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Wish you all the best in your endeavours  

So the person you sent the parcel to received it minus the stamps? It can only be the postman as you say, the recipient would have been liable for postage?

That's a new on on me, but baffled about the motive as the stamps would be used? Unless he just wanted them for his own collection, but as a postie you'd think he would ample access to all sorts of stamps if he was an enthusiast?  

How odd? Makes little sense?

Plenty of times I've had things go walkies in the post. Everyone knows you should never said money or gift cards. But my mate recently sent me a memory card and I received an empty envelope  

Years ago, cut my teeth in business by doing lots of baying and in the end it would be about 1 in 20 items wouldn't make it to their destination, sometimes even when signed for! Used to regularly do battle claiming costs back, after having to wait the minimum amount of time. Was one of the reasons I knocked ebay on the head.

Keep the faith Andy. 

After doing Google PPC for 10 years and seeing great results, in 2018 costs started spiralling and conversions going down, to the point I actually culled it completely in September to see what impact it would have.

After looking at the stats, although sales were down, the difference between lost revenue and PPC costs wasn't that different! 

In December I relooked at the PPC campaign, reworked it, and touch wood the results have been really impressive and it's back to its old self.

One thing I've found, the quality of the Adwords reps has really gone down. They used to be really good, monitoring your accounts, showing you new functionality etc. But in the last 12 months they have been useless and it's been all about trying to get you on new beta adverts, increasing budget and spending money. They've gone from useful consultants to poorly disguised sales agents 

I've stayed away from the new ad formats, stuck with what I knew, set a CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) I'm happy with and currently it's going very well. I now also duck all Google adwords calls!

So maybe try something similar? Or is it worth exploring a new market, maybe ebay or Amazon?

Hi Dulcika

I'm not an accountant or tax advisor, but I assume at the very least you are a competent bookkeeper. Calling yourself a tax advisor can be dangerous for you and your clients if you are not 100% sure of what you are doing. You don't need to be a certified accountant to be able to prepare accounts for small businesses and sole traders, but I would certainly want reassurance you were trained and qualified before entertaining the idea of hiring you.

The sort of questions you are asking suggests you are not that experienced, so maybe do some research and enroll on a course at night school or online to give yourself some credibility.

Would you want an plumber round your house who had "learned the job quite well", versus one that was experienced, qualified and preferably a member of a trade body or professional organisation?

Can certainly add a few to those  Hmm, could become an interesting thread 

I hope you had a nice festive break and are recharged and revitalized for the coming year 

Thanks for the support over the last year. I know we have a lot of lurkers and casual readers, it would be nice to see more people joining in, but it's also nice to hear that a lot of people do look at the content on the forum and find it useful.

Late last year we did a survey of businesses which generated 180 responses and has absolutely buried us in superb feedback about how different industries approach marketing. From this survey it became apparent how many do use the forum, so we will make a bigger effort this year to keep it updated with useful content and archive some of the older stuff.

The amount of data collected has taken us by surprise, so we have been experimenting on the best way to visually present it, making it useful for new business owners and experienced ones alike. The plan is to get this uploaded before the end of January and we will discuss some of the findings in more detail on the forum in the weeks and months to come.

Let's look forward to an optimistic and positive year and sharing as many ideas and solving as many challenges and problems as we can 

Got this tip from forum member Andy (Pewter World), so thought I would share it here.

Troy Hunt, a security consultant and Microsoft Regional Director has set up this invaluable database that checks any security breaches to see if you're details are in there. It's a real eye opener, try it for yourself: https://haveibeenpwned.com

Here is the results of our info email address:

So in  a nutshell, the email / password combination we have used in the past has been compromised so we need to make sure nothing still uses the same combination, and to use random and complex passwords for each login.

That obviously creates its own problems, but there are a variety of password solutions online. Troy also offers one for $3 a month, which gives you complex passwords, keeps them secure in a digital vault, and scans to see if any of your account has been compromised. There are a multitude of other providers, so pick the one you prefer.

But this is a great visual demonstration of much data is routinely abused, hacked and manipulated, and how it affects you.

Even if you get a clean bill of health, it's a good reminder to take password security more seriously.

Names, dates and kids birthdays are the passwords of yesteryear. Your password should now look like this:
njwTC8oA,QgB]ZL%R2a> 

not BobThe Dog123  or  mary100178

If you need a decent password generator, use this:  https://1password.com/password-generator/

Have resent to sales, if you don't get it, email me, steve@ and I'll reply to that.

That's a good resource, may do a post about that

Had any non GDPR compliance threats? If you have, no doubt it reads something like this:

Notification from the UK Non Compliance Register.

To the owner of www.mylocalservices.co.uk

It has come to our attention that your company is not GDPR compliant.

As your company is not GDPR compliant your company has now been entered onto the Non Compliance Register for the UK.

Your company is under review and may be reported to the ICO for non GDPR compliance as required by the GDPR compliance law passed on 25th May 2018

The Non Compliance Register is a FREE public service that is available to any member of the public.

The public can search the register to see if a company can be trusted to store their data securely before they give that company their personal data.

To see why you have been entered onto the Non Compliance Register PRESS HERE and we will send the report to you.

You will see listed on the report the actions that may now be taken against your company for non GDPR compliance.

This email has been sent to inform you that you are on the UK Non Compliance Register.

There is no need to reply to this email.

Disclaimer: This communication is not a business communication and can be legally sent. It is a notification to advise you of action taken against you. There is no personal data involved with this communication. The Non Compliance Register does not hold any personal data and displays only information that is already in the public domain and can be accessed and stored legally by any person who searches the ICO fee payers register for DPO’s and as such does not fall under the GDPR compliance law or the 1998 European Data Protection Act. It is a pubic service that is free of charge.

It's all a load of cobblers. The domain noncomplianceregister.com is a parked domain, and as usual, johnny spammer can't spell.. "it is a pubic service that is free of charge."

As for the reason for the scam, absolutely no idea, there are no requests for payment or unsavoury links. Maybe that will come with future follow up emails.

Either  way, if you have received one, just simply delete it and move on with your life