Thursday 10th June 2010

MAGIC WHITEBOARD MAKES ITS MARK AT MADEJSKI STADIUM

It was difficult to miss the array of whiteboard notices signposting guests to the conference facility at the Madejski Stadium this week, where Magic Whiteboard – a company that received Dragons’ Den investment in 2008 – spoke to an audience of Berkshire based business leaders about their experience of business growth. 

The event, organised by Berkshire Institute of Directors (IoD), highlighted the tale of Neil and Laura Westwood who were running a home based Internet company in their spare time, but in August 2008 accepted an offer from Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis and have since generated a £3 million value for their business. “It’s useful being associated with very successful people”, Neil told the audience of IoD members and guests. “It’s viral marketing in the bizarrest way. If you enter the Den knowing the numbers is the key thing, market share is a key metric used by the Dragons to decide whether to invest.”  

During the evening the audience listened to the honest and spirited business duo interviewed about the various challenges and opportunities they have faced since their journey from pitch to profit.   “You have to be creative and do things differently”, explained Neil when describing how he hired a billboard opposite Staples head office to help secure the order. “When the traditional sales strategy failed, we mail dropped houses within close proximity of the head office – the buyers couldn’t miss us! We were everywhere that they went!” Berkshire branch Chairman and interviewer for the evening, Ross Wilson, himself a leading advisor to entrepreneurs, said “ I have advised many successful businesses from start up through to maturity and on to exit over the years and it was clear to me, as it obviously was to the Dragons, that Neil and Laura have many of the attributes which are so vital to creating a successful business. Their passion and determination combined with their teamwork and approach to everything business left me in little doubt that they will quickly build on their considerable success to date.  They were a joy to interview and with a rich mix of humour to add to the messages they delivered to the audience I would be delighted to interview them both after another couple of years have elapsed on their business journey . 

Neil has recently become a member of the IoD and has already recognised the kind of value that his membership can and should bring to him and the business.”

The event was supported by Reading Football Club, Reading 107fm and the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre. Sir John Madejski, who attended the event, expressed his pleasure in supporting business leaders and entrepreneurship. Amongst the directors in the audience were a number of young business students who had been fast-tracked to director status for the evening to enjoy a taste of corporate life.

The students, from the National Enterprise Academy – the brainchild of entrepreneur Peter Jones – were invited to join the IoD as part of a partnership to support and encourage tomorrow’s business leaders.  Business and Enterprise Manager of the National Enterprise Academy, Lisa Cooper-Smith said “We were delighted that the Institute of Directors in Berkshire recognises our aim to engage our students with entrepreneurs and business people and achieve ‘learning by doing’. Our students really enjoyed listening to the ‘pitch to profit’ journey, which many of them want to take.”