Write Away

Welcome back to Write Away, the blog for small business owners, freelancers and anybody who is thinking of starting a business and jumping into self-employment. Today we’re going to look at marketing – a key area to enable the small business owner to get their name out there, attract new customers, and begin to build the brand, whether that be the brand of “you”, if you are a freelancer, or your business’ brand. Marketing can be quite daunting for a new small business, but there are a huge number of resources available across the web to help you establish, and carry out, your own marketing strategy, regardless of your budget (If any!). Here are a selection of the better tips I’ve come across, to help you get started: Create, and refine, your elevator pitch An elevator pitch is the term used when considering what you would say, to a complete stranger, in a lift, when they ask “So what is it you do?” – it should be succinct, last maybe eight seconds, with the objecti...

Welcome back to Write Away, the blog for small business owners, freelancers and anybody who is thinking of starting a business and jumping into self-employment. Today I’m giving you a heads up on a free e:mail course, created by Enterprise Nation, a fantastic small business support organisation, whom I’ve blogged about before. The idea is that, over the course of seven days, you get daily inspiration and direction to assist and support you on your journey into starting up a business. Day 1 covers your idea and the all-important business plan Day 2 will delve into the administration associated with setting up a company Day 3 will tackle how to raise money and managing the money you may have available Day 4 focuses on building a web presence for your new business Day 5 looks at marketing your business and generating sales Day 6 discusses how to become an expert in your field and pitching to the press Day 7 looks at how to scale up your business ...

Hello, and welcome back to Write Away, the blog for small business owners, freelancers and anybody who is thinking of jumping into self-employment. Firstly, to regular readers, apologies it’s been a while – after some time away recovering from an op. we’re back with, what you will hopefully find to be, some valuable tips and resources for anyone in the small business arena. Today we look at something that anyone who has ever started a business (or eve thought about it) will have come face to face with – obstacles and setbacks. In a recent article for the “This is Money” website, Richard Reed, one of the founders of successful start-up Innocent Drinks commented, on starting a business: “There are a 1,000 riddles you are trying to work through” These can range from fundamental, game-changing problems such as raising money to get your business off the ground, to smaller, seemingly less important issues such as trading structure or name etc. But, you can be sure ther...

Hi there, and welcome back to Write Away, the blog for freelancers, small businesses, start-ups and anyone interested in working for themselves.   This time I wanted to draw your attention to a great business publication that I have come across recently called “BQ” which stands for Business Quarter. The magazine is full of inspiring stories from entrepreneurs who are running successful and growing businesses, and share their experiences, highs and lows, and tips for how they got to where they are today.   The latest edition (pictured above) contains fascinating articles about microbrewery business Brewdog and a great interview with a former contestant on BBC televisions “The Apprentice”.   The magazine has an excellent sister website, the link is shown below, which has some regional content to it as well, and you can sign up to free e:mail newsletters if you so desire. The website also features a host of content that is very sector specific, so if yo...

Hi there, it’s great to be back after some time away, thanks for finding your way to Write Away – the blog for small businesses, freelancers, and anyone with a healthy desire to cut loose from paid employment and work for themselves.   In this post we deal with engaging and using an accountant for your small business. A lot of small business owners start their business armed with a specific set of skills, knowledge or experience. One of self-employments biggest challenges is how to plug a gap in that knowledge in areas you may have never needed to understand or be involved in. For a large proportion of small business owners and freelancers, the financial management of the business, specifically matters relating to tax and accounting would probably be the area most likely to induce a cold sweat! Unless you are an accountant by trade, why would you need this knowledge anyway! So now you’re up and running, you need an accountant, right? Well, yes is the short ans...

Welcome back to Write Away, the blog for small businesses, freelancers and anyone interested in working for themselves. In this post we’re looking at an interesting new initiative, which has come about via the enterprise campaign, StartUp Britain, called PitchUp! PitchUp! Is a competition that gives small businesses a unique opportunity to pitch their products to the high street retailer John Lewis. The competition ran last year as well, and saw 400 small businesses compete to win one of 12 places given the opportunity to pitch directly to the retailers top buyers, and ultimately try and get their products onto the shelves of one of the country’s top retailers. An added bonus is that it is John Lewis’ 150 th birthday next year and winning a competition like this would add an enormous amount of prestige in such an important year. If you have a product that is just waiting to be discovered, a design classic or innovative masterpiece, then this is the competition for you....

Welcome back to Write Away, the blog for small businesses, freelancers, start-ups and budding entrepreneurs. Our latest post is about a new revolution for start-up businesses that already have an online presence, but would also like to try out a bricks and mortar, high street presence, without having to commit to long leases and thousands of pounds in rent and refitting. The concept has enabled a number of businesses, in Richmond in Surrey, where the flagship store opened, to co-work with other small retailers for two weeks at a time. Further stores are planned in Victoria and Shropshire, and the beauty of the concept is that it enables unused retail premises to be bought back to life showcasing new British brands. Popup Britain is backed by Start Up Britain, a national campaign started by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, to inspire enterprise throughout the UK. The campaign is also looking to go nationwide in a bid to present small businesses across the country wit...

Hello again, welcome back to Write Away, the blog for small businesses, freelancers or anyone interested in working for themselves. Mentoring has long being heralded as a great way for small businesses to tap into the vast knowledge and experience of successful business people or entrepreneurs, without having to pay for the privilege. I’ve read many comments, from small business owners, on the value a mentor has added to their business, as well as the personal benefit they have drawn from the experience. If mentoring is something you’ve considered for your business, fear not, here is your chance to have Deborah Meaden, star of the BBC show “Dragons Den”, as your business mentor for 12 months. A competition, run by an initiative called Local Business Accelerators (LBA), is giving UK businesses who are between one and five years old, the chance to win this prize, plus £10,000 cash and an IPad. The link to where you can enter is at the end of this post, and this gives ...

Hello again, welcome back to Write Away, the blog for small business owners, freelancers and those looking to start their own business. Today I want to talk about ideas and inspiration for starting a business, and where you might find it. Whilst many people who want to work for themselves, have a business idea that is an extension of their hobby or very specific to their employment, a large number of would-be entrepreneurs love the idea of working for themselves but are not sure what they would do if they took the plunge. As a writer, I carry a notebook with me everywhere, as I never know when inspiration might strike. If you’re looking for a business idea, this could be a useful tool for you too – when you visit other businesses, keep asking yourself if some aspect of the service or product could be improved and make a note of your thoughts. Additionally, when you are looking for a specific product, and can’t find it, think about if there is a gap in the market, many a...

Hello again. Today's post is about the co-author of a well known business start up guide called “The Beermat Entrepreneur”. Mike Southon is both an entrepreneur and business mentor and also writes regularly for the Mail on Sunday  and the Financial Times about small businesses and entrepreneurship. The Beermat Entrepreneur is a business self-help book aimed at people who have an idea for a business and need to know how to take it to the next stage and turn the idea into a viable business. Whilst the book is a recommended read for aspiring entrepreneurs, this post seeks to guide you to some useful resources on Mike Southon’s own website. If you so desire (and can afford to!) you can book Mike for a personal appearance from here, but there are a number of other free resources that may be of more interest. There are a number of free guides to download, some linked to the “Beermat” series but others, such as the useful “Sales pipeline simple spreadsheet”, that ...

Hi again, and welcome back to Write Away, the blog for freelancers, small businesses, start-ups, and anybody interested in working for themselves. This post, I’m going to pick up on a theme I’ve written about before, how to sell yourself effectively. Being able to describe what you do, or the service you offer, concisely, and in an interesting and memorable way, is a skill that anybody working for themselves should perfect. A well-known method for doing this is to produce what is known as an “Elevator Pitch”. The website Elevator--Pitch.com describes this as: “A short and to the point snippet of a service or product your company provides”. The idea of an elevator pitch comes from the premise of what you would say to a stranger, who got into the lift with you, that would leave a positive, lasting impression of you, in the time it takes to get to their floor. In those few short seconds, you need to convey a professional manner and attract the other persons interest enough to remembe...

Hi there, and welcome back to Write Away, the blog for small businesses, the self employed and those thinking of working themselves. Our latest post concerns another online resource that could prove to be a valuable resource for any small business owner or budding entrepreneur. The website is called “My Business”, as usual, the link is included below this post. The website is divided into eight useful sections: Finance & Money, People, Technology, Sales & Marketing, Operations, Import & Export, Future and Cash flow, each one having a number of sub sections that contain valuable insights and advice on that aspect of running a business. The Finance & Money section has some great advice on late payments and how to try and avoid this and further advice on taking small claims through the courts if you need to. The latest Sales & Marketing article contains advice on pitching for new business and the “Top 10 Features” listing deals with questions surrounding IR35 and con...

Hello again. It’s well publicised that in interviews, we form an opinion of someone within seconds, and that opinion counts towards our overall impression of that person in front of us. In business it is really no different. When you are trying to promote yourself to potential customers or clients, making a strong first impression is very important, whether it be through your business card, giving someone your well practised “elevator pitch” or merely introducing yourself, you have to convey a professional image and convince that person that they need to do business with you. In a past job, I attended a lot of networking sessions and came across a speaker at a couple of those events who really focused on first impressions and emphasised their importance. His name was Nigel Risner, he does a lot of talks about networking and how we can improve our communication and his passion is infectious. Nigel wrote a book sometime ago, called “You Had Me at Hello” (the titles refers to a line fr...

Welcome back. For the first time on this blog I’m going to include a book recommendation, just because I think it is an excellent book and could be a worthwhile investment if you’re seriously considering setting up your own business. It’s called “Make It Happen – The Prince’s Trust Guide To Starting Your Own Business” (ISBN 9780857080455) – I was asked to review this book for the Chartered Management Institute and I’m very glad I did. The book is divided into ten sections which range from marketing and sales, managing your money and writing a business plan to advice on growth and getting yourself a mentor. The format and layout of the book make it very easy to read and there are numerous nuggets of advice from both well known entrepreneurs (such as James Caan of Dragons Den fame and Tony Elliot who started Time Out magazine) and not-so-well know business people, but all offer sound advice and excellent tips based on their own experiences.   As start up books go, I found it ref...

Hi there and welcome back to the Write Away blog, an online resource for entrepreneurs and those working for themselves, or thinking about making the leap into the world of self-employment. Today’s post is about another useful internet resource for small business owners and anyone working for themselves. Fresh Business Thinking is a website aimed squarely at this part of the market. It has a quality “Business Advice” section with articles on every aspect of running a business, a   number of “how-to” guides, ranging from Self-Assessment through to Recession-proofing your business, its own video channel and a newsletter you can subscribe to called the “Virtual Director” which aim to inspire and offer support on a wide range of topics. The site also contains a directory of a range of businesses, which you can pay to be part of should you so desire. The site has a good search facility that makes it easy to find relevant articles or information meaning you can dip in and out of the ...

Hello again. This week I want to introduce you to a great new resource for anyone looking to start their own business. It’s from a company called Brightword Publishing and is called “The Start-Up Kit”. The kit contains a book and a number of excellent, money-saving offers from leading business brands to help the budding entrepreneur in the early stages of setting up a business. These include free business cards and sales contact lists, discounts on HP products and O 2 mobile phone deals and further offers that could save you up to a total of £400. The book is written by Emma Jones, a small business expert and author of other business start-up guides such as Spare Room Start-Up and Working 5 to 9 . It is very well laid out and provides a wealth of Internet resources for small businesses and anyone looking to go it alone. The guide is split into three sections, Prepare, Launch and Grow, and there is a section at the back containing a number of helpful templates that you might need t...

Welcome back. I once attended a lecture by a very successful businessman who was talking about how to maximise the benefit from our scarcest resource, our time. Some of his ideas were not exactly new, or even radical, such as watching less television or spending less time in the pub; but one area he commented on was the amount of time we spend driving around, and how this can be a real opportunity for us. Rather than listening to music or other people chatting on the radio, he suggested listening to audio business books or self help guides - he termed it the “University of the Car”, I’ve started to heed this advice and found it very beneficial. If you’re stuck for a starting point, try buying or downloading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey, read by the author, it is an inspiring book, and one I’ll post on in more detail soon. You can find out more about the book on the link below: https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits.php M833X4F57YK4

Welcome back. This is the first in a series of posts on websites specifically aimed at start ups and small businesses, links to the websites covered will be at the end of the post. The internet is a mine of information on a whole host of different subjects, resources and advice for small business and start ups are no exception. You can spend hours browsing through hundreds of websites without finding exactly what you are looking for. One of the aims of this blog is to keep you informed about interesting and useful online resources and websites that are aimed at small businesses and start ups. One of my favourite online resources is the Enterprise Nation website Enterprise Nation was founded by Emma Jones, who has started several small businesses of her own and launched the site to build an online resource and community of small businesses that could support each other, and very good it is too. As a spin off from the Enterprise Nation website, Jones has also founded another website,...