I remember dying. I remember every second of it with the clarity of high definition slow motion. So where am I now? I remember being woken up, is this real or is this just the next stage? Is this purgatory? Why does my head hurt so much? Please God help me.

I remember the helicopter. We flew across the beautiful mountains for what seemed like an eternity.  The crew seemed very anxious to get me to a hospital and they kept checking on me. I insisted I sat up and tried to speak, but the pain was too great. What had happened? One minute I was flying like a bird and the next I was cemented deep underground.

“You are the lucky one.” Shouted the pilot. “We don’t meet many like you.”

This gave me hope. The pain was scaring me. There was no blood, so I was conscious if there was something seriously wrong with me, it was inside my head.

They had laid a stretcher out next to me, I caught Stefan’s eye giving the rescue team the nod to let me stand up, he could see my pride. I was not going to be beaten. I staggered to the helicopter like someone concussed leaving the field with a man on either side ready to catch me should I fall.

The boys had sat in a circle around me waiting for the chopper, creating a wall shielding me from the wind. I can see the dirt and scratches on the glass window of the helicopter I was starring at.

There is so much I recall from that day. Their faces no longer beaming and their lungs emptied. They were shattered. They were the brave faces of broken men. They were struggling to deal with what had happened. Their experience had been just as horrendous. They had stood helplessly by and watched their friend get swallowed up by the same mountain we had been flying down minutes earlier. To this day I don’t remember seeing it coming. I remember being hit by it and being swept away, I just don’t remember seeing it. I remember seeing the boys waving. I waved back, triumphant. I was having a great day. I was oblivious that they were warning me of something terrifying coming down the mountain. Suddenly I was engulfed. I don’t remember sound either, it is almost as if it stopped before I was swallowed up and actually for the amount of movement the boys on the sideline were making, I think this part of my memory has been wiped clear.

We were flying towards a town, I smiled thinking of Dan’s face as I caught him holding his camera wanting, yet not wanting to take a photo. I smiled and gave him the go ahead. “Do it.” That’s all I could say.

He looked how I felt at the birth of our first daughter. Frightened, shellshocked, exhasted and this a man who rowed across the Atlantic. It is amazing how a mountain can cut you down to size without warning.

The boys who started digging that hole in my eyes grew up and became men that day. They took responsibility and worked as a team to save my life and I am only here because every single one of them gave 100%. With only one shovel, they used their hands to burrow into the snow. I was 8 feet down before they found my head. I was unconscious at this stage and unaware of the shouting and instructions being hurled from the 2 doctors in the group.

Dug from deep below the snow, Lawrence survived the avalanche

During the digging, Danny Robb consoled Dan explaining that after this much time, even if they were lucky enough to find and resuscitate me, I would have serious brain damage, with the likelihood of being unable to speak or walk. It had been more than 8 minutes and the chances of survival dramatically drop. I can only imagine Dan digging harder with this going around his head. Dan was a family friend, we’d grown up in Wales and our mum’s are best friends. He’d have been contemplating the impossible task of explaining my loss to my mother.

Deep below the surface a very different fight was taking place. I gasped for air one last time as I was turned over and taken below the surface. I had consciously chosen not to continue to fight the immense force, I knew I was going to need every bit of waking strength for what was coming. No one could have prepared me for what came next. Suddenly everything was very still. My arms were cemented far apart. I was entombed in a dark cold grave.

I was suffocating fast. There was no air, just what was left in my lungs. I tried to hold my breath, then chose to breathe very slowly with tiny breaths. It was no use, I was dying and I knew it. By the end I was panting, alone, desperately trying to breath air that just wasn’t there. The last physical memory was the heat this created on my lips and the sound of me fighting for my life.

I don’t remember fear as such. I calmed any panic with thoughts of all the wonderful people in my life.

“Oh God, I was never going to see Gail again.”

“Please God, what have I done?” I had completely wasted my entire life.

I never asked for a second chance but someone took pity on me that day, yet I was made to suffer the whole experience to remind me just how important life is.

And its to this end I will work tirelessly to give something back every single day.

It wasn’t a great day, but it is something I treasure. It is much more than a memory. It is a physical experience almost like an invisible souvenir that travels with me wherever I go. Something I can call upon whenever things gets tough.

I am a different person now from the battered and torn shell of the boy lying in that French hospital bed and that night I was woken up by an angel. Dazed and confused I opened my eyes to see Gail by my side. Was I alive or dead? It didn’t matter anymore, I now knew my purpose.

And 10 years on, as today is the anniversary of the Avalanche in Pic Blanc it is easy to see the difference that day made. I am married now with 2 children and no doubt more to follow. Our lives are very different as a direct result of a change in attitude. Knowing that every day since that accident is an extra one, does make me cram as much as I can into every one of them.

Charles Dickens famously said:

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness.

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

With all the technology at our fingertips in today’s society how can we not balance the books? Where else in the world can you get away from this sort of lack of control where you can spend more than you make? Oh yes, I forgot, the Banks!

Between the previous government and the banking community we really have been cast out to sea. Yet in spite of all the warning signs, the government continue to spend like it’s “going out of fashion,” and sadly our once great nation is precisely doing just that.

To make matters worse, we have a disproportionate number of school leavers wanting to please parents by going to University. It’s become fashionable. Everyone’s kid on everyone’s street has to go to university, or they are made to feel inadequate.

And where does that leave us? Well, with a big shortage of tradesmen, plumbers, laborers, plasters, electricians, builders, and too many students. The majority, who leave university with a degree in a subject they will never develop and worse with massive debt, and no real skills of any use to the new employer, who has to now start to train and prepare them for industry.

When I was 19, I had bought my first flat. It had 4 bedrooms and it cost around the same amount most students are indebted for when they now leave Uni. I was just lucky. I couldn’t afford to go to University, plus I was considered too dumb.

I am a great believer in setting yourself up for success, but looking at the government and their propensity to spend money we don’t have and their desire to pick on the defenseless, namely the students who have been lead in to a quagmire of debt, only to be told that its just about to get worse.

I don’t condone the riots in London last week, but the same time I understand what its like to be suffocated, and the only thing to do when you are beaten and suppressed is to fight back. The problem is there is no vehicle to do so in this country. So under pressure, fuelled by cheap alcohol, they let themselves and their fellow UK citizens down.

Sitting in the London Palladium you’d not have known there was a full-scale riot going on in the capital. When Prince Charles and Camilla arrived and sat down in their box overlooking the stage, you’d never have guessed that they’d been through such an ordeal.

I’d popped out just before the Royal Variety show started and saw the car the Price Charles arrived in, it had been attacked by thugs and a window was broken. Can you imagine what went through their minds as their car was set upon? And when the police were criticized for bringing the Royals to the Palladium knowing there were violent demonstrations going on, Charles merely said, “you can’t have a Royal Variety performance without Royalty.” And that was that. Looking at the pictures, you can see Charles sat upright throughout the ordeal; you have to admire his courage. I could not have remained so composed.

How do you tell a government that we are setting our next generations up for an even bigger failure when they cant see and wont listen?

There are so many areas where the government could focus its attention. We could get out of Iraq and Afghanistan. How much better off would the UK economy be (let alone the parents of our brave soldiers who lost their lives) if we’d not been misled into the “War on Terror” in the beginning?

We’d be significantly better off.

It’s a back-to-front society, where the politicians are untouchable.

As an entrepreneur, we are a group of people who do not have it as easy. We do not have a cushion to fall back on and the state that we so eagerly feed crushes anyone who fails to comply or who falls behind with taxes. Unlike when the banks mess up, small businesses are literarily wound up. And for those of us who make it, we are then continually wound up, by the civil servants chasing our tax in a manner that is indefensible; there is not a business in the world that would survive with the customer service skills of a tax collector.

Ironically “we are the hand that feeds” yet they devour our earnings in the guise of taxation. To add insult to injury, they waste money because the people managing it do not understand just how hard it is to earn.  I really wouldn’t feel this way if I knew they were spending our money wisely on good causes, but with the Expenses Scandals still fresh in our minds it is very difficult to trust.

If only we could take every politician and make them work a proper working week without expenses, on the minimum wage as part of their induction. How long would it take before they start to see just how tough it is and learn the value of our currency, but even then, would they spend our taxes any the wiser? I doubt it.

Why do people who don’t understand how to generate money run our country and run our banks? This is fundamentally flawed because I don’t care what political or economic degrees today’s politicians have, how employable are the majority in industry?

And whilst London’s burning, the rest of us graft whilst the same people who are still lighting the fires, digging the UK into the biggest hole in its history, blame everybody but themselves.

And in a way, I cant blame them either. They are leaderless too, rudderless, their jobs lack challenge and they are unable to think for themselves. What can they do about this spiraling problem?

Raise the VAT, charge the students, sell the gold, etc.

With all the riots, the bank problems and the worries of the wider economy and global recession, a couple of weeks ago, I sat with my 2 little girls trying to explain to a 4 and 7 year old that there are other children so less fortunate than us, and whilst we crammed presents in to shoe boxes, yes, shoe boxes in wrapping paper, I fought back tears as Gail explained why we were putting tooth brushes in there too.

It’s a messed up world out there and if there ever was a time for people in business to come together and make a difference, it is now. It makes good business sense too, to help those around you in your community whilst you still have one.

I asked a couple of members of the BA staff, does BA stand for Bloody Awful, after the worst experience I have ever encountered of substandard behaviour by representatives of BA.

I was checking in proudly to my first class seats at the BA counter in Manchester, when I met the second rudest woman I have ever had the misfortune to meet. We had telephoned the night before just to ask advice on the recently introduced ESTA. (An official government document required if you are flying to or through America.) The advice we were given by BA was “don’t worry about it, arrive at check-in in the morning and we will deal with it then as technically you don’t need one as you are not staying in the US.”

We trusted the advice and when checking in, told the lady at the First Class counter why we had not filled out the ESTA as per our instructions from the BA staff the previous night. At this point she categorically refused to check us onto the flight and promptly blanked us. I asked for help, and pleaded with her for someone more senior who could assist.

Enter (stage right) the rudest woman I have ever met. She arrived with a plastic smile that she maintained for the best part of 45 seconds before laying into my wife who was beautiful in her calmness. The BA official told us we should have filled out the ESTA online and that we should have and I quote, “put that you are staying in Miami in the destination box.” I explained that our final destination was the British Virgin Islands, I didn’t dare tell her it was Necker. “we advise people who are traveling through the US to the Caribbean to put down they are staying in the Continental in Miami.”

I explained that this would be incorrect and that this was a US official immigration department document!

Without another word the 2 rude BA staff disappeared.

We were kept waiting 40 minutes. Powerless and no other members of BA staff were prepared to help. When we asked for help, they said, “we are not getting involved.”

It really was like a farce. And if she hadn’t made my 6 year old burst into tears I’d have have been laughing in disbelief. We had turned up to enjoy the first class experience.

Enter Simon, a scruffily dressed man in jeans and a creased polo shirt.  ”Because of the delay at check in and that my staff members had not known how to deal with the ESTA, we are able to board this flight to Heathrow, but unfortunately it was now too late to attach the luggage to the connecting flight.”

He advised us that he had personally seen to it that the plane to Miami would wait for us. He apologised for the behavior of the 2 staff and he assured me we would be met by ground staff and hurried through at the other end.

It was clear this man just wanted rid of the situation. He was working on the principal, Out of Sight Out of mind. (perhaps a new management course BA are running)

My 6 year old asked me , “Daddy, why was that lady so rude?” and I was unable to defend her.

This farce had actually delayed the plane leaving Manchester and stressed 100 or so other people also connecting to Miami and other destinations.

On arrival at Heathrow, there were no ground staff waiting to assist us between the planes. Luckily everyone else just managed to get their flight to Miami, but no surprise, we missed ours waiting for our luggage.

I saw the striking BA logo with the words CUSTOMER SERVICE in massive letters. Fantastic I thought. I’ll pop over and get some help.  The 2 ladies (who reminded me of Les Dawson’s characters) with folded arms grunted back at me when I politely said, “I don’t suppose you can help and tell me where to go, we have missed our flight.”

“We’re baggage.” I continued and the other one piped up, “have you a problem with your baggage?” “No” I replied, “well we can’t help you then. Like my friend told you we are baggage” They carried on talking and I couldn’t help pointing out the irony in how they described themselves.

Walking away I pondered, does BA stand for Bloody Awful. It should do!

Eventually after a series of equally idiotic encounters with various Bloody Awful staff I found someone who was lovely. She was kind and called Jeanette. However the damage was done. The brand was dead in my eyes.

She did start quite hard like the first Bloody Awful staff in Manchester, telling us that as we had missed the flight and it was more than likely non refundable. First class tickets can be as much as £9000 each I didn’t dare ask Gail how much she had paid. I must have turned white with the sick feeling. 4 tickets wasted. 3 demoralised girls, 2 hours extra waiting and 1 missed flight! Jeanette quickly realised what had happened.

She explained the check in staff in Manchester were all agency staff. She fixed the ESTA issue in a few minutes putting “IN TRANSIT” in the destination box.

She went on to explain they had not had a pay rise in 2 years and that they had no idea if their jobs would even be here tomorrow. “The spirit is dead, and I am so sorry you have had all this trouble.”

Every cloud has a silver lining. And thank God, Jeanette booked us on to a Virgin Atlantic seat. One of our daughters, the 3 year old had some sort of anaphylactic reaction on the plane and needed emergency care. 2 doctors on board helped out giving her adrenalin injections, oxygen and salbutamol. Nikki, the Upper Class Senior Cabin Crew team leader was amazing, along with her team particularly Ross and Sacha.

We sat on the floor of the cabin outside the cockpit. The captain regularly came out to check on our 3 year olds well-being and after nearly the entire flight she recovered miraculously as kids do!

So how does something so great, become so Bloody Awful? Fancy not rewarding your staff and undermining them so they don’t know if their jobs are safe. I can’t imagine the people at the top have had similar pay problems?

British Airways is overweight in some areas and anorexic in others.

In our business if you have a potential weakness in an area you invest in it, and you allocate the best, strongest most aligned individuals. You certainly don’t cut back.  The problem with BA is they have multiple areas of weakness, so as fast as you build relations with the likes of Jeanette you have sledge hammer Customer Services or disconnected agency staff with their own challenges. Invariably you destroy the brand value.

I think one of the issues BA also has is whilst they are busy infighting, arguing over pay and bureaucracy, the Virgin Atlantic team is taking conflict very seriously indeed. Going about their business with the Sun Tzu approach.

“He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.”

Well, in my mind BA does stand for Bloody Awful and although I have enough free airmiles to fly around the world 7 times, I’d sooner pay to fly a proper airline. Britain’s best airline Virgin.  And I wouldn’t swap our seat on the floor next to the loo for a BA Experience.

Lawrence Jones
UKFast

However, what is really going on behind the scenes. He has clearly behaved stupidly, but is it our business what he does in his private life? Are all the people judging him in the media squeaky clean? I doubt it. But nevertheless, whenever the TV is switched on there he is, in the public eye.

His recent apology in my opinion is farcical. He should not apologise to the world, his issue is a lot closer to home. In my opinion he is apologising purely to save the Tiger Woods brand. The potential lost revenue bad publicity brings. Everyone remembers the Ratner story how one of Britains biggest brands fell out of favour overnight, quite literally.

The reason why he shouldn’t be apologising for being a sex addict or whatever ludicrous title they are brandishing on him, is because the same ingredient that got him into this mess is the identical ingredient that made Tiger Woods the most amazing golfer that has walked this earth so far.

This is his obsessive gene.  He should not be going to therapy to quosh this gene, you will kill the golden goose. Yes he needs to stop behaving like a twit and pull his finger out and whatever else (pun intended) and obsess on his golf.

The cycle of success goes like this.

1. Work hard, focus.

2. Start to get results.

3. Become successful

4. Celebrate, take time out and start to relax

5. Ease off on the disciplines that made you suucessful

6. Focus on other things

7. Start to fail

8. Completely hit rock bottom

9. Decide to make a change and improve.

Back to number 1 again.

Ironically if Tiger Wood’s family are behind the “public apology” his mother who laden with diamonds (no doubt gifts from her sons wealth) and others, although meaning to help, will start to sabotage their very existence.

And the one person who can help? The one person who understood success and the disciplines needed to obtain greatness. Tiger Wood’s father, who is no longer alive.

It is little wonder then when such a great mentor and leader dies, that the son starts to fail without the guidance and discipline close at hand.

That being said, obsessive characters can choose to focus on a great many things. The fact that he chose sex and other people away from his wife tells me that he lacks variety. The variety that he got from golf in the early days may have worn off. “Will I win this tournament?” eventually became, “of course.” Which in turn leads to stages 3 and 4 which invariably mean poeple take their eye off the ball.

So what is the best for Tiger Woods now? I can guarantee going to some posh clinic for sex therapy is NOT the answer. This just means he focusses more on what became the problem. He needs to do the opposite. Tiger Woods has the ability to fix this problem (if it actually is a problem) in a matter of seconds. A simple decision to say “no” from a man with the level of determination he posses is enough.

But you might be saying “he shows incredible weakness by his actions”, possibly, but again, he is just a man looking for variety. And due to the abundance of variety he has had in the past, this guy needs to get a whole heck of a lot of it. The variety of will I get caught or wont I replaced the will I win or wont I.

This is a competitive man. Yes he has acted unkindly to his wife, but we dont know the full story, there may be more to the saga in his home life. If his family and true friends have his and their best interest at heart, they need to put a set of golf clubs in his hands and march him up and down the course until he has it out of his system.

Personally I wish him all the best. He shows he is human and I think he has been found out for a crime that many people do day in day out, but just hide it very well.

Well, maybe it’s time for that discussion.

A couple of weeks ago we were planning our new “School of Hosting” campaign. This was at a time when we had just had a very successful day where staff dressed up in St.Trinian’s outfits to raise money for charity, it was suggested, why not use the photography and continue the theme to promote the School of Hosting.

Business men and women of City Tower Manchester are used to the staff at UKFast turning up in all sorts of outfits. Dressed in suits for 4 days a week, from time to time UKFast relaxes its dress code policy in line with various calendar events or charity days.

This particular one was done in a similar vein.

As soon as the advert hit the shelves and the banners appeared on various websites, a few people complained. Now I am a great believer in freedom of speech, just as I am a believer in the right to express oneself and exercise your individuality.

We all need our own passionate driving forces and conflicting views, that is what makes the world such an interesting place.

Personally I feel the advert is completely innocuous and as it was designed and created by women and as I know it was never meant to offend I think it was harmless. It is funny how people automatically assume something like this was dreamt up by the men in an organisation. But to the thousands of positive comments and visitors to the site, thank you.

So, going back to the original comment about being raised in a convent, growing up amongst 150 girls does have its advantages. The greatest of these was that I was able to gain an understanding of how the “other half” work, their minds, their behaviour, their communication, their sensitivity.

It is safe to say, as a result of my social conditioning, I empathise far more with women than men. I feel far more at ease on a night out with 30 mums from the school our kids go to over a rugby club networking dinner full of men.

I am not sure of the split of men and women in management  positions across the UK, however at UKFast it is clear to see my trust in women is carried into the work place. In positions of trust where a high level of autonomy and delegation is required, the split of men and women is 50:50. We have 9 ladies and 9 men, managing 102 staff. As we have more men in the business overall, it is a fair claim that on average, the women at UKFast hold higher positions over the men.

I hope it is not too sexist to say also, out of all the management, I have slightly more confidence in the organisational skills of the women over the men.  (Oops, sorry guys)

My wife has put her views on the subject of the advert itself here.

The other actor was far less famous. Successful in his own right however on a much less grander scale. He was in a failure of a programme called Eldorado. A late night version of Crossroads. He was called Jude and he was a lovely guy, and he was dating my flat mate Caroline.

The argument was over “what constitutes a proper actor?” Ashley had touched on the subject of “how much you earn?” and tied that into your credibility as an actor, Also “how well known you were?” also cropped up too. Two things that immediately elevated him above Jude, as Ashley was being paid £7000 per week (a footballers salary in those days) to play the prince in Aladdin in Oxford.

Jude was quick to point out this recent role hardly made him Dustin Hofman. And so the argument continued. Although Ashley probably won the argument through pigheaded stubbornness and the fact that it is very difficult to discredit someone who is very successful and to Ash’s credit, he was, Jude definitely had the last laugh.

I also wonder what impact that discussion played on Jude’s future success as he was incredibly upset, passionate, determined to prove himself right that night. Yet sadly I never saw Jude again after he and Caroline stopped seeing each other later that year and Ash moved back to Adelaide and I am ashamed to say we never kept in contact.

A few years ago on a long-haul flight, I asked Gail what she was watching. I switched on my TV and joined her. I commented “that looks really like an old pal I used to know from yeas ago, Jude.”

She responded quickly saying “it’s Jude Law, He is one of the most famous up and coming actors in Hollywood.” I thought it cant be yet the more I watched I realised it was him. I remembered the argument in my flat all those years ago. I remembered what Jude had said.

“Mark my words, I may not be as successful as you yet, however I guarantee you, I will be the most famous British actor ever to break the US. I will live in Hollywood and if money gauges your success, then I promise you I will definitely be the biggest success.”

This was an emotional rant and left Ashley’s girlfriend who was sat on my piano singing and I cheering “go Jude!” as most people never confronted Ashley who was renowned for his headstrong tenacity.

I don’t know whether Jude Law wrote down his goals, I don’t know how much he actually planned his journey, however that night he was coherent and his determination did not sound spontaneous, quite the contrary, it sounded well thought out and everyone in that room that night believed him, so much so that when he went to bed we carried on the discussion about his passion and determination.

Earl Nightingale said “the most powerful thing in the world is a single thought.” It all starts with a thought and then develops. Although it has taken me more than 10 years to see the link between that passion and determination that night and the actual success in the flesh I cannot think for a moment that it is coincidence.  Jude Law is one in a million, the difference is that I have heard thousands of times people stating that they are going to do “such and such” but they lack the conviction, and without that belief a very different journey awaits.

The other girl in the room that night, Julia Worsley went on to be a very successful singer and one of Cameron Macintosh’s favourites making a real mark in the West End. She sang in Evita and became a friend of Madonna after getting the role as Madonna’s sister in the film Evita. Julia was a huge fan of Madonna and always said that she felt an affinity with her. It was later confirmed when Madonna faxed my house with a note for Jules arranging to hook up when she was coming to the UK.

Ashley failed to live up to his accelerated early start and shrank into insignificance in acting terms lost in Australia.

Musically I have not hit any of my goals I set in my early life, yet they are not forgotten and at some point I will rebuild my recording studio and reassemble some of my old friends for the next chapter. Meanwhile I have one focus and that is UKFast. It is as exciting as composing and conducting an orchestral overture and all consuming.

Google the internet giant that grew from a garage start up in San Francisco has a competitor. As an underdog myself in the hosting world fighting to grow our business, I have to favour the smaller player.

It is not often that you can refer to one of Bill Gate’s enterprises as a smaller entity.

But smaller for how long?

A little like a boxer who smiles at his opponent in the ring when he feels a punch that cuts him to the quick, he makes too much effort to hide the pain. Recently Google have been sparring in similar style scoring points with Microsoft over petty issues. In my opinion they merely give Bing the limelight and raise their credibility.

The signing of a 10 year deal though between Microsoft and Yahoo must hurt. These are 2 very large competitors joining forces, sharing resources. Both retaining the side of the bargain they do best. Yahoo running the PPC, (the model that Google plagerised) and bing with the search engine, who surprisingly is faster that Google.

These extra milliseconds set Google out from other pretenders over the years, yet the secret is out, it is common news to those of us involved with SEO and dedicated hosting.

Google have to be concerned. If you break down the traffic that all the engines get separately it doesn’t seem that threatening, with Bing’s share of all UK traffic at 0.44%. Combine it with Yahoo’s 0.99% and add in all the other MSN related traffic and it reaches a staggering 17.1%.

It is interesting that MSN hasn’t made a move to acquire search providers that already use Googles’ search capacity such as Ask and AOL as this would increase their distribution and reduce Googles’ at the same time. I am confident that they will be talking, whether a deal can be reached or not, if Microsoft want to take on Google this acquisition accelerates their growth curve and takes out a further healthy chunk of the market.

On a wider international scale, I’m sure all the major search providers are thinking about the global strategy of getting Baidu in China and Yandex in Russia involved as the global distribution battle commences.

Yet there are those amongst us who feel the need to talk about their goals. What they are going to achieve and what they nearly did. I am talking of the ones that you have a sneaking suspicion are “all talk.” Yet, they keep talking and that is all they seem to do.

And on the journey because of their gregarious nature and confidence they have a tendency to land great jobs and rise through the food chain. Yet they never take the plunge themselves.

I know a few people who fall into this category. I dont need to name them as my aim is not to embarrass them. It is something that intrigues me however.

One person in particular on the out side, has all the skills necessary to run a business, yet for some strange reason cannot take the plunge. Even when offered all the cash necessary to set up a business in a sector where they previously have a very successful record, this person chose the easy option. A slightly higher salary and share options (Fake shares as I call them!) over a slightly lower basic, true  50% ownership and zero cash investment from themselves.

Why does some one take what at first seems the easy path, yet it is a path they have trodden before only to find it leads to redundancy and ends in tears. Once the business is established you are a very expensive luxury and extremely expendable.

After selling my first business to Granada TV once I had integrated the 2 businesses and I had trained all the staff I was no longer needed. I was quickly squeezed out. It was a lesson that meant I could never work for another organisation again.

So why do they never take the plunge. Personally I believe it is because they are not true level 5 leaders. What is a level 5 leader? It is a person who shows the correct set of skills and characteristics to lead a business of any type through all seasons.

Yet a level 5 leader is not the sort of person that traditionally gets the job of the MD or other directorships in the UK and US. We seem to employ the loudest, most confident, best communicators, yet ironically these are never the best choice. Yet they rise to the top becasue they are more pushy than their fellow colleagues.

Often these sort of people want to take the credit for all the good that happens, yet when there is a problem, they are quick to point the finger and blame anyone but themselves. A level 5 leader is more likely to apportion luck to their success and be relatively shy when it comes to public speaking or taking the credit.

I suppose it is also about  what makes people tick. Their “significance” as Tony Robbins puts it. The person I am referring to in this article is very happy to have the lifestyle, the clothes, watches all the trappings of a senior director, yet does not want the responsibility or real control of the whole business.

So if you are put off by becoming a businessman or woman because you are not as confident as others, this is not a bad thing. In fact you are in good company.

A great friend of mine, Dan Innes has finally set up and gone it alone after a decade of growing someone else’s business in London. His new business Innesco is already super successful as he has a long client list of those strong relationships he has spent years developing. Dan merely needed the confidence to make that final push.

I gave up ranting and pushing him, knowing he needed to find his own feet in his own time. Last year at his wedding in Bath I said to my wife, “there you go, he will be self employed with in a year from now.”

A great man like Dan simply needed a great woman at his side. When you have someone you love to this extent, being in business suddenly becomes easier. You have someone to work for, someone to build a future for.

If you are not destined for the madness of entrepreneurship however, do not let this stress you out. I do not think any the less of my friend who prefers to work for other people than himself. Definitely not. When the businessman sits at home worrying about the bank, the tax or the detail, the managing director or senior manager is still able to switch off!

One thing I can say though, for Dan embarking on this new journey, “It is a lot like the day when you set off and rowed across the atlantic. You had a goal and a purpose. To that end, you achieved what you set out to achieve. The same applies in business. Set your goals out clearly and stick to them. Revisit them regularly, take nothing for granted. Have fun on your journey and good luck to you sir.”

If you are considering being in business and going it alone, take a pen and paper. Draw a line down the centre. On one side write down all the reasons why you want to be in business, and on the other the reasons why you have not done so yet.

If you find yourself procrastinating  and looking for reasons not to, seek help, but never give up. It’s easy.

I am not one for being dazzled by stars of any type. I grew up in my 20′s with some very famous friends and girlfriends, Ashley Paske from Neighbours, Craig Charles from Red Dwarf and it taught me that fame comes with a very expensive price tag. You loose all sense of privacy and there is literally no where to hide.

And the more famous you become, the bigger the price tag! Michael Jackson is a good example of this. A man who became so infamous he not only lost his personal life, he also lost all sense of reality and the fun that we take for granted of just being normal.

As Jacko found out, the media can flip you in minutes from fame to social famine. And if you are lucky, back-again; sadly a little late as he had already passed away.

Sitting next to Sarah, The Duchess of York at dinner last night discussing Michael Jackson I clearly struck a chord. She asked me my opinion on the funeral service / concert. I explained my point of view about how I feel the press dictate a great deal and that they are quick to forget how much damage they may do, yet they blow hot and cold whenever it suits. To me it was more concert than funeral. But that is what Jackson was a “showman” so why not go out on a positive note.

The dinner was in aid of a community project that the duchess is proactively supporting and she and her team (which includes locals from the Wythenshaw area) are doing a sterling job in Manchester helping to establish a community centre which houses a gym down stairs.

It struck a chord with me as I arrived in Manchester 24 years ago, with a few pounds in my pocket and no friends or real home to live in. I remember the loneliness of standing on your own two feet, too proud to consider returning to my little town in North Wales. My father had always told me I’d be a failure, and funnily enough this probably forced me in to a position where I had to survive.

But yesterday, meeting Simon, a young lad of 25 from the area where they are investing their energy, he is one of the team building the community centre project made me realised how lucky I’d been.

I was lucky, I had had a very good education (yet I managed to fail nearly every academic exam I sat!) and I also was taken in a after a year or so later by relatives who took pity on me; a then skin head in bedraggled clothes.
But not everyone is as lucky as that, how do you rise through the ranks when there is no one to show you the way. These days, I think it is even tougher for people leaving home. University actually puts you in debt so that is almost like a major set back when entering the grown up world. Personally skipping University did me know harm. As long as you keep learning keep striving to become better. I think the important thing is to keep away from trouble. As a young man it is easy to get sucked in with the wrong sort of people. It is almost uncool to hang around positive hardworking folk. Yet it is precisely these types you need as mentors to give you the direction you need.
Hats off to Sarah Ferguson. A megastar with her feet on the floor. A particularly likable one too. And to her team making the Duchess on the Estate documentary. It is refreshing to see others making a big difference, especially high profile ones as they are able to amplify their influence via TV with their relationship with the media.

For me, I wouldn’t swap anonymity for the world.

Over the holidays most of us have a few days off when we can look to the New Year. Here 2009 spreads out like a pristine carpet, glowing faintly under the fairy lights of possibility.

During this time we have a chance to clear our heads and make some resolutions for the coming year. If you’re looking for some ideas for marketing your online business, I’ve compiled a few which have been discussed in my blog over the last 12months:

* I will stay positive. Motivate your team and you’ll be rewarded with a hard working, dedicated force.

* I will tell my team about the good work they do. This will keep spirits up as others complain about the credit crunch and economic downturn.

* I will take my advertising online. It’s cheaper and it’s more easily targeted to a specific audience.

* I won’t underestimate my online presence. So many businesses see their website as a minor offshoot of their physical store or high street. Well whilst the high street suffers, online business is booming – the wisest businesses will invest in their website further.

* I will invest in my online infrastructure. Those who power their online business with faster hosting deliver a quicker and better customer service, keeping their customers coming back. Faster hosting also improves your search engine ranking.

* I will secure my website. Letting customers know their details are secure encourages them to buy online. Invest in an SSL certificate to let your customers know you are dedicated to their safety.

So, I hope you’ll have a wonderful Christmas, see off 2008 in style and would like to personally wish you prosperity in the New Year.

Music and DVD retailer Zavvi, for example, is missing out on countless Christmas profits as its online shop is unable to trade. Its main supplier was Entertainment UK.

So where do users go when they can’t buy from their first choice of online store?

In this case the answer is: Littlewoodsdirect.com, Yellowmoon.org.uk, HMV.com, Amazon.co.uk and Asda.co.uk.

These five online retailers are bidding on the search term “Woolworths” and reaping the benefits just in time for Christmas – savvy marketing if ever there was. Their sponsored links appear in the Google search results next to the now defunct Woolworths. HMV and ASDA (alongside Play.com) are also bidding on the term “Zavvi”, diverting traffic to their online stores.

HMV received 1.12% more of Woolworths’ downstream traffic on 6th Dec than on 29th Nov with overall visits remaining similar on both occasions. Similarly HMV received over 1.5 per cent more of Zavvi’s downstream traffic on 6th December than a week earlier.

Out of this HMV gains substantially more custom and the brand loyalties of many customers who will go to HMV in the future. This is incredibly detrimental to Zavvi as a music and video retailer and a direct competitor of HMV. It will resume its online trading in time and return to the arena to find a substantial portion of its customer base gone.

In the case of Woolworths, HMV is taking stock of what was the department store’s entertainments department. In offering its services at this crucial time – what with Christmas and the stores’ inability to trade – HMV becomes the e-shoppers choice. Of course this is comparative as the market leader is still Play.com.

Additionally, because these retailers have now established themselves as the alternatives to Zavvi and Woolworths, it makes it substantially more difficult for other online stores to successfully divert traffic.

]]> http://www.lawrencejones.eu/search-marketing/2008/12/09/woolworths-where-does-all-the-traffic-go/feed/ 0 http://www.lawrencejones.eu/search-marketing/2008/11/14/the-strength-of-internet-business-in-the-face-of-%e2%80%9crecession%e2%80%9d/ http://www.lawrencejones.eu/search-marketing/2008/11/14/the-strength-of-internet-business-in-the-face-of-%e2%80%9crecession%e2%80%9d/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:23:05 +0000 Lawrence Jones http://www.lawrencejones.eu/search-marketing/?p=126 Read the Rest »]]> Internet business is strengthening. As MD at internet hosting provider, UKFast, I have the luxury of being able to observe the fortunes of thousands of businesses. Of the quarter of a million domain names on our network, not one is complaining about the recession.

On the high street decreases in spending are evident. You may well spot boarded up shops and buildings to let, which leads to concerns for the economic climate. However this is much more likely just to be due to the natural shift in consumer activity.

The offline to online shift has been taking place for a number of years. More people than ever before are shopping online – in 2007, e-shoppers spent £370m online in just 24 hours on the second Monday in December. And the total spend for the three months leading to Christmas was estimated a massive £17.6bn – up 82% on the same period for 2006.

Online spending is predicted to reach £162bn by 2020 and make up 40% of retail spending. This clearly shows a shift in consumer shopping habits.

Personally, I think not.

Companies that make their employees redundant to save money over the period of recession may be able to balance their books but they don’t think of the long term consequences. The downturn isn’t going to last forever and when in a year or so the economy regains its strength, these companies will have whittled down their pool of talent.

Apart from this, companies that have grown and been successful until this period of economic slowdown also face losing valued members of staff. Team members that have helped the company grow and move forward in the past. Ask yourself – if you lose these staff will you be able to drive your business at the same rate? What is the potential for damage to the company culture?

When organisations choose to batten down the hatches and cut spend they stop focusing on their forward growth and start talking themselves into doom and gloom. All the talk of the failing economy simply allows managers to make allowances for the company’s poor performance – once again causing slower growth. The long term result of this is one of deeper recession, caused by the businesses themselves.

But even whilst the advertising sector as a whole shows a decline of 0.7%, online adspend has increased by 21% in the last year.

So why has online advertising increased this much despite the credit crunch?

It stems from the fact that the medium offers a relatively low-cost approach to brand building. And it works. At UKFast we operated an “online only” advertising policy for many years. Here’s why:

1. You only pay for the people who see your ad. If you pay for 100 click-throughs or that number of leads, that’s what you get. Businesses like this quantifiable approach because it guarantees a healthy ROI.

2. Targeting the right audience online is much more easily done than in other mediums such as broadcast or print because online communities are much more specific.

3. Businesses are recognising the ease in which they can extend the transaction within online advertising. Traditionally, apart from placing freephone numbers on TV and coupons in print publications, there was no way for customers to act on adverts. On the internet though, interested customers can click and buy on the spot.

4. With online platforms free advertising is much more plausible – strategic press releases need only cost for production as they can be posted in many areas free of charge.

It’s not all spam. The internet is a valid and cost-effective platform on which to advertise and grow your business – even within the credit crunch.

If you’ve had any experience of online advertising growing your brand and delivering great results please leave a comment. I’m very interested in hearing your stories.

Typically technology-savvy, the teenager you thought was simply chatting over MSN or adding to an already buckling Bebo account may well be using the internet to far greater effect. Astoundingly, in 2007, 43 per cent of teenagers used the internet to make money online.

“Big deal,” you might exclaim. “Anybody can sell on eBay!”

But bear in mind that 22 per cent of those teenagers actually set up an online business. And over four fifths of these young tycoons do it from their parents’ homes. No overheads, no rent, no leaving the house – just pure profit. It beats a paper round, that’s for sure.

As a youngster, back in the dark ages, I would have killed for a platform like the internet from which to do business. I made my extra cash as a very young entrepreneur setting up unofficial tuck shops. Then as I grew older my stock became more and more varied. I sold anything I could get my hands on; sunglasses at one point, T-shirts the next.

My teenage self was daring, bold and unaffected by the rules of business; something which I have taken into my adult career. The beauty of the young mind is that it is completely unhindered by boundaries. Teenagers “think outside of the box” simply because they’re not aware “the box” exists. However, the platform I was able to work from and products I could offer at such a tender age were restrictive. The internet changes everything.

Unfettered are the youth of today. They can source pens from China for 5p a bushel and distribute from a website where they never need disclose their age or identity. They have a technical know-how which probably exceeds many of their adult counterparts. And they have the luxury of time.

Encouraging Britain’s young business minds, especially in the current economical climate, is something companies and educational institutions alike should be embarking upon. We need to take the brightest sparks, cultivate the freshest ideas and look to the next generation of entrepreneurs for inspiration.

A couple blogs ago I wrote of the importance of a speedy dedicated server to build your brand online. Since then I’ve been asked several times whether a Linux or Windows-operated server is more beneficial to the marketing of your business. The key to a successful online marketing campaign is a fast server, so which operating system offers the quickest service?

In actual fact there is very little difference in the speed of Linux and Windows servers. Speed is largely based on the quality of the hardware. So, if your online business resides on a Quadcore Dell or HP, with a high level of bandwidth your server and therefore website will be much faster.

As discussed in a previous blog, server speed directly affects Search Engine Marketing because Google ranks sites that provide a valuable customer experience more highly. So as long as your server is fast, your Web marketing campaign benefits.

At 43%, trust is by far the most popular choice. So the question is how do you promote trust on your website?

For ecommerce sites secure payment is imperative. Your customers need to know their personal details and cash are safe online. Internet security is a hot topic and everyone is aware of the threat of hack attacks and identity fraud. You need to demonstrate to your web visitors that yours is a reputable enterprise.

An SSL certificate shows your company’s commitment to safe transactions online. UKFast clients who purchase SSL or EV SSLcertificates invariably fare better. SSL indicates that you care about your customers and establishes your business as a trustworthy organisation. This promotes a professional online identity, develops confidence and so generates more sales and increased profits.

If you have an SSL certificate make sure it is displayed prominently on the relevant webpages.

Another manner in which to build trust is to show your affiliations with other reputable organisations. Display logos clearly on your homepage so your visitors know straight away the sort of organisation they’re dealing with.

Visibly show contact details so web visitors know yours is a real company. Have a specific contact page with an address, phone number and email details so you’re easy to reach if a customer or potential client has a query. In certain situations, such as in smaller organisations with a less established brand, it is a good idea to display names and faces. This indicates professionalism and shows your company is not a dodgy, faceless organisation, run from some dingy student cellar.

After trust come usability and price – both at 29%. Usability is incredibly important so make sure you have a strong navigation system and relevant information is clearly displayed and easy to find.

However, tread carefully when it comes to price. Think about the brand image you are trying to portray. For example, use price comparisons if you are offering price competitive goods. However, stay away from comparing prices if your offering is focused on premium priced quality.

The final option, appearance, received no votes at all. Looks aren’t everything and you definitely can’t judge a website by its cover, but you should always make sure your site’s appearance is professional, clear and easy to use.

For the ever demanding customer, website response rates have to be immediate. How long do you spend on a slow page which doesn’t load properly? My guess is not long at all. And neither do your potential customers.

For slow websites the click-away rate is often incredibly high – and what do web users do when they’ve clicked away? They go to the next search engine listing, which just happens to be your fiercest competitor.

Speaking of search engines, many of the top ones use website response rate and server speed as part of the ranking process.

When a website responds more quickly, search engines see the site as more reputable and of a higher quality. These sites are rewarded because they offer a good customer experience and so they’re boosted higher in search rankings.

Fast websites are always located on quick and powerful dedicated servers. The hosting solution will often include more than one dedicated server for increased stability and performance – but that’s for another blog.

When you choose an internet hosting provider make sure you check out the reliability of their hardware. The speed of your server is as vital as other parts of your online marketing campaign.

Meta, keywords, PPC, dynamic content, great design and link building are all successful methods with which to advertise online. But what’s a great campaign if the website it’s based around is too slow to keep the attention of your customers?

This stereotype doesn’t exactly exude glamour and it goes a long way to explaining why half of IT employers are currently failing to fill the necessary roles. So, at UKFast, we’re working hard to disprove the theory that jobs in IT are boring and the rewards have been fantastic. We attract plenty of new recruits – over 200 graduates arrived at our latest open day this month – and we’ve picked up some fantastic new talent.

The CRAC Development Director Robin Mellors-Bourne is reported as saying: “Over 60% of non-computing students cited boring work as the main reason they would not join the sector. Employers should be able to counter that kind of perception.”

I agree. It is the responsibility of employers to dispell the myth that jobs in IT are always boring and it pays to take a step back and take a look at what we’re achieving to inspire the youth of today and the brains of tomorrow. At UKFast the technology we deal with makes the internet faster on a daily basis. And the internet is the biggest informational source the world has ever seen. How can crossing new frontiers fail to be exciting?

At UKFast our employees look forward to a five star working environment. Team building activities regularly take place at the Snowdon property and employees benefit from a relaxation room with table tennis, pool and video game facilities.

Because we’re passionate about what we do, we’re happy to invest in people and we offer a fast-paced working environment with fantastic perks, we have no trouble hiring the top IT graduates. I’d encourage others in the industry to do the same. Shout about what your company has to offer and let the world know just how worthwhile and fun a career in IT can be.

He is a worthy winner and the rapturous response he received when his name was announced reaffirms that he is a great entrepreneur and has the popular vote amongst the business community.

UKFast was a sponsor of the awards this year and I have to say I was pleased with the result. It is difficult to find another organisation that has done as much for Manchester as Bruntwood.

There are many awards nowadays and some people think that the sentiment behind the ceremony has been diluted. But personally I like to view them very positively.

I am honoured to have won a couple of awards. Most recently in 2007 I was happy to receive the IOD’s Young Director of the Year title. Plus this year, my company, UKFast, has won its fourth Best Hosting award in as many years at the ISPAs.

I’m currently a finalist for the Ernst & Young award, something I’m incredibly happy to have been nominated for.

But in a world where you can blindly beaver away for years, often the only reminder of your success comes from painfully increasing tax demands. I believe that to achieve an award is not just a pat on your back from your peers, but a reinforcement that you are doing something right.

In this period of time, the internet has grown and changed considerably. There is much more offered by way of interactive and dynamic content now, making internet usage undeniably better than it was back in 2001.

When I look back over the years at how the UKFast website has grown, it is barely recognisable as the site of 2001. It wasn’t that it was a poor site back then, just that the internet has moved on so much.

The speed and reliability of new internet technology – broadband, quadcore web servers, innovative applications, etc, etc – offers the ability to host so much more content that I’m surprised the government hasn’t invested more into its websites. Especially with the quality of web content that can be offered online these days and the functions it can perform.

The government’s website were criticised for their lack of feedback options, poor search facilities, accessibility and usability.

This interested me greatly because it highlighted that the government (and probably businesses and organisations all over the world) still isn’t taking its online presence seriously enough.

The internet is intrinsic in the growth of UKFast. Our marketing strategy for example, was for many years based only online.

Through the growth of the UKFast website, so has the company increased size, in its successes and in its profits.

This is largely due to us moving with the times. We make sure we learn and implement the latest online techniques, from new SEO methods to incorporating more dynamic content with the introduction of video to our website. I’ve mentioned in previous blogs the success of the new UKFast videocasting department.

I simply cannot stress enough the importance of the internet to organisations in every sector. Make sure you’re using it to its fullest extent.

Welcome to the world of human interfacing.

Last week I had the immense pleasure of meeting several hundred interesting people at the Internet World exhibition, in London’s Earls Court. And I met them face to face.

As truly amazing as technology is in its new styles of communication, there is no substitute for the personal approach of physically meeting people.

There’s a buzz at Internet World which is contagious, and despite the aching feet and bodies of the UKFast team, I know every one of them felt exhilarated. It’s exciting to get out of the office and escape from behind the computer screen.

We always put a huge amount of effort into our offline presence and this year at Internet World was certainly no exception.

A champagne bar, plasma screens, models, a Ducati racing bike and dual levelled stand with an inbuilt video studio complimented our hands-on customer approach. We won the award for Best Exhibition Stand which I’m extremely proud of.

In an internet-oriented world, email, SEO and PPC are all fabulous manners in which to promote your business and communicate. But there’s nothing like the excitement of face to face contact.

My advice is to make an effort to meet more people. Get your brand seen in its full fleshy glory. And make sure the world knows that your business is not just a picture on a screen.

As a company grows it becomes more and more difficult to give the necessary amount of attention to recruiting new staff. But despite the size of the company it is still vitally important to get the right staff so as not to dilute your business’s overall skill sector.

To overcome this problem as the company grows, at UKFast we have hired an internal recruitment and HR manager.

Every day at UKFast we receive phone calls from recruitment consultants offering their services and in most cases that’s as far as our relationship goes. It has always been my opinion that with outside recruitment a business loses some of the personal approach it takes to find and employ the correct candidates.

Only internally can you really know what the role entails, what the culture of the company is and who would fit there. Internal recruiters are also more prolific in understanding the qualifications and skills necessary to fill specific roles.

A company grows using a sustainable competitive advantage, hiring excellent candidates who fit in with the company culture, who are enthusiastic and willing to work hard drives the company towards new heights.

I have found that internally we are able to judge a candidate, not on their qualifications, but on their ability to be trained in certain skills as well as on drive and ambition.

External recruitment has been compared to battery farming, providing bulk CVs with little thought as to the person behind the paper. In terms of poultry farming, internal recruitment is the free range equivalent. Each candidate is given more time and judged on personality, ambition, potential to develop skills as well as their list of qualifications.

Additionally, at UKFast we put weight on psychometric testing. This provides an all-round view of the candidate, especially those who become nervous during the interview process.

There are many ways to make sure you are hiring the right people. But I can stress enough the importance of hiring the correct candidates when growing a company.

UKFast smashed industry records by winning the award for four years consecutively.

Being recognised and praised for the hard work we have put in to the company is a wonderful feeling. I sincerely hope our victory proved the importance and necessity of excellent customer service as well as top of the range dedicated server hardware.

However, I for one am not willing to rest on my laurels. That’s not the attitude that has got the company this far.

So this year we’re going to keep pushing.

As a company we’re growing very quickly in size, knowledge and experience. The boundaries of the internet have never been closer but at UKFast we’ll never see them as closed- continuing to push them with all of our strength.

This year we have great things planned at UKFast. Our aim is to increase employee numbers to 100 before 2009 and continue to provide the most powerful and reliable technology, networks and support.

And of course to win the ISPA for a fifth time in 2009.

Currently the trend shows:
• SEO at 46%
• Link building at 26%
• PPC at 20%
• PR at 9%

However, if this was reversed would it really be so bad?

The highest ranking is currently SEO – if there is such a thing. This made me contemplate things. What exactly is SEO and how do we use it?

Search engine optimisation has evolved with the internet and it relies on a series of complex rules to place businesses in order of relevance to your search.

However, what’s the point in attempting to optimise your site if content isn’t regularly changed?

If your content isn’t changed, Google probably won’t recognise it anyway.
Plus, if content is substandard, no matter how high you get in the search engines, you continue to find that leads don’t convert into sales. People won’t stay on the site long enough to buy from you if the pages aren’t interesting.

At 26% and 20%, link building and PPC came in second and third which I find strange. Pay per click can be the most costly solution and therefore you’d think it would rank more highly in public opinion.

Coming in last place with a vote of just 9% is PR. In my opinion this has many more online uses than a lot of people realise.

Online PR has even more benefits in addition to the traditional function of building your brand and getting your business in the press.

With online PR you can distribute your release across the web in various different portals.

There are a plethora of online publications just waiting for your release. Not only are these sites trawled by local, national and international media relations professionals, each one can be linked back to your site.

As you know, links to your site increase your Google page rank and your position in the search engines, as well as serving to build your company reputation and get some press. So that’s dealing with link building, SEO and PR in one fell swoop.

And sending a press release is free.

By writing press releases you are essentially killing an entire flock of birds with one stone and yet figures show so many businesses don’t hold the idea in high regard.

In my opinion, the sooner you embrace the press release the better for your business.

Sport and business go hand in hand. In both it takes talent and practice to get to the top of your game and in my opinion, some of the most motivated businessmen are keen sports players.

Sportspeople set goals and strive to achieve them. They relish a challenge and don’t shy away when things get tough. People who play sport have an ability to stay focused and find it easier to work as a team.

Apart from that, sport promotes a healthy body and a competitive mindset – which can be very useful in the business environment.

At UKFast we take a lot of note from the way great sportspeople train and use their techniques. The vast majority of the tasks we undertake are done routinely with a goal in sight.

As a supporter and sponsor of Sale Sharks rugby for many years, I’m proud to have been there to see the team grow from strength to strength.

By sponsoring local sports teams, you are able to play an active part in the community. At UKFast we’ve taken part in various rugby days for children so they can benefit from the sport too.

Additionally, with the sponsorship of the team we have been able to meet and build relationships with other Manchester businesses.

But it is not just established teams I like to be involved with. I am currently sponsoring two young tennis players, Naomi and Liam Broady.

The two have been highlighted as the nation’s freshest talent and by doing what we can to help them we offer the ability to further their careers in sport for as long as possible.

So in my opinion, sport is a wonderful way to motivate yourself and your team and of course it goes towards fulfilling your business’s corporate social responsibility.

In light of recent travesties such as 25million records disappearing from a government database in a day, it is no wonder data protection is a hot topic. With the storage of more online data than ever before, security worries are multiplying quickly.

There are several reasons for protecting your databases, including customer confidentiality, protecting your client base and keeping the secret to your business’s success.

Client records must be kept safe under the Data Protection Act, which states customer information must be: “kept secure with appropriate technical and organisational measures taken to protect the information”.

Trade secrets are your business’s foundations. CocaCola for example, is unlikely to give away the secret of its taste to new employees. Not only would competitors be able to make the drink themselves, but the company would lose the mystical brand image that has been cultivated for over a hundred years.

Similarly, with regards to my web development company, Text, if somebody was to gain access to our coding, we would lose the competitive advantages we gained through hard work and dedication. If other companies start to use our coding it makes all our hard work trivial.

As your company increases in size, you employ more new people who you have to grow to trust over time. If there are no restrictions on company computers just think what could be carried away on a USB drive or sent via web based email.

Employee access to personal applications at work is something which differs for every company, of course. But in my opinion it is something to be seriously considered in your business strategy. Think carefully. A company depends upon its databases. It is a director’s duty to protect them. By eliminating opportunity you can ease concern that your own data can be removed.

Businesses have several ways of protecting important information. Limiting access to specific drives, disabling USB ports and blocking web based email accounts are just a number of ways.

I know of several managing directors who take these strategies to the absolute pinnacle but I’m a believer that with some standard procedures in place you can be sure that your in-house databases are safe.

As managers you may worry about your company gaining a reputation for being dictatorial with such precautions, however there are compensations you can take on board to avoid this feeling. Installing computer terminals in the staff room that are not attached to the company network is just one of these. This can allow staff to view web based email accounts in their break times without the concern that they can attach and send company information. The history of their work email can be recorded and this is deterrent enough.

As is often the case, instilling a great work ethic within your team is the secret to success but it always pays to stay secure and reduce risk.

Typically, schools, colleges and universities have used the internet as a place to display achievements and attract new pupils. Universities in particular have to market their courses, and the internet is an obvious place to do this.

In recent years however, many learning institutions are modifying their online presence to include materials for study. Programmes are now in effect which offer direct access to lecture notes. And more and more, institutions use the internet to establish social networking sites for communications between pupils and teachers.

Due to the many different variations in content, online learning can be undertaken in many unique ways. Video clips, interactive features, PDFs, graphics, webinars and forums are backed by the fact that the internet is the largest publicly accessible store of information on the planet.

But is all this making our scholars more intelligent, or simply more lazy, as they know they’ll always have the answers at their fingertips.

In my opinion, the internet for scholars serves the same purpose as the calculator for mathematicians. Even a student with the greatest store of information possible cannot benefit from it if they don’t have the background knowledge to begin with. Just as with a top of the range calculator, if you don’t know the theories it doesn’t matter which buttons you press, you won’t get the correct answer.

What the internet does provide to learners is the possibility to do research and therefore complete work more quickly. And businesses can benefit too.

Online webinars by Google already play a large part in the training of the UKFast marketing team. Watching a live seminar on the web eliminates the need to travel to far flung locations (like London) and gives up to the minute information from expert speakers.

Basically it levels the playing-field of learning for businesses around the world. Unlike reading text online, you are also given the option to ask questions which are answered immediately.

I’m pleased to see that educational and business establishments are taking note of the internet as it is a valuable educational resource. Organisations are taking the internet very seriously by hosting sites on dedicated servers, helping them to provide a high level of service and cope with volumes of traffic.

Amazing revelations are taking place in educational online content already and I am very excited to find out where it will lead.

Managers and directors often find it very difficult to leave the office even for a short while.

Keeping your eye on the business whilst going on holiday has, in the past, posed many problems but every year it definitely gets easier.

The fact that I am able to go away and leave the office for several weeks boils down to advanced technology and a quality company strategy.

Looking at my mobile phone, I contemplate the ease in which I can contact anyone in the office at any time of the working day.

We all work from home, on the train, or anywhere that has an internet connection or telephone line, these days.

Through the use of exchange servers, for example, Microsoft has made simple the accessing of emails, voicemails, contact lists and calendars from remote locations. This is particularly useful because of its familiarity. Whichever device the software renders on, it bears resemblance to Microsoft Office Outlook.

However, in addition to having reliable technology, before I go away I like to tie up loose ends and debrief my staff, making sure they’re all well equipped to deal with what may occur in my absence.

I always advise company managers or directors to consider taking time off throughout the year. Running a company is a difficult job and everyone needs time to recharge their batteries.

It gives you a chance a chance to refresh, renew and take the time to think about the business in a new light.

Plus wherever I am I the world, I can now guarantee that I am only one email or phone call away.