It’s now a year since I began working for Boatshed Grand Union! We have lots to celebrate and it’s been an interesting year.

I first met Phil Bassett because he was the broker when I bought my current boat, a lovely 70ft trad narrowboat for sale with Boatshed. You can read the full story about how I came to work for Boatshed here.

Last August I was introduced on this blog;
“Peggy Melmoth will be handling some of the administration and email enquiries, welcoming new clients, liaising with vendors, and updating the Boatshed Grand Union blog.”
I have also been creating sales documents, increasing our Facebook and Twitter following and have otherwise generally been making myself useful.

In October British Waterways updated their guidance for boats without a home mooring, and in December Boatshed launched Boatshed Liveaboard, after the government encouraged the idea of using boats as homes.

During the winter the Tring summit level on the Grand Union was closed to navigation for several months. This meant boaters had to decide which part of the stoppage they’d like to moor on and remain. The rain made up for it later in the year so some of the Boatshed team got completely soaked at The Crick boat show.

Boatshed Grand Union and Boatshed Inland were proud to be major sponsors of the Canalway Cavalcade in Little Venice in May. The Olympics did not really affect our business, despite navigation on London’s canals being restricted.

In other news of course, this is the year that British Waterways became a charity and was renamed the Canal and Rivers Trust. In July British Waterways Marinas Ltd, one of the largest marina operators in the country, appointed Boatshed.com as its sole provider of brokerage at its marinas in the South and West.

We also launched a free eBook about Living on a Boat (link at the end of this article) and we’ve seen Boatshed Grand Union rise in to the top 20 of the UK Waterways websites ranking.

We’ve sold 5 boats during the last month, and have two under offer at the moment. In the past year we've registered 3940 new customers - over 300 per month. We register more new customers per month than any Boatshed Franchise Worldwide except Seattle.( Which has 10 times as many brokers)

The Boatshed worldwide group of brokerages now has 477,527 registered customers (across our 56 offices) and of course new visitors register each day.

This year Boatshed Grand Union have also won awards for best marketing and best blogs.

I am lucky enough to really enjoy my work and look forward to another great year with Boatshed.

Peggy Melmoth
www.narrowboatwife.com

Image credit: LorenaBuena

You may also like:
Living on a Boat: The Boatshed Guide (free) / New Boat Blog on the Block / Canal Diary 2012 / A slideshow of 58ft cruiser stern narrowboat for sale/Blog Archive

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