Tick-Block: Do the time and forget the detail (for now)

Tick-Block is concept whereby blocks of time are set aside by an individual to work on particular aspect of their life. This could be business focussed, household chores, financial planning or exercise for instance.

Tick-Block is not a to-do list as such but merely a demonstration that you have planned time to work on a particular project. To successfully enable you to ‘tick-block’, at least 75% of the time you have scheduled has to be dedicated to that task. The premise of this system is encourage progress in whatever form it takes. Make a phone call, read an article, write an email, anything, but just TAKE ACTION!

Ultimately this system is all about ‘doing’ in the first instance with the focus doing more than you are doing right now. It is there to give you momentum rather than getting bogged down in the process of achieveing specific tasks. That can come later but for now the important thing is to get moving…

Out of the recession is emerging a ‘new breed of business owner’

Story from Bytestart.co.uk – the samall business portal

New research has revealed that a new breed of ’super entrepreneurs’ is evolving as a result of the downturn.

These business owners, who Darwin would have been proud of, are making themselves fit to survive the current downturn and thrive in the future.

Super entrepreneur profile

The study, conducted by Bibby Financial Services, shows that the the new breed of ’super entrepreneur’ is most likely to be:

• Female
• Aged between 45 and 54
• Living in the South East
• Have started their business between 1995 and 1999
• Running a business with a turnover of between £250,000 and £500,000
• Running a business that employs five or more people
• Experienced two downturns including this one

Internet professionals gather for important IPv6 workshop

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has staged a major deployment workshop dedicated to the topic of IPv6 implementation. The event, held on 13 March, was designed to promote the features and benefits of using IPv6 especially in light of the decline of available IPv4 address space. Such was the interest in IPv6 that well over 100 industry professionals attended the London workshop looking to learn more about the techniques and tools needed to offer IPv6 on their networks.

The event was co-sponsored by the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR), part of the former DTI, who along with LINX were looking to bring IPv6 to the top of the industry agenda. Simon Hicks of BERR said: “This meeting was a great opportunity to discuss this important issue with key industry players. We are keen to develop structured timelines for a full scale move to IPv6 and this event has brought into focus the need to act now rather than later. I came away feeling positive that our objectives for this workshop had been met.”

Scattergun advertising or targetting the right people?

Many are now using Twitter in advertising

Tonight I posted on my Twitter account that I was very pleased to note that second month download figures for our quarterly company magazine were up by 300% on the previous record set back in September. At the current rate this issue could become the most downloaded of all online editions by the middle of next month just two months after publication.

It is true that a more concerted promotional campaign has been implemented this time with many other media streams being used in advertising. Twitter was one, forums were another plus co-promotion through magazine contributor websites and on technical chat channels too. This final example happened by accident as a fellow staff member mentioned that he was included in an article in online discussions. Readers of his comments were not aware of the magazine so they visited the website to take a look.

As I was looking at the current stats I felt like I wanted to share that success. Before posting the comment I again added the URL for magazine without explaining what it was. Some may have thought it was to the magazine itself while others I’m sure may have been expecting a link to a more in-depth article about the statistics.What seems certain that there were some who would be getting a PDF download that they hadn’t anticipated.

London, training and panic attacks

Learning Tree training centre

A very strange couple of weeks. Well, not so much strange but unusual from my point of view.

Since the end of February I’ve been in London for four days (two at a conference, one at the staff meeting and one on a training course), there was a day on Slough Trading Estate (as featured in The Office) and then two days off involving an 11th anniversary meal and a panic attack leading to a sleepless night and day off work sick.

Your company in 30 seconds

From www.smallbusiness.co.uk

‘What do you do?’ is a question that can put even the most seasoned business brain under pressure. Craig Fisher, founder of business consultancy The Sales Expert, explains how to put together a concise and compelling elevator pitch.

In today’s mobile business climate you never know when an opportunity is going to present itself. You will probably only have one chance to paint the best picture of your business to a prospective client or partner.

Your elevator pitch helps you to articulate the essence of your business in the fewest possible amount of words. What do you do? Who do you do it for? What does this mean to them?

These are the questions that you need to answer in the time it takes to take a lift from the ground to the top floor. Don’t alienate your target with a deluge of facts and figures; your objective here is not to close. It is to lay the foundations for the opportunity to do so.

Peer-to-Peer filesharing story in new Internet magazine, HotLINX

Peer-to-Peer filesharing top story in HotLINX magazine

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has launched the latest edition of its popular news magazine, HotLINX, available now at www.linx.net.

The cover story focusses on the UK government’s rethink on peer-to-peer filesharing. This forms part of a comprehensive Internet regulatory section which also looks at content blocking and the future for Broadband.

The annual cost savings of up to 40% seen by many LINX members is covered as is the latest data centre and colocation news. There’s a detailed technology feature on the LINX network plus articles on the latest membership stats and industry events.

With these and a host of other stories, this edition of HotLINX has something for everyone with an interest in what’s happening in the Internet world.

Issue 17 (PDF)