TalkTalk broadband not so bad after all

Just a few posts back I ranted about TalkTalk being the worst broadband provider in the UK. Well, I might be wrong after all.

Last Sunday, at our friend's house in Birmingham, the topic of broadband speeds suddenly came up. My friend is on Virgin broadband. On checking the speed, we found out that their speeds were slightly lower than ours. However, I should point out that their promised maximum speed was only "up to 4 Mb" unlike our "Up to 8 Meg download speeds".

Have any of you guys been able to get up to at least 50% or more of the download speeds promised by your broadband provider?

Nicos Nicolaou - toy vending in Cyprus

Entrepreneurs have always fascinated me and I am intrigued with the reasons and factors that made them become "the big Boss" rather than work under other people. What is it that makes them tick?

This is the first of my "Entrepreneur Series" where I will interview entrepreneurs from different countries around the World. My interviews are quite short but they should give us a glimpse at the lives of these entrepreneurs.

Nicos Nicolaou is involved in the toy vending business (amongst other ventures) in Cyprus. Read on ...

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Q1. Can you tell us a bit about your personal background? Where you grew up and live now, education, jobs, etc.

A: I was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (Africa) and stayed in Bulawayo with my family until the age of 7. However, due to political problems in the country we had to move to Maun, Botswana (Africa). We later moved permanently to Pafos, Cyprus where I presently reside.

I went to an English speaking high school where I studied for 6 O'levels and 1 A'level. Afterwards, I went to college in the capital of Cyprus (Nicosia) where I successfully obtained my Bachelors degree in Hospitality management (in collaboration with Bournemouth University, UK). This is also where I met my wife. From 1998 to 1999, we both studied for our Masters degrees at the University of Warwick (MA in Organisation studies). I later obtained my MBA from the University of Cardiff, Wales in 2000, After graduation, I returned to Cyprus and got a job as a lecturer in a local college.

I later decided to open up my own small business of collectable capsule toys through special vending machines located in playgrounds, luna parks, cinemas and restaurants and started my business in May 2007.

Q2. Why did you decide to open your own business?

Since I was a kid, I liked to use my initiative to create things. For example, I liked to build toy cars or helicopters. I would save up money in order to buy things I really liked. So I guess I was always business oriented.

I decided to open up a toy vending machine business because I felt that there was a great opportunity for success. I believed I had the unique selling proposition of selling "collectable toys". This includes different toy figures (including action figures like Spiderman, Batman, etc). Also, I liked the fact that this business does not take up a lot of time and leaves me free to carry out other ventures. I have to drive around Cyprus only twice a month to refill the machines with toys as well as count the monthly earnings.

Q3. Can you tell us a bit about your company and your future plans?

My company's name is NSN Intelligence. NSN stands for Nicos Spyrou Nicolaou (my initials). The word intelligence was used in order to emphasize the element of "knowledge" behind the company. I am a person who strongly believes in the concept of know-how and how you can use it to maximize your potential. My other business ventures include real estate, educational and gardening services. For more information do visit my website: www.nsnintelligence.com.

My future goals are to futher expand my business by placing more vending machines in ideal locations and also to differentiate by moving into the kiddie ride business. My vision is to see the company grow and develop financially in order to build a company where my children can take over when I retire.
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Thanks a lot for your time Nicos.

Introducing Nitro Digital

For several years, I have been helping people with establishing a presence on the net - this includes individuals as well as companies. Most of the time, I just point them to professionals who can help them set up a web site and in case they already have one, to market their sites online.

I always keep an eye out (and ear open) for companies specialising in web design and online marketing. It's quite hard to recommend a good one considering the fact that there are so many companies out there as well as freelancers involved in this area.

Among the criteria I look for includes whether the companies were established (when they started) and their portfolio.

One company I recently came across is 'Nitro Digital'. The compay was established in 2001 and started out as Nitro Ventures before changing to the current name. They specifically target pharmaceutical companies looking for agency to take care of their website - right from design and updating to marketing and driving quality traffic to it.

Nitro Digital is a succesful medium size Media Agency specialising in Web Design, Development and Online Marketing for Pharmaceutical companies (including PPC, SEO, Viral and Social Network Marketing, Online Display Advertising, You name it...)

Was quite impressed by their list of clients and case studies. I would defnitely recommend them to anyone looking for such services.

Moving to WordPress

At present all my blogs are hosted with Blogger. I am quite happy with that but I would be lying if I told you that I haven't been tempted to move to WordPress and hosted somewhere else. One of my friends was describing the various bells and whistles on his WordPress powered blog including the various plugins support by this blog publishing system, the ability to block IP addresses of people I don't like and of course the huge number of themes available on the web.

A lot of people told me that if I consider myself a serious blogger, then I should move from Blogger and get myself a unique domain name and host my blog somewhere. In the past I did survey around a bit but good hosting companies that supported WordPress were charging quite a lot. However, today I realise that there are a number of reliable and reasonably priced blog hosts around. 34SP.com Ltd is one affordable WordPress webhosting company that I recently came across. Their prices start from $35.95 per year for 200Mb space and 2000Mb of bandwidth per month. For those who are new to WordPress, do check out their list of useful WordPress resources on the web - from codex, themes and plugins to discussion forums.

Right now they are offering all new customers who order WordPress hosting a free upgrade - double storage space and bandwidth.

Consumer vs customer

NOTE: Updated 18 Nov, 2007 after consultation with my the marketing expert, my wife.

Last week, I was in charge of this undergraduate class and I suddenly realised that a number of the students were using the words 'consumer' and 'customer' interchangeably. Guess this is true for a lot of people on the street. However, I have on some occasions come across some academics making the same mistake at academic conferences.

As used in marketing terminology, there is a difference between the two concepts. The term 'Customer' refers to individuals or households that purchase goods and services generated within the economy. On the other hand, a 'Consumer' is someone who uses the products or services.

At a glance, there doesn't seems to be any difference but if you examine closely, there is. For example, A mother who does the shopping for the family in a supermarket is a customer. She and the rest of the family sit down at the dining table to eat the food she has bought and they are all consumers. The mother is a customer and a consumer at the same time.

You might have come across the term B2B and B2C. B2B refers to Business-to-Business transections. For example, Tescobuys goods from Procter & Gamble in bulk. On the other hand B2B refers to Business-to-consumer transection. For example, I go to Tesco and Duracell batteries. For those who did not know, Duracell is owned by P&G.

Did that make any sense to you?

Cheaper broadband deals with BT

Regular visitors to my blog might recall that a few days back, I had blogged about BT broadband with wifi. One of my friends commented that even though the features listed were amazing, the prices were a bit too steep for his liking. What I forgot to mention was that they have cheap broadband deals as well.

The lowest is option 1, which still comes with 8Mb download speeds. With this, you get a standard wired router, 250 Wi-Fi minutes per month and 5GB of free secure online storage with BT Digital Vault. All this for £8.95 per month for 6 months followed by £17.99 thereafter on an 18 month contract.

I am on a budget as well and this deal looks quite attractive.

Add value to your house with a conservatory

We recently had a party at our house and most of our friends were visiting for the first time. A lot of them were admiring our large garden at the back of the house. One of them commented that the house was ideal to have a conservatory added at the back. Unfortunately, it's not own our own and we are just renting the place. However, for people with a house looking out into a beautiful landscape or a beautiful garden, a conservatory can really add extra value to the house. Even if you don't, a conservatory can be a simple way to add extra habitable space.

Ladies into golf

A lot of my friends are golf crazy and their wives have resigned to the fact that they can't compete with the game. However, of late I have noticed a new developments. A lot of ladies have also caught the golfing bug. Many started out accompanying their husbands on their weekend golfing sessions. Tired of waiting in the restaurants, they started hitting some balls on the deriving range and that was it.

Some of the ladies are there on the green, every chance they can get and some of them are really good. I am sure some of you reading this post are one of them. Several special golfing shops targeted at women and specializing on golf apparel ladies have come up. Loads of great comfortable and cool clothes and shoes to choose from.

Get the entire dermalogica range at reasonable prices

One of the most famous brands in the cosmetics industry is Dermalogica, which is known worldwide as the 'professionals' choice'. Founded in Los Angeles in 1986, their range of products were developed by The International Dermal Institute. Theydo not use artificial colors, synthetic fragrances, S.D. alcohol, lanolin or mineral oil in any of their products. Further more, they do not test on animals. It was nice to learn that they ensure that all ingredients in their products come from eco-safe sources and are packaged in recyclable containers.

Though the company does not sell their products online, it is still possible to obtain the entire dermalogica range at Beautysleuth.co.uk at extremely reasonable prices.

Turning your photographs into works of art

Recently while visiting Warwick castle, I was looking at the big portraits and was thinking that it would be great to have a portrait of our small family. Nothing ostentatious, without the gilded frames and not too large either - just a simple one. Sitting for portrait session is so old fashioned and of course with the kids, would be almost impossible unless you kept them tied down to the chairs.

Learn to Dream is among the companies who can convert your photographs into paintings.

They do more than just enlarge your photos. After you have sent the picture of your choice to them as a printed photo, a negative, or in digital format, there will be a personal consultation process. They will discuss the best choice of material and photograph manipulation techniques to create works of art from your photographs.

You can have the pictures printed on a number of materials - ranging from art paper and photo paper to canvas and image blocks. My personal choice is the canvas. They are even willing to give you a full refund in case you are not satisfied.

Skin care products for pigmented skin

I thought I had oily skin but I have been having dry skin problems since I got here in the UK, especially in the winter. Have been helping myself with my wife's moisturizing creams. Talking about skin care, I learnt that it is important to find the right skin care products for your type of skin. aivng friends inthe cosmetic industry has helped me understand a bit about skin care products. However, I just learnt that it may not be enough to simply divide skin into four categories: dry, normal, combination and oily.

ORIKI Cosmeceuticals has a range of products specially formulated for people with born with pigmented skin. These products are meant specifically for those with Asian, Mediterranean and other Olive (AMO) skin types. AMO skin types apparently respond differently to UV and scarring as compared to white skin. Skin pigmentation problems also take longer to resolve and is more resistant to treatment than fair skin. ORIKI solves this by incorporating the pigmentation factor into the skincare line specially formulated for people with AMO skin.

The fact that their range of Products are designed by an American Board Certified Dermatologist and Biochemist, is really reassuring.

I know that most guys don't like to talk about cosmetics because it's not exactly a "macho" topic. I guess it is the advent of the metrosexual male that has really changed the way men look at skin care products and personal hygiene. Some years back you won't have caught me talking about such products on my blog.

Advantages of incorporating your business

Stephen L. Nelson is the author of the bestsellers, Quicken for Dummies and QuickBooks for Dummies books. He is the author of more than 150 books, which have have sold more than 4,000,000 copies in English and have been translated into several other languages.

He has recently come out with self-published do-it-yourself Fast Easy Incorporation Kits and limited liability company formation kits. He actually makes more money from these kits than from his two bestsellers. The website Fasteasyincorporationkits.com, provides basic information about Subchapter S corporations.

According to Nelson, the two benefits of incorporating a business are namely Minimizing liability and Minimizing Income and Payroll Taxes. Go on to his site to find out more.

Dame Anita Roddick passes away

Was quite sad when I heard that one of my idols - Dame Anita Roddick, has passed away. She was 64 and died of brain hemorrhage. She is survived by her husband Gordon, and daughters Sam and Justine.

Anita was the founder of the ethical cosmetics firm Body Shop. Besides popularising cosmetics made from natural products, she was involved in so many causes. This included ending animal testing, stopping deforestation in the rain forest, helping indigenous farmers in poor nations, ending whale hunting and lots more.

She opened her first shop in Brighton, in 1976. and as they say, the rest is history. It was taken over by French cosmetics giant L’Oréal for about $1.14 billion last year. Quite ironic considering that they have done away with animal testing.

She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2003.

Read related news on the BBC site: Dame Anita Roddick dies aged 64 and on the New York Times: Anita Roddick, Body Shop Founder, Dies at 64

Search for company profiles, products and services with Mastersaeek

Searching for a company profile or contact information on the web can be really frustrating sometimes. Search engines can throw up thousands of unrelated results and and we have skim through hundreds of links before we finally find what we are looking for.

If you are looking to find business partners, new suppliers or sales opportunities etc., visit Masterseek, a new global Business-to-Business (B2B) search engine that provides quick and free access to information from more than 45 million companies in 75 countries.

You can search for company profiles, contact information, and descriptions of products and services from the listed industries as well.

Acer takes over Gateway

Gateway's business model was one of the many case studies we discussed during our MBA classes about 7 years ago. Even during those days, it was facing serious competition from other computer manufacturers, especially Dell which took it's made-to-order philosophy and improved on it. This company was founded in 1985 in an Iowa farmhouse and was famous for it's black and white spotted boxes.

Learnt today that it has been acquired by Acer Inc. for $710 million. This makes the Taiwanese company, the third largest computer company in the World after Hewlett-Packard and Dell Inc., overtaking China's Lenovo Group Ltd.

Read the full press release: Acer to Acquire US-Based Gateway, Inc., Solidifying Acer's Position as the #3 Largest PC Company in the World

Find the right roommate

If you are a single guy or girl and moving to a new place, finding a place to stay can be a tough process, especially if it's in a big city. Unless money is of no concern, you would most probably prefer to stay with someone who has a free room. However, you don't want to end up staying with someone who, you are not compatible with. I am sure you have heard of several horror stories.

One lady friend was telling us about her flatmate whose boyfriend started coming over almost everyday and in the end, literally moved in to their house. In another case, one of my friends who doesn't smoke had to endure several months of living with a guy who was a chain smoker and used to smoke everywhere in the house. In the end he couldn't stand it anymore and moved out, even though he was the one who go the flat first. Differences of preference in music, food and even decor can cause clashes among people residing in a house.

One way to avoid such problems is to find someone with similar preferences. Of course there is no guarantee that personality clashes will not occur but the chances are reduced. Roomster.net, an advanced housing rental site serving all the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom has obviously thought about this. The company was founded in 2003 by John S. Shriber (CEO of Roomster) and Roman Zaks in New York. They expanded to include UK listings early this year.

If you are searching for a roommate, you can of course check by location and type of residence, but Roomster allows you to check by gender, age and even zodiac. Other features that can further help you select the right roommates are their instant messenger service, interest, hot lists and profile flagging services. I found it interesting to learn that they have integrated Google maps into their search results. that is something that I feel would be really useful in house/ apartment hunting.

Considering the features, it is no wonder they have become so popular in such a short duration. They are now said to be the leading online apartment and roommate matching site in the US. When I last checked they had 943,697 available listings.

British Gas goes green

Zero Carbon is one of the two new green energy tariffs to be launched by British Gas and according to a press release, is said to be the greenest energy tariff in the UK. With this initiative, British Gas shows that they are pro-actively tackling the issues of climate change and demands for environmentally products from their customers.

For just a few extra pounds a month (estimated at around £7), you can now do your little bit for the Environment. The other tariff introduced by them is called Future Energy.

Read the full press release below:

BRITISH GAS LAUNCHES GREENEST ENERGY TARIFF

9 August 2007: British Gas has announced it is launching two new green energy tariffs, Zero Carbon, which will be the greenest tariff available on the domestic market and Future Energy. British Gas has launched the tariffs, in response to the increasing demand for green energy products.

Householders signing up to the Zero Carbon tariff will:
• reduce their household energy carbon emissions to zero through Kyoto compliant offset schemes which will meet the new Defra requirements
• help fund a direct increase in investment in renewable energy generated in the UK
• contribute to the new British Gas green fund which will:
o invest in developing new renewable technologies such as wave power
o oversee a programme to help schools in the UK reduce their CO2 emissions

Gearóid Lane, Managing Director British Gas New Energy said,”Our new tariff responds to consumer demand for truly green energy solutions. It is essential that customers have confidence in green energy tariffs and that their credibility is not damaged by tariffs that claim to be green but in reality do not deliver any incremental environmental benefits. Green tariffs are moving from niche to mainstream products and we’re leading the industry by offering a tariff that will do more for the environment than any other product currently available.”

Under the government’s Renewables Obligation (RO), electricity suppliers in the UK are already required to produce an increasing percentage of their electricity through methods such as wind farms which, unlike traditional power plants, produce zero carbon emissions. For 2007/2008 this figure is set at 7.9%.

In a recent report, the National Consumer Council (NCC) raised concerns that some energy suppliers are packaging electricity which is produced under the RO scheme as “green”, yet it delivers no additional environmental benefits. The NCC called on energy suppliers to take steps beyond their legal requirements and offer green energy tariffs that provide genuine additional environmental benefits, in particular CO2 emissions reduction.

British Gas worked with Global Action Plan and The Climate Group’s “We’re in this Together” campaign to develop Zero Carbon which goes further than any other green tariff in meeting these requirements offering consumers the only zero carbon option on the market.

The tariff carries a premium of £84 per year, reflecting the higher cost of producing energy through lower carbon emission schemes.

Virginia Graham, Chair of Global Action Plan, said, “The British Gas Zero Carbon tariff delivers on all three of the essential requirements of a green tariff which are: additionality, transparency and verifiability. As such it is a very welcome new offering in the market. Consumers signing up to the tariff can be confident that they are getting 12 per cent more renewable energy than they would otherwise have got. The carbon emissions from their electricity and gas will also be offset with emissions reductions from projects accredited by the United Nations.”

Zero Carbon is one of the first initiatives launched through the ‘We’re in this Together’ campaign, which was launched in April 07 as an alliance of some of the UK’s biggest brands who are all working to help their customers reduce their impact on the climate.

Dr Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group and founder of ‘We’re in this Together’ said, “We’re committed to offering people ways to make a real impact on climate change through Together.com. We’ve worked with British Gas to ensure that Zero Carbon is a genuine step forward in delivering more environmental benefits than any other tariff currently available.”

British Gas’s second green energy tariff, Future Energy, offers an alternative green electricity tariff at a premium of just £20 per year. Customers signing up to this tariff will contribute to a green fund which will provide solar panels and other renewable energy technologies to UK schools. Money from the fund will also be invested in development of future renewable technologies and sources.

To sign up customers can call British Gas on 0845 604 0055 or visit www.britishgas.co.uk

The Nokia N95

The release of the Nokia N95 in mid March of this year, went almost unnoticed in the hype surrounding the debut of the iPhone. The phone was released with the tag line "It's what computers have become" and with the S60 software running on Symbian OS, it truly is a mini-computer in your hands. This smartphone has a integrated GPS receiver, built-in Wifi, built-in 5 Megapixel (2592 x 1944) digital camera with Carl Zeiss Optics as well as a frontal CIF camera for video calls, a media player and several other advanced features.

Another unique feature that I almost forgot to mention is that the Nokia N95 is among the few to support a 4GB MicroSD / MicroSDHC memory card. Go over to Directsaleschat.co.uk to get the N95 Memory Cards at unbelievable prices.

Jeans e-boutique

Was recently chatting online with some of my younger relatives and they mentioned a brand of jeans that I had heard somewhere but was not really familiar with. I guess that just shows that I am not really keeping up to date with what's been happening in the fashion world. According to them, this brand called 'True Religion' was seen on a number of celebrities including Halle Berry, Jessica Simpson, and Cameron Diaz among others.

I was naturally curious about this company and found out that it is an American premium denim company, which was established in December of 2002. On their website they have an animated image of a laughing Buddha playing a guitar. Their jeans are distinguished by their amazing embroidery and the unique hand-sanded vintage washes.

One thing that really caught my attention was their unique way of naming their products. Unlike Levis which have a number system for their jeans, True Religion jeans have names like 'Billy Straight Leg Jean in The Boss', 'Johnny Stretch in Dark Vintage' and 'Joey Big T - Dark Dusty Trail', etc.

If you are looking to buy True Religion Jeans online, go on over to the Kultic.com e-boutique. Besides the "True Religion" Brand , they carry other popular designer jeans brands as well, including Hudson, 7 for all mankind, Citizens of Humanity and lots more. Right now they are having a sale with discount of upto 75% on certain products.

Savings while shopping online

Of late I have become really careful with my expenses. I had to as we are living off our savings and a meager scholarship. The fact that the Pound Sterling is quite high against other currencies also doesn't help much. I guess it will become better once I get a job.

In the meantime, I try to stretch my money as much as I can. I shop a lot online now and despite all the horror stories we have all heard, online shopping has been great - so far. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I stick to the well known online retailers. Another reason I shop a lot online is the fact that we can get some amazing bargains on the net. It's amazing. Sometimes I have been able to get certain products at a fraction of their retail prices. I try to take advantage of every offer available One great way to get good deals on most online shops are by using free online coupons. You usually get these codes via email when you sign up with an online retailer. There are also a number of coupon code sites out there on the net. However, I discovered one major problem with most coupon code sites, that most often than not, the codes listed on them would be outdated. I hate it even more when you click a coupon link only to be taken to some other unrelated page.

This will not happen at Deal Locker, a great place to find and share coupon codes. They list thousands of coupons for thousands of stores. They have coupons for all my favorite online stores and retailers including Amazon, Dell, and even gift cards and coupons for sale on ebay. Best of all, the coupons actually work as expired coupons are not shown. Furthermore, these coupons are rated by the users. You can search by store or by category. Take a look at my favorite category : electronics coupons.

Firefox users can use their 1-Click Coupon bookmarklet in order to find a coupon at any online store. All you have to do is click the bookmarket.