Facebook has more than 400 million active users. Recently it reported more traffic than Google Search. Most of Facebook users are 18-37 – adults with disposable income to spend. That’s why advertising on Facebook presents a fabulous business opportunity. You can drive traffic to your website, connect with a huge community of your target customers, promote your services, products and special offers. What’s more – Facebook offers very cost-effective advertising opportunity through its own pay-per... Read more

We often come across small business owners without a definite plan to follow up on their leads. They keep a collection of business cards from networking events, and have address books where they record contact details. But these are often used at random, if at all, and are sometimes simply forgotten. So what is a database, how does it differ from the card collection and why should a small business have one? The answer is simple. Would you use a typewriter to prepare a proposal for your customer... Read more

How do you rate your time management skills? Do you feel you get a lot done every day? Do you plan your day to the last detail or just “go with the flow” and deal with whatever landed on your desk/in your inbox? Whichever category you are in, it’s important that you take time to analyse what’s working for you and make adjustments where necessary. I’m someone who’s fond of written to-do lists. I’ve got my hardcover diary where I scribble every day my lists and feel great emotional empowerment on... Read more

Some people are wondering if Twitter is more for fun and therefore is not suitable as a business tool. Or whether it's just too full of spam and with no one reading each other's comments or messages. Well, I'd say that Twitter is a bit of both. It's like a big party, where you can have fun, make friends, and catch up with old connections. But at the same time meet new clients or strategic partners, get referred or make referrals for others. The key is to use Twitter appropriately. If you just... Read more

Over the past year we have been searching high and low for a super-efficient business system we can use in TJConsulting and offer to our clients. And finally, after trying and testing, reading 100s of reviews – it’s here. It consists of 3 parts, but don’t despair – they all work as One, efficient, online, affordable solution. And they are…. Xero, Capsule and MailChimp. Xero is the accounting system of the 21st century. If you are not an accountant and dread “reconciliation” or “P&L” – this is ... Read more

I’ve been sending out a lot recently the link to our online survey (what you STILL haven’t received it?! here it is again: http://tjconsultinguk.wufoo.com/forms/online-marketing-survey-tjconsulting-va/). I do love @DesignerDepot links and tweets – some have great design ideas and tips. “VA, delegation, call [answering], time [management], admin, emails [management], [virtual] working” – are all good words illustrating what we do and how we add value to our clients. What are you talking about on ... Read more

 I’ve come across a lot of business owners who are not sure why they should be on LinkedIn. “Is it just another social network?” “Why should I have my profile there and spend time keeping it up to date?” Or even – “It’s not going to work anyway so why bother…”Why bother indeed – with well over 50 million users all over the world, the absolute majority of who are business professionals (not kids or teens like you may assume ... Read more

Some people have 100s of messages in their mailbox - unread for weeks and months. Maybe they've already seen them via Blackberry or iPhone. Maybe they glanced at the subject and decided it's not relevant. Nevertheless the ever growing Inbox becomes a source of frustration and stress. Are you really keen to tackle it, if you have only got 10 minutes and it says you have 578 unread messages? However the problem doesn't have to become so unmanageable. All you need to do is to employ some regular m... Read more

When you are talking to someone face-to-face, you have a lot of visual cues to help you – your tone of voice, gestures, movement, eye-contact. But with none of these visual cues present in our written communication, how do we earn trust and confidence when we write letters, reports or e-mails? In written communication, especially e-mail, we have to find other ways to evaluate the person who is ‘speaking’. Style in written communication means attention to proper spelling and punctuation, proper ... Read more

If a business does not develop people effectively they may decide to move on, taking with them knowledge about the business and its products, good experience and an individual link for clients to an organisation. In its place is the cost involved in recruiting a new staff member, put at £5,500 by recruitment consultant Angela Mortimer. In order to create the right learning environment to enable your employees to benefit from Continuous Professional Development (CPD) you could follow the fo... Read more