High cost of petrol and diesel now costing an arm and a leg

According to a recent survey undertaken by ‘Simple Motoring’ states that over the past 12 months due to the high cost of petrol and diesel now costing an arm and a leg it has forced UK motorists to squash their motoring fuel costs by staying off the road. In fact results show that almost two in three (65.9%) of those surveyed said that they were using their cars less as a direct result of the high fuel prices.

Further more…in an attempt in squashing their motoring costs further, more than half of those surveyed (51.4%) advised that over the last three years they had delayed servicing their car in order to actively save money – something which is highlighting that motorists are now being forced to effectively cut corners on safety and reliability in order to obtain short term savings.

Founder of Simple Motoring – Roland Head said of the findings:

“Reducing car usage to save money on fuel may well be a good thing as many people use their cars for short journeys which could be more easily walked. It’s a well known fact that cars use a lot of extra fuel on shorter journeys with cold engines, so avoiding such journeys generates easy savings for drivers.

More worrying is the trend towards delaying or omitting car servicing. Regular servicing is essential to keep cars safe and reliable and it also contributes to a car’s resale value – car owners will get less when they sell their car if it has a patchy service history.”

As many people are now realising that when times are tough, saving money by squashing those motoring expenses is an important if not essential thing to do, two of the best ways to do this is to either reduce the car use and / or maximise the vehicles fuel consumption. ‘Simple Motoring’ has put together five easy tips for car owners to help them shrink their fuel bills: 

• Plan car usage to combine journeys and avoid using your car for journeys of less than a mile. Walk instead – it’s healthier for you and your car and it’s free.
• Keep your speed down on main roads and you will be surprised at how your fuel consumption improves – stick to 55mph on single carriageways and 60mph on motorways for maximum savings without losing much time.
• Make sure your tyres are correctly inflated at all times – under-inflated tyres cause increased drag and hence increased fuel consumption.
• Don’t carry around unnecessary clutter in your boot and remove roof boxes if they are not in use. The extra weight and drag will increase your car’s fuel consumption.
• Check out the cheapest fuel prices online before you fill up – but don’t go out of your way to save 1p per litre – as you’ll end up spending more than this on the extra fuel you’ll use to get to the garage.
• Whether a business or individual consider the use of a fuel card as often as much as 3 or  4 pence per litre can be saved when compared to the actual pump price.

Social Media a route to good and bad

Over the last 12 months it has become more apparent that businesses need to investigate whether Social Media is going to be a benefit for their business. As with all things new there is going to be reservations but without investigating the benefits and disadvantages a business is never really going to discover if Social Media is going to suit their business or not.

Twitter and Facebook are always going to be the most popular choice for businesses who wish to promote themselves through social media. The issue that a lot of people have is that HOW?  Are they going to actually use the likes of Facebook and Twitter and exactly how will it being of benefit to their business?

There are numerous tools which people can use which have been developed to help schedule tweets and posts and these are often used by organisations to ease the task of updating and posting within social media accounts.

What is important however, is whenever you’re online no matter what you’re writing it has to be thought as SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) your business in order to gain more visitors, more views etc…..This is where confusion arises with many business users as to what or how being online will be of benefit to the business.  

Social media in our opinion is something which should be used as part of your daily operation we recommend to have a plan so you know when you should be tweeting and posting, the days can just fly- by especially if you don’t have some system in place to operate your social media posts.

As a business we tend to tweet “live” first thing in the morning between 6am 9am and then periodically between 12 and 5, the reason is that more people tend to check posts on their mobiles during lunch breaks and bus and train journeys.

The dangers of doing all these online tweets and posts is that you can lose the ability to communicate the old fashioned way, which for those of us who can remember is by speaking on the telephone. However the internet can have its uses such as the LinkedIn website which helps to connect businesses to other businesses therefore raising one’s profile in a professional manner.

Lastly be very careful as to what and how you both update and post. The result of a tweet which is argumentative, critical or controversial can prove to be disastrous. Remember people can see what you write so please don’t think you make sense when you are under the influence of alcohol; mistakes in spelling and random postings can be very dangerous so don’t Drink and Tweet.

Disaster strikes as Social Media is down

This morning when we checked we noticed that LinkedIn was down and the Whale was showing on Twitter!!!!!!

Screams could he heard right across the area as people started to panic – wondering when they would be able to update their Social Media statuses.

The reliance on Social Media is becoming ever more apparent, not just for individuals but for businesses who are trying to gain more business brand and product awareness.

The question is? Are they using these formats as they have no money or just only want to do things for FREE?

Would we see such posts saying things such as “lovely day”, “going shopping”, “nice to meet you” and also blatant advertising such as £75 for a meeting room.

Only yesterday we had a conversation and came to the conclusion that 80% of businesses would stop posting if it was 50p a Tweet, 10p a Branch out or £1 a Facebook post

There is a balance which needs to be attained and to be honest it seems as though some businesses use it as the answer to their prayers.

Some businesses actually make money selling courses on how to use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, should they really charge people as this is a free service? OR is Facebook and LinkedIn a service which does provide results and is good value for money for the time spent – please could someone tell us?

Lastly remember that whatever you post it is going to be seen and beware what you post on the Social Media formats. There are comments from people with businesses which are slanderous. An example being that on one occasion a lady decided to criticise another company who she used to work for and thought that they would not find out or be informed. The company did find out and are now taking action on her comments!!!!

This may seem a dig at people but time is money and wasting time by posting things because you feel the need to say it is not good. Quite simply if you have got nothing interesting to say then don’t say it.  

Many people feel the need to participate within social media and have nothing to say, so make up the wildest and wackiest thing which more often than not provides the wrong impression.

What you post is a reflection of your business we are amazed at some of the claims and quotes which appear it is so easy to look and find out that actually you claimed is pure rubbish.

Or? Are we missing the point?

Printing is still a good way to get your message across

We have been having a conversation in the office and can’t believe how quickly things are changing in the world at the moment.

Also we are not quite sure if we are in the middle of a recession, at the end of a recession, or could it be that from now on it’s the way things are going to be in the future.

The one thing we do notice is that the word contagious is used to describe the financial struggles of Greece, Spain and now Italy. As short time ago bankruptcy was a problem of individuals and businesses now its whole countries and continents!

As a business it can be hard to focus with all these messages around but if an organisation is going to move forward it must still be able to get its message out to the consumer whatever is happening at the moment, whether it is the world situation or the local news reporting on job losses and tax rises.

Many businesses are cutting back on their utility bills and running costs but they still need to be able to attract more business and without advertising, how are they going to keep the cash flowing.

We all know about the internet, social media and radio advertising but printing still serves a purpose as it is a tangible product which does produce results if designed and printed in the best format.

Printing can come in all shapes and sizes and the same is said for design. There are some good print and some really awful A5 flyers and business cards out there, and we’ve heard of some budget busting prices that have been charged by various companies.

As a tip get someone else to look at your design before you go to print and talk to the people who are going to be producing your leaflets – the advice they can give can help and is advantageous and is something we can do for you 

Remember that the one thing which has not changed is “that first impressions count”. The printing budgets may be nil or virtually non-existent at the moment but whatever you produce make sure it does you a favour not to demean your profile.

If you want some design advice and are looking to be simply smart in handing out professional printed mailers and flyers then please let us know.

Car Production Line

New cars produced in the UK in May fell dramatically, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Firms have had to temporary close factories or cut back production to run down existing supplies the demand for new vehicles took a down turn.

The government car-scrapping scheme is expected to take a while to show.

Government figures showed earlier this week that more than 60,000 orders for cars under the UK’s scrappage subsidy scheme had been placed since the initiative was announced.

A £2,000 discount will be given if car buyers scrap one that is at least 10 years old.

The scheme had given the car-making industry the boost it needed the government said.

It will run until March 2010 and to benefit from it, a buyer must have been the registered keeper, for at least 12 months, of the car that is due to be scrapped.

The government will be paying for half the scheme and have set aside £300m, with manufacturers contributing the rest, which could benefit up to 300,000 customers. A similar scheme was introduced in Germany earlier this year.

Designed by Leccy Tech

British boffins Leccy Tech have unveiled what they believe is the future of urban personal transport – a prototype two seater micro-car powered by a single hydrogen fuel cell.

The Riversimple Urban Car (RUC) is powered by a 6kW fuel cell that drives the car’s four electric motors – with one motor slotted into each of the car’s four wheels. The vehicle’s also fitted with a regenerative braking system, which stores energy inside a set of ultra capacitors.

The car can apparently travel at speeds of up to 50mph and cover 240 miles (386km) on a 2.2lb (1kg) tank of hydrogen. According to the car’s manufacturer – Riversimple, the RUC’s also made of entirely recyclable composite materials and weighs just 772lbs (351kg).

No stranger to groundbreaking car designs, Riversimple’s management team led by Hugo Spowers, who was involved with the Morgan LIFEcar hydrogen vehicle project.

Oxford and Cranfield universities have also played roles in the RUC’s development, as has Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies – a Shanghai-based developer and manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells.

Riversimple plans to lease out the car over a 20-year period for around £200 ($327/€236) per month instead of selling the RUC outright. – A price that will include the cost of the hydrogen.

Riversimple’s business plan is similar to Better Place’s ‘leccy car as mobile phone’ concept, which was announced last year. However, before any rentals can take place, Riversimple’s banking on a £20m cash injection to help fund its development of another 10 RUC prototype vehicles, which the firm plans to road test from the end of 2010.

Fifty of the pre-production cars will be released into an unknown British city during 2011, of course provided the earlier road tests go well. Formal leasing to private buyers will start towards the end of 2012.