This is The Business Village People Podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell and welcome to episode three of the Business Village People Podcast. Now, if you've missed our other episodes, All you have to do is to search for us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any of the platforms you get your podcast from, and when you find us and have a good listen, please subscribe if you really want to, and that way you'll never miss an episode.

This podcast is about the people that businesses, and the services that are available at the Business Village here in Barnsley, south Yorkshire. Our aim. Is to be informative, entertaining, showcase success, and promote business collaboration. Okay, let's go. In this episode of Business Village, people around the world, companies are recognizing the benefits of having dogs in the office and they're implementing dog friendly policies.

It's happened here at the Business Village. Hugo gives us his take on the idea. Rebranding an established business can be a perilous thing to do. WeChat to the businesswoman who's been through the process. Stay with us to find out what went well and what didn't.

What does it take to keep the business village buildings functional, safe, and well-led? I've unblocked four toilets.

This is the Business Village People podcast. Now, an exciting trend that's getting popularity around the world is allowing dogs into workplaces. Companies are recognizing the benefits of having dogs around and are implementing dog friendly policies. Something that's recently started here at the Business Village.

So when I was told to go and track down some fluffy office canines, I quickly whipped out my ragga and a couple of my granddad's old sponges balls in anticipation for some doggy fun. Eventually, I found myself out outside the officers.

Premier Property Management and Maintenance Limited.

The only instructions I've been given was to knock and wait for you go.

Are you Hugo? I five. Oh, this is Hugo. This is one of the first dogs that came. Shut your face. This is Hugo. This is one of the first dogs that's come into the business village. Yes. As, uh, bringing a dog to work initiative. Uh, and Hugo belongs to Karen Hugo Manzer, just for seven years old. We've had him since he was a puppy, when he was 11 weeks old, and we got him when my husband retired.

Unfortunately, my husband died suddenly last year and I worked for home for a time. And then I fell and broke my shoulder and I worked from home again. And then when obviously BK changed the policy that we could bring the dogs into the office, it was a godsend for me. Yeah. Because up when I was, um, doing mornings in the office, afternoons at home, having to pack up part through the day, go home and everything.

So having to bring 'em in here now, it is just been, been fabulous. Yep. And does he enjoy coming in? Oh, he love it. Yeah. Because he gets treats, lots of treats. Where did you get em from? We got 'em from, I believe us in South Wales. Yeah. And why is Sauer? Because they don't shed. Oh, right. I'll remember that next time.

Few years ago we had our wad here, Fox Taylor, and the other same when we were looking for another dog, we went out looking for breed. Don't make it. Don't make a mess. Basically. What kind of effect has it had on the business? Having Hugo on site? I think everybody really enjoys him being in the office. He makes his giggle every day.

Particularly Tracy, she likes to have a good giggle at him sort of thing. And, um, yeah, quite a common effect I think it has on every day. There's a couple of staff members now who have got, um, treats in their top drawers, and they're his favorite people. Yeah. He knows where he's playing it. Yeah. So every day has a play during the day, and some of them come through and lie down in the floor and give him a cuddle and stuff like that.

So yeah, he had a really good effect in the place. He's a bit good in the morning, but generally then the rest of the day he's, he's quite quiet. He'll have a play about, and he was dragging his bed all over the office the other day, which, you know, had a few, a crazy 10 minutes, and then he just goes back in his bed and has another snooze oft Oh, and Wednesday takes him every day, half passed over, and she takes a post over as well.

So, because obviously the girls goes and sees the girls in reception every day and they, oh yeah. And they fuss 'em as well, don't they? Yep. Yeah, he likes it. They're quite apple. He comes out the house and jumps in the car every morning, so he obviously, he obviously don't mind it that much and he's calmed down now as well.

I think he's been putting me bit of weight on as well, obviously, because all the treats he's getting and, um, whoever happens to be having the lunch at the time, he's their best friend. He just, from Destiny, he just goes and packs himself at somebody's desk and if they ignore him, then he gives him a nudge as well, so we'll let to keep an eye on his weight.

That's the only thing. Yeah, no, it's been really good. I suppose that's all well and good coming from Hugo's mom, but what about the rest of the office team? How do they feel about their new furry buddy? It's Becky. I think when you feeling a bit down or you're a bit stressed, it's really nice to just be able to go in and give him a cuddle off and a bit of force and see him coming and begging for your food.

He's just cute all the time and we love it. Really. It's, it's like sometimes barky, which is fine, but you know what he, he's brilliant. Leah, how long have you been here, Leah? Um, a month. Wow. Newby. Sorry. I can, yeah. I thought you were there. You've been here a month. What's he like? Good. Not gonna say's rub shy.

No, I don't. And what about Hugo? How'd you get on with him? He's my best buddy at work. I love him. Yeah. What, what kind of things does he get up to? He just begs for food all day, looks for scraps, and finally, What does his Royal Highness Hugo think about being the star attraction? Well, there's only one way to find out, and that's to put the questions direct to the dog.

You're going overweight, eating all these snacks

and, and do you enjoy coming into the office? Those the best at giving you snacks, Liz? Oh, is it laso? Olia? Which one?

And what do you enjoy most about KO to office?

Get off the microphone. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Go and look down there.

You can't tell me more. As we say in the business, gimme five. Good boy. Okay. Tens enough. 15. Stop it there. 25. I've had enough. And if you fancy bringing your dog to work at the Business Village, the first thing to do is to contact our reception team. Isn't that right? You girl? What you mean? Meow. You pick the phone up first.

Never miss an episode of The Business Village People podcast. Simply subscribe and follow from wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. This is The Business Village People Podcast about the people, businesses, and services available at the Business Village here in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. I'm David Markwell.

In the last episode, we spoke to Caroline Haywood from Digital Marketing Company, purple Genie. Well, that's now undergone a rebrand. Here's Caroline's story about her rebranding experience. So what's happening with the company is, so since I set up Purple Genie, I've worked with some of biggest brands in Barnsley and continue to do so, and around the UK doing all different kinds of marketing things.

I very much tailor make things to what people need. What I decided to do is as this business has grown, I've now got a member of staff. What I've done is I've decided to do a rebrand for myself, and I'm now going to call my company Clear Digital. I did a lot of brand development with this, with a company called Genius Division, who are a big web design company in Barnsley.

The reason why I know them is because, I used to be their client, and when they'd heard out that I'd set out on my own, they said, oh, we build websites. The most natural question after that is, how do I get traffic to my website? And I'm your gal for that. So we started collaborating and then we decided to collaborate on a new brand logo for me.

And that process is psychological in a way. You need to understand who you want to attract. What your values reflect both visually and with the wording of it. So it's a big process and it's like you need to go through it with a, an actual proper designer. A lot of people are like, oh, you know, I'll just put together a logo.

It's not about that. It's like when you look at Boots logo, for example. Obviously it's just a font and it's a color, but everything that you infer from that font. And that color is what is their brand. So the history, the clinical element to it, everything about it, it, it sets a sort of a psychological term for how you'll feel about that brand.

And that's the process that I went through to develop clear when it came down to it, after going through all this work clear, it's because I am very clear in what I do. You'll not get jagging with me. You'll not get big spreadsheets with reams of texts that you'll not understand. People come to me and say, oh, I need to get my business on the internet.

I dunno how to do it. And I'll say, well, don't worry. Let's put Kelan and work out what you want and how I can do that for you. And it's as clear as that without me to sun. Got it. Um, but it, but it is though. It is though. Um, so yeah. Do you think there's far too much jargon in business? Absolutely. Since the pandemic, I think that people have, uh, less formal.

I think that there is an element of formality about business. It's always got to be in terms of etiquette and so on, but I think that in terms of the way people dress and speak to each other, I just think, why not just be