Archive for the ‘6. Uncategorized’ Category
Recession – What Recession?
Recession ! What Recession ??
Ok – it does sound flippant and gives the impression that it does not effect me – but of course it does. I, like an awful lot of other people, know someone who has been made redundant – in fact I know of 6 since Christmas – one of them is my wife. I myself only work 3 days per week in my ‘proper job’ and one of my collegues is also going down to 3 days.
We (that is my wife and I) have decided to try get the positive out of this -
My wife has ‘dabbled’ in a part time business for a few years now – she makes crystal wedding tiaras and jewellery See the site here. Now that she will have so much free time (ha ha) we have done some digging and found that our local business link still have funding available for new start up companies. After a lengthy discussion with one of their team where we outlined our grand plan to make an internet one stop wedding shop they have agreed to fund one of their suppliers to help us create an official Business Plan. So we get some good expertise – no charge to us. When this is completed we present this to Business Link and they then decide how to help us move it forward and advise on what , if any, funding is available. This could cover things such as web sites , search engine optimisation and marketting. Nothing in stone yet but a good start.
OK – this is trying to turn a hobby into a business and yes my wife has really good skills for making this kind of thing, but this is just us. There must be lots of things that recently made redundant people can do. For example are you a keen photographer – (have a look at what wedding photographers charge !!!) that could be a good option. Do you make things – can you make enough to go to your local market/craft fair and sell them. Do you paint or write – article writing can be very profitable see here for an idea of where to start – there are tutorials on this site to give help and guidance. A lot of advice about re-starting your career points to trying to utilise what you already know – hence the hobby thing. It doesnt have to be restricted to this , sit down and just bounce ideas around – who knows – one of them might turn out to be a success. I read somewhere recently about the do-ers and those that don’t. The don’t do-ers are those that will not put a timescale on when they will take the first step to their dreams. So it never happens, and they are never seen to fail – because they have done nothing to fail at. The do-ers, they will set a timescale , think carefully and plan, then do – If they fail, that will be a disappointment – but they tried – and will probabaly bounce back with another idea.
So take the positive out of this situation – if you are reading this I assume you have a roof over your head, utilities in the house , a PC, food and maybe even a glass of wine in your hand – think of those that have absolutly nothing, no roof , no food no hope !. look at what you have and appreciate it and enjoy it.
Thanks for reading
Mr Moler’s Dental Practice
Why do the call a dental surgery a practice – doesnt inspire you with confidence does it?
The reason for this post – My wife is petrified of the dentist, for no logical reason, and a few weeks ago she had to visit them.
The reason – broken front tooth – the cause – me – no i didnt hit her – it was my generosity.
what had happenned was that it was a nice crisp Sunday afternoon and we decided to visit our local riverside park. Parked the car (a ridiculous 60p per hour – but thats another post) walked into the Park and there was an ice cream van. Being the kind hearted, and very generous husband that i am , i treated her to an ice cream cone. Last of the big spenders thats me!. However, continued with our walk enjoying the crisp fresh air and then suddenly she exclaimed ‘my tooth has just broken’ Actually it wasnt quite said in that mild mannered way – there were a few explitives as you can well imagine. Obviously it was all my fault but thats what being married is all about. So we had to book an emergency appointment at our local dentist. Hence the title of the post ‘ Mr Moler’s Dental Practice’ . i am sure that there will be thousands of you readers who fully understand the fear of the Dentist – a lot of it totally irrational and unjustified. Its similar to the fact that a lot of people squirm at the thought of snakes – there slimy – they are not actually but its the impression that so many people have. Now if i was going to put any part of my body in the’capable’ hands of an expert for anything i would feel so much more comfortable knowing that they had completed all of the practice on someone else and had finished his training and didnt need any more practice – wouldnt you agree??
thanks for reading
Regards
Making Money !
We all strive to do it, most of us work hard at trying to get there, however there are many people out there trying to earn ( i use that term very loosely) simply by trying to con people. We have all heard , and many experienced, the ‘prince in Africa has died …… give me your account details ‘ scenario ( i still dont believe anyone actually fell for that ) well there are now many offers being emailed as to how i can earn a fortune – and i only have to work 1 minute per month!!! – wait and see my genuine Paypal (not photoshop’d) statement in 2 months time .
The main theme of these are that if i buy these ebooks, subcribe to this list, build a pyramid or even resell all of the above i will be rich beyond my wildest dreams. This will get my sports car, holiday home, mansion and boat – even a new model wife – as long as my current wife doesnt find out ;o) – with next to no time or effort.
What has prompted this post is i was talking to an associate this morning who had and idea , took it to a company was offered a job/contract and when he received the job offer it was ridiculous. He would have to, in a nut shell work 25 hrs a day 8 days per week to achieve a fraction of what he could earn doing a normal job !! – luckily he read the small print and then told them , politely of course, where the job offer could be placed. With the recession effecting everyone – well those in my circle – it is terrible to think that there are people out there who will prey on the naivety of others. Yes i want to earn more money and have all of those nice posessions, but i am not a con man , so will have to work to earn everything. i dont mind doing an honest days work for a decent return – or am i the one being niave here ???? in that case please go to my my web site www.i-want-to-con-you-out-of-as-much-money-as-possible.com and buy my latest offer for an amazing $47 (apparently there is something about the magic $7 at the ned of a price that will make you and i buy this product !) – only joking.
thanks for reading
Regards
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Thanks for reading
Search Engine Optimisation
SEO – easy peasy – NOT !!!!
i have decided that i need to promote my websites and so thought that seo is needed. I have looked around at a few ‘local’ companies and most of them seem to offer a very good service , but obviously as its their business, they need to charge !. In todays economic climate – i would like to avoid that. It is a bit of a rock and a hard place situation – need to get found so that i can convert visitors to buyers – but cant afford seo until i get buyers.
My wife has several web sites – all wedding related – we think the product is good – actually at this point its worth mentioning the site -she specialises in swarovski crystal wedding tiaras and jewellery – your opinion on this would be appreciated.
So i have started to do some investigation on this and it is a minefield.
What i have determined so far is that
So thats my findings so far – oops – forgot to mention that
google analytics is an excellent resource.
Thanks for reading
Good news
Just heard two bits of good news – first is that alan shearer is to be appointed manager of Newcastle United – this has been a long time coming and he must surly be the boost that is needed to turn around the fortunes of the club.
second , the md of a company i work part time for has announced that we are to change our allegience from being an IBM & AT&T shop to start to get involved in the SAP & Oracle products.
I have put my name forward to open up the first branch – in chester-le-street – nice and handy for me !
Dont look at the old blog site
Why – have you seen the date ???? – i had totally forgotten about this blog i have been keeping my new web sites uptodate – thats my excuse and i am sticking to it!!
you can see it here
This year i am trying to change my life style – up to now i have spent almost all of my time – work and so called leisure time – dealing with work and websites (still work).
Now i am trying to leave some leisure time for just that – leisure.
Mid last year we were lucky enough to be allocated an allotement by our local council. It was an absolute mess, couple of old sheds , lots of bricks and sheet metal and so overgrown that the neighbours had tried to cover the grass to stop the weeds spreading into theirs. My wife and I spent the next 4 weekends and several evenings trying to get it into some kind of order and it was getting there. However , the dreaded work pressure took over again and i found i was working lateish (i always start at 7:30 ) and the odd satuday and sunday morning. The garden was pushed to the back of the Q of priorities.
My other leisure pursuit is fishing. 2007 no fishing, 2008 replaced all of the lines and fly’s – still no fishing – life needs to change – it has to be 2009.
We live in an area that boasts 3 trout lakes within 10 miles so its is not as if i have to drive for miles and miles !!.
If you asked most people i know what my favorite expression is they would probably reply ‘i dont have enough time for that !!’ – whatever that is.
So how have i managed almost one month into 2009 – not too well actually – been working extra hours as we have had one of my colleuges leave and, was trying to avoid the expression but, with ‘the recession’, he is not being replaced. Also trying to consolidate lots of wedding sites i have created for my wife – she has been made reduntant and so she (we) are going to put 100% effort into getting the website(s) found in google and so she can sell more product – then i will be rich – and will have lots of leisure time – mmmmm maybe not quite
Thats all for now for this one.
thanks for reading
Regards
Peter E
The recession !
It’s not original having a post about the recession – I have tried to avoid writing about it as it is so well covered in the media. However a thought had occurred to me a few months ago about this and its something i have been looking at in more detail.
The banks and finance houses , car makers etc are talking in terms of 7 figure amounts when the discuss money – i deal with small businesses – every penny counts when trying to make a living. Think about the responsibility you have even if you only employ a few people. Having to make people reduntant in this current climate is twice as hard, firstly you are telling the person that you can no longer sustain them for whatever reason , but the second hard part is that deep down you know that they are going to find it really hard, if not impossible, to get another job.
This also leads onto my next point. Why not have a look at your business – in fine detail. The obvious choice is to see if you can trim back, make cost savings etc – if you can do this that is an excellent start. But what about looking at it from another angle?. How can you generate more sales?. If you are a small business you will probably have already got the costing & overheads down to a minimum, so why not try and promote more sales. How to do this, well it has to be down to marketting and your pricing policy. Have you considered approaching Business Link – they may be in a position to provide funding for marketting and maybe they can allocate one of their advisers to just take a general look at your business. Sometimes its ‘wood for trees’ – you could be so close to the business that you are missing an obvious opportunity.
My next post is going to be a series of links to resources that may be able to help.
Thanks for reading