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5 Essential GMail Tips for Business

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Steve Livingston Business Tools 0

I struggle to find a better and more user-friendly email client than GMail.

I like its almost instant search capabilities and the ease with which you can link new domain email addresses. To make the most of GMail I recommend the following five fabulous (almost) free plug-ins:

1. Rapportive

Rapportive is an excellent email business tool that instantly provides you with the social media profiles of each person who sends you an email to your inbox. Their Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and all other profiles appear in your sidebar alongside their email so you can instantly click to follow and connect with them.

2. WiseStamp

Looking for an email signature that not only lists your need-to-know contact details but also your social media profiles and latest feed updates? – this could be just the plug-in you need.

3. Boomerang

This is a fantastic tool that allows you to write emails now and schedule them for when you want them to be sent. It is intuitive in how it links to your calendar. Also brilliant in how it allows you to throw away messages into archive that you don’t need to action now but hurls them back at a time of your asking.

4. Awayfind (free trial)

Ever found yourself rushing around from meeting to meeting with no time to check email…..? And then you get to your next meeting or call and find you’re the only one there – if only, you’d checked your emails you would have found the cancellation email sent 20 mins before!

This is where Awayfind steps in. It allows you to specify individuals who may send you an email (your boss (both work and home!) or participants in your forthcoming meeting) and any emails that come from them are pushed to you say as text messages so you’re more likely to be notice them.

5. KeyRocket

Time is money – and the time you spend fumbling around with your mouse to switch from function to function within GMail is quickly reduced using KeyRocket. This nifty piece of free software sits quietly until it spots something you could have done far faster using a keyboard shortcut and then makes the suggestion for future reference in a box in the corner of the screen. Very neat.

What are your essential GMail hacks and tips?

Budget 2011: How to inform (and engage?) businesses

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Steve Livingston Tax N2K 0

Hmmh, so its this time each year (more than once per year in recent years) that accountants / tax advisers, like myself, scratch our heads and wonder how best we can inform our clients on issues relevant to them that emerge from the Budget speech.

This approach is constantly evolving – my plan for tomorrow’s Budget speech is to:

Tweet points of interest as they emerge during George Osborne’s Budget Speech on Twitter. I’ve used CoveritLive! in the past but fail to see exactly what this adds over and above using Twitter directly. Tweeting comments as the speech unfolds in realtime also allows me to take notes ready for blog posts to be drafted post speech.
Set up the hashtag #budget11 on Twitter to check for interesting conversations (and of course to keep an eye on the competition :)) Also set up RSS feeds for “Budget 2011” on Google for emerging news and commentary.
Download the Treasury Budget Notes from the HM Treasury website as soon as George sits down – the devil’s always in the detail! Usually, lots to digest.
Extract the key points relevant to my clients and targets and draft short commentaries as blog posts and separate client briefings. Post links to blog posts on Twitter and keep an eye out for feedback, comments, questions etc.

Then of course cascade and discuss points of interest directly with our clients – normally via a meeting or call.

This approach is a lot different to the approach in the past in which it was largely a ‘fact race’ to be 1st to clients and targets with a summary of the key points. The internet has blown this approach out of the water for all but the biggest and bravest. This, in my view, is no bad thing as the prize is now more about contextualising the issues relevant to clients and in looking at new ways of sharing this information with clients and prospects in ways that not only informs but also engages (both them and us).

Any thoughts, comments or observations on how we can better engage with businesses on issues emerging from the Budget speeches would be gratefully received…

Show 002 – The F-Word, Twitter and Sweet Mandarin with Lisa Tse

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Steve Livingston Podcasts 0

I am delighted to introduce Manchester-based entrepreneur, Lisa Tse of The Sweet Mandarin, as an inspirational guest for this week’s BusinessN2K podcast.

Lisa is famed more recently for her appearance on Gordon Ramsey‘s The F-Word, in which her family-run restaurant Sweet Mandarin won the prestigious Best Local Chinese Restaurant in the UK. Aside from the wonderful cooking, Lisa and her sisters have broken new ground in mixing new marketing techniques to help build a traditional yet thriving business. Her forward thinking approach to business and creativity has led to her role as an alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University Business School and she is in high demand to speak at business conferences throughout the North West and beyond.

I first ‘met’ Lisa on Twitter after being bowled over by how much she ‘gets’ social media – TweetUps and all! Her business has continued to thrive as they have steadily built their community of enthusiastic customers. Lisa has a refreshing outlook on business, having worked as a financier in London (a ‘corporate job’) and made the leap to running her own entrepreneurial business. She is focused on making every experience the best for her customers in order to build the restaurant and leave a legacy – rather than focusing on building a chain of restaurants which could result in growth for growth’s sake.

In this conversation we cover:

What inspired Lisa to make the leap from the safety of a corporate job to running her own business with her sisters
How she has embraced social media such as Twitter to help build her business
The importance of staying close to your roots and understanding what contributes to your success
Being open to new ideas and suggestions from customers to create new services
The value of looking after your customers and how they can turn into some of your best marketeers
Innovative ways of taking customer orders!
Staying focused on what you are good at and not getting distracted by new trends etc
Finding new ways to connect with your customers
(unfortunately we ran out of time to discuss their Sweet Mandarin book !)

The Sweet Mandarin represents a new breed of entrepreneurial business that is closely intertwined with its customers. Lisa and her sisters are the ‘face’ of the business and they actively engage with their customers and the wider Manchester business community. They manage to mix more traditional and established business (restaurateurs) with new (social media, community engaged, transparent, forward thinking).

I firmly believe that we can all learn as businesses from Lisa, her sisters and Sweet Mandarin.

How you can listen to BusinessN2K:

Subscribe by clicking on the Subscribe to Podcast icon in the side bar or subscribe via iTunes. This is the best way to listen as it will ensure that all future episodes are delivered directly to you as new episodes are released, or
Click on the Blubrry player below to listen now:

Please leave your comments, feedback and suggestions for future shows in the comments section below.

Credits: Thanks to Lisa Tse for this week’s show + music used in the BusinessN2K podcast is by Viba – In the Orchard lies a Secret – available as a free download and is released under a Creative Commons Licence

Who’s in charge of your business?

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Steve Livingston People Power 0

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

You may think that you are in charge of your business, however, in the digital age of social media where anyone has the power to comment on your business and influence both local and global opinion (either via blogs, Twitter, forums, Facebook etc), is this still the case?

There have been many recent high-profile incidents where global brands have been forced to change direction commercially or, at the very least, acknowledge the comments and feedback of disgruntled customers whether they wanted to or not e.g. Dell, Apple are a amongst a distinguished line-up of apologetic global brands.

A few harsh and frank words typed into a blog, Facebook, Twitter or a video review posted to YouTube has the power:

at worst to bring about a viral movement resulting in an army of disappointed individuals congregating online who collectively could cause serious harm to your business, or
at the very least rank some negative feedback within Google ready to leap out the next time your dream prospect does a search on your business in Google (and they will).

There is nothing you can do to stop this – and why should you?

Feedback is a gift after all whether positive or negative. It is how you deal with negative feedback that is key when the eyes of the world are watching…

A recent study showed that potential customers warmed more to businesses who had negative feedback but took proactive steps to remedy the complaints compared to those that bathed solely in positive feedback. However, for this strategy to be effective it is vital that you are listening for comments made online about your business – and act on it (quickly).

A good example is my local hostelry, The Swan Hotel in Tarporley. A thoroughly nice country pub and hotel with largely 4-5 stars on Trip Advisor. However, scroll down through the recent reviews (as most people do) and you can’t help but be drawn to a review that gives 1 star and says “Child unfriendly”. Read on and the reviewer goes on to berate the hotel and service for a whole host of cock-ups. Left unattended this review leaves a huge black mark against the rest of the positive reviews and, on personal a note as a father, I’m sure I would be scouring through for alternative child friendly options.

The good news is that the owners of the Swan Hotel were listening and promptly posted the following apology under the review:

Problem (not only) solved but turned into a positive.

Be under no illusion, you are no longer in charge of how your business is perceived. Your business will be held accountable for every action it takes and it will receive continual feedback. Your job as business owner, manager or employee is to listen, respond, engage and use the feedback to continually improve and adapt your products and services.

In this way, your millions of managers can help keep your business on track far better than you could alone.

Professionals serving clients via The Cloud

Posted on January 21, 2010 by Steve Livingston Cloud Consulting 0

As a practising chartered accountant and tax advisor, I am finding that the ability to reach out and service clients via The Cloud is getting easier (and even more fun).

Two recent examples from the past week:

Sat at my Mac when I was pinged via Skype by one of my contacts “Steve, do you have a moment to help?”. Within seconds he had sent me a link via Yuuguu for me to view his screen. He was busy trying to file his company CT600 tax return online but was encountering some problems. There is a further option on the screen that allowed me to take control of his screen so that I could quickly rifle through the online pages to determine if anything was wrong. Meanwhile we could discuss via online chat. A v slick experience and a glimpse into the way we will work in the future (now)!
Leaving the gym, a client wanted me to check some recent accounting entries to his online business books. With no time to get back to the office, I stopped by a local Pret-A-Manger and sat down with my laptop to hook up to the free wifi. I tried to connect to Skype via my ipod Touch (as Skype is not installed on my work laptop) but unfortunately the connection was patchy. A quick log-in to Twitter to apologise for the delay and my client sent an access link to his online accounting package, Xero, via a direct message in Twitter. Within seconds I was logged into his Xero account reviewing the accounting entries. The review was limited as I wanted to discuss some points with him (and a public place like Pret is not ideal), however, to get a heads up on the fly, this was great.

Who would have thought this way of working would be possible only a couple of years ago?

Example 1 could not have happened as I was not in the office at the time. Example 2 would have meant a significant delay and frustration for my client awaiting my return to the office etc. In both cases, these tools enabled me to be more responsive and allowed me to work without being chained to my desk.

Professionals need to be out of the office supporting the business community and these tech tools are allowing this to become a reality.

On a personal note, many of my clients are technology companies and they (quite rightly) expect their advisers to operate and work utilising similar tools – great news for me!

What might this mean for the way professionals work in the (near) future?

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