Issue #10 - Step back in time 📅
Money-making baking business | Back to the brewery | How to get your business started on TikTok | What is Twitter Blue? | Jazz Rap | Against the Rules | More
🦾 G O
Don’t speak 🙄
“We don’t want to speak too soon, but the way this roadmap out of lockdown is progressing suggests that the worst of the pandemic is well and truly behind us.”
We spoke too soon, didn’t we?
Shortly after kicking off Issue #9 with the bold statement above, the country was met with the suggestion that the final easing of lockdown restrictions would be postponed.
This was confirmed on Monday evening when the PM announced that we’d all be staying at Step 3 of the roadmap for another month. The current restrictions will now not be lifted until July 19, but there will be a review on June 21.
Here's what the new rules mean:
There will still be a maximum of 30 people allowed at outdoor gatherings. This limit will be lifted for weddings and funerals, but venues must still adhere to social distancing rules. Although more guests will be allowed at wedding venues, table service will be required - with six people per table - and no indoor dance floors will be allowed.
Some care home restrictions will be lifted, which means residents who return from visits outside their facility won't need to isolate for 14 days when they return.
Other venues will need to stick to the current capacity limits, and all nightclubs will remain closed.
Another four weeks of the most relaxed lockdown restrictions we’ve seen since March 2020 shouldn’t be a problem for most of us. But it is a huge blow to those in the hospitality industry who had been working towards finally being able to throw open their doors on June 21.
We’ll get there, but we just need to get over this final hurdle.
In the meantime, let’s get into Issue #10 of The Backbone, as the fortnightly business bulletin from Bionic finally hits double figures.
👩🤝👩🏾 S H A R E
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📊 B U S I N E S S
Get your business costs sorted.
Looking to cut your business costs, sort your insurance, or get your broadband up to speed? Bionic’s tech-enabled experts are here to help you find the right energy, insurance, broadband or loan providers and deals for your business - in minutes.
Check out our ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Trustpilot reviews
🗣 S H O U T O U T
#BionicBusinessStory - Bobby’s Bakes 🎂
Bionic caught up with Bobby Odu, a talented 18-year-old who runs Bobby’s Bakes in Dunstable. We wanted to know what his inspiration was for starting a business and discover his proudest moments so far.
Bionic: How did you start your business?
Bobby Odu: “I started properly baking back in 2018. I really wanted to make my mum a cake for her 50th birthday. I planned it for ages and ended up making two, one was a four-layered event cake, and the other was one just for eating. It was then that my siblings said that I could really do something with this and start baking as a business. So, that’s when Bobby’s Bakes was born.”
B: What's your proudest achievement?
BO: I made it to the final 12 out of 9,000 in the ‘Future Chef’ competition when I was in GCSEs, and we went down to London to compete. It’s something that I'm really proud of now but at the time I was still so young, it didn’t hit me properly.”
B: Where will the future take you?
BO: “I’ve applied to study Mechanical Engineering at university, but baking is still going to be a big part of my life. I’ve always liked the idea of running my own place that was a bakery by day and a restaurant by night.”
B: What's your advice to other small businesses?
BO: “You can do a lot more than you think you can, and no one knows your business better than you. I’d say just go for it.”
Click on the cake below to read more of our chat with Bobby, and check out Bobby's Bakes on Instagram @bobbysbakes
📩 J O I N
We want to hear about you and your business 🗣
💡 How did you end up running your own business?
😟 As a business owner, what keeps you awake at night (assuming you ever get to bed)?
🤩 What’s your proudest achievement as a business owner?
🤔 What one piece of advice would you give to someone starting their own business?
Leave a comment to get involved 👇
📰 N E W S
Return to Isle of Eigg Brewery 🍻
Back in Issue #5, we brought you news of the Isle of Eigg Brewery - Scotland’s first co-operative brewery. Things have moved on quite a bit since then…
Four bare root hop plants have arrived and been planted ready for this season (remember, the brewery is going to be completely self-sufficient) along with a range of bittering and aroma hops. Galena (used in IPAs), Phoenix (strong bitter), Omega (lager) and Santiam (Pilsner) will make up the first batch of beer released by the brewery.
From this in April…
…to this in May 👇
Building warrant questions are being answered and conversations are being had with SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) about buildings and wastewater treatment. The brewery is now within touching distance of being able to start foundation laying.
The first parts of the building reach the brewery site.
And, here’s the more fun stuff, the brew kit is looking more and more like a brew kit every day.
Keep up to date with developments by following @EiggBrewery on Twitter, and @isleofeiggbrewery on Instagram and Facebook
✍ S U B S C R I B E
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🤝🏻 T I P S
How to get your business started on TikTok 🎶
Last issue we told you all about how TikTok has launched a competition for business owners, with a package of prizes for the winner.
The competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over who is based in the UK, and entries must be in by June 30, so there’s still time to get involved.
If you’re not yet up and running on one of the fastest-growing social platforms (1 billion monthly active users and counting), here’s how…
Download the free app from your app store.
Sign up using your email, Facebook, or Twitter to log in.
TikTok will then assign you a random unique username, but you can change this if you’d like. When thinking about your name for business, make sure it is as near to your business name as possible so it’s easy for others to find your account.
You can customise and edit your profile using the ‘me’ button at the bottom of your screen., here you can change your profile picture, create a catchy bio and tell your followers about your business.
Then you’re ready to start exploring content, TikTok automatically collects videos personalised for you, but you can also search for different people and follow them.
To create your first TikTok, press the ‘+’ button at the bottom of your screen and start recording!
Once your good to go, check out our blog 10 top tips to help kickstart TikTok for your small business to make sure you make the most of the platform.
🤳 S O C I A L
What’s Twitter Blue? 🦚
It may sound like a risqué, adults-only offshoot of the 280-character social media platform, but it’s simply a paid subscription to offer you a range of additional tweet features and tools.
The official Twitter blog says this: “We took this feedback to heart, and are developing and iterating upon a solution that will give the people who use Twitter the most what they are looking for: access to exclusive features and perks that will take their experience on Twitter to the next level.”
Surely this is the news anyone who’s ever wanted a Twitter edit button has been waiting for?
Not quite, as there’s still no edit button.
Instead, Twitter Blue will come with an ‘Undo Tweet’ feature that will give you up to 30 seconds to click ‘Undo’ before the Tweet, reply, or thread you’ve sent posts to your timeline. Which doesn’t actually sound that useful at all. There’s a delete button for that anyway.
Other features include:
Categorise saved tweets and bookmark them in folders (handy for when you want to quickly find a tweet of someone’s embarrassing hot take that they put out there before ‘Undo’ was an option)
Reader Mode to help you view a content thread in a single stream (for keeping up with Twitter threads)
Colour themes to brighten your UX display
Custom app icon on your device
Dedicated customer support
So far, the service is only available in Canada and Australia, where it will cost $3.49 CAD or $4.49 AUD a month. Find out more at the Twitter blog.
🙏 W E L L N E S S
Do you really know how to breathe? 😤
We caught up with Drew Campbell-Griffiths, a nutritionist (a Masters in Nutrition Science from uni of Liverpool proves it) with a background in fitness training and MMA, for more of his quick-win wellness tips.
To breathe correctly and efficiently, people need to breathe primarily from the diaphragm, with the stomach rising and moving outwards as we breathe in, and becoming concave and flattening as we breathe out.
Unfortunately, if your work involves sitting down for long periods each day, the body will usually adapt by recruiting muscles in the chest to breathe instead.
This causes inhales and exhales to become shorter in duration and less efficient, which in turn can lead to higher levels of stress hormones.
To train your body to breathe with your diaphragm correctly, you can practise diaphragmatic breathing, also known as belly breathing. Here’s how…
Sit or lie down, place one hand on your chest, and one hand on your belly.
Breathe in through your nose slowly and visualise the air coming into your nose and into your stomach.
The inhale should take between three and five seconds.
Next breathe out through the mouth, as your belly moves inwards.
The exhale should take between four and seven seconds.
This can be repeated each day for around five minutes. Focusing your mind on your belly rising and falling can also work well as part of meditation practice.
For more from Drew, check out Black Belt, White Hat
🗞 R E A D
According to new data published by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) 63% of SMEs are optimistic they’ll grow their business over the next year.
Majority of UK SMEs confident about growth but future lockdown fears remain
The accepted wisdom is that we should all have a few months’ worth of income put aside in case we can’t work. But is having a side-hustle to fall back on a better idea?
Why Everyone Should Have a Small-Business Idea Ready
🎧 L I S T E N
Playlist
Recommended by Sej, Graphic Designer at Bionic, Jazz Rap is this week’s playlist. Described as ‘laid back cratedigger hip-hop from around the world’, all you really need to know is that it has loads of De La Soul, including a sensational collab with Tom Misch.
Podcast
Against the Rules is a podcast by Michael Lewis (the man behind Moneyball), who asks “what’s happened to fairness?” and looks at the role of the referee in everyday life.
🔥 H A S H T A G
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And get involved by using the #BeABionicBusiness and #BionicBusinessStory hashtags.
🏡 H O U S E K E E P I N G
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🚫 S T O P
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See you in a fortnight, by which time the nights will have started drawing in again 🌚