our three little businesses |
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simply a husband and wife making a difference to your telecoms
we help our customers choose the right technologies a supplier that will suit their personality then stay with them along this journey we run this as a lifestyle business so we don't advertise or market ourselves, purely word of mouth |
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hundreds of families and groups of friends have enjoyed millbarn for a variety of reasons from family get togethers, school and uni reunions, birthdays, wedding weekends, hen parties, murder mystery weekends, health retreats, corporate away days, team building events, photo shoots or even somewhere to lay their heads whilst at a festival or fell running
it is not a "party" house, but somewhere you can get together and create memories |
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and Sara and her friend Penny together run Button & Bead which specialises in creating bespoke handcrafted pieces of jewellery and can set your loved ones' finger prints, paw prints or drawings into solid silver and/or names, initials or hand scribed messages into solid silver
personalised bangle charms in any shape or size pesronal hand-crafted solid silver bangles contemporary bracelets for him or her in a range of leather finishes and even incorporate semi-precious stones |
and because we run all these as a lifestyle businesses it helps us enjoy the things in life that we do, have time for our children, lots of walking everyday with our dog Mylo and lots of travelling in our motorhome
local communityan easily used word and certainly easily taken for granted but it is fair to say that places that people live that no longer feel like a community will often agree it is one of the greatest things they miss
but a community doesn't just happen, it takes a lot of work - from simply saying hello to your neighbours, helping others when you can, looking out for someone and making them feel valued, keeping the area you live looking nice, from simply picking up a bit of litter to getting involved in events aimed at improving your locale this is why we get involved in so many community projects - both local groups and business focused events - it may take up a lot of our time but it is worth it business communityand as touched on above, a thriving business community is so important to a strong and successful community and there is so much you can do to be involved - perhaps you are or want to be one of those great businesses in your area but everyone should consider buying locally if possible and which of those can help you on your path to a more sustainable lifestyle
after up to 10 years involvement with some of these amazing groups it is time for others to take over and get involved as we are beginning to withdraw from a lot of these, so have a look and if you think you can help then please do get involved 😊 |
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Mark is a director at our local chamber of commerce - the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce
being part of the Chamber network allows you to access a wide range of member benefits which will help you; raise your business profile, expand your network, reduce your business costs, and give you a voice more importantly you are amongst other businesses and do not need to feel like you are on your own - we can all share our experiences and knowledge and help each other out |
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Mid Yorkshire Network evolved from a networking group started by Sean Cashman many years ago and then has grown into a thriving regular set of events through the hard work of Sinead Sopala of Ramsdens, who harnessed a fantastic bunch of companies to help keep it running (from our own Better Telecoms to Social Progress, MYCCI, The Media Centre, Barclays, Cresswells and The Piece Hall in Halifax) |
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Colne Valley Business Network (CVBN) is a networking group that was started by Kirklees Council that aims to help businesses & organisations in the Colne Valley learn more about each other and though it has been dormant for a while and Mark has been determined to get it going again
the Colne Valley is a great place to live and work and this group aims to build better links between local businesses for the benefit of all; small, large, retail, industrial, creative arts, community project, education etc |
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a bit of a tongue in cheek name created by Geoff Shpeherd who started the group who said "better than calling it Yet Another Yorkshire Business Support Group" and how true that was, it created great intrigue
in reality it started as a LinkedIn group where he invited 50 contacts to an event and soon enough it has grown into over 22,000 online members who also meet up at events, conferences and drinks evenings along the way lots of great business connections have been made and also lots of friendships - Mark loved the idea of it so much that he has volunteered at many of their events and has organised the Huddersfield Huddle for them for many years now |
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when a group of local people and businesses got together to discuss an idea "what if we..." has turned out to be the most amazing celebration of community
with a range of events and activities going on throughout the day it is lovely to see everyone come together it doesn't happen without a lot of work and Sue Starr mobilises volunteers to do their bit and both Mark and Sara have been involved for years helping on the committee and on the day Sara is involved in the knitting and organising the craft tables in the community centre as well as facepainting for free on the day - Mark does their website and is involved in bringing the right people together and helping with the social media platforms (the bit he hates and would love others to get involved!) and the added benefit of liasing with the beer tent run by The Winkles |