I have recently had some pretty bad experiences with so called Hotdesking facilities in Birmingham, UK and this got me thinking about the subject.
I think part of the problem is that they are more experimental models than professional businesses and the people that are running them are just not up to the task. Simple questions,enquiries,suggestions and even help given get very weird responses and you just wonder where these people have been, are coming from and why they are suddenly hosting Hotdesking facilities. Desperation springs to mind ??
In all the years that I have been meeting people in Birmingham in hotels I have never experienced any negative issues. In fact the reverse. As I cast my mind back over hundreds of meeting I can only remember positive experiences.
Over the last year I have used The Malmaison and Marco Pierre Whites in particular. Both are great but of course MPW has the advantage of the amazing views. I have always had good service at the Ibis Chinatown and there is another hotel where I had amazing support from staff with my laptop connectivity – will update soon.
It really begs a few questions:
– Why would you use a Hotdesking facility rather than e.g. a Hotel or Coffee Bar ??
– What are the most important criteria for a venue to meet with somebody ??
– What is the best place to open up your smartphone, notepad or laptop and get a bit of work done ???
There are probably a few other questions that could be asked aswell.
I am going to leave this article for further updates soon.
Which Business Networking Meeting is the best in Birmingham at the moment ??
I take a trip to the Grosvenor Casino on Rebecca Hyslop’s recommendation to try out this networking event and find it very interesting and professional
I have not been to a networking meeting for some time ( I think the last one was in Burton on Trent a couple of months ago ) and certainly the Business Biscotti meeting at the Grosvenor Casino on Broad Street in Birmingham was the first networking meeting that I have been to in Birmingham for a year or more.
I was introduced to Biscotti by Rebecca Hyslop of Push Media Marketing who runs a number of networking meetings in Birmingham.
I very rarely go to Casino’s so that was also a novelty to me( I think the last one was in Biarritz ).
I hoped that the meeting was going to be more fun than formal – obviously productive aswell – and knowing Rebecca I was pretty sure that it would be.
Online research prior to arriving at the Biscotti meeting indicated that although there was a website, social media activity appeared limited. The Biscotti name piqued my curiousity but I have only just found out that the name is based on the first meeting where Biscotti biscuits were made and served.
I parked in The Nautical Club just down the road and walked around to Broad Street and the entrance of the Grosvenor Casino.
The receptionist was absolutely lovely and I proffered photo id in order to get a Casino card. The receptionist phoned down for the Manager, Paul Bradford, to meet me.
I met him at the bottom of the stairs leading onto the Casino floor and he led me to the group that was assembled, chatting at the bar area.
With Rebecca, the receptionist and Paul I had definitely had a very professional and positive introduction to this networking meeting.
The first person that Paul, very kindly, introduced me to had actually seen me speaking at an event in Marco Pierre White’s recently – so that was a great start.That was Glenn Richardson of Photo Booth Hire.
A chat with someone else and then an introduction to someone who turned out to be with Mattioli Woods – where I am a client !!!! Bit of a surprise and an opportunity to praise them a bit – my account manager there has been brilliant actually.
I loved meeting next with Raphael from HNS Signs – a company that I had come across on twitter during #lichfieldlocal hour run by Sarah Morley. Raphael gave me his bosses card, Michelle Henry, and a lovely booklet promoting their work.
As I get into this post I am thinking about who I met, and what made them memorable and what contact information I came away with. Later on I will say who contacted me and how.
My primary interest is what people are doing online. Their ” Internet Presence ” as I call it. ( A combination of web/blogsite and social media accounts ).
I then met Personal Trainer John Wang ( 07795437716 ) who it turned out had seen me at a Market United Kingdom presentation. Someone at John’s gym was an Unfranchise Owner. ( Actually franchises were much in evidence in this meeting ).
Whilst sipping a glass of water Mike Bowden walked over to chat. ( I am grateful to Rebecca Hyslop for doing a tweet after the meeting that contained Mike’s contact details as well as other peoples ). As well as being a Life Coach Mike was a martial arts practitioner and I go to a Kick Boxing class at Burton Kick Boxing Academy with Chris Squirrel so we had something in common there.
On coming to chat to Rebecca ( and the lady from Best of Birmingham who kindly looked after my laptop bag and coat and another lady from Grosvenor Casino’s ) I got into a conversation with Tom West from Central Telecomms. and Richard Murphy from Bank House Corporate. My background is in Telecomms and M & A so this was an interesting conversation.
I decided to leave after that as it was Remembrance Day and I wanted to spend some time at The Nautical Club and The National Memorial Arboretum.
I should point out that I was given 6 business cards but I didn’t give out any as is my approach of late.
Tom West from Central Telecomms. was the first person to contact me ( by twitter and Linkedin ) and he didn’t have any of my details so I was most impressed with this response. Later on he sent me information on the company. Stellar responsiveness !!!!
Rebecca did a tweet after the event that included ( probably ) every person that had a twitter account that she knew who was at the meeting. This was very useful.
After connecting with people there I had a few conversations.
I also established email communications with Michelle and Raphael at HNS Signs – they just look so well sorted as a company.
All in all this was a great event with some great people at it and I would recommend to anyone ( as I am doing here ).
If you need a makeup artist in the UK then we have some amazing Motives muas and beauty specialists for you
Motives Cosmetics and Beauty products are used by stars like JLo and Kim Kardashian and you can get similar looks at affordable prices here in the UK
There are Motives makeup artists and beauty professionals in many parts of the world – not all .. yet – but many of the main English, Spanish and Chinese speaking countries globally.
The celebrity and celebrity mua following is huge in the USA and growing in all other countries. However, you don’t have to be a celebrity to benefit from and to afford Motives and you don’t have to be a celebrity mua to provide it to your clients.
In fact Motives is rapidly becoming the place where young, aspiring mua’s can learn how to become successful mua’s tutored and mentored by more experienced Motives Consultants.
If you are a client looking for a makeup artist then you might be looking for particular things aside from an ability to make you look and feel great.
You would probably like to buy the products that your mua uses on you with minimal fuss and time spent. An option to buy from you mua or online would be nice.
You may have strong feelings about animal testing and use of animal by products and want to ensure that no animals have been hurt in the making of the makeup you are wearing.
You also want to ensure that the products don’t clog your pores and definately are not cancer inducing as so many are.
You don’t want the pressure of sitting in a big store under false lighting to be made up – you want the privacy and comfort of your home or your mua’s.
You want an mua who is going to listen to what you want and not just sell you what they have to sell.
If some or all of these things are important to you then please contact me and I will put you in touch with one of our mua’s.
Birmingham based makeup artists and other beauty professionals have an amazing opportunity to rocket their income
Check out this guide to getting more income from the same time
( See the end of this article for recommended makeup artists in and near Birmingham )
I have recently talked to a lot of Makeup Artists ( MUAs ) and what a hard working, talented bunch of ( mainly ) ladies they are.
It’s a great job – making people look great – but it is also a very time consuming job. One MUA I know was recently up at 1.30 in the morning to drive to London to get a bride ready for her wedding then back to Birmingham to attend an event and then another private client. She didn’t finish until the evening of that day. A long day and while the pay is reasonable as a freelance MUA it is not brilliant.
Time and money are definitely connected in a strong way.
I personally feel that the objective should be for an MUA to get to the point where he or she can work with the clients that they want to – not the clients that they have to.
The way to do this is to .. Add ( Income ) and Separate ( Time from Money )..
Dealing first with ADD..
At the moment most MUAs only charge an hourly rate or a rate for their art/handiwork. Of course top MUAs can and do charge premium rates.
MUAs have a collection of product that they have assembled over time and know work. This might be in a suitcase or makeup carrier or at their salon. The client might not be aware of the products used – only the end result. If the client is inclined to buy the products that the MUA uses and recommends then it probably means a trip to the shops.
Whilst such a trip might not be an issue it might also be inconvenient and would have a cost to the client in time and money. ( Whether that matters to someone who can afford an MUA is another matter).
It could be that the easy provision of the products used to the client is actually an enhanced service.
If the client goes and buys those products from the shops then there is nothing in that for the MUA in financial terms.
If on the other hand the MUA could make say 30-50% profit on the products sold then this will have added to the income from any particular client appointment. In fact the product profit might be more than the hourly or set rate.
The MUA would need to have the product on hand in order to sell it or have some sort of online shop ( <<<Link here ) where the client can go. Having the product on hand is ok if you have a salon ( although stock is an overhead ) but means that you have to carry it around if you are mobile.
An online shop ( <<< Link ) is definitely preferable especially if it has rapid delivery times ( eg 24-48 hour delivery ).
Talking to MUAs recently I noted that many of them gave the client a summary of what they had done for them during that appointment and what products they used and also kept a record for themselves.
I took this idea and developed the idea of the Online Beauty Prescription ( <<< Link – thanks to a friend who is a Beauty Blogger for that description ) which is a blog post that can be written up afterwards and can be anonymous or name the client and will direct them straight to the place in the online shop where they can buy these products. ( Posting a blog actually has many potential benefits to the MUAs online marketing but I will not go into that now ).
Now, at the time that the client purchases these products the MUA may well be working with another client i.e. the MUA has begun to separate time from money or multiply the effect of that time.
We can imagine the client coming back again and again and the only time that the MUA will be aware of this is when they get an email saying ” You have another order placed from ( whoever ) , Value £x “.
Here’s another great thing about this.. If you have not already got the clients email address you will have when they register and buy from your shop.
That email address can be used to communicate with the client on an ongoing basis. The MUA can email them ” special deals ” or ” new products or services “. Such communication can be automated in an appropriate and tailored manner.
Once you have your own shop you will obviously be able to buy certain products at a ” Wholesale ” price yourself. With some companies ( e.g. Motives and Shop.com ) you can buy more than just beauty and cosmetics products at wholesale prices, You could for example buy multivitamins and isotonic products. Such purchases represent a clear saving to you on products that you are already going to buy. This is the online equivalent of having a Costco or Makro account in the UK.
Lets add another dimension to this.. Some of the MUAs friends, business contacts and work colleagues e.g. Hairdressers, Nail Technicians, Manicurists, Masseurs also recommend products off of the MUAs’ online site that are relevant to them. Again these sales come in without any direct effort from the MUA and they come in alongside the MUAs other work.
One or two of the MUAs friends decide that they would also like to have their own online shop and the MUA helps them set that up and guides them on it’s use. The MUA and the friend both get commission on the sales.
Time goes on and more and more friends are selling products off of the websites or have their own websites. The result is a substantial income for many of them that is independent of the number of hours that they put in and which allows them to select which clients they actually want to spend their time with.
Take a look at this video:
Which is about a product range that originated in the U.S. ( in 2010 ) and was conceived by Loren Ridinger and enhanced by LaLa Anthony ( if you are fans of The Kardashians then you may of heard of them ).
This is a high quality, affordable cosmetics and beauty product range which is endorsed by many Celebrity MUAs globally. ( <<< Link ) It is being sold direct via MUAs, Salon and Spa owners and other beauty related professionals. The reason that you can have high quality product at mid range pricing and give high commissions to resellers is that NO money is being spent on advertising or corporate fatcats – the profit goes to the people that deserve it – the MUAs and their business partners. There is a sophisticated 24 -72 hour global delivery system to support sales from the Online sites though.
The Motives business system is a turnkey system that accomplishes EXACTLY what I have said above. Retail profit is added to time for money ( the appointment itself ) and in addition there is profit sharing for group sales.
N.B. We have built a financial model spreadsheet ( mini business plan ) to support this blog. See what happens when you add this to your normal MUA income !!!!
If you are based in Birmingham and ready for a change Contact me – twitter @cwindley, skype chris.windley or phone 07881 500002 to discuss this opportunity in greater detail.
Getting any guarantees of being found on the Internet through search results or otherwise is always useful when assurances are hard to get
The SEO girl brings a refreshingly different approach to a business proposition regarding being found on the Internet
I have always thought that the sign of a good SEO company was one that put it’s money where it’s mouth was and ranked for the things that it ought to.
The SEO Girl, Claire Taylor, who is Business Development Manager at UK search company SmartRank UK, is highlighting their offer to Midlands based businesses. ( Note SmartRanks U.S. sister company Market Leader SEO also offers the same proposition in the U.S. ).
This announcement comes hard on the heels of Smartranks global Digital Marketing partner Centripetal Network Consulting – creators of the Digital Marketing Ecosystem making a similar announcement based on their partnership with Claire and Smartranks.
This market was long overdue a shake up and it is even more amazing that this announcement and guarantee has been made post the Panda and Penguin changes by Google.
VIDEO HERE >>>>>>>>>>
Centripetal Networks Nine Figure Mentor, Chris Windley, talks about the launch of this guaranteed SEO service – applicable to people in Birmingham UK, the West Midlands, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Cheshire, Mid Wales, Leicestershire, Herefordshire and Staffordshire.
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