The Ealing Business Network started with a handful of people in a room.
I was running a co-working group in Ealing back in 2018 and the same thing kept happening. Someone needed a photographer, a bookkeeper, or a builder they could actually trust, and two or three people in the room knew exactly who to call. Everyone outside the room was still guessing.
This is the permanent version of that room. A directory of local businesses, a calendar of what is on, and a set of resources for people running something small in Ealing.
Today it lists 305 businesses across 26 categories, covering Ealing, West Ealing, Acton, Hanwell, Southall, Greenford, Northolt, and Perivale. Accountants, therapists, designers, tradespeople, shopkeepers, coaches, photographers, and plenty in between.
If you run a business in the borough, I would like you on it. Adding your listing takes about two minutes and the free tier stays free.
Someone in Northolt looking for a bookkeeper should not have to scroll past forty results from Manchester. The directory is deliberately small and deliberately local, built around the eight areas of the borough, so the businesses people find are the ones they can actually reach.
A listing does two jobs. It puts you in front of people searching for what you do in Ealing, and it gives other members an easy way to pass your name on when someone asks. A recommendation from someone who has met you is worth more than any advert, and the directory makes those recommendations easier to make.
Three accountants in the directory is not a problem, it is a strength. Members hand work over when they are full, point people towards the right specialist, and turn up when someone opens a shop or launches something new.
There are no investors and no growth targets. The network is funded by member subscriptions and by my own business, Theo Ruby Marketing, and it exists because Ealing deserved a proper one.
Founder of the Ealing Business Network, digital marketing consultant and trainer
I have run Theo Ruby Marketing from Ealing since July 2017, building WordPress websites and doing SEO for small businesses, and in particular for therapists and wellness practitioners across the UK. Nine years and more than 300 clients later, it is still the work I enjoy most.
Before that I worked in the events industry, most recently at CloserStill Media. After going out on my own I spent several years as the resident business expert at Portobello Business Centre, supporting businesses affected by the Grenfell fire, and later worked with Hammersmith & Fulham Business Connects.
The local side has always run alongside it. I started a co-working group in Ealing in 2018, co-founded The Business Beanstalk, and I am a regular at the Chiswick Business Network. I also host The Bitesize Podcast, where long-standing clients talk about what happened after their website went live.
If you have a question about your listing, your website, or getting found in Ealing, email me at [email protected] and I will come back to you myself.
