Despite the recession, we seem to be doing extremely well :)

Historically, this quarter (the 2nd business quarter) is a little down on both turnover and profit. This is mainly due to the big holiday month of August ~ for some reason, people don’t seem to care about their computers if they are jetting off to warmer climes ~ people are odd.
With the start of the school holidays, we can almost see the drop off of calls.

Not this time!
We are getting more and more busy

Whilst discussing this with a colleague of ours (he is more like an non-executive director really), he said it’s our business philosophy which has been right, and now we are reaping the rewards.
It’s a great feeling to see your own business start to flourish, though the sceptic in me expects it all to go quiet again

I heard on the news recently, that more and more people are thinking that the recession has bottomed out, and that things are getting better, but people also expect it to take quite a while to settle down again.
I can agree with this…

If we all start thinking that these problems are coming to an end, then things should look a little rosier.
Though if you have just lost your job, I can see this would be hard…

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I heard from Jaimie at inet Engineers the other day.
He had heard from a client who we tried to help but “didn’t want to spend any money at the moment” on the things we recommend for ALL businesses (backup systems, antivirus etc…)
Apparently, they have just had an office destroying fire. In it they lost ALL of their computer records and stock.
Try to imagine that for a moment – ALL records of sales, invoicing, orders, clients, suppliers, financials, products and stock gone.
I think it unlikely that their business will recover
It’s a real shame, but a little foresight by the directors could have saved most of these losses.

If you are in a similar position, don’t think it wont happen to you, ‘cos if it does it’ll be too late…
Pay about £15 – £20 per month for an online backup AT LEAST!!
It might be the best investment your business makes…

Call us to discuss

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I sympathise with all the people involved with this case:
‘Pupil murder bid’ teacher held
The school staff, pupils and families.

Though I know NOTHING about the case, and I know NOTHING about the people involved, I think it’s indicative of the disrespectful society in which we live.

We have spent so long telling our children that they are the future; that they cannot fail; that they are all fantastic, that they believe that all these things are true ~ sadly, as we all know, that’s just not the case.

I’ll admit that the above statement is indeed a sweeping generalisation, but that seems to be the way things are.

As a prospective employer, we regularly receive CVs. Some of these are so pitifully written it saddens me to think the state has wasted time and money in an obviously failed attempt to educate the individuals involved.

One CV we received had the persons name spelled three different ways!

Though this is not the standard by any means, I refuse to believe that an appropriate response to a comment of “I don’t think we should persue this interview any longer” would be “Well I didn’t want your ****ing job anyway”.

The government need to realise that employers and society in general NEED children to be taught respect and manners and the skills that will enable them to be productive members of society. TEACH THEM LIFE SKILLS TOO!!!
STOP telling them that they can all be brain surgeons and STOP telling them that they can expect to earn millions for doing nothing (not to say that brain surgeons do nothing for their money).
They also need to experience and understand failure ~ keeping this from them will only make it more of a catastrophe WHEN they eventually DO fail.

I’m expecting the case mentioned to turn out that the people harmed, pushed all the teachers buttons and he just flipped. Though there is no justification for the extreme nature of his response, there may be understanding.
I’d also lay money on the child suffering in hospital being pictured as a perfect angel who never caused any trouble.

I’m surprised more children aren’t hurt ~ teachers must have the patience of saints sometimes.

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It’s true, in a small business, that you NEED to get away from time to time – the problem comes when you ask yourself the question:
“When would be a good time?”
The answer is simply – any time is a bad time, so just go! – with the caveat that you need to give a little more notice than usual.

In our business, i.e. one in which you cannot predict EXACTLY what you will be doing from day to day, you just need to take the holidays when you can. I tend to avoid the ‘popular’ times to be away (this has nothing to do with the fact that it saves me vast amounts of money not going away at peak time – how could you think me so cheap? ). Then I give lots of notice, and make provisions for cover in case of emergencies.

Today was a case in point – it took approximately 38 minutes before the phone rang with an insurmountable problem. It took a further few minutes to sort out, but could have meant a panic visit to York. I LOVE remote technology, I got a technician to dial in and sort the problems – Job done :)

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I planned to spend the first chunk of the holiday sorting jobs around the house before going away later in the week.
I got everything out I needed for a extravaganza of lawn mowing activity – grasped the handles of the mower ready to stride out into the jungle my garden has become, just as the heavens open
Sigh…
Packs stuff away and cleans the kitchen instead…

I LOVE THE BRITISH WEATHER! :evil:

P.S.
I repatriated 2 of our baby fishes into the adult tank at the weekend – parents and babies doing well

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I am officially stupid – I guess some of you know this already
In this particular case I DO have an excuse, and it’s not relating to my dubious mental state.

With the recently hot weather I have had great difficulty sleeping and, as a man who usually has little heavy sleep, this is not good for my concentration.

In this particular instance I mananged to take a trip to Sainsburys for a few bits ‘n’ bobs, placing the choice items in the boot for the trip home.
Brrrmmmmmmm…
Arrives at home to decant the car contents into their respective locations. Has a life (just for the evening you understand – I wouldn’t want you thinking I had a life!), goes to bed.
My girlfriend gets up and asks how I managed to leave the boot WIDE OPEN all night!
Unfortunately I had also not locked the car either!! :eek:
Oops!
Fortunately nothing was missing – that was probably the biggest shock!!!

Also, today I have had great difficulty concentrating to the point of letting a client down – Sorry Chris!
I had to eat much humble pie, and apologised profusely. Thankfully Chris is a nice guy…

I NEED SOME SLEEP!!!

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I posted the other day about the stupid European bureaucrats making life difficult for the rest of Europe in respect to Microsoft’s dominance of the IT world: European Idiots

Well, it seems that Micro$oft have started limiting Europe’s Windows experience already:
Windows 7 pricing gets unveiled

Reading on you will find that Micro$oft have decided to limit the upgrades for European users thanks to the limitations placed on them by Brussels.
This is NOT good news – I think it’s the tip of the iceberg.

The Eurocrats should remember that Micro$oft doesn’t HAVE to sell Windows here – it does so because it can.
What will happen if M$ just say “OK, enough is enough” and pull out of Europe all together?

Although I DO agree that this level of threat should not be a case for NOT suing Microsoft, the result of the case seems to have simply caused us ‘Techies’ trouble, not saved the world from some perceived ‘Sword of Damocles’.
Would society as we know it really collapse if Microsoft provide Windows with [their own] Internet browser or [their own] Media playing software?
I think not.

So what, I ask, was the point of spending countless £££s on a needless case?
My cynical side says – to line some MEPs pockets with platinum…!

BTW – Breaking news is that Michael Jackson has died from a heart attack!
That came as quite a surprise, I’ll tell you!

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