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FREE Advice on How Social Media Can Help Your Business

Hi everyone,

I came across this really useful link to a series of downloadable small business guides on how Social Media can help grow your business.  Take a look!

http://www.facebook.com/dellsocialmedia


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What keeps you awake at night?

This is the title of a blog posting of Robert Craven, SME marketing guru.  It’s an interesting observation and there are some helpful links from his blog page.

http://robert-craven.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-keeps-you-awake-at-night.html

 

 

What keeps me awake at night is most often trying to align work commitments with home and parenting commitments or, put another way, how to squeeze another 6-hours into every day!  

What is it that keeps you awake at night?


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10 Ways to get coverage in your local media

If you want to attract customers locally, you could pay for an advert in your local newspaper or radio station. But, as a number of RTS entrepreneurs are discovering, getting into the editorial sections of local media has more credibility and greater impact with potential customers, to say nothing of being free!

Have you managed to get any free editorial coverage?  Did it win your business any enquiries? I’d love to hear about your experiences.

In the meantime, below are some tips to get free coverage in your local media.

 1. Get to know your local media. Familiarise yourself with your local newspapers’, magazines’ and radio stations’ audiences, get to know how their content varies from day to day and section by section and, crucially, learn what their deadlines are. You should also note the names of writers, editors and broadcasters who produce material that might appeal to your customers.

  (more…)


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Free advertising - on Radio AGAIN !!!!!

Dave Monk on BBC Essex was talking about “Free Loaders” on benefits. I sent an e-mail telling him my views on the benefits system. I also told him I went to Exeter to do a training course on Service and Repair of clocks and set up my own business.

Dave précisied my e-mail and read out the bit about me setting-up Tiptree Clocks and business was beginning to pick up. Now wait and see if I get any work from it?

Does anyone else use this “Free?” service. If you listen to radio stations similar to BBC Essex where there are discussions with audience participation there are opportunities to contribute to the discussion and get the business mentioned. I have now managed to do this three times in the last three to four months and, whilst the response has not been overwhelming, I have had two jobs from it and perhaps others will remember when they need a clock repaired, so it is worth the effort.

From Jim Tiptree Clocks www.tiptreeclocks.co.uk/


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The Power of Radio

 

The Power of Media

 

I was listening to BBC Essex online and they were asking for responses to retiring. I sent an e-mail to say I had been made redundant, had no intention of being put out to pasture, went to Exeter and did the clock course and set up my own business servicing and repairing clocks

 

Good old Graham Bannerman said on air he received my e-mail and mentioned Tiptree Clocks and the web address several times. To pay for that sought of exposure on air would normally cost a fortune but to get the company mentioned several times in less than a minute was an excellent piece of free advertising?? Now wait and see if anything comes of it.

 

Less than two hours after being mentioned on BBC Essex I had a phone call from a potential  Client who has a striking clock (that doesn’t  strike at the right time?) he wants repaired. He will phone me next week

 

So try getting your name mentioned on the radio. Getting just one customer from it makes it worthwhile.

 

Jim

Tiptree Clocks

 


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Increased late filing penalties for annual company accounts

Increased late filing penalties for annual company accounts

The penalties for the late filing of annual company accounts rose as of 1 February 2009. The Companies Act 2006 provides that all companies must deliver annual accounts to the Registrar of Companies by the due date and that a late filing penalty will be payable if the accounts are delivered late. These penalties were introduced in 1992 to encourage limited company directors to file their accounts on time as this statutory information is required for the public record.

The February 2009 changes include an increase in penalties generally, a faster rate of increase for companies filing more than one month late and a doubling of the penalty when filing late two years in a row. Penalties now run to

  • £150 for filing up to a month late
  • £375 for 1-3 months
  • £750 for 3-6 months
  • and £1500 for more than 6 months late.

Penalties apply to flat management and dormant companies as well as trading companies.

It is vital that you make sure you allow enough time for your accounts to be filed within the period stated in the Companies Act and remember that penalties will not be waived for papers delayed in the post.

 


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