The Copy Cat

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2010-04-28T11:37:00.001+01:00

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PR for Forward Ladies

2010-04-27T18:43:00.002+01:00

A great PR opportunity for women in business - the inaugural Forward Ladies Women in Business Awards. Go for it girls!

April York WiRE

2010-03-31T11:35:00.004+01:00

The next meeting of our York WiRE group will be at 7 pm on 13th April at the new regular venue of St Olave's Hall on Marygate. By popular request we've organised a talk on social networking and Nick Eggleton of Acute Marketing will be advising us on how best to use this to help our businesses. The ten minute member slot will be given by Samantha Lyth of Red Kite Services. All women business owners welcome! Please contact me if you'd like to attend.

Apostrophe Abuse

2010-03-24T16:53:00.002Z

Been meaning to post a link to this for ages - excellent column from the York Press about misuse of the apostrophe. Lord Mayors Walk indeed...

Win a York Wedding!

2010-02-19T11:31:00.005Z

I've recently been helping a wonderful lady called Angie Grinham who's organising a charity raffle in aid of the Macmillan nurses at York Hospital. The fantastic prize is a package of wedding stuff worth around ten thousand pounds! Read her story in the York Press or enter the competition here.

A CopyCat Affair

2010-01-28T12:32:00.004Z

Congratulations to CopyCat client The Wedding Affair, a new business going from strength to strength. Lisa and Allison are the experts in all things wedding-related and organise beautiful events at fabulous venues around North Yorkshire. Extra points to them for starting a new business during the recession and making it work! Read about their ongoing success in the York Press.

Designs on Radio

2010-01-27T10:00:00.002Z

CopyCat client Owen Turner of United By Design was on Elly Fiorentini's Radio York show yesterday to talk about his involvement with the Graduate Internship Programme at York St John University - he's the first employer to take part in the scheme. Owen's a great designer and a really forward-thinking business owner, doing lots to educate young people about the importance of good design. You can listen again here - Owen is on 26th January at about 1 hour 11 minutes.

WiRE's Big Boost

2010-01-21T14:11:00.004Z

February's York WiRE meeting is going to be on the second Tuesday of the month rather than the first, because the big WiRE Boost 2010 conference in Pontefract is on 2nd February. Details as follows:

Tuesday 9th February
7.00 - 9.00 pm (registration from 6.45)
Quaker Meeting Hall, Friargate, York YO1 9RL
Cost: £5 for members and visitors

Our main presenter this time is Mark Bates of Whitewall Services, who will be giving an interactive presentation on giving good customer service, which is a really important element of any business. The ten minute member slot will be given by Sally Hanley of Clearly Confident Image. Kirsty Harvey's goal-setting presentation (from the cancelled January meeting) has been rescheduled for March.

Please email me if you'd like to attend. As usual, please bring along a guest if you can - the more the merrier! We hope lots of women business owners will be able to make Boost 2010 - you don't have to be a WiRE member to attend, but WiRE conferences are always really informative and inspiring. The programme looks really good - details on the WiRE website.

Farm Shop Video Star

2010-01-19T06:43:00.003Z

My client Ann Brown's business, The Internet Farm Shop, has become one of only five small businesses in the UK to be filmed by Microsoft for their series of short films called Do What You Love. What a great accolade! The video will be on the Microsoft site for a whole year and you can see it here. Ann's had quite a bit of coverage in the media about this, including a piece in the Hull Daily Mail, with the result that her website traffic is up by 400%!

CopyCat on Facebook

2010-01-08T16:41:00.002Z

Happy new year to all friends and clients of CopyCat.

A busy start to 2010 - but the only trouble with working from home is that you have no excuse not to turn up when it snows!

CopyCat is now on Facebook - please become a fan.

Merry Christmas from CopyCat

2009-12-23T11:59:00.003Z

No hard copy cards this year - we've gone all green with a lovely cat ecard from Sloppy Kiss Cards. For every person who follows the link and opens their card I'm donating 50p to Cat's Protection - much better than spending the money on cards and postage! Have a look at our ecard here.

Wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2010.
xx

Ryedale Cares for Customers

2009-11-23T11:34:00.004Z

The next meeting of the Ryedale Business Network is at 6.30 on Thursday 3rd December at the Ryedale Bowling Club in Norton. The theme this time is marketing and advertising and there will be a presentation by Andy Newhall of Freshology Marketing on how to win new customers, keep them satisfied and maximise the potential for repeat business - valuable advice! And of course yours truly will also be on hand with PR hints and tips.

Investing in Digesting

2009-11-20T10:19:00.003Z

Something I forgot to post before I went on honeymoon - the great news that my client Mosley's Waste Disposal is investing a massive ten million pounds in its cutting-edge facility at Topcliffe. I must admit I knew absolutely nothing about anaerobic digestion when I first went to see Simon there, but one of the great things about this job is that I meet people from all walks of life and learn a lot along the way! Read all about it in the York Press.

WiRE and Wine

2009-11-18T19:30:00.002Z

The next meeting of our York WiRE group is on 1st December and we're going to be at the Hotel du Vin - classy! Even better, this meeting is free to attend for both members and guests, so if you've never been to WiRE before it's a great opportunity to find out what we're all about. Jacey Lamerton of Get Your Frocks Off will be giving a talk on how we can all look our best for the party season - I'd better pay attention! Usual kick-off time of 7 pm. All businesswomen welcome - please email me for further info or to book a place.

Photographer Steve is Vegas Bound!

2009-11-17T10:46:00.002Z

I did a press release recently for York photographer Steve Ramsden who's won more awards than you can shake a stick at for his wedding work this year. It's a very competitive field, so he must be really good! Steve's most recent prize is a free trip to the International Convention of Wedding and Portrait Photographers in sunny Las Vegas - fantastic! Read more about him in this piece from the York Press.

A Radio York Affair

2009-10-30T06:39:00.003Z

Not posted an entry for a while as I've been busy getting married and going on honeymoon! Mrs Shepherd is now back in the office.

A great day yesterday for clients The Wedding Affair with an interview on Elly Fiorentini's show on BBC Radio York. Lisa and Allison talked about how they set up their business and the preparations for their first upmarket wedding fair at the beautiful Ripley Castle on 15th November. If you'd like to hear the interview you can listen to it on the BBC iPlayer - about an hour and fifteen minutes into Elly's show on 29th October. Good luck with the fair girls!

Eh-oh to Union Mill!

2009-09-25T09:23:00.004+01:00

I recently did a press release for the fantastic new Union Mill development of luxury apartments in Whitby. It's really interesting that what was once considered an eyesore by locals has now been nominated for a Certificate of Excellence from the Whitby Civic Society! Read all about it in the Yorkshire Post.

WiRE in The Press

2009-09-11T11:34:00.002+01:00

Read all about the great York WiRE group in the York Press this week.

Businesswomen in the York area, please come and join us at our next meeting on Tuesday 6th October! The presentation will be about pensions - not the most sexy topic, but we all need to make sure that we'll have enough to live on in retirement. Feel free to email me for further details.

WiRE Sends Knickers to Africa

2009-08-20T12:01:00.004+01:00

Lucy Amos of French for Fidgets and myself have just taken over organisation of the York WiRE group, and our first meeting in charge is on Tuesday 8th September at St Olave's Hall on Marygate in York. We have a fantastic presenter in Jane Sachedina, who will be telling us all how to be a great networker, followed by a fun session of speed networking. Any businesswomen in the York area are very welcome to attend - guests can visit WiRE twice before deciding whether to join. The cost is only a fiver, which includes refreshments. If you'd like to come just drop me an email or book on the WiRE website.

Here's what we got up to at our last meeting!

Uniting Design and Sales

2009-07-29T13:45:00.002+01:00

Ever wondered whether it's worth paying a design agency to create your marketing materials when you could knock up a leaflet on the PC yourself? Of course it will cost you something, but if the latest news from my client United By Design is to be believed, it will pay for itself in increased sales. Check out their article in the York Press for the evidence!

Running for Jane

2009-07-13T15:59:00.005+01:00

Feeling fat and unfit after Christmas I entered the Jane Tomlinson York Run For All 10K in a moment of madness! I've been plodding along for the last few months and now it's only a couple of weeks away. I'm aiming to raise five hundred pounds for Jane's Appeal, so if anyone would like to make a donation (however small) please visit my Just Giving page. It will be much appreciated, both by me and the many charities that will benefit. Many thanks to the lovely people at Burn Hall who have already sponsored me!

Owt for Nowt in Ryedale

2009-06-19T16:08:00.004+01:00

That's the recession-friendly theme of the presentation at the next meeting of the Ryedale Business Network. Nick Teasdale from tKnowIT will be talking about free business software, Kevin Chilton of Chilton Safety Solutions will identify free sources of health and safety information and Darrell Hooper will have information about all the free advice and training events on offer from Business Link, which are great by the way - I went to one of their presentation skills seminars this week presented by body language expert Judi James and she was fantastic.

The Ryedale meeting is at 6.30 pm on Tuesday 23rd June at the Ryedale Bowling Club in Norton. All business owners welcome! Visit the website to register or call 08444 843587.

Free PR opportunity!

2009-05-26T14:12:00.002+01:00

We all like free stuff don't we? One way to (maybe) get some free PR for your business is to enter the York Press Business Awards. You don't even have to be a winner - many of the nominees and finalists receive some very good coverage in the paper too. You've nothing to lose by having a go anyway! More details on The Press website.

Networking at Burn Hall

2009-05-14T10:05:00.003+01:00

For those who love to network, there's a free event at Burn Hall Hotel and Conference Centre on 4th June. It's running from 6 pm until 8pm and apparently there is going to be Buck's Fizz, nibbles and wine tasting. I can't think of a good reason not to go! Burn Hall is at Huby, just off the A19 between York and Thirsk and it's a great venue with lovely grounds. Sounds like a great opportunity to make some new contacts.

WiRE Comes to Selby

2009-05-07T14:48:00.003+01:00

Women's business networking group WiRE is holding its first meeting in Selby on Wednesday 13th May. All welcome! Please see here for further info.