I've been impressed by the work of artist He Qi.

He has produced a mural for the new offices of CMS in Oxford, and they used his picture of the Three Kings as a Christmas Card. At the time of writing, both of these are on the front page of his web site.

Mark Berry features another on his blog, with a moving poem for Christmas Eve also.

Finally I have arrived at the point of feeling happy with initial publicity literature and a web site for the new firm. The purpose of Finding True North is to allow me to spend more time doing what I am good at - consultancy and coaching - with business clients and individuals, in a way that is mutually beneficial!

It has taken a while to get to this point, having decided to do it during the Summer and then incorporated the company - Richard Hovey and Associates Ltd - on 18th October. I am happy with the direction that this is travelling in.

Go to the Finding True North web site.

I'm still working through the administration of setting up the new business   more »

A current family enterprise is the creation of a new website for the business, and I've been delighted and impressed by the creative genius that has been unleashed in the family, as well as the skill in turning images into a site.

I've been researching ways of doing this so that it is easy to make changes after the initial design. The deluxe way to do this is with a Content Management System (CMS). I have also been looking at "Instant Sites," of which there are many, to see if that is a good route to go at least for the first year or so as the costs are less. Many of the Instant Sites are easy to use and have good functionality, but do not look business-like. In particular they use ready-made graphic headers that can look cheesy and cannot be replaced. We have decided to run with Web Eden which is powerful, flexible, and inexpensive - and you can do a free trial. I recommend it.

The last few days I've been working hard on promotional literature for the new business, and text for the web site.