I was trying to track down some old uni friends. Figuring that by now they should be pretty high in whatever career they had gone into I turned to LinkedIn. It is, after all, the network for the business person.

Now if you’re looking for someone with a reasonably uncommon name, it’s not too hard to find someone. And the first person has a name that’s totally unique on LinkedIn. So easy. 

But for  the second person I was looking for there were 138 results in the UK alone and in the world 450. And for some reason they hadn’t added our shared university to their profile so I couldn’t use that.

But luckily they had a photo and even though it’s a fair number of year since we left uni, they haven’t changed much. So that’s another connection made.

And for the third person there were 8,912 results. Adding our university reduced it down to 8. And again the photo came to the rescue and saved me from having to look at each profile in detail to work out which was the one I was looking for. 

So photos – handy when people want to connect with you. And connecting with people – handy if you want to do business. Bit of no brainer really!

Article from The Essex County Standard

The Business women from this great organisation have 3 months to turn £50 into as much money as they can.

And just like last time we’ve made a naked calendar.

To launch this brave (or stupid you decide – it was snowing on some of the days we were OUTSIDE taking photos in the nude) calendar we had a grand launch night, open to all business men and women from around the region.

To buy a copy of this great calendar that celebrates the non-TOWIE side of Essex, you can

• Pop along to one of our events in either Colchester or Chelmsford
  
• Nip into Abberton Post Office (Phone first to check stock levels. It’s also the home of Caprilatte Ice cream See for directions and phone number http://goo.gl/maps/oV5yb )
• Ask a member of the BWN. The calendar girls all have plenty they are looking to sell

• Send a cheque payable to Clare Lauwerys for £13.50 (£10 for the calendar plus p&p. Contact me if m0re than one required or if posting overseas so I can calculate costs) and post it to Dormy House, Lower Road, Peldon, Essex CO5 7QR (don’t forget to write your address on the back of the cheque) I’ll be posting once a week so allow for delivery

And we made a video

- a new employment allowance from 2014 will give all employers a reduction of £2000 on their NI bill, excellent news for current and new employers!

- as previously announced the personal allowance has increased from £8105 to £9440, and increase of nearly 16.5%, but it has also been announced that this will increase further to £10,000 from 2014 taking many out of the tax bracket.  However, the increase does not apply for NI which remains payable on earnings over £148 per week.

- do you have elderly parents or grandparents? Tthey may be affected by the freezing of the age allowance available to people born before 6th April 1948. This  will remain at £10,500 (or £10,660 if born before 6th April 1938), until it aligns with the normal personal allowance.

- a new scheme of childcare arrangements will come in from 2015 with up to £1200 in childcare vouchers being available. This will replace the existing childcare voucher scheme. Details are still  being published.

- the turnover limit for registration for VAT goes up from £77,000 to £79,000.

- the main rate of Corporation Tax has been reduced to 20%. This was previously only available to small companies, so brings all companies into line on the same rate for the first time from 2015.

- the amount that can be loaned at a beneficial rate to an employee without being reported on a P11D has increased from £5000 to £10000.

- If you have a limited company and are considering changing your car, and thinking of going green, take extra care as this may not be as beneficial as you think. The taxable benefit percentages for company cars have changed and you should research the tax (and environmental) effects in detail before making a decision and to avoid a potential tax trap.

For more details, view the HMRC website or contact your accountant.

Lorraine Dale

Director – Rightway Accounting Services Ltd

Tel: 07752 292742

Email: lorraine@rightwayaccounting.co.uk

Website: www.rightwayaccounting.co.uk

If you still need convincing then this post I wrote on my own site – The IT Fairy might convince you….

Why passwords need to be secure and why Admin is bad name

Farleigh Hospice issued a £50 challenge, asking businesses take £50 from them and see how much money they could turn it into for the hospice.

So what did we do? We stripped and made the most amazing, beautiful and inspirational calendar (also very tasteful)
And how much did we raise? Close to £5000. Pretty impressive (Though not enough to fund Farleigh for one day. They need £7850 each day for all the great things they do

Now the smart ones of you out there know where this is going!

Yes, Farleigh is issuing the same challenge and we want to make Calendar II – The Sequel

So are you up for the challenge? Can you help in anyway?

We need

1. Strippers! Goes without saying that if no-one in The BWN is willing to get their kit off then we need to go back to the drawing board. But if you speak to anyone who did it last time they will tell you want great fun it was.
    
2. Hair and make-up – we need to look at our best in the buff
    
3. Props.  Sally Parkinson, our superb photographer, has already got some ideas of a theme for the calendar and if we can have a props-mistress to co-ordinate that side of things that’s one less job I have to do
    
4. Launch Party planner. I need someone super-organised to completely plan the party including finding a venue that will give us the space for free.
    
5. Sponsors. When we produced the first calendar each month was sponsored by a business. Excellent publicity for them and helped off set the cost of the printing. We also need sponsors for the launch party. We need someone to persuade businessess to be sponsors
    
6. A printer who will make the calendar at cost or less!
    
7. A sales force to take the calender and sell it wherever they can!

Farleigh’s doesn’t get money from the government. It can only do the amazing things it does thanks to donations. So <<First Name>> whatever you can do to help will be so gratefully appreciated.

Let me know what you can do at clare@thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk

Take a look at some of the pictures from our first calendar. Do you want to be a part of the next one?

So The Gazette newspaper ran a feature and asked me to write a piece answering the question “What does feminism mean to you and can women really “have it all” with a career and a family?”

As the printed version cut out some of what I wrote, I though I’d give you both versions!

What does feminism mean to you and can women really “have it all” with a career and a family?

The article as it was printed in the paper (clicking on it will make it bigger)

Feminism – it’s a loaded word!  Somehow it’s gone from meaning an advocate of the rights and equality of women, to being short-hand for a stroppy woman moaning that life isn’t fair and that men are evil suppressors!

If you’d asked me when I was at university if I was a feminist, it would have been an unqualified yes. But now, it’s not so straightforward. I need to qualify my answer. I believe in egalitarianism

There are still so many inequalities – the glass ceiling is still there (we’re breaking through more often but it’s a tough slog), pay disparity has yet to be banished and women in the public eye are all too often reduced to the status of a “body.” I could go on…

But then men don’t have it all easy either. Stay at home dads are viewed with suspicion and body image issues are now more prevalent in men with a huge increase in the levels of male eating disorders.

The issue that women face is that we’ve been give the rights but not the full equality. Let’s face it, with the best will in world the responsibility of having a baby is a woman’s. Men just don’t have the correct tools for the job! And if we exclude those women who get back on their Blackberries before the placenta has been delivered, we do need to take some time off work. And that’s when we start to lose out. Out of sight and out of mind!

Having it all? No-one can. You might say men do, but do they really?  Look at the parents at sports day or afternoon nativity. It’s predominately mothers. If men were having it all, they’d be there too.

If you want to have it all, you have to choose when you have it. Many women in The Business Womans Network have chosen to be self-employed so they can have a job that fits around their families in a way that “conventional” jobs don’t. When they are working, they work hard and they achieve great things. And when they are doing the family side of things, well they are pretty great at that too.

Feminist, yummy mummy, mumtrepreneur (one of my pet hates, but there’s not enough space to go into that here) call me what you want. At the end of the day, the label isn’t important.

Women are just as great as men and men are just as great as women. It’s just that we all have different skills, different talents and different roles. And until we accept, celebrate and nurture these amazing differences then we all lose out.

Time for a new mattress!

Not having worked in a long time, doesn’t mean my mind isn’t constantly thinking of great ways of sharing business techniques for success. Since I’m living in bed, my rather lovely hubby said we needed a new mattress…..ok less of the smutter ladies!

The only way to shop when ill is to speed shop, that means be mega organised and only look at anything once. So in less than an hour I think we possibly managed to look at every mattress in Colchester. (The ache today confirms it!)

And it really reminded me of one of the most important skills for business success – the art of selling.

After a while just like when you are booking a holiday, you can end up with “Blue swimming pool syndrome”; ie the first one you looked at seemed amazing, idyllic and perfect but after 30 ideal destinations they all look the same and you are losing the will to live.

The exact same thing was happening yesterday. I’ve a memory like a geriatric cat which is bad enough on a normal day, but when you are choosing a product that you will spend a third of your life in, how do I come to decision of which one to buy?

• All stores had great adverts telling me they would match any price.
• All stores had a mass of different products.
• All stores had interest free credit – so I can keep my money in my pocket for longer!
• All stores had guides on what would be right for me.
• All stores were basically the same.

So how did I buy?

As we drove home I realised of the many stores we visited in that speed hour, I remembered the name of two shop assistants. Patricia and Andy. Now for someone with the mind of a geriatric cat that’s pretty impressive. And the reason?

They listened to me. Even if they were shattered and bored out of their mind, helping me get my purchase right mattered to them. In incense they were really nice.

Not seeing many folks, means when I do see someone that isn’t my dog I talk for Britain, These 2 shop assistants smiled and acted interested, and didn’t try and force expensive products on me that I didn’t want. They truly LISTENED TO ME. They found out my needs and helped me get what I wanted.

So a top tip for fabulous marketing skills. Is be nice, listen, care and make that customer feel like you live to make them a happy bunny.

See be nice…..just like your mother said!

None whatsoever.

Not a bean.

February comes around and things haven’t taken off too well but you know it’s still the start of the year (just) and yes they are sure (well almost sure) things will sort themselves out.

March arrives and we get a flurry of emails and phone calls with people saying one thing “I need help with sales/marketing/branding/ MAKING MONEY”

So it’s only towards the end of the first quarter of year that they actually come out to one of our events and learn skills that help them improve their business and their profits.

THAT’S ONE QUARTER OF THE YEAR WASTED!

So, let’s not repeat that mistake. It would be foolish when the tools and the experts are here to help you now. At the start of 2013.

The first meeting in Chelmsford this year was a fabulous start – Gregory Baker’s business health check and types of customer guide gave us all a lot to think about.

But let’s not stop there. How about “Turning Your Passion into Profit” – that’s the title of the workshop brand specialist Kubi Springer is bringing us.

She spoke for us back in Oct 2012 but 50 minutes clearly wasn’t long enough for her to tell us everything she wanted to nor for you to answer all your questions. And it’s because Kubi really enjoyed the energy, passion and supportive nature of The BWN that she wanted to come back and deliver a longer, more detailed workshop.

If you run your own business, I imagine you are passionate about what you do. If I didn’t love IT and making websites then I wouldn’t do it. That’s my passion, making beautiful website that bring my clients lots of clients. Would I like to make more profit – you bet! So you know where I’ll be on 25th January – will you be there too or will you wait until March before you do something?

Book now to Turn Your Passion in to Profit

I started going to BWN meeting about 3 and a half years ago. My work as a private tutor means I spend long periods alone working on lessons and long periods with teenagers, so I joined mainly for the adult company. A cup of tea and a chat with friends once a month sounded really good.

I was surprised to find that tea and a chat was just the begining. We have talks from amazing people and bounce ideas off one another. I learned to follow up emails with phone calls, and the first time I tried this I obtained a new student.

Mandie Holgate also gave me the phone number of another tutor who teaches younger students. I phoned her up and we came to an agreement to pass on students to one another if they were outside our range, and this introduced me to another student.

I certainly did not expect when I started going to meeting that I would find myself in front of a camera wearing no underwear!
Doing the calender was great fun and as I was in the October photo, I am now looking down on myself from the wall above my chair.

I have met many wonderful people through the BWN and really miss them when I am unable to attend, as I was this month.

Perhaps I will meet you there next month.

There’s a simple shortcut in Microsoft Word to convert Upper Case text to Title Case (or camel case as someone once described it to me!) highlight the text and select Shift F3.

There’s no shortcut in Excel but if you use the formula shown in this video you can achieve the same results.

If you like consistency and tidy data, you’ll love this How To video

If you want to get the complete Excel training course visit

http://www.corazonit.com/excelfundamentals.html

www.betteractnow.com