Richard Dewick's blog

Having recently launched two new websites for our customers, www.foreignstudents.com and www.nucreativetalent.co.uk, we thought it was about time we revamped our own website to highlight the potential of Drupal!

What the heckings is Drupal? You may be asking, well it's the Content Management System of choice for Makak Media, allowing the website owner to take control over the running of their site on a day-to-day basis.

We specialise in Drupal development as it's a system that provides cutting edge functionality with ease of use for our customers:

"The Content Management System Makak Media built for us was exactly as requested and more. The ease of use was surprising and it's capabilities exceeded our expectations." Andrew Davies, Sales and Marketing Manager, ITC Global Security

Come and see us at the Bromley Business Club Open Evening to find out more.

Thanks to all those members who have contributed to the blog over the past year, I'm sure you have found it worthwhile and I look forward to reading further contributions in 2011.

A reminder to all members that blog posts are included in our regular newsletters that go out to over 1,000 businesses in the area. Why not start 2011 with a blog post of your own and get your company name in front of all these people.

Comments are more than welcome to start the discussion and at the bottom of each blog post are links to share the articles on Facebook, Linked In, Twitter and StumbleUpon.

To those members who have not yet written a blog post, what are you waiting for?! Blogging is a great way to share your expert knowledge and gain business, especially if you do not have a website of your own.

Here are some tips and ideas:

• Blog Launch and Tips
• It's About Time I Started Blogging

If you are new to The Bromley Business Club or networking in general here are 5 Reasons To Join A Business Networking Club

Seasons greetings to one and all.

Richard Dewick
The Bromley Business Club 

Getting good website design and development can prove tricky especially when you can be blinded with science/technical jargon! Good communication between both parties is crucial to a successful project and it's sad when this breaks down.

Is your website only half finished with no obvious time scale for completion from your developer? Sadly this is a familiar story I hear from clients that come to me in need of help.

There's a multitude of reasons why this may have occurred, from poor website development skills, bloating of completion schedules, loss of faith in your developer or it being that they have moved out of the area and you would prefer to use someone locally.

This all goes to prove that getting the right developer from the outset is an important part of the process in getting your business live on the internet. Researching your developers capabilities is crucial to making sure your website is built correctly and delivered on time. Check the developers work, testimonials and their own site to make sure you have the confidence in their skills.

If your website still isn't complete and live after weeks of work then do not think all is lost. We've worked with many customers who have come to us with half completed sites and been able to work with what they have and finish the job.

There are many different programming languages that can go into building a website but as long as the developer has not deviated too much from standard practice then there shouldn't be the need to start from scratch. This does depend on the size and scale of your site and if the developer has used their own custom CMS or similar but in most cases this is not the case.

If you're in this situation then do get in contact and we can make sure your website is live and working asap. Do also check out and subscribe to our design communication blog for web design tips, social media marketing, all things internet related and jargon free.

Thanks to Martin Feaver of Positive Image Fitness for last night's talk on The Mind Body Connection. This was the perfect conclusion to a run of three speakers starting with QJ, The Inspirationist, followed by Dr Jason Gould with his Back Pain and Business Workshop and now Martin.

A fascinating topic on how the body reflects the state of mind and vice versa. A prime example being how your posture, whilst sitting at your desk, reflects how you are feeling at that moment in time and how your body then compounds the problem of sitting awkwardly.

For instance you might be sitting at your desk, as you're reading this, feeling stressed and without realising your shoulders are hunched and you're slumped forward in your chair. This posture is limiting your ability to breathe properly, in turn reducing your intake of air and restricking oxygen to the brain, making you tired.

Now try telling yourself that you will organise your work even more efficiently than normal, will get it finished in good time and meet all your deadlines. How does that make you feel?! Do you feel a little weight lifted off of your shoulders and that bit more relaxed?

If not then I'm afraid I can't help you but I'm sure Martin probably could! Why not get in contact with him to talk about the many ways the mind and body and connected.

Good News

Some good news was shared by our chairman last night, two first time visitors to our meetings have gone on to greater things. Debbie Randell is now working with our last speaker Jason Gould and Deniz Turan, MaxiMore Digital Media Ltd, is launching her new business next week at The Ivory Lounge. Deniz gave special thanks to all the members she spoke with over the last few months, giving her advice on starting and promoting her business. Congrats.

Our next meeting is now on 15th April.

Thanks to all those who attended last night's meeting with guest speaker Dr Jason Gould, a chiropractor from Chislehurst. His Back Pain and Business Workshop was an interesting topic, brought to life by Jason highlighting some of the common causes of back pain suffered by many in the group.

Everything from how to correctly stand up from a seated position to how your emotions relate to your posture were discussed.

One of the main things I took away from the evening was how you should respect the signals your body is sending, ie pain! If left unchecked for a long period of time the pain can escalate and cause damage that could have been prevented.

A lot of common problems seem to occur from a lack of core muscle strength which affects a lot of the body. Former international footballer, Niall Quinn said that he could not have played his last two seasons without Pilates which helps strengthen core muscles.

Beware of Expensive Chairs!

The topic of chairs came up in discussion, one person having spent many hundreds of pounds on a designer chair found that this solved their back problems.

Jason warned against expensive purchases, that may or may not solve your back pain, as the root cause may be something else entirely, such as your bed!

I can testify to that as I myself have one of these designer chairs, luckily I didn't pay quite as much, which helped my back pain but has definitely not solved it.

It turns out I might have sciatica so it looks like I'll be seeing Jason again quite soon!