Since Nick started his first business in 1992 the world, and his business
models, have undergone an amazing transformation. Evolving from a small
computer shop based in the front room of a converted terraced house, to building
the first multi-vendor electronic commerce system in the UK, to consultancy with
some of the biggest names in the FTSE 100, to emigration and founding an ISP in
Spain, to becoming a leading developer of .NET solutions and web sites to small
businesses in the North East of England, it has been an incredible journey.
In 2012 we go national and the adventure has just begun...
We have an incredible future ahead of us and we would like to share the steps
that got us here.
The World Wide Web allows any business to reach customers around the world. We
believe that establishing a presence online should be easy and
have a low cost of entry for our clients.
Our technology powered the first multi-vendor electronic commerce system launched
in the UK (back in 1997) and we have continued to provide low cost services to a
mass market whilst maintaining our personal touch ever since. Whether you
need a web site, a blog, an online shop, search engine
optimisation, a more supportive hosting provider or business email we can help.
Bulletin Boards and Dial Up
'89Nick begins playing with bulletin board systems (BBS). These were
(by today's standards) very primitive dial in forums and file downloading
services for Shareware and Freeware. Nick immersed himself in the world of
FIDONet and Zmodem protocols and also discovered something called the Internet
but, like many SysOps (System Operators) saw it as a backbone to link BBS systems together. He founded "The
Nest BBS" which attracted a small but dedicated band of users who could only
dial in one at a time as he only had one phone line and a slow analogue modem. Even at this early
stage he knows that the future will be digital...
Demon Internet Arrives
'92In June 1992, Demon Internet explodes onto the scene by offering UK
customers a dial up connection to the Internet for a tenner a month. Nick is one
of the first to sign up and the world of Gopher, Veronica, SLIP and PPP
connectivity opens up. At this stage he uses USENET more than anything else to
educate himself about technology but doesn't realise at this stage how important
it will become to him and the rest of the world. Potential and ideas bubble around in his brain
but the technology just isn't ready for some of the bigger ideas just yet.
Excalibur and P & L
'94Nick meets Ian and Sue and a partnership between them is started that lasted until 2012 when Ian sadly passed away. They develop a graphical BBS using a platform called
Excalibur with
eight high speed modems (28.8k!) and deliver adult <ahem> content on a subscription
basis. The World Wide Web is just about to explode but we didn't know it and
we, like everyone else (including
Bill Gates!), was caught by surprise. We bought a high
powered server, installed Windows
NT 4 and shipped it off to a hosting provider in Gran Canaria in order to ensure
that we served our content from somewhere it was legal to do so and Nick used the version
of FrontPage supplied with Windows NT Server to build his first web page.
Ironically, the content we were serving would be considered "soft" by the
standards of today (more The Sun than Hustler!) - we can now host any content on our UK based network.
Computer Networks Online Ltd
'95Nick enters into a partnership with a local
businessman and Online Computers is incorporated as Computer
Networks Online Ltd in April 1995. The business opens new premises in the town
centre (290 Nottingham Road, Mansfield) and hires five young employees - our
mission is to have fun and make a lot of money. It is chaotic but fun and we
start taking great delight in embarrasing PC World who have a store almost
exactly opposite our front door. We start building computers and selling Intel
486SX based machines for just £599 including a copy of the amazing Windows 95
and keep both of our stores open until midnight on launch day in order to be the
first in Nottinghamshire to sell a copy; we still don't know if we were first!
The End of Online
'96Nick sees the future and attempts to steer Computer Networks Online Ltd
in the direction of web site development and provision of Internet Services. The Board disagree and they part company after
one of the Directors changes the locks on the shops and attempts to remove Nick
from the Board. Nick established that one of the Directors was redirecting
the stock in trade into the service of his own business, paying staff members
cash in hand to do jobs "off the books", and carrying out business in a way Nick decided was
unethical and not in line with his values. The battle between the Directors
is very bitter but, to Nick's eternal and lasting satisfaction, within a month the stores are
closed, the staff have moved on, and Nick is working on his next project. Nick decides that he
will never again lose control of a Board of Directors without receiving adequate
compensation.
The Advanced Commerce Engine
'96The Adult Services Industry becomes the new Wild
West as thousands of companies scramble to make money on the fledgling World
Wide Web. P & L Investments launches a wide range of adult portals with very
targetted niche content using our servers hosted in Gran Canaria. Competition,
hazy legislation, the demands of constantly producing fresh content in a market
becoming ever more crowded with competitors offering ever more extreme content
led us to reasses the business in line with the Core Values. We got out
and looked for the next big thing.
We decided that electronic commerce would be a huge growth area and used
the first version of Microsoft ASP to build a multi-vendor electronic commerce
solution for small businesses. Nick visits Lanzarote for the first time,
flies to Gran Canaria and brings the web server back to the UK in a suitcase.
We put a leased line into our office and begin offering a web site with 5 pages and an online
shop for £199 + £40 a month, the system went live in a year and we had a team of
telephone canvassers working in a front bedroom. We franchised areas of the
country and successfully sold the service through our franchisees to thousands of
businesses around the UK before the business was sold off in 1999. By the end of the decade we were employing hundreds of staff around the
country and leasing thousands of feet of office space in a commercial park.
Whitestar Is Born
'00Nick takes almost a year off and incorporates Whitestar I.T Ltd in
October 2000. The business offers consultancy services and web development to
small businesses but rapidly scales up in operation to provide services to
companies including Consignia (Royal Mail Group) and Severn Trent Water.
Whitestar enters into a partnership with UK Matrix Ltd to develop the most
interactive jobs site available and counts itself in a very small group
including Monster and Total Jobs as one of the first to pioneer online
recruitment targetting I.T Professionals. UK Matrix expands into electronic
commerce (through Capture View) and a new version of The Advanced Commerce
Engine is developed to market digital cameras, telescopes and inflatable
speakers!
Nick becomes a Microsoft Partner and also sets up Incubate-Online
Ltd with his UK Matrix partners to develop online businesses by taking a stake -
dragons without a den! Sports Web Technologies Ltd was another partnership
venture setup in 2000 designed to promote local sport organisations using the
World Wide Web. At the end of 2002, Nick is a founding Director of 6
companies, and (it must be said) enjoying the rewards in terms of fast cars and money, but becoming increasingly stressed and
worried about maintaining the high performance he is associated with.
Emigration and NISCO
'03After the amazing results acheived between 2000 and 2003 with not only
Internet companies but also jewellery distribution and marketing, Nick and his family decided to emigrate to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands
with Ian and Sue (his previous business partners) and take life a bit easier. Nick makes the decision to
wind up all of his companies but makes one very important decision - he will buy
the network infrastructure from Whitestar. Although "taking it easier" was
the reason for moving to the land of sun and sea it didn't take long for Nick and Ian to establish the only
English speaking Internet Services Provider (NISCO HOLDINGS S.L - named for
Nick Ian and
Sue Company Holdings) in the Canary
Islands and they go on to open a computer shop in Costa Teguise selling
computers under the brand UK Computer Services (which is still one of the domain names we own).
Still driven by the
need to succeed, in 2004, Nick's marriage ended in seperation (mostly
due to the pressure of constant work) and he remained on the
island building the business and (by his own admission) being too miserable by
far. Carving a niche by offering low cost
services to local businesses in the tourism related industries and to estate
agents who quickly realised that our .NET platforms offered far more
functionality than competing off the shelf systems, NISCO continued to grow
rapidly and we switched our focus from static HTML sites and ASP to the new
Microsoft .NET platform.
Nick Meets Julie
'05He met Julie in late 2005 and continued to build NISCO into one of the
most respected and trusted companies on the island. Nick and Julie decided to
move back to the UK in late 2007 due to pregnancy and the continuing worsening
economic conditions on the island. Between 2003 and 2005, Nick becomes a
Microsoft Hosting Partner and Microsoft Small Business Specialist.
Busybird Group
'07The Busy Bird Group is launched and includes Busybird Products, Busybird
Computers, Busybird Distribution, Busybird Internet. Nick takes over the server
network and continues to provide hosting services to NISCOWEB in Lanzarote
whilst Ian and Sue continue to provide local sales and marketing activities and
face to face support. Due to ill health, UK Computer Services in Lanzarote is
closed and NISCOWEB is now operated from a home office - a common way of working
in Spain. The Busy Bird Group makes an impact in South Shields and the North
East of England by offering low cost portal services and supporting them with
excellent customer service.
A New Company...
'09All of our business activities received new branding. Our brands were consolidated and we pulled together our Lanzarote services into a new brand called the Lanzarote Business Network. We deliberately set out to make the new Company a different kind of business with a fresh and forward thinking approach aimed at getting to grips with client needs and working out good solutions to meet their needs . Rick, Phil and
Nick (the core “ideas” team) decided early on that personal relationships matter very much so as to maintain a balanced quality of life for our clients, our staff, and indeed ourselves, to look after the business and not miss a moment of
a child’s development. Our business will deliver the work/life balance that should be possible in the 21st century.
Busybird Ltd
'12In 2011 we decided that we could no longer be just a "programmer run Company" and we have created a much larger business with a wider skill set, providing a focussed range of services through our network of franchisees. The core team has recruited marketing and financial expertise to guide the business through a period of planned rapid growth. A new platform (“Foundation”) has been built to deliver the most cutting edge of web-based sites for even the smallest businesses through to large ones operating in many languages and cultures.
The adventure continues....
To keep up with the latest news please visit our blog at
www.busybirdblog.co.uk