – Sam Price of HSBC will be in the GEA office to answer questions on banking. 

The Guernsey Enterprise Agency is based in the Guernsey Information Centre and though the sessions are promoted as drop-in sessions it may be advisable to book a 20 minute session if you would like to talk to any of the experts. Some times are already booked.

Tony Brassell of the Guernsey Enterprise Agency commented. “We are indebted to our team of experts for giving freely of their time and hope that people will make the most of this opportunity to meet and talk to people who are so highly rated in their particular fields. If you are starting a business or looking to grow your business this is a rare opportunity to be able to sit down with an expert and talk through any issues you may be concerned about. If you would like to book a session please call the Agency on 710043 or email us on info@gea.gg.” 

For further information about Global Entrepreneurship Week visit their website at www.gew.org.uk.

The cost to Chamber Members will be £65 and non-members will be charged £80.

The keynote speaker will be Zef Eisenberg of Maxi Muscle fame and the topic of his address will be “How to turn business nightmares into a profit”.

The facilitator will be Kathy Tracey and the sponsor of the event is NatWest.

To book your place call Clare at the Chamber on 727483 or email her on clare.parkinson@guernseychamber.com

Full details are available on a flyer which you can download by clicking here (2mb)

The Guernsey Enterprise Agency will also be involved in Global Entrepreneurship Week. We have organised a series of drop in sessions with experts in a range of fields. More details will be published soon.

Climate Controls Limited, who are based at the Longcamps in St Sampsons were one of the lucky recipients and used their ticket to attend the OFA Short Course 2010 event in Columbus, Ohio which is heralded as the United States of America Floriculture’s Premier Event of the year. With more than 550 companies taking some 1500 exhibition spaces this is a huge event and would provide Climate Controls with access to all the major players in the North American greenhouse business.

Offering a range of products from full greenhouse building to specialist ventilation and heating systems, Climate Controls was delighted to receive the free ticket which enabled them to take space at this major event.

Andre Bisson, Sales Manager with Climate Controls attended the event and was impressed with the scale of the exhibition. He commented. “We are the only British Company attending the event and one of very few offering Horticultural Ventilation systems. The event is held over three days and it was incredibly busy for all seven hours of each day. I thoroughly enjoyed the BA business class experience, arriving at the event fit and ready to go.”

He continued. “As a direct consequence of attending the event we secured orders for 2000 rack and pinion ventilation sets and 30 tons of aluminium equipment for a new greenhouse in Kansas, all worth around $250,000 for the company.”

They were so impressed with the event they will be going again this year.

Tina James of the Guernsey Enterprise Agency commented. “It was so good to hear how appreciative Andre was of the support and how much business they had secured from the event. It just shows that the business is out there if local businesses are able to go and find it.”

Climate Controls is a truly local firm and a family run business. It was established by Brian Bisson in 1968 and is now run by his sons Andre and Pierre. While established to meet local demand it now exports around 98% of its production. However they do point out that trading from Guernsey is difficult. With less freight routes available for their exports, difficulty in finding premises from which to operate and no support for exporters to find new markets, operating from Guernsey is becoming increasingly tough.

The brothers realise that one good event isn’t enough to keep their business thriving and are looking at new products and new innovations to add to their range. They are hoping these will bring them more success in the United States in 2011.

Monarch Vulcanising Systems were one of the ten successful applicants and chose to use their ticket to visit the International Mining & Machinery Exhibition (IMME) in Kolkata, in India.

A change in Import Tax in 2010 meant that the company was far better placed to serve this important market for their products and having had success at exhibitions involving mining, construction and heavy industry before, saw this particular exhibition as a great opportunity to spread the word about their range of products in India.

Monarch Vulcanising Systems was founded 40 years ago and is one of the worlds leading providers of vulcanising equipment, exporting their products, world wide, from their base on the South Side of the Bridge in St Sampsons.

The product utilises a system of inflatable rubber air bags and heating mats that when assembled around a tyre and inflated will vulcanise a repair in to the tyre like a giant puncture repair kit for a bike. The word giant is not used lightly either with the big systems being able to repair the large tyres on those huge earth moving vehicles we only usually see on TV. Some of the tyres they can repair cost £70,000 each making a repair far preferable to replacing them.

Matt Summers, Technical Development Engineer with Monarch attended the IMME Exhibition and was impressed with the contacts they made. “IMME proved to be the perfect introduction for us into the Indian market. We made many good contacts and were run off our feet with enquiries from 9am until the Exhibition closed at 6pm on all four days of the show. However the most positive result of the show for Monarch was the beginning of a country wide distributor agreement with India’s largest tyre repair company, UniPatch Rubber Ltd. This agreement means they have now begun marketing and selling Monarch’s products across the country.”

He continued. “Being able to fly Club World (Business Class) also gave us added advantages we wouldn’t normally have enjoyed. The BA Galleries Lounge at Heathrow enabled us to escape the hustle and bustle of the Airport, we arrived at our destination rested and ready to do business and the reduced queues meant we didn’t have to set as much time aside as you would normally do flying economy.”

Tina James from the Guernsey Enterprise Agency was extremely impressed. She commented. “It is amazing to us and probably to everyone else on Guernsey that a small, innocuous building on the bridge can house such an amazing business which has such a Global reach. This little known local company exports its products around the world and has the ability and the drive to go back out to India again this year and continue to expand its sales.”

The Company is already planning more visits to other regions for 2011, expect turnover to double or even triple in the year ahead and have expansion plans in place for their premises. They source their Rubber from North America, enjoy big Markets in Australia, Indonesia and South America and bring many people to Guernsey for training, spreading awareness of the Island far and wide.

In short, Monarch Vulcanising Systems is a small Guernsey business, doing great things on a global scale. A business we can all be proud of.

One of the successful companies was island analysis (IA) which is a locally based research, analysis and benchmarking company, focussing on Island communities around the globe. Island Analysis won the Natwest Best Small Business Award for 2010 at the Annual Guernsey Awards for Achievement presentation in February 2011.

They decided to use their free flight to fly to the Cayman Islands to promote Island Analysis and the benchmarking work they are doing. During his visit to Grand Cayman, Director of Development Andrew Birnie, gave a presentation to senior staff at KPMG who themselves have an offshore group. His presentation highlighted the work island analysis is carrying out on the issues various Islands are facing, how their economies are performing and how they can compare one against the other.

The team at Island Analysis last month last month published a review of government economic development strategies in twenty islands as part of its research programme into how small island communities have been affected by the global economic and financial crisis. Anyone wishing to benefit from this vital intelligence can find out more by contacting IA. Two other associated reports covering Government Finance and economic diversification in islands are to be published.

Island Analysis has created a unique island database which contains information on 85 Islands worldwide but chose Cayman for their visit because of contacts they already had there.

Chris Brock, Chief Executive of Island Analysis, was delighted that they had been selected for this free flight. He commented. “This flight enabled us to get out of our comfort zone and gave us the opportunity to raise our profile. What we learnt on this trip will help us with future projects as it gave us useful feedback on what their needs are and where the demand for our services might come from.”

He continued. “The support we had from British Airways was fantastic. Everything was well organised and the whole trip went exactly as planned.”

While in Cayman, Andrew Birnie also met with the Chief Executive of the Cayman Chamber of Commerce who was keen to be involved with the benchmarking project; the Cayman Government’s Deputy Chief Statistician who was also very interested in the IA benchmarking research and the Deputy Director of Economic Development for the Cayman Islands who was keen to see what was happening in other Caribbean and European Islands.

Tina James of the Guernsey Enterprise Agency was pleased with the outcome of this visit. She commented. “It was difficult to judge how businesses would use these free tickets but I have been amazed how well they have been used. Island Analysis is a prime example of this in that they made the very best use of the free ticket, meeting key people in an important market for them, securing business and at the same time spreading awareness of the services they have to offer.

Since this visit other trips have been planned to locations as diverse as Tasmania, Malta and the Isle of Man. These visits will all be influenced by the lessons learnt in Cayman thanks to the free British Airways flight.