Alas, we have lost the lovely warm bread smells at Evans House Business Centre, and so we bid farewell and good lock to Monia's Cakes who have now opened a cafe in Latchford Village.


Due to complaints from the lack of a yeasty smell, our cleaner has been instructed to clean less and run around the building whilst blow torching the occasional croissant or vegan alternative. 

Please also say hello to our new tenant, Vintage With Grace. VWG is a manufacturer of specialist premium chalk furniture paint to get that cabbage chick (is that how you spell it?) look. 

Owner Rachael is looking forward to setting up shop this month and will be holding some specialist classes and commissioning sessions throughout the year. For more info, check out ​https://www.vintagewithgrace.co.uk/

To be honest it wasn't the best day for securing a humungulus (I know it's not a word but meh) 6 x 3 m banner to the side of Evans House Business Centre, but we did it. 

The main problems were:
a) it was getting dark
b) it was raining and I had no coat ; (
c) the banner swings up like a wing from the bottom making the building look like a badly designed/disabled fly
d) the safety harness was a bit too kinky for me and kept cutting off...circulation

Ah well, at least it's up now (the banner) and looks pretty imposing from the road. 

If you (tenant or not) would be interested in a similar banner along the wall facing Winwick Road (the main road through Warrington), please contact us at enquiries@normanstreet.co.uk.

Sad to say 'farewell' to a fairly new tenant, but that's the way it goes with some start-ups unfortunately. We now have a small storage/salon/physio unit on the first floor with plenty of foot fall. 
For details, pease email  enquiries@normanstreet.co.uk

Hey kids, not posted on here for a while, but the building is still full and so we don't really care about attracting your attention. 

That said, we have a new tenant here at Evans House Business Centre. The person in question only likes to be referred to as "the Fox". The mysterious Fox has quite a cool new craft and jewellery workshop on the first floor outside of Exclusive Fitness for Women. Come along for a taster session (trying to make jewellery out of macaroni and broken dreams) if you dare to be creative...

For more information check out ​http://www.thefoxstudios.co.uk/

Ah, health and safety, a phrase you either hate or hate. 

Whilst the Daily Mail would have you believe that health and safety was a recent invention of the Devil himself or Europe (same thing), it has been part of UK Law for a long time. 

There is therefore really no excuse to ignore it, especially since the benefits of complying with it (fewer staff absences, fewer accidents, better productivity and profit) outweigh the perceived negatives (bureaucratic, time consuming, costly and so on).

We have recently undergone a Compliance Audit at Evans House and have found that the sheer amount of laws and regulations we might need to comply with is quite daunting. 

With this in mind, we have prepared a checklist of some of the main hazards that a business needs to consider, what rules apply to them, and what the main requirements of that law are. If this would be of any use to you, please feel free to use it. Please note however that it is for background information only and may not be relied upon as legal advice or otherwise. It is merely intended to give you enough information to assist you with making compliance part of your daily business. 

A copy of the Compliance Audit Template can be found HERE or on the Tenant Information Page.

If you have any comments about this, or would like to suggest changes, please leave your comments below. We would love to hear from you.

What's your name?
 
Monika And Mario Cebula.

What business do you run?
 
We run a bakery specialised in celebration cakes called Monia's Cakes.

What do you offer?
 
Cakes for any occasions. For Birthday, wedding, divorce, christening, or even for no occasion – which is occasion too : )

Did you really just suggest there is such a thing as a divorce cake?

Yep. Join the 21st century. 

When did you start at Evans House?
 
201 Days ago : D

What did you want to be when you grew up?
 
Just simply to be happy

Happy? Have you been watching too many Disney films lately?

We like cakes and Disney. Let it go...

How did you get into running Monia's Cakes?
 
A bakery plan was prepared in about 4 hours in our kitchen at home (where else). Monika was working at warehouse at the time. Monika has been a baker since she was 17. We thought it would be a waste of her talent to not try and start a bakery. That’s how we came up with the bakery plan. We found best possible place to start our business at Evans House Business Centre in Warrington and ordered the equipment. Monika dropped the warehouse job and the rest is history.

What is your top tip for running a business?
 
Never rush. What is meant to come will come and even smallest step is still a step.

Tell us an interesting fact about yourself
 
Our surname means Onion : D

What is your most embarrassing moment?
 
Dropped a cake in front of Customer : O

Where can we find out more about what you do?
 
Our Facebook webpage is always open for business. There, you can see our cakes, options and prices.
 
https://www.facebook.com/moniascakeswarrington/. We are also setting up a shop in Latchford Village. Watch this space...
 
Know anyone who would be interested in renting space for a business? Please forward their details to us using the CONTACT page and we will get in touch. If the referral results in an lease, we will pay you a referral fee of £250 (terms apply - please contact us using the CONTACT page for more information).

Flexible terms offered including rent free period of six weeks, set rent and services (for easy budgeting), various frequency rental agreements (e.g. weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually) and/or variable rental agreements (pay less rent when your business is quiet).

We also offer assistance with signage, marketing, business development and construction matters.

Having over 50 years' worth of collective experience of running businesses, dealing with tenants, disputes and all sorts of other crises, we thought it would be useful to give you some useful tips on starting and/or running a business. Disclaimer: Please for god sake don't rely whole heartedly on this as advice; it's not. Seek independent advice as appropriate.

1. Start with failure

There are loads of websites and blogs dealing with the causes of how different businesses fail. It's therefore worth looking at those causes of failure which might effect your business directly and how you might address those risks. For example, many small businesses grow and eventually have to register for VAT, which results in 20% being added to their prices (in most cases). When that money is collected and sits in the bank, those businesses wrongly consider that all the money in the bank is theirs. Come the end of the quarter and the VAT is due - BIG CASHFLOW PROBLEMS. This could easily be avoided with some simple book-keeping. 

2. Do a business plan going forward - and don't be afraid to ignore it. 

There's a lot of opinion as to whether business plans are any good. Our view is that having a business plan forces you to think about the basics such as, what do you want (personally) from the business, how can the business provide that, what is your product; how will it be funded, will people want to buy it and so on? By writing these things down and building on what you have learned above, you are thinking about the risks and how you will address them.

It's also useful to build a 'critical path' into your business plan This is just a step by step guide to prove you know what steps need to be taken to fulfil the plan. If you don't know how you get from 'A' to 'B', the likelihood is that you will get lost along the way.

What you then need to do is keep reviewing the business plan and do not be afraid to stray away from it. Think of it as an early warning guide or insurance if things go wrong. A free template can be downloaded from the Prince's Trust HERE.

3. Cashflow, cashflow, cashflow

As with a good business plan, a cashflow is essential to ensure that throughout the year, you have enough money to trade. If a business is profitable, it could still fail because it does not have the cash at the bank to pay suppliers, the tax man and so on.

We suggest you use the free template from Natwest that can be found HERE.

As with the business plan, do not be afraid if the cashflow turns out to be inaccurate. It's a guide that needs to be regularly updated. As with the business plan, it's the best early warning system that will allow you to take measures to avert a risk.

4. Keep your overheads as low as possible

Imaging you are a marathon runner and you choose to wear leg weights in the most important race of your life? Stupid eh? It does happen in business. We have seen so many businesses start out well, then they go and buy a posh car or a rent a massive unit they don't really need. All this does it puts stress on the business to perform. In business terms, their overheads are too high and don't result in direct sales.

At Evans House, we regularly review how the tenants are doing and whether we can assist them. For example, recently we have split units to rent up into two or more units. This usually saves on business rates, rent, service charges, electric and heating costs for the tenant. Any money saved can therefore go back into your business and not someone else's pocket. 

5. The Rule of Minimum Effort, Maximum Yield

Consider two men in business. The first man is an artist and has to take the time to paint a desirable painting and sell it for a high price to a fairly small market of people who still buy original paintings. The second man sets up a website that takes orders for a local sandwich shop; takes a commission for every sandwich sold, but otherwise he does no work for that money . Assuming the first man is not some celebrity that sellotapes pine air fresheners to a dead pig and calls it art which sells for a million quid - who do you think is more likely to succeed without trying? 

Looking for a unit to rent to start a business or grow your business in Warrington, please contact enquiries@normanstreet.co.uk or 01925 411170.

Ever wanted to have a nice looking office to pretend you have an important job, when in fact you sell squirty ice cream and drugs from a clapped out van for a living? 

Ever wanted a room with giant lipstick marks on the wall. 

Ever wanted a shop floor unit with a creative open plan studio for  meetings, lessons or to develop your own craft business - then we have just the thing for you. 

The unit is situated on the ground floor of Evans House Business Centre in Warrington and has a number of features including:

Yes folks, the Box Works Bar and Function Room, home to Northern Soul Night, (spelled 'Nite' for some reason), is set to re-open under new management who signed their life away... I mean signed the new lease today. 

Under Steve Hewitt's watchful eye and manager Nicola Monk's actual control (thank god, Steve is useless), hopefully, the Box Works will see some investment and more good times to come. 

In case you are wondering, yes those shire horses in the photo are sh***ing in an area where the buffet areas now is. 

If you enjoyed a night at the Box Works in previous years or have some good photos of a night out there, please email us at enquiries@normanstreet.co.uk as we would like . to hear from you.

Yes, we know it's one of the oldest and ugliest buildings in Warrington (save for the Crown Cars 'Pink Eye' building - met the bloke who painted that - nice chap - likes the colour pink apparently) but the Evans House building has been around a long time and you can't polish a turd (if you disagree, please post proof in the comments section below).

That said, the building has a rich history and has been home to many different businesses since before World War II, so cut it some slack will you? 

​

It was originally designed by a firm of architects in Liverpool. We are unsure of the exact date because but to give you a clue, the original lift motors turn 90 next year which would mean the building was constructed after 1927. 

Materials being scarce after war, the building was originally only constructed with a ground, first and second floor as shown in the pictures to the right and below. The floor you can actually see is now home to Giggles Soft Play Centre, Mike Ward Fitness Training and the Warrington Appliance Centre. 

When things picked up after the war (as the often do) the third floor was built. We recently learned that the building was originally used as a glass factory before being 

sold to the Smurfit's Box Company (which is still going today).

In time, the building became known as the Alliance Box Works, which was then sold to Stanley Evans and Stuart Evans' (father and son) company, Evans House, in or about 1972. Evans House, originally known as Stanley Evans Tent Manufacturers (say what you see Stanley), ran a camping shop complete with a manufacturing facility for (you guessed it) marquees, tents, trailer tents and so on. 

As the years went by, Stuart took over the business and started letting out units as the manufacturing side of the business diminished. The first tenant was Walter and Brenda O'Malley of O'Malley's Gym, and they are still going strong (no pun intended). 

The rest is history as they say. 

If you want to be a part of this ongoing history before the current management manages to burn down the building and claim the insurance monies, please check out our available units HERE or contact us by telephone on 01925 411170 or by emailing enquiries@normanstreet.co.uk