How to Sell on Ebay - Discover Tips and Techniques that Bring Success

Selling on Ebay is an art... A skill that once acquired you'll be given respect. Now we all know this to be true, but would we follow it ourselves? If we approve and admit that knowing more about a specific subject will improve your chances of success, then if we were ever given a chance to springboard from novice to expert within a few days we'd accept the challenge.

Well I know for certain that I'm not afraid to explore new websites and try my hand at almost anything, but to successfully sell on ebay is not easy... So I was always interested in any help I could get. I read this comment in an email I recently got from a so called ebay guru...

Cut out the negative

If you try to make everyone happy you won't make it in this biz. I know for a fact that not everyone on my 44,000 member mailing list likes me. Some people think eBay is a scam and that anyone who teaches others about it is a scammer. Some people think that anyone who sends an email to more than 5 people at a time is a spammer. I've stopped trying to win these types of people over. It's a waste of my time.

I instead concentrate on the people who are using my ideas to succeed. I help them to succeed even more. I cherish the testimonials I get and value the complaints only for the potential they have to make suggested improvements. I don't try to make whiners like me - I don't have the time.

You may also find that your closest family and friends are skeptical. Don't let them hold you back. Even if you fail a few times (or many times) that's your right as an entrepreneur! Fail your way to success - it's a proven model that's worked for countless others. Consider the "fail your way to success" stories of Colonel Sanders, Ray Kroc, or U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

... I thought to myself if this guy expresses a point with eloquence, getting rid of the deadwood and helping those who want to help themselves, then I myself would be eager and keen to find out more what this ebay guru has to say about his own tips and techniques.

Read, Read, Read... You must be perceived as an expert in your field. Read and know what happening in your area of expertise! Another bold claim from the ebay guru. If he can speak simply but say so much his methods and approach should be easy to follow.

For more Tips and Techniques on How to Sell on Ebay, please follow this link:
http://www.howtosellon-ebay.com/how-to-sell-on-ebay/how-to-sell-on-ebay.php

or visit: http://howtosellonebayauctions.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/how-to-sell-on-ebay-discover-tips-and-techniques-that-bring-success/

Solicitors In - Law Firm Cuts Maintenance Grant

Linklaters signs up to shortened LPC as firm cuts maintenance grant

Author: Jeremy Hodges

Linklaters' future trainees will see their Legal Practice Course (LPC) slashed from a year to just over seven months as part of a new-look course with the College of Law.

The law school will run the fast-track LPC course for Linklaters' students from January 2011, taking on two intakes a year in January and July.

Those due to start their training contract in September 2011 will start the course in January - rather than September under the current system - with those due to join in March 2012 to start the course in July next year.

The firm has also cut its maintenance grant from £7,000 to £5,000 to take account of the shortened course, which combines traditional classroom teaching alongside an online tutorial system that will see students studying online only for the first three weeks of the programme.

Linklaters said it made the decision following feedback from trainees.

Linklaters trainee partner Simon Firth told Legal Week: "It will mean there will be a shorter time between recruitment and joining the firm. Plus trainees will benefit from the continuity of learning they will gain, as they will join the firm straight after their LPC."

Linklaters' move comes 12 months after BPP Law School launched its own shortened LPC. The City consortium firms, comprising Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Lovells, Norton Rose and Slaughter and May, all signed up to the seven-and-a-half month course.

For a List of Local Solicitors please follow this link:
Specialist Will Solicitors London
 

Article Source: legalweek .com/legal-week/news/1591695/linklaters-signs-shortened-lpc-cuts-maintenance-grant
Photo Source: legalweek .com/IMG/570/60570/linklaters-silkstreet-185x114.jpg?1246611431

 

Solicitors In - Making a Will

Making a Will - Your Legacy will end up ... where?

Without a will, the State directs who inherits your estate, so your friends, favourite charities and relatives may get nothing.

It is particularly important to make a will if you are not married or are not in a registered civil partnership (a legal arrangement that gives same-sex partners the same status as a married couple). This is because the law does not automatically recognise cohabitants (partners who live together) as having the same rights as husbands, wives and civil partners. As a result, even if you've lived together for many years, your cohabitant may be left with nothing if you have not made a will.

A will is also vital if you have children or dependants who may not be able to care for themselves. Without a will there could be uncertainty about who will look after or provide for them if you die.

Could one or more of these scenarios be relevant to your situation?

* several people could make a claim on your estate when you die because they depend on you financially;
* you want to include a trust in your will (perhaps to provide for young children or a disabled person, save tax,
* or simply protect your assets in some way after you die);
* your permanent home is not in the UK or you are not a British citizen;
* you live here but you have overseas property; or
* you own all or part of a business.

Once you have had a will drawn up, some changes to your circumstances, for example, marriage, civil partnership, separation, divorce or if your civil partnership is dissolved (legally ended), can make all or part of that will invalid or inadequate. This means that you must review your will regularly, to reflect any major life changes.

Who do you want to leave your assets to? How do you want to divide your property between your loved ones, friends or charities? Are there any conditions you want to attach to these gifts (for example, that young people must reach a particular age before they are paid money you have left them)?

You need to consider the details of your family and status. Are you divorced or has your civil partnership been dissolved? Have you remarried or entered into a new civil partnership? Or are you living with someone without being married to them or being their civil partner? Do you have any children or any other dependants? Anyone who depends on you financially can ask a court to review your will if they feel you have not provided properly for them.

If you have any children that may still be under 18 when you die, you may need to name someone as their legal guardian.

Do you have any particular wishes for your funeral? Do you want to be buried or cremated? Are there any other instructions? For example, if you want to be an organ donor this can be included in your will. However, it is also a good idea to record your wishes on the organ-donor register, or to carry an organ-donor card.

You must also name the people you want to appoint as 'executors' of your will, the people who carry out the administration of your will after your death. These could be friends or family members, or a professional such as your solicitor. A good combination may be a friend or family member and a professional. Ideally, you should choose someone who is familiar with financial matters. Make sure you ask your executors whether they are happy to take on this duty as there are long-term responsibilities involved, particularly if you include a trust in your will. Once the will has been drawn up it is not effective until it has been signed. There are several rules affecting the signature process which, if not followed correctly, will make your will invalid. For example, witnesses and their husbands, wives or civil partners cannot benefit under the will.

It is important to keep your will in a safe place and tell your executors or a close friend or relative where it is. People often ask their solicitor to store their wills for them. Most solicitors will do this for free, but sometimes there is a small fee.

You should review your will at least every five years and after any major life change such as getting separated, married or divorced, having a child or moving house. It is best to deal with any major changes by getting a new will drawn up. But it is also possible to make minor changes (or 'codicils') to your existing will.

For more information or to discuss anything in this article feel free to contact Doug McLean

For a List of Local Solicitors please follow this link:
Specialist Will Solicitors
 

Article Source: mcleanfinancialservices.co.uk/index.php/2008/07/17/making-a-will/
Photo Source: esmartproducts .co.uk/esm21/images/r.jpg

 

Solicitors In - Work Accident Information

Legal requirements

This section provides a summary of employers' and employees' key responsibilities for ensuring the health, safety and welfare of their employees. Further details can be obtained from publications listed in the reference section.

Employees' health, safety and welfare at work are protected by law. This means that employers have a duty under the law to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable:

* the health, safety and welfare at work of their employees; and
* employees are consulted and informed about health and safety issues, ie issues are discussed with the employees or their safety representative, if there is one.

Employees have a duty to co-operate with their employer by using the safe systems of work correctly.
Definitions of legal terms
Substances hazardous to health

This term has a legal meaning within the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations. In summary, it covers substances or preparations carrying the very toxic, toxic, harmful, corrosive or irritant symbol; substances and products with occupational exposure limits known as workplace exposure limits (WELs); biological agents, dusts of any kind that have a concentration in air equal to or greater than 10 mg/m3 (inhalable) and 4 mg/m3 (respirable); and substances whose chemical or toxic properties and the way they are used or produced create a risk to health (eg 'wet work').
Suitable and sufficient

The measures taken are appropriate to the risk or risks involved and it is reasonably practicable for prevention or adequate control of the risk or risks involved without increasing the overall risks.
As low as reasonably practicable (ALARP)

This involves weighing a risk against the trouble, time and money needed to control it.

* More detailed explanation of ALARP[2].

Adequate control

Control measures, including PPE and welfare facilities, can be considered adequate if they can provide a level of protection required to reduce the exposure to comply with the law.
Employers' general duties

In general, the duties of employers include:

* keeping the workplace safe and without risks to health;
* drawing up a health and safety policy statement if there are five or more employees;
* ensuring articles and hazardous substances are moved, stored and used safely;
* providing adequate welfare facilities;
* giving employees the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary for maintaining health and safety;
* appointing a competent person(s) to assist with health and safety responsibilities and consulting employees or their safety representative about this appointment;
* preventing or adequately controlling exposure to hazardous substances that may cause damage to the health of employees and others affected by the undertaking;
* providing free any protective clothing or equipment, where risks are not adequately controlled by other means;
* ensuring that appropriate safety signs are provided and maintained;
* reporting certain injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences to the appropriate health and safety enforcing authority.

In particular, the employer must:

* assess the risks to employees' health and safety. If there are five or more employees, they must record the significant findings of the assessment;
* identify measures for controlling the risks;
* make arrangements for putting those measures into effect; and
* ensure those measures continue to work and are correctly used.

Employees' duties

Employees have legal duties under the law. They include:

* taking reasonable care for their own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by what they do or don't do;
* co-operating with the employer on health and safety;
* correctly using work items provided by the employer, including personal protective equipment;
* using all safe systems of work in accordance with training or instructions;
* not interfering with or misusing anything provided for their health, safety or welfare.

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH)

An employer must not carry out any work, which can expose employees, by any route (skin, inhalation or ingestion), to substances hazardous to health, unless the employer has:

* carried out a 'suitable and sufficient' risk assessment of the health risks created by that work; and
* identified the steps needed to comply with the regulations; and
* put the identified steps into effect.


Prevention or control of exposure

The risk assessment must consider whether it is reasonably practicable to prevent skin exposure. If prevention is not reasonably practicable, the assessment should identify how to ensure adequate control of skin exposure. The COSHH Regulations are 'goal setting' and recognise that risk cannot always be eliminated. The aim is therefore to reduce the risk of exposure to hazardous substances to a level that is as low as reasonably practicable.
Skin exposure risk assessment

A risk assessment should take account of the following:

* hazardous properties of the chemical(s);
* health effects caused by the chemical(s);
* routes, extent, frequency and duration of exposure;
* amount of chemical(s) used or produced, including those produced as by-products, released by chemical reactions during the process or found in waste products;
* type of work (such as emergency, maintenance or routine work);
* where it is carried out (eg fixed installation, temporary site or peripatetic work);
* effectiveness of controls. Those identified during the risk assessment or existing preventive or control measures;
* results of any monitoring data (eg surface contamination, skin contamination and biological monitoring);
* results of applicable health surveillance data.

Recording a risk assessment

Where there are five or more employees, the employer must record the findings of:

* the risk assessment; and
* the preventive or control steps to be put in place, including administrative measures, to comply with the regulations.

Reviewing a risk assessment

The employer must review the assessment if:

* for any reason, the assessment is considered to be not valid; or
* the work has changed and it has no resemblance to the assessment in place; or
* some other information has become available and indicates that the assessment is no longer valid.

For a List of Local Solicitors please follow this link:
Specialist Work Accident Solicitors

Article Reference: hse .gov.uk/skin/professional/legal.htm

Photo: info4security .com/pictures/web/f/q/o/iStock_000003385187X.jpg

 

Solicitors In - Regulating Porn

New UK law to outlaw violent porn
By Dr Petra

As you may have seen in the news recently a UK mother has won a battle to ban the possession of violent pornographic images after her daughter was murdered by a man who allegedly consumed violent porn regularly.

There is violent porn available that features the abuse of children, adults and animals and most people would agree it is something that needs to be targetted and controlled.

However, it's not really clear if this proposed legal change will really protect those at risk.

This proposed legal change is part of the Home Office's reporting back on its controversial consultation exercise on 'Extreme Pornography' launched last year. They didn't at the time define what exactly they meant by Extreme Pornography and now have replaced the term with 'Violent Pornography'. Whilst all respondents to this consultation were in agreement the abuse of children and non-consenting adults was wrong, there was also concern from those involved in bondage or SM who felt the vagueness of the term 'extreme pornography' could lead to them being prosecuted for creating or participating in consensual sexual activity that may appear violent.

They were worried such an approach might lead to people being unfairly investigated, prosecuted and judged. The police and legal system could be spending a lot of time arresting and charging people who are into safe, sane and consensual activities amongst adults that are violent but not abusive. There's a worry that in not being specific about what 'violent' porn is that those who are abusers may be overlooked whilst those into alternative sex are being investigated.

All these concerns were put to the Home Office who in their response document out today touches on but does not address. Nowhere in the response document does it mention how the Home Office relied on vague terms and references to 'evidence' that were never substantiated. Interestingly the news coverage has been mostly around the change in the law rather than focusing on the consultation report.

Previous Home Office consultations on sex (specifically prostitution) were criticised for setting agendas prior to consultations and not listening to views given by the public.

Worryingly in this consultation a response was taken from The British Psychological Society that claimed the evidence is that violent pornography causes violent sexual behaviour – and yet the overwhelming amount of psychological research either does not show this or is based on studies so flawed it's impossible to draw safe conclusions from them.

If this current law is put in place people caught with violent porn will face up to three years in jail. However if we still aren't clear what 'violent porn' is this could lead to varying arrest rates and also stretch or legal system and overcrowded prisons. If found guilty of owning such materials people would be classed as sex offenders and getting a job post prison would become more difficult – so again this could result in more costs in benefits. This is not to excuse people who consume violent and non-consensual pornography, but to make clear that such a law will have repercussions we may not be ready to deal with at this time.

It also means our attention will be focused towards those who access violent materials, who are in far fewer numbers than most of us who are fed a steady diet of sexist imagery in lads magazines, music videos and other areas of popular culture. Arguably this could have greater impact on the way women are treated and potential links to abuse – and yet the focus is on the extreme end of the spectrum, not the mainstream.

We need to ask why the state would be focusing on identifying and prosecuting individuals who have violent porn rather than those involved in making and distributing it?

Where violent abuse of children, adults and animals is captured on film or photo we should prosecute all involved to protect the victim and further victims of such crime. But this law doesn't help those who are into activities that look violent but are consensual – and we have to ask if it is the role of the state to interfere in such cases, particularly when those involved in BDSM have tried hard to educate Home Office staff about their lifestyle.

For a List of Local Solicitors please follow this link:
Specialist Solicitors

Article Reference: drpetra .co.uk/blog/new-uk-law-to-outlaw-violent-porn/

Photo: newsimg .bbc.co.uk/media/images/44218000/jpg/_44218865_petra203.jpg

 

Solicitors In - Speeding Fine Resolved - Case Example

Ex-jockey speeding case dismissed

Former champion jockey Kieren Fallon
The speeding case against the former jockey was dismissed by magistrates

Former champion jockey Kieren Fallon has been cleared of speeding charges.

Mr Fallon, 43, of Newmarket, Suffolk, was accused of failing to inform police who was driving his BMW car when it was caught going at 40mph in a 30mph zone.

His lawyer, Warren Bergson of motoringsolicitors .com told Newmarket magistrates that speeding ticket records could not be relied on.

Magistrates concluded there were discrepancies in the system used to record speeding tickets and dismissed the case.

Prosecutor Katie Tyndall said Mr Fallon had failed to tell police within a required period who was driving his car when it triggered a speed camera in Milton Road, Cambridge, on 16 May last year.

"I am seeking to challenge the culture of relying upon computers," Mr Bergson told the court.

He argued that the record-keeping system at the police ticket office was fallible and therefore it could not be certain that the former jockey had not responded within the period.

He also said there were errors in paperwork relating to the case, including a document which carried a wrong date.

"We have decided that in this particular case we are not satisfied with the reliability of the central ticket office's records because there have been shown to be some discrepancies," magistrates' chairman Kathy Bradney told Mr Fallon.

For a List of Local Solicitors please follow this link:
Specialist Solicitors

Article Reference: levys .co.uk/fallon.html

Photo: glevys .co.uk/images/fallon%20large%20copy.png

 

Solicitors In - Being Made Redundant?

Worried about redundancy?

Top 10 tips

If you are one of the unlucky employees of the one in three companies making redundancies, it is vital to know your rights – otherwise you may find yourself unfairly dismissed. Your employer has two obligations – the company should have fair reasons for making you redundant and they must follow a fair process.

1 Warning

First, you should receive a letter warning you of potential redundancies. The letter should make it clear that no decisions have been made yet, but explain the reasons why the business is considering this approach.

2 Consultation

To decide who will be made redundant your employer should draw up selection criteria, for which you will be given marks. You should meet with your employer to discuss the situation and explore ways of avoiding the redundancies.

3 The Meeting

You are entitled to bring along a trade union representative or work colleague if you wish. In your meeting you are entitled to ask what the selection criteria is and what marks you have received. You are entitled to challenge this and you should focus your efforts on getting your skills across to your employer.

4 Assisting your employer with solutions

At this stage a decision should not yet have been made and your employer should still be exploring ways to avoid making redundancies. You should participate fully in the process. You can assist your employer to avoid making you redundant by offering solutions such as taking a sabbatical or working part-time.

5 If the employer decides to proceed with your redundancy, what can you do?

If an alternative solution is unviable and your employer decides to proceed with redundancy then you will be invited to a final meeting. Your employer will run through your redundancy package and, again, you can be accompanied by a trade union representative or a colleague.

6 The decision should be in writing

The decision should be confirmed in writing together with the termination date. You should also be offered the opportunity to appeal the decision.

7 Appealing the decision

If you decide to appeal your employer's decision you should be invited to a further meeting to explain why you disagree.

8 When you are made redundant what should your financial package be?

If you are made redundant you are entitled to three payments: A full notice period, a redundancy payment and unclaimed holiday leave.

Full Notice Pay You are entitled to your full notice pay which is usually in your contract, but in the absence of such a provision you can receive statutory notice.

Redundancy Pay There is a statutory amount payable calculated using a specific formula but it is also worthwhile checking whether you have a contractual entitlement to an enhanced redundancy payment. Click here to work out your statutory entitlement.

Unclaimed Holiday Leave You are also entitled to payment for any accrued, but untaken holiday.

9 What to do if you have been treated unfairly

If you feel you have been treated differently from other employees you should consult an employment solicitor as early as possible. There is a time limit of three months from the day you were dismissed to launch a challenge.

10 Reasons for appeal

Anyone who is made redundant should appeal the decision. Failure to do so could mean that any compensation received, should you win your case at a tribunal, is reduced by between 10% and 50%. If your employer did not take the requisite steps in the redundancy procedure or the selection criteria were discriminatory then you could have a case for unfair dismissal. Examples are if there was not a genuine need for redundancy and misapplication of objective criteria. Selection criteria meanwhile are not defined under law but decided upon by your employer, must be performance based and avoid any criteria that may be deemed discriminatory. Under new age discrimination a "last in, first out" policy is no longer permissible. You should consult your employer's policies and procedures guidelines to help get an idea of whether you have a case.

For a List of Local Solicitors please follow this link:
Solicitors in Maidenhead

Article Reference: takelegaladvice .com/news-and-information/legal-articles/Employment/Redundancies/Redundancy-Employment-solicitors-explain-your-rights/

Photo: gad123.files .wordpress.com/2007/10/redundancy_protection_14.jpg