The Beautiful Scottish Borders

Outside Catering success for Hawick Common Riding 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:35:00 +0000

Baguette Express, Hawick has been a massive
success for producing high quality buffets and picnics over the
3 main days during Hawick Common Riding.

The staff based in the Sandbed were unindated with enquiries
from customers.
Sandra Johnson, the shop manager of Baguette Express said
"we were totally booked up well in advance, we also had customers
asking for our service just hours before the big day, some were coming in
seeking picnics giving us less than 1 hours notice"

Sandra went on to say "we worked flat out and fulfilled all requests, we
additionally received phone call orders on Friday morning of the
Common Riding from customers up at the Hut !
We made up their large orders and delievered them to the hungry lads"

Baguette Express are delightfully surprised how popular their
outside catering has become for picnics, buffets, business lunches, christenings etc.

Keith Johnson, proprietor of Baguette Express tells Borders Local,
"Since the Common Riding we have had many people coming
in praising our outside catering service, even customers who
were in the shop purchasing their breakfast saw the
buffets and picnics we can produce so they made enquiries for their
forth coming functions. Overall its been a great success
for us and we didnt even advertise regarding the picnics,
so that tells us everything"

Baguette Express carry out outside catering regularly for many
different functions and events. If you would like to find out more,
contact Baguette Express on 01450 373 000
or pop into their shop

Regards Borders Local Team

www.borderslocal.com

New Car Parts and Accessory Shop in Hawick

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:50:00 +0000

After a long period where the people of Hawick had to travel
a lengthy round trip to Gala for car accessories and parts,
Colin Wilson of Wilson Signs has opened A7 Car Parts in the Howegate Hawick.

A7 Car Parts has been opened now for over a month and is going down
well with the towns people.

The shop is managed by Colins brother Mark who has a fantastic
display of many items from polishes to wiper blades, alloy wheels
to ICE ( In car Entertainment ) infact they have everything for
the motorist.

Why not pop into A7 Car Parts in the Howegate Hawick
and have a browse, you wont be disappointed !

Regards

Borders Local Team

Hawick Common Riding 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:46:00 +0000

Well thats another Common Riding over.
Ben Graham at the helm and a grand job he did for
the people of Hawick !

Catch up with all the details and photos with the link below.

http://www.hawick.net/index.htm

Regards

Borders Local Team.

Hawick Outside Catering

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:36:00 +0000

Baguette Express based in the Sandbed in Hawick have
been very busy during December, January & February
with their Outside Catering Services.

Proprietor, Keith Johnson is delighted how popular their
Outside Catering Service has become with
repeat orders already since it was launched in December 07.

Keith tells Borders Local - "Im very happy of how we are
quickly becoming recognised as producing high quality buffets
for all ocassions such as business events and family functions."

Keith added "we create extensive buffets which are freshly made
on the day of your event/ function, presented
beautifully and taste absolutely fantastic, dont just take my word for it,
ask our customers we have provided our buffets to, we have taken
repeat orders within the 3 months since launching our outside catering
service so thats tells us we are doing it correctly".

Baguette Express Hawick already has orders placed for club
meetings, 2 weddings, business lunches and numerous birthday parties.

"Although price is important, quality is paramount" said Keith.
He went on to say" since taking over the business in August 2007,
we have dramatically turned it around, we have become very popular,
we even have customers coming from Burnfoot to get
their daily fix of our fantastic food and great banter" !

Baguette Express Hawick also offer a delivery service which is very busy.
"Our van is kept busy delivering to many customers around the Town,
we will be pushing this side of the business very soon once
we have our new recruit started in the next couple of weeks"

If you have not been to Baguette Express in the Sandbed Hawick lately,
you really are missing out! They provide FREE delivery around
Central Hawick with orders over the value of £2.50.

Delivery outwith this area is charged at £1 per anysize order. - bargain!

Take yourself and your family down to Baguette Express Hawick,
we lead where others attempt to follow - guaranteed !

Baguette Express Outside Catering

Until next time

Many Regards

Borders Local Team.

InsideOut Garden Maintenance - Handy Person Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:34:00 +0000

Launching soon is a new company who are experienced in their trade.
InsideOut offer commercial and domestic garden maintenance.
The service InsideOut offer can be tailored to your own requirements
whether a one off or on a regular basis.

InsideOut offer a huge range of garden services from mowing,
strimming, hedge trimming, planting, sowing, weed control,
digging, fertilising, soft landscaping - infact the list is endless.

InsideOut garden maintenance also offer regular grounds maintenance
contracts tailored to your requirements so you know your home or
work place grounds are in perfect condition all year round.

For full details log onto www.insideout-gardenservice.co.uk
and speak to Keith Johnson.

Needing a handy person to carry out tasks for you property
or work place ?
InsideOut property services ( handy person ) offer external / internal
painting, wallpaper stripping, gutter cleaning etc.
InsideOut can easily complete these tasks at a fraction of
the price a painters and decorator charges.
Why ? Because InsideOut do not carry the
large overheads of many employees and vehicles to pay for.

InsideOut are trained painters so you know the job will be done correctly,
they take care and pride in their work nomatter what task they carry out.

log onto www.insideout-gardenservice.co.uk for further details.

Until next time,

Borders Local Team
www.borderslocal.com

Motorcycling/ Motocross in the Borders

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 12:32:00 +0000

Well here we are into 2008. Many of you lucky bike owners will
be thinking about the better weather in the coming months so
you can get your bike out and blow out the cobwebs from the exhaust.

Where ever you are i do recommend riding through the
Scottish Borders,especially the A708, Selkirk to Moffat road,
passing St Marys Loch. This route boast spectacular scenery
and a nice wee cafe on the shore of Loch o the Lowes/ St Marys Loch.
From there travel North-West into Moffat which is a lovely little
tourist haven of a fine mixture of shops. Dont forget to sample
some "Moffat Toffee", yummy.

Once refreshed jump back onto your iron horse/plastic rocket
and look for the signs pointing to Broughton. This will take you
over the Famous "Devils Beef Tub".
What a great roller coaster ride of fantastic left and right long sweeping corners.

Head to Blyth Bridge then onto the A72 to Peebles for a wee rest
before heading back to your final destination.

Im keeping this brief as i could easily banter on forever.
Dont want to bore you too much !

Read a bit more, click on the link -
http://www.borderslocal.com/motor_cyling.html

Looking to do some bike touring anywhere in the country or abroad?
Check out White Rose Tours as they may have just what your looking for - http://www.motorcycletours.co.uk/index.htm

Motocross

Fancy a bit of MX, blasting along a dirt track full pipe
with some great jumps and other exciting challenges ?
Have a visit to Ashkirk Motocross Track !The track is situated
on the side of the A7 between Selkirk and Ashkirk.

The track is a great place for MX practice, it doesnt hold
competitions. The track is more focused on family riding,
such as kids who are looking to try out the sport
and fine tuning their riding skills.
Its a great place to enjoy a day out on your MX Bike.

click onto Ashkirk MX website for full details
http://ashkirkmx.webs.com/index.htm

If anyone would like to add anything to our blog,
any topic, etc.. please email us
enquiries@borderslocal.com

Until next update to the blog,

Regards
Borders Local Team
www.borderslocal.com

Wishing Everyone a Very Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 13:03:00 +0000

Borders Local would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas
and a prosperous New Year !

If you would like to advertise your business or events - free - on Borders Local,
please email us and we will add your details.

Many people are now taking up on our free advertising, why dont you.
You have nothing at all to lose.

email - enquiries@borderslocal.com

Best wishes,

Borders Local Team.

Outside Buffet Catering covering the Scottish Borders.

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:59:00 +0000

Baguette Express Outside Catering has been a massive success
since they launched their new service 3 weeks ago.

With already many buffets freshly made to order
and many more enquiries from businesses and
families to provide catering for their functions,
Baguette Express are extremely delighted with their
progress.

Speacial thanks to Shop Manager - Sandra - for
all her exceptional efforts !

Baguette Express Hawick - New addition coming soon !

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:37:00 +0000

Baguette Express - Hawick branch - will soon be launching
their fresh fruit smoothies made to order while you wait !

Ask instore for further details !

An interview with Baguette Express ( our sponsors )

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:02:00 +0000

We interviewed our sponsors Baguette Express asking if their business has had any positive or negative effect from advertising on Borders Local web site aswell as a mixture of other questions.

Keith Johnson proprietor of Baguette Express - Hawick made these comments.
" Since the launch of Borders Local, our company Baguette Express in Hawick has seen an increased growth in our daily/weekly trade. Although Borders Local has not been live for long, it doesnt take much time before people find the website and word gets around"

We also asked Keith how his Free delivery service was going which is also highlighted on Borders Local.

Keith said "Our free delivery to businesses around central Hawick is rapidly growing. To be honest its growing faster than we thought which is brilliant. The massive benefit to this service is for example - many employees dont have the time to walk from the north end of the high street to the Sandbed especially if they only have 45 mins for their lunch break, now its only a case of phoning in their order, we make it up fresh and deliver promptly.
We would like to highlight that due to the popular demand we ask that if you wish your order delivered between 12:00 & 13:30 hrs that you phone your order in at 11:30 hrs at the lastest."

Keith you took over Baguette Express approx 3 months back, how has business been overall up to now ?
" Its been amazing but we still have a long way to go. We knew what challenges faced us prior to taking over Baguette Express, we hear all sorts of concerning stories of previous staff operations prior to us taking over, however, we can promise when anyone comes into Baguette Express they will receive freshly made gorgeous food, everything we have is made to the highest standard. Our customer service is first class, we have customers who love coming in daily for the banter, and our fantastic food of course!"

How do you compare to the competition in the premises on the high street ?
"dont make me laugh, they are no competition. Baguette Express is a professional outlet"

Would you be better having your business based on the high street ?
"No, rent and rates are more than double that of the shop we rent, plus with our free delivery around central Hawick we can easily gain high street custom. Also because we are a network, we purchase at network prices, if we were independant our core items would be as high as 40% more! Thats a massive amount over a week, month even a year ! With this in mind we know if anyone else decided to start up in this trade they would only shoot themselves in the foot - guaranteed! "

You have just launched your outside catering services, how are they going ?
"to be honest our Outside Catering Services officially starts on Monday 3rd December 07, we are about 1 month behind as we were waiting on printed materials. We recently had a big conference meeting with our food suppliers fine tuning our catering service with the best foods available. We are very excited about this service. We can cater for every event from business lunches to family functions......we have fantastic printed booklets in our shop for you to take away. Remember all our buffets can be tailored to your individual requirements."

Anything else you would like to add ?

"Overall im very happy how we are progressing, we are making a huge impact turning this business around and growing everyday. We have a fantastic range of freshly made foods. I have a great team of highly experienced staff who i am personally proud of. We have many other bolt-on plans to expand Baguette Express in early 2008, i will keep these under wraps meantime.
Finally i would like to say a massive thank you to all our customers, long may you continue to enjoy what we have to offer at Baguette Express "

Housing Boom bubble about to burst big time ?

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:01:00 +0000

If your a home owner thinking of selling or perhaps presently have your house on the market, the process could be slow and you may have to drop your asking price.

Many Estate Agents around the country are now advising their clients to drop their asking price as much as 15%, according to a news article recently published prices will drop 30% in the very near future !!

Now, that is scary.

I sold my house in Midlothian back in July when prices where at their peak, did i make a profit ? Yes and a very big one at that. If i had waited off an extra month i would have possibly sold for 3% less.

Investors will be rubbing their hands now, infact in another 3 months time investors will be purchasing houses as massively knocked down prices from auctions - thats a fact !

Below is a snippet taken from a very popular quality daily paper.........

Estate agent Countrywide has admitted it will have to close branches as the slowdown bites; and the Nationwide, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, rarely the most pessimistic of forecasters, is predicting that house price growth will slide to zero in 2008.

This makes bad reading, personally i wouldnt be thinking of selling my home within the next 12 months, unless of course your willing to let it go under its true value.

Will be see more increased interest rates ? Well put it this way - does a bear shit in the woods.

regards

borders local team.

Businesses for Sale & Wanted

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:54:00 +0000

We have received an email from a Borders person asking if we would consider advertising businesses for sale and wanted.

If we receive more interest in this topic we will create a web page.

Also while on the subject, we would consider creating a web page for selling items and items wanted. This depends on the interest we receive for the FREE service.

If you would like to express an interest please feel free to email us, even if your not actually ready to sell or buy.

enquiries@borderslocal.com

Regards
Borders Local Team.

Whats your Qualities for Business Success ?

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 12:34:00 +0000

I asked Keith Johnson proprietor of Baguette Express Hawick what he thinks are the most important qualities of success, here are a few of his choices.........

1. Commitment.
"Its easy to lose focus for any reason. Say if you have a bad bad your dedication may be low but you really cannot afford to lower your sights. We all have our goal and the only way to achieve the result is to commit yourself - even on bad days. You should have a business plan, if not then you will fail. Put it this way, if you were going to be travelling 500 miles, how would you go about seeing how to get to your destination ? You would use a map. Its the same as a business, if you dont map out where your going how will you ever get there ! Simple, you wont .
Plan, plan then plan some more, thats what commitment is" !!

2. Motivation.
"Its easy to lose motivation, you may have had a late night or little sleep, thats all it takes. Say this happens and you go to your office, factory, shop etc and your employees see you with no enthusiasm. That could rub off on them. Not very good is it"!

3. Stability.
"Try to build and maintain emotional stability, dont get yourself down if anything isnt going smoothly. If someone gives you an idea which is useful to your business, dont become over excited, or at least show it. Take a little time to assess the idea , it may not be as rosey as it first sounded, then again it could be. Thats why you need stability. Assessing situations calmly makes a massive difference than jumping in too quickly, although i will admit at times i get carried away."

4. Customers
"In my line of business customers are King. I like to have banter with my customers, should it be talking about the weather or having a laugh and joke. My staff are also great at customer service. Im lucky with my staff and im happy to stand up and praise them. Likewise are our customers as many comment about the great customer atmosphere we have. We always acknowledge our customer, even if its only to say, Hi -will be with you in a sec, should we be busy serving other customers and a queue is forming. I could happily talk lots on this subject but i'll keep it brief for your blog."

5. Never Quit.
"Successful people are those people who refuse to give up. They will never quit. They stay focused to achieve their goal however long it takes. Yes lack of money will put someone off track but a determined person will find a way back on track.

Too many people give up at the first sign of trouble or if a minor problem raises it head so it is important to ‘build a bit of steel' into yourself so you can handle these situations when they arise. Learn to believe in your abilities and tell yourself continually that others have been able to do it so there is no reason why you cannot."

Great tips, thanks Keith. B/L will hopefully add more of this advice from other businesses listed on B/L. If you run a business and would like to make a post of what you believe are qualities of success, please email us enquiries@borderslocal.com or make a post to the blog !

All the best for now.

B/L Team.

Borders Local - launched October 28th 07

noreply@blogger.com (Borders Local, Scottish Borders) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:56:00 +0000

Some people have asked for us to add a blog so they can see how we are getting on with creating Borders Local and how busy its starting to be.

After checking the stats for hits today, 9th Nov 07 we are now high 6000's ! Many are unique urls but most are returning visitors.

We are starting to receive emails from people/businesses in the Scottish Borders asking our rates to advertise on Borders Local. Well the answer is its free. If you would like listed please email us ! We will easily list you on the appropriate page/s. What we do ask is that you link us......e,g,

www.borderslocal.com plus add our logo would be nice. Keep's a nice brand image for the site.

The site is growing in size daily. Dont forget, its there for you ! The people of the scottish borders, whether your in selkirk, galashiels, peebles, hawick....basically any where in the borders!

We will keep the blog updated daily if possible.

Over the next few days will see if any of our links are making an impact. We will ask our sponsors Baguette Express if the website is making a difference to them.

Take care for now !