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Even to me, it seems cheeky to expect British help with this. 

T'other day I received an automatic phone message telling me I had to ring an 075 number to pick an important stored text ...  How much would it have cost me????

Hi Simon

Best of luck with your new business.

Even though I out-Scrooge Scrooge any day of the week, I think your best bet is to pay an expert (eg a retired PA / Secretary?) to help you set up your office computer systems /records properly and efficiently first time round.

Spend some time thinking about what you need to be able to do.  As examples, in my business I need to be able to store and find in one place all info about a particular client., I need careers information, accounts data etc.

The best person to help you will be someone who spends a fair amount of time finding out about your new business, what information matters to you, your personal preferences for organising it and so on.  Expect to spend at least 2 hours on working with her / him to get your office systems sorted out and set up.

Good luck, Linda

Are badgers known to spread TB to farm animals, and if so is there another way of dealing with it? Or is kneejerk reaction to incorrect data, and there is no proof badgers are to blame?

There's considerable scientific doubt whether badgers can spread TB to cows, research shows badgers and cows don't get within sneezing distance of each other for long enough for them to pass on the disease through the "aerosol" route.  No-one knows whether it's possible for cattle to get TB from badgers' dung or pee - cow behaviour and anatomy seem to rule it out and only 1.7% badgers get ill enough with TB to become infectious (able to pass the disease on to another animal).  Also DNA analysis shows generations of cows with TB and of badgers with TB living in the same locality often have different strains of the disease.

DEFRA and the NFU have a problem with the law, though.  They've got to say they're killing badgers as a bTB control measure because killing badgers for any other reason is against the Badger Act and anyone caught doing it faces 6 months in prison for each badger they deliberately harm.

Wales have halved their cattle bTB in 4 years by cattle measures and better biosecurity on farms.  All the independent scientists not on DEFRA's payroll say cattle controls are the only way of stopping cattle bTB, killing badgers won't do it.  

... And now I'll get off my soapbox!  Seriously though, if you or any family and friends can help out, Gloucestershire and Somerset's badgers need YOU! 

Don't think the third web link was as helpful as I thought it would be.... 

Canvassing for badger  protectors, for a day or two or a week or two! 

It'll be a mixture of challenging map-reading and orienteering in the pitch dark; car chases; lazing around near a badger sett watching the stars (and flickering torches); or just supporting other "holiday-makers" in Somerset and Gloucestershire doing exactly that ...  Anybody and everybody's welcome, including those who can't read maps (there are guides), want help in putting up their tents  and aren't fit or hardy. 

If interested and wanting more information, please see the Facebook web sites of Stop The Cull, Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting and Somerset Wounded Badger Patrol.  The websites provide help with accommodation, transport, understanding the legal issues (and staying safe), etc.   

Make sure you do your best to get referrals from exiting clients!

If you haven't already, design a standard Customer Satisfaction survey and email it to all customers.  Include on your survey the question Are we a company you'd recommend to your family and friends?  'Phone up the people who responded positively to your survey and - without putting too much emphasis on it - thank them for saying they would give that recommendation.  Hopefully you'll jog their memories, making it more likely that the happy customers will actually make the referral!    

There've been some instances of e-cigs spontaneously combusting so I'm not happy about anyone "smoking" one near me...  

A lass asked me "permission" to light up while she was standing next to the door on a train stuffed full with passengers and their luggage; I wasn't at all happy with the idea.  If anything had caused a panic on that train there would have been crush injuries, at the very least.