Tag: writing

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How I knew it was time to leave

time to leaveI’ve been along to a few different networking groups since I started my business. You meet an incredible range of different people with all kinds of businesses. These days I find myself speaking to a lot of people who have a job and a side hustle. Some of them want to turn the side job into the main business and others just want a bit of extra money every month. It all means that I’m hearing more and more conversations about the right time to leave a job.

It’s a tough one. Even when you’re unhappy in your work a regular, predictable income is hard to leave behind. How do you decide where the tipping point is? I made the leap so want to tell you about the things that helped me make the decision. If you’re teetering on the brink of a new business adventure I hope they help you too.

The good (but not great) job

I used to be a solicitor. After university it took me a while to get a training post, via a couple of legal secretarial jobs which introduced me to the right people. I qualified as a personal injury solicitor and got a job with a national firm. My team represented the companies that had been sued.

I really enjoyed it to begin with. When you deal with personal injury claims you hear an interesting story every time a new file comes in. I got to know lots of different people and learn about what made them tick. It’s hard for me to pinpoint when the dissatisfaction started to set in. All I know is that by the time I went on maternity leave with my first child, I’d started to wonder whether I really wanted to do this work for the rest of my life. I had ambitions to be a novelist but saw that as a long term prospect at best.

Crisis point

When I returned from my second maternity leave a lot had changed. There had been reforms in the industry which had started to affect the day to day work. I had a meeting with two of the partners who told me that I needed to think about applying for promotion as I was too senior to carry on case handling as I had been. It would have meant managing financial targets and other members of the team. I’d half expected it but somehow it was still a shock.

I went home and sobbed. There was no way I wanted to be a manager. I’d mentored people before and hated it. It was time for me to find something else.

Time to leave

On reflection, the decision to leave was pretty easy. It was a choice between leaving or going through a rigorous application process for a promotion I didn’t want. My husband and I sat down and worked out that we could survive on his salary while I built a business. Even if I’d decided to build the business on the side I would still have looked at the budget. We worked out how much we needed to cover the essentials first, then the things that weren’t essentials but which we weren’t prepared to live without. It helped me to work out what my priorities were.

I suppose that’s the one golden nugget I want you to take from this story. If you’re making the leap, be realistic. How much do you actually need to live on and are you making it yet? Are you at a point where you can’t build your business any more without cutting your hours or leaving your job altogether?

Whatever decision you make, good luck! Let me know how it goes.

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How long does your blog need to be?

how long blog postHave you ever asked yourself that question? I hear it a lot and it’s often from people who are hesitant about blogging. I suspect that there are even more people who don’t ask how long their blog needs to be. They assume that they need to write ‘War and Peace’ for every blog post.

The truth is that the answer is ‘it depends’. Sorry if that makes me sound like a lawyer, old habits die hard. There are all sorts of things you need to take into account when you’re writing your blog and before you start each post. There are plenty of experts who’ll tell you that anything under 1,500 or 2,000 words isn’t worth doing as it doesn’t offer enough value. Personally, I disagree. Some posts do need to be that long, or even longer. It doesn’t mean they all do. Here are just a few of the things I think you need to think about when you’re deciding on a word count for your blog.

What’s achievable for you?

Starting a blog is a steep learning curve. When your blog isn’t the main focus of your business you need to fit it in around all your other priorities. There’s no point spending hours slaving over a blog if it means you’re turning away paying customers. It’s also going to get exhausting very quickly.

Writing a regular blog can boost your search engine rankings as Google will index your website much more frequently. The key word is regular – there’s no point writing one or two then letting it fizzle out because you don’t have time. Google likes anything over 350 words (although there are rumours that might change). It’s far better to write a short blog once a month and keep it going.

What’s the subject?

The length of your blog will often depend on the topic you’re covering. I always suggest breaking topics down so you can focus on one thing at a time. Focus on a narrower subject means that you don’t need to write a lot to do the topic justice. It also helps you to stay on track without getting overwhelmed.

Some subjects will still need a longer blog to make sure you cover everything. This is particularly true if you’re offering an in depth guide or describing a process step by step. Often it won’t feel as long because your readers are dipping in and out for reference or following the instructions.

Would a blog series be better?

If you’re covering a big topic in depth, think about breaking it down into a series. I wrote a series of blogs about blogging which covered everything from coming up with topics to the final edit. I could have written one big post but breaking it down made it feel more readable. It also meant that readers who were only interested in one part of the process didn’t have to wade through the rest.

Doing it that way meant that I was able to invite people to subscribe to my mailing list to get the full series. I might eventually turn it into an eBook as well. There’s nothing to stop you doing the same.

What will your audience read?

Of course, the key consideration has to be your audience and what they have time to read? Their needs can vary. They might want shorter blogs most of the time but something longer when they want to learn a new skill or research a topic in depth.

My blogs generally end up at around 500-600 words. That doesn’t just help me to cover the topic properly. I’ve had more than one reader tell me that they read my blogs when they’re drinking their tea. A 600 word blog is just the right length for that so it helps me attract readers. When it comes down to it, that’s the whole point of writing a blog.

Do you need some help and inspiration for your blogs and social media posts? When you sign up to my mailing list you’ll receive a free copy of my eBook ‘Stop hiding your business! 5 ways to be seen online’. You can unsubscribe whenever you like and I won’t share your information with anyone else.

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Are you making one of these blogging mistakes?

blogging mistakesBlogging is wonderful as a business marketing tool and a creative outlet. If you’re writing a blog to promote your business it’s important to know what’s going to appeal to your audience so you can tailor the content to them. You can also air your personal views via blogging. There’s loads of scope to talk about whatever you choose.

What you write about (and how you write it) is completely up to you. There are still a few cardinal blogging errors that you’d be better off avoiding unless you want to attract a whole heap of trouble.

Ranting

Its fine to tell a story about something that went wrong in your business. This is especially true if you learned something from it or handled it well. It could be a story that helps your customers understand why you do things in a certain way, or if they can learn from it too.

By contrast, a full on rant is never going to go down well. All it does is show your potential customers that you’re petty, possibly vindictive and prepared to blame anyone but yourself. Your audience don’t have enough information to know whether you’re in the right and could start wondering if they’re going to be your next target. Don’t write until you’ve calmed down and got some perspective on the situation. You never know what you might learn.

Blogging swearing (possibly)

I almost didn’t put this one in. Some people love edgy content and don’t object to a bit (or a lot) of swearing. Unless you want to be deliberately confrontational from the outset, approach with caution. I write blogs for a lady whose speech is peppered with the F word but I’m still not going to put it in her blogs. There are other ways to express your personality. You can be full on and confrontational without pulling people up short with an expletive.

If you want to go for it, it’s up to you but I reckon you need to be very sure of getting a positive reaction before you try it.

Plagiarism

In other words, don’t steal other people’s work. You might be lucky and avoid getting sued for pinching someone else’s copyrighted work, but do you really want to take the risk? If the original creator has a decent online network you could find your social media posts being bombarded with comments where they share the original work for comparison. You’ll get great reach but all it will do is make you look silly.

Read other people’s blogs for inspiration if you must, but don’t copy and paste them outright. If you want to share, give credit where it’s due. Blogging is hard work as it is without someone else pinching your work.

Boring blocks

Paragraphs are a wonderful thing. Subheadings are even better. It’s a sad fact that a lot of people won’t read every word of your blog. They’ll just skim it to find what they need. If they click on the link to be confronted by one big blob of text they won’t hang around for long. Even people who want to read every word will find it daunting and give up.

Subheadings and proper paragraphs make everything easier to read and your

Too much jargon

If you know you’re writing for an audience of industry professionals who use all the same acronyms as you, carry on and use them. If you’re a specialist writing for the general public, keep the jargon out of it. It doesn’t make you look clever. All your potential customers will see is someone who wants to look clever whilst blinding them with science.

A blog is meant to make you more approachable. Share your expertise in language that your customers will understand. You still get to look like an expert and your customers will know that you’re not going to pull the wool over their eyes.

Do you want some help avoiding these cardinal blogging sins and getting some personality into your marketing? Sign up to my mailing list and receive your free copy of ‘Stop hiding your business! 5 ways to be seen online’. You can unsubscribe whenever you like and I won’t share your details with anyone else.

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Why storytelling works in your marketing

why storytelling worksIt’s easy to think of storytelling as being something you do with your children. You can cuddle up at the end of the day and send them off to sleep with a lovely bedtime story. Mine are still young enough to watch CBeebies so we sometimes get the added bonus of a tale read by Tom Hardy. (I even know people without kids who tune in to watch him anyway!) If that’s how you think of storytelling you might be forgiven for having dismissed it as an effective marketing tool. Actually, it’s one of the most effective approaches you can take.

What are stories for?

Storytelling has been around for as long as there have been human beings. Even the earliest cave dwellers painted the walls with images of themselves and the animals they hunted. There’s a basic human need to share information. Storytelling doesn’t have to be about anything particularly exciting. You tell a story when you talk about your day or what you did at the weekend.

The reason we feel the need to share is because stories bring us together. When you meet someone new the conversation you share tells you something about them. It helps you to decide whether they’re your kind of person or not. In your personal life stories help you to forge new relationships. When you use storytelling in your marketing you can bring your customers into your world.

Know, like and trust

You’ve probably heard of the ‘know, like and trust’ factor before. Just in case you haven’t, it’s the idea that your marketing lets your customer get to know you, work out whether they like you and eventually come to trust you. It’s also known as relationship marketing. Brands of all sizes can market themselves in this way but it’s particularly important for small businesses. People find it easier to trust the big brands. They seem solid and reliable in contrast to small businesses that might be run by scammers or have shockingly poor customer service.

When you use storytelling in your marketing you can introduce the person behind the brand. You can share images to show that you’re a real person. Your content, your blog in particular, can share information that helps your customers to understand your values and how you run your business.

How to think about storytelling in marketing

Now, you might be reading this thinking ‘that’s all very well, but what stories do I tell?’ – I’m glad you asked. They won’t be the same ones you share at the school gate or when an elderly relative tells you about their ingrowing toenail. As always, it’s important to remember the first principles of marketing. Namely, your customer cares about themselves more than they care about you. When you tell a story about yourself it really needs to be a story about them. For example, when I tell you that I have to get this blog post finished because it’s nearly time to pick the kids up, I hope you’re nodding. You sympathise with my need to juggle my business and family because you probably do it too. If you share something that you have in common with your customers you help a bond begin to develop.

There are lots of different ways to do this. You can talk about how your business has developed if your customers are going through something similar. If you want to market to parents talk about your own family or why you do what you do. Your story could be a whole blog post, a picture or a couple of sentences. The opportunities are endless.

Telling your story is one of the ways you can inject some personality into your marketing. That’s one of the topics I talk about in my new eBook ‘Stop hiding your business! 5 ways to be seen online’. Sign up to my mailing list using the form below and you’ll receive your copy straight to your inbox. I won’t share your data with anyone else and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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Why my workshops don’t critique your writing

workshops critique writingAre you a business owner or a writer?  It’s completely possible to be both, especially if you have a writing or marketing based business.  However for most people it’s one or the other.  If you went into business to make a product or offer a service that’s nothing to do with writing, the idea of a workshop that focuses on writing blogs could seem like a complete nightmare.  A room full of people picking your writing to bits? No thanks!  Of course, there are services and workshops that are designed to provide critiques.  They’re mostly for writers.  Here’s why my workshops don’t.

My workshops aren’t for writers

There are lots of workshops out there that are designed for writers.  They’re for people who want to write for a living or get published. Go along to one of those and there’s a general assumption that you’re already quite good at writing but you want to get better.

Mine aren’t like that.  I work with business owners who may never have written a blog or a piece of marketing content in their lives. My workshops are designed to get you writing something so you can improve it over time.  Progress over perfection.

Your writing is your own

Well *duh* (slaps own forehead for such stupidity).  Of course.  Everyone’s writing is their own.  Professional writers use lots of different copywriting techniques, but you’re probably not interested in them.  If you were, you’d be writing for a living already.  When you create your own blog it’s your voice and your audience that matters.  If you work with a professional writer we’ll get to know you and your business first then apply our own techniques to producing content for you.

The beauty of writing your own blog is that it lets your customers hear your voice.  It might need some tweaks to make it more effective but a group workshop probably isn’t the place for that.  Even if all the other people in the room are in the same industry as you, they won’t have exactly the same message or audience.  What you need to communicate is unique to you.

The follow up

My workshops are designed to let you create a plan for your first blog.  You leave with a framework then write your blog later.  That’s the time for feedback.  Everyone who comes to my workshops can send me their finished blog and I’ll provide some feedback then.

The main reason I do this is because everyone who comes to my workshops arrives with a blank page.  Workshops that are designed to critique writing will usually ask you to come along with something you’ve already written.  Either that or it’s a weekend retreat where you can create something new and get feedback on the following day.  I’m only asking for half a day out of your life so I’ll email you some notes afterwards instead.

Would you like to come to a workshop that gets you writing a business blog without picking your work to bits?  You can find out more about my upcoming workshops by completing the form below to sign up to my mailing list.