Some Inspiration On Father's Day

One amazing Dad!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE&eurl=

http://www.teamhoyt.com/history.shtml

BHCC - State of the Nation

The first of what's planned to be an annual event by the Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce. An opportunity for discussion and debate on business in Brighton & Hove, the economy and the challenges facing the city and a chance to ask questions and maybe even get answers.

The Speakers and Panel consisted of:

Tony Mernagh - Chief Exec, Business Forum. How the city sits economically compared to the rest of the South-East and the UK in terms of population, wages and housing.

Alan McCarthy - Chief Exec, Brighton & Hove City Council. The challenges facing the city in terms of employment, where to live and how to service the population.

Derek Maddison - Manager, Churchill Square. Plans for developing the main shopping area in Brighton, given the space available as well as the age of the site.

Julie Stanford - President, B&H Chamber of Commerce. What this means to the businesses in the city.

The Public Sector employs 27% of the workforce in Brighton, Tourism, not surprisingly 20%, Business and Finance 26% and the Creative Industry 15%. Only 4% of businesses are involved in Manufacturing. More surprising is that 85% of business have less than ten employees. Wages are however the lowest in the UK and South-East, possibly because of the high amount of tourism, seasonal workers and traditional low page jobs associated with hotels, restaurants and bars of which there are plenty. The population is likely to increase by 33,000 in the next couple of decades but jobs will not increase by the same amount.

Affordable housing is a big issue around the country and not just in Brighton where the controversial plans to build two tower blocks at either end of the city has had residents in uproar. There's a need for housing - there are more residents in the Brighton area than workers (many workers commuting to the nearby metropolis of London - or they just don't work). Of course being a pretty built-up area there's a limited amount of land available on which to build. This is the reason for some of the more controversial plans up for debate. You can get an awful lot more homes in the same space if you go upwards. Average house prices are over 40% more than the average for the rest of the UK and considering the low wage there's a need for affordable housing - also part of these plans.

A few facts and figures that create a better understanding of the challenges of living in a large, growing city which needs jobs, housing and an economy to support it.

If You Had One More Hour In The Day ...

... how would you spend it?


If you're on Linked In - you can connect and answer by click the link here:-
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/startups-small-businesses/small-business/STR_SMB/49894-1082216


Or just add a comment.

Run, Runners And Escaping Sheep

A more interesting run today. Usually I have a relatively uneventful run up onto the Tye seeing what's around. Occasionally nodding to a passing dog walker or avoiding their dog (the small yappy ones are the worst).

Today - not only was I stopped in my tracks by a fellow runner - well, actually I can hardly call him an fellow runner, turns out he does ultra running (someone who considers doing a marathon just as a warm-up!) Anyway, he stopped me while I was on the way back home and asked if I knew of any good sports therapists in the area. He's an elderly Yorkshireman who's recently moved into the area. Happily provided him with details of someone in Saltdean who I've visited and another couple of names in Brighton. Amazing where you get the opportunity to 'network'.

A few yards further on and four lambs were the wrong side of the cattle grid - no doubt they lept over ahead of the van that had just gone past. Of course the van driver hadn't bothered stopping. Putting my shepherding skills into action - I managed to get the four lambs through the gate before they decided to take off into the garden of the house just by the gate and without letting the rest of the sheep out. One of the Mum's came to investigate what was going on but quickly went back in the direction she came as the lambs bounded through the gate.

They really aren't the most intelligent of creatures.

What Would You Do If Your Computer Died?

Well, mine just did! It went 'ping' on Monday morning, before I'd even got started on planning out the week.

I'm guessing the hard drive just gave up, as I couldn't get the PC to restart and after several attempts trying different things, realised that this could be serious but hoped that it was recoverable.

I took it down to the local PC Repair shop - handily, just down the road and they said 'worst case' it would need a reformat but they'd save the data first, so I left them to it.

Several hours later after having heard nothing and hoping that I'd be getting it back at the end of the day, I called. They were just starting work on it and would leave the back-up running overnight.

Next morning and after three hours of effort - they'd given up. It was pretty terminal and the only solution was a new hard drive! :( So, a few more hours later, my laptop was returned with the operating system but not much else.

Fortunately, I have got a backup of the data - unfortunately it's only from mid May, so I've lost a few weeks work ... but better than nothing. I've also got the entire C: drive backed up from the beginning of the year - again not current but better than nothing. I'd set up a weekly data backup but it wasn't working and I hadn't managed to sort out why and of course you never think it's going to happen.

If you lost your computer - what would the impact be to you and your business? How would you function? What would you need to keep going?

• Make sure you backup your data regularly - not just the documents you use but also your mail files, calendar etc.
• Sync up with a PDA/Blackberry/Mobile Phone - for your calendar, contacts and email.
• Have an online mail system - at least you can temporarily access your email. Most local libraries offer free internet access.
  
• Keep a note of userids/pswds somewhere - in coded form obviously.
  

It's an ideal opportunity to declutter the hard disk and get rid of all those programmes you rarely use but I don't recommend it.

The older your computer is - the more likely it is to happen. Of course, we all know we should take regular back-ups but how many of us actually do?

Don't get caught out.

Better Business Focus - June 2007

My article on Limiting Beliefs has been published in the June edition of Better Business Focus.

You can get the latest version and sign-up for a free trial on the Bizezia website.

Read some of my other articles on Time Management on my website.