Knickers, Bums And Business

Listen to the MP3: [hr] I have a knicker analogy for you today… and rather a personal one. I was getting dressed this morning in my gym gear and my partner commented on my knickers and that he thought they looked nice. My immediate response was to tell him “you don’t...

Turning Procrastination Into Productivity

Listen to this blog:   We all have one of ‘those’ days or moments. You just do not feel like working, or perhaps it’s just one particular job that, sometimes for no reason at all, you just are procrastinating like crazy about getting done....

How To Hush The Mind Monkeys

Listen to this blog post:   What is a Mind Monkey?  Mind monkey or monkey mind, from Chinese xinyuan and Sino-Japanese shin’en 心猿 [lit. “heart-/mind-monkey”], is a Buddhist term meaning “unsettled; restless; capricious; whimsical;...

What Do I Need To Do Right NOW?

Listen to this blog post:   Do you ever find yourself sitting by your desk with a whopping great to do list, not feeling on top of your game and procrastinating on certain jobs on your list (perhaps having a sneaky look at Facebook!)? You know what you should be...

Why Being Specific Rocks For Your Brand!

Listen to this blog post:   I was at a local country show last week and was wandering round the stands, no real desire to buy anything, just seeing what was about, when I stumbled across a stand selling blenders… I’m talking all singing, all dancing...

It’s The Little Things…

Listen to this blog post:   I woke this morning in a contemplative mood… a good one, which is nice. I wandered downstairs, popped the kettle on and then searched for my favourite mug and thought about how often the small things can make such a happy difference. A...

Why Niching Is Like Skinny Dipping

Have you ever been skinny dipping? I’m guessing that even if you haven’t, that it has come up at some time in your life, either because you forgot your costume or you were being enticed into the water by a friend or lover! Perhaps you’re a keen nude swimmer and you...

What Is Branding?

Listen to the blog post here:   Branding is: An Identity The identity for your business – it’s your vision, your goals, your products, your services, your staff, the way you work, what you stand for and so on… A Label A brand helps people categorise...

Focus = Success!

Listen to the audio version of this blog:   I was having dinner with friends last night and we got on to the conversation of focus for marketing (we’re all business owners) and we had some of the classic responses come up. Perhaps some of these will ring a...

‘Me Time’ Matters!

‘Me Time’ really does matter! We’re all so busy creating our master plan for an awesome life and working our butts off to get there that often time just passes us by and we’re too busy to stop and really make sure that we’re enjoying the...

What Is A Brand Coach?

A brand coach is someone who is there to hold your hand as you work on creating and developing your own brand. Sure you can jog along without thinking too much about it, or even do it yourself, but why would you not want to save your precious time, effort and money by...

Fab Facebook Groups For Women in Business

WomansWork WomansWork is a monthly one-stop resource for women. Providing support for start-ups, the self-employed, those wishing to get back into employment or facing redundancy, established business women, mums in business and social enterprises....

Fab Facebook Pages For Women in Business

Make Marketing Work Make Marketing Work is an online course that helps you to understand and learn how marketing really works. This is ideal for business owners, managers and especially if you’re starting your own business....

10 Branding Tips For Businesses

1. Fonts When looking at your own business branding keep it simple – choose 2 or 3 fonts that compliment each other and stick with them for everything that you do in your business: stationery, adverts, emails, letters, posters, website etc. By using only these fonts...

Useful Tools And Resources

[level-module-1] Here are some extra goodies for you in the form of useful links and resources: 7 Zip: http://7-zip.org (free download) An open source, free alternative to WinZip. Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (free download) An open source software used...

The Meaning Of The Colour Grey For Your Brand

Reserved Neutral Serious Power Control Credibility Trust Reliability Conservative Sorrow Narrow-minded Emotionless Formal Intellect Knowledge Wisdom Friendship Security Dependability Efficiency Security Maturity Cool Composed Modesty Dignity Solid...

Who’s using YouTube?

Here are some mind-blowing statistics and interesting facts about YouTube: •    Did you know over 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute on YouTube? This means one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second. •    More than 4 billion videos are viewed every...

Who’s Using Twitter

•    As of August 2013, there were 554,750,000 registered Twitter users. •    Nearly 135,000 new users sign up on Twitter every day. •    There have been over 300 billion total Tweets thus far. •    As of October 2013, there are 231.7 million monthly active users on...

Who’s using Pinterest?

•    As of October 2013, there were around 70 million Pinterest users. •    80% of users are females. •    There are 2.5 billion Pinterest page reviews every month •    Pinterest accounts for 25% of retail referral traffic. •    There are over half a million business...

Who’s Using Linkedin?

•    As of October 2013, there were 259 million users on LinkedIn. •    LinkedIn spans across 200 countries and is available in 20 different languages. •    64% of LinkedIn users lie outside the US, while around 84 million are located in the US. •    There are around...
How Do I Secure My Brand Name?

How Do I Secure My Brand Name?

There’s lots of different aspects to your brand name and I would suggest that you consider the following when choosing a name and to secure it for your business for the future:   Companies House WebCheck One of the first places I look is Companies House....

Who’s using Google+?

Here are some interesting Google+ statistics and facts: •    Google+ has over 359 million active users across 31 markets which puts Google+ ahead of Twitter’s 200 million active users. •    100 million new users have recently joined Google+ in 2013. •    62% of...

Who’s Using Facebook

Here are some interesting Facebook statistics you probably didn’t know: •    As of October 2013, there are over 1.5 billion Facebook users worldwide; this marks a 23% increase from March 2012. •    Around 699 million users log onto Facebook daily; marking a 26%...
Networking Top Tip #18 – Be Yourself

Networking Top Tip #18 – Be Yourself

Most of us tend to have slightly different persona’s in the different groups we meet in. I’m not talking Jeckel and Hyde here, more that you can let your hair down a bit more with friends or at home than you might at a networking event or convention. And that’s...

The Meaning Of Colour For Your Brand

  The Meaning Of The Colour White For Your Brand Standard Safe Conservative Efficiency Simplicity Fairness Order Purity Innocence Wholeness Completion Goodness Safety Brilliance Understanding Faith Spirituality Possibility Sincerity The Meaning Of The Colour...
Branding Tip – Have A Clear, Specific Message

Branding Tip – Have A Clear, Specific Message

This comes up a LOT with people I work with. It’s so tempting, as a business, to try to help everyone and to aim our promotions at a huge market, listing all our services on one leaflet and expecting a strong response. Now, it is possible that you will get a...

Branding Tip – Use A Limited Colour Palette

Much like fonts, some people can get a bit carried away with colour. I love colour! But you can have too much colour… or at least poorly planned colour with some elements of design. It’s about choosing complementary colours and using them in a way that...
Branding Tip – Be Font Fussy

Branding Tip – Be Font Fussy

I’ve seen it more times than I care to mention, a business person getting a little over excited with the font list on their computer and going font crazy on a poster or leaflet. Also using different fonts for every item, online or in print. One of my top tips...
Branding Tip – Be Consistent

Branding Tip – Be Consistent

070-684 Consistency is hugely important when it comes to brand. After all, if you went to a shop and it changed everything every time you visited, among other things, you’d end up feeling unsure what was going on with it and perhaps even wonder if it was...
Three Big Ideas To Make Your Marketing Work

Three Big Ideas To Make Your Marketing Work

I. Make Marketing Happen   1. It doesn’t happen by accident! Marketing is not something that will simply ‘come about’ because you’re ‘getting your name out there’. 2. Being busy promoting yourself and telling others about your business may be good promotion but...
New Beginnings at Samhain…

New Beginnings at Samhain…

So it’s the month of Halloween and Samhain, a time that marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter and a time when the veils between the worlds are at their thinnest. It is also a celebration of death… which sounds pretty morbid but is in...
Networking Top Tip #11 – Do Not Spam

Networking Top Tip #11 – Do Not Spam

If I don’t know you, haven’t spoken to you and yet get an impersonal sales email from you after you picked up my card at a networking event then I’m not likely to do business with you. Simples. There’s no faster way of getting black listed on...
Networking Top Tip #2 – Smile

Networking Top Tip #2 – Smile

How many times have you been to a networking meeting, seen someone looking miserable as sin and thought “I want to speak to that person!”? I’m guessing never? Well, perhaps if you were a counsellor… Seriously, if you look or are miserable then...
Networking Tip Tip #1 – Make Eye Contact

Networking Tip Tip #1 – Make Eye Contact

Many people never even consider the impact that eye contact can have during a networking meeting. Of course there are a number of different networking formats; speaking 1:2:1, speaking to the room, working in groups etc but on the whole, in all of these situations,...
Networking Top Tips

Networking Top Tips

I have created a series of nineteen networking top tips that I will be posting over the next month. All designed to help you make the time and effort that you put into networking as effective as possible. I began networking the instant I set up in business back in...
A Personal Touch

A Personal Touch

I stumbled across a great personalised gift the other day and it got me thinking about how popular a personalised touch is these days. You can see it even with giant corporations, they are trying to give a more personal approach to business and going back to grass...
Getting Started With Webinars…

Getting Started With Webinars…

So… Webinars… Many of us know that we should be doing them, but where do you even begin with getting one set up? Thankfully there are more options appearing for cost effective webinars that can help give your business a boost and offer your customers loads...
You Tube Channel Art

You Tube Channel Art

You’ve got your YouTube account up and running and you’d like to have your logo showing as part of your ‘Channel Art’ picture that appears at the top of your page. How do you go about getting it done? Well, of course my first suggestion is to...
Successful Blogging

Successful Blogging

Blogging has exploded over the recent years, what was once the home of reviews and general personal hobbies and diaries is now buzzing with business. If you’re not blogging, then you’re missing out on a big audeince and also a great way to increase traffic...