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Blimey £250 - £300 saving!!

Right that's definitely spurred me into action, the challenge is on 

Apparently car insurance premiums have been falling, although as with all things in the UK it depends on where you live, with London folk seeing the highest premiums.

Years ago I used to religiously shop around every year looking for the best deal, then ended up with direct line who seemed to be the cheapest.

After a couple of years of not being able to beat their price I stopped shopping around and became one of the auto renew generation  Always meaning to shop around, but never getting round to it, and normally use the excuse of being too busy.

So this years is now due, and with the news of allegedly falling premiums, and rumours that direct line isn't as competitive as it once was (does anyone go to a broker any more?), maybe it's time to have a serious shop around and maybe save a few quid.

I suppose in the age of price comparison websites there's no excuse now. Or maybe you use a particular insurance company for a reason, ie because you have previous good experience in dealing with a claim which is more important than saving a few quid? After all, we know if there's a way to get out of paying they will 

Has anyone else fallen into the annual auto-renew trap? Blaming time and being busy for lack of proper research, or is it just me?

I suppose the same could be said for all insurance, home, office etc...

For an Island race, it seems incredible and sad that the last commercial shipyard in Scotland has just gone into receivership. There are still BAE run shipyards, but these are for Military orders.

I suppose there is the argument of economics, and ship building in the UK isn't competitive compared to developing economies where resource is cheaper. But why can't we compete with European shipyards?

It's not like closing a furniture factory is it. All that technical expertise and historical experience will be lost forever, and you can't just set up a new shipyard when you need one.

So if for whatever reason we needed to scale up our ship building and start to increase our dwindling merchant fleet, contracts would end up going overseas.

I'm not a fan of subsidising failing industries with tax payers money, but sometimes I wonder if there should be an exception, or at least until we can find (or buy in from abroad) the right CEO who can turn things round.

Why can't we run a successful shipyard? Why haven't we got a British owned car industry? Why did it take the Indian Tata group to turn Jaguar Landrover into the massive growth and success story it is now?

Maybe Tata should start building ships here...

I was starting to get all doom and gloom, but according to themanufacturer.com we are still the worlds 11th largest manufacturing nation, a long way from previous glory, but still not too shabby when compared to our size, although South Korea gets the number 5 slot!

Friday rant over, it's been a while, and Clives on holiday

lol brilliant. I can already see the abuse on it's way from the politically correct brigade! 

Hopefully not many people will fall for this one, but one to watch out for... 

Fake emails allegedly coming from Tesco, rewarding you for taking a survey.

Trust me, Tesco won't be shelling out £160 for a survey 

So don't go clicking links from any of these emails, if you do, don't do anything else and don't submit any information!

64,000 million dollar question! I reckon naming a business is just as hard as naming your kids! Maybe harder 

I'm no expert and spent ages trying to come up with a name. But I think it helps (in hindsight) if your business name directly reflects what it is you do.

Let any potential customer not have to think about it too hard. "Bobs Plumbers" "Frank the Sparky" "John the WebDesigner"  Maybe a bit simplistic but you know what I mean.

If you are using a Company Formation agent, then most of them have a search bar that lets you type in the name of your new ltd or sole trader business, and will tell you if the name is available. If it is, and once registered, I don't think there is much anyone can do about it, unless you have gone for something daft like "I hate BT Ltd".

Then factor in your website assuming you are having one, and email domain, so try not to be too long, but make it recognisable so people understand your website relates to your business.

(He says, naming his business Lowi Ltd and having a URL of mylocalservices.co.uk) 

So short, catchy, punchy and obvious, sounds easy eh? 

See if anyone else has any words of wisdom, and let us know what you decide on (or give us a short list and we'll vote!)

Hi Alan and welcome to the forums. I've moved you to a new thread as the other one was a bit old.

I think it may be an issue with the fact you aren't showing your postcode?

I can see your maps listing if I search for Alans Locksmiths Ltd

But on your Google Local page, you haven't put in your full address:

plus.google.com/106925904359996213475/about

If you add in your full address, then your marker should show, eg like ours below:

Does that help?

Search Engine RoundTable has an update on this Google change.

It seems Google is only rewarding SSL pages, rather than a sitewide bonus, so it looks like we may have to consider moving the whole site to HTPPS which does make me a little nervous....

Shall have a ponder, chin scratch, and see who else has done it 

I couldn't help but think of our biggest G4S fan Sharpink when I saw this on the Beeb news.

It looks like G4$ has survived after the Olympics resourcing fiasco and prisoner tagging scandal and returned to profit.

I see G4S was allowed to bid for government contracts again in April after being previously suspended. Must admit, didn't really appreciate how big G4S are, they are a massive PLC, the worlds largest security company according to Wikipedia, and still British!

Hi Pubby

moved this to the non business forum 

But know what you mean, I'm struggling to get on with the latest incarnation of BBC's iPlayer. It used to be really straight forward and logical, but I find the layout and structure confusing.

At least it's not just me!