My, doesn’t time fly? Here I am enjoying my long bank holiday weekend (and I hope you are too!) and I realise that this Thursday is the deadline for the Early Bird discount offer for my blogging workshop with Tom Evans on 17th June. So I just wanted to give you a bit of a poke and a reminder really, because I know that we’ve had an overwhelming response to it, and I’d hate for you to miss out on the deal.

So for those of you that have missed all the news… I’ve introduced a brand new How to Create A Blog That’ll Win You Business workshop which I’ll be running with Tom Evans on 17th June in Ripley, Surrey. And in amongst a delicious two course lunch, homemade biscuits and afternoon tea and cakes (well we’ll be working hard, we’ll need the sustenance) Tom and I will be sharing our top tips with you to show you how you can dust your blog down and start attracting visitors that want to work with you.

And if you book before this Thursday you’ll get the full days course, PLUS two weeks support, oodles of refreshments and comprehensive advice for just £127 plus VAT, saving you £20 off the full day’s fee.

Between us Tom and I must get at least 4,000+ hits to our blogs on a monthly basis. We both average between 100 and 300 hits a day, and importantly, those hits are turning into paying clients for us. On a personal level, my blog has enabled me to communicate my expertise, build relationships with potential clients and showcase what we’re doing at Flourish. It provides me with real-time feedback and it’s opened a lot of doors for me on a professional level too.

But I know that a lot of you wonder where on earth I find the time to blog. After all, I have cakes to bake, a garden to tend to, a family to care for… oh, and a business to run! And that’s where Tom comes in really. Tom mentored me through writing my first book and is an inspirational force and a prolific blogger. I invited Tom to come and run this workshop with me to help you “unblock” yourself, so that you can find the time to write, and have a plan for what you’ll be writing about.

And actually, he’ll be offering a lot more than that. You see Tom used to be an IT Geek in a former life, which means that he’ll be able to talk to you about RSS feeds, taxonomy of your blog and the other stuff that you might be wondering about. And I’ll be getting you thinking about the design of your blog, your goals for your blog and how to attract more visitors.

And although you might be thinking… “blogging’s not for me, I run a service based business and I sell to other businesses”. Well hello! That’s exactly what Tom and I do too… So whether you sell gorgeous lifestyley products or run a barristers chambers, it really doesn’t matter – there’s a blog in every one of us! Come and discover how you can make yours work for your business.

It’s going to be a fantastic day, and we already have plenty of wonderful people signed up to the workshop – it’d be great to see you there! To book just visit my workshops website and click on “book now” for the discount to be automatically deducted at checkout.

Fiona

Just wanted to let you know that Tom Evans, The Bookwright, author, mentor and clearer of writers block, and I will be running a blogging workshop on 17th June at The Talbot Inn, Ripley. In amongst plenty of delicious refreshments (bacon rolls, homemade biscuits, two course lunch and homemade cakes anyone?) we’ll both be sharing our top tips on how you can get your blog winning you more business.

Both Tom and I use blogs as a fundamental part of our marketing strategies. They’ve helped us to build relationships, position ourselves as experts and generate solid sales leads for our businesses. But don’t think that we’ve stumbled upon this success! Blogging can be hard work. And how can you be sure anyone’s even going to read what you write?

Join us on this workshop and we’ll show you how you can use your blog to win you more business. We’ll cover things like promoting your blog and how and what to write about. We’ll look at how the design of your posts can make a difference to how people respond, and how to really build a two way conversation with your readers. You’ll discover why you need to know about taxonomy, and the difference between a blog that saps time and energy and one that brings you in measurable results.

We have so much to share with you that we’ve decided to make this a one day workshop – 9.15  registration (for 9.35 giving you time to do the school run/ miss the rush hour) till 4pm. And we’ve included plenty of goodies in the price, including two weeks of telephone and email support from me, and a folder with all the course notes and oodles of practical, easy-to-implement inspiration and tips from not one but TWO speakers!

There are an absolute maximum of 30 spaces, and they’re going fast (after just one tweet!) so block out 17th June in your diary and book swiftly to make sure you secure your place.

As Robyn Hatley of the Athena Network said about a previous workshop:

“You have such an easy, comfortable style, and such excellent nuggets of information!”

To book your place on the How to Create a Blog That’ll Win You Business simply complete our quick, secure online booking form on the Marvellous Workshops website.

Just a quick one to remind you that I’m running a FREE seminar at Guildford’s Grow Your Business event on Wednesday 12th May at 10am at the Guildford Spectrum. If you’re thinking of starting a business, or have recently launched, this seminar will provide you with essential food for thought.

Marketing your startup business requires a lot more planning than simply putting an ad in the local paper and getting a website up, and in this seminar I’ll guide you through the areas that you need to think about if you’re serious about making a success of your business. We’ll look at your product: how do you create something that your clients want to buy? The price: how can you attractively price your product/ service so that your clients find it irresistible and you can turn a profit? How can you get your product/ service to market? How will you scale your business? And finally, how will you promote it.

To attend this free seminar, all you need to do is register for the Grow Your Business event and turn up before 10am. Do bear in mind that parking at the Guildford Spectrum is often a challenge (at best!) so get there in plenty of time.

There are 12 seminars in total, all designed to help you grow your business. And we have some fantastic speakers: Karen Skidmore, Bernay Laity, Nick Tadd and Tom Evans to name just a few. As sponsors of the event, Flourish and printing.com will be there with some cracking giveaways: a logo makeover and on the printing.com stand we’re giving away a prize every hour – from business cards to leaflets.

The whole day is free, and you’re welcome to come along for just an hour or the whole day. Whatever works for you. I hope to see you there! (and do come and say Hi if you make it)

Just a quick one to let you know that the Flourish and Guildford printing.com sponsored Grow Your Business event is back. It’ll be a veritable extravaganza of expert speakers, inspiring seminars, free one to one clinics and more than 70 exhibitors. Held at the Guildford Spectrum the event is now in it’s third year and is set to attract up to 1000 visitors. And best of all… it’s absolutely free.

Flourish will be giving away a free premium logo design worth £1360! There are usually some pretty good giveaways from the other exhibitors too, in previous years generous exhibitors have given away laptops, mobile phones and £2000 worth of internet marketing services.

The day is really focused around giving you practical and inspiring tips, ideas and tools for ways that you can grow your business, and so you’ll find that there’s a lot of focus on growth: from the free seminars to the exhibitors that choose to attend. Everything is focused on how you can plan and implement growth in your business. The Chartered Institute of Marketing will be there to answer your queries, and you’ll be able to turn up and book one of their ten minute drop in clinics.

We also have an excellent lineup of speakers for the 12 seminars including Karen Skidmore, Nick Tadd, Sarah Orchard, Bernay Laity and Tom Evans amongst others. I’ll also be running a seminar on creating effective marketing for your startup business.

Entrance is completely free, and you’re welcome to drop in for the whole day or just an hour or two – whatever suits. The parking is usually a bit of a nightmare so I recommend getting there much earlier than you need to, or better still, walking/ getting the park and ride out of Guildford. It’s always a great day and I hope to see you there.

Registering (and booking your place on the seminars of your choice) is recommended – simply visit the website and complete your details.

I’m really looking forward to this month’s Marvellous Marketing Workshop: How to create designs that build your brand: design tips for the uninitiated. I LOVE running this workshop because the practical exercises and before and afters mean that people really “get it”. And Izzy, our Account Exec tells me that this is her favourite workshop.

I have to be honest, I did wonder if I was a little bonkers teaching business owners how to design themselves. A few people told me it was silly, that once people could design themselves they wouldn’t use us any more. But that’s not been my experience. I think that there are always going to be big projects that you want to employ a professional graphic designer to do: corporate identity design, that big brochure, your website etc. And I’m also realistic enough to know that there are plenty of things that people want and need to do themselves: invoices, presentations, product spec sheets, adverts perhaps or proposals.

If you could only know how to design well, then all that investment you’d put into creating a cracking brand wouldn’t go to waste. And that’s the premise of the workshop; it’s all about learning how to create designs that build, not break your brand.

And it’s very much focused on the principles of design. So whether you design in Photoshop or Microsoft Word; it really doesn’t matter, what’s key is that you understand what makes good design, and how you can put it into practice.

If you can get down to Surrey on 23rd April it would be great to see you there. My workshops are always very social, interactive and choc full with goodies – bacon rolls, homemade biscuits as well as a folder full of the slides to take home. You can book your place on our website and Blog readers can save £10 on the workshop price of £97+VAT by entering code GPDC at checkout. I hope to see you there!

Most of us realise that great design can win us more business. And most of us invest in good graphic design for a big brochure, our website or those important leaflets. But what about the rest of it? What about that Powerpoint Presentation you’re sending to your clients? How about those leaflets you’re taking to that networking event? What about that checklist for businesses you’ve uploaded to your website?

If we accept that great design will engage, inspire and build trust with your clients and prospective clients, what effect do you think bad design will have? You probably don’t need me to spell it out…

Every business designs something themselves in house. Even marketing executives at big blue chip companies design some pieces of collateral themselves. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The chances are, you design bits for yourself because you don’t have the time or the budget to get a graphic designer involved. But it’s those bits of collateral – your leaflet, your powerpoint, your case studies or your self-designed blog that can undermine your professionalism.

The bad news is that usually people don’t realise that there is anything wrong with their designs. Oversized logos compete with standard colours and standard fonts to create a look that jars with all your well produced work. The result? Your clients are confused and lack conviction in you.

It’s unrealistic to expect you to use a graphic designer for every piece of communication you produce. But you can learn some simple graphic design rules that you can apply to everything you do. And you can make the gap between the professionally produced stuff and your own stuff much smaller!

Do a bit of research into what makes design work. Read magazines, books (Robyn Williams The Non-Designer’s Design Book is excellent) and look at designs that inspire you. I’ve put plenty of tips on this blog, and I’m also running a workshop at the end of April on how to create more professional-looking designs – you can find out full details on our website.

This month I’m running a design workshop for beginners, teaching the delegates the principles of graphic design so that they can make sure that the collateral they produce in house has the impact they’d like it to. Now I’m not suggesting for one moment that in five points I can show you how to create the impact, engagement and wow factor that professional graphic designers can produce for you – I can’t. There’s a good reason that designers study fonts, colours and the impact of images for years at both college and in their professional lives. I’m not about to undermine that!

But something constantly frustrates me. Small business owners simply don’t have the funds to get everything produced professionally. Oh, you might think that you’ll always call in the pros when you need to. But what about that proposal? The 30 leaflets you dashed out in time for that networking event? The blog that you threw together?

And this is where things start to fall apart.

You know you need to invest in a decent logo. And if you’re smart you make sure you have a strong corporate identity, pulled together by a brand manual which shows you how to use your lovely image. But just how often do you refer to that? No, more often than not, the stuff you produce yourself bears no resemblance to the shiny brand image of which you’re so proud.

I’m a realist. I know that you need to produce your own documents in house. But what I’d like to do is show you how to produce them in a way that doesn’t break that corporate identity you’ve invested so much time and money in! So without further ado (and I realise that there’s much ado above, but it is important that you realise why I’m sharing this with you…) I give you the top five things that you can do to improve your design.

1. Think about what really matters. If you’re designing a promotional leaflet or flyer it certainly isn’t your logo. So remove your logo from that prominent position and place it somewhere discretely. Done? Right, now let’s focus on making the headline and striking image the centre of attention!

2. Colour affects. You probably have a palette of colours that you should be using to support your brand (and if you don’t, speak to us and fast!). Walk away from the default blue (so downmarket) and the “oh so noticeable” red and go back the colours that say the right things about you to your clients.

3. Fonts matter. Arial, Verdana and Times are only acceptable for the web and emailing. Use them on anything that you’re going to PDF or print out and it’ll scream “homemade”! (and not in a good way either…). Consult your brand manual for a list of the fonts that say the right things about your business – and use them.

4. Create a strong layout. Graphic designers start by creating a “grid”. This adds style and makes things easier to read. One column the whole width of the page yells amateur. Consider using multiple columns. If you can, also try and place your images across two columns to break up the grid and create a more professional look.

5. A picture paints a thousand words. Which means that cheesy stock photo you had your eye on probably needs to go! There’s nothing wrong with stock photos per-se, but beware the over-used cliches. Particularly avoid road signs and anything that shows a chart with an arrow shooting through it. Eurgh! Beware also of the colour of these stock photos. When I review clients designs I often notice a dominance of grey – not nice or inspiring. Be careful to think as much about the colour as you do about the content.

And there you have it. Five simple things that you can do to improve the look of the work you produce in house. There’s plenty more info on my blog (see below) and if I’ve got you thinking, then I’d love to see you on my workshop on 23rd April.

Do you know how much money you'd like to earn next year? Have you worked out how much product/ how many services that equates to? Do you have a spreadsheet somewhere on your laptop that shows how much you'd like to turn over on a monthly basis?

It's tempting not to bother. You don't have time. You're not sure what's possible. You're worried you're being bullish. What if you don't meet the targets? There are plenty of reasons/ excuses why people don't create targets. I can't imagine my business that didn't have targets. No wait a minute, I can…

We'd drift along from on month to the next. We'd still do a great job for our clients and my team might be happier for a while: no targets means no pressure at the end of the month! But after a while that lack of direction and sense of purpose would manifest itself in both me and the team. The team wouldn't know how well they were doing, because they'd have nothing tangible or objective to measure their performance against. 

Horrors; if I didn't have targets I probably wouldn't have a budget either. I'd spend money when I had it in the bank, and I'd stop spending when I ran out of cash. I'd make decisions based on the cash in my bank account rather than the value they'd add to my business. And it would be touch and go as to whether I'd have a business next year. I'd spend a LOT more than if I'd had a proper budget and the chances are I'd make a LOT LESS money.

Without the incentive of monthly targets I'd probably invoice a good 25% less every month as I'd just be drifting along. And I'd probably have a bit of a rude awakening at the end of the year.

I don't like the sound of any of that! I've always been very targets focused and it's all I've known all my working life. Yes it's tough, yes it's corporate, but I also believe it's essential to anyone serious about running a successful business. 

I've had my book keeper put together a budget for me for next year based on the company performance over the last four years, and also my own personal financial goals. It's exciting! And most importantly, I know what I need to do to get to where I want to get to.

Now all we need to do is achieve them!

Great design isn't about what software you use, it's about flair, creativity and an understanding of what makes good design. Now you might not be born with any of those things, but an appreciation of good design is absolutely essential if you want to make sure that you maximise on the potential of your business brand.

Green is that stable, balanced colleague you love to have in the office. They have a great work-life balance and they have a lovely balance between their mind, body and emotions. Spending just a little time with them you feel rested, restored, relaxed and reassured. Green is a primal colour – we're instinctively drawn to them because of the relationship between green and food and water. Green is organic, a little bit hippy and cares for the environment.