Welcome to BizBlog!
September 8th, 2008Welcome to Bizpro’s blog! The home of tips, news, reviews, & info for small businesses & virtual assistants. Feel free to add your comments, and if you want to post a guest blog, email it here now!
Where have we been?
March 2nd, 2009It’s nearly two weeks since I last posted on the Bizpro blog, I’m really sorry if you missed me, but I’ve been doing some really exciting things which I will tell you more about in subsequent blogs. Normally I have a stream of additional posts I can put on here which I then ’schedule’ for different times throughout each week. This means my blog is regularly updated and no one is particularly any the wiser as to whether I am here or not…
But not this time…
The last two weeks have passed by in a blur of activity for Bizpro - exciting times. My new franchise recruitment campaign went live last Monday, so I was doing a fair amount of work towards getting that right, and boy, is it working! In one week I’ve had 475 applicants, so here I am now sifting through them and making calls. I’ve also been on the most exciting coaching course which I think deserves a whole new blog post - so watch this space for more…!
More useful sites!
February 18th, 2009Need to know that weight in old money? This site is great for all kinds of conversions.. http://www.metric-conversions.org
Wondered what that spanish document said? http://translationbooth.com
Want to make sure you have the most competitive quote? http://www.beatthatquote.com
Outsourcing Event Planning Makes Good Financial Sense
February 11th, 2009Small businesses can gain themselves some very big publicity by hosting events in the community. Unfortunately, most small businesses either don’t have the time or the budget to be able to pull off a bash that will get them noticed. Some firms, however, are discovering that outsourcing a bit of the work can help take the pressure off and still deliver an event that gets them the publicity desired.
Using a virtual assistant to help out with planning a networking meeting, a product release, a conference or other event can take a lot of the work out of the proposition and still gain a company some very positive public relations in the process.
SMALL BUSINESS UPDATE
February 9th, 2009by guest blogger Phil Hendy of Moore Stephens Chartered Accountants.
THE END OF PAPER VAT RETURNS?
HMRC’s VAT Notes 4 warn that the phasing out of paper VAT returns starts in just over a year from now. From April 2010 all businesses with annual VAT exclusive turnover will have to file their VAT returns online, and any business registering for VAT will move straight to electronic returns. Businesses making their returns online will also have to pay their VAT by direct debit, but this facility allows extra time for payment, so that the VAT is not paid until at least the 10th of the following month.
HMRC’s VAT Notes 4 warn that the phasing out of paper VAT returns starts in just over a year from now. From April 2010 all businesses with annual VAT exclusive turnover will have to file their VAT returns online, and any business registering for VAT will move straight to electronic returns. Businesses making their returns online will also have to pay their VAT by direct debit, but this facility allows extra time for payment, so that the VAT is not paid until at least the 10th of the following month.
Virtual Assistants Improve your Business Image.
February 6th, 2009One of the biggest things that separate big companies from their small competitors is the level of support enjoyed. Large companies are typically better staffed, which means they have the personnel necessary to perform a number of services that simply make big corporations look more professional to clients. Small business owners typically have to do all the work themselves or most of it. This leaves them scrambling and often looking less professional than they could. When it’s time to gain a big business advantage, even a company staffed by one can enjoy an edge if a virtual assistant is relied upon for help.
It’s a snow day…still business as usual for VA’s!
February 2nd, 2009Well, much of England is covered in snow and for many businesses this means a complete slowdown and sometimes a stop as far as productivity is concerned.
Why?
Because they are not geared up to cope without staff in their offices. When their staff aren’t able to make it in because of traffic chaos or rail disruptions their business could grind to a halt. It’s that serious, but it needn’t be a problem, and it needn’t be expensive to resolve. In fact, quite the opposite!
Bizpro’s Top Tip for organising your filing….
January 29th, 2009Making real use of suspension files….
A lot of people have suspension file holders in drawer units in their desks, and they use them for a myriad of different things, but right now I’m going to give you an idea of how to use them to organise your time more effectively by setting up daily & monthly rotating files. It’s a simple idea but it works well, and you can use this same philosphy on emails too.
Going virtual helps reduce your carbon footprint!
January 26th, 2009Treevestors.com defines Carbon Footprint as “A measure of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels. A carbon footprint is often expressed as tons of carbon dioxide or tons of carbon emitted, usually on an annual basis”
A recent BBC documentary, Britain from Above, quoted various statistics regarding Britain on the move. In any 24 hour period the documentary stated 36 million people are on the move, between 7.00am & 10.00am, almost 1 million of those are on the trains, and 15 million in private motor vehicles. The impact this has on Britain’s carbon footprint must be astounding. These figures do not include the daily flights going in and out of every airport, or the ferries travelling in and out of our ports. Public transport isn’t sufficient enough to keep our vehicles off the road, rising fuel costs and taxes isn’t really having a great effect either. So what is the answer?
Communication: an art form!
January 23rd, 2009Today I had the pleasure of talking to the communications officer of a well known London hospital. Interestingly enough, they felt the need to explain to me what communications is, and that a hospital porter may not communicate in quite the same way that a consultant surgeon would. They went on to give me a very ‘helpful’ analogy of borrowing money: ‘If I were to go to a relative stranger to borrow ten pounds, it would feel a lot less comfortable to me than asking a friend, and the words I would use would be different. Whilst I tried hard not to be offended by this ‘revelation’, the whole conversation got me thinking that even those that are paid to do communications for a role perhaps don’t always realise that communication is important on so many more levels than just talking!
3 More useful websites…
January 20th, 2009If you want to start recording your own audio books or record dictation, check out Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ It’s very easy to use and editing your audio is a cinch, a Great time saver!
Don’t know the answer to your Office question? An absolute must is www.officefrustration.com, it’s an experts forum packed with useful tips and ideas on how to get the most out of the Microsoft range of office applications.
www.businessballs.com - a wealth of business tools, templates and materials - all for free!
