Month: October 2023

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Financial Planning is for Everyone

Guest blog from Natalie Norman at Blakebrooke Financial Advice about financial planning

When I tell people that I’m a financial adviser or a financial planner, I hear all the time, “I don’t need financial advice because I don’t have any spare money”. It is a common misconception that you need to have lots of money to need advice. I help my clients feel more confident about their finances, make informed decisions, and have a financial plan for their future that is appropriate for them.

Often, very small changes made early enough can make a huge impact on your financial future. One of the first things we do is assess the income coming in against the essential expenditure. Essential expenditure is everything that has to be paid every month. For example, mortgage/rent, utilities, phone/internet, etc. Then we look at the discretionary expenditure, which might be things like gym membership, children’s activities or eating out, etc. These expenditures are still important because they are things that will give you the lifestyle you want. It is always amazing, though, after we’ve done this exercise, how much surplus income there still is ‘on paper’. Most of my clients will say things like, “But there’s nothing left at the end of the month”. This is not unusual as most of us live to our means and spend what comes in each month. This simple exercise usually helps point out the amount of money that is ‘frittered’ away each month. This is not me pointing the finger, as we all do this, me included. What it does do, though is it allows us to see where we could be making better choices that could really change our futures.

Where does your money go?

A simple example could be as follows:

‘The average takeaway coffee costs around £3.40 per cup’ (at 23rd July 2023)

source: https://freshground.co.uk/learning-hub 

Let’s say you had 3 takeaway coffees a week (156 cups per year), that would cost around £10.20 per week, £44.20 per month and £530.40 per year.

The most popular takeaway coffee is a Latte, you could buy a pack of 8 Latte sachets from around £2.50 (source: Poundland). So, the equivalent would be that 20 packs of 8 sachets would be needed, costing a total of £50 per year. This could save you £480.40 per year.

If we then utilised the saved money and put it aside for our future. Saving £480.40 per year over a period of 15 years, assuming an interest rate of 5%, you could have a savings pot of £10,366.

That’s saving just over £10 per week!

This is obviously just a very simple example of an exchange that could be made without compromising your lifestyle but rather just making a simple swap that could free up some available cash to put away for your future.

Financial planning can help you save for the future

I am a huge advocate for saving in a pension plan as they are an extremely tax efficient savings vehicle. If we take the same example as above, but now take the £480.40 available capital and put it in a pension plan the additional tax relief could help this money grow even more.

For example:

£480.40 grossed up to include 20% tax relief equals £600.50.

£600.50 invested in a pension every year for 15 years, assuming a 5% interest, could give you a savings pot of £12,958. That’s an additional £2,592 without paying any more money in yourself.

This is a very basic example of what some simple financial planning could do to help you save for your future and create the lifestyle that you want.

For more information you can find me using the following links

https://www.instagram.com/natalie_blakebrooke/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalienorman79/

https://www.facebook.com/natalieanorman

https://www.blakebrooke.co.uk/

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How to give your customers peace of mind

Creating content to give my customers peace of mind.
Image by Julie Grant Photography

Having regular customers is a great feeling. They’ve experienced your customer service and come back for more. Some of them might even have recommended you to their friends. On the other hand, encouraging people to buy from you for the first time can be tricky because they don’t know what to expect. Here’s how your marketing can give your customers peace of mind before they buy.

Explain the process

Before your customers buy from you, they need to know what will happen next. If they buy a product, they want to know how long it’ll be before it’s delivered. If they book a call with you or come for an appointment, will they be able to go away and think before they decide, or will you expect a decision straight away? What should they wear to class, or is there anything they need to bring?

Clear information about what they’re getting into is reassuring and means they’re more likely to take that first step.

Show them behind the scenes

Showing your customers behind the scenes of your business helps them to feel like insiders. They can see new products being created or how you set your studio up for a photo shoot. It can help them feel more comfortable about working with you too. Showing a fitness class with bodies of all shapes and sizes lets people know they won’t be the only person with a wobbly belly.

Make it easy to get in touch

If you offer a bespoke service, you’ll often need a conversation with a prospective customer so you can tailor your service to their needs. Make the process clear and easy to follow wherever people find you. You could have a contact form on your website or want people to message you if they find you on social media. Make it obvious what you want them to do next.

Equally, if you’re offering a class or selling a product, make sure the link to book or buy is easy to find so they don’t have to search for it.

Use straightforward language

I feel as if “don’t use jargon if your clients don’t know it” could be my catchphrase, but it bears repeating. This is especially important if you work in a professional or technical field like finance or law. Your clients want to be reassured that you’ll help them rather than bamboozle them with jargon.

Don’t feel as if you need to use fancy words for things. Write as you’d normally speak, then edit.

Include FAQs

You can answer FAQs anywhere, from your website to social media to a sales page for a specific product or service. If you can use real customer questions, that’s great because other people will probably ask them too.

FAQs are great for SEO because they’re the questions potential customers will also type into Google.

Put yourself in your marketing

If you’re a one-person business, letting your customers get to know you helps them to trust you. Showing your face in your marketing helps people distinguish you from others who offer something similar. They see your face or hear your voice in a post and remember you because you don’t look or sound like everyone else.

If you want to write content that puts your customers’ fears to rest and lets them get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to buy. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here. Or, sign up below to get useful content writing tips straight to your inbox every month.

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Five reasons why your customers are scared to get in touch with you

Kirsty thinking about why your customers are scared to get in touch with you.

It’s nearly Hallowe’en, so my thoughts turn to the spooky side of life. The thing is, what if your business is the scary thing? You might know that you and your business are lovely and not terrifying, but your customers could still hesitate. Here are the top five reasons your customers are scared to contact you and what you can do about them.

They don’t know what to expect

Contacting a new business can be like the first day of school; exciting but also terrifying if you don’t know what to expect. That’s why schools send out loads of information to parents and have settling-in days for the kids.

Use your marketing to share what happens when people get in touch, book an appointment or come to a class. Tell them what they need to bring or what to wear. They’re more likely to get in touch when they can see the path ahead.

They think they won’t understand you

This probably applies to you if you work in law, accountancy or anything technical, particularly with lay clients. When I was a solicitor, legal speak created a shorthand to use with other lawyers, but I never used it with my clients. Your customers might be putting off something important because they think you speak gobbledegook.

If your customer doesn’t speak the same technical language as you, don’t use it in your marketing. Show them you’re a normal human being who’ll explain things in a straightforward way.

They’re worried about pressure sales

I hate pressure selling. When I got married, we immediately rejected the photographer who offered us a 50% discount, “but only if you sign now.” Does that ever work?

If you use sales calls in your business, there’s no single way to reassure people that you won’t do this. You can share case studies and testimonials and talk about your process on your website, blog, and emails. Knowing they’ll have time to think things over will reassure people and encourage them to book a call.

They’re scared of asking a stupid question

No one wants to look stupid or feel like they’re being a nuisance. Your future customers might have a question whose answer is the difference between them booking and walking away, but they’re afraid to ask it.

The best way to deal with this is to use FAQs. You can use these as a list or a single post on any marketing platform. Answer questions that people have asked you, but make some up, too. Talk to people in your networking groups to see what they’d ask. I love coming up with questions for clients. I’ve lost count of the number of blog topics that came out of me asking a client how something works.

They don’t know you

What’s the biggest first-day-of-school fear you can think of? Yep, will the other kids be nice? Will I make friends? When you put yourself in your marketing, you help your customers get to know, like and trust you so they aren’t scared to get in touch.

Your marketing can show people who you are before they ever meet you (if they’ll ever meet you). When you write your marketing, be yourself, and you’ll ease your customers’ minds.

If you want to write content that puts your customers’ fears to rest and lets them get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to buy. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here. Alternatively, sign up using the form below for helpful hints and tips straight to your inbox every month.