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Ah, I know this one. It was explained to me in very simple terms when my younger student self ditched the moral compass and did a stint cold-calling for a double-glazing firm. Training went as follows:

"We're in the town centre, nice showroom, obviously open, there's people walking past all the time, existing customers come in and out, but how many people do you think have walked in through those doors and asked for a quote for their windows in the last year?"
"errrm..."
"None. And how many incoming phone calls do you think (receptionist) handles each month? Not including existing customers?"
"errrrm..."
"About three, and they're mostly people whose next-door neighbours have had work done. Very nearly all of our business is started by the calls made by this call centre. People think about getting some work done, they think about getting some quotes in, but they don't actually do anything about it until there's a salesman in their home... your job is to get the salesmen into their homes."

Ah. No, I am happy working with Google Docs and use it for all sorts of stuff - it's just so much more convenient for collaborative work or documents that you need to access from a mobile device.

However, to be on the safe side I make backups of my Google Docs to my own machine (and thence to my external backup). And I will only put client stuff onto Google Docs if the client specifically asks me to do so.

Got to admit that on the home phone I only get automated sales calls. You know, the ones that start "Do not hang up! This is not a sales call!"

He hasn't sounded any more aggressive of late.

Yup, I've already got a job coming up to help an online shop make sure that all their prices are adjusted properly.

Of course on the one hand that's fab for me, a bit of extra work for a familiar client... but it does seem a little unfair that small businesses like that one get kicked not only to absorb the change itself, but also to use valuable man-hours (or hire someone like me) to process the admin around the change.

Pair of roller skates.

Woke up to a positively tropical 5+ this morning, much more acceptable.

I must say, I've been really impressed with my milkman who's been getting through as usual. I wouldn't have pegged a battery-powered milk float as Vehicle Most Unaffected By Snow, not to mention the chap himself getting up and down all those ungritted garden paths and driveways.

Hello ms.project, and thanks to Tomsk for the recommendation. Sorry I didn't spot this sooner... it's been a busy couple of days and I'm behind on all my forums.

I can definitely create form letters and email templates if you can explain to me what it is that you want to say. Alternatively you could write your own letter, saying what you want to say in the way you want to say it, and then I could correct any errors.

Please feel free to drop me a private message, or click the links below to view my website and contact details.

Nah, I'm always this cynical, it's just usually I'm less blunt about it.

It's a relief to hear it's not a proper beard. You've seen some of the Movember attempts...

At that point I was in the quiet end of the Christmas Market, somewhere in the middle of a bundle of eleventy billion scarves and hats and coats and whatnot, laughing my backside off at my poor assistant who was feeling tipsy on half a cup of hot spiced cider.

My favourite bit was down in the initial section, opposite Costa, a stall selling poffertjes. They weren't doing a roaring trade, possibly because no one knows what poffertjes are... they're sort of like tiny pancakes, only an inch or two in diameter but quite thick, and they were being served with different toppings, like cinnamon and sugar and butter and chocolate and all sorts of stuff and OH they were delicious. Everybody who goes must try them, I said so, and I'm on an internet forum so I have OPINIONS.

It's the risk with any kind of "advisor", you need to think about:

1) why they are working as an advisor.

Is it because they spent a long time thinking about what they really wanted to do with their life, and decided that the answer was that they wanted to use a lifetime's experience in the field of (whatever) for the benefit of others, and that the best way to do this was to do whatever it took to get a job with (organisation)?

Or is it because they were unemployed (or sick of whatever job they were doing), so they applied for everything in the paper that looked halfway interesting, didn't require concrete qualifications, and was within a commutable distance?

and

2) How they feel about their job.

Do they turn up at work every day feeling enthusiastic about helping people on the path to improving their lives? Do they jump out of the shower with shampoo in their ears so that they can jot down this fantastic idea they just had about advising? Do they go home and watch the Panorama Special about their specialist field, out of hours and unpaid, because of a true passion for the subject and the issues surrounding it?

Or are they just putting in the 9-5 in order to pay their own bills and hoping that one day, maybe, they'll get moved up to a management or consultancy role where they don't have to deal with the public?