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Blog

Do You Manage Expectations? – 25/03/2019

We have touched upon this before about how people expect a good service as soon as they enter into a contract with you. This is as simple as ordering from the local takeaway and expecting your order to be correct, fresh and hot, through to ordering next day delivery on a parcel or signing a 12 month contract on a phone line. Each time we hand over money, we have a preset expectation of that business or person.

The 2nd Page Of Google Effect – Part 2 – 19/02/2019

In our last blog, we discussed it was so relevant to have your website on the first page of Google along with some top tips of how to help your website rank better for free. Following on from that popular topic, today we’re looking at how social media also suffers from the “2nd page of Google effect”.

The 2nd Page Of Google Effect – Part 1 – 13/12/2018

The way that Forest Traders works has changed dramatically over its 6 years to fall in line with how society moves with their use of technology and their needs. Only 10 years ago we were all relying on big yellow books for all of the phone numbers we needed; fast forward those years and those books are no longer even in production. It‘s exciting to see how we advance and embrace technological improvements to our lives but at the same time, it‘s scary to see just how much is changing. As a business, it‘s even harder to try to keep up!

I Don‘t Have Time To Invest In My Business – 13/06/2018

Recently a local business spoke to me about their marketing. Sales have decreased, interactions are lower since the new Facebook algorithms came in and business is generally slow. When we chatted about it, they told me that they don‘t do much in the way of marketing other than Facebook…..problem solved I thought, with some training in Twitter, Instagram and perhaps Linkedin, their sales will boost in no time with higher brand awareness. Perhaps some shows, open mornings and links with other fellow businesses would boost this even more. However the suggestions I made were met with the same answer……….“I don‘t have any more time to invest in the business”. Leaving them with a decision, run the business at a loss with the hope that things will improve or close down.

GDPR & Cyber Security – Show The Real You – 05/04/2018

Recently I attended a seminar on GDPR and Cyber Security. It was a real eye opener as to how people work behind the scenes to steal your identity and that these days, we should be looking & thinking about identity theft more so than perhaps just our bank details being stolen. Whilst it made me think about what information I personally give out about myself (sometimes without even thinking) and how in some instances I might be more complacent than I should be, at the same time it pointed out to me how my last blog was really relevant. If you didn’t read it, you can HERE.

Trust Is The Key For A Long Standing Client – 07/03/2017

It may seem like old hat to say it but any good marketer will tell you how you need to balance both online and offline marketing for your business to make it sustainable. Technology is advancing and becoming more relevant to our daily life but it will never be solely embraced by everyone and that is important to remember when you are trying to publicise your business.

You Are Never Too Old To Learn New Skills – 13/11/2017

Sitting at our local pool watching my daughters receive their swimming lessons has made me think about how it doesn’t matter how old we are, we can always learn new skills. My two weren’t put into lessons at an early age so in comparison to a lot of children, they are behind on their swimming skills set. Do they look at it and feel embarrassed? Do they look at us and think we should have done it differently? Nope, they are just in that pool cracking on and enjoying learning something new and revelling in the excitement of achieving new goals.

Nerves, Who Wins? – 02/10/2017

With the stigma of mental health being tackled in the media, I wanted to take the opportunity to discuss something that happens to a lot of people – both in business but personally too. Fight or flight……ever felt it? Know what I’m talking about? That moment you freeze and so does time, every part of you wants to run as far away as possible, every negative thought possible runs through your head but you know that if you don’t do it, you are letting yourself down inside. It’s horrible, exhausting and sometimes just a nightmare you don’t need.

It‘s OK To Be “Not My Cup Of Tea” – 23/05/2017

Note the inverted commas here……being called “not my cup of tea” doesn‘t necessarily mean you are not good at what you do. What does the person classing you as this define this by? Did they feel their needs were not met? Did they think you didn‘t follow through with what was quoted? Did they think they didn‘t get value for money? Did one of these reasons call them to label you as “not my cup of tea”?

Top 5 Marketing Tips – 07/02/2017

The first thing to understand about marketing is that there is no blanket way to doing it right. Different business industries and sizes need very different forms of marketing – something that we always recommend you seek professional help and advice with. However, there are some standard practices that everyone should follow no matter how big or small they are and we have highlighted our top 5 tips below for you.