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Thursday, 26 February 2009

Unemployed: Can job centres benefit from the private sector experience?

With the recent news that unemployment has reached nearly 2 million, it has been revealed that Job Centres cannot cope with the quantity and quality of workers coming through their doors. They are being criticised for not providing an adequate service for highly skilled, white collar professionals and the Government has announced that private companies will work alongside traditional job centres to redress this issue during the recession. I’m not sure we could expect local Job Centres, who are perhaps more used to placing lower skilled workers, to rise to the challenge of understanding the needs and markets of the more accomplished employees. Perhaps those white collar workers should look to retraining to find a suitable job. Do you think its right that recruitment agencies are being asked to work with the job centres?

Labels: job centre, jobs, recruitment, retaining, unemployment, virtual assistant, virtual assistant training, virtual pa, virtual pa training

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Tuesday, 24 February 2009

The Oscars, what a joy – but do you agree with the results?

The Oscar news is great; the Brits did really well, with Kate Winslet finally winning her golden statue after 5 previous nominations and ‘Slumdog’ with a huge haul of eight Oscars including best director and best picture. My favourite dress of the night was Ms Winslet (again!) in her beautiful two-tone Yves Saint Laurent dress; she looked so elegant – with not a tear in sight. I haven’t seen all the films that were nominated (sometimes its difficult to find time to get to the cinema), but I am pleased that the British representatives did so well. Do you agree with the winners? And what about the fashion; not much ‘bling’ in evidence this year, presumably due to the recession? What are your thoughts on this year’s Oscars?

Labels: bling, entertainment, films, Hollywood, Oscars, virtual assistant, virtual assistant training, virtual pa, virtual pa training

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Monday, 23 February 2009

Panorama: Are banks doing enough to support small businesses?

I don’t work for the BBC, but I saw this and thought it could be worth watching and worth telling my blog readers about it too. It’s a Panorama programme looking at small businesses like ours. More than 100 small businesses are shutting up shop each day, according to the Federation of Small Businesses, which predicts some 30,000 firms will have gone bust by the end of this year. In an attempt to turn the tide, the government has come up with proposals including the £1.3bn Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme to throw small businesses a lifeline. Dragon's Den star Theo Paphitis, examines whether the banks are doing enough to support small businesses.

Watch it tonight: Monday 23 February BBC One 8.30pm: Panorama: Credit Where It's Due

Labels: BBC, Panorama, small business, training, virtual assistant, virtual assistant training, virtual pa, work

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Friday, 13 February 2009

Training, I just love it. What part of your work do you enjoy?

I’ve just done another one of my training workshops this week, I really love doing them. It’s such a great opportunity to enthuse people about working for themselves. Whilst it takes a lot of effort on my part, in terms of organising, administration, travel and post-event activities; but once I’m there in front of my trainees, I get real energy from the whole thing. I usually come home feeling exhausted but fired up too! It’s the same, whether I’m doing one-to-one training or in front of a group. Is there anything in your business that gives you energy and fulfilment? What do you enjoy about your work?

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The credit crunch: the upside!

The news seems to be getting even gloomier on the global recession. Interest rates are down to an historic all-time low of 1%; which is great if you’ve got loans and mortgages, although not so hot if you are a saver! However, I want to put my stake down to say that I am doing really well; I’ve got more clients and continually get calls and enquiries about work. I support small companies and traders with my virtual assistant business, so perhaps I am in a good business, providing office support without staff costs. What other business is doing well? What are the upsides for you in this recession – are you doing well?

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Tweet, tweet – Are you a twitter?

So, Stephen Fry is an active user, Barak Obama has over quarter of a million followers – and now I’m online with Twitter! If you don’t know what all the fuss is about (or maybe you haven’t even heard of it), Twitter is a unique approach to communication and networking based on the simple concept of status. What are you doing? What are your friends doing—right now? I will be running a series of tele-seminars so you can learn how Twitter can bring you more business – check out my marketplace listings soon! Are you on Twitter yet? Are you enjoying the experience?

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Thursday, 12 February 2009

The weather – is this global warming?

If it’s not snowing (the biggest flakes I ever saw on Sunday night), it’s raining and cold, which turns to sheet ice overnight. I’m never sure whether my daughter can get to school, or my staff can make it to work! On the flipside, the wild fires in Australia look awful, even more so if the rumours about arsonists following nature are true. Whole towns have disappeared, whole areas devastated, the resultant landscape is catastrophic. I don’t profess to know anything about global warming, and I don’t really want to start a debate about it in this blog; I just wanted to know whether this weather is what we can expect from now on – the wild variations?

Labels: arson, become a virtual assistant, fire, global warming, ice, snow, virtual assistant, virtual pa, weather

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Tuesday, 10 February 2009

St Valentine’s Day – What do you think?

So here we are, a few days from St Valentine’s day. The gift shops are stuffed to the gutters with heart shaped offerings, and the card shops the same - a bit gruesome, if Wikipedia’s explanation is to be believed! There are all sorts of Valentine-themed events, whether its dances and balls or singles nights at the local supermarket. Probably the only worthwhile things are the charity events, such as the Kiss for Bliss. The special care baby charity are organising a World Record attempt to form the longest kiss chain in London. But what do you think of Valentines Day? Great as a focus for consumer businesses in their post-New Year promotions; or blatant commercialisation of tradition.

Labels: charity event, commercialism, hearts, promotion, Valentine, virtual assistant, virtual assistant training, virtual pa, virtual pa training

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Monday, 9 February 2009

Move to cap top US executives pay – will it catch on here?

The new US president is about to impose a ceiling on the executive pay of companies who have received a US taxpayer bail-out. The ceiling will be $500,000 (around £350,000) - or $100,000 more than President Obama receives! This seems to be a measure to placate the American public, outraged that these executives still received their huge payouts after the State rescue. However, the move is an initial step in a wider attempt to overhaul executive pay practices. This is something that has been much discussed in the UK; what do you think, should executives from ‘rescued’ companies still receive bonuses and exalted pay?

Labels: America, employees, executives, Obama, pay, state rescue, usa, virtual assistant, virtual assistant training, virtual pa, virtual pa training

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Wednesday, 4 February 2009

Snow stops play! Did it affect your business?

So it snowed in Britain this week; schools were closed (much to the kids’ delight), motorways shut; thousands of people didn’t make it into their place of work –allegedly costing businesses millions of pounds. I am very fortunate, as I do not have far to travel to get to work, and so was at my desk at 8.30am as usual on Monday morning. I am thankful that I didn’t have to go into London, as it appears there were no buses or taxis available either! Have the severe weather conditions affected your business?

Labels: buses, millions, schools., snow, travel taxi, virtual assistant, virtual assistant training, virtual pa, virtual pa training, weather

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Thursday, 26 February 2009

Unemployed: Can job centres benefit from the private sector experience?

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Tuesday, 24 February 2009

The Oscars, what a joy – but do you agree with the results?

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Monday, 23 February 2009

Panorama: Are banks doing enough to support small businesses?

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Friday, 13 February 2009

Training, I just love it. What part of your work do you enjoy?

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The credit crunch: the upside!

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Tweet, tweet – Are you a twitter?

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Thursday, 12 February 2009

The weather – is this global warming?

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Tuesday, 10 February 2009

St Valentine’s Day – What do you think?

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Monday, 9 February 2009

Move to cap top US executives pay – will it catch on here?

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Wednesday, 4 February 2009

Snow stops play! Did it affect your business?

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