August 2011 Blog Posts (20)

With benefit cuts and the failure of the government's Mortgage Rescue Scheme, homeowners must understand that they cannot rely on state help alone if they lose their income.

The Mortgage Rescue Scheme was intended to help 6,000 households struggling to pay their mortgage: in its first two years it has helped just 2,600.

Not only that, but the scheme is over budget, with…

... and she shot me too - at our wedding on the 13th August (after 11 years together)!

Trish is a brilliant photographer and I highly recommend her services to you all. Luckily, the sun shone on our wonderful day with a lovely boat trip along the River Thames with lots of champagne, canapees and BBQ, followed by a…

Well if you look at government guidelines (and some people do) you’ll see it says you need to exercise five times a week for 30 x minutes at a time.

However it’s definition of exercise can also mean gardening and walking which unless you’re hugely overweight or incredibly lazy isn’t really going to get you anywhere.…

To really be in shape the answer is yes!

If you really want to get into the shape you desire then cardio, love it or loathe it, is essential.

But that doesn’t mean you have to do three hour jogs around the park…

With the advent of the Age Discrimination legislation in 2006, it was only a matter of time before the practice of "enforced" retirement at a specific age became unlawful.  So now that the "default retirement age" of 65 has disappeared, how can employers help older people exit their businesses fairly and with dignity?

Voluntary resignation

Clearly the best outcome is where the person decides to retire of their own volition.  Keep your…

More than three-quarters of people are happy for their parents or grandparents to use equity release to help fund their retirement, despite property being seen as a key part of inheritance, according to recent research.

It revealed that the topic of inheritance remains taboo, with 63% of Britons having not or refusing to talk…

The Amber Foundation is a charity in Surrey that helps homeless and unemployed young people aged 17-30 from across Surrey and beyond, to turn their lives around get back on their feet and back into employment or education.

Many of these young people have come from a difficult background, which has led them to making some bad choices early on in their life. For some of…

Human Resources outsourcing used to be only for large corporates trying to reduce their headcount and cost bases. Nowadays many smaller companies are waking up to the fact that having a specialist external HR resource available as and when you need them can be more practical than having a  general function in-house.

Even relatively small companies have been…

Being an ex -family law solicitor, my initial response is no no and no!…

Chris over at Networking in Berkshire has been approached by Caroline Morris of Sky TV who is looking for contestants for a new show, and I thought the NiS crowd might be interested. There's nothing in it for us - just a bit of fun, as Rob Brydon would say!  Here's Caroline's  email and the application form - feel free to pass on the details:…

Being fit means different things to different people.

Everyone has their own definition of fitness and what it means to them, whether it’s to be able to walk up the stairs without getting out of breath, running 10k, rowing 1000m, cycling without stopping for 20 minutes, playing tennis or being able to lift weights for a sustained amount of time in the…

Having defined your job, examined your organisational culture and management style, and decided what your ideal candidate is like, now you just have to find that person!

To give yourself the greatest chance of success, you need to make the best possible use of the tools at your disposal:

• The Advert: whether online or…

Lenders continue to cut fixed mortgage rates in an attempt to get borrowers to switch away from their variable rate deals.

The latest research has revealed the average five-year fixed mortgage rate has fallen below 5% for the first time since records began in 1988.

While the average…

Have you ever taken on an employee whose CV looked really good and who performed well at interview, but who didn’t work out in the role?  How much trouble did that cause you, and do you wish you’d done things differently?  

Getting the right people into your organisation

This is arguably one of the most important tasks you face.  But “the right people” doesn’t just mean “good people”; because putting a good…

Hi, I'm Mara and I have just joined the network. 

As a relative newcomer to self-employment, I find networking events both useful and enjoyable.  What is so refreshing is that the people I meet are so helpful and supportive; it's very different from the corporate world where nobody has time to share their wisdom with you.  There's so much to learn when you're out on your own, you have to do your own…

If you're a cricket enthusiast, why not be one of the first to Zip Slide across the Kia Oval Cricket Ground, for a bird's eye view and help to raise funds for Arthritis Research UK...

Home of the Surrey County Cricket Club, the Kia Oval offers a thrilling 500ft zip slide, launching from the roof terrace of the OCS stand, 75 ft above the pitch,…

I've just received an email from Business Link with a link to a page on their website giving an overview of Social Media for business in the Q&A format...

1. Do you want to know what your customers are saying about you online?

2. Do you want to hold customer conversations online? 

3. Do you want to…

Summer is the best time to think about solar water heating! 

Solar water heating harnesses free power from the sun and can provide around one third of the hot water requirements for an average family home. Whilst they work best on warm sunny days, modern solar systems will heat up water all year around, even on cloudy, overcast days in winter. Solar water heating is perhaps one of the most affordable active…

This is supposed to be the silly season! You know the routine – no real news as such, politicians on holiday, headlines about escaping pigs, celebrity divorces, and Branson up in a balloon somewhere. Instead, we have riots and looting on the streets of London, America heading for Skid Row, and famine in the Horn of Africa. The world’s all over the place, and listening to the news is a sobering…

Before you even start thinking about domain names, hosting and website design you need to think about your online marketing strategy. It’s rather like thinking about the foundations before you pick out the curtains.

Before you pick up the phone and call a web design team have a think about the following points because your web designer will be asking you for the answers. Of course, if they…