"Virtually News" July 2014: magazine for small businesses

VIR
www.virtuosoassistant.co.uk | hello@virtusoassistsant.co.uk | 0118 324 0197
EDITION #3: July 2014VIRTUALLY NEWS
Promoting, Assisting & Supporting
UK Small Businesses

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Virtuoso Assistant | www.virtuosoassistant.co.uk | 0118 324 0197
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

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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.

"Virtually News" July 2014: magazine for small businesses

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