Kimberley business owner has a novel way to promote himself and others in the town

Lee Oyitch, aged 46, runs Coasteroo on Main Street and has come up with a novel idea for helping other businesses in the town.

Lee is offering to create a coaster for any business that wants one to put on display in his shop window as a kind of advertising board, with the idea that the business might then order from him in the future.

Lee said: “I’ve been trading online for nine years but I haven’t really done much with my business and I hit a point in my life where I realised I needed to step it up a level.

"With it being the beginning of the year when things are quieter, I was thinking of how to give myself some promotion and raise awareness of what I do.

"Generally, when people think of coasters, they think of beer mats, whereas when people see my product, they are often quite surprised as it’s not what they expected at all.

"And for me, at the same time, I’m trying to bring the shops in Kimberley together and say ‘here I am, here’s what I do’ and with your permission you can have your coaster printed and in return, I’ll share your business on my webpage and in the shop window.

"They give me a bit of business, I help promote their business and we all help each other.

"There’s no pressure but for what it costs me to produce these coasters, it’s probably cheaper than advertising and if everyone who puts my name out there has 1,000 followers, it would probably cost a lot more to hit those people in coventional ways."

The window is a work in progress but Lee has already created 22 coasters for it with a music teacher and someone who offers home tuition taking him up on his offer.

Lee added: “People probably didn’t even know some of these people were in Kimberley so this helps them spread the word.

“At the end of the day, I’ve had a lot of help from a lot of people in the last years and now I’d like to pay that forward through this and help others.”