Giving you the heads up.... Monthly Newsletter of TI Payroll & Accounting
March 2014 Edition 26
Welcome to March’s Newsletter Well I thought February was going to be quiet, how wrong could I be! Due to January being year-end deadline, I found myself saying “I'll do that in February” to so many things I'm not sure how long I actually thought the month of February was and we all know it's actually the shortest month of the year. It's been a great month though with being able to get back to networking and attending courses. One course I went on this month was a course called “Unlocking the Will to Act”, it focused on why people procrastinate (I've never hidden the fact I fight against this on a daily basis) and why we sometimes sabotage our own businesses by not doing the things we know we should be doing. I learned a great deal of things on this two day course, some of it was very emotional, but the thing I want to share with you is I learnt that sometimes people plod along in their business not achieving their potential as the “fear of failure is sometimes greater than the desire to succeed”. If you have the desire to grow your business but don't, there is only one person to blame … you!! People who suffer from this fear of failure tend to do three things … Blame, Justify and Complain.
They will attempt to justify why things aren't great. They make comments like… “Well, money isn't important, I don't just do it for the money”. Is it any wonder that money doesn't come to them? Can you imagine talking about a good friend like this … Would they stick around for long? It's proven time and time again that you attract what you focus on. Complain and moan about everything and things will only get worse – it's a fact. Everything is about mind set, once you realise this, the business world, as they say, is your oyster. There are lots of quotes regarding fear. Like the famous line from the inaugural address of Franklin D. Roosevelt “You have nothing to fear but fear itself”. If fear is stopping you from growing your business, then the first step is to recognise this, as until you distill this fear your business is never going to be the success you dream it will be. Secondly you need to change your mind set … stop blaming others, justifying why things are bad and for heaven's sake stop moaning. Once you do this you will be surprised how lighter life is and how positive things start happening in the business. Of course your sales and customer service need to be profitable and this will come once you have a positive mind set, and if you're still not sure there are plenty of business coaches out there to help. With all this in mind, and the fact that 20th March is International Day of Happiness, I hope you have a really positive and productive month.
Tracy x
They'll always find someone or something to blame for the lack of sales, profits, success. Whether this is the government, the economy, their competitor - it'll be anyone but themselves.
PRODUCTIVITY TIP Ask for Complaints… It's Productive Inviting customers to share feedback or tell you how you can improve is a cost-effective way to: Evaluate your systems and processes, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, show them you care while gaining customer insight and reduce negative comments in the social sphere. We often assume clients are happy. To continue building on top of existing products, models and processes that could be in need of serious improvement, asking for feed back is great way to improve.
Dates for your diary March
April
6th 8th 11th 12th 19th 19th 20th
6th
Business Exhibition in Kendal International Women’s Day Pink Link Ladies Furness Sarah’s Birthday CIS Submission Due Payment to HMRC International day of happiness
8th 18th 19th 19th 19th 21st
New Financial Tax Year Pink Link Furness Good Friday Payment to HMRC CIS Submission Due PAYE Submission Deadline Easter Monday
Twitter of the Month @helenphifer1 Loves writing, reading, the thought of drinking wine, my family, anything shabby chic, The Lake District, chocolate, coffee and cake. www.helenphifer.co.uk Helen's first published book, The Ghost House, is currently up in the kindle charts for contemporary horror up against her idol Stephen King. I have read it myself and it is a great read.
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The golden rule for every business man is this: “Put yourself in your customer’s place.”
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Orison Sweet Marden
Blogging is Productive A company blog increases your visibility on the web and turns your site into a magnet for prospects. It allows you to build relationships and ultimately convert leads into sales. View each blog post as an investment: the small production cost incurred is compensated by a higher return. This return grows over time, so the sooner you start blogging, the better. Blogging is productive on so many levels because it:
Builds trust and familiarity: crucial in making sales.
Humanizes your brand: valuable content shows you are customer-focused and nurturing (new way of marketing) – your site won't simply look like a brochure (outdated way of marketing). A blog also opens the door to conversation, which is the first step toward selling.
Increases your site traffic: Via higher search engine rankings: regularly updated, industry-relevant content is highly favoured by search engines. Better rankings means you will attract a wider
pool of prospects searching for keywords related to your posts. Via more inbound links: write interesting stuff and people will link to you. This not only generates direct traffic but also boosts your visibility in search engines.
Retains your audience: people will come back to you and refer friends to you if you reward them with enriching, interesting and entertaining content.
Improves customer service and cuts cost of support staff: customers have a new channel to ask questions, provide feedback and comment, which is also a great of way of attracting more search engine traffic. They will also be able to help themselves by reading answers to questions others have asked.
Attracts media attention: journalists and reporters will have more incentive to cover your company when you give them posts with personality and interesting material to link to.
Business of the Month
James Hake
James Hake sells his ceramics through galleries, ceramics fairs and through his studio in Over Kellet. He has also found the time to teach ceramics at Manchester metropolitan university and the Cumbria institute of the arts. James designs studio ceramics using a potter's wheel. He has made a variety of items from espresso cups to large platters. He enjoys the process of creating new pieces by throwing at the wheel and firing the kiln. James decorates his work with oriental style glazes which he mixes by hand from his own recipes. James has always been 'potty' about ceramics, which started as a strong interest in art and design James specialised in ceramics as part of a degree in three dimensional design. After a 2 year apprenticeship in Ireland, James returned to his native Cumbria and started his ceramics business in 2006. James finds all the aspects of the design and creating process interesting, which means, as he says: 'no two days are the same’ and James truly has a 'smashing' time with his business whether in making new ceramics or meeting customers and collectors at ceramics related fairs and events. How did James get his business fired up? James admits that writing a business plan as an aspiring artist is a 'nightmare' and also initially struggled to raise start-up capital. He found that the downside to making beautiful objects is the costs involved. The main expenses include the kiln and the other equipment needed. Another issue for James was finding affordable premises to fire his large gas kiln without disturbing neighbouring businesses. A grant from the Prince's Trust really helped, along with financial support from the arts council and earnings saved from a part time job. For James, small business rate relief from the government has been invaluable, and hopes they'll continue in the future. He also thinks to help small business he would appreciate lower energy prices, although not at the expense of environmental concerns.
Looking into his crystal ball (or other ceramic piece), James thinks that there will be a steady improvement in the business economy over the next 12 to 18 months and that confidence will continue to grow.
James really appreciated the help he had from the Arts Council, which put his business on a good footing in the beginning. So he's understandably concerned that spending cuts do not undermine the help available for others in the arts sector. James recently renovated a dilapidated barn into a new studio/gallery. So he wants to make the most of this by attracting customers through hosting preview exhibitions, open days and demonstrations. He's looking forward to being part of the Lunesdale Studio Tr a i l i n M a y a n d J u n e 2 0 1 4 . Fo r m o r e d e t a i l s : www.lunesdalearts.co.uk James would be happy for anyone wanting to visit his gallery to get in touch by email or phone. Contact details are on website: www.Jameshake.co.uk James plans to continue exhibiting beyond the North West. Next April, James will be exhibiting at Ceramic Art London at the Royal College of Art. For more details, look at: www.ceramics.org.uk With all this activity, James really values his spare time. He enjoys walking and watching 'Nordic noir' with his partner Emma. Looking after their 4 month old son Joseph also keeps them busy! TI Payroll and Accounting ensures that James ceramics business doesn't go to pot, James praises the friendly and efficient approach of Tracy and her team. James trusts TI Payroll and Accounting to handle his bookkeeping and tax returns, leaving him free to concentrate on growing his business. It means that James can focus on making ceramic figures rather than worrying about numeric ones. If you run a small business, don't let the paperwork of tax returns and accounts leave you in 'pieces' Why not see how TI Payroll and Accounting can allow you to focus on your strengths by taking care of your accounting and payroll needs? TI Payroll can help to get your business into great financial shape, by advising on a range of aspects of running a successful small business. Why not 'throw' them a line and see what they can do for you?
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No idea what mess I would be in right now if Tracy and the team hadn't been there... going all out to help me get together and start building a business... excellent professional service but with a huge smile and big mugs of coffee :)
Nadine Montaghami
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