Tag Archives: business

Business

It’s an ill wind thanks to BT…

For good business reasons we arranged for our broadband services to move from BT to PlusNet today.

Telecomms and IT aren’t my subject so this was something my husband Paul decided to look after.

He understands the subject and, having been less than happy with poor broadband speeds plus an uncaring, disconnected and inflexible attitude at BT for years, he was looking forward to returning to PlusNet.

Opening the office that morning at 8.30am I realised something wasn’t right. We couldn’t access our server. I’d forgotten the date of the handover, of course, and even if I had remembered this it never dawned on me that this process would mean an online business being left without its ability to be online, during working hours.

Maybe I was naïve on this count…

Clearly BT had switched us off before PlusNet had time to catch their baton.

So we called PlusNet to learn that they had their own, seemingly major, technical problems that their engineers were busy trying to fix. And they couldn’t deal with accounts queries as a result.

So here we are – it’s 1.30pm and we still have no broadband or access to our business.

A little later on we sparked up a 4G smartphone and managed to get someone interested @PlusnetHelp.

And by 4pm we were live again. Thanks to Twitter in no small way.

So in case this has affected Club members or our business partners in any way, my sincere apologies but now you understand what’s been going on.

Looking on the bright side, as ever, I’ve acquired some unexpected time to do some writing and thinking about opportunities to help us move FOXY forward.

In short, it’s an ill wind for me today and an unexpected reason to thank BT for this unexpected leaving present…

Business

What does our Future hold now?

sussex_uni_galaxyLast Saturday I spent time in a planetarium at Sussex University finding out about galaxies, black holes and cosmic strings, being reminded just how small and insignificant we all are in the master plan of the universe.

But it didn’t stop me feeling depressed with the black hole state of things the UK is in after such a seismic and unpredicted referendum result.

And just so I have a record of these times and my thoughts through it all, here are my Top Ten FOXY Pearls of Wisdom I’ve learned during the last week – and they’re not all just about the recent referendum.

1. Never anticipate the outcome of a referendum.

2. Always have a contingency plan for all scenarios.

3. Democracy can mean living with decisions you don’t like.

4. It’s not always appreciated when the ‘usual losers’ are seen to win.

5. Whilst the pound struggles, tourism and manufacturing must exploit competitive advantage.

6. Ageism is on the march again.

7. All forms of racism are abhorrent.

8. Youth prefer the EU status quo vs a DIY future, despite today’s unaffordable housing & university education.

9. Nobody is a good Leader when their team doesn’t respect them.

10. A good Manager tells a football team how to play the game, and clearly England’s wasn’t and didn’t.
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We live in interesting times. If ever a multi-faceted coalition government was needed to show us how to go forward together, it’s surely now.

I could go on but won’t. We all need to do our bit to steady the financial ship by working hard to see us through.

As we all know, from adversity and challenges come BIG business opportunities and I have no doubt that the motor industry will rise to these ahead of most others.

But let’s not waste time on deja vu thinking and hatred politics, especially where fuelled by social media, in case we miss out on the many global opportunities in future.

FOXY

PS: I think women have something to bring to the party. If you haven’t done this already, why not join the Women’s Equality (WE) party to bring some sense to this all? It’s not just for women, of course, because they’re doing something similar to FOXY – addressing female issues so life gets better for men too.

PPS: For some reason I am reminded of the three word answer Mark Rylance’s character in Bridge of Spies always gave when asked why he wasn’t more depressed by his situation. These were ‘Would It Help?’ The answer was ‘No’ of course – and he was treated fairly in the end. Let’s hope there’s a morale in there somewhere?

women in business

Coping with grief in a business

ack: The Wisdom Daily
ack: The Wisdom Daily

One of the main lessons I learned in 2015 is that when anyone in your family needs you, business takes a back seat.

I am not imagining that you are daft enough not to realise the family imperative, I am just recording one of the most important personal lessons I learned in 2015.

By and large I have been spared unexpected and unfortunate family events since setting up FOXY in 2004. So I didn’t appreciate that when they play their part you can’t plan for the ramifications in your business life, no matter how well organised you are.

For example I had no idea how much time I would spend travelling to and from Newcastle (I live in Sussex) to be with my Mum, in and out of hospital, as she grew weaker. Or how affected I would be by her death when she died in September.

As a small business owner, no-one does my job when I can’t so I simply had to try to catch up afterwards. Nobody leads the team, nobody cracks the whip on occasion and a lot of things simply don’t happen whilst others wait to be told. In fact I am still catching up and know the opportunity cost is much more than this, including things I have paid for but haven’t been able to take full advantage of.

Another lesson I learned was to do with customer service levels at bereavement time when sorting out financial matters with banks and insurance companies. Mum had some old savings policies and the businesses concerned had been taken over and so on. Yet as fragile individuals in these circumstances we were speaking to some of the most insensitive staff I have ever dealt with and who don’t seem to appreciate that their daily business norm isn’t one we are used to coping with.

Without previous experience of dealing with such matters I expected these people to understand what we’d need and help us sort out Mum’s estate. Sadly the catalogue of errors, unhelpful bureaucracy and unnecessary obstacles (in commercial organisations) outweighed the contrasting help and support I received from government bodies who seemed more aware that I was mourning a loss and, it seemed, were simply more helpful and efficient.

Mindful of the fact that I am tougher than most (and yet I struggled here) I think this is an area that can be improved upon.

If you agree and would like to share your bureaucratic experiences through bereavement (in case this is something FOXY might tackle at some stage), please email info@foxyladydrivers.com or write to me at FOXY offices c/o 35 Goring Road, Steyning BN44 3GF.

FOXY

green motoring

Fiddled emissions whilst VW burns

VW 15921The VW share price is plummeting. Credibility of the many VW brands is affected. Perhaps their F1 ambitions have just gone up in smoke?

“We screwed up”, “we’ve been dishonest” and “we’re truly sorry” says their US CEO Michael Horn. But is that good enough?

Clearly the emissions scandal will run and run with lots of new whistleblowers adding to industry flames. VW Group testing software in the US appears to have been tinkered with resulting in certain diesel engines appearing to run cleaner than they really do – when tested by agencies appointed by manufacturers that is.

I’m relieved to read the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) saying this couldn’t happen in the UK because of the EU’s independent testing regime. Let’s hope they’re right.

VW BoardInterestingly the main VW Board is all male. And what has the likes of McKinsey been telling us for years? That women matter because we bring ethical values, a collaborative approach and environmental awareness to Board room decisions. In short, where gender balance exists organisations are healthier from the point of view of finance and efficiency. This isn’t rocket science guys but it’s clear you weren’t listening to the gender message when you should have been.

It looks to me that the VW Board could do with female Executive Board Directors to teach them business values and ethics. They were too busy studying the wrong metrics – now see how this negligence affects their beloved balance sheet…
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But an equally worrying issue is surely, if the likes of main Board Directors at VW can be THIS unethical, no wonder the global motor industry suffers the image it does. Because it seems to be TRUE of the very top?

Will any of those male Directors held to account be replaced by women?

Let’s hope so but I’m not holding my breath…

Finally let’s hope this is a scandal purely involving the VW Group… but let’s not forget the potential reach – their prestigious brands include VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Porsche.

How could this happen in such a family, unless high level individuals knew and condoned this… That’s shocking.

FOXY

@FOXYSteph

FOXY

Proud to be an #SBS winner

rectangle-SBSI’m thrilled we’ve just won an #SBS award from @TheoPaphitis.

If you’ve ever watched Dragons Den you’ll remember Theo Paphitis and his gentle voice of wisdom, experience and authority. Sadly he’s not part of the panel this series and even Peter Jones agrees he’s a loss to the programme.

He’s busy doing other things of course; being Chairman of Ryman Stationery, Boux Avenue lingerie and Robert Dyas as well as joint owner of Red Letter Days.

#SBS competition

Theo

If you run a small business you’ll also know that Theo runs a highly sought after #SBS competition every week to put the spotlight on six winners.

They are often businesses that are ploughing their own furrow, demonstrating a commitment to excellence or that have won other awards and so on. Theo also seems to spot the altruist amongst us, providing this makes business sense of course.

Small businesses are invited to tweet him on Sunday evenings with a view to attracting his attention and in the hope he’ll return the favour with a retweet on Monday nights.

Those are then #SBS (Small Business Sunday) winners for the week and join a prestigious club of similarly committed businesses that work together to support and benefit each other.

Last night FOXY Lady Drivers Club was a #SBS winner and we’re very proud to be recognised by Theo Paphitis, joining his massive fanclub. Our Twitter feed went mad last night and we’re featured at his very popular website homepage for the week.

Most importantly we’ve just joined a club that isn’t easy to get into. This makes it all the more rewarding to win of course.

FOXY