HBA Members' Businesses - Home Business Alliance

Home Business Alliance Member/Home Business Profiles

Each month, we will add to this web page any new Home Business Alliance Members' home businesses which we have featured in our regular journal, The BOSS. This exposure is entirely free of charge and exclusive to Home Business Alliance Members. If you do not subscribe to the Home Business Alliance already, we hope you enjoy reading about our Members' success and activities and invite you to join our organisation if you want others to know about you and your business!

Index:

#1: Bryan Cath/West Country Walks
#2: Veronique Lazerat/The Saffron Fields of St Blaise
#3: Philip Nash/A New Format For Your Holiday
#4: Tony Spiers/Four Four Time
#5: Jill Bray/English Essentials Explained
#6: Audrey Simpson-Campbell/Avon Sales Leadership
#7: Stanley Morgan, best-selling author and actor
#8: Douglas Hunt/Modern Sunclocks Ltd
#9: Mike Truscott: Ghost Writer
#10: Colin Edwards, Freelance Writer and Editor
#11: Rachel Ross/Purely Peppermint
#12: I'm in the garden/Neil Johnstone, VividGreen.co.uk
#13: DVD Workshop/Mark Brewer
#14: Dan Glickman and Money Tree Associates
#16: Trevor Nicol: Stemtech Independent Distributor
#17: TinaWoollard MIPA: TMWSecretarial Services and Tesla Typing

#1: Bryan Cath
West Country Walks

Logo - West Country Walks Hello. My name is Bryan Cath and I have been running my own businesses from home since 1973. My first venture was with a very good Home Tune franchise. We specialised in mobile engine tuning, when engines needed tuning because they had points and carburettors. I built this business up to one of the largest within the franchise with five operators, full-time office staff and radio-controlled units. The franchise grew rapidly, I was about their 30th operator and it soon had several hundred around the country. The franchisees started up a Franchise Advisory Board where we advised our franchisor of problems the franchisees were having. I was the Secretary to this Board for several years and got to know a lot about franchising. This franchise was an early member of the British Franchise Association.

Having run the operation for about 14 years engines were becoming more electronically controlled and our market place was slowly dying. I did not want to become a mobile servicing operation so I quickly sold.

There I was looking unemployment in the face for the first time in my life. What to do? Being practical and not wanting to continue in the motor trade, we upped sticks to North Devon and bought a nine-bedroom hotel. The change in pace of life and smallness of this business compared to what I had just sold was awful. I was bored and my guests – no longer called customers - had nothing in common. I was not one to sell up so my wife and I decided to specialise in walking holidays. I walked with the local ramblers around Exmoor and North Devon, learning the area and stories. I made strict criteria that walks had to meet and created and wrote my own. That winter I made six linear walks leaflets of the area including the spectacular South West Coast Path.

I promoted my new venture in the walking and lifestyle magazines and sent out invitations to outdoor journalists to come and try my holidays. Thank goodness it took off. I bought a minibus to take walkers to and from my linear walks. I wrote more walks and created 4, 7, 10 and 14 days packaged holidays. I had enough people booking 10 and 14 day packages to make my average stay 8.2 nights – very high. Journalists started to come for their free holidays and I got some good write-ups which boosted my trade. I bought a larger minibus so had to get an operator’s licence and pass my PSV driving test. I added cycling holidays on the same format as the walking holidays. These took off much more slowly, but that did not matter.

This was now a mad lifestyle. Get up, cook 15 – 25 breakfasts, serve them, choose the walks and rides, make sandwiches, take them out, come back and do prep. Eat, short break and go out and collect them. Cook evening meals, serve them, run the Bar and collapse. Very high job satisfaction, reasonable turnover but high overheads. We lasted 11 years.

I sold the hotel and went to the local tourist board to offer my services as a walking advisor and provider with them marketing my packaged holidays. I drew up a proposal which they accepted and I have been doing that for 8 years. I recommended that we start a walking festival. They agreed and I have just put together the sixth walking and cycling festival which takes place late April, early May each year.

If you like walking or cycling and want to de-stress, give me a call on 01271 883131 or go to http://www.westcountrywalks.co.uk

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#2: Veronique Lazerat
The Saffron Fields of St Blaise

Photo - Girl with Saffron Basket In 1999, a young mother with 4 children, decided to quit life in the big city and head for La France profonde, to join her parents who had already retired there and to find a simpler, more harmonious lifestyle for herself and her family.

The acquisition of a house (next to her parents), some land, a few domestic animals including a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig as well as a horse, proved relatively easy. (Rural land prices in France have not degenerated into silly UK values, so someone with even the most modest means can always make a start. Ed.) Yet just as her marriage began to founder, the prospect of a good, long-term lifestyle business not just for herself but also for her children, seemed very far away.

Nor does La France profonde lend itself to intensive “modern” farming, whatever Mr Blair might care to suggest; no more so than many other European agricultural traditions which haven’t yet suffered - and don't wish to suffer - the illegal destruction of their animal stocks and livelihoods to service a corrupt political relationship with the profit margins of just two or three supermarket chains.

Paysans work long, hard, difficult hours and it is only by entire communities sharing their workloads that livings can be made - as EU subsidies rarely find those who need them most! Consequently, this was a hard place to be for a mother and four children about to fend for themselves.

Or was it? Meet our young mother, Veronique Lazerat. Although a qualified and accredited landscape gardener, the countryside is yet again, one of the last places a good landscape gardener is likely to find any work! Having just a couple of hectares of land as she had, wasn’t going to be enough to pay the bills.

On the other hand, what Veronique did have, was an extensive academic and practical knowledge of plants and their cultivation; a professional approach to research; a very basic computer and an internet connection! (Non-broadband.) Her studies had also impressed upon her the need to be able to try and find a “niche” and then to be able to market the idea.

While slowly coming to grips with her domestic life, Veronique began her research into a suitable home-business. Yet it was two years later before she came up with ‘saffron’ - of the crocus sativus variety. Not just as a casual idea: but fully assessed with everything sourced from suppliers to consumers; by-products to outlets; web-site to brochures; media-interest to tourist-value. And she was ready to roll. (Yet another couple of guidelines for the business start-up. Patience and Perseverance.)

Firstly, though, let’s have a look at the attractions of growing saffron.

Otherwise known as “red gold”, it costs around £25 a gramme, or up to £25,000 a kilo. It is the most expensive food luxury one can find; much more so than either caviar or the very best truffles.

Its uses range from that of a colourant to flavouring, its intense natural concentration allowing just one/1 part of saffron to tint up to 100,000 parts of water.

Why so expensive? Because for one kilo of saffron, you need to cultivate and prepare between 100,000 and 150,000 individual plants. By hand. (One person will typically, ‘peel’ 125 grammes of saffron stigma per hour. Or, 8 hours for a kilo . . . but that’s just the harvesting.)

Just a culinary delight? Not at all. Saffron’s qualities have been renown for over 5000 years - although it wasn’t introduced to Europe until the Middle Ages. Nonetheless, it is universally considered to be:

A stimulant
An aphrodisiac
An aid to digestion
A soporific
A treatment for high blood pressure and liver problems, sea-sickness and fever.
The list goes on.

But whatever the additional benefits of saffron might be, Veronique’s mere handful of telephone calls to larger or well -known restaurants in France suggested that she would be able to sell all and any of her production to the catering trade alone. At least, that was the message!

Under most circumstances, such a potential racing certainty would have been enough. Yet, Veronique was anything but a battle - hardened, serial - entrepreneur and she was unsure if everything could be so easy.

Veronique’s intuition, on the other hand, suggested a mix of potential opportunities, feeling her way forward with several possibilities rather than an over-reliance on one, single effort. Above all, she wanted her new business to be something she could hand down to her children and one which would allow them enough scope and variety to continue after their own fashion.

The saffron crocus has a relatively short planting to harvesting period which means that if you are ready to go, then you go; or you wait another 8/9 months. If ALL of Veronique’s plans were to go ahead successfully, then she had to achieve ALL of her targets within a 6 - 8 week time scale. So, this is what Veronique did.

In June 2005, she began preparing the ground, largely by hand. Her plantation had never been used to grow anything before so there was much work to do.

In July, it was time to plant the bulbs. It was a family thing and she depended on a lot of help from Valentin, her eldest son.

By mid - September, it would be time to harvest the flowers; the stigma extracted one-by-one, followed by a drying period during which time 80% of the weight of the freshly-picked saffron would be lost. Lastly, the saffron would need to be stored for one month before being ready for consumption.

It would then be bottled before being sent on to customers all around France. However, Veronique also wanted to keep some back for a regular mail order business which she wanted to supply via the internet: quantities more suited to individual consumption, ranging from just 0.5 of a gramme (20 euros) to 10 grammes (300 euros.)

At the beginning of September, as the harvest approached, Veronique also sent off two dozen letters to her local media to attract publicity for her new venture. The development of her enterprise had been accompanied by a lot of detailed digital photography.
Consequently, her letters to the press, etc, included an interesting selection of high-quality photos. Within a week she and a selection of her photos had appeared in several local and regional newspapers and she had been invited to talk on her regional radio, as well.

Naturally, the local tourist offices pricked up their ears and realised they had another new and interesting venue on their hands. The very first guided tour was quickly organised.

Nor had Veronique been napping! As if . . . She had already anticipated guided tours and a 30 -page handbook about saffron, its history, properties and qualities, various recipes and the start and development of her business, was produced painfully slowly on her desktop inkjet and 20 copies were ready for sale. At a mere 5 euros a copy it would at least encourage visitors to buy a small jar of saffron, she hoped. Came the day, 27 people turned up for their guided tour. The tourist office had only anticipated a dozen or so. Veronique ran out of handbooks . . . but sold almost all her remaining saffron.

In due course, Veronique turned up for her stint on the radio. After the broadcast that very same day, she was contacted by a TV producer who was making a period drama and wanted to film a chase through her saffron fields and her neighbouring woodland.
(It’s all done with pictures and spoken words, you see. Yet how many of you can put your hands on some good quality pics showing you and your business for presentation to the media? Or have some text, all ready to go, to support a chat on your local radio or even TV? Ed.)

Veronique’s publicity campaign was a runaway success. So much so that her father, Jacques, confided to me that she had organised “too much propaganda for her own good; she doesn’t have enough land to meet demand and people will only end up being disappointed”.

A week later Veronique had bought some more land adjacent to St Blaise; next year she will be the second-biggest saffron producer in France.

Yet, Veronique still has another trick up her sleeve. A couple of small oak woods where a lot of felling and clearing has been going on.
But that’s another story . . .

N.B. Veronique didn’t receive a single euro in grants nor will she be eligible for anything because she isn’t leaving her fields fallow or growing maize where there isn’t any water . . . Instead, she’s actually doing something viable. Ed.

http://www.safrandelafontsaintblaiseenlimousin.fr (flash/php and online ordering)

http://www.SaFrandeFrance.fr (html)

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GO/CTE are pioneers of a new approach to holidays. Activity holidays are becoming more and more popular. Whatever your interest you should be able to find something to suit you from ballroom dancing to bee-keeping, from any chosen extreme sport to walking. But what you probably will not find is a programme which mixes up many of these things at the same venue. That’s what we do.
This winning format is based on demographic, geographic and economic trends. Demographic trends indicate that many of us in first world countries will be lucky enough to live longer.

Elsewhere in the world people are not so lucky. Life remains as Thomas Hobbes described it “Nasty, brutish and short”. We are the first generation in human history with the chance to live longer than our ancestors and to live better. We live in a time when lifelong learning has true meaning for the first time. This demographic trend has allowed us to think about real quality in the final years of our lives. One of our clients commenting just on Italy created a small equation: “People, pasta, painting perfection”. Put these together in a residential setting and you have the right location and ingredients for “The Good Life”. So we live longer. What can we do with this extra time?

Geography plays a big part in our format. Most of our participants live in northern Europe where it’s cold in winter. Most of them think it would be great to escape at least some of our miserable winter months. As I write this the pundits reckon that the forecast cold winter will kill at least 1000 extra old people each week more than we would normally expect. Geography is on side. We get a bit more of the equation escape and education for fun. This leads to the questions:

Where can we go to escape and how can we create a setting where light-hearted education can be fun? How can we make it affordable for as many people as possible?

We have arrived at the economic part of our equation. Over the past fifty years, the warmer countries in Europe have developed their tourist facilities so that now there are millions of bedrooms on the Spanish costas, in Greece, Turkey, and Italy even in the countries of North Africa. But if you are concerned with what we call quality destinations then places that are merely beach resorts are not good enough. The destinations we find all possess quality defined in part as proximity to a reasonable number of interesting places: not simply towns and cities or countryside but a mix of all of them.

There is an ultimate segment to our equation: people. To find fine places is not enough. We have to find friendly people in situ and interesting people who can hold the attention of a group. Adult education is about creating enthusiasm if possible and at the very least interest. Investigating one’s interests is the core of our approach to holidays.

So our work involves finding suitable venues for our programmes, interesting people to help us run them, negotiating prices that our participants can accept, and finding people who are willing to co-operate with enthusiasm and commitment.

Our largest programme is in Spain where the elements we described above are all present. The programme in Spain provides for twenty or so different activities at the same venue, a four star hotel near Cadiz. The location has been carefully chosen because it has access to a good beach, to local shops and services and there is a 36 hole golf course nearby. Great places large and small are accessible: Cadiz, Seville, Jerez, Marbella, Arcos, Vejer, Ronda and Gibraltar. Many well known resorts in Spain are populated with high rise buildings; just take a look at Benidorm or Torremolinos. Our location (the Costa de la Luz) came late to the scene and strict planning regulations have restricted the height of the buildings to three floors only. This allows the dominant local flora the ubiquitous umbrella pine to rule supreme. So although we are in an urban area and we enjoy all that this implies we can simultaneously feel that we are in a semi rural setting. We get the best of both worlds.

We create for mature people a kind of collegiate atmosphere through educational activity of all kinds without exams or any of the stresses and strains usually associated with any kind of academia. You can play golf or bridge or even crazy kurling with stones on roller skates over marbled tile floors a lot of noise and a lot of fun as well as good exercise for older people; lots of bending an stretching. You can learn how to use a computer or the language of the country you are in be it Spain or Italy. We cannot manage Greek but then everyone in Athens seems to speak English!

Art and music have to play a large role in our holidays. In Spain we have groups learning to paint with two staff members offering radically different approaches to painting and drawing and whole “Art Weekends” within the basic structure. You’ll be able to choose between these different offerings. We have both practical music and music appreciation: in the first you can take an active part; in the second you can sit and listen and expand your knowledge and so enhance your enjoyment of music.

I am a lifelong Italophile but in Italy things are more difficult. Northern Italy is probably the richest destination in the world for our educational purposes but the winter there is severe. Sometimes Venice is colder than Edinburgh and that is saying something. This means we operate in Italy in the spring and only Sicily enjoys a mild climate although even there January can be grim. Italy is a country with frenetic traffic and the strange seaside holidays where you are allocated chair 79, row 117 on a beach in Bibione or Rimini and on most Italian shores. So currently in Southern Italy our programme has located itself on the island of Lipari, no chairs, very little traffic but Italian ambience and in October and average daily temperature of 25°!

Tony Spiers MBCS, technical director of Four Four Time Limited, is an experienced IT Trainer and Developer. After he took voluntary redundancy in 2004, Tony and his wife Jill, formed a business partnership, and his first assignment was to develop a Project Timer for D C White & Partners Ltd, Consultants in Applied Mechanics, who needed a simple foolproof way for their designers to record time for billing and planning - the type of time tracking needed by anyone who charges by the hour, and no doubt of interest to readers of “The Boss”.

With the success of the Project Timer, the Spiers formed a company to present it to the wider market, and since then have also had great demand from Mac users - and the Mac version will be released in the Spring of 2006, followed by a PDA version later in the year.

The stand alone software will run alongside any computer program and will simply time work at the click of the on/off button. It will produce reports by client, by day, or by chosen date range, and despite its simplicity there are some sophisticated additional features - the most popular being the ability to switch between projects and return to the paused project. There are also the following features- Auto start, Always on top option, Space to add notes, Manual adjustment of time, Auto stop option, Reminder alarm.

The on screen presentation is clear and uncomplicated and non technical clients love the simplicity of operation. Full details of the benefits and features are shown on the website, together with an on line demonstration, case studies and testimonials. The software can be purchased on line. With nothing to learn, automatic opening and simple operation, this software is proving popular at only £49.50 + VAT per licence.

Following the success of the Project Timer, D C White & Partners called upon Tony Spiers’ talents again, when they were working on a large project in 2005.

A leading chemical company in the north had a problem - a large 500 ton pressure vessel which vibrated dangerously on its mountings during its operation. D C White & Partners, designed the new generation vessel and accommodated the vibrations using innovative techniques.

As a part of the process control, details of this movement need to be monitored. Doug White and Tony Spiers worked together to develop a computerised monitoring system running in real time, with 16 sensors around the container giving information shown by group, or by individual sensor, resulting in 154 different displays showing current vibration or trends over the previous year.

Companies are invited to consult Tony Spiers with their own ideas and needs for bespoke software.

Tony Spiers first love is training and he also an acclaimed Trainer and Presenter with many years' experience. His background has been mainly in the airline industry, providing courses all over the world where his love of teaching, diplomacy, respect for differing cultures, and ready sense of humour gained him great popularity.

He can provide courses at all levels of expertise from novice to experienced systems programmer on main frame and real time systems However, at present his bespoke small module courses are proving very popular, for current IT users who want to brush up on systems they use and discover some easy functions and short cuts.

Tony Spiers is a Member of the British Computer Society. More details on the training partnership website.

Photo - Don’t buy another car (private or business) until you have read this!

I have been a member of Home Business Alliance since 1996 and have found its advice and friendly accessibility invaluable. When I first joined, I was a part-time English teacher and librarian at an independent girls' school in Malvern.

While still teaching, I started writing for business people who wanted their ideas expressed in more effective English. I can spot a missing apostrophe a mile off! Several members of Home Business Alliance have used my expertise over the past 11 years.

In 1998, the chronic illness of my daughter forced my early retirement. In 1999, I faced a bleak dilemma: the possible loss of all my savings - or the end of my daughter's private hospital treatment. I knew I had the requisite skills, so I started writing. Six weeks and 200 letters later, I had raised over £11,000! I realised that I could help others from my experience, thorough research and ideas, so I wrote FindingFunding for those who find themselves in the position of fundraising for individuals or other good causes. Although primarily designed for medical funding, FindingFunding has many ideas for raising money for education or training; conservation, wildlife or the environment; children or the elderly; cultural orreligious activities, etc. This manual, updated for Internet use, is still available (see Intertrading).

I have had several articles published in national and local magazines and newspapers. I wrote an English grammar course for a London correspondence school for journalists; and a manual for entrepreneurs with information on money-making, copy-writing, mail order, sales letters, news releases, etc.

My hope on retirement had been to be a writer, but this has not yet been realised in the way I had always envisaged as I toiled at the chalkface. However, as long as I can tap my computer keys for some time each day, I am happy. A year or two ago, I did succeed in completing a handbook for study and reference on the English language, English Essentials Explained. I trust that eventually this fresh, pragmatic and often humorous approach to grammar, spelling, punctuation and style will find its niche on the shelves. Heaven knows, it's needed! Contact me if you can give me advice on this or are interested in looking at it.

If you prefer to present your documents without any annoying 'give-yourself-away' errors, I can help.

" Hire me to check the grammatical content of your website for its accuracy and effectiveness. Is your website noticed for its meticulous professionalism, or for its sloppy slips?
" Hire me to be your mentor when you need to write something important.
" Hire me to ghost-write any document.
" Hire me to proofread or edit any document from an email to an autobiography.

Jill Bray
8 Albert Park Road, Malvern
WR14 1HN
Tel/Fax: 01684 560354
jillbray@gmail.com

#6: Audrey Simpson-Campbell
Avon Sales Leadership
Or as Dr McCoy might say to Captain James T Kirk :
"It's network marketing Jim - but not as we know it!"

When was the last time you saw and Avon brochure? 80% of the people I speak to say, "I used to get one ages ago, then the lady just stopped coming. I miss it! I used to order all the time."

My name is Audrey Simpson-Campbell, and as an Avon Sales Leader I seek out new Avon Representatives far and wide! Everyone knows Avon - it's a household name, in fact there isn't a single person I know who doesn't know someone else who is keen to buy Avon products but doesn't see a book any more - so I find these people and ask them if they'd like to show a book around and get their own products at 25% discount as a reward. Simple as that. I worked as an Area Manager for a short time and was astonished to find that there is a constant shortage of Avon Representatives. I've been an Avon Lady for years and it bewilders me why more people don't try it - it is one of the simplest ways of making extra money there is. Nobody really sells Avon at all - it sells itself! It's like magic - give someone a brochure and before long they are asking for a pen because: "That's a really good offer" or "Oh I love Skin So Soft. I haven't had it for ages." or "I'll stock up on sun cream while it's half price" or "Aw look at that cute little baby snuggle suit - my niece will look so gorgeous in that!"

It is such a pleasure to give other men and women the same opportunity to make a tidy income - I earn my living by making new friends!

As a representative I have my own customer base, whose orders earn me 25% commission. As a Sales Leader I manage a team of men and women who are representatives and as my reward for finding them and showing them what I do, I earn a up to 12% of each of their orders - and if they start to find representatives - I also earn a small percentage of their orders, and if those find new representatives, I earn a small percentage of theirs - three layers of opportunity!

Yes it is network marketing but different somehow. Better! My experience of network marketing was never this pleasant. In the past I have had pretty disappointing experiences - see if this sounds familiar - Someone you know has encouraged you to come and listen to someone they know describe "the most amazing business opportunity" - as the enthusiastic person drivels on you can't help but think "Who is this company? What do they sell? Why would they sell that? I have to buy what? Every month? Am I supposed to sell that? Who to? I don't know anybody who would want to buy that? It costs what?!" Then they continue on to describe dazzling earnings figures and show you some video footage of people in the Bahamas trumpeting on about how much they earn - people who have achieved Gold, Platinum, Ruby, Sapphire or Diamond ranking - Ah how you wish you could live on a beach like they do and have money rain into your bank account like that! Before you know it your signature is magically appearing on a contract from the end of the pen you are holding - and you are leaving, floating on a little pink cloud - which pops abruptly when you get home and tell your spouse/housemate/mother "I've just become a {fill in the blank} distributor!" and they say "You distribute what for who now? Why would you want to sign up for that?" If you recognise yourself in here then trust me, take a good look at this. You will find Sales Leadership a refreshing change - there is no doubt that network marketing works beautifully when it works and with Avon you get all the benefits and none of the pitfalls!

With Avon Sales Leadership you won't have to start off by explaining yourself - there is no "Who?", there's no "What?" and there's no "Why?" - just opportunity and rewards.

Sales Leadership works for me because I decide when I work. I spend half of my time enjoying the company of my two smart little daughters Celeste (age 6) and Natasha (age 5) doing stuff we enjoy. All three of us are pretty entrepreneurial - Celeste said that she wondered if we could open up our own hotel and charge £1 a night for people to stay. I asked "Don't you think that might be a little bit too cheap? You have to give them breakfast and clean their room remember." "Ah - your right!" she said "We'll charge £2" Natasha decided that the hotel should have a coin slot beside the door and that when they drop their money in, it would roll all the way along a track to the poor people around the world - aw! If only it were that simple. I'd tried so many jobs that consumed my every waking hour (and most of the sleeping ones too) and decided - life is too short to miss out on my children growing up, doing the things I enjoy and sitting out in the sunshine (when it appears!) and now I have it all!

For more information or to sign up feel free to call me anytime on 0845 4582691 (if you get my answering machine leave me your name and number and I'll call you back for a chat.)

As a writer, I was a late starter. At the age of two my spelling was dreadful. My father, all-seeing, ever-wise, suggested I lay off for a while, things would improve, probably. I laid off for forty years.

And in between? Age ten we were bombed in Liverpool. The canary next door was killed by a piece of Bakelite from their exploding mantel clock. Laugh if you must, but the back-yard interment was a solemn event for everyone but the cat.

Sixteen. Left the Liverpool Institute (Paul McCartney's alma mater - don't you just love dropping names?) All seeing, ever-wise father suggested I embark on a career with the National Provincial Bank - pension at 65 (65!), and a fair chance of a semi in Bootle before death. I succumbed. One did in those days.

Two years in a Wallasey office slightly smaller than a phone kiosk, two years in the army, defending the British Empire in Northern Ireland with a rifle and no bullets, then two years back in the kiosk. I'd had enough. The wide world beckoned. I transferred to the Bank of Nova Scotia, went to Canada, spent a year in a teller's cage infinitely smaller than a phone kiosk, then called it a day.

In the next four years I did umpteen different jobs - sold sewing machines, collected debts and…and…developed an interest in acting. THE SYDNEY S. BROWN SCHOOL OF RADIO DRAMA provided lessons at ten dollars a throw, with a chance to broadcast live on Sunday over CKFH Toronto. More important to my future, though I didn't appreciate it at the time, I was taught to read commercials.

Okay - fast forward five years. I have left Canada and am now seeking fame and rent money in what used to be Southern Rhodesia. Why? Because it was there.

Wonderful country. Uncharacteristically, I am trying umpteen different jobs - shop work, tobacco farming, and stage acting.

Won an award. Best Actor of the Year. And was sponsored to return to London to try my luck at the big time.

1960. Not the best possible time to return. The British film industry was in the doldrums. TV was only really getting started. But…

BUT…TV commercials were being made…and experienced Voice Over artistes were required. And who had learned to read commercials at the Sydney S. Brown School of You Know What?

Lucky break. I recorded over five hundred commercials - Shell, Esso, Kodak, Whiskas, British Army…

With due modesty, it was I who gave James Bond his big break. Playing the casino concierge in Dr NO, it was I who delivered the
MI6 chappy's card to 007, which started the action, which propelled Bond into a lifetime of glamour, fast cars, faster women, etcetera. Fair's fair. If I'd told MI6 to get lost, I was on my tea break, Bond would still be there, playing Snap with Eunice Gayson, and ordering his Complan, stirred, not shaken. And the Bond series wouldn't have happened. Probably.

Started writing while waiting for my theatrical agent to ring. What to write? How about my own frustration at being unable to find the right job, an appropriate direction in life?

Since first appearing in 1969 as The Sewing Machine Man, Russ has enjoyed world-wide adventures in eighteen further novels, which have sold over ten million copies. His latest - TOBIN GOES CUCKOO - is out now.

In semi-retirement, I joined Home Business Alliance looking for another direction, something new to work at from home, and have to thank Len and the team, at very least, for saving me from a plague of envelope-stuffing scams, and at most for providing me with enough business ideas to last Russ Tobin until he's as old as 007.

But then, not long ago, something quite miraculous happened. A friend told me: 'You have a website'. I said, 'No, I haven't'. He insisted: 'You have. Go look'.

I looked. I have a website. Well, it's really a 'fansite'. A work of remarkable dedication devised and authored by a die-hard Tobin fan ROB FLEAY.

Through the MESSAGEBOARD on the site, and by direct email, I received a gratifying number of requests from fans for 'one more Tobin' - hence Tobin Goes Cuckoo was written and published. Quite a thing - almost forty years after Russ first appeared in The Sewing Machine Man.

Special mention: My dear wife and most ardent fan Linda, without whom it would have been much more difficult, and not half the fun.
And four great kids.

For several years, I had a hobby of 'Sundials' - (you know, those vandal-prone garden ornaments that never quite seem to tell the right time) - and in 1983 a local public park was looking for something to commemorate their 1884-1984 centenary. I had previously designed (but never built) a large ground-level sundial, which would use a PERSON'S OWN SHADOW to indicate the CORRECT time, including an automatic change-over from GMT to British Summer Time.

Anyway, the local council thought that it should be perfect for the park - theft and vandal-proof, cheap to install, public involvement, etc. At that time, I had no business thoughts at all - until unemployment struck 2 years later.

During those 2 years, the level of interest which had been generated locally in what I called a ‘SUNCLOCK’ (children found it fascinating), had led me to think that maybe other people may want to have one as a garden feature - and so having lots of 'time on my hands' (no pun intended!), I then sat down and developed a computer program which would calculate and print sets of Plans & Instructions for setting out my ‘Sunclock’, based on the geographic latitude and longitude of each location.

Being very naive, I had a vision of placing small adverts in the Daily Mail, Christmas Gifts classified section, then collecting loads of orders. It didn't quite work like that, and I only just covered the cost of the advert.

The next Spring (1987), I took out some ads in the 'Gardening' magazines, and very slowly the orders started to come in.
In 1988, I managed to get my Sunclock into the National Garden Festival at Glasgow (a long story), but with over 4 million visitors, my business really started to grow - becoming a nice little 'paying hobby', plus by this time I was also in employment as a Quality Manager after a brief time as a Computer Training Officer.

In April 1989, ‘Gardening from WHICH’ magazine favourably reviewed this concept, (I still get enquiries from that article!) - plus the following year something happened which really made the business 'take-off'.

Unknown to me, the new Schools "National Curriculum" contained a requirement for children to have an understanding of 'Sundials' (don't ask me why) - and suddenly I began to get loads of enquiries from Teachers, who wanted to have the ‘Sunclock’ painted on their playground - both as an educational project, plus a vandal-proof interactive feature.

These became so popular that it is often featured in magazines for Teachers, educational supply catalogues, and is now illustrated within some School text-books, (both in the UK plus USA).

There are several well-known 'Human Sundial' layouts in Britain - such as at Chatsworth House, Longleat, Lincoln Castle, etc.
As well as the novelty appeal of people being part of their own accurate sundial, it is essentially 'theft-proof', plus with the selling-point that every one is totally UNIQUE.

Our website ( http://www.sunclocks.com ) gives you more information, including many photographs of some layouts from Australia to Alaska, and Tasmania to Tibet! A ‘Space-Shuttle Memorial Sunclock’ is due to be completed, fairly soon - at Racine in the USA, made in granite. This is in memory of Laurel Clark, who was one of the astronauts killed in the "Columbia" re-entry accident (2003).

By mid-1991, dealing with all the enquiries or orders (some from as far away as New Zealand) was starting to seriously interfere with my full-time job as Quality Manager - so I took the plunge and went ‘self-employed’, in what I believe is the only business of its kind anywhere in the world, by supplying personalised set of Plans & Instructions for these unusual 'Human Sundials'.

During the winter (when my orders got a bit thin!), I also did some quality consultancy work for companies wanting to achieve the sought-after ISO9000.

When I found an Australian distributor (where our summer is their winter and vice-versa), then I didn't need to worry any longer about 'seasonal variations' - since there is now always a non-stop influx of orders, throughout the entire year. Earlier this year, I also appointed a new distributor to cover South Africa.

So, in twenty years, it has gone from a hobby to a full-time, international business. There are also a few ‘business opportunities’ available, based on my 'Human Sundial' concept: for example, you could re-sell the Layout Plans at your own price, plus make and/or install component-part 'kits' for these. The personalised Plans can just be forwarded via E-mail, from your computer. We supply to you (at a discount) - and you 're-sell', to your own customers. That is the simplest way to be involved, and it requires no 'physical' work.

To give you an idea of the potential profit - you can make concrete kits for roughly 30 Pounds of 'raw materials', which would sell for about 500 Pounds. A wooden kit (from, say, old railway sleepers) could make 300 Pounds profit. Even if you just paint these on school playgrounds, you can make 200 Pounds. (The 'professional' playground-marking firms would charge about 600 Pounds).

Remember that every Sunclock automatically becomes its own advertisement and so generates an ever-expanding chain reaction of further orders for you. For example, my website is visited about 4 times per hour, every single day! (This is visits - page hits is considerably higher than that). I also advise people (for free!) on how to improve their own website rankings.

If you are interested in becoming involved with the 'Human Sundial' concept, (even if you are not sure exactly what options might be best for you) - then please telephone me - Douglas Hunt - for a chat, on 01294-552250, at any time. There is absolutely NO COST to be involved, plus you keep all the profit you make - and so you can think of this as being a free ‘franchise opportunity’. Further details are outlined on our website, at http://www.sunclocks.com/profit.htm

If I had to condense my experiences, into advice for anyone looking to begin their own business, it would be to BELIEVE in the product (or service) - and to PERSEVERE with a mixture of both DETERMINATION and CONVICTION in your own success. I could very easily have let the low response from my initial advert make me forget this whole thing. I'm glad that I didn't, but instead went on to run a unique international mail-order business - which is ‘Banking on Sunshine’!

MODERN SUNCLOCKS - 'Human Sundials', using YOUR OWN SHADOW to tell time.
For further details and photographs, see our website at: http://www.sunclocks.com
Mail Address: 1 Love Street, Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland, KA13 7LQ, UK.
Tel & Fax (UK): 01294 552250. International Tel & Fax: + 44 1294 552250. (Any time.)
E-mail to: modern.sunclocks@fastmessage.co.uk OR sunclocks@ukgateway.net

News reaches us of the latest "life" for one of our oldest members - who has, in fact, been reborn as a "ghost." It's not quite what it seems, but MIKE TRUSCOTT, as a lifelong journalist and PR man trained in the paramount importance of writing a good intro paragraph, never could resist a bit of a tease!

Intro's, yes, but it seems he may not always have been spot-on with his headlines. A glance through our files shows that The BOSS of September 2006 (then still in print) had one article topped with "MIKE'S LAST BOSS HEADLINE."

Well, he was clearly wrong on that one - headline-wise, anyway. The piece, penned by himself, reflected on the reasons for his decision to discontinue his regular "Headline Helpdesk" column in The BOSS.

This column gave advice on PR for small to medium sized businesses, borne of his own 20-plus years of working as a PR specialist in the sector and providing a separate training and support programme for aspiring emulators.

Through pressure of mainstream work, Mike explained, he was having to stop promoting the training side and to cut out peripheral commitments - including "freebie columns" such as his BOSS contributions.

That was then and this is now. Fast-forward to March 2012 and Mike was issuing his very last press release and closing down his Westcountry PR Services Ltd.

Mike is now not too far away from retirement age but, far from slowing down, he has successfully built up a new business - Golden Replay Biographies - to the point where he is now a full-time ghost writer, chronicling the lives of everyday people.

"It was a real wrench to give up PR," reflects Mike, "but I felt that, far from just playing out time, I needed a new direction altogether. I have basically tapped into a growing demand for the legacy-memoir.

"Many people - not just the rich and famous - are now concluding that their 'ordinary' lives are worth recording, for themselves, family and friends and future generations.

"That doesn't need to be a dream any more, thanks not just to the likes of myself as a professional writer but also to modern technology and the print-on-demand concept that provides for very small print runs."

To date, since first launching his new business part-time two years ago, Mike has ghost-written 14 autobiographies, and he is currently working on six more.

"It's one thing to produce a newspaper story or press release of just a few hundred words," says Mike, who was a journalist pre-PR, "and it's quite another to spend a dozen or so hours with someone and write their life story.

"This way, it really does begin to feel as if I was actually 'there' with them, reliving episodes that were not only important to them personally but sometimes also reflecting landmark chapters in the history of mankind."

Through the eyes of 97-year-old former Gunnery Sergeant Major Robert Maleham, for instance, Mike "witnessed" Army life at its rawest in the Second World War . . . and then "travelled" to India with him on a horrendously overcrowded troop ship.

Another of Mike's clients, Jamie Govani, now a successful Ascot businesswoman, was one of thousands of Asians expelled from Uganda by President Idi Amin in 1972.

Mike says: "The way Jamie, then nine, has told it to me, it feels for all the world as if I was there with her as she hid in a lorry taking her and her family to Entebbe Airport, with bodies lying beside the road, and Jamie knowing that she and her sisters might have suffered rape or worse if soldiers searched the vehicle."

With David Griffiths, of Newport, Gwent, Mike relived "the great whiteout" of 1947, which was one of Britain's worst-ever winters, and the Aberfan disaster of 1966.

Unsurprisingly, all Mike's clients have shed tears while reliving their memories, and on completion of their projects they have been genuinely thrilled.

"To see the book of their life story is something they just never imagined would be possible," he says. "Until now, they thought it would only ever be something for the rich and famous. Modern print technology has changed all that, and it's a great way of keeping history very much alive."

The Golden Replay Biographies business is established on a fixed-price model, with clients paying £2,660 (or discounted to £2,280 upfront) for a quality-print book of 25,000 words and up to 40 photos. Material for the book is gained from a series of phone interviews plus, if desired, a face-to-face session with Mike at his Falmouth, Cornwall base.

For full details of the service, visit http://www.goldenreplay.com or phone Mike Truscott on his direct line, 01326 317147.

I was at an art exhibition in Margate Old Town. 'Are you an artist?' she said.

My passion and business should be apparent from the title Freelance Writer & Editor.

When you want words to create results …when you want to write and publish a book or blog and need a mentor … when you just want to share your enjoyment of magazines the way they were designed to be as print on paper … then please get in touch.

Until then, enjoy my columns which have appeared here since the days when this publication too, was print on paper.

I always answer emails sent to colines@gmail.com however, there may be a slight delay when I am out at my favourite harbour-side coffee shop.

Having your home or office unorganised and straining under a large amount of clutter is very stressful and will prevent you from achieving all you want.

Purely Peppermint is a company committed to creating an environment for your success. We can help you organise any space that is not being used to its greatest potential. Whether it is your spare room which has turned into a junk room, a dining room which you can’t get into, let alone eat a meal at the table or your home office which is overrun with files, folders and months of unopened mail.

Purely Peppermint specialises in offices, they could be in the middle of town or in the middle of your house. We work with individuals and businesses creating the ideal set up of the office space, establish practical and simply filing systems and have a good clear out of all the clutter. Once the physical space is organised we also look at what makes working from home a success by setting boundaries, improving time management, finding work/life balance and better habits.

Everything we do is designed specifically to your need, the space you have, your family situation and the type of job you do.
Have a look at www.purelypeppermint.com for further information and sign up for the ‘Working from Home’ newsletter.

Being organised is a learnt skill and I certainly learnt that several years ago. Working in a cluttered, unorganised mess while at college studying fashion designing, caused me an unbelievable amount of stress. Steps needed to be taken, my space was de-cluttered, re-organised and I finished college with flying colours. Now I needed to spread the word about the benefits of becoming more organised and Purely Peppermint was born.

I am Canadian born but have been living in the London for nearly half my life and enjoy what the city has to offer, like taking in a play, or visiting a museum.

The two at the top of the list of what I enjoy the most, are sports and being creative. When there is a bit of spare time I take the chance to draw, design, cut and sew something original. Sport has been an important part of my life since I can remember. As well as hitting the gym regularly I am involved in volleyball and recently have taken up fencing (a very challenging sport).

Helping people achieve their dreams through being more organised is also one of my passions.

If you already work from home you will know at first hand the many advantages this can bring: no commute, more time at your disposal etc. But, if you have done it for a while you may have found a few disadvantages too, principally interruptions.

I have spent the last nine months working out of a converted loft and a very comfortable space it is too but I was surprised by the number of disturbances: (home) phone calls, meter readers, the post or other deliveries, neighbours, pets and children to mention just a few. While running up and down two flights of stairs did wonders for my fitness it did not aid my concentration.

Conscientious person that I am I also found myself 'popping up to the loft' after a long day out of the office to check messages and emails, a task which rarely took less than an hour. Luckily, my main motivation for leaving corporate life was to develop a more creative career designing green buildings. I chose to start with a low energy, low impact garden office and, therefore, had the added incentive of being the first to experience my own product.

I transferred to The Penthouse, so called because it has five sides, early in February so what are the benefits? First the disadvantages and, there are a few. With no hot water installed trips back to the kitchen to make hot drinks are as frequent as you need coffee though a machine could easily be installed. Toilet breaks are also timed around fine weather windows and I can see this may not be so pleasant in Winter but in Summer even this change of scenery can be energising, taking in the fresh air and looking at what is growing in the garden.

The benefits, however, are enormous. The light is one since, even on a dull day, there is no need for artificial light between dawn and dusk and, when the sun does shine, the room is filled with sunlight. It really does feel as if I am sitting in the garden, with birdsong as background and occasionally being distracted by their antics outside the windows.

The main benefit in terms of work is the peace and quiet. There are many fewer interruptions and a separate work place away from the house on which I can close the door at the end of the day. Financially too there are benefits since, if you work at home you probably have to heat the whole house just to keep your one room office warm. A garden office will allow you to leave the heating in the house off during working hours and, a small office, provided it is well insulated, should cost no more than 50p a day to heat.

If you are contemplating a move to the garden what should you look for when buying a building? Insulation is fundamental; you will be sitting in a isolated structure with no rooms around you so it is essential there is sufficient insulation to keep you warm in Winter and cool in Summer. Gardens can also be surprisingly noisy: children, building work and traffic in particular so, if the insulation can reduce this too, that is a bonus.

When researching different materials for insulation it became obvious that there are trade offs between oil derived materials and more natural insulants such as sheeps’ wool. However, a bit of arithmetic quickly shows that the energy saved in use, over 50 years, far exceeds the energy used in manufacture. So, a better performing 'man made' material, particularly if it is thinner and saves on other materials is usually a better choice. In the end, I opted for 'Homatherm' a material manufactured in Germany from wood waste. It turned out to be ghastly to work with but excellent both thermally and acoustically.

You will probably want a good deal of glass to create a light interior but be careful there is not so much that you roast in Summer. It is surprising how little glass you need to give sufficient light and generate a little solar gain when the sun is shining. I chose some beautifully designed windows from Denmark, actually manufactured by a sister company to Velux, called Velfac. Although expensive, they were very well made and two of us installed them in one day.

Heating options are many but one of the simplest and most comfortable is underfloor electric heating which gives a very even temperature and will allow you to set the thermostat several degrees below the norm. Again, this product from Ebeco is manufactured in Sweden and, by now you may be sensing a pattern to the source of all these products.

All in all, few of the major items were purchased from UK companies. In addition to the above, the flooring was French, the plasterboard German and even my chair came from Norway. None of these countries could be considered a low cost economy but all the products represented, in my view, the best value for money taking account of design and performance as well as price.

Is it that UK companies lack the ambition to design and manufacture products of this type or that the high standards for buildings set by governments in mainland Europe and particularly Scandinavia, have stimulated companies to develop products to meet or exceed these standards?

Finally, there is considerable scope for individualising the space. After all, you will be spending a great deal of time there so you want it to be comfortable at least and inspiring if at all possible. I deliberately chose to have the office not look like a conventional room so there are exposed beams with pegged joints, fine textured surfaces for the wall and ceiling and some hard wearing rubber flooring.

If you are sold on the idea of getting out of the house then there are other alternatives to a free standing office in the garden. Garages and other outbuildings can be transformed into comfortable work space and extensions can also be designed with work and relaxation in mind. The same principles apply however, good quality insulation is vital and watch the glass!
Whichever out-of-house solution you choose you can be guaranteed better quality time and you will have the satisfaction of knowing your boiler is not burning a hole in the ozone layer while you work.

For me it has been a long journey of trial and error, and an expensive lesson in what it takes for a normal person with limited funds to find the kind of opportunity that really can make you a fortune for a relatively small outlay and all from the comfort of your own home. I have bought more courses and business opportunities than I could mention here, and I have been every direct mail marketers dream.

Then one day the penny finally dropped. Instead of buying every information product under the sun and lining everyones’ pockets, why not find a way to sell the information myself? From that point onwards I set about starting a business from home marketing information products.

I discovered that everyone wants information on something and that millions had been made by the individuals who had been supplying these people with the information they had been desperate to get their hands on. After several months of searching I found a product which I really got excited about, a product that I knew could set people up, who like me, wanted to make a lot of money from home, in a business that has been proven to work.

The DVD Workshop was filmed at an exclusive 2 day event held in Tampa, Florida and was held by 3 men who have all made their fortunes producing and marketing “How To” DVDs.

The whole event has been captured on a set of DVDs that shows you everything you will ever need to know on how to profit from this highly enjoyable and rewarding business and how you can copy their success.

All their production, marketing and money making secrets are revealed for the first time.

The attendees were charged around £550 for the privilege of this information and were shown how one man had made over £11,558 from just one simple tape showing people how to teach their pet Macaws to speak.

In fact, one of the presenters, Bill Myers, made half a million dollars from his first video in under 18 months.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is an excellent business opportunity that really does offer the chance to make an excellent income for life, for just a little time and effort.

The DVD Workshop is the most explanative and thorough package of information you will ever find on the subject of producing and marketing your own “How To” DVDs.

Hello, I'm Dan and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for visiting my profile, and to find out more about me and my business, MoneyTree Associates.
If you subsequently wish to discuss any of the services please feel free to contact me.

MoneyTree Associates are based in Manchester, however we provided our services UK wide and with our associations with various products, services, techniques, and organizations, we will find you the best to help support your business, keep your business up and running, thriving, and to boost your cashflow, and therefore profitability. The services that we can provideHate Chasing for Payment ?

Want to improve your cashflow, without the harassment and hassle? Introducing a unique Pay-As-You-Go outsourced Credit Control service for small businesses. You invoice as normal – any that fall overdue – you email/fax/post to us.

We provide a structured professional process, so that you can rest assured all invoices will follow the same routine. We write to your clients on your letterheads, signed from your credit control department, with our contact number on, and a copy of your invoice attached. All letters are sent 1st class.

£ You invoice as normal – any that fall overdue – you email/fax/post to us.
£ We provide a structured professional process, so that you can rest assured all invoices will follow the same routine.
£ We write to your clients on your letterheads, signed from your credit control department, with our contact number on, and a copy of your invoice attached. All letters are sent 1st class.
£ All payments come to you directly – you simply let us know which clients have paid.
£ If still no payment arrives we follow-up with a phone call, and then a final demand – again on your letterheads, calls made from your credit control department to encourage faster commitment to payment.
£ The system is extremely economical. You pay for the amount of new invoice instructions you pass to us each month, which is a fraction of the cost of paying your own resource or your own time, and reduces your admin.
£ The emotion and stress of collecting money owed is taken away from you and your business. We enable you to focus on other areas of your business, whilst we focus on improving your cashflow.
£ Seamless integration (if required) with a unique ZERO COST debt collection service – also available separately. – See further down.

There are:
No minimum commitments – Pass invoices as/when you need
No minimum quantities/values – Invoices of any value / age
No hidden costs
No contractual obligations – Cancel at any time, giving just 1 month’s notice
Zero cost debt collection

Why pay the costs for recovering money owed to you? ZERO COST recovery – where the debtor pays for the recovery (even through pre-legal)
National, licensed Reputable Collection Agency
No minimum commitments – pass individual debts or volumes
No contract tie-in
No change required to existing client Terms And Conditions
We can work on collecting any size overdue Business–to–Business invoices
Debts collected from £1 upwards – no job too small (or too large)
Dedicated account manager / collector in charge of your cases
No win, no fee
No cost for Letters of demand, phone calls, faxes/emails , or pre-legal work
Full online status reporting – 24 hours a day.

Also Available:
Absconder Tracing – No find-No fee
Full legal advice, support and backup through to winding up orders / judgement enforcement, charged on a case by case (if required)
Full pay-as-you-go Credit Control Service (for the step before Debt Collection) Can be used in conjunction with Debt Collection or separately.

Website: http://www.mtassociates.biz
Email: info@mtassociates.biz
Phone Number: 0161 798 8388 / 07969-729106

It's Trevor Nicol striving to introduce to eBOSS an affiliate business that may surely be considered in the Not Too Distant Future as being a worthy entry in your Top 50.

It's early days yet for this accolade but in the meantime could you please give the business advert and my story a position within eBOSS?

The following testimonial is from myself, Trevor Nicol, and it is my own experience. I would urge readers of eBOSS to please note that Stemtech Health Sciences DO NOT promote StemEnhance(tm) as being a cure or a treatment for any particular health issue and should not be read as such in this article. StemEnhance(tm) is a dietary food supplement which has been proven to increase the number of adult stem cells circulating in the blood stream by up to 30% with each recommended daily portion of two capsules.

'Breakthrough' in scientific stem cell research creates massive opportunity for business minded people in the UK and worldwide! please visit http://www.afix4wealth.com or http://www.afix4health.com and click on YOUR country flag for further info on this remarkable product.

The above heading is similar to the one that I myself took an interest in during 2007. Stem cells are and were very regularly being mentioned on radio and tv bulletins so the mention of adult stem cells seemed quite familiar to me.

Now in the UK a patented, double blind placebo controlled, crossover studied adult stem cell enhancer.

In June 2007 I responded to a news editorial, looked at the Stemtech Health Sciences business and was eventually sufficiently impressed by the history of StemEnhance(tm) that I tried to buy a months supply from Bruce McDuffee the sponsor in America (Scottish descendant). Unfortunately Bruce advised me that he was unable to send an order to me as the company were not yet legally trading within the UK.

Trading was opened in the UK October 31st 2007. I took home a copy of the company's terms of agreement form, studied it, found it to be straight forward and self explanatory so signed on the dotted line, and received my first bottle of StemEnhance(tm) within a week.

My reason for this was a fairly simple one.

I am a businessman with ongoing health issues.

My story starts in 1966 when I was initially diagnosed as having type 1 diabetes. I now have many of the accompanying health complications which seem to be an acknowledged part of living many years with diabetes. I take a number of prescription drugs, so I have a treatment for Diabetes, Angina, Kidneys and Cholesterol.

Approximately two and a half years ago when visiting my local hospital eye clinic I was diagnosed with a problem in my left eye called Ischaemic Maculopathy (apologies if the spelling is incorrect) to which I was informed was an irrepairable degenerative condition and that I could expect to lose sight in my left eye within 3 to 4 years.

I asked if anything could be done about this condition and was told that the surgeon could perform lazer surgery which may slow down the degenerative proccess but would not stop it. BUT the eye condition was in such a problematic part of my eye there was a 50% chance that the lazer surgery could cause immediate blindness. "Me being a smart kid thought very carefully for about two seconds" then decided not to bother with lazer surgery and would just allow my condition to run its natural course.

The memory of that day will be with me for a long time and I remember feeling very low and unhappy with my situation BUT trying to look on the bright side I thought I'd have a search through Yahoo and Google to see if I could find some GOOD news about Ischaemic Maculopathy. I only found more depressing information, it was all going to be down hill from then on.

That was two and a half years ago and one and a half years before I started taking StemEnhance(tm).

In July 2008 I was at my local opticians to get my eyes checked for a new pair of specs. After doing the usual measurements and sight reading tests etc. my optician advised me that she was surprised to find that the sight in my left eye had slightly improved from my previous test. Wow! I'm sure you can imagine my most sincere delight at this bit of Fantastic news. (Smile, smile).

On 25th of August 2008 I visited my regular diabetic clinic and after the blood sugar, urine, blood pressure, weight checks etc. I was advised by the surgery doctor that the results of my long term blood sugars had improved by 18% from the tests approx 5 to 6 months previous. Smile :-) smile :-) smile :-) more Fantastic news.

On 26th August 2008 the day after I was at the diabetic clinic, I revisited the eye clinic where I was initially advised of Ischaemic Maculopathy, my irrepairable degenerative eye problem and it was confirmed that my left eye was indeed showing an improvement.

Once again as you can imagine, I was 'over the moon' - smile :-) smile :-) BUT I had to ask why I was originally given the info about losing my sight within 3 to 4 years. The medics could only give me the answer that the condition as shown in my records of my eye at that time was such that this had been the correct diagnosis.

When I told the medics about StemEnhance(tm) they made suitable muffled noises, seemed unusually impressed, but made no further enquiries. I invited them to take note of the StemEnhance(tm) name for future reference.

Can you believe me (Trevor Nicol) and what you have just read? I hope so!

In my sincerest opinion, I believe that without continually taking my daily allowance of StemEnhance(tm) I would not be blessed with the definite improvements in my health and I urge each of your eBOSS readers to take a close look at this remarkable product.

I have also recently heard many other stories about improvements to all sorts of health conditions running concurrently with taking StemEnhance(tm) and although I treated this product initially with my usual scepticism, I now believe these stories to be absolutely true.

Please visit http://www.afix4wealth.com or http://www.afix4health.com and browse at you leisure. The website is full of relevant information but if you would like to speak to someone personally, please call me anytime on 01463 231596 leaving your name and number if I am not readily available.

OR Why not listen into our business information (sizzle) calls every monday evening at 8pm on FREEphone 0800 053 6031 and enter PIN number 117 939 when asked.

These calls are an excellent way of finding out about both the product and business and last for around half an hour only. So choose between web or telephone OR both and check this business out today - StemEnhance is a Wonderful product indeed!

It also comes with a 'money-back guarantee'.

Thanks to you Len and your readers

Trevor Nicol
Stemtech Independent Distributor
id. no 5566540

Here's the website again http://www.afix4wealth.com or http://www.afix4health.com
Tel: 01463 231596

From leaving school at 16 [1986] to 2001, utilising my English, office practice and high speed touch typing skills, carried out positions from Receptionist / Junior Clerk to Executive Secretary and latterly Executive PA having worked for Accountancy firms / Loss Adjusting firms and even temped for large blue chip companies for a short span.

1 October 2001 I started my VA business firstly as sole trader working evenings and weekends in and around my full-time PA position at a local well known Accountancy firm to start with then progressed to full-time six months later. A partnership was formed in 2004 when my husband joined me and when required, depending on the nature of any work or workload, work with a team of hard working dedicated sub-contract virtual assistants, who like me, work from their well equipped home office/s, and have had the same working background as myself with the skills necessary.

What does the term Virtual Assistant really mean? Well a variety of things actually but most commonly a Virtual Assistant is much like a Secretary, Office Administrator and Personal Assistant combined; the main difference is that as a VA works I work out of my own fully equipped home office. VA's offer a variety of services to their clients depending on their experience and training, such as but not limited to, transcription (any form), word processing, desktop publishing, internet research, database development, web and graphic design, computer training, concierge services and so much more. Basically, if a client has a need a VA can usually satisfy them or find another VA who can. The location of the VA is not important when selecting one to conduct business with as VA's work virtually for the most part, utilising the use of technology with the internet, email, fax and telephone; where these methods do not work, postal service and couriers pick up the slack.

Over the years I have worked for:

Legal practices / Accountancy practices
Medical / GP practices
Journalists / Marketing / Media practices
Small to medium enterprises (SME's)
Public sector/ Utility companies
Theatres / Writers
Public speakers / Mentors / Researchers
Outsourcing virtual assistant companies and individuals
... and others over and above

Since 2005 gained us BS EN ISO 9001:2000 accreditation in the Provision of General, Special & Virtual Secretarial Office Services which we have won year on year - I am especially proud to have this because whilst I was employed, would assist in setting up of this accreditation and the work involved is quite stringent, There are only 3% of the UK business population to be awarded this prestigious accreditation and it proves that we have been assessed and approved by CQS on the quality of our administration.

Proudly in 2005, we were nominated for 4 out of 6 categories and became Regional Finalist in the DTI E-Commerce Awards for *Best Use of Teleworking, *Best End-to-End Integrated Business, *Best Use of Mobile & Wireless Technology and lastly *Best Use of Broadband categories (sadly this was their last awards). Getting the chance though, I entered and in 2007 I was finalist in the first ever UK Virtual Assistant Industry Awards 2007 hosted by CMA.

My professionalism, speed, accuracy and dedication to each position I have held, spurned me on to believe that I could make it on my own and work for myself. I take pride in my work, carry it out to the highest possible degree that I can within the realms of my skills which I have learned largely through being self taught, never cutting corners and believe that as the 'ambassador' [through work completed] for those companies I have worked for and work for now on a self-employed basis, make a bold statement to the professionalism of that and my company.

I started and am still working from home, but now from two dedicated fully equipped rooms as offices. I believe in keeping business life and home life separate so both rooms house all that is required for a busy business life. We are in the throw of taking on a part-time telemarketer as well for our offshoot of Tesla Typing which is an online copy typing and digital audio transcription examination website - this calculates a candidates words per minute (wpm) and accuracy (5), can be verified and falls under our accreditation for BS Standard so the certificates proudly depict our certified logos.

Because of the way I feel about my professionalism, I rarely turn down work - not because of the remuneration I receive when I invoice my clients, but the satisfaction of knowing that I am a part of their success… I get a lot of satisfaction from hearing that my hard work and dedication has gained say a £1m contract that was required to be completed in a tight timeline…
I never thought when I started my business that one 'originally sole trader' VA could grow and gain so much in such a short amount of time and learnt so much about myself and new skills gained along the way.

FSB [Federation of Small Businesses]
IAAP [International Association of Administrative Professionals]
IPA [Institute of Professional Administrators]
IAVA [International Association of Virtual Assistants]

Did you know?: It costs an employer a minimum of 2.5 times an employee's salary to actually employ them!

Using my Virtual Assistant services, you only pay for time on task and is all about SAVING you time to get on with more important matters at a fraction of the cost of hiring employees, purchasing equipment, training, water cooler chit chat, sickness, holidays and ongoing maintenance etc; it is what we are here for.

Favoured quotation:

RISK v REWARD
It is unwise to pay too much but it is worse to pay too little.
When you pay too much you may lose a little money, that's all. If you pay too little you risk losing everything because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing you bought it for.
The common law of business prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. If you deal with the lowest bidder it is a good idea to add something for the risk you run. If you can do that you will have enough to pay for something better.
Quote by: John Ruskin

Hours of business:

08:30 am-17:00 pm + up to 20:00 pm weekdays & 10:00 am to 16:00 pm weekends when required.