Comments for business i - Business Link in the South West http://www.businessi.info Legislation changes, business advice and tips for success Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:29:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 Comment on Top tips - Personal productivity by Charleybird http://www.businessi.info/2008/07/18/top-tips-personal-productivity/#comment-11732 Charleybird Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:41:29 +0000 http://www.businessi.info/?p=202#comment-11732 How about 'a procrastinators work is never done' and then there is Douglas Adams famous one " I love deadlines I love the whooshing sound they make as they whizz past" How about ‘a procrastinators work is never done’

and then there is Douglas Adams famous one ” I love deadlines I love the whooshing sound they make as they whizz past”

]]> Comment on Email tension by BarbaraLeigh http://www.businessi.info/2007/10/25/email-tension/#comment-11599 BarbaraLeigh Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:08:25 +0000 http://www.businessi.info/2007/10/25/email-tension/#comment-11599 Good article. Reminded of Bob Hoskins in the BT advert saying "it's good to talk!". There are times when speaking to someone is so much better than sending an email and can take the "steam" out of a potentially stressful situation. Barbara Leigh OrganisationHealth Psychologists www.orghealth.co.uk Good article. Reminded of Bob Hoskins in the BT advert saying “it’s good to talk!”. There are times when speaking to someone is so much better than sending an email and can take the “steam” out of a potentially stressful situation.

Barbara Leigh
OrganisationHealth Psychologists
http://www.orghealth.co.uk

]]> Comment on 10 Top Tips for Managing a Better Website by mark http://www.businessi.info/2007/11/21/10-top-tips-for-managing-a-better-website/#comment-11571 mark Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:23:01 +0000 http://www.businessi.info/2007/11/21/10-top-tips-for-managing-a-better-website/#comment-11571 These tips are really useful for businesses looking for a new website or improving an old one. Points 8, 9 and 10 - I'm not so sure about. Yes hosting is important, but these days unless you are doing a national launch, bandwidth is pretty easy to come by even on low cost hosting plans. Also sitemaps are pretty "web 1.0" (sorry), they often aren't implemented well and just confuse the user. If the site is not dynamic they also become a pain to keep up to date. These days a well designed navigation (as you mention) and a decent search function does the job infinitely better - google search for business is highly recommended for a quick implementation. Why do you have the tips as a pdf download? If they were in the post itself you would get better search engine placements for the content and you would also be more likely to get "socially bookmarked" by digg, reddit, etc users. Also I'm using Safari and the text in this textarea is tiny, just readable... This version of Wordpress also has a security hole. As a side not, it's really good to see Business Link using a blog, I'll refer clients here now when trying to persuade them this is the way forward. :) These tips are really useful for businesses looking for a new website or improving an old one.

Points 8, 9 and 10 - I’m not so sure about. Yes hosting is important, but these days unless you are doing a national launch, bandwidth is pretty easy to come by even on low cost hosting plans. Also sitemaps are pretty “web 1.0″ (sorry), they often aren’t implemented well and just confuse the user. If the site is not dynamic they also become a pain to keep up to date. These days a well designed navigation (as you mention) and a decent search function does the job infinitely better - google search for business is highly recommended for a quick implementation.

Why do you have the tips as a pdf download? If they were in the post itself you would get better search engine placements for the content and you would also be more likely to get “socially bookmarked” by digg, reddit, etc users. Also I’m using Safari and the text in this textarea is tiny, just readable… This version of Wordpress also has a security hole.

As a side not, it’s really good to see Business Link using a blog, I’ll refer clients here now when trying to persuade them this is the way forward. :)

]]> Comment on Financing growth: Debt factoring and invoice discounting by JohnCourtney http://www.businessi.info/2007/10/25/financing-growth-debt-factoring-and-invoice-discounting/#comment-11535 JohnCourtney Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:29:31 +0000 http://www.businessi.info/2007/10/25/financing-growth-debt-factoring-and-invoice-discounting/#comment-11535 Both Factoring and Invoice Discounting are very useful financial tools, particularly for fast-growing businesses. There are other options for funding too, such as Business Angels, Small Firms Loan Guarantees, Asset Finance and Trade Finance, not to mention Grant Funding. John Courtney Chairman Strategy Consulting Limited www.strategyconsultinglimited.co.uk Both Factoring and Invoice Discounting are very useful financial tools, particularly for fast-growing businesses. There are other options for funding too, such as Business Angels, Small Firms Loan Guarantees, Asset Finance and Trade Finance, not to mention Grant Funding.

John Courtney
Chairman
Strategy Consulting Limited

http://www.strategyconsultinglimited.co.uk

]]> Comment on Um, err… you what? by Peter Brill http://www.businessi.info/2007/07/19/um-err-you-what/#comment-11313 Peter Brill Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:55:09 +0000 http://www.businessi.info/2007/07/19/um-err-you-what/#comment-11313 Interesting. As a broadcast journalist I was trained to "de-umm" every interview, a habit I still have, where the "ums" are removed before an interview is aired. I think context is the most important thing. Radio listeners generally find an interviewee who "ums" a lot intensely annoying, particularly when set against a professional interviewer. Equally, when I am training in media or presentation skills, I encourage people to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse to ensure fluency and reduce the "ums" and "ers". But you can never completely eradicate them, it's an unconscious part of human speech. Part of it comes from a sub-conscious desire to "fill the gap" as silence is felt to be awkward and uncomfortable. It's the reason why good salespeople always leave a long silence to allow the prospect to make the next move, or why a radio interviewer will sometime leave a really awkward question hanging. Equally, silence between key words to emphasise a point can be the most powerfull tool in getting your message across. Interesting. As a broadcast journalist I was trained to “de-umm” every interview, a habit I still have, where the “ums” are removed before an interview is aired.

I think context is the most important thing. Radio listeners generally find an interviewee who “ums” a lot intensely annoying, particularly when set against a professional interviewer. Equally, when I am training in media or presentation skills, I encourage people to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse to ensure fluency and reduce the “ums” and “ers”. But you can never completely eradicate them, it’s an unconscious part of human speech.

Part of it comes from a sub-conscious desire to “fill the gap” as silence is felt to be awkward and uncomfortable. It’s the reason why good salespeople always leave a long silence to allow the prospect to make the next move, or why a radio interviewer will sometime leave a really awkward question hanging. Equally, silence between key words to emphasise a point can be the most powerfull tool in getting your message across.

]]> Comment on Ten key steps to successful exporting by strategy http://www.businessi.info/2007/05/23/ten-key-steps-to-successful-exporting/#comment-6664 strategy Wed, 30 May 2007 12:07:57 +0000 http://www.businessi.info/2007/05/23/ten-key-steps-to-successful-exporting/#comment-6664 INTERNATIONALISED WEB SITES Overlooked but very necessary, if you are a exporting supplier, is to have a truly internationalised web site. This involves not only foreign language versions - possibly multi-language versions within the same web site but also: >Optimisation in foreign language for foreign search engines >Submission in foreign language with foreign language keywords and meta tags to foreign based Search Engines >Replica domain name formats for better Search Engine retrieval > Selling on-line requires the ability to allow for purchases to be made in Euro and Sterling >Selling on line requires thought as to the differences in pricing packaging and delivery and being able to accommodate this in the web site check out programming. www.strategy-plus.net INTERNATIONALISED WEB SITES

Overlooked but very necessary, if you are a exporting supplier, is to have a truly internationalised web site.

This involves not only foreign language versions - possibly multi-language versions within the same web site but also:

>Optimisation in foreign language for foreign search engines
>Submission in foreign language with foreign language keywords and meta tags to foreign based Search Engines
>Replica domain name formats for better Search Engine retrieval
> Selling on-line requires the ability to allow for purchases to be made in Euro and Sterling
>Selling on line requires thought as to the differences in pricing packaging and delivery and being able to accommodate this in the web site check out programming.

http://www.strategy-plus.net

]]> Comment on Lead to succeed by Prospero http://www.businessi.info/2007/02/23/lead-to-succeed-2/#comment-319 Prospero Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:22:22 +0000 http://www.businessi.info/2007/02/23/lead-to-succeed-2/#comment-319 It's surprising how often people try to lead without having a clear vision of what they want to lead people towards. Confidence can set people off in a direction, but it's not always a sensible one! It’s surprising how often people try to lead without having a clear vision of what they want to lead people towards. Confidence can set people off in a direction, but it’s not always a sensible one!

]]> Comment on HR Need to Know - smoking, bullying, employee retention by asutton http://www.businessi.info/2006/12/20/hr-need-to-know-smoking-bullying-employee-retention/#comment-92 asutton Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:57:18 +0000 http://www.businessi.info/2006/12/20/hr-need-to-know-smoking-bullying-employee-retention/#comment-92 It may seem like more of a hassle than its worth but the forthcoming smoking ban will be really beneficial for both companies and their employees. Employers will benefit from; a smoke-free environment generating more business (this has been proven in Scotland) and healthier employees. Other benefits include lower insurance premiums and a better corporate image. There are loads of useful sites to help you get through the ban, try: Action on Smoking & Health http://www.ash.org.uk Department of Health http://www.dh.gov.uk/consultations/liveconsultations HSE http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/smoking.htm No Smoking Law http://www.nosmokinglaw.co.uk It may seem like more of a hassle than its worth but the forthcoming smoking ban will be really beneficial for both companies and their employees. Employers will benefit from; a smoke-free environment generating more business (this has been proven in Scotland) and healthier employees. Other benefits include lower insurance premiums and a better corporate image.
There are loads of useful sites to help you get through the ban, try:
Action on Smoking & Health
http://www.ash.org.uk

Department of Health
http://www.dh.gov.uk/consultations/liveconsultations

HSE
http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/smoking.htm

No Smoking Law
http://www.nosmokinglaw.co.uk

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