Women office workers spend almost three times as much time with their computer than their husbands or boyfriends – and they prefer it that way, an American study has revealed.
Category: In Business
Advice on growing your small and medium sized business, SME, in the UK. Hiring and managing staff and finance plus marketing all on one website
HSBC launches first business banking service optimised for BlackBerry users
HSBC Commercial Banking has launched the UK’s first Business Internet Banking service specifically optimised for use on a BlackBerry device.
This new service, a first in the UK for businesses, enables HSBC business internet banking customers to monitor their transactions via a new free service optimised for the screens of their BlackBerry (8000 series) devices*.
Very happy returns for Lastminute
Webvan, Boo, Pets.com. Remember them? Long-dead dotcom companies that illustrate the rags-to-riches – and back to rags – tales of the first cyber-boom.
Do you speak your prospect’s language?
We all think of typical sales people as being great communicators. We say that they have ‘the gift of the gab’. But what if you are not a born sales person but regularly need to find new clients? Business development expert Richard White discusses one of the areas that can make a big difference on results – how we communicate with our prospects and clients.
Flexible Working: If you don’t ask you don’t get
The second annual survey from jobsite Workingmums.co.uk has found that women who ask about flexible working before they go on maternity leave are likely to get it. However, a large percentage of women are still not making that request.
The survey of over 1,100 respondents found that:
- 57% of mothers who discussed the possibility of flexible working either got what they wanted or were able to reach a compromise with their employers
- 70% of these mothers felt that their job ranged from flexible to extremely flexible
Britain is a Nation of Nightmare Bosses
You’re Fired! is a phrase heard many times from Sir Alan Sugar during The Apprentice Whilst Sir Alan calls himself Britain’s most belligerent boss we found out that 85 per cent of the British workforce has suffered a nightmare boss just like him, so how can we turn our nightmares into dreams?
Why your sales people still get price objections?
Whenever I’m speaking to sales managers and directors, I find that many are frustrated that seemingly no matter what they say to their sales team, the team is still getting stumped over price objections from their clients! In this article we’re going to look at why your sales team still get price objections and how this gets in their way (and yours) of sales success.
The value of a sounding board
In times of Change, people feel much more secure with strong and clear leadership, but they need considered action and decisions from their leaders. The trouble is, with the pace of business today, the pressure has never been higher and consequently there is always a temptation to act just for the sakes of moving things off the pending pile and appearing decisive.
Change specialist Richard Derwent Cooke suggests that sometimes, the best way forward is infact to stand still for a moment a lend some quality time to a spot of good old fashioned conversation.
Fact or fiction, how far should you go when writing your CV?
This year’s winner of ‘The Apprentice’, sales manager, Lee McQueen, was caught out during the interview stage for lying on his CV about how long he had been at university.’
Despite this, he was still hired, but, as Victoria Band from The One Group explains, real life isn’t like that and lying or even exaggerating to a prospective employer is never a good idea.
“All of us want to make a good impression,” said Victoria. “And it’s only natural that we’re occasionally tempted to tweak the truth to make us seem more suited to a particular job.
Small business decision-makers spend over two months a year out of office
Research highlights need for mobile communications as senior staff spend a minimum of 11.5 weeks away from team members every year.
- 60pc of small business senior decision makers that we spoke to spend a minimum of five hours out of the office a week – equivalent to 32.5 working days a year.
- 42pc of small businesses consider they pay too much for their mobile communications plan and yet 77pc do not have a plan that balances the cost of phone calls, mobile emails and text messages.
- 65pc also do not have the means to control the cost of international calls from mobile phones.
Surviving the downturn part three – When it goes wrong
Many are wary of upsetting key customers by chasing slow or overdue debts. But as a frequent surprise to many suppliers, buyers often report privately that a failure to chase agreed debts is not seen as a relationship-building exercise, but as weak management. A contractual debt owed is a contractual debt to be paid!
In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we have stressed the importance of ‘starting off on the right foot’ contractually, and ‘keeping your eye on the ball’ financially.
Of course, some organisations have no shame in delaying payments to their creditors, until pushed really hard.
Whether you really want to trade with such bad payers is entirely up to you, but here are some more handy tips that might help however things might go wrong.
Surviving the downturn Part two – Getting Paid!
Part 2: Keeping your eye on the ball
Getting your Terms and Conditions right and checking customers’ credit status are vital. (See Part 1 of this series). What else can you do to ensure prompt payment?
Monitor your Aged Debtors and set Customer Credit-Limits
You will probably already review your debtors at least monthly, to keep an eye on defaulters. Most financial software packages readily provide this data phased by sums due over successive months. Ignore it at your peril.
The monthly ‘Total Outstanding‘ figure per client is also critical. Your credit checks on each customer should also produce credit limits and you need to have really good reasons to allow these to be exceeded. (Banks, Factors and Debt-Insurers can be laughably conservative in guiding you here, but don’t ignore their advice without excellent reason.)
Surviving the Downturn – Part One
When doom, gloom and despondency reigns in business, the inevitable response is always to make cuts. No surprise here. The media resound with everyday stories of staff cuts, budget cuts and training and development cuts. And yet, at the same time, there is an astounding growth in job advertising for ‘business development’ executives of multiple shapes and sizes. It’s a stereotypical and oh-so predictable response to tough times ahead. Jeremy Thorn assesses the problem
Remote & mobile working clinches the deal
The option to have flexible and mobile working can be a deal breaker when choosing a new job according to 70 per cent of respondents to a commuter survey carried out by THUS plc. An encouraging 72 per cent of employees said that their employers actively promote this style of working within their corporate cultures which demonstrates how UK companies are embracing flexible and mobile working. However, this still means that 28 per cent of companies are not currently offering flexible and mobile working and risk losing out on the best candidates.
Office workers are animals when it comes to the colour printer
Are you like a Parrot and need colour in everything regardless of cost? Or are you a Cheetah and need everything at speed? Or perhaps you are a Panda or Polar Bear and are happy with everything in black and white?
Leading behavioural psychologist, broadcaster and journalist, Donna Dawson, says that office printing habits are the best way to examine the dynamics of the modern workplace, where people’s behaviour can be equated to The Human Zoo.
