Category: Featured

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Online business basics: The different business models

(This is the second article in my Online business basics series. You can find links to the other posts in the series on this page: Online business basics)

One of the big pitfalls when you’re in the early stages of your online business is trying to reinvent the wheel.

I know this one well because I’ve done it myself!

Online business looks easy – you set up a website, get Facebook and Twitter account and start blogging. You get a few followers and everything looks great. Until one day you realise you’re not making any money!

It’s much easier to follow a tried-and-tested online business model than it is to make it all up as you go along. Here’s a quick guide to the different types of online business: Continue reading “Online business basics: The different business models”

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Mums making a difference: Erica and Kayte of We Are Bedford

Has your town lost some of its sparkle in the last few years?

The recession and the rise of online shopping has hit our towns and cities hard. With rents and bills going up and the disposable income of your average shopper going down, out towns are feeling the strain.

That’s certainly true for my home town, Bedford. I spent half of my childhood and most of my teenage years here, so I’ve got a soft spot for the old place. It may look like a fairly average town in south-east England, but there’s a lot of history here and it’s one of the most multicultural places in the UK.

It’s been a shock to see shops that I went in as a kid back in the eighties close down. It’s like watching an old friend fall on hard times.

Fortunately for Bedford, two local mums are determined to turn this town around.  Kayte Judge (here’s her guest post) and Erica Roffe (I still haven’t managed to catch up with her!) started We Are Bedford after a random meeting on Facebook. Their first event was the Castle Quay Weekender in March this year, where they held an arts festival in 7 empty shops. They followed this with the Big Lunch ( a giant picnic) and this weekend ( 23rd & 24th July) the first ever Bedford Busking Festival takes place.

The aim of the the Bedford Busking Festival is to launch Bedford as a busker friendly town, showcasing some of the  best local busking talent as part of the wider Bedfringe Festival. Over 2 days, in 8 locations across Bedford town centre, 22 different acts will be performing. As well as musical acts, performers will include the likes of lion dancers, walking tours and even vintage hair stylists!

We Are Bedford is now a community group of people (volunteers, crafters, poets, musicians, photographers and more) who want to breathe life back into the town. In their own words:

“We aim to become a community collective for people who want to make a change in the town and to open up space for dialogue between the community, commerce and the council.”

So if you’re in the area this weekend, take a look at the Bedford Busking Festival and keep watching because I’m sure there’s plenty more to come from We Are Bedford!

Twitter: @wearebedford Web: wearebedford.co.uk

Photo: Shaun Armstrong

 

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Why do I feel like I’m blogging by myself?

By Antonia Chitty and Erica Douglas of www.aceinspire.com

If you have started a business blog filled with great intentions, yet a few weeks or months down the line are depressed and uninspired about blogging, you’re not alone. Although blogging can seem simple, there are also common errors that, once you know about them, are easy to avoid. Read on too get some trouble shooting advice from Erica Douglas and Antonia Chitty of ACEInspire: Continue reading “Why do I feel like I’m blogging by myself?”

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I started a business with a baby: Kim McCann of Planet Tots

  • Tell us a little about your business

My mission with Planet Tots is to help parents build a bright future for their little ones. Whether it be supporting your child’s development or helping look after their environment Planet Tots is the one stop shop for products, services, information and advice.

  • What was your job before starting your business?

I’ve always known I’d start my own business I was just looking for the right idea so I deliberately chose jobs which would give me the right skill set for running my business. I started as a management consultant for 5 years. I then studied for my management accountancy qualification and moved into corporate finance. Continue reading “I started a business with a baby: Kim McCann of Planet Tots”

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Online business basics

Online businesses are very popular with mums. That’s because they are incredibly flexible, meaning you can work at any time of day or night from virtually any location. Plus they are far cheaper to set up than bricks-and-mortar businesses.

They are also very quick and easy to set up which, surprisingly, can be a problem.

Yes, you did read that right!

It’s so easy to set up a blog or a template website that often, mums don’t do thorough research beforehand. It’s like setting up a shop in the middle of a field without thinking about how anyone is going to find you or if they really want what you’re selling once they do!

There’s a lot to be said for the ‘ready, fire, aim’ approach. It gets you moving and you have to learn fast. Plus if you’ve got an impatient, entrepreneurial streak, it’s probably your natural way of getting things done.

But once you’ve got started, you then have to go back and build your foundations.

That’s why, today, I’m starting a series of posts called Online business basics. Each Wednesday for the next couple of months I’ll be posting an article to help you build your online business foundations. I plan to cover the basics of online business models, blogging for business, getting traffic and why you need a mailing list as well as anything else I think of. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to know.

I’ve learned a lot about internet marketing over the last couple of years and I see a lot of mums struggling with it. I hope I can share what learned in a way that cuts through the confusion and, if you’d like me to, I’ll turn this series into an e-book that you can keep.

Here are the articles in this series so far:

Pop back next Wednesday for the next post in the Online business basics series! Or to make sure you don’t miss out, why not join my mailing list?

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