Hot Blogs

Hot On The High Street (Not).

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 10:16:34 GMT

Walk On By.

Last Friday (9/2/24) was pivotal as the first 'time out' for our HotWalls Urban Gallery (HUG) concept in The Walk, Ipswich. With over twelve-months invested in reconnaissance, due diligence and seeing what unfolds in the unhealthy scheme of things in a town with above national average empty shops, we have reluctantly withdrawn our business loan application for the HUG installations and our first artisan coffee shop prospect.

Having failed to reach terms with the sales agent of an ailing café with no verifiable turnover, and then with the new letting agent for commercial premises that have lain empty for over 14 months, we are left wondering what more could have be done to help get this deal over the line?

The shop unit featured in our blog today, one of nine similar long-term empty high street properties, has been empty for 10 years, or more. And yet, it seems no one wants to improve the appearance of this ailing shopping centre with a HUG and new lease of life.

Maybe tomorrow?

The Walkie Talkie

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 11:18:01 GMT

The Walk, Ipswich, Suffolk.

For the past 12 months we have been focused on setting-up our first artisan coffee shop combination in this shopping arcade called 'The Walk', in Ipswich town. Our interest in this location began with the shop next door (pink chair) which has been on the market since before December 2022. Deal fatigue over the viability of this business reached pivot point in January 2024. At the same time, The Walk shopping centre has, evidently, passed to new owners, and Ipswich Borough Council announced plans to seek expressions of interest in their empty shops regeneration grant scheme. These incentives forced us to enquire about the this shop next door which has been empty since before December 2022.

A meeting was held last Friday (2nd February) with the new owners agent and we have subsequently made a reasonable offer to upgrade the shop and the 9 other vacant shops in the shopping centre with our Urban Gallery. We will post more details about this springboard in due course.

Thanks for you time.

Treevolution

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 09:17:45 GMT

Tree and Evolution.

One of the great things about writing our blog is detailing the nature of things that need a little more explaining. Our portmanteau 'Treevolution' is one such topic.

Coming from a carpentry background, it is not hard to figure how important wood has been to the modern world from houses and bridges, to ships, farming and widgets. It remains one of the most versatile natural resources in the world and as fundamental to human progress as fire. The 'chicken and egg' debate could easily be 'fire and wood'. Indeed, firewood is still the leading renewable energy resource in the world today. The UK alone imports 9 million tonnes of firewood bioenergy every year.

At micro level, one of the great attributes of carpentry is the artisan's ability to recycle wood for another purpose. And it is this recycling, re-use, re-purposing mentality, honed over several decades working with the material, that has shaped our thinking around issues surrounding the circular economy. If you are not familiar with the circular economy? The aims are effectively to 'design-in' recyclability and / or re-purposing products at the end of their life-cycle to help decarbonize the modern world. Over the coming weeks we will be elucidating details of our endeavours repurposing discarded wood for a our forthcoming range of circular and semi-circular consumables.

Thanks for your time.

Enterprise Nation

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 12:21:45 GMT

London re-Calling.

Only 5 days to go before we're 'hot-trotting' to King's College, London, once again for the capital's hot topic of the week - the Enterprise Nation business start-up show on Saturday 27th January. I think some tickets are still available if you fancy it?

Last year, we were fortunate to win a social media case study by Enterprise Nation, but I'd like to go one step further and in my own words: "Soar in '24".

If you are thinking about starting a business do hook-up with them for free some advice, support, competitions and the odd lucky break with cash flow assistance that is on offer from their support partners throughout the year.

Last year, Hot Walls entered several competitions to win funds, case studies, and even a pop-up shop in Oxford Street. With the help of Adobe Express we were able to produce our first ever animation, a professional-looking event flyers and our VentureFest exhibition stand, all for free. We have subscribed to Adobe Express now but if you are starting out and 'bootstrapping' without any formal graphic design training, knowledge and/ or experience, definitely get your own bootcamp started with Adobe Express.

Let you passion lead the way.

$ue x

Good Things Take Time

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 12:21:45 GMT

I visited Top Drawer, Olympia London, yesterday and was instantly struck by the huge amount of redevelopment in progress. The London skyline changes with every visit but what struck me the most was the clever use of the development's safety hoardings for marketing to passing traffic.

New paragraph

The Next Chapter

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 12:21:45 GMT

Some Like It Hot.

Welcome to of first blog of 2024. The Hot Walls team (that's me, me and me) have been immersed in much research, development and planning our overarching artisan business plans 2023. If I'm completely honest, it was an awesome year full of surprises, positive thinking and learning big business stuff for our great leap of faith into the worldwide web of things. I'd like to doff my cap to the many kind people (paid and unpaid) who have encouraged and helped me on this journey so far. I'd also like to doff my cap to the many who didn't believe in the business plan. But that was so last year that I'd even like to thank the proposed investor from who gave me their 'buzz' spiel and business card at VentureFest but ignored my follow-up email. Got to thinking they was 'Buzz-off Capital' after all lol.

With that thought in mind, I think the business plan has always been about the challenge, believing in your own 'buzz' and creating the next forward steps against the odds despite the negativity or the prevailing pessimism in economic growth making everyone jittery about the future. Keeping the faith is 2024 is A rt0fficial.

Which, more or less concludes our first blog. The team was fortunate to win a placement on a Digital Marketing Bootcamp and it is with this programme (starting 10 Jan 2024) that we are finally able to begin working on finalising our portfolio, creating brand awareness and refining the business infrastructure. The Hot Walls website (and our Facebook page) have been parked-up for so long they have 'www.cobwebs'. The Bootcamp will move things along nicely over the coming weeks thank you very much, and we look forward to republishing the remaining templated blogs and getting proactive in sharing the next chapter of our business plans with you.

More Anon.

$ue x