VIR

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EDITION #3: July 2014 VIRTUALLY NEWS

Promoting, Assisting & Supporting

UK Small Businesses

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EDITION #3 JULY 2014

Contents

Page No. Article

2 Since We Last Met

3 Sporting July

4 - 7 Small Business Showcase

Hotwire55 Bags Ltd

8 - 9 The UK Outsourcing Centre

10 - 15 Business News & Events

10 International Festival of Business 2014

11 Tour de France: le Grand Départ

12 - 14 Networking: Women Outside the Box

(including Reader Offer)

14 - 15 Financial News

15 - 16 Party Time: A Small Business to get your Feet Tapping

17 - 21 Social Media & Marketing

17 - 19 Web Page, Slideshare, Podcast, App of the Month, Blog Article

20 Google+

UK Connect: Grow your Network

21 LinkedIn Training with Tom Mallens

22 - 24 Offers, Fun & Competition Time!

22 This Month’s Offer: Win, Win, Win!

23 A bit of fun

24 Competition time

25 - 26 Last Word

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Once again, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to read June’s edition of “Virtually News”. The response was fantastic and really

encouraging.

Twitter was very busy this month with some great tweets about our “Small Business Showcase”. Details of how you can enter to win a month’s FREE promotion on “Virtually

News” together with a week’s worth of tweets from the lovely team at Bizitalk can be found on pg. 24.

Interaction over on Google+ is growing fast via a fabulous group that’s officially called, “UK Connect: Grow your Network” - we simply call it the #BritPack. Why not come over and join

us for some UK networking and discussions. More about that on pg. 20.

Don’t forget, you can have your copy of “Virtually News” delivered direct to

your Inbox so leave your details with our postman!

SINCE WE LAST MET

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Football World Cup 2014

Our Aims for July

As circulation grows for “Virtually News” we’d really like to start growing some revenue so we

can put it back into the newsletter for our readers. We’d be delighted to hear from anyone who could advise or help us do this.

We’d like to open up the newsletter soon to paid adverts so that we can pay for a better newsletter platform. Any advice in this respect would also be greatly appreciated.

Get Tweeting #VirtuallyNews

To help us decide what’s going to benefit you most, please tweet us @VirtuosoAssist and let

us know what you’d most like as a freebie!

Send us your thoughts using the hashtag #VirtuallyNews.

Sporting July

Wimbledon

Unfortunately Andy Murray was knocked out of Wimbledon on

Wednesday; it was sad to see him leave but we still have

some cracking games to look forward to.

Djokovic for the Men’s title? Our money is on Eugenie

Bouchard for the Women’s title.

FIFA World Cup 2014

We’ve really enjoyed it so far but England were a disappointment.

Or maybe you think the press were being harsh on the team? They were

a young squad, conditions weren’t perfect ... any thoughts?

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Hotwire 55 Bags: stay connected!

The holiday season is upon us and many of us will be choosing outdoor activity holidays; a gentle walking holiday through the vineyards of Chablis or a more strenuous hiking break

through the beautiful Cumbres Verdes.

Wherever you’re heading it’s a comfort to know that you can find out exactly where you are

and map your route accurately using SatNav / GPS. You might want to listen to a little music on your headphones or make an urgent phone call in the event of an emergency.

However, anyone who has been out and about with their mobile devices and has switched on GPS, for instance, will tell you what a drain on the battery it is.

This is what Hotwire 55 Bags Ltd have set out to solve with their ingeniously designed backpack and why we’ve not hesitated to make them our

“Small Business Showcase” July 2014

Small Business Showcase

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The backpack has all the high tech features you’d expect:-

Water resistant 60 litre capacity

Top zip up pouch contains elasticated waterproof cover sheet

Adjustable straps hip (padded) and

chest (standard) straps for maximum comfort and support

Vertical and horizontal compression straps

Massive extra top expansion section in

case you over pack Walking pole attachment loops Easy grab top hauling loop

How does it Work?

Solar panel converts direct sunlight to

charge the battery pack which in turn charges your gadgets

USB compatible for most of today's tech products

Battery Pack is a tiny 10cm x 6cm, about the

size of a small pack of cards

Around 4 hours of direct sunlight will charge a

modern smart phone whilst idle

So What’s the Big Idea?

Matthew Tandy

Hotwire Bags Ltd

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Still charges with low level sunlight but not as efficiently

Works with Tablets, Smartphones, Mp3 players, Cameras, GPS or SatNav devices, Mobile Gaming, USB chargeable

Lamps/Torches, Radios and Speakers

Links

Why not have a look at Hotwire 55’s website and check out the finer details for yourselves?

Have a chat with them on Twitter, or take a look at what they’re up to on Facebook.

Hotwire55 with a Heart

Just as a footnote, the team at Hotwire55 have just completed a fabulous 55-mile charity walk to raise money for the School for Parents - www.SchoolForParents.org.

Please could I ask you have a look at Matt Tandy’s Just Giving page and give whatever you can to help parents support these lovely babies and

pre-school children? Thank you on behalf of Matt Tandy and the Hotwire55 team!

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Your Chance to Win a Month in the Spotlight!

For details about how you can win a month’s promotion with “Small Business Showcase”, see pg. 24

Reader Offer

Hotwire55 are currently offering free postage & packing on all orders. If you have an

outdoor holiday planned this summer jump in quick!

Offer ends July 31st.

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If you’ve not read “Virtually News” before and you’re wondering what we’re talking about,

“The UK Outsourcing Centre” was launched only a few months ago by Kerry Field.

The Centre is a fast-growing business directory and hub offering three different membership levels to UK small businesses:-

As a member you can expect:

Your business to be listed in the UK Outsource Centre’s directory

Business growth Support & promotion

Growing credibility and an enhanced business reputation Access to business-related documentation such as business plans, templates, advice

for start-ups, exit plans, etc.

To find out more about this fabulous opportunity, how to become more visible as a business on internet searches, network with like-minded small business owners and entrepreneurs and have your content shared on the business ‘hub’, please take a look at The UK Outsourcing

Centre homepage or contact Kerry at info@theukoutsourcingcentre.com

THE UK OUTSOURCING CENTRE

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Hello to new Bronze members:

Ali's Craft Studio

Creator of handmade peelable stained-glass effect window clings for all ages and

budgets

Impact Life

Training and development

Pack Smart Ltd

Offering an outsourced fulfilment solution for small / medium-sized online sellers.

Hello and welcome to new Gold member:

Muse:HR Judi is a Human Resources provider with a difference. Working with organisations and

businesses to understand key goals and objectives and subsequently to deliver those through improvement of employee performance.

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1. International Festival for Business, 2014

The biggest business event taking place during July is the International Festival for

Business 2014, in Liverpool.

It’s absolutely massive and we can’t do it enough justice in a few paragraphs so we suggest you hope over to their website and take a look at what’s been lined up.

The Finale to the whole event looks to be spectacular; the host city will hold a

commemoration event, “Memories of August 2014” in honour of those who fought and died in WW1.

Business News & Events

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2. Le Tour de France

Of course everyone has been talking about the first stage of the 2014 Tour de France for months.

Leeds is holding a “Yorkshire Grand Depart International Business

Festival” from 2 - 4 July

‘Le Tour’ will be a massive boost for the area’s economy; only a few days ago Bdaily Business News reported a “40% increase in Yorkshire businesses seeking extra finance in preparation for the Tour”.

If you live in the area why not tweet us photos of the Tour as it passes through, or pictures of how your business is getting involved?

Send them to @VirtuosoAssist, including the hashtag #VirtuallyNews.

We’ll re-tweet your photos and will pick out a winner to highlight in August’s edition of “Virtually News”.

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3. Networking

“Women Outside the Box”

Last month we got chatting to some lovely ladies who run a busy networking group called “Women Outside the Box”.

Charlie Bradley, Online Communications Manager, has been fantastically helpful and has provided us with the following article, just to give you an idea of where and how the

networking group started.

We’re really excited about how quickly Women Outside the Box has

developed and hope to become a little more involved with them over the coming months.

“We launched “Women Outside the Box” almost two years ago at a Festival of

Female Entrepreneurship in Bristol and, seeing the massive interest, have been

extending the offer since then.

We launched the first “Women Outside the Box” City Business Club in July last year

and spent time getting the model just right. We’re currently setting up City Leaders

throughout the UK – and beyond – to run similar clubs as a hub for interest in all

things women and entrepreneurship.

We have around 40 members – start-ups, freelancers and growing businesses within

the micro and SME categories covering a wide variety of B2B and direct to consumer

companies.

We meet monthly with no emphasis on selling but have talks and two sessions of

facilitated networking to enable us to exchange ideas, best practice and simply build

a set of friends who like to talk business.

Members quickly get to know each other at a more interesting level than just

hearing a sales pitch and frequently arrange to meet outside the meetings. Of

course members often exchange services and sell their services to other members

and contacts but there is no push to either sell or buy.

We launched our WOTB Online* service a couple of months ago, bringing most

aspects of the festival to women beyond Bristol.”

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Ladies, I hope you take the chance to have a look at the “Women Outside the Box” website.

Having started off so successfully in Bristol, Charlie informed us that they’re now looking to open up six new Business Clubs around the country, targeting Wiltshire, Bath, Swansea,

Hammersmith (London), London West End & Croydon. The aim is to open these new centres between September and November, with further new locations opening up by February 2015.

PHEW! That’s quite a schedule.

If you can’t make it to any of the

networking groups or meetings, why

not become an Online member?

The team at Women Outside the Box are very kindly giving you a

special discounted offer this month.

Join their WOTB Online Network and pay only half the yearly price @

£18.00 + VAT.

Simply follow this link and use the code “WOTB13A” when you sign up.

* Women Outside the Box Online

* Women Outside the

Box Online

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City Leaders

If you’d like to get involved in one of the new City Business Club openings, with the chance of earning some extra income (or if you know of anybody who would be interested) please take a

look at WOTB Job Vacancies page.

5. Financial News

Great news at least for savers!

From today, Tuesday 1st July, the New ISAs or “NISAs” as they’re being called will allow savers to invest anything up to £15,000.00 tax free “for

any combination of cash or shares”.

Quick Summary

o ISA accounts open since the start of the tax year can be topped up to £15,000, but an

additional one cannot be opened

o Fixed-rate accounts can also be topped up, although different providers have different

time periods when this is permitted

o Transfers between cash and stocks and shares NISAs can be made as many times as

an account holder wishes

o Anyone aged between 16 and 18 can hold a cash NISA, but not a stocks and shares

NISA

o New limits for NISAs in 2015-16 will be announced by the chancellor in the Autumn

Statement

o Junior ISA limits have increased to £4,000 each tax year [via BBC]

Full details can be found on the BBC website.

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PARTY TIME

A SMALL BUSINESS TO GET YOUR FEET TAPPING!

We’re delighted to be able to introduce “The Monteurs” to you this month. Summer is a time for relaxation, BBQs, festivals, garden parties,

weddings ... As Shakespeare once said,

“If music be the food of love, play on”.

Music is the perfect accompaniment to a party; it lifts the spirit and gets people up and dancing.

Here’s how “The Monteurs” are described on their Facebook page:-

André Mouradian (lead vocals) is incredibly talented, with a fabulous, dry sense of humour. He’s the sort of guy everyone wants to have at a party; chatty, funny, cheeky.

The Monteurs were formed drawing on years of professional

experience. This five piece outfit came together to form an

acoustic band playing mostly original songs but with some rather

more intelligent and obscure covers thrown in for good measure.

With an eclectic line-up featuring electric bass, acoustic guitar,

harmony vocals, accordion, violin, mandolin and ukulele, The

Monteurs sound is off the beaten track and different. With expert

musicianship, and clear uplifting harmony vocals, The Monteurs

are definitely a band to hear.

By the way, they are also a lot of fun to watch with a sharp sense

of humour.

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The Monteurs - Gigs

The Monteurs were invited to play in the beautiful surroudings of the Medicine Garden in

Cobham last summer.

If you have tickets to attend the Lowde Festival at Hartley Wintney in Hampshire this coming weekend, 5th July, The Monteurs will be on the Unplugged Stage at 5.15pm approx. Give them a big ‘hello’!

The Monteurs also play regular gigs at local pubs in and around the Guildford, Camberley,

Sandhurst area and are booked to play a gig at The Builders’ Arms in Teddington, Middlesex, on 11th July.

Why not have a listen to some of the recordings The Monteurs have been making at the ACM via their Facebook music page? André will happily provide you with some more tracks via email if you’re considering making a booking with them.

You can contact The Monteurs via Twitter @TheMonteurs

or get in touch with André direct: Tel: +44 (0) 7775 502589 | Email: andre@mouradian.co.uk

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This Month’s Recommendations

This month’s recommendations

SOCIAL MEDIA & MARKETING

Web page

“Best Presentation Design Do’s and Don’ts”

By Scott Schwertly, April 2014

Slideshare

“How to Avoid Selfish “Just Checking In” Follow-up Emails”

- By HubSpot

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APP OF THE MONTH

Harvest: without doubt one of the most useful apps I’ve discovered since being

in business; particularly useful if you are charging clients by the hour and need an

accurate time-recording system. Simple to use; great value for money per month.

Organise your work according to clients or projects & record time to the nearest

second.

Produce professional looking, branded invoices and detailed spreadsheets of work

carried out. Fully integrates with PayPal, Authorise.net or Trust Commerce.

Free 30 day trial available.

PODCAST

Online Marketing Made Easy

“What’s New with the Facebook Page Timeline Layout?”

Amy Porterfield, 19 June 2014

Answers Q&As about the latest Facebook Timeline layout

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Blog of the Month

“31 Experts Give their Best Small Business Tips for Standing out on

Social Media”

By Aaron Lee, PostPlanner

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GooglePlus

UK Connect: Grow your Network

We realise that Google+ is not everybody’s ‘cup of tea’ and some of you may shy away

from using it.

Before you give up, we strongly recommend that you pop over to meet this

wonderful Google+ community first.

Please!

Donna Beckett, from Beckett & Co Solicitors, set up UK

Connect a few months ago for the benefit of UK Google+ users.

Admittedly, Google+ still has a strong following in the US, but with the help of communities like UK Connect, there is a growing British contingency. In fact, the community have

grown so fond of it since joining that it’s now simply referred to as the #BritPack.

Why not take just a moment to introduce yourself to Donna, and find out what makes the #BritPack so popular?

Donna is incredibly generous and has provided some very engaging topics of conversations

to get involved in - Business News, Members’ new blog posts, Top Tips, Questions, a very good “Help Please!” board for Q&As and a Recommendations board.

Currently 756 British business owners have joined the #BritPack so why not take a

look?

[If that wasn’t enough, Donna holds regular discussions over on Twitter with Kerry Field @GooglePlusHour (every 3rd Tues of the month). Why not take the opportunity to say ‘hello’?]

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LinkedIn Training

We’re going to continue to promote our lovely LinkedIn expert, Tom Mallens, who is based in Leamington Spa.

Only yesterday we came across some negative comments about LinkedIn and how, in particular, it wasn’t the easiest platform to generate responses and get

chatting with people.

From experience we find it ‘different’ but certainly worth the effort.

If you’re finding it rather frustrating to use and you’re not getting the responses you’re expecting, perhaps it might be worth having a chat with Tom?

You’ll also find Tom’s blog, which he updates on a weekly basis, incredibly helpful with some straightforward and easily digestible tips about how best to set up your LinkedIn profile to get the best engagement and how to win new LinkedIn connections.

LinkedIn Training Schedule

Tom is running regular workshops and training sessions in Leamington Spa so if you’re in the

area why not attend one of his forthcoming sessions,

“How to Get More Leads from LinkedIn in 3 Easy Steps”

Friday 18th July, 9.00am - 12.30pm

Thursday 14th August, 3.00pm - 6.30pm

You can find out further details & book tickets via Tom’s Eventbrite page.

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This Month’s Offer

We have a very exciting offer this month, courtesy of the very generous Matt Tandy from

Hotwire55 Bags Ltd.

Matt is offering FIVE HOTWIRE55 BACKPACKS for £55.00 each [RRP £79.99] to

the first 5 people to tweet the following phrase ...

Together we’ll have the last say as to who is a winner; Matt will be in touch with you to

arrange payment and postage.

[This offer is limited to the UK mainland only - payments to be made via

PayPal]

GOOD LUCK

Offers, Fun & Competitions

“WIN HOTWIRE55 BACKPACK @Hotwire55Bags

@VirtuosoAssist #VirtuallyNews”

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A Bit of Fun

[Many thanks to the WhiteBoard

Animation Agency for the giggle]

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Competition Time!

Our fabulous monthly competition continues.

WIN a month in the spotlight as part of our “Small Business Showcase” article and have your business

promoted on Twitter for a week by the lovely team at Bizitalk.

Details

* Entry details have changed slightly this month to make things easier *

Send a tweet to @VirtuosoAssist, including the Hashtag #VirtuallyNews and tell

us the reasons why your business deserves to win “Small Business Showcase”

Simples!

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LAST WORD

Calling all experienced Business Advisors

Kerry Field, from the UK Outsourcing Centre, is looking for an experienced business advisor to join her at the UKOC with a view to taking the UKOC itself forward and also to advise its members on business-related matters.

If you think you can help please contact Kerry on 01926 825 064 or go to the UKOC website to use their contact form.

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Don’t forget!

If you want to receive regular copies of “Virtually News” before anyone

else, just let us know your Inbox address: Sign up

Thank you once again for reading “Virtually News”

We look forward to welcoming you next month.