At Hold Everything, the virtual office company based on London’s prestigious Regent Street, we are very much aware that Christmas is coming, with increased volumes of mail already being received, from those early cards to the small corporate gifts that get sent out at this time to clients.
With December only 4 days away, the festive lights are already shining. To make sure you beat the festive rush and get all your letters and parcels in the post on time, here is our go to advice to ensure all your presents arrive in time for Christmas day.
Here at Hold Everything we rely heavily on the Royal Mail to deliver our clients correspondence to us at our Regent Street office so we can send the mail back out to them in good time. With the rush of Christmas and the Royal Mail being inundated with post and packages below are the cut off dates to which they advise you get all your bits and pieces posted by:
To send via 2nd class and signed for 2nd class latest date to post is Tuesday 18th
To send via 1st class, signed for 1st class and Royal Mail Tracked 48hrs the latest date to post is Thursday 20th December
To send via Royal Mail Tracked 24hrs the latest date to post is Friday 21st
To send via Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed the latest date will be 22nd
Prices will vary on the above services dependent on how heavy and big your item is. We also suggest that whatever you may be sending is packaged well with padding if necessary as the post can go through quite a rough handling process and a well-protected parcel will help the contents survive the distance.
We do have an alternative suggestion to the Royal Mail (not that there is anything wrong with it) but when Christmas is upon us and there are so many festives going on sometimes little things slip our minds and we forget to send a present, so instead of rushing to the post office to que with everyone else, Hold Everything offers a courier service with extremely competitive prices available for both next day UK and International shipments. Sending your items via courier has many advantages such as:
By using a courier there is no size limit to the parcel
Increased liability- Couriers are extremely reliable and will get your delivery from A to B quickly
Safe & secure transportation
Proof of signature as proof of delivery- no qualms
Quick UK next day delivery
Can be tracked easily
So whether it’s a card or that amazing gift you have to send to whether it be a loved one abroad or an old friend in the UK, make sure you get it off on time!
Lunch at the Desk and Onboarding Strategy.
Monday, 01 October 2018 09:30
Richard Cooper
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Over the past 2 weeks we have been looking at various aspects of office life in our weekly news report on our YouTube channel. It led me to thinking about how the results of different surveys could in some way be connected in the way human resources function in small businesses today. In a video report the other week we looked at poor practices in ‘Onboarding’ for new employees. Onboarding is the process of getting new hires adjusted to the social and performance aspects of their new jobs quickly and smoothly. It is the process through which new hires learn the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviours required to function effectively within an organisation.
Studies have indicated that many companies fail at the very first step in onboarding process by not following up after the job offer has been made and accepted. The jobs market is quite competitive at the moment so if a company does manage to find the talent they need and spend time and money doing so they should make the new sign up feel a part of the company culture as quickly as possible. Often this does not happen and HR departments sit hopefully waiting for the new employee to turn up on the day specified without any problems at all. Then they are shocked to find that he/she has been pilfered away by a competitor before they even arrive for their first morning. Even if the employee does turn up, many companies make a hash of the whole integration procedure leaving the employee feeling unwanted/neglected or just downright confused over their role in the organisation. This can waste a lot of money and put the HR department back to square one.
This brings me to my second point which we outline in our latest news report. Here we look at a survey where more than half UK employees remain stuck at their desks through the lunch hour. Some of them, certainly, are enjoying social media or reading the news but the majority are simply working when they should be stretching their legs and getting nourishing food to activate their brains for the second half of the day.
You only have to contrast this with way companies such as Google or Facebook treat their employees. You can see the sorts of companies that top the list in Glassdoors list of best companies to work for. Google, Facebook, Anglian Water etc.. you can be certain that thesae companies are absolutely brilliant at onboarding new recruits and making them feel at home from the moment the job offer is accepted. Google is famous for its great catering and recreation facilities – this is a business strategy designed to entice and retain worthwhile talent. Whilst it is not always possible for a small company to provide ‘Google’ style facilities I am certain that a small move in this direction could pay enormous dividends in staff loyalty and efficiency.
TfL is Bullish Over Build to Rent Business Model.
Tuesday, 18 September 2018 09:38
Richard Cooper
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We are going through troubled times in the residential property market as Buy to Let empires sell off their assets in a stagnant marketplace. Brexit is on the horizon and nobody has any real sense of what will happen to residential property after March 2019. For a long time now London has been supported by an international financial community competing for rental properties around the capital. London’s transport authority TFL have decided to jump in the direction of ‘build to rent’ using their formidable stock of existing land and buildings across the town. They plan to build a substantial number of rental units above underground stations which were certainly be ‘convenient for travel’. More importantly it will give TfL a guaranteed income stream into the future which will enable it to invest in the travel infrastructure . We discuss this move in our latest video report..
Apparently, a number of these proposed rental units will be reserved for ‘affordable housing which represents useful payback to the London commuters. Our Capital is hosting London Fashion Week which is always a stress test for our transport network with industry professional rushing around London for Catwalk Shows and wannabe fashionistas pouring into Oxford Circus and Knightsbridge to buy their Autumn season outfits. We are aware of this increased footfall outside our offices right there on London’s Regent Street and we feel, as always, there at the beating heart of London’s business centre.
Upgrading Business Technology is an Ongoing Process.
Wednesday, 05 September 2018 10:38
Richard Cooper
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Many companies hesitate to make major changes to their existing business infrastructure. I know of many otherwise astute organisations who procrastinate about changing methods that are time-honoured and familiar. It must be remembered, however, that the world is moving forward at a startling pace and systems that worked well and felt cutting edge back in 2008 are no longer so effective or agile in 2018.
The most important change in office tech during the last decade has been the development of ‘Cloud software’ that moves the software from your own hard drive into a shared server in cyber space. This has been driven by moves forwards by two important acronyms – ERP and saas, namely ‘enterprise resource software’ and ‘software as a service’. Both of these systems are normal based in the cloud and are therefore updated on a continual basis and provide the level of enterprise redundancy that would have been unattainable 15 years ago. This factor, combined with economies of scale have driven many companies to move onto a cloud platform for all their regular business tasks.
We have accompanied this post with a video showing how these upgrades can work to enhance your business and link in smoothly with remote workforces and virtual offices. We will shortly produce a video on how you can upgrade your CRM to better serve your customer base.
Looking at Your Concerns about Virtual Office #2
Saturday, 28 July 2018 18:53
Richard Cooper
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In our previous blog post we looked some the concerns potential clients have raised such as ‘team spirit’ and controlling a remote workforce. We have shown these fears to be unfounded. In this video we look at other issues, especially concerns about suburban or provincial phone numbers when running your business from home. Once again, a virtual office is a perfect solution since at hold everything we answer your telephone calls in a professional manner, carefully screening callers for you as you have instructed our team to do.
All in all, we have found that clients and business associates look very favourably on companies that use a modern set up with a virtual office. They can see that you are a smart operator and not willing to throw working capital around on heavy office rents. In fact they will view you as a sound and reliable business partner. So, if you been worrying on how potential clients will view your office structure you can relax, an office on London’s Regent Street will make you look really businesslike.
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