10am to 12.30pm 13th September 2011 at The Grange Hotel in Alton.

Content

• Business objectives
• Marketing
• Product/Presentation/Positioning
• Pricing
• Selling
• Accounting

This seminar will benefit:

• The amateur artist seeking to make a modest income from their hobby/interest.
• Those looking to expand their existing creative business
• Amateur artists wishing to become professional

For further information or to book your place please call The Market Street Gallery on 01420 88482 or email marketstgallery@btconnect.com

Topics covered will include:

• What the Sales Process is.
• Understanding the Rules of Engagement.
• How to Develop a Successful Sales Strategy.

When: Tuesday 15th February 2011, from 10:30 to 12:30
Where: The Alton House Hotel, GU34 1DW

Telphone: 01420 80033

Price for the event (excluding lunch):

£20.00 when booked and paid for in advance
£30.00 on the day

Followed by lunch for an additional £4.95 if you wish.

For more information call Kathy Gilbert on 01420 564242 or 07910 866414 or email kathy@practicalpartners.co.uk

Blindingly Simple’s 3 Day Basic Curtain Making course does more than cover the basics of curtain making, it includes preparing client quotations, advertising and keeping accounts.

Visit their website for more information on their Basic Curtain Making course as well as their 1 Day Roman Blind and Cushion making courses. www.blindinglysimple.co.uk

Create Design Studio designed and built their website which includes a content management system that allows them to keep their website up to date and accept online bookings.

If your business needs a new web design or help with an existing site we offer a free consultation service, please call David Woodroofe at Create Design Studio on 01962 737989 or visit www.createdesignstudio.co.uk.

Internet users are being attacked from all angles …

• spam email
• identity theft
• bogus shops
• credit card fraud
• malicious attacks
• ‘friendly’ hacks

But there are a number of measures you can incorporate into daily routines that can help make your online experience safer.

When buying online …

1 – Check the Contact Details

Make sure the online store you are buying from has a phone number – then give that number a ring. Consider how quickly they pick up, how they answer the phone and whether they sound like someone you want to order from.

Also make sure they display their contact postal address (not a PO Box number) and any registered office address if applicable.

Look out for …

• no phone number
• a phone that nobody answers
• an unprofessional call answer
• no static postal address
• any attempt to mask or hide contact details

2 – Read the Terms and Conditions

It’s amazing how many of us just don’t take the time to read the small print when buying online. You really must!

If buying a product, find out how they handle returns and refunds. If buying a service, make sure you understand the contract term and your cancellation rights.

Look out for …

• unprofessionally written terms
• ambiguous, flowery terminology
• terms that sound too unreasonable

3 – Insist on Secure Pages

Don’t pass any personal details or payment information through unsecured pages. To check if a page is secure, look for the security mark in your browser window. This might be a padlock image in the bottom corner, or the address tab changing colour when you visit the page.

Look out for …

• no secure pages being used
• general unprofessional checkout
• unexpected steps in the payment process

When using email …

4 – Install a Local Firewall

Get yourself some good security software to install on your computer to protect your computer and everything on it. This should at least have good email and virus protection features and preferably have a ‘kill switch’ to instantly close your connection to the Internet.

5 – Open Your Mail With Care

If you get an email from an unknown source, open it with caution. Check the title and the sender’s email address then make a decision as to whether it looks legitimate. If in doubt, place it into your trash folder or mark it as spam.

If you use a preview pane to view the content of an email without opening it, try not to use this to view any questionable emails. If a spam email contains html or rich content, by viewing the email you are effectively downloading information from their server to your computer. This could pose a risk to the security of your computer.

Look out for …

• pharmacy related emails
• requests to update your details
• prize winning notifications
• links to visit a site you’ve never heard of
• any request for you to download something

6 – Guard Your Email Address

By all means give out your email address to friends and family but never give it out to anyone else. Whenever you need to provide an email address online, give a secondary address or even better, a specific prefix that relates to them.

For example, if your normal email address is ‘you@yourdomain.com’ and you are ordering a pair of new trainers from, say, Hitec Sports, give them an email address of ‘hitec@yourdomain.com’.

In this way, you can quickly identify any email sent to you at that address as actually coming from Hitec Sports.

The ability to do this with email may not be available to everyone but any good host provider will include this for free with their hosting and email services.

When running a website …

7 – Keep Your Scripts Updated

If your site is built using any ‘open source’ script such as WordPress or Joomla or Drupal, it is essential you keep it up to date and apply any security patches that are released.

If you are writing your own website code, or getting a developer to do it for you, make sure it is written to a high level and follows good security practices. Don’t risk losing your website for the sake of a little care and attention during the build process.

Failure to practice good security measures will result in your site being vulnerable to attack and even though you think it will never happen to you – it will. One day you will wake up and find your website has been replaced with a virtual graffiti tag from the guy who hacked into it the night before.

If you need help with building or developing websites then please contact our Web Development Team for assistance.

8 – Practice Using Good Passwords

These days we all have numerous usernames and passwords to remember which makes it tempting to just think of a simple password and use it everywhere.

This is extremely bad practice and we strongly recommend you follow these guidelines for good password practice …

Things to avoid …

• DO NOT use a dictionary word
• DO NOT use family, friend or common names
• DO NOT use sequential letters or numbers (abc, 123)
• DO NOT use the same password for multiple logins

Things to practice …

• DO use random strings of letters and numbers
• DO use different passwords for different logins
• DO include upper and lower case letters at random
• DO change your password regularly (monthly or quarterly)

9 – Check Usage Statistics

If you have access to usage stats for your website then check them regularly. Learn to identify common and uncommon behaviour from your site visitors and focus on unusual peaks that may be as a result of dubious activity.

Check your system error logs to see any errors the system has recorded. These logs help to identify errors in your site pages and also any dubious activity that you should be aware of.

Look out for …

• activity from countries you don’t market to
• attempts to access secured areas
• links to files that don’t exist

10 – Backup Your Data

Don’t take the risk of losing your information, back it up regularly. We recommend daily, weekly and monthly backups that are stored locally and remotely. You’ll find that a good backup schedule will save a great deal of time, money and frustration should you ever lose your information.

About the Author

This article was written by Poldings Ltd who have been providing professional grade UK Web Hosting and UK Web Development services since 2001. Visit them online at …

http://www.poldings.co.uk

Entry Hosting | Home Hosting | Business Hosting

How the design of your site affects customer perception

If your website looks as though no thought went into the design, then the impression your customers will have is that your company does not care about its image. Good design improves customer perception of your company and shows you care about your image, your company and hence your customers. It also makes it easy for your visitors to navigate website pages and access information. Look at the website from the perspective of your customer, the site visitor, don’t add bells and whistles unless they help visitors to find what they are looking for and enhance their perception of your company. Sound effects, music and animated graphics that loop endlessly can distract from your content and may annoy site visitors, prompting them to go elsewhere.

Keeping in touch with customers

When did you last update your website? If it was ages ago then not only could your site drop down the search engine rankings but also your customers may assume that you have disappeared and will be less likely to re-visit your site. Updates tell visitors you are in-demand and give customers the perception that you are good at what you do. Tell them about the great projects you are involved in, about your new services and introduce them to new staff members.

A blog provides a way for you to build an on-line profile and write as often as you like. Blogging software lets you make your article live as soon as you hit the “publish” button. This enables you to react quickly to news stories and company events such as winning a big contract or completing a project and instantly inform your customers. Influencing customer perception by showing your capabilities and encouraging them to become your customers.

David Woodroofe
Mangaing Director
Create Design Studio
01962 737989
www.createdesignstudio.co.uk

Small businesses vary significantly in their size and in their energy buying expertise.

The probe identified that the smallest businesses struggle to engage in the energy market. So, Ofgem has introduced new rules to give them better protection. The majority of small businesses in Britain are micro-businesses and Ofgem’s reforms only apply directly to these companies.

Under the new rules a micro-business is defined as a company which*:

• consumes less than 200,000 kWh of gas a year, or

• consumes less than 55,000 kWh of electricity a year, or

• has fewer than ten employees (or their full-time equivalent) and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total not exceeding €2m. A business only has to meet one of these criteria to qualify as a micro-business customer.

Current arrangements

The amount of information micro-business customers receive about contract terms and conditions varies significantly depending on the supplier and how it markets its deals. The probe found that many micro-businesses do not receive the terms and conditions of their contract in writing, including those relating to notification windows. Notification windows typically start three to six months before the end of a contract. If customers don’t tell their supplier that they want to switch within this window, they may be unable to leave the supplier at the end of their contract term. As some customers do not have hard copies of the terms and conditions, a significant number of them are unaware of these windows and have been ‘rolled over’ onto new contracts without their knowledge.

New rules

Ofgem has introduced new rules on provision of the contract terms and conditions, and on contract roll-over. Before entering into a contract a supplier must explain the key terms and conditions to the customer, and make it clear that the contract is binding. This applies equally to contracts agreed by telephone or in person. Within ten days of a contract being agreed, or an existing contract being extended, (or as soon as reasonably practicable) the customer should receive written copies in plain language of the full terms and conditions and a statement of renewal terms (if the contract is of a fixed

length). Approximately 60 calendar days (but no longer than 120 calendar days) before the end of the fixed-term period, suppliers must send customers a statement of renewal terms and details of the key terms and conditions which apply if:

- the customer takes no action and the contract is rolled over, and

- the customer prevents their contract from being rolled over.

After receiving the statement of renewal terms the customer will have a notification window of approximately 30 calendar days to contact the supplier if they wish to switch or negotiate a new deal. If a supplier pitches new offers to a customer at least one of those must be in writing and valid until the end of the notice period. Where customers do not contact their supplier in writing during the notification window their contract can be automatically rolled over for a maximum length of 12 months (provided the supplier has already given the customer certain information such as a statement of renewal terms).

Customers who wish to avoid being automatically rolled over for a further fixed term period can now prevent this from happening by writing to their supplier at any point from when they agreed a fixed term contract until the end of the notification window. However, if a customer wishes to terminate or cancel the contract they must do so in accordance with the terms of the contract.

When do the new rules come into effect?

The new rules take effect from 18 January 2010 and will apply to all new contracts entered into on or after that date. The conditions will not apply retrospectively, meaning that for customers on existing contracts, the new rules will only begin to apply when the contract is extended on, or after that date.

Would you like to be part of such a group? Would you be willing to roll up your sleeves, to get stuck in, to play a part, to contribute and to learn?

If so, here’s your first step: come along to the Open Minded Days event on 29 April 2010. It’s called “How can we make the most of networking in this decade?” and it’s in a venue in Bracknell that’s easy to reach from the M3 and M4, that has stacks of free parking and that’s close to a train station.

The day will run in Open Space format, which means that there will be no Powerpoint, no keynote speeches, and no selling of solutions – just like-minded people working fruitfully together. You will help set a specific agenda and you will share the responsibility for executing it.

This day will spawn a series of events and activities that together will rapidly bring together a valuable commonly-owned networking resource.

Some of the UK’s top networkers have already signed up to take part in this exciting day, including Fraser Hay, Dave Clarke, Steven Healey, Nick Tadd, Vanessa Warwick [add to list when we can]

We’ll start work at 09.30 but doors will open at 08.30 for those who’d like to beat the rush, get in some extra networking – and grab a bite of breakfast. We’ll finish by 16.30.

Your contribution to the expenses of the day will be an £57 including VAT, Ths will include breakfast, teas & coffees, a buffet lunch, full proceedings of the event and access to the Body of Networking Knowledge.

Note: When we first became aware that the acronym of Body of Networking Knowledge is bonk, we considered avoiding the wording. But then we thought: hey, that could be memorable and anyway, it will be fun to have people asking how the bonking is going and so on. So, we proudly invite you to become part of creating an enormous bonk!

I am co-organiser of the event.

Successful branding helps to make sales easier because trust has been created between customer and organisation. Creating this kind of successful brand doesn’t happen overnight but it can be supported by making your organisation accessible to customers on the web.

A blog is a type of online diary, often used by businesses to publish articles about issues and events relevant to their industry that will be of interest to their customers and their peers. It can be hosted separately from your main website or the free blogging software can be installed on your web-server to integrate your website and your blog. Some smaller companies or freelance workers only have a blog as the software is versatile and can be used in a similar way to a traditional website with pages for services, products and contact information. You can update your blog as often as you like and as soon as you hit the ‘Publish’ button your articles are live on the web and can be indexed by search engines.

Blog-posts can be effectively promoted through the use of the social networking site Twitter where users write their current status in messages of 140 characters or less. These messages can contain hyperlinks that direct readers to your blog post, your website or to any other online resource you want to promote.

Your Twitter status can also be linked so it updates your Facebook status and your status on the Ecademy business networking site, meaning you only have to write updates once and all the people who ‘follow’ you will be informed. If you are trying to spread the word out about a new product or service it is obvious that linking your updates this way could provide an effective and low-cost way to promote them online.

These websites can also prove useful in other ways. By posting questions to those in your network others can respond quickly with personal recommendations and links to information resources. Additionally, social networking can enable you to keep in touch with friends and business contacts you may not often be able to meet up with in-person due to geography or lack of time.

Social networking has received coverage in the mainstream media and on the BBC news website an article by Claire Prentice explains how small firms are harnessing social networking for their marketing. As many small firms cannot afford to spend large sums on advertising they have turned to the social networking websites to reach a global audience with a minimal cost. Promoting special offers, new services and even to fill cancelled appointments at the last minute, updates on Twitter or Facebook build trust between customers and your organisation because they know the information comes from the source.

Social networking sites invite your customers to enter into dialogue with your company and the feedback you receive can be used to improve your services. However, your organisation also becomes open to criticism. Approach criticism as a chance to improve your service and potentially win back a customers and even this aspect of social networking for business use can have a positive outcome.

Are you new to social networking online? Here’s some tips on how to begin:

Online social networking site http://www.twitter.com, uses short messages to help you stay in touch with other twitter users and http://www.facebook.com is a full social networking site that allows you to upload photos, update your status and instant message other friends online at the same time as you.

Business networking sites include http://www.ecademy.comwhich is a large site with users from all over the world with clubs and regional networking groups you can join. You may also like to look at http://www.linkedin.com for opportunities to network with other professionals.

If you’d like to start your own blog visit: http://www.wordpress.com. Try reading a few blogs to see the breadth of writing that exists on the web. You can search Google for blogs or you can visit a blog search engines like http://www.technorati.com which has a list of 100 top blogs to browse. Also try http://mashable.com for blogs about the world of social media online and a series of articles on ‘How to’ that should help you if you are struggling to use any of the sites mentioned in this article.

Create Design Studio have a dedicated service for those of you who would like to start your own blog but don’t know where to begin. Setting up blogs on your existing website, designing the pages, showing you how to login and write articles as well as using Google Analytics to see how well your blog is doing. Call Create Design Studio’s Managing Director David Woodroofe on 01962 737989 if you would like to discuss having your own blog.

If you decide to take the plunge why not look up Charlotte Lamb, Creative Director at Create Design Studio, on Twitter by searching for @charlotte_lamb to read Charlotte’s Tweets on Graphic design. Or visit the Create Design Studio website to find out how we can help you with web design, graphic design or e-marketing.

To many networking groups take themselves to seriously and loose the true essence of networking, people talking to people. Sure we have had our serious moments when collectively talking about business issues, but we have always ended the meetings with a laugh and a joke.

I am really pleased with the contacts I have made in 2009 at A4B and the work that has flowed from them.

See you on the 6th Jan 2010 for a Full English.

Thank you all

David Woodroofe, Managing Director of Create Design Studio, Bishops Sutton, Hampshire.

First Essential Thought

Regardless of what you do, always do it with consideration to the person who will be using it. In the case of your website, create it with the site visitor in mind.

The Web Design

Okay, so when someone visits your new website, you want them to be impressed by the way it looks. Their first impression of how your site looks can make or break their interest so it’s important to get your design right.

Your design should …

- be appealing
- reflect your market
- compliment your product
- support your company profile

Picking a Designer

There are lots of designers offering services at a range of prices and at different levels of quality but here are a few things to consider when selecting one.

Your designer should …

- be someone who you feel comfortable working with
- be available at the end of the telephone when you need them
- be available to meet face to face should you want to
- have a portfolio of previous work
- provide a clear, easy to understand quotation for the project
- work to within the agreed price and timescale

Building the Site

When you have a design that you’re happy with, the next step is to have it turned into a working website. We recommend that all the same elements of picking a designer should go into selecting a person to build your site but with some additional criteria.

Your website should …

- be 100% cross browser compatible
- ideally be hand built by a professional
- not use an off-the-shelf script that limits functionality
- allow you to edit every key part of the site content and images

Website Content

When you’ve had your website built, you’ll want to start filling the pages with new content. Whilst the design of your website is the first impression a visitor gets, the content of your website is the enduring message they take away. When writing your content, be aware that people don’t read websites, they scan them.

Your content should …

- qet your message across quickly
- use headlines and subtitles and bold text
- avoid fluffy words that dilute the real message
- be written with your customer in mind

Website Usability

One of the biggest issues facing any online business is how to make the website easy to use. Whilst the design and build may be great, if there has been no thought to usability then the return on your effort could be minimal.

Your website should …

- use the same navigation principles throughout
- have clear ‘call to action’ / ‘what next’ buttons
- always provide a link back to the home page
- use clearly recognisable buttons and link styling
- provide a breadcrumb trail to show the user where they are
- display your contact details with a valid phone number

Don’t Forget Your Host

It’s always surprising that people are willing to spend money on their web design but not on their web hosting. The design is important but it’s the hosting service that delivers your site to the world. Why would you want to cut costs on the most important part of the project? A good hosting service is a must have for any business that’s serious about projecting a quality image online.

Your host provider should …

- host your website on servers that are in the same country as you
- provide a 100% uptime service (or as near as possible)
- have a proven history of being a stable company
- provide telephone support in a timely manner

Website Visitors’ Perspective

When a person visits your website, the thought process and considerations go something like this …

- how quickly does it load?
- what does it look like?
- what does it sound like?
- what do I do next?

If your website fails to answer any of these questions to the visitors satisfaction then you’ve not only lost their interest but also their business. Remember, the competition is only a click away!

About The Author

This article was written by Poldings Ltd who have provided web hosting, web design and web development services to UK customers since 2001. Visit us online at …

http://www.poldings.co.uk