Are you exposed to Foreign Currency?

Wipe the smile off your bank's face next time you have to a large currency deal. How? By getting http://www.fxstreet.com/rates-charts/live-charts/ on your PC and call the bank whilst you are looking at the live data. Just see how much you are being charged! Start talking to them about how many "pips" they are going to charge you for the transaction. You should be around 30 for £200K.Bear in mind that currencies are written 1.xxyy, where yy are the last 2 digits and would be where you add or subtract your 30 pips. I would love to hear of any significant savings made.

Stopping the "Sicky"

So you have an employee that always seems to be sick on Mondays? It's almost impossible to prove whether they are sick or not. However, as a concerned employer, you can pay for them to have a full medical, with the emphasis on full. I would suggest obtaining the latest advice from an HR professional before taking action because when we used this in one of my businesses, it was a few years ago and HR legislation changes all the time. The threat of a medical normally has an amazing curative effect though!

How to tell if your advertising budget is being wasted

As you may have heard, 90% of all advertising is a waste of time so when the Yellow Pages person comes to flog you another very expensive advert, you may want to be armed with data for the previous year. The old line of "If you took half a page instead of 1/4 page you would get much better results" just doesn't wash. How can you analyse response? Obtain an 0800/0845 number for each advert that you place and also use a different email address for each advert. Map the 08XX number to a different telephone number or line and you have a simple analysis. If someone rings 0800 123567 then it's Brighton directory. If they call 0800 567890, it's London. You can get these numbers free and if you want any, just drop me a response to this or use the enquiry form at http://www.mentornet.co.uk/contact.html

Effect of Blogs and Twitter on Web Site Hits

I have been experimenting with this blog and posting this automatically to Twitter. What I have found astonishing is the massive ramp up in hits to my web site and subsequent enquiries. In fact, August isn't over yet and I already have doubled my average hits (4315 at the time of writing. So if you are thinking of blogging, I would put some time aside because it's not completely intuitive but worth the investment in time. I am contemplating producing a training video so if there is sufficient interest, it might force me to do it.

If you do create a blog, don't forget to put the link in your email signature. It's a plug each time you send an email. www.mentornet.co.uk

Just experimenting with Video in my blog

Just experimenting with Video in my blog

Using Goal Seek in Excel

I have just completed a short video and uploaded an Excel file to show how Goal Seek can be used to great effect. Simply put, you can decide on the end result required and get Excel to recalculate a field to make the desired end result. Brilliant but little used. Find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyyamRWQxqU

Low Cost Marketing in a Recession

I have just posted an updated version of this document at http://www.mentornet.co.uk/downloads.html. It now includes more online marketing ideas.