A good thing or a bad you ask, right?

Valentines comes around once a year, and once a year you are expected to get lovey dovey cats eyes, think about your loved one, shower them with affection, and your time and energy. But hang on for just one day of the year?

I have been very happily married for 16 years and my hubby 1^st kissed me 19 and a half years ago on Valentine’s day and I still get flutters in my belly just thinking about him and a silly grin on my face (OK this is no Disney Fairy tale – I still berate that I’m the only one that can carry things up the stairs or put dirty socks in the wash!) But is that from putting effort and energy in once a year?

No!
It’s from always considering his needs, his passions and his feelings. Every day when he gets home from work I always say “How was your day?”Recently he said why do you always ask me that? And I said “Because I care” and I care for more than one day of the year.

(Me Loving My Husband and Me Loving My Business)

Now let’s flip over to your business (before you all throw up with my lovedupness – made up word, but I like it!) Do you treat your business like Valentine’s Day?

Do you once in a while say “Right let’s look at our marketing, let’s power up the results. Let’s check out our website and if people are engaged by it and getting in touch”

OR…

Do you think daily;

Is our website getting the right message across to our potential clients? Does it match up to what we have been doing recently?

When I attend networking events am I saying things that compliment the marketing message on our website?

Am I getting our business in the local press, talking about what we have been doing recently and the great story that is hidden about our company?

Do I use this press release information and my marketing material on social media?

Do I sing about this when delivering my 60 seconds promo slots?

Do I think daily – How do I interact with potential clients, When do I, Where do I interact with them?

Do you always ask in the back of your mind where your next client is coming from?

Because if you don’t you are a once a year, special occasion Valentine’s Day business owner. And Guess what that does for your sustainability? For your Growth? For your Success?

8 years ago I had severe clinical depression and nearly died (twice – just for good measures!) and my husband was my rock, we know that whatever life throws at us we will be able to deal with it, together, as a team. Once a month we pick a row with the kids and get them off to bed early so that we can light candles, cook a nice meal and snuggle up in a mountain of cushions and watch a film and be just us. It’s always a Tuesday night because, hey Tuesday was never a special night of the week and it needed a bit of attention. Regularly putting in effort keeps our relationship fresh, special and wonderful.

Valentine’s Day is never going to be enough to create something lasting for all time.

So ask yourself are you having the same attitude to your business?

If so isn’t it time you gave your business full time love?

For ideas on loving your business full time, gaining more customers and making the sales (without spending sacks of money) get in touch or head over to the Free reports and the BWN blog as they are both packed with ideas to rocket your sales. As a business coach and as founder of The Business Womans Network both my coaching clients and business women that attend the BWN are seeing great results in their business because of the way I work – I would love to hear all about your business and how I could support your success too.

Mandie@thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk

07989935556

1.      If you have an idea or invention DO NOT TELL ANYONE.

To be protectable by patent a new invention must be novel and inventive.  As soon as you tell someone you have destroyed the novelty and hence made your invention un-patentable.  If you do need to discuss your idea make sure you do it under the cover of a Non-Disclosure or Confidentiality Agreement.  You can download templates off the Internet if you have a tight budget.

2.      Arm yourself with knowledge. 

There are 4 main types of Intellectual Property: Trade Marks, Copyright, Patents and Design Rights.  You can have all 4 types of Intellectual Property in any one business  and they all work together in harmony.  Get to know what each of them protect and use this to your advantage. 

3.      Respect the work of others. 

Others have put great investment in writing or producing their own Intellectual Property.  As a rule of thumb do not copy any photos, text, logos, names or ideas, this includes anything you find on the internet.  Always seek permission first or you could end up paying expensive royalties after the event.

 4.      Clearly show your rights and enforce them. 

You can use the ^TM symbol to denote an unregistered Trade Mark, this indicates to others that even if you haven’t taken steps to protect it you see this as your property.  If you have registered your mark you can use the ® symbol.  If you have work which qualifies for copyright protection use the © along with your name and date.  

There is no requirement to register copyright in the UK but by keeping good records of when you created material you are building a good foundation should a problem arise later.  A good way of keeping dated records is to send yourself a copy in the post (but don’t open it) it is then independently date verified by the post office!

If a third party copies your work stop them straight away.  The longer you leave the problem unaddressed the less likely you are to get a successful outcome.

5.      Be patient 

It can take time to get your Intellectual Property registered. However, you will usually be protected from the date you file. 

 6.      Use a legal advisor, you will save money and stress in the long run 

Whilst you can register most Intellectual Property yourself, if you hit a problem you will end up paying more if you have to take on a professional to resolve the matter for you.   If you haven’t carried out the right searches and a third party opposes your Application this can be extremely costly.  A Trade Mark or Patent Attorney will not let you file something they think will encounter expensive problems without warning you first.

If you are on a tight budget and cannot afford to use a Trade Mark or Patent Attorney ask for basic advice anyway, all will offer at least 30 mins free and you can ask a lot of questions in that 30 min period!  Alternatively find one on twitter, LinkedIn or facebook and ask them questions, they will like it because it will give them a chance to showcase their skills but at the same time giving you the information you need.

If you want to know more check out our website or get in touch: www.innovateip.co.uk

A massive thanks goes to Karen Hensman of Innovate IP for sharing these ideas – Karen will be hosting an IP Property BWN Seminar later this year – watch the BWN newsletter to learn more. Not signed up?

Go to the home page and sign up today.

So yesterday a client says to me thats its hard work sending out individual emails to everyone and what results do they get anyway? Thus I mentioned Mailchimp – its free, I can keep in touch with clients/potential clients/ and business women looking to grow their business effectively, knowing who reads it, how often and if they open the links I included and even automatically share on my social media too - great right?

Here’s a taster 5 minute video to help you get going;

The How to Set Up An Email Campaign With Mail Chimp

Get started, pause the video as you and do send us your finished results.

Not yet done your tax return for 2010/11?

Then get it filed today and you will not get a penalty. After today you will get an automatic penalty of £100 regardless of whether or not you owe any tax, and further daily penalties of £10 per day for each day after that.

Did you know that making a loss can be a good thing?

There are special rules for tax treatment of losses in the first years of trading, so you shouldn’t  assume that just because you aren’t making money that it is not worth completing a tax return. Apart from it being against the tax rules to be self employed and not be registered for self-assessment, you could be missing out on some money. The treatment of losses is a complex area and you should contact an accountant for advice.

Just started trading and making profits? Great!

If your profits fall below the personal allowance and you have no other income you may not pay any tax this time, but don’t forget that the first time you start to pay tax you will need to pay up front for the following year as well. The tax system operates by assuming that the following years profits will be the same as the current year and you will be required to pay the following years tax up front in two installments in January and July.

Tax Refund Scams.

Don’t respond to any emails claiming to be from HMRC and offering you a refund. You will be redirected to a false website where you are required to enter your bank details, and then your bank account will be emptied. In the last 3 months HMRC have closed down 185 false websites of this nature so this fraud is epidemic. If you think you are due a tax refund contact your accountant to check, or contact HMRC directly.

Thanks Lorraine for sharing that information – since Lorraine is the expert head over to her website (www.rightwayaccounting.co.uk) to learn more and don’t forget your accountant is there for the whole year to support your success and feed you advice and ideas to sustain and grow your business.

You can meet Lorraine at Essex BWN events.

And its a fair point. There is a ton of choice out there – which is great for the consumer…..and the network. You see we never placed ourselves as a rival, on the contrary we regularly promote other networks and business groups, why? Because if its good for business we want to be telling you about it.

A different approach you may say, well yes, but then it works. You see we are here to do the hard work for you. Try out the networks, the seminars and workshops and we share with you the good stuff. You can expect to hear about those ideas at every event in the business ops slot at 10.30.

But lets get down to the nitty gritty – you network because ultimately it leads to leads and sales and profit and success. On top of those things at the BWN you can expect support (it can be a lonely world for a business woman – and its great to know what you are experiencing or finding tough someone else has the answers to - probably because they have been through it too!)

You get motivated into action – so often women say to me, thanks to coming to The BWN last week, I picked up the phone/got in touch/changed my website/got up and spoke about my company/challenged their decision/went for it/took my business to the next level. And that results in even more success.

The BWN blogs and “What Business Women Say” pages of our website are packed with testimonials of how we have helped business women get what they want for their business and their success – all in an environment that is always welcoming (never clicky!) motivational and business focussed – we may mention what gorgeous heels you are wearing but then its straight back to business. Because we know that’s what matters to you.

But really why bother with Hootsuite (or Tweetdeck - the choice is yours, and personally I love Hootsuite) and the reason why to bother with Hootsuite, the why I love it?

Well…..

I can schedule messages – so I can share some tasty top tips, advice, ideas and pearls of wisdom while I’m busy with a client or at a BWN networking event – which if you get it right means you get targeted traffic to your website and the ping ping of people buying from you.

I can keep all my social media in one place – ensuring I comment and interact with all the fabulous business people I know on a regular basis – remember my rule – “You can’t dictate when someone is ready to buy, but you can have a say in who they buy from.”

I can follow key words and join in the important and relevant conversations to me, my target audience and people that I want to engage with.

I can schedule messages – I know I have already said this, but seriously how great is it that I can share some great ideas to motivate and inspire business women, while being out and about working in my job motivating and inspiring business women! I love that, I  know us women are notoriously good at multi tasking but Hootsuite allows you to take that to a whole new level.

And now for a word of caution (because this a blog post not an indepth how to use Hootsuite lesson – although I do offers those since I’m so in love with social media!) Hootsuite is a tool to make social media easier, to make it fit into your busy life. It is not an alternative to listening to conversations, to interacting and RT-ing what others have to say. Its an accompanient.

And those that forget that, forget at their peril. People don’t want to be sold at in your tweets – its the fastest way to turn people off of you and stop engaging with you. The days of repeating your business promo literature are long gone!

So get in there and have a go – as I often tell newbies to social media success a) you can’t break it and b) you will always be learning and c) (if you get it right) you will love it too, for what it delivers to your business success.

I run social media workshops, 1 to 1′s and a ton of other stuff along side the work I do to support business women to get more customers and grow their business, so if you would like to power up your results, say hi at a Essex BWN event or give me a call for a chat – BTW I find a lot of time when you get your marketing message clear to the right target audience things start to slot into place rather nicely!

Mandie Holgate mandie@thebusinesswomannetwork.co.uk

07989 935556

It must be the New Year! Suddenly, stories are everywhere of women making big transitions in their lives. I open Good Housekeeping, and there’s a piece on four women who successfully made it through their own personal transitions. One of them won a national triathlon just after she turned 50.

Another walked away from a six-figure salary in banking in order to teach prisoners to bake bread. A third became a guitarist in a rock band, and a woman who’d been made redundant set up her own business developing children’s products. In the Sunday Times Style magazine, there’s a piece about Martine Wright, who lost both her legs in the London tube bombings. Before the bombings, Martine was a marketing manager. Afterwards, she vowed to grab every opportunity that came her way, and now she’s part of the national women’s sitting volleyball team and hopes to be chosen to take part in this year’s Paralympics. Another article in Good Housekeeping features Natalie Ellis, who recovered from a mini-stroke to set up an international business designing and selling canine products. A measure of her success is that her non-spill dog bowl is used by the Obamas’ dog, Bo.

Of these six women, three chose to go through a transition – from being unfit to being a triathlon winner, from banking to bread-making and from yummy-mummy to rock guitarist – and three had a transition forced upon them. All six left their previous way of life behind and created a new one. Each of their transitions began with an ending, continued with a period of reflection when they weighed up possibilities and options for the future, and ended with a new beginning. That’s typical of transitions, and typical, too, is that sometimes they’re easy, and sometimes they’re difficult. It’s when you get stuck in the middle that a Transitions Coach can be really helpful!

Jan King is a qualified Life Transitions Coach with extensive experience of working with individuals, couples and groups. If you’d like to contact her, you can email her at jan@janking.co.uk or call her on 01787 222540 or on 07949 821 670. And you can visit her website at www.janking.co.uk

“As of 2012, we are amidst the baby stages of a similar social media age – parallel to the initial birth of the Internet, a revolutionary shift in how we communicate, seek, and obtain clients in the business world.

Social media is no longer an option. If you want to be competitive in your industry—it’s a “must”. 

Don’t let compliance and regulatory issues stop you from jumping on the social media bandwagon: According to many studies and surveys, compliance issues are the primary chains holding back the use of social media in the financial industry.

Given the monumental impact of social media, Go To Girls have designed this webinar to take you through the compliance issues and show you the strategies that you can use in your business as a financial adviser and start attracting more clients today.

The webinar is limited in space, to register now to ensure your spot Click here.

To learn more about Bridget Click here.

Brenda Seaborn from Banish Stress has worked for corporate clients such as • ACE • Magnox • BBC Essex • Colchester Borough Council • Colchester Hospital University Foundation Trust, working throughout North East Essex and Suffolk offering her unique corporate therapy days as part of company’s occupational health or team building events.  Brenda first hand sees the impact of neglecting the body.

“You can only for so long get away with not listening to your body, before you really start to suffer. So many times business women say to me, but I don’t have time. But if you end up in bed you will have no choice but to stop working, why wait for that to happen? With a bit of TLC to your body, listening to its needs and a bit of time out, you can ensure you are fit and well to always be there for your business.”

Brenda has run a busy, private practice from her home in Colchester since 1997; providing complementary healthcare to both individual and corporate clients. Corporate clients such as Sandra Meakins from Magnox said “She is always gladly, welcomed by our staff and provides them with nurturing respite from an otherwise hectic days work. She offers them a chance to offload, unwind and refocus; enabling them to continue their days work completely refreshed.”

Combining a wealth of therapies such as Reiki, Reflexology, Manicure, pedicure (don’t dismiss how relaxing and important your nails can be!) Indian Head Massage,  Holistic Facial Massage, Advanced Reflexology inc. Maternity & Fertility and teaching Reiki and meditation. Business women often forget to create space to unwind, de-stress, re-balance and look after their health or to speed up the healing process during or after illness, surgery or the loss of a loved one.

So Brenda (or Confusicious) is right the Business Woman that neglects her health neglects her success. Now’s the time to get THAT in your business plan!??!

To learn more about time out, relaxing and caring for Number 1 (because you so often are at the bottom of the pile!) Get in touch with Brenda – 01206 512280 Email: banishstress@ntlworld.com Website: www.banishstress.co.uk

I just love attending the Business Women’s Networking sessions. Networking for me is not all about making a sale, it’s about developing relationships and connecting with likeminded businesses. So when I attended the December BWN meeting in Essex I was especially pleased when Kathy Ennis from Ennvision listened to my 60 seconds promo slot about ACT and immediately placed an order with me.

Kathy had been looking for a way to organise her contact information, have all her emails stored in one place and most importantly she wanted a way to group her contacts for her marketing campaigns. She’d heard about ACT from Robert Craven, a business guru and was pleased to find she could buy the software from a fellow BWN member. I know Kathy is happy with her purchase and will tell her business associates about it.

Networking is all about planting the seeds and waiting for them to grow and sometimes they grow like sunflowers- fast and strong! And that’s the power of networking and in particular the BWN – serious networking for serious business people 

To learn more about getting your business cards organised (from that mountain on the edge of your desk!)

 http://www.betteractnow.com/uk/6ACTfacts.php http:/

/www.betteractnow.com/uk/DontBuyACTUntil.php www.corazonit.com www.youtube.com/elenemarsden

To Meet Kathy and learn more about what Kathy does – www.preparetogrow.co.uk 

Great that great networking gained Elene a client and Kathy solutions – love it!