“Your Little Black Book”® is a series of local directories. Our aim is to support local communities by informing their residents of the wealth of quality local services available to them - whether it’s a friendly local builder or a nearby sports society

A book is born

“Your Little Black Book”® was born of a desire to provide an easy-to-use method of quickly finding useful and community-specific information.

Thanks to the information we provide, people are able to find products and services locally without needing to cross-reference masses of irrelevant information or make countless phone calls. Local businesses have embraced us too – they would rather deal with their neighbours than be forced to sell out of town.

Good for people and the environment

Buying products from distant towns or calling in contractors that have to travel miles to reach you makes no sense financially or environmentally. Most people are pleasantly surprised when they can find the same service or product locally and for a fraction of the price.

We’ve come a long way since the first issue reached doormats in the spring of 2008. Buoyed up by the positive feedback radiating from both local businesses and the people that use them, we have expanded “Your Little Black Book”® to include issues specific to Heathfield, Uckfield, Cranbrook and Ashford.

A friendlier future

We love the idea of promoting local products and services to local people. We also love helping local business support their communities. The vision driving us forward is to have a “Your Little Black Book”® in every village and every town across the UK.  

Although most villages have some list of the local services available, these are often out-of-date and limited in scope. “Your Little Black Book”® offers something new in the form of a well-researched and comprehensive list of the many disparate services available to a community’s residents. The idea is simplicity itself - local companies and community services telling local people about what they do.  

Cohesive communities

People keep our directory because it’s useful – not because we’ve made it look good on a coffee table. It’s a fact that people prefer to buy locally if they can as it saves them both time and money. More importantly, it enables them to personally vouch for the quality of the businesses providing the goods to them.

“Your Little Black Book”® is printed three times a year which means it is constantly being updated and refined. For those who prefer to access their information online, we have also produced an interactive electronic version which further enables those within the community to find and communicate with each other.

We are passionate about the importance of maintaining vibrant communities. Keeping trade local is just one of the ways we will help keep our villages and towns alive. It’s not just about supporting the local post office – it’s about the whole network. So as well as providing details of the local car garage or glazier, we provide information on local and affordable child care.

Make them stay

The quickest way to end a community is to stop giving local shops and service providers a reason to stay. This is why we aim to ensure that a “Your Little Black Book”® appears in every village. We know through past experience that using local services builds trust within the community as well as strengthening the local economy.

We like the local community. We like getting to know our shopkeepers and the people that provide our services. We like chatting to the local residents as we pass in and out of shops. What kind of future is it where people never venture outside their front doors? Where the only people they meet are impersonal delivery-drivers? Where the service providers don’t know our village, let alone us?

Thank you for taking the time to read all about us.