An attitude of kindness in your business can transform how customers and other businesses perceive you. When an act of kindness is exercised it has a knock on effect to not just yourself, you feel good, the recipient, they feel good, but also others around you feel this effect too. Relationships and perceptions are strengthened for the better.

Some might view kindness as not having monetary value in a business. But kindness in your business does contribute to your cash flow. See kindness as an invisible currency that you, the business owner, gets to spend everyday! A large chunk of our time is dedicated to doing our job. We all experience days where we are on the receiving end of unkindness from people for whatever reason. Best to not get mad but get kinder!! Much better to spend as much of our kindness currency as we can, as you never know it may be just what that recipient needs. No act of kindness is too small!

Some view kindness as a weakness. Kindness is actually a strength and is often clearly demonstrated with many brands and businesses that we associate ourselves with along with plenty of scientific and spiritual content to support this fact.

‘When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.’ The 14th Dalai Lama

There are many ways to integrate kindness into our business and this topic leads nicely into letting readers know that Wednesday, November 13th is World Kindness Day. Here are some things to think about:

• Slow down and make time for kindness
• Be kind to yourself first!
• Let your customers know
• Get involved with a local initiative/charity/community cause
• Do something kind for nature, people, animals
• Offer kindness discounts/offers in the lead up to November 13th or the day itself or plan a flurry of random acts of kindness to unknowing recipients
• Connect and collaborate with other businesses
• Leave a positive review for other businesses

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Spend your currency of kindness every day not just for November 13th.

Yours socially
Micala 

One of the biggest challenges many small business owners have when it comes to social media is content. I am regularly asked “what can I share?” “How do I keep my audience tuned in?” When marketing your business through social media platforms it needs to be consistent. You need to commit time and energy to keeping those spaces busy with content. Bit like keeping shelves stacked in a store. When empty, people tend to lose interest.

Now, marketing your business should be a mix of activities but many choose to focus on social media as it is quick and easy to do. However, it is not easy to keep content on your platforms 5 days a week, 48 weeks of the year [that's taking out weekends and 4 weeks holiday!!] leaving 240 pieces of content to be researched, crafted, shaped and posted. Add in a couple of other platforms and you can soon see that a lot of time is needed. Which is why quite often social media accounts tend to have ups and downs. When a business owner is busy, less posting of content. When they are less busy, more content. And not always the right content.

The purpose of content is to inspire, entertain, educate and engage. The mix needs to take into account the customer journey and repeated cycles within your business, without always being a full on promotion of you and your business.

So what constitutes a good steady flow of content that can help stimulate engagement from your audience? Here are some suggestions to help craft your flow of content. Craft content with YOUR audience in mind. Always accompany text with a visual. Visuals help stimulate desire to get involved.

Inspirational
Quotes, testimonials, challenges you have faced along the way, has your product/service met a customer challenge? Are you involved in an inspirational community activity?

Educational
Can you link back to blog posts? Can you provide quick and easy How Tos? Are there frequently asked questions that can help educate? Do you host a Youtube channel? Can content from here be shared across your platforms? Do you have user generated content available?

Conversational
Adding content that gets your audience to respond allows you to understand your potential and existing customers. You are giving them a chance to get involved, and engage in 2-way conversation that in turn helps develop relationships. Seek to ask relevant questions. Put out polls. For elements of fun share a photo and add “caption this”. If you are offering a new product or service ask for opinion.

Promotional posts
When promoting your services and products OK, it is your page, but be mindful of your audience. You need to strike a balance of not too much and not too little. When posting regular relevant, educational, entertaining and conversational content your promotional posts can slot seamlessly in between. Think about whetting their appetite with give-aways and competitions.  

If you need help in crafting or creating content, or  need a friendly pair of eyes and ears for your ideas, let me know! 

Yours socially
Micala 

There's more to managing a small business than setting up the business. It requires a lot more of YOU. Not only are you an owner of a small business. You are a manager, manager of yourself, sales, marketing, admin, customer service and more. You don't need to master of all but you do need to know what you are good at and what your weaknesses are. 

“It is not the mountain that we conquer, but ourselves”
​- Sir Edmund Hillary

You need to be brutally honest about what you bring to the business owner table. What skills do you currently have that will assist you in managing your business? It is easy to think that you have selling skills or organisation skills. But there's more to selling. It goes beyond creating a website, setting up a Facebook page and waiting for enquiries to come in. You have to put effort in yourself. Recognise which skills you need to develop in order to manage your business effectively. There are excellent resources available to help you learn. Ask questions of other business owners. Honing good managerial skills takes time and patience.

How motivated are you as a business owner? Are you driven enough to focus on the needs of the business? There's no employer or manager to direct your day? You are responsible for earning your income AND juggling other activities that feed into income earning opportunities. Are you disciplined to do the admin regularly rather than lastminute.com? You will encounter unexpected challenges as a business owner and you will need to dig deep into the pockets of perseverance to fight through those challenges.

Is your business viable? Is it going to provide you with an income to survive and thrive? This is where good planning is required. A business plan, financial plan and then a marketing/sales plan. What do you have that sets you apart from your competition? You need to know who your customers are. Where will you find them? How will you market to them? What customer service experience will they get from you? What do you need to invest in setting up your business? What are the financial risks? What are your anticipated costs? What do you need to bring in in order to cover those costs... and have some left for yourself? You will need to be disciplined to track what happens in your business? Account for every centime/penny.

You will need to consider time management, as you will need to focus on your skill set that earns you money and other areas of business management. They all need attention in order to allow your wheels of commerce to keep turning. There is no 9-5 in self employment and there will be times when sacrifices are made.  The flip side is that you are your own boss. You have flexibility over your time. You might experience weeks or months of it being full on, but equally you can decide to have a couple of weeks off - the only boss you need to ask is you! 

Never be afraid to ask questions...Never stop learning... Being self employed requires a lot more of you than you bargained for. 

Experience and knowledge will shape you over the years and your skill set will be very different to what you started out with. 

How many of us actually think about what we are typing when using a keyboard or smart phone device? It is so much easier to type as we go along and then press send without thinking. I remember the days of pitman shorthand, audio typing and carbon paper and erasers. We certainly couldn't send out what we thought we had heard, it had to be correct. Which meant we had to think about what we were typing before a boss put their signature to it.

How things have changed! Technology has made it so much easier. It has enabled us to do much quicker with less thought. We have all seen posts with responses that have been unkind, mean, rude, loaded with opinion with clearly no respect or consideration of the receiver.

Social media has become the tool for daily interactions among family, friends, communal groups whether open or closed. Before social media interactions were face to face or by phone. We had body language, facial expressions to gauge responses to the words we used. Social media impacts the way we communicate. The ability to clearly express thoughts and ideas and responses diminishes and leads to lazy communicating.

And I'm going to niche this down even more because business owners also fall foul of displaying traits that you wouldn't expect to see. There are many strings associated with the self employed business bow and effective communication is one of them. As business owners our behaviour and conduct online is as important as off. If you are running a business, be mindful of digital impressions created. An ill placed rant, or letting off steam or a curt and rude response to something across social media platforms can help a current or potential customer form a perception. If you are responding or ranting as a knee jerk reaction, take some time out before committing it to social media platforms. And then ask yourself does it really need to be there? Could a chat with someone at the end of the phone or face to face with someone have been more helpful? When you are responding to a post, give it some thought? Offer kindness and insight. I recently witnessed in a closed group some one liners of 'mind your own business' and 'get a life' to perfectly legitimate question. Unfortunately the recipient left the group as a result of those thoughtless responses. Rest assured that those responses have made sure I never want to use them. Can you imagine if that is how they are with clients?

This would apply to pretty much all of our communication if we applied a bit of THINK. Is it true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, kind. 🧡🧡

Would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this topic.
​
Yours socially
​Micala 

There's an old proverb – to keep a customer demands as much skill as to win one. Attracting new customers can at best be costly on your budget and your time. Customer acquisition is important, particularly when you are starting out in business. As you become more established your energy and your time might be better invested in nurturing existing customer relationships. So investing in skills that help retain your customer base should not be ignored.

“It's not your customer's job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don't have the change to forget you” - Patricia Fripp

Think of customer retention as an integral part of your business. With a few systems in place client retention becomes a skill that will help boost the profitability in your business. Best to keep those profits in your business, not your competition!

Your customers already like you if they have purchased from you. So unless there has been a disappointing experience that you have failed to resolve, then there is no reason why they should not buy from you again. You have built trust and rapport, so aim for more.

Here are some ideas to consider in the art of mastering the skill of customer retention:

• Thank your customers. Let them know they are appreciated. Every customer likes to feel appreciated. Show your appreciation by providing a special offer exclusive to your best customers.
• Listen to your customers. Ask them for feedback. Was their experience of dealing with you as they wished? What improvements could be made?
• Bring them up to speed on relevant information – not just about you, but those of your customers interests. Are they looking for other services or products that you can point them in the right direction of? Could your customers benefit from being introduced to each other?
• Offer time limited offers on products or services.

• Customer loyalty is priceless particularly if they are talking about you to other people, can you introduce a loyalty program?
• Wherever possible under promise – over deliver

Don't be afraid to stay connected to your customer. Show them that you truly care. By applying some of the suggestions above or your own creative retention ideas, retaining a customer works out so much cheaper than acquiring a new one.   

What customer retention activities have you introduced into your business?
What has worked? 

Yours socially

Micala 

Having been party to some interesting conversations lately, it seems the phrase – I don't need to advertise my business I've got work for the next 3-6 months – is a common one. For those who have busy workloads, this great. But there is always a good argument for continuous marketing of your business. No matter how small or big your business, marketing is crucial for its long term success.

Think of it from the customers perspective. Consumers need to see various touch points before they feel comfortable in working with a business. For example, they see you in the local magazine for months, maybe during your quiet months, when YOU think you need to advertise. Your season picks up, you are busy, you stop advertising. That potential customer who saw your ad a few months ago, may now think you are out of business. Your facebook page hasn't been updated in months, it looks dated and out of touch. Your best friend[s] who have been sharing word of mouth recommendations are no longer around. Circumstances change, but the long term success of your business should be brought about from a mix of marketing activity. Strategically placed flyers that were once left in in high footfall areas, are no longr being seen. Never keep your eggs in one basket. The goal of marketing is to stand out and be noticed, online and off. So while you are busy being busy, you need to keep attracting potential customers.

Having work, bookings or sales on the calendar is brilliant, but don't turn off the enquiry tap. Think of how you got that work, it came from somewhere. Was it as a result of a flyer? Did they see your advert in a magazine? Did they visit your Facebook page? Were you recommended? Know where your customers came from, so you can prepare for more! Easier said than done when you are already wearing many hats as a business owner right?? And where possible, ring fence some of that hard earned income for future marketing. It is appreciated that some business regimes, particularly here in France, such as the micro-entreprise can be challenging, as you cannot offset expenses [but you do get an abatement on your self employed tax form].

“Marketing is not a function, it is the whole business seen from the customer's point of view” - Peter F Drucker

​Marketing momentum is necessary for all businesses, both large and small, even when you are busy. Much better to carve out small pieces of time for marketing during busy times, than it is to spend large chunks of time and money when the work is running dry. Continuity helps customers of the past, present, and future see that you are still there.

Are you experiencing high work volume?  Have you turned off the enquiry tap? Is your business still being seen? Share your thoughts.

Yours socially
Micala 

No it is not an instruction, I am not asking readers to google my business. But as google is one of the most widely used search engines when someone is looking for a business or service, someone may have tried googling yours! Business owners you might want to google yourself and see how you appear. Does your information sit nicely on the right hand side? Can visitors see your business information? Contact details, website link? Yes - that's great. No – then time to get yourself listed with google my business.

Google my business is a free and easy to use tool that helps business owners appear in google search and maps.

The tool is packed with opportunities for a business to showcase what it has to offer. Your listing requires basic information such as address, contact details, website link [a google my business listing complements your own website listing] If you don't have a website, you can create one within google my business. In addition to basic information you can add images, videos, create blog posts, Q&As. You can create events, offers, showcase products and even make it easy for customers to leave reviews and message you direct from google my business.

The dashboard is easy to use and allows a business owner to regularly update their listing with fresh content and improve searchability.  

The basics:

• To get yourself listed head to https://www.google.com/business/
• You can create your listing using your google mail email account which you want linked to your business. OR you can use your own email e.g. mybusiness@mybusiness.com
• Once you have set up your basic details it will need to be verified by google and they have a number of options you can choose from.
• Once verified complete your listing as much as possible. Put as much detail in as you can, add photos, videos, showcase those offers.

This kind of tool works well for business owners who are not visible across other platforms such as facebook but know they would benefit from being seen in searches.  

Is it time for you to google my business?

​

2018 saw the world retaliate against the use of plastic. Media and social platforms were awash with pictures of plastic washing up on beaches. 
​With consumers and companies alike doing their bit. No matter how hard we try... plastic seeps through many facets of our lives both personally and professionally and the fight continues.

Whether you are running your business from home or your other physical premises no doubt you have been 'de-plasticizing' your domain. But is there more that you can do you in your business to make it greener? The answer is yes. There's plenty of green activity you can do to help reduce your impact on the environment. From reviewing energy efficiency, using sustainable materials, how you eliminate waste and using green equipment, products and services.

Here are some changes to think about:

Are your business cards and stationery printed on recycled paper? Does the company you use have ethical links? We all know that France loves paper work. Applying for titre de sejours/nationality is a sure sign of their love of paper. Where possible can you receive statements online? Many Banks offer a paper free element to their services, Orange the telephone provider does. When using paper in your business – recycle print outs – make notepads. If you have to print, print 2 to a page and then flip it over. Create documents and email wherever possible. Make use of digital services such as Dropbox.

Which leads us on to ink cartridges. What do you do with yours? Do you give them to a local organisation to recycle? There are many charities that take them. Ask about or research online local collection schemes.
​
When looking to replace computers, laptops, mobile phones look for reconditioned appliances and give yours up for reconditioning at the same time. Many retailers now offer programmes to recycle back in old machinery – so as to avoid landfill. For example accredited schemes such as Les Ateliers du Bocage partners of Emmaus will take older appliances and refurbish them.  

Other activities to consider in your business:

• Think cloud computing
• ​Do more digitally or online
• Conduct and energy audit – are your appliances on all of the time or do you switch them off. Are you using efficient bulbs for lighting. Are you using efficient appliances. Are you powering down at the end of the day.
• Use rechargeable batteries
• Buy recycled paper and stationery items
• Only print essentials
• Are your supplies/suppliers green? Could your packaging be more sustainable?
• Recycle your office furniture – offices don't have to be swanky. Some of the best office space can be created on a budget and in a reclaimed fashion.
• Learn about green and eco friendly steps that are going on in your town/department. Talk to other businesses, what are they doing?

What are you doing in your business to be a bit greener?

This article first appeared in the etcetera magazine  https://www.etceteraonline.org/pdf/feb-2019.pdf

Yours socially
Micala

2018 was the year that I really learned to detach myself from plastic. With a 'tupperware' collection that moved to France with me in 2012, the need to keep purchasing new plastic pots has come to a complete standstill. The plastic movement of last year certainly provided a wake up call for many households, ours included. I was not overly happy that our recycling each week consisted mainly of water bottles. Some serious changes took place last year, which I am rather pleased about.

We started 2018 being avid purchasers of water in plastic bottles. Our water is quite chalky – our kettle was testament to that fact. I was invited to join an Facebook group living in france without plastic which I did. I was keen to see what others were doing, as I was beginning to get a bit peeved at having a bag for life dedicated to plastic bottle use! We ummed and ahhed and in the end we agreed that having a Brita water filter would be a better solution for us. The filters are quite expensive but we shop around and look for good offers. The cost of these is negligible when we look at the massive reduction of plastic water bottle use – a big fat zero!! Hubby now drinks out of a 1.5litre stainless water bottle which gets topped up from the Brita. Our kettle can boil away without squealing because it's too calcified.

Instead of relying on the 'tupperware' I am now putting excess foods in our bowls and covering them with beeswax wraps or china saucers/tea-plates – not cling film. I even made my own beeswax wraps at a wax workshop just before Christmas and would definitely do this again. Hubby's daily lunch is placed in stainless steel lunch box and if hot food is required the use of his stainless steel flask. All items that we can use when we go to French events that require you to bring your own eating utensils.  

One of the best der!! moments came last year when contemplating the merits of a composter, the answer was right on my digital doorstep with Gardening in France another great FB group. For the last couple of years hubby and I had been diligently placing our green waste in a trailer and taking it to the dechetterie. When in fact we could have been mulching it and putting putting green waste on the composter or utilising it in the garden. So by end of 2019 we had built a composter out of the many pallets that hubby gets from electrical deliveries [cable and stuff arrives wrapped on pallets].  My birthday present included a leaf blower and a light duty mulcher. Autumn saw us collecting leaves and mulching branches.

My indoor poubelle awaits all the glorious wastes of the week: vegetable peelings, copious amounts of tea leaves and a whole manner of other stuffs that the composter takes. The way I prepare the waste – cutting up greens in to small chunks – anyone would think I am making a cake!

On reflection we have been quite good at thinking and acting on waste reduction.

• Old holey socks get used as dusters.
• Clean brown cardboard, used for the fire or composter
• T-shirts cut up and used as dusters/cleaning rags
• Old towels cut up and used instead of kitchen roll
• Old pillowcases get stuffed with jumpers, t shirts for the dog beds
• Old furniture – reuse/re-purpose [greenhouse – bird table – composter]
• Printed stuff gets chopped up and used as notepads
• Have just sourced a local scheme to take ink cartridges to

Useful FB groups and links

Ark79 where I will be taking ink cartridges to - perhaps there is a local secheme near you.
French site about zero waste
The Bootique des Ateliers du Bocage - reconditioned mobile phones, computers, laptops.

Have you reduced the use of plastic in your working home?
​What tips would you share?

What a year 2018 has been!! Politically turbulent but one of the best summers ever! with plenty of French bureaucracy and technology issues thrown in for good measure. As summer made way for autumn the bottle neck of bills also follows, the various household taxes and the business rates for business owners.

From a business owning perspective are you on track? Has 2018 kept on track? Did the simple economics of sales less business costs leave some profit?

As we head out of 2018 and pull a few crackers and enjoy some well earned merriment, it is important that all business owners take stock of the current year and prepare for 2019.

While a new year always brings anticipation, a new canvas to work from we also have to factor in early Spring 2019. Whatever happens we owe it to ourselves and the businesses we work hard for have the opportunity to not just survive any impact of change but survive throughout the rest of 2019.

One way of doing that is to review the current year and prepare for the next.

A year end review no matter how small your business, is vital for continued progress and growth. So before you hit the pause button, pull a few crackers and recharge those batteries, set aside some time to carry out that important review.
​

• Start your review by setting out your accomplishments first. Set the tone to be motivated to continue with your review. What worked well? What can be repeated? What do you want more of?
• What didn't work? Don't worry, life happens. Can you do it in 2019? Or is it not worth it?
• What are your biggest challenges for 2019? How will you over come them?
• How does your customer base change in 2019? Will the political landscape impact them?
• What did your customers say about you?
• How will you replace any lost customers? How will you market? What new avenues can you explore? What budget can you set aside for this?
• Does your pricing need to change? Costs for running a business tend to go up so your pricing needs to cover your overall costs. Could you save costs by reviewing your insurances and suppliers?
• Are YOU working flat out? Can you factor in more down time to enjoy a better quality of life? A business needs it's business owner at it's best year round. Get that rest when it's needed.

There's a lot to be said in the cliché – failing to plan is planning to fail. Before you down tools and put that out of office message up, give your business the very best start it deserves for 2019.  

Yours socially
Micala