Month: December 2015

A former star of The Apprentice has teamed up with a well-known local entrepreneur to develop a business management app aimed at helping start-ups.

Alex Epstein, who featured in series six of the BBC series, has re-joined serial entrepreneur Martin Port at his latest venture Big Change. The company has created JobWatch, an all-in-one business management system that lets companies plan, manage and track their business operations. Currently Big Change has several large businesses and established SMEs using Job Watch but to help start-ups, no older than 18 months, the firm is offering them the platform for free for 12 months.

Mr Epstein told The Yorkshire Post: “Martin wanted to do something where we can support new emerging businesses, giving them access to tools, advice etc in a period of time when it’s really critical. One thing I’m aware of is the number of start-ups that, very sadly, don’t make it.” Job Watch is aimed at automating business processes to help save time. “In essence it supercharges productivity for businesses,” said Mr Epstein. Before going on The Apprentice Mr Epstein worked for Mr Port at Masternaut, a telematics company. After being ‘fired’ by Lord Sugar on week six of the programme, he went on to launch his own cosmetics businesses, which he recently sold.

Mr Epstein said he decided to rejoin Mr Port as he could see how fast Big Change was growing. Big Change currently has 30 staff and the group will move from its current base at the Leeds Innovation Centre to a headquarters near the Thorpe Park Hotel in the new year. Speaking about his time on The Apprentice, Mr Epstein said it was a “fun experience” but “a little bit bruising”. He added: “The show is about business but at the same time it’s very much an entertainment show. In some ways I don’t think it gives people a realistic view of what life is like in the workplace.”

Read more: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/ex-apprentice-star-rejoins-entrepreneur-to-make-big-change-to-small-business-1-7635094#ixzz3uuSPjF5Z

The Leeds office of global property consultancy Knight Frank have secured an “excellent” out-of-town office letting at Temple Point Business Park in Colton, east Leeds.

BigChange, the mobile workforce management technology company, has taken a five-year year lease at the 3,509 sq ft ground floor of 3 Temple Point.

Elizabeth Ridler, partner at Knight Frank, who advised Grantham-based landlords Vernon Holdings Ltd, commented: “This is an excellent letting in the challenging out-of-town office market. Unit 3 forms part of Temple Point, a high-quality office park comprising nine modern office buildings situated at J46 of the M1, which is now fully let.

“This strategic location of Temple Point, adjacent to Junction Yorkshire’s superb network, was a significant factor in the letting, as was the quality of the building, the landscaped environment and the ample parking facilities.

“Temple Point is only a very short walk of Colton Mill Retail Park, which includes a Sainsbury’s Supermarket, Next, Boots, Travel Lodge, a creche, restaurants and fast food outlets all close by,” she added.

The first floor of the two-storey building is occupied by Tolent, the leading northern construction company.
James Cameron who manages the asset on behalf of Vernon Holdings said, “I would like to welcome BigChange to Temple Point and to thank Knight Frank and for letting these premises for us. “
Martin Port of BigChange explained: “The company has grown rapidly over the last three years, we now employ over 30 people and have outgrown our current offices in Leeds. The new offices we will occupy are a perfect match of our requirements.

“We were impressed with the speed and professionalism of the Agents Knight Frank, the landlords and there legal team. We would like to thank also Michael Bush of Henry Hyams Solicitors who acted on our behalf,” said Mr Port.

Ms Ridler commented: “Overall, the Leeds out-of-town office market, which hasn’t picked up as quickly as the city centre office market in the aftermath of the recession, is now showing signs of a sustainable revival. This letting at Temple Point is a very good example of this, illustrating that well-located and competitively-priced quality offices on the outskirts of Leeds with the benefit of on site or neighbouring amenity are now proving popular again.”

See more: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/business-news/martin-port-s-tech-firm-moves-to-new-office-to-accommodate-growth-1-7621549

Launched three years ago, JobWatch was developed to give field service businesses of any size everything they need to plan, manage, schedule and track their mobile workforce. The easy to use, simple to implement system combines back-office, mobile app and real-time vehicle and resource tracking in a single cloud based solution.

Launched three years ago, JobWatch was developed to give field service businesses of any size everything they need to plan, manage, schedule and track their mobile workforce. The easy to use, simple to implement system combines back-office, mobile app and real-time vehicle and resource tracking in a single cloud based solution. It provides end-to-end management of the entire service process from quotation all the way through to invoice including intelligent planning and scheduling. A whole mountain of paperwork is replaced with automated workflows on the JobWatch app that guides mobile engineers or drivers through all their tasks.

According to BigChange’s CEO and founder Martin Port, JobWatch aims to bring mobile workforce management technology to the thousands of small, medium and large businesses that still operate using manual paper based processes:

“Historically this technology has been out of reach for SMEs given the cost and perceived complexity. JobWatch is a game-changer for these businesses, giving them the power of a ‘big enterprise’ system but with incredible simplicity, affordability and customisability.”

Among the users are nationwide hire companies Nixon and Elliott Hire who are using JobWatch to streamline the servicing of equipment and portable toilets  across the UK. The Forestry arm of Komatsu uses JobWatch to manage the servicing of huge timber felling and processing machinery.

JobWatch is proving to be a growth catalyst for startups such as waste and recycling specialist Clearabee who adopted the system back in 2013 when they had a single vehicle. Their business has grown rapidly and the company now serves over 30,000 nationwide clients across 15 sites with a team of 50 employees.

The return-on-investment for users is significant, says Port. “A perfect example is dp Doors.  JobWatch has brought their business 25% more revenue each month, thanks to smarter scheduling and greater productivity across their 23 strong field service team. This equates to an extra 4 jobs per engineer per week. Admin in their back office has been reduced by 15% and this time saved is being dedicated to value-adding sales and marketing activities. Failed jobs have been reduced by 50%. Their annual fuel savings from JobWatch are in excess of £5000 and this saving alone is paying for their JobWatch system.”