Baldwins Omega, 50th Anniversary Dinner & Auction, 18th September 2013

Baldwins Omega are hosting a 50th anniversary dinner and auction in Aid of Sheffield Samaritans on the 18th September, 2013

The dinner speaker will be Ian McMillan, ‘The Bard of Barnsley’ and an auction compared by Michael Dowse A E Dowse & Son

Location

Baldwin’s Omega is accessed from Brincliffe Hill (which is off Psalter Lane) or from Chelsea Rise (off Chelsea Road, Brincliffe)

The address is Baldwin’s Omega, Brincliffe Hill, Off Psalter Lane, Sheffield, S11 9DF (link to Google maps)

Tickets

Tickets cost £35 per person (Tables seat 10) and the dress code is smart

Doors 6.45pm, seated for the Speaker by 7:15pm, the meal is at 8pm and carriages at 10.30pm

Booking or for more information

Baldwins Omega, Sheffield

For company and corporate bookings contact  Andrew on 07918680489 or email adenniff@brchamber.co.uk or for personal bookings contact  Julie on 0114 2696904 or email juliebeattie@fsmail.net

Entry will be by named reservation only

Menu

The Prime Yorkshire Pork Roast

Earth Day 2013 celebrated in Google doodle

Google celebrated Earth Day 2013 with a very special, interactive Google doodle this morning. The doodle features the cycle of the seasons and sees the sun and moon rise and set over the image. Users can create wind, make it rain and see animals emerge with the click of their mouse.

Google-Doodle-Earth-DayThis fantastic animation marks Earth Day, celebrated today,  April 22nd. Earth Day focuses on the importance of taking care of our environment and is celebrated throughout the world. More than a billion people take part in activities to raise awareness of environmental issues, and one of the most popular ways to celebrate the day is to plant a tree.

The 1969 oil spill that took place in Santa Barbara, California prompted US senator Gaylord Nelson to come up with the idea of Earth Day to raise awareness of environmental issues. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 and since this celebration, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Act.

Nice work Google!

5 things you must do to have a successful website!

As a Sheffield based marketing agency, we are aware that there are lots of small to medium sized businesses out there that don’t have much of a web presence. We’ve put together 5 simple but very important things you need to do to have a successful website.

Make your website mobile-compatible

Sadly, lots of small to medium sized businesses websites are not compatible with mobile devices. People are moving away from their desktops at a rapid pace, preferring to browse the internet on the go on tablets and smart phones. If your website isn’t suitable for these devices, for example, not optimised for smaller screens, you and your business are missing out on a huge audience.

Social-media-management-sheffield

Be active on social media

As we know, social media marketing is powerful tool to market your business. By not embracing social media, you are not only falling behind your competitors, but also missing out on a huge captive audience. Your social media accounts also need to be connected to your website!

Have an email link and contact number on your homepage

It is absolutely necessary to have an email link on the home page of your website for consumers to contact your business. Email is a really convenient way of getting in touch, and without a visible email address, you may be missing out on inquiries,  questions from potential customers and even sales.

It is also incredibly important to have a phone number listed on your homepage. Some questions are better answered by phone, and some people prefer to speak to an actual person as opposed to emailing.

Generating phone calls via your homepage makes customers feel comfortable, while not listing a phone number may make people question your legitimacy.

Have an inquiry form built into your website

A form-fill option on your website is a great way to allow consumers to request information. Information inquiry forms should be built into your site, connected to a CRM, an email system, and an ecommerce system. That way, the lead is not just being collected, it’s also being prepared for the business owner to communicate with and generate business via that lead.

Make sure your website is search engine optimised

What’s the point of having a website if no one can actually find it? When people visit a website, a lot of them will have found it through search engines (hopefully!) Key words are essential for being discovered on search engines. This includes keyword research and creation, on-site search engine optimisation and off-site link building. These are all important elements for driving traffic to your website; they will make your site search engine friendly, improve your website’s rankings and allow your business to gain exposure.

As a web marketing agency based in Sheffield, we know how important it is to have these points in place. If you are worried that your website isn’t working for you as well as it could do, or you are missing any of the above, don’t panic – we can help.

Contact us by telephone on 0114 383 0711, email chris@sevencreative.co.uk, or click here to fill out the contact form on our website.

Social media successes and failures

Social media marketing can be a fantastic tool for promoting your business online and marketing your brand. Done properly, social media can generate a buzz that has the power to be seen by thousands if not millions of people. On the other hand, a post that goes bottoms up has the potential to be seen globally.

Here at Seven Creative, we’ve put together a few of our favourite social media successes and fails for you amusement. Enjoy!

Social media successes

Honda’s upside down approach to social media paid off in a big way when they offered $500 to the most active Pinners on the social scrapbooking site Pinterest to take a 24 hour break from the site to promote the new CRV. Ingeniously, they called the break a ‘Pintermission’ and then asked the winners to create a board about all the activities they enjoyed on their day off. Honda reached more than 5.5 million followers of the chosen Pinterest users  with this campaign.

We love the chocolate Facebook thumbs up created by Cadbury too. And no, not just because it looks delicious! Constructed as a Thank you to their fans, a real time video feed of the construction process drove massive fan engagement and resulted in a huge quarter of a million people actively involved in the campaign. They also gained an extra 40,000 fans! I wonder how many more they would have gained if they’d promoted a competition to win the giant choccy hand??!

Cadbury-Facebook-Thumbs-Up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social media mega-fails

McDonalds dropped a real clanger with their social media activity which resulted in their campaign being terminated within just two hours. Using the hashtag #McDStories, Twitter users were ‘supposed’ to share heart warming anecdotes about their McDonalds experience. Instead,  tweets about food poisoning, fingernails found in burgers and chicken nugget horror stories went viral. Well, we could have predicted that!

American Apparel’s Hurricane Sandy promotion backfired spectacularly after it offered customers 20% in an email stating “In case you’re bored during the storm, 20% off everything for the next 36 hours.” In reality, those 36 hours turned out to be devastating, with more than 130 deaths, 4 million with no power and billions in damage. American Apparrel apologised saying the campaign came from a good place. Too late, damage done!

Australia’s SellItOnline.com said that it would donate money to Tasmania’s bush fire crisis, but only if people liked its Facebook page. Understandably, an angry fan responded, “Don’t take advantage of this situation. If you’re for real, donate through the right sources. Don’t manipulate social media for your own benefit.” Another wrote, “F*** off with your opportunist marketing trying to take advantage of other people’s tradegy. If you were a decent company you’d just be putting a message up saying you were donating x amount and earning some kudos.” Mmm you’ve got to see their point……

If you’re struggling with social media, and would like some advice on setting up and or managing your businesses social media accounts, Seven Creative can help. We offer a social media set up service, social media management packages, and even regular social media workshops in Sheffield. Contact us on 0114 383 0711, email chris@sevencreative.co.uk or contact us through our website.

Make a Will with David Price and Buchanan & Co Solicitors

No one really wants to think about it do they? We all know we need to make a Will, but the truth is, only 30% of the population actually have done so. It’s easy to tell yourself that making a Will is a job for the future, or to believe that nothing will happen to you so it won’t be needed. Some people even put it off because they see it as morbid.

If you’re one of those people that keep pushing making a will down your list of priorities, it’s time to face the facts. If you die without making a will, someone else decides where your estate goes – NOT YOU!


Sheffield will writerMaking a Will is absolutely essential in making sure that your wishes are met after you die. It can also prevent you from paying unnecessary taxes. We all have final wishes and a Will is the best way to put your final affairs in order.

Making a will is also the only way to make sure that your family and friends, and the causes close to your heart, receive what you think and hope that they should receive from your estate.

 

What is a Will?

  • A Will is a legal document which gives effect to the wishes of an individual (the testator if male, the testatrix if female) about how they would like their estate distributed after their death
  • The Will appoints legal representatives (executors) who are responsible for dealing with the deceased estate.
  • The will also give’s instructions about how the estate should be distributed.

Why should I make a Will?

  • You can be sure that your savings and your possessions will be left to the people you love and care for.
  • You can remove any uncertainty among your family about where your savings and possessions are left, avoiding confusion and possible disputes between your relatives.
  • Making a will may help to reduce the amount of tax you have to pay to the government.

What happens if I die and I haven’t made a Will?

  • Your Estate will take a much longer time to distribute than it would if you had made a Will, and it will cost a lot more to do so.
  • If you do not have a spouse or any blood relatives, your entire estate will go to the Taxman.
  • If you do have blood relatives or a spouse, they will have to apply to the courts to administer your Estate. This is a far more lengthy and costly process than if you had written a Will, and your Inheritance Tax bill could be higher.
  • Without a will, you may be subject to age related costs.
  • If you have children under 18, and the other parent is also dead, then without a Will you have given up the right to decide who looks after them.
  • If you have a partner to whom you are not married, he/she will get nothing from your estate even if you have been together for 50 years or more and lives with you.
  • The Government effectively writes a Will for you. 

How do I go about making a Will?

  • Homemade Wills, or ‘over-the-counter’ templates available in many shops, can lead to expensive problems that sometimes cannot be rectified. Important details can be left out, or the Will could be invalid or lead to unexpected tax bills, for example.
  • Dealing with these issues may demand professional advice and can cause a lot of distress for those involved.
  • We would therefore always recommend obtaining the advice of a solicitor or a professionally trained Will writer.

To get in touch with a professional will writer with years of experience, contact Dave Price at Buchanan Solicitors on 07920008170. He will Insure, to Ensure your family are Secure!

How do I change my Outlook email account to use SSL?

SSL is an encryption method for sending emails and will help avoid the emails you send being seen by unintended recipients.

It stands for Secure Socket Layer and this quick tutorial will show you how to configure Outlook to send using the SSL method.

The example below uses Outlook 2007, however, this will still apply to similar version of this email client.

Remember, making changes to your Outlook settings may result in you not being able to collect or send email any more so if you’re not 100% sure what you’re doing, please get help from an expert

1. Open Outlook

2. Select ‘Tools’ then ‘Account settings’

Select 'Tools' then 'Account settings'

Select ‘Tools’ then ‘Account settings’

3. Highlight the email account you need to change and press the ‘change’ button

Highlight the email account you need to change and press the 'change' button

Highlight the email account you need to change and press the ‘change’ button

4. Select ‘more settings’

Select 'more settings'

Select ‘more settings’

5. From the ‘Internet email settings’ dialogue box, select the ‘advanced’ tab

From the 'Internet email settings' dialogue box, select the 'advanced' tab

From the ‘Internet email settings’ dialogue box, select the ‘advanced’ tab

6. Tick the box that says ”the server requires an encrypted connection’

Tick the box that says ''the server requires an encrypted connection'

Tick the box that says ”the server requires an encrypted connection’

7. Choose your required type of encryption from the drop-down box

Choose your required type of encryption from the drop-down box

Choose your required type of encryption from the drop-down box

8. Click ‘OK’ then ‘next’ on the ‘Internet email settings’ page, then ‘finish’

9. If your email account is not able to send emails, follow the steps 1 to 5 again then try changing your incoming port to 995 and your Outgoing port to 587, then step 8. If this doesn’t work you can follow steps 1 to 5 then select ‘restore defaults’, then step 8

If your email account is not able to send emails, follow the steps 1 to 5 again then try changing your incoming port to 995 and your Outgoing port to 587, then step 8. If this doesn't work you can follow steps 1 to 5 then select 'restore defaults', then step 8

If your email account is not able to send emails, follow the steps 1 to 5 again then try changing your incoming port to 995 and your Outgoing port to 587, then step 8. If this doesn’t work you can follow steps 1 to 5 then select ‘restore defaults’, then step 8

How to reset your Zen Cart ecommerce admin password manually

Disclaimer and warning: manually editing your Zen Cart database runs the risk of corrupting your site and losing everything so only attempt this if you’re confident you know what you’re doing and are happy to take the risk. This tutorial is intended as a quick guide and relates for standard Zen Cart installations only. If you have any concerns or are not experienced with PHP MyAdmin, MD5 hashes or editing a database, please ask an expert to do this for you instead. We can’t be held responsible for anything that might go wrong as a result of attempting to fix this yourself.

If you’d prefer us to manually reset your Zen cart password, get in touch.

If you’re using Zen Cart and lose your password, for whatever reason, and the ‘resend password’ option isn’t working, it is possible to manually reset your password directly through the database.

Here is how you do it:

  1. Log in to your Zen Cart database using PHP MyAdmin
  2. Find the ‘admin’ table
  3. Replace the MD5 hash with the following: 351683ea4e19efe34874b501fdbf9792:9b
  4. Go back to the login page on your Zen Cart site and login again using the password ‘admin’

Once you’re logged in to your site again you’ll need to reset the password straight away to something more secure. Good luck!

More information on Zen Cart passwords

An MD5 hash is an algorithm generally to encrypt a password. This algorithm is one-way meaning you can’t de-encrypt the phrase or word from the hash.

There are, however, several openly available databases allowing you to look up an MD5 hash to find the corresponding word or phrase so this is why it’s very important to choose a complicated string when you pick your password. All the commonly occurring words and common passwords can be easily found but a password that is long, unique and complex will be almost impossible to discover.

Long, complex passwords are, however, not very user friendly for us humans so many people still decide to go against the advice and choose something simple for their password so one way to get round this problem is by using a ‘salt’

A ‘salt’ is a word or phrase that is combined with the required password to create the MD5 hash. When you log into your website, this is how the site checked you’ve entered the right password:

  1. Combines what you’ve entered in the ‘password’ field with the predefined ‘salt’
  2. Creates an MD5 hash from this combination
  3. Compares this hash with the correct password hash stored in the database
  4. Match means the password is correct

Let us know if you need any help with your Zen Cart passwords

 

 

Save money with ready-made UK legal documents and contracts

UK law legal documents available for download

UK law legal documents available for download

Did you know you can save hundreds of pounds on contracts and other legal documents by simply buying ready-made off-the-shelf versions?

All these documents are written by experienced UK lawyers and are up-to-date according to the most recent UK law.

The use of legal jargon is kept to a minimum and all the documents are easy to edit and adapt.

Simply pick your document you need, download it then add the specific information that relates to your business such as your company numbers, and registered address. Net Law Man will even provide you with support if you have a question!

Visit Net Lawman today for more information

UK law legal documents available for download

UK law legal documents available for download

Here are examples of the popular contracts available for download:

UK law legal documents available for download

UK law legal documents available for download

UK companies contracts, documents and agreements

UK business partnerships contracts, documents and agreements

UK website legal documents, contracts and agreements

UK commerce and business contracts, documents and agreements

UK sales contracts, documents and agreements

UK self employment contracts, documents and agreements

UK unincorporated associations contracts, documents and agreements

UK business expansion contracts, documents and agreements

UK Employing staff (employment) contracts, documents and agreements

UK protecting ideas and IP contracts, documents and agreements

UK selling your business contracts, documents and agreements

 

UK law legal documents available for download

UK law legal documents available for download

Fantastic testimonials from our social media and SEO workshops

social media management in sheffieldSince holding our very first search engine optimisation and social media workshops last week, we’ve been thrilled to receive some fantastic testimonials from those who attended.

“Thanks very much for the information I gathered at the social media review last week, I must say I came along with the usual reservations that you have about whether the whole thing might be very ‘techy and geekified’ and not relevant to our market, but it was brilliant.

Excellent practical advice that was superbly delivered and will be a benefit to me in my day to day work. I really got a great amount out of the day. The training was excellent; I would highly recommend Seven Creative to others.

The SEO and social media review was informative and most importantly relevant, with plenty of information given. Any business that did not take you up on this fantastic social media review is really missing a trick, now all I have to do is get off my backside and put your wonderful advice into action!”

Brain Drury, Blue Funk Hypnosis

“Thankyou for inviting me along to one your internet marketing seminars, it was very enjoyable and informative, and done in  such an informal way that I’m sure put everyone who attended at ease, whether computer literate or not.

After listening to your team it soon became apparent, not only how much opportunity social media can offer companies in gaining new business, but also how well Seven Creative understands these markets and how to use them to your clients’ advantage.

I would recommend anyone to take advantage of your future workshops, as it won’t cost them anything to do so and will surely help them understand where social media fits into business and how it can help them drive more traffic towards their business.”

Simon Platt, Utility Warehouse Authorised Distributer

Don’t forget, we’ll keep you posted on future social media and search engine optimisation workshops in Sheffield – watch this space! If you would like to find out more about our social media management packages or our SEO packages, please call the Seven Creative team in the office on 0114 383 0711 or contact us via our website.