Maintaining A Local Flavour- Sue Kinsella

Having heard in the news last week that long established retailer, TJ Hughes has gone into administration it filled me with a degree of sadness. The store has been established on London Road, in the outskirts of Liverpool city centre for nearly 100 years and forms a firm part of the heritage of the city. Over the years I have witnessed the face of the store change though and not always for the best. TJ Hughes has transformed from a store which had a certain Liverpool ‘welcoming charm’ to a generic chain of shops with no character, a commonplace occurrence across the UK in many sectors, I am afraid to say. This has made me think in general about how businesses are losing their personal touch, which is resulting in consumers losing their sense of loyalty in trading with businesses on a local level.

A theme that is happening across the country as more businesses move out of our cities’ traditional districts to the fringes and even specialist out-of-town business and retail parks. Unfortunately this is leaving some parts of our cities like ghost towns, which in turn is also weakening the business relationships within regions. On a positive note though, it is creating pockets of new innovative and specialist business hubs, like Liverpool Science Park, Daresbury Science Park and MediaCity, Manchester.

That said, there is a well known saying “people do business with people” and it is my philosophy that a balance needs to be struck between maintaining and building working relationships with the resources available on your doorstep together with those businesses further afield and even internationally. Virtual social networks have played a pivotal role in enabling the interaction and trading of diverse companies all over the world, but I think they also have a distinct role in enabling us to continue to source business locally too.

In today’s fast paced society it has become all too easy to Google a particular requirement and gain quotes from the first three results with the location of the company making no difference. But for me it’s different, I like the people in my city and as a patriotic Liverpudlian I welcome the opportunity of working with others like myself. After all, meeting people face-to-face allows you to bring a personal touch to business, so I utilise social networking to do just that; find local businesses. And here are my three top tips:

• Twitter: actively search, follow and engage with people and companies in your locality, so for me its Liverpool

• LinkedIn: search, join and participate with Groups and discussions within your region. For example, I often use Business Link North West Group to engage with local businesses

• Wecando.biz: a great place to find new customers as it is specifically geared towards finding businesses with a requirement in your locality.

What we need most is positive role models in business to show the next generation how to maintain a balance of local businesses, as well as those further afield ensuring there is a piece of the pie for everyone.
And that’s how Sue see’s it!