» Listings for February 2016

1. Teenage Advice I Wish I Took

   Posted on 2:17pm Monday 29th Feb 2016

   When I was a child, adults were full of advice, but I didn’t believe them most of the time. Some of it was clearly ridiculous. I mean, if I ate porridge, would it actually put hairs on my chest? Who would actually want that? Tell a child it will turn them into a unicorn, or give them magical powers, sure. But hairs on their chest? What were they thinking?

   

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   There was other advice that made more sense but I didn’t want to follow it at the time. Ah, to be a headstrong teenager again. I wish I knew then what I knew now! I guess that’s true of nearly every single one of us. Teenagers still to this day believe that they know everything, and that’s never going to change. Our poor parents. Still, what comes around goes around and once we’ve got teenagers of our own we’ll feel even sorrier for how we may have behaved in our teenage years.

   So, other advice I wish I’d followed. Don’t eat so much junk food.  Don’t eat sweets.  Don’t try smoking. Don’t wear all that stuff on your face.  Stop wearing your friend’s glasses.  Yep, seriously!  I absolutely loved my best friend’s glasses.  I thought she looked so cool.  I absolutely longed for a pair of my own big thick frames nestled in a cool carry case.  Because my best friend was always so trendy and I wanted to be just like her!  So I’d borrow her glasses during lessons, sometimes for hours at a time and I’m sure it’s why I soon needed my own.

   And now I’m older, I do need them nearly all of the time. Grrr. How I wish I hadn’t been so silly wishing for something so much!  I don’t like wearing glasses to this day. I constantly forget to take them to events where I could really do with them!  If I’m not wearing them, I struggle to tell who people are across the road, so must seem really rude!  I can’t even tell if Ben is looking at me from across the room.  When we started dating it took him a while to realise I wasn’t just ignoring him, I just couldn’t see he was looking at me or pulling a face!  Wearing glasses can certainly be inconvenient and I’ve even googled looking for the best laser eye surgery in the UK. I think it might be a good idea one day - it’s certainly a more permanent way to deal with poor eyesight.

   For now I’ll settle for my glasses (when I can find them), but for long car trips or full days out I’ll wear my contact lenses.  Contact lenses can certainly be more convenient and I enjoy not seeing the glasses frame around my eyes.  But it’s another appointment to attend, another check-up, another cost, another inconvenience really.

   It definitely pays to listen to your parents and always remember to be careful what you wish for.

    

   See also:
   Blue light from phones and screens can damage your eyes and sleep

    

   

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2. 6 Cheap Ways to Market Your Small Business

   Posted on 7:07pm Sunday 28th Feb 2016

   

   Many people find marketing to be one of the most daunting processes when setting up a new business.  Startups may put all available funds and resources into the product itself, leaving little (or nothing) to outsource marketing.  Luckily, with a little time and dedication, there are several easy and sometimes free ways to market your small business yourself.

   Create a website

   This is a must.  Today, if a person is looking for a product or service you can guarantee a search engine will be their first port of call. A professional responsive website is a necessity for every small business.  Nowadays it’s easy to get a website up and running by yourself with plenty of online tutorials to help you.

   Make business cards

   Business cards are undoubtedly one of the most useful marketing tools.  They can be carried on your person and handed out at every given opportunity.  There are numerous websites where you can quickly and easily design some, or why not use your favourite design program and print your own?  Always keep a bunch in your wallet and ensure your friends, family and colleagues have plenty to hand out too.

   Set up a blog

   One of the best ways to engage with existing customers and attract new traffic to your website is by starting a blog.  Use a blog to talk about your products, services and even to show what’s happening behind the scenes.  Your customers will love getting to know the faces behind the business and will be thankful for any helpful content you share.  There are many useful guides online for how to start a blog.

   Get tweeting

   Make use of free social media platform Twitter to gather a following, create a buzz about your business and promote your services.  You can tweet links to your blog posts to attract new readers who could be potential customers.  There are numerous hashtags and networking hours which can really boost your follower numbers and increase traffic to your website.

   Send mail

   Use your website, blog and Twitter accounts to entice your customers to sign up for your newsletter.  Send out exclusive newsletter only offers which land directly in their inboxes.  Whilst you are building your subscribers there are several free mailing services you can use online with embeddable sign up forms.

   Set up a free business listing

   No longer do people trawl through a huge Yellow Pages directory to find the service they require.  Instead, make sure you add your free local business listing to plenty of websites including Google, Yell and Bing.  These will help your business to be discovered in local search results.

   Marketing your small or startup business is crucial to build awareness of your brand and for its overall success.   Promotion doesn’t always need to cost the earth and can easily be achieved on even the tightest of budgets.  With a bit of effort and know-how, marketing your business can be an affordable and enjoyable venture with huge rewards.

    

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3. Realising I’ve always had a passion for writing

   Posted on 8:35pm Saturday 27th Feb 2016

   

   It suddenly struck me today that without realising it, I’ve always had a passion for writing.  I’ve always been academic and enjoyed writing essays and completing coursework.  I take great satisfaction in collating information, researching and putting it altogether in my style and words.  I’d never really thought about making a hobby or career out of such skills until recently and it got me thinking.  I think there was always a writer inside me, but I just forgot.

   My Grandad recently handed me an envelope.  Inside this envelope was a rather feisty letter of complaint firing somebody.  This letter was written by pencil, in an obvious child font, from a ‘very frustrated Victoria’.

   Yep, the letter was from me (pretending to be an angry customer) to my Grandad (the poor pretend person I’d hired to do a job for me!)  It’s absolutely brilliant and now safely stored in my memory box.

   I realised today, perhaps I’ve always had a passion for writing and in starting this blog, at first for entirely different reasons altogether, I’ve rediscovered it.  I also wonder if many bloggers did the same as me as a youngster for enjoyment?

   I regularly penned fake letters to my Grandad and enjoyed doing so.  I’d sit in his home office at his typewriter and come up with the most imaginative letters I could think of.  For pure fun!  I remember longing for a typewriter of my own.

   Once a bit older, perhaps eleven or so, I began writing diaries.  I have four or five diaries in a box in my attic filled with years of entries.  I believe I wrote them most days until I was 15 or 16.  I’ve not read them since.  One day I will get them down and have a good read.  Perhaps the memories will flood back.  I don’t think the reason for writing them was to always keep the memories, but because at the time it gave me something to write about.

   I also have a box in the attic filled to the brim with letters.  I often had ‘pen pals’.  These were other children I met when on holiday and we’d exchange addresses with the promise of staying in touch forever.  Sadly this forever was perhaps a couple of years at most, but that’s better than most adults I’ve come across, so a good effort for a child!  I remember the excitement I felt receiving a letter addressed to me through the letterbox, running to my bedroom to rip open the envelope to see what the sender had divulged.  But, even better, penning my letter back and being so proud of the format, layout, style and stories I had told.

   I vaguely remember making pretend magazines.  I loved to read magazines and loved to dream up my own.  This is a memory I’d almost lost until I recollected all the above today.  I’d make up names for my magazines and sit for hours arranging the layout, stories and pictures.  We had no computer when I was a child, let alone the internet.  I’d sit with a notebook, pens, scissors, magazines and a stick of glue!

   I’m so pleased to remember all this today.  Perhaps there was an aspiring blogger inside me all along!