Di Gates aiming to link up firms with Bizpond venture

Jun 30 2010 by John Hill, The Journal

FORMER BGroup co-owner Di Gates is hoping to link up businesses in the North East with her new venture Bizpond.

The site operates like an online noticeboard, which allows users to post their available skills in one place, and put out calls for services on another.

Bizpond then distributes these announcements via social media such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Bizpond is one of the projects that Di is pursuing as part of her new venture Stick Theory, an initiative that assembles teams to deal with short-term creative projects.

She said: “I was approached by Durham University’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, who tasked me with creating something that would help businesses and freelancers to collaborate.

“It’s basically a way for small businesses in the region to share what they do and get what they need.

“Social media works extremely well for a minority, but a lot of people say its difficult to engage with customers and build up a following. This allows you to tap into the following on this site.”

Bizpond received support from Durham University and Project North East, attracted 200 registered users during its trial week last week.

Di drafted in Middlesbrough firm Twisted Studio and online specialist Oli Wood to develop the site. It is also supported by Women Into the Network, of which Di is chairman, and Francesca Willumsen, of North Tyneside’s Off Spring, recently became the site’s administrator.

While the tool is currently focused on North East businesses, Di believes there is scope for expansion beyond the region.

She said: “Early indications seem to show there’s a hunger for it. If it does work, there’s scope for national and international expansion.”

Di has been focusing on project-based work since selling her half share in BGroup last September. The thinking behind her new company Stick Theory is that she can assemble a specialist team to tackle a creative project for large or small companies. The company name stemmed from a walk with her springer spaniel last year.

She said: “I was thinking about what I was going to do, and looked down to find my dog with a stick in her mouth. All she needed to be happy was to run around and chase sticks. I decided I needed to find out what my stick was.”

Since the launch of the company, Di has worked on projects for Primary Care Trusts and Durham University.

She has collaborated with Bolsover Networks on Super Simple Shop, a tool that sets up an online shop for customers for £10 a month.

She is also teaming up with TwentyEight Management’s Jane Hogan on Reality Check, which outlines tests and exercises that help new businesses fulfil basic requirements before launch.

She added: “I’m finding this way of working to be much more liberating. Marketing and communications is changing so quickly. When you run a company in that sector it can be difficult to keep up with the changes.

“The way Stick Theory works makes it more agile. A lot of the people I’m working with are young freelancers, and the majority of them are passionate about remaining independent. The North East has an amazingly talented freelance sector.”

As WIN chairman she also helps to promote and connect businesswomen in the region. She says the move towards smaller, more project-based businesses may help women to become more active.

“The new-style agile, flexible, more portfolio-based business is more suited to female entrepreneurs because of the various life commitments they have with children and domestic duties,” she said.

“It’s going to be very interesting to see if there’s a sharp increase in female entrepreneurs in the next ten years.”