The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 is going to start to be enforced from May 26 – and there is a theoretical £500,000 fine for non-compliance.

But Burton web company Webb2b is advising website owners in the town not to panic – but to take sensible advice from their own website developers and see what the implications are for them.

The regulations are designed to give people browsing the Internet more awareness of, and control over, what information a website collects about them.

It all centres on “cookies” – small text files which can be downloaded and stored in the browser of your computer or smartphone in order to enable certain features on a website or streamline ordering and purchasing processes.

Cookies are also used by programmes like Google Analytics which many websites use to see what pages visitors are looking at and the journey they take through a website. Analysing this data can help websites become more relevant and user-friendly to their visitors.

After May 26, websites using ‘cookies’ must make it clear to visitors that they ARE using cookies and what information they are gathering and why. They must also obtain specific permission to store those cookies on the visitor’s computer, or other device.

Ian said: “For some time websites have had to tell users how to opt-out of cookies – but this information was often buried in privacy policies and ts and cs which few people read, and few opted-out.

“The new regulations mean that the default position is for every website to block the use of cookies until or unless visitors actively opt-in to cookies.”

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)  is in charge of enforcing the new rules. Cookies that are deemed to be essential to the running of the website are expected to be exempt from the legislation. These include cookies that allow people to log in to a website.

Ian – who is also Chairman of Burton Business Club and has been championing faster broadband for the town – says that a range of workarounds are bound to emerge but there are steps it is sensible for businesses to take to protect themselves:

· Understand what cookies are currently used on your website
· Look at how you could include a way of people giving consent to the cookies you use
· Understand what cookies are deemed ‘strictly necessary’ and which are redundant or unnecessary and should be removed.

Webb2b will be offering a free cookie check on the home page of its website http://webb2b.co.uk as a first step to planning what action you need to take.

If you tweet, you are invited to meet others who do at the first Burton TweetUp being organised by Elaine and Hannah Sookias, of Sookias Media, this Friday (May 18) at 10am at Langan’s Tea Rooms in the town.

It’s an informal meet up of people who use the social media platform and a great chance to meet contacts from Twitter face-to-face in the welcoming surroundings of the town’s elegant tearooms.

As a writer – who has used social media extensively over the last ten years – Elaine stressed the importance of the words and images you create and share on social media during her talk on May 8.

She advised business owners not to rush into creating profiles and pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube – just because they were free. She said the important thing was to have a strategy and know who you wanted to reach, what your objectives were and how to decide what success would look like and how to measure it.  Not every platform was appropriate to every business, she said.

Blogging is another useful social media tool which can help businesses raise their profile online, generate excellent search engine optimisation benefits and showcase their expertise. 

Elaine also reminded the business club members what great free tools they had within this Burton Business Club website to promote themselves. As a member you have the ability to write your own blog posts on this site and benefit from the powerful connection with the phrase “Burton business”.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of the Burton Business Club website, Elaine showed the audience a screenshot of a Google search on the phrase “Elaine Pritchard” + Burton which returned pages from the Burton Business Club as the top three results – with Elaine’s LinkedIn profile and Twitter feed close behind.

Never forget the ‘social’ element of social media, said Elaine. Successful social media is not about broadcasting. It is about sharing, engaging and interacting. Building relationships and networks with customers and other businesses takes time on social media – but it can reap rewards.

The June meeting of the Burton Business Club will be on Tuesday June 12 at the Hotel Mercure, Newton Solney, Burton upon Trent, when the guest speaker will be Nigel Heald, of Instant Training, a master practitioner of Neuro Lingusitic Programming (NLP).

Nigel will tell members and visitors how NLP can significantly help business and sales people eliminate limiting beliefs, develop instant rapport, improve their focus and develop empowering goals.

For more information , or to book to attend as a visitor, contact the business club’s Chairman Ian Page at chairman@burtonbusinessclub.co.uk.

You can catch up with Elaine’s presentations slides here.

You can follow Elaine on Twitter at @EllaJP and connect with her at her LinkedIn profile.

Notes also from Elaine Pritchard on blogging on the Burton Business Club website ( http://www.burtonbusinessclub.co.uk/download/burton-business-club-blogging.pdf )

Please feel to drop me an email if you have any questions chairman@burtonbusinessclub.co.uk

Thanks

Ian Page

Burton Business Club members Elaine Pritchard and David Finch wrote the words and took the pictures (respectively).

Read the full feature online  at Burtonmail.co.uk

Managing director of computer repair business PC Problem, Ian Page, has been appointed as the new Chairman of Burton Business Club. He takes over from Lorraine Holden, who has held the post for two years and now becomes vice chairman.

Lorraine is business development manager at Burton printing company Reflex and is also an independent distributor for Forever Living products. Ian has been at the forefront of the campaign for faster Broadband speeds in Burton and will bring his passion for seeing local businesses grow and thrive to his new role at the Club.

Ian presented Lorraine with a bottle of champagne and a box of chocolates at the club’s April AGM to thank her for all her hard work. As vice chairman she will continue to play a key role in helping develop and run the thriving business club which meets on the second Tuesday of every month at the hotel Mercure, Burton upon Trent Newton Park, in Newton Solney.

At the AGM, eight other local business people were appointed to the club’s committee which will plan events and initiatives to help and support local businesses over the next 12 months. Steve Mason will be the club’s secretary; local accountants Lisa Clarkson and David Alexander will share the job of treasurer; website developer Tony Harvey-Bacon will be webmaster; freelance writer Elaine Pritchard becomes press and public relations officer and Mike Davies of Burton Bailiffs is named as events co-ordinator. Also on the committee are Anna Allen, of Abbey Commercial Services, Lionel Connor of legal firm Samble, Burton & Worth and Paul Miller of S9 Ltd.

After the official business of the AGM was concluded, members and visitors to April’s meeting were entertained by two of the club’s members – accountants Angie Ayre and Lisa Clarkson (pictured below) – who revealed some amusing stories and fascinating facts about the world of tax affairs and HMRC. New members and visitors are always welcome at the club.

The next meeting is on Tuesday May 8 when we’ll be looking at how social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Twitter, can help local businesses promote their products and services and engage with customers and suppliers. Members and visitors will meet in the bar from 6pm before a two course meal at 6.30pm. There will also be opportunities for informal networking before a presentation at 8pm. If you would like to attend, please contact Ian on 07859 020 315, or email him at chairman@burtonbusinessclub.co.uk

Richard Shakespeare – who entertained Burton Business Club as a guest speaker earlier this year – has been honoured with an award from Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis.

Richard, who set up his own independent disability consultancy in 2010 after redundancy and almost 2,000 job application rejections, said: “It was inspiring to hear from Theo how he started with virtually nothing, working out of a spare room – which was just what I did 18 months ago. “

Since launching his own business, Richard has trained companies and organisations throughout the Burton and Derby area under his Committed to Equality accreditation scheme. Among them is Clarkson Accountancy, run by Burton Business Club member Lisa Clarkson. she said: “I am not sure what I was expecting but the Committed to Equality accreditation training was very different to any other training I have attended. It has given me more awareness, made me more reflective and more empowered to tackle inappropriate comments and manage difficult situations.

“The content was presented clearly and the number of interactive exercises made for a lively and engaging session. This helped to make a large amount of information easy to remember. The open and friendly atmosphere that the trainers created put everyone at ease and gave plenty of opportunities for questions and discussion. In particular, their ability and willingness to talk from their own experience and to illustrate their points with personal anecdotes was much appreciated and gave a very ‘real’ dimension to the course material.”

Richard was a winner in Theo Paphitis’s Small Business Sunday initiative and, along with other winners, spent the day with the millionaire entrepreneur. He said: “Theo was really generous with his time and answered questions for several hours. It made me believe that anything really is possible if you have a passion for what you do.”

Recognition from Theo Paphitis – who boasts a business portfolio including the Ryman stationery stores – crowns an exciting year and a half for Richard.

Since September last year he has trained more than 750 staff and business owners; started a second business – Business Brain Training – offering business start-up advice to other budding entrepreneurs, and begun writing a regular column for jobsandcareersmag.com.

Richard has also been working with, and talking to, a wide range of companies such as Balfour Beatty, The Westfield Shopping Group, The Fat Cat Group and last month was invited to the Eurostar head offices in London to deliver a taster session of his interactive training courses.

Richard, who has cerebral palsy, says it is important that companies feel confident about how to provide quality support to disabled consumers: “I am really proud of everything I have achieved in the last 18 months and just want others to ignore the gloomy picture often painted about the economy and realise their potential.”

He added: “I would love it if my experience of setting up two businesses in a recession helped other people realise that you CAN still be successful in the current economic climate. I think it’s important to believe in yourself and stay positive and good things can happen.”

Richard was one of the winners of Small Business Sunday – an initiative started on the social network Twitter by Theo Paphitis to spotlight deserving businesses. Every Sunday, between 5pm and 7.30pm, thousands of small businesses ‘tweet’ Theo @TheoPaphitis and describe their business in one tweet including the hashtag #SBS.

As a winner, Richard’s business was ‘re-tweeted’ to Theo’s 235,000 followers – which has boosted Richard’s own following on Twitter and helped him forge useful business contacts.

He was among winners invited to the first-ever Small Business Sunday event in Birmingham  to meet Theo and receive their certificates. Richard and other winners will also be given exclusive access to business advice through a password-protected section of Theo’s Small Business Sunday website. Richard Shakespeare can be contacted on 07891 913748 or emailed at richard@richardshakespeare.com.

Article written by Elaine Pritchard of Caittom Publishing

Steve explained that his presentation was based on strategies in a book called Success: How We Can Reach Our Goals, by Dr Heidi Grant Halvorson.

He took business club members through the four different types of business goals: Get Better; Be Good; Promotion and Prevention.

A packed room of business club members and visitors completed a short, confidential questionnaire which helped them discover their natural preference for either Get Better or Be Good business goals.

Get Better goals, Steve explained, are also known as mastery goals. They are:

• Focused more on enhancing skills and abilities.
• Measured against an internal (intrinsic) value.
• More about self-improvement than self-validation and self-worth is less threatened.
• Can be linked to persistence and performance.

Be Good goals, on the other hand, are known as performance goals. They are:

• Characterised by an all-or-nothing quality.
• Usually measured against an external (extrinsic) value.
• Can be tied to self-worth and don’t work so well when the going gets tough.
• Can be very motivating.

Get Better goals should be used to:

• Improve overall performance.
• Enjoy the ride.
• Stay motivated and be resilient.
• Achieve more.

If you set a Be Good goal, Steve said you should:

• Use them sparingly.
• Use them when you know that you have the ability and resources to achieve them.
• Make them stretching enough to be motivating.
• Monitor your progress and adjust if necessary.

Get Better goals can contribute towards Be Good goals, while Be Good goals can be broken down into Get Better goals.

Steve took the audience through another short exercise to investigate what motivates them. This, he said would help them see whether they should aim for Promotion or Prevention goals. He pointed out that tests like the ones he did in this workshop only provided a snapshot of how people felt that day and shouldn’t be taken as a hard and fast preference that applied in the long term.

Promotion goals are for gain, while Prevention goals are for avoiding loss. Promotion goals give us a rush, prevention goals give us relief. Promotion goals love risk and have a risky bias. Prevention goals love caution and have a conservative bias. Both Promotion and Prevention goals can lead to success.

In summary, Steve said:

• Performance goals can be used to stretch us when we have the ability to reach them.
• Mastery goals can be used to improve long-term performance.
• Promotion goals are used for gain and work best with an optimistic approach and acceptance of risk.
• Prevention goals are used for avoiding loss and work best with a cautious approach.

His advice was to use the right strategy – one that fits with your focus – and it will feel right.

April’s meeting of the business club, on Tuesday April 10, 2012, will be its Annual General Meeting. Two club members who are accountants – Lisa Clarkson and Angie Ayre – will also entertain with humorous anecdotes showing that tax issues are not always as dry and serious as you might imagine. If you would like to attend the meeting as a guest, and enjoy networking with a selection of Burton’s best businesses, please contact Chair Lorraine Holden on 07540 413810.

- Report by Elaine Pritchard of Caittom Publishing. Pictures by David Finch of David Finch Photography.

Television presenter Ashley Blake, sentenced to two years in prison after violence flared outside his restaurant, told Burton Business Club that if he was in a similar situation tomorrow he would probably do the same thing again.

“Your own business is like your child. You pour blood, sweat and tears into it, you work 18 hour days and you’d do whatever you could to protect it.”

Mr Blake – speaking at the February meeting of Burton Business Club at the Mercure Hotel, Newton Solney – described how trouble ignited outside his Place 2B restaurant in Sutton Coldfield in January 2009 as an 18^th birthday party ended.

Mr Blake said he went to fetch a pole with the intention of wedging the restaurant’s doors shut against a mob of 25-30 youngsters throwing bottles and ashtrays at him as they tried to re-enter the building. He then swung the pole around his head telling the crowd to get back. A 17-year-old youth was left scarred in the face and the jury found that Mr Blake was responsible for the injury. The court also heard that he tried to cover up evidence by getting rid of the pole – a move he admitted was a massive mistake borne out of panic.

Mr Blake, 42, who served nine months in Winson Green and Stafford prisons for unlawful wounding and attempting to pervert the course of justice, is now rebuilding his life after losing his high-profile BBC job, his restaurant business, his reputation and his long term girlfriend in the wake of his trial and subsequent prison sentence.

“I lost everything – literally,” said Mr Blake who has now written and published a book based on his prison diaries and is developing a concept for a docu-soap about the probation service.

Mr Blake, a former air steward who worked for ITV for five years and the BBC for a further 10, fronting shows like Watchdog, Holiday and Inside Out, said: “Sending me to prison was just a waste of public money. It cost £50,000 to £60,000 to keep me in jail for nine months. I wasn’t a danger to the community, or in need of rehabilitation.”

Mr Blake said he believed that in the wake of last year’s riots – which made the police and the justice system more aware of the needs of business owners to protect their property – he would not be jailed if he was on trial now.

Ashley’s book, Shining Bright Lights in Dark Places, is available through his website – www.ashleyblake.tv

“As a journalist I felt compelled to write down my experiences by keeping a diary in prison. It wasn’t intended to be a book at first – it was my way of trying to make sense of everything that had happened to me. I do believe that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

* The next meeting of Burton Business Club will be on Tuesday March 13, 2012, when business coach Steve Kennedy is guest speaker.