Author: Alan Shaw

The Club welcomed visitors from Burton BC on a pleasant summer’s evening and enjoyed a historic tour of Lichfield with a very knowledgeable guide from the Tourist Information Office. The group is pictured here outside the Guildhall where we found out about more of the history of the city, especially the ancient dungeons and tales about renowned ghosts. Fascinating!

Networking Events
There is another mega-networking event at the Copthorne Hotel in Dudley on Tuesday 21st September, 7.15-10.00pm, attended by most other Business Clubs in the area. Newly attending this year will be representatives from Worcester BC. The fee of £12 includes a hot and cold buffet.
Another networking breakfast meeting is being held in Walsall on 9th September, costing £8 per head.
Solihull BC have just announced plans for an open networking meeting in October - details awaited.
Burton Winning Business Exhibition 2004
On Wednesday 8th September there is the above exhibition that is accompanied by 23 free marketing, sales and business skills workshops - organized on behalf of, and subsidized by, East Staffordshire Borough Council. The exhibition opening times are 10am to 7 pm at the Meadowside Leisure Centre, Burton upon Trent. Purchasing managers of 20 local organizations will also be available for short interviews but this will cost you £30. To register, you need to call:
Tel: 020 7700 0008
Chair & Membership Secretary - Debbie Baker- Thomas 01543 308621
Vice Chair and Treasurer –Chris Edwards - 01543 263915
Newsletter and Club Programme –Alan Shaw - 01889 584147
Social Secretary – Sandra Booth - 01785 353808
Member – Andy Laverick – 08707 456280
Secretary – Warren Bradley – 01543 472747

August Social…

Other Information

Despatches

2004 Club Programme
1st September - Teamwork Challenge, to test the ability of members to work together in a team
6th October - Business Accounting and Taxation
3rd November - AGM plus Lichfield Festival
1st December - Social - Xmas Party
2005
5th January - Business Topic
2nd February - Personal Development
2nd March - Local Interest
6th April - Social
4th May - Business Topic
1st June - Personal Development

Lichfield District Business Club Newsletter

August 2004

This story can fit 150-200 words.
One benefit of using your newsletter as a promotional tool is that you can reuse content from other marketing materials, such as press releases, market studies, and reports.
While your main goal of distributing a newsletter might be to sell your product or service, the key to a successful newsletter is making it useful to your readers.
A great way to add useful content to your newsletter is to develop and write your own articles, or include a calendar of upcoming events or a special offer that promotes a new product.
You can also research articles or find “filler” articles by accessing the World Wide Web. You can write about a variety of topics but try to keep your articles short.
Much of the content you put in your newsletter can also be used for your Web site. Microsoft Publisher offers a simple way to convert your newsletter to a Web publication. So, when you’re finished writing your newsletter, convert it to a Web site and post it.

This story can fit 75-125 words.
Selecting pictures or graphics is an important part of adding content to your newsletter.
Think about your article and ask yourself if the picture supports or enhances the message you’re trying to convey. Avoid selecting images that appear to be out of context.
Microsoft Publisher includes thousands of clip art images from which you can choose and import into your newsletter. There are also several tools you can use to draw shapes and symbols.
Once you have chosen an image, place it close to the article. Be sure to place the caption of the image near the image.

This story can fit 100-150 words.
The subject matter that appears in newsletters is virtually endless. You can include stories that focus on current technologies or innovations in your field.
You may also want to note business or economic trends, or make predictions for your customers or clients.
If the newsletter is distributed internally, you might comment upon new procedures or improvements to the business. Sales figures or earnings will show how your business is growing.
Some newsletters include a column that is updated every issue, for instance, an advice column, a book review, a letter from the president, or an editorial. You can also profile new employees or top customers or vendors.

This story can fit 150-200 words.
One benefit of using your newsletter as a promotional tool is that you can reuse content from other marketing materials, such as press releases, market studies, and reports.
While your main goal of distributing a newsletter might be to sell your product or service, the key to a successful newsletter is making it useful to your readers.
A great way to add useful content to your newsletter is to develop and write your own articles, or include a calendar of upcoming events or a special offer that promotes a new product.
You can also research articles or find “filler” articles by accessing the World Wide Web. You can write about a variety of topics but try to keep your articles short.
Much of the content you put in your newsletter can also be used for your Web site. Microsoft Publisher offers a simple way to convert your newsletter to a Web publication. So, when you’re finished writing your newsletter, convert it to a Web site and post it.

This story can fit 75-125 words.
Selecting pictures or graphics is an important part of adding content to your newsletter.
Think about your article and ask yourself if the picture supports or enhances the message you’re trying to convey. Avoid selecting images that appear to be out of context.
Microsoft Publisher includes thousands of clip art images from which you can choose and import into your newsletter. There are also several tools you can use to draw shapes and symbols.
Once you have chosen an image, place it close to the article. Be sure to place the caption of the image near the image.

This story can fit 100-150 words.
The subject matter that appears in newsletters is virtually endless. You can include stories that focus on current technologies or innovations in your field.
You may also want to note business or economic trends, or make predictions for your customers or clients.
If the newsletter is distributed internally, you might comment upon new procedures or improvements to the business. Sales figures or earnings will show how your business is growing.
Some newsletters include a column that is updated every issue, for instance, an advice column, a book review, a letter from the president, or an editorial. You can also profile new employees or top customers or vendors.

With so much digital photographic equipment around these days - and the wide availability of vast numbers of other images on CD (eg MS Office XP) - it is not surprising that people want to make good use of these in other applications. Today we’ll look at manipulating images only in MS Word.
Whatever the format of the image (jpeg, psp, gif, clipart), rather than inserting the chosen image directly into a Word document, first create a text box in the size, shape and position where you want your image to be. With the cursor flashing in the text box, insert the image (using the Insert->Picture command). The image will appear at roughly the size of the original text box but will change its shape to suit the image. You can then reposition and/or re-size the image and text box to suit exactly how you want it to appear. You can then format the text box (using Format->Textbox commands) to create one of many different styles and colours of border, or you can completely remove the border from around the image (click on text box border - ie as the arrow cursor changes to cross-hairs - then use Format->Textbox->Line Colour->No fill).
If you want a series of images linked to some explanatory text for each image (eg holiday snaps summary, a photo album or a training manual), you can insert your sequence of pictures into the cells of a Word table. By initially adjusting the size, position, rows and columns to suit your intended purpose , what you’ll find then when you insert the images is that (mostly) they will behave and co-operate nicely and they will fit well into your table. You can then make any fine adjustments to your document as above. Removing image outlines or borders this time requires that you highlight the table and simply click on the toolbar image for removing lines from the table.

Lichfield Business Village
The Friary
Lichfield WS13 6QG

Lichfield District Business Club Newsletter

Phone: 01543 308620
Fax: 01543 308622
Email: hawthornes@lichfield.biz

Promoting interaction in local business

In a nutshell … Club members’ businesses

Alan Shaw set up Carshaw Management and Quality Services over 17 years ago to focus upon improving workplace performance in organisations. These improvements range from management systems to business processes, to team and individual performance and to overall improvements in productivity.
Alan tends to work with larger organisations and is renowned for providing a highly competent professional service.
He is an independently accredited management systems consultant and has implemented dozens of high performance systems for a broad range of client organisations across the UK.
Alan can be contacted on:
Tel: 01889 584147
Warren Bradley set up his consultancy company H R Performance Solutions Ltd in March 2001 following a long career in personnel management at senior levels . It offers 3 main streams of advice and support:
To small and medium sized businesses on drawing up employment contracts and employee handbooks, developing effective personnel policies, designing communication strategies, planning selection and recruitment, sourcing staff, and team and management coaching. Providing outplacement services to redundant employees including CV writing, interview skilling, and help with seeking effective routes back into the job market. Helping entrepreneurs with their start-up businesses through the services of Business Enterprise Support Ltd in Burton.
Warren is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and works from Yoxall, and can be contacted on: Tel: 01543 472747
Online shopping spree
The number of online credit card purchases has increased five-fold in the last five years and now represents 10% of all credit card spending. Twenty two million Internet users now shop or bank online, with men more likely to do so than women.
According to the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) the most popular web purchases are books, followed by CDs, travel, computer equipment, financial services and groceries.
This increase coincides with the significant three-fold upturn in the use of the Internet as reported by Offwat.
http://www.apacs.org.uk

The Club is sponsored by Lloyds TSB, Barclays, SULC and Lichfield District Council

Despatches

Business Topic of the Month - Manipulating Images in Word

Visit your Club web-site at
www.lichfieldbusinessclub.com - it exists to help you

www.lichfieldbusinessclub.com

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