I keep hearing stories about businesses on the island taking staff on, on a trial basis, and not paying them for the work they do.

As far as I can see, there can only be two reasons for doing this:

1/ The managers or owners doing the hiring are incompetent, and can’t be trusted to recruit good people

2/ It’s a cynical exploitation in these difficult times to get some free labour out of people looking for a job

If it’s the second, ask yourself what that tells you about the business.

If it’s the first, consider re-training for the recruiters or hiring someone else to do it. Read more »

People who set up Facebook groups need to be aware that unless they make the group private, or closed, anyone can view the contents.

Read more »

One of the unique factors of operating a business in Lanzarote is allowing for both the time, and the cost, of bringing anything to the island to sell. We’re in an unusual position here, being a group of islands a full 1000 miles from our own mainland, and the options have been limited until now.

A new freight service has been announced, which will run weekly from Alicante to Lanzarote. The ship Neuberg, part of the JSV line, will leave Alicante every Friday evening, arriving at Puerto de los Marmoles in Arrecife at 0800 each Monday morning. Read more »

If you stay up to date with “net stuff” you’ll have heard about Google +, which is Google’s social media network. It’s a bit like Facebook. You may also have heard that you “must be on there” because it affects how easily people will find your business when they search.

Let’s explain why.

We’ll imagine I run a small business that sells widgets.

In the past

I’ve never been able to compete with the big boys like British Widgets PLC, or International Widgets Corp on Google search. Despite my best efforts, when you, as my friend, typed in “Widget suppliers” in Google, my site would be way down the list. Read more »

Debate on the subject of all inclusive holidays to the island has raged over the last couple of years, and it’s something I’ve been following closely.

The two most common subjects raised are that:

A/ People on all inclusive holidays stay in their accommodation and never come out and spend money in the island’s businesses

B/ That “they” should ban all inclusive (I assume “they” is the Lanzarote or Canarian government)

As a counterpoint, I though it might be worth sharing my own thoughts on these two points.

Do people stay in their accommodation and not come out?

I’m sure some do, but I’m equally sure the majority don’t. When our family was young, we stayed all inclusive for a few of our holidays. We treated it as a way to control costs, to make sure we had enough to hire a car and visit the area. Freed from having to keep budget to one side for kid’s ice creams and drinks, we were happy to spend money elsewhere. And we also went out to eat in the evenings, and enjoyed local bars, because we soon got bored eating in the hotel buffet. We may not have spent as much in the bars, because we’d had a few “personality boosters” before heading out, but where we found a great local bar, perhaps with good entertainment, we were very happy to patronise it. Read more »

Imagine this for a moment.

I walk into your shop or office with a poster and a pot of glue. I find a nice clear area of wall, and paste up a poster, advertising my company to all your visitors.

What would you do?

I agree.

And I’d deserve to be covered in the glue, as well!

But somehow, this whole scenario seems to have escaped all those businesses who think it’s OK to do exactly this on other company’s Facebook walls.

Read more »

So, you’ve got a business here in Lanzarote.

How’s it going?

Are there opportunities passing you by?

For example, what are you doing for Ironman?

Right now, this very minute, there are around 1800 athletes on the island who will be taking part in Saturday’s event. Many of them are here with their families and friends. Add in coaches and spectators, and I’m sure you won’t be surprised to know that the total is well over 5,000.

Oh, and don’t forget how many of them come to Lanzarote 3 or 4 times a year to train.

Here’s an interesting demographic for you – the average income of triathletes is around €115,000 – it’s a sport that attracts successful, professional people.

There are some serious opportunities in all the facts above. Read more »

Facebook is a wonderful place to build relationships with your clients and potential clients. And I see people with exceptional communities built up around their Facebook pages.

And no traffic at all on their websites. Read more »

Once you set up a system or process for your business, it’s easy to forget about it and just leave it running.

I was put in mind of this the other day, as I wasted tons of time in Vodafone España’s asinine call centre “loop.” You have to go through several levels listening to a computer asking you questions while you press the relevant buttons, only to find you’ve been put through to the wrong department when you finally get to speak to a human! I now know their hold music in detail! While all this was going on, I wondered when was the last time any senior manager at Vodafone had actually tried using their system to see what it was like from a client viewpoint. Read more »

You’ve done all the hard work.

You’ve spent a fortune advertising.

Your website is really well optimised to get search traffic.

You’ve invested time being helpful on social media to people.

And then the enquiry comes in from someone who wants to buy.

And it all goes horribly wrong.

Because the member of your team that answers the enquiry is unhappy, or bored, or hasn’t been trained properly.

Or maybe it’s you?

Either way, it needs addressing. Read more »