Mar - Profile

Hi, Steve - you've got to wonder how on earth folks get away with running up this amount of debt ..... there you go, that's the green eye of jealousy running riot again :O

Margaret

Happy New Year - wow - I just wish I could write the code for an app

Never mind, we'll just keep trotting round to the post office with internet orders until one of us gets the smart app idea which will turn us into billionaires.

Margaret

Thanks for that - you've just added another item to my "To Do" list. I'm working to try and improve my photography skills :O

Margaret

In days of old, it used to be easy to figure out Adwords - now it's a blooming nightmare. It seems to me that that's a deliberate ploy as well because they benefit from our inability to figure out exactly what to do to get the cheapest clicks possible

Margaret

I'm getting the automated phone calls about top-up pensions - DUH - they're a total nuisance.

I know that people say cold calling works and that there's a success rate of 2/10 or something like that. I believe genuine companies who cold call are going to find it harder to convert phone calls because of all of the publicity about scam calls. I can't imagine a phone conversation which would make me say "Yes" - so I'm afraid I can't be of any help.

Margaret

For me, it's gotta be John Wayne. That would be my Saturday afternoon movie star of choice for a cold, wet winter's day. Or maybe some Fred Astaire ....

to be honest, though, it's more about the movie than the star - it's all about finding a good yarn.

Margaret

Hi, Barney - did you see the programmes about China recently where they detailed the proportion of income the Chinese save each year for their old age. The part of me which understands the logic of making sure we all have more pension is really fighting with the part of me which wants the state to do it all, LOL.

The "cradle to the grave" mirage comes back to haunt us again and again. We were missold on the idea that the state could afford to take care of us when, in the current economic climate, this is obviously unachievable.

Now that jobs are a global commodity, not local or regional as once was the case, we're going to have to up our game on our attitude to manufacturing, wages and benefits, pensions etc.

Margaret

A friendly competitor of ours makes a claim that twitter does bring traffic to his website - so obviously his web stats reveal that people are indeed clicking through from twitter. However, this is a company that pays for google adwords, bing, pays for offline advertising in magazines and the press - so obviously the social media campaigns aren't the whole story.

He also runs display advertising in places like ferries and travel venues, so my view is that social media is only part of a whole picture and that you still need an advertising budget and a slick marketing campaign to outsmart the competition.

Margaret

I've felt for some time that the pensions system is unaffordable, especially with the amazing numbers of people who are employed by the government in one form or another. However, as an extremely small business I am worried that the admin effort required to negotiate the new pensions regulations (when they finally apply to our small company) will be the final nail in the coffin for us - and for many other ma and pa type operations. If we do fall into the category which needs to make these payments, then I too would like to be assured that the money is ring-fenced and well managed. We're working too hard to have some dial-a-ferrari nutter run off with our pension plans.

Margaret

There you go - there's a definite benefit of me keeping my old, clapped out Vauxhall Corsa - doesn't have those fancy locking gadgets.




Mar