How to structure and plan your business story
How to tell your business story
Telling your business story might feel daunting. Where do you start? What should you include? How will people respond? What if they don't respond? Will it feel like a school assignment?
We asked Rachel Extance, who helps businesses find their stories and tell them effectively, to be our Ask The Expert and tell us how to plan out our stories, what structure to use and how to share them. She covered what to do if you're faced with blank page syndrome, how to tell stories if you think your business is 'boring' and how to not feel awkward about sharing stories.
This is a write-up of a conversation between our members.
What are your business stories?
Q. Is it best to have one overall story for your business then break that down over a series of different blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts etc? Or maybe have mini-stories that slot into the main one?
Rachel Extance Your business will have lots of different stories:
- Your main story is the one about how you fit in to your perfect customer’s life. What difference do you make? How is their world improved by you being a part of it?
- You have your origin story. How did your business come about?
- You have your personal/founder story. This may be similar to your origin story (if you started a business because you were made redundant for example or you have always had a talent for making something) or it may be different. How did you become an accountant? Or come to be in a different city/country?
- Then you have other stories:
- Case studies
- Stories about your products
- Stories which help people understand how what you do can help them
- Stories about what is happening in your business
- Stories about things you’re doing which indirectly relate to your business
- networking events you have been to
- a place you have been
- anything which gives people an insight into your world and helps them get to know you
It’s important that your stories have the key components of a story (see next section).
So those are some examples of the stories you can tell. And you can see from those two lists that some of those stories are ones which can be told time and time again. They will be on your website, you can share them on social media, you can tell them to people when you meet.
Others will have a shorter shelf life. It might be something which is relevant for a day or a week.
Ideally, you want a mix of stories so you always have something you can share to help people coming across you for the first time to get to know you and how you can help them, and for people who are already in your network to enjoy and have a chat with you about.
Q. Thank you, really helpful! How do you fit those into some kind of strategy/framework or whatever so that eg. you don't bore people by telling your origin story too much or you end up telling lots of smaller ones that don't hang together that well?
Rachel Extance Think about where and how you are going to share your stories. If you're using Twitter for instance, you can share the same thing quite a lot without people getting bored of it.
Also think about all the different things you can pull out of your story to share. So if you were to take your origin story you could have a post which says: "How I overcame ... to ...."
Then: "Why I....."
Another could be: "I was really struggling with...."
If your post has sub-headings, these can all be individual tweets.
Also quote yourself. Look for lines which stand out in your story and use them as tweets.
You can probably get at least 5 different posts out of one story (I've seen people talk about 10x or more).
Spread them out and share them on different days. So one month put it out on Tuesday am, the next month Thursday lunchtime, next time Saturday evening.
If you are blogging/recording regularly so you have new material to share, shout about it. Your followers don't want to miss it. You can say it's new and put it out every day for a week at different times.
On Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, things have a longer shelf life. But there's nothing wrong with recycling a piece of content round again after a break.
If in doubt, have a look at the timeline of a brand or person whose work you really enjoy and who posts regularly. See if you can spot how often they put out the same post with a different message.
Reposting also gives you the opportunity to experiment with different messages, timings and imagery.
Plan your posts out over 3 months. You'll find you don't need to repeat that often.
What is a story?
Rachel Extance A story has some key ingredients: a beginning, a middle, and an end.
It also needs:
Characters (the who)
Action (what, where, how, why). The ‘why’ is important. People need to know the motivation and want to know what happens next or they will stop reading/listening/watching.
A resolution (how did it end?)
It needs to be relatable and it needs to create an emotional connection.
Posting a photo of a cup of coffee or what you ate for breakfast (no matter how pretty it looks) is not, in my opinion, a story.
However, it can become a story if you can talk about your favourite cafe and why you love going there and that the owner, Michael, makes the best carrot cake in town. Or that you are drinking coffee while working on a new chapter of your book/planning a workshop/developing a new service and tell people a little about your process and when they can expect to be able to see the result. This kind of story can be helpful for keeping you accountable. If you’ve told people there will be a book, there needs to be a book by x date. People will want to know the latest stories about how the book is coming along.
It’s vital that your stories resonate with your audience. What’s your story giving them? Is it information? (Stories are a great teaching tool.) Is it entertainment? Does it help them get to know you and remind them how much they enjoy working with you?
Q. Really helpful. I forget that stories can be really short. I keep thinking I need to write a 1000 word blog post as a minimum!
Rachel Extance stories can be very short.
Just to add to this, the 'end' doesn't have to be 'the end'. (You also don't have to start at the beginning). If you think about a soap opera, there are lots of stories running at the same time. Some are begun and resolved in an episode, some run over several episodes. And it's all one long story with people coming and going for years. 'The end' just needs to be a means of rounding off your story so people aren't left hanging, wondering if there's more to come or what happened to a character.
Q. Got it! It's like Doctor Who... you've got the overall story that's run for over 50 years, the story of each incarnation of the Doctor, the story of each series and the story of each episode. All nested together. Then I guess there's the story of the alien who only shows up for 5 minutes. 🤣 (And the guy who gets sucked out of an air lock).
Rachel Extance You get bonus points for relating it all to Doctor Who :-) Yes, exactly that.
How to tell your business story without feeling awkward about it
Q. Sometimes I'm a bit too close to my story and can't tell whether it's going to resonate or just feel a bit cheesy or self-congratulatory. Any tips for writing stories that are 'ooh' rather than 'urgh'?
Rachel Extance There is nothing wrong with telling people a story about success.
If you don’t tell your stories, no-one will ever know. People can’t know that you are brilliant at writing emails which achieve a higher than average open-rate, or that you won a client an award, or that you’re feeling pleased because you figured something out that’s been bugging you for ages, unless you share it.
Sharing success stories is important in influencing people’s buying decisions. People often don’t approach you until they have made that decision to buy. Seeing good reviews of you and stories from you about work you have done with others helps them make up their mind.
How often do you get talking to someone you haven’t seen for a while and it turns out they don’t have a clue what you do for a living? They might be a potential customer, or they might know someone else who is.
Humans are wired for stories. We love hearing them and reading them. Why else do we spend a stupid amount of time on social media when we all absolutely have better things to do with our time? We want stories. What are our friends up to? A clip from our favourite show, a bit of nostalgia, we cannot get enough of stories.
When you're sharing a story, give people reading/listening/watching something they can use. You’ve just successfully done something for a client: this tells other people looking to do the same thing that you can help them. You could also share a tip or two which your audience can benefit from.
Tell people the difference it has made to you or your client. Figuring out this issue means you can now take Friday off and you’re going to go shopping. Or it’s enabled a client to make x new orders this week.
For example, “I made £5000 this week" sounds boastful. But try: “I'm celebrating the launch of my new product line which I’ve been working on for the past 6 months. We knew people really needed help with x so we developed y. I held a launch party at z with so-and-so (or went live on Facebook) and was really nervous but then the orders came flooding in and we sold £5,000! This is my best launch so far and I’m really grateful to companies x, y, and z who helped me make it happen”
You’ve shown people there was a process. You didn’t just make £5,000, you worked hard for it. You listened to customers and met a need. You stepped out of your comfort zone and did a launch. You didn’t just do it by yourself, you had others to help you.
[pullquote]Humans are wired for stories. We love hearing them and reading them. Why else do we spend a stupid amount of time on social media when we all absolutely have better things to do with our time? We want stories.[/pullquote]
Selling with stories
Q. What about the balance between telling stories and selling? Do you have any tips for selling using a story so it feels authentic but not pushy?
Rachel Extance I have struggled with 'selling' since I started out. But over time I've reconciled myself with it and I believe we're all selling all the time.
I mentioned earlier that people have often made up their mind before you hear from them. This is the Zero Moment of Truth. Telling stories helps people get to know you and understand what you're offering, whether they are in the market for your products and services or not.
I'm personally not a fan of stories which start with some shock, horror click bait intro. But that's probably because I'm a cynic.
I do believe that every business has stories to tell. We're all human. And that telling our stories creates connections and helps us come to mind when people are looking for someone who does what we do.
I should say that people who advise you to write 'shock horror click bait intros' do so because the stats show that they work.
What stories can 'boring' businesses tell?
Q. Any tips for those people who feel their business subject is just too dull to have any juicy stories? (People have told me this as I've been trying to plan out their email newsletters with them - so this is their opinion rather than mine!)
Rachel Extance If you have started a business then it can't be that boring. It must also have a market, otherwise you're not going to make any money from it, therefore people must be interested in it.
How does water supply impact on your customers? What does it enable them to do?
What are the benefits of someone doing your books for you?
Another way to approach it, if you're a service industry, is to talk about the interesting jobs/business your clients have. How does your SAAS product enable these cool kids to keep doing amazing things?
Being authentic when you have a challenging story to tell
Q. Challenging stories. I don't want my back story to isolate people but it's a big part of my narrative and impossible to skip over lightly, is there a tone or way to share that is inclusive.
Q. That's a really tough balance. I know social media experts say you should be authentic and you'll attract the right people, but what if you go a bit too far and start putting off the right people? Also, where do you draw the line between authentic and just a bit too personal?
Rachel Extance There is no right or wrong answer to this. Your story is important and part of who you are. As with talking to people face to face, how much you share and where you share is down to you. You don't have to give people details you don't want to give them. You have a right to a personal life and to keep that personal. Equally, sharing your story can help others who have similar experiences. Being authentic just means being you. It doesn't mean getting into conversations you feel uncomfortable with.
What if you're shy about telling stories?
Q. Any tips for the reluctant clients that know they should be doing these activities but are too 'shy' to commit?
Rachel Extance This is one of the many situations in which I'm not sure school did us a favour!
We feel there are rules.
We feel we're going to be judged.
We're scared about how permanent it is.
People are going to look at us.
But:
The chances of you doing a Gerald Ratner are incredibly small. Really. What could you possibly do that's going to sink your business?
My guide on this is always: would you be happy to see this splashed across the front page of a newspaper?
Put yourself in someone else's shoes and consider whether they will see something in what you have written or recorded that they are so appalled by that they will boycott your business or ring up a newsdesk.
Sometimes people do make innocent mistakes, it's true. But when it happens it's newsworthy because it is very rare, particularly if they are working with a professional.
Q. I think often online 'failure' for a small business means that it doesn't resonate and nobody reads to the end or shares it. You need to be pretty big to have a viral disaster. So the worst that can usually happen is that nobody sees it.
Rachel Extance Blogging/video/podcasting, you name it, builds over time. If you give up after the first one, or 3 or 10, it is never going to be a success for you.
Keep putting your newsletter out there. Keep writing your blog. Keep recording video, whatever it is. This article about formats for storytelling has good advice on this.
Then make sure you share it. So many people (including me) create things and then don't have time to share them. Draw up a posting schedule and put aside some time to load up your posts.
People might not see it the first time or they might not have time to read it. Scheduling it several times increases the chances of it reaching a wider audience.
If you have a clear idea of who your customer is and you know why you have created the piece of content with their needs in mind, then it will resonate.
How to overcome blank page syndrome
Q. I often have email marketing clients who say they don't have time to do the writing and can't think what to write anyway. I know one answer is to ask you (Rachel Extance) to do it for them, but I'm sure there are some easy ways to get over 'blank page syndrome' and produce some stories fast - do you have any tips?
Sometimes I think it's just that they have so much they could say and don't know how to extract a good, concise story from it. Often we've been taught a business or academic style of writing and felt we haven't written stories since primary school.
[pullquote]Blogging/video/podcasting, you name it, builds over time. If you give up after the first one, or 3 or 10, it is never going to be a success for you.[/pullquote]
Q. I have a few design clients that wonder why a blog page on their website for the same reasons, the 'blank page' fear and what have they got to say. I know from working with them that they have a story to tell but that extra push seems to be confidence?
Rachel Extance 1. Write! I know this sounds crazy but seriously, write. Whatever comes into your head. It doesn't matter. No-one is looking. You can scrunch the piece of paper up and throw it in the bin. Or have a file on your computer marked "drafts do not publish". It doesn't matter but write.
This is about to move into content marketing but it helps with telling stories because you need to kickstart your brain into being happy to put things out into the world.
2. Start with a list of the most common questions you get asked. If nobody's asked you yet, then look online for what people ask about. Try
- Answer the public
- Google search
- Looking at chapters in books (they're not going to be there if people aren't interested in knowing)
- Amazon listings all have reviews and a place where people ask questions. What did they like? What did they want to know about? What was missing?
- You can do the same thing with online course reviews.
3. Make a list of questions, you could start with 3, and write a detailed answer to them.
- how does someone book you?
- what information do you need to know from them?
- how does x service benefit them?
You now have three things which you know are helpful to prospective customers which you can share.
Another simple thing to do is imagine you are having a conversation with someone in the pub. You can do this with a friend/colleague/relative and record it on your phone. Otter.ai is a handy dictation tool. Tell them a story. Then read through the transcription and turn it into a blog post or re-record it as a piece to camera or audio.
How to structure your story
Q. How is the best way to structure a story when there’s so much to say?
Rachel Extance Another good question. Try to make it as simple as you can.
Can you tell it in 12 words or less?
This makes you focus on the key details. What did you put first, before you ran out of words?
Next, break it into 3 sections: beginning, middle, end.
Start with the key details you identified at the beginning. Focus on your audience. What do they want to know? Why are they going to keep listening/reading? Is that detail you feel is important actually relevant?
If it helps, give yourself a word limit for each bit. 20 words for the beginning, 100 words for the middle, 50 words for the end, for example.
Or try writing it as a tweet, 280 characters.
Depending on where you are telling your story, you can then go back again and expand the middle. You might need to explain a key concept. Or put in a quote. Or share an analogy which will help your audience understand.
But you might well find that while you could say a lot more, you might not need to. Or that you can break down the big thing you wanted to talk about into bite sized things which makes it more accessible.
How far ahead do you plan your stories?
Q. How far in advance do you plan? or advise your clients to plan? Weeks, months, quarters?? Having a plan means the output is so much better than constantly winging it IMO.
Rachel Extance I would plan at least 3 months ahead. This enables you to create your own story arc which could go something like:
Origin story
Founder story
Product spotlight
Customer case study
An event
Product spotlight
How we helped...
A cause we support or supplier we want to showcase
Product spotlight
Member of staff we want to champion
Something new we're working on
A look back over the last 3 months/a look forward to the next quarter
Product spotlight
You're able to present a well-rounded view of your business, talking about different aspects of it, and highlight your core offerings. This ties in to Helen's question above about selling.
You then know what you need to create and when you need to create it by. Having a content plan means you're unlikely to hit Friday and say: "Oh we didn't put a newsletter out or post this week's blog/video"
I would then look at what's coming up each month. Does it still fit? Has something else happened? Perhaps you're up for an award you didn't know about at the start of the quarter so you want to slot that in.
You also need to give yourself enough time to create your content, including pictures/video, get sign off from anyone if need be, do SEO, and leave enough time to create social media posts.
You can also batch content creation. Set a specific time every week or month aside when you create 2 or 4 articles/videos and create the social media posts. If you know what your plan is, it's very easy to do this.
Would you like to know more? Get in touch with Rachel Extance at The Story Cave or talk to her on Twitter.
How to grow an audience for your service or product
How to find your tribe
You’ve got a great service or product. You know it’s going to help people. But how do you start getting the word out? How do you create an audience who want to hear from you?
Martyn Sibley has grown two successful businesses, selling one of them to AirBnB. He was recently voted the third most influential disabled person in Britain, has a blue tick on his Twitter account, and is now focused on helping world-changers to run social enterprises.
He started out by growing an audience online. We asked him to take questions from our members about how to go about it.
This is a transcript of a live conversation.
Can you grow an audience organically on social media?
Q. Did you use any paid advertising or was it all organic, networking, building relationships etc?
Martyn Sibley Only now am I really considering paid for media. Mainly as I've learned how to package up information products and sell at scale.
Therefore it was all free and organic. Therefore the risk/cost was only my time.
Q. Great, I'd like to know what methods work best, then!
Martyn Sibley You'll be unsurprised to hear me say it depends on the situation.
Partly I think creating content in a way you prefer is good. Because you'll be more comfortable and passionate. That said it's healthy to push your comfort zone sometimes. Overall create in a way you like to.
The next part is about your business plan and marketing plan. Who are your audience? What are their likes and interests? Where do they hang out? What do they believe?
When you know their relevant aspirations and why they're stuck (which is why your working all these hours to provide a solution), you can attract them with suitable content on suitable media.
So think demographics and personality traits. Then the tools will become more obvious.
One other point to make is there's always trial and error. Plus new tools come along and evolve. So updating social media plans are important.
How much time does it take to develop relationships through social media?
Q. Social media is often reported as the game changer in developing these connections - the time this takes is much longer than people envisage. How much time did you allocate to developing your social media relationships? Did you do this activity yourself or outsource to others?
Martyn Sibley When I started I was working full time for a large national charity. My strategy was to tell my story, build my community, with Calls To Action (CTA).
So I started with getting martynsibley.com live, planning appropriate content, and actually writing/recording the content.
Once I had live content, I spent an hour or two per night and over the weekend just joining relevant conversations. Back then in 2009 I found Twitter better for keywords and influencers. Nowadays I use Facebook groups like this more, because I have my own tribe.
As things evolved, we launched www.disabilityhorizons.com, volunteers joined our mission, and I have support from others with things like researching other content to share, scheduling daily posts in advance on Hootsuite, and engaging with the tribe.
Overall I agree, it takes more time than people would like. But when you're in something with passion and the long run, it's a case of knowing you have time and to create lasting relationships.
Relationships lead to collaboration, customers and friendships.
Q. Advocates/case studies - can be great, they can be hard work to onboard and sometimes fail to deliver any real added value. Did you use advocates/case studies and how did you decide where the best 'fit' applied?
Martyn Sibley We haven't really pushed for and used official testimonials. Our social media following and engagement does that for us.
Really we're talking about social proof. Rather than think too specific about testimonials, like people get stressed about which social media channel to use, it's better to be clear on business plan and marketing plan, and find tactics that are effective without needing to take ages to do.
Our community are the business. We exist to serve them. As long we remember this, the word of mouth happens because we're delivering value each and every day.
[pullquote]Relationships lead to collaboration, customers and friendships.[/pullquote]
Q. How early in the process of developing the service/product should you start building an audience?
Martyn Sibley This depends. I started with a mission; to make the world inclusive and empower disabled people. So I started with the audience. I broadcasted my message and created a tribe of like-minded people. We learned from our community what they needed, and gave them solutions.
Conversely, if you know your product/service, then the other way round is fine too.
The main advice I can give is to use social media as a dialogue. Not a monologue. This way people can be part of the process. Feeling more engaged. And ultimately they become happy and loyal customers
Top tips for growing your audience
Martyn Sibley Some other thoughts:
- Having a content calendar helps to plot out the needs/interests your audience have, and what you're going to publish when.
- If you're comfortable, be open. People don't just buy from businesses, they buy through trust from people they like.
- Try to use images and videos where possible.
- Promote your mission/vision way more than your product or service. Particularly support others in your tribe. Nobody likes to hear about features and discounts all the time.
- Find your tribe on social media and also at networking events (like Drive!). I spoke loads for free, which always lead to something else.
- CTAs (Call To Actions) can be anything from; subscribe to email newsletter, follow on social media, share your opinion on this, answering a poll, signing up for an event and then sometimes 'buy now'.
- Think in funnels. Where are people on their customer journey? How do you convert prospects into customers? How are you managing customer communications (see last week's ATE)?
- Do fun things like giveaways and competitions. Generally be joyful and playful. Business doesn't have to be serious.
- Finally, always seek feedback and listen to your tribe. They are your most important asset.
Would you like to know more? Get in touch with Martyn Sibley or follow him on Twitter.
Streamline your sales and marketing
How to sell without being spammy
Experts estimate that it costs seven times more to sell to a new contact than an existing customer, so it makes sense to make the most of existing contacts and encourage them to buy more than once.

Helen Lindop is a consultant who helps small businesses do more with tech, to find and use the best CRM* or ESP**, and capture leads from marketing so that they become part of a sales pipeline.
*CRM = Contact or Customer Relationship Management system
**ESP = Email Service Provider, e.g., Mailchimp or similar newsletter / email service.
This is a transcript of a live conversation.
People want to hear from you. Yes, really.
Q. My issue is feeling like I'm bugging people... Tips for having a stern word with myself?!
Helen Lindop OK, practical tips that don't involve stern words.
1) They want to hear from you. These days nobody hands over their email address lightly, so if you have it then they want to hear from you.
2) It may feel like a one-way communication but it doesn't have to be. You can check your stats to see how many people open and click on which email to judge what's popular and what isn't. You can ask your subscribers to hit reply and give you their opinion. You can do surveys to ask what they'd like to know. It's not all that different to social media.
3) Most of the 'I hate email' comments come from receiving bad, boring, pushy emails that they didn't subscribe to. It's completely different if you send emails people want to receive.
4) You already have a relationship with your subscribers when they opt in - they've said they weant to hear from you. Work on growing that in a positive way rather than trying not to annoy them. (Apologies for giving a coach the mindset talk!)
Get your CRM set-up to delight rather than deluge
Q. Most of the CRM / ESP platforms offer automated services that can bombard contacts with content, over reaching and generally annoying folks in lots of circumstances. Which system is good at managing this output without emails spewing out all over the place?
Ann Hawkins The opposite side of that is that a few years a go I bought a necklace from someone I'd met networking. It arrived beautifully packaged and I loved it but there were no contact details in the packaging and I never heard a peep from them ever again.
Helen Lindop Larger businesses have very sophisticated CRMs that risk over-doing it, but very small businesses often have none or a very basic one, as illustrated by Andy and Ann's examples. This is one of the areas where I think small businesses could really get ahead, because many aren't using this tech, which is now much cheaper and more accessible than it used to be, and if we did use CRMs we could use them in a way that improves our sales and customer service but without losing that personal touch.
To answer your question - which system is best for avoiding the spewing of emails - I think it's more about how you use it than the tool itself. So it's a case of working out your goals, then breaking that down into your business processes or pipeline, then picking a tool or set of tools to fit.
How does your email list fit in with your customer relationship management?
Q. I'm becoming aware that e-mailing subscribers is different from a full on CRM system. Plus we're starting to offer education products to customers. So my questions are:
1) Where does emailing subscribers fit into a bigger CRM strategy?
2) What software do you recommend?
3) Do you have to be techy to understand them?
Helen Lindop For 1) it's hard to explain here because it's complicated but this blog post should cover most of it https://helenlindop.com/2018/11/16/whats-the-difference-between-a-crm-and-an-esp-email-service-provider/
2) An alternative to a CRM is a membership platform on your website. It can be hard to get people off Facebook and into your membership site, so you may find a Facebook group is enough to begin with. But if you do stick with Facebook make sure you have everyone on a mailing list so that you can contact them if something goes wrong on Facebook. Software that leans more towards marketing automation is available (see the blog post) but it also depends how you intend to deliver and take payment for the information products.
3) Although you don't need to be techy to use these, being a bit techy helps when setting them up, which is the service I offer. Having a well-defined strategy at the beginning, before you start to look at tools, will make everything much easier.
Q. I used to use Capsule as my CRM. Is there’s anything better or would a spreadsheet do just as well.
Helen Lindop OK, without knowing exactly what you need, but by guessing you tend to work one-to-one with clients, I would say Capsule is likely to be much better than an Excel spreadsheet because it:
a) Will allow you to save email conversations so you don't need to dig through your inbox
b) Will allow you to set reminders to follow up with prospective clients
c) You'll need a client database of some kind anyway, and Capsule is better for storing names, addresses etc than Excel
d) You can integrate it with your mailing list if you need to
e) You can set up your 'sales process' (not a very friendly term, but you know what I mean) e.g. if your process is client emails you > you book a discovery call > if you haven't heard from them in a week you follow up > they either sign up as a client or go back on the list to be called in 6 months , then you can put that all in Capsule so you can plot each person's progress against it.
f) If you share your client data with your business partner you won't get the errors you would get from passing an Excel spreadsheet between you.
Q. Thanks Helen you’re right it does all of that. It has vast capabilities but I feel more than I need?
Helen Lindop If your needs are fairly basic for now you could look at Hubspot CRM? This gives you a lot of features for free, but beware it gets expensive fast if you need to go beyond the free plan. But if you feel Capsule does a lot more than you need then I expect you could comfortably fit in the Hubspot free plan.
Micro-businesses have nothing to fear from GDPR
Q. For the absolute beginner who has no idea where to start and is scared by GDPR, what are the basics you need your CRM to do?
Ann Hawkins Can we please lay the ghost of GDPR? It was never intended to apply to small businesses in the way that most of the unscrupulous advisors implied, purely to make money by scaremongering. Who do you think might lodge a complaint against you, and for what? If you accidentally send someone an email that they didn't sign up for, the most they'll do is send you a snotty note. They're not going to go to the authorities and lodge a complaint, and even if they do, the compliance bods are not interested in this scale of things. They're after the big players who willfully misuse information for profit. Stop even thinking about GDPR if you're a micro business. Just think good practice, keeping your clients data safe, and you'll be fine!
Helen Lindop A key part of GDPR is not keeping data unless you have a good reason to do so, which is good practice anyway. Every reputable CRM and ESP now has GDPR compliance features that are easy to check.
Can you transfer contacts from one system to another?
Q. If you have contacts on a mailing list in say, Mailchimp, can you port them across to a CRM?
Helen Lindop It's very easy to import contact details into a CRM. You just upload a CSV ( ie a list in Excel will be fine).
Something else to consider is that you might not want your entire mailing list in your CRM anyway. Perhaps you just want them to go in your CRM when they are customers so you can follow up? Maybe you just want those leads in your CRM who are quite likely to buy, rather than anyone who has ever downloaded your freebie?
Strategy first, then choose your CRM
Q. Once you've started putting people in your CRM, then what?
Helen Lindop You need to work this out before you get a CRM, really. But for anyone who isn't sure why you might need one, here's a blog post with an example https://helenlindop.com/2018/10/22/crm-for-your-micro-business
Q. Aha! So you need a strategy first.
Helen Lindop Absolutely! There are so many tools out there that there's bound to be one that does what you need, so it's a question of being very sure what you need before you begin.
And if there isn't one that does what you want, you can hook existing tools together using Zapier or similar.
Q. I feel like there are probably specific CRM tools for Accountants, such that they cater for the management of all the deadlines, on-boarding (which is painful because of all the regulations for our Practising Licence), and case history.
Any tips on options for this, Helen. (FYI - I don't expect you'll know Accounting specific tools, but still interested to read your input).
Helen Lindop For an industry that's as highly regulated as accountancy I would definitely look for an industry-specific tool first as this is likely to save a lot of customisation. I'd be surprised if there wasn't one, actually.
Q. Just to jump in here. I’ve recently been trialling GoProposal, which I really like so will probably keep, for proposals, LoEs and part of the onboarding. On the CRM/practice management/deadline tracking side, I used to use Senta and hated it and aim to start trialling Accountancy Manager in the new year. Onkho and Karbon might also be worth a look, but most people I know are moving from those to Accountancy Manager.
Would you like to know more? Get in touch with Helen Lindop or follow her on Twitter.
How to use fonts to create the right reaction
Fonts have feelings: how to find the ones that create the emotions you want
How do you decide what font to use on your website, in a publication or on social media? Fonts form families which complement each other.

They create a visual impression before anyone has read what you have to say. And they have stories to tell. We asked Berenice Smith, of Hello Lovely Graphic Design to answer questions on which fonts create the right message in designs.
This is a transcript of a live conversation.
Choosing readable fonts
The choice of fonts has a HUGE impact on the way messages are received and interpreted. There are many things to consider when selecting a font and I'm sure Berenice will go through that later. One of my (and many others) pet hates has to be 'comic sans' and recently I discovered a client using it, when I asked why, they explained that a large part of their audience is dyslexic and this font is actually very readable for those people. I didn't realise that there are specific fonts, designed and evolved around reading disorders.
We have since moved them on to 'lexi' a free font, supported by many dyslexia charities that has been specially designed for those with dyslexia. We have also added a foot note on all material to explain this font choice. It just shows that this operates on many levels, and I figured it was worth adding into today's chat.
Comic Sans (along with Papyrus) has a huge image problem thanks to inappropriate use. Unfortunately, the British Dyslexia Association list it as a recommended font and I know of several typographers who have been trying to get a conversation going there. The other font is Read Regular designed by Natascha Frensch.
I am not dyslexic but I do have mild dyspraxia (very on trend thanks to Doctor Who so I'm told by my godson!) so hidden disabilities and working with charities on design solutions featured heavily in my graphic design and typography masters. It's such an important area that has lots of opportunities for collaboration.
How to create a friendly, approachable image with fonts
Q. Are there any particular fonts you'd recommend if you wanted to be perceived as knowledgeable but not bossy and also friendly and approachable? I'm thinking mainly in the context of website and social media stuff.
Berenice Smith Think about pairing fonts and legibility too as the easier an image is to read, the more friendly it is. The easiest way to find perfect font pairings is by using different fonts within the same overarching typeface family so you'll have a ready-made range of weights, styles and classifications that are specifically designed to work together. For example:
I also suggest that you think about the values and phrases that describe the outcome of what you want to do. Is the aim to be friendly, intelligent or confident? You might want to put together a mood board to get start to get a sense of the direction your font needs to go in. A friendly font might be one that’s rounded and really legible. A confident one might be angular.
Q.Should one font be sufficient for a business? I sometimes see businesses using two and I like the contrast. How easy is it for a non-designer to know what fonts pair well?
Berenice Smith The advice for Heather might be useful up there. It does help to have two fonts, so that you can vary the reading experience but it's not essential. Without getting geeky, contrast fonts, as the name suggests, is about finding totally different – but still complementary – typefaces that are each fit for their intended application. This mostly means pairing a serif with a sans serif. Fonts will generally conflict if they are too similar: two ever-so-slightly different serifs or sans serifs rarely create nice font pairings, like Arial with Helvetica.
Q. I understand. I think. Complementary might be fonts with the same height and contrast, as you said, might be pairing a serif with a sans serif?
Berenice Smith Yes, play around with the combinations, often typographer will create a family so search by creator. I'll pop some free font resources below in a moment.
Which fonts do you suggest for a non-designer?
Q. Can you give us some fairly safe fonts that non-designers in a rush could use on (say) social media images? Like the Helvetica in your image above but better? Just to help us avoid Comic Sans-style embarrassment.
Helvetica is absolutely fine btw, but using different weights (by that I mean light, regular, bold) helps. Other fonts that are great are Source Sans, PT Sans, Poly, Raleway (all sans serif) and serifs Playfair, Lora, Butler.
All the above should be found on 101 fonts or any free font resources I've listed (I've avoided mentioning Typekit which is paid for).
For serifs, for social media keep them large and a heavier weight. Avoid in large paragraphs as it can be hard to view except on a plain background but test it out and always feel free to ask my advice.
An intro to fonts and type
Berenice Smith What’s a font and what’s a typeface (since you may hear designers refer to both). A typeface is the design of the symbols - known as glyphs - which includes everything from a full stop, trade mark symbol etc to numbers and letters. So when you refer to Arial or indeed Comic Sans, you’re referencing a set of glyphs in a specific typeface.
A font is, in our modern era, a digital file that contains the unicode required to tell the software what to do. A typographer will create unicode for each glyph.
To be honest both phrases are swapped around as we’ve evolved a lot since type trays and metal type in foundries..which I won’t bore you with here!
There are several categories... and these are listed below but there are sub-categories too but these are the ones that non-designers will find useful.
Q. If we're not designers does all this really matter?
What's the worst that can happen if we get it wrong?
I know a few designers might snigger at our efforts but would anybody else notice?
Berenice Smith Hehe! Yes I do think most folk don't worry that much and a little common sense is all that's needed. If anyone needs a free font then check the trends on a free site like Font Squirrel and avoid unpopular ones and go for classic and clean fonts. Anything script or novelty, avoid!
And blow the designers who snigger! A great designer will be constructive and understand that we all have strengths and weaknesses. I'm more than happy to provide feedback and always give free and paid font suggestions in branding packs.
Web safe fonts
Berenice Smith Some useful tips for developers. Web safe fonts - this matters because devices have pre-installed font selection. The selection is based largely on its operating system. This causes an issue when designers look to Typekit or a premium resource and don’t add in a web safe option in case someone’s phone doesn’t have their lovely font and it defaults to something that doesn't work, usually Times.
Web safe fonts includes Arial, Helvetica, Times, Courier, Verdana, Georgia, Palatino, Garamond, Bookman, Comic Sans, Trebuchet, Impact, Lucida Sans Unicode. Not all of these are pretty but if I had to choose, then I’d suggest Helvetica. Look at https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_websafe_fonts.asp for more details on web safe fonts and CSS.
Copyright and fonts
Berenice Smith Always remember that fonts have owners. So just like music they have a licence so unless they are free, it’s illegal to share them or ask a designer to include them in the packaging of a design job.
Free font resources
- Font Squirrel
- Font 101
- http://www.typedepot.com/fonts/
- http://www.jeffreyschreiber.nl
- https://www.1001freefonts.com (but really do pick carefully, lots of people think they can design a font!)
- Oh and the lovely https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com
And inspiration for how to use fonts
https://fontsinuse.com
http://friendsoftype.com
http://incredibletypes.com
St Brides Foundation https://www.sbf.org.uk
and the Cambridge University Press have a small museum (drop me a line to arrange visit!)
How fonts create feelings
Q. Can you please give some examples of where fonts create emotions?
Berenice Smith In terms of marketing and branding, serifs are considerably better for large bodies of text as they tie words and sentences together for a smoother, more legible reading experience. More in print.
How a font or family was created is important too. Serifs came from carved inscriptions when it was expensive to have the extra flourishes giving them a gravitas, class and cultural weight.
Sans serifs are more recent only really becoming popular in the 19th century for commercial use in advertisements, and latterly on screens (which struggled to render the detail of serifs until relatively recently).
So whether a serif or a sans serif depends on whether you’re looking for cool, clean modernity, or timeless, classical authority.
Tips to avoid disappointment
Other tips: avoid mixing larger capital letters with lowercase, supposedly for emphasis, which results in mismatched weights.
If you're printing something commercially, print it out before it goes to print to avoid being disappointed. Design often looks good on the screen, because of the light and the way we are constantly adjusting the scale of the image to suit ourselves. The same layout could flop on the printed page.
Finally beware of this. I see this so much, people spending hours on social media training and then not thinking about the visual. Be different!
One of my most popular blog entries is this one https://www.hellolovely.org.uk/blog/2018/4/30/top-tips-for-consistent-branding-on-social-media-and-a-free-workshop-with-drive-the-network
Ann Hawkins I really like this post. I think a lot of people think it’s easy to slap something together in Canva!
Berenice Smith Yes. I can't work out if I should embrace Canva and deal with it or continue to hide under the metaphorical pillow. I'm increasingly being asked to fix Canva design issues or consult. I wonder if our other designers are too and their thoughts on this.
AKA Canva or any software does not make a designer no more than Grammarly makes editors
Berenice Smith Geek fact (if you see this pop up as fun Friday fact on my social media, don't tell anyone..) Fonts are measured in points. So if you want to impress a designer when the text needs to be bigger, the phrase is ‘increase the point size’. There are approximately 72 (72.272) points in one inch or 2.54 cm!
Another tip with social media. Your font choice can be part of your narrative. My choice for my logo is by a foundry called P22 and I met the owner Richard Kegler, and we talked typography whilst mucking about with wooden type in the print room at The Ruskin in Cambridge. There's a bigger story here (!) but it's a short example of how I use it in story telling. When I create branding or books, I look to the history of the fonts or their typographer too.
Which fonts do you suggest for a non-designer?
Q. Can you give us some fairly safe fonts that non-designers in a rush could use on (say) social media images? Like the Helvetica in you image above but better? Just to help us avoid comic sans-style embarrassment.
Helvetica is absolutely fine btw, but using different weights (by that I mean light, regular, bold) helps. Other fonts that are great are Source Sans, PT Sans, Poly, Raleway (all sans serif) and serifs Playfair, Lora, Butler.
All the above should be found on 101 fonts or any free font resources I've listed (I've avoided mentioning Typekit which is paid for).
Berenice Smith For serifs, for social media keep them large and a heavier weight. Avoid in large paragraphs as it can be hard to view except on a plain background but test it out and always feel free to ask my advice.
Would you like to know more? Get in touch with Berenice Smith at Hello Lovely or follow her on Twitter @hihellolovely.
Tax doesn't have to be scary!
Do thoughts of your tax return keep you up at night?
We've all worried about our tax return. Whether you have an accountant or are completing self-assessment on your own, you will have wondered about how best to handle your business finances.
We asked Emma James, aka The Number Ninja to answer questions from Drive members.
Emma provides remote bookkeeping and accountancy services to micro businesses and much, much more. She is also an app ninja and streamlines processes to make businesses run smoothly.
This is a transcript of a live discussion.
Q. Is there an easy way to know in advance what your tax bill is likely to be so you can keep that money to one side?
Emma James Keep on top of your bookkeeping throughout the year. That way you can get a good sense of what your profit is at any point and then work out your tax liability based on that. Alternatively, HMRC have a simple ready reckoner where you can enter your estimated weekly or monthly profit and it will estimate your tax - https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-ready-reckoner
Ideally you’d be saving towards your tax bill throughout the year, as you really want to be paying for this year’s tax out of this year’s cash-flow. As a *really* rough idea, putting aside 30% of your earnings is a good place to start. It very much depends on whether you’re also employed, what your income level is, and what level of expenses you have, but it’s a good starting point.
When should you get an accountant?
Q. At what point does having an accountant make sense? My income and expenses are relatively easy to keep track of, but I feel I'm leaving money on the (taxman's) table and wonder if I should be claim for more expenses.
Emma James If your affairs are simple, then you’re probably okay on your own, but once you start adding complexity then it pays to work with an accountant. Knowing what you can and can’t claim for is hugely important. HMRC have lots of advice on this, though it is written in a rather dry way and can be a bit hard to understand at times.
What is making tax digital?
Q. I keep reading that tax returns will be changing in that we'll need to keep our records electronically and submit tax returns 4 times a year, BUT there's a threshold so it may not apply to many small businesses. I can't for the life of me find any official info on it at the moment so could you help please? I wonder how much of what I've read so far has been GDPR-style doom mongering.
Emma James It's part of something called Making Tax Digital. It's being phased in and the first phase starts in April 2019 and is for businesses that are both VAT-registered AND over the VAT threshold, so not those who voluntarily registered. All returns will have to be made electronically.
It's due to include other businesses from 2020, but it's already been watered down a lot so I wouldn't worry too much about it at the minute. I would, however, consider making the move to keeping your records electronically and up to date, if you don't already.
How do you keep your financial records?
Q. Any tips for best ways to keep your records safe etc Emma? I believe it's still 6 years afterwards that you need to have them readily accessible - which if you're fully digital is more easily managed. Any tips on both?
Emma James I'd always recommend storing things electronically, partly because it's easier than finding space for 6 years worth of lever arch files, but also because it's easier to find what you need it if you're ever investigated by HMRC.
If you REALLY want to store paper, invest in storage that protects the paper. It's not much use keeping that fuel receipt from 5 years ago if the ink has disappeared by the time you need it.
Emma James Also, depending on the accounts software you're using, you can normally store documents in the software against the actual item, which makes it really easy to find things. And also makes your bookkeeper very happy if they have a query and don't have to rifle through 67589 receipts to find it.
Q. Can I safely shred receipts etc if I have an electronic copy? Or is it best to hang on to them just in case?
Emma James Up to you. HMRC say that you just need to keep a copy, and electronic is fine. I have mine in both Xero and stored in Tresorit, I shred all of the paper copies.
Cash basis or accruals?
Q. What's the difference between cash and accruals?
Emma James They're two different accounting methods. The cash basis looks at when the money physically enters or leaves the business. The accruals basis means that you account for something in the period it is incurred or when you get the benefit, regardless of when the actual money comes in.
So say you send a sales invoice for £100 to a client dated 1st March 2018 and they pay 20th April 2018. If you're using the cash basis then the £100 is included in your tax return for 2018-19, as that's when you received the money. But if you're using accruals (also known as traditional accounting) then you'd include it in the 2017-18 return as that's when you did the work.
In theory the cash basis makes it easier for record keeping.
What happens to unpaid invoices?
Q. What if an invoice has been issued and the client never pays it?
Emma James You can write it off in a future return. But you can only write it off if you're as sure as you can be that you won't be paid.
Q. So that would apply if you did accruals basis? If you are doing cash presumably you don't have to declare it until the money comes in.
Emma James That's correct, yes.
Q. Is that an argument for working on a cash basis rather than accruals so you don't end up paying tax on money you haven't seen yet? Is there a point at which you have to do accruals?
Emma James If you're a sole trader and your turnover (sales) is under £150,000 then you can use cash. If you're using the cash basis and you buy a computer, you'd have to claim the full amount of this in the year you bought it, rather than spreading it across the life of the computer as you would if you used the accruals basis. There are pros and cons to both. I prefer the accruals basis as it's how accounts need to be prepared for banks and potential investors, but cash is better for some businesses, particularly if they're not paid particularly quickly by customers.
What are common mistakes people make on self-assessment?
Q. What are the things people often trip up on?
Emma James Not tracking gift aid payments is very common. Not a lot of people realise that they can claim for working from home. Quite a few people don't realise that if you're a sole trader you're taxed on your profit, not just what you take out of the business, that catches a few people out. Food is another huge one, just because you're working when you buy that sandwich at Costa it doesn't mean it's tax deductible.
Payments on account really trips people up in the first year it applies to them. It's a little complicated to explain, so I'll link to a blog I wrote a while ago https://thenumberninja.co.uk/blog/payments-on-account/
Savings interest is another one that people often leave off. For the majority of people it's not going to make any difference to the amount of tax you pay, but it still needs to go on the form (unless it's an ISA, in which case it doesn't).
Q. Can you explain a bit more about this one: "Quite a few people don't realise that if you're a sole trader you're taxed on your profit, not just what you take out of the business." Thanks.
Emma James Okay. Fred is a sole trader (rather than a limited company) and has sales of £40,000. His expenses throughout the year, such as rent, software, etc. come to £10,000. This gives him a profit of £30,000. Fred has taken out £1,000 a month for his personal use, so £12,000 across the year (lots of people consider this to be their salary, but as a sole trader they're known as drawings).
As he's only taken £12,000 from the business, Fred might think that's what he's taxed on, as that's his income from the business. But as a sole trader there's no legal distinction between you and the business, they're one and the same. As a result the £30,000 profit is considered to be Fred's total income.
So Fred's personal tax would be calculated on the £30,000 profit, rather than the £12,000 drawings.
Q. Do you put on the form what you have drawn down from the business as a sole trader?
Emma James No, HMRC don't care. They're only interested in the profit you've made. All of the money is yours, you've just chosen to leave some of it in a separate pot.
Keep a regular check on your accounts
Emma James Completing your tax return is a damn sight easier if you’re regularly keeping on top of your bookkeeping throughout the year. I’m a huge fan of using accounts software, but a spreadsheet is also fine. Keep that up to date each month and then you’ll have all of the information you need for the return itself.
The rules do change from time to time as well, so even if you've been completing a self assessment return for years, read the notes before you dive in. For example the rules of claiming mortgage interest if you let out property have changed in the last few years, and something called the trading allowance was introduced for the 2017-18 tax year that has slightly confusing rules that could catch some people out.
Q. What do we need to put on our spreadsheet? Is there a list of must-have headings? (I presume something more than money in, money out)
Emma James It depends what you want to be able to get out of the spreadsheet. If you're only using it to help you prepare your tax return then I'd include the expense categories that HMRC use (so 'Cost of goods bought for resale or goods user', 'Phone, fax, stationery and other office costs', etc.). That way you can then write formulae to total those costs together and then just pop the total in the form. Date is a good one to have, as is a column for the next tax year if you're using the accruals basis, so if you've got an invoice for your business insurance for £100 that covers Oct18-Sep19 you can make a note that £50 needs to go in your 18-19 return and £50 in your 19-20 return (if you're using the cash basis then the full £100 would go in 18-19).
I love a chart, so my spreadsheets are a bit ridiculous and show me what my sales and expenses look like throughout the year, so I can use it to predict any trends for next year. I also have an estimate of my likely tax liability throughout the year so that I can make sure I'm saving enough.
Q. What's the trading allowance?
Emma James The allowance is £1,000 and in part is designed to remove the need for hobbyists to declare their income. So if you do car boot sales once a month and you're total income from that is less than £1,000 then you no longer need to complete a self assessment.
Anyone who's self employed can use it if their income is more than £1,000. You then just deduct the £1,000 allowance from your turnover, but if you use it you can't then claim for any of your expenses. It's not likely to be of any use to anyone in Drive.
HMRC want you to get it right
Emma James I hope it's been useful. The UK tax system is one of the most complicated in the world, but good planning and preparation can make a huge difference. Get all of your information together, read the notes, and take it slowly. Although it might not feel like it at times, HMRC want you to get it right, so if you're not sure about something, check their website for help https://www.gov.uk/topic/personal-tax/self-assessment.
Would you like to know more? Contact Emma James at The Number Ninja or follow her on Twitter @emmatnn.
How to create an effective growth strategy for your brand
What do you need to do to take your business to the next level?
Where do you want your business to be in 12 months? What about 5 years? How are you going to get there? This is one of those business tasks which requires time, a big sheet of paper, and asking a lot of questions. Dan Ince, of Brandworks, has 20 years’ experience in developing effective brand strategy as Head of Marketing for Dorset Cereals, Jordans Cereals, Mr Kipling, Ambrosia and Pataks. We asked him to take the chair for an Ask The Expert session on how to create an effective growth strategy for your brand.
Dan talked about the importance of SWOT analysis and how to do it; how to make choices to develop an effective growth strategy; and identifying the marketing levers that will help your brand grow.
This is a transcript of a live discussion.
What is a brand?
Q. What would you define as a "brand"?
Dan Ince Great question and loads of definitions. My view is your business is a brand these days whether you think about it as such or not. Ultimately everything your business does, what it looks like, how it acts etc is your brand. What a brand isn't is just a fancy logo applied like a thin veneer. In today’s interconnected, transparent world customers see straight through a business that says one thing and does another.
How to do a SWOT analysis for a brand
Ann Hawkins Would you give us some examples of what might show up in a SWOT analysis for a brand Dan?
Dan Ince SWOT is a fantastic tool and where I always start when developing brand strategy. Done well, it gives a fantastic view of where your brand is at and the challenges it is faced with.
Initially, to populate SWOT I ask the following questions:
- How things are currently going for your brand?
- Are you growing or declining?
- How are market trends affecting your performance?
- What's happening with your consumers, shoppers and trade customers?
- What are your competitors up to?
- How does that affect the market and your brand?
- Which of your brand activities are working? Which aren't? Why?
The challenge is to get as long a list as possible by asking yourself what's happening (the surface issue) and why (the root cause).
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses (internal factors), opportunities & threats (external factors) and allow you to plot most of the issues your business is faced with in one place. But like any tool, you get out what you put in, so keep your SWOT fact-based and tightly focused on just the main points per area.
It looks like this:
Three golden rules of a SWOT analysis
When putting your swot together from your brand audit, there are 3 golden rules to remember:
1. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal factors while Opportunities and Threats are external. Don't mix them up!
2. Challenge your internal Strengths and Weaknesses by assessing your brand against your competitors. If it's not a strength vs. competitors, it's not a strength, it's just wishful thinking!
3. Keep it tight – 4-5 by area.
To really get under the surface & identify what's important, its useful to ask yourself (or even better have someone else do it) lots of WHY? Questions. By asking WHY? 3-5 times, it forces you to really drill down and understand what the underlying drivers are...this is where you'll find the most juicy stuff.
Q. Do you mean something like: My strength is '---', why? Because '---', why? because '---'.
Dan Ince Yes - just like a 3 year old, keeping challenging til you get to something meaningful. There's always a tendency with SWOT to put statements in that are flattering to you but if it's not a strength vs. a competitor, it's not a strength, it's just wishful thinking!
Ann Hawkins How do small businesses separate the brand from the rest of the business, or is it all the same?
Dan Ince For small businesses it's often the same, the owner/brand and business become very interchangeable.
Q. What are common pitfalls you see businesses falling into time and time again when it comes to SWOT analysis and how can you sidestep them?
Dan Ince Mixing up internal elements (S & W) and external (O & T). Making the SWOT too long & complex. You're gunning for 4-6 statements per S W O T segment. SWOT shouldn't contain everything about your brand, just the big things you're faced with.
How to research your audience
Q. Thinking about micro businesses, what's the best (with a heavy emphasis on cheapest) way for them to research their audience/potential audience?
Dan Ince The cheapest and most effective way is to work out who you think they are, then go talk to some. This doesn't have to be fancy paid for research. Get out and about where you think your target will be and get chatting, business to business, at networking groups, conferences, trade shows, to the end consumer, in the supermarket (if you're selling consumer products), go online, run Google searches and use Google trends to see what other people are searching for. This will give you great insight into what your target audience want.
Q. Thinking about developing the brand/business strategy, could you give a rough break down of % time people should be spending post SWOT developing what they're going to do - research, planning, implementation, testing, delivery etc etc etc.
Marketing is an action sport!
Dan Ince Great question...marketing is an action sport. so while getting a clear SWOT, identifying your BIG issues & opportunities and outlining your next 12-18 months marketing plan are vital to give clarity & focus. You then need to execute activity to see what results you get. It will also vary based on size of business/brand etc. but I tend to work on 30/70% split: 30% of time spent developing strategy and 70% executing it.
For a large brand like Dorset Cereals, we'd spend 2-3 months planning & the rest executing, reviewing and modifying our activity as needed.
Q. A micro business can be much more agile than this though...right?
Dan Ince Absolutely. I've worked with some minor businesses where we've nailed brand positioning, SWOT & developed our strategy roadmap in a few days. As an example, in the Small Business Marketing Bootcamp we cover SWOT & strategy development in just one day. We use the same tools, but move quickly as within a micro business the founder has a great sense of all elements of the brand.
The most important thing is to give yourself some time/permission to step out of the day to day 'doing' to really evaluate where you're going and what you'll need to do to get there.
How to develop an effective growth strategy
Q. What are the choices one needs to make to develop an effective growth strategy?
Dan Ince I use the output from the SWOT analysis to start identifying the big issues & opportunities that the brand is faced with. The important thing is to make choices by identifying the 3-5 biggest things that will drive your business forwards (or backwards if you don't address them).
To help do this, I use a prioritisation grid like this:
Dan Ince Mapping the issues & opportunities your business is faced with on the grid, helps you work out where to focus by forcing you to identify the areas of greatest impact and ease of delivery.
Q. What would go in this grid?
Dan Ince I take the output from the SWOT analysis, turn them into actionable statements such as 'how can I drive awareness of my brand locally to build my customer base' then plot the statements on the grid to help me work out where to focus.
Your biggest Issues and Opportunities will be in the top half of the grid...and this is where you should focus 80% of your resources (time, ££, effort). If the low hanging fruit is really easy to deliver, then by all means go after it, but recognise that as it isn't making a big impact on your brand you may end up a busy fool. Its all about focus!
Must haves v time sucking money pits
Q. What sort of things would you class as a 'must have'?
Dan Ince These are things that will have a BIG impact on your brand but may be hard to do...the fizzy drinks market needing to make a choice to either reformulate their recipes due to sugar tax or put prices up would be a good example of something that isn't easy, but will make a big impact on their business and brand now and in the future.
Q. Are there things people think are a Must Have but actually turn out to be time sucking Money Pits?
Dan Ince This can happen, which is why you need to really challenge yourself on whether this action is needed because it will have a BIG impact on your business...it's a judgement call, but if it’s hard to do (time/cost etc) and isn't going to have a BIG impact, its a time sucking money pit!
How often should you look at your brand strategy?
Q. Would you advise doing a brand strategy (swot) when starting or after a year or two of running a company?
Dan Ince Annually, as it will change over time as your business starts and develops.
Q. What about companies that are just starting? Do they do it at the beginning or once they have some data to work with?
Dan Ince Doing it at the start is equally important...you may have less data/evidence, but it's still a useful exercise to do. At startup, you'd still want to be clear on your strengths & weaknesses (one of which could be lack of reputation/awareness in your market)...as well as understanding the opportunities & threats you face in your chosen market…
Armed with this knowledge, you can then decide where you'll focus your effort...eg weakness...we're unknown in this market...possible action 'how can we build expert status as quickly as possible'...
How to use levers to grow your business
Q. What are marketing levers?
Dan Ince Levers are all the different things you can do to grow your brand...most people have heard of the 4P's...price, product, promotion & placement...but I use around 7 different P's to help focus marketing plans.
The key is to consider which levers would make the biggest growth impact for you and use this to develop marketing activities that are right for your business.
1. Product
Would redeveloping your existing products or adding new products increase your distinctiveness and standout?
2. Pricing
Is your pricing too high or too low?
Often brands stand out more strongly and are more successful when they’re premium priced. Just ensure you always offer great value to your customers.
3. Packaging
For most product-based brands, packaging is a most important, but often overlooked, awareness tool.
DON’T follow the herd.
How can you use your packaging to communicate your distinctiveness and standout?
4. Place (where your brand is sold or enjoyed)
Are you being seen in the right places?
Make sure your brand is available where your target consumers go and isn’t available where they don’t.
Think broader than just where your brand is sold…for example, Dorset Cereals is often seen in upmarket B&B’s.
5. Promotion
How could you use promotions to encourage consumers to try, buy and repeat purchase?
6. Paid Advertising
Paid advertising is by no means as powerful as it once was…but whether online or offline, paid advertising can have a role to play in building brand awareness and maintaining loyalty.
If you do pay for advertising, can you ensure what you deliver is new or different?
7. Communication
There are loads of communication tools that can be used to build awareness and engagement with your target customers.
The tools you use will vary however; social media, your website, email, newsletters, sampling and events all allow you to engage directly with customers.
Generating word-of-mouth marketing through PR is a vital element in helping your brand stand out. Publishers love to share engaging content with their audience. How can you leverage this?
Q. That's a really useful rundown. So, I take it from your comment above that I focus on some but not all of these to achieve my main goals.
Dan Ince Yes, focus is key. the question to ask yourself is which levers will deliver against the BIG issues & opportunities your brand is faced with. Most businesses will use 3-6 levers...they could have multiple activities under each lever...but if you try to do everything you'll struggle to achieve much (no matter how big your resources).... with micro businesses, the lack of resources (time, ££) is very useful in driving focus.
Would you like to know more? Get in touch with Dan Ince. Follow him on Twitter @brandworksmktg.
How good graphic design will make your business better
What to look for when thinking about your business branding
Almost everything in our lives has been designed. From our homes to coffee cups, computers and coins - but what about your business? Have you employed a professional designer for your branding? Would you like to but are not sure how? Or what to ask to ensure you get a design you will love?

Step forward award-winning graphic designer Berenice Smith, who took on these questions and more from Drive members wanting to know how to get substance from style.
This is a summary of a live discussion.
How do you feel about design in your business?
Berenice Smith I’d like to kick off this q&a by asking you a question! Do you have any design aims with your company? Is design something you’ll get around to when you have time/budget? There isn’t wrong answer to this but I am interested in how the group generally feel about the relationship of design in their business.
Q. I think design is VERY important however budget constraints prevents me having all of my collateral designed, which is a shame. However, I need to create the budget to do this at some point this year.
Berenice Smith Okay, that's a great point. I'd encourage you to chat to designers about ways to make it cost effective. Doing more research and being hands on can all reduce budget.
Q. I had my logo designed professionally, it was the first thing I paid for. It was important to me that I had it as it dictated colours and fonts etc I'd use later on. I don't know ow much about branding but knew it needs to be consistent.
How design can support you
Berenice Smith First impression matters. The logo, the email signature, the website.. all things that require the creative touch. I also like to add that designers are clients and if we see poor design, we might just walk away as it can make us wonder how much care is taken in other areas!
Design tells a story. It’s vital that people get a feel for what a business does even if they’ve never heard of it before. Thoughtful design evokes the right image in client’s minds. The concept for a nursery would be completely different than that of an accountancy firm but both create an impression.
Design converts. A cool website is nice to have. A supercool website that converts is even better. Design isn’t just about making things look pretty; effective design should entice and persuade. A well-crafted cover or leaflet compels readers to keep turning pages.
Q. Entice and persuade... does effective design also act/create signposts for the reader so they don't get lost?
Berenice Smith Part of my postgrad degree was wayfinding as a physical thing - signage etc, and that sort of approach can apply to any designed piece. Think of a shower tap - does the user know which way is hot? That's a sign post there.
Does a small business need brand guidelines?
Q. Is it important for a small business to have guidelines to follow so their brand is consistently represented and more easily recognised?
Berenice Smith Good question with several answers I think. Branding is a great way to create a consistent approach as the company grows. Attention to design can really help a small business stand out, too. A visual communication plan or branding serves many purposes, and making the business unique should be one of them.
It makes it much easier too if you have to commission services say to a VA. It's much easier to explain an ethos to a supplier if the branding message is in place.
I think branding is such a great support for anyone who sees their business expanding - so it's about clients, the business owner and the people they may employ.
Q. I use Canva a lot. I use Camtasia a lot. I use PPT a lot. Can a designer create a style guide/brand guidelines that are transferable across all media? OR, better still, can a designer create templates that can be used across all media?
Berenice Smith Absolutely Louise, I don't mind clients using Canva to get creative and then asking me to polish - a great example of hands on. The other great tool is Pinterest. And yes designers can create templates to drop into say Word templates etc too. And, with logos and styles, it's really critical to go through applications clients use to ensure the right logos are supplied.
The importance of talking to your designer
Ann Hawkins How can businesses be sure they're getting what they pay for?
Berenice Smith Talking to designers is critical and chatting to those who have logos you love, finding out who did them is great - word of mouth is a brilliant way to start to find a designer.
Be wary of anyone who can't give a good explanation of their design process. You have to work with this person and I firmly believe that relationship has to work on both sides.
What questions should you ask a designer?
Q. I understand that designers have areas of speciality. How can a small business choose the right designer for them so they don't end up with a great web designer who can't design for print? What questions should design gnomes be asking when what we (I), unfairly, want is someone who can do it all!
Berenice Smith Look at their portfolio and chat about their skill and examples, read through their website text. Look at their qualifications. If they have a degree in graphic design and sound experience then that's a great grounding. Ask them to write a brief proposal and see how that fits. Don’t be afraid to batch up the work to different suppliers or find a place that subcontracts.
How to get started with design
Q. Any advice for businesses that are bootstrapping and maybe testing out a new concept so aren't ready to hire a designer for full-on branding yet? Obviously this is a big compromise and not as good as hiring a pro, but do you have any tips to help people get started. E.g. I've read that getting a logo from Fiverr is a really bad idea, but is using Canva for some social media graphics a reasonable compromise?
Berenice Smith I think doing as much research as you can, looking at your competitors, even playing with Canva, looking at brand guidelines for other companies can be useful. But talk to a designer and see what you can work on in small stages too.
It can be as simple to start with as being consistent in what you're using. That encompasses colour, fonts and photography/graphics. Don't go to Fiverr or 99 Designs! I've known people get stung by stock imagery giants such as Istock / Getty because they've bought designs off cheap suppliers and it's basically been nicked from somewhere else. (See Berenice's blog post below on How Not to Design)
Q. Berenice, do brand guidelines include stuff like style of photography?
Berenice Smith Yes they can, I do offer this as I am experienced in photography and it can be either be advice on style or it can be selection from images libraries.
Should design speak for itself?
Q.I’ve seen design proposals where they have gone to great length to describe why certain choices were made and what they represent. Sometimes it’s so much on a tangent that you wouldn’t have known without having to read about it. Do agencies do this to try and justify what they are doing and do you think this is all needed or should, ultimately, the design speak for itself?
Berenice Smith Yes I've seen that too. I think that design is collaborative and to a degree the proposal is a summary, it shouldn't be unrecognisable to the client. I think complex communications can really turn people off design! The reasoning behind using certain colours and fonts can be fascinating if you're into all that but what the client needs to know is about legibility, market appropriateness and perhaps a little boundary pushing.
Would you like to know more? Contact Berenice Smith and follow her on Twitter at @hihellolovely.
How to make the most of your blog
How to drive traffic to your website through your blog
Do you have a blog on your website? In today’s ever-changing social media landscape it pays to have material which will draw people in to your website. A blog is useful for keeping your customers up to date on changes in your industry, current trends and giving them a look behind-the-scenes. A well-written blog which your audience enjoys is also a useful way to generate email sign ups so you can grow your list.
What should you blog about and how do you get your articles in front of people? We asked communications consultant Rachel Extance for her tips.
This is a transcript of a live discussion.
Where do you start with blogging?
Ann Hawkins Give us your top tips for someone new to blogging.
Rachel Extance My top tips for someone new to blogging are:
1.Be realistic. Blogging takes time. It's not just the writing but coming up with ideas, sourcing pictures and having the time to put it on your website.
2. Make a list of blog titles. What is your audience interested in? And what do you want to write about? The two might be different. Be sure you're not going to get bored of your blog! You need a good match of the two.
3. Use a site like Answer The Public to find ideas.
4. Make a start! It's like any writing, you have to do it.
5. Don't get disheartened if you don't get lots of hits. Blogging is a slow burner. It takes time to get noticed. Make use of social media to get your work out there.
6. Be consistent. This is why it's important to be realistic about time. Better to only blog once a month than put one up and it be months before you write another one.
Additional point Have a sign up box. There's nothing more frustrating than finding a blog I like and not being able to subscribe to get new posts as they're published. It's also such a waste - if someone likes what you do you want to be able to keep in touch with them!
How can we make the most of our blog?
Q. I blog fortnightly. Any guidance on how to make the most of our blog would be great, and how do we make our blog stand out amongst all the other blogs that are out there!
Rachel Extance Always write with your audience in mind. What do they want to know about? There's a brilliant site called Answer the Public which you can put a search query into and it will come up with a list of who, what, where, when, why, how questions. You've got a list of blog titles right there!
Pay attention to search engines too. Make sure you have headings and sub headings, marked up as H1, H2, etc (as this blog does) which answer additional questions. The code for these is picked up by the search engines. For example, if your blog post title was: "What do I need to take with me to a holiday cottage?" a sub heading could be, "What is in the kitchen at a holiday cottage?", then another could be, "Do I need to take towels to a holiday cottage?" It's worth thinking about how you would ask this to a person because people using Google Assistant or an Amazon Dot might just ask the question, rather than going to a search engine and looking it up.
Something you can do if you're trying to get people to read a post is to signpost to them what they will get from it. Write a one line introduction and then say: "This post will take you through how to make sure nothing is left behind, what you need to clean, and what to do if something has been damaged." Then they know if they are reading the right article for their needs.
How to drive traffic to your blog through social media
Rachel Extance Another thing to make sure you are doing with your blog is publicising your content. Don't just put it out on social media once. If you have evergreen content, schedule it to go out once a week. Vary the text of the post. You can quote yourself or use different pictures.
You can also turn your blog posts into videos. There's an app called Lumen5 which is good for this.
Q. We're not very good at recirculating our material so that's good advice to get a bit more exposure with it.
Rachel Extance It's worth setting aside a couple of hours and just inputting them. Some schedulers are better at recirculating content than others. I use SmarterQueue but there are others. You just put your posts in, tell it how often you would like it to be reposted and let it get on with it. You can post the same blog each month or possibly even every other week if you change the wording of your post and vary the time of day so it catches a different audience.
Q. We always worry about over doing it but varying the time of day would help. We tend to try and hit people early evening but I guess that is a popular time.
Rachel Extance I would experiment. Think about who your audience is and when they have time to go on social media and read something which might take them 2 minutes.
How do you get people to comment on blogs?
Q. How do you best get people to comment on the blogs. I've been blogging for two years consistently and only have a handful of comments. It would be good to get conversations going...
Rachel Extance This is a great question. It's really hard to get people to comment on blogs. People tend to passively read things rather than responding. I would ask a question at the end or ask for people's feedback. Make it clear to people you want to talk to them.
Ann Hawkins I think you're on a hiding to nothing with this. People used to comment on blogs before social media but now even veteran bloggers have given up trying to get comments. I find people respond much better on Twitter, especially if I ask a question in the title.
Q. OK. Thanks. So how do you effectively promote your blog on Twitter? FB and LI seem intuitive as you can basically put an intro in and ask them to click if they want more. Twitter seems more tricky...
Rachel Extance I would say Twitter is easier but that's just me. Pull out key messages. So on Monday, you could post it with "What is the magician?", on Wednesday you could write "How to find the magic in your life", on Saturday you could post and ask a question like: "What do Obi Wan Kenobi, Dumbledore and Aslan have in common?"
I'd just post a bit of text/question, and then the link to the blog post. Twitter should automatically include in a little mini window showing the featured image, intro blurb. Just the same as any link you might want to share on Twitter.
Ann Hawkins I just write the post with the question in the title and so any link pulls that out.
How do we get other people to link to our blogs?
Q. We're still trying to get our blogs posted or shared on other sites. For example a recent 'Taking a dog on your cottage holiday' blog shared with dog websites etc. We are not getting anywhere with this. Any tips?
Rachel Extance In part you're at the mercy of their social media strategy. Have you tried approaching them and asking if they would like a guest blog?
Should I transcribe videos on my blog?
Q. I'm wondering what kind of content works well on a blog? I'm not keen on writing but if I include a video should I do a transcript?
Rachel Extance I like a transcript if I'm looking for an answer to something but it's not necessary. I would signpost the content, like I mentioned above. Say what the video is about and what people will learn by watching it. I would take the time to caption your videos so people can watch without the sound on. There's no need to write a full blog post or transcript if you don't want to.
Q. I was going to ask a similar question r:e: transcripts. Is there software to do this? (Videos and podcasts) Sometimes, I prefer to read the transcript.
Rachel Extance You can send it off to people to transcribe it for you. If you're posting a video on Facebook, it has built-in caption software.
Ann Hawkins I rarely watch videos - I want to scan the page, pick out the headlines, read the paragraphs I'm interested in and skip the ones I'm not. I rarely read any post from start to finish and hardly ever watch a video with sound on.
Rachel Extance Most people watch videos with the sound off.
People scan. They often haven't come to a blog post eager to read a beautifully written piece of work but to find something out. Always ask yourself: what would bring someone to this and why should they click on it?
Q. Also, transcripts can be good for SEO.
Should you update previous blog posts?
Q. My question would be about recycling content and updating previous posts.
Rachel Extance It's well worth setting aside time, every few months to go through your blog posts and update them.
It helps if you keep an index and have a note of which ones are:
1. Definitely evergreen
2. Ones which could be evergreen so long as something external doesn't change (so for social media managers, last week's Facebook announcement has meant everyone needs to rewrite their advice on business pages).
3. Which ones are seasonal (are there blog posts which only work in winter or relate to Easter?)
4. Which ones are one-offs. They work on that day, and could possibly be posted on social media for a week.
You then need to make a note in your business planner (or whatever works for you) to check back on them at the right time and see if they are still up to date.
This breakdown is also helpful for your social media scheduling.
Would you like to know more? Get in touch with Rachel Extance. Follow her on Twitter @RachelExtance.
How to get to grips with your books
What do you need to do to keep track of your business finances?
Few people go into business to do the books and many find keeping their accounts up to date a pain.

We asked The Number Ninja Emma James about how to keep track of business finances, her recommendations for software to make it easier and which numbers really matter.
This is a transcript of a live conversation.
Keep things simple
Emma James I'd always recommend a separate bank account, even for a sole trader. If you have a lot of foreign currency transactions and prefer to use a separate account for this (I use Revolut as their exchange rates are excellent), then keep this separate to personal use. Paypal can be a nightmare, so have separate accounts for business and personal. It makes it a million times easier in the long run, which in turn means you're much more likely to want to spend time keeping your accounts up to date.
Ann Hawkins Do you recommend a business bank card for all cash payments so everything appears on the same statement and scanning receipts with an app instead of keeping paper ones?
Emma James I scan everything. Apps such as AutoEntry or ReceiptBank are great as they link directly with Xero and QBO. You can also scan directly with the Xero and QBO apps.
How to budget for your business
Q. As a non-number ninja, how do I come up with a realistic budget forecast for the next 12 months?
Emma James I look at 3 main areas: sales, profit and loss, cashflow. For each of the next 12 months what do you expect your sales and costs to be (don’t forget that some costs will increase as a direct result of more sales)? You’ll have some costs that are fixed, that you have to pay no matter what, and others that are a bit more optional.
Next think about your plans for the next year, if you think you’ll want to take on an office put some guide costs in their so you can see what effect that has. Your profit and loss forecast will tell you what your expected profit will be (and you can then work out likely tax), whereas your cashflow forecast will tell you when you can actually afford certain things.
As for realistic, the key is to review regularly. The whole point is that they're there to help guide you, if you take on an employee partway through the year your costs will definitely increase, as will your sales most likely, so if you hadn't expected this when you originally forecast you need to update accordingly so that you're taking this into consideration for the rest of the year.
There's a bit more to it than this, as some business have the option of just basing everything on cash, but essentially you've got the cash basis which is when the money actually physically enters or leaves your basis (your cashflow), and the accruals basis which is when the business is affected by the transaction. Say you buy a ticket to a conference in January but the conference is in April, this hits your cash flow in January, but you don't get the benefit until April so that's when it should show on your profit and loss.
Q. Is there a set proportion of income I should be setting aside for tax etc?
Emma James For tax, it really depends on how much detail you want to go into and how much time you want to spend on this. As a sole trader, if you put aside 20% of your sales you'll definitely have more than enough come tax time. I like to look at my profit on a weekly basis and work it out in more detail, but I love looking at this sort of stuff! If you're on top of your bookkeeping you can look at your profit regularly and do a more detailed estimation.
Q. What's the easiest way of keeping track of what's coming in and going out? I currently have a spreadsheet.
Emma James For keeping track of incomings and outgoings I would definitely recommend software, such as Xero or Quickbooks. Spreadsheets are perfectly fine, but Xero/QBO, etc can do so much more: link directly with your bank, create your invoices, email your invoices, automatically remind your clients that they need to pay, etc. As well as all of the reporting information you get. I love a good spreadsheet, but I'd struggle to run my business without Xero as everything is always up to date, ready for me to do my daily review of my accounts. You can also take photographs of your receipts on the go and send these straight to Xero/QBO, which you can't with a spreadsheet.
How to get to grips with cashflow
Ann Hawkins The thing I see people struggling with is cash flow - what's a simple way of checking what is due in and out and how much cash is available at any one point?
Emma James This is something that a lot of the major accounts software lacks. Accounting is generally backward looking, which is reflected in the software. I use software that integrates with Xero for forecasting, so you're not having to enter information twice, but you get that forward look. I use Dryrun, but other are available. Xero and QBO both have great reports that show which sales invoices have not yet been paid, and if you have your bank feeding into it too you'll always know what is expected to come in and go out. Having said that, I do like a spreadsheet for this too, although that's a bit more effort as you have to update manually. It really depends on what you're going to use and update regularly and what you prefer.
Q. Cashflow forecast is something I just don't understand. I have to use QBO because that's what my accountant uses and it is always up to date. But I have no idea how to do a cashflow forecast.
Emma James Do you have access to something like a cash summary report in QBO? That will give you the historical information, which you can then use to inform your forecast. For example say you issue your sales invoices on 14 day terms, but 80% of your clients actually pay after 45 days, then this is going to have a huge impact on when the money will actually come in. Start with sales and when you're likely to actually receive the money, then look at your costs and when you actually pay them.
There should also be a report that will tell you how quickly (or not) your clients pay their invoices. This will help with cashflow forecasting, as unfortunately too many businesses pay no attention to due dates and pay whenever they fancy.
Can you really forecast cashflow over 12 months?
Q. This is my question too. Moving over to Xero has definitely helped, but I'm not sure how possible it is to look at cashflow for the next 12 months...?
Emma James The dashboard will give you basic cashflow information, in terms of when your sales invoices are due and when you need to pay for your purchases. But forecasting isn't the main focus of accounting software, so is generally handled outside of things like Xero. The easiest way of doing it is with a spreadsheet, and using the Xero reports to update this.
Q. Emma, do you have an example of a spreadsheet you could share? I have no idea what goes on a cashflow forecast spreadsheet. But I do now understand your point about accounts packages look backwards and forecasting looks forwards.
Emma James Freeagent have quite a good basic template https://www.freeagent.com/guides/cash-flow-forecast/
If you want software, I'd suggest looking at Dryrun, Float and Spotlight.
Q. I find that people are genuinely scared of preparing a cash flow forecast either because they don’t understand the “how” or they’re concerned about making proper use of the data they see when monitoring. A forecast is only useful if it’s regularly reviewed and used to be aware of potential cash shortfalls thus allowing you to manage the problem well in advance of it being a problem.
Emma James There's no point in creating a forecast if you don't review it and update regularly. I look at mine every day, and always scrutinise it before I make a decision such as whether to go to a conference or offer a new service that will insure additional costs.
Xero: can one account do two businesses?
Q. Can I run multiple (two) businesses on the one account or do I need two separate accounts? As you can tell I'm only just looking at this so excuse the novice question.
Emma James You'll need a separate subscription for each company, but you can do this through the same billing account and you'd only have one log-in (you swap companies using the hamburger in the top left). I'm pretty sure you get a discounted subscription on the second company, but they may have stopped this now.
I've assumed that the businesses will be completely separate, e.g. with their own bank accounts and registered as separate companies. If that's not the case, you could use the one Xero account and use a tracking category to split the income and costs for each. But I'd only recommend that if it's another revenue stream of the one company rather than separate businesses.
Would you like to know more? Get in touch with Emma James.
How to create online courses
Would you like to share your expert knowledge with others by creating an online course?
There has been a boom in the online course industry in recent years as it has become ever easier to learn a new skill on your computer or even on your phone sitting on the bus.
It’s a way to demonstrate your expertise and also earn some money. We asked Helen Lindop, who teaches people how to make online courses, how to get started, how to choose a platform and how to make your course stand out from the crowd.
This is a compilation of a live Q&A.
How do I decide on a platform?
Helen Lindop Start with your strategy - what do you want to get from your course? e.g. a free lead generator? To primarily make money from course sales? To help position you as an expert and then sell services on the back of it? Once you've worked that out there will be a solution to fit, because there's so many out there now.
Q. Other than Udemy, are there any hosting platforms you would recommend? [I would like] to primarily make money from course sales with additional mentoring as part of the sale or perhaps the mentoring can be added as a monthly sub?
Helen Lindop In that case I'd probably not start with Udemy because the discounting is so deep that you need to sell a lot of courses to make much money. My current favourite is Zenler, because it's easy to use, there's no upfront fee and being UK based they take care of the EU VAT for you.
Q. Is there an optimum length for an online course?
Helen Lindop I'd say you're best to work out what you want your students/clients to achieve then design your course to meet that goal. So make it as long as it needs to be.
Also, longer isn't necessarily better. We're all up to our ears in info, so sometimes a short course that achieves a lot is just what's needed.
Q. Do you have any practical tips on assessing what students/clients need to then be able to design the online course?
Helen Lindop I'd say keep it simple and just talk to them about their problems, then design a solution to those problems. Yes, you could design a load of questionnaires but if you're just starting out, listening to someone say 'THIS is what's driving me nuts' is a really valuable starting point.
Ann Hawkins Udemy suggests breaking modules up into small chunks so people can see where they've got to and pick up where they left off. I find it annoying but is that something you'd recommend Helen?
Helen Lindop Definitely avoid an hour long video, because if a student has to stop mid-way and then find that spot later it's a pain. Keep in mind that people are taking courses on the move now, so on their smartphones, on the bus. Make it easy for them to dip in and out. But on the other end a whole list of 2 minute videos gets irritating too.
I think Udemy may have an ulterior motive too in that a course made up of 10 short videos looks more valuable than one with the same content in a single video! And they have a point - there is a lot of competition out there so making a potential student see the value in the course will help make the sale.
Just to add I meant Udemy is very competitive because your course is up there alongside other similar courses.
What level of support should you offer?
Q. I wanted to ask you about support for an online course. Would this need to be clarified beforehand or offered on an AdHoc bases?
Helen Lindop Do you mean offering tutor support alongside (say) pre-recorded videos?
Ann Hawkins I did this with my premium Work Smart Not Hard Course, Jo. I offered the option of sending back worksheets to get my comments. Then I offered a cheaper version without that option. It works really well.
Helen Lindop Courses with support tend to be more effective because the students can ask questions and there's accountability. It does depend on the subject, though. E.g. if it's basic software training you might need little support, if it's like Ann's - building a business - then tutor support would be really helpful. You do need to price it right though because tutor support can take up a lot of your time. And as Ann says, you can often offer both options.
I also offered a course with a fairly basic level of support then added a 1 to 1 coaching option on top. So people had a choice of course including email support or course+email support+ 2 coaching sessions.
Q. I’ve seen courses where they set up a group chat for others doing the course to support each other - does this give value?
Helen Lindop It often does, but it can depend on the subject and the audience. If it's personal then people might be less willing to share (or possibly more willing in the right setting?) I've had people on my courses who are 'just give me the info and I'll work through it myself'- types. Which is absolutely fine too. So not everyone is a sharer. The only way to tell is to try it.
Helen Lindop I think if you're in doubt it would be a good idea to run a pilot course with email support, then add a Facebook group later when you're fairly confident you've got the numbers to make it work.
Should you offer a tutor alongside the course?
Q. How would you suggest organisations promote hybrid learning, that is on-line integrated with classroom learning? Is there a tendency do you think for people to skim the online learning?
Helen Lindop There's definitely a temptation to skim online courses! It makes a huge difference to have tutor support, so someone to answer questions, check students have done the work and understood etc. Unfortunately a lot of organisations now think they can roll out a pre-recorded online course, get everyone to watch it and job done. We aren't machines and we don't work that way.
Helen Lindop The challenge is that having a tutor is more expensive and less scalable than having a course that's 100% automated. Done well, it's a lot more effective, though.
How do you cater for students with additional needs?
Q. How would you accommodate any students who may have additional needs e.g. dyslexia?
Helen Lindop I'm really not a dyslexia expert I'm afraid. But in my limited experience I think technology used in a sensitive way can generally make learning easier for people with dyslexia. I'll see if I can dig out some info.
In general it's good to offer content in a variety of formats so video, transcript, checklists, worksheets, quizzes (if your platform allows that)
I just found these http://theelearningsite.com/.../elearning-with-dyslexia.../ and a scientific paper http://www.sciencedirect.com/.../pii/S1877050915012673
How do you set yourself apart from the competition?
Q. There seems to be an awful lot of competition for courses. Do you have any tips on how to promote them? How do you rise up the list?
Helen Lindop Having free content out there helps a lot, so people can try before they buy. Also, having a range of courses is good so people can see the value they get from a low price course before they buy a bigger one.
It can also help think in terms of the value that people will get from the course rather than the fact it IS a course. So if you're buying a book the fact it's a book with 250 pages (or whatever) for a tenner is a really tiny consideration compared to what you're going to get from the content.
Q. So it's like everything else really, focus on the value.
Helen Lindop Yep, and marketing is very much like marketing anything else. Get in front of people, help them get to know you, give value.
Another angle you can take (assuming you're not selling in a marketplace like Udemy) is to say 'it would cost you £££ an hour to work with me one to one, or for me to do the job for you, but I can teach you to do it yourself for £'. (Add numbers to suit!) That's a good way of getting across value.
Should you pre-sell your online course?
Q. I have seen some suggestions that it is a good idea to pre-sell a course to test the waters before you have even finished making it. Is that a good course of action? Seems a little risky to me.
Ann Hawkins As long as you've got all the info you need to produce the course so the lead time isn't too long, I think that's definitely the way to do it Chris. I'd never write a "bums on seats" course without pre-selling it.
Helen Lindop I'm not a fan of pre-selling a recorded course until you've had some practice and you know exactly how long it'll take to produce each module. When people start out there's such a lot to learn (platforms, marketing, video editing, structuring a course) that they underestimate how long it will take (#beenthere) and that adds a lot of pressure.
That said, a good half-way house is to do a webinar-based course because they tend to be a lot quicker to produce. And if you do it live you can sell the replays after as a self-study course. If nobody shows up you don't do the webinar.
Another good thing with webinar-based courses is that you have to commit to showing up so you can't put it off.
Ann Hawkins I think the main thing with any strategy is to be sure there is a market for what you produce before you put a lot of time / investment into making it!
The expert’s top picks for online learning
Ann Hawkins What's your favourite online course Helen?
Helen Lindop Such a hard one to answer because I do loads and all for different reasons! For business skills I like Lynda - this is for the kind of thing where you're basically downloading a new skill into your brain so you don't need much or any tutor support.
I've also taken longer courses from Internet Marketing experts where you get more detail on mindset and strategy, which makes a big difference.
But I was genuinely surprised that I've learned more about art and design from cheap online courses than I ever did in school. I think the reason I've learned such a lot about art and design online is because it has to be structured incredibly well. The teacher can't just say 'today we'll paint this vase and I'll give you feedback on it'.
Skillshare is good for art and design courses.
Whatever and wherever you learn it's really important that you apply and implement. I think this is often glossed over both by people teaching and taking online courses.
Would you like to know more? Get in touch with Helen at Speedy Digital. Connect with her on Twitter @HelenLindop