Off the wall but interesting……….

Being active on the web I get to hear about new services and web offerings.  One which caught my eye this week is Golden Hook, a company from Holland which lets you design your own hat and choose your own knitting granny!  The hat can be personalised with colour, length and style.  You then choose a granny to knit your hat and you can ask for a personally signed label, great for a gift and in the era of “clone shops” it makes shopping more personal.  The grannies all have short bios such as ”aged 48, 5 year grandson, likes dancing the zouk at Palmbeach, knits watching her favourite thrillers”.

I know several grannies locally in my area who are great knitters – Bradford is the Wool Capital of the World – so I can see advantages of this offering.  Their items are much treasured and appreciated.  I have never been a knitter myself but very much admire the craft and expertise that goes into it.  The web link is http://goldenhook.fr/en/home

PR and Advertising

This week I have been working on a project for one of our clients who are a PR consultancy specialising in the Building and Engineering sector.  One of the tasks they asked us to do was to obtain information on journals and magazines linked to Facilities Management.   I was surprised to see there were over 7 titles in circulation, there is a quite a big world of comment and information out there relating to the nuts and bolts of facility management!  The web has created opportunities for an increase in electronic journals as well as those in standard print.  There are apparently around 13,500 media titles in circulation in the UK.

If you do need to research media lists, contact details, audience/readership figures, advertising rates and production data then BRAD (British Rate & Data) is a good option – please see the link below.  Annual subscription costs £1350 giving access online, however you can also access the information for free at your local Central Library Business department if you just need the occasional piece of information.

http://www.bradinsight.com/productSubscription.asp

Another Bend in the Road of Life

This week one of my clients who has been with me since the early days recently qualified in hypnotherapy and yoga teaching.  During her time at college we have been helping her with the typing of her assignments and now she has progressed into becoming a consultant in her field, we have produced some client agreements, standard forms and also designed and printed her some fliers.   I was pleased when she rang me to say there had been initial interest in her classes at a fitness centre with the literature she had left.   What I find inspiring about this client is that she is aged 70 and still buzzing around with life and fizz!  It is very inspiring.

Also I read a quote this week which I found very apt and thought provoking - so you may have made your bed in your life but what is to say that you cannot get out of bed and remake it?

Useful Business Advice Forums

Wow what a cold and wintery week we are having but hey at least we are now in February and the lighter days should be with us!

I went to the Bradford meeting of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) last night and very helpful and informative it was.  There was a wide range of topics discussed from legal issues, environmental waste through to employment changes.

Also mentioned were two useful business advice forums where you can view past topics or pose a new one for helpful advice – one is the FSB Small Business Forum – http://www.fsb.org.uk/discuss/default.asp and the other is the AccountingWEB Discussion Page – http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/

I have used both myself in the past and found them very helpful.  The AccountingWEB questions are generally answered by qualified accountants so it can be very useful.

Enjoy!