More on business kissing

matthewm@madesimplegroup.com — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:13:33 GMT

In an earlier posting I wrote about the subject of business kissing and I have received some guidance from friends and contacts on this irksome and sensitive subject. Thanks to you all although I am no clearer than I was before.

Working from Home

matthewm@madesimplegroup.com — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:31:42 GMT

A recent article in The Times focused on the growing band of nomadic workers who are setting up offices in coffee shops in Britain. They have been labelled the “new Bedouin” by the media in America where the trend started in the coffee houses of San Francisco.

Money Laundering Regulations - yuk!

matthewm@madesimplegroup.com — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:26:44 GMT

Many of you will know that my “day job” is as a partner in a firm of Chartered Accountants. That means that I have an obligation to keep up with my professional education and development. Quite recently, I noted that the money laundering regulations have been changed again.

My First Blog

info@businessmadesimple.co.uk — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:57:55 GMT

Hi! My name is Simone. Welcome to my very first blog!

Having my own company has been something that I have thought about for a long time and I feel that losing my job is the sign I needed to jump out of my comfort zone and go for it. For the past 4 years I had been working in the events and marketing department of a large insurance company in London. In October 2007 learned that I was going to be made redundant. Now, I find myself thinking about what I should do next. I had thoroughly enjoyed my job and after a very short time there, came to realise that I had a knack for event organising.

This is what brought me to the Business Start-up Expo in November last year. I had decided after many long discussions with my partner, Luke that I should go into business for myself as an Event Organiser. How to do this, I did not know. But I was sure that I would find some ideas at the Expo.

I spent most of the morning gathering brochures and ideas on the many ways I was going to advertise and market my company, the websites I was going to start, the promotional gifts I was going to hand out and even the furniture I was going to buy for my office! I was slowly getting ahead of myself! I had not yet figured out the most important part – how to establish my company.

I left the expo that day and headed home to discuss all my options with Luke. I liked the idea of setting up my own limited company. This was definitely the direction I needed to take.

I allowed myself some time off after finishing up with my old job and rediscovered my love of lie-ins and cooking a proper dinner each night for Luke and I. Christmas and New Years passed by in a pleasant blur filled with family gatherings and consuming far too much food. I’m now ready to embrace the New Year by setting up my new company.

As I enjoyed working in events, setting up and organising company parties, I want my business to be a party planning one, catering for small companies and their various events. I thrived on the chaos that came with organising events, when the parties all came together after days, even weeks of planning and organising, the satisfaction was well worth the stress and all those last minute dashes to the shop to pick up extra napkins and more red balloons!

So, I have a business plan, an agent to form my Limited Company with, all that’s missing is a company name......

Any suggestions?

Business Kissing

matthewm@madesimplegroup.com — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:01:50 GMT

For a long time, it’s been an issue for me as to the procedures and protocols relating to the subject of business kissing. It’s come to my attention over the last few years that people tend to kiss each other a lot more in business. Predominantly, this is men and woman but not as infrequently as you might think, also men to men!

Image Libraries

matthewm@madesimplegroup.com — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:04:36 GMT

I recently had lunch with my old and good friend Lawrence Gould. Lawrence and I go back to university days, (I won’t say how many years ago that is), and whilst our paths have been slightly different in terms of careers, we have always stayed in touch. Lawrence also qualified as a chartered accountant, but was more interested in corporate finance and eventually became the CFO of Getty Images before leaving them and running a number of smaller businesses. His latest venture, just launched at www.imagepick.com is a digital picture library particularly aimed at the US market.

Spanish business failures

matthewm@madesimplegroup.com — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:34:53 GMT

Still in Spain, I read an article in the local newspaper, amusingly from a study by the University Of Portsmouth Business School, relating to the large number of British entrepreneurs in Spain ending up losing everything because of their lack of research. The report said that because of inadequate preparation, many expatriates who start a business in Spain lose not only their money but also their homes.

Spanish Goodwill

matthewm@madesimplegroup.com — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:23:31 GMT

I have been in Spain this week, working of course, and on one of my rare relaxations, my wife and I went up the mountains to one of our favourite restaurants. Its one we go to whenever we are here and over the years, the owners and waiters have got to know us even though we only go maybe 4 times a year. They greet us with the most wonderful welcome, almost as if we own the place, seem really pleased to see us and normally everything is as it was when we were last there. Looking around the venue, they seem to give a similar welcome to most of the people who arrive other than those who are finding it for the first time.

Could you be a heart surgeon?

matthewm@madesimplegroup.com — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:39:05 GMT

In many ways, running a business is more complicated than open-heart surgery. Now I know that is a sweeping statement, but think about it. When a surgeon carries out open-heart surgery, he does so with the benefit of years of training and education; with the support of a highly qualified team and with millions of pounds of highly sophisticated equipment and technology. Moreover, he has the ability to suspend other external factors by the use of anaesthetics and other techniques so that the team can focus solely on the matter at hand.

Would you recruit one of these?

matthewm@madesimplegroup.com — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:46:13 GMT

A routine task of a growing a business is the selection and recruitment of good people. Part of this process, partly to appease our insurers, is the taking of references and the making of other appropriate checks to ensure there will be no nasty surprises down the line.This process continues once someone is employed so as to ensure that no one in the business committing any offence will continue in employment. In fact, many terms and conditions of employment specifically cover certain offences as dismissable offences.

Archive