We are delighted to announce that we are working with The Medic Mind, a new startup which has found an excellent gap in the market to help students get into the medical school of their choice.
The Story of Medic Mind
The Medic Mind was founded in 2016 by Kunal Dasani and Mohil Shah who are both studying Medicine and UCL in London. Together, they accumulated over 1,000 hours of tutoring to students looking to studying medicine and found that most people could not afford the standard £200 for a UKCAT or BMAT Course.
They quickly saw a gap in the market to provide online course, one-to-one tuition and mentoring to help give young students the support they need. The online BMAT and UKCAT courses start from just £35, a fraction of their competitors and they include free online resources too such as past papers and mark schemes, something that was previously inaccessible.
The response has been fantastic as they have had thousands of pupils sign up and they have had a 92% success getting their pupils into University and an average UKCAT score of 720 where the national average is 570.
What We Are Doing For Them
Since SEO is our speciality, we are working hard with Medic Mind to improve their organic search rankings on Google for terms relating to BMAT and UKCAT courses, tuition and mentoring.
We have started with a big clean up of the website which has been challenging since the website is built on Weebly and is not designed for scalable SEO changes. It has been a very manual process to add meta-data, rel=canonical tags and h1 tags, hence we will consider moving the website to WordPress in the near future. The changes thus far have been targeted at incorporating our target keywords into the meta-titles, descriptions and h1 headings. Plus, we have carried a full fix up to ensure no broken links, crawl errors and a strong well-indexed sitemap.
For content, we are looking to create a number of useful guides to position the company as a leader in the industry relating to everything in medical school preparation. This involves a series of guides, interviews and resources to ‘hook’ potential students.
In terms of links and PR, we are leveraging the founders’ success but getting features in start up websites, UCL’s news online and also very medical specific websites.
We look forward to taking the company from strength-to-strength and are confident that we can use SEO to drastically increase sales and help build the brand into a household name.
Get into a conversation with someone about pest control and immediately most would refer to rat catchers and wasp nest removers. In contrast, the UK market size for pest control continues to grow with an estimated value of over £320m per annum. It does include rats and mice, more about that later, but it also includes many other areas which many people would not think about. This blog article gives an insight into what pest management really is and how businesses can protect their assets and reputation by having a simple preventative contract in place. In the UK there is considerable legislation concerning the responsibility of property and business owners with regard to pest control. Having pest control is not the law, but there are certain acts which you should know. If your business is in the food chain, you will need to follow very stringent pest control practices for health, safety and hygiene. However, all businesses and employers have a duty of care with regard to protecting its workforce from pests and the hazards posed by pest infestation in the workplace. Here are some of the acts and what they mean to you:The Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949. This act often relates to the presence of pests either on land or within a building that are affecting other properties. The act enables Local Authorities to take enforcement action to eradicate pests. This act also includes businesses which manufacture, store and transport foodstuffs as contamination by pests has serious health risks and covers aspects relating to insect infestation of foodstuffs as well. A good example of this is when we were recently called to sort out an infestation of rodents that were causing major issues to a business. The problem was that the root cause was within a building next door where the occupiers didn’t manage the issue until the local authority intervened. Food Safety Act 1990 Under this act, businesses must ensure that the food they sell is safe to the health of the people consuming it. The act outlines the need for business owners to take due diligence – by employing a professional pest controller to monitor and deal with infestations in a timely manner, helps you in meeting the obligations laid out in the act. We have many contracts within the food chain. Every location has a detailed service report pack where we record every visit and the treatments carried out. We also manage electronic fly killers, perform fly counts and record these, a must for certain levels detailing what type of fly was present to enable trend analysis. Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995 These regulations are aimed at food proprietors and cover the basic rules that state that you should make sure all food is supplied in a hygienic way, all food safety hazards such as rats and mice are identified and that you know the critical activities for food safety and that safety controls are in place. A regular pest monitoring contract can assist you meet your obligations to these regulations and provide you with constant security from rodent or insect infestation. Typically, we visit a premises 6 to 8 times each year (some monthly) to check on any pest activity. By law, you only lay toxic bait when rodents are present. We bait and revisit 3 times or until the issue is resolved. Following this we revert back to non-toxic baits. Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 All employers must take necessary measures to secure the health, safety and welfare of their employees and visiting contractors. This would include making areas safe and clean. We get called to manage projects for bird control where birds become an issue attacking staff and contractors or bird droppings causing issues on vehicles, let alone the diseases that can be spread if not properly managed. Technology drivers within Pest Control Even pest control is getting techy. At Abate, we have been using laser systems for bird control. We have installed one at Sizewell Power Station to reduce the amount of gulls nesting on the roofs. One laser covers 16 roofs and is charged by a small wind turbine and operated through GPRS so engineers can manage it directly from the office.
We are also now using a new type of rodent box which will send a signal via wi-fi if the box has evidence of pests. Some may say that’s not a bad innovation. But when you think more, managing pest control on a food manufacturing site and you have 50 rodent boxes. This system will alert us to the exact box, which also means you only have to make that part of the site live with toxic bait.
Today we have the ability for a client to log in to our client portal which will show them their pest control contract, locations, visits and treatments carried out. In 2018 we are developing a new online reporting suite of systems which will take us to a new level of enhanced management. It will be a booking system linking the office to the client and the technician. Can we assist? We offer discreet assistance with pest-related problems to businesses at very competitive rates. We offer treatments and rolling contracts which are tailored to your needs. Our contracts provide businesses with any necessary treatments, regular inspections and free call outs should you need us between your visits.
At Abate, we manage rodents, insects, birds, woodworm and specialist hygiene services. We are based near Wymondham and have been in the industry for over 18 years and employ a team of technicians to cover Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex and parts of Herefordshire and Bedfordshire. We offer a no obligation report and survey to assist you with your pest control needs so please get in touch if we can help you via the website or by calling us on 01953 603390.
We need just 5-minutes of your time to help keep Norfolk on the tech map of the UK.
You may know that Norwich has featured in the nationally important #TechNation report for the last three years. Government ministers, policy makers and international business leaders read this report when making investment decisions. It’s vital for the region’s economy that we maintain our high profile.
However, the report is changing. The NEW Tech Nation Survey from Tech City UK is looking at the strength and diversity of regional clusters. If we don’t generate enough responses by Friday 2 February we won’t be included – and that could damage confidence in our region.
What can you do to help Norwich and Norfolk make this year’s #TechNation report?
It’s simple – just take the 5-minute survey– and then encourage everyone in your network to do the same. You might not think of your business as a ‘tech company’ but if it depends on digital skills, this survey is for you and your team.That includes people in your organisation like systems administrators, app developers, website builders and digital designers.
This survey is not just for ‘techies’.
In fact, Tech City UK wants to hear from people across the industry. They want to know about the opportunities for high growth businesses, and the quality of education and training. They want to hear from anyone who:
Works in a tech business
Founded or leads a tech business
Works in an organisation that supports the tech sector (local government, charity, not for profit organisation)
Provides services for tech businesses (consulting, legal, accounting, finance etc.)
Invests in tech businesses
Teaches digital skills
Runs a start-up incubator or accelerator.
But hurry – the survey closes Friday 2 February.
Remember – it only takes 5 minutes, so please grab a mug of tea and do it now. Here’s the short form link for you to share https://bit.ly/2D3WVdI
The #TechNation reports have transformed the way people see the UK’s digital economy. They have captured the strength, depth and breadth of tech activity across the UK. Crucially – they have revealed the scale of talent in communities such as ours.
The people at Tech City UK tell us that Norfolk returns the most survey responses outside London. Let’s not disappoint them this year. Together, we can make this #TechNation 2018 the best report yet.
Please share the following message with your network on twitter, facebook and LinkedIn:
Help keep #Norwich on the #TechNation map 2018. Have your say – take the NEW @TechCityUK survey today: https://bit.ly/2D3WVdI
Thank you for your support.
Huw Sayer
Business Writers Ltd.
PS: Please feel free to send this open letter to your contacts.
We recently conducted a Twitter poll asking people why they use (or why they would use) a telephone answering service and the results surprised us! We fully expected the top reason to be to save money – but it was actually near the bottom of the result table.
Not only did we learn the answers to our question but we also learnt the value of market research! And here’s how the results polled:
41% human contact:
Never underestimate the value of speaking to a ‘real’ person. Customers who call your company want to speak to a person. They don’t want to hear the engaged tone or hear an automated message – they’ll simply move on if they do.
25% save time:
It’s great to have a busy telephone line – it can show your business is a great success! But how long is the average sales call? How many calls do you take that are nuisance calls? Filtering your calls means that you can pick out the important ones and call the customer back at an allotted time.
18% save money:
Do you employ a receptionist and incur all associated costs (wages, NI, sickness, holiday etc) or do you pay a small monthly fee to have a call-answering service deal with your calls?
16% not missing a sales call:
If you’re with a customer or client or in a meeting you’re probably not going to want to interrupt to take a call. That missed call could be a sales order and nobody can afford to throw business away.
We also think the following a consideration too
Giving a big business feel
You might not want your customers to realise you are dealing with them from your dining room or your bedroom. ‘Pretending’ to have a receptionist can give your business a professional front.
Professional call handling
What if dealing with people over the telephone is not your strong point? Or you can only take calls during anti-social hours? Experienced professionals can take calls on your behalf.
We can offer many reasons to use a telephone answering service. But why not think how you and your business could benefit? Reap the benefits and guarantee your customers always talk to a real person!
Try for yourself and sign up for a 7-day free trial with Pocket Receptionist
We recently conducted a Twitter poll asking people why they use (or why they would use) a telephone answering service and the results surprised us! We fully expected the top reason to be to save money – but it was actually near the bottom of the result table.
Top reasons to use a telephone answering service
Not only did we learn the answers to our question but we also learnt the value of market research! And here’s how the results polled:
41% human contact: never underestimate the value of speaking to a ‘real’ person. Customers who call your company want to speak to a person. They don’t want to hear the engaged tone or hear an automated message – they’ll simply move on if they do.
25% save time: it’s great to have a busy telephone line – it can show your business is a great success! But how long is the average sales call? How many calls do you take that are nuisance calls? Filtering your calls means that you can pick out the important ones and call the customer back at an allotted time.
18% save money: do you employ a receptionist and incur all associated costs (wages, NI, sickness, holiday etc) or do you pay a small monthly fee to have a call-answering service deal with your calls?
16% not missing a sales call: if you’re with a customer or client or in a meeting you’re probably not going to want to interrupt to take a call. That missed call could be a sales order and nobody can afford to throw business away.
We also think the following a consideration too
Giving a big business feel – you might not want your customers to realise you are dealing with them from your dining room or your bedroom. ‘Pretending’ to have a receptionist can give your business a professional front.
Professional call handling – what if dealing with people over the telephone is not your strong point? Or you can only take calls during anti-social hours? Experienced professionals can take calls on your behalf.
We can offer many reasons to use a telephone answering service. But why not think how you and your business could benefit? Reap the benefits and guarantee your customers always talk to a real person!
Try for yourself and sign up for a 7-day free trial with Pocket Receptionist
Whether you’re already testing or considering starting the right test kits will make all the difference.
15 years ago drug and alcohol testing was only available through a select number of specialist laboratories, and the only options available to companies needing screening was to enter expensive and slow contracted services, with long delays between testing and obtaining results. Jump forward to 2018 and the biotechnology has made massive leaps forward, enabling instant on-site screening, with positive or negative (clear) results in 5-10 minutes after sample collection. The enables businesses to get a workforce back in business fast and with minimum disruption. Drug screening has also moved out of the clinic setting and onto the work floor, with saliva options for almost all drug screens. Looking for the right drugs is essential and this includes testing for some drug groups which you may not consider in the classic “drugs of abuse” including some prescription drugs and the new psychoactive substances NPS or legal highs which have not been included on traditional older drug screens.
Remember you can test the environment as well as the people.
We have all probably watched Gordon Ramsay’s TV series on drugs and seen the findings when he tested changing rooms and toilets in some restaurants for Cocaine residues, but it is worth mentioning that wipe test and compound test kits are now available which will screen for up to 10 drug group residues. Only minute amounts of the drug have to be left for the test to detect its presence, and they can also be used on powders, tablets and vegetative product suspected of containing cannabinoids or synthetic cannabis.
Most Companies choose saliva oral fluid test kits.
An integral part of any company drug and alcohol policy has to be the choice of testing kit. More and more companies are opting for the saliva route of sample collection for initial instant screening. It’s easy to see why, with an ever-growing catalogue of saliva test membrane options available, saliva test can now offer up to 13 screens in a single test. Sample collection is straightforward and can be directly observed with little or no ability for the sample to be tampered with, substituted, diluted or adulterated.
Most centres safely rely on instant screens to exclude all the negative results but it is essential to follow through with UKAS accredited confirmation testing of any non-negative findings. non-negative includes any screens with indeterminate results including invalids and will also include positive results where declared medications may be masking abuse or causing drug interactions. Fast track laboratory services can provide certificates results in 72 hours. Expect between 4 and 6 percent of tests to require a confirmation test.
Access Diagnostic Tests UK Ltd
Based in Aylsham Norfolk Access Diagnostics is the UK distributor of ALLTEST and InstAlert Brands of Drug and Alcohol testing kits. Directly or via our national network of re-sellers and suppliers we can assist in all matters which come up when your company introduces drug screening. Whether you’re looking to test 1 person or 500, we can guide you through the legalities, responsibilities and options to ensure your decisions stay legal, enforceable and above all improve the productivity and health of your workforce.
Where is the first place you’ll go to if you want to reaffirm your decision to buy a product or a service? Most likely Google, or any search engine for that matter. And what are you likely to see when you type in the company name? The company’s profile and the reviews people have left for it. Among the top results will most likely be a couple of review sites where comments have been posted about the given business or product.
Consumers take online reviews seriously
But let’s first ask ourselves what motivates consumers to check product reviews in the first place? It doesn’t take much to figure that people need reassurance before they decide to part with their hard-earned money. It’s those who have already experienced the positives and the negatives of the product that are trusted to provide more information about their first-hand experience.
Various studies have been performed and although all of them present slightly different figures, they all unite around the undeniable fact that online reviews affect consumers’ purchasing behaviour to a considerable degree. Most of the research conducted, calculated that around 80 to 90% of people have been influenced by online reviews they have read about a certain product. What is more, Forbes revealed that 88% of consumers find online reviews trustworthy. Those figures are not surprising at all but they reiterate the significance of the feedback you get on the Internet.
Online reviews are cherished by potential users because they are supposed to involve a succinct summary of the pros and cons of a product. The customer is interested in feeding their expectations about something they want to buy, and want to learn the details from those who have already passed the stage of getting to know the product in question. But that’s not everything. Consumers tend to acquire their knowledge by visiting multiple sites. It’s not just Google – they could go to platforms like Yelp, Trustpilot or specialised industry-websites to do their exhaustive research. This comes to tell us that people invest quite a lot of time to learn more about their prospective purchase, and take the feedback they see seriously.
Seek reviews from your customers
What is key to understand is that companies should encourage their users to review them. It would be a positive step for them to invite their current users to leave a rating on their website or on some other platform. People are more than willing to assess anything numerically – be it a book, a movie, a plumber, or a lawnmower, they will happily express their opinion by giving 1 to 5 stars, or whatever scale different sites provide. By generating a good number of reviews, you offer your potential clients a bigger and clearer picture of your services, as they will normally trust you if they find out that many people have already commented on what you are doing, and how well you are doing it.
If you have been wondering whether you should worry about your overall score, the answer is no. People generally give positive marks and it is unlikely that you will get a destructively-low rating. The more reviews you receive, the higher your result will be, as occasional negative comments will be drowned in the sea of approvals.
A large number of reviews can help you get some easy traffic to your website, too. A study from 2015 showed that consumer reviews contributed 8.4% to what Google and other search engines use when ranking search results. This is not a figure to ignore as it gives you a respectable amount of extra visitors for the little effort you need to make to promote product reviewing.
Conclusion
All in all, any business’ reputation is built on customer satisfaction. If your product is usable and of high quality, you are certain to gain recognition. Nevertheless, it does not require much to help yourself further by asking your clients to review your business.
You’ve taken the first steps to becoming GDPR compliant by clicking onto this article. But with the 25th May firmly etched in many business owners minds, what is GDPR and how can you become GDPR compliant?
Coming into effect from 25th May 2018, GDPR is set to strengthen how businesses and organisations collect, handle and store an individual’s data. As a GDPR compliant business, Netmatters are certified to provide the relevant services, training, and support to ensure you get onto the GDPR compliant path, and stay on it from May 2018.
With data breaches happening on a weekly basis, make sure your business doesn’t fall short.
We provide a comprehensive and tailored range of services to help guide you through the various stages of the GDPR compliance process;
Initial Audit
We will review your current privacy management and data protection practices through an on-site review, and identify areas that may need fining under GDPR.
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Data Protection Impact Assessments
Identifying the most effective way to comply with the GDPR, we will create a bespoke plan of action to ensure your business meets, and maintains individuals expectations when it comes to privacy.
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Implement
We will seamlessly introduce a pragmatic and tailored GDPR compliant framework into your business, including; how data is collected, processed, handled and stored.
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GDPR Training & Awareness
As a GDPR compliant business, we are qualified to provide the relevant training and resources both onsite and virtually to ensure your team understand how to handle personal data under GDPR.
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GDPR Management
We understand there are a lot of things to consider when running a business. That’s why we are able to manage and maintain your GDPR compliance moving forward, ensuring no breaches slip through the cracks – leaving you time to think about the important things.
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Data Protection Audit Support
If you ever do get called to supply evidence on how your collect, handle and store data by the Data Protection Commissioner, we can help you prepare through bespoke training, process audits and provide the relevant information and reports.
We are delighted to be working with All The Lenders, a leading price comparison site in the UK. Founded in 2012, the company acknowledge the need for comparisons in short-term and high cost lending. With other online brokers offering forms, many users were suffering the effects of receiving unsolicited text messages, phone calls and emails. But All The Lenders seeked to do things differently, creating a simple list of lenders so that applicants could compare each lender effectively and find the most affordable and suitable product for them.
As SEO specialists, we are helping All The Lenders compete in the big bad world of the competitive loans industry. Notoriously known as the toughest SEO industry to crack, we have enjoyed working in the industry for several years, consulting for other companies that feature on All The Lenders, including Cashfloat.
We begain by performing a full health check of the website, making sure there was full optimisation of every meta-title, description, heading, alt-text and no broken links, crawl errors or response codes.
We looked at where we could get some quick wins, such as ranking better for individual lenders such as Sunny Loans and Wizzcash Loans. Long term, we are looking at the big prizes of keywords such as payday loans and direct lenders which combined have over 200,000 searches on Google UK per month.
To achieve this, we need to look at a dedicated link building strategy, whilst helping them maintain a clean link profile free of spam. These are achieved by strong outreach from potential partner websites, specifically in the loans and finance industry. To maintain a clean backlink profile, we have already started reaching out to spammy or low quality websites that have featured their links and asked for these to be removed, whilst also performing regular link disavows through Google’s tool.
We have already see progress, jumping 8 positions for payday loans within the first month and whilst we are currently on page 3, we aim to be on page 1 by the 3 to 6 month mark.
This year marks Norwich Sunblinds’ 40th year in business, and what a fantastic journey it’s been! From our inception in 1978, by our founder John Reddington and our first store in St Benedict’s Street in Norwich, all the way through to our second larger premises in Attleborough, we have enjoyed being an integral part of the fabric of Norfolk for the past four decades. In our early days, we began manufacturing made-to-measure vertical and roller blinds above our St Benedict’s shop. This proved to be a challenging time, as the five-metre rail heads came in a lorry which meant that the street had to be shut. The headrails were then lifted into the upstairs window, as they wouldn’t fit through the shop! Fortunately, we no longer have these issues at our current manufacturing premises in Attleborough, but it certainly brings back interesting memories! Fabric designs have changed over the years, but Orla Kiely’s fabulous designs, which hark back to the 70s, are currently very popular. To celebrate four decades in business, we are pulling back the curtains and taking a look at how Norwich and the UK have changed during this period. We hope you enjoy this whistle-stop walk down memory lane with us. The year of our inception was a culturally rich one. We had the Beegees, Rod Stewart, Kate Bush, Boney M and Queen providing us with unforgettable soundtracks. Not to mention the release of Gerry Rafferty‘s iconic song Baker Street, with the unmistakable sax solo that still makes the hair stand up on the back of our necks. The Sex Pistols played their last gig in 1978 (up until their reunion in 1996), while Sony released their first prototype of the Walkman. The cinemas saw Christopher Reeve bring Superman into our lives, while it still wasn’t safe to go back into the water as Jaws returned for a second movie. For those seeking comedy, they had the pleasure of seeing the unforgettable Inspector Clouseau, in Revenge of the Pink Panther. However, the defining film of the year was one that starred a young John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, in Grease, a movie that has stood the test of time and is still a favourite amongst audiences today. Meanwhile, on TV, we welcomed Grange Hill and Dallas, but said farewell to The Good Life and The Sweeney. Roald Dahl continued to inspire a generation of young readers with his new book, The Enormous Crocodile. Former UEA Student, Ian McEwan published one of his first novels The Cement Garden in 1978, and the timeless Garfield comic strips came into print. Closer to home, 1978 marked 700 years since Norwich Cathedral was consecrated. Norwich City were in the Football League First Division and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, the first-ever public building designed by Norman Foster, officially opened its doors to the public. A twinning agreement was officially signed between Norfolk and the Rhineland Palatinate in Germany, as an indicator of growing development links between the regions. Since then, we’ve witnessed widespread change across the city. Further developments were completed in housing estates, such as the Clover Hill and Chapel Break villages in Bowthorpe. In the city centre, we have seen the closure of Woolworths on St Stephens Street, along with a Big W store at the Riverside. On a positive note, we have seen the opening of Castle Mall in 1993 and intu Chapelfield in 2005, with their wide selection of big brand shops and restaurants. The Bonds store, which had traded under that name for over 120 years, finally rebranded as John Lewis in 2001, despite having being bought by them 19 years earlier. The Cannon Cinema (formerly ABC Norwich and The Regent) shut their doors for good in the 90s, and is now home to the Mercy XS nightclub. Another significant change was the closure of St Augustine’s pool in 1996, where many locals donned their swimming costumes and learnt to swim. Across the UK, 1978 was the ground-breaking year when Louise Brown became the first baby to be born through IVF treatment. This was a time when the VHS and Betamax format battle was in full swing, phones with rotary dials were commonplace and avocado bathrooms were in vogue. It’s hard to believe, but back then it was possible to buy a new home for a mere £9,100. BBC Radio 4 remind us that the cost of a pint of milk was 11p, and a loaf of bread only set you back 28p. How times have changed! Since then, we’ve had six new Prime Ministers, including Margaret Thatcher and viewed 10 Olympic Games, counting those which took place in London in 2012. We hosted one of the Live Aid concerts at Wembley in 1985, which along with its sister concert in Philadelphia, was viewed by over 1.5 billion people in over 160 countries. Sky began broadcasting in 1989, and the following decade saw the increased use of the World Wide Web and the rise of international pop superstars, the Spice Girls. In 2003, England lifted the Rugby World Cup for the very first time, as Jonny Wilkinson helped lead the team to victory. We’ve also witnessed the closure of some nationwide chains such as BHS, JJB Sports, Comet and Phones 4u in recent years. If anything, this is testament to Norwich Sunblinds’s ability to weather tough economic times as a family-owned business that continues to provide a quality service to our customers. Our team has grown over the years, and we continue to make our blinds in-house, with our highly experienced and fully trained craftspeople. We are proud to be a company that invests in the local community. Over the course of the last 40 years in business, we have expanded our product range to include new types of blinds, such as perfect fit, roman, vision/visage blinds, shaped blinds for unusual sized windows, as well as shutters, curtains, fly screens, conservatory sails and our own range of fabrics. We look forward to continuing to develop our product range, to make sure we offer products of the highest quality in years to come. But most importantly, we wouldn’t be here today without you. We’d therefore like to send a heartfelt thank you to all our customers, past and present, for supporting us over the past 40 years. We look forward to delivering the same high standard of service to you for the next 40! Sainsbury Centre photo courtesy of the Sainsbury Centre and Pete Huggin