my blog "the bookkeepers in town - learning the hard way" - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

pDm · Senior Member

my blog "the bookkeepers in town - learning the hard way"

Wella · Expert

Hi

When you said it was (quote) "Part dairy, ....." I thought it would be cheesy biggrin but I then realised it was a typo smile

Very well written, and honest. I think you experience, echoes that of most others that come into bookkeeping from a different angle. It certainly was for me. I thought learn some basics, get some clients, charge them £20+ per hour, spend the rest of the day kayaking.

Turns out it's, start learning - find the basics aren't enough, finding clients is the hardest part, £20+ per hour - what cloud was I on? Haven't got the kayak wet once this year - mind you that's more the fault of the forum.

look forward to the next one

Bill

Don Tax · Expert

Well done for passing in a couple of terms and I hope it's a springboard to professional status.
Keep it coming.
Tim

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Excellent blog and glad to see our merry little community got a mention.

Some really good, concise information in your blog... Maybe you should post it on here!

Got my fingers crossed for you now over being takien on by the IAB... Have you any idea how difficult it is to type with your fingers crossed!

Three first class passes have got to get you somewhere. Good luck matey,

Shaun.

Ann-marie · Senior Member

Great blog - well done, looking forward to more posts.
Ann-marie

BeckyAdams · Newbie

Hi, just read your blog and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next issue. smile

Becky

gbm · Guru

The blogs are good, but the WP site confused the hell out of me! At first, I thought it was 'your website', promoting your business as most of the websites you see do, but there are no contact details, etc.. And now I realise it's more of an online diary for your experiences. And now I've read your post above, it makes complete sense!

So why so secret? Are you still employed?

pDm · Senior Member

RE: my blog

pDm · Senior Member

my blog "the bookkeepers in town - learning the hard way"

pDm · Senior Member

I cant seem to edit posts in the advanced editor - so I cant add links :S

Anyway, this weeks blog is called: To IAB or not to IAB?

click my signature below to view.

Thanks.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi,

there were five identical posts so I cleaned up four of them.

The link in the post to the blog actually works fine. Hows it showing on your PC?

The three links in your post are showing (in order) as :

http://wp.me/p1RD3y-4c

http://wp.me/P1RD3y-34

http://thebookkeepersintown.wordpress.com/

Hope that helps,

Shaun.

P.S. Congrats on acceptance by the IAB. Good blog as always. Keep em coming as makes Saturdays worth looking forwards to.

P.S.2 Amended to add the links to reassure you that other people are able to link from your post directly.

-- Edited by Shamus on Saturday 8th of October 2011 03:57:00 PM

pDm · Senior Member

RE: my blog

pDm · Senior Member

RE: my blog "the bookkeepers in town - learning the hard way"

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi,

enjoyable as always.

On the now did I miss anything I think that one is for next weeks thread... Software licences.

It's a real nightmare knowing what to buy for the client base that you end up with as of course buying the software comes before acquiring the clients. Just a suggestion for a future instalment. Look forwards to your blog on that one.

All the best,

Shaun.

P.S. I can see a potential sideline of a book on the subject of starting your own UK based bookkeeping business here as most of those in the market place are written for the American market.

pDm · Senior Member

Thanks Shamus. I have tried to cover software in a permanent page on the blog site called Why Sage? but it's more of a rant about the cost of traditional software than looking into licensing specifically.

I decided early on that I would focus on online "cloud" solutions wherever possible - and funnily enough there's a blog all about it coming in the next few weeks called "Head in the cloud."

As for the book idea - wow - hadn't thought of that. But first things first, I should probably learn to walk before claiming I can teach others how to run! Nice idea for the future though - thank you for your encouragement.

Don Tax · Expert

Hi PD, just a note about form CF10. Just in case you're unaware, you can apply for Exception from Class 2 NIC contributions if you expect your first year profitrs to be under £5315. The Exception generally lasts for 3 years.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/nimmanual/nim21000.htm

best wishes.
Tim

pDm · Senior Member

Hi Tim, Yes I was aware of the Class 2 exception, they mentioned it at one of the HMRC workshops I went on - however, looking into it further on the HMRC website I got a bit confused and thought that I wouldn't qualify (for some reason I can't remember right now). As I'll also be paying Class 1 through my day job and Class 4 with my TAX, applying for the exception in light of what you have just mentioned seems like a good idea, again!

That /sound/ you might be able to hear is me ripping up my Class 2 DD form - haha :)

Thanks for the nudge in the right direction,
pDm

Don Tax · Expert

Haha, yes and the crackle as it lands on the fire. You can always pay voluntarily when the lucrative publishing contract turns up and you give up the day job.

Otherwise you may be able to look at 'deferment' here :

http://search2.hmrc.gov.uk/kb5/hmrc/forms/view.page?formid=409&record=4_bCNCQuyao

and after absorbing all that you may be in favour of merging PAYE and NIC's -- maybe a subject for a future instalment :o)

Tim

pDm · Senior Member

It's that time of the week again! So far I've been writing about what I have done and how I have done it; todays blog is about what to do next and how to go about it.

This weeks blog: Who needs a bookkeeper anyway?

Have a good week everyone! pDmx

Update:

I'd like to thank those of you who have taken part in the short survey, This might be useful. It's already starting to show some pretty good trends and I encourage everyone to take part. Who knows, you might find it, well, useful.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi again,

good blog as always which I think quite rightly concentrates more on the networking side.

where you send out flyers to specific businesses it's a good idea to follow it up a few days later with a courtesy call.

Nice idea with the startups but I think that work will end up Pro Bono on the hope of it turning into paying work where idea's turn into viable businesses.

I've actually toyed with doing a morning a week working with my local Citizens Advice myself as I think that might help get my companies name about a bit more...

Downside to that of course is if someone is getting a service free why would they ever pay for it. Think you have to be careful in those situations to emphasise that it's just initial immediate advice and ongoing advice must be on a commercial basis.

In your scenario you may need to be careful with the startups that any advice that you give does not go beyond what your PII will cover you for as it's so easy to slip into company structure and tax advice that could come back to bite you. That said though I don't want to put you off this approach as it's a very good one. Just an aside to be wary of.

Your blogs are really becoming a Saturday morning tradition. Keep em up.

all the best,

Shaun.

pDm · Senior Member

Happy Saturday everyone! A few weeks ago I covered some of the legal hurdles that have been involved in setting up my new bookkeeping business, and in response Shamus quite rightly pointed out that I hadn't covered software licences as part of that round up. Which was a little remiss of me.

Todays blog explains why traditional software licencing is something I'm just not worried about.

This weeks blog: Head in the cloud.

Hope you enjoy smile and Have a great weekend!

One for the fellas: In a few days time I'll be taking part in one of the easiest charity events I've ever heard of. Its a good cause and a bit of fun. If you've never heard of it and want to take part (did I mention it's a good cause and really easy to do?) check out their site: Movember UK

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

I felt this weeks blog was more of a cloud sales pitch than a blog from someone building a new business.

Found myself going through it disagreeing with points put accross as facts.

I understand the enthusiasm of those advocating the cloud alternative but I still want to own my software (even though the licences always state that you don't actually own it as in it's not something that belongs to you that you can sell).

If you run a business you will generally have more than one PC (I've got six current and two on ice). We've all had issues with that one windows update that's messed the registry or virus that managed to sneak past even industrial strength firewalls but everything that goes wrong with your system can also go wrong with the cloud and more likely the telecomms (the servers of the cloud service providers tend to be pretty good with backup servers and UPS so although they can have problems they are probably actually the strongest link in the chain).

Over the years I've had more problems related to internet issues than I ever have with PC's and Local area networks.

And as for computers being really slow in every office I've ever worked in... definitely not! If the system is slow then the networks probably been setup by monkeys on a budget of peanuts.

Cloud has it's merits and it's a sound alternative to the traditional approach but I like the traditional approach and have no intention of changing unless I view the alternative as a superior option. At best I regard the two alternatives having equal merit.

Well, you wrre never going to get me to agree with you all of the time and even though I disagree it's a good sign that your blog instills such emotions in it's readers... Might be a good idea to leave the cloud chapter out of the book though! (lol)

looking forwards to next weeks instalment

kind regards,

Shaun (not quite the last of the dinosaurs)

pDm · Senior Member

Sorry about that, Shamus. It wasn't intended to be a sales pitch - but I can see how it came across that way. Unintentional I assure you.

Maybe I should have focussed on what I've actually done and signed up to, rather than discussing the general reasons for my decision to opt for cloud solutions. You're right that that would have fitted better into the general feel of my blog. Thanks for the critique, it's very helpful.

I'm sure I'll find unexpected issues with my decision later down the line, and I may well be posting a follow-up ("Feet firmly on the ground."?) if everything goes horribly wrong and I end up joining The Accountants Club, with my virtual tail between my legs! We'll have to wait and see.

All the best and have a great weekend,

pDm

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hope you have a great one too.

It's off to pets at home looking at bunnies this afternoon for us.

I hope that the disagreement didn't come across too harshly as that wasn't intended. If we all agreed with each other all of the time it wouldn't be much of a forum.

I think that it's always good to have alternate views as we only get to the right decisions through discussion and revelation of issues that others have had (shame that many franchise operators ban their franchisee's from posting on sites such as this!).

I'm sure that going the cloud route will work brilliantly for you as it does for many. I just tried to put accross that it's a viable alternative rather than the next stage in the evolution of software that some vendors would have us believe.

It's just one of those area's I feel where there are two seperate camps both with benefits and shortfalls. Some go for one, some for the other but there is no right or wrong way. Just two different ways.

Your going to be cruel now and make us wait 14 days for the next instalment... Looking forwards to it already

Have a good couple of weeks,

all the best,

Shaun.

Spamkebab · Expert

Damn, just made a cup of coffee and sat down ready to read this weeks installment, then remembered there isn't one. It's going to be a long day.
Hope pDm is enjoying whatever it is thats stopping me from reading. Hope you all have a relaxing weekend.

Neil (Wow, Senior member after being about as much use as a chocolate teapot)

-- Edited by Spamkebab on Saturday 5th of November 2011 10:05:32 AM

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Morning Neil,

but in fairness your new status has been earned on the back of a lot of very amusing comments.

Welcome to the big league matey. Hope the your having a good Saturday.

Know what you mean about the blog. It's become a Saturday morning tradition already.

Talk in a bit, lots of reading to catch up on (most of it seems to be Sage and Quickbooks related so I only tend to scan read those ones for the subject swerving off piste which saves a bit of time),

toodle pip for now,

Shaun.

pDm · Senior Member

Happy Saturday everyone!

It's been a funny few weeks with some important decisions being taken about the survival of my business. Some bad news, some good news and an admition of guilt...

This weeks blog: Running on empty.

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

A good read, sometimes self belief is all it takes. I hope that now you have received your certificates you can start to recoup your costs.

Kris

pDm · Senior Member

Sometimes. Most of the time planning and blind luck seem more appropriate bedfellows. But I take your point, self belief certainly is a good companion to have at your side.

Glad you like this weeks blog - making myself write it every week sure does tend to clarify my thoughts and put them into some kind of order - and the feedback I get is always helpful.

Thanks everyone,

pDm

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi,

Enjoyed the update as always.

Congratulations on the IAB membership. Sure that eventually you will find yourself wearing the tie with pride!

Fully understand the financing kunundrum. Don't forget that you may be entitled to working family tax credits.

Also, another thing to be wary of. When 0% on balance transfers isn't.

In the small print there's almost always the line about the associated costs of the transfer which will amount to between 2% and 5% of the amount borrowed. This is added immediately to the debt as an up front fee.

The fee will not be paid until the debt has been.

The fee attracts interest at normal rate even though the transfer to which it relates is at zero percent.

Overall this is still generally cheaper than some other options but just something to be aware of.

Also, on this matter, general rule is never use a credit card for for balance transfers that you also use for purchases.

I think that Tesco take payments against interest bearing borrowing first but they're the exception. (you need to confirm that before taking my word for it).

Also, Barclaycard now have a 36 month 0% interest period where I think that the best that Lloyds offers for platinum cards is 18 months.

Thats basically a try not to do it but if you do go down that path at least get the best deal.

All the best,

Shaun.

pDm · Senior Member

Thanks Shamus - having been an avid follower of the MotleyFool and several other financial advice websites for a number of years I am well aware of the pitfalls of credit cards (or debt cards as I prefer to call them). As I said in the blog, I'm kicking myself because I know that that £300 will, by the time that particular batch of transactions get paid off, have blossomed into some ridiculous amount.

Unfortunately I'm not in a position where I'm offered the "best deals" any more. Which was a surprise to me when I found out! I applied for a better option card recently and was declined. Something about my lender having seen the drop in my income over the last two years and not being comfortable extending credit. I'm trying not to think about it too much.

On the bright side I do have a tie - or should that be, I do have a tie which is a bit bright? lol

All the best to you too,

pDm

pDm · Senior Member

Here we are again!

This weeks blog: Superclip me.

As always, thanks for reading and for all of the support and encouragement. More blogishness next week.

pDmx

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi again,

excellent as always.

picking up on a couple of things this week :

1) If anyone has any tips for a well organised home office please share.

I started off in a similar way to you. I've got three four drawer filing cabinets and thought that would be enough. However, you will quickly find that every client needs to have their own magazine filing box which requires bookcases. The Billy bookcases from Ikea are great for this.

Already one of my filing cabinets is used for holding essential tea and coffee supplies, plus stationary reserves and the manuals that come with all of the bits of hardware that you accumulate rather than the cabinet being used to store client files.

If you end up with too much information for a single file then you are probably keeping too much current data before moving it to permanent storage or giving it back to the client.

2) Ive been a fan of PDAs (personal digital assistant) ever since Palm released a green-screen only PDA over a decade ago.

I was always a fan of the Psion series 3 PDA's. Got a 3a back in about 93 or 94. Moved up to a 3c and then a 3mx in 98 and used it for years. Loved the PC in your pocket with batteries that would last a month and with really great integration with Word and Excel. Nowadays I have to lug a Toshiba brick around with me everywhere... Sure that my left arms a few inches longer than it used to be when I had a 3mx!

3) I may be guilty of spending too much time thinking how to make it perfect, rather that actually doing and risking making a mistake. Sounds like a comfort zone, huh?

Welcome to the club! This is the bane of all of our lives as the subject matter is so large and things change so regularly that you forever feel as though you are chasing your own tail.

You have to be really careful with this chain of thought as it can turn into justifying to yourself why you are not yet ready to advance.

Those coming to this with experience in the industry have an advantage in that they have a base reference point for what they know that they should be doing even if they have worries about whether they are doing it properly.

Those of us who convert to this line of work are forever assuming that there must be something that they are not doing or that they are not doing correctly and spend their time chasing that elusive bit of missing knowledge that may not actually exist because just maybe you are doing everything correctly already!

Comfort zones come either when you've been doing this correctly for a long time or don't realise that you have been doing it wrong... But for a long time. The emphasis though is all about doing it for a long time and you can't get that until you bite the bullit and start taking clients.

No matter what you are feeling now, always appreciate that it's exactly what every successful entepeneur has felt before you but they took that step forwards... Time to follow in their footsteps matey as reading your blog you really seem to have your head screwed on in the right direction and you're definitely ready for that next step.

Keep the blogs coming. Makes excellent Saturday reading.

All the best,

Shaun.

-- Edited by Shamus on Saturday 19th of November 2011 01:11:00 PM

pDm · Senior Member

Sorry I'm late.

I've got a triple-whammy for you this week, three blogs in one weekend! But don't get too excited, they're all quite short and I've included really big pictures to fill some space...

This weeks blogs:

Part 1. How many is enough?

Part 2. How long will it take?

Part 3. How am I going to do it?

I've really enjoyed reading the Bookkeepers forum this week; one thread got me so curious I had to go over to another board to see what some of you guys were talking about... something about crisp sandwiches? :)

More blog next week.

pDm · Senior Member

Shamus wrote:
... you will quickly find that every client needs to have their own magazine filing box ...

I intended to reply to this last week, but somehow didn't get around to it.

Shamus, this is exactly the kind of "tip" I was after. As soon as I read it, it made perfect sense. My ongoing stationary order now has 10x cardboard magazine boxes added to the list.

Any more tips? And I don't mean the one about not eating yellow snow... :)

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Afternoon matey,

Excellent posts as always... Your spoiling us this week with three.

I think that you may be putting too much credence on your statistical assumptions though.

You make no seperation between chasing clients and those who come to you.

For example. Lets take your 1 in 8 conversion factor (that being 12.5%).

If you chase clients then out of 100 phone calls turning 12.5% of those into clients would be a really good (actually pretty exceptional) conversion rate.

However if 100 people call you then 87.5% would be a quite poor conversion rate as those people had gone out of their way to call you which means that until you spoke to them you had their business!

From the above it's obvious that getting clients to call you would be better than cold calling clients.

Best way to get clients to call you is for existing clients to work as your unpaid workforce. Do an exemptional job for clients and they will (generally) recomend you to their freinds, family, suppliers, clients and colleagues. This is pretty much the snowball rolling down a hill effect where you start out with a few and the more you get the more and faster they come.

The issue is to get the ball rolling with the right quality rather than quantity of client as quantity follows on the back of your quality of service combined with the hope that the client that you have has other contacts who may be interested in using your services.

For the next few months I think that the key is getting your name out there. So it's network, network, network and more networking. (at which you just want to get noticed. Don't try to sell for starters).

Rob (Robh) who used to post on this site gave some excellent advice on networking including sharing his experiences of just starting out along that path and the fact that it takes six months to really start gaining the trust of the group and converting sharing a coffee and a chat into sales.

All the best,

Shaun.

pDm · Senior Member

Afternoon Shamus, I agree there are a lot of assumptions in today's blog(s) - but I have to start somewhere and this numbers exercise was intended to give me a sense of scale. I totally agree with you about using clients as an unpaid sales workforce, focusing on quality over quantity and networking almost passively, without feeling the need to sell, sell, sell! Nobody likes an over pushy salesman at a coffee morning... but the fact remains I'm sitting on a client score of nil at the moment. I know this will change, I know my business will grow with time. Maybe I'm just impatient?

It's all a bit swan-like for me at the moment; all grace on the surface, but furiously paddling under the water.

As for not differentiating between cold-calling and enquiries that come to me, I kinda did that on purpose. I find that when it comes to making plans, I tend to focus on the conservative side of things and avoid the assumption that I'll just get lucky. Who knows, maybe I'm just a bit jaded? But at this initial stage of the business my odds are defiantly better if I'm out there being pro-active and not sitting by the phone waiting.

However if someone were to call me, that would be a delightful bonus! And you guys'n'gals will be the, *counting on fingers*... well, certainly in the top five of people I inform first! :)

Have a great week,

pDmx

Don Tax · Expert

Hi PDM

How about - A newsletter containing articles of interest to the type of clients you want to attract. You've got some unique content anyway with the blog.
The January deadline might be the biggest marketing opportunity of the year and the best chance to get that first one on the books.

best wishes,
Tim

pDm · Senior Member

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the response - I was starting to think that Shamus was the only person reading the blog at all! lol

I have considered a newsletter. Not only would it give me another reason to go out there and read as much as I can, it might, as you say, be of interest to clients and prospects. I'll add it to the projects list. You you have something similar? Where would you advise suitable articles might be found and linked to? (as well as some editorial from myself of course :)

I know January is likely to be a big opportunity. I'm pushing that driver as hard as I can at the moment. My only worry is having someone turn up at my door on the 20th or later with 2 carrier bags and a cardboard box full of 2 years receipts!... Although, I have to start somewhere and the deep-end seems like as good a place as any.

Thanks for the feedback,

pDm

Don Tax · Expert

HI pDm

I'd start from reading a few Budget commentries to get a feel of what's going to matter to the man in the street. After that, the 'your money' sections in the Sunday newspapers. I found the newsletter from my old network to be a bit high-brow, concerning petroleum taxes and offshore havens, so that was more 'cut' than 'paste'. The most common article will simply be about changes in tax and VAT rates etc.

I have generally tried to offer greater value to existing clients and I'm a bit shy so send mine only to them and bear their particular circumstances in mind when composing. Yours would inevitably differ in character to attract new business.

The change in government was worth an outline of policy and I was a fan of the Lib's increasing personal allowances before they gained office. I've had nothing nice to say about tax credits (they're not a tax credit) except that they were generous and a handful wanted the renewals done year after year. My client's "read it here first" about Small Business Rates Relief and it wasn't automatically renewed to begin with.

I've done voluntary tax work so am a bit clued up what to watch out for at the lower levels of income.

Never googled "Free Tax Newsletter" till just now, but it might be worth signing up for one. Praps not accountants, but tax publishers should be ok. I'm just off to Google "tax loopholes" smile

Have you got any holidays left to take in January? Get that adding machine humming and the provisional box 20 is always handy!

best wishes,

Tim

pDm · Senior Member

'ello. Me again.

Who's put their Christmas decorations up yet? We're doing ours tonight, so I've got to get in the loft later and battle with spiders and the like.

It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it...

This weeks blog: Finally, face to face.

---

@Don Tax Thanks Tim, I'm sure I could find a few regular tax articles/blogs to add to my regular reading list - and yes I managed to keep hold of 7 days holiday for emergencies between now and March (plus flexi hours if needed). Unfortunatly I might be being a it dim, but what's provisional box 20?

Don Tax · Expert

Hi PDm,

Yep, you could make various free accountingweb and taxationweb subscriptions.

Box 20 is a declaration on the self assessment form where you state you have used estimates. It's a bit of a get-out clause for avoiding being late. Although I haven't used it often, I've never been pulled up about making radical adjustments to accounts later on.

Nice blog again. You're getting yourself out there and there could be an avalanche after the first one.

As you're near the high street, how about a discreet sign in the front window during January, a business card in the car window or a mixture of both.

Tim

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi,

with Vistaprint you get those reminders and discount offers after you've purchased as well. Once they've got you they're never letting go but in this instance I don't mind as it's a great service and product. Only issue I do have with them is that with all these offers I can't for the life of me work out how they're making a profit?

As for the software, for Beta Test read if it formats your hard drive or breaks the windows registry you have absolutely no come back! Never put Beta software on a machine that you cannot restore completely to it's current operating effectiveness.

Great blog as always and seems as though your getting close now!

All the best,

Shaun.

pDm · Senior Member

Ah, that explains it. It's pretty obvious I new at this huh? Still, I can't wait to suddenly turn into the biggest thread starter this forum has ever seen in one week. I envisage bag of receipts to one side, a desk full of empty coffee cups and this forum permanently open with me pensively waiting for responses/help - just warning you all!

In fact that reminds me of something my partner asked me the other night and I didn't have an answer (out of the mouths of babes, huh), but I'll pose this question to another thread.

pDm · Senior Member

Shamus wrote:
... seems as though your getting close now!

Thanks Shamus. Very excited / very scared. smile

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

pDm wrote:
Shamus wrote:
... seems as though your getting close now!
Thanks Shamus. Very excited / very scared.

Its the first of the three stages.

First its scared of the unknown and trying to find excuses not to start.

Then it's deluged where you come out of the office with that distant shell shocked look in your eye's only shared with vietnam vets.

Then it's confidence tinged with the ever present assertion that there is something, somewhere that's you've either forgottten to do or done twice and forgot that you had already done it because whilst you were doing it people kept phoning you with things that were not even remotely important but they couldn't wait five minutes for and we never let clients know that they personally are not our whole reason for getting out of bed in the morning and we couldn't possibly be working on anyone elses books as nobody but the person on the other end of the phone exists for our business!

Guess whose just spent half a Saturday on a phone call that the client doesn't even think that they need to pay my time for!... Oh, they'll be paying!!!

Queue up Fortunate Son by Credence Clearwater Revival on the stereo. Think I'm on my way back to stage II. biggrin

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

If you decide to go forward with any Beta software Shaun is right, the best thing to do is put it on a computer that you don't use for work. Not everyone has a spare pc kicking about so there is an alternative. You can setup what is known as a virtual pc. A good one is VirtualBox. This pretty much does what it says on the tin. Within your PC it creates a virtual PC. Nothing you do to the virtual PC can affect your actual pc which resides outside the virtual "box".

It's a good way to test software with no worries how it will react with other software you have installed.

Further to that, it's good practice always to keep backups up to date.

Kris

YLB-HO · Guru

I finally found time to read you blogs and I will try to do it more often.

You are based on the south coast, but beyond this I cannot find out anything about you. There is a slowly growing support network for IAB members in the south, which you may find helpful. The diffuculty like anything else is finding out about it!

pDm · Senior Member

RE: my blog

pDm · Senior Member

@Kris, et al. Thanks that's good advice on BETA, although I think I'm not going to go forward with it just yet. I'll certainly keep it in mind in case I do anything similar in the future. pDmx :)