Every business (except for some of those dodgy people who promise to tarmac your drive for cash, guv) has a bank account, so I thought I’d spend some time talking about a couple of recent banking experiences. I am with NatWest, and have been for the best part of twenty years. In general, their service is actually [...]
Filed under: finance | Tagged: bank, banking, business, fianncial services, finance, HSBC, Natwest, start a business | 2 Comments »
Astute readers will have noticed that this blog is kindly supported by the Microsoft Small Business Centre. It’s not often that Microsoft founder Bill Gates accepts the limelight anywhere, let alone here in the UK, so given his in-depth interview on BBC2 last week (for The Money Programme), I thought it would be useful to [...]
Filed under: sales, technology | Tagged: bill gates, business, entrepreneurship, manufacturing, Microsoft, succession, technology, Windows | Leave a Comment »
I’ve been in the internet business for over a decade now, and I’m pretty jaded. It takes a lot to impress me. This week, a new launch caught my eye which has the power to be truly disruptive: changing the status quo in a useful, daily kind of way. It’s called ViaPost, and it promises [...]
Filed under: technology, tips | Tagged: ben way, business, climate change, disruptive technologies, entrepreneurship, environment, green, green business, post, postage, start a business, viapost | 1 Comment »
Time for another dip into the world of helpful- and sometimes rather suspicious- web applications. As it happens, I’m in the middle of re-writing the content for my website. Actually, I’ve been re-writing the content for my website for the past six months. It’s one of those jobs I never seem to get round to- [...]
Filed under: technology, tips | Tagged: better website, business, business website, demofuse, feedtwister, formspring, jotform, Microsoft, office live, run a business, site builder, site tools, start a business, web applications, web design, web site, website, wix | 1 Comment »
The BBC’s businessfest that is “The Apprentice” has finally run its course for 2008; it returns in 2009. First, a fact. Did you know that Sir Alan Sugar was not the first choice of tycoon for the top man’s job? Sugar’s good friend and retail giant Sir Philip Green was the Beeb’s number one choice. [...]
Filed under: people skills, tips | Tagged: Alan Sugar, apprentice, business, CV, Dragon's Den, HR, Lee McQueen, lie on a CV, people skills, Philip Green, recruitment, start a business | 1 Comment »
Today’s post is dedicated to a friend of mine, Steve Wickenden. Steve is in his early 30′s, and decided last year that he needed a change of career direction. He’d had a series of jobs like most of us, but wanted to run his own business. Every few months, he’d tell me what he was [...]
Filed under: retail | Tagged: business, film, opportunity, props, start a business, strategy | 1 Comment »
Hold the front page! Essential news for all entrepreneurs now, as a new survey from hoteliers Holiday Inn suggests that eight out of ten executives believe that the outcome of a meeting can be influenced by your choice of biscuit. According to the survey, if you want to clinch the deal, be sure to offer [...]
Filed under: people skills, service, tips | Tagged: biscuits, business, entrepreneurship, meetings, presentation skills | 1 Comment »
What a weekend! Nothing, nothing prepares you for the sheer logistical nightmare of putting things in boxes, putting boxes in a van, and going somewhere else. I am never, ever, going to consider myself superior just because I work in an office and can write whole sentences. Anyone who can get things from A to [...]
Filed under: technology | Tagged: facilities, internet, internet connection, ISP, logisitcs, loyalty, moving, supplier, time off | Leave a Comment »
In my last posting, I hinted at my fondness for long lunches. No sooner had I made my gastronomic passion public (well, it’s pretty obvious to anyone who has met me, but I am trying to go running a few evenings a week, OK?) than this article appeared about one of my favourite restaurants, the [...]
Filed under: marketing, retail, sales, service | Tagged: business, catering, food, marketing, restaurant, retail, sales | Leave a Comment »
