Yesterday it was confirmed by Mark Prisk, the business and enterprise minister, that Business Link is to be shut down.

“The regional Business Links have spent too much time signposting and not enough time actually advising,” Mark Prisk told Real Business yesterday. “We’re going to wind down the Regional Development Agencies, and as part of those, we’ll be winding down the regional Business Link contracts.”

To replace the current Business Link service, Mark Prisk proposed a two-pronged approach, led by a state-funded online service and the private sector. “We can deliver a lot more online and make better use of the private providers. The vast majority of private businesses don’t use public services [for advice]. We need a 21^st century approach to business support.”

In the early days of our business we took advantage of the Business Link voucher scheme and benefitted from several hours free business advice from WENTA, one of our local providers in Business Link’s brokerage service. At the time there was no way we could have paid for expert business advice, so this was a great help. But other experiences left us feeling that Business Link itself was just a huge beaurocratic organisation, with other smaller companies generally providing the service or the advice.

The best thing about Business Link for me was their website – and the worst was being passed from pillar to post, with no-one wanting to take ownership of a query and merely passing it on to another region or agency. At times the Business Link ’machine’ just seemed too big and out of touch with its customers. The free courses they ran were good but unless you were a complete start-up were often of little or no use. A year into trading and there wasn’t a single course that was suitable for our level of experience,  that we would be likely to gain much from.

Personally I think the decision to axe Business Link is a positive one. There are plenty of excellent private service providers who will benefit from the opportunity to tender for contracts previsously overseen by Business Link, and having more providers will generate competition and hopefully a higher standard of support and advice for new and growing businesses.

What is your experience of Business Link?  Has your business benefitted from advice, funding or courses?  Would your business be operating without them or have their services completely passed you by? We’d love to hear your experiences.

1. Add Value
Write content that supports your offering and by being informative and even providing solutions to people’s ‘problems’, they are more predisposed to buy from you, should they require what you have to offer, or even recommend you to someone else. Think bigger picture and you will add value to your business with your blog.

2. Connect directly with your users/customers/clients
Blogs, even when they’re for business, give you the ability to have that personal touch and engage directly with your customers or people who have the potential to do business. Even if you’re not chit chatting with them in the comments box, you’re actually ‘connecting’ on an intellectual or even an emotive level. I read some great blogs attached to business that make me feel passionate about what they offer, or their market, or even wider issues.

3. Fresh Regular Content
The likelihood is that if you don’t have a blog, unless you have new products to add, or service pages to update, or maybe a ‘news’ section, that your site doesn’t get updated that regularly which means that the visits from the ‘ole search engine ‘spiders’ will be infrequent, which leads me to…

4. It’s Good for Search Engine Optimisation
I  don’t suggest that you blog solely with this in mind because it will all be very contrived and you’ll probably write stuff that’s annoying rather than adding value, but think of it as a Brucie Bonus. Use tags, categories, link to (relevant) pages around your site, and do link out to other relevant peeps too.

5. It Can Make Your Site Stickier
I imagine you want people to spend more time on your site and more rounded content will encourage them to hang around for longer. Writing blog posts may also encourage them to check out other relevant products or services that they may not have considered otherwise, which in turn can generate more business.

6. Demonstrate and gain authority
The wonderful thing about blogs is that by consistently writing content around subjects, you can become regarded as an ‘authority’ – someone who people trust and regard as being a thought leader or expert on a subject or market. Being able to engage people around subjects and to explain problems and provide solutions, or even create problems that people didn’t realise they had and provide solutions, makes you valuable and authoritative. People love to feel like they have gained knowledge/discovered something new.

7. Build your brand
Whether you’re building a personal or business brand, blogs give you an opportunity to put out the messaging that you want people to know, that they may not necessarily pick up from a product description or an about page. Remember, it’s all too easy to say you’re an expert, or tell them that whatever you’re offering is the ‘best’, but when you demonstrate authority, you show people which lets you build your brand.

8. Improve your writing skills
Sounds funny, but writing blog posts on a regular basis teaches you a lot about writing content that resonates with your customers. I see poor product and service pages all the time. Blogging tends to bring out more of a desire to speak in a language that appeals to your customers – being on a level – which is really what should be happening site wide. You’ll also find that you’ll get better at writing marketing and PR bumpf.

9. Your blog is like your PR person
I’m talking 21st century PR, so this doesn’t mean posting bland press releases but talking about things that are happening in your business in an exciting and engaging way. The type of ‘news’ that has traditionally been shared via press releases with a few key people in traditional press doesn’t work in the social media evolved world. You’re now writing your news to speak directly to your customers and potential customers. Get your news out there and start telling your stories and have them ranking in Google (and other search engines) on your key terms. Go easy on putting annoying words and phrases that no-one understands (or cares about.

10. Make money
All of the above can actually help you to make money. Increasingly, as small business has greater and greater impact, people buy from people. I know so many people who blog that have made more money and experienced various opportunities as a result of blogging. That authority that they demonstrated about marketing your business online, resolving tax issues, or managing your time and business through outsourcing – they picked up more clients. Think big picture.

Today’s blog post is from our resident Copywriting expert Sam Thewlis, who starts off with the basics of why you might need to hire a professional copywriter to help your business.

Why would I need a Copywriter? It is a simple enough question- most people can read and write so why would your business want to spend money on using a copywriter when you can just do it yourself for nothing?

The answer is also simple.  Different people have different skills and while what you would write may be perfectly adequate, surely you want your business to be great?

Good copy makes the difference between people not noticing your business and a potential sale. For example good webcopy, ie the words people read on your site, must be interesting enough to hold people’s attention, give them the relevant information they need, and tell them how or where to part with their cash. In addition, optimising the text for SEO purposes, by unobtrusively lacing the text with keywords, will make sure you have more visitors to your website to be wooed by your wonderful words.

For many businesses, their website is their primary way of attracting customers, and therefore revenue and whilst a professional looking site from a web design point of view is important, so is what you actually say. The longer you can keep people on your site, the more likely they are to purchase, so here are some quick tips for what you should be aiming for in your website copy.

1. Don’t make it too long. Visitors are not going to scroll down through pages and pages of text. If you have a lot to say, put it on separate pages.

2. Get straight to the point. Web visitors have an annoying tendency to click on and click off in the blink of an eye. You need to hit them with the reason they should stay straightaway.

3. Use keywords in your text, but don’t go overboard. A widget business selling widgets in the widget industry who is a member of the widget association of widget sellers may be keyword dense, but it sounds silly.

4. Refresh your content. Search engines like to see updated content, so if you can add a blog or useful articles to your site, it not only adds interest to your customers but also keeps it fresh.

5. Outsource. Investigate whether getting a specialist copywriter to revamp your site, who will probably charge between £30 and £75 a page, is going to be more effective and cost effective than toiling away at it yourself for hours and hours and hours. I know a good one if you’re interested!

To find out more information about Sam’s copywriting services please visit her website or email her at sam@samthewlis.co.uk

In our first year in business we have spent the princely sum of £30 + VAT on promotional activity, paying for an insert service which interestingly had a zero return on investment! However we have managed to appear in the local press 3 times, the national press once, and have been interviewed on our local radio station. We have had a double page spread in a local parenting magazine distributed to over 10,000 mums through the school book bags, been featured on numerous websites and been promoted by several business agencies. We have also secured free venue use, free business advice, free business books and had over 20 prizes donated to a recent raffle. And we’ve done all this without ever having to resort to bribery or blackmail. So, how have we done it?

We are proud to unveil the Mum’s The Boss Guide to free (or very cheap) publicity!

1.  Be Friendly – if you are approachable and friendly when you meet people, chances are people will remember you and be more willing to help you out in the future. A warm smile and taking an interest in people costs nothing at all.

2.  Barter – if you can’t afford to pay the going rate for a service, barter some of your product or a service of your own in return.   

3.  Think Outside The Box – publicity doesn’t have to be paying for advertsing space. Think creatively about what is newsworthy about your business – or make something newsworthy happen – and submit it as editorial to the press. And think about all your contacts, and whether they could promote you to their client base, spreading the word through word of mouth.

4.  Know your audience – if you know exactly who your audience is it will be much easier to reach them by targetting your promotion accordingly. That way, if you do end up having to pay for advertising, you will save a fortune by reaching the right people first time.

5.  Use the Internet – take full advantage of the many sites and forums that you can list your business or event on for free. All it will cost you is your time. Make good use of all the social networking sites you belong to, such as Twitter or Facebook – they are perfect for spreading a message ‘virally’ as well as a fantastic way to make invaluable business connections and pick up free business advice.

6.  Blog! – if you haven’t already done so, start a blog. If you can attract a good level of readership your blog can become a fantastic medium for you to barter with, offering to promote businesses or review products in return for a favour.

7.  Be Different – the press likes good news stories or things that are quirky or unusual. If there is something unusual about you or your business then capitalise on this. If not, can you engineer a story with added interest, by linking your business to an event, charity or something topical?

8.  Add Value – if you are asking someone to do you a good turn you must be able to show them what’s in it for them. This may be something tangible like a complimentary product, or it could be as simple as giving them access to your contact network or promoting them on your website or blog.

9.  Be Cheeky – if you don’t ask you don’t get, and sometimes if you just have the confidence/brass neck to ask for a freebie or a discount people are surprisingly happy to oblige

10. Pay People in Cake! – This one NEVER fails. When bartering for people’s time, expertise or use of a venue always offer to bring homemade cake. Works every time!!

We are by no means PR Gurus and these tips are non industry-standard – they are just things that have worked for us and allowed us to enjoy a certain level of publicity for free! Do you have any creative ideas or tips for getting free publicity? We’d love to hear all about them (mainly so we can try them out ourselves)!

Today I read a great quote which really struck a chord with me. It said ”Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still”. It struck a chord because, at the moment, as business owners we find ourselves at somewhat of a crossroads – keep on doing what we’re doing (i.e.stand still) or take a leap of faith and take our business to the next level.

When you first start a business there is a lot to do – market research to carry out, business plans to write, finance to raise, websites to built, advertising and promotion to plan and customers to find. If this is your first business then there is a lot to learn and the whole process can become all-consuming. It can be exhilarating, discovering all the new things you are good at, as your comfort zone rapidly expands. And then there comes a point when you find that all that new and exciting stuff has become routine and everyday. You’ve actually achieved what you set out to do and you now need something more to keep your momentum going.

But the thought of the ‘next step’, whether it be expansion, diversification, taking on staff or acquiring premises, can seem overwhelming and daunting. The ‘next level’ may seem miles away from where you currently are. So, what do you do? Stand still or grow?

Many of the business owners I have met have more ideas than they know what to do with. As is often the way, you wait ages for an idea to come along, and then two come along together! But sorting the wheat from the chaff and knowing which idea is good or right your business can be tricky. Lots of ideas, not enough time, too little capital – sound all too familiar?

There is a lot of good, free advice available for business start-ups, but less that I can see for people wishing to expand and grow. So now could be a good time to find a business coach or mentor, to help you look at your ideas objectively and give you some advice and enouragement. With a certain amount of success behind you, you may also be tempted to want to see bigger and better results quickly - to want it all, right now! But ‘quickly’ isn’t always achievable or sensible. A big house needs strong foundations, detailed plans and hours of workmanship, and so does a successful business.

And this is where another old saying comes into it’s own. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Any task or goal, however momentous it might seem, can be broken down into bitesized pieces, one of which could be achieved today – right now in fact. Don’t be put off that the end destination seems a very long way away – as long as you have a clear objective in mind you can get there, as long as you keep moving, slowly but surely.

Let’s face it, we ALL have bad days. Sometimes it’s a Bad Parenting Day, when your children are testing you to the limits or you know you handled a situation badly. Or it might be as simple as a Bad Image Day, when you hate the way you look, none of your clothes fit and you can’t do a thing with your hair! Added to this, if you run your own business, then you are bound to have days when it all gets on top of you – maybe you lose a pitch, your supplier lets you down, your internet connection is flaky, your cashflow is dire, or you simply don’t have the energy or the enthusiam to carry on.

Efficiency Coach Heather Townsend recently wrote an excellent post on her blog entitled How Do You Bounce Back Every Time about being resilient in business and learning to bounce back after rejection. Her tips are helpful in any situation where you might find the enthusiasm for your business waning. 

But as well as having good strategies for coping with set-backs, it started me thinking about the things you definitely shouldn’t do when you’re having a bad day:

1.  DON’T let on to your customers
One misguided word or comment when you’re having an off day could end up having lasting repurcussions. Business is all about reputation. You only want people talking about how fabulous you are – not how moody, grumpy, offhand or downright rude you are. Even if a customer or supplier is being awkward and you’re just not in the mood for it, take a deep breath and smile (through gritted teeth if you have to).

2.  DON”T bottle it all up
On the flipside, don’t bottle things up completely either. Hopefully you have family, friends or understanding peers (online or off) who you can open up to. If not, it often helps to write things down, just to get them out of your head. If you’re angry with a colleague or supplier, write them a letter about how you feel, then rip it up. Or alternatively write down 5 good things about your day (in good health, sun shining, kids playing nicely, that sort of thing).  When you’re knee deep in a bad day sometimes a change of perspective, an outlet for your frustration or just a good moan can really help wonders.  

3.  DON’T comfort eat or drink
It may seem like a quick fix to reach for the chocolate or the wine to cheer yourself up but in the long run it really doesn’t solve anything and can lead to problems of it’s own (the least of which is not being able to fit into your jeans, causing a Bad Image Day all of it’s own!). If you can, try and address the issue, not mask it with food or drink.

4.  DON’T think that you are alone
Economic times are difficult at the moment and you are weathering this storm with every other entrepreneur and business owner in the country. Take advantage of all the great free business advice available on the internet and on business forums. And if you aren’t already, look to become part of a business network, where you can support each other and pass each other referrals and leads, the cheapest and the best way to promote yourself in the current economic climate.

5.  DON’T give up
Don’t ever make a life changing decision when you are having a bad day – and that goes for anything. Wait until you are feeling more balanced and can look at your situation objectively. And as Heather says in Point 5 of her article – Sleep on it. Things never seem quite so bad after a good night’s sleep (provided your children didn’t keep you up all night, leaving you feeling even worse, that is!). And remember, you wouldn’t have started this business if you didn’t think it was a brilliant idea – so chances are, it is brilliant, and so are you!

When you work from home around a family, time is always against you. There are never enough hours in the day to please your kids, your partner and your customers – not forgetting yourself! So when you need answers or inspiration you don’t want to spend ages trawling the internet looking for it For this reason we have put together 10 of the best web resources for business mums, where you should be able to find the practical business advice, the inspiration and the support from your peers that you need.

 Pure Business Advice

1.  www.startupdonut.co.uk
If you’re thinking of starting up your business then Start Up Donut is a great place to begin. Bright, fun and easy to navigate this site covers all aspects of running a business including You and Your Idea, Formation, Finance, Law, Business Planning, Sales & Marketing, Premises, Employment and IT. There is a forum where you can chat to other business owners, a search facility to find a local business expert and a series of useful templates to help with your planning, including templates for your Business Plan, Start-Up Costs Calculator and Cashflow Calculator.

2.  www.businesslink.gov.uk
Business Link is a free business advice and support service, available online and through local advisers. It is developed in partnership with subject experts within government and relevant business-support organisations to help you comply with regulations and improve your performance. If you are thinking of starting your own business or are in the early stages, then you would be well advised to contact Business Link and arrange a free session with one of their business advisors. The website really is a one-stop-shop for people new to business and has a number of very useful resources such as the Business Start-up Organiser where you create a personalised list of tasks to assist you when setting up your business, and the Grants and Support Directory to pinpoint potential sources of help. However it also deals with an extended range of topics, beyond that of just Start-Ups, so when you are ready to grow your business, employ people, trade internationally or eventually sell your business then the Business Link site is definitely one to remember.

Information about Home Working

3.  www.enterprisenation.com
Enterprise Nation is the UK’s largest website for people starting and growing a business from home. Its founder, Emma Jones, runs the Home Business Awards, produces the annual Home Business Report and advises Government on the topic, so has an excellent pedigree to be advising on the subject. The site is split into 3 main sections, Business, Lifestyle & Technology and is an excellent resource for keeping bang up to date with what’s currently affecting home business owners, and the newsletter is also well worth signing up for. If you need any reassurance that working from home is the lifestyle choice for you then this is the website you need!

4.  www.funkyangel.co.uk
Funky Angel is a fabulous site containing a wealth of articles and advice aimed directly at Work at Home Mums. The founder, Claire Burdett, started this website long before WAHMs were fashionable and now is considered an expert in the field, offering business coaching as The Business Midwife, as well as running the Funky Agency which offers online marketing and communications support to business owners. And, if you are a single mum wanting to set up a business, Claire tries where she can to coach single mums free of charge, just because she knows how hard it is doing everything yourself!

Online networking & cost-effective promotion 

5. www.mumsclub.co.uk
Mumsclub is THE business club for mumpreneurs! Inspired and created by mum Jane Hopkins, MumsClub provides everything from home business opportunities, business tips & information, a thriving community forum. It provides an online place for mums to meet, network and discuss the daily issues faced when juggling business and family life. Mumsclub also runs a Mumpreneur Directory where business owners can advertise at extremely reasonable rates. They also produce The Business Mum’s Journal, a quarterly magazine for mums in business, which includes an inbuilt directory of mum-owned businesses, and is distributed through Mothercare stores.

6.  www.netmums.com
In my mind Netmums is a must have resource for any mum, and if you want to work for yourself they have a good overview section in their Work & Money section about all the different work-at-home options available. The Working For Yourself section of their Coffeehouse chat forum is particular good if you want to talk to other mums in business and is particularly popular with those mums involved in Direct Selling. And if the target audience for your business is mums too, you should take advantage of the free business listings and cheap advertising to their massive online audience of mums.

7. www.everywoman.com
Everywoman is the UK’s leading provider of training, resources and support services for women in business. They work to increase the number of women in the UK economy and raise their status, using their experience and expertise to help women achieve their aspirations and realise their business ambitions. The website is free to join and allows you to promote your business and network with other businesswomen online.  It offers a range of business advice as well as a database of local networking groups and organisations who support women. 

Informative Blogs

8. www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk/acatalog/blog/ & http://www.acpr.co.uk/pr-blog/
With Antonia Chitty you get 2 for the price of 1! Antonia has written a number of books about being your own boss including Family Friendly Working and Commercial Writing – How to Earn a Living as a Business Writer, and has another book being launched on 1st September called The Mumpreneur Guide. She also runs her own PR company ACPR providing DIY PR tools for business owners. Both Antonia’s blogs are always bang up to date with practical tips and articles on business and family, as well as motivating mumpreneur profiles. If you subscribe to Antonia’s blogs you will never be without a daily dose of information or inspiration!

9. www.selfemployedmum.co.uk
Self Employed Mum is a great blog if you want sensible business advice, in bitesize pieces. Set up by two mums juggling various business activities, Alison & Natalie wanted to provide “opinions, advice, and solutions in quick, easy to digest short posts” which is exactly what busy work-at-home mums need. Alison runs 3 businesses – a SEO Company, Tribal Mash, which provides SEO services for small businesses -  Arabella Miller – manufacturing organic baby clothes – and a baby bedding retail website. Natalie is a prolific blogger, writing Baggage Reclaim, Bambino Goodies ,Nest Goodies and Style Bambino. So between them they have the experience and the pedigree to write a blog that’s well worth reading!

10. www.mumstheblog.co.uk
Well, a little self-promotion never did anyone any harm, did it!

So, there are our 10 Top Web Resources for Work at Home Mums. If we’ve missed any good ones then please leave a comment – we’d love to hear about them!

Mum’s The Boss has been developing a new concept (within networking) of a business book library. Business books are helpful, but expensive. And as your business progresses through various stages, so you will want to look at a changing  aspects, such as marketing, employing other people, expanding the business etc. So to help our members we are building our own selection to loan out to members.

The shiny red cover, the practical ring binding, the coloured tabs – all ticked my boxes.  Where to start…..the beginning is usually a good place….but because of the layout of this book you can dive in where you please!

Unlike so many business books it is bright, it has pictures, diagrams, tables, colours, photos of people smiling, real life case studies – warts and all. But most of all it is so direct and genuine. Nothing is sugar coated, glossed over, or equally dry and full of warnings. It is inspirational and practical….which is what you want.  If gives you questions to answer, tasks to complete and places to go for further help, advice and information. It is very easy to see why it was winner of  the plain English Award in 2007.

If you are just starting out in business – this could be one of the best investments you make!

To find out more, order a copy, or download some free e-books please visit www.essential-business.co.uk