cathybennett1-blog

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The future of Britain’s high streets in this digital world

Over the past ten years, we have seen the decline of Britain’s pubs and high street shops. The pubs began their decline during the recession and the smoking ban.  The shops began their decline after the rise of sites like Amazon and Ebay and many other online stores, along with business rate hikes, government cut backs and high rents.

I mean, let’s be honest, how many of you have seen an item, like a toy for example, in the shop and then gone onto your phone to see how much it is on Amazon? We don’t want to be doing this, because, I don’t believe any of us want to see the high street stores disappearing, however, if the item is quite a few pounds cheaper, then we are going to buy the item on Amazon, right? Especially at Christmas time when every penny counts.  

Of Britain’s top 500 high streets, 1234 shops have closed in the first half of 2019. Between 2012 and 2017 online clothing shopping sales have doubled with stores like Asos, Boohoo, Mainline Menswear etc.  The online clothing stores now own 40% of the market. However, they do face their own problems like serial returners thus creating a phantom economy. Many shoppers are buying clothes, wearing them once or twice and then returning them.  This creates false sales profits for these companies and actually costing them money in postage and administration costs in sorting the returns out.

There are some shopping experiences you just cannot buy online like getting your hair cut, or having your nails done.  Over the last ten years we have seen more and more of these pop up in our high streets, with some high streets having about 5 nail bars in one street.  These kind of stores are doing better than ever, but that is not going to fill up the whole high street. Takeaway stores are doing a booming trade at the moment, but most of these even have delivery apps now so footfall is not needed.

There is something wonderful about browsing the high street shops, sometimes you don’t really know what you are looking for, especially when looking for Christmas gifts and the like. Whilst looking around, suddenly you will see a gift that you think somebody would like, and you would never have found this online or even thought of it.  

We have already lost Woolworths, HMV, BHS, Dixons, Jane Norman, Barratts, Maplin, Toys R Us, Blockbusters, Comets and many others.  Who remembers Fads? 

It has recently been suggested that a four day week could help boost the economy.  Put in simple terms, the idea is that on that extra day off, people will be out spending and putting money back into the economy/businesses. This then gives the business more money to spend on more efficient business systems that will have a more efficient output, which will cover the workload that needs covering by the loss of a human. You can read more about this on Fingertips’ blog page https://fingertipstyping.co.uk/blog/four-day-week-and-flexible-working-could-it-benefit-our-economy.

What do you think about this and also about the high street article above?  We would love to hear your thoughts.

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Analogue vs Digital Dictation

The use of analogue (cassette tape) recorders is somewhat outdated but are still used in many professional industries. But as we have moved forward into a digital age there is a call for more companies to embrace digital dictation and here are some of the reasons why.

Security

Analogue devices are highly insecure, after all anyone can playback the recording and listen to your patient or client…

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Top Five Tips On How To Create A Compelling PowerPoint Presentation

Creating a captivating PowerPoint presentation can be a real challenge, I am sure we have all been to a presentation or meeting where the speakers reads everything from the slides and you and everyone else is bored to tears. But how do you put the Pow into PowerPoint?

Keep It Simple– Try and avoid using bright colours on your slides and don’t get to tempted to go all out on the animation as this…

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Spot Aynthing Wrong?

Proof Reading Tips by Fingertips Typing Services

There’s no foolproof formula for perfect proofreading every time. But these six tips should help you spot errors before anybody else does.

What do proofreaders do?

A proofreader is a person who spots the details and checks for any errors (typos, spellings, punctuation) before the document goes to print or online.

What skills do you need to be a…

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Your Mailshot Checklist

Mailshots are a great way to communicate and engage with your existing and prospect customers and can be an effective way to promote your business. However getting it right can be tricky as it is important to get the right tone of voice and come up with a message that will appeal to your target audience.

Here at Fingertips Typing we have a team of highly skilled and knowledgeable marketing…

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Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Tech Becomes Reality

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Tech Becomes Reality

On 4th October 2017 Google announced the launch of its new translation tech headphones, Pixel Buds, which it claims can simultaneously translate spoken language into the ear of the listener. There is much hype around this new technology.

Technology which reminds me of the Babel fish from Douglas Adams book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which excreted simultaneous translations directly…

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How To Improve Your Words Per Minute?

How To Improve Your Words Per Minute?

We all know that typing speed matters, but being able to type quickly and accurately is a very rare skill and could be what makes you stand out between you and another equally qualified applicant.

The average typing speed is 60 words per minute, but how can you improve upon that and stay accurate?

Here are our five techniques that we know will help you increase your typing speed and beat the…

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What Tools Do You Need For Transcribing?

What Tools Do You Need For Transcribing?

As with any career, not only do you need to be skilled in your profession you also need to ensure that you have the right tools for the job. After all you wouldn’t be a mechanic without having your own set of tools to be able to fix a car.

So we have broken down the tools that a transcriber needs to do their job into two categories: Need to have and Nice to have.

Need to have:

Headphones

A…

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Back to School: The Transcriber Essentials

Back to School: The Transcriber Essentials

It is that time of year again, when the shops are fully of sparkly new stationery items, the TV is full of adverts for school uniforms and back to school essentials. So, it seemed fitting to do a blog post on the Transcriber Essentials.

Here are our top five essential skills you need to be a good Transcriber:

Good use of English language– having good use and understanding of English grammar and…

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The Secrets to Successfully Working From Home

The Secrets to Successfully Working From Home

You might think that working from home would be easy, especially if you are doing it to give yourself a better work life balance or to fit around your family. But, it is harder than it looks, it takes a great deal of determination and organisation to not slip into bad habits and ensure that you are as effective as possible.

Before you take the plunge, have a look at our 9 tips to getting the most…

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The Dos and Don'ts of Copywriting

The Dos and Don’ts of Copywriting

Writing good copy isn’t as simple as just putting pen to paper, otherwise everyone would be a fantastic copywriter.

Good copywriting can be hard to come by and takes an exceptional amount of skill and knowledge to learn.

At Fingertips we have a brilliant team of copywriters who produce great work, I asked them to tell me their list of what to do and what not to do when it comes to copywriting and…

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Our Five Simple Tips on Translation

Our Five Simple Tips on Translation

Translating documents can be a frustrating challenge, but it can also be very rewarding. Here are our tips to make the translation of documents more enjoyable, simpler and easier for your audience to understand.

Here are our top five tips to remember when writing for translation:

Read through your piece carefully before you start– The key to successful translation is knowing and understanding the…

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Five Foolproof Interview Techniques

Five Foolproof Interview Techniques

Conducting an interview can be tough, you want to elicit as much information from a person as possible, whilst remaining as friendly and personable as possible. The more someone is at ease with you the more they are likely to open up and talk to you.

But, not everyone has this skill, which is why we have put together our five foolproof interview techniques which will help you get the most from…

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Do you need insurance to work from home?

Do you need insurance to work from home?

This question crops up a lot, after all, home working is growing in popularity because it is flexible, allowing employees to work hours that suit their family and lifestyle.

Advancements in technology, such as broadband, home PCs and wi-fi, means that people can work just about anywhere.

But, you shouldn’t think that just because you operate your business from home that your home owners insurance…

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Six Essential Copywriting Tips

Six Essential Copywriting Tips

Good copy doesn’t just happen, it takes time, effort and skill to write a great piece of text.

I have so much advice to share with you, but for this post I thought I would keep it short and snappy, giving you the bare essentials to get you started.

Here are my six top tips:

Use plenty of paragraph breaks – No one wants to sift through a large block of text, so embrace white space.

Select the…

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A Brief History of Subtitles

A Brief History of Subtitles

Most TV programs and films, now have the option for Subtitles, in fact it is now very rare not to have the option. But how have they become mainstream?

This blog post explores exactly what Subtitles are and how they came about.

What are Subtitles?

Subtitles are the overlay of text explaining the narrative of film or to that is being shown on the screen.

When were they first used?

According to…

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What is the best way to deal with the media?

What is the best way to deal with the media?

Dealing with the media can be a very daunting task. Say the right thing and your PR campaign will be hailed a massive success; say the wrong thing, like Gerald Ratner[1] and you can watch your stocks and shares plummet, your customers run to the hills and have a major PR and business disaster on your hands.

But exactly what can you do to ensure that you get the best press coverage and make you…