Penny wise

I have to admit that this is a personal gripe but I hope there is a message in my madness.

If you have watched any TV over the weekend you can hardly have failed to see the usual round of adverts telling us that the massive Bank Holiday Sale ends on Monday; and that it is a once in a lifetime, fantastic value, never to be repeated opportunity to buy something for just £399 that was originally priced at several thousand pounds more!

How gullible do these marketers think we are? Surely they know by now that, if they really did stock the items before the sale, rather than buying them in cheap especially for the sale, we know they must have been mercilessly profiteering from us in earlier times. I bought a jacket recently for £59 and saw it two weeks later for £29 and felt very cheated.

But this weekend I’ve seen the best so far! We are use to wonderful statements like “For less than £500” – which actually means £499 but over the last couple of days a well known catalogue store has advertised a fridge freezer “For less than £256” - when the price was £255.99. I just found that an irritatingly ridiculous statement. Why not round it up guys and say “For just £256” – it uses one word less and is far less cynical. Can APA start a campaign to outlaw the Devious Penny?

Sarah Tiddy FAPA

Standing room only

The UK population grew by 408,000 in 2008 (and they can’t all be PAs) - the biggest increase for almost 50 years, according to the Office for National Statistics. The total number of people passed 61m for the first time, with changes in birth and death rates now a bigger cause of growth than immigration. The UK population grew more in 2008 than at any time since 1962, when it rose by 484,000.

Latest ONS figures also show:

• There are now a record 1.3 million people aged over 85, making up 2% of the total
• There were 791,000 babies born in 2008, an increase of 33,000 on 2007
• Half of that increase were to women born overseas, but living in the UK
• The population is now growing by 0.7% a year,
• More than double the rate in the 1990s and three times the level of the 1980s.

Gareth

Cutting comments

Despite the ongoing recession, small businesses should avoid the temptation to cut prices in an attempt to compete with their rivals, it has been suggested.

Matthew Perkins, an advisor at the government's Business Link service, said the cost of products and services offered should not be reduced without serious consideration. He added that while discount and special consumer offers may be the only option for some firms, this should generally be treated as a last resort since profit margins are automatically slashed.

He stated: "As a general rule what we say is to try and differentiate your service and give added value, so you can keep the prices up. Rather than cutting prices, maybe try and offer an extra service to the end client, rather than just cutting the cost of the standard service."

Some 32 per cent of business and professional service providers interviewed for the latest Confederation of British Industry report said they had cut their prices, while 23 per cent of firms offering consumer services said they had been forced into making reductions.

I think the fact that 68% of businesses haven't had to cut prices is far more telling and should be the trend for us all to follow. APA's message is, "Cut costs only after you have tried every other option."

Gareth

Electric time for APA

August has been a highly charged month for APA with more PAs joining in one week than ever before. This comes as a result of the major email campaigns by Totaljobs and reed.co.uk who jointly sent messages to over 300,000 of their registered users, promoting APA membership as an essential element for career progression and job hunting.

Colin Minto, APA Technology Director and brain-child of the initiative said, “This campaign has exceeded our wildest dreams and put the name and objectives of the Association firmly in the minds of PAs across the UK. This is an ongoing relationship and we will see many more joint activities rolling out over the autumn months. We have an ambition to exceed 100,000 members and become part of the elite of professional bodies by 2011 and recent marketing drives have certainly set us on that journey.”

The results of the APA Annual Business Leaders Survey 2009 are expected within the next two weeks and we believe there will be some dramatic results; again proving how important the role of PA is and continues to develop. Watch this space.

APA

A-level playing field

With reports claiming that one in five teenagers could be receiving unemployment benefits by the time they are 21, school-leavers who will be looking for work following their results need to give themselves the best possible chance of entering the jobs market.

REC (the professional body for the UK staffing industry) has outlined some key pieces of practical advice for school-leavers to help them get into the jobs market which include being flexible, building up their CV with personal and work-related achievements and being prepared to ‘hustle’ to get opportunities in this competitive environment.

For those entering higher education, it is equally crucial to keep an eye on future job prospects by complementing their academic studies with work-related experiences over the next few years.

Commenting on the overall outlook for school-leavers on the back of this week’s A Level results, Kevin Green, REC CEO said: “School -leavers are entering the jobs market at one of the bleakest times that we have seen in many years. However, the feedback from professional recruiters is that there are still opportunities for those seeking to get a foot on the career ladder.

"Temporary work and internships can provide the first step into the world of work and help to build up the practical skills that can make a real difference in an extremely competitive jobs market. School leavers choosing to go on to higher education should supplement their studies with practical work experience in order to be in as strong a position as possible when it comes to kick-starting their professional lives. For those planning to jump straight into the jobs market, flexibility and persistence will be vital. A carefully thought through and typo-free CV is a good start and young job-seekers will need to demonstrate the life skills and attitudes that employers are looking for.

More detailed information on the REC’s eight-point plan for new job seekers can be found at:
http://www.rec.uk.com/press/news/751

Gareth

reed.co.uk endorses APA

reed.co.uk has become the latest major business to support APA and join the call for PAs to recognise the real value of membership and join their professional body.

In an email to its subscribers reed.co.uk has today announced its partnership with The Association of Personal Assistants (APA), and suggests that membership will definitely give PAs the edge when job hunting or looking for promotion.

reed.co.uk has a particular interest in all organisations that offer professional qualifications and has featured APA’s three core programmes; PA Apprentice, PA Professional (CertPA) and the Diploma in Personal Assistance (DipPA), for special note. These courses will now be featured on an ongoing basis within its online Learning Centre.

APA Director General, Dr. Gareth Osborne, said, “APA is thrilled by the endorsement from reed.co.uk, they are an acclaimed market leading business and play an essential role in the UK labour market. Only with support from respected businesses like reed.co.uk will the role of the PA become fully recognised as the profession we (and they) believe it is and deserves to be.”

APA

Useful Tips - Maybe?

What to do if your iPod has frozen -

If your iPod won't turn on or respond, reset it. It's like taking the batteries out - but you won't lose any of your media files. Make sure it's plugged into the mains or to your computer then switch the hold button on and off.
Then hold down both the Menu and Select buttons for about five seconds until you see the Apple logo appear. Your iPod has been reset and should work perfectly.

What to do if your non-waterproof gadget gets wet -

First, try drying it out with a vacuum cleaner. Or, put it in an airtight container with packets of silica gel to absorb the moisture. If silica gel isn't readily to hand, fill a pot or bowl with regular uncooked rice and bury your damp gadget inside. The uncooked rice should absorb all the water and, after a few hours, you should be able to use the gadget normally.

What to do if you lock your car blipper in the car -

If the spare keys are at home, call someone there on their mobile from your mobile. Hold your mobile about a foot from the car door and have the person at home hold the spare blipper to their mobile and press the unlock button. The sonic message should transmit through your phone and unlock your car so you can retrieve the keys.

Remote unlocking: If your blipper is stuck in the car, don't panic! A friend can unlock it with a spare - over a mobile phone

What to do if your PC runs really slowly -

If your hard drive takes ages to load or access data, it may be failing. Open My Computer, right click the hard disk you want to check, select properties then click the Tools tab and there's an Error Checking option. Select the Check Now button and choose to scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

A full scan will take about an hour. If it takes much longer, or makes strange noises, back up all your info asap and make sure your backup is kept up-to-date - it could be on its last legs.

I am sure there are more tips out there, these are just a few.

Shelley, APA

Taken from an article in the Daily Mail on Friday 14th 2009.

Looking for a Speaker?

One of the more difficult tasks faced by any PA is that started by the Boss’s call to, “Find me a great guest speaker (or celebrity) for the National Conference!

Where do you start, who do you ask and most critically, what do you pay? It sounds like a fun task when you commence it but can rapidly descend in a game of hardball tennis with someone who purports to be the Speaker’s Agent and demands a massive fee and only reluctantly admits that he can’t actually get you Robbie Williams but he does have the inside track to his cousin Pete.

APA now has a data source of most of the major (and heap of minor) professional speakers and celebrities available today and this can be accessed by Members free of charge and by non-members for less than £100 – just call APA on 0800 107 1030 for more details. We will tell you the price range for each speaker and offer a selection of those who may be available to meet your needs.

So, whether you want Michael McIntyre to host your Client Awards Ceremony, James Caan to whip up your Shareholders Dinner, Claudia Winkleman to motivate your sales force or Karen Brady to kick some life into your company then APA can help make it happen.

APA

Home working set to rise

Insurance firm Aviva has predicted that one quarter of the UK working population would be carrying out employment duties from their home within a decade. The desire to improve the work-life balance will encourage a major shift towards flexible working, home lifestyle manager Julie Fromant claimed.

Home working offers a number of advantages over office-based operation says Gareth Osborne of APA. “The ability to work flexibly is a major bonus for all and APA employs home workers wherever possible to minimise our need for excessive overheads. The elimination of commuting time makes a big difference to the working day and people use these hours to work more effectively or to embrace leisure time that it is otherwise difficult to fit in. If you start at 7.00am, because you can, then why not take a couple of extra hours during the day to go for a work out or do the shopping. Reduced expenditure is the other major advantage of working from home, he said, especially the saving you can make on office and utility costs.

APA fully supports home working and believes that some of a PAs role could be executed at a distance. In a recent survey of Business Leaders APA has asked what percentage of a PAs time is currently flexible – the results will be published next month; watch this space.

APA

How to deal with Childish Adults

Ideally, everyone would behave in a calm, rational, adult manner at work. But unfortunately, some people just never grow up completely. Childish behaviour can be one of the most destructive and disruptive influences on office relationships and can reduce productivity dramatically.

If you have to deal with immature bosses, co-workers, or employees, APA can offer some suggestions on to help keep your sanity while all abot you are losing theirs.

Do you have to handle temper tantrums, gossips and storytellers, people not playing nicely and keeping hold of their ‘toys’, people who crave attention or have work-based, ‘sibling’ rivalries or sulks, cry-babies and cliques? If you do one of the lastest postings in the APA Knowledge Zone is offering you a quick guide on how to handle them for maximum effect.

If you do have difficulties please let us know, there may be something we can do to help.

APA

Praise where it's due - a new scheme from APA

APA has created a scheme to say ‘thank you’ to people it interacts with who go above and beyond what might be expected of them. If we receive an especially courteous and friendly reception when we call someone, receive a prompt response to a request or find someone who is especially keen to help, then we make it our responsibility to say ‘thank you’. If possible these thanks should be communicated to a Director or Manager so that they can bask in the reflected success and pass on our thanks in the form of a one minute praising (see below). We also tell them why they made us feel good; you made me smile, you left me feeling confident the job will be done or it was nice to be treated professionally.

It really is good to be appreciated – join us in our campaign to say ‘thanks’.

Gareth

One Minute Praising – from the ‘One Minute Manager’ by Dr. Ken Blanchard

The second secret of the ‘One Minute Manager’ is one-minute praising and this is the key to improved performance and increased productivity. Instead of catching people out for doing something wrong, the opposite is recommended: ‘The key to developing people is to catch them doing something right’. There are three steps in a one-minute praising:
1. Praise someone as close in time to the good behaviour as possible. If you can’t find some to praise everyday, then you should wonder why.
2. Be specific – Make it clear what it was that was performed well.
3. Share feelings – tell them how you feel about what they did, not what you think about what they did.

Not enough hours in the day?

Whether you’re a PA for a large or small business or a VPA offering support to customers time is always tight and there are more tasks than hours in the day. Need More Time has for the last 7 years been assisting hundreds of PAs to achieve their goals. And they now help APA as well.

Today’s world is fast becoming a gridlocked information super highway, overloaded even when you’re not at your desk. People’s demands and expectations of you continue to rise and you are judged by your willingness to cope. Often the divide between work and personal time is very thin, leaving you wondering if you’re being as effective with your time as you could be. Regardless of who you are and where you work, life isn’t just about being good at what you do but about using your time effectively and managing your daily tasks to maximise the needs of your Boss, colleagues, clients and their expectations of you. Many of us simply don’t have anyone else to delegate the work to, but quite often wished they did! Need More Time can offer a solution and provide this support on an on-demand basis; as and when you need it, by either handling your calls or managing your administration. They profess to be your extra pair of hands and are ready and available to help when you most need it.

They are doing great work for APA and I believe could be a valuable support to many of our Members. I believe in praise where it is due and Need More Time deserve it in bucket loads.

To find out more go: http://www.needmoretime.co.uk

APA

Tips galore

I never thought APA should have a monopoly on being right when it comes to providing solutions to PAs problems and was delighted when one of our Members suggested another website when offering advice on the Forum. Being nosy I had to have a look myself and liked what I saw. I believe in business you need to know your ‘competitors’ and, where possible, work with them to improve the market for everyone to trade in (Look for the PA Tip below).

I was thrilled when Marguerita King of personal-assistant-tips.com and I made contact, met to discuss common ground, immediately hit it off and have now decided to work together. She brings a host of experience to the table, having worked as a PA at the highest level across a broad commercial spectrum and within Government, and recognises, as APA does, that PAs are essential players in effective organisations.

Of her own site Marguerita says, “It is often the case that the boss will ask his PA to do a task that is outside her knowledge base, so I created my site to assist PAs looking for answers. The articles cover a broad spectrum of topics that PAs may want to investigate further, topics like internet marketing, website building and instructions for creating a press release. With over 25 years secretarial/PA experience, with the latter years spent as a graduate PA, I am well aware of the challenges PAs face in today's job market, and the issues affecting mature PAs. I hope I can bring a new dimension to the APA and its thinking.”

Marguerita will undoubtedly pop up in a number of different APA guises (sage, mentor, blogger, trainer and even guest speaker) but we all look forward to working with her.

Check out her site at: http://www.personal-assistant-tips.com/

Gareth

Important and valuable information

For three years, supply2.gov.uk has advertised thousands of public sector procurement opportunities worth up to £100,000 – making the website ideally suited to small and medium sized businesses, and making it easier to access the thousands of Government procurement opportunities that are directly relevant to them. The fee that was previously charged to search the site across the UK will now be removed, providing firms with better access to public sector contracts to help their businesses grow.

This free service is an interim step along the way to introducing a key recommendation outlined in the Glover Review - that by the end of 2010 all public sector contract opportunities should be accessible through a single, free online web portal.

By introducing a free to use national search service Government is helping to create a level playing field on which SMEs can compete with their larger counterparts. This will realise benefits for SMEs, the economy as a whole, and help drive further innovation in public services.

Supply2gov can be accessed at: http://www.supply2.gov.uk/

APA

2009 Marketing Trends

Marketing executives are going back to basics this year, putting renewed focus on satisfying and retaining customers and investing in research and insights, but they are “sick” of hearing about Web 2.0, according to a survey from Anderson Analytics conducted for the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG). The second annual survey examined the top marketing concepts, buzzwords, global areas of opportunity and targeted customer demographics for 2009, as well as the books and thought leaders that marketers look to for inspiration and growth opportunity.

The Top Five Trends:

1. Insight and Innovation are Key: Greater insight and innovation are viewed as keys drivers to combat down economic and business cycles.

2. Customers at Top of List: Basic customer satisfaction and customer retention remained the top two concepts of interest to marketers, followed by marketing ROI, brand loyalty and segmentation. Together, these represent a move back to the core principles of marketing.

3. Green Marketing and Global Warming Lose Importance: The issue of global warming showed the largest decrease in importance (dropping 14 places in the rankings), while green marketing showed a statistically significant 5% drop.

4. Marketers “Sick” of Web 2.0: Twice as many marketers are “sick” of hearing about Web 2.0 and related buzzwords such as “blogs” and “social networking” compared with last year’s survey.

5. Most Opportunity in China and among Boomers: China ranks as the #1 greatest area of opportunity (53%) for marketers with international responsibility, while India is a distant second.

I think this represents a return to marketing basics and certainly reduced budgets will necessitate a more intelligent and targeted use of resources.

Gareth

Is that hope on the horizon?

Small business owners can be confident that the end of the recession is nearing, according to a leading economist. Michael Baxter, of the research company Defaqto, said economic growth could return to the UK within a matter of months.

He was commenting after the CIPS/Markit Purchasing Managers' Index showed an upturn in the manufacturing industry, rising 50 points in July. Mr Baxter proposed that CIPS reports are usually a good indicator of the UK's economic position and as such it is "a mistake" to ignore them. He commented: "The signs are pretty clear right now that UK is going pull out of recession in the next few months and I think the CIPS report is another bit of evidence of that. Based upon this notion, he advised the Bank of England to cease its current programme of government stock purchases and allow the economy to find a level footing. "I think it would be a bit of a mistake to do more of that quantitative easing," he stated.

Earlier this week, Vicky Redwood of Capital Economics claimed the Bank could even extend its asset purchasing scheme this week, despite already committing to inject £125 billion in to the nation's finances.

I'm not convinced myself yet but the performance this week of the better managed banks has given some credence to the theory that the market recovery may continue, but it's got a long way to go before we can all breath out!

Gareth

Totaljobs triumph!

One of the best endorsements any professional body can be given is for its members to be told, by a well respect authority in the employment marketplace, that being a member increases their worth, employability and wealth.

Around 200,000 PAs were told just that last week when Totaljobs contacted its PA database on Friday and new members are already joining as a result. And there is more to follow.

Totaljobs is so impressed with APA’s efforts that it is about to start an even bigger campaign to promote their rapidly developing relationship.

Well done to Totaljobs for recognising the value of APA but more importantly thank you to Totaljobs for recognising the outstanding professional value of PAs; wherever they are employed.

APA

Major boost for Birmingham

APA has today announced the appointment of its first regional staff member Eriq Mitchell who will be assuming responsibility for PA recruitment and communication in the Birmingham and West Midlands area.

APA Director General Gareth Osborne said, “Eriq is an exceptionally talented marketing professional and recognises, from first hand experience, the essential role PAs play in modern business. Those he has worked with hold him in high esteem and his friendly and considerate manner made him an ideal candidate for this post. He will be making contact with existing Members, just to say hello, and recruiting new Members cross the area. As a local man Eriq is familiar with the business landscape and already knows many of the business leaders in the area. He will be making contact with businesses, the public and voluntary sectors and academic institutions over the coming months.”

Eriq added, “I love what APA is doing, especially in terms of its high level marketing, and am keen to play a proactive part in its growth.”

If Members and Blog readers would like to meet Eriq he can be contacted by email at: eriq.mitchell@paprofessional.com

APA

A Million Meetings

Why are the skills of organising and managing events increasingly valued and important to PAs?

• The PA role is multi disciplined one and increasingly requires multi-tasking for several managers rather than a sole Boss. Along with ‘diary management’ and ‘travel arrangement’, ‘event planning and conference co-ordination’ is now a top three daily activity for PAs.

• Approximately 75% of PAs today have some responsibility for some conference and event planning and management within their organisation.

• During the current year 84% of these PAs anticipate that they will co-ordinate more than 6 formal structured meetings, conferences or events.

• Therefore in 2009 over a million meetings, conferences and events will be managed and coordinated by PAs. This figure is rising as the competence and skill levels of PAs increases.

For this reason APA has joined forces with Function Fixers to assist Members with this task. For more details go to the Knowledge Zone in the Members' area or visit http://www.function-fixers.co.uk/

APA

Talking about the weather ...

With the Met Office making a U-turn on their "barbecue summer" prediction, it seems that August is still a largely unknown quantity for the UK. One thing for sure, we are all talking about it!

Forecasters suggest that as we head into August there continues to be indications that the weather across the country may well improve, with an increasing chance of drier and warmer conditions returning. Confidence is low on the exact developments as it always is when looking more than a few days ahead, but they recommend that we don't completely give up on this summer yet!

It reminds me that one of my favourite quotes is from Sir Winston Churchill who suggested, “Weathermen are right 46% of the time. Therefore, if you always assume the opposite you are more likely to be right than they are!”

It seems he might have been right.

Gareth