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Articles to help you get stuff done, get more customers and make your life easier.
The Reason Why We Do It!
In this 1st episode of the Smashing Self-Employment podcast I discuss why it’s vital that you fully understand why you’re self-employed.
Small business owners need to sort themselves out…
RANT ALERT + Biz Lessons!!! Small business owners need to sort themselves out! Over the last month or so, I've moved house which means we needed domestic cleaners/end of tenancy cleans, carpet cleaners, window cleaners, gardeners, plumbers, electricians and removal...
How Business Speaking Can Help You to Promote Your Business
How Business Speaking Can Help You to Promote Your Business – some idea on how to leverage a grossly underused marketing tool.
Manage your inbox – don’t let it manage you
How to Manage your Inbox – email overload can have a serious impact on your productivity. Here’s an idea for exerting a bit more control on your inbox.
How to assess a business opportunity Part 5: Motivation
OK, so this is part 5 in my series of articles on 'How to assess a business opportunity'. This time we're looking at (cue uplifting music and training montage...) Motivation Motivation is best described as the reason or reasons that anyone does anything. But let me...
How to assess a business opportunity, part 4 – Experience
Since beginning this series on 'how to assess a business opportunity' I've realised that writing just 4 or 5 articles was simply not going to be enough. In fact I could write a dozen articles and something else might occur to me for consideration. However, this time...
Passion alone doesn’t sell
I'd like to tell you a story about a friend of mine who started a training business with no training or business experience. Now, there's nothing wrong with starting a business and, to be honest, most people start their business with little or no experience. Learning...
How to assess a business opportunity, part 3 – Money
The third part of this series is a very important part of 'how to assess a business opportunity' and it's all to do with money. You see, despite what many people say, money is incredibly important. In fact, some folks even go so far as to say that it's almost as...
How to assess a business opportunity part 2: Interest
The second part of this series on 'How to assess a business opportunity' is about: Interest Now it's nothing to do with the pitiful amount that your bank will give you for looking after money, it's all to do with the level of interest you have in your business, it's...
How to assess a business opportunity part 1: Time
In this series of 5 articles I’ll be sharing some thoughts on how to assess a business opportunity. If you could do with some spare time income read on.
Busy vs productive – a few pointers
As I've mentioned before, one of the most difficult things about being self-employed is trying to balance the difference between busy and productive (see /busy-vs-productive-using-time-wisely-can-be-hard-work/). It's very easy to be 'busy' since there is never nothing...
How to improve your customer service
A friend of mine, Nick Laight, publishes a great regular email on how to make money. His latest gives an excellent real-life example of how businesses can easily improve their customer service. I enjoyed the story so much that Nick has kindly given his...
Maybe you shouldn’t be self-employed – here’s why:
In this post, I’m going to do something which I don’t typically write about in my blog, but it’s come about because I see an awful lot of people who are self-employed and running micro-businesses who, in all honesty, really shouldn’t be self-employed and doing what...
Competence Is Not Enough To Convince Someone To Buy From You
Many would agree that the business climate has become considerably more challenging over recent years. So, when doing your marketing, just saying you're competent is not enough to convince an increasingly cynical market that you're worth buying from. So, how should...
How to work out your skills and help your career
I decided to write this piece in response to something I saw last week at church. My friend, Paul, has a PhD and is a lecturer and researcher in medieval history at a local University. He's a clever guy. However, last week we were setting up the church for the...
A quick delegation skills lesson from a 15 year old
Here's a quick delegation skills lesson inspired by my 15 year old daughter Abigail. The key points are: Make sure that the person you're delegating to knows what you want and by when Focus on the results more than the method. It's possible that your team-mate can...
Make what you can sell, don’t sell what you can make
A few months ago I went to a seminar on Lean Startups which was aimed at tech firms looking for some startup ideas etc. While there the speaker threw out the phrase "Make what you can sell, don't sell what you can make". And this got me thinking (when I got to grips...
Getting started with new work habits
We all have habits. These are the things we do very regularly without even thinking about them, such as getting up and putting the kettle on before you do anything else. You just do them without even knowing that they're habits. Work habits are just the same, you get...
How to Make your ‘To Do List’ more effective
When I do time management training I always ask the question 'Who uses a to-do list?' You might not be surprised to find that nearly all hands in the room go up, including mine. However, when I ask 'How many people feel that their to-do is is more demotivating than...
How to partner up for increased chances of success and profit
For some time I've had a few ideas for web publishing business but haven't had the time or technical expertise to make them come to life. So, after listening to the Beermat Entrepreneur Live CD I started to keep an eye out for a team to help me with my ideas. You see,...
You Are 100% responsible For Your Success or Failure
You Are 100% responsible For Your Success or Failure. When you’re self-employed you need to take responsibility for what happens. Here’s a few helpful tips.