How to use storytelling to create an effective landing page

Do you think of your potential customers as heroes?

Most of us don’t like selling and that can be a big barrier when you need to attract new customers.

How would it feel if, instead of trying to persuade people to buy from you, you became a friendly guide who helped them find the solution to their problem?

Imagine writing a story that became the trailer for a film about your business …

*Voiceover, deep and dramatic:*

"In a world filled with choices... one hero dares to embark on a journey like no other.

Meet Alexis, a curious customer living their everyday life.

But something is missing.

Alexis looks sorrowful and says: "I need something better... something more."

Scrolling late at night, Alexis struggles to find the right solution to his problem. Every hero faces obstacles...

Confused comparisons. Endless reviews. Ads whispering promises. Doubt creeps in.

"Can I trust them? Will this really work for me?"

*Mysterious music*:

In amongst the confusion, in the guise of a wise guide, you glide into the picture and offer to lead the way to the solution Alexis craves.

You show him a magical plan that explains how he can reach his goal with a minimum of effort.

You quietly assure him, “This is the route to getting what you want Alexis – it’s easy, you just have to follow these simple steps and you’ll get the something better, something more, that you’re looking for.”

Alexis hesitates and you know that taking action is imperative so you explain, “If you set off on this journey now you’ll soon be enjoying the satisfaction of knowing you made the right decision.”

*The camera pans back and shows Alexis two paths*:

The first path - exploring other solutions - looks easy and avoids Commitment City but is full of hidden traps that will cause Alexis to lose valuable time, peace of mind and other things that are most valuable to him. The other path leads straight to Commitment and shows him striding confidently to the place he wants to be, guided by you.

When he arrives he notices he is transformed. Life feels easier, brighter, better.

*Uplifting music*:

Alexis sees an image of himself using your product, saying "This changed everything for me."

*Strong triumphal music. Image fades*

In every hero’s journey, there’s a guide who leads the way to the perfect solution. Are you going to be part of their story?

This story was inspired by a presentation by Māris Prindulis of https://storyclicks.us/

(Māris used A.I. to create the rather disturbing images of cats!)

OK – this is a bit of fun, but if you cast yourself in the role of guide instead of pushy salesperson it makes a big difference – even if the film is only in your head!

Now that you know the story - how do you use it to create a great landing page?

There are eight acts in the story:

1. Get to know the main character (the hero) and what they really want.
2. Identify the problem they're experiencing.
3. Position your brand as the guide to the hero. (Your brand is never the hero!)
4. Create a clear plan for the hero to win the day.
5. Give the hero a clear call to action.
6. Show the negative consequences of not doing business with you.
7. Explain what their life will look like if they buy your solution.
8. Show the transformation of the hero's life!

See the full set of slides from the presentation and you'll get the idea! https://files.fm/u/8yjmwdeqwr

Huge thanks to Māris for such a great presentation that was a lot of fun!
You can contact Maris on LinkedIn 

by Ann Hawkins

How to use V.A.s to add value to your business

Why do small businesses resist outsourcing and delegating?

No-one started a business to do admin (unless it's a business that sells this as a service) and yet most small business owners choose to do work they don't like and aren't very good at.

This isn't because there aren't talented, capable people available who could take on those duties ... so what is it that gets in the way?

In a discussion with Wendy Johnston, a V.A. trainer and provider of business support services, we covered a lot of the issues and what can be done about them.

The main reason for overcoming the barriers is that bringing one or more good V.A.s into your businesses can be a real gamechanger.

Think about how much you earn when you deliver your best work to clients.
In the UK a V.A. typically earns £35 per hour.
If spending this releases you to earn a lot more, that is the best possible reason to get help.

The main light bulb moment for business owners is when they realise that employing more than one V.A. to do specialist tasks is better than expecting one person to be good at everything.

Key Things that V.A.s do

Admin Tasks - phone calls, managing email, processing data, transcribing voice recordings, scheduling appointments, arranging travel, organising meetings, etc.
Tech Support - managing website analytics, blogs, CRMs, mailing list platforms, support with podcasting tech and community building platforms.
Creative Services - content creation for social media, graphics, design work.
Financial Management - bookkeeping, invoicing, credit control, bank reconciliations.
Customer Support - answering queries, processing orders, resolving issues, collecting feedback, responding to reviews.
Personal Assistance - lifestyle support.

What should you outsource?

• Low value, repetitive tasks.
• Things you don't like, don't do well or that tie up too much of your time.
• Anything that doesn't generate income.
• Tasks with set procedures.

Doing these things will make it easier to build a trusted relationship

• Ensure you have exceptionally clear communication.
• Conduct thorough interviews about skill and experience.
• Test skills.
• Check references thoroughly.
• Set clear expectations / don't overload with tasks.
• Provide training and the right tools for the job.
• Have a signed contract / confidentiality statement / NDA.
• Don't micromanage.
• Set clear boundaries re working practices.
• Take cultural differences into account.
• Secure your data / passwords etc.

Hiring V.A.s can be a game changer.

Most small businesses stall because they can't deliver to clients while also marketing and doing all the admin. Too many owners burnout or find they can never really take time off - and this isn't what they went into business for.

By using V.A.s you are demonstrating that your business doesn't rely solely on you and this can be attractive to anyone who might be interested in joining your team, investing, or even buying your business!

If you're hesitating or have questions about how to go about making best use of V.A.s in your business have a chat with Wendy https://wendyjohnstoneltd.co.uk/contact-us/ or just reply to this post and we'll do our best to help!

by Ann Hawkins

How Access to Work grants can support your business

Did you know that Access to Work supports self-employed people?

The Access to Work scheme is a long standing UK Government support scheme that provides grants to help people who have a disability or health condition access work.

This doesn't just apply to people who are employees but also to those who are self employed. No formal diagnosis of a condition is required.

We're grateful to Nathan Whitbread, the Neurodivergent Coach, for this explanation of the main requirements of applying for grants.

We cover:
1. What is it?
2. Who is is for?
3. What's on offer?
4. How to get most value from the support

What is it?

Support in the form of a grant can help pay for practical support with your work, support with managing your mental health at work, and to pay for communication support.
This could include specialist equipment and assistive software, support workers like a BSL interpreter, a job coach or a travel buddy, a PA/VA and things like help with bookkeeping.
It can also include help with the costs of travelling to work if you cannot use public transport, adaptations to a vehicle and physical changes to your workplace.
Your workplace can include your home if you work from there some or all of the time.

It does not matter how much you earn. If you get an Access to Work grant, it will not affect any other benefits you get and you will not have to pay it back.

Who is it for?

You must be 16 and over and have a physical or mental health condition or disability that means you need support to do your job or get to and from work. A formal medical diagnosis is not required.
If you are self-employed you need to supply your Unique Tax Reference.
Only applies to England, Scotland or Wales

What's on offer?

Grants can be used for coaching, workplace education, specialist equipment, assistive technology, Support Workers* - including PAs/VAs/Bookkeepers etc., vehicle and workplace adaptations.
*Support Workers have a different assessment route.

How to get most value

Be very clear and specific about the problem you need to solve.
Always overestimate how much time everything takes.
Ask for the support you need regardless of what might already be in place if that isn't suitable.
Test tech, equipment and solutions up front before you buy them.
Ask people who have similar problems for recommendations.

Further notes

- On engaging a coach: You may be offered a list of preferred suppliers but you should always try and find someone who suits you as there are so many different kinds of coach and it is a very personal relationship.
- On assistive technology: Try to choose solutions that are tech agnostic so they are interoperable among various systems. Simple and user friendly beats complexity, don't try to find a problem to fit a solution - it should always be the other way round.
- On PAs/VAs (referred to as Support Workers): Understand your specific needs, give yourself wriggle room to change if needed. Make sure the relationship works. The grant can be split between multiple providers so you get the right combination of skills. You will need to provide 3 quotes so make sure the person you really want to work with is the cheapest.

If your application is rejected you have a right to appeal.

Renewing the Grant

The grants operate in a three year cycle and you need to apply to renew it 12 weeks before it expires.
If you have a substantial change in circumstances you can also re-apply.
Approximate waiting time for a decision is currently (as at Oct 2024) 25 weeks.

Nathan has a free e-book with more details and is happy to have a conversation and answer any questions.

You can find him on LinkedIn and get regular posts and information about living and working with neurodiversity by subscribing to his newsletter.

There are some great blog posts and articles on his website The Neurodivergent Coach

by Ann Hawkins

Collaborative accounting for small businesses.

Why should accountants take a collaborative approach to helping small businesses thrive?

It's a no-brainer really. When an accountant uses their knowledge, skills and network to pro-actively help their clients, everybody wins! This is one of the values that Toni Hunter lives by.

Toni is a Chartered Accountant, a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and has a Diploma in Charity Accounting. She is collaborative, approachable, and with a true understanding of what a difference good financial advice can make to business owners. Her knowledge is extensive, her credentials impeccable and her network, truly valuable.

In 2023, after 25 years in a multi-partner practice, Toni made the leap to starting her own business, Hunter FDS,  and has already exceeded all her expectations, largely due to a loyal network of people who value her skills and integrity.

Toni led this discussion and Q&A about accounting practices, strange accounting dates in the UK and what really matters to small business when it comes to understanding their finances.

Why does the UK tax year end on 5th April?

USA and most of EU use a calendar year for their tax system, so why do us history-loving Brits have a tax year end of 5th April?
Stand by for a history lesson!
The Gregorian Calendar wasn't introduced in Britain until 1752, by which time the British calendar was 11 days off the rest of Europe. To stop this differential increasing as years passed, it was time to transition.
With the old British “Julian” Calendar, the tax year began on 25th March (the old New Year’s Day). The British Treasury decided that the tax year, which started on March 25 1752, would be of the usual length (365 days) to ensure that no tax revenue was lost, and therefore would end on 4th April (11 days later in the new calendar).
1800 was not a leap year in the new Gregorian calendar but would have been in the old Julian system. So, the treasury moved the start of the UK tax year to 6th April and as sticklers for tradition, it has remained there ever since!

What does this mean for accountants and small businesses?

In March, we need to help our clients in several ways, e.g.

• Ensure tax allowances are maximised in last payroll month, and all is in order for reporting year end to HMRC
• Consider dividend levels based on the situation of the company and the personal circumstances of shareholders
• 31st March is the favourite year end of small companies and the norm for anyone in the supply chain of government funds such as NHS and councils, due to their budgeting regime
• Most sole-traders and partnerships report to 31st March or 5th April.
• Capital allowance regime revolves around 31st March for companies, and 5th April for unincorporated businesses
• Personal allowances to be used, such as ISAs, pension contributions and IHT mitigation strategies.

Also: January is very busy due to self-assessment deadline, December is very busy due to March year ends that need to be filed and September feels like “New Year” for many, as the schools return, and everyone refocuses after a break.

The discussions with members covered:

• • The benefits of reviewing finances quarterly and querying “value for money”
  • Comparisons of UK and other tax rules, eg. Latvia has 10% flat rate tax for freelancers.
  • The vagaries and complexity of VAT were considered, leading to question of who should register for VAT
  • Public Sector supply chains have different deadlines
  • The perils of moving house whilst running a small business!
  • Making quarterly plans to avoid pinch points / measure progress.
  • Asking if anyone had a different accounting year end to December or March.

A useful article that covers several other things that are worth checking before the end of each tax year:
LinkedIn Article: Reflect on what you can control before the end of the tax year  

Q&A Included

Q1. Principles of when to charge VAT.
Toni explained place of supply rules which led on to further questions about reverse charges and commented on hybrid of UK and EU laws make VAT the most complex of the 7 taxes.

Q2. You have grown your business very fast in nine short months. What’s the secret?
Toni's reply: "As with many overnight successes, it was 20 years in the making! I resigned from my previous firm a year ago, and whilst it was a surprise to everyone, I had a clear understanding of my objectives and the importance of sticking to my values. I hope that they are clear from my branding and website.
I have been networking since 2001 and actively using LinkedIn since 2007. I have always been a giver of my time and empathetic networker and developed a “power circle” of 8 people who really know me, my values and my goals. I trust them with my clients and I believe the reverse is true.
When they found out I was going to start my own business, they quickly rallied, and a referral from a HR adviser in that circle became my first retainer in September and has created the backbone of my business, reducing worry about feeding my family and giving me the focus to build further alliances."

Q3. Please help me understand what dividends are and why/when I should take them?
Toni explained that they are a return on the investment of buying shares in a company, not earnings, so do not carry an National Insurance Contribution charge, but in recent years are charged to income tax via a dividend tax, leading to this practice becoming less popular.
The “usual” policy is to take up to NIC threshold c£12,500 as salary and the rest as dividend. Consideration is needed regarding personal circumstances of whole family. Timing of dividends, especially if near the £50k total income figure could lead to paying higher rates of tax and lose child benefit. Consideration should be given to pension contributions and gift aid donations to help with timing.

If you have questions about managing the finance of your business or charity find Toni on LinkedIn and follow her company page for fun financial quizzes and useful business insights.

You can also get in touch with Toni at Hunter FDS

by Ann Hawkins

How to keep your website healthy and happy

Why should I care whether my website is healthy and happy?

And what does a healthy and happy website look like anyway?!!

This event was led by Susie Tobias.
Susie is a WordPress trouble-shooter and website untangler.  She started building websites in 2010 and through Wise Genius has been helping small businesses make sense of their websites ever since. Her popular post in our Learning Hub has helped lots of people to learn Everything You Need To Know About Websites.

This is what was covered in this event: 

A website is a living, breathing part of your business and it needs regular TLC to
make sure it is working hard for you.
A healthy and happy website is one that...
1. Serves visitors relevant and engaging information about you and your business.
2. Is easy to navigate and uses clear calls to action.
3. Is digestible across different screen sizes and devices.
4. Everything works – links, buttons, forms, booking functionality – all the things
that make it interactive.
5. Is secure and trustworthy.

What can you do to ensure your website is healthy and happy?

Set a goal for your website

What is the single most important thing you would like visitors to do?
Check that this action is obvious and that your content leads people to take this
action.
And measure the results!

Make moving around easy

When it comes to navigating around your website, don’t make people think!
Less is more! Aim for 5 to 7 options in your main navigation bar. And focus on the most important pages.
Arrange the links from most to least important. And put your contact page last!
Have clear and descriptive labels, using language your users will understand.
If in doubt, keep things simple. About, contact, blog, and services are all obvious. The same goes for call to action.
And please avoid “click here”! It gives zero context to your links.
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, said the following about links back in 1992...
"Let me urge you... to make sure that the thing-you-click is actually some kind of title for what it is when you click there."
Think about why you’re including a link, where you’re taking people, and how to describe that to show action and the destination.

Look at your website on a small screen

How does it look? Does the order of the content make sense?
You can also use built-in tools in your browser. Hitting F12 in Chrome, for example brings up the Developer Tools which includes an option to view your site on various devices.
Why is this important? Being able to view a website on a mobile device without having to pinch and zoom to see the content is vital because...
More people view websites on their phone than on a desk or laptop computer.
Poor user experience means potential customers will leave your site and not return.
You won’t appear in search results, as Google indexes mobile friendly sites first

Check a few things regularly

• • Run a broken link check.
    Broken links are links that no longer work. They create 404 “not found” errors and can negatively impact user experience and SEO. You can find them using an online tool – search for “broken link checker”. And be sure to fix them!
  • Test your contact form
    Fill out any forms on your website and make a note of the following...
    Was it easy to fill in?
    Did a message appear telling you what to expect next?
    Has the submitted form triggered a notification to your inbox?
    Can you respond to this or is there information missing?
  • Make contact details clickable
    Want to make it super easy for people to get in touch with you? Make both your email address and telephone number into a link. And therefore clickable!
    This means that someone viewing your website can send you an email or call you with one click.
  • Check how any links open
    There is golden rule when creating links on websites.
    Internal links – those that take people to other pages on your website – should open in the SAME browser tab.
    External links – those that take people off your website – should open in a NEW browser tab.
    The aim is to keep visitors on your site. Anything that takes them off somewhere else should happen somewhere else. Hence opening external links in a NEW tab.
  • HTTP or HTTPS?
    Does your website address start with https:// or http://?
    Ideally, your website URL is prefixed with https://. This stands for HyperText
    Transfer Protocol Secure. These are a set of rules for protecting the transfer of
    data between web browsers and web servers.
    And to use these rules you need an SSL certificate installed on your website. This
    provides a secure connection when users share personal information with you.
    Like filling out a contact form or paying for something you’re selling. Google
    recommends that all websites use an SSL certificate.
    Many website hosting companies offer SSL certificates for free or at a low cost. If
    you don’t have one installed, I recommend contacting your hosts to see what
    options are available.

After the presentation, we had a more in-depth discussion about “click here”.
Using link text that lets people know what will happen when they click makes for a better user experience. For example...
“Book a ticket for our next event” is better than “To book a ticket for our next event, click here”.

If you have any questions about keeping your website healthy and happy, you can contact Susie via her website https://www.wisegenius.co.uk or at hello@wisegenius.co.uk. For anyone using WordPress, Susie sends out email alerts whenever the core software updates. Sign-up for these alerts at https://www.wisegenius.co.uk/wordpress-updates.

by Ann Hawkins

Why treating yourself with kindness makes you more effective

Do you beat yourself up when you make mistakes?

Are you your worst critic?

There's a folk tale about two wolves we carry with us who are always fighting. One is darkness and despair, the other is light and hope. The story goes that the wolf that wins is the one we feed.

Negative self-talk feeds the wolf that makes us believe we are stupid, useless and incompetent with the result that we become afraid to try anything and give up easily.

Founder member of Drive, David Brown, ran a learning and sharing session for our members around the idea that by shifting the harsh critical voice that we so often have in our lives into something that's kinder and more compassionate, we give ourselves permission to try, not to strive for perfection, to make mistakes and learn from them and be altogether more effective in our lives and businesses.

David started Potentiality Coaching in 2013 to enable people to move on from being emotionally stuck and reach their full potential. Combining martial arts and life coaching, David teaches embodied facilitation. He also volunteers for the Samaritans,  giving people the chance to be heard.

This is David's summary of the Zoom call with our members:

"That critical voice is something that we've probably practised a lot.

It's served us in a lot of important ways as we've been growing up and coming into our adulthood, but in my experience and in a lot of people's experiences that I've noticed, what that critical voice really does, is it slows us down.

It acts as a barrier to our growth.

What I've noticed is that if we're kinder to ourselves, if we speak kindly to ourselves, if we speak respectfully to ourselves, we are more likely to get the job done quicker.

We'll get the job done better, and there's much less procrastination.

There's much less resistance.

It may not get rid of all the resistance, but getting rid of the vast majority of the resistance that gives us permission to be able to take those first tentative steps.

Positive reinforcement

Imagine teaching a pet how to behave properly.  The best way to do it is by giving them positive reinforcement, by treating them kindly, by treating them compassionately and respectfully, and when they get things wrong, you give them boundaries and talk to them in a disciplined way, but with kindness, and they pick up the idea much, much faster.

Touch your heart

Here are a couple of tools that I gave people to try:

Think of a situation, perhaps in a business context or another situation. Bring the specifics of the situation to mind and the kind of things you say to yourself and also how you feel inside.

A typical situation might be where you've made a mistake and there's a cruel voice in your head saying "Oh, God, you've made that mistake again - why didn't you learn better from the last time? You know you're just not good enough."

And and very, very quickly that becomes a thing and it starts to happen even when you don't make a mistake and it begins to become like you're trashing your whole character. I started saying to myself, "You know you'll never get this right and you always do this and you know you're not good enough."

And the the words can get really quite cruel and quite harsh and very, very generalised.

So just to be aware of that, don't go to town on it, but just to be aware of how it is that you speak to yourself.

The first tool is to simply place one or both of your hands over your heart space.

What that does is it allows you to just slow down, but also to feel the contact of your hand on your skin around your chest and that maybe that's as far as your attention will go, but that if you allow yourself to slow down and you give yourself the time and with a bit of practise, you can feel right through all of the skin and the muscle and the tissue and the ribs, and you might even be able to feel the heart itself.

When we tune into the heart, suddenly we might find ourselves speaking a very different story to ourselves, a story that's more compassionate, a story that's more heart centred, an acknowledgement, perhaps, that you're doing the best that you can, an acknowledgment that perhaps you don't know a better way and that maybe a thing to do is to reach out for support or to acknowledge to yourself that you're doing the best that you can and that at least you are in action and that maybe there's some learning to do or to sit back and consider that maybe there's a different way of doing it.

Whatever it is, you, your heart is telling you, giving yourself an opportunity to hear that voice for yourself.

There's a fair bit of scientific research that points to this idea that the brain in our head is not the only brain that we have, that there is a heart brain, that there is also a gut brain, lots of neurons, lots of brain type tissue that can direct our thinking that has us reach for new levels or different levels of knowing and different levels of wisdom.

Whilst the old thinking used to be, perhaps that the brain is the sort of the centre control ground control and that everything goes from the head and the instructions go down there's also a lot of evidence in the science literature now that points to the fact that actually, there's also quite a lot of information coming from the body up, that the heart feedbacks a lot of information to the brain that the gut feeds up a lot of information to the brain as well. So there's this up and down going on all the time in our being.

Embrace yourself

The second exercise is a similar sort of thing so use the same scenario or you could choose a different scenario but the second scenario is taking that a little bit of a stage further.

Perhaps, for example, putting your right hand sort of around your chest around your heart and bringing the other arm to your shoulder and allowing your head just to rest on that right? That left hand is resting on that right shoulder almost like you're giving yourself a cuddle.

One of my teachers, a guy called Mark Walsh, uses this one. He refers to it as the self care pose, so it's like you're cuddling a child. You know, if you think of a child that's just tripped over and grazed their knee or they've had an argument with someone, or someone's been unkind to them, they're going to rush into your arms and you're going to cuddle them and protect them. And just for a few moments, you're going to nurture them. So you're going to do that to yourself when you've got that harsh voice speaking and you're going to let your eyes close if you want to, and you can look down or if you want to keep your eyes open.

But just have a soft gaze and allow the quality of the touch of your hands on yourself to be really tender, really gentle, really comforting. And you might notice yourself rocking from side to side or forwards and backwards. Or you might feel yourself wanting to very naturally do this twisting action. This rocking action that again can be quite comforting. The gentle movement of that can be quite nice.

And again, if you allow yourself to slow down and allow yourself to feel the sensations of this pose of caring for yourself, you might begin to feel a different message coming through. Not one of harshness, but one of kindness and compassion.

Maybe, rather than trying to push through and burn yourself out, but to actually give yourself a chance to take a break, maybe go for a walk in nature or care for yourself in some other way. Call a friend, take yourself off for the afternoon and give yourself a bit of a break and then come back to the problem at hand or the challenge at hand at a different time when you're in a different headspace or whatever your version of it might be.

Sharing the experience

So after we did that exercise in the actual meeting, we sent everyone off into breakout rooms and 20 minutes later, they came back and they were giving feedback.

People were talking about different ways in which they felt better.

Being able to recognise this negative voice, and being able to talk to it more kindly to give it some acknowledgement. People were talking about the practise of meditation or taking walks outside. Some people were speaking about how shocking it was to them, how acknowledging that self care is really so low in their priority list and that building self awareness can be really, really helpful so that you can begin to notice when you're talking to yourself in that way.

One of the things that I think I mentioned on the call was this idea that self awareness isn't really enough, that there has to be a kind of an acceptance that you're talking to yourself that way and then also a deliberate intention to move your attention away from this harsh voice towards a choice of self kindness and self compassion and you were choosing that instead.

These were some of the ideas that people were talking about when they came back from the breakout rooms and we finished the session by exchanging ideas of what we were taking away.

Expand your potential

If you're ever struggling with this this harsh critical voice, then please reach out to me. I'm very, very happy to offer a complimentary session where we can look at some of the things that are going on for you around that self criticism and to try and give you a practise that is going to work for you, that you can take away and use in your daily life that will allow you to be more kind and more compassionate to yourself."

https://potentialitycoaching.co.uk/
You can also find David on LinkedIn

by Ann Hawkins

Design tips for small businesses

Design plays a crucial role in how small businesses are perceived

Design helps to establish brand identity, connect with a target audience, and stand out in a competitive market. It also helps every business to be accessible to as many people as possible.

Berenice Howard-Smith, who has has an MA in Graphic Design & Typography, gave our members lots of practical design tips that small businesses can use to enhance their visual appeal and overall branding strategy.

Berenice believes in design collaboration, working with her clients on website, print, book and social media design to enable them to learn as much or as little as they wish about the creative process. She has mentored GCSE work experience students, and delivered workshops as a visiting lecturer to undergraduate design students. Her website www.hellolovely.design has a whole suite of Gorgeous Guides that give a lot more detail on these tips.

Accessibility

According to WHO statistics, 217 million people worldwide had moderate to severe vision impairment in 2015, with this number expected to rise to 588 million by 2050.

Here are three tips that help to include everyone with accessible design.
1. Use high contrast colours to differentiate for users with visual impairments. Tools like WebAIM Contrast Checker can help you to clarify the ratios. Type 'copy space' into most image libraries to locate images with simple backgrounds that work well for text overlays.
2. Make it responsive so that mobile and tablet users can read your content on their devices. Your website and online forms may require alternative design treatments to provide an accessible and inclusive experience.
3. Accessible design isn't just colour. Use additional visual cues to include the user such as patterns, icons, or text labels to convey information, alerts, or status changes.

Keep it simple

“I strive for two things in design: simplicity and clarity. Great design is born of those two things.” Lindon Leader

1.Clarity and ease of use. The more complex the system, the harder it is to navigate. Simple design avoids the audience being overwhelmed by competing elements. Design navigates the user and supports the content.
2. Simple branding systems make it easier to grow a business. Working with a graphic designer to develop a logo into branding guidelines will make it easier for stakeholders and suppliers to work with a business. It saves the owner time and money as the branding brief is already complete.
3. Less is more with images and information. Study the content or the message you're intending to share. Is there more than one theme or one slide or post? Keeping it simple may mean more slides with less information on each to avoid overwhelm.

Invest in design

"A logo doesn't need to say what a company does. The Mercedes logo isn't a car. The Virgin Atlantic logo isn't an airplane. The Apple logo isn't a computer. Etc.” David Airey

1. As soon as cash flow allows, investing in a high-quality brand logo is recommended. Don't forget to budget for great images too!
2. Really work on the preparation. Get to know your designer and ask for help if you are struggling with the brief as that's the most important investment in the project. Pause if you need more time to get audience feedback; most of all keep in touch with your creative for the best results.
3. Designers can collaborate with business owners to create a range of templates in Canva or Adobe Express as part of a branding brief. This will enable the business owner to quickly create their own content knowing it has been professionally designed.

Fonts

"Letters do love one another. However, due to their anatomical differences, some letters have a hard time achieving intimacy.” Ellen Lupton

1. Each font has a licence. Use fonts legally by buying from a recognised source such Monotype. You can find Monotype fonts on Canva Premium and Adobe Fonts on Adobe Express (and all Adobe Creative Cloud packages).
2. Keep fonts simple. One or two contrasting fonts is fine for social media, there can be too much unless used with care. Use weights too (bold, light, regular, extra bold).
3. Make fonts part of your brand. Poor design can be spotted when font use is inconsistent. They don't have to be expensive or trending. Classic fonts have stood the test of time for good reasons.

Hello lovely! Professional design tips

1. Think in grids. Imagine a series of invisible cross section of lines that work across and down the page. Draw them if you like, and use the structure to align your text and images within it. This helps with order and white space which allows a moment to pause.
2. Use hierarchy in your text to make it easier to read. You can do this in Word, Powerpoint or Canva using preset styles. The main heading is the attention grabber and H2 (B) and H3 (C) headings provide navigational structure.
3. Watch your line lengths on your text. Short line lengths engage the user attention. Left align and neat right edges (in design we call untidy edges ‘ragged’) are also easier on the eye. It's not only font style that aids legibility, it is how they are used.

Design is iterative

"Inherent quality is part of absolute quality and without it things will appear shoddy. The user may not know why, but they always sense it.” Erik Spiekermann

Science, technology, social studies, research, politics, culture, diversity,
economy and platform advances are all contributors to design iterations.

Design can be refined to respond to advancements improving usability,
functionality, and quality for consumers.

Further reading

contrastchecker.com to check colours on an image
unsplash.com for images with copy space (+ is good value)
new.express.adobe.com an alternative to Canva
canva.com for templated social media assets
color.adobe.com for useful colour swatches
baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability is a useful read on line length and attention span.

Inspiration

David Airey on branding and visual identity www.davidairey.com/resources
Marian Bantjes, a pioneer of type https://bantjes.com
Erik Spiekermann, type designer https://spiekermann.com/en/

More advice on fonts, easy design tips and accessible design are featured
in Berenice’s newsletter hellolovely.design/newsletter and regular workshops.

The PDF of this presentation can be viewed at
https://tinyurl.com/dn2v5dvc

Follow Berenice on LinkedIn for more inspiration and discussion on good design.

by Ann Hawkins

How to go from LinkedIn Lurker to LinkedIn Legend

LinkedIn Challenges and Strategies

Dan Ince has over 25 years experience as a Marketing Consultant, Marketing Director, Coach, Mentor and passionate marketing ‘fixer’. He founded BrandWorks Social in 2020 and now helps B2Bs grow with LinkedIn content that stands out. He has helped many Drive members sort out their LinkedIn Strategy and has popular and useful articles in our Learning Hub

Dan led an interactive discussion about the use of social media, particularly LinkedIn, in small businesses.

Hands up if you use LinkedIn or other social media for your business?

How happy are you in what you’re currently achieving?
1 (unhappy) 10 (ecstatic)
What stops you from being a 10?
The biggest challenges most people face are:

• Time management
• Understanding the platform
• Content creation

This isn't helped when there are so many people suggesting that the latest hack or shiny tactic are the answer. They never are.

The only things that really work are
1. CLARITY
2. CONSISTENCY
3. FREQUENCY.

Everyone is bombarded with so much content that it's easy to get overwhelmed. It's important to be really picky about who you follow and, if you want to make an impact, who you engage with. Be strategic about this - who are the people who will share your messages and engage with you? Don't get sucked into just liking things because someone is your friend. The people who follow you will switch off and you'll be left in the shadows.

You can't afford to be a lurker!

Social Media is a great tool to build awareness of your business at scale for relatively low cost but you need to cut through the noise to make an impact. If people don’t know you, they can’t buy you.
In the eyes of the customer, the best product is the one they know.

OK. Let’s get to it!
Use the worksheet (link below) to jot notes as you go. Learning is great, but taking
action is better!

Dan Ince STANDOUT Worksheet PDF

1. CLARITY

Many businesses, especially solo owners and B2B use social media sporadically, lack strategy, consistency and get hit and miss results.

• Why are you using social media?
• What is your objective? To get noticed by customers?
• Creating brand awareness? This is different to "generate leads"
• What problem does your business solve, why should anyone care?
• Who do you best serve? Focus everything on them.
• What are your channels? These are the places where your customers are active and receptive to your message. You can't be on all platforms so it's best to do one or two well than spread yourself too thin. LinkedIn is a good place for most B2Bs

2. CONSISTENCY

What is the McDonalds catchphrase? Almost everyone knows it because for over 20 years it has conveyed a memorable, consistent message.
Consistency helps you stand out.

The three elements for consistency are:

• • your visual identity
  • tone of voice
  • content

For now, we'll focus on content:
What content themes will resonate with your audience?
Use 3-5 of these themes as pillars, creating a mix of content that entertains, educates and inspires.
Start with a HOOK to stop the scroll – a great headline or image.
Then go into PAIN. SOLUTION. BENEFIT format.
An example of pillars:

• Stories that demonstrate expertise
• How to tips
• Curated industry content
• Events, networking - connect with other attendees, write a post about what you found useful & tag others
• Social proof – describe client wins, projects, reviews.

Not sure where to start?
Listen to your customers. What questions get asked repeatedly?
What problems have you solved for customers?
Turn the Q&A into content.
Ask your customers what they really value about what you do for them - it’s gold.

JOT DOWN YOUR CONTENT THEMES
Keep it fresh, mix formats up - Text, Image, Carousel, Polls, Video, newsletters & consistent timing. E,g., Polls on a Wednesday, round up on Fridays?
Create a content folder & make it a monthly habit. Keep it simple. Capture everything in one place. Take lots of photos / video. Make time to plan, create & schedule.

Remember: Social Media is a great tool to build awareness of your business at scale for relatively low cost - but the cost is time so you need to make a decision to invest either time or money! 

3. FREQUENCY

Why do you need to be investing in social media on an on-going basis?
Because at any one time, 95% of your target audience aren’t ready to buy what you have to offer.  When they are, they'll need to remember you.
Keeping your name in front of them, consistently sharing useful information, gives them  chance to get to know you.
We recommend posts 3x per week (consistency, find your own rhythm). You’re leaving breadcrumbs and building awareness.
ENGAGE!!! Don’t just broadcast content. You need to engage. Leaving an interesting comment on someone else's post shows others that you have a point of view, or that you're funny, helpful, or curious to learn new things.
When people leave comments on your posts don't ignore them and don't just say thank you! Get a conversation going. Start to build a relationship. Allow time to respond & engage with others.
Really focus on building relationships - it's THE best way to attract new clients.

We recommend posting 3x per week, 30-45mins per time.
If you don't have this much time, think about how much it would cost to use other ways to find new clients. This is the most cost effective way to do it so making time for it is important.

What would take your social media effectiveness up 2 notches?

Most people acknowledge that having a group of genuine supporters and people who are fans of your work is invaluable. (This is very different to social media "pods" where people agree to "boost" each others content regardless of whether it's any good or not.)
The best way to build fans is to be generous. Share other people's content with your network and they're more likely to share yours.

Final Exercise...(one you could do EVERY week)

Write a post about today's event. What did you find useful? Connect with and tag everyone you’ve met. When you’re tagged, like and write a comment - something more interesting than "thank you", adding value and showing your perspective and personality.

If there are 20 people at an event and you get mentioned 20 times and make 20 interesting comments to 20 x other people's networks, that's a LOT of opportunities to stand out! (And that's what everyone wants to do - isn't it?)

If you have any questions, get in touch with Dan at BrandWorks Social
You can also find Dan on LinkedIn where he shares lots of useful tips. Be sure to sign up to his newsletter!

by Ann Hawkins

Why disability inclusion is important in EVERY business

Is your business too small to worry about disability inclusion and accessibility?

Jodie Greer is a disability inclusion specialist, supporting businesses to look at disability through a holistic lens. She is proud to be the founder of Be #PeopleSmart Ltd.

Be #PeopleSmart Ltd

Jodie led a discussion with our members about why disability inclusion and accessibility is important in every business, regardless of size.

Both disability inclusion and accessibility play a big part in successful business.
This is why:

80% of disabilities are acquired in adulthood. This means that we need the world to be accessible for all of us and by being inclusive we can retain our customers if their needs change during the time they engage with us.
The global statistic for adults with disabilities is 19%, but in the UK we know it's more like 23%. This number is expected to keep rising due to the aging population, access to health care, better awareness of neurodivergence and mental health, accident and injury.

How do you communicate for inclusion and accessibility?

The most obvious way anyone engages with a business is through the way they communicate, whether on their website, or through printed or digital media so it's important that all of these avenues are available to everyone.

Accessible communication doesn't just enable disabled people, it creates a better experience for everyone.

If your restaurant only has a QR code on your website or poster where people can see the menu, you may be excluding people who use screen readers or may not be able to line up a QR code on their phone camera. Always make sure there's a QR code and an alternative.

Videos and podcasts should always have captions and transcripts. Avoid the captions where one or two words flash up at a time at random places on a screen. These aren’t accessible for those who rely on captions, as they are difficult to read and they also cause overwhelm resulting in a lot of people not wanting to watch. Stick with the “boring” single line captions with good timing and colour contrast. An example of an affordable and intuitive captioning tool is Clideo, but there are many out there so it’s about finding a solution that works for you.

Transcripts should include speaker identity and any contextual sounds that aren’t verbal. This can be time consuming, but there are automated tools to help. Just:Access provide a transcript service with fast turnaround.

It’s also important to add alternative text (or alt-text) to your images and to describe images used in social media posts. This provides equity for screen reader or narrator users, and for those with low vision who may not use a screen reader.

There’s no hard and fast rule on how to describe an image, it’s all about context and purpose. For example, “a snowy Canadian landscape with skis being held up by the snow” would be more descriptive than “snow”. When adding alt-text behind an image keep it brief, but don’t lose the intent.

Colour contrast is one of the main reasons people struggle to read content. A great way to check your website and images is to use one of the free colour contrast analysers including Webaim and TPGi Colour Contrast Analyser. The TPGi one doesn't need you to know your colour codes, you can just click on them with your mouse.

Physical Accessibility and travel

Physical accessibility of premises is a topic that needs a whole session to itself along with accessible travel so we'll leave that for another time.

Recruitment

If you employ people, making sure that different ways of conducting interviews in person, on video or by phone are offered, and check that application forms and ways to submit CVs also don't exclude people. Do we really even need CVs? Can candidates share their expertise another way?

And don’t forget to ask if candidates need an accessibility adjustment, then wherever possible be ready to make it happen. Having access to the widest talent pool is always a winner.

Events

When organising events there will be a range of different preferences and needs that should be accommodated. The first win is to ask people if they have any accessibility needs. Check-ins via touch screen can be impossible for some people. Offering quiet rooms is recommended. Badges or lanyards that indicate whether people are OK to shake hands, or prefer not to be touched are necessary for some people.

Whether you already have a diversity & inclusion strategy and want to develop your disability inclusion focus, if you're not sure where to start or if you simply care about putting people first get in touch with Jodie at Be #PeopleSmart Ltd with any questions.
You can also find Jodie on LinkedIn.

by Ann Hawkins

How to write for your business when you don’t know what to write

How do you write for your business when you don’t know what to write?

We all need to tell people about our businesses. There are many ways to do this and a lot of them involve writing, even if the words end up being spoken. But writing isn’t always easy.

Content marketing coach, Rachel Extance, regularly helps our members work on their writing skills with lots of fun challenges and a regular Writing Club.

In one our weekly meetings, Rachel asked our members what they find difficult about writing.
Here’s how they voted:

What would be top of your list?

Stop chasing that dopamine hit

Do you log onto social media and groan? You’re faced with posts of little value and it feels like everyone is already selling what you do and getting far more traction.

We spoke about the uncertainty you can feel over whether anyone wants to read what you have to say. You want to write useful information but people write superficial material that seems to grab all the attention.

A great piece of advice was to “stop chasing the dopamine hit on LinkedIn”.

The vast majority of people on social media do not engage in any way. They don’t post, comment, or even hit the ‘like’ button. You don’t know they’re there but they are quietly reading and watching. Don’t take a lack of engagement on your posts to mean that they are no good. You have no idea who has seen what you had to say and made use of it or took note of your details for later.

The algorithm serves what it thinks you are interested in. If you are writing posts about marketing, it will show you posts about marketing. If you are sharing posts about coaching, it will show you posts from other coaches. You’ve shown an interest in that topic after all.

Focus on what you’re doing and don’t pay attention to the others. Ask people how they came across you when they get in touch and check your website analytics to see where you are getting click throughs from. This data will help you identify if you are gaining traction.

Where to find inspiration

What are you going to write about?

● What do potential clients need to know about what you do? Guide people through your world.
● What would you like people to know about you and what makes you different from other people offering similar services? Introduce yourself and how your approach benefits your clients.
● Do you find similar topics come up repeatedly during client conversations? Use those as inspiration (you can do this without breaking any confidences or identifying your clients).
● Share case studies which show the results people get from working with you.
● What have you done this week or this month? Share your insights.

Don’t worry about word count. Think about what you would like your ideal client to take away from your post and write with them in mind.

Where to write

Start with your website, if you have one. That’s your online home, your digital store, even if people can’t buy from it directly. You want to send people to it so they can find out more about you and what you offer.

Search engines like to know websites are active so having a regularly updated blog sharing articles based on the ideas above will have the added benefit of increasing organic traffic.

You can then take whatever you have written on your website and turn it into posts for social media and share it with your email list. Create once, and then keep sharing what you have written.

If you haven’t got a website yet, then start by posting on LinkedIn. This enables people to get to know you as you begin building your online network.

Here are the various places where Drive members are sharing their writing:

Five tips to make it easier

We don’t do things we find hard so you want to make writing as easy as possible.

1. If you don’t like writing, or you struggle with getting started, you could buddy up with someone and ask them to ask you about the topic you want to write about. Record the conversation and transcribe it. You can use Fathom if you do this on Zoom or Otter.ai if you’re face to face.

2. If you’re on your own, use the voice typing function on Google Docs or Microsoft Word and imagine you’re answering someone’s question.

3. If you’re put off by the tech, then consider outsourcing this aspect of writing. Someone else can upload your latest article to your website. You can also find someone else to help you with email marketing and social media marketing.

4. Find a way of making a habit of it. You could have a set time when you write each week. One Drive member said they write every day, inspired by 750 Words.

5. If you really don’t like writing but you do like recording videos or podcasts, focus on creating those instead. They can be repurposed into written material either by you or a VA.

You can find people to help you with content creation, email marketing, social media marketing, website development and website management in the Drive members list.

Rachel Extance is host of Rachel’s Writing Club and works with coaches and consultants who want to share their original thinking to attract their ideal clients. You can also read Rachel's posts on LinkedIn

by Ann Hawkins

How to use email marketing to attract clients and make sales

What do you think email marketing is?

If you think it’s about spam or annoying people you are paying attention to those people who are doing it wrong!

Email marketing is one of the most effective - and cost effective - ways to attract new clients and make sales. When you build an email list you own all the data - it can't be hijacked by a social media platform and when you do it right, all the people on your list have not only given you permission to contact them, they're eager to hear from you!

In this Learning and Sharing session, Email marketing expert, Helen Lindop, answered questions from our members with a little help from her trusty sidekick, Speedy the Robot!

Overview

I always recommend that people should start with their business and marketing goals, then decide how email marketing can support those. E.g. if you want to mainly promote events then that would be a different approach to selling products direct from your emails. Sharing knowledge to attract clients for coaching or other services is yet another approach. Be sure that if you want your readers to take action, it's very clear what you want them to do: have a buy now button, a get more information button, a book a call button. Whatever it is, make it easy to follow.

Growing your list and getting engagement

Q. I’ve got a list of 400, one list, no segmentation. I’m emailing newsletters regularly. How can I take it to the next level and get more engagement?
A. Engagement is great, but like with social media, you need that engagement to have a business purpose rather than just being a vanity metric. It's great to get started with one list (or segment) and get into a flow with just one type of newsletter. Keep working on building your subscribers and emailing good content regularly and consistently. This will give you some data to base your decisions on from then on. There are polls and surveys available in Mailerlite (which is the platform most Drive members use) which are very good and easy to use, but with 400 subscribers you might find you get more valuable (i.e. qualitative vs quantitative data) info if you just ask a question and then ask subscribers to hit reply.
I would also look at segmentation e.g. if your business naturally splits into work you do with organisations and work you do with individuals, which is the case with many coaches, there’s potential to send different information and offers to each of those segments while they all still receive your general newsletter.

How to improve deliverability

Q. Tell me more about deliverability ...
A. People assume that you can just hit send and the email will arrive in your subscriber’s inboxes. It’s not that simple, unfortunately.
Here are some things that will improve deliverability:

• Verify and authenticate your domain name in your email platform. (Setting up DMARC is less of an issue unless you frequently send more that 5000 emails at a time).
• Keep your spam, bounce and unsubscribe rate low.
• Keep your open rate up.
• Send emails consistently over time.

See the help articles provided by your email marketing platform for more info on how to do the above and what the acceptable rates are.
Note: Including potentially spammy keywords in your subject lines and emails is much less of an issue now but it still might turn off your readers!

Accessibility

Q. How accessible are the automations in email platforms?
A. The automations tend to trigger emails that have already been prepared, so the automations themselves are less likely to be an accessibility issue than for social media platforms. You’re more likely to have accessibility issues with the layout and design templates of the emails themselves. This could potentially be different for each platform, e.g. Mailerlite has alt text for images in emails and most have the option to send plain text emails. There are many design options for the emails themselves and if they aren’t up to standard you could ask a developer to create an html email template for you.

Landing Pages

Q. What should I put on a landing page?
A. I would start with a simple one and test it, as it’s going to vary depending on your audience, your list and what you offer. But in general, assume people have a very short attention span, get across the benefits of subscribing in just a few words and make sure the buttons contrast with the background, then test and adjust. Mailerlite and many other platforms have a feature where it will show one variation of a landing page to half your visitors and another to the other half, but you need enough visitors going to those pages for it to be a useful test.
Having said that, you might not need to use a landing page much at all at first. If your main source of leads is conversations and perhaps contacts from LinkedIn, you could just ask people to join your list as you think they’d get a lot from your newsletters, then add them to your list manually, or send them a link to join.

Newsletters for consultancies and information based businesses

Q. How can I utilise a newsletter if I have an information based business - I don't want to give away too much information. I am just starting out, a consultancy.
A. With a consultancy, you’re offering way more than just information, you’re offering your expertise, opinion based on many years of experience, guidance on an ongoing basis and support with implementation. A short article in a newsletter can’t come close to what people get from you as a client, so I wouldn’t worry too much. A good place to start is to write short, fairly simple answers to the most common questions you are asked. This will show that you can help the reader with problems they have and encourage them to give you a call. Once you have some data to work with (e.g. open and click rates) you’ll have a better idea of what your target audience like to read and what they respond to.

Frequency

Q. How often should I send newsletters?
A. There’s no definitive answer here, it’s a balance of your business goals, how much time or budget you have to put into it plus keeping your open/click rates up and unsubscribe rate down.
I would decide how often you can consistently produce a quality newsletter that your audience will want to open and read. If that’s once a month then that’s fine. A few months down the line, look at your reports and adjust based on whether it suits your goals, time and budget.

Improving opening and action

Q. How on earth do you get people to open your newsletters and then to take action?
A. Start with the deliverability tips above to improve your chances of your email arriving in their inboxes and staying out of their spam folders. Subscribers are more likely to open your emails if they are expecting them and know they will get value from them. This will be about their previous experience of you and your emails. If this is an issue you could design a campaign to ‘warm them up’. A good subject line will help, a balance between it telling them about what’s in the email and having a sense of curiosity can be a good mix. Some platforms give you suggestions for subject lines and AI can also be a good way to create them so you might like to experiment with those.
Once they’ve opened the email, keep in mind that people have very short attention spans, so you may need to include less content than you think. Experiment with having just one call to action in an email and see if that improves your response.  For product based businesses, scarcity and urgency are very effective. In practice this often means discounts with a deadline, but obviously discounts have to be used as part of a strategy to make sure you still make a profit, don’t devalue your brand and don’t train your audience to only wait for discounts. You could also look at adding value for a limited time rather than dropping the price.

Mobile devices

Q. Do most people read newsletters on smart phones / tablets?
A. Many people will read your emails on mobile devices. Most platforms allow you to see a preview of how your emails look on different screens so always check that images, buttons, links etc., are visible properly on even the smallest screen.

What should you measure?

Q. What metrics should we measure? What’s vanity and what’s sanity?
A. Set up your email marketing platform so you track how many clicks to your website are coming from your email campaigns. That way you can see how effective your campaigns are in terms of getting subscribers to your sales pages and adjust your campaigns to improve them.
They key metrics are open rates and click rates, however open rates are not always reliable as many people read your emails in preview panes so they are best for looking at trends over time rather than the open rate of a specific email. E.g. if the open rate of a series of emails is dropping over time then it would be best to investigate why.
An issue I see is that small business owners don’t link the metrics to a wider marketing goal or business goal very well so the data isn’t all that meaningful because they don’t have a clear goal or strategy to measure it against. Also, many of the results of email marketing won’t show up that well in the email marketing platform itself e.g. they may show up as visits to a web page or sales in an ecommerce platform, so it’s important to integrate email marketing platforms with Google Analytics and ecommerce platforms if you need this data. (This is a huge area, so I’ll leave it here for now!)

Cleaning data

Q. How often do you clean your data and what are the best ways to do this?
A. Email marketing platforms either have a feature that will do this for you - although of course you have control over it - or you can run a filter to (say) find anyone who hasn’t clicked any link in 6 months, then either delete or archive them. (But make sure you have included enough links in your emails to give subscribers those opportunities to click or no clicks won’t be a good measure!)
How often to do this and the criteria to use will depend on your business. You need to keep your open rate up (see the deliverability section again) and you don’t want to be paying the platform for subscribers who never open your emails, but equally you don’t want to delete people who read your emails for 6 months (or in the case of some business - years!) before giving you a call.
Some businesses have a faster turnover rate than others e.g. some will know that if a subscriber hasn’t bought anything in 3 months they never will. Some businesses are the opposite, especially consultancies, who may have to wait 5 years before a client picks up the phone.
Before deleting subscribers you could try a reengagement campaign, which could be a series of several emails designed specifically to get them to open and buy a small item or take some other action. Then if they don’t respond at all go ahead and delete them from your list.

More questions?

If you have questions that haven't been answered here you can contact Helen on her website https://helenlindop.com/ and sign up to her newsletter to see all her tips in action! She also shares lots of useful posts on LinkedIn  and this is a list of things she does for her clients:

by Ann Hawkins

How to turn obstacles into opportunities

We all know life is full of opportunities. It’s also full of obstacles.

Sometimes the obstacles are hurdles that can be leapt over, hoops that can be jumped through, potholes that can be swerved around or mountains that can be scaled to reach new heights. It can be exhilarating.

But sometimes they feel like a full body slam, you’re down on the canvas, feeling powerless.

• You may have lost a founding partner in your business, you may have discovered someone copied your idea, you may be drowning in orders or lost a good supplier, a major funder may have pulled out. Your health or the health of a loved one may need to take priority, you crashed your car, lost all your contacts, had your bank account frozen. These are all instances that people have used to shape their business differently and use to create different opportunities.

Things you didn’t anticipate or plan for can be tough to look at as opportunities, but that’s what’s needed and that’s what gets most people through these situations.

One thing is certain, no-one sees obstacles in the same way.

Each person constructs their own version of reality.

How you see a situation depends on what you are capable of doing in a situation.

Perception is a generative, creative act. One person’s mountain really could be another person’s molehill.

How we view, frame and deal with things is crucial. For everyone it will be different. We all have different circumstances and levels of personal comfort or discomfort that can be the difference between relishing a challenge and feeling overwhelmed.

When Andy Boothman introduced this topic in one of our meetings he outlined three things he need to solve in order to move on:

• Finding a tailor for his newly launched Dress Code Shirts when he had no knowledge of the industry.
• Finding a way to deal with the overwhelming number of communications with the growing number of clients and team members in his Busy as AB branding business.
• Finding a way to stop his body from deteriorating from too many hours sitting at a desk.

He overcame all of these obstacles and turned them into opportunities in every case by asking his network for help.

Here are some other ways to turn a smack around the head with a baseball bat into a launchpad for something new:

Get some perspective

How big is it really? To you, an obstacle may seem insurmountable, but to someone with a different view point or different experience it’s an easy fix. Instead of pushing harder you might just need a lever.

Give yourself space

If time allows, instead of diving into fix-it mode step back and let things settle. Often our best ideas come when we’re not thinking about what to do. Go for a walk, bake a cake, draw a picture, make some music, play a game. You’re almost certain to have a brilliant insight.

Panic, worry and fear can cause us to freeze and do nothing at all or run full speed ahead with dozens of ineffective solutions and unaligned ideas. If your emotions are triggered, get curious about why, and try to get some understanding about what they’re telling you. Are things really as bad as you think or is this an opportunity for re-invention?

Stop the blame game

Blaming anyone for a problem never solved it, and blaming yourself is like trying to find your way through a maze in a blindfold. Just stop.

What can you control?

Focus on what you can do, not what you can't. Instead of letting your brain focus on the things beyond your control, first get clear on everything that is within your control. Make a list of everything you can control right now. You'll be surprised as opportunities you hadn't even thought of naturally start to present themselves, and you feel confident in your ability to overcome your obstacle.

Give yourself some credit

Running a business on your own is tough. You need skills and resilience that most people who are employed would be amazed at. It can sometimes feel that every day is a new challenge and a new series of problems. Just keeping a business going, providing a great service, earning your own living and doing a good job for clients, not to mention being a good family member, friend, neighbour and whatever else is going on in your life, is work that only a few people are cut out for. Take a bow. Give yourself a pat on the back. You’re not an ordinary human – you’re super-human!

Conclusions and take aways

Everyone who took part in this discussion agreed that having the right support systems around you in business is crucial. These systems will vary dramatically from person to person, but they all come back to three keys things

Perspective – what’s big or small and how you break the big things down into manageable chunks

Support – the people who’ve got your back

Ask for help – there’s a wonderful thing that happens when you do this, people help you. It’s super powerful - for them as well as for you.

by Ann Hawkins