Service interruption: please do not adjust your settings. There’s going to be a pause in the publication of these blog posts.
Continue readingCategory: Running a Small Business
How not to hate marketing (part three)
Marketing has been much on my mind in 2024. At last I think I have a way forward. The key is to find a niche…
Over the last few months I’ve written two long and somewhat meandering posts about marketing, how I hate it and what I’m doing to do about it. (Links to those two posts are at the bottom of this post, along with an AI-generated summary of the main points).
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Small business planning… in spring! (Part 2)
Strategy is big and complicated, right? Not so, says a business guru. Really small businesses have strategies, even if they don’t know it.
In a previous article, I wrote about the first phase of my newly minted spring planning process.
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Finding meaning in business
A short meditation on finding meaningfulness at work: what’s good for me must surely be good for my clients…
When I was doing my spring planning, something finally fell into place.
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How to do small business planning… in spring!
I’m not going to do an end-of-year review and business plan in 2024. Instead, I am working on a spring clean, an exercise in seasonal renewal.
Ever since I’ve been running my own business, I’ve taken a holiday in December and done my annual review and planning exercise either before or after that holiday.
Continue reading
My home office gets an upgrade
One of the joys of self-employment is the freedom to decide where your home office will be located…
When I first started work, it was in an open-plan office – the Eastern Province Herald newsroom to be precise.
I don’t think I had any idea what an office was supposed to be like. I knew that important people like the Editor (then Koos Viviers) had offices but I did not know what might be in such an office, since I was thankfully never called into it.
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Why that new toy is not as shiny as you think it is
How a simple mid-year review turned into weeks of uncertainty, courtesy of shiny new object syndrome…
Every year I do a mid-year business review. Usually that means I assess what I’ve been doing, and think about what needs to change, or continue, for the next six months.
I get out the plans I made at the beginning of the year and start with those, usually doing some adaptations but generally carrying on as I have been doing.
Continue reading
How not to hate marketing (part three)
Marketing has been much on my mind in 2024. At last I think I have a way forward. The key is to find a niche…
Over the last few months I’ve written two long and somewhat meandering posts about marketing, how I hate it and what I’m doing to do about it. (Links to those two posts are at the bottom of this post, along with an AI-generated summary of the main points).
Continue readingSmall business planning… in spring! (Part 2)
Strategy is big and complicated, right? Not so, says a business guru. Really small businesses have strategies, even if they don’t know it.
In a previous article, I wrote about the first phase of my newly minted spring planning process.
Continue readingFinding meaning in business
A short meditation on finding meaningfulness at work: what’s good for me must surely be good for my clients…
When I was doing my spring planning, something finally fell into place.
Continue readingHow to do small business planning… in spring!
I’m not going to do an end-of-year review and business plan in 2024. Instead, I am working on a spring clean, an exercise in seasonal renewal.
Ever since I’ve been running my own business, I’ve taken a holiday in December and done my annual review and planning exercise either before or after that holiday.
Continue readingMy home office gets an upgrade
One of the joys of self-employment is the freedom to decide where your home office will be located…
When I first started work, it was in an open-plan office – the Eastern Province Herald newsroom to be precise.
I don’t think I had any idea what an office was supposed to be like. I knew that important people like the Editor (then Koos Viviers) had offices but I did not know what might be in such an office, since I was thankfully never called into it.
Continue readingWhy that new toy is not as shiny as you think it is
How a simple mid-year review turned into weeks of uncertainty, courtesy of shiny new object syndrome…
Every year I do a mid-year business review. Usually that means I assess what I’ve been doing, and think about what needs to change, or continue, for the next six months.
I get out the plans I made at the beginning of the year and start with those, usually doing some adaptations but generally carrying on as I have been doing.
Continue reading