Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blyton_blue_plaque.jpg

I watched the film Enid with my husband this week and learnt many things about writing in the process.

Not only is Enid Blyton one of the world’s best-loved children’s authors, she was also one of the most prolific, writing around 800 books during her career at the rate of 6000 words a day.

Although the film shows her as a crotchety woman without maternal leanings towards her daughters, I still picked up some tips on writing from her.

1. Write every day – even if you have nothing to say, if you want to write make a commitment to do it daily. It might not be writing an article or a manuscript, but you could journal or write a series of blog or social media posts.

2. Write what you know – although many of Enid Blyton’s stories were fantasy, they were based on characters and scenes she knew from her life. Whether writing for business or pleasure, writing from your knowledge base or surroundings makes the process that much easier.

3. Don’t give up – it’s a story aspiring authors have heard many times, but if you’re committed to what you do, keep plugging away at it. Many publishers rejected Enid Blyton before being offered a contract. The difference between her and many other writers was that she kept pitching herself until she succeeded.

4. Keep in touch with your audience – Enid Blyton received bags and bags of letters from her fans and replied personally to many of them through letters written herself. She also publicly read from her books and invited her young fans to parties at her home. While opening your home may be a bit too personal, the idea rings true. If you stay connected with your audience, you will write what interests them – and you may even get some extra ideas.

5. Controversy adds an extra dimension – instead of allowing the rumours around not writing all the books herself affect her career, Enid Blyton chose to use the accusation in her favour and kept writing prolifically. When obstacles are presented it can spell the end of a business or career – only if you choose it to. Fighting for what you want can actually make you more desirable in the eyes of your audience. We all love an underdog!

Lei Momi camera bags fit this image perfectly, matching style with function for the ultimate photography accessory. Plus Lei Momi bags have plenty of room to fit everything you would normally fit into a handbag as well, so you only need one bag!

Launched from its Launceston base in Tasmania, Lei Momi camera bags are sold online to chic photographers worldwide.

Lei Momi founder and designer Pearl Chinthammit said she created the brand’s flagship bags – Alice and Lisbon – when she struggled to find a camera bag that could fit all the necessary equipment and look good at the same time.

“Photography is a real passion of mine, but I hate the standard black camera bags that most photographers lug around. I was inspired to design a functional camera bag that matched the stylish ideal I wanted to project,” Pearl said.

“Not only do Lei Momi bags look great, they also come with lots of compartments that each photographer can customise for their gear,” she added.

Both Alice and Lisbon camera bags include the following features:

• Lined compartments with adjustable dividers for maximum customisation

• Lots of pockets for storage

• Cross-body strap with shoulder pad for extra comfort

• Metal feet so the bag can stand on its own

• Serviceable and high quality faux leather and canvas fabrics

• Great colours

“I want female photographers to look as good as the photos they take, and these bags will definitely add to their natural flair,” Pearl said.

Lei Momi bags start from $159 RRP, with a range of shipping options for national and international delivery.

To look at the full range of Lei Momi camera bags visit www.leimomi.com.au or connect with Lei Momi on these social media platforms: facebook.com/LeiMomiBags, pinterest.com/leimomibags/ and twitter.com/LeiMomiBags.

The website was produced by Ionata Web Solutions for the Tasmanian Depart of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources (DIER) and launched by Infrastructure minister David O’Byrne, and Education and Skills minister Nick McKim earlier this year at Cambridge Primary School.

Ionata founder Martin Anderson, himself a father of school-age children, said the website and game were enjoyable to brainstorm and execute.

“We had a lot of fun trying to come up with an idea for the game which would be both fun and on message,” Martin explained.

“I had an idea based on the crossing at my girls’ school where the lollipop person covers two roads and has to keep moving between them. Our team worked together to refine the idea to create an engaging style of game play. And the ninja adds an extra fun element for the kids,” he said.

The bus safety website was designed to work on desktop, tablet and mobile devices to fit in with the modern classroom environment.

“Students use a variety of devices in the classroom from desktop computers, through to tablets like the iPad and even iPod Touches in some schools. With this in mind we designed the website and game to work across a range of different browsers and screen sizes,” Martin added.

Ionata Web Solutions worked collaboratively with fellow Hobart business One Tonne Graphic to ensure the illustrative website connected with the target market.

Children from 4-15 years can use the website, interacting with the Lollipop Ninja game, quizzes, worksheets and craft activities. There are also sections for teachers, parents and bus drivers.

The Bus Safety website is part of a complete safety campaign by the Tasmanian government which includes bus advertising, posters, stickers and fridge magnets.

Visit the website at www.bussafety.dier.tas.gov.au

Photo from Google Images

You’ve been working really hard to share your business story at every available opportunity and this effort has finally paid off with a call from a journalist to arrange an interview.

As tempting as it is to freak out and avoid the call (yes this does actually happen), the best course of action is to take a deep breath and follow these five tips to help give an interview worth quoting:

1. Deadlines – the journalist contacting you for an interview will only have so much time to put the story together. If you are not available within that time frame they will look elsewhere, so always ask when the deadline is and work with it.

2. Buy time – it is not often you will be forced to speak on the spot (unless you’re doing a vox pop in the street), so ask the journalist for an outline of their story, if they can send you some questions for you to think about and then agree on a time for the interview.

3. Prepare – use the time between the initial call and the interview to prepare the 3-4 main points you want to highlight and gather some statistics to back these points up (journalists love stats). Think about your answers to any potentially difficult questions as well, making sure you bring everything back to the points you want to focus on.

4. Keep it snappy – the best interviews are those full of 5-10 second ‘sound grabs’ that can be used as quotes on radio/TV or in a written piece. Watch the news tonight or read an article and see how long each expert speaks to see what I mean.

5. You’re the expert – the journalist has contacted you because they need to know information you have. You can ask to see your quotes for accuracy, but you may get a no. Don’t be intimidated by the prospect of being interviewed, just keep focusing on your key points and then you can’t get in trouble.

Once you see or hear what the journalist produced from your interview, keep in mind it is unlikely to be exactly as you thought it would be. If you’re happy with it let the journalist know. If you’re unhappy think carefully before responding – inaccurate facts can be corrected via a polite email, but journalists hate being corrected so tread carefully.

A journalists’ job is to tell a story in the best way possible, so you’ll be their best friend, and more likely to be contacted again, if you can make that job easier.

While large companies with established customers and millions in sales understand that they need to adapt, and small businesses can enjoy even bigger benefits from being able to change their focuses to adjust to changing markets, new technologies and revolutionary marketing techniques. The digital age has created entirely new ways to market products and services, focusing on greater personal interactions with customers, social networking and capturing the interest of far-flung clients to create loyalties based on like-minded attitudes. In this environment, small changes can attract one customer away from a competitor, but the process gets repeated dozens, hundreds or thousands of times for each new viewer. Making that extra effort to adjust your strategy to attract one ideal client offers repeat benefits for each new viewer of your online content.

Small Changes Have Major Implications

Established companies must be willing to change, or they risk becoming irrelevant. You may have heard of the “butterfly effect” — the theoretical premise that a single beat of a butterfly’s wings could change the course of history. Small changes in marketing focus could give your business the edge to beat a competitor each time a customer searches for a certain product.

Analytics help you to make adjustments based on what viewers do when browsing on your site. You can also track where they go after they leave your site. This technology allows better follow-up service, prospecting and accounting. Conservative businesses often fail to identify smaller opportunities by trying to appeal to the greatest numbers of people. Small businesses try harder to please their clients, and people respond. You can fine-tune your strategy to get higher returns from each website visitor, increasing sales and selling additional products.

Technology has its impersonal aspects, and customers hunger for personal connections. Combining technology with personal service encourages people to take note of your brand and recommend you to their friends and online contacts. Offering personal assistance and referrals to reliable online partners helps you to develop a positive reputation among certain groups of clients. These people may prefer to contact you for their needs, and they often prove willing to pay more for services.

Focusing on Ideal Customers

Business owners create systems for all kinds of tasks: ordering, production, quality control, hiring and building maintenance. Marketing systems also work like an assembly line, and if one part goes missing, then each product suffers. Many marketers try to reach greater numbers of viewers who have no intention of buying their products.

Savvy marketers adjust their campaigns to attract the ideal customer. Advertising and promotions must attract ideal customers for success, so refining your focus becomes mission-critical. Once you identify who makes an ideal customer, you can coordinate your advertising to reach and influence this type of customer. Landing a customer marks the first step, and keeping each client happy leads to referrals, repeat sales and potential lifelong loyalty.

Generating Favourable Press

Nobody understands your business as well as you, so you have an edge in communicating. Take advantage of free marketing tools that give you better promotional abilities. Posting press releases, blogs and videos helps to spread your message. Regardless of forum, remember that you really want to change behaviour, so give people valid reasons to do so. People who sell products and services must give compelling reasons to persuade people to change brand loyalties. Don’t make the mistake of describing cool features — people buy benefits, so show how your products provide the benefits that people want.

In some cases, you might need to change your own behaviour to appeal to certain clients. This could involve taking an active interest in the community, becoming a recognised expert in your field or offering incentives for people to try your superior products. You might need to include interactive website features to build customer loyalty or start a video campaign that gives instructions in uses for your products. Consider features like Google Virtual Tours to give viewers better understandings of your product’s advantages or your taste in design. Customers who like your style will be predisposed to favor and buy your products, services or calls to action. Learn how to contact media outlets to promote special events. Articles, press releases and media pitches can express your views to expanded audiences to help attract ideal customers.

Cloud Storage Offers Frameworks for Rapid Growth

Everyone who markets online needs to store data about their customers, but switching to cloud storage systems could facilitate growth, help to market products through mobile devices and protect critical data from accidental losses or theft. Cloud services help you share information and files, allow customer access to service resources and facilitate sending out emails to thousands of clients to promote new products and services.

Social Media Networking Multiplies Small Changes Exponentially

Social media networking helps to extend your influence, targets your ideal customer and builds loyalties among like-minded customers that share your views or interests. These people will more likely buy your products and services, improving your returns on marketing investments. You can’t force people to respond, and hard-sell efforts are doomed to failure. Grow your community of followers by offering organic content that people find meaningful and engaging with content shared by your followers.

Social media promotions require attention and hard work. The cost financially is small, but be prepared to work at growing your business. Social sharing makes the efforts worthwhile because happy customers share their experiences with friends. Making the right small changes attracts clients, leads and referrals. The process repeats exponentially through referrals, so small changes in strategy could deliver phenomenal results. Hard selling might be inappropriate, but don’t be afraid to ask people to like your content and explain the benefits people get by liking your pages.

Examples of Successful Adaptation of Change

Many companies have experienced dramatic results by making small changes in their marketing strategies. Examples include all kinds of businesses, and even simple improvements to checkout processes could multiply the number of successful sales for small businesses.

Hard Row to Hoe

This Washington state winery made good wine but got few sales when it was called Balsam Root. The name change and social media promotion tripled sales.

Cartweaver

This company created a plug-in for Adobe’s Dreamweaver that gives users more appealing shopping-cart checkout experiences, and social media promotion alone helped the Adobe cart grow into one of the top-two shopping cart applications, with strong sales in more than 11 countries.

Wine Library

Wine Library, an established New Jersey retailer of spirits and wines, grossed $2 million annually without any online sales program. The son of the founder created an online marketing program, which he promoted with a video blog called Wine Library TV. This company now earns $60 million annually.

Method

Method, a company conceived by Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan, built an astonishing green business selling natural cleaning products by promoting ecology, recycling and taking advantage of people’s interest in superheroes.

Finding out how to make the right changes has no exact formula, but studying the market, identifying the right ideal customer and taking advantage of new marketing and technology trends can help you achieve astonishing results. You can take advantage of the demand for information by providing articles, stories, descriptions, illustrations, videos and social sharing. Combined with analytics, these small changes can help to refine your efforts to find the most effective strategies.

Philip J Reed is a business writer residing in (sometimes) sunny Denver, CO. In his spare time, when he gets any, he likes to unwind with a good book and his great dog.

I’m not talking about a business that follows green eco-friendly principles, although I’m sure that could be relevant. I mean a business that lasts beyond the statistics.

It has been on my mind a lot over the past year or so, particularly when I speak to fellow small business owners who are battling the vicious cycle of late-paying clients, which then stops their cash flow and affects their staff and contractors.

Anyway, enough doom and gloom. Last month Roy Morgan Research released figures showing business confidence was up. About time! I wonder if the business owners surveyed had been thinking about the ways they could innovate to ensure their sustainability?

I am hoping to pick up a few tips on this subject at an upcoming event for International Women’s Day. Women on Focus is presenting Celebrating Women Building Sustainable Business at Stillwater on March 15. Will I see you there?

What makes your business sustainable?

Top bloggers from around the country including Darren Rowse, Kerri Sackville, Nicole Avery and Annabel Candy will be speaking at the two-day event in Sydney on 20-21 March.

Digital Parents Conference is now in its third year and aims to empower bloggers with information and tools to succeed in their blogs. The sessions include panels, interactive workshops, keynote speakers, networking opportunities and a sponsor hall all tailored for Australia’s mum, parent and personal blogging communities, Digital Parents founder Brenda Gaddi said.

“Our program inspires bloggers, but also arms them with tools to make their writing better, promote their blogs and how to use their blog as a platform from which to launch a successful freelance business or even write a book,” Brenda explained.

Previous conference attendees said:

“This has been one of the best conferences I have attended. It was well organised, professional, smoothly run and yet still welcoming and engaging.”

“I was warmly accepted into this world, and my relatively different life experiences and blogging style did not stop this lovely group from making me feel part of their family.”

Digital Parents Conference also covers photography sessions, tips on creating professional looking vlogs, and the legal side of blogging.

Early Bird Passes to the conference are already sold out. Full Blogger Passes are still available for $350 and Industry Passes are $500.

For more information about the conference or to book your ticket visit www.digitalparentsconference.com.au

Northern Tasmania Development President, Albert van Zetten, said that it appears Australia Post has grossly underestimated the importance of next-day mail services to the community, particularly for businesses.

Albert van Zetten said “Many businesses in this region depend on effective overnight mail services.”

“Any moves by Australia Post to reduce service levels will negatively impact a range of enterprises including professional services and food producers.”

“It is vital that this region has equal access to the national Express Post next-day network. We deserve a reasonable standard of postal service. That service should include a next-day option.”

Since news of service reductions became public, few details have been released by Australia Post to explain or justify the changes.

“This situation has created uncertainty amongst the business community. Australia Post needs to provide information about the proposed service reductions as well as the reasons for the changes.”

“It is positive to hear that Geoff Lyons MHA is having discussions with Australia Post to explore alternative arrangements including earlier deadlines that might maintain next-day delivery. However, the business community needs clarity about any proposed alternatives as well as an opportunity to comment.”

ENDS.

For further information please contact: Derek Le Marchant 0400 338 410

Striped Background (left) & Pink Spot (right)

My book about starting and running a business around children, Business & Baby on Board, is almost a finished product.

Since I crowdsourced funding to publish the book it made perfect sense to me to also crowdsource the cover designs. You can see from the two covers above the woman and her baby with the cityscape is central to both, with the titles and background providing the difference. The talented team at AJD Creative designed both covers.

I uploaded both designs to my social media networks and asked my friends and family what they thought. Here’s how the 97 votes played out:

As you can see the winner was the softer pink cover with the spot highlighting the title. This will be the cover for the print edition of Business & Baby on Board.

In the process of crowdsourcing these cover designs it was suggested to me to use both covers, since they were both popular. Upon speaking with Editia, who is publishing the ebook edition, it was decided the striped background would probably work better as a thumbnail.

So the upshot is Business & Baby on Board could have two covers. What are you thoughts on this?

There is skill involved in receiving an invitation to sit on the couch with Mel and Kochie (and it doesn’t involve making outlandish statements about mums!), but many small business owners struggle to find the time to hone these skills amongst all the other tasks they have on a daily basis.

The other option is paying a professional to do it, but that can be an expense that eats up the whole business’s marketing budget – and more!

PR consultant and small business owner Johanna Baker-Dowdell has developed the solution – a group PR program. Make Me a Star has been developed with small business owners who want to generate their own publicity in mind.

“Nobody can tell a business’s story better than the person who started it because they infuse their tale with the passion that catches the media’s attention,” Johanna explained.

“I work as a journalist and a PR consultant so I understand how the media thinks and what works. My Make Me a Star training program will teach SMEs what they need to know to generate publicity for their businesses.”

The Make Me a Star program includes six one-hour online learning sessions covering:

• Building a media contact list including print, online and broadcast

• Contacting media outlets

• Creating an editorial calendar

• Writing media pitches, press releases, articles and case studies

• Advice on drawing everything together for a complete PR strategy

Participants also receive templates, ideas and admission to a private mastermind group to share ideas with others on the program.

Make Me a Star ran over November and December 2012 and a second course will start in February 2013. Business owners who would like to join the program in its beta phase can start now. A reservation list has been started for the February course as well.

Fore more information, or to secure a spot on the Make Me a Star program visit www.strawberrycommunications.com.au/make-me-a-star

* Source: Crikey – Over half of your news is spin