Videoeezy from Tosh Lubek Productions

Mike Southon is known as "The Beermat Entrepreneur", after the name of his series of business books, and he is one of the UKs leading authorities on entrepreneurship and sales. He teaches the art of selling, is an entrepreneur mentor and delivers presentations at business events up and down the country. Mike’s advice comes from experience having built and sold his own company in the 1980s. In the 90s he worked on seventeen start-ups.             When I met Mike at a Business50 event in Glasgow he kindly agreed to share some business advice based on his highly successful book "The Beermat Entrepreneur". To be specific his tips are on the topic of  The Elevator Pitch or Elevator Speech . Mike has distilled the elevator pitch into its component parts to the point wher it is an easily remembered elevator pitch template. He calls it the Elevator Pitch Five Ps:  Pain, Premise, People, Proof and Purpose . If you are thinking of starting a business or the th

If you are doing a job search for graduate jobs, part time jobs or in fact any job you will more than likely have a CV. You may even have employed someone to write your CV or teach you how to write a CV but the question is, how useful is a CV in the 21 st century? I spoke to Nik Plevan, founder and Managing Director of e-Talent, an Edinburgh based software company that produces online recruitment screening systems for companies and online recruitment agencies. In Nik’s opinion the way employers have gone about recruiting for the last 50 years is no longer relevant. The use of the internet in the recruitment process and meant that it’s all change for the way companies choose their shortlisted candidates. Nik told me, “You should really stop taking paper applications because those invariably lead to huge amounts of work and effort which is ultimately fruitless because you’re working with data which is not particularly helpful. Whereas if you asked people to apply online you

If you answered none you’re kidding yourself because it is perfectly legal for food manufacturers to include insects (and worse) in your food. To be honest it would be difficult to make bulk food ingredients 100% pure, some impurities are bound to be in there and insects will be one of those impurities. Wheat flour has an average of 150 or more insect fragments per 100 grams and ground thyme has an average of 925 or more insect fragments per 10 grams. So although you may not be eating a huge amount each day, over a year all those fragments add up. According to entomologist Marcel Dicke from Wageningen University the average person in the west eats up to 500g of insects annually through processed vegetable-based products and foods dyed with insect derivatives. Putting that into context, 500g is half a standard bag of sugar! But thinking positively those insect fragments are not going to do you any harm, I know because I've been eating several whole insects and survived the expe

Today I welcome Magda Tomaszewska to my blog. Magda is the owner of CV World in Stirl ing and is a Certified Professional CV Writer and Career Coach. She specialises in guiding people to build careers they really want and deserve. As part of her service Magda provides job interview tips, advises on interview questions and answers and how you should handle those job interview questions. So before you send your next job application listen to Magda’s 5 Top Tips on how to have a successful interview. Tip number one . Present the best of you. Remember the first impression is a lasting impression. Look smart, professional and do something that puts you in a great mood before your interview. Be confident, positive, motivated and smile. Tip number two . Mind your body language. 55 percent of your communication is your body language . Remember to use open gestures, maintain eye contact and build rapport with your interviewer. Come across as someone they would want to work with. T