Features
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A selection of short features contributed by experts currently registered with Expertsources. To submit a 350 word feature for inclusion, please send to: editor@expertsources.co.uk Features: How to Get the Most As a former City lawyer I would like to call for a legal industry shake up, and hopefully offer you some very useful tips on how to get the most out of your lawyer. This follows a number of recently published reports detailing insensitive legal fees hikes, adding to the burden faced by ‘Credit Crunch' hit businesses. Recent research into UK firms, undertaken by my business ContractStore.com, shows that approximately 1 in 3 businesses ‘make up' their own legal contracts. Most of the recent criticism of legal fees has come from larger companies who use city law firms where the charging rates of a partner can be as high as £700 an hour. If the bigger clients are suffering, it is that much worse for smaller businesses, especially start-ups. Many firms are simply out-priced by the fees charged by lawyers; preparing a simple contract involves using a precedent and is hardly rocket science, but we had one customer last week who had been quoted £7,000 for two sets of terms and conditions for a start-up business by a small firm of solicitors in the country.This situation is ludicrous! Businesses need the protection of properly drafted contracts and while most lawyers have a fairer charging system than this example, it is important to price work that takes into account the client's ability to pay. Give a low cost service to a new business and it could be a client for the next 20 years. The legal profession need to "get real" with their charging structures. As a recent report pointed out, hourly charges do not necessarily make for an efficient billing system - associates in law firms are under pressure to bill as many hours as possible and there is always a risk of them putting down too much time, especially when there is less work around or those affected by the coming recession. Clients need to do their bit to keep fees within reasonable limits. After all, there is nothing to stop clients shopping around for a better deal. How to get the most out of your lawyer When approaching a law firm for a quote, you need to find out who will be doing the work: the bigger the firm, the more lawyers that are likely to be put on the team and with increasing specialization, this can involve a lot of duplication and overlapping of effort. Tips for how to handle your lawyer include: Giles set up ContractStore.com to assist businesses Giles Dixon So why do obese people experience lower wages, a greater chance of redundancy and poorer promotion prospects? Does it all have to do with physical appearance and what people perceive as attractive? Or is it society's tendency to label obese people as lazy, sloth like, and even unable to maintain proper relationships? A study undertaken in the United States concludes that prospective employees who are obese are less attractive to potential employers than people with mental health problems and even convicted criminals. But this attitude is not restricted to the US. In the UK a survey by a human resources journal a few years ago found that a considerable number of its readers - who are experienced human resources professionals - thought it was acceptable not to employ someone solely because they were obese! More action is needed to make people aware of the extent of views in society. Obesity will be with us for a long time to come and will be an ‘ever-growing' problem. Return to Feature Menu Top What Went Wrong To find out how much you could sell your endowment policy for, contact an endowment buyer - also called a market maker - who will give you a free quote to buy your policy.
1. Get the Right Instructor 3. Keep the Faith 4. Steady Nerves on the Big Day 5. If at First you Don't Succeed 6. Tearing Up Your L Plates Most people will have heard by now about Elizabeth Fritzl who was drugged and kidnapped by her father Josef Fritzl at the age of 18 and repeatedly raped over the 24 years he held her captive in a garage cellar behind the family home. The extent and gravity of this situation, however, is a stark wake up call to the rest of the world that our children and young people need to be protected and/or liberated, whichever the case may be. As challenging times lay ahead for the whole family, Natascha Kampusch lends her support. Jennifer McLeod © 2008
From working with so many athletes and clients encountering varying conditions and problems, I have seen repeatedly the improvements athletes and non-athletes can make by changing their mental state to unlock their real potential. So, if you put that into real terms for our everyday lives, our optimum performance is usually far beyond what we THINK we are capable of. We look for ways to unlock the door to our ability, when in fact it is always within us. We just didn't know it.
Think twice about what you are putting out there into the market. You want to write and publish books, articles and blogs that will build your reputation, not destroy it. Here are some serious mistakes I have seen people make over the past few years: Unprofessional image created by disjointed articles and books that were not proofread thoroughly - I have seen at least 10 examples of this in the past few months alone. There is no excuse for it. Use spell-checking software, ask someone else to proofread your work and, if you are publishing a book, you absolutely must use the services of a professional editor. I don't care how pushed for time you think you are or how much money you are trying to save. Failing to get your work edited will almost certainly reflect badly on you. Vague, boring and contradictory material. This has usually been because the author has not thought through his/her point of view and therefore is unable to articulate it in an intelligent way. As coaches and practitioners, we need our written material to be our spokesperson and to do the sales job for us in many cases. So what do you think of someone who can't put their thoughts together on the page? Do you think they would be able to help someone sort through an issue or outline new ideas when face-to-face? Probably not. Publishing and posting from an extreme emotional state. Bloggers tend to be the worst offenders, by far. Blogging can be great to build your reputation and quickly get your ideas published. But it can be too easy to write without thinking. If you have a professional blog, i.e. not a personal online diary, please remember that it is your face to the outside world. Not only that, but many blog entries are indexed and saved for a long time. I once did a search on my name and saw a negative comment I'd written on someone else's blog two years earlier! Think, think, think. In one extreme case, a consultant I know claimed to have done a ‘brain dump' (nice expression, isn't it?) during one weekend, typed it all up the next weekend and then published it more or less in that format a few weeks later. Unfortunately the finished product read like the brain dump it actually was and did not do the author any favours. Do I sound like a prophet of doom? I don't really want to put you off the idea of writing and publishing your ideas and views and becoming known as the expert you are. I only want to save you from wasting time, money and effort. So let me end on a positive note. You are more than capable of writing excellent blogs, articles and books to reach an even wider audience, build your reputation and bring in an extra income. You are also capable of maintaining a professional attitude towards writing and publishing. If you do, I promise you will enjoy all the fame and fortune that you deserve.
The rise of the social internet has made it very simple for people all over the world to talk about you. Whether it is on blogs, through social networking sites, on discussion forums or on wikis, an opinion can be posted in seconds and, unlike a newspaper article which gets thrown away the next day, chances are it will become permanently available. The social web takes control over that message out of your hands. If you want to foster a great online reputation, suddenly you have to get involved. The important thing about managing your online reputation, just the same as managing your offline reputation, is to keep abreast of what is being said, engage and interact in a suitable and timely fashion, and get involved. It can be complex but it is not something you need to deal with on your own. Online Reputation Management companies can help you develop a strategy and then implement it and monitor it so that you are making the most out of this source.
It is well understood that how we dress is a strong indication of what we are like as a person. We give out messages about our inner self; our approach to life; about our individual personality. The clothes you wear and how you wear them are giving many messages about you as an individual. It is not necessarily right versus wrong - although it can be a case of appropriate or inappropriate. Your style of clothes can indicate whether you are dramatic, trendy, conservative or creative; tidy or untidy or pay a great deal of attention to detail. Recognising and understanding our Wardrobe Personality help us to understand how to feel happy and confident and at ease in our clothes. And how to be "truly you". If we dress to suit our Wardrobe Personality, we feel good, and it is amazing what we can achieve when our self-esteem and confidence blooms. I have studied the subject ever since I trained as an image consultant in 1995, hence I decided to write a Men's and Women's book on the subject - Being Truly You. They define and describes 10 core Wardrobe Personalities, each of which are different based on their preferred styles of dress and their behaviours. After reading the books you will be able to identify your Wardrobe Personality and that of others and how to approach and communicate with them. You will know how to feel good as well as look good and show the world who you truly are. Your shoes, the style as well as the condition, are giving out lots of messages about you.What does yours say about you?
Return to Feature Menu Top Metal is most exciting music in the world right now - time for the critics to admit it. If a prize were to be awarded to the world's most hated music, heavy metal would be a very strong contender. The image of metal that prevails in the popular imagination is one of spandex-clad, bouffant-haired idiots producing music devoid of subtlety or imagination. Yet on the last few years, metal has undergone an extraordinary renaissance to make it one of the most creative, diverse and dynamic music genres. For one thing, there are metal scenes in the most unlikely places - Indonesia has a thriving metal scene and there are bands in countries like Iran and Saudia Arabia. The global metal scene is democratic enough to give bands from countries like these a real chance of worldwide exposure. In the 1990s for instance, the Brazilian death metal group Sepultura became one of the most successful metal acts in the world. Even more impressively, metal acts across the world have incorporated traditional music into their sound: such as Israel's Orphaned Land with Middle Eastern music and Finland's Korpiklaani with Finnish music. In the last few years, metal has consistently proved itself to be at the forefront of musical innovation, experimenting with a bewildering array of sounds. Acts such as Blut Aus Nord and Deathspell Omega have explored the outer limits of the avant-garde. ‘Drone metal' acts such as Sunn0 have developed metal's potential for transcendence through suffocating waves of noise. The term ‘hipster metal' has even been coined for acts such as Mastodon that attract an audience that is much more diverse than metal's traditional audience. In Britain metal still suffers from a lack of coverage and has yet to lose its woeful critical reputation. It's time for the taste-makers to wake up to the fact that the most exciting music in the world is being produced right under their very noses. New Feature: I am Project Director of Wombtwin.com and a wombtwin survivor. My twin was lost in a miscarriage before I was born. Since 2002 I have been busily engaged in exploring the psychological impact of the loss of a twin before birth. I built a website, http://www.wombtwin.com/, and began a six-year research project by email, asking surviving twins all over the world how they felt about themselves. There is now an extensive questionnaire and it is clear that many wombtwin survivors feel a sense of something missing and a sense of painful loneliness. This seems clear enough as a reaction to a loss such as this but I was not expecting so many respondents to mention a problem with food. This new and exciting connection with pre-born life may open up new areas of research into food problems, including addiction to some food ingredients, such as sugar or wheat. I have already published one book about food addiction called "Food and You" and I have built a new website and started a blog at http://www.foodandyou.co.uk/. It's time to get to grips with food addiction and what it means, and see if there is any connection to the loss of a twin before birth. Microsoft's Spellchecker Technology by Hilla OVIL-BRENNER Microsoft's spellchecker technology lies dormant for a decade, say industry observers. We all take the dotted red line that miraculously appears beneath our misspelled words for granted when we write emails and letters or type words into web browsers and search engines. Despite some $40 billion in sales -- 80% of which involves some form of word processing - Microsoft has let its spell checking technology remain pretty much the same for the past decade. Most email client applications are worse, offering little more than bare bones spell checking. Enter WhiteSmoke, a technology startup that has figured out a way to capitalise on the inadequacy of spellcheckers including Microsoft's version and other spell checkers in email programs and a host of emerging online text applications. WhiteSmoke uses mathematical algorithms, based on its patented Natural Language Processing technology. Hilla Ovil-Brenner, WhiteSmoke's CEO says, "Our technology performs advanced context-based English grammar, spelling and punctuation checking. An active thesaurus takes the initiative to enrich the writer's text with suggested synonyms, adverbs and adjectives. For dictionary definitions, just point and click on the word and the definition pops up." Business documents and email -- over 60% of which go out with errors WhiteSmoke research shows -- are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of market potential for this spelling and grammar checker which the company bills as a Spelling, Grammar and Writing Enhancement Engine. Blogs and Social Media go mainstream to boost demand. By the end of 2007, there were 112 million blogs according to blog search engine Technorati. "The proliferation of blogs, social media and IMs -- especially in corporate settings -- is driving demand for an OEM version of our technology," continues Ms Ovil-Brenner. She explains, "The popularity of blogging and social media has opened up a new OEM (original equipment manufacturer) market for us. When someone's opinion about you is based only on your written word online, you want to get the words right - no misspellings and proper grammar." Ms Ovil-Brenner adds, "People who meet on Facebook, tell us bad spelling is a real turnoff. Likewise, online journalists and bloggers who advance solutions to global warming, comment on the War in Iraq, or share their knowledge on a technical problem with your car's specific make and model, know they will lose credibility if spelling and grammar are sloppy."
Child require, not only a well balanced diet and exercise but also well-balanced and appropriate habits; belief systems about food, themselves and their body image. We cannot treat the effect - weight gain - without addressing the cause. This raises several questions.
Under current law, a ticket issued by a parking attendant can only be sent by post if the parking attendant was physically prevented from putting the ticket on the vehicle or giving it to the driver. When I uncovered this scam nearly five years ago, I christened it the Ghost Ticket, and the name stuck. It is now used by parking attendants, local authorities and the press. There have been many cases heard by Parking Adjudicators which have demonstrated that parking attendants have fabricated evidence to claim that the tickets were correctly served. The latest wheeze is, when challenged, to show a photograph of the ticket on the vehicle. The parking attendants either claim they were physically assaulted and prevented from issuing the ticket or that the motorist tore up the ticket. In the new legislation the government has sneakily inserted a provision that where a parking attendant has started to write a ticket and the motorist drives away, they can send the ticket by post. The opportunities for fraud are astonishing and in my view ‘legalize' the issue of Ghost Tickets. The Transport Minister claims this is to do with safety, as it will stop motorists driving away to avoid receiving a ticket! What is worse is that when a ticket is issued in these circumstances and are sent in the post, motorists will lose their current right to make an informal appeal against the parking ticket. If they appeal to the council and the council turns them down, their next appeal is to the Parking Adjudicator. There are at least two major problems with this:
The glaring problem with this is that once a Charge Certificate is issued, the motorist can no longer appeal against the parking ticket. They will either have to persuade the council to cancel the Charge Certificate and re-issue the Penalty Charge Notice (the legal name for a parking ticket). Or if they do not, then await the registration of the debt at the court and the issue of an Order for Recovery. The only way then to stop bailiffs arriving at the front door is for a witness statement to be sent to the court stating that the original Penalty Charge Notice was not received and requiring the court to cancel the registration of the debt and requiring the local authority to go back to the parking ticket stage. If this isn't bad enough, the new legislation will mean that all parking tickets or other tickets issued on the basis of CCTV camera evidence will be subject to the same new procedure. (Currently all but one type of CCTV-issued tickets are subject to the three-stage appeal process: 1- the informal appeal to the council, 2- the formal appeal to the council, and 3- the final appeal to the Parking Adjudicator.) Moreover, as local authorities outside London start to issue CCTV tickets, this will have a further knock-on effect with corresponding Orders for Recovery and bailiffs' visits. Information: The new Parking laws came into force by virtue of the Traffic Management Act 2004.
New Feature: Britain's Stately Homes - Whereas many museums and popular heritage sites in the UK have understood the need to make themselves relevant to, and engage with, today's audiences - stately homes are still the bastions of an age when it was considered sufficient to open the doors; install some nice ladies of a certain age to point out various treasures behind the red ropes; and then, essentially, hope for the best. Today's audiences have already travelled the world. They demand something more than expected to be awe-struck by an old house and a garden. These visitor ‘products' at many stately homes are undoubtedly a reflection of the rationale when first opened - when they were a chance for us to ‘see how the other half lived', and a chance for them to show off the families heirlooms. The houses often describe themselves as ‘homes' to emphasise the ‘still lived-in' aspect. Its true that people are interested in people, which is why I always maintain that most visitors are much less interested in the date of a commode, than who sat on it and what they used for toilet paper. We DO want to know how the other half lived, but in ways that we can relate to. Not some glitzy, syrupy, alien view of a world entirely unattainable and beyond the experience of 99.9% of visitors. The trick that is being missed is to limit one's view of stately homes as old and sumptuous houses (almost all are obsessed with ‘the house'). They are so much more in that they are surviving, and curiously ‘lived-in', manifestations of complete historical and architectural entities with their contents intact. The stately home and surrounding buildings are the architectural manifestations of the internal social hierarchy of the family, visitors and the (often ignored) tiers of resident servants. Stately homes have superb core assets, ripe for modern interpretation. High quality contents can be integrated into explanations about function, the arrangement of space, doorways, access routes, roles of servants and supply of consumables. This makes the entire place come alive and provides a rich commentary on the past. The UK leisure-time market place is fast filling up with ever better, sophisticated interpretation centres, more exciting activities, livelier museums. Richard Kemp New Feature: Fitting a Business Around Your Family by Karen Sherr Parents can be torn between working and staying at home to care for their children. On one hand there is the need for a steady income, on the other hand there is the belief that children benefit emotionally from having a parent caring for them full time. This was a dilemma I had. Before having children I was employed as a play specialist at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital having gained an Honours Degree in Psychology from Warwick University. I considered returning to Great Ormond Street after having my first son but was troubled with the idea of being with other peoples children all day whilst leaving my own. As I became used to my new role as a Mother I began to miss being surrounded by a ward full of children and realised that being at home with just one child was not sufficiently fulfilling. I established Musical Minis, a music group for babies and toddlers, dedicated to child development. Locally the business took off very quickly and demand led to franchising the concept to others. All of a sudden I was running a proper business. I worked throughout two pregnancies and took on additional members of staff so I could have a few weeks off after each baby was born. Trying to get the right balance was the hardest challenge. I was keen to ensure that I fit the business around my children and not the children around my business. So what advice would I give to others? Start small, let the business grow as and when you can cope with expansion. Try to separate work from home. If your business is based at home have a 2nd phone line fitted. When busy with the children, let the answer machine pick up the call. Have backup. If your child is ill what will happen to your business Know your limitations. For example if you have problems with accounts get someone to help you. Set time aside to be a parent. After school play with your child, help with homework, give them quality time. Whenever possible, take and collect your children from school, on the journey, you will have time to hear about their day and your time is just focused on the children - no phone calls, emails or supper to deal with. Work out the balance between work and home that you want. Do the bits you like (with both work and home life) and get help with the bits you don't. If the business grows too big for you to manage, both your work and home life will suffer. Set time aside to deal with the more mundane administrative and household tasks. If you keep putting it off the task will become huge. Regular manageable chunks of routine but important tasks will help matters flow smoothly. Set time aside for yourself. Running a business and having a family gives you no free time - there is always something you should be doing. The point of balance is not the same for everyone and changes over time. Nevertheless the principle of being focused remains the same and is the key to ensuring that your business and family grow and thrive together. With my eldest at university and my younger two becoming self sufficient I am now able to push for growth. Musical Minis is embarking upon an exciting expansion plan and I feel I can devote the appropriate level of attention and dedication to making it happen.
* Being able to assess the situation from inside and outside the organisation as all stakeholders might perceive it. In this sense perception often equals reality. Note these concluding words from Lord Peter Levene, Chairman of Lloyds: "Today, risks don't fit into easy categories or emerge from pre-determined places, they assault from all sides.... it may surprise you to know that at least half of all corporate crises are caused by senior management action - rather than external forces...I firmly believe that the most successful, least crisis-prone businesses will be those whose boards who have shown firm resolve and taken decisive action. Effective, integrated strategies for dealing with tomorrow's risks require a change in culture at board level - now". Peter Power, Managing Director Networking is booming at the moment with more organisations being formed every week. Many people, however, attend networking events simply because someone says it is a good idea. Beyond that, few people have a clear vision of what success will look like for them. More people now recognise that events will not be populated by people looking to buy their product (after all, how many people attend events with a view to buying?) and so, fortunately, the instances of being ‘pitched' as soon as you shake hands seems to have diminished. If you can't go to events to sell your services, how can you make them work? Many experts like me advise their audiences to ‘pursue the relationship, not the sale'. It is all well and good to make more friends, but how can that help your business? One recent contact bemoaned that very problem, "People told me they had wanted to refer me for a long while, but since they didn't really understand what I do they weren't able to." Contacts into Relationships The answer lies in being able to leverage the relationships you build. Through networking events you simply build contacts. The development of those contacts into relationships often takes place outside of the meetings, where you can really take the time to get to know each other and your respective business needs. And always be on the lookout for them, passing them valuable tips and information and, where possible, quality introductions and referrals. Networking events are a catalyst for new business. They should never be viewed as a pool of prospects enabling you to walk out with business signed. Return to Feature Menu Top Weddings 2008 style are not the lavish affairs they once were. Intimate weddings are now in vogue, with the bride and groom inviting only the people they really want to be there and giving them the most exquisite food and lovely wines. And weddings are going green, with couples using recyled paper for the invitations or even email. For bridesmaids the trend is now to dress in the same colour but with styles which suit particular body shapes. Whether or not you feel you would like the services of a wedding planner, please feel free to email me at sandy@tiptopweddings.co.uk. You may just have a couple of burning questions, or a concern about etiquette. I will listen to your needs and help you in any way I can. http://www.tiptopweddings.co.uk/ Return to Feature Menu Top
The stylistic differences between men and women are highlighted on Diva-Biz - the new video based website which broadcasts inspiring interviews with business women giving male leaders the chance to understand more about women's leadership style. It also offers community, networking and mentoring. Return to Feature Menu Top
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Elizabeth Fritzl:
Metal Music is the 
Crisis Management: 
