Time for self-help?

In this week's newsletter:

A Challenge for 2010
Can you help us?
This week's projects
How do you get on our homepage?

A Challenge for 2010

As it's the start of a New Year and the end of the 'phony war' in UK politics, I was going to talk about the impending election this week - but the weather and all the stories surrounding it have made me think that we should regard politics & economic ups and downs as just another form of weather. In snowy weather it pays to clear your own path and in difficult economic conditions I think our best tactic is to go out and help ourselves, and if possible do something to help the other businesses we're in contact with. So if you do nothing else this week, come up with 1 action you can take to get involved in some business activity, join a networking group, volunteer for a committee, offer a small business some free advice or training - whatever works for you. It will keep you busy, generate activity and make you feel better too!

Can you help us?

As usual, your responses to our What do you read? survey have been very helpful, and have given us some great insight into the media we should target. Next week we'll be sending out our annual fee rate survey, and we'd like to ask for your help in getting as many people as possible to respond. A number of our partner organisations, including IBC, IMechE & PCG, will be sending the survey out to their members, if you have contacts in any other groups or professional bodies who might be able to do the same we'd like to hear from you. If you can help, please email us or give us a call.

This week's projects

Although the pre-Christmas flood of tenders has eased off there's still a steady flow and the new web site seems to be bringing in some interesting direct projects. As usual this my pesronal (and fairly random) selection.

Direct Client Print head Vibration Analysis
NVQ Assessors ILM Level 4 Management, South East
Reporting System
Opportunity i-phone developer required, South East
Food Industry Sales Agent - Selling Specialist Ingredient
Mac computer specialist , United Kingdom
Partners needed for collaboration , United Kingdom
Direct Client Warehouse consultant, Africa,Africa
Small to medium scale manufacturers required, United Kingdom
Client Web Site Website Design Services, Scotland
Business to business event , East Midlands
Virtual Learning Environment, South Coast
Interactive Website, Wales
Evaluation of Change Project, Northern Ireland
Consultancy for a fully integrated Golf Product, Scotland
Client Web Site Business Engagement Evaluation , North East England
ICT Research Service, North West England
Soft Skills development programme, Greater London
Enterprise Coaching, East Midlands
Development of prototype moderated wiki , United Kingdom
Self-taught study sessions for Heritage workers, England
Client Web Site Audit and Quality Assessment of Tourism Events, Northern Ireland
Electric Vehicle Strategic Analysis and Support, North East England
Standardisation of Service Quality, Wales
Procurement Management , East Anglia
OJEU Organisation Development advice, Wales
OJEU Operational Research and Simulation Modelling Consultancy, London
OJEU Web and print design , Greater London
OJEU Specialised Training and Development Programme , Northern Ireland

How do you get on our homepage?

A number of people have asked how they can get their services onto our new home page. It's very simple, the home page displays consultants details the day after they've joined Skillfair and then again 30 & 90 days later. Each day's set of profiles is selected randomly and given the same amount of 'air time' - as well as being 'tweeted' via our Twitter feed. It's well worth taking a look at the home page each day to see who's new, the range of services people provide is quite amazing.

Newsletter - Marketing Intelligence
Last night's workshop was entertaining and educational for everyone - as usual the audience were very well informed and I learned as much from them as they did from me. It's hard to cover all the ground in writing, but the central theme was the need to engage prospects in conversation - whatever the medium you use.
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Newsletter - Business as Usual
By the time you read this we should all have some idea of what kind of government the UK will have for the next few years. I'm hearing from lots of people that businesses want to get on with things but are delaying decisions, and I'm hoping that the end of this very long drawn out election campaign will allow people to plan and get on with business as usual. Whether or not you like the election result, as businesses we have to deal with the world as it is which often means re-assessing your direction and making changes to adapt as the situation changes around us.
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