Business

Milton Keynes based business GoCode Academy wins FSB Worldpay UK Business Awards 2017 Young Entrepreneur of the Year, South Central region. “I am delighted to have won this award from such huge organisations like FSB and WorldPay” said Robert Rajeswaran, CEO “GoCode has grown tremendously and will continue to make an impact as we expand to London and other parts of the UK” he added. “Robert has been a fantastic member of the Entrepreneurial Spark powered by NatWest community in Milton Keynes from day one of us opening the Hub back in August 2016, it's good to see the progress he has made with his business and the drive and determination he shows being recognised by this award. Its great that we can give Robert and other Entrepreneurs the support to achieve their goals through our network of Hubs throughout the UK.” said Steve Chown, Entrepreneur Development Manager at Natwest...

The Milton Keynes office of Mazars, the international accountancy and advisory firm, has raised an impressive £1,400 for Action Medical Research at its latest Ladies’ Afternoon Tea. Held three times a year and now in its fourth year, the event brings together Mazars’ female clients and acquaintances for a chance to network and raise money for a worthy cause. Becky Dacre, Director at Mazars said: “Over the years, our Ladies’ Afternoon Teas have become very popular and are a fantastic way to meet up and support local causes. It was wonderful to see so many friendly faces and to raise money for Action Medical Research, a charity whose focus is to fund vital medical research to beat the diseases that devastate the lives of so many children and their families. “I want to thank everyone who attended this event or made a donation to the cause. Your donations will go..

Ad Valorem, based in Newport Pagnell, had a very successful end to 2016, winning two industry awards at the 2020 Innovation Awards and being shortlisted for two categories at the highly prestigious British Accountancy Awards. Directors Nikki and Nigel Adams (who won  ‘Managing Partners of the Year’), have always placed a great emphasis on innovation in the industry, so to win ‘Most Innovative Medium Sized Firm’ meant a great deal. Recognising that continuously improved technology is having a large impact on the accountancy industry, Ad Valorem launched AV Cloud, a specialist department dedicated to cloud accounting. AV Cloud doesn’t just re-sell accounting software – it offers specialist support, training programs and also takes care of the mandatory compliance. As experts in the cloud accounting field, this has lead Ad Valorem into becoming a Xero Platinum Partner, with over 500 clients using their preferred accounting software provider. In addition to AV..

A Milton Keynes fitness studio’s “vibrant new interpretation” of yoga has seen it land three prestigious accolades at two separate business awards ceremonies.  Successful yoga centre Sweat Studios, based at The Hub, scoop Small Business of the Year after beating off 19 competitors at the Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards 2017, held at The Ballroom, Hilton Hotel, Stadium MK.  In fact, March has been a month of celebrations for Sweat Studios, with the company, which is celebrating its third birthday, also scooping Milton Keynes Business of the Year Award in the final in the Buckinghamshire SME Awards in the Best Business in Milton Keynes category.  Kirsty Lowe, director, was presented with the award at a glistening awards ceremony at Double Tree by Hilton Hotel on Thursday, March 30, and also picked up overall winner on the night. She said: “This year the judges had a record number of entries and..

Nominations are now open for the 2017 Women Leaders MK Awards. Women Leaders MK celebrates and recognises women living or working within the Milton Keynes postcode area who have contributed to the growth of their own particular sector, be in the corporate environment or within the local community. The awards which are now in their third year, are the brainchild of Jan Flawn CBE, Founder of specialist neurological care provider, PJ Care. Ms Flawn said: “After winning the national CBI First Women of Business Services award in 2013, I realised how important it was to celebrate the achievements of women. I wanted to share this with the talented and successful women of Milton Keynes. “Although the gender gap is decreasing, it is still very much a man’s world when it comes to business leaders and I wanted to celebrate the hard work and achievement of women who have overcome obstacles..

The first ever I.C.A. Conference trail-blazed on social media yesterday (29 March), with the event hashtag #ICAMK trending number two on Twitter behind #Article50. Delegates took to social media during the event to praise the conference, which brought together businesses from across Milton Keynes to hear inspiring world-class speakers discuss the event themes: ‘Innovate, Collaborate, Accelerate.’ Over 180 delegates attended the MK50 event at the Open University to hear from keynote speakers including; Gary Turner, MD of Xero, Craig Donaldson, CEO of Metro Bank, Ian Mason, Head of Development, Virgin StartUp, Nick Coleman, Co-Founder of Snaffling Pig, BSI, British Business Bank, Scaleup Institute and the London Stock Exchange. Speakers gave valuable insights into their personal experience, as well as sharing tips and advice on business growth and scaling-up, alongside delegates enjoying fantastic networking opportunities. Event chair, Ann Limb CBE said: ‘The consistent display of talent, innovation and ideas from every..

As excitement builds for the I.C.A. Conference on 29th March, organisers have announced that they will be inviting the winning team from the Milton Keynes Young Enterprise competition to the conference as part of their prize. Young entrepreneurs from seven schools in Milton Keynes will be competing in the Milton Keynes Final of the Young Enterprise Company Programme, supported by HSBC at The Milton Keynes Academy on Wednesday 22nd March. Students will be vying to take home the top prize of ‘Best Company’ and tickets to the I.C.A. Conference after taking on the challenge of setting up and running their own businesses for a year with the help of local business mentors on the Company Programme. The top three companies will go on to the Buckinghamshire area Final on 5th May at The University of Buckingham and could eventually reach the UK Final on the 6th July. The I.C.A. Conference..

Marshall Amplification and Francesca Skelton are the big winners at this year’s prestigious Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards. The awards, which this year paid homage to Milton Keynes’ 50 years of growth, saw more entries and a bigger, better and more glamorous awards evening than ever before. Established five years prior to the inception of Milton Keynes in 1967, Marshall Amplification is world renowned and sells its products and passion for music globally. With its headquarters based in Bletchley, the company has recently announced the creation of Marshall Records, its very own record label to help bands and musicians record, promote and perform their music. The judges were unanimous in awarding Marshall Amplification the title of Business of the Year 2017. MKBAA Business of the Year, sponsored by The Open University, is chosen by the judges from the winners of each of twelve categories. Chair of the judging panel, Sir..

Knowledge and skills for business professionals in Milton Keynes received a boost last week at the formal launch of a unique partnership between Milton Keynes College and Linford Wood-based digital marketing experts Klood Academy. The partnership will see Milton Keynes College deliver four new courses at Klood’s bespoke Academy auditorium – Managing Difficult Conversations, Providing Excellent Customer Service, Presenting with Impact and An Introduction to Project Management – providing an introduction to each subject in sessions of one day each. The College’s courses are designed to complement Klood Academy’s existing prospectus of digital marketing courses – Social Media, Inbound Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Google AdWords and Social Media Advertising – that upskill small business owners and marketers in the competencies needed to build and promote their brands online. The launch, which was attended by some of the biggest names in MK business including MK Dons, RSM and Ceravision, saw Jane Horridge,..

Getting a true return on investment from a website isn’t just about increasing the number of visitors - it’s about driving the right traffic, knowing what to do with it and turning it into paying customers. Klood Digital, a digital marketing agency based in Milton Keynes, is inviting small business owners and marketers to learn more about this topic at the second of their Klood Bytes events, Turning Website Visitors into Revenue, on Thursday 23 February at 6.30pm. This free-to-attend event is being hosted at Klood’s bespoke on-site Academy, and will provide guests with the digital skills needed to grow their organisation’s online presence and turn visitors into customers. Topics covered on the night will include customer personas, driving the right traffic to your website, turning those visitors into revenue, technologies, trends and conversion rate optimisation. This valuable advice will be provided by guest speaker Paddy Moogan (co-founder of Aira)..

Crucial information on the state of the property market in Milton Keynes and beyond will be shared at the city’s premier Landlord and Investor Summit. Property landlords and investors will be gathering at Stadium:MK on Friday, February 10, to find the latest information if they are aspiring to either own property or to grow and develop their portfolio. Neil Briggs, the Managing Director of inspired Sales and Letting, based in Sovereign Court in the city centre, is headline sponsor of the summit. He said: “Property specialists often talk about location, location, location as being important but it is much more nuanced than that.  “Being close to a fantastic primary school can boost property prices dramatically whereas being close to a large secondary school won’t have that same impact. “For example, being in the catchment area of St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School in Bletchley puts a massive 12.4 per cent..

Scores of businesses have welcomed the return of a Milton Keynes networking brand. Business Live returned after a year-long hiatus when brand owner Victoria Beale was asked by her clients to revamp it and bring it back to the city’s business scene. Victoria said: “In a place like Milton Keynes, where networking groups are almost ten a penny, to have clients calling for the return of Business Live is a remarkable testimony. “In business, if your clients ask you for something then you should listen to it! We were supported beyond my wildest dreams and Business Live is definitely back with a bang!” The relaunch meeting at the Red Dot Bar at stadium MK on January 27 heard from Lance Haggith of Newport Pagnell-based Sports Trader. Bedford resident Lance, the winner of the BBC 2010 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Unsung Hero award, has a series of shops in..

When leaders of the Olympic Movement look for news, they invariably turn to a Bletchley company called insidethegames.biz The first ever study into the social media ranking of international sports organisations, carried out by Burson-Marsteller and TSE Consulting, in Lausanne, Switzerland, home of the Olympic Movement, has found that more people around the world follow insidethegames.biz than any other Olympics related media organisation. The results put insidethegames.biz, based at Bucks Biz Business Centres in Bletchley, well ahead of their international competitors and major news organisations such as NBC Olympics, BBC Sport and ESPN. Sarah Bowron, the Managing Director of the growing online sports journalism company, said: “It has taken a lot of hard work and dedication from our talented team to achieve this significant milestone. “Quality journalism is absolutely at the core of what we do and we have invested heavily in our editorial team. It is gratifying when it..

A Milton Keynes entrepreneur celebrated his 44th year in business at the same time as the city marked its 50th anniversary. In honour of MK's anniversary, a 50cm diameter cake was baked, with 50 pieces shared out to Bucks Biz Business Centres' clients at the iCentre in Newport Pagnell. Bucks Biz owner Joe Muscat said: “Our success in reaching 44 years is only possible because we are in Milton Keynes and it is a pleasure to toast this fantastic place.” The three Bucks Biz Business Centres across the city are home to more than 300 businesses that rent office and studio space on short and long term licences. “We have all kinds of businesses here,” said Joe. “So when I typed in “cake” to our internal directory, up popped Caketastic Ltd and they did a fantastic job for us. “We rent space to businesses from one person to 100 person..

A UK couple is so fed up with the Big Six energy firms’ contempt for customers that they want consumers across Britain to ‘chip in’ and help start a new, transparent energy company through crowdfunding. The charge is being backed by a number of senior business people, including former chair of Gleneagles Hotel, Peter Lederer OBE. British consumers who are tired of the big energy companies’ relentless price hikes, lack of transparency and poor customer service now have the chance to create an energy company with a difference. David Pike and Karin Sode are leading their team to crowdfund over £450,000 and make Our Energy operational in 2017. The new energy company will not only give 75% of profits back to customers, but customers will also be represented on the board of directors. Our Energy will share salaries, decisions, accounts and prices with customers, becoming the first completely transparent and..