Cardiff’s New Café Quarter takes a chance on thetextpage.com

Wales’ new Café Quarter in the heart of Cardiff City Centre will launch this month. The chairman of the Café Quarter, Cardiff’s renowned Businessman Giovanni Malacrino, has chosen to advertise his new business venture, on the student website, Thetextpage.com.
Budding entrepreneur, Spyros Pyrgiotis, created his website in order to raise his £17,000 university fee’s for his MBA course in Kingston University, London. Spyros has currently gained $4,200 for his studies but with the support of Giovanni this is set to increase to a massive $5,610.
Giovanni confirms why he decided to advertise on Thetextpage.com “I love its quirkiness and uniqueness, its fun and for those who like to surf the net it’s eye catching.” Thetextpage.com is the only website on the net that consists of 100% text and holds links to advertisers websites. Giovanni continues, “It’s a fair way of advertising and it’s for a great cause as Spyros shows great entrepreneurship.”

Spyros Pyrgiotis confirms, “I’m very fortunate that Mr Malacrino spotted the potential of Thetextpage.com and I’m sure that it will produce great results.”

Small Business Owners Drive Flexible Working

It may surprise you that 81% of UK small business owners say flexible hours are key to business success, followed by online working (46%). Another point is that 39% of UK small business owners would allow employees to work remotely if they asked for the option and 1 in 5 UK employees would take a pay cut in favour of flexible working.

A new study has been released, “Worldwide Workplace: The Web Commuting Imperative”, reveals how UK small business owners are recognising the role of flexible working practices in business, with almost two-thirds (62%) actively supporting remote working. The independent research, commissioned by Citrix Online, also shows 84% believe offering flexible hours is essential to running a successful business, with 46% stating flexible hours as the key to attracting and retaining the best talent.
Small business owners are keen to adopt flexible working and Web Commuting – using the internet to work from anywhere - personally, with 62% stating they would like the opportunity to work remotely, with the top benefit being the ability to have more control over their day, according to 43% of respondents. They also recognised the benefits of Web Commuting for their employees, identifying greater job satisfaction as the key overall benefit, with 67% agreeing that Web Commuting would appeal to their employees.
Brett Caine, general manager of Citrix Online, confirms: “Flexible working driven by Web Commuting can give businesses an edge ― especially in this difficult economic environment ― since employees can be productive working from anywhere at any time. It also enables them to retain the best talent, improve staff morale, and meet work-life balance needs of their workers,” she continues, “It’s especially encouraging that small business owners are demonstrating a forward-looking approach to flexible working, considering they make up 99% of UK businesses.”
The study questioned 500 UK workers and a further 230 UK small business owners employing 100 people or less, on issues relating to ‘Web Commuting’ - the practice of using the internet in order to work at any time, from anywhere.

Fibre-optic broadband a no go in rural areas

Lord Carter, the communications minister, confirmed that there would be “no economic case” for building a fibre-optic broadband network in up to 30% of the country. The locations that will be excluded are rural areas, which are already inundated by broadband coverage problems.
Rural businesses are hardest hit by the fall in consumer spending. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, one in three small firms in rural areas is concerned over their prospects of survival over the next six months.
Marketing manager of Top 10 Broadband, Jessica McArdle, confirms: “The government is restricting the growth of small rural businesses by failing to improve broadband coverage in more remote areas; it’s a scandal that so much of the country will be left out of the fibre-optic broadband roll-out.”
Consumers within the city can already enjoy speeds of up to 50Mb. Under Lord Carter’s proposals, the government would plug the gaps in rural areas with mobile broadband. However, currently 3G mobile broadband networks can only provide maximum speeds of up to 4.5Mb in rural areas.

European businesses success at 2009 awards

Ten outstanding companies have been recognized as leaders in their field at the 2009 European Business Awards.
The ceremony was held in Rome where the ten European Business Awards category winners were announced which included UK print management company Webmart, which scooped the Atradius Growth Strategy of the Year Award, while Global Ethics CEO Duncan Goose walked away with the RSM International Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Ninety-nine leading business people and organizations made it onto the winners list, which recognizes excellence and innovation in European enterprise. Organisations representing companies from Ireland to Poland and from Estonia to Italy were among the running for this year’s shortlist.
Despite the severe economic climate, those companies shortlisted for the awards averaged an impressive 56% growth in profits. The judging panel was made up of highly regarded academics, heads of state, industrialists, entrepreneurs and media commentators drawn from across the 27 member European States. Adrian Tripp, Chief Executive of the European Business Awards comments on the awards ceremony this year, "2009 has been a highly eventful year for businesses across the globe, not least across Europe. In the face of this environment, our Ruban d’Honneur winners have shown a combination of entrepreneurial flair and strong growth strategies. This approach has awarded them with an average annual growth of 56%, compared to the contraction experienced by a number of their competitors,".

Young Entrepreneur sells text to gain his MBA

It’s a tough time for businesses and under pressure workers but also for struggling students with inevitable debts. Entrepreneur Spyros Pyrgiotis, 23, is not only about to embark on an MBA course but he’s one of the youngest ever to be accepted. There is one problem his £17,000 university fees, which is why he set up his unique website Thetextpage.com, which allows businesses to buy characters and provide a link to their website. Spyros explains, “I came up with TheTextpage.com after I spotted a gap in the market for pay per character advertising”, he continues, “Each character costs less than £1.50 ($2) and I’ve already sold over £1,000 of advertising…you only need to buy enough characters to provide a link to your website so it’s a cheap way for business to advertise”. Spyros also has a strong following on his Facebook group, The Text Page, which has over 1,000 members, growing everyday.
To purchase characters advertisers will have to visit the sister page www.thetextpage.info where they can also find information.
The website is a very cheap way to advertise and although it is literally a page full of text companies can choose their text in different colours in order to differentiate it within the page.
Thetextpage.com has attracted over 35,000 unique visitors since the website launched, which attracted coverage from BBC news online.