May 2005 - August 2013
May 2005 and the first edition of Helsby to Hand hit the streets. To say that I was a little bit apprehensive is an understatement! What right did I have bringing out a little village magazine and writing an intro to everyone? I was scared stiff that people would mock!
The idea of Helsby to Hand started when Charlie and Will were at Alvanley Primary School and often at the school gate another parent would ask “does anyone know a good electrician / decorator” etc and friends would say “ask Sarah, she knows everyone”! Someone joked “you should write everyone down in a list for us all” What? Like a little directory? - that stayed in my mind.
I’d been toying with what to do work wise for quite a while when our sons, Charlie and Will and also my niece and nephew, Martha and James (whom I’d child minded from a few months old) were all in school. I couldn’t go back to my previous job in promotions and events as that entailed being away from home and Chris worked abroad a lot back then so I wanted to find something that would fit in around our family life. I embarked on a computer course at Mid-Cheshire college in October 2004, a few hours a week in between dropping James off at Kingsley Nursery pre-school at 9.15am and dashing back to collect him, at 11.30am! I thought, at least if nothing else I’d be able to help Charlie and Will with their homework and join the relatively new email brigade of that time! 5 months later I walked into my college class and announced to my tutor that I was going to start a little community magazine called Helsby to Hand and it was going to come out the first week in May, allowing myself 6 weeks to get it together. He looked at me as if I’d got two heads! I wasn’t the most computer minded of the class to be fair and I was only a couple of weeks into Desktop Publishing at that time! But give him his due, when, I proudly waltzed in to class the first week of May, (yes 6 weeks later as I predicted), I put my first edition in front of him and he was gob smacked! At least he had the good grace to congratulate me and say that never in a month of Sundays did he think that I would do it! He even went as far as saying “it’s not even that bad”!!
Back then Helsby to Hand was a very basic format; coloured cardboard cover which changed colour each month and black and white throughout the inside pages. My first ever advertiser, you may remember me saying before was Odd Jobs John who has been in every edition ever since which is fantastic.
I’d made a list of local tradesmen to ring and I was terrified when I picked up the phone. I’d never even spoken to John before but I figured that promoting my business to a stranger was less daunting than to someone that I already knew. John was so lovely and friendly and I was amazed when he seemed interested in advertising so we decided to meet for a coffee at The Wishing Well Restaurant at Lady Heyes to discuss it further. John agreed to advertise in not only the May edition but he took me up on my offer of a discount for 3 editions. Blimey,
that scared me even more as now I’d committed to there being more than one edition! I’m totally indebted to John, if it hadn’t been for him I may have bottled out but after that I was on a roll and soon found myself walking into local businesses.
Next up was The Home Shop, then in Helsby, Mark immediately agreed to advertise - great! Then Lynsey at Delamere Pine Shop not only took out a full page for May but also booked the front cover in June plus a double page editorial - what faith! I was on cloud 9 and ran home, elated to tell Chris but I just had the minor problem of putting the actual adverts together! Luckily for me, Chris was in between jobs and although he’d only ever used Microsoft office we did have a Publisher tutorial DVD! So between us we managed to get the adverts together. Now I work on a 27 inch iMac using Indesign and wonder how on earth I managed with a small laptop and the laboriously slow (but effective) Publisher but it did me well at the time.
Next on board came Teuthill Farm Shop. Wendy said at the time that she’d prefer to see the first edition before she agreed to advertise but appreciated that if everyone thought that there wouldn’t be one so she booked a full page. For that I was very grateful, and I used that line on everyone else I talked to. So thank you for that Wendy it worked wonders!
Fellow Alvanley School mum’s, Dawn from Elizabeth Arnold and Lorraine from The Oven Cleaners were keen to support me and they were soon followed by Eleanor Griffiths Florist, Village Taxis, Frodsham Gardens, Kumon, Altitude Roofing, Perfect Floors & Interiors, Plumb Direct, SWP Electrics, Complete Security Service, Millmark Foods and many others. It’s testament to Helsby to Hands readership and following that many of these businesses still appear in each edition and have done so from the start.
I’ve had fun looking through those first editions recently and they have brought back many happy memories. Our first restaurant review was at The Robin Hood with Mary and Dave and chef Francois, and my first editorial was Homestead Day Nursery, both of which were great fun to do.
The first edition was 36 pages and was delivered to 2,000 homes. Over the years I’ve worked hard to keep improving the appearance and content. In January 2006 I introduced a full colour cover which featured The Oaklands Hotel and this coincided with me increasing the distribution to include Frodsham. Soon after, colour was introduced throughout and today 7,000 copies are printed each month and are delivered across the whole WA6 area.
There’s been many a month when I’ve stayed up all night to meet my print deadline but it’s always been worth it and I still get a buzz when the mags arrive back from print.
I’d like to say a massive thank you to all of the businesses who have advertised in Helsby to Hand, my delivery team who work hard in all weathers and a special thank you to all of you for using the businesses and services within and for shopping locally when ever possible.
Thank you x
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