Business Plus Baby

June 23, 2015

10 silly mistakes you’re making with your business cards

Business cards should be a simple concept. You pop your logo, name and contact details on and you’re done, right? Wrong. There are businesses out there making some silly mistakes when it comes to business cards and as a result not seeing the return they should when handing them out. Take a look at these mistakes below and check that you aren’t doing the same:

Outdated contact details

You have 200 business cards that need using, but they feature your old phone number. You think ‘it’s fine, I’ll just tell people it’s wrong when I hand it over and to email me instead’ but a business card featuring outdated information gives a poor impression of you and your brand. Recycle the cards you have (do not amend that telephone number with pen) and have more created with the right details. Continue reading “10 silly mistakes you’re making with your business cards”

June 20, 2015

Five Important Elements of Designing a Safe Nursery

Decorating a new nursery is exciting and fun. However, it also has to be a safe procedure. There are five important and practical things that you must always keep in mind in order to have a safe nursery.

The Sockets and Wiring

Most modern sockets today have an automatic shutter, which means that if a child sticks an object or their fingers into them, they will shut off automatically. However, you do need to know whether or not your sockets have that failsafe mechanism installed. Keep in mind that even safe sockets should be covered, though, as children may also stick actual plugs in there.

Do also think about your wiring. Make sure it is all in good order and not frayed or broken and keep loose wires to a minimum.

Finally, install a smoke alarm. Continue reading “Five Important Elements of Designing a Safe Nursery”

June 8, 2015

Why mumpreneurs are leaders

What springs to mind when you think of the word ‘leadership’? If its an image of a middle aged man in a suit running a huge corporation, then you’re only scratching the surface of leadership. In this post I’m going to explain how leadership goes way beyond executive leadership development. In fact leadership is something you will ‘do’ every day as a mum and probably as a mumpreneur, too.

First of all, the traditional picture of a leader sitting at the top of a hierarchy is no longer true. An effective leader is one who takes the opposite approach and looks at how she can best serve the people she leads, rather than how the people can serve her. Although this concept became more common from the 1970s onwards, the idea of a leadership being about service rather than being served goes way back to ancient times and philosophies.

Good leadership does involve making decisions and taking responsibility but it’s for the good of the people and the organisation, rather than for the status and personal gains of the leader. Good leaders are followed because people trust and respect them, rather than the skills they possess. Leadership is about behaviour first, skills second.

Many areas in your life and work will be a question of learning skills and applying them in a consistent way, but leadership is very different because it depends on your personal and emotional strengths, plus how you behave in any given situation. Often there are no right answers, and finding the best path depends on the experience and confidence of the leader.

If this is starting to sound familiar, then it’s because as a parent, you’re already a leader!

So what’s the difference between leadership and management?

According to BusinessBalls.com:

“This is a simple way to see how leadership is different to management:

Management is mostly about processes.
Leadership is mostly about behaviour.”

Management is about planning, organisation, measurable outcomes and communicating these to a team. Leadership includes these to some extent, but its focus is on the less tangible things like trust, inspiring others and decision-making.

If you’re a solo business owner you’re probably only managing yourself and your own workflow. But you’ll be a leader of your audience and your clients because they will want to trust you, to feel that you are able to make good decisions and to expect you to have integrity, commitment and courage.

And your children will look to you for these leadership qualities, too.

If that sounds a little daunting – and it shouldn’t because you’ve already had more practice than you realise! – how can you brush up your leadership skills? Well, that’s a big question for a short article, but here are some tips:

1. Be a good listener and communicator

Often the people around you will tell you what they want from you if you pay attention to them. That sounds easy, but when you’re busy it’s easy to not give people the attention they need to get the message across to you fully. Also pay attention to how you communicate back to them and how you might improve that.

2. It’s OK to make mistakes

If you’re not making any mistakes then you’re not trying enough new things! Just make sure you handle the mistake gracefully.

3. Have a great team around you

The best leaders aren’t intimidated being surrounded by smart, capable people. In fact, it pays to have some smarter than you! As we’ve seen above, leadership isn’t about technical or even management ability.

Which leadership skills do you already have?

June 2, 2015June 2, 2015

What makes a good online store?

These days you can buy just about anything in an online store from make-up to car parts (Yep, you guessed it , there really is an OnlineCarParts.co.uk !) But if you’re setting up your own online store, here are the most important features you’ll need to consider:

Traffic

Whether you’re selling make-up, car parts or anything else, if nobody knows it’s there then you won’t have any customers! Every online store owner needs a clear plan of how they will get visitors to the store not just occasionally, but consistently every day.

There are many ways of doing this including search engine optimization and social media as well as paid methods such as Google Adwords or Facebook Advertising.

Branding

Having a professional image is essential if people are to trust you with their credit cards, but that’s just one of the benefits of branding. These days you need to have a presence in multiple places online including Facebook and twitter. Having a consistent brand across all of these ‘properties’ allows your followers to recognise you and feel at home with you wherever they meet you.

If your look and style is professional and consistent, then that builds confidence and you’re much more likely to get sales.

Don’t just get customers, get fans

Which would you prefer? People who just buy your products or raving fans who love what you do and can’t wait to tell their friends about you? Fortunately, with tools like blogs and social media platforms you can build and army of fans. Use creative campaigns to tell the story behind your brand, what’s new and what’s in the pipeline. Don’t just tell them what you do, tell them (and show them) why you do it. Share insider secrets and what you’re planning next.

Email marketing

Once you have visitors and customers, encourage them to return by emailing them regular updates and offers. After all, it’s easier to sell to someone who already knows and likes your brand than someone who has never heard of it before.

Use your URL

Have a URL that’s memorable and easy to spell, then make sure it’s in all your printed material as well as being on your emails signatures, social media profiles and anywhere else people can find you online.

Test, test, test

Once you’ve got potential customers to your store, you need to make sure they are converting into sales. You need to be continually testing you prices, products, copy and everything else about your store to increase your conversion rate. In order to do this you’ll need to collect data, so make sure you set up Google Analytics as soon as you can.

It’s got to be mobile

A responsive website is no longer an option. That’s a website that looks good on any device, mobile, laptop or desktop. According to online store platofrm provider Shopify (in this Econsultancy post) , one third of sales came from mobile devices in 2014.

So there you have it – now it’s time to start your own online store!

May 11, 2015May 11, 2015

Six tips for planning an event

While it’s tempting to run an event online, nothing beats going out and meeting people face to face. Getting out of the office for a day can clear your mind, give you fresh ideas and enable you to network with others. And if you send your employees it’s a way that businesses can reward staff with employee rewards

That’s why live events will always be popular, however convenient and cost-effective the Internet may be! Here are some tips for planning your event.

Decide on the purpose of your event

Knowing the purpose of your event is essential for the rest of the planning process to fall into place. What do you plan to get from the event? And what’s in it for the people you want to attend?

Choose the right location

If your event is aimed at local people, then you may want to pick a location close to where they already live, work or gather together. If you have a national audience, then think about choosing a central location with good rail links and a range of accommodation choices nearby.

Choose the right venue

Choose the venue to suit the event. If you need a quiet, inspiring location with natural, healthy food then a plain, corporate-style venue isn’t going to be the right setting.

If keeping the ticket price down is a priority then you may want to pick a venue on a budget (although maybe you could cover some of the costs with sponsorship?). Be cautious about working on too tight a budget as the venue is an important part of the event and choosing the right venue could enable you to charge a higher ticket price.

Start promoting early

You can start promoting your course before you even have a venue booked! Use social media and your mailing list (if you don’t have a mailing list, start one now!) to create a buzz about the event long before the event happens. Once you do have a venue booked, sell tickets at a lower, early-bird price to keep building the buzz on the months running up to the event.

Choose the right speakers

Your speakers will both set the tone for the event and make your event attractive to those who want to attend, so give this some serious thought early in the planning process. Popular speakers are booked months ahead, which is another reason why you’ll want to hire an events speaker early on.

Have a plan B

Let’s face it, things can and do go wrong! Think through all the risks of running the event and have a plan B just in case the worst happens.