Issue #3 – Plus ça change? 🤷🏻♀️
The backbone is a newsletter for anyone involved in a business - the backbone of the UK economy. In this issue - SME stories, fake reviews, stuff to listen to, and a history of the entire world...
💪 G O
Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before ✋🏻
The kids are back at school, but most of the shops are closed.
We can only meet one other person outdoors, but that’ll soon be six people.
Still no indoor meetings though. That’s over a month off.
It’s getting on for a full year since the first lockdown, and while everything has changed from how it was before the pandemic hit, it sometimes feels like nothing has changed at all.
We’ve been living in this ‘new abnormal’ for so long it’s beginning to feel kind of ‘normal’. But it isn’t normal, and it should never feel normal.
What is normal is seeing parents and meeting friends whenever and wherever you like, getting haircuts, hitting the gym, and going shopping.
Not having to run back into the house because you forgot your mask. That’s normal.
And we’re nearly there. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s not the light of an oncoming train. Not this time.
April 12, May 17, and June 21 are the dates we’re all working towards. Keep doing what your doing and we’ll get there together ✊🏻
Oh, and welcome to Issue #3 of The Backbone, the fortnightly business bulletin from Bionic. Thanks for joining us.
🔥 H A S H T A G
#BIONICSMALLBIZSHOUTOUT - The Flat Cap Coffee Roasting Co.
Just over a year on from our first meeting, Bionic caught up with Mark Hepworth - founding father of The Flat Cap Coffee Roasting Co - to chat over the challenges of lockdown and share inspirational stories.
Bionic: “What has the biggest challenge been for The Flat Cap Coffee Roasting Co. over the last year?”
Mark Hepworth: “Just being able to keep going. The third lockdown broke so many businesses and we had to sit down and think in the second lockdown if we should even carry on. In the end though, we decided that Flat Cap had a story behind it and real passion, so we are determined to come out the other side.”
B: “How did you adapt initially and grow as a business?”
MH: “We had a lot more time, so we started to think a lot more about our brand. We’ve been working on that and our SEO a lot more now. At the start of lockdown, we thought about diversifying our business, but for me, I didn’t want to diversify it too much because then you lose what we are. If we started selling tea or something like that, it loses the meaning behind Flat Cap Coffee and the reasons we started in the first place.”
B: “What are you looking forward to the most in the next year?”
MH: “Inspiring other people. I can stand up now and be confident enough to say I'm proud of our business and what we’ve achieved. After we come out of lockdown, I think that people will just want to hear stories from other businesses and be inspired and that's what I want to do, inspire people.”
📤 S H A R E
The terrible penalty of boring newsletters has been set aside on the single condition that you tell all to subscribe to the Backbone.
📰 N E W S
Fake Google reviews are hitting local business owners
If you’re a small business owner, then getting good reviews on Google could be key to getting new customer through the door. This is because good reviews will help boost your local listings and push it higher up the rankings than similar businesses in your area.
The trouble is, a new study from Which? - the consumer magazine - has found a growing number of businesses are gaming the system and getting fake reviews to boost their presence on Google.
And it seems fake Google reviews is a growing industry, a bit like ‘buying backlinks’ was in the early days of SEO.
Which? went undercover in January this year and signed up with some firms offering fake five-star reviews. You can read all about what they found, here.
In the meantime, here are some simple ways to improve your local ranking on Google…
Claim your business and update your info at Google My Business - this means providing a physical business address, website, and phone number, alongside other relevant information
Add photos, verify the location of your business, and add it to Google Maps
Manage and respond to reviews to show that you value feedback and will immediately address customer concerns or queries
Regularly update posts. Google My Business has a posts section where you can keep customers updated with the latest goings on or offers at your business. Update this at least once a week, as you would a blog. Check out Bionic’s Google My Business posts
📩 J O I N
Come and join us
How has your business used technology to adapt to new ways of working? 🦾 How are your plans for coming out of lockdown coming along? 🔓 Any questions to ask our experts? 💬
ℹ S O C I A L
We can’t let this Bionic bulletin go by without mentioning the Budget, especially the proposed rise in corporation tax - a topic that pretty much split voters in our Twitter poll, right down the middle.
Click below for a thread that outlines some of our thoughts on the subject…
And here’s a short video we put together to outline how the Spring Budget might affect businesses across the UK…
📺 W A T C H
Ever wondered how we all got here? This video takes you from primordial soup to seas of plastic in just under 20 minutes. With some great jingles along the way.
🎧 L I S T E N
No news is good news. So, switch of the radio and listen to this instead…
Real good sh*t- a playlist from Tom Misch, curated to make you feeel !!
How I built this - the stories behind some of the world's best-known companies
A bit of optimism, with Simon Sinek - A podcast to inspire people to do the things that inspire them.
🚫 S T O P
Diolch
Thanks for making it to the end of this bulletin 🤝🏻
That’s all there is for another couple of weeks, but if you think there’s anything else we should be featuring let us know, whether that’s an inspirational story, a Spotify playlist, or anything in between.
And don’t forget to send this link to all your friends and get them to subscribe ✌🏻
See you in a fortnight, when we’ll be a mere couple of days away from the start of British Summer Time and being allowed outside with five other people.
📊 B U S I N E S S
Get your business costs sorted.
Looking to cut your business costs, sort your insurance, or get you broadband up to speed? Bionic’s tech enabled experts will help you find the right energy, insurance, broadband or loan providers and deals for your business - in minutes.
🏅 Established for more than 12 years 📍 Over 200,000 businesses helped