Category: Blog

Ian Marsh: Protection in a Pandemic

Posted on by Matt

Date: Friday 17th September 2021

Speaker: Ian Marsh, Partner

Business: St James’s Place Wealth Management

Topic: Personal & Family Protection

1. Think about yourself as an asset

A 30-year-old earning £30,000 pa will earn £1.125m over a lifetime.

Increasingly, there is very little by the way of a state safety net underpinning these earnings, and post-pandemic, companies have been scaling back benefits to the legal minimum.

For example, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) offers:

  • £96 per week for 28 weeks
  • Is not available to the self-employed

2. What are your chances of needing protection

Risk Reality Calculator: www.riskreality.co.uk/gen

For example, a couple who are both non-smokers aged 30-years’-old and looking to retire at 67, would have a 2-in-3 chance of requiring some form of protection before retirement:

If you change both of these individuals to smokers, the risks of requiring some form of protection jumps from from 67% to 80%, with the individual risks worsening as follows:

  • Risk of being unable to work >2m (Income protection cover): 70%
  • Serious illness (Critical illness cover): 37%
  • Risk of death (Life cover): 21%
  • Any of the above: 80%

3. The Pandemic has focused minds

Many of us consider ourselves to be immortal…that is, until something ‘bad’ happens to a relative, somebody we know, or (in the case of COVID) becomes a real and present danger.

Hence, whilst life cover (relatively cheap) is the most common form of protection undertaken (being a mortgage requirement), critical illness or income protection cover are far less commonly held (being more likely to happen and therefore more expensive).

Contact

[email protected]

This mornings presentations

Posted on by Paul Fogg

Todays meeting had three guests attending – Marie Massaquoi, Damaris Sende and Justin Megawarne – so good to hear what you are all up to .

We had Steve Groves from Take One Business Communications going a little off his usual topic but giving us hints and tips on how to put a presentation together. Some great tips that translate well to use on websites as well, from keeping things simple in text size, font and colours and of course remembering what your key takeaway point of the presentation is!

Tim Brooker at Beyond Numbers was talking about using your company values to get involved in adding value and impact to the outside world. Signing up to b1g1.com for instant to use the values you hold to help others and promote this to potential clients and the benefits of doing that.

Really good fun meeting as usual – what a great group of people who genuinely make me laugh, add value to my work and the business.

Next meeting is July 2nd so why not come along!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/morning-zoom-networking-for-local-businesses-gerrards-cross-tickets-160178824175

Next meeting and who is talking

Posted on by Paul Fogg

On April 16th we have our next Zoom meeting with the usual format giving everyone the opportunity of having a 1 minute pitch to tell us what they do, what they are up to and maybe who they are looking to do business with.

Then we have our short presentations from Olly and Matt – always useful and informative. I’m looking forward to finding out and reporting back later on what is being discussed.

Networking locally – probably better than you think!

Posted on by Paul Fogg

Cross Reference is a group meeting in Gerrards Cross but currently online with Zoom.

We have a laugh, chew the fat and discuss issues as well as pass business and experiences around the group.

Today we had a short talks from Emma and Matt.

Matt is into writing…. copyrighting amongst his many talents – “less is more” should be his tagline.

He gave us an insight into Creative Writing today:-

  1. Start somewhere – don’t over think it
  2. You never have to start from scratch – use a “swipe file” and store away bits you find to use later
  3. Keep to the “why” and not the “what” in your writing
  4. Think laterally – think around the problems/topics rather than through them
  5. solve it when you walk, easier than watching a blank screen.

Emma is an award winning local photographer who has International clients as well as local ones.

She gave us yet another inspirational chat on what she has been up to in these difficult days… Does she ever sit still!

One thing she has done is diversify her business and take it online with these strategies:-

  1. Pre book online
  2. Sell vouchers
  3. Webinars
  4. Online courses

Through her online marketing of her Personal Brand and her Business Brand she takes these messages out there.

Her final thought was “Start NOW – feel the fear but move beyond it”

Excellent meeting and I personally learnt something, passed on a lead to another member and had a laugh!

Do you want to come along to find out how we can help you and your business? Drop me a message or email [email protected]

Isobel Dwyer on charities during COVID

Posted on by Matt

Date: Friday 2nd October 2020

Speaker: Isobel Dwyer, Appeal Coordinator

Business: Rennie Grove Hospice Care (RGHC)

Topic: 2020 update & overview

1. COVID IMPACT – £1.5m and rising…

  • RGHC has projected operating costs of £9m (£25,000 per day) which it needs to raise during 2020.
  • Of this, roughly 40% (£3.8m) was budgeted revenue from its charity shops.
  • However, with all shops closing during lockdown, as at Sep-20 RGHC had a £1.5m shortfall to make up.

2. WHY do RGCH need £9m per annum?

Rennie Grove Hospice Care (RGHC) is a charity providing specialist care and support for adults and children with life-limiting illnesses in Bucks and west Herts.

It relies on public support for 89% of its £9m per annum running costs.

Isobel’s presentation [see below] details all the work that RGCH does, but to summarise:

Cross-Reference-Rennie-Grove-Hospice-CareDownload
  • Grove House – Living well services
  • 24/7 Hospice & Home care
  • Family support – bereavements
  • Supporting the NHS

3. HOW to make up this shortfall?

SHOPS

  • 25 of the 28 shops have now reopened, but with quarantine restrictions on donations (72 hours) and limited space + public generosity post-lockdown, it is proving to be a challenge.
  • Ebay – RGHC has a site on Ebay now, to help move the mountain of donations
  • DEPOP – an Instagram-style app for the best designer clothing we receive in donations, for people to but online.

EVENTS

Tanya Dickinson on the beauty of an empty inbox

Posted on by Matt

Date: Friday 2nd October 2020

Speaker: Tanya Dickinson

Business: Platinum PA

Topic: Project zero inbox

Zero inbox
www.wired.co.uk

1. Why?

Why is an empty inbox so important? Consider these observations:

  • On average, we look at our emails 74 times per day
  • Emails create more stress than a phone call = we keep thinking about them

2. Organise

There’s no golden rule – it’s whatever works best for you. However, bear in mind the following:

  • Separate out your Personal from your Work emails: if you use the same email account for both, these should be one of your highest level folders.
  • Have as many sub-folders as you need: there is no limit, it’s intuitive to you, but the more the merrier – sub-divide by client, by topic…etc
  • Make sure you synchronise across different devices. [Note: if your email runs off a POP or IMAP server, you may need some professional help…best to ask Ollie!]

3. Delete

  • Emails >3m old: it would look rude to reply after all this time…if it was important, you would have been chased…and if it was an offer, it will no longer be valid!
  • Unsubscribe: you can do this sitting in front of the tv one evening – get rid of junk at source!
  • Archive: for when you’re not sure whether you might need an email again (chances are you won’t, but it’ll be there just in case!)

Matt Wright on why Case Studies offer the most bang for your marketing buck

Posted on by Matt

Date: Friday 4 September 2020

Speaker: Matt Wright

Company: Nobleword

Topic: 5 steps to writing effective Case Studies

In my experience, Case Studies are the single most effective piece of marketing – they are unique, compelling and have longevity.

Unfortunately, the Powerpoint presentation is too large to upload here (click on this link here to access it via the Nobleword website), so here are the edited highlights:

1. Preparation

  • Interview your client first…then interview your customer
  • Know the message/USP for each Case Study and stick to it!
  • Remember the 5 W’s – Who, What, Where, When, Why

2. Interviewing

  • Ask open questions – you’re looking for the customer to be creative and emotive in order to create memorable content, e.g.

How did the product/service you received make you feel?

What 3 words would you use to describe the product/service

What challenge was your business facing…which the product/service helped you to overcome?

3. Write-up

  • Catchy titles – think like a newspaper/magazine and draw your readers in
  • Pull-out quotes: break-up the text and help to isolate key USPs
  • Testimonial quotes: scatter these liberally!

4. Approval

Note that getting hold of the customer to approve the Case Study can be the most time-consuming part of the process…but it’s absolutely essential that they are comfortable with what is being sent out in their name.

The advantages of this stage of the process are:

  • Polish quotes: tell them you’ve reworded certain sections/quotes to make it flow better – as long as people know, they are almost always content to sound good
  • Time to rethink: often the customer gets off the phone with you and suddenly realises something they’ve left out, or a quote they’d like to add – this is the ideal time for a ‘second bite of the cherry’.
  • Sign off: you want the customer to agree that they’re happy with the Case Study, so that you’ve got an audit trail and a reference point if there are any issues further down the line (very unlikely, but I have known it!)

5. Design

A professional pdf is something to be proud of…so don’t skimp on your Case Study at this stage – make it look fantastic!

Nobleword uses InDesign and graphic designers to create both online and hard print Case Studies.

Conclusion

For any more information, please contact Matt Wright at [email protected]

Olly Denhard – Psst…what’s your password?

Posted on by Matt

Date: Friday 1 Sep 2020

Speaker: Olly Denhard

Business: IT Trouble Free

Topic: Password protection

Did you know that 81% of data breaches are due to poor passwords?

The most common passwords are not always that sophisticated according to research undertaken by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC):

  • 123456 [23.2m victim accounts worldwide]
  • 123456789 [7.7m – cunningly adding 3 numbers only makes this the 2nd most commonly hacked password!]
  • qwerty [3.8m – so letters aren’t that much safer than numbers…]
  • password [3.6m – ah the old classic – all lower case mind you!]
  • 1111111 [3.1m – cunning…but not quite cunning enough]

Interestingly, the NCSC also published the 5 most common passwords involving premier league football team name (‘liverpool’ champions again with 0.28m), musicians (‘blink182′ 0.29m – never heard of ’em) and fictional characters (‘superman’ 0.33m easily defeated ‘batman’ 0.2m in this particular face-off).

Practise good password hygiene

“Recognising the passwords that are most likely to result in a successful account takeover is an important first step in helping people create a more secure online presence.”

Troy Hunt, international web security expert
  1. Identify whether your password is weak: Troy Hunt’s list –  Have I Been Pwned – can be used to check breached usernames and passwords.
  2. Create a strong password: the NSCS recommends three random words.
  3. Store passwords securely: this means not on a post-it note, but using professional software such as Password manager (as recommended by IT Trouble Free – this will only offer to fill in passwords for accredited sites) or other reputable programmes such as LastPass.

“Using hard-to-guess passwords is a strong first step and we recommend combining three random but memorable words. Be creative and use words memorable to you, so people can’t guess your password.”

Dr Ian Levy, NCSC Technical Director

Conclusion

The NSCS has published a paper on UK Cyber Security [see below] which is well worth a read if you’d like to educate yourself further about password protection.

Alternatively, call in the experts at IT Trouble Free and let them take the worry off your hands!

UK Cyber Survey – analysisDownload

July 17th Zoom meeting

Posted on by Paul Fogg

As ever was great to see the members even if it was in the virtual world.

We had a talk from Karen of Take One Media showing us some of the recent work they have done with some great examples of videos that show off businesses in different inventive ways, from an accountancy company that wants to show more about “who” they are as opposed to “what” they do.

We also had a great story from Charles of Longmore Solicitors showing an amusing legal story that highlighted what can happen from the most innocent of beginnings! His in depth grilling from the group on wills was also enlightening and we found out that a will should be reviewed every 5 years or when situations change – he also does this for FREE!

Tony K Silver on how to make your LinkedIn profile sing v mumble!

Posted on by Matt

Date: Friday 1 May 2020

Speaker: Tony K Silver

Business: Solid Solutions Solutions

Topic: 5 Top Tips – LinkedIn profiles

Your LinkedIn profile can be your best friend – working tirelessly in the background to promote you,…or your worst enemy – undermining all your good work by presenting a poor online impression.

Here are 5 top tips from Tony to ensure your LinkedIn profile makes the right sort of noise:

1. Your banner tells your story

  • Your LinkedIn banner is the editable space behind your profile photo – it’s about 30% of what anybody sees on screen when they first log on to your profile.
  • Use your banner to help tell your story, reinforce your image, or to amuse your reader.
  • Above all, use your banner to help people understand what you do and how well you do it.

2. Headshots not mugshots

  • Smile – be approachable, this isn’t a passport photo!
  • However, remember it should be a headshot, not a bodyshot, so you’ll be recognisable on mobile devices
  • Avoid looking disinterested – slouching, hands in pockets…etc.

3. Job Description – think ‘Why?’ not ‘What?’

  • “I’m an Executive Assistant at Alpha Network Solutions….”
  •  So what? What can you do for me? Why should I want to connect with you?
  • This could become: “Executive Assistant – 25+ years of experience supporting CEOs, Presidents, VPs, Directors & other key leaders.”

4. Put yourself in your reader’s armchair

  • The first 3 lines of your profile belong to the viewer
  • Don’t begin every sentence with “I…”

5. Post creatively

  • Use questions to draw in other readers: “Do you agree it’s a good idea that…”
  • Tag other people for comment (pre-warn them that you’re going to do this first)