Cleardocs relishes the spirit of enterprise (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Cleardocs relishes the spirit of enterprise

10:19am Wednesday 25th February 2009 in

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CLARITY, simplicity and ease of use are at the heart of a new business in Basingstoke.

Cleardocs, which provides online HR legal documents, for small and medium- sized enterprises, has opened its UK office at Grove House, Chineham Court.

This week as part of our Basingstoke – A Place To Do Business campaign, we put the spotlight on a company that was set up in Australia five years ago by internationally recognised plain- language expert Christopher Balmford (OK), who is also president of Clarity – an international association promoting plain legal language.

Heading up the Basingstoke office, which serves SMEs in England and Wales, is business development director Frances Critchlow. Impressed with Basingstoke, she describes the town as having a vibrant and thriving business community.

Frances said: “There is a real entrepreneurial spirit about Basingstoke and a real sense of value for money. I don’t feel like I’m being ripped off, whereas in London you feel you have paid a premium because it has come out of the Capital.

“We looked at London, Reading, Woking, and Winchester, and we thought about Swindon, and when we weighed up a number of factors, we chose Basingstoke.

“There is so much in north Hampshire that it’s almost the equivalent to moving to Bristol, without having to put up with being in a city.

“And in terms of business support, just the sheer volume and the quality of that support, in my opinion, rivals anything you can find in a city.

“We had an awful lot of help from South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and I spent quite a lot of time with the Federation of Small Businesses, (FSB) and North Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NHCCI) who were excellent.”

Frances said that the company offers a range of HR documents, from employment contracts to staff handbooks, which are compiled online.

“Normally, a SME might go to an HR specialist, who would in turn take legal advice from a solicitor. We’ve already gone to a solicitor and got our documents prepared.

“Our customers come online and ask a series of questions. Their answers are matched in a database so that we can provide a bespoke document.”