Toni Hunter's SuperBlog

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I am regularly contacted by people who are new to business, or at least considering starting their own business.

Excited

Naturally, they are all really excited about the prospect of working for themselves, being their own boss, making the decisions and being able to directly enjoy the results of their efforts.

Apprehensive

However, I find that when I start to talk them through the statutory accounting and taxation requirements, it becomes obvious that they are worried and some even start to question if they are doing the right thing.  Despite assuring them that my team will handle 

• Companies House administration anc correspondence,
• Preparation and submission of statutory accounts,
• Corporation Tax computations and returns,
• PAYE administration and National Insurance,
• VAT reporting,
• Returns of benefits and expenses and other HMRC returns,
• Construction industry scheme online monthly filing
• Potential HMRC visits

and provide ongoing bookkeeping support, it is understandable that the overwhelming sense of responsibility causes concern for those who have been in the relative ’safety’ of employment or education.

Discouraged?

I think it is a shame that budding entrepreneurs can be stopped in their tracks by all the bureaucracy that surrounds a business, and I would urge any aspiring business owners not to be discouraged, it sounds a lot worse than it really is.

Get support

If you are thinking about starting up your own business, you should really go and talk to an accountant who can explain what is required, help you understand your duties and responsibilities and then take away as much of the fear and worry from you so that you can get on with the exciting bit!

It is also a good idea to join a networking group.  They not only provide you with valuable contacts, they are full of potential friends and peers who can guide and support you with first hand experience.

Find someone you can trust

For some people starting up their own business isn’t a big deal, but remember that the best entrepreneurs are surrounded by the best people for each and every part of their business, so do your new business a favour and find someone who can be the best for you.

Outsource

Delegate the ‘red tape’ of administering your business, and non-essential or non-profit making tasks to a team of carefully selected professionals so that you can make the most of your time and  simply…

…..enjoy running your own business!

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.

are you sure?

Lots of small business owners seem shocked that anyone would suggest they outsource any of their work.  “I don’t outsource”, “I don’t need to outsource” are just some of the responses (the polite ones anyway!).

But were you to look at your every day circumstances I am sure you would be surprised to know that you do outsource already.

So what is outsourcing?

I perceive outsourcing to be: a system where you pass on to someone else work, projects or tasks that you are unskilled for, doing tasks that don’t move your company forward or bring in more money. 

Are you outsourcing?

Have you ever ordered your grocery shopping online? Given someone else your ironing to do? Gone to the dentist for a filling? Paid a hairdresser? Used a cleaner?  These are all examples of outsourcing.

I practice what I preach; I do my weekly shop online. It saves me an awful lot of time and it saves me money, no more temptations from those ends of aisle offers. I also use an ironing lady, she does a better job than I would, in less time than I would, and I make more money using my time elsewhere than the cost of the ironing. It just makes sense to me. It also saves me the stress of performing a task I abhor.

Value yourself and your time

What value is there in you doing the task yourself?  Because you feel you have to, because you feel you can’t afford not to, or because you don’t like to let go.  Look at things a different way.  If you concentrate on your core business how much can you earn in an hour?  If you do certain tasks yourself is that common sense?  Should you do your own admin or accounts?  If bookkeeping takes you an hour then it has cost you your hourly rate.  However, should you outsource, it could cost you a lot less, it could take a lot less time than it would have taken you, and in that time you could have won a new contract or client.

Buying expertise

There are many experts out there who can make a huge difference to your business, you can outsource your bookkeeping, admin, website design and management, SEO, social media marketing, telemarketing, IT management and even personal tasks such as managing your diary or email, answering your calls, doing your shopping, or even walking your dog.  Remember, it’s all about outsourcing tasks that someone else can do in less time, to a higher level or just tasks you don’t enjoy or have the time for.  It could also enable you to move your business forward.  Working as one man you can only ever achieve a certain amount of work.  By working with an outsourced team or individual you can accomplish so much more.

Leverage

Maximise your potential, by leveraging time and opportunity.

Open yourself up to the possibilities of outsourcing, and move your business on to the next level.

Guest author:   Helen Stothard is a valuable Twitterbuddy of mine who is successfully growing her outsourcing business while raising a family.

For more information about the services offered by Helen and her team please visit HLS Business Solutions

Multi-millionaire and CEO of ActionCoach  Bradley J Sugars says  

“STOP IT … stop doing things like cleaning the house, washing the car, mowing the lawn … pay someone to do it and put that time into planning your business … remember, poor people spend time to save money, rich people spend money to save time …”

Whilst there exists a myriad of qualifications that can prove technical competence across most areas of the IT industry, how do you know that the person advising you has the skills to do so?

You can trust ‘Chartered’…..

Many professions such as mine rely on their Chartered  status to build trust with consumers.  Well, there now exists a Chartered status within the IT industry that is aimed at providing proof of experience, ability and breadth of knowledge.

It carries the post nominal letters CITP and is the Chartered IT Professional status which is administered by the British Computer Society.

The CITP  has been setup to be the benchmark of IT excellence, it is a rigorously assessed employer led standard, and it sets out to provide all those who need IT support that the person they are dealing with has the highest standards backed up by a professional body.

If you are used to the various Microsoft Accreditations, such as the “Microsoft Certified Professional Developer” (MCPD) these are designed to show that the engineer, who is installing and configuring your equipment, has all the Microsoft skills to do it.  Think of the CITP as more like being an independent project manager who would look at your whole current and future IT usage, to come up with the best solution and plan.

A holistic approach to IT solutions

Many issues with IT are caused by looking at specific parts of a system in isolation, and creating a separate solution, and for too long it has not been possible to independently ascertain if the person giving you advice has the “right” to do so – the CITP gives you that security. The Daily/Sunday Telegraph formally lists those achieving the CITP, and names of individuals are held on a detailed register.

If you are familiar with the level of professionalism and integrity that the Chartered Status provides Accountants and Architects – then you can now expect the same from the IT world.

Need advice?

So if you are looking to get some IT advice what should you look out for? Well the best advice is always to get some recommendations, ask those that you trust and see who they use. But now you can also check the integrity of anyone by seeing if they are Chartered – after all you would not trust your accounts to just anyone.

The information published in this blog was kindly supplied by David Kilpatrick of iTEXS in Cambridge.

To build successful businesses there are Three Elements all entrepreneurs eventually learn that are essential for increasing revenues and profits.  

Many business owners learn by a ‘trial and error’ approach over a number of years, however the game of business has been very well researched over the years through feedback and study of entrepreneurs who are the best in their field.  Without focus on each of these three areas any business success will require far more effort over a longer period of time.  If you’d like to fast track your own success then read on…

• 1) The First Element:

The Psychological Approach. Or, more precisely, how your current psychological approach may be holding you back.

You may already have heard of the saying that “your business is a complete reflection of you!”.  If that’s the case then what is showing up for you within your business at the moment?  Do you need more sales?  Do you never have enough time?  Do you have communication issues with your team members?  Do you need to recruit your first team members?  Whatever is ‘showing up’ for you within your business, the most important thing is how you are reacting to ‘what’s showing up’.  Do you tend to blame others or deny there’s a problem?  Or make excuses to justify the lack of performance?

This is sometimes one of the hardest things for a business owner to accept i.e. all of the problems that you are experiencing within your business are as a direct result of you ‘not’ addressing something within that business!  To illustrate this point I have been working with a particular client for a number of years now, and as the business has grown there have been a number of recurring problems that have always been down to  a couple of team members not being quite up for the job. This reflected in the business owner being unable to delegate effectively – and ‘what showed up’ was ‘running round like a headless chicken syndrome’ all of the time.  The business owner didn’t confront the issue (for various personal reasons that we worked through together) and so the problems just wouldn’t go away.  Eventually, however (when the business owner felt ready to make that decision and we’d implemented a couple of new systems within the business) the two team members were replaced and there has been a radical shift in the business performance.  This has also helped the confidence of the owner in two ways: they realised that their that fear (of the unknown) was actually stopping the business from moving forward (plus keeping the owner very busy!) and by addressing this fear they also learned a number of things about themselves that massively increased their own business confidence and productivity.  So this element involves you, your beliefs and you creating strategies and tactics to break through the hidden (yet very real) mental barriers that may be holding you back from achieving further success. 

• 2) The Second Element:

Your business structure. How your current business structure may be holding you back. There are many areas of your business where you will need watertight systems and methods. This element is more focused on uncovering the current strengths and weaknesses of the strategic side of your business. It will ensure that you have the right strategies and tactics to help you break through the business-related barriers that may be preventing your success. Within the second element there are three focus areas when business growth is your goal. The first of these is:

Sales:

 The key in any business is to make sure that you take the time to understand exactly who your clients are and how they decide to buy.  Everybody has a certain way they love to “buy” from others, so finding out the various personality types and their tendencies will go a long way in making it easier for people to buy from you.  Create a set of systems within your business for sales success.

Marketing: 

Customers won’t buy from you unless they know who you are and why they need you.  It has always amazed me when I go into a business and the business owner is desperate to increase sales and therefore cash flow into the business – and yet they are doing very little effective marketing of their business – because they don’t really understand what ‘marketing’ is or they’re doing the day to day ‘stuff’ that’s not connected with driving the business forward whatsoever!   However we define marketing, in it’s simplest terms it is: The generation of quality leads for the business and the further development of your brand.  Your focus is to choose multiple marketing tactics and develop a marketing system that consistently markets your product or service to your clients.

Management:

 As a business owner you should be looking to spend 80% of your time working strategically ‘on’ your business in the areas of Sales and Marketing.  Any Knowledge, talent and beliefs that you have learnt will be wasted if you are not applying these strategically and tactically to your business.  If you want to grow and sustain that growth, then it’s essential to manage that growth. It’s essential to put in place systems to manage growth, cash, people and working relationships.  How do we know if don’t have this in place?  Because we will forever be reacting to our business and any daily problems that arise.

• 3) The Third Element:

Although the shortest it’s without doubt the most important: it addresses our need for consistent action. Once you have the right resources and information in place then it’s essential to take action. If you asked me if there was one thing that would separate the masses from successful serial entrepreneursthen it would be this: Fast implementation of ideas. Having an understanding of the first two elements (what may be holding you back psychologically and structurally within your business) is an essential step to achieve change, but without implementing what’s been learnt will inhibit change. This is where so many businesses fall short. Through the lack of implementation of those ideas.

Guest author:  Mike Yates is a local, well respected and proven Business Growth Specialist, International Speaker, Author and Business Coach who I have known personally for many years.  For more valuable information like this please visit 121 Business

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.

If like me, you receive a huge amount of emails each day (and night!) these clear tips from my friend, customer and loyal twitterbuddy, Heather Townsend will help you to manage the daily deluge of correspondence.

Set times of the day when you will look at and deal with your e-mail

Outside of these times, switch off your e-mail and e-mail notifications. For example, at three points in the day, dedicate 30 minutes to checking and actioning all your e-mails in these times

Set up e-mail rules

Mail rules are great for auto-sorting out your mail, before it arrives in your inbox. For example, you can set up a folder for each of your regular e-mails, for example monthly recurring invoices. Then set up the rule that puts the e-mail into the right folder – for example, a monthly recurring invoice could go into a folder called ‘invoices to process’. You can even put follow up flags on these rules, so that, say for example, any e-mail from your most important client was flagged to be dealt with by you that day.

Unsubscribe to newsletters

Unless you read the newsletter, unsubscribe to them. If you haven’t signed up to the newsletter, then mark as spam, and if you have the opportunity report them as unsolicited e-mail. E-mail marketing clients such as constant contact, do allow you to report unsolicited e-mail.

Use a good spam filter

Do invest in a good spam filter. Microsoft Outlook’s spam filter is good at giving you false positives – so aim to use an additional spam filter, so you can turn off Outlook’s in-built spam filter.

Action, file or delete immediately

Double or even triple handling e-mail is what leads to personal inefficiency. Have as your mantra that you will only touch an e-mail once.

Set limits on amount in inbox

Get into the personal discipline of never letting your inbox get more than 10 e-mails in at the end of the day.

Use flags to follow up

Use the follow up flags. If you have an e-mail to action, mark it with a dated follow up flag. Then file it! In the morning, you can then sort all your e-mails by flags, and will get a list of the most urgent e-mails to be auctioned.

Archive your e-mail folders outside of the inbox folder

When you are creating folders to file your e-mail into after auctioning, Microsoft automatically suggests that you create sub-folders within your inbox. Make sure you create the folders outside of the inbox. This way, your computer performance wouldn’t be affected by Microsoft constantly scanning all the e-mails in the inbox.

Set up favourite folders that you access regularly

In the favourite folders box on Microsoft outlook, drag in the folders you use regularly. This way, you will be able to quickly find your most popular folders. You can even give the folders a number, e.g. “1 – clients”, so you most frequently accessed folders will be at the top of the list, regardless of where they would come in true alphabetical order.

For twitter users…

Turn off all notifications for new followers and direct messages. Use a twitter client, such as tweetdeck, to alert you to new direct messages and followers.

For more posts like this visit the blog of the infamous Efficiency Coach.

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.

Fraud is often associated with loss of assets, but the non-financial impact can be far more damaging particularly in the 3rd sector where trust is paramount.

In a previous post I wrote about indicators of fraud, in this post I would like to address the impact it can have on an organisation, with particular emphasis on the not-for-profit sector.

Breach of Trust

Morale and trust can be severly altered by the discovery of fraud.  In a charity environment where income and assets are donated rather than earned through commercial activity, reputation and trust in paramount to survival. 

Vulnerability

Charities are often considered to be more vulnerable, but are they?  In fact the incidence of fraud amoung the 3rd sector remains very low in comparison to commercial sectors.  In a survey conducted by The Fraud Advisory Panel, just 7% of respondents reported that their charitable organisations have been the victim of fraud within the previous two years.  In my opinion this incredibly low figure could be as a result of less fraud being detected or a culture that discourages whistleblowing, but never-the-less, 7% is remarkably low.

So why the perception?

• Reliance on goodwill, generally being too trusting allows less ethical individuals to take advantage
• Lack of supervision, particularly where the public are involved, for example during small fundraising events
• Lower levels of management expertise or financial control
• Less frequent or indepth training of staff and volunteers
• Lower levels of remuneration

In my experience, many of these views are unfounded in most organisations, as the survey results confirm.

Financial Impact

Obviously the loss of assets is the easiest way to measure fraud, but have you considered the following?

• The cost of management time dealing with the event and the resulting communications
• The possible increase in insurance premiums, warranties etcetera
• The cost of replacing the assets/cash
• The loss of donations/sales resulting from the damage to goodwill

• The cost of recruiting and training the staff/volunteers to replace those that have been removed due to their association with the event and those who have chosen to leave because of the emotional impact of the event.
  

Non-Financial Impact

Clearly the impact is difficult to quantify but should not be underestimated

• Increased stress and negative affect on morale of internal and external stakeholders
• Less favourable and/or negative messages in the Media
• Loss of public trust, inherent goodwill and general interest in supporting the organisation
• Lack of committment by volunteers and/or decline in numbers willing to volunteer
• Exposure to further incidences of fraud as the organisation may be seen as vulnerable –  ’an easy target’

I hope this information has provoked thought, in the next of this ‘fraud’ series, I intend to look at ways to reduce the risk of fraud occuring.

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.

People often ask “what is business coaching?” and in truth there are lots of ways to describe it.  In this post, Lee Duncan a well respected business coach that I have worked with for the benefit of my clients, will focus on four elements that work together to get results in any area of your life. 

Business is all about getting results.

For most of us, this means achieving a level of financial success from the businesses we create.  The principles of business are actually quite straightforward, although in practice it often turns out to be more tricky.

A formula that’s useful to focus the mind on what to do next is

Attitude+Goals+Knowledge+Action=Results

The first key to success is attitude.

Henry Ford famously said, “If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right”.

Just think about that for a moment. If you start out with the notion that you’re going to fail, you will. I know of a psychologist who calls this a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It works the other way around though too, which is far more exciting. If you believe you will succeed, you probably will. As a business coach, it’s clear that many clients need some help to have confidence and a positive mental attitude.

Next up, you’ve got to have a goal.

A goal is like a destination for a taxi trip. When you jump into a taxi, the driver wants to know where you’re going to go before he’ll move off. That’s just the same as your brain. If you want to get somewhere with your business, you’ve got to focus on where you want to go before you can move towards it. Goals should be set to be stretching, but achieveable.

The third part of the formula is to have the correct knowledge.

Many of us know what we should be doing to be more successful, it’s just that we don’t do it. On the other hand, sometimes we simply don’t know how to do something and so we remain stuck.

By attending seminars, reading books, listening to CDs and watching video, we gain knowledge. With practice we can turn this knowledge into skills that help us to achieve our goals. Skills like how to write effective sales letters, or how to create a blog, or how to manage staff effectively, can all be learnt by anybody. Great results can also be described as the successful application of the right knowledge. Make the effort to get the learning habit, you won’t regret it.

The final step on your way to results is to take action.

Great ideas are simply notions until somebody turns them into reality.

If you’re an ideas person who finds it hard to bring your ideas to life, you’re a dreamer. If you have no ideas but keep turning the handle and expecting different results, you’re a madman.

The happy middle road is where success lies – a great idea combined with the right actions, taken relentlessly day after day, to achieve success.

When any single piece of the formula is missed, you’ll struggle to achieve your desired results. That’s where business coaching comes in, to help you bring all of these things into alignment for you.

When you achieve results, no matter how big or small, take the time to celebrate and enjoy your successes. Too often in life we beat ourselves up for failing and don’t notice what we have actually achieved. Start to notice how good you are, how successful you are, and you’ll be successful more often and in bigger ways.

Read about the kind of results that Lee’s clients enjoy in a story from a member of the Chris Cardell marketing club who also works with Lee. 

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.

During an economic downturn both individuals and organisations can suffer from adverse pressure, increasing the motivation for fraudulent behaviour.

Organisations are at risk from fraud both internally from employees and shareholders, and externally from suppliers, contractors and other organisations.

According to KPMG  (data: July 2009) more than 160 cases of serious fraud, worth in aggregate £636million came to UK courts in the first half of 2009, the highest number of cases in the 21 year history of the KMPG Fraud Barometer.

Research from BDO Stoy Hayward suggests fraud cost UK companies nearly £2.1bn last year, an increase of 76% from the previous year. 

Fraud has many guises such as ineligible claimants of state benefit, money laundering and unauthorised sharing of databases or intellectual property.

Fraudulent expenses claims are more common that you might imagine and whilst it may seem petty, the occasional raid of the stationery cupboard is still theft of the employers assets.

Internal Fraud: Warning signs might include

• Staff who have personal financial problems or have lifestyles not commensurate with their remuneration
• Employees who regularly arrive early or work late or appear to be under stress without a heavy workload
• Staff under pressure from unrealistic targets set by management or heavy emphasis on performance related pay.
• Internal and/or external complaints about certain people/teams
• Unwillingness to delegate and/or reluctance to take holidays
• Over-friendly relationships with external stakeholders
• New staff resigning quickly as they are uncomfortable with ‘unusual behaviour’ but do not wish to report it

External Fraud: Warning signs might include

• Insistance on dealing with one individual
• Cash only or high volume, low value transactions
• Unusual/sporadic payment behaviour
• Increased prices without explanation
• High staff turnover and/or lack of management control

Obviously,  these are only indicators and you should not accuse anyone just because their behaviours fit one of these points!
 

In a future post I will provide ideas on how to reduce the risk of fraud to your organisation.

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.

Apologies for the length of this post by fellow HBNer and client, Gareth Howell of Agdon Associates, but it is full of information for anyone considering migrating to the new, all singing, all dancing offering from Microsoft.  It also clearly demonstrates Gareth’s knowledge and passion for helping small business.

Moving to Windows 7 from XP is painful: reduce it with virtualization.

It’s old news that Windows 7 is now available and the response has been pretty positive. In fact, far from the response being “well, at least it’s not Vista!) respectable people have been singing its praises. However, there is a sting in the tail: it’s not possible to upgrade directly to Windows 7 from XP (at least not in the sense of being to upgrade and then carry on working).

The upgrade path from XP requires a clean installation and the preservation of your personal files only: no applications are migrated across.

This is a major problem for anybody who chose to avoid Vista, relies on a PC for their day to day business and doesn’t have a spare. Re-installing applications can (literally) take days if one includes the inevitable upgrades and service packs that have been released since you bought the installation media. Of course, this also assumes that you have the original installation media. Oh, and the license codes.

Take heart though, if you follow my (fairly) easy to follow sequence of steps, you can migrate to Windows 7 without losing productivity.

In summary, we’re going to use virtualization technology to preserve your XP environment in the new Windows 7 world and disconnect the process of re-installing applications from that of upgrading Windows. What we will do is:

• Buy a new, larger, hard disk
• Clone the old XP installation on to the new disk
• Boot from the new disk and upgrade to Windows 7
• Create a Virtual Machine to contain the original XP installation.

Once you have gone through this process you can choose when to re-install specific application on Windows 7 because you will still have access to them on XP from day one.

At the end of this process you will have a clean Windows 7 environment plus seemless access to your XP environment; using the excellent “Unity” feature in the latest VMware Player

So, in more detail

Step 1 – Buy a new, larger, hard disk

Buying a new disk makes this all so much easier, though there is a gotcha if your machine is a laptop. I’ll get to that later.

The chances are that you will need a larger disk anyway. In my case my T60 had a 120GB drive, of which about 80GB was used. That means we need at least 80GB of free space on the Windows 7 environment in which to store the Virtual Disk that contains the original XP environment.

In my case I bought a 320GB Seagate drive. This was bigger, faster (7200RPM rather than 5400RPM), quieter and more power efficient. All for £48.00 !

The gotcha!

This only applies to laptops that have space for only a single hard disk. The point is that in a while we will need to have two bare hard drives attached to the computer, and most laptops allow for only one. There are two ways around this. One involves using a third external hard drive (either USB connected or network connected), the other requires a USB connection kit with which you can connect a bare drive to your computer.

As I already had one of these adapters, I went for the latter, but I will cover both options.

Step 2 – Clone the existing XP installation on to the new disk

There are a number or ways to do this and your choice will depend on whether you have the appropriate software and how the new drive is attached to the computer.

Option 1 involves using your backup system (you do have a backup system don’t you !). Option 2 uses a technology such as Norton Ghost to image one drive to the other.

Option 1: Using your backup System

I use Windows Home Server to backup all the computers in the Howell household, so I knew I could use this to move to a larger disk.

• First, I made sure I had a full backup on the Server (it happens automatically every night, but there’s no harm in forcing a manual backup just to be sure).
• Second, I swapped the new drive for the old and booted the T60 from the Home Server Restore CD.
• Third, I followed the wizard to restore the last image from the Server and rebooted. In the wizard, I chose to create a 200GB partition for XP as I intend installing Windows Server 2008 in the other.

At the end of this I had the original XP environment running from a larger disk with plenty of free space.

Option 2: Using Norton Ghost

Caveat: Although I have used Ghost to clone disks before, I did not use this approach this time because I was upgrading a laptop and needed USB drive support. This is not available by default in DOS. I know there are solutions to this, but I decided to take the line of least resistance.

With this approach, you attach both disks to the machine, then boot the machine into MS-DOS and use Norton Ghost to clone the disks.

If you are working with a Desktop where both hard disks are internally attached via ATA or SATA, and you can get the necessary software, then this approach is much faster as it avoids the need to restore from a backup. There are several resource on the Net that can guide you: try entering “Clone disk with DOS GHOST” into Google.

Step 3 – Upgrade to Windows 7

Despite your not being able to do a true upgrade from XP to Windows 7, you can still buy the Upgrade version of Windows 7. It just means that the installer checks for a valid XP installation before installing Windows 7. Upgrading is just a matter of running the setup program from the Windows 7 DVD and opting for an Advanced Installation. You will be warned that all your files will be wiped: hence the need for a full backup.

Don’t forget to choose the correct partition if, like me, you opted to create two partitions on the new disk.

Incidentally, I didn’t elect to install all the updates as part of the installation process. I probably should have but I was in a bit of a hurry. Instead, I ran Windows Update straight after the installation was complete.

One point to note was that I gave the T60 a new machine name so that the backup process preserved the old XP installation as well. Also, you will want to have both “computers” on the network at the same time. At the end of this, you will have a clean installation of Windows 7 with no applications installed.

The next immediate step in my process was to install the Windows Home Server connector and perform a backup. Note: you will need to ensure that Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 has been installed for this to work properly.

Step 4 – Create a Virtual Machine for Windows XP.

At this point we have a functional Windows 7 environment and we have a known good backup of the old XP environment. We also have another hard disk with the original XP environment installed on it. What we now need to do is virtualize the XP environment.

Virtualization is the process by which a single computer (called the Host) is able to run a number of Virtual Machines (called Guests). By the wonders of virtuallization, each Guest believes it has complete control of a physical computer. In fact it can only see virtual devices that are then mapped on to the physical resources of the Host computer.

Once again, you have a choice of how to do this as well as choices over whose virtualisation software to use. Both Microsoft and VMware Corporation have excellent desktop virtualization products. Personally, I have been using VMware Desktop since version 1 and I know it’s very good. In this case, luckily, we don’t need the (paid for) power of VMware Desktop, we just need the less capable, but free, VMware Player.

We also need another VMware utility called VMware vCenter Converter. Converter converts a physical machine into a Virtual Machine [VM]. Physically, the VM comprises a collection of files located on the filesystem of the Host computer. When VMware Player is run, it loads the files for a particular Guest computer and causes the Guest computer to run, interact with the screen, network, printers etc and access a virtual filesystem on a virtual disk.

You need to decide where you are going to store the converted VM. Eventually it needs to reside in the Windows 7 partition on the new hard disk. Whether or not you can go straight there or have to go via a third disk depends on your computer. If you can have both the old and new hard disks installed at the same time (true for most desktops), then you are OK. If not, true for most laptops, you can either:

• Use the drive adapter to connect the new bare disk to the laptop, or
• Use another external USB drive of suitable capacity as a temporary home.

Either way, you are going to create a new VM containing the XP environment.

1. Replace the original hard disk.
2. Either connect the new hard disk via the USB adapter, or connect the third external USB drive.
3. Boot into Windows XP, then download VMware vCenter Converter from the VMware website (it’s a free download but you will need to register).
4. Use the Converter software to create a VM on the external drive (or on the second internal drive in the case of a workstation).
5. Shut down and install the New Hard Disk for the last time.
6. Boot into Windows 7
7. Go back to the VMware site and download VMware Player, then install it.
8. If necessary, copy the newly created VM from the external USB drive to a suitable folder on the Windows 7 environment. I have mine stored in C:\Virtual Machines

Another Gotcha!

I hit a gotcha at step 4. Running Converter is a simple case of follow the wizard’s prompts, but I did get a confusing error message about not having the appropriate SysPrep files on the computer. After some digging I found that I needed to download the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Deployment Tools from http://snurl.com/tscop, Open the CAB file with WinRAR and copy the files to the folder designated in the error message.

Now, you you should be able to run VMware Player and use it to run the XP Virtual Machine.

NB To avoid getting errors, you need to run Player in Administrator mode. You do this by Right-clicking on the desktop shortcut and selecting “Run as Administrator”. To avoid having to do this everytime, you can set this option in the applications preferences; which are accessible from the Right-click menu.

Also, because the SSID of the vrtual machine has changed, you will need to re-enter your XP license code and re-activate.

Et voila, you have a working Windows 7 environment complete with a virtual XP environment containing your original machine.

Make sre you install anti-virus software on Windows 7 straight away. Once the XP VM is running, enable “Unity” mode on the VM menu in the Player window so that a new XP menu bar appears on the Windows 7 desktop.

Now, at your leisure, you can install applications on the Windows 7 machine to replace those on the XP machine. Over time you will gradually use the XP machine less and less until you either stop using it altogether, or it is reduced to running a rump of applications which cannot be migrated to Windows 7 or are not worth being so.

One Last Thing, keeping the data in sync across the two machines.

Bearing in mind that you now have two computers, how do you keep the filesystems synchronised?

I use Windows Live Sync for this, but I adopted a divide and conquer strategy: partly because of the 10,000 file limit imposed by Live Sync for any single synchronisation point.
Before doing anything, I considered the contents on my XP machine. Some files I would definitely need in Windows 7, some I would not. Some were in the “My Documents” hierarchy, others were not.

Windows Live Sync works by defining synchronisation points on multiple computers. Live Sync then keeps the folders and files beneath each set of synchronisation points in sync with each other.

In my case, under “My Documents” I have a folder hierarchy called “Shared” containing folders and files I definitely want synchronising. I have another called “Development” and then several others; including a couple outside of “My Documents”. Each of these is defined as being a Synchronisation Point in Live Sync. It is then a simple case of following the Live Sync wizards to create equivalent sync points on other machines.

Provided you are connected to the Internet, the files will be kept in sync. Changes are queued if you are not connected to the Internet.

Summary

I hope that you have seen how you too can move from your existing XP based computer to a clean Windows 7 environment whilst maintaining access to you old XP applications, and how (relatively) easy the process is. By following this process you will reduce the time you are without a functioning PC to in the order of 2-3 hours, rather than the 2-3 days that might otherwise occur.

I hope this process proves useful to you. If you have any questions or clarifications based on your specific experience, please share them as comments to this post so that all can see them.

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.

On Friday I attended a planning workshop run by Andrew Kureishy an award winning business coach. 

Andrew is a valued client of mine and his invitation to join his GrowthCLUB for the day was welcomed but to warrant time away from the office I had some expectations for ROI (typical accountant mentality I’m afraid, but I do understand the value of my time)

My primary objective was to see Andrew in action.  As an avid networker and an accountant that believes in adding value beyond the financial numbers, matching a coach’s style with my client’s personality and needs is just as important as understanding the services he offers and the knowledge he can share.

Obviously, I hoped to gain some personal benefit also.  When getting involved in structured learning, I do not expect to be able to absorb all of the information on offer or claim to be an expert by the end of the day, but to take away just a few new ideas or key pieces of knowledge makes spending the time attending worthwhile.

During this day, I achieved my primary objective and will certainly be recommending Andrew’s work to others. I was able to network with a dozen of his clients who were all very complimentary and felt that the money they had invested had been recovered several times over.

I also learned three or four things that I can apply to my business in the next few weeks. I’d like to share two of these with you.

Prioritising

The first is simple.  The things that make the most impact and therefore demand priority are not necessarily the things you want to do. 

The Action planning workshop used techniques to drill down to just three primary goals for the next 90 days as it would be difficult to focus on more than that in such a short time frame.  These three goals were ‘SMART‘ tested by Andrew and it quickly became apparent which of the three I had to make my priority even though it was the goal I favoured the least as the task at hand is boring in comparison, amongst other reasons.  This process was easy but far from comfortable and I’m less that pleased with the result but I know clearly now that if I reach my target it will have a big positive impact on my work, my position in the firm and ultimately the bottom line of my office P&L and once I have got this task under my belt I will be able to move on to more self-fulfilling goals.

I’ll let you know on 31st March 2010 whether I attained my target !

Time Management

Andrew was quick to point out that whilst diaries, priority task lists etcetera were helpful they are simply tools to make our work more effective.  To really master time management replace the word ‘time’ with ‘self’ and remind yourself of your goals.

The group decided that poor time self  management was a result of:

• a lack of discipline, focus and/or delegation
• firefighting rather than prioritising rationally
• poor organisation skills
• avoidance of important tasks / procrastination
• being influenced by other people’s priorities
• unrealistic customer demands
• a needy / untrained team

Andrew challenged this and questioned our motivation.

How defined are your goals?    Does your dream have clarity? 

His advice was to create an avoidance list and ask yourself questions that will help your brain move from negative emotions that promote procrastination to logical thoughts that put the issues/tasks in to perspective.

If you would like to know his seven top questions to promote logical thinking to support your positive attitude, contact him at andrewkureishy@actioncoach.com

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.