I was given a lovely book for Christmas on Hygge (pronounced Hue Guh, to rhyme with sugar) – the Danish Art of Happiness, and it got me thinking…. How can the art of Hygge be applied to the self employed, particularly Solopreneurs?
Is there an opportunity to bring that cosy, peaceful, effortless, everyday happiness and well being to your home office? I think there is, so I have come up with some ways you can find magic in the ordinary.
Well spring has officially started and what better way than to take some time out to implement these Top Tips smarten up your business and get everything shipshape for the year ahead.
Are your records up to date? Are you sending out invoices on time and checking if they are paid? Do you have any consistently late payers? I find a simple Invoice Control spreadsheet helps me see at a glance what’s outstanding and how long people take to pay.
If your cash flow is suffering could you amend your payment schedules and terms and conditions to insist on larger deposits or shorten your payment terms?
Would it help to have some accounting software or an App? This could save you time and stress for example by recording your mileage and keeping your personal and business expenses separate.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) but what is it and how can it help you in your business communication?
At a recent WiRE networking meeting we learned some very useful techniques from Claire McKeown, a professional Intervention Specialist, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Certified NLP Practitioner. She explained NLP is a very big subject but she gave us a very useful definition:
NLP is a way of influencing brain behaviour (Neuro) through the use of language (Linguistic) and other types of communication to enable us to recode the way our brain responds to stimuli (Programming) to enable us to create new and better behaviour.
In other words, NLP is way of building up rapport. What you say and how you say it affects other people, you can easily influence and persuade them by communicating with NLP in mind.
You’ve got an event to promote and you don’t have much of a budget – but that’s not too much of a problem these days with so many on line and social media options.
Following on from my earlier Blog on getting everything in place to promote your event, here’s a few tips of where to promote your event and some posting etiquette. Most of the examples are links.
Years ago, to promote my Charity Dinner I would drive around with posters pinning them to notice boards and leaving them in receptions of local companies. The poster was either unprofessional because it was printed at home or expensive if we had one done professionally.
Today things are so much easier! Social media including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are by far the cheapest and quickest ways to get the message out about your event. There are a few things that will save you time before you get started: