It’s the Andover Business Expo’s  second year and it’s bigger and better than before. There are over 50 exhibitors, some must-see seminars, including a seminar by entrepreneur & star of The Apprentice, Karren Brady.

Bizpro will be at stand 35, and we have some fantastic prizes to give away in our FREE business card prize draw, including an annual licence for an In Touch CRM, courtesy of Nett Sales, 2 x annual licences for Kashflow accounting software, courtesy of Bizpro & PAH accounting, and 4 weeks FREE telephone answering courtesy of those lovely people at Kendlebell. These are just some of the fantastic prizes on offer, so why not come along to say hello and you never know, you may just walk away with one of our prizes!

Entry to the exhibition is free and there are exclusive show offers that could save your business thousands, plus the chance to win a £1,000 advertising campaign on Andover Sound.

The Andover Expo this year features “How To” Seminars, a Vision for Andover Business Forum and a Business Link Breakfast which you can register for online here: www.andoverexpo.biz

Look forward to seeing you there!

In the course we covered all aspects of business – from setting up and establishing a Bizpro business; getting clients, marketing, accounting, networking, etc; to growing a Bizpro business; working with associates, adding value, to name but a few. It was a great week, even if I do say so myself, and now our newest franchisees are fully geared up to go out there and create a great new business for themselves.

So I guess the next step is the introductions!

A huge welcome to Erika Smith, who has taken on the franchise for Bizpro North Somerset, and Emma James, who has taken on the franchise for Walsall & Wolverhampton.

Erika has extensive experience in working across a variety of industries in a variety of PA & administrative management roles. Proactive & professional, Erika always prepares for the unexpected, making her an ideal Bizpro business assistant and with a personal motto of ‘Get it right first time, every time and on time’, we just know Erika is going to do very well in her new Bizpro business.

From the tender age of just 15, Emma was working as a book keeper in her spare time, and has enjoyed an extensive and varied career in PA, Administration and accounts ever since. With a refreshingly positive attitude and outlook, Emma’s confidence and enthusiasm for her new venture, combined with her practical use of modern technology and ideas will make her a valuable addition to the Bizpro team.

All in all, it was a great week, and a really successful course. We’re already planning for the next one, and can’t wait!

1.Apple iPhone 3Gs – Apple have been leading the smartphone market for nearly two years now and the latest iPhone is by far the greatest. With Wi-Fi, GPS, full stereo Bluetooth and up to 32GB of onboard memory it`s never been more ready for business. It`s also got an improved camera and software for cutting, copying and pasting text from any source.

2.BlackBerry 9000 Bold – BlackBerry have made their brand synonymous with business and with some of the best email and web functionality on the market, coupled with a full QWERTY keypad, this is certainly for the most prolific of wordsmiths amongst you.

3.Nokia E75 – Based on the Symbian mobile operating platform the E series of phones from Nokia has always been a hit with business users and like all Nokia smartphones it packs in more functionality per pound than anything in its class.

4.HTC Touch Pro II – HTC make a wide variety of sexy and functional business phones and this is one of the latest, with a huge touch screen as well as a full keyboard. It`s a pity that the iPhone`s interface trumps it.

5.Nokia N97 – Again, a phone so packed with features you won`t know what to do with half of them. Criticised for the bland design of its interface, this touch screen/hidden keypad phone can`t be faulted for the connectivity and applications.

6.Samsung Omnia HD i8910 – Samsung know business and the Omnia HD stands out from the crowd with its styling, 3.7 inch huge touch screen and the ability to record video in 720p. That`s HD folks.

7.Nokia N86 – This phone is the embodiment of value for money when it comes to business phones, taking most of the features of the popular N95 and repackaging them in a slimmer, sleeker body. Will do everything more expensive business phones do, but without the hefty price tag.

8.Samsung Tocco Ultra – With an 8 mega pixel camera, a large touch screen and a hidden alpha numeric keypad hidden beneath this is a powerful media phone with all the modern trimmings. Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G and HSDPA you`ll be equipped with some of the fastest mobile internet available in the UK.

9.BlackBerry Storm – The first touch screen handset from BlackBerry, it features a neat click-down screen which makes the whole experience of pressing virtual buttons that much more familiar. Everything else you`ve come to expect from BlackBerry is present and correct.

10.Sony Ericsson W995 – Though this descends from media with HSDPA, iPlayer and Youtube access it`s an entertaining proposition.

Lauren Fox

Top-10 is the market-leading mobile phones website (www.top10.co.uk/mobilephones) which specialises in simplifying the process of choosing the right mobile phone package online.

Getting Noticed Online

In the current financial climate, many businesses are realising the need to up their marketing strategy to ensure they are not left behind. For some businesses, advertising doesn’t work  particularly well and, unless you have significant money to spend on advertising with specialist industry publications, you could be wasting your money. So,  what’s the answer? How can you raise your profile and get your business & brand noticed and recognised effectively without breaking the bank? The internet is littered with ideas and suggestions on how to go about marketing your business and you won’t need a second mortgage to do it. Nowadays, businesses without a presence on the internet are falling way behind their competitors…. 

There are numerous ways to market your brand online; at the very basic level, you need a website that works for your business. When looking for a supplier, people want to know they are choosing one they can trust. They want a professional supplier with a solid reputation, who represents quality, good service and a competitive price. Your website needs to reflect this, be informative and also provide potential customers with the goods or service they are looking for. In addition, it should be easy to navigate, and as an absolute must, put your phone number on every page. It’s amazing the amount of websites that you have to search for a number. Time is of the essence for most people, so make it easy for them to contact you.

Some of the most basic areas to consider with your website will have a big impact on your ability to be picked up by search engines. page titles, descriptions, tags are extremely important areas and should be completed with your keywords in mind. Each page should be completed as a page in it’s own right, and have a title relevant to the page and your targeted keywords.

When putting together copy for your website, think of it as a virtual salesman. Sell the benefits of your product or service, and not just the features. Ensure you include keywords which are relevant to your site and your business. Think about how others would search for a company like yours and use these words and phrases in your copy. There are lots of sites you can look at that will help you choose your  keywords, such as Wordtracker. They operate by looking at your chosen words, and seeing how often they are searched for. They also compare similar phrases or sayings, so you can see what is likely to work best for you.

There are lots of SEO experts out there who will explain to you what a specialised role it is and will gladly take hundreds of pounds from you to ‘optimise’ your website. The truth is, any good web designer will do that for you as part of the build process. That’s not to say that these experts aren’t able to vastly improve your scores on search engines such as Google, they certainly can, but so can you and with very little effort. One of the keys to optimisation is quality link building. That is, putting inbound and outbound links to your website. You can link your site to various online directories, and you can include links within your site to other areas of your site. Some of the directories have excellent SEO ranking themselves, so by default will greatly assist in increasing your visibility.

Search engines also look for updated content. By keeping your website fresh and ensuring it is updated regularly, search engines will look more favourably on it than a static site which hasn’t changed for two years. One of the best ways to ensure your website is regularly updated is to keep a blog. A blog, or web log, is an online equivalent of a diary, which allows your visitors to keep up with what’s happening in your business, and other useful and relevant information. You can write about all sorts of things, obviously the more interesting you can make it the more people are likely to keep coming back to look for updates, or even to subscribe. Don’t be afraid to link to other peoples blogs that you’ve read that appear interesting to your target audience, providing it’s relevant, every link helps! Read other peoples blogs and comment on them where you can. You may also be able to provide a link to your site, but make sure your posts are relevant to the topic and not seen as spam.

The real key to blogging is to share it. When you’ve written your blog post details onto some of the share sites around, such as Technorati, Digg, and Stumbleupon. There are several to choose from, and it is worthwhile putting details of your blog on each of them. This will help to drive traffic to it, and ultimately to your website. Don’t forget, to build links into your blog as you are writing it.

The same can be said of articles. Writing articles about your business, and posting them on sites such as hubpages, or PRWeb will also greatly increase your scores and positioning with search engines. This is highly worthwhile and will also go some way to proving your expertise on your subject. Again, once you have submitted your article, share it. Utilise the sharing sites wherever you can. It all helps with driving traffic to your site, and ultimately winning you new business. 

Another useful resource for proving your expertise and generating more traffic to your website is online forums. You need to be reasonably careful as they can become addictive! Choose your forums wisely, ensure they have relevance to business, and they enable you to put a link to your website in your signature. Some forums are against advertising, in which case it doesn’t really serve the purpose of increasing the visibility of your business.

There are several online business networking sites which combine a whole range of areas where you can raise your profile. Probably the most popular business networking sites in the UK are: Linked In, Ecademy & 4Networking. Each of these sites are optimised to help you achieve a great position with the major search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Of course, these are only as good as the effort you put in to maintain them.

Some of the options with online marketing are no brainers, others a little more obscure.

As with any method of marketing, test and measure. There really is no point spending time or money on a marketing mix that clearly isn’t working for your business. Of course, this may seem rather obvious, but take the time to question where your enquiries are coming from, and whilst you’re there, question why you were chosen, what appealed to them about you. It never hurts to ask, and the worst that can happen is they don’t answer. Everything you do for your business needs to be worthwhile. It needs to have a value attached to it, no matter how small, and the only way to see the value is to ask the right questions!

Some time ago, I wrote a blog about business coaching and virtual assistants, the two essential assets that every business should consider. This week I’m going to look at one coach in particular who is set to take the world by storm. This coach isn’t a business coach, but more a whole life coach, who quite literally transforms lives. This coach is focusing on one very niche market; the nursing world, and is set to become a household name.

Claire Westwood is founder & MD of Happy nurses; a business which is purely aimed at improving the mental wellbeing of nursing professionals, and enabling them to lead happier, healthier lives…. 

I first met Claire through 4Networking when she was in the process of putting all her thoughts and ideas surrounding Happy nurses together. I helped her with her business plan and for that I got an excellent testimonial, (see here). Since then, she has become not only a valued client, but also my coach, and a close friend.

As a coach, Claire is phenomenal. She doesn’t take any of my excuses, any of my flannel, and certainly no nonsense. She makes me accountable for my actions, and she tells me “like it is”. Since I have been working with Claire, I have got on and completed things that I have only talked about for a year. She doesn’t ever tell me what to do, but she does get me to think about what I actually want, why I want it and how I will achieve it. In essence, she helps me to believe in myself. The solid principles that she has devised as part of her Happy nurses venture can be applied to any business, and she is in serious demand. 

I was one of the few people lucky enough to be invited onto Claire’s pilot coaching course,  which is aimed at her Happy nurses coaches. The course itself lasted for three days, and I was quite literally blown away by it. I came out of it completely transformed and happy with who I am, where I’m going and how I’m going to get there. I now have more confidence in my vision for Bizpro, and more focus for reaching my goals. I recognised a few things about myself that came as a shock, but now I really know who I am. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough! Of course, Claire’s course is particularly aimed at nurses, but I’m now even more convinced of the power of coaching and exactly how it can help every business owner. 

The last few months have seen some serious activity in Claire’s world. Her business is thriving, her ezine is now up and running and possibly one of the best I’ve seen; her new website has launched and she has now published a book: – watch out for her virtual book tour coming to this blog very soon!

To check out the Happy nurses new website, visit www.happynurses.co.uk, it is aimed at nurses and health professionals but do take a look – Claire is going places with this business and I am certain she will be a household name very soon!