Bonjour mon petit pois

With the reporting for Spain out the way I am now swinging back round to central Europe and having a good old dig around in the French Market.

Now you would think living only 26 miles from France that this would be easy. Bar a bit of water I'm sure if I had a loud enough megaphone I could go down to the cliffs of Dover and shout my requests across. I really thought it would be that easy. I've been speaking to French company for a few years now and despite the occasional argument over who is right we haven't got to the stage where they jumped into a Citroen and started blockading the port!!
I gest of course but there is a seriousness to my point. I've been doing this European thing now for the best part of three years and even now in some places it feels like starting over. I guess it doesn’t help that I don’t actually speak any languages apart from my native lazy English but you would think in this modern world we would be able to get over that barrier and in the main we do. (without me trying to better Del boys Bonjour!)

Also what is surprising is the way us Brits are viewed. I am sure it is with some contempt in some places, I have visions of being placed on hold whilst whoever I'm speaking to is saying "hey guys we have another crazy Englishman on the phone, he keeps bloody saying please and thank you the sucker". I tried to translate that using Babelfish but it made the person sound like a French Mr T!


So anyway mission France is well underway, as always I'll be letting you know how i get on, especially as I have the grand total of 1 follower (thanks Zara always loving your work) for the rest of you just stopping by why not make me more of a general fixture - My blogs are not always about work!

Have a good weekend all

Starting out on the road called "Social Media"

Well it’s been a few months now. I’ve been working on a form of a strategy for my "social media" content and the direction I would like to take it. I've always concentrated partially on developing a close network across Europe who can help me get to where I need to be. It's easy to forget though that I am just a person and if I was having a conversation with you in the pub I'd be talking about more than just my work.

So maybe this is where I’ve gone a little wrong. Landing in to the mosh pit of mediums was certainly a lesson and I've been trying to put a value on everything since I started. Oh how wrong I was.


There are a thousand experts who will tell you what you should be doing, how you should be driving traffic and increasing your page rankings. How the web can provide a stream of revenue and can really allow you create something unique and special.

Some of these experts are worth listening too; others are only in it for self gain. It's hard trying to work out who makes sense and who doesn't.

So is there a best strategy? Well in a word no well at least in my opnion. What works for 1 won’t work for another and so on. You have to find out where you are most comfortable!

But there are some great ideas out there. I spend a considerable amount of my daily activities on Ecademy. A site which has taken me a while to get my head round and in the past I may have raised a few questions about the success and ambition of the site. Well the last month or so has certainly stuck a bun in my mouth.


The changes coupled with what feels like fresh enthusiasm from the owners has certainly made an impact on me. Penny for instance seems to have been running at full tilt recently and as the face of the place it’s definitely had an impact.


I don't profess to reading pages upon pages of strategy and although my toe has been dipped I am still yet to put the whole leg in. If you are just starting out on you're journey then can I suggest that as a good starting point you visit http://www.ecademy.com/

It's a real smoldering pot of characters and professionals. I've asked for help a few times now and every time I have had a response. I'm not even the most pro active of net workers yet I feel like I can make a bit of noise without looking over my shoulder.

See you there?

Understanding Spain

I've been doing an amount of research on Spain over the past few weeks to try and understand the current economic situation and the impact the global recession has had on the country. It's been mildly grim reading in terms of unemployment with Spain currently having a 18.5% unemployment rate. What is more disturbing is that this figure is set to rise to 20% in 2010. That equates to a 5th of the able bodied population out of work. It's also currently the highest in the Eurozone.

Then I started looking into commercial property. There seems to be a lot of vacant property around at the moment, renting volumes have decreased and there are estates which are virtually empty. Barcelona and Madrid are being shunned for better rates and Malaga, Valencia and Bilbao all seem like better viable options.

Spain has still some pain to bear. The banks although stable have had to consume toxic debt, much like many other countries but their overall conservative outlook has provided some relief.

So as I'm running through all of this I am thinking that maybe Spain is the place to solidify the network. With the market in a small free fall the time could be right to capitalise provided business levels are there.

I'll keep you posted on how I get on, at the moment its a very interesting and valuable exercise which will allow me to fully understand Spain and all its workings.