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...

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, 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, 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 ...

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. Today’s post discusses the value of working with others, either on ideas for a new business or in actually starting something up together. I think there is a common view, that starting a business is something you do on your own initially, and this can mean that would-be entrepreneurs miss out on valuable advice and input from others. A few years ago, I enrolled on a course called Teamstart, the basic premise being to bring a group of people together who either had a business idea, or just a burning desire to work for themselves. The six-week programme consisted of different modules linked to starting a business with a number of workshops included, where you were put into pairs or groups to come up with, and work on, various business ideas. I made lasting friendships from the course, but it also taught me that two or three heads can definitely be better than one when you’re trying to come up with that elusive business idea or concept. So if you’re struggling in this a...