Changing the world five people at a time

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Recently, I interviewed a fellow ethical business owner, Danni Craker of Craker Business Solutions. Danni strives to run a sustainable business and we discussed how she does it and what her green aims are for her business.

If you’re interested in sustainable business and how to be more ethical in your business, do pop over to the Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce website and take a look at the interview. The Chamber’s website is being revamped but that means you currently can’t leave comments on guest posts there.

So, if you like the post or just want to comment on sustainable business and all things green, come back here and comment below.

If you’re part of the Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce, you can also be part of their Green Chamber Collective. Already a member and want to create a Statement of Aspiration? Get in touch with the Chamber.

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How your guts can save you time, money and your sanity

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This is the year of listening to my gut! Growing up with a mum who’s got Crohns Disease and Colitis (and who’s worked tirelessly over the years to remove the stigma from those illnesses, yes, you’re fab, Mum!), I’ve been surrounded by discussions on guts for what feels like forever. But I’m not talking about biology now, I’m talking about something that feels so amorphous that you can’t always believe it exists. Your gut instincts.

Not sure about a prospective client? Going back and forth on whether to work with someone? The answer’s in you!

Continue reading →

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Happy Holidays!

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As John Lennon said, “and so it is Christmas and what have you done?”

The holidays mean different things to different people. For some, it’s a time for reflection on the past year; for others, it’s a time to feel surrounded by family, friends, food and drink! For me, it’s a chance to say “thank you”. Thank you to everyone who has supported me in my freelancing adventure so far, thank you to all of the writers and bloggers out there who have taught me something this year or just made me laugh out loud.

Thank you to those of you who take the time to read my blog posts and respond with thoughtful comments and thank you to all you social media followers out there too. Thank you to my poor, suffering hubby and my ever whiny cat!

Most of all, I just wanted to wish all of you a very happy holiday, however you spend your time, and here’s to the excitement of the coming year, whatever it may bring!

Happy holidays everyone and see you all again in 2013!

Image by ElizabethHurdy, under Creative Commons

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This week’s rant: Facebook and the art of Plain English

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Did you get that email, suspiciously sent during the Thanksgiving holiday, asking Facebookers to read the proposed privacy policy and data use policies and comment on them? I dutifully clicked on the link and took a gander at the documents. What have I learned? Not a thing about their proposed changes but an awful lot about language and Facebook’s inability to communicate well with their users. Continue reading →

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If you build your home page right, they will come!

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Okay, so I’ve ripped off a line from Field of Dreams, but here’s the thing. These days, life moves pretty fast (sorry, Ferris). People don’t have the time to try and figure out what your business is all about so you’ve got to make sure that the first page they see on your site states one big thing:Quote from Ruskin

What’s in it for me? (no, not you, them, your currently hypothetical customers)

Continue reading →

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What cats can teach us about freelancing

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photo of cat2This is Pukey the Cat (aka Max). Like Garfield, he doesn’t leave the
cul de sac so I’ve spent a lot of time with him in my new freelancing life. So far, he hasn’t inspired me to draw a world famous cartoon strip but he has taught me a few things about freelancing and working from home.

Warning – adorkable cat pics follow! Continue reading →

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Getting EU cookie compliant without any baking

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Everyone’s been talking about cookies this week.

Initially, I just heard the word “cookies” and despaired.  I’m a great baker but a complete failure at baking cookies, to the point where dogs turn their noses up at my peanut butter cookies (and they sniff their butts!).

Not baked by me

Not those cookies, you cry, stupid baking loser, the internet kind!

Discovering that I was supposed to do something about the cookies on my website by the deadline of last Friday meant a mad rush to figure out what the heck this was all about!  I wasn’t even running my own business this time last year, where was my year’s grace?

After much reading (Suzanne’s post over at lawyers4mumpreneurs.com was a big help as was her free cookie policy) and a bit of implementation, I’m now EU Cookie compliant – are you?

If you’re not EU cookie compliant yet or you’re a business in the EU and have no clue what I’m talking about, read on for a quick guide on how to get compliant quick! Continue reading →

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Are your emails duller than a bag of butter knives?

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Rant of the week!

In the last week, I’ve read a number of supposedly sales emails that made me want to fall asleep/whack my head against the wall repeatedly.  How do these people survive in  the real world?  Fifty buck words, long paragraphs of rambling sentences, never.getting.to.the.point. It’s infuriating!

Now, most people will instantly delete these types of emails.  Not me, these are an education for me in how not to engage your audience.  So, here’s:

How to write a sales email that doesn’t make your reader want to whack their head against the nearest wall! Continue reading →

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