My small business is a perfect example of a ‘niche’ business.
“A few years ago I noticed that good quality keyrings to use with classic cars no longer seemed to be available and all that could be found were cheap & nasty items – usually on ebay.
Realising that the classic car marketplace demanded something very much better than this I started to make top quality handmade & hand stitched leather keyfobs with vitreous enamel jewellery grade badges in my small workshop.
These were initially sold at classic car exhibitions but it was very soon realised that the market for this product was worldwide and could only be exploited by using the internet.
My initial website was created (this one not by Jigowatt) and although successful was limited in scope and not at all responsive to access by i-phone and tablet.
I approached a few website companies but most looked down their noses at a humble keyring business & failed to see or understand the potential.
Andy Donovan and his team at Jigowatt at Peterborough were different – and were enthusiastic from the start. They very soon understood what was needed and came up with a template which incorporated all the ideas which I needed to put across in the website. A firm quotation was given – and this was not exceeded – even though a few ‘extra ideas’ were incorporated as design progressed.
A 2″ thick pile of A4 sheets of notes and photos were literally dumped on Andy’s desk and left for him to translate into a website which would be easy to navigate and get the message across. Andy and the team also created an online shop to cater for the vast range of keyrings which are on offer which allowed customers to select options of keyfob shape, leather colour etc.
Any customer anywhere in the world can now order a keyring using any device for their model of classic car and specify how the keyring is to be made from the lists of choices and make payment using universally accepted Visa or PayPal.”
The new website went live early in 2015 and finished up at the end of the year some 25% up on the previous year- quite an achievement for an established business.
“Problems have thankfully been very few – but those few have been very promptly sorted by the ever-patient Jigowatt team whose response has always been within hours rather than days.
Occasional additions to the site have been achieved on an hourly fee basis over the year. This has been very important for a small business like mine as too many monthly commitments like a monthly website service charge can result in being overhead heavy.
Monthly invoicing is handled by Sandra Morrison and anything which could be un-expected or ‘out of the ordinary’ is always explained in a personal email from Sandra which has been much appreciated.
The list of small retail businesses like mine which would benefit from a similar website with the personal service to small businesses which Jigowatt are in a position to offer must be endless. The template used for my website would lend itself to any craft business and probably many other small businesses as well.
Jigowatt have the foresight to realise that small businesses like mine are far more numerous than large businesses and collectively add up to a whole which is very much larger than most big businesses put together. Whilst Jigowatt deal with many larger businesses they are also happy to accommodate smaller concerns as well. In this regard they may have a lot to teach their contemporaries.
My website allows scope to add further product lines which would lead to increased sales – but sadly there are only so many hours in the day and the website now brings all the business which one man in a small workshop needs…
Job done Jigowatt!”
