So we have a long Bank Holiday weekend and we're making the most of it by shutting today (Friday 1st June) and reopening on Wednesday 6th June, even though I'll be at Leeds with a client that day.
So what are my plans for the weekend? A traditional escape to a republic for a game of cricket. I'm off to Strasbourg with a bunch of friends to play the third and final match in a 3-match cricket series against the Strasbourg Strollers which has stretched over some 15 or so years. At one-all in the series it's the deciding match but as we are all old, knackered and blind we're not too hopeful of a victory. It's also a celebration of the fiftieth birthday of one of the team - should be a good weekend
Obviously, as always, the mobile will be on for emergencies - please try and have them early in the day as later on I may make no sense at all (so you may not spot the difference).
Have a great weekend.
Friday, 1 June 2012
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Work Experience & Wordpress News Section
Things area bit hectic at the moment so a brief update on what's gone on over the last week or so.
Last Friday saw a young guy named Ben in for works experience. Ben is an FE student at Redcar College who wants some work experience in sales and marketing. He seems bright (and was bright enough to contact me direct with a CV) so we're giving him a few days experience one day per week and if all goes well we'll offer him a part-time job with us - part-time as he wants to continue with his studies and go to Uni. So on Friday Ben did a bit of market research for us and this week will be making some sales calls - I think he may have a bright future.
On the workload front there was a fair bit of SEO updating and we also created a news section for Future Roofs who are already one of our clients. They were after a budget section of their website to add news pages so we suggested Wordpress which we have set up and added some of their branding. It was also one of those weeks with lots of meeting that are all productive long term but make you feel like you've not done any real work!
The best and saddest part of the week was Sunday at Bishop Auckland where my son's rugby team, Middlesbrough U16s, won the Bishop Auckland 10s. Matty didn't play due to his concussion the previous week but we had a pleasant day out supporting his team mates. Winning a well run tournament is always nice but it was Lewis Boyce's last game for us as superstardom beckons with a professional contract coming in the Summer. Remember the name, Boycey already plays as prop for England U16 and U17 and could go all the way at adult level - a smashing and humble young fella as well and I really look forward to watching him at club and country level in the future. Good luck Lewis.
Last Friday saw a young guy named Ben in for works experience. Ben is an FE student at Redcar College who wants some work experience in sales and marketing. He seems bright (and was bright enough to contact me direct with a CV) so we're giving him a few days experience one day per week and if all goes well we'll offer him a part-time job with us - part-time as he wants to continue with his studies and go to Uni. So on Friday Ben did a bit of market research for us and this week will be making some sales calls - I think he may have a bright future.
On the workload front there was a fair bit of SEO updating and we also created a news section for Future Roofs who are already one of our clients. They were after a budget section of their website to add news pages so we suggested Wordpress which we have set up and added some of their branding. It was also one of those weeks with lots of meeting that are all productive long term but make you feel like you've not done any real work!
The best and saddest part of the week was Sunday at Bishop Auckland where my son's rugby team, Middlesbrough U16s, won the Bishop Auckland 10s. Matty didn't play due to his concussion the previous week but we had a pleasant day out supporting his team mates. Winning a well run tournament is always nice but it was Lewis Boyce's last game for us as superstardom beckons with a professional contract coming in the Summer. Remember the name, Boycey already plays as prop for England U16 and U17 and could go all the way at adult level - a smashing and humble young fella as well and I really look forward to watching him at club and country level in the future. Good luck Lewis.
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Mobile Website, GPS and more
I've not blogged for a pretty eventful fortnight where all kinds of things have been happening so where to start? Perhaps a chronological route through the last two weeks will do.
We manage the website of the Middlesbrough Midweek Cricket League which was created a few years ago and is a simple template site that has been "developed" (hacked together is more accurate) over the years with little planning as it has always had the "oh, could you just add ...." elements right from the start. A lot of the functionality, for example a fixture list, is generated via javascript from arrays which is not ideal but not a bad method considering the ad-hoc nature of the early site development. So having saved the results and tables from last year we had the task of updating the arrays plus generating the template for the bottom division which always has an unusual number of teams and this year did not match any previous year since the website started. There are also changes to make regarding each club's contact details, sometimes the club name and updating their history. We also update the results throughout the season. It would be nice to have the time to redo the whole site at some point via SQL and PHP.
As an ex-player who is now too old and blind to play it's good to put something back.
We've also created a new mobile version of our website at tadweb.mobi. We already generate a simplified version of our main site at tadwebsolutions.co.uk when visited by mobile devices with smaller screens but now have a link to our genuine mobile site. Anyone looking for a mobile version of their site can contact us and we can provide either or both options for them.
We manage the website of the Middlesbrough Midweek Cricket League which was created a few years ago and is a simple template site that has been "developed" (hacked together is more accurate) over the years with little planning as it has always had the "oh, could you just add ...." elements right from the start. A lot of the functionality, for example a fixture list, is generated via javascript from arrays which is not ideal but not a bad method considering the ad-hoc nature of the early site development. So having saved the results and tables from last year we had the task of updating the arrays plus generating the template for the bottom division which always has an unusual number of teams and this year did not match any previous year since the website started. There are also changes to make regarding each club's contact details, sometimes the club name and updating their history. We also update the results throughout the season. It would be nice to have the time to redo the whole site at some point via SQL and PHP.
As an ex-player who is now too old and blind to play it's good to put something back.
We've also created a new mobile version of our website at tadweb.mobi. We already generate a simplified version of our main site at tadwebsolutions.co.uk when visited by mobile devices with smaller screens but now have a link to our genuine mobile site. Anyone looking for a mobile version of their site can contact us and we can provide either or both options for them.
Last week saw us pay our first visit to RSPB Saltholme to collect some GPS data and images for the prototype location based application we are building and it's great to have Saltholme as partners in this exciting project. As always it was absolutely freezing but initial data is now stored ready to use.
We also received an email and CV from a young man who wants to gain experience in sales and marketing and brought him in for a chat. We were very impressed with his attitude and intelligence and Ben will be coming in on Friday's for a few weeks and then we will review whether we are right for him and he is right for us. He is in full time education for the next year or so meaning the relationship will be part-time but hopefully all is successful and we can employ him until he heads of to uni in a year or so, or longer if he stays in the area.
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
A Quiet Week
Last week was one of those weeks used mainly for catching up on "stuff" that needs doing but doesn't feel very productive, the main example being getting the accounts up to date - an exciting process if ever there was one. This has also involved the related topics of "arguing with my accountant" as they've got it wrong again, and "where did I put that invoice" that I've already paid.
I shall keep mum regarding the identity of our accountants but when I was self-employed, tax returns seemed to involve them choosing a random number and then waiting for HMRC to adjust later which either meant a large and unexpected payment from me at short notice or, very occasionally, a nice rebate.
So far since we became a limited company they have only run payroll and VAT. VAT has been great, I keep my accounts using Sage Instant and run the VAT routine so I know how much we need to pay. I then send the Sage back-up file to the accountants who run the same routine on their version, generate the same report and then charge me for it. Payroll too has been OK except for the end of year P35 where my accountants have me down as paying less than they told me to pay during the year which is the actual amount I had paid. They also didn't tell me about the employer NI break I was entitled to and only found out via a fellow business owner and we applied it after paying out initially.
If I ran my business as haphazardly as they do I'd have few customers (I now expect a series of replies along the lines "What do you mean IF?"). Nearly as bad as solicitors, don't get me started on them!!
I shall keep mum regarding the identity of our accountants but when I was self-employed, tax returns seemed to involve them choosing a random number and then waiting for HMRC to adjust later which either meant a large and unexpected payment from me at short notice or, very occasionally, a nice rebate.
So far since we became a limited company they have only run payroll and VAT. VAT has been great, I keep my accounts using Sage Instant and run the VAT routine so I know how much we need to pay. I then send the Sage back-up file to the accountants who run the same routine on their version, generate the same report and then charge me for it. Payroll too has been OK except for the end of year P35 where my accountants have me down as paying less than they told me to pay during the year which is the actual amount I had paid. They also didn't tell me about the employer NI break I was entitled to and only found out via a fellow business owner and we applied it after paying out initially.
If I ran my business as haphazardly as they do I'd have few customers (I now expect a series of replies along the lines "What do you mean IF?"). Nearly as bad as solicitors, don't get me started on them!!
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Google Adwords in Our Good Books
The bank holiday weekend is over and it was a nice little break to relax for a few days, even if I did work all of Good Friday to meet some deadlines. So relaxing done it's back to work even if the week is a little shorter.
Last week saw us largely concentrating on SEO work and Google Adwords for a number of clients. We've had a bit of a problem with Google regarding some new Adwords accounts using vouchers Google sent us. We use these for clients who are considering delving into the world of pay-per-click advertising on Google so we can see what we can achieve for their proposed budgets. Apparently we have "violated advertising policy" on a couple of accounts but after an exchange of emails over a week or so the Google Adwords bods seem to have changed their minds and reinstated accounts with an apology. Fair play to Google, whilst it has been a bit of a pain they have listened and acted rather than simply fobbing us off - so they are back in my good books for dealing with the issues in a professional and courteous manner which, in my experience, is fairly rare for huge corporations.
We've also been developing the prototype designs for a garden temples website that should be launched shortly and a landscape gardening company in East Anglia. Our interns, Matthieu and Guillaume, have been working hard on their projects and marketing assistant Matt has been doing some market research for a directory site. Also we have been chasing up a few sales leads and getting our accounts up to date before that becomes too big a job!
Finally, a big get well to young Will G in the ICU at James Cook University Hospital - an inspirational young fella who has been seriously ill and we wish him the speediest of recoveries.
Last week saw us largely concentrating on SEO work and Google Adwords for a number of clients. We've had a bit of a problem with Google regarding some new Adwords accounts using vouchers Google sent us. We use these for clients who are considering delving into the world of pay-per-click advertising on Google so we can see what we can achieve for their proposed budgets. Apparently we have "violated advertising policy" on a couple of accounts but after an exchange of emails over a week or so the Google Adwords bods seem to have changed their minds and reinstated accounts with an apology. Fair play to Google, whilst it has been a bit of a pain they have listened and acted rather than simply fobbing us off - so they are back in my good books for dealing with the issues in a professional and courteous manner which, in my experience, is fairly rare for huge corporations.
We've also been developing the prototype designs for a garden temples website that should be launched shortly and a landscape gardening company in East Anglia. Our interns, Matthieu and Guillaume, have been working hard on their projects and marketing assistant Matt has been doing some market research for a directory site. Also we have been chasing up a few sales leads and getting our accounts up to date before that becomes too big a job!
Finally, a big get well to young Will G in the ICU at James Cook University Hospital - an inspirational young fella who has been seriously ill and we wish him the speediest of recoveries.
Monday, 2 April 2012
A Proud Father
I'm going to give droning on about what the business is up to a miss for a week and talk about rugby, and specifically Middlesbrough RUFC under-16s and York under-16s.
Yesterday, the aforementioned teams, with Boro captained by my son and part-time staff member Matt, played in their third Yorkshire Cup final against each other in three years. York, had been beaten by us in the two previous finals and Boro had also won the final against Sandal at under-13, so were aiming to make it 4 in a row. This year York turned the tables on us with a fantastic attacking performance running out deserved winners 32-21.
I watched 70 mins of skilled and committed young men in an immense physical battle that will have left most of them aching somewhat today. What I also saw was respect for each other and the officials, tears from the losers and joy from the winners. The losers were honourable in defeat and the victors humble in victory. There were joint team photos after the presentation, parents and coaches from the losing team congratulating those from the winning team and a pride in the performance and the conduct of both sets of players.
We often hear stories of how bad the youth of today are supposed to be - well if I could be half the man that those young men of Middlesbrough and York are I would be very proud of myself.
If only footballers could act in the same way.
Yesterday, the aforementioned teams, with Boro captained by my son and part-time staff member Matt, played in their third Yorkshire Cup final against each other in three years. York, had been beaten by us in the two previous finals and Boro had also won the final against Sandal at under-13, so were aiming to make it 4 in a row. This year York turned the tables on us with a fantastic attacking performance running out deserved winners 32-21.
I watched 70 mins of skilled and committed young men in an immense physical battle that will have left most of them aching somewhat today. What I also saw was respect for each other and the officials, tears from the losers and joy from the winners. The losers were honourable in defeat and the victors humble in victory. There were joint team photos after the presentation, parents and coaches from the losing team congratulating those from the winning team and a pride in the performance and the conduct of both sets of players.
We often hear stories of how bad the youth of today are supposed to be - well if I could be half the man that those young men of Middlesbrough and York are I would be very proud of myself.
If only footballers could act in the same way.
Friday, 23 March 2012
Location-based Applications
I had a meeting with Toby Collett at RSPB Saltholme regarding the development of our prototype location-based application. We're developing this with a view to securing some investment for a new start-up company in partnership with three others across the North of England. We aim to develop a range of accurate location-based data for use with any location and have requested that the RSPB Saltholme reserve allow us to use their fantastic reserve as our prototype area.
We're still awaiting the formal written agreement but all has gone well and it is our intention to produce a prototype that will be useful in gaining investment into our project but also provide Saltholme with some features that will enhance their visitors experience. Toby was a pleasure to meet and a great help and I also managed to sneak in an hour's birdwatching before I sloped back to do some work.
This week has also seen the launch of the new website we have created for Life Aid Training Ltd, a new local company that offers certified first aid training and defibrillator and CPR courses. There's still a few tweaks to be made which we will make early next week when our client comes in to the office.
We're still awaiting the formal written agreement but all has gone well and it is our intention to produce a prototype that will be useful in gaining investment into our project but also provide Saltholme with some features that will enhance their visitors experience. Toby was a pleasure to meet and a great help and I also managed to sneak in an hour's birdwatching before I sloped back to do some work.
This week has also seen the launch of the new website we have created for Life Aid Training Ltd, a new local company that offers certified first aid training and defibrillator and CPR courses. There's still a few tweaks to be made which we will make early next week when our client comes in to the office.
This week has also seen us upgrading the Spirit Seekers website to allow visitors to search for their paranormal events by county.
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