Who you gonna call?

I was at the PSYBT Elevator event in Edinburgh at the end of October and it was really interesting, not that it isn't normally but last night the theme for the evening was 'talk to the experts'. They had 5 guests that we had 15 minutes to talk to each of them and ask any questions.

This got me thinking... i know i'm surprised too! When you set up a business, who should you call?

Now even though i'm 2 years in, this recent event with PSYBT made me realise that i still don't know the complete list of who's out there, but hopefully i can help a little with this.... (oh and these may be a little bias towards Scotland)

• Scottish Enterprise - http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/
  
• PSYBT - http://www.psybt.org.uk/
• British Chamber of Commerce - http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/
• Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce - http://www.edinburghchamber.co.uk/
• Cultural Enterprise Office - http://www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk/website/
• Business Gateway - http://www.bgateway.com/
• Business Link (England) - http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/
• HM Revenue & Customs: Self Employed - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/index.shtml

This is only a few but a great resource, these places will be able to help you source funding, networking, get advice on things like National Insurance, employers duties and more.

Check them out and let me know if you find any others that are of interest! :D

Yapping @ Gala

Well I went to Gala in Tuesday. I done the talk thing, it went ok. I'm a little disappointed coz i went over my practice, which was 40min. But although i took up the full hour its not to bad because no one wanted to ask questions anyway. Now i'm taking that as a good thing, no matter if it is or not. 

I'm gonna assume that i covered my subject well, lmao.

But i enjoyed it. I have found that i'm quite passionate about the subject of being self employed. I don't know if it inspires folks to hear how much fun i have being self employed, but i wouldn't have it any other way.

All i can say is that as usual i was made very welcome by the fantastic folks at Heriot Watt, but then i am extremely bias about the folks down there. I think it must be mutual because they've asked me back in March.

Oh n here's a picture of the fabby folks that listened to me for an hour! Thanks for staying awake guys! :D

Be Yourself!

Ok so my head is buzzing recently, I've had loads to think about! But this is what i want to share.

At the end of September I went to the PSYBT networking event in Edinburgh. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go because Lucinda from the Apprentice was going to be there and to be honest she wasn't my favourite on the show. But I went anyway because I thought the networking event was a little more important, and I'm glad I did go because it was a good night. Still not sure about Lucinda but I must admit she does make some sense, I asked her what one bit of advice she could give about networking and she said just be yourself. I can honestly say it is not the most astounding piece of advice I was given but it definitely is something I can relate to. I know a lot of people that are very into their image and how you should look while dealing with customers. Now I do agree that appearance is important, but since I was young people have always told me how to act and dress etc and so I went out and done the opposite, but I have had a great response from people just because I am myself when I deal with my customers.

I was at church several years ago and the guy that was preaching was a guest speaker, he was a big chap, dressed in a really nice suit. I can't remember what he was preaching about but I do remember one thing he said, it doesn't matter if you wear the best dressed most expensive suit or a string vest and shorts, if you are talking about something that people are interested in then they will listen to you no matter what you wear.

I have found that in business, if you can't be yourself you run the risk of putting people off from working with you. We have heard a lot of times that folks come into our workshop and leave making comments to others saying 'oh they are really nice folks', 'oh they are so friendly' etc, their friends tell us this is why they have come to see us, cause of the great references. It's quite flattering and does give us a big head, especially if they tell us they have tried some where else and they were a bit dour!

So to sound like you're high school guidance teacher, remember to always be yourself, you're great the way you are! GUSH!