What dose 2012 hold for the chairty sector?

I was signposted to this excellent article by a twitter from Jenny Warner of Charisma Charity Recruitment.

Jane Arnott - acting head of advisory and consulting, Charities Aid Foundation
Commercial: The combination of public sector funding cuts and social investment opportunities will require charities to think in a more commercial way in terms of how they can generate revenue beyond their traditional income streams. Good business skills will be important in 2012 - having an understanding of your market, being able to generate income, developing a strong business discipline so that you're making decisions based on evidence and a clear plan for the future will all be essential. For example, charities will need to think about how can they sell their services or expertise to generate revenue, whether they can make money from their premises or intellectual capital etc.
It requires a more commercial mindset and strong management information to help you understand your costs and where you can maximise value. Social investment: Based on the trends we've seen evolving in the past year, 2012 will see lots of charities looking to diversify their income streams. It's going to be fascinating to see how the social investment space develops - there's a lot of interest in it, but our experience with CAF Venturesome and other projects is that many organisations aren't 'investment ready'. There needs to be a lot more support to get charities geared up to manage debt financing and the income generation required to repay loans. However, our experience also shows that social investment can be really effective in supporting organisations to make a step change.

Diana Mackie - PR manager, Institute of Fundraising (IoF)
Bureaucracy: As a sector, charities have been trying to battle with the red tape that often restricts efficiency and slows processes. 2012 will see a review of the Charities Act 2006. As part of the review the IoF would like to see it made as easy as possible for charities to raise money without compromising trust. It would also be great to see some of the current barriers to successful fundraising, such as unduly complicated solicitation statements, removed.

The basics: New technology will enable a range of fundraising trends in 2012; online giving is rightly a focus but it's important not to lose sight of the basics involved in raising money. Key areas include: consistent communication of your charity's brand, excellent donor care processes and an investment in individual fundraisers' training and development to ensure practitioners are up to speed with the rapidly changing public sector landscape. Ultimately, online is just one channel a charity can use to communicate and raise money. Direct marketing, for example, still remains a useful tool for many charities, as does the traditional donor newsletter (either in hard copy or distributed electronically).

Rosie Chapman - co-founder, Belinda Pratten and Rosie Chapman Associates
Skills mix: The CFDG/PKF risk survey highlighted the following problems in 2011: most respondents (73%) reported greater competition in service provision; 54% said the need for their services has increased; 50% that their costs have increased as a direct result of changes in public policy. Against this backdrop, 41% of charities have not been able to maintain the required levels of investment this year to sustain them in the future and 49% have utilised their reserves to some extent. There are mixed perceptions of how well-equipped trustee boards are to manage new risks - perhaps a good starting point to help this would be for charity boards to discuss their skills mix and identify any gaps. Impact: Impact measurement and reporting will be big themes in 2012. This is partly funder driven, for example, Catalyst Gateway is moving from an input (budget driven) to an outcome funded (paid on the agreement of achieving clear outcomes) model. The recent risk survey (mentioned above) also showed that 53% of charities have experienced increased demand from stakeholders to demonstrate their performance.

Collaboration: Austerity Britain means there will be a continuing trend towards more collaborative working. Some leading national charities, for example, that have federated structures are looking to see whether they should expand their criteria to enable new and different types of organisations to join.

Roberto Kusabbi - community and social media manager, British Heart Foundation
Evolution: The evolution of Facebook and Twitter, and the impact that has on how we engage with users, will become a lot more sophisticated. We're past the stage of knowing it's important - understanding the data and how these spaces plug into existing content/sites will become more prevalent. 2012 should see some much better examples of practice and monetisation will be explored much more. The JustGiving Facebook application, for example, already allows users to donate without leaving Facebook.

Data: Data is certainly one of my trends to watch for 2012. Being able to interrogate the data we have and make decisions that help our organisations will become even more important. In a time when there is more data available than ever before, it's important not to just collect it, but to do something with it and understand it. We did a very small but very useful exercise at the BHF using Facebook data to help us drive our strategy on the platform. This is just one example of using data we already have to help make us more efficient and targetted.

Mobile. Mobile. Mobile: In terms of fundraising, the interesting spaces to watch are mobile and mobile giving. This should not just be an application for the sake of an application, but a better understanding of the platform and what it can do for donations and awareness is required. Near field technology, which allows you to pay for goods on your mobile, will start to play a much bigger part in our lives in 2012. What this means for charities is interesting; will more people donate or pay for events via their mobiles? Could it branch out into a new area? This will obviously be a space for the early adopters, but one to watch in the future for sure.

Sylwia Presley - social media consultant, Voice
Ambassadors: In 2012 we will see more ambassador and blogger engagement programmes but also more involvement from local communities. Charities will discover the real power of online relationships to identify, work with and embrace the potential of their supporters.

Digital: In 2012 there might be more mature usage of digital tools, with case studies and methodology shared publicly and with a more balance approached. Digital technologies and social media tools will be used all across charities - not only for fundraising and marketing. It is really difficult for people working with digital to represent an organisation where social is not fully integrated all across various silos. More digital engagement can save costs on travel and meetings, moving towards online collaboration and communicating internally in a more consistent way. There is a lot of scope for people who are willing to invest time and skills in those areas. As we enter online conversations, we need to ensure that we operate faster, are able to respond to real-time events and that we have the policies and processes to do so.

Jenny Lowthrop - blogger,
Volunteer Addict Mistakes: With regards to impact measurement and reporting, this talks about NGOs admitting failure. This is perhaps something charities aren't so good at, but it is important. We shouldn't be afraid to admit our mistakes and then take measures to change for the better, rather than carrying on down the wrong track because that is what our aims, visions and funding guidelines tell us to do.

Volunteers: There are more people available to volunteer, due to a lack of jobs, but less money and people employed to manage them. This article suggests some useful tips on trying to get over the assumed barriers - charities need to try and put more faith in the volunteers, positive encouragement and more ownership are required to make volunteers to feel a part of the charity.

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional.

New Years Resolution?

This is the time of year when we begin to hear a great deal about setting goals for the New Year. The thought of a fresh year with no blemishes drives many to dream of new beginnings and better performance. The sad truth is that most just talk about goals and rarely act. They are content to fantasise about what could be.

Goals without plans and daily actions are well-intended daydreams. Any of you who know me well will know that I not a great sportsman or even a sports fan. What you might not know is that one of my heroes is Sir Steve Redgrave precisely because he overcame his adversity by setting goals. Tiny ones that built up to big achievements, six Olympic medals - the famous five Golds and an often forgotten Bronze in Pairs in 1988. He was awarded the MBE, the CBE and following his success in Sydney was awarded a Knighthood in the 2001 New Years Honours List. I have heard him talk about improving his personal best by breaking it down in to ¼ or ½ second improvements which did not then sound too daunting, building up to world class achievements.

Each of us has a lifeline that we are currently moving along to our final destination. It begins at birth and ends on this earth when we draw our last breath. We have an incredible number of choices to make on the journey, but one among all of these normally defines our life. Have you chosen to live a life of default (choices made for you) or design (your choices)?

Let me ask you the question that will be the central theme for the rest of this blogg, “Are you a goal setter or a problem solver?” Most will clearly fall on one side or the other with the highest performers usually on the side of the goal setters. In reality only 2% of the world proudly claim to be goal setters and the other 99% rely on problem solving to move through their life.

Problem solvers will argue they move through life at the same pace as goal setters. The only flaw in their argument is they usually progress in the direction of the problems they solve and not in the direction that their life could have taken.

Here is an exercise that I have recently started doing at this time of year. Take out eight pieces of blank paper and title each page with one of the following words:

1. Social,
2. Physical, 
3. Spiritual, 
4. Financial, 
5. Educational, 
6. Work,
7. Family, 
8. Personal.

Under each heading, create a list of what you want to accomplish for 2012. Ask yourself the following questions as you prioritise each list:

a) What behaviours will you have to change in order to accomplish each one?
b) How committed are you to achieving the individual items on each list?
c) What will achieving each item do for you personally?
d) What roadblocks will you have to overcome to accomplish each one?
e) Who will be your accountability partner?
f) How will you celebrate each accomplishment?

This is not a unique incite, there are 52,533 books on goal setting listed on Amazon.com and 13.2 million websites! However it is not so much about the "however" as it is about the "now"!

I encourage you to set some small goals and test the water. Pick something that will force you to stretch your life beyond your current comfort zone and unconditionally commit to working on it for the next twenty days. Pay close attention to your experience at the fourteen-day mark as this is where the magic occurs. Here is where you get to make a choice because your mind will begin to “convince” you that the degree of difficulty is too great and you should opt out of the process. If you press through this sabotaging self-talk, you have the potential to gain control of your future. Then, it is simply a matter of following the directions on most shampoo bottles, “Lather, Rinse, Repeat.” “Set goals, Achieve your dreams, Set more goals”.

Let me know how you get on.

Big Society – Better Southampton

After discussions with Business Solent, Southampton Voluntary Services, Southampton Connect and Business in the Community earlier in the year I was delighted when they agreed to organise this event. The Corporate Social Partnership play a leading role and I was able to lead on of the workshops and sit on the pannel.

The event was supported by Southampton City Council, Saints Foundation, Capita and Flybe.

Local Business, Public and Voluntary organisations came together to discuss what the “Big Society” could mean for Southampton and to hear of practical ways to work together benefiting both the organisations and the local community.

The aim of the event was to create greater connections between the sectors across the city. Over 120 people gathered at St Mary's Stadium and the event was hosted by Martyn Lewis, broadcaster and chair of National Council for Voluntary Organisations; he said: “People in local communities deciding to make change happen is the closest you can get to democracy.”

Keynote speakers included Jo Ash, CEO of Southampton Voluntary Services; Sir Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations; Professor Van Gore, Vice Chancellor of Southampton Solent University and Dave Newton, Managing Director of Corporate Impact. They set the scene by giving delegates an overview of the different perspectives of the voluntary, public and business sectors.

Sir Stuart Etherington said Southampton had the opportunity to lead the way for the rest of the UK to follow and said: “The Big Society approach really is about local brokerage – it may not be easy to achieve but if you can get it off the ground here, you can set an example to the rest of the country”

Workshops enabled over 120 delegates to share their ideas or experiences and make a commitment to action to take back to their organizations. They also highlighted that communication – knowing who to talk to or contact - was a major barrier to success.

Speakers, sponsors and organizers of the Big Society – Better Southampton Conference which took place on 11th November 2011.

Donation instead of company Christmas Card

As we come up to the Christmas holiday I’m sure you are thinking of ways to thank your suppliers and customers and encourage them for 2012. I have found that the traditional company Christmas card gets lost amount the mountain of others. The recipient does not remember receiving yours or even notices if they don’t. There is also the environmental impact to consider! If you make a donation to The Rainbow Centre instead of sending cards you have an opportunity to contact your customers, suppliers and prospects letting them know what you are doing. This stands out, giving you a much higher profile.

I would suggest sending an e-mail with a little bit of design with the following wording;

Dear ( supplier, customer, prospect name here)
( your company name) would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We have chosen not to send Christmas cards this year, but are instead making a donation to The Rainbow Centre. We will be able to make a donation of £ ( this can be calculated to include the card and postage costs). ( You might like to add ):We have decided to round up / match this to bring the donation to £xx.
It would be a wonderful gift to the children and adults supported by Rainbow if you would join me in this alternative to Christmas cards.
The Rainbow Centre is one of the region's major charities and exists to support children and adults with neurological problems. Please take a few moments to view their website at www.rainbowcentre.org
We would like to wish you a relaxing Christmas and New Year and a prosperous 2012.
Kind regards

I do hope you will want to support us in this way.

Farewell Heartbeat

My team gave me a great send off today and amongst other things gave me this lovely poem. I will miss them all. It has been a pleasure working with such a dedicated bunch of people.

Our D’Arcy

Our D’Arcy, not the ballerina or that man from the period tale,

but our good humoured colleague about to set sail.

Our D’Arcy always full of cheer, ready with a kind word or a listening ear,

and well worn that ear has been, on occasion feeling the full force of the all female fundraising team.

Our D’Arcy not one to miss a photo opp,

Often with faithful friend Domino roped in as mascot.

Our D’Arcy with his full repertoire of anecdotes,

Who will keep us entertained now the time draws near for him to put on his coat.

Our D’Arcy a true team member he has been,

His empty chair will be a sore sight to be seen.

Today our ‘King of Hearts’ we lose,

Yet least we forget our D’Arcy in those zebra platform shoes.

With Best Wishes from your
Wessex Heartbeat Team

Search for new head to lead heart charity

I would like to share the following press release with you.

Wessex Heartbeat the charity providing support to the Wessex Cardiac Centre (WCC) at the University of Southampton NHS Foundation Trust will be recruiting a new Chief Executive.

The current CEO D’Arcy Myers has been with the charity since 2008 and will be taking up a position as CEO for The Rainbow Centre in Fareham.

Wessex Heartbeat Chairman Jim Monro praised D’Arcy for his excellent work with the charity and said:-
“D’Arcy has led the charity through a period of change and development. Wessex Heartbeat has helped the WCC to become an international centre of excellence for cardiac care through our support of medical and educational grants. We have exciting plans for the future development of the charity and will be looking for a charismatic CEO to help us with our current appeal to raise £800,000 for a new ward for a Young Adult Cardiac Unit (YACU) to help young adults with life-long heart problems”.

The charity will also continue to fund various projects in support of heart patients and loved ones, including patient support groups for people living with specific heart conditions or treatments.

D’Arcy commented: “I am extremely proud of the charity, especially our work with Southampton Hospital’s cardiac rehabilitation team giving healthy heart health checks and personalised advice in the work place. Plus the invaluable support we give to families of patients through Heartbeat House where we offer a free home from home accommodation on the hospital site. I will be supporting the charity to make a smooth transition with a new Chief Executive.”

ENDS

Notes for Editors

For further information please contact: Dawn Morrison, PR & Marketing Officer, Wessex Heartbeat

Tel 02380 795217  E-mail dawn@heartbeat.org.uk

Wessex Heartbeat (WHB) was established in 1992 and is a registered charity providing support to the Wessex Cardiac Centre (WCC) at Southampton General Hospital, its patients and their loved ones. WHB has helped the WCC to become an International Centre of Excellence for Cardiac Care.

Wessex Heartbeat helps make a real difference to the care of the 20,000 patients treated at the Centre annually, including 1,000 babies and children born with congenital heart defects.

Patients treated at the Centre come from a wide region of southern England, including Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset, West Sussex, Wiltshire, the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands.

Since the charity’s foundation Wessex Heartbeat has raised in excess of £13 million, funding numerous projects, including:

• A £1m refurbishment of the children’s ‘Ocean Ward’
• More than £2m worth of equipment for the WCC, including the revolutionary ‘Babypod’, which is used to safely and rapidly transport neonates and children less than 10kg to hospital.

Wessex Heartbeat continues to help patients, loved ones and medical staff in many ways:

• Funding revolutionary and specialist equipment
• Funding Heartbeat House, a home from home providing free of charge accommodation for patients relatives located just a few minutes walk from the hospital
• Running the Heartbeat Education Centre at the hospital, which has state-of-the-art technology and facilitates the training of medical staff
• Providing patient literature
• Offering on the spot health checks to employees at businesses and organisations, as part of our ‘Your Healthy Heart’ campaign
• Funding the refurbishment and maintenance of wards
• Sponsoring research projects
• Funding educational and training grants

Wessex Heartbeat does not receive any Government funding and is solely funded by the generosity of individuals and organisations, who contribute through voluntary donations, fundraising events, corporate support and legacies. Wessex Heartbeat is very thankful to all its supporters for their invaluable help, which is vital to ensure that everyone living with a heart condition receives the best possible support.

For more information about Wessex Heartbeat please call 02380 795217 or visit http://www.heartbeat.co.uk/
Wessex Heartbeat, PO Box 270, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, Hampshire, SO16 6GE

Registered Charity Number 1116510
Company Limited by Guarantee Number 5924982

From the perspective of a SME how would you want to work with a charity?

A few days ago I posted the following question to a LinkedIn group. I think the replies make interesting reading.

The question: “From the perspective of a SME how would you want to work with a charity? What would your measures of a successful relationship be?”

The comments:

“I would work with a charity for two reasons: number one - I feel good if I know I helped someone and number two - I feel good if other people recognize that I did something good”

“I think that moving forward SME's need to straddle both working with charities for shared strategic goals (geographical location, community, social issue and/or stakeholders), but also maintaining close relationships with charities close to the hearts of people within the SME (due to personal situations/experiences).”

“Making a difference is key here and should be at the forefront of the relationship. But the relationships need a clear measurable ways of how each can and will make a difference together.”

“If SME's are committed to this, a one-off feel good event, whilst laudable may not be enough. So an SME and charity relationship needs measurable strategic and personal targets so that the relationship can begin to share successes and aspirations for 'making a difference'. This should help enhance and support the success of the charity in the future and create a 'deeper' longer lasting feel good factor and more genuine commitment to 'making a difference' across the SME.”

“giving less or giving more? and does it matter? donations are not just about getting more business and generating more business is not just about making more money...there is much more in this world apart from money and fame...giving for free large or small from the bottom of your heart is all that matters”

“…I really do like the idea sustainable difference and shared goals you can measure (in line with D'Arcy's question), without this giving for free is still an amazing thing little or small!”

“Hopefully where possible SME's can make long term relationships with charities. I am certain would be the way forward for both the benefit of the SME's (maybe not for more business/money, maybe good for staff...), but ultimately to the benefit of the charity and their ability to make a difference (and bigger measurable difference) in the future.”

“We would like to embed the social caring into our Brand awareness so that the element of putting something back into society is pre-structured. Part of this process is to engage the charity social media and develop positive perceptions and recognition while another part is to introduce our clients & customers to the automatic positive benefits of the shared goals we and our causes have.”

“Charity work should be connected to what our core business is, because that's where we can help most. For example, If I had a bakery I would cooperate with an NGO that works with young people at risk of social exclusion, training them to be bakers so they can have a perspective in the future. I think this is the best way to embed charity work in our company culture, and also a way to differentiate ourselves from other companies.”

“I agree ( with the statement above ), it must stem from a fundamental belief that the business and consumers share and be demonstrable so that the cause is creating a magnetism between the two who happily become attracted. Then D'Arcy's question gets answered because the measure becomes the volume of co-operation between consumers, customers friends acquaintances and strangers who are attracted to engage with the business for common the focussed "good". Otherwise known as a fan club.”

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this. Please post a comment on my blog.

Charity Giving

Charities are having a hard time with more than a third of people in the UK giving less to charity than they did before the recession. Which might not be too surprising, however a survey carried out by independent research company markettiers4dc indicated that 35% are giving less because of the economic downturn and 4% have stopped giving completely. A small chink of sunshine in this blackened sky is that 8% said they were giving more.


It is interesting to note that when asked to choice which from a list of suggestions would encourage them to give 75% chose not having to commit to regular donations and 60% chose donating privately without anyone knowing they were doing so.

A different set of research shows that organisations applying for a “Reaching Communities” grant from the Big Lottery Fund have a less that 10% chance of success!

Getting It Done

Over the past few weeks I’ve been having discussion, via LinkedIn, with people from around the world about how they “Get Things Done”. Of course we are all different and so tackle the problem differently. For me the biggest issues have been delegation and follow up. I was surprised and reassured to hear that I’m not alone.

Two great tips have been the use of Outlook and David Allen’s system informally referred to as “GTD”.

Outlook provides some superb task allocation and tracking facilities and I would recommend watching this YouTube clip. "Assigning Tasks & Adding Them To The Calendar".

David Allen, not to be confused with the wonderfully irreverent Irish comedian Dave Allen, says that when he has to describe his approach in under a minute, he usually says something like “Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up—not when it blows up. Organise reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you're doing (and not doing) at any time.”

Sounds easy but is mind blowing at the same time. It comes down just four major components;

1. Collect: Capture everything that you need to concern yourself with in what Allen calls "buckets": a physical in-box, an email in-box, a notebook you take with you, a little tape recorder, etc. Don't try and remember everything! You can put the thing you need to act on itself in your in-box (a bill, an assignment) or write a note on a single sheet of paper ("change oil in the car"). When you first start, or when you feel like there are lots of things on your mind, sit down and do a "mind sweep" of everything you are concerned about.
2. Process: Now it's time to empty all those "buckets." Start at the top of the in-box, pick up each item and ask yourself "is there an action I need to take about this item?" If there is no action you need to take, either throw the thing away, file it for reference, or make a note on your "Someday/Maybe" list. If there is an action you need to take, can you do it in two minutes or less? If so, do it now! If not, decide what that next action is, and enter it on your "Next Action" list. If one action won't finish this off, enter the overall goal on your "Project" list.
3. Organise: As you will have gathered the cornerstone of this system is lists. Like with your collection buckets, you want to have enough lists to keep everything straight, but not so many that you are never sure what list to use. Here are the basics:
• Next Action: what is the very next thing you need to do to get your thing done?
• Projects: chances are many of your things will need more than one action to accomplish. Keep track of those multi-action things here.
• Waiting: often we depend on others to help get things done. If you are waiting on something, write it down here, so you don't forget.
• Someday/Maybe: for when you have a great idea or long-term goal that you just can't make time to work on now. You don't want to forget about it, but you don't want it to clutter up your Projects list.
• Context-sensitive lists: e.g., "Phone calls," "Errands," etc.
• Calendar: try and use your calendar just for appointments and other things that have to happen on a particular day/time. This is where the Outlook tasks come in handy.
• Filling: keep a simple, easy to update filling system. Don't just dump it all in one pile because you’re not sure where else to put it. Get comfortable with putting a single piece of paper in a folder, labelling it, and filling it away.
4. Review: If you don't look at those lists, they won't do you much good now, will they? You'll have to review your Next Action list and your calendar every day (and probably several times a day). Set up an appointment with yourself to do a weekly review, where you process all your in-boxes down to empty, and review all lists to be sure you are on top of things.

Oh yes there is a fifth and it the most important DO IT! GTD tends to leave it up to you as to how to decide what needs to be done right now--Allen seems to believe if you have everything laid out in front of you, it will be obvious what needs to be done at any given moment based on your circumstances (deadlines, how much time you have available, what tools are nearby, how much energy you have, etc.)

I’d be interested to hear of your experience and techniques.

Invest Wisely - become a Trustee

Statistics often paint an interesting picture. So here are some key trusteeship related statistics from last year.

• Estimated 1million trustees in the UK supporting,
• 181,000 charities which control around £53 billion of income,
• Around 50% of these charities have an unfilled space on their board,
• 39% of boards report difficulties in recruiting trustees,
• 81% of boards use word of mouth to recruit,
• Only 5% of the population are aware of trusteeship as an opportunity to support a voluntary organisation,
• 66% of trustees are aged over 50, 20% are over 70 and the average age is 57,
• only 0.5% of trustees are aged under 24years (despite 12% of the population being in this age group and apparently only 300 (three hundred) trustees in the UK are known to be under 18).

So what do these stats tell us? Are these issues, problems, challenges or opportunities?

Encouraging individuals to become trustees is an on-going challenge. NCVO have recently released a Prezi presentation outlining some of the reasons to become a charity trustee. Something to refer people to when they ask about trusteeship?

http://prezi.com/r838a2q3bvhk/become-a-charity-trustee/

When you visit the Trustee Bank have a look at the opportunity to lead Wessex Heartbeats' board

http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/vacancies/chair-trustees-wessex-heartbeat

Who is your Valentine; Cupid or a fish?

Some creatures have almost magical abilities to recover from trauma. For example starfish can regenerate their legs, and worms can survive being cut in two, although only the part with the heart! However, these feats pale when compared to the zebra fish, which can fix a broken heart. These common little black and white striped fish have nothing to do with soothing jilted lovers, but amazingly zebra fish can regenerate heart tissue. They also have the ability to regenerate fins and eye parts.

Harvard scientists surgically removed 20% of the heart tissue of ten adult zebra fish, then put them back in the water to see what would happen. At first the fish swam weakly near the bottom of the tank; a microscope revealed that in the early stages of recovery, scar tissue partially clotted the wounded organ.

However, after about ten days the fish were back to their normal routines, swimming vigorously. Of the ten fish with broken hearts, eight fully recovered. Another microscope inspection revealed that the recovered fish had regenerated their heart tissue with virtually no scarring.

How, exactly, zebra fish mend their broken hearts is of great interest to scientists. When people recover from a heart attack their hearts are never quite the same. A healing heart normally accumulates scar tissue instead of muscle growth. The scarred, weakened heart cannot contract and pump blood as efficiently as an undamaged heart.

Since zebra fish and humans share many of the genes responsible for cell regeneration, further study may lead to techniques for scar-free human heart repair.

Finding Your Perfect Customer

Nearly every book on marketing will remind you that you need to identify your target market and offer something that meets their needs. But what if when you do this you identify a group of people or a product or service which leaves you cold?

Working with your perfect customer and the services and products you offer should really excite you. If it doesn't, it's bound to have a knock-on effect on the perception of customer service and certainly impact your bottom line. But if it doesn't excite you why would you want to be doing it anyway?

So in an ideal world you want to be dealing with people with whom you share interests, values or enthusiasm. So how do we find the ideal customers?

Start by listing what you enjoy, what's important to you. Can these be incorporated into your business? If your business reflects your interests the likelihood is you’ll attract other people who share them. You're more likely to be able to build rapport with them, and you can be more targeted (and successful) with your marketing, both externally and on-site.

Create your values around what is important to you. If it's important to you to use sustainable resources, or care for the environment create your values around these principles.

Your core beliefs should really influence what you offer; whether you focus on just one of those beliefs or a number, it's a combination of these that add up to make business different.

One way of really capitalising on your interests and capture the interest of your customers is to become an expert in something that they and you are interested in. In addition to attracting the type of customers with whom you can build a good rapport and a better prospect of repeat business, it also gives you a great opportunity to get noticed. By writing articles, blog posts, guidebooks or maybe even organising clubs or seminars around your interests or topic, you'll be on the radar of people who share your interests, which in turn enables you to build your prospect list. It also provides a great opportunity for PR.

Any of these ways of tying in your interests into your business not only enables you to enjoy what you do and who you work with, but is a great way of being unique and really standing out from your competition. If you have a very niche interest it will translate into a very niche target market!

Jeff Bucchino, "The Wizard of Draws" 

Competitive Advantage

There are more opportunities than ever before for SMEs to embrace CSR to improve profits, whilst playing a more productive role in their communities. Take social media for example, with an innovative and strategic approach to CSR combined with the audience exposure of platforms such as Facebook & Twitter the potential is incredible. This is further fuelled by the Generation Y demographic and rise (even through the economic crisis) of ethical consumerism.
Regulation is coming, slowly, but it is coming in one shape or another. The key is better regulation rather than more regulation as CSR should be integrated into core business anyway. We already have CSR legislation as part of UK Company Law, it’s not burdensome by any means but it already exists.
Progress at the global level is accelerating toward an even deeper embedding of the CSR / sustainability agenda for a multitude of unavoidable reasons such as climate change, resource depletion, energy security, biodiversity, population growth and water scarcity.
CSR is beginning to demand to be seen as a competitive advantage rather than a burden. It is like any other commercial pressure, you can ignore it, comply or embrace and excel.