ARTICLES (BLOG POSTS)
How much should I charge per hour?
How much should I charge per hour?Before you start reading this blog, you can download a free spreadsheet template to help you calculate your hourly rate. It is in £ but as there is no conversion needed, if you're using another currency just look at the values.I see...
5 Spreadsheet Game-Changers That Most People Don’t Do
5 Spreadsheet Game-Changers That Most People Don't DoI wrote a blog post for the Support Local Magazine, where I share about 5 game-changers when making spreadsheets, that most people just don't do. This post is based on my free eBook. If you'd like to read about how...
Spreadsheets – 1 Facet of a Growing Business
Spreadsheets - 1 Facet of a Growing BusinessHere’s a chapter from my book entitled 40 Facets to Starting & Growing a Business. This one is probably the only one that I could write with authority, as it is about spreadsheets. Here’s what I had to say. ...
What Makes Me Good at Making Spreadsheets (It not what you may think)
What Makes Me Good at Making SpreadsheetsBefore you start thinking that I am a narcissistic idiot for writing that title, let me explain. I often get people saying that I must know all the functions, or that I must be great at pivot tables, because that is their...
Could a Spreadsheet be Used to Securely Store Passwords?
Could a Spreadsheet be Used to Securely Store Passwords?I recently posted a post on LinkedIn, which generated a brief frenzy of activity and comments. This included some nasty direct messages, including some death wishes. Now I don't want all of that again, so I will...
Our Solutions to 10 Reasons Given for Not Using Spreadsheets
Our Solutions to 10 Reasons Given for Not Using SpreadsheetsI love making spreadsheets, and use them for just about anything, but many people don’t use spreadsheets. I set out on a mission to find out why. What are the reasons why people don’t turn to spreadsheets as...
Should We Trust Graphs?
Should We Trust Graphs?Whenever there is a debate going on (which is most of the time) graphs are thrown around in defence of people’s arguments. Now we all love a graph, so we often believe what is on them, or we find one that we agree with, and share that. So, can...
Being Creative with Excel
Being Creative with ExcelWhen most people make spreadsheets they are boring, bland, uninspiring, and mundane. You know the type - rows and columns of data, void of any colour, and only the AutoSum being used occasionally. Sadly, this is as far as most people get with...
5 Ways to Monitor the ROI of Your Website
5 Ways to Monitor the ROI of Your WebsiteAfter doing a live YouTube broadcast with Richard Wraith from Wesh UK, I have thought more about how people can monitor the success of their website, in order to calculate their return on investment. Having a website is not a...
Business Dashboards Made in Excel
Business Dashboards Made in Excel In order to make the correct decisions, you need to have the correct information. Whatever decision you need to make, whether it me at director, manager or supervisor level, you need to have the correct information to make an informed...
Why Your Business Needs a Bespoke Spreadsheet
Why Your Business Needs a Bespoke Spreadsheet I often meet people who ask me which industry or business type my ideal client falls into. This is a good question to ask yourself, as it makes your marketing more focused, but unfortunately it doesn’t really help me. I...
Types of Solutions We Do Often
Types of Solutions We Do OftenWe often get people saying, "If only we knew you did that, we would have come to you first." That is because people tend to limit us to what they have already done using spreadsheets, and not to what we can do. To try and combat this, we...
When to use a Spreadsheet over Software
When to use a Spreadsheet over Software I'm sure you think that we will be biased, and tell you that you should always be using a spreadsheet over software, but that is just not the case. There are many times when a spreadsheet just won't do the job, and we are the...
Analysing CSV Files with Spreadsheets
Analysing CSV Files with SpreadsheetsData is becoming more and more abundant as everything moves online, and we are all collecting our fair share of business data. The key is understanding your data. If you know what data you have, and you understand what that data...
What I Learned with 3 Months of Marketing Data
What I Learned with 3 Months of Marketing Data You've probably heard the saying that you can't keep on doing the same thing, and expect different results. The big problem is understanding what works, and what doesn't. We're overwhelmed with all sorts of blog posts...
How Healthy is Your Business?
How Healthy is Your Business?Depending on who poses this question, you could expect to get very different advice when you try and answer it about your business. You see this is such a broad question, and many different professionals will focus on different areas of...
How a £500 Spreadsheet Saved a Salary
How a £500 Spreadsheet Saved a SalaryI was telling someone this story, and they suggested that I put this into a blog, so here it is. I went in to see a client, in order to deliver their custom-made spreadsheet, and show then how to use it. After I had explained how...
How Spreadsheets Help Franchises
How Spreadsheets Help FranchisesThis article is about how spreadsheets can be used to help franchises, but the same principal can also be used for other circumstances. If you need various people (staff, sub-contractors, clients, associates, etc) to be using the same...
Why You Should Outsource Your Spreadsheet Creation
Why You Should Outsource Your Spreadsheet Creation Before I tell you why you should outsource your spreadsheet creation, there are times that you should do it yourself. Those times are few and far between but, if either of these criteria are met, even I would say that...
Get More Out of Your Data
Get More Out of Your Data What do I mean when I say “get more out of your data”? I’m not necessarily talking about analysing exported data (although I do make spreadsheets for that), I’m talking about getting more out of the data that you tirelessly enter....
Using Spreadsheets to Collect Staff Hours
Using Spreadsheets to Collect Staff Hours You may have some tremendous software that does all of your work for you, but many businesses want a solution to do the work the way they want it done and, very often, a spreadsheet is the answer. Some think...
Surveys, Appraisals, Questionnaires, and Feedback using Excel
Surveys, Appraisals, Questionnaires, and Feedback using Excel You may use a ready-made survey tool, or some other way of gathering responses in order to create a report, but often the ready-made solutions are limited with the reporting options. If you...
How secure are your spreadsheets?
How secure are your spreadsheets? Before I start this blog, I need to make it clear what I am talking about. Spreadsheets are merely documents, so their overall security is mostly dependant on where they are hosted. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking...
Eight Concerns I Have About Hiring a Marketing Company
Eight Concerns I Have About Hiring a Marketing Company Before I get started, let me explain why I am writing such an obscure blog post, considering the nature of my business. I have seen a few posts by marketing businesses, wondering how to get the right...
Processes, Results, and Spreadsheets
Processes, Results, and Spreadsheets In this post I want to show you how changing your processes can see you gain desired results, and how spreadsheets can help with this. Many of us know what results we want, but our processes don’t accommodate such results, so we...
Using Spreadsheets with Making Tax Digital
Using Spreadsheets with Making Tax Digital What is Making Tax Digital?Making Tax Digital (or MTD) is an initiative by HMRC to make the entire process of VAT returns (and later Tax returns) electronic. They want to eliminate careless human error, and make...
How is Your LinkedIn Contact List Growing?
How is Your LinkedIn Contact List Growing? I have been actively growing my LinkedIn contact list for a while now, and I was curious to know how I have done. Which months were the most successful at gaining new contacts? How much better was last year than...
Amazon Sellers and Your Wealth of Data
Amazon Sellers and Your Wealth of Data If your business involves selling on Amazon, I have some good news for you. Now, we do not sell on Amazon, but we have some clients who do. We kept getting requests to create spreadsheets to automatically analyse all...
Top 5 Downloads of 2018
Top 5 Downloads of 2018 Well 2018 is over, and pretty much forgotten, and we are all now heavily into 2019. I have reviewed the downloads from this website during 2018 and have discovered which spreadsheets have been the most popular. This may not sound...
Forget Big Data, Understand Your Little Data
Forget Big Data, Understand Your Little Data There seems to be a trend at the moment about 'big data', but do you actually know what that is? Why is it such a trend, and is there anything that you could be doing about it? Take a look below, as I will try...
Spreadsheets – Jack of All Trades, Master of None?
Spreadsheets – Jack of All Trades, Master of None? I saw a comment on a social media post stating that spreadsheets are not the ideal solution in any situation, but can provide an adequate solution in almost any situation. As you can imagine, this got my...
Spreadsheets and the HR Industry
Spreadsheets and the HR Industry You may be wondering why I am writing about HR, and the answer is simple. Many of my clients happen to be HR consultants or HR managers. After a few years of trading, I had a look at my past clients, to see if there were...
Comparing Your Data with Spreadsheets
Comparing Your Data with Spreadsheets Can spreadsheets do this?Believe it or not, I am seeing an increasing demand for spreadsheets to check, compare, and then report on data sets. This is probably due to most software systems exporting data to CSV, but...
Analysing Your Sales Figures
Analysing Your Sales Figures Do you even do it? Do you analyse your sales figures? Dare I say that most people don’t. If the money is in the bank, then does it really matter how it got there? This is the attitude of most business owners, and this is a very...
Pipeline Management & Sales Projection
Pipeline Management & Sales Projection I have seen a rise in requests to manage sales pipelines of late. What is this all about? Well, it is monitoring how many leads are successful, how long a sale takes, how much an average sale is worth, and then...
Why a Software Package Isn’t Necessarily Better Than Your Spreadsheet
Why a Software Package Isn’t Necessarily Better Than Your Spreadsheet OK, before I get every software developer and salesperson on my back, let me just put in a disclaimer. There is obviously a need for business software, and spreadsheets can’t do...
Why You Need to Monitor Your Website Analytics
Why You Need to Monitor Your Website Analytics I’m sure you won’t be surprised that I monitor my website analytics often. Having a business called Spreadsheet Solutions would indicate that I love analytics, graphs, and the like. I monitor all sorts of...
Management Dashboards – Traffic Lights for Your Business
Management Dashboards – Traffic Lights for Your Business No matter what type of business you run, and how big or small it is, we all have one thing in common. We need to know how they have performed, and where we need to make changes. This isn’t just about...
My 5 Most Popular Spreadsheets This Year
My 5 Most Popular Spreadsheets This Year I have had a look at the downloads from the website over the last 7 months, in order to see which of the spreadsheets are the most popular, and here are the various winners in each category. Hopefully it will show...
Spreadsheet Not Refreshing?
Spreadsheet Not Refreshing? I have received a few calls of late from my clients, who say that their spreadsheets are not refreshing. They type data in, and it does not change the relevant cells which it should. They then save the workbook, and the changes...
How Me Making Games Can Help Your Business
How Me Making Games Can Help Your Business This title could seem misleading, or even wrong, but I can assure you that there is a link. I create custom spreadsheets (mainly in Excel) for businesses, not just for financial applications, but for all sorts of...
6 Reasons Why You Should Buy From a Small Business
6 Reasons Why You Should Buy From a Small Business I’m sure you’re beginning to read this article with one of three mindsets. You’re either looking for reasons to confirm what you believe (if you like supporting small businesses, or have one), you disagree...
How Spreadsheets Help the Market Leaders
How Spreadsheets Help the Market Leaders You may be reading this with a sense of scepticism, and I don’t blame you. A few years ago I would have been the same, except now I have had the pleasure of working with some market leaders in their field, and I have seen...
Are Spreadsheets GDPR Compliant?
Are Spreadsheets GDPR Compliant? I have been asked a few times if my spreadsheets are GDPR compliant. Instead of explaining this again, I thought I’d rather write this post instead. So, if you’re wondering if spreadsheets are GDPR compliant, read on. I think this...
Excel and Mapping Your Project Progress
Excel and Mapping Your Project Progress In the last few months, I have received many requests to create a solution for managing people’s project process. If you received a new project, you would obviously tackle that in stages, so most people break it down...
5 Things I’ve Learned About Face to Face Networking
5 Things I’ve Learned About Face to Face Networking When I started Spreadsheet Solutions in 2013, I had never done face to face networking before, and I was thrown in the deep end when I went to the first one. The first networking even was a bust, and at...
Excel and Large Businesses
Excel and Large Businesses People often associate the use of Excel with small and medium sized businesses, because they see it as a 'cheap' version if you can't afford software, but that is not the case. Yes it is an affordable alternative to custom...
Bespoke software, exclusive for you to refer.
Bespoke software, exclusive for you to refer. As you may or may not know, I have two main avenues of my business, and I have now combined the two to bring you a new exciting opportunity. If you have been intrigued by the title, read on, and I will explain what this...
Why My Clients Use Custom Spreadsheets Over CRM Software
Why my clients use custom spreadsheets over CRM software I have been asked the question, "Why use your spreadsheets instead of CRM software?". Now I can go on all day why I use Excel, but I am an Excel fanatic, so it would probably be a biased view. I also have...
Do You Have a Database of Contacts to Refer, if Asked?
Do you have a database of contacts to refer, if asked? I have been talking to a few people since I wrote a post about referrals, and I have discovered that many people do not have a database of people to refer when asked. If you do a lot of networking like I do, or if...
Map and Track Your Processes, Including KPIs, with a Spreadsheet
Map and track your processes, including KPIs, with a spreadsheet Most business owners will realise the importance of not only mapping, but tracking business processes. We all have processes, even if you don't know what they are. Processes are just 'the way you do...
Analysing Your CSV Files
Analysing Your CSV Files Most of us find that we will need to analyse a CSV file at some point, as many software packages and websites will export them. Whether you are exporting your social media statistics, your website analytics, your plugin statistics or details...
Custom CRM Solution – Spreadsheet Style
Custom CRM Solution - Spreadsheet Style CRM Systems, love them or hate them, are extremely useful. Most businesses either do benefit from them, or would if they had them. Why is that? You see productivity relies on process - it is about being organised, having a...
What are Business Processes, Why are they Important, and How can Spreadsheets Help?
What are Business Processes, Why are they Important, and How can Spreadsheets Help? Let’s start with what a business process is, here is the dictionary definition. A series of logically related activities or tasks (such as planning, production, or sales) performed...
Why Most SMEs Don’t Have Proper Processes in Place
Why Most SMEs Don't Have Proper Processes in Place Before we start, what is a business system? The online dictionary says the following: A methodical procedure or process that is used as a delivery mechanism for providing specific goods or services to customers. The...
How Important are Your Business Processes?
How Important are Your Business Processes? There are many aspects to business, and I am not about to suggest that the process is the most important part, but it is vital we get it right. Many people don’t even realise what their process is, let alone acknowledge how...
Using Excel to Analyse Data
Using Excel to Analyse Data This month I have used Excel in a number of ways, all to analyse data. Excel is brilliant for doing just this, and recently I have used it for all sorts of applications from 360 Staff Appraisals to Web Form Analysis. People spend a fortune...
Excel, Helpful to Businesses of All Sizes
Excel, Helpful to Businesses of All Sizes I usually try and market to companies containing between 1 and 10 employees. The reason for this is that the product I supply is ideally suited for companies that have expanded beyond a one man band and now have a few people...
Pivot Table v Formulas
Pivot Table v Formulas One of Excel’s major strengths is analysing data, that is why most people use it. They have data which they have been capturing, and now they need Excel to analyse that data and give them relevant information and statistics that they can use....
Why Excel is Still the Best Spreadsheet Platform
Why Excel is Still the Best Spreadsheet Platform I have been using Excel in since business since 1996, and that was not because Excel was only available from then, that was because I only started working in 1996 after finishing school. Now I hear that there were other...
Excel at Marketing (Part 2)
Excel at Marketing (Part 2) As a former investment analyst I am no stranger to using Excel. In the past I generally concentrated on creating financial models and using Excel to forecast revenues, cash flows and profits. Since setting up BuzzSmart, a business solutions...
Excel at Marketing (Part 1)
Excel at Marketing (Part 1) Excel is known to be versatile, and those of us that have the skills to use it beyond making a few columns, can use it for just about anything. I was having coffee and a discussion with a marketing expert the other day, and I have been...
Excel and Your Company Sales
Excel and Your Company Sales Here is an article that I wrote for Vector Resources, as a guest writer on their blog: Although most people associate Microsoft Excel with accounts and financial planning, it is far more versatile than that, and it is ideal for keeping...
Excel is for Everyone
Excel is for Everyone Often when I am speaking to people at networking events, or other business owners who are trying to find out about my business, they ask me a question that is not easily answered. They ask me who my target market is. My answer is usually, “Anyone...
5 Misconceptions of Microsoft Excel
5 Misconceptions of Microsoft Excel Excel is just for spreadsheets. This is probably the most common misconception that I come up against, and it is complete rubbish. Most of the points of the article are going to contain one thing in common, and here it is – This is...
How Your SME Could Perform Like a Large Company
How Your SME Could Perform Like a Large Company I have worked for small, medium and large businesses throughout my career and have found one fundamental difference between them. Obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to each category, but I have found that...
Excel, More Than Just Figures
Excel, More Than Just Figures In Excel 2013, there are no fewer than 46 functions relating to text or lookup and reference. This means that all of those functions don’t actually require any figures to be relevant. Most of these relate to text and text strings. The...
How We Save Companies Money
How We Save Companies Money So many people understand that Excel is a powerful tool, and they realise that it can help their business, but they don’t realise how it helps. They don’t realise how it can save them money. I will try and explain here why it is a...
Yet 5 Further Ways Businesses Struggle & How Excel Can Help
Yet 5 Further Ways Businesses Struggle & How Excel Can Help Firstly I would like to say that this is the fourth part of the series, the first three can be found here, here and here. If you haven’t read them and this post interests you, I suggest that you read the...
5 Further Ways Businesses Struggle and How Excel Can Help
5 Further Ways Businesses Struggle and How Excel Can Help Firstly I would like to say that this is the third part of the series, the first two can be found here and here. If you haven’t read them and this post interests you, I suggest that you read the others too. The...
Why I Love Spreadsheets
Why I Love Spreadsheets You’re probably thinking that it is not at all strange that someone who owns a company called Spreadsheet Solutions has written a post about why they love spreadsheets, but I wish to explain why I love them. I mean, what is so exciting about a...
Using Excel as Business Software
Using Excel as Business Software I love using Excel. I have created business software with it on numerous occasions, as well as custom spreadsheets and even games and quizzes! Most people that I come across are under-using it. Not because Excel can’t do more, just...
Why Using Excel is Good for Business
Why Using Excel is Good for Business It seems more and more obvious to me that business people mostly have Excel on their computers, and some of them use it, however very few use it to its potential. Those that use it have a few columns of amounts, and they use Excel...
5 More Ways Businesses Struggle & How Excel Can Help
5 More Ways Businesses Struggle & How Excel Can Help Firstly I would like to say that this is the second part of a two part post, the first one is entitled ‘5 Ways Businesses Struggle and How Excel Can Help‘. If you haven’t read it and this post interests you, I...
5 Ways Businesses Struggle and How Excel can Help
5 Ways Businesses Struggle and How Excel can Help Having been in business for many years, I have often found myself in the situation where I have had to create an Excel document or two to help companies improve their processes. I have come across many different issues...
Improve Your (Small) Business
Improve Your (Small) Business Having started my own small business, I have picked up a few ideas to help improve yours. This article is not only about Excel (which is my main area of expertise), but consists of a few ideas that has helped my business, and can probably...
Are You Getting the Most out of Excel?
Are You Getting the Most out of Excel? I have been to see quite a few Excel spreadsheets that companies have created to help their businesses, and quite frankly, it scares me a little. Most people realise the flexibility and control that Excel offers but they can only...
10 Excel Functions to Help Your Business
10 Excel Functions to Help Your Business I have heard a few people say that using Excel is risky as there are always errors and it is difficult to use. Well, when there are mistakes in Excel, 99 out of 100 are human errors, and the other one is probably not entirely...
Message From the Director
Message From the Director If you think spreadsheets are just for basic calculations, or to store data, think again! There are countless ways that the right tailor-made spreadsheet can enhance your business and save you time, money and effort. This is in fact why I...
How Your Business Can Benefit from Excel
How Your Business Can Benefit from Excel When I tell people that Microsoft Excel can help their business, they often make a comment like, “Oh, you mean for accounts?” My answer is usually something about the fact that I very seldom use it for accounts. Excel, in the...
10 Things You Did Not Know Excel Can Do
10 Things You Did Not Know Excel Can Do Here are ten things that you may not know Excel can do. Take a look and see what you can learn. 1. Image distribution – You can have a single picture in one location, and have various cells programmed to show that picture. So if...
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