Amy C. Fitzjohn's Blog, page 26

Sharing your Story for PR

This month, I was honoured to be a finalist for the Women’s Business Club Speaker of the Year.

It’s the closest I’ve ever been to winning award for my business.

Sure, I’ve worked for award winning businesses in the past, but never for me and my plucky little business!

 

The awards were announced at the Maximise Conference in Cheltenham.

I packed myself off onto the train from Temple Meads, deciphered a bus in Cheltenham and found myself at the Grand Regency façade of the Pitville Pump Rooms.

Showcasing a smorgasbord of fascinating businesses, I drifted around the room, chatting to the stall holders, drinking prosecco and nibbling chocolates and cupcakes.

I had my makeup done by ‘From Russia With Love’ and managed to catch up with several people I know, including Helen from Silverwood Books and Nicky from Travel Counsellors.

The highlights for me were the author hub, but also a talk by the fabulous Andrea Sexton who shared 5 PR tips.

 

Andrea’s tip about using Social Media to connect with influencers for PR resonated with me as it echoed what I spoke about for my award-nominated talk.

My talk was on Alternative PR with Bloggers. In it, I shared top tips to work with new media….

 

Alternative PR with Bloggers

Much of the talk was based on a blog I wrote on a new way to publicise your business.

When it comes to PR, we usually think of the traditional media, such as newspapers, radio and TV.

I’m a regular guest on BBC Radio Bristol, and I can honestly say, I cannot equate any growth in my business directly to this coverage, in fact, I rarely even get to mention my website. The principle advantage is to be able to say “I’m a regular guest on BBC Radio Bristol”!

All these things are great for generally raising your profile and work especially well when you have a big story to tell. If I had such an occasion in my business, I would go straight to Andrea for help!

But what about when you don’t have a big story?

There will always be small stories in your business.

Think of every blog post as a short story, a chapter, in the wider narrative of your business.

But your blog doesn’t always need to be on your own website…

 

Bloggers and Influencers, the New PR

Bloggers and influencers are important connections to raise your profile in the age of the Citizen Reporter. Influential bloggers can be as notable, if not more so in the right circles, than getting the local newspaper involved.

 

Here are three simple ways to get more publicity in the digital space by working with bloggers:

 

1) Invite bloggers in your niche to your events. Give them a free ticket, ply them with food and drink, or reward them in exchange for Social Media exposure or a blog about your event.

2) Pitch to be a guest on other blogs. I shared a VLOG with my top tip to get started:

 

I also shared my top tips as the editor of my own blog on what I look for in a successful pitch.

3) Host guests on your blog. You’ll need submission guidelines (join the course below for more)

Learn About Guest Blogging

To build Guest Blogging into your Content Marketing plan and get plenty of alternative PR opportunities this short course is for you!

Reach Out with Guest Blogging is:

4 short, instructional, animated videos with bite sized tips and advice
Activities from the videos
2 downloadable checklists
A downloadable database template to collate guest blogging contacts
A quiz to test your knowledge

You get lifetime access to the material, and everything is downloadable; you can work offline in your own time.

The workshop is divided into two sections

Hosting guests
Being a guest and pitching

 

Happy Blogging!

 

The post Sharing your Story for PR appeared first on Amy Morse - Authorpreneur.

The 3 Stages of Ninja Networking

Networking: When you’re curious, and like to chat with fascinating people – like I do – one of the best things about working for yourself is getting to meet so many other amazing and inspiring entrepreneurs.

Then we go and ruin the experience by giving it a horrible jargony name like ‘networking’!

Suddenly it seems a bit scary…

“What if

…people don’t take me seriously?”

…I make a fool of myself?”

…I just don’t fit in?”

…I’m in a room with all these successful businesses and then there’s me – the faker, the pretender, the imposter?”

Here’s the thing… in business, there will always be people who are further ahead and more successful than you are, and there will always be people who aren’t.

And guess what… even the most successful entrepreneurs started somewhere and had these anxieties (and probabaly still do, sometimes).

We all started somewhere.

‘Networking’ is really just a fancy way of saying, meeting people and getting to know them.

A ‘Networking Event’ is only a room full of people all keen to meet other people.

I wrote a blog last year on 22 ways to harness the power of networking.

If that seems a bit full on, her are the three stages to ninja in, ninja out and network without anyone really realising it (including yourself).

Anywhere you meet new people is an opportunity to make ‘connections’.

A great place to do this is at a business show, or conference.

There’s no formal ’60 second round’ or ‘stand up and tell us about yourself’, just lots of people milling around, off guard, curious and open to conversations.

This is fertile ground to sew some seeds of connections you can nurture later.

 

Stage 1: The Game Face

It all starts with a smile! If you look friendly, the chances are, people will talk to you first, without you having to make the first move. Or, if you make eye contact with someone else who’s smiling, they are open to being approached.

 

Stage 2: The Small Talk.

Often, we strike up conversations when we’re sat next to someone, for example, in the audience for a seminar.

I usually end up sitting on the pen, or dropping paperwork from the chair (because I’m clumsy!) and that usually starts something – with me being self-effacing, apologising for reaching over someone or them picking the pen up for me!

I wouldn’t suggest contriving it and deliberately dropping a pen, it’s just an example of how those small, friendly interactions can lead to a conversation.

Another great time for small talk is in the queue for coffee.

I have this theory, that secretly, us Brits really enjoy queues because it gives us an excuse to chat to people, on equal terms (or it’s an excuse to whinge and challenge the validity of the queue)!

 

Stage 3: The Follow Through

The most successful networkers are rarely the social butterflies that flit around.

The goal is not to speak to everyone in the room! You’re not the Queen, you don’t HAVE TO shake every hand and kiss a baby!

(Although I am #AmyQueenOfBlogs!)

Have some open questions in mind – something more engaging beyond the usual “so, what do you do?”. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

“How did you hear about this show?”
“Do you know anyone else here today?”
“How far have you come today to get here?”
“What are you most looking forward to seeing here today?”
“Which seminars intrigue you the most today?”
“I’m looking forward to seeing today, what about you?”

You Never Know Who Knows Who

Settle with whoever you end up feeling comfortable with and have a good old natter with them.

Listen, respond with more open questions, avoid talking about yourself and find out about them. Everyone, without exception, has a story to tell. Even if someone may not immediately seem like a useful person to you – the point is to be useful to them, not the other way around!

In any situation where you have the potential to make connections (aka Networking) your goal is to be memorable – for the right reasons! Be the person they remember as helpful, interested and friendly – you never know who they might know!

Ninja Networking in Action

I’ll be putting these ninja networking techniques to the test at the Maximise Live Conference in Cheltenham on the 6th December.

The UK’s most influential businesswomen will be there, and I’ll be reminding myself that there will be women there who are far more successful than me (who I can learn from) and women who aren’t as far along the business journey as I am (and they can learn from me)!

I’m also proud and privileged to share the news that I have been nominated for the ‘Speaker of The Year Award’ for my recent talk in Newport on ‘Building Relationships with Bloggers for Alternative PR’. I’ll find out on the day if I’ve been successful (wish me luck!)

 

But most of all, when you are connecting with other businesses at an event, relax, be yourself and enjoy making friends with other people who ‘get’ what it means to be self employed!

 

End the year on a high, book now for the Maximise Conference at the historic Pittville Pump Room in Cheltenham.

It’ll be a day to work ON your business and not IN it.

Connect with businesswomen from across the UK, enjoy various activities such as speed networking, Dragoness Den, the Author Hub, a fashion show, inspirational talks and the grand finale the Business Woman of the Year awards.

GET YOUR TICKET HERE

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Using Twitter and Other Non-Google Platforms to Find Guest Blogging Opportunities

If finding guest blogging opportunites is on your radar, as part of your marketing strategy, a great place to start is to talk to your existing network.

There are plenty of lists out there featuring sites that accept guests, but because everyone else is using them, your submission could get swamped by the competition.

The first thing we all do when we want to find something these days is take to Google. But if you dig a little deeper, there are other, more targeted ways to research guest blogging opportunities.

 

Tori Galatro is a freelance writer who contacted me about being a guest on my blog, as I’m publishing a spate of guest blogs lately, I was happy to feature her tips!

A big thank you to Tori for some great suggestions (a few things here I’ll be adding to my own ‘to do list’)!

Over to Tori…

 

 

Using Twitter and Other Non-Google Platforms to Find Guest Blogging Opportunities

If you have a website or blog, and you want to give your SEO a boost, then guest blogging is a great strategy. Trading free content in exchange for backlinks not only gets Google’s attention, it can generate traffic to your site, showcase your authority within your niche, and help you to create valuable professional relationships. But there are so many writers out there searching for guest blogging opportunities these days that competition has gotten fierce for the low hanging fruit. Searching Google for “guest posting opportunities” will yield blogs that are already bombarded with pitches, and therefore, expensive, extremely picky, or unresponsive.

Yet, there are many MANY blogs out there that genuinely want content, are thrilled to get it for free, and are happy to link back to your site in return. But how do you find them? There are many non-Google platforms you can use to find guest blogging opportunities. In this article, I’m going to focus on Twitter as an example of one such platform, and then give you some additional suggestions, but that’s just to get your juices flowing. Remember that any site or service that involves communicating with other human beings, who may have their own blogs or websites, can lead to guest blogging opportunities.

 

Finding Blogs that Are Actively Recruiting Guests

 

Twitter is the number one way that I find guest blogging opportunities. Blogs and websites looking for contributors will often post with #guestpost or #guestblogger looking for writers amongst their followers, while passively putting a call out to the larger community. You’ll have to dig a little to find these types of tweets, but it’s a much better use of your time then pitching to those first hits on google because these people want you to contact them and are actively accepting writers. Any permutation of blog/guest/post/writer/contributor/wanted/needed etc… can work, but avoid #bloggerwanted and #bloggerneeded. You’ll find product companies looking for free marketing and not what you’re looking for.

 

Finding Blogs that Passively Accept Guest Posts

 

Another great way to use to Twitter to find guest blogging opportunities is by finding blogs that accept guest posts, even if they’re not actively recruiting. Many blogs will tweet about guest articles they’ve recently published with #guestpost or #guestblogger. This is valuable information. It tells you

1) That the blogger currently accepts guest posts

2) That they aren’t so bombarded by emails from writers that they feel the need to keep it on the DL

3) That they advertise guest posts on Twitter

This last point is important because your article will have a lot more value if visitors can actually find, click on, and read it. I also recommend liking the tweet, direct messaging the poster on twitter, and then following it up with a comment. You are more likely to get a response if the recipient has some context as to who you are and how you found them. If you choose to email them instead, reference the tweet in your email, follow them on twitter to show your interest, and follow up with a comment on the tweet.

 

Finding Opportunities in Your Niche

 

Lastly, Twitter is a great way to find blogs in your niche or in your area of expertise. For example, if you’re a food writer, search #restaurants, click on articles or even random tweets, and see what kind of blogs they connect to. Even if they’ve never hosted a guest before, they may be open to it. Also, if you search Google for “food blogs”, for example, you’ll find blogs that are exclusively food focussed. Whereas if you search Twitter for #food, many will direct you to blogs that aren’t explicitly about food, but consider it within their realm of interest. And again, this means less competition for you within your niche.

 

Remember to Use Your Resources

 

There are many other resources, like Twitter, that you may never have considered, even when they’re right under your nose. Do you have any friends with blogs or websites? Do you know any business owners? Are there any blogs you’ve written for in the past? Do any of your previous jobs need content? After you’ve been rejected a few times, you might feel like a pest. But remember that you’re offering a valuable service: good quality content. And you’re offering it for free! Contrary to popular SEO mythology, no one loses “link juice” by linking to your site. So as long as you give them good material, they have only to gain by saying yes.

 

Other Non-Google Platforms You Might Consider

 

I’ll leave you with two more examples, just to get you thinking: Reddit and Craigslist. Well, for one thing, there’s a subreddit entirely about guest posting that should come in handy. Honestly, any platform like this is better than Google for finding guest blogging opportunities because they offer fresh opportunities every day which, again, cuts down on competition. You can also use the same techniques I suggested for Twitter, by searching in Reddit for “guest post”, “guest blogger”, or “[your niche]”. For Craigslist, if you’re a writer for hire, you know how many “writing gigs” are regularly posted offering “no pay”. However, many of those blogs that can’t offer money, can offer backlinks. At least you have a jumping off point for negotiation.

 

Just remember: any platform that connects you with other people can lead to guest blogging opportunities. So, get creative, keep your eyes open, and use your resources.

 

Tori Galatro is a freelance writer, based in Austin TX. Find out more on Tori’s Website and follow her on Twitter @torigalatro

 

 

If guest blogging is on your radar, but you don’t know where to start or how to make it work for your business, check out my ‘Reach Out With Guest Blogging’ eWorkshop.
Get free content, build up rleationships and strategic partnerships with other businesses and boost your SEO – Win-win!

 

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Top Tips To Outsource & Delegate Your Web Business Tasks

In the early days of our businesses, we often start by doing it all ourselves.

You’re bootstrapping, trying to get something off the ground without spending too much. But as a business grows and becomes more established,there comes a point where your time is best served doing what you do best.

Are there parts of your business you could outsource to someone else?

A business colleague said to me recently:

“Do what you do best and outsource the rest.”

 

Peter Drucker first said that, but it’s still very apt.

Personally, one of my goals for 2018 is to be in a position to outsource much of my admin to a VA, and I have a few I am considering from my network within Women Mean Biz.

This contributed content has some great tips for businesses at the stage where they need to start to delegate or outsource tasks; they can focus on what they want to do, and what is most cost effectove for their business…

 

Top Tips To Outsource & Delegate Your Web Business Tasks

 

Credit

 

There is a lot that goes into running a small business, even one based solely online. As a business owner, you have a lot on your plate all of the time, so it makes sense to delegate as many tasks as possible to other people, especially ones that you don’t particularly enjoy doing yourself. If you’re looking to start outsourcing and delegating tasks, then the tips below should help you out.

 

What Do You Want To Do?

Before you start thinking of tasks to delegate, you need to decide what it is that you want to do yourself. Make a list of all of the jobs that need to be completed for your business, and pick a few to do yourself. Make sure that you don’t give yourself too much to do, as that would completely go against the point of outsourcing. There’s no point in giving all of the more enjoyable tasks to others and leaving yourself all of the boring ones, so give yourself some task you like doing. More difficult tasks, like your accounting and taxes, could be given to others instead.

 

Choose How To Delegate

There are a couple of ways that you can delegate your tasks; You could employ someone yourself (which is know as hiring in-house) or hire a company to complete your tasks (which is the traditional way to outsource). Of course, these are methods, so you need to consider the tasks, and see which one it better fits. If you need someone to run your social media accounts, it makes more sense to hire a marketing student yourself. You can do this by putting adverts online and in your local newspaper, with a job outline, the hours, and the pay. On the other hand, if you needed an entire website designing, it makes much more sense to pay a web design agency, as you know they have the skills and knowledge to do the job well.

 

Shop Around For Companies

If you intend to outsource some of your tasks to companies or agencies, then be sure that you shop around online to find one that suits you best. Some agencies and companies will specialise in different areas, meaning that some may not be helpful for you. You might also find some that do the same task for incredibly different prices. Be sure that you make a list of all of the ones that would work for the task at hand, and then start to filter through them. Immediately forget about any that have bad reviews, or no reviews at all, as that is the last thing your business needs. Then you can start to look for ones that fit into your budget.

 

If you’ve started your own business, then it’s highly likely that you’re an incredibly driven and independent person, which might be making it difficult for you to let go of the reins a little, and allow other people into your business. As hard as it may be initially, it will be worth it. The last thing your business needs is a tired and overworked owner, so take some time to yourself.

 

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Reach Wider Audiences With Your Blog

The audiences we attract to our blogs will evolve over time, as will our businesses.

Although we should be writing blogs with our readers in mind, in fact, everything we do in our businesses should always be with our customers in mind, your content can appeal to wider audiences and grow your business in other ways.

In this latest guest blog by Jock of Digital Exits are 5 things you can do to reach wider audiences with your blogs.

Over to Jock…

How To Tap Your Blog Into Wider Audiences

 

When it comes to blogging, you probably have a specific target audience already in mind.  You devote large amounts of time and money into creating content specifically for them.  Creating the content that they want to read and share is how your blog has become successful.

 

However, there comes a certain point when you want to start tapping into new audiences. There could be many reasons you may want to do this, either to eventually sell your business, make more money, or just because you want to see new readers on your site.

 

Whatever the reason, you’re going to need to use a few different strategies to help make your blog and content more attractive to those audiences, and figure out where you can get in front of those new audiences at.

 

What most bloggers fail to realize is that extending the reach and scope of your blog can actually be done without you having to leave the comfort of your blog.

 

Here are a few different ways you can increase the reach of your blog by focusing on increasing your clicks, reads, and subscribes.  There’s another strategy that will help you identify new audiences that you can begin targeting with new content, too.

 

#1 – Find And Use Target Keywords

 

Figuring out the keywords that your potential audience may be typing into the search results is one of the best ways for you to start tapping into new audiences without ever having to leave your blog.

 

Whenever you’re putting together a new piece of content, you want to make sure you’re referring to a master list of keywords that you know people are typing in.  You can build this list based off the results from the Adwords Keyword Planner, or from the Google Suggested Keywords that’s at the bottom of every page of the search results.

 

To make sure that your blog is visible in the search engines, you’ll want to sprinkle these keywords throughout the piece of content.  Including them in your image captions, your descriptions, the page title, subheadings, body content, and more will help Google understand what the content is about.

 

You’ll want to make sure that you’re not using keywords more often than necessary, though, because the content will read as spammy, and the search engines could keep you from ranking.

 

#2 – Make Your Your Content Is Evergreen

 

Many bloggers have built their fan base around reporting the latest industry news and while this can be a great strategy for content marketing, chances are high that you may not have the necessary resources needed to take full advantage of the stories that you’re publishing.

 

Instead of focusing on the latest, greatest news to get released, start shifting your focus towards content that is considered more “evergreen”.

 

Evergreen content is focused around ideas that are never going to go out of style.  They tend to be less time-sensitive than news posts, which means they’re going to stay relevant to any audience that finds your blog in the future.

 

Evergreen content also helps you promote your blog to new areas because they aren’t going to be linking to stories that are weeks, or months old.

 

#3 – Capture Their Email

 

Instead of throwing money at advertisements that do nothing more than send traffic to your social media pages and bring readers to your blog, you’re going to want to figure out how to turn those readers into loyal subscribers.

 

The best way to do this is by capturing their email address.  Whenever you capture an email address of your reader, you can continue growing your base.  As your audience reach expands, you’ll have a direct line with your subscribers to find out which types of content they want to see and interact with.

 

You can get started by placing an email capture form in the sidebar of your blog, along with a message that gets them to take action.

 

For instance, if you are offering a free download of a guide that you’ve created, you can ask your readers to enter their email address in exchange for being able to download it.  Then, as your list begins to grow, you can send out an email broadcast letting your subscribers know that new content has been published.

 

#4 – Make It Easy To Share

You never know who is going to land on your blog, especially when you’re trying to get in front of new audiences.  That means you’re going to want to make sure that, when a reader falls in love with what they’re reading, you have made it easy for them to share your content.

 

Having your content shared on social media is actually a pretty big deal.  It’s your reader saying that they loved what you’ve written so much that they want other people they know to see it too.

 

What begins to happen is a domino effect.  While your content may not actually “go viral”, your readers sharing it to their wall can begin a chain reaction where other people seeing it will begin to share it too.

 

That means you need to make sure you have buttons available for the most commonly used social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest, for instance) and that you’re writing the types of content your readers want to see — to increase your chances of that content being shared.

 

#5 – Dig Into Your Competition

The best way to uncover new audiences you can start creating content for is to take a look around at your competitors.

 

Dig into the blog content they’re creating.  Take a peek at the content they’re releasing on social media.  Which types of content are targeted to audiences other than what you’re already creating content for, but can easily be branched out into on your own blog?

 

What content are they creating that’s getting high engagement in the form of comments on their blog posts and likes and shares on their social media posts?

 

By understanding what your competition is doing, you can evolve your own blog to start expanding into the same audiences.

 

On that same token, you’ll also figure out what their strengths are compared to what your weaknesses are, and learn how to fill in the gaps so your blog becomes an even bigger competitor in the industry.

 

The end result, after implementing each of these different strategies, is a wider reach for all of your existing content, and your new content.  Your blog’s traffic will grow, and you’ll be able to develop deeper relationships with your readers by bringing them back to your blog every time you create a new piece of content.

 

Jock is the founder of Digital Exits, an online brokerage service. Jock has been featured in Forbes and contributed to numerous websites and podcasts. He specializes in appraising and buying/selling online businesses and enjoys helping other entrepreneurs do business online.

 

 

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How Not To Worry So You Can Have a Holiday

As soon as one holiday is over, we’re already planning for the next one.

I’m going to do it… I’m going to say the ‘c’ word…

Yes, Christmas is fast approaching!

While the shops are still stocked with witch hats, pumpkins and fireworks;  the baubles, liqueur chocolates and tinsel of the festive season are starting to appear on the shelves. I saw mince pies in a bakery last week and bought a cheeky bar of Bailey’s chocolate for my coffee time treats this week.

As we enter the final quarter of the year, we’re already thinking ahead to 2018.

Before it sneaks up on you – and the madness of parties and present buying consumes you – start considering how you can peacefully take some time off and relax while your business is taken care of.

Planning ahead is the key

Now is the time to think about what you want to achieve this quarter and map it out.

For some help with this, take a look at my FREE online ‘Creating a Content Calendar’ workshop. Watch the instructional video, do the activity and then download the spreadsheet template and complete it.

Copywriter, Vladi Nikolov, sent this guest post over for me. In it, he shares some great tips to run your business without having to be physically present.

 

Over to Vladi…

5 Tips on How Not to Worry About Your Business While Being on Holiday

 

The summer has just gone but the Christmas period is already fast approaching, as if from nowhere. Chances are that even inveterate workaholics have already planned to go somewhere different from the workplace during the festive period.

Most working people find it hard to relax and not think about work even when they are on holiday. This is double as accurate for those in charge – business owners, or those doing everything themselves – sole traders and freelancers.

At the same time vacations are not to be neglected. They make up the deserved time off for every hard worker and should be used to get some quality rest and recuperate after months of intense working.

In order to make the most of your holiday, here are 5 points you should address before and during your time out.

Let people know that you are off beforehand

When you are about to go on a holiday, let your employees and regular clients know that earlier. The former will need to regroup in your absence and divide tasks among themselves, while the latter have to know of your limited availability in order to plan their own activities accordingly. You do not want to have your relationship with your clients smeared because you have not bothered sending a couple of emails. There is nothing worse than being inexplicably out of reach for regular clients and partners.

You will actually leave good impression with your clients if you inform them that you will be away for a while. This way you will show them that you think of them and your responsibilities towards them. They will understand and respect your decision to take some time off.

Automate your email answering

It is necessary to write an email that will be sent as an automatic reply to the emails you will receive while on holiday. You need to explain the reasons why you will be unlikely to reply to emails in the given time period, and encourage people to contact you again when you have returned.

You have to make sure that your contacts understand that their attempts to reach you have been acknowledged and you will get back to them as soon as possible. Making them wait or follow-up in a convenient time for you does not make it an ideal situation but it is still the preferred option than leaving their emails completely unanswered.

Sign up for a live telephone answering service

This is a must if you are a freelancer, sole trader or working in a team in which your absence will cause a heightened number of missed calls you cannot afford.

Employing virtual operators to take care of your calls while you are away guarantees that your phone lines will be manned at all times. It is out of question that missed calls are to be avoided. A phone call should be treated as a qualified sales lead that cannot be let go so easily. This is why a real human covering your phone and giving a relevant information to the callers is so handy.

 

Disclaimer: It is a no-brainer but you should not be using your mobile phone for business conversations when you are meant to be having a wholesome rest. It takes away the whole purpose of the vacation if the calls keep coming and cannot leave you at peace.

 

 

Schedule your social media posts

The sudden discontinuation of your social media or blogging activity will be looked at as a not particularly pleasant surprise. This is valid especially if you are normally quite active and have already built a loyal following.

You can stay connected to your audiences even from afar. There are plenty of social media management tools, such as Hootsuite, you can use to create your posts. These will go live at the times you have pre-selected so you should not worry about slowing down your social media marketing efforts. Your followers will likely not even suspect that you are having days off.

The only tricky issue is to figure out how you are going to respond to any comments that might be posted under your Facebook posts, tweets or blog articles. If you are working solo, you will need to do it yourself, and rob your holiday of a couple of hours. If you are working in a team, this should not be an issue at all – you can delegate the function to some colleague and nothing will go wrong.

Spend some time working

We had to come to this at last. It is a sweet utopia that when you go on a holiday you can completely switch off and forget about work. This thing never works so you better set a fixed time during the day to get some working done.

It is equally important to practice what you preach, as the saying goes. You need to stick to the plan you have devised on working in definite times during your holiday. It will require some discipline to concentrate on your work in your most productive hours, but then knock the thoughts about business off your head for the rest of the day.

Conclusion

The key thing is not to ruin your vacation by being unable to keep away from work for long. Remember that you are on a holiday to recharge the batteries and fresh your head up, so that when you switch back to full power, you will look at your business from a new perspective, and approach your tasks with a clear head.

With a bit of early preparation, your business will not suffer any damage in your absence, and you should be able to fully enjoy your holiday.

Vladi Nikolov is a copywriter at Liquid 11 – the telecommunications company responsible for the development of the call management system SwitchboardFREE and the telephone answering service Pocket Receptionist. Vladi graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2016, with a degree in Media and Politics.

 

 

 

 

 

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Eastern Inspiration

One thing I love about blogging, is getting to know so many other random and fascinating businesses. I get several pitches for guest blogs and features each week and I shared an article recently on successfully pitching to guest blog. This, however, is the first one I’ve had from Eastern Europe!

It caught my eye. It’s a press release, rather than a blog article, but I was intrigued and investigated further.

I love Eastern Europe. The food, the beer, the wine the amazingly warm hospitality, sultry summers, endless forests, cloud-kissing mountains and snuggle-up-by-the-fire snowbound winters…

…but I also love supporting small businesses. Projects like this one really do change the world!

 

Eastern European Enterprise in Action!

Olena Vechkanova is the founder of the first ethical marketplace in Eastern Europe, Three-Snails.com.

Three Snails offers handicrafts made from natural materials and allows conscious shoppers to buy trendy items created by local artisans, while making a positive impact.

Their social mission is to empower local artists and to promote Ukrainian culture through authentic, handmade, quality products.

They have recently launched a Kickstarter project.

Having completed two successful crowdfunds myself, I’m also a keen supporter of this method of fundraising for business, through social proof and mutual support.

You can find their Kickstarter project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/threesnails/three-snails?ref=eyib6k

 

 

And here’s a little more from Olena about this inspiring project…

The first ethical marketplace from Eastern Europe launches to the global market

The first ethical marketplace from Eastern Europe Three Snails.com launches to the global market. Being started in Ukraine in 2015, Three Snails offers handicrafts made from natural materials and allows conscious shoppers to buy trendy items created by local artisans while making a positive impact.

Three Snails team believes that the success story of such marketplace and knowledge about local artisans can create the development direction for CIS countries and to enable large sections of society to escape from the difficult economic situation.

Taking Local Crafts, Global

The idea to create Three Snails came up as a response to the global demand for uniqueness and diversity, as well as a growing trend for ethical shopping. More and more people value emotions, energy, legend and symbols incorporated in goods. They want to know who made these products and how production affected the environment. Craftsmen and small responsible manufacturers can meet these demands.

“Artisans and their craft have the potential to become the ‘super story’ of Ukraine”, says founder, Olena Vechkanova, “Because we have everything that people value and want in today’s world: eco-friendly techniques, natural materials, craft traditions, legends, culture, and people who love what they do.”

Little Known Artisans of Ukraine

In the world people know a lot about artisans and culture of Asian, African and Latin America countries, but not much about Ukraine or other CIS countries. Meanwhile Ukraine is the 2nd largest country in Europe with very strong craft traditions that have existed for centuries. Here many people historically made a living from crafting goods, and passed their knowledge from generation to generation. Nowadays nearly 17% of the population practices traditional crafts as means to an income and each 4th woman masters at least one handicraft technique.

Alleviating Poverty Through Traditional Crafts

However, given the political and economic situation in the country, the average salaries have dropped dramatically (in rural areas it is as little as 50-150 $ per month) and it became quite hard to sell handmade on the local market. Many craftsmen faced the economic crisis, became disappointed and waived their art in favor of any lucrative career. Very often, in order to sustain their families, artisans forced to move to the bigger cities or abroad and look for a low qualified job. Their houses and even villages remain empty and the nation loses its craft traditions and culture.

Going Global to Stay Local

Three Snails aims to change the situation. Its mission isn’t merely to provide a platform, but to empower local artisans and promote Ukrainian culture. The team of Three Snails seeks to give artisans A CHANCE TO stay in Ukraine, to live in their families, to do what they love and to follow national identity.

An Alternative Marketplace

TS doesn’t work as a classical marketplace. The team works directly with rural communities and artisans in order to include also those, who don’t use the internet (currently only 53% of the population in small villages and mountain areas are connected to internet). People from such regions don’t have PayPal accounts, good photos or product description and very often they don’t believ that what they do might be in demand abroad. TS fills this gap providing all educational, marketing and service support necessary to succeed in today’s world.

Once limited to village markets or tourist shops, Ukrainian handmade now can easily be accessed by anyone, anywhere. TS not only connects artisans with consumers, but also bridges modern trends with old traditions and symbols, contemporary needs with historical eco-friendly craft making techniques.

In the era of globalization, the internet provides an opportunity to discover huge territories of CIS countries that, surprisingly, are still isolated from the global community. At this point handmade serves as the link between two worlds and reveals a huge reserve of senses, warmth and unique knowledge which are kept inside Eastern European Countries

 

Additional materials:

Visit https://three-snails.com/pages/about-us to get more information about Three Snails

Visit https://three-snails.com/pages/three-snails-for-press for Three Snails photos and video

Three Snails on Kickstarter  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/threesnails/three-snails?ref=eyib6k

 

 

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What’s All The Fuss About Audiobooks Anyway?

Audiobooks… business or Pleasure?

With my Amy C Fitzjohn author hat on, but also keeping in mind that small businesses can look at alternatives to get their message out there, here’s some top tips from a contributor about the power of audiobooks to share your story.

If you’ve published a book to build your credibility and expertise in your industry, have you considered turning it into an audiobook?

With services such as ACX on offer by Amazon, it’s now much more accessible for the entrepreneurial writer to maximise the reach of their books through audio.

Audio is a much-underestimated information resource. Sometimes we want to ‘audio-read’ a book on our daily commute, or while we’re doing other things, we don’t always want to be stuck at the screen watching a video or reading text. Audiobooks are a great way to be edu-tained on a long drive, plane or train journey, they allow you to listen and learn!

 

But what’s all the fuss about? Can it really make difference to your business or writing career?…

 

What’s All The Fuss About Audiobooks Anyway?

 

Lots of writers spend months with their eyes glued to their computer screen as they work on their novels. Formatting the work correctly is essential, even if you do have an editor. It saves time and money later on if your story reads well with little more to refine. But this all takes so much time! And the editing stage can be one of the most tedious for the poor author. So why on earth would a writer spend even more weeks organising their work into an audiobook?

 

Why would a writer organise their work into an audiobook?

Your revenue stream is the reason why. According to polls examined by the Goodereader website, books in an audio format continue to rise in popularity. Think about Podcasts. Many authors create podcast series as part of the blogging or education revenue stream. People want to listen without having to hold onto a book or focus on text. This freedom to devour fiction, opinion, and educational resources is valuable for busy people.

Image source

 

Audiobooks are bigger data files than a streaming podcast though. You usually have to download them to your device. For devices without expandable memory, this can be quite tedious. You’ll soon find you need to delete one book to make room for the next. As with Podcasts, you can listen on any device thanks to a wide range of app choices. Most purchased libraries can be stored in the cloud until you’re ready to use them. Libraries lend audiobooks of all your favourite authors and titles too!

 

Make the most of this growing audience

How can an author make the most of this new and growing audience? Start with your works that are already published. Amazon offers a service to help you neatly and (reasonably) quickly create audio books on their platform. Many self-publishing authors are already exploring this option. Don’t assume that reading it yourself is a great way to save money. Audio titles need to be immersive. They should be read by great voice-over artists and professionally produced. You might even add the odd atmosphere enhancing sound effect.

Image source

 

Many authors find they like to work with the same actor or reader time and again. It helps you feel like your voice is consistent through your titles. You can engage your choice of British male voice over artist or female artist on a project-by-project basis. Some of the pricing plans you’ll come across include a per word structure. Pick actors with experience of this type of work. Listen carefully to the voice quality as well as the cadence in their reading.

Publish as an audiobook

As with self-publishing your ebooks, you can manage all the marketing of audiobooks yourself. Amazon has the platform, and you just need to make sure the recordings are high quality. There are other platforms too. In fact, you can sell your audiobook wherever you like. Simply save it as the standard file format, and you’re away. The professional sound studio can do this for you as part of a package price.

 

Once your book is written, it makes sense to engage a voice over artist to help you record your book in audio format. After all, many finding the joy of audiobooks for the first time will often stick with that format alone. You might be losing valuable income without it!

 

 

Learn to love your words and get them out there…

October is Literary Festival season in Bristol UK.

Sell more books (whether it’s audio, paper or eBook), doing something you love…. Writing!

Join the exclusive, one-off ‘Blogging For Writers’ workshop as part of Bristol Festival Of Literature on 27th October.

The ticket price includes afternoon tea award-winning vegetarian and vegan restaurant, Flow at the Bearpit.

Get your ticket now from Bristol Ticket Shop while stocks last

 

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How Do You Find The Right Accountant?

Jordon, of Peach Wilkinson Accountants, has been following my blogs and got in touch about being a guest.

I’m always happy to support other small businesses, I believe in the power of small business to change the world for the better, but we all need a little help and support to do it!

Jordon offers some top tips and advice for entrepreneurs who are at the stage where managing their own accounts is no longer feasible. If you’re considering using an accountant to manage the finances of your business, check out his handy tips.

Over to Jordon…

 

Taking the Guesswork out of Hiring an Accountant for Your Business

As an entrepreneur, you need to address a number of challenging day-to-day concerns. Product development, sales, customer relations and communicating with employees are a handful of very real challenges. However, tackling financial considerations is often left in the hands of a qualified accountant. The main issue here is knowing which traits are the most desirable as well as recognising those to avoid. Let’s quickly examine both of these topics in a bit more detail. As any accountant represents a very real investment, making the correct decisions now will save you time and money in the future.

The Hallmark of a Trustworthy Accountant: Organisation and Clarity

Many industry experts agree that any worthwhile accountant should possess truly stellar organisational skills. After all, they are likely to be tackling multiple projects every day of the week. This level of clarity will allow them to access important data within an amenable time frame. However, we also need to recognise the fact that organisation is directly related to transparency. This is critical in order to avoid errors as well as to prepare for any audits that may take place in the future.

A Client-Centred Approach

Some business professionals make the mistake of believing that an accountant is only required to deal with numbers and maths. On the contrary, nothing could be further from the truth in this day and age. Any accountant needs to display excellent people-friendly skills. There are several advantages directly related to this approach. The most obvious is that any issues can be resolved before they become magnified into real-time operational problems. In the same respect, employees are much more likely to alert an amiable accountant to any financial oversights or mistakes. Also known as interdepartmental accountability, this is an enviable trait to possess within any office.

 

 

Creativity Versus Stifled Thinking

The accounting industry is an ever-evolving environment. Methods that may have worked perfectly yesterday could be outdated tomorrow. This is why an accountant needs to be flexible and creative. He or she should possess the ability to think outside of the proverbial box in order to tackle complex issues. We should always recognise that not every client issue can be resolved with a textbook solution. A malleable approach is therefore critical in order to ensure success within such a fast-paced world.

Collaboration Versus Independence

Another pervasive myth often associated with accountants is that they remain in a far-off room and crunch numbers the entire day. In fact, these professionals need to be able to collaborate with others when required. The ability to provide support and insight to different departments will ultimately lead to a greater sense of cohesion within the office and a higher return on investment (ROI).

These are some of the core factors to keep in mind when hiring an accountant for your business. Such traits can have a massive impact upon day-to-day operations and ultimately, the success of your organisation could very well be determined by the role that an accountant plays.

 

Author Bio

Peach Wilkinson are a chartered accountancy firm based in Sheffield, UK specialising in accountancy services for sole traders, companies and individuals.

 

 

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Feed Your Productivity and Creativity

The business community of Bristol really is a small place! It’s surprising how many connections pop up.

I met Laetitia Tempelman at a Business Blogging workshop I ran a couple of years back and we’ve stayed in touch since. Laetitia not only blogs great tips and advice for mums, but she also blogs for different websites on wellbeing.

 

She contacted me after writing an article on Claire Stone. Claire’s a nutritionist with a twist, and as I know her too, I was very happy to showcase Laetitia’s article and Claire’s business!

When you work for yourself, often you spend so much of your time thinking about how you can help others, you forget to look after yourself!

Many of us dread the day we have to ‘call in sick’ because when you work for yourself, that means not getting paid. But, as we all know, prevention is better than cure. In this great guest post, Claire offers some top tips to make you feel better, more productive and more creative.

 

Top Food Tips to Make You Feel Better, More Productive and More Creative

 

Claire Stone is not a food dictator. She just wants people to enjoy the food they love and get more from it. “In our society we seem to be losing the joy of eating food, I’m determined to help people develop a better relationship with food.”

Claire, winner of a NatWest Entrepreneurial Spark award, is a successful Bristol-based nutritionist.  Here are her top easy tips to make you eat better and feel better, which in turn will make you feel more productive, more creative and more engaged.

 

Have fat and protein for breakfast

“Start the day with a good breakfast and the rest of the day tends to go smoothly. Have something based around eggs , not just a bowl of cereal. It keeps you going until lunchtime because your blood sugar levels are balanced, due to the fat and protein and relatively low sugar contents.  No time in the morning? Then swap the semi-skimmed milk you put on your cereal to full-fat milk and throw in a handful of seeds for a quick breakfast which will keep your blood sugar levels more stable.”

 

 

Drink water at the right times of the day

“Many of us are aware that we should drink more water. But how much is enough? I believe that when you drink water is more important than exactly how much. Have a drink of water when you first wake up because you have spent many hours not taking on any liquid. Avoid having liquids with a meal, particularly if you suffer from IBS, as they can dilute your digestive juices, which can make your body less efficient at processing the food you’re eating. Having said that, if it’s a Friday night and you’re out for a meal, don’t feel guilty about having a glass of wine with it!”

It’s not what you eat but how you eat it

“You might be eating something really healthy like a salad, but if you’re eating it in a mad rush it’s not going to be quite the superfood meal that you had hoped for, because your body isn’t in a relaxed state and you’ll not be able to digest it properly.

Even if you don’t have time to sit down and eat, you can always try and think ‘I’m looking forward to this sandwich I’m going to have’. Then your body can start preparing itself to digest your food by producing acid and digestive enzymes to process the food. This way your body can extract something good from the food that you’re eating.”

 

Do not go on a diet in January

“Dieting tends to consist of eating lots of salads and low calorie food. But in our climate you need those calories in the winter to keep you warm, and your body will burn that fuel.  If you’re not keeping warm then your body is going to crave high-energy foods like sugar. “

Make your goals achievable

“I like to help people eat just a little bit better, so wherever you currently are on the ‘healthy eating’ scale, by making just one or two small changes we can all go up to the next level. That way it’s not scary or overwhelming. Have an achievable goal, such as ‘I’m going to drink a glass of water every morning when I wake up’, which is a good goal and can make a really big difference. Don’t beat yourself up when you don’t quite manage a change. There are so many other things going on in our lives that sometimes we just can’t manage it all and that is okay.”

 

Don’t stick to the rules all the time

“Many rules we make for ourselves are just unattainable, such as saying ‘I’m never going to eat sugar again’. I prefer to say ‘as a general rule’, so for example ‘as a general rule, I don’t eat sugar during the week’. It gives you a good guideline but it doesn’t make you feel bad if for whatever reason you need to make changes. So you can go and have that piece of birthday cake on a Wednesday and not feel bad because you’ve broken your rule.”

 

 

Cherish the chocolate

“I love chocolate. And as long as it’s good quality chocolate made out of real cocoa or cacao there’s actually some good stuff in there for you. Good quality chocolate is high in magnesium, an important mineral which our body needs for our muscles to relax, and we don’t relax enough in our busy lives. “

 

Ditch the guilt and enjoy that occasional piece of cake  

 

 

“I firmly believe we were given taste buds for a reason, to enjoy our food. In our society we’re losing the sense that food is a wonderful, joyous thing. It’s become something we punish ourselves with or we fight against and that’s really sad. When eating a piece of cake for example, many people don’t enjoy it as the feeling of guilt overrides the feeling of enjoyment. I say, if you’re going to have a cake, you might as well enjoy it.”

 

 

Not eating ‘clean’ doesn’t mean you’re eating ‘dirty’

“The concepts of clean eating are good, but what I struggle with is the label that’s been put on it. For many people the idea of clean eating is associated with the opposite; ‘does that mean if I don’t eat clean I eat dirty and badly’? This isn’t the case, it’s just the label that’s been put on it that’s making you think and feel that way.”

 

Claire Stone is Founder and Nutritionist at Claire Stone Nutrition.

 

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