Unlike other workspaces, Central is membership based. We want to create a place that really listens to its members and a place that offers everything you could need for working when you are not in “your office”, whatever that means to you.

Because we’re on the high street we’re easy to find and we want to be where you need us to be.

Uniquely we offer everything from stationery and printing to a lovely sandwich and a nice cuppa as well as beautiful meeting rooms and a inspiring place to work.

In fact, to make sure we do create your ideal environment, we’d like to invite you to get involved with our development.

We will be opening our first site in London in April 2011 so please share your thoughts on how you work and what you need to help make sure Central is just how it should be.

Get involved at www.facebook.com/centralworking

Or just follow or progress here @centralworking

1. Traditional Landlines – you can get a BT landline installed, and then set up a contract with a landline provider. However, the desk phones (the handsets themselves) can be very expensive and setting them up on an internal network requires an engineer. Plus it is BT, and they have taken over 3 months to get round to our internet!

2. VOIP – Voice Over Internet Protocol. Setting up phones that use your internet connection to make calls, but they work and look like a traditional desk phones. However, again the handsets we found were prohibitively expensive too.

3. Mobile Phones – setting up a business mobile phone contract with multiple handsets and the minutes to be shared amongst the team.

4. Skype – Though they have launched their “business” product it is only available on PC, which is a shame as we are all on Macs and all Macs have a built in camera. To us, consumer Skype is just not any where near good enough to do the job.

After weighing up these options, we went with option 3 – mobile phones to be used in the office. They aren’t carried around by the team, so will suffer from minimal wear and tear. They can move with us if we move office, and they don’t require a landline to be installed or any other major inconvenience. Additionally the handsets are free of charge with most contracts, and will be upgraded each year. Also, many offer free calls to UK landlines which is great for office use!

Interestingly, we found the best deals are in fact on consumer tariffs so if you only need 1 or 2 handsets don’t set up a business contract. For some reason the business tariffs offer very little benefit in comparison to their consumers cousins. However, for any more than 2 handsets it is just much simpler, despite the price hike, to set up a business contract with your provider so you do not have multiple direct debits and bills to address each month.

All in all we think that their is a business opportunity here. For a mobile Telco to produce consumer style tariffs for business! Come on networks sort it out.

Before starting, list all the potential objections you imagine you could come up against (e.g. “We already have a supplier for this”) and then list your possible replies. This will ensure you won’t get cut short at the first objection.

Replies which are a question will help to open up the conversation. E.g. “Does your current supplier look after xx for you?”

2. Ask don’t pitch

When speaking to potential prospects, don’t just concentrate on pushing your pitch and hoping for interest at the end.
Asking lots of questions will not only involve the prospect into a more natural two way dialogue in which they feel involved and in control, you will be able to adapt your sell points to fit their comments.

3. It’s not all about cold calling

Whilst picking up the phone and speaking to your potential customers is the quickest way of making progress and getting a thorough understanding of their needs and wants, don’t underestimate the power of email.
An email that has a personal tone of voice, and is totally targeted to the person you are contacting can cut through gate keepers and capture the attention of even the busiest person.

Lastly, don’t be coy!

Don’t hold back in telling potential prospects which other companies you have sold your services to previously (if the companies are recognisable names to the prospect). It is one of the quickest ways to establish yourself in their mind as worthy of their attention and money.

Inside specialise in understanding their clients’ ethos, offering and customers better than any other business development service, and subsequently deliver significantly better results.

Experts from all over the world for together to discuss the future of marketing and communication in a round table conference. The following day they presented their findings to the special guests who attended, which was live broadcasted through Ustream.

Fun was had by all, even though the hotel they stayed in was a converted prison!

Make sure you visit www.internetweekeurope.com for more info as most events need an RSVP before hand – we’ll certainly be attending a few of them.

There is also an opportunity to set up your own event so that you can promote your company to a diverse digital industry crowd. Just click on the ‘Get involved’ tab under Events on their homepage to find out how.

EIS is not the silver bullet to achieve investment, but in many cases it will help when dealing with business angels. It is worth noting that EIS can only be claimed by individuals not connected to the company and is limited for individual investors to a % threshold.

Key benefits to investors is that they are able to claim income tax relief equal to 20% of their investment that tax year or on the proceeding year, though shares must be held for 3 years. Shares will qualify for CGT (capital gains tax) after this period, and  if shares are sold for a profit no CGT is payable. If shares are sold at a loss then the investor can claim in that year (or preceding) to offset the amount of loss less the income tax relief already claimed against their tax liability.

Work through the details and take professional advice where needed, but EIS can make a hugely positive difference when pitching the business.

The following points may help you with your application:

1. Have you read ‘excluded activities’ – does your business fall into any of them? http://bit.ly/cZVelB

2. Question if an excluded activity really does apply to your business – if it does potentially tweak your model, don’t be precious. If it’s the difference between having investment or not it’s worthwhile.

3. Play fair with the taxman. You are under onus to tell him all the information and they will constantly review you to ensure you are meeting the rules over a three year period.

4. You will need a business plan & incorporation details to send add your prospectus if you have one.

5. In your letter outline the business, and why you believe it will qualify from a layman’s perspective.

6. If you know of a competitor doing a similar business reference them in your letter – it all helps.

7. Be clear on what your funds will be used for.

8. Include projections of sales in your business outline.

9. Send your application recorded delivery – so you can track and have proof of delivery http://bit.ly/d7KwmA – we didn’t and had to wait an extra two months.

10. HMRC EIS team are all senior people and in our experience generally turn the applications round with an answer in 15 days.

Take a look at this link for more information: http://bit.ly/8Yq24T

Good luck!

We now have a working title that you can keep your eyes peeled for: “Future Tycoon”.

Check back for more details which will follow soon.

They are simply the iPad and Evernote, www.evernote.com. The iPad I’m sure you will have heard of, Evernote – perhaps not. Basically Evenote transforms your iPad from a very pretty way to read a book, watch a film, or read an email, into a complete replacement for your notebook. So goodbye Moleskine, goodbye pen. All of my notes are now taken straight on my iPad. Your notes are then searchable. Can you imagine next time you want to find info about that meeting you had you don’t have to scrabble through notebooks, you just type in key words or a date and bingo you have the notes. Couple that with the fact that it is all synchronised with your iPhone, and Mac (I think it works with PC’s and other phones).  It is fantastic. It is my to do list, and helps me keep track of everything I’m planning to do as well as everything I need my teams to do.

Check out the ipad at http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/

Check out evernote at http://www.evernote.com/

It is all kicking off at their annual conference next week, with Levi Roots appearing as guest speaker to get everyone in the mood. Levi found fame on Dragon’s Den with his Reggae Reggae Sauce.

Lucky employees of Pernod Ricard UK – there are some pretty amazing prizes to be won!