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Frequently Asked Questions

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Think Local is a business support initiative which encourages inter-trading amongst the local business community. Think Local also encourages local purchasing by large companies and the public sector.

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Think Local is a joint venture between the councils of Cannock, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Stafford and Tamworth: and the Northern and Southern Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Together they have formed the Think Local Partnership.

 

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Click the green button (Add my Business) on the Home page or the Business Directory page. You will be asked for;

• Your business name
• Your local council
• Alternative business names
• Address and contact details
• Business description
• The business categories that will help define your business
• The keywords associated with your business or services

       

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Nothing. Registering with Think Local is FREE

    

 

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3-5 minutes depending on how speedy you are with a keyboard/mouse

      

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This web site is managed and updated by staff from each of the associated councils. Every business that registers is allocated to the appropriate council. If you are not sure which is your council - check which council you pay your rates to - this will tell you. Or simply select don’t know and we’ll find out for you.

        

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 Only businesses from within the council districts and boroughs that support Think Local may automatically join. If your business is located close to the Think Local area please contact the nearest Think Local council.

The definition of close varies from 5 miles in Rural areas to .5 Miles in  Urban areas. Please contact the nearest Think Local council for further advice.    

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No sorry. Think Local is an entirely FREE service to those businesses falling within the appropriate districts. We would urge you to contact the Economic or Business Development Department of your council and ask them to consider supporting Think Local. If they do you will be able to join.

     

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An alternate business name is a name other than your company name that is associated with your business. For example you business name might be Product Design International – but you might be commonly known as PDL. 

   

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The Think Local web site categorises each business. This allows you to select up to 10 categories that are relevant to your business. All you need to do is search for the appropriate categories and then select those most suitable to your business.

     

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Keywords and Key phrases are simply extra words that might be helpful in someone finding your business. So if your business made bedroom furniture your keywords might be;

fitted bedroom furniture

fully fitted bedroom furniture

fitted wardrobes

      

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Try and choose something memorable. The username must be at least 3 characters long and the password 6 characters long. A useful username could be your email address as it’s easy to remember.

    

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Nothing we store about your business would be considered sensitive information. However we have gone to great lengths to ensure the data on this web site cannot be easily harvested.

   

    

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Yes once your registration has been confirmed you can revisit the web site and login to update your information as often as you like.

   

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If you can remember your username then you can simply select the forgotten password – enter your username and a new password will be sent to the email address assigned to that username. However if you have forgotten your username then you will need to email membership team

  

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There is someone from each council looks after their allocated members. These individuals are not named here because from time to time they change. If you need any further information than is available here you can email our membership team and your enquiry will be forwarded to the Think Local representative in your council.

 

  

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No you can request a form be sent out to you. Email your contact and address details to membership team

 

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Your information is stored within a secure database on a server hosted with STUDIOdm. At any point you can request that your information be removed from the database by emailing your request to our membership team

  

 

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You need to log in using the username and password we originally provided to you, or the username and password you chose when you registered.  Go to the Business Directory page and click on the ‘log in here’ link on the right hand side.

 

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Once logged in, you can change your password, but not your username.

 

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If you still know your username, you can use the password reminder facility available on the log in screen.  Your password will be sent to the email address we have stored for your business.

If you have forgotten your username, please contact the membership team by email.  A link is also available on the password reminder screen.

 

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Pretty much everything.  Once logged in, a complete summary of your entry will be displayed with Edit icons beneath each section of information.  As soon as you click on a section to edit, this will be loaded up and you will then be able to work through all the other sections that follow by clicking the Next icons.

 

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This is to protect the security of your entry.  All amendments have to be approved by the membership team to make sure that they are bone fide amendments, as well as to assist businesses to get the most out of their entries.  Once your amendment has been approved, your details will be accessible on the website once again.

 

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You will receive an email confirmation of this.

 

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Yes you can, by post or fax to your relevant council, details of which can be obtained in the links page.  This facility has been made available for those without access to the internet and by far the quickest way of amending your entry is to log on via the Business Directory page.  If you have forgotten your username or password, please see the relevant question above. 

 

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This facility is there if you have a clear idea of what you are looking for in terms of business name, type of business and products and services, and do not require a very precise location point from which to search.  All you need to input is the business name, type of business, product or service you are looking for and the name of the main town or village where you would like to search and the results will be returned in order of proximity to this location.

 If your search requirements are any more specific, or if the search returns too many irrelevant results, please use the advanced search facility on the main Business Directory page.

 

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You access the advanced search from the link next to the quick search, or by going to the Business Directory main page.

Advanced searches allow much more detail to be entered to provide more tailored search results.  Here, you can not only search by products and services, you can also limit the search to specific company names (or part thereof).  You can also filter results by local authority district, and can also pinpoint more accurately your or any particular location in terms of postcode or town/village.  If you do input a specific location, results will be returned in proximity order to that location.  You can also specify the extent of this search in terms of miles radius from this location.

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Results will only include businesses based within the administrative boundaries of the selected local authority.  If you are not quite sure of these boundaries, then it is probably best to not use this feature and use a search from a particular location instead.

 

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Try searching for a part of the name, e.g. instead of ‘John Smith’ try ‘J Smith’, or even just ‘Smith’.  You can also search for alternative names by which the business may be known locally, e.g. Smiths, Smithys, although the company will only be found if the business has added in these names themselves.

Also, check to make sure you have not entered data in another field which may be limiting the search result too much, such as by specifying a local authority area or products and services. 

The system sometimes remembers data you have entered in a previous search so this may need to be removed manually for further searches.

If you have also specified a location, make sure you have widened the radius of the search sufficiently as the system will use the default value of 5 miles, unless you change it.

 

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Try using less words/phrases, or use alternative, more generic words.  You can also try just using the first few letters of a phrase so that it captures all possible derivatives of that phrase – e.g. searching for ‘carpent’ would find ‘carpenter’, ‘carpenters’ and ‘carpentry’. 

Please also see the previous tip regarding entry of data into other fields and widening the radius of search.

 

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Try using more specific words in the search fields, or additional words, particularly in the products and services field.

Try specifying a location if you have not already done so, and then limit the radius of the search accordingly.

© 2006, Think Local terms & conditions

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