We now have an SSL Certificate

13 January 2016
What is an SSL Certificate? As part of our commitment to enhance the many benefits of a Free listing in the Northampton Business Directory, we have now added additional security with a SSL Certificate. There is now a padlock in the top left hand corner of the menu bar when using the FireFox browser, next to our web address which starts with https. We took this step for a number of reasons. Firstly the European General Data Protection Regulation makes the protection of personal data a priority, not only in the UK or the European Union, but worldwide. See the Data Protection information on Wikipedia. For the visitor When visiting the Northampton Directory you are assured that any information you send or receive is protected with high level encryption. Some advertisers on this website do not yet use a SSL certificate and the coloured padlock will show in orange in the FireFox browser, this is beyond our control, but the security remains For the members The information you supply …
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Donald Trump and you

6 January 2016
Donald Trump Update Just heard back from the Government, that this partition will be debated on 18th January and they will supply a video, which will be added when available. Democracy is working. You may think Donald Trump is of no interest to you and will not effect your life in anyway, but you could be mistaken. There is a lot of close cooperation between the UK and the USA on a wide range of matters, security being one of them. As Trump has openly criticises the UK, with no go areas and the police fearful for their lives, and wants to ban Muslims from entering the US, the UK government will have to react in some way. If the UK votes to leave the UK and with possible Trump as President, the UK could find itself very lonely and employment could suffer. Ban Donald Trump from the UK partition More than 550,000 ( as of this post) people have signed a government partition banning Donald Trump from the UK. If he is elected the Republican Presidential candidate and co…
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To our Advertisers

23 December 2015
Thank You The Northampton Business Directory would like to thank all the individual advertisers on this website, and hope we were able to provide enough interested visitors during 2015, and extend our best wishes for the new year. As a local Directory offering a free listing service, we depend on companies advertising in this Directory. There are not many "Free Services" that offer the opportunity for small local businesses to advertise and promote themselves, without any strings attached. Each registration is approved before activating, ensuring the listing meets our standards and is a local company. Only selected Advertisers are approved The reason, everybody is overwhelmed with product placement and marketing ads, in this Directory advertisements are placed in each appropriate Category. For example in the Restaurant Category only advertisers in this classification are shown and are limited in number. There are Categories without any placements or have vacancies, and this co…
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Black Friday

28 November 2015
Northampton Bargains Black Friday offers have now become a traditional sales event in many parts of the world. The concept started in the US and is now consider a top priority for many Northampton companies, and is the 4th Friday in November. Traditionally following Thanksgiving in the US. The expectation is that more than one billion pounds will be spent on-line in the 24 hour period in the UK. Many stores expect their Black Friday on-line sales exceeding the traditional walk-in customers for the first time. As the majority of people now use a mobile device, searching for local bargains is normal. This should concern any company website that is not responsive to the users device. The local Northants Herald & Post has an interesting post. Black Friday and Cyber Monday bargains all the year round Many of the advertisers in this Business Directory will continue to offer bargains for a lot longer, so check out the links in each Category or in the sidebar and grab a barga…
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Holiday Listings

12 November 2015
The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and now is the time to add a free listing in the Northampton Business Directory to attract Christmas trade. Best of all, these listings for your website are always free. Your business appears on-line instantly, ready to be seen and found by mobile and normal searches. You have control over the results for your business. Include photos, holiday specials, and other information in your business directory listing helping your listing stand out from the rest; rise in the search results making your business listing look great. As users search for services and products, an eye-catching listing will bring in more customers. Northampton Business Directory can help build the perfect listing in time for great holiday sales. See how easy it is to add a free listing.
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Your business and the Internet

18 October 2015
Managing a successful business Managing a successful company takes and effort. When considering the Internet, typically business owners and managers are either in the group that can see the benefits of using the power of the Internet to build a successful company and increase profits, or in the group that has no time or interest. If you have no interest, then forget reading the rest of this post. Time If there is not enough time in the day to do everything that needs to be done, increasing staff levels is one option or out-sourcing is another. Every business is different, with different financial levels, customer base and products, No one size fits all. Typically if a business is not Internet based, it receives very limit time and resources from management. Whether you agreed or not, the future for any company will be Internet based. No business website, no business email, customers will find it very hard to find you, competitors will be much easier to locate. Websites Don…
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Does “free” mean it has no value?

23 July 2015
The word means many things to different people. Free Apps are considered to have a value, like "WhatsApp" possibly the best "free" App in the world. We are all different, have different values and standards when evaluating something that is "Free" Take for example the Listings offer on the Northampton Business Directory. Yes it is free, no spam emails, a company listing can modify and update any time, and yet many local companies see no value or benefit. Applications to join the Directory have come from the US, (where there is a Northampton), Canada and even China, all have been declined. These companies see a business benefit , not so Northampton companies. Why is that? Knowledge As a business owner you are focused on the business and all of the demanding requirements, from customers, staff, finance, banks and the Inland Revenue. Only if your business is based on or using the Internet do you show interest about the company on-line. Chances are the web side of the busine…
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Northampton Greyfriars is gone.

7 April 2015
Greyfriars is no more Saturday was a big day for Northampton, finally the old bus station has been demolished. The BBC was there to capture the glorious moment of destruction. Travellers from all over Northamptonshire had to endure the bus station with its very strange architecture and organisation. Read the full article from the BBC and see the final moments on video. Northampton Greyfriars The "mouth of hell" has gone.  
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A true story

1 April 2015
What can go wrong, will. There are many examples of websites which do not work as a customer expects, or has missing information. Normally we just find another website with the information or contact. If the requirement is important from a particular website, in this case a Northamptonshire newspaper, then using a email address or contact form should get the required information. In this case a reply was quickly supplied with an email address of the required department. We wanted to place an advertisement before Easter and requested pricing and dates. Nothing, A couple of days later sent another email. Nothing. Finally went back to the person that supplied the email address, confirmed the problem and received the reply, somebody should contact us. After 2 weeks, nothing. Again emailed the first contact, this time, no reply. For a local paper not bothering to be interested in a customer that made every effort to establish contact it is very bad customer relations, and the…
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