I expect you’ve seen a lot about GDPR in your news feeds recently. With fewer than 60 days to go small businesses. are starting to get more and more interested in what this means for their business. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will affect anyone who processes personal information. Personal information is classed as…
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Life can get stressful if you need to figure out how to keep working in bad weather. I’m currently considering whether I should be flattered that our current storm has been named after me. Whilst sitting in the comfort of my home, still working. There was a time when I’d dread the forecast for snow…
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I recently had an interesting conversation with someone I’d like to work with. We were talking about whether it was worth spending time and money (uh oh, not those guys again) on marketing their business. This is a very common question for business owners! How did you find out about us? Naturally I was interested to…
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You’ve got 30 seconds to a minute of your perfect customer’s time. What do you say? When first set up my freelance marketing consultancy, I spent a long time thinking about my answer to – “what do you do?” When I was employed it was quite easy to rattle off the business name, what it…
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When I was first thinking about business names The M Word was my favourite. It took me a long time to think of it and was just one idea on a long list. As it took a lot of thought I was somewhat disappointed to find that it was already being used by a similar…
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So, you’ve gone and done it. You’ve booked a stand at a trade show. It’s not for another 8 months which means you can worry about it a couple of weeks before you go. Right?…. Wrong! With busy working schedules it’s hard for small business owners to find the time to fit in planning for…
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Well, Marketing Hat will be celebrating it’s second birthday in July. I can’t believe where the time has gone! Seems like a combination of running my own business, having two small children and getting older really does make time fly. A few months ago I participated in a great webinar by Kona Coaching. It was…
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How often do you really feel like you’re a valued customer? That your business is appreciated. That someone is genuinely happy you used their product or service. It doesn’t happen all that often, but today I was lucky enough to have it happen. Twice. I haven’t always been a big fan of call centres. Sorry,…
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This month’s Hat Chat is the perfect example of making the most out of a busy week. Whist taking the opportunity to enjoy some warm spring sunshine (and waiting for our daughters to finish their dance class) I spoke to entrepreneur Becky Bowser about her new Virtual Assistant/PA business – Newlands Virtual Services. With a…
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Yesterday after storm Doris had picked a fight (and won) with my polytunnel, I decided to share my predicament on social media. For a bit of fun really. After all, it’s easy to get a new polytunnel cover. Not so easy to put it on mind you. To follow or not to follow? I didn’t…
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The past week (as a freelancer I work on a rolling week, so the past 7 days!) has gifted me with a couple of great meetings, some lovely feedback and the start of my website refresh. All the while, the following thought kept popping up in my head: “who do you trust with your business?”…
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This little story shows that the opportunity for getting press coverage may just be round the corner. Sometimes, like this, in the most unlikely of places! September is the month of the coffee morning. Which, in my opinion, can only be a very good thing. Coffee and tasty cake. Coupled with a worthy charity event it’s…
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Like most people, I’ve always found it helpful talking to others in the same boat as me. It’s also enlightening. I’ve enjoy listening to people’s individual stories and discovering why they do what they do. Since starting my journey into the world of freelance marketing I’ve met many inspiring, positive and motivated business people. They…
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