Previous customers rave about the professionals you will find on CertainShops
SUZY’S DIARY
How could this happen to me? My first night in my Nicaraguan ergonomic hammock had gone well – or so I had thought. I awoke with horror to find myself twisted up like a spun thread, inextricably cocooned in natural cotton hand woven bonds. Thank goodness for CertainShops – professionals online.
Stretching for my IPhone I was able to go online and, determined to make a positive out of a seemingly negative situation, I contacted an IPR lawyer to find out how to register my latest invention – a quick release cord for people trapped in unruly hammocks. By the time I had contacted a website marketer to discuss how to promote my new invention on the internet, requested a quote for an integrated blog (there must be others who have shared this awful experience, surely?), and contacted a holistic counsellor to help me with the trauma of my entrapment, my children had discovered me and taken the opportunity to ‘borrow’ my IPhone for an hour while they cut through the hammock ropes with the speed of a gnawing hampster.
Tonight, I shall be sleeping with a sharp instrument close at hand.
PROFESSIONAL SPOTLIGHTS
Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning
Jaci Godman Irvine/Estate Legacy Services
Member KCC Buy With Confidence Scheme
Asking the right questions:
Making a Will is not easy – it means facing up to one’s own mortality. However, the consequences of either no Will or the the wrong kind of Will can mean loss of the family home to pay for Long Term Care Fees, a large Inheritance Tax bill or the possibility of financial hardship for the spouse.
When a marriage or civil partnership is breaking up, updating a will is usually the last thing on anyone’s mind – but even so, there are some questions that are worth asking:
Do you know what effect a divorce or dissolution has on a previously written will?
Do you know what effect remarriage or a Civil Partnership has on a present will?
What happens if you are separated but not divorced?
What are the consequences of not having a will?
Starting over can be a time of multiple emotions. There will be frustration, excitement, despair and anticipation to name just a few and certain issues will either be ignored or procrastinated over. A will is a subject that most of us do not like to think about at the best of times, however, it is possibly one of the most important documents that you should be thinking about at a time like this.
If you would like some advice on wills, trusts and probate, contact Jaci Godman Irvine and she can advise you.
As special invitation to find out all about something very useful which I wanted to share with you….
This is a special invitation to join our QuoteWerks Webinar on Wednesday 28 May 2008 between 11.00 am and 12.00 pm BST.
Find out how QuoteWerks can benefit Certain Shops and the subscribers to this newsletter.
Just click on the link below to register
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/355610100
QuoteWerks enables companies in every industry to create detailed quotes with speed and efficiency. If you want to save time and money when quoting, selling, ordering, and purchasing products and services you need QuoteWerks
Benefits of QuoteWerks:
Accurate and consistent pricing across the business
Find existing jobs quickly
Produce accurate report
Centralise your quotes
Comprehensive links to accounting / CRM packages [especially ACT!]
Enhanced security
Efficiency and effectiveness of producing quotes
Consistent professional looking documents
Creating price quotes is the initial step towards making a sale. Yet, this necessary step can be tedious and time consuming; researching product, pricing, and details from multiple vendors. You may even need to create several different quotes for one specific client. And, after all the time used to create the perfect quote, the customer may decide not to place an order. Since the creation of price quotes requires an investment of time, and since not all quotes are converted into orders, it quickly becomes important for users to streamline the quoting process in order to realize a tremendous time saving.
Feel free to register via the link above for the webinar or talk directly with Jan Brown to find out more….
THE CERTAIN WAY OF LIVING LIFE
“What’s the latest news?”
CertainShops – professionals online in association with
Sparkle & Wow Planning and Event Design Ltd presents:
The Starting Over Show – Brighton 2008
The first event of its kind in the UK
Saturday 11 October 2008 at Brighton Race Course
The Vision….
Dramatic events turn lives around – and with the right support and advice new beginnings blossom for those contemplating divorce, civil partnership break ups, or any major life crisis.
Access to legal and financial advice, backed up by physical and emotional support, requires choosing trusted professionals at a susceptible time.
The Brighton Starting Over Show will be a haven to anyone seeking solicitors, financial advice, or well-being professionals who can help make the transition from an old life ending, to a brand new one just beginning.
What do we live for; if it is not to
make life less difficult for each other?
George Eliot (1819-1880)
My boys Joe and Henry at their Dad’s wedding Brighton 2007 – me (Suzy) in the background – still starting over……
Exhibitor Information Pack
T: 02088167281
M: 07825222404
E: suzy@startingovershow.co.uk
“How is People Power transforming the web?”
We all know that ‘top down’ doesn’t work, but we all complain that trying to create change from the bottom up can often feel futile. Which is probably why revolutions so often resort to using violence.
Thanks to a tweet from @Damiano this morning, I found myself reading the Guardian article: People power transforms the web in next online revolution which is based on Charles Leadbeater’s book “We Think: Mass Innovation, Not Mass Production”. An acclaimed thinker on technology, Leadbeater explains how net users are, by banding together, changing every aspect of our lives.
And those ‘net users’ are us. So the way I see it is, we have not just the opportunity, but the responsibility to bring about change in our society and the way we run our businesses and the way our children are educated, from the bottom up, but with one BIG difference.
What the net allows, and encourages, is collaboration. A few disgruntled cititzens are going to have trouble changing government policy, but Political ‘flash mobs’ have already swung elections in Spain, the Philippines twice and South Korea, by collaborating on mass via the Internet.
The US is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a war to bring democracy to Iraq. Yet only 4 per cent of people in the Arab world have broadband access. The most potent way to promote democracy in the Middle East would be to get that figure above 50 per cent.
If ingenious games designers can inspire thousands of people to collaborate to solve a puzzle, could we do something similar to tackle global warming, keep communities safe, provide support for the elderly, help disaster victims, lend and borrow money, conduct political and policy debates, teach and learn, design and make physical products?
My laptop only runs Ubuntu (Windows Professional XP died and I’ve not yet bothered to get it fixed). Ubuntu is a free open source operating system from Linux, with no need for virus protection because it’s so well built and constantly updated for free.
The Linux community is the most impressive example of sustained ‘We Think’. A version of Linux released in June 2005 had 229 million lines in its source code that would have taken 60,000 man-years to develop at a cost of perhaps $8bn. Every day most people who use the web rely on open source: Google’s servers run on Linux; most websites rely on servers running the open-source Apache program. Open source could in time provide a model for other areas of life, for example turning We Think into We Make.
The part of the article that most caught my attention was this: “If we could persuade 1 per cent of Britain’s pupils to be player-developers for education, that would be 70,000 new sources of learning. But that would require us to see learning as something more like a computer game, something that is done peer-to-peer, without a traditional teacher.”Having home schooled in the past, I know that learning is a collaborative process, if any real learning is to take place. I remember a staunch resistance from my daughter Cydney at my ‘lesson plan’ – so we chucked that idea and I asked her what SHE wanted to learn about. She wanted to make cakes. She did a lot of cooking, and learnt to read (cookery books), maths (measuring), science and nutrition – even geography and history can be drawn in around the kinds of foods you are creating (she was keen on making different breads too).
Apart from already cooking whole meals aged 11 while mummy is ‘too busy’ on the computer, Cyd is like most children – naturally keen to learn and share. Somehow many of us lose that natural urge as we grow older, and people new to the idea of open source software look aghast and confused at why anyone would create something for no direct payment and then give it away. In the same way many business people are still scared of the ‘danger’ of online social networking, sharing personal stuff, being helpful to other professionals without a contra-deal in place.
And yet big corporations understand that communication and collaboration are key to creativity and growth, which is one of the reasons why companies like Deloitte encourage employees to use Facebook groups.
How about this for a rebel action….. hang around outside schools giving out wifi enabled internet mobile phones and encourage the kids to create their own curriculum via a wiki? Maybe some have already started?
I am currently researching a sustainability policy for CertainShops by collaborating with others, like Sam Wilson of EcoEvents and Lorraine Bell of Simply CSR. It has been suggested by a commenter on one of my blogs to put out the draft as a wiki so others can collaborate and we can share the results, encouraging many small businesses to create their own policies.
Watch this space…..
@suzymiller
Why journalists are using Twitter
Businessballs is a free ethical learning and development resource for people and organizations, run by Alan Chapman, in Leicester, England.
Charities using social network sites
For more general articles on business related topics check out Suzy Says
READER OFFERS
10% Discount for CertainShops readers for a wonderful holiday in Spain in a former Buddhist retreat in a natural park in the hills above Granada.
La Pena is a beautiful building in a natural park in the mountains of southern Granada. It comes with 22 acres of land with olive and almond trees and offers amazing views over the mountains with distant views of the sea. It offers the perfect tranquil getaway and antedote to city dwelling. La Pena is also a 40 minute drive from the coast and about a 45 minute drive from Granada city. Granada and Malaga airports are also quite close by.
In addition to the Certain Shops offer we are also offering ten percent off for anyone who books before the end of Febuary 2007, a further eco offer for anyone taking the train to get there and if that wasn’t enough ten percent for each person you recommend that results in a confirmed booking. If you get enough that means your stay is free!
Please see www.lapena.co.uk for information on this very special place.
In the Frame
For any CertainShops newsletter readers who commission me to take their photos, be it corporate or domestic, I can offer them a FREE large size, panoramic canvas print of one of the photographs of their choice.
Special offers from our Client Members
FREE LAPTOP with ‘s best value Broadband Service from the Utility Warehouse
This amazing package offers all the benefits of BroadCall, and a free high-spec Fujitsu Siemens laptop. It is available to all existing and new customers who have at least one energy service with us. The laptop even comes with a free lifetime extended warranty (for as long as you remain connected to BroadCall Laptop tariff).
Contact Client Member Cath Godsen, via http://www.paperpig.co.uk
Free Coaching with NLP Session!
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a proven and highly effective method
of enabling people to achieve what they really want in their work and
private lives. Combined with coaching, the results can be astonishing.
Heather Barrie (a client) said, “Thanks for yesterday’s session – am feeling
more focussed than I’ve been in years – feels gooood!!” The first 30 people
to respond will receive a free taster session worth £75. Be quick! Offers
like this don’t come along often.
Business Moneyfacts is offering our registered users a special discounted rate for subscribing to their highly respected publication.
SERVICE PROFESSIONALS:
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The small print
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