Ctrip, China’s largest travel agency, ran an experiment.  They asked the 996 employees in the airfare and hotel departments of the Shanghai call centre whether they would be interested in working from home four days a week, with the fifth day in the office. Approximately half of the employees (503) were interested and began what was a 9 month experiment on home working.

Negotiating.  It is one of life’s most valuable skills.  Not just in buying a house or a car, or getting a better paying job, but in little things that we do week in and week out.

The trouble is, as Eldonna Lewis-Fernandez, the author of Think Like a Negotiator, “You have to go out and learn to negotiate–it’s not a natural skill.  It’s like playing baseball; you have to do it to get good at it.”

There are clouds, and then there is the cloud.

The first are dreamy things we used to imagine were alligators and castles. The latter is the technology that is revolutionising the way we work, allowing businesses everywhere to be more mobile and efficient.

Looking for clients? Need a new job? Trying to find an investor? You know what you need to do: network. Get yourself out there. Even with advanced websites and consultancies to help you achieve all of these things, experts say networking is the name of the game these days, and the quickest way to getting what you want.

If you are like me, you quickly glance at the subject line of an email and make a split second decision about whether the email is to live or go to the bin. It might be a great email with insightful content, but if it doesn’t have a compelling subject line, most of us won’t bother opening it.

Therefore our mission (should we chose to accept it) is to make sure all our own emails have great subject lines.

It is hard to stay on top of the latest and greatest apps, or better yet— find the ones that could really improve your life. You may be interested in some ‘special’ ones, like How to Text a Girl (99p on iTunes) or the Where to Wee restroom locator (free on iTunes), but if you are interested in practical apps to help grow your business, have a look at these…
 

Everybody loves CRM systems.  Next to Wikipedia and the Daily Mail they are the best place to go for just about anything you need to know.  But keeping them updated and used properly is always a challenge, even if you have a company full of dropdown field-loving staff.

Why is it that when you do an internet speed test, it says you are not receiving the amount of bandwidth you should be getting?  Is the speed test faulty?  Is your internet provider ripping you off?

It is possible that your internet provider is ripping you off, but more likely a slower than expected test result is due to several factors outside their control.

There are a few tech terms everyone should know.  This list is by no means comprehensive, but it should help you sound truly cool at this weekend’s BBQ…

You are on your way home after a long day at work thinking how you would love to start your ownbusiness—the freedom it would give you, the satisfaction it would fill you with.  You think about it more and more, and with each passing thought you increasingly realise all the reasons why you can't actually do it.