Astar Digital

18/04/2023

A large part of my current work is with local businesses, specifically those in tourism and hospitality who I believe are critical to the development and success of Aberdeenshire.

6 months ago I joined the Tarland Trails steering group to build the digital solutions the project needed. I'm a passionate mountain biker and love the outdoors so it was something I jumped at.

Tarland Trails has a strong social media presence but had no website so there was some work to do to prepare for the opening of the new Pittenderich trails. We needed several things out of this project:

- collect and manage all of the communications with project third parties
- manage communications with the large community
- have an ecommerce solution for the parking passes
- future proof the digital solution to support events, fund raising, products and digital features

The solution is running well and allowing a level of digital management that truly helps make life easier in running the project. There are many more features we want to add to the site but it's safe to say the foundations are laid for anything that comes down the line.

www.tarland-trails.com
&tourism

02/04/2023

Ride In Peace Adventures is a mtb coaching, guiding and riding business in Aberdeenshire.

Chris asked if I could take his existing site and move it over to a new setup that makes his business easier to run. Along the way we ran through persona building, experience maps, journey maps, high level marketing planning and the best way to run the digital side of his business. Chris already had a well established setup with lots of customer insight and data so it was pretty straight forward to get his digital tools dialled in for his target market.

RIPA is exactly the kind of business that helps the local economy by bringing people to the area.

It’s safe to say I was delighted to get involved and enjoyed working on the project! We’ve lots more developments planned over the next year as new digital content and physical services are established but the system is a great start for the companies future.

If you’re ever in the area and fancy a two wheeled adventure then give the team a shout. I might even be your mtb guide 😉

www.rideinpeaceadventures.co.Uk

02/04/2023

Aberdeenshire is a perfect mix of wild countryside, adventure and luxury that rivals the best in the world. It covers the full spectrum of mountain to sea and is a playground for anyone that goes out to find it.

Working with businesses in the area usually means they are based on tourism and hospitality. They are a big part of what makes the area special and their success is critical to its future.

It’s been interesting getting to know their challenges:

1️⃣ They all live and die by the tourist seasons

One bad season can end a tourism or hospitality business.

Deeside has always been a holiday destination but Covid, and it’s fall out, sent shock waves across the tourism industry. Many businesses had to find other ways of working and a lot closed their doors.

2️⃣ Every customer is like gold to them

These businesses are always on tight budgets.

With tight budgets and being at the mercy of weather, the economy and travel restrictions makes it hard to build a customer base.

3️⃣ They know they need to market themselves

Generally these busineses want more customers.

They want to give more people awesome experiences, they want the area to grow, they want to hire more people and want better financial security. All of them know marketing and visibility is important but doing it seems like a tough, time consuming task.

4️⃣ Most don’t have the space to deal with digital stuff like websites and getting social media right

It’s hard enough running one of these businesses without also having to build a website and create a pragmatic marketing plan.

5️⃣ Cost is ALWAYS critical

While most know they need to market, the elephant in the room is that a lot of agencies are looking to bleed their clients dry.

Tell tale signs are: not being transparent with price, having a long drawn out process, not finishing agreed work and forcing clients into “maintenance” contracts. Small businesses in cannot take the risk of being landed with a large bill.

💡Tourism and Hospitality in Aberdeenshire needs the kind of promotion other parts of the country receive.

Small businesses need pragmatic ways to get to grips with digital and marketing and not have to bet the house.

15/03/2023

Over the last 6 months I’ve found myself doing work for smaller companies.

This has been absolutely awesome because startups and smaller businesses all operate with Beginners Mind.

1️⃣ There are very few assumptions

Most small businesses don’t carry the same mental baggage as larger organisations. Small businesses tend to be breaking new ground, looking for gaps in the market and being as flexible as possible.

Assumptions, beliefs and biases aren’t holding them back.

2️⃣ They are willing to be wrong

In anything new there is a very real danger of being wrong. In small busineses this tends to be accepted far more readily than in larger organisations.

The willingness to try but get it wrong is important for effective learning.

3️⃣ Change is welcome

Small businesses know they need to adapt and morph to what’s going on around them. Without the market share or reputation of large busineses they know that they can’t “do business as usual”.

Without the difficulties in negotiating across lots of organisational layers change is made quickly and happily.

4️⃣ There is a razor focus on customers

Every single customer is a unique win in small business. That means they know their customers as people, with real desires and pains. They treat their customers like gold because everyone is critical to their success.

💡Beginners Mind is a powerful tool for growth and building insight.

Working with small businesses has a certain energy of positivity and excitement that’s fuelled by Beginners Mind. The truth is that larger busineses should be doing the very same things. By casting off long help assumptions, biases and red tape fresh thinking brings new ideas.

22/09/2022

Another pleased customer! Check out Jenny’s honey and bee products.

Beekeeping services Deeside Honey Bees Beekeeping Products and services in North East Scotland, Aberdeenshire

12/06/2022

Excited and proud to be part of this project!

Thrive Ballater is a business that wants to help the Ballater and surrounding areas prosper and grow. They are bringing amazing events to the area and investing profits to help the community.

www.thriveballater.com

Astar took a first principles approach to building out the Customer Experience, Marketing and Digital solutions. By understanding the target market we worked through their needs and wants so we could design the best possible experience for each group.

From there we built out the initial website and continue to refine the solution as the project develops.

We’re also running the social media and marketing campaigns to make sure the Thrive Bike event this year is a huge success 🎉

If you are wasting time fighting with computers and guessing at marketing we can give you that time and energy back to work on your business.

23/04/2020

Astar Digital Founder, Andy serving up some deeper technical information. During our projects we've made heavy use of the BLoC pattern and have released an NPM package for you to use it in your Typescript projects too!

The BLoC pattern is most often associated with Flutter (Googles mobile application framework) but as a pattern transcends any one technology. In this blog post we are going to introduce a straight forward way of …

16/03/2020

Next up in our Create a Product blog series we take a look at what we've learned through interviews around personal Goals.

We also take a look at some Analogs which might also validate (or not) some of our app ideas!

This isntallment of our Create a Product series looks at what we have learned so far. We'll gauge our learning against our assumptions for our Amas app.

16/03/2020

Do you have some personal Goals you would love to achieve?

Do you struggle with keeping on track and staying motivated even for your dreams?

Take our 2 minute survey and tell us about it so we can help you with our new App - Amas

We want to help you achieve what you want! Astar Digital is looking to help people achieve their personal goals. We understand life is hectic and you have several demands on your time but you …

11/03/2020

Next up in our Create a Product series we outline how to go about defining your Vision, Strategy and Assumptions.

We also lay out how we plan to gain Validated Learning through testing the market for our mobile app Amas.

In this post we begin our Lean Startup process for our mobile app Amas. In this post we're going to work through describing our Vision for the Startup.

10/03/2020

We're starting a new blog series around creating Digital Products!

Based on the Lean-Startup methodology we will take you through our process of Design, UX, Lean and Agile. We'll regularly post our progress with the mobile app we are creating so you can get some insights.

We're going to create an app that helps you stay focused on your personal goals because everyone needs a nudge now and then.

Introducing Amas (Goal in Gaelic, we're proud of our Scottish heritage!).


https://astar-digital.org/amas-creating-a-product

01/03/2020

What is The Cloud, really? Cut through the buzz!

https://astar-digital.org/the-cloud-computers-all-the-way-down