How you can beat cyber attacks on your business

[Online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

The threats of online attacks on your business are ramping up, as we’ve just seen with the global wave of ransomware that clobbered many NHS Trusts.

But there are ways you can beat these attacks.

The recent cybercrime awareness seminar held at our premises – featuring Jake Moore, cybercrime prevention specialist at Dorset Police – was eye-opening and very helpful in giving us clear and (often) easy ways of protecting our businesses from attack.

To take some simple actions and practice safe online behaviour, Jake recommended this website: https://www.cyberstreetwise.com

He gave out a very useful booklet, stuffed full of advice and tips… you can download it free here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cyber-security-what-small-businesses-need-to-know

Store & Secure: Basingstoke goes big on self storage

[Photography and online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

Now celebrating its first anniversary, our Basingstoke self storage facility is going from strength to strength, with local businesses hiring large rooms up to 1,200 sq ft.

These indoor large rooms have drive-up access, double-door access for pallets and lighting. They can be fitted out with racking to maximise the available space.

The Houndmills facility has a total of 32,000 sq ft of self storage, including much smaller rooms from 10 sq ft which cost as little as £5 per month. These are used widely by businesses and charities for holding stock, plus families and individuals needing temporary storage.

And there are serviced office suites of various sizes, available for rent at short notice and for any period of time.

Store & Secure: Bournemouth facility expansion is complete

[Online PR for Store & Secure self storage]

It’s finished… the fit-out of our last phase at Bournemouth – giving us an extra 150 new rooms (which are starting to fill up nicely) covering 7,000 sq ft!

That completes the staged fit-out of our Bournemouth facility, giving it a total of 660 rooms in an area of 42,000 sq ft. We’re now covering every square inch of the three floors… each one reached by a lift.

The new rooms range from 10 sq ft to 200 sq ft, which are our most popular sizes at Bournemouth for business archives, stockrooms, stationery rooms, back office – and of course student and home moves.

Storage with Store & Secure is low-cost, has free parking with 24-your access and you can upscale or downscale quickly and easily. You can even take advantage of our forklifts, pallet trucks and trolleys at no extra cost! Not forgetting our friendly, uniformed staff to greet you and your visitors, plus free tea and coffee all round.

And it’s very safe. With constant supervision, monitored CCTV cameras and alarm systems, our locked units are accessible to you and only you.

Child of Hope: Incredible transformation for Rachael

Huge changes for slum kid Rachael; found poorly fed, unwashed, sleeping with goats and used for general labour...

Over her whole time in Child of Hope, Rachael, one of the children in nursery top class, had not been a happy girl.

Nursery staff observed a catalogue of problems including general poor health, poor nutrition, and very low self-esteem. Rachael was always crying and was unable to explain what she needed to the teachers. Although we identified her as being a bright girl, she was making little progress because her basic needs were not being met.

Headteacher, Amulen Scovia, approached the school nurse to get a medical assessment, and then recommended that the Family Support team carry out a home visit. It was found that Rachael was sleeping with the goats (outside the main house), was being inadequately fed and was not being washed. She was also being used for general labour.

It was agreed that regular home follow ups would be made by both the Family Support Unit and nursery staff. Rachael was also put the feeding programme.

Since then, we have seen an incredible transformation in Rachael this term! She is now
clean and smart when she comes to school and she always has a big smile on her face. She is active in lessons and is making excellent progress in both Language and Mathematics. She has made friends and she enjoys playing with them at break times. We are excited to see how she continues to progress over the course of this year!

Child of Hope: Jo visits the slum school

[Online PR for charity Child of Hope]

CoH UK volunteer Jo Edom loves the impact of our work with slum children – so she decided to travel to Uganda (on her own!) and visit the school.

Long-term supporter Jo was very impressed with what she saw. During her two weeks, she got involved with the various different departments, especially the family support unit visiting with the most needy families around the community and some of the mums we have help set up in business.

Jo said: “I am really impressed with the services Child of Hope offers. As well as a fantastic primary school, the IGA and Welfare services are a real bonus for the community. Probably the key challenge that Child of Hope faces is finding enough funds to support this ever-expanding organisation!”

She spoke to Rita Nandudu at the school in an interview about her experience… click here to read and see more pics.

Child of Hope: Growing our own food

[Online PR for Ugandan slum charity Child of Hope]

An idea for a new project that began in January will soon bear fruit… well, vegetables, actually!

In an attempt to reduce the cost of food at our school, we are utilising two acres of land we own in nearby Namabasa to grow beans and maize. Once we have harvested the crops, we will then decide whether to sell them or use them for our own food, depending upon circumstances at the time.

Local community people were hired to clear the land for ploughing and 23 pupils’ mums were paid to do the planting – these are mums we have helped with a start-up business.

Depending on how the project goes, we may eventually also provide seeds to parents so that they can carry out small-scale farming themselves – which will help them fight poverty by providing some of their fresh food and/or produce crops to sell.

Groveley Precision Engineering: Factory conversion is nearly complete

[Online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

The expansion of our production area is well under way… once the extra floor space is painted, we’ll be ready to move CNC machines into the new area.

The conversion has gained us an extra 108 sq metres by moving production offices into a new, larger office suite. It's not the first time the building use has changed; the building was reputedly used as barracks for the gunners of Christchurch airfield during the Second World War – but this may well be as reliable as the story that ghosts of Roman legionnaires wander around the factory at night!

The space rationalisation is partly modernisation and partly to handle increased precision engineering work from new customers in the defence, motorsport and medical sectors.