Tiggy Sonya's Business Communications Blog Station

After speaking to many small business owners recently who do not talk to their customers or interact through social media I felt passionately about why they should. So let's see what came to mind... A Story...Ralph's Printers. Ralph stood at the shop door. He then realized he was blocking the way into his new business. He observed his two new staff members dealing with phone & online orders and people arriving with inquiries and new jobs. All was well.  Suddenly, he was being talked to!. He stood back and listened!. Lots of questions were coming out of a man's mouth towards him. Feeling overwhelmed he interrupted the man and pointed to the front desk. They will deal with you he abruptly added. Ralph, went back into the office, shut the door, and opened up a spreadsheet. Wasted Opportunities There are times when keeping your mouth shut is vital in business. You can see from the short story above that Ralph had an opportunity to answer questions, get to know a potential c...

On the 12th of March, plans were announced by the Science and Technology Secretary, Michelle Donelan MP to fund some of the UK’s major innovative industries. Focusing on the UK becoming highly skilled in key skills and future technologies. A huge pot of funding will be available, up to £1 billion for business, government and charities, and academia. This will forward the training of 4,000 talented students from all over the British Isles. In 65 Centres for Doctoral Training, many will have in-depth opportunities to travel further along their learning path.   At Kings College London, researchers will make far-reaching changes in personal surgery using advanced engineering and microrobots. There will also be exciting developments in future telecoms, engineering biology, and quantum technologies. From Scotland to Bristol, there will be many new opportunities to forward the UK’s strengths. Science and Technology Secretary, Michelle Donelan is quoted as saying at the Maths Summit: Buil...

A Business Fable Rita had worked hard with her new venture. Providing cleaning services for local households was going well. She felt contented in the realization of her expertise. Other people appreciated her no-nonsense approach. Therefore, she had trained her staff to work with hands of steel, with strong elbows, and to get on with it. Yes, get in there, clean, and get out! Rita was confident that she knew it all, and therefore all would come to her. Ah, but that is when everything went just a little bit wrong. With her staff trained to have hands of steel, be relentless in what they do, and get the job done and out the door, Rita thought she had everything under control. And then one day, the phone rang. Rita was told, in uncertain terms, by Mrs. Jarrod, residing at The Lodge, that she would not require a cleaner anymore. The customer then went on to explain that the rather heavy-handed cleaner had managed to crack two antique glasses, chip Mrs. Jarrod’s Jacobean windowpanes, and a...

  Published 28th April 2023 www.tsrn.co.uk Oh, what a week it has been! We have traveled from Harrow almost on the hill to hot sticky memories within the forests of Rangoon. Yes, it has been fun traveling back and forth to 1956. You might be asking yourself. Why, Sonya, why? And I am going to answer…… I don’t know. Anyhow, let us catch up with Toni, Geoff, and Brenda one last time this week and see how the trip to Hong Kong turned out. “It’s full, it’s so full, I couldn’t fit any more in Geoff “announced Toni as he placed his bulging order book down on Geoff’s desk. (The William Morris Trellis cover glowing in the morning sun beaming in through the art deco black lacquered windows) “Aw, and you should have seen the Shek Pik Valley, it was a triumph! All flowers and fauna. The Pekingese would have loved it you know. And Brenda, I mean Lorretta of the mincing word came alive from our brochures. Standing out like a lighthouse on a misty night at sea off the Cornish coast. Oh yes, I t...

Published 26th April 2023  www.tsrn.co.uk/news/ Today we are going to think about what being bold in business means. So, pull up your padded office chair, grab a freshly percolated coffee, and let me take you back to 1956 when being bold could sometimes cause you all sorts of problems! Brenda was exhausted and had just arrived at her sales meeting with Toni and Geoff. She had spent the last months traveling and was glad to be back in Northolt, West London with her parents. She had nattered her way around Great Britain and sold eighty-two and a half table mincers and five burlesque, I mean perlesque toned slicing and dicing machines. Also, five hundred silver-plated tablespoons with a picture of Gregory Peck embellished on every single one! Brenda’s sales trip had been a success! “It’s mother,” Brenda anxiously said “She caught our neighbor’s daughters peaking at my new undergarments on the washing line through the hedge. She said that I’m an embarrassment!  Then, she said, I’v...

  Published  www.tsrn.co.uk/news /  24th April 2023   Today I take you back to a time of erm, well, not of innocence, but a time when it was harder to move up at work. Men were stereotyped and women did what they were told. Oh, but not for our heroine of the day. Yes, in this tale set in the leafy suburbs of Harrow in 1956, we find ourselves in the offices of the above T & G Table Mincers. (Those mincing machines with handles that your grandmother screwed to the kitchen table if you don’t know). Here we shall meet two legends of the mincing world. Toni and Geoff and their soon-to-be star employee. Brenda straightened her thick-set glasses and tidied her bobbed hair. If she was going to resign it was now or never. Having spent the whole weekend ruminating over the decision, today, Monday, would be the day to inform the company owners Toni and Geoff of her imminent departure. Brenda made her way up the stairs to the third floor of the art deco building. Approa...

  Do you feel bored in your current role? Well, maybe a change would do you good. Read on for inspiration! Dorothy had landed. She had arrived, and this was it, the new position she had been dreaming of. She rolled up her sleeves and got down to work, meticulously making her way through the sales calls. Yes, company by company she dialed out, her headset perched neatly over her perm. Over three months, she cleaned up the huge database of leads. But Dorothy was in for a surprise. Was this a new role for her, or was there something better charging her way? It was on the penultimate day of the campaign that Dorothy had to call Crusades Removals Incorporated, and it was on this day she decided to change her life. Dorothy pressed the mouse button to click on the next call and the number popped up. She instantly knew something was different when the automated voice announced that there would be a long wait due to their representatives being busy all over the world. Yes, safely escorting ...

Mr. Ziegfield has a headache…and finds his zest! Published    30th August 2022   https://www.tsrn.co.uk/news/   In a distant sunny land, somewhere over the rainbow, there was a business park. On that business park was a large office selling a service. In that building there were many corridors and off those corridors, many doors. Behind those doors were desks, laptops, and groups of individuals all doing their bit to get the show on the road. On the third floor there was a carpeted passageway (the rest had linoleum tiles, but we won’t go there) and cited at the end of the final corridor was the office of Mr Ziegfield. Loosening his orange silk tie, Mr. Ziegfield poured himself a glass of sparkling Italian mineral water. Feeling the need to cool down, he helped himself to ice from his fridge. The iridescent large chunks entered the water and made a noise that only ice cubes can make as they join their shimmering costars in their fizzing glass of bubbles. A slice ...

  A job working from home. It’s great isn’t it, or is it?  (Published   29th March 2022  https://www.tsrn.co.uk/news/ You fill your new shiny kettle with water. It glimmers in the sunlight that is beaming in through the kitchen window as you select a favourite cafeteria. You ponder slowly over your growing selection of coffees. Choc Moch, Columbian Special, or smooth and lean coffee Italian Supreme…? So, it’s 11.30 am and you have spent the whole morning making calls. You’re doing great against your target for the day, but you feel a bit empty…be nice to have a chat with a human… right? This working from home was fun for a while but now you’re thinking of getting a parrot for company! To begin with the nine-to-five was just super dandy… in fact, it was more than that, it was so supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, you even agreed to do all the hand washing as you would now be around to peg it on the line. You did the school run, dumped the washing up in the machine, a...

  The Enlightenment: Policies and Procedures. (Article by Sonya Vukomanovic/Lawrence  – TSRN Associate - 17th November 2022) https://www.tsrn.co.uk/news/ Whilst nattering over a pleasantly scented cup of Earl Grey with my friend the other day, it suddenly came to me. What Sonya, what came to you? I hear you cry. You see something that happened to a friend touched me and has inspired me to write my little ditty below. Tabby, (not her real name of course), started a new role within a company. Tabby was gabberflasted that her new employers had no policies or procedures. Our little kitten’s mood turned black, and she was bewitched by the whole lack of structure. So, as you make your way to the photocopier with a mug of tea and a biscuit in your trouser pocket, reading this on your phone, I ask you this. Are policies and procedures something you have in place? Are they something you have discussed but just never really seriously considered? That biscuit in your pocket was designed,...