Press Room
6th August 2007 - Special Announcment
Managing Director Christina Jones gave birth to a baby boy on Monday 6th August, 2007 at 4:10am.
Declan Darren Jones weighed in at 8lb 5 ounce and both mother and baby are doing well.
15th June, 2007 – pegog launched
After 8 months of hard work and preparation pegog finally becomes a reality for Managing Director Christina Jones.
Christina has lived in the UK since January 2000 and decided in November 2006, that she was fed up with the difficulties she had every year buying presents for family and friends living in Australia. After discussing the problems with various people including family, friends, ex-pats and work colleagues she decided that there must be a solution to this problem.
The main problems encountered were;
- Finding gifts that didn’t weigh too much, due to the cost of international postage costs
- Ensuring Christmas presents to Australia were purchased, wrapped and ready for posting by the 1 st October so that items could be sent surface mail instead of air mail
- Not being able to find the right gifts by the October deadline and having to pay extortionate air mail postage costs after this date
- Posting items too late resulting in items arriving after Christmas
- Having to pay customs charges depending on the value of the item sent
- Gifts are often opened by customs prior to delivery
- Gift receivers having difficulties returning items if they were broken, covered under warranty, the wrong size or simply not the right gift.
- Remembering that it was someone’s birthday, anniversary etc too close to the date and not having enough time to sort out a gift
After a lot of research and further discussions, Christina decided that she would like to design a website to service people in a situation similar to her own, as there isn’t anything out there specifically catering for people that send gifts overseas on a regular basis.
Currently the website is aimed at those living in the UK and Australia and shows products from over 70 retailers throughout the UK and Australia. Eventually the site will expand to include countries world wide.
The site has been designed with the user in mind and therefore has no pop ups or annoying ads and all retailers must be able to provide a gift wrapping service. The site is simple and effective allowing users to browse items by category, subcategory, price range, keywords, Australian or UK retailers and gifts for male, female, unisex, kids and babies.
If a user is looking for a specific item or can’t find what they are looking for, there is an option to email Christina and she will see if she can find what you’re looking for. With over 20,000 products available Christina said it’s simply impossible to list all the products on the site.
The site also allows users to view the price in both GBP £’s and AUS $’s giving users an idea of exactly how much the item is likely to cost. The exchange rate is taken from www.xe.com and updated daily.
Items, special offers and promotions are also updated on a daily basis and registered users will be the first to know about these offers along with future planned developments.
Coming Soon
Join our mailing list and be the first to know about future developments.
Between July and October pegog will be adding features such as a diary to keep those special dates in. Once your diary is updated, pegog will send a reminder so that you don’t forget those important dates, along with those dates that are easily forgotten such as Mothers Day and Fathers Day, which are held at different times in the UK and Australia.
Another exciting development planned is the ability to add a wish list. This will allow all registered users to browse items from retailers in their own country and add them to a wish list. Your family and friends will then be able to browse your wish list and purchase items that you would like.
Links – pegog will be adding a page with useful links for those that are thinking of immigrating. Contacts for Removalists, Immigration Agents, Recruitment, Real Estate will be included along with sites that offer cheap phone calls.
Feedback
Pegog welcomes any feedback both good and bad. If there’s something else you would like to see or any thing you think could be done better please let us know by completing the feedback form. Any feedback regarding experiences with retailers is also important as customer satisfaction is a priority for pegog.
May , 2007 - City Aspires to Help New Small Businesses
Walkden businesswoman Christina Jones hopes unique business backing will help her link Salford to Sydney.
Salford City Council teamed up with local enterprise agency Salford Hundred Venture to help give new business ideas a boost, and Christina has earned a bonus after her ideas and business plan impressed the judges to win their 'Dragon's Den'-type competition.
The two agencies put together free business start up training delivered at the Little Hulton and Winton Sure Start Centres over a three week period. The training sessions also offered childcare to encourage new business starters to come along.
Called Aspire to Enterprise! IN Salford West , the project has been a great success. Its aim was to boost enterprise aspirations among the city's residents, primarily women. There have been a total of 45 attendees, 34 of whom were women and all of whom were residents of the Salford West area.
Fifteen residents then went on to take part in a 'Dragons Den'- style 'Best Enterprise Idea' competition, submitting their ideas to an assessment panel made up of local business experts from the University of Salford, Salford Moneyline and Salford City Council.
The judges decided to make five awards to the best ideas to help move them towards business start up. Christina landed £2,000, which will help her set up a new website, while Angela's photography business idea won her a £1,000 award, which she has invested in a new portable photographic lighting unit while the other prizewinners also enjoyed cash prizes.
Research findings show that there is low awareness of the support available to help people start up in business, and that the help that is available is often hard to access, especially for women.
Many people have not even considered starting up in business before, and so the first step is to simply raise enterprise awareness and aspirations.
Enterprise aspirations can best be raised by better promoting the idea of self employment and starting up a business, and especially by providing support in appropriate and accessible community venues.
Said Salford City Council leader Cllr John Merry: "Aspire to Enterprise is a successful project that has already done a great deal to raise local people's aspirations about making their own ideas work. By working with our partners in this way, we have each been able to add more value to the good work already done to support new business ideas in Salford.
"Christina and her colleagues are now much better prepared for the world of business, and we wish them well with their ventures."
Anne Hepburn, director of Salford Hundred Venture, said "Salford Hundred Venture is committed to the continuity and growth of local business.
"We are delighted to play our part in a competition that encourages local people to become entrepreneurs and shows them how rewarding and promising their own business ideas can be.
"We know that Salford businesses are among the finest in the region and we will continue to offer support in any way we can."
If you would be interested in taking part in future start up programmes please contact the city council's economic development business team on 0161 793 2803, or by e-mail: business@salford.gov.uk
Notes to editors:
Here is just a sample of the business ideas that local residents sought help with as part of this year's Aspire to Enterprise programme:
Paul Barber - New Peel Residents Association
This Little Hulton association want to encourage new activities in their community. To help bring people together they wanted to convert an old shop in Brookhurt Lane into a community centre.
They hope a range of new groups will get started once they have somewhere local and low cost to meet, and they will provide a base for their association, too.
William McKay - One Giant Step
William is keen to offer a range of holistic therapies for local people, and wanted business advice to help develop his ideas. Currently in full-time employment, he was attracted to this training with Salford Hundred Venture as it was local and accessible.
Vicky Kelly - Baby list service
Vicky knows that being a parent of a new child is a busy time for any family - she has two youngsters of her own. The wide range of goods available for new parents only makes it all more daunting. So Vicky reckons that families will want to use her idea of a baby list service. Like a wedding list, parents would use Vicky's help to draw up a list of items they need. Vicky would make sure a supplier had all the items and had the customers' contact details. Then she'd make sure friends and family got the parents' list of items. She said: "I had not a clue how to get started but this course was ideal for me as it was local and they offered child care here on the site."
Christina Jones - Pegog Ltd
Walkden resident Christina is an expat Aussie, so she knows how costly it can be to send stuff abroad. Sending thing to Australia at Christmas time you have to get stuff in the mail by October, or else expect to pay a lot more for air mail. Then there are tax and customs to deal with... Her online gift service could make life easier for everyone with friends and family living overseas. She aims to build links with retailers abroad, and plans to offer a gift wrapping service, too. The substantial cost of launching her service is mostly connected with setting up a reliable website, so the competition element, together with the independent business start up advice was just what she was looking for!
Wendy Valentine - Mobile nail technician
Mobile beauty is a very competitive business. Wendy has completed her training - and is looking to add more skills to offer a wider range of services to her customers. She came on this course to get advice on the other aspect of her idea - running a small business. At the moment she relies on friends and family to let people know about the service she offers, and she reckons that when people see the fantastic designs she can do, they'll want to use her service rather than her competitors'.
Angela Wynne - Wedding photography
Angela, from Eccles, plans to offer wedding and portraiture photography. She reckons offering enhanced digital service, different packages and albums will help her secure a successful business and a good reliable client base.
Sadhana Ali
Sadhana, of Eccles, aims to offer yoga and pilates classes to local people.
Sandra Lunn
Worsley resident Sandra aims to provide yoga and dance classes under one roof.
The Enterprise Training Taster Sessions programme included:
. Session 1 - 'What is enterprise' - An introductory two-hour session aimed at those who may have never considered enterprise before to help you learn more about enterprise as a career option.
. Session 2 - 'Running a business' - A three-hour session that will cover all aspects of running a business from book keeping, sales through to marketing and business planning for those that perhaps already have a good business idea, but want to learn more.
. Session 3 - 'Making your idea a reality' - A three-hour session informing you about how best to take your idea forward and consider starting up a business. For those closer to starting up a business and who are ready to move onto the next step.
Sessions were delivered at Little Hulton Sure Start Children's Centre and Winton Sure Start Children's Centre from week commencing Monday 19 February - Friday 9 March. Some support towards the cost of childcare is available.
The Best Enterprise Idea competition involves:
. Completion of an Enterprise Application Form outlining your idea that will be judged by a panel of local business experts. One to one support in completing the form will be available free of charge.
. Three prizes were awarded in three categories - £2000 for the best business idea overall and with clear potential for a business start up in the short run, £1000 for the best business idea overall, but with need of further support in the short run, and £500 for the idea with the best potential to succeed in the long run, but with need of further support. There will also be runner up cash prizes in all three categories.
. All entrants gained a certificate, a free business start up information pack and further free training through Salford Hundred Venture
