Karl Craig-West

Started off working for KTDR a commercial radio station in South West Texas. Some of my friends say I have a great face for radio, others say that I've always had too much to say.

These days I'm a business training and advice specialist living in Leicester in the Midlands of England.

The bulk of my work is helping people in businesses make more of resources by training them towards more effective and efficient working practices.

This includes time management training, communication skills training, presentation skills training and delegation skills training. With improved skills in the workplace most businesses end up being more productive and many become more profitable too.

I also spend a fair bit of time working with the owners of small businesses advising and training on web marketing. The aim in this area is to ensure that a company's website is more than just a pretty online brochure. A website should be a marketing tool, but most business websites don't even pay for themselves let alone provide a profitable return on investment.

I like to build websites and get a great sense of joy from taking a website idea from concept to creation. Although I would never call myself an expert on website design or web programming.

I'm the secretary of the Leicester City branch of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The FSB is the UK's largest and most successful small business lobbying organisation in the UK. I must point out that any opinions expressed on this website is my own and not necessarily that of the FSB.

I do a bit of public speaking as well, often being asked to speak on becoming more effective as a person in business.

I'm married to Emma (who works for the tax office) and we have 2 kids, Abigail and Matilda. We also have a couple of cats (Cosmo and Wanda) and a growing community of house spiders who do a benevolent job and keep the bug population under control (to be honest, I'm the only one in the house that seems to think this).

I love to exercise and go to the gym on a regular basis and I play rugby for the Old Newtonians in Leicester.

As you can imagine, life is very busy but wherever possible I try and make time to do some reading for at least 30 minutes a day. Pretty much wherever I go, I take something to read (typically 'Wired' '.Net' or 'Mens Health' magazines)