Tips and Tools – Page 158 – Business Plus Baby

September 12, 2011September 12, 2011

Simplicity and starting from where you are now

I’ll admit it, I’ve been suffering from blogger’s block lately.

When I first started Business Plus Baby there were hardly any books or resources for mums wanting to start businesses. In fact that was the reason WHY I started BPB.

Now, just over two years on, there are tons of resources for parents in business including books, networking groups and conferences. I’m still passionate about helping parents grow businesses so they can have the freedom to both work and spend time with their families, but did I still have anything useful to say? It seemed that every week I found another blog for mumpreneurs. Are we all just pumping out the same old information? Where should I go from here? Continue reading “Simplicity and starting from where you are now”

September 9, 2011September 7, 2011

How to find a coach

In today’s post I’m answering a question from Janet Hipkiss of Corporate Angels . Janet has been thinking of working with a coach and asks:

“How do I choose? Why would I need one? It’s a minefield out there!”

First of all, why would you want to work with a coach? Being a business owner can be lonely. A coach could help you if you’re looking for a sounding board, some direction, someone to help you clarify, define and reach your goals or to get over any mental or emotional blocks that stand in your way.

If you’re looking for advice and information, then you’re probably better suited to a business consultant, adviser or mentor than to a coach. Although there is usually some overlap between these different roles.

And why does it feel like a minefield? There are just so many coaches out there, all offering something slightly different and using a variety of descriptions like ‘money coach’, ‘success coach’, ‘marketing coach’, ‘life coach’, ‘personal coach’. The coaching profession isn’t regulated in the UK, so anyone can call themselves a coach. Coach accreditation and training is very much available, but not everyone calling themselves a coach will be trained or accredited, plus the length and depth of the training varies a lot.

The word ‘coaching’ is now used to cover a huge range of support that includes the description I gave at the start of this post but is also used to cover things like 1-to-1 tuition, mentoring and training.

To make it more confusing, what you think you want from coaching isn’t always what you really want! Continue reading “How to find a coach”

September 6, 2011September 7, 2011

Business blogging for beginners: My new book

Just starting a business blog? Or maybe just thinking of starting one? I have a book for you!

My new book, Business Blogging for Beginners, is in the Kindle store now for just £2.29

(If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the Kindle reader for free here: Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac.)

You can read what’s in it here: Business Blogging for Beginners.

When I started out blogging over two years ago now, I learned how to blog by reading other blogs. It was a good place to start, but I wasted a lot of time too. That was because:

Much of the advice on blogging is written by people blogging for fun, not to promote a product or service. Subtle but important difference.
Plenty of the advice was contradictory, confusing or missed out things that were really important.
People don’t put their best stuff on their blogs, they save it for the products they charge for. And those products can be expensive.

As well as wasting time on activities that weren’t very effective, I failed to do things that I should have been doing. Things like:

Using keywords in my posts – people were looking for the information on my blog, except they were never going to find it because I wasn’t giving Google the right keywords to signpost them my way. As soon as I started to use keywords in my posts, I got more traffic with virtually no extra effort.
Building a mailing list – not staying in touch with people who love your blog is a huge wasted opportunity. It takes time to build a list so you need to start as soon as you can. Done the right way, it doesn’t have to be much extra work, either.
Adding photos to my posts – for the first six months my blog looked awful because I hadn’t got around to adding any photos!

Are you falling into the same traps as I did? 🙂

So if you want a straightforward introduction to promoting your business using a blog at a price anyone can afford, grab yourself a copy of Business Blogging for Beginners.

It even comes with a free e-book – Social Media in 15 Minutes a Day!

August 30, 2011August 30, 2011

Why you should create your own Dream Circle

This is a guest post by Pamela Evbota, owner of Ladies Networking and author of Define Success on your Terms, 25 Simple Tips.

We are born into families we have no say about and we live with them. Even though some times they aren’t the best of people to hang out with but, on the long run we love them because we are bond by blood and love. Our friends on the other hand we get to pick them and we don’t always make the best of good character judgement because a person’s true character can’t be judged by merely looking at them. We are always hoping for the best in the friends we make and often times we have regretted associating ourselves with certain people as their personality or lack of integrity affects us whether we agree or not. It is important we chose our friends wisely as we will be affected by what they do. Continue reading “Why you should create your own Dream Circle”