Affordable solutions

11:21am Friday 20th June 2008

A wide variety of business experience has led to an Eynsham man setting up a business consultancy that he believes can deliver real benefits to small business owners.

Irun Solutions has been set up by Steve Darnell (pictured right) to offer a technological approach to running even a micro-business.

Mr Darnell said: "We offer real help, from sitting down with managing directors to discuss developing their business, to setting them up with services such as bookkeeping, website design and sales lead generation.

"This lets them concentrate on doing what they do best, which is working at the heart of the business."

The focus on technology as a way of delivering the benefits is embedded in Mr Darnell's approach.

"We deliver websites but they are just a part of the overall solution," he explained.

"We are about business development and providing support for growth, with websites at the heart of that if appropriate.

"Besides, if you do a website as a separate technical project, without looking at it as a business project, then it's not likely to deliver great results."

Mr Darnell came from a background working in multi-national companies and then moved on to set up as a consultant with a franchise operation.

He then decided he could offer a better service working through his own company.

At the same time, he accessed statistics which showed almost half the UK's 4.3 million registered businesses have no website.

Of the two million or so that have registered a domain name - booked their address in cyberspace - 45 per cent have not yet constructed a website to go with it.

And of those that have, the vast majority do not have websites that contribute anything to the value of the business.

Talking to business owners at networking events he discovered that those who had no web presence, or a very underused one, saw it as something that was only worth a few hundred pounds' to them.

At the same meetings, web designers, developers and search engine optimisation (SEO) professionals, who could deliver the websites those businesses needed, were looking for people who would pay a few thousand'.

Mr Darnell thought technology might be able to bridge that huge gap between the expectations of suppliers, and those of their potential customers, and after a great deal of work he found it.

He saw that potential customers needed business support before they needed websites, and that technology firms were not able to supply that.

As a result, Irun was established to deliver the advice and support necessary to help businesses increase sales and provide technology, if appropriate.

Irun also offers free seminars to business owners. These explain how to design and run websites that enhance a business.

While he is supporting businesses that can use Irun's help, Mr Darnell is also looking for people to help expand the business by taking out franchises in Oxfordshire, as well as the rest of the United Kingdom.

Mr Darnell said: "We are not a franchise company as such, but we see franchising as an effective way of expanding the company.

"We want to see our franchisees set up as independent business in their own right, hiring their own support staff and moving away from using our support as quickly as possible."

Contact: Irun Solutions, 01865 920003, www.irunsolutions.co.uk

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