The word on the street

13/12/07

Welsh entrepreneurs go online for business innovation

From helping parents cope with colicky babies to finding a locum for holiday cover at your local GP’s surgery, the internet is not just full of useful self-help ideas, but also serves as an incubator for some of Wales’ newest entrepreneurs.

With more than 30 billion pages on the world wide web today, you can pretty much guarantee that there is a site, blog, video or podcast out there to help you learn anything you want to know, buy that all-important gadget or empower yourself in any number of ways.

The tricky bit is finding the right help, product or service quickly and without getting lost among the thousands of junk pages or bogus service providers in cyberspace.

Internet rankings is one relatively sure-fire way, but as four new entrepreneurs from Wales have discovered, it really necessitates going back to basics if you want to start or build a successful business online.

One such couple is former part-time teacher Kathryn and master mariner husband Nigel Crawford from Radyr.

Not your typical website designers, the couple set about creating an online parenting resource armed with a couple of books on PHP and MySQL.

Mrs Crawford said: “We wanted to do something which would allow us to spend more time with the kids. And with five children between us, this would also have to be fairly self-sustaining and offer a fair degree of flexibility.”

Keen to tap into the rapidly growing baby business, the couple looked at a number of options before finally setting up TheBabyWebsite.com.

Added Mrs Crawford: “There were a numbers of parenting websites out there, but most were fairly heavily product led. As instinctive advocates for breast is best, we were keen not to go down the formula provider sponsored route.

“That being said, we wanted new and expectant parents who visited our site to make up their own minds by highlighting and exploring different angles to parenting issues such as feeding, sleeping and discipline. We would also enable them to talk directly to feeding, healthcare and other experts and parents who have experienced similar circumstances.”

This included, for example, delving into the fairly controversial phenomenon of male lactation recently and whether fathers would indeed if they could breastfeed.

This approach has not only endeared them to thousands of parents across the UK over the past two years, but also acts as a valuable voice for healthcare and other service providers such as Midwife and breastfeeding expert Sharon Trotter.

Also discovering that online forums are not just geared to your lifestyle but can act as a leg-up on the career ladder is Ebbw Vale-based GP Naomi Cadbury.

After completing her studies in Cardiff, Dr Cadbury left Wales to practise medicine in Devon, but was always keen to return one day. It was her experience of online dating that gave her the idea to set up a GP recruitment site and now allows her to juggle one pastime with another.

She said: “I was struck by the ease with which people register their profiles online and then post them in the hope of finding a suitable match.  At that time there were a number of vacancies in Welsh practices, yet doctors were finding it hard to find work as the jobs simply were not advertised effectively.  I just thought this online match-making formula would be a great foundation for a business.”

Dr Cadbury quickly set about registering GP Jobs Wales and is now fulfilling her aim of “finding jobs for doctors and doctors for jobs”.   Around 100 newly qualified and more experienced GPs regularly use her site to find permanent positions and temporary placements across Wales that are advertised by practices at a fraction of the usual agency or advertising fees.

She also teaches communication skills to medical students at Cardiff University and says that effective communication is a crucial element of her business’ success.

“The ability to advertise jobs is one thing. However there is a much greater need to communicate vacancies or shortages quickly and at the right price and then set about creating the perfect platform whereby practises and doctors can find the right match.”

Matching the right person to the right job has also proved to be the winning formula for Tracey Williams from Llantwit Fadre who founded Job Trac Cymru, a recruitment firm for Welsh speakers and employment website Safle Swyddi.

After working as an HR manager for a number of years, Mrs Williams experienced firsthand the disparity between the number of jobs which showed a preference for Welsh language speakers and those candidates who could actually speak and write fluently in Welsh.

“I think the biggest issue was that the candidates were simply not vetted correctly or early enough.

“As a fluent Welsh speaker I found this process very frustrating. This made me realise that there was a definite niche in the market for a Welsh speaking recruitment firm which would not only recruit, but fully vet Welsh speakers for businesses and public sector organisations throughout Wales.”

Mrs Williams now regularly checks candidates on behalf of her 50 strong client base which includes Cardiff Wales Airport, The Pop Factory and the Welsh Language Board. She also plays an active role in encouraging second language Welsh speakers to continue using the language after leaving school.

Two and a half years after setting up Job Trac Cymru, Mrs Williams spotted another online business opportunity. She subsequently created Safle Swyddi which is an interactive employment website for Welsh speakers and allows candidates to be informed of any vacancies and then go through directly to the employer’s website.

Since setting up the business in March 2007, the site has already attracted 70,000 unique visitors and displayed in excess of 170 vacancies.

Further information contact, M & M Communications on 079 5869 0659 or buzz@mandmcomms.com