John's Business Thoughts

Our benevolent dictator John Sollars was recently asked to speak at the Internet Retail Expo in Birmingham and came up with a cracking presentation entitled "Every Recession has a Silver Lining" in which John talks about his adventures in business and the lessons he has learnt from running his own business. The nice people at IRX have put the video online, which you can view here: Back in...

The  Toy Retailers Association (TRA) have released their top twenty 'must have' toys for this Christmas.  Topping the list is a dog that defecates and  doll that lives in a hydration tank to stay constantly moisturised, but it also includes favourites such as Fireman Sam, Elmo and a Nerf gun – the Vortex Nitron Blaster. The TRA said most of the products on the toy industry's official list of...

Startup Britain - What’s it all about?When the call came through, “Do you want to join the Startup Britain bus tour?”, my immediate reaction was, “What’s that all about?”.  Having not heard anything about it I decided that as I was now going to be on the bus, I’d better find out more. Startup Britain is part of the coalition government’s plans to revitalise the private sector in the UK.  After...

The iPad is a ‘magical and revolutionary’ (apple.com/ipad) product for the 21st century. It is thin, it is light, has a multitouch function and more applications than there will ever be time to talk about. I have now been using an iPad for six months and have only begun to scratch the surface of what this device is capable of. It is designed to appeal to a wide audience, as the adverts show it...

A recent study by Brigham Young University revealed that by adopting a mix of flexi time and home telecommuting employees were likely to work up to two days per week more than in a traditional office environment. The researchers analysed data from 24,436 IBM employees in 75 countries, identifying the point at which 25 per cent of employees reported that work interfered with personal and family...

Social Networking – A conundrum for E-Commerce? PLEASE DO NOT DIGG THIS ARTICLE! We are all aware of Social Networking sites – the likes of Bebo, Facebook et al, and if like me you run an e-commerce website you have probably been trying to think of ways that you can benefit from the Phenomenon that is Social Networking. I suppose Friends Reunited was the forerunner of Social Networking...

Stinkyink recognised by Investors in People. Today 29th of August 2007, Stinkyink.Com was awarded the prestigious Investors in People(IIP) award. A Delighted Managing Director John Sollars said 'Investors in people is a challenge for any small business, it is an acknowledgment that the company and its people are working together to a common goal, and that they both benefit from the measures...

New research by the British Chambers of Commerce has discovered that small and medium sized businesses (SME’s) could be seeing over £2.5 million of post being delayed by each postal strike. Using information from the Postcomm report 2006 Competitive Market Review, the BCC has ascertained that SME’s send 8,219,178 items per day through franking machines. With post run through a franking...