A leading Merseyside business support agency is staging a series of free advice workshops for recently established small businesses covering a range of issues including book-keeping, tax and e-marketing.

The workshops are being staged by Blue Orchid at its Old Hall Street offices in the Cotton Exchange as well as locations across the region and places must be pre-booked in advance.

Blue Orchid director Chris Brown said the events are designed to help smaller businesses which need additional expertise and guidance.

“Small businesses do not have the luxury of large numbers of staff for every discipline,” she said. “These events focus on areas which require specialist knowledge and expertise. The workshops are run by people who understand the pressures of running a business. We offer practical advice which focuses on improving firm’s profitability and efficiency.”

Click ‘more’ for the full events timetable.

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Dr Paul Redmond, University of Liverpool

They are the most educated, affluent, assertive and open-minded generation in history, the ‘digital natives’ who have never had to get up off the sofa to switch channels, who have no memory of Morecambe and Wise, and who, for the first time in human history, have a better grasp of technology than their parents. Welcome to the brave new world of Generation Y.

Where were you on the evening of 20th October 2007? Chances are, like millions of others across the UK you were watching England compete in the Rugby World Cup Final.

But there’s also a good chance that at some stage during the TV coverage, you found yourself pondering the following question:

What has a man in a gorilla suit playing drums to an old Phil Collins song got to do with chocolate bars?

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