Moira M Beaton on speaking to market your business

Communication and public speaking coach Moira M Beaton gave an overview of her recommended methods for preparing and delivering a presentation. These videos were recorded at our Edinburgh lunch on the 25 March 2010.

Introduction to speaking to market your business (part 1/13)

Know your audience (part 2/13)

How to structure your talk (part 3/13)

Use the power of three (part 4/13)

Record yourself speaking (part 5/13)

Transcribe your talk in advance (part 6/13)

Don’t be word perfect (part 7/13)

How to deliver your talk (part 8/13)

Avoid ending with questions (part 9/13)

How coaching can help you improve (part 10/13)

How to deal with nerves (part 11/13)

The right role for PowerPoint (part 12/13)

Using eye contact effectively (part 13/13)

No comments | Trackback

Nuevo HR – terms and conditions of employment – getting it right first time

Julie Barnett from Nuevo HR, Glasgow explains the importance implementing staff contracts and handbooks correctly at the outset. This presentation was recorded on 2 March 2010 at The Restaurant Bar and Grill Glasgow.

Introduction to Nuevo HR (Part 1/13)

Introduction to contracts of employment (Part 2/13)

Type of contracts of employment (Part 3/13)

Written and verbal contracts (Part 4/13)

Statement of particulars (Part 5/13)

Standard contact of employment (Part 6/13)

Intellectual property (Part 7/13)

Clause for returning an over payment in a salary (Part 8/13)

Short term working (Part 9/13)

Contractual benefits (Part 10/13)

The importance of staff handbooks (11/13)

Employee rights at work (Part 12/13)

Smoking in the workplace (Part 13/13)

Comments (1) | Trackback

Action Coach Derek Mair explains how small strategic changes to a business can yield bigger profits

Action Coach Derek Mair, was the guest speaker at the Glasgow breakfast event at Marks Hotel on 10 February. Derek explained how the compounding effect can be applied  to business. By implementing some of the hundreds of strategies offered by Action Coach in the key areas of increasing leads, customers and average spend by 10% a company’s profits can be increased by over 60%. Derek also pointed out that success in business is not dependent on the economy,  but on your business philosophy and strategies.

No comments | Trackback

Do’s and don’ts for increasing your website’s ranking on Google

At our breakfast event on the 8 December 2009, Martin Jordan from Equator, Glasgow offered his top ten do’s and don’ts for increasing your website’s ranking on Google and other search engines. This list is by no means comprehensive, as Martin points out, there are over a hundred things you can do to improve the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of your website. For some companies it would be recommended to hire an experienced agency like Equator to do this for you.

  1. It’s better to point multiple URLs for your business at one website (eg. www.website.com, www.website.co.uk, www.website.net)
  2. Use Flash with moderation
  3. Use the browser’s title area to describe the page content
  4. Avoid complex and numerical web addresses
  5. Make the website navigation search engine friendly
  6. Target your site at a specific market. Don’t be too general, eg. hotels, cars, clothes, etc.
  7. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) should be considered at every stage
  8. Avoid SEO ‘tricks’ – Google will blacklist you
  9. Use Google’s free online web tools to improve your site
  10. Use Google’s free analytics for statistics and data

Part one

Part two

No comments | Trackback

Gerry Mulvenna explains to how maximise your mobile broadband

At the Business Grapevine event on the 26 November 2009, Gerry Mulvenna from MovingWiFi demonstated how to make the most of mobile broadband. While laptop internet connection devices (dongles) supplied by mobile phone networks work well most of the time, using an additional mobile router will give you a better connection and will allow you to connect to other mobile phone/internet networks. You can also create your own WiFi hotspot, thereby allowing other users to connect to your network. Gerry points out that OFCOM now provide mobile phone mast locations on their website. For more information and to purchase this product visit MovingWiFi.

Part 1

Part 2

Comments (1) | Trackback

Chard Gibson from SECAura demonstrates an internet based phone system

Chard Gibson from SECAura demonstrates an exciting new phone system which integrates your computer with you phone. The system can behave like a traditional internal ‘box on the wall’ phone system without being tied to one location. An IP phone is simply plugged into a broadband socket anywhere while retaining the geographic number(s) associated with it so that it is possible to have a presence in another location (home or abroad). Satellite offices, home workers, shop chains and even overseas offices can be integrated into a single system. The tool bar for your PC installs on internet explorer and Microsoft outlook to control the flow of calls, for example setting “in office busy” (one click on the tool bar) will send all incoming calls to voicemail or divert to another number except if the caller is an important client. All this without the capital cost of installing a phone system in your office and installing more phone lines, calls are significantly cheaper too! This demonstration was recorded at our Business Grapevine event on the 26 November 2009 at La Cantina, Leith, Edinburgh.
Part one

Part two

Comments (1) | Trackback

Stephen Ng from Cubic Design talks email marketing

Stephen Ng from Cubic Design kindly shared his expertise in email marketing at our breakfast event at the Corinthian Glasgow 4 November 2009.

Part 1. How to use Attention Interest Desire and Action (AIDA) in your email marketing

Part 2. How to avoid spam filters and general email marketing advice

Part 3. Design advice for email marketing

Part 4. Question & answer session

Comments (3) | Trackback

Signposter.com presentation 1 September 2009

Dominic Coupe from Signposter.com explained to guests at our first Glasgow event how businesses can benefit from affordable outdoor advertising.

Part one. Background to Signposter.com.

Part two. How Signposter.com works.

Part three. Question and answer session.

No comments | Trackback

“Only memory affects behaviour” is the key message at The Rhetorical Company’s talk

Attendees at The Business Grapevine event on the 30 July 09 were given a short talk on how to get their message across when speaking in public by Andrew Forbes from the The Rhetorical Company.

You can view Andrew’s talk in three parts below.

No comments | Trackback

Part one of Richard Thomson’s workshop 19 May 09

Richard Thomson of TW Associates delivers an interactive workshop on making the most of business networking at Chez Pierre, Edinburgh on the 19 May 2009. Parts two and three of this video can only be viewed by members of 6 Degrees Networking.

Comments (2) | Trackback