ACPR Blog

This month I have a selection of books for you to win to help you, whatever your plans for the year. Choose from a signed copy of ‘Happiness – it’s just a habit’ by Martine Brennan. It is a pocket sized 30 day plan to help you smile more and love your life. Or opt for ‘Ping – How to trap the power of traditional and social media to massively improve your profile and profits’ by Alan Stevens. Or try on of the fabulous ‘How to Books’ range, ‘Start and Run a Business from Home’ by Paul Power. Or go for ‘Work from Home’ by Judy Heminsley. Just put the title of the book you’d like in the subject line and send an email to antonia@acpr.co.uk by 15th February. To find out more about any of the books, browse through the book reviews on Family Friendly Working.

Win the chance to receive free advice for your small business, from the renowned entrepreneur himself at The BT Business Experience 2009.

Dragons’ Den and entrepreneur Peter Jones will be hosting an intimate Q&A session for small businesses at the BT Business Experience on Tuesday 30th June in Farringdon, London. It will be a rare and exciting opportunity for business owners to ask Peter direct questions and get tips on how to survive in the current economic climate. Peter will also be joined by leading industry experts from Business Link, the ACCA and BT Business.

Talking about the forthcoming session, Peter said, “Getting the right advice is crucial for any business – especially in these difficult times. That’s why I’m hosting this session at the BT Business Experience to offer advice and guidance, plus I’ll be sharing some valuable tips I have gained over the years. It is great that I will also be joined by Business Link and the ACCA who will be able to offer additional insight.”

BT Business is hosting a free week-long BT Business Experience event from 29th June to 3rd July 2009. An all-new event taking place in central London, it has been specifically created to show businesses how the very latest technology and business thinking can help them manage their costs, market their business more effectively and make them more competitive especially in the current environment.

As well as the opportunity to receive priceless advice from Peter Jones at the BT Business Experience, small businesses can get advice from other leading business experts to help reflect, take stock and make changes to really impact their success. There are also two additional competitions to enter at the event. The first is the chance for a start-up business to win a £10,000 grant, which is a great boost to any new company. The second is the BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur competition – which celebrates the achievements of inspiring UK entrepreneurs that have succeeded with technology. Twenty winners will be selected to have their portrait captured by renowned photographer Rankin plus one business will win a £10,000 business grant.

For more information about how to win a place in the audience with Peter Jones and to register your place at the BT Business Experience, please visit www.btbusinessexperience.com 

The competition closes on 25th June.

VIsit the blog at Family Friendly Working. If you’re reading this before Friday the 22nd, just leave a comment to be in with the chance to win a guidebook for online mumpreneurs. If you’re reading this from Friday 22nd onwards, you could win a copy of Julia Hobsbawm’s book, The See-Saw.

Simply comment on the most recent Friday Giveaway post to win.

Remote Employment has announced the launch of the Remote Worker Awards, to highlight how remote and home working benefits the environment and everyone’s quality of work life. The Remote Worker Awards is not just another business award – it is a life changing award! You could win:

• a Penthouse Garden Office,
• your very own home based franchise worth £15k 
• and many more prizes to help your home business.

The Remote Worker Awards comes at a time when thousands of people across the UK are faced with job losses or reduced hours. The awards aims to raise awareness for remote and home working as an alternate solution to redundancy and the traditional nine to five office routine. (more…)

To celebrate the start of a second successful year in business, www.findatvexpert.com is giving experts who want to be considered for TV&Media opportunities the chance to win a year’s free membership worth £100. “Britain’s Got Experts and I want to help promote them to TV researchers, development producers and commissioners who are hungry for ideas, inspiration and the next ‘big thing’,” says Claire Richmond, ex TV producer and founder of findaTVexpert.com. Everyone with the skills, training and qualifications to prove they’re an expert in their field of business can enter the competition, from architects to zoologists and all the experts in between – handymen & historians; wildlife, survival & adventure experts; sportsmen, business men & tradesmen; dentists & designers; scientists, sociologists, etc – because you never know what the industry will be looking for next. So if you think you could be the next Hairy Biker, Kim or Aggie, Handy Andy, Jamie Oliver, David Attenborough, Jo Frost, Tanya Bryon, Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen, etc, here’s what you have to do for your chance to win a year’s free membership on www.findaTVexpert.com. (more…)

Have you always wanted to become a writer? Or would you like to run a community magazine, or create a buzzing website? Check out www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk every day  from the 1st of March for fabulous profiles from mums working in the media. All the mums work freelance or flexibly to fit with the family and there are some really inspiring stories.

PS Don’t forget the competition to win a bundle of Essential Business Books ends midnight today.

Whether you want to start a new business or just give your business a boost in 2009, you’ll find this bundle of business books incredibly useful. You can win:

• Anyone Can Do It by Coffee Republic founder Sahar Hashemi,
• Personal Social Responsibility,
• Raise Your Game Now!,
• Spare Room Start Up and
• A Guide to Promoting Your Business

This is the essential set of business books to give you idea and inspiration for 2009.  

To enter, email antonia@acpr.co.uk with the answer to this question: How much is A Guide to Promoting Your Business this month? (Visit www.prbasics.co.uk to find out.) Entries close 1 March 2009.

Performance coach Paul Stalker is a great man to help you re-evelaute your attitude to life and deal with any habits that are holding you back. This book doesn’t just look at your behaviour, but also challenges you to take control of your health.

In the introduction you can read about Paul’s personal journey, from struggling at school, through business ups and downs, to his battle with cancer. This gives you a great background to see where Paul’s advice is based.

The book takes you though how to get physically and mentally fit, then moves onto looking at how you can get rid of negative attitudes. The third section helps you improve the way you relate to and influence others. Importantly for this sort of book, the fourth section looks at enjoying yourself and how to ‘do what you love, love what you do’. Finally, Paul helps you devise your game plan and put into action the lessons you have learnt.

One to one sessions with a life coach don’t suit everyone, whether it is because of time or cost: this book makes a great alternative if you want to change the way you think, take control of your life and achieve your goals. With Paul’s GAME mnemonic, Gratitude and Attitude, Make a friend, Enjoy yourself, this book will help you improve your life and business.

Paul has kindly donated a copy of the book to be won as part of our essential business books competition.

 To find out more and buy the book, visit www.paulstalkereffect.com

Mumsclub is a great source of business advice for mumpreneurs and women who want to set up a family friendly enterprise. ACPR is joining with Mumsclub in a great competition which rewards you for doing your own PR.

Prizes include:

• Cover feature in the next Business Mums Journal
• One-to-one consultation with Antonia Chitty of ACPR (over phone if distance is a problem) to help you improve your own PR.
• Profile on MumsClub
• Profile on Family Friendly Working
• MumsClub premium membership for 12 months
• MumsClub t-shirt

Check out full details of the competition here.