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.

I have been and am, a member of many online communities ( too many too mention ! ) but the Six Figure Mentors stands out above even the best. I know that at the moment the Six Figure Mentors team are struggling to keep up with the number of people joining – globally. Stuart Ross is flying all around the world establishing new communities.

I have said it before but I think that it is worth repeating that my objective has been to find an Internet Marketing System that REALLY generates leads and orders. People who follow me know that I am a massive HubSpot fan and that I developed the Internet Marketing Ecosystem to help my clients improve their Internet Presence, ability to rank for selected keywords and phrases and rate of conversion from visitor to customer. HubSpot’s mantra is ” Get Found, Convert, Analyse ” one of Stuart’s mantra’s is ” Build a List, Sell something and sell something else ” – see that sort of simple, direct objective appeals to me !!

When you review the best digital marketers and web and blogsites in the world you see that  Listbuilding ( the collection of an opted in list of email addresses ) is key as is the nurturing and collection of that list. An email list always has a value but some are more valuable than others.

Click free report in this Call to Action here

and you are on an email list.

Click ” Learn More ” below

and you are on an email list.

Click ” Download Now ” on this HubSpot Call to Action

and you are on an email list.

I think you get the message ??

But I digress because I wanted to talk about the Six Figure Mentors Community..

When I paid my $20 I got what Stuart said I would ……. MASSIVE VALUE !!

I got confirmation of everything I believed in. ( regarding Internet Marketing ).

I was also on the email list !!! ( Actually I was on a couple !! )

I got  autoresponder emails – one a day – from Stuart. I also got emails from Martyn Hickey.

There was a lot of information to take in but it was all good.

After some time in the Six Figure Mentors Community Website ( access requires a monthly subscription ) Martyn Hickey introduced me to Stuart Chalmers – an Ordinary but very special guy.

I just want to feature Stuart’s personal website here

http://www.stuartchalmers.com/

by way of a thank you for everything that he has done to help.

Note that Stuart’s ( WordPress ) website has everything you need on a lead generating website – Call to Action’s, Email Opt-In’s, Blog, Social Media joins and shares.

The Community spirit shown by Martyn and Stuart makes Six Figure Mentors tower above other Digital Marketing Mentoring System’s.

TEST OUT THE SIX FIGURE MENTORS here FREE and no obligation !!

Chris Windley, Digital Marketing Expert and Managing Partner at the Silicon Crossroads Technopolis in Lichfield, Staffordshire spoke to the Daily Mail about Digital Death and why he is waiting for the official launch of My Digital Executor and NOT death !!

The impact of a Digital Death is entirely dependent on how involved someone is in the digital world and what the consequences of disconnection or interruption to their system would be. There are people who have maybe, a Linkedin or a Facebook account and use the Internet for browsing and for email. There are 2 or 3 passwords and usernames involved in that.

Now imagine that you were Stuart Ross ( see below ) , Founder of the Six Figure Mentors and someone who earns $100’s of thousands  a month through the Internet

Find Stuart at : https://sixfigurementors.infusionsoft.com/go/sfmsalespage/stuartrossmarketing

using various tools such as web and blogsites, social media sites, Google pay per Click, Facebook adverts, emailing lists, autoresponders etc etc etc. I don’t know how many usernames and passwords he has but it’s a lot !! I would say that nobody would understand  how Stuart made his money except that he has been discussing and sharing his techniques with his ” inner circle ” and with Six Figure Mentor members so there are actually quite a few people now who understand what he is doing. Previously only Stuart’s mentors would have understood what he is doing – his parents and brothers and sisters certainly don’t !!

There is a sort of no-man’s land between the casual user and a ” proper ” Internet based business. People that run eBay shops or small ecommerce sites; bloggers with lots of followers and advertising revenues being generated from their sites. It is highly unlikely that anyone un other than them understand how the system works.

Typically the sites that they use eBay, Facebook, PayPal, Google etc etc are based in the U.S. and they have their own views on what happens when someone dies.

When a Facebook user dies anyone ( yes anyone !! ) can shut down the account given that they have proof of death. So, imagine this – Stuart

( God forbid ) dies and the news gets around. One of his competitors hears about this, knows that a lot of Stuart’s income is dependent on Facebook ( adverts ) , provides proof of death to Facebook and gets the account shut down. Probably nobody ( the relatives or the lawyers involved ) has any conception that this is an important part of the income generating system.

What redress does the estate have against the person who shut it down or Facebook ?? None !!

Graham Ross ( below ), Founder of My Digital Executor, decided that this was just unacceptable.

Here’s what Graham says on his website http://www.mydigitalexecutor.co.uk/ ……

Have you ever worried about what would happen to your email, tweets, blogs, domains,  affiliate sales accounts, created/collected music, photographs, websites, designs, virtual world items, online account balances, online revenue streams and even operational online businesses when you log off for that final time? Probably be lost forever or, worse,  be taken over by those unauthorised by you, putting your money, data and creative property at risk. Read articles on the problem from The New York Times and The Guardian.

Let us put your mind at rest

Our straight forward and simple protocol ensures that your accounts and assets will be handled fully in accordance with your wishes. We provide a form on which you set out, and update, your wishes. We then refer you to a solicitor who will help you ensure those wishes are legally honoured (you are not committed to any further costs beyond your membership of this service).

Writing an informal note of your wishes has no effect

You may think that informally appointing someone to take over a digital asset on your death is the answer but it will have no legal effect. Equally of no legal effect are services that store your passwords and last wishes like Entrustet.com and LegacyLocker.com. Legacy Locker specifically warns by email  those you seek to appoint that ‘it is not legally binding’ because ‘ownership of any electronic rights related to the internet such as intellectual property, domain names, or marketing affiliation agreements, cannot be granted or transferred through Legacy Locker’.  This is because the law dictates who is entitled to your assets, including your digitalassets, and the only way to impose your wish above the law is through a Will, or Codicil to a Will. A friend who acts, albeit innocently, on your informal wishes can be sued by the next of kin entitled to your estate. We  ensure you are able to make such wishes binding and effective after you pass away.

We protect your passwords but do not hold them

Whilst we ensure your estate has lawful and effective access to your online accounts after your death, we do not hold your passwords.

What if I just ignore the problem

If you want to learn about the problems with what would happen on your death with some of the more popular internet services, then see our page called ‘How Websites Deal With Your Death’.

For more information call Graham on:

MD Executor Ltd

A company registered in England under registration number 08226375

Registered Office:-

47 Rodney St

Liverpool

L1 9EW

Telephone:  0845 0573719

Fax: 0870 130 3337

Email: admin@mydigitalexecutor.co.uk

The Silicon Crossroads Technopolis based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England has helped Inbound Marketing Megastars HubSpot decide on Dublin,Ireland as the location for their European Headquarters. The official announcement from Hubspot is here. Chris Windley, Managing Partner of the Silicon Crossroads Technopolis and of the Silicon Crossroads V.C.T. ( Just voted #100 of 1000 Tech. Investors globally by PeekIndex – full story here ) said ” Some time ago HubSpot asked our opinion on where they should base their European Headquarters – we highlighted as possibilities London, Lichfield itself  and Dublin, Ireland.”

The story of that early conversation with HubSpot is here . ” Whilst we would have been proud to welcome HubSpot to Lichfield and perhaps even the Technopolis itself, we are delighted that HubSpot decided on one of our recommendations. ” Chris said.

As highlighted in our early conversation above there are some compelling reasons why U.S. companies should base themselves in Dublin, Ireland . In all likelihood this will be followed by sales offices in Benelux and London. This is a well worn path that e.g. Google, Twitter and Facebook have followed.

You have to admire the Irish and Irish ( Inward Development Agency ) I.D.A. for the way that they have positioned ” brand Ireland ” and for the way that they handled this opportunity. There are many places where HubSpot could have based it’s European Headquarters but it chose Dublin, Ireland.

Chris said ” I have contacts within the Irish I.D.A. and they have a Boston office which has been communicating with HubSpot for a number of years . The Boston team of the Irish I.D.A. obviously did a good job in presenting the case to HubSpot “.

To me this just emphasises what we have said elsewhere – there is an unstoppable flow of fully funded companies coming from the U.S. to Europe and other countries. This is particularly true of High Tech and software companies.

4 years ago HubSpot was a small Boston based software startup. Today it is one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the world. Probably second only to Salesforce.com.

When HubSpot received further funding earlier on in the year and investment from e.g. Google and Salesforce it was almost inevitable that they would open a European Headquarters soon. Around 300 companies in Europe are HubSpot customers but this is not enough. HubSpot needed a European base to compete against WordPress based competitors and new startup – The Six Figure Mentors – which is rapidly expanding across the globe from the U.K.

FREE 7 Day Digital Marketing Bootcamp at http://www.chriswindley.com

STOP PRESS !!! January 2013 – The Internet Marketing Ecosystem ( mentioned below ) has now been incorporated into Centripetal Network Consultings’ Digital Marketing Ecosystem. Watch this video >>>> HERE <<<< to see how a system that provides all of the functionality of a HubSpot system at a much lower cost has evolved over the last couple of years.

The Silicon Crossroads V.C.T. headed by Chris Windley is now regarded as being in the top 100 of tech investors in the world. The list is here as compiled by Peek Analytics.

” PeekAnalytics is an enterprise-class social audience measurement platform that provides rich consumer insights to marketers allowing them to better identify and qualify social audiences. What Nielsen® did for television and radio audiences and ComScore® did for web traffic audiences – PeekAnalytics does for social audiences.

This list of the top 1000 technology investors on Twitter is ranked by one of PeekAnalytics’s key metrics – what we call the Pull Quotient (PQ) is a good measure of how influential any given Twitter audience is, compared to the average Twitter account – 1x is average, 2x is twice as much as average, and so on. Influence, for the purposes of this calculation, is gauged by how well connected someone’s Twitter followers are not just on Twitter, but across sixty social sites, compared to the average consumer. “

PeekAnalytics: Overview

PeekAnalytics Solutions

Open API Access

Testimonials

PeekAnalytics FAQ

Why should I care about my “passive audience”?

Why do you leave out some of audience?

What about Privacy?

How is Pull different from Klout or Kred?

Why Transparency?

Audience vs. Action?

I came across Stuart Ross of the Six Figure Mentors about a week ago when I randomly clicked on one of his Facebook adverts. ( I hardly ever click on Facebook ads but it looked interesting ). It didn’t take me long to find a video interview that Thomas Power ( co-founder of Ecademy.com ) did with Stuart.

As I ” Know, Like and Trust ” Thomas ( & Penny ) Power I quickly signed up for the initial offer here ..

Step #1

Scroll down and you’ll see our secure online payments form to get started…

The application fee is only $19.95 and don’t worry you wont risk a single penny as it’s 100% refundable within 30 days if you decide this is not for you (or if we determine you’re simply not the right person for us) then just let us know and your $19.95 will be refunded immediately.

I am very glad I did !!!

People who follow me will know that I am a massive fan of HubSpot and that I have been promoting what I call the Internet Marketing Ecosystem here for some time. Actually, I am about to launch a WordPress website which describes the Internet Marketing Ecosystem in more detail.

I have been working my way through Stuart Ross’s video course ( which I gained access to when I paid my $20 ) and also Stuart has been emailing me every day ( well, his automated system’s have 😉 with new video’s and information.

I have also had a telephone call ( skype ) with Martyn Hickey, who is one of Stuart’s team. I booked this through the Six Figure Mentor website for last Monday. Frankly it was too early to talk because I was working diligently through the information that I had already got and was getting every day. I simply said the truth – that this was the best $20 I had spent in years !!! I really mean this.

I am going to explain why it was so valuable and useful shortly but before I do let us digress…..

When I first saw HubSpot a couple of years ago it was a revelation to me. I think they have been going for about 3 or 4 years now and HubSpot is the 2nd fastest SaaS company in the U.S. – next to Salesforce.com. HubSpot’s mantra ” Get FOUND, CONVERT and ANALYSE ” is, as I like to say now ” burned into my brain “.

I have a burning desire to ensure that my clients, friends and the companies I am invested in get the right advice when it comes to Internet Marketing . This has led to me developing the Internet Marketing Ecosystem concept as a relatively simple way of explaining to people what needs to happen. It happens to have components in it that I am highly committed to e.g. WordPress, Twylah and the various social networks that I use like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google + and Pinterest ( to name a few ).

The main reason we developed the Internet Marketing Ecosystem concept was that HubSpot had proved to be a ” bridge too far ” for many of my clients in terms of cost and skills and resources required. As I have said elsewhere in this blogsite HubSpot themselves appear to have realised that they are not quite suited to the small and medium sized business and certainly not to the ” solopreneur “.

Stuart Ross has designed the Six Figure Mentors around individuals:

but the principals certainly apply to any size of business – it’s just that Stuart has chosen to start with individuals whilst HubSpot is now more appropriate to Medium and Large sized businesses.

HubSpot and the Six Figure Mentors have very similar ( if not identical ) objectives though – to get leads, prospects and customers ( orders and cash ).

For me this was really exciting – just as a concept.

However, when you start looking at the information that you can access with a $20 payment and which comes by email from Stuart every day from the time that you sign up, you can tell that everything you need is going to be here.

For me little things and big things confirmed and reaffirmed what I was thinking. There are too many to relate really but for example: He concentrates on the strategy and outsources the detail; he thinks in terms of what motivates people to buy and how to encourage them to do so; he passionately believes in Internet Marketing; he believes in trial and error but learning quickly; some people might not believe in Facebook but he DOES !! ; He has WordPress at the core of his marketing systems.

Mostly, what is important is this. His system is proven to produce millions of Pounds, Dollars or whatever in actual sales. I am going to say right away that the Internet Marketing System has not ( yet ) produced the same thing.

Hence, I highly recommend that you go to

http://thesfm.com/

and invest $20 – yes just $20 !! – because I think you will agree with me that it is the best $20 you have spent for ages if not EVER !!!

If you want to find out more about Stuart you can go to his personal website here.

http://stuart-ross.com/

Stuart Ross.

I will keep you updated as to my findings with the Six Figure Mentors on a regular basis.

Peter MacLean, some time Chairman of Fox IT Holdings Limited, until recently parent company of Fox IT Limited and previously 365iT plc – has now dragged Licensed Insolvency Practitioners, MBI Coakley Limited, into the great 365iT plc scam ( although they seem unaware of the chequered history of MacLean and 365iT plc ). MacLean’s long time mates at Moore Blatch solicitors in Southampton sent out a letter to shareholders on the 3 July 2012 saying that there would be a General Meeting of the shareholders on the 2nd August 2012 at which a proposal to wind up the company voluntarily would be put to the members i.e. shareholders .
( This means that MacLean would basically put his proposals to himself, Pieter Hooft  of LMS Capital and Derek King of South East Venture Growth Fund – as they were the majority shareholders before and after the sale of 365iT’s companies to themselves ).

So, a company ( Fox IT Holdings Limited ) which sometime earlier had sold nearly all of  it’s assets ( companies like e.g. 5i Limited )  to another company ( LMS Capital – where Pieter Hooft is M.D. UK Investments – he is listed as a Director of  365iT plc ) and the holding company of which MacLean was also a Chairman ( 365 it services Limited ) and a shareholder,  was now being put into Members Voluntary Liquidation despite the fact MacLean himself had been paid £millions out of it only recently, it had no creditors ( because they had all been paid off  when LMS Capital bought the companies ) and the Directors of Fox IT Limited had just done an M.B.O. of Fox I.T. Limited from Fox I.T. Holdings Limited( See Press Release below ).

In fact it turns out that ( according to Fox IT Limited ) the date of the Members Voluntary Liquidation was delayed firstly to allow the M.B.O. of Fox I.T. Limited to take place and secondly ( according to MBI Coakley ) to enable the preferential shareholders to do some fine tuning to the arrangements so that they could get nearly all of the money available in the company’s accounts leaving virtually nothing for the Ordinary shareholders.

The preferential shareholders are not listed but we can take an educated guess that they include LMS Capital, Peter MacLean and South East Growth Venture Fund. Yes folks, Peter MacLean gets even more money !!

Let’s summarise shall we ???? Most of the company’s that were in 365iT plc ( was Impera plc ) and became Fox IT Holdings Limited are now in 365 IT Services Limited which is a company owned by LMS Ventures ( Where Pieter Hooft is on the Board ) AND Peter MacLean ( who is Chairman of 365IT Services Limited ). It is run by Peter Howells, former M.D. of 5i Limited.

So basically, MacLean and LMS Capital sold these companies to themselves. ( Not sure if Derek King and South East Growth Fund is involved in LMS Capital or 365 IT Services Limited )

MBI Coakley have been presented with a nice neat set of accounts which show that everyone has been looked after except the Ordinary shareholders in Impera plc ( as was ) / 365iT plc /Fox I.T. Holdings Limited. There is virtually nothing left for them.

The terms of the arrangement to sell 365iT plc’s companies to themselves remain a mystery.

The people that got paid out when LMS Capital bought these companies remain a secret.

The terms of the sale of Fox IT Limited to it’s Directors are also a mystery.

I have been inundated with Ordinary shareholders calling me. Some of whom have been working with or for Peter MacLean since the early days. None of them have a good word to say about him.

The investigations continue.

Fox IT Limited MBO Press Release

Fox IT: Management Buy-Out

Fox IT Limited, the leading independent UK based IT Service Management specialists, has

been the subject of a full and exclusive management buyout with effect from 24th August,

2012. The current management team of Andrew Gray (Finance Director), Mike Darkens

(Consulting Director) and Ashley Bassett (Sales Director) have purchased in full the shares

from the parent company, Fox IT Holdings Limited (formerly 365iT Plc.) and will form the

new board and operational directorship of the business. The acquisition retains all current

operational and delivery UK based staff as well as its global partner network covering 25

countries and 125 accredited Service Management consultants.

Since 1981, Fox IT, formerly Ultracomp, has assisted over 500 organisations and 200000

individuals on their journey to transform IT Services in order to deliver greater business

value through accredited training reinforced with assessment and implementation tools and

services. This management buyout facilitates a strengthening of Fox IT’s core business

focus and portfolio in supporting organisations through all phases of their continual service

improvement journey.

Ashley Bassett commented “I believe this is great news for our Clients, employees and the

ITSM Industry. We’re genuinely excited and confident that the buyout provides the

opportunity for Fox IT to continue being the partner of choice for Service Improvement and

transformation programs. Since its involvement in the inception of ITIL® and ISO/IEC

20000, Fox IT has continually been at the forefront in establishing, the advancement and the

practical application of Service Management best practice through thought leadership,

content provision and service delivery. Whilst continuing to support organisations with their

core training needs a key focus and challenge for the new Board of Directors is to provide

our Clients with practical education, guidance and tools to accelerate the translation of their

significant training investment into tangible business benefits.

The Fox IT brand has already seen a shift from being purely a world leading ITSM training

company to one of supporting our Clients’ service improvement programs providing

consulting and resourcing services, process development tools, bespoke training offerings

and strategic mentoring and guidance for maintaining service quality. Therefore, Fox IT is

well positioned to meet this change in demand. Part of our new mission is to raise the

profile of ITSM to meet and deliver business objectives”

Mike Darkens added “The success of the business is based on the core attributes of our

people, their experience and energy. This has led to the positive results we have delivered

consistently to our clients and through adding to our strong relationships, we can continue

the current trend of business growth.”

ITIL ® is a registered trademark of the Cabinet Office

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1084615740&type=RESOURCES – Members Voluntary Liquidation Details.

HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing system is amazing. Started by ex-Venture Capitalist Brian Halligan and web architect and blogger Dharmesh Shah who basically saw that startups and growth companies needed a new way of marketing, HubSpot is a truly revolutionary concept ( Inbound Marketing ) and system.

As a business angel and sales, marketing and business strategy specialist with startups and growth companies I have recommended HubSpot to a number of my clients. Some have installed HubSpot and I have been privileged to be involved in the installation and operation of the system. One has changed from HubSpot to WordPress. This was a change that I resisted as I was sure that HubSpot style Internet Marketing was the future and would, eventually, lead to great results for my client  but as I debated the pros and cons of HubSpot and WordPress with my client I could see that it just was not going to work for them. It was too expensive and required skills that they and I did not have. Neither did they have the skills required in their partners.

In fact it turned out that HubSpot was moving upmarket -away from S.M.B.’s and towards larger companies and enterprises. I don’t think that it is any mistake that HubSpot’s pricing page’s –   http://www.hubspot.com/pricing/ – highlight a professional package that’s going to cost $600 per month plus, potentially, $1000’s in setup and consulting fees. You would probably be looking at $20,000 per annum as a typical spend. I think HubSpot are being very fair in highlighting that on top of the licensing fee there are other costs aswell. If you don’t have certain skills in house e.g. Landing Page and Call to Action design skills and analytical skills then you will need to find a partner for this and pay them aswell.

Despite all this I am STILL going to recommend that you look at HubSpot and understand what it offers and can achieve before making any decision not to use it. You HAVE to understand what the HubSpot system is trying to achieve ( Visitors, prospects and customers ! ) and you have to understand most of the ways that it achieves this. The HubSpot mantra ” Get Found, Convert and Analyse ” should be burned into your brain in the same way that it is burned into mine.

You must understand that a website is virtually useless if it is not FOUND, if it does not CONVERT visitors into prospects and customers and if you cannot ANALYSE how you managed to get FOUND and CONVERT  visitors to customers.

I can tell you that it is very exciting watching the traffic building to your website which results from the creation of great content and the distribution of that content through social networks.

It is also fantastic to watch how many visitors converted to leads and how many of those converted to orders.

Unfortunately when you are spending around £250 a month ( as my client was doing ) you are not getting the Professional package and you do not get much support so if you can’t do a number of things in house then you are never actually going to achieve the results that you need which means that you will never actually pay for the cost of HubSpot.

This is why I have spent months and months developing the WordPress based Internet Marketing Ecosystem which I believe is more suited to the average SMB and even large business. Of course in the last year or so HubSpot has developed the HubSpot plugin for WordPress and also Dharmesh has emphasized the importance of the WordPress world by investing in WPEngine ( the WordPress focussed Hosting company ).

STOP PRESS !!! January 2013 – The Internet Marketing Ecosystem ( mentioned below ) has now been incorporated into Centripetal Network Consultings’ Digital Marketing Ecosystem. Watch this video >>>> HERE <<<< to see how a system that provides all of the functionality of a HubSpot system at a much lower cost has evolved over the last couple of years.