The Euro is in crisis, England is in a recession, so what are Bristol traders doing about this? Creating their own currency.

Businesses local in Bristol have started trading in Bristol Pounds, which has been set up as an online currency as well.

By having their own currency, Bristol is encouraging money circulation within Bristol itself.

If someone walks into a shop and pays for something in Bristol Pounds, they cannot go and pay a national supplier using this as it won’t be accepted. Instead they will have to use it to pay local suppliers or pay staff.

By doing this they are keeping money circulating within Bristol and promoting the use of local traders and suppliers.

I’m a bit of an old hard house fan and I follow the Tidy Boys on facebook still. Although getting a bit old for going clubbing now I get a bit nostalgic every now and then.

I was driving home from London to Kent this evening listening to the Tidy Boys Weekender 2 CD in my car tonight bouncing away!  Anyway reminiscing on this post was not my plan.

Angie Mozart, one of the Tidy Boys better halves has a business that I would like to tell you about. When you really want to say thank-you to a supplier or a client why not send something sweet?

We have recently been asked to print QR codes on promotional products. We have had great success with these ingenious little checker boards. That’s what we like to call them anyway.

Here are some useful posts about printing QR codes.

• 6 Simple Rules for Printing QR Codes
• Vector QR Code Generator
• What are QR Codes?
• Who Invented QR Codes?

Did you know that these little gems can store more complex information and not just a simple website address? Check out some of these advanced QR codes below.

Over the years we have found many factories in China for wholesale promotional products.  It can sometimes be quite hairy dealing with the far east as you have little or no comeback if the goods come in and are not upto standard. At least if you buy off a company in the UK you have some comeback on quality of product and print.

We have learnt over the years who we can trust and have built up a handful of reliable, good quality suppliers.  We do have some language barriers that tend to be more a source of amusement, than a difficulty when dealing with the far east.

Some of our favourite phrases: