Category: Advice

Over half of Small and Medium-sized businesses in the UK have taken deliberate steps to diversify their business in order to survive the recession according to new research.

Computers and laptops – the tools of work for thousands – are the cause of regular, persistent, headaches; blurred vision; neck pain and dry eye problems for many.

With everything becoming free or bundled together in ‘All you can’ packages we have researched to find the top 8 tips to the best All you can bundles money saving ideas around at the moment.

A well written, well-designed brochure is an important marketing tool for the majority of businesses. Brochures offer a great opportunity to go into detail about your product or service. Les Haywood explains that as you only get one chance to make a good impression with your brochure. It’s worth taking the time to get it right.

Paul Bray looks at how if you prang your new BMW and the air bags deploy, the car can automatically tell the manufacturers so they can alert the emergency services. If you’re in hospital in Madrid and a nurse tries to administer the wrong drug, an alarm automatically sounds. If you buy a chop in a Norwegian supermarket, you could be told the name of the pig it came from.

Unless you have been living in splendid isolation in recent months, you will have struggled to avoid the latest online social networking craze ‘Twitter’. Andy Lopata, business networking specialist, looks at how Twitter, Hot on the heels of ‘Facebook’ as the next great communication tool, it is being championed by celebrities such as Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry, used by politicians such as Barack Obama and adopted by people of all ages and walks of life at a rapid rate.

In these times of rising living costs, we could all do with a bit of extra income. But before you storm into your boss’s office and demand a bigger salary, read our top ten tips on becoming a smooth negotiator.

A sales guru has dismissed the notion that business needs to be harder during a recession in a talk to a group of London entrepreneurs.

Marcus Cauchi, of Sandler Training, revealed the golden Sandler Rules of selling that he says will help any business weather the storm of recession.

One of the most effective funding initiatives by the Government is to help you increase the skill levels of your employees. You are encouraged to review your company’s strategy and ensure that all staff development and training will effectively support your business objectives. Then you need to specify the actions required to develop the strategy through an organisation and development plan agreed with your staff.

Whilst watching the recent episode of The Apprentice we were struck by the use of The Olympics and London 2012 branding so we spoke to John Mackenzie, partner of leading IP solicitors Pinsent Masons for his advice of how to embrace the Olympic spirit without falling foul of the law.

We spend a lot of time at work. For many people they spend more time with their colleagues than they do with their family and friends. In these circumstances, it is only natural that as the working relationship evolves, the environment develops in such a way that people can find opportunities to let off steam by laughing and joking with each other.

Many employers actively encourage employees to find ways to make their work fun because, lets face it, a happy employee is more productive and none of us want to spend the day with a lot of miserable people.

What happens when you ask for directions? You interrupt someone, stopping them from going about their business, yet people are rarely rude. This is because of the way we ask. We will normally say, ‘Excuse Me’ in a slightly deferential way. We continue, ‘I wonder if you can help me? Could you tell me where Bromley Place is?’

When economic conditions are hard, leading a sales force can seem like the most difficult job in the world. One of the main ingredients to achieving outstanding results is to ensure the team is motivated. The key to motivation is recognition. Ultimately, everyone wants to be appreciated and their hard work acknowledged.

With the recession predicted to last for the whole of 2009, many of us will come back to the office in the New Year, with some trepidation. However, with the right mechanisms in place, it will still be possible to find the opportunities that are out there and prosper.