In my days before Logan Car Hire I worked on the online marketing of All Saints, Bench, Gio Goi, Hardy Amies before ot went bust and loads more fashion retailers. One of my comments to them was to build individual websites around there top selling product, an individual website that only sells that one product, I always got some funny looks but it made sense to me to put more effort into selling something that customers wanted to buy rather than trying to sell everything.

So, I was glad to hear this weekend that my tones have fallen on someone’s ears and www.whitepoloshirts.com was born.

White Polos Shirts, one of the best selling pieces of clothing every year, and now it has it’s own website. The website is still in the process of being put together but when it launches it will sell, you guessed it! White Polo Shirts.

BAA are going to use this money to clear of some of it’s £10 Billion debt.

The sale comes in the wake of a Competition Commission inquiry into BAA and especially its dominance of airports in the South East and in Scotland. The commission ruled in March that BAA had to sell Gatwick, Stansted and either Edinburgh or Glasgow airports.

BAA was careful to point out that it had unveiled plans to sell Gatwick in September 2008, before the Competition Commission published the results of its inquiry. BAA is appealing against the commission ruling.

Colin Matthews, the chief executive of BAA, said: “Gatwick and its people have long been a central part of BAA and we are proud of the airport’s development as one of the world’s leading international airports.

“BAA is changing and today’s announcement marks a new beginning for both Gatwick and BAA. We wish Gatwick well for the future and are confident that the airport will flourish under new ownership.

“BAA will focus on improving Heathrow and our other airports.”

Everything will operate as normal and if you need a car or minibus for hire then click here Gatwick Airport Car Hire

Looks like Ryanair are looking for a bank style handout, they say:

“the fund would increase Ryanair’s passengers in Scotland by 1.5 million within three to four years, compared with the extra 400,000 that it already planned.”

It might not be a bad deal for Scotland, although it would take more than Ryanair to change the tourism fortunes of some area’s in Scotland.

A better ideawould be for the Scottish Government just put a pause of airport duty and use this fund to cover the gap the airports would see. This way all airlines benefit.

This should put the travel agency at the forefront in incoming visitors minds when booking a trip to London, although Thomas Cook are more well known for out bound travel from the UK this could be a chance for them to break into the UK short market a lot more, and if this is the case £20 million isn’t that bad a deal.

I just heard this morning that Japenese game makers Nintendo are releasing a Black version of the popular Nintendo Wii system, it will be budled with Wii Sports Resort.

Coming out of the 6th November, just in time for a whole new Xmas rush.

I’ve had my Wii for a long time now, in fact I’m onto my second (don’t drop them, they don’t like it) but now that a black one is coming it I might fancy getting one for the office, there a great way to help staff relax.

They will probably be for sale at Amazon, Black Nintendo Wii at Amazon

A few months ago my friend Frank Wotherspoon setup his own designer fitted kitchen company in Irvine, Ayrshire after becoming unemployed when MFI closed there doors. I’ve know Frank for many years know and he’s always worked with well known ktichen supply companies and know he’s decided to give it ago himself.

Warwick John, Desirable Designer Kitchen: http://www.warwickjohn.com

They provide a complete kitchen installation service, from consultancy right through to installation.

I’ve used Frank and his team several times before when getting some work done on my house, they cover the whole west of Scotland and there always avalible any time to chatetc.

Give Frank a call on 01294 222502

Tell him you read about his company here and he might give you a discount

Take Care

Colin

Just about everyone I met these days is on it, not sure of the total amount of users but my 3rd Degree of networking can reach over 1 million people.

Here’s mine: http://www.linkedin.com/in/logancarhire

And here’s the companies: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/logan-car-hire

Whats great about Linkedin is that you can build a network of the people you’ve met while doing business, keep in touch and more inportant use them to extend your network to help you find the people you want to talk about your business or industry.

Linkedin added some applications a while back and I’ve been looking over them and I’m amazed at how great they are when you take a little bit of time to work them.

Tripit

What they say:

See where your entire professional network is traveling and when you will be in the same city as your colleagues. Meet up at the next industry event or re-connect with old friends. Add the My Travel application to display your current location, upcoming trips and travel stats within your network.

What I think:

Great tool, it allows you to see who’s about and when. For example you will be able to find all the people in your network visiting the World Travel Market this year.

Wordpress

What they say:

Connect your virtual lives with the WordPress LinkedIn Application. With the WordPress App, you can sync your WordPress blog posts with your LinkedIn profile, keeping everyone you know in the know. Once added, you can filter your posts with a special LinkedIn tag and even display your personal WordPress Gravatar (global avatar). Updates are automatically sent to your network for instant notifications and gratification.

What I think:

It pulls your blog posts into your Linkein profile, one less thing to update, time saving.  Fantastic Tool!

Google Presentation

What they say:

Google presentations are a professional way to introduce yourself and your work. Add a presentation to your LinkedIn profile to:

• Showcase a recent talk or presentation.
• Display a visual portfolio of your professional accomplishments.
• Introduce yourself to recruiters and professional contacts viewing your profile.

It’s easy to get started. Upload a Powerpoint file or use Google’s free online application to create your presentation, then post it to your profile for others to view.

What I think:

This lets you deliver your sales pitch to anyone that wants to view, when they want to view it. Great way to promote products and service within your Linkedin network.

Adding these applications can make your Linkein profile explode off the page, if you’re not on Linkedin give it a try.

Take Care

Colin

I managed to find 10 minutes this morning to have a look at some of the things happening around the world while thinking to myself  “Where would be better than in the office?”

Well I’ve missed Oktoberfest, and October just doesn’t seem to have that much going on, suppose everyones waiting on winter and christmas to arrive.

Anyhoo!

In Scotland we have the Scottish Cup Final, I prefer the Scottish Junior Scottish Cup myself.

In America they have the Superbowl.

In Australia they have the Melbourne Cup.

But Switzerland, it has Cow Fighting, Yes Cow Fighting.

It’s called the Combat des Reines and it’s taken seriously by the Swiss, attracting around 50,000 visitors a year.

Ok, it’s not as gruesome as it sounds the horns of these angry cows havebeen blunted and it results in more of a pushing contest and even sometimes the cows can’t be bothered to fight.

Since launching www.logancarhire.com in May this year none of us have had that much spare time, the spare time we did have we used to get married. So now that the busy summer season is over we’ve now decided to leave the comfort of our office and do a bit of networking. For us it’s really important that we help our own local economy and give our business to other local businesses to give them the local support that they need a deserve.

Ok the 1700 Club.

This is some blurb from there website: http://www.the1700club.org.uk/

The 1700 Club offers Lanarkshire businessmen and women an effective and complimentary networking meeting forum for people who are serious about growing their business.

Why use the 1700 Club?

* We meet on a fortnightly basis – a commitment we find professional business people prefer. This also represents the most effective time period for developing strong business relationships with others.

* We present an informal, relaxed but professional meeting structure – there is no pressure to pass on referrals at every meeting, we recognise that it is more beneficial to offer quality referrals on a “know, like and trust” basis.

* We provide an extension to your own business network through a group of like-minded people – your own sales force!

So…

It started around 7am this morning and takes place every two weeks, the venue is mostly always the same. I got there bright and early and was welcomed by Colin Dick of Clydeforth Promotional Products and Alex McGrouther of PMG Business Services.

After finding a seat I was offered some breakfast, coffee, juice etc which to be honest was needed to waken me up, there was around 25 people from all differant business industries from car repair to banking attending the event and everyone gets a 1 minute slot to introduce yourself and tell everyone about your business.

Car Hire isn’t really the most sexiest of businesses in the world but I let them know what Logan was all about.

It was a good first step into business networking for me and I’ll go along in 2 weeks to catch up with some of the people I got talking to.

All in all very good

Take Care

Colin

Here is the Logan Car Hire Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/logancarhire

We’ve now had the account a while know and are still unsure of the best practical use for it. At first we thought about displaying our car hire prices on Twitter but the prices change very quickly and we don’t want to upset new customers.

We’ve now decided to use our Twitter account to talk to our customers rather than annoy them with prices.  So feel free to “follow us” and if you have anything that you would like to so us do then drop us a message.

Take Care

Colin