Recent content by alamest

  1. alamest

    Does my company need UK trademark class 40?

    I went through this exact confusion when I registered my trademark because the wording around “treatment of materials” makes it sound broader than it actually is. From what you’ve described, you’re not taking in customer-owned goods and processing them. You’re buying the blank stock yourself...
  2. alamest

    Printing company changing lanes - How do I get local B2B orders?

    I’ve been in a similar spot trying to move from one-off jobs into more consistent B2B orders, and I think the key difference is positioning. From what you wrote, you’re currently doing mostly one-off print jobs and trying to scale that up to local B2B clients. In my experience, local businesses...
  3. alamest

    Commercial Energy Procurement - Energy Reduction - Solar

    If the site really is only around 100kW as you mentioned, that’s not huge in commercial terms, so I’d be looking very closely at load profile before jumping into solar + PPA. In my experience, it’s not just total usage but when you’re using it that makes or breaks the numbers. If most of the...
  4. alamest

    How do you handle repeat "how do I do X?" questions from your team?

    In small teams, we found a mix works best. Early on it’s mostly shadowing and asking questions, but that doesn’t scale once the same “how do I do X?” keeps coming up. What helped was lightweight documentation: Short written checklists or SOPs for repeat tasks Quick screen recordings for...
  5. alamest

    URGENT WORLDPAY FRAUD Dept., number required?

    That does sound odd. Normally WordPay (and similar processors) will have a dedicated fraud team, but they don’t always give out a direct phone number unless there’s an active investigation. A couple of things I’d be checking straight away: Were the payments card-present or online? Any chance...
  6. alamest

    Shopify store sole trader

    Yes, this is covered by your tax return categories. • Shopify/PayPal transaction fees usually go under Bank, credit card and other financial charges. • Shopify monthly fees, domain and account costs are typically Office costs or Other business expenses. • Payments to EU freelancers are...
  7. alamest

    Have you ever outsourced admin support? How did it work for you?

    I’ve tried outsourcing admin support for basic tasks like emails, invoicing, and data entry. It can work, but only if everything is clearly documented and monitored. There’s a fair amount of setup time, and communication can be a challenge at first. I wouldn’t outsource anything that needs...
  8. alamest

    Are AI Bots slowing sites down and causing too many problems

    Yes I do, why do you say that?
  9. alamest

    Are AI Bots slowing sites down and causing too many problems

    I’ve been following this discussion with interest. It looks like a solid platform overall, but I agree that there’s room for improvement, especially around usability and clarity of features. For tools like this, consistency and transparency really matter — clear explanations, predictable...
  10. alamest

    Companies trying to sell gas/electric services...

    This usually comes down to recycled data rather than anything targeted at you. Most of these energy sales outfits buy old business lists pulled from Companies House, directories, previous occupiers etc. When a unit changes hands, the data doesn’t get updated properly and the new tenant just...
  11. alamest

    Buying a commercial property

    This comes up a lot, and the honest answer is that buying a commercial property can make sense, but only if you go into it with your eyes open. The biggest thing people underestimate is how different commercial property is compared to residential. Financing is tougher, deposits are usually much...
  12. alamest

    Do these still impress people?

    Short answer: yes, but far less than they used to — and it really depends on context. What actually impresses people today isn’t the “thing” itself, it’s what it represents. Ten or fifteen years ago, certain items or displays were clear status signals because fewer people had access to them...
  13. alamest

    Course attendee wants refund due to absence

    I’ve seen this happen a few times and it’s always awkward. On one side, you want to protect your income and time (that space could’ve gone to another paying attendee), but on the other side you don’t want a frustrated customer bad-mouthing your business either. Personally, I think the key...
  14. alamest

    Warning - New way of bypassing Email security filters?

    I’ve had a few of these lately as well, and it does look like scammers are using PDFs to slip past normal filters. The files often look completely clean, but inside there’s usually a link or QR code to a fake login page (Microsoft seems to be a common target). I’ve also seen a couple with hidden...
  15. alamest

    Tips for Increasing Instagram followers

    I’ve been trying to grow my Instagram for a while and honestly the things that helped me weren’t anything crazy. Posting regularly and actually talking to people in the comments made a bigger difference than any hashtag trick. Reels helped a lot too especially when I mixed behind-the-scenes...
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