A significant element in growing a business is to attend events, conferences and exhibitions; Ideal for networking, it also gives you a chance to assess your competition and find new ideas and solutions. Meeting colleagues and people who deal in your field is very important for the success of your business: it makes for good public relations. Every week London and all of England offer new events aimed at different aspects of business.
In Yorkshire for today and tomorrow there is the Business North West; an event designed for company directors and entrepreneurs who run small and medium-sized businesses in England. It’s an important event to provide thousands of small businesses with information, advice and inspiration whilst offering several seminar programmes to provide training within a networking environment.
In London, on Wednesday 15th of October, the International M&A conference will be held in the prestigious Sofitel London St James: it will examine the benefits and practice of running a business abroad. Experienced speakers will look at all aspects of cross-border deal-making, from finding initial targets to post-acquisition integration.
To find out more about the next business events have a look at the main venues for these events in tomorrow’s post!
If you are a member of the Made Simple Group then click here and claim your FREE £30 voucher. To learn how to manage your promotion, find the best ways to attract new customers and further understand all the solutions that Google can provide – visit our Google Education Zone at www.businessmadesimple.com.
So don’t worry if you don’t know where to start. Watch this introductory video from Google and see how it works…
A new business support programme goes on trial: today we’re looking at an interesting news item found on Westbury.co.uk! The Government plan will introduce a new simplified system support business. This Business Support Simplification Programme (BSSP) was announced in the 2006 Budget to reduce the number of publicly funded business support schemes from over 3,000 to less than 100 by 2010. Because easier is better!
And a select number of local authorities are already starting this new system!
Friday! Only a few hours to the weekend. A warm sun is shining outside and we want to close this second week of September with some important tips for your company.
Today’s topic is erring towards accountants and business advisers. Accounting is the financial measurement of a company; good and accurate account information can help managers, investors, partners, and tax authorities to deal with your company. Accounting can be tricky stuff but unfortunately it’s essential to your success. For this reason it’s necessary to seek help from professionals such as Westbury.
Westbury is an account and business advice company that provide their clients with the following business services:
* Audit
* Bookkeeping & Accounting
* Business Planning
* Business Start-up
* Company Secretarial
* Corporate Finance
* Corporate Tax Planning
* Human Resources
* International Services
* Payroll
* VAT
* Forensic
Good afternoon! Here we are on Friday, hurtling towards the weekend, with a quick update from London. Some bitesized pieces of the latest news specially selected to provide you with some good topics of conversation and some useful advice. To start off, here is some travel news! Maybe the summer is over, but there are still a lot of us that are waiting for our holidays and maybe are planning some travel right now. Maybe you need to organize some business travel… What is the best thing to do? Organise by oneself, booking and checking every detail or rely on a travel agency?
Airtravel with low cost airlines has had several problems in the last few weeks: shortly after the Spanish crash of last August, a Ryanair flight from Bristol to Barcelona-Girona had to make an emergency landing after loss of cabin pressure. And on the 11th of September another Ryanair flight (from Dublin to London) had to make an emergency landing shortly after take off at Dublin airport and oxygen masks were dropped into the cabin, leaving all the passengers afraid or their lives, but safe.
But today something different has happened: thousands of British travelers were stranded, because one of the largest tour operators collapsed under pressure from high fuel prices and a sagging economy, reports Ap, and the Timesonline.co.uk explains: ‘thousands of travellers were left stranded overseas today after XL Leisure, Britain’s third largest tour operator, collapsed and BA’s chief executive predicted that another 30 airlines would go out of business before Christmas’. At the moment at least 67,000 passengers across the globe are left waiting to be brought home…
Travel by train could be a good solution: the British train services are good and on time (well…mostly. ed.). But from yesterday we were cut off from the continent. Bbc.co.uk says: ‘thousands of passengers hoping to travel through the Channel Tunnel face further disruption after a fire on a freight train. The tunnel is closed after the fire broke out about seven miles from Calais on Thursday afternoon. Firefighters say the 16-hour blaze has now been put out. And unfortunately the opinions about the re-opening of the tunnel are divided: will the tunnel open tomorrow or in two weeks?
Welcome back! As the counter-argument to yesterdays post, today we have ready for you several good reasons to brave the daily commute and work in an office:
1. You are not alone: you can have a chat with a colleague working at the computer; you can stop and start your conversation throughout the day; the time runs faster chatting!
2. You are part of a team: working with other people helps you all to have new ideas and finish faster. You can have meetings and quick chats, instead of emailing or calling. This means that for a response you have
just to walk to another desk, instead of wait an email all day.
3. You can interact socially (a pleasant change from the monkish, lonely existence working from home can be!) and go to lunch with co-workers, chatting about work and life. You can push and be pushed!
4. You can leave your job in the office and go home at 5:30. Ok, so maybe sometimes it’s 5 and sometimes it’s 7: but once you’ve left the office you can draw a line under your working day and forget about it until 9:00 tomorrow.
5. You can take a drink and a walk after work, and decide then what you want to eat for dinner that night.
6. You have access to everything need in a office: fax machine, copier and scanner, and moreover you have the IT Support!
7. You have unlimited access to that most essential piece of office equipment, the coffee machine (that you don’t have to start and you won’t have to wash up after!).
8. You can get out of your pyjamas and fluffy bunny slippers and dress well. Dressing in the right way is a good way to express yourself, make yourself feel professional and motivated, as well as making you feel good.
9. You can focus on your job and not on the laundry, the food shopping, the children and the cleaning!
10. You don’t have to cook yourself lunch every single day!
Are you a freelance or do you have your personal company? Take your time to think hard about which is the best solution for you. Business Made Simple provides a practical online resource for starting a every kind of
new companies… it’s up to you.
The question of today is: if your career allows it, should you work in an office or from home? To help you to decide we have prepared a list of reasons to work from home:
1. Zero commute time: you can wake up at 7:55 and be ready at the computer at 8:00 a.m.
2. No time wasted: you can manage both your home life and your work life at the same time; Whilst your waiting for your project plan to be printed, why not do your laundry.
3. You can have a better lunch: you don’t have to worry about packing your lunch or spending money on that same sandwich from that same sandwich shop everyday.
4. Enjoy the peace and quite of working in your own surroundings, perhaps even listening to your own music and working however you wish.
5. Better and flexible schedule organisation: you can go grocery shopping, dentist visits or whatever you need to do.
6. No travel cost: This cost really adds up especially if you work in London (of course it’s also a bonus not to find yourself stuck beneath someone’s armpit on the tube twice a day.)
7. No time or money spent on babysitting, afterschool and camps for the children: they could stay home under the best babysitting control (yours).
8. You can work in pajamas and bunny slippers: no more homogeneous suites and ties or uncomfortable shoes!
9. No office politics or rules.
10. No boss looking over your shoulder!
What do you think? Are you convinced to move your office home yet? Well don’t make up your mind just yet – read tomorrow’s entry which explores the flip-side to this coin, so come back tomorrow.
In a time when communication via the World Wide Web is paramount, we are all aware of the frustration when our internet connections fail. Often the result is having to wait to be able to check our email. Today we saw what happens in the instance of mass connection failure on a far larger scale: ‘Trading on the London Stock Exchange was halted this morning for the longest period in over eight years because of a connectivity issue’, says the Timesonline.co.uk.
Before 9am, Europe’s oldest independent exchange suspended all the connections, leaving the traders without prices and completely unable to buy or sell shares. Technicians failed to re-connect for seven hours, and they still don’t know the real cause of the problem. This was the worst incident of this kind for UK trading in more than eight years.
Last year, in November, the London Stock Exchange had to close its bidding for a similar problem, which left traders without live information for more than 40 minutes. But the largest failure is still that which shut down the entire exchange for eight hours in the April 2000. Today the problem coincided with a rally in European stocks and a surge in the trading volume following the U.S. Government’s decision to take control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, underlines Bloomberg.com. About 352 million shares were traded before 9am in London today, more than double the length from the same period last week.
In a moment thousands of screens froze; all the computers connected to the British system were affected by the blackout, leaving City traders desperate and angry. The London Stock Exchange attempted to calm its customers by giving accurate details of the situation, emphasis on ‘attempted’. Traders were left infuriated without given a valid cause or timescale for the problem.
The total opportunity cost of today’s disaster has yet to be calculated. The incident has highlighted that connectivity is still a serious issue to combat in today’s online world otherwise we risk compromised freedom at home and the suspension of the FTSE 100 for most of the working day!
Let’s get straight to business today with GOOGLE ADS!
Have you ever noticed that some Google results on the very top of the search results page have a subtle yellow background? That’s because they are payment positions called ‘Sponsored Links’. They are one of the several online ways to promote your business, and arguably one of the best because provided your keywords have been selected carefully, you can be at the top of the list. Think about this: if you want to find something, the first thing that you do is type a couple of words into the Google search bar. Google occupies more two-thirds of the search engine market so being on the first page of a Google search makes all the difference to your success, because you can reach people when they are actively looking for your product or service.
The AdWords cost-per-click pricing is cheap and easy to control, because you only pay when people click on your ad. Unlike more traditional adverts; you can measure its results highly accurately, easily amend it and only pay when a prospect clicks on your advert, rather than being charged on page impressions. There are two main categories of Pay per click (PPC) campaigns: keyword and content match. The first category involves the display of advertisements on search engine results pages, the second one, instead, involves the display of advertisements on publisher websites, newsletters and e-mails.
Why you should open a Google AdWords account?
– You can promote your business specifically to your prospective customers.
– You can save money (it’s very cheap), in comparison to traditional advertising.
– You can manage it easily.
– As a customer of the Made Simple Group you are entitled to a FREE £30 Google advertising AdWords voucher.
Perhaps more famous for its soundtrack than the actual film, Nine to Five should be known as “how not to treat your staff.” Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin demonstrate what happens to the boss when the workforce loses faith. So to kick off our very own top ten list today, treat yourself to a bit of Dolly Parton…
9. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
The Coen brothers direct this tale of a naïve mail worker who works his way up to upper echelons of Hudsucker Industries and he soon finds out how hard it is to sell a brand new product. Although fairytale-like the film still manages to show the importance of innovation in the corporate world.
8. Ghostbusters (1984)
Cast aside thoughts of Marshmallow Men, Slimer and New York City. At its core the hugely popular 1984 comedy is about three men starting up a brand new business. From the initial business idea to advertising to finding a suitable office location, the Ghostbusters cover the lot.
7. Office Space (1999)
A cult classic and yet another glimpse at what happens when workers don’t feel the love. In a world where staff just want to hold onto their beloved stapler and remain at the same desk for a few months at a time surely keeping them happy is easy? Unfortunately not for the arrogant Mr Lumbergh.
6. Boiler Room (2000)
A college dropout (Giovanni Ribisi) becomes a broker to get on the fast track to success and starts at the bottom rung of the ladder in a suburban investment firm. However, he soon learns of illegitimate dealings by his bosses and discovers that his only way out is to sink the firm himself from within.
5. American Psycho (2000)
The excessive and superficial lifestyle of Patrick Bateman, a New York investment banking executive, takes it’s toll on his warped personality as he begins to indulge in twisted fantasies. On the face of it this movie is about that which the title suggests, but a closer look will reveal all the satirical poking at 80’s Wall Street bankers. Watch this classic scene for proof:
4. Trading Places (1983)
Oh the fickle world of business. One minute Dan Aykroyd is on top of the world living the dream as a wealthy broker and the next he’s lost it all and been replaced by a common crook. It’s tough at the top but tougher at the bottom.
3. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
An all-star cast delve into the murky waters of estate agents. Not the most interesting of topics you may think but the office has never seemed so chilling. Pressure reigns supreme.
2. The Godfather (1972)
Ok, the Corleone family may not be anything approaching squeaky clean but at the heart of Frances Ford Coppola’s epic is a family run business. The trilogy is rife with business deals (mostly shady) and power struggles. You certainly can’t doubt the Corleone clan’s dedication to their job.
1. Wall Street (1987)
It had to be! Gordon Gekko coined the phrase that epitomised the 80’s, “greed is good”. In an age when lunch was for wimps, Wall Street was the ultimate statement about the world’s obsession with money and business. So to finish our top ten treat yourself to one of the great movie speeches…
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