Business Link Consultants Register Accreditation Pays Off For Shropshire Businessmen

A Shropshire businessman’s acceptance onto the National
Business Link Consultants Register has resulted in an
additional service to his clients, and in particular those
looking to diversify from their current business activity.

Peter Riches, MD of Shrewsbury based BeVivid who provide marketing and e-business solutions for clients throughout the UK, is one of only a handful of people on the Register in the county specialising in this field.

The most recent client to take advantage of his registration is Dave Riley MD at Rebound Sports Ltd. A local entrepreneur who also runs a furniture company, Riley spotted the idea for Rebound, which he describes as an “Innovative racket and ball game”, on a business trip to China in the summer of2006 . With the help of BeVivid and a matched funding grant through Business Link West Mercia he launched the company at the end of September2006.

He said: “The help and guidance from Peter and his team at BeVivid has been invaluable. Not only did Peter advise me on the grant application, but we tapped into his wealth of marketing experience in brand design and management, to promote our e-enabled website at www.reboundsports.co.uk. Consequently sales have exceeded all projections set out in Rebound’s business plan. We are already exporting to Jersey, Eire and Denmark with deals to the other Scandinavian countries in the pipeline. In addition, Rebound has secured a contract to supply Lakelands Ltd, one the UK’s leading leisure retailers. We’ve also had the product endorsed by Shropshire’s only LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) registered coach, which is a terrific accolade.”

Accreditation was a stringent process for me, but I believe my marketing background with the Mars Organisation and running a full service marketing agency for14 years certainly helped.

As a result BeVivid is more informed on the procedures needed to qualify for potential grant frunding.