Year: 2016

If you work in a team, communication is always going to be a challenge.  If you’re in charge you get to choose the team yourself.  Even better, if you’re working with freelancers you can change personnel if something isn’t working.  But issues in team communication can still pop up.

I always think building a team is like organising a night out.  I have friends that I love but would never introduce to each other.  They’re just too similar.  I’d spend the whole evening stressed trying to keep them apart or refereeing an argument and that’s no fun at all.

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Are you your business?  Perhaps you’re perfectly happy working on your own and see no reason to change.  Maybe you think you’re getting a bit too busy but still think it’ll be OK?

Or you’re not busy.  You might have been working in the same way for as long as you can remember and you’ve hit a plateau.

Could it be time to find a team?

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We’re always hearing that we need to look to the future.  No sense dwelling on the things that have gone before.

That might be true if living in the past is preventing you from moving on with your life.  But as philosopher George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Learning from your own history won’t just allow you to learn from your mistakes.  If you share your knowledge and experience with others it could help them too.

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This is my Grandpa, Jimmy.  Handsome chap, wasn’t he?  I don’t often do Throwback Thursday but it would have been his birthday today so I thought it was a good day to tell you about him.

He died in the 1980s when I was only a child but his influence is still with me.  He would be astonished by the way the world has changed in the intervening years.  Back then mobile phones were in their infancy and needed a battery the size of a suitcase.  The internet hadn’t been invented.

Today, I get annoyed if I can’t get phone signal.  I recently went on holiday where there was no internet connection.  At the time it didn’t particularly bother me but when I got home I barely made eye contact with the rest of the family while I caught up with Facebook.  I know – sad, isn’t it?

I wouldn’t have much of a business if I didn’t have the internet.  I find the vast majority of my clients online and pretty much all of my marketing happens on Facebook.  I sometimes think that the way I run my life is completely separate from the way my grandpa would have done things.  Then I realise that his influence is still with me.

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It’s that time of year when all of our lives suddenly get busier.  We need to start thinking about Christmas presents, festive food and whether our house is ready for guests.  That’s on top of getting work done and all the usual household tasks.

Your business might also be getting busier in the run up to Christmas.  I’ve recently spoken to a photographer who’s been booked solid for weeks as everyone realises they want family portraits for Christmas cards.

If you’re feeling frazzled already, don’t worry.  Here are my top 5 tools to help you get organised and into the New Year in one piece.

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I know, I know, I’m sorry OK?  I know it’s only November and some of you are probably wincing.  The thing is, in eight weeks it’ll all be over.  The presents will have been opened, you’ll be wondering what to do with all the turkey and someone will be asleep in front of the TV.  In my house that will probably be me.

Everyone has their own personality when it comes to planning.  I was always one of those people who refused to acknowledge anything festive before 1^st December.  I start a bit earlier now but I’m still shocked by the social media posts from people who’ve wrapped everything up by mid-October.  If that applies to you, please share, I’d love to know how anyone gets that organised!

If you’ve got your own business Christmas gives you a great opportunity to connect with your customers.  But if you want to make the right impression you need to act now.

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It goes without saying we’re all really busy. Whether we’re dealing with essential tasks or things we’ve chosen to take on, there’s always something to do. It often means that self-care gets pushed to the back of the queue. That’s if we think about it at all.

When we have a family, or our own business, or both, the idea of looking after ourselves suddenly becomes problematic. We might think of self-care as being selfish, or lazy. Business gurus tell us that we won’t build a six-figure business if we’re not working 15 hours a day. Or that there’s no such thing as a work/life balance.

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It can be hard enough answering customer’s questions when they’re standing in front of you, but what if they’re online? Words are misinterpreted and tempers flare much more easily. What you write as a humorous comment could be seen as offhand and rude.

Potential customers will always ask questions. They may be about your service, your product or when you can deliver. If you offer a service that needs a face to face meeting your customer must decide whether they want to spend any time with you.

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There are lots of things I love about my work, but ghost writing is enormous fun. Writing for individuals means that I sit at my desk trying to summon up their voice. Blogging for a business often means working with their brand identity to create the right tone.

The type of language I use depends on the audience we’re trying to reach. It’s not so different to having a conversation when you think about it. A chat with your friends is very different to a meeting with the bank manager.

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Do you need a better work life balance? It feels as if it should be easy but sometimes it isn’t. Even if you go out to work then come home to spend time with your family the edges can still become blurred.

When you have your own business keeping to office hours can be almost impossible. You spend your evenings finishing off the paperwork or doing background reading. Your best new ideas pop up at the weekend. It’s not confined to business owners either; even employed professionals take work home. It all eats into the time and energy you could be devoting to your family.

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