WEST Devon Borough Council is funding two workshops at Okehampton Business Centre to help businesses in the area.

Both workshops will be free to attend for all business people in the West Devon area. The first, 'Making the Most of Free Publicity', is on Wednesday, May 29.

It will look at how to make best use of free publicity using ingenious ways of raising a business profile within a target community through videos, e-mail, presentations, blogs and more. The session will help to identify the most appropriate marketing options for a business. Penny Bond, of Hush Farms, will share her expertise at the workshop.

The session runs from 5pm for tea, coffee and registration, the workshop starting at 5.30pm for an 8pm finish.

The second workshop covers 'Book keeping made easier using Excel', on Wednesday, June 12. Guests will review spreadsheet basics on the computer program Excel, and progress to use it for book-keeping and VAT record keeping purposes. Sample spreadsheets to act as VAT records or bookkeeping cash analysis records will be available.

By the end of the session guests will be able to enter text and numbers onto spreadsheets, change data within a spreadsheet, save the data, use formulas to add, subtract, multiply and divide, print, and use spreadsheets for VAT records and cash analysis. There will be practical exercises to reinforce the learning process.

The session runs from 5pm for tea, coffee and registration, the workshop starting at 5.30pm for an 8pm finish.

To book a place on either course visit http://www.bipwestdevon.biz">www.bipwestdevon.biz or call 0330 1000338.