Popular Advice

I hesitate to weigh in on this, but feel that I do have something to add.

Recently I was at a local interactive festival called DIG SOUTH. It is similar to SXSW if you are familiar with that but lesser known at the moment.

One of the panel discussions I attended while there was "Women In Tech". Something that came up and was discussed at length was the "Imposter Syndrome". However, I don't feel that this is limited to women. It is prevalent in almost all entrepreneurs from time to time. However, I'm certain that women experience different aspects of it then men.

Something else that was discussed during the panel was brevity. Meaning not feeling like you have to explain yourself. One of the women who is a mother spoke up and said if she has to take her children to an appointment or something, she just would say "I'll be unavailable" or "I'll be out of the office". She said you don't have to give peers or subordinates extra details to feel like you are justifying something.

Those were the main insights I gathered from the panel talk. So I'll leave me input at that.

Greetings Vikas from rural Australia,

Before anyone can answer your question, other than in broad strokes, we have to narrow down our field of vision.

What kind of an entrepreneur are you?

Online?

Bricks and mortar?

A mixture of both?

Just starting out?

Or with some experience to fall back on?

Are you a full time, no holds barred commitment?

Or a commitment that allows you time for personal pursuits? Including looking after a family.

All these factors should be known so we can provide you with the best advice suited to your circumstances.

Best wishes,

~Carol Jones, Ironing Diva❤

Purveyor of The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover And Other Goodies

350,000 customers.

In 29 countries.

6 months should be fine but it will go fast. And you may need to raise finance which also takes time.

Great question Michael. It's a personal choice but I think a 'done-for-you' service offerings makes sense with a few caveats. I'd suggest that the scope of processes included should be those either inextricably linked or has plenty of scope for synergy, such as what you have suggested for bundling tax, accounting and bookkeeping services. Secondly, bundling these processes should bring about operational efficiencies and therefore economy of scale, which in turn works out to bring better value for client businesses. Better value can also translate into additional services, such as business advisory services, which helps accountants to be more intrinsically involved in their clients business as partners, especially with the opportunities cloud accounting brings. It's helping businesses to gain another trusted advisor who has just been freed up from otherwise more mundane work. So that's a good thing in my books. The other consideration for me is about quality of work and serviceability. Will the work be outsourced to partners, or will it be all done in-house? If it's the latter, then can a single accountant or firm do better, say in both bookkeeping and tax accounting, than individual bookkeepers and tax accountants? So I think it depends on who is offering the services and how. It's a challenge to be able to consistently provide both the breadth and depth of capability, without compromising on quality - but none of these challenges are insurmountable and if executed well, goes a long way to reduce operational risks whilst increasing efficiencies and value to clients.

There are some very good answers to this question, but I thought I would dd a really helpful tech solution.

Try MozPro https://moz.com

If you don't have the time to master your SEO, then you will find MozPro great in helping you improve your SEO continually. It analyses and identifies weaknesses and opportunities in your SEO actions, and definitely improves your traffic over time. If you don't have SEO expert and don't want to hire an agency, then this is a great hack to make sure you are moving in the right direction. We are using it and it has really made a difference.

Ranking in the search results is all about content creation and promotion. Without both of these in place, your content will simply get lost in the mix.

We are currently using a number of methods to improve our rankings (which are really good), using each of the methods below.

• High-quality blog content, case studies, and tutorials
• Social media to connect with new audiences and share blog content
• The creation of shareable content like infographics
• Guest blogging and article contributions on other sites
• Creating expert round ups of other top bloggers and industry influencers
• Getting interviewed on other podcasts and running a podcast of our own

Be sure to focus heavily on the content promotion aspect, as this is where the biggest power push for ranking in Google is going to take place.

For more guidance and working methods on how to rank higher in the search results from different experts around the world, I recommend you run through these ten SEO marketing tips.

What is Workplace health and safety (WHS)?

Workplace Health and Safety (WHS), often referred to as Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) involves the assessment and migration of risks that may impact the health, safety or welfare of those in your workplace. This may include the health and safety of your customers, employees, visitors, contractors, volunteers and suppliers. As a business owner there are legal requirements that you must comply with to ensure your workplace meets WHS obligations.

Benefits of WHS in your businessCreating a safe work environment is a legal requirement and critical to the long term success of your business. It can: help you retain staffmaximise employee productivityminimise injury and illness in the workplacereduce the costs of injury and workers’ compensationensure you meet your legal obligations and employee responsibilities.WHS obligations for business As a business owner you have legal responsibilities to implement health and safety practices in your workplace as soon as you start your business. You need to ensure that your business doesn't create health and safety problems for your employees, contractors, volunteers, visitors, customers or the public. Knowing and understanding WHS laws and how they apply to business will help you avoid unnecessary costs and damage to your business caused by workplace injury and illness. Under Australian WHS/OH&S legislation businesses are legally obliged to: provide safe work premisesassess risks and implement appropriate measures for controlling themensure safe use and handling of goods and substancesprovide and maintain safe machinery and materialsassess workplace layout and provide safe systems of workprovide a suitable working environment and facilitieshave insurance and workers compensation workers’ compensation insurance for your employees.

Hi Diane,

Your question is a bit vague, so forgive me if I have got it wrong, but it sounds like you are thinking about running a courier service for larger objects? If you are just starting out, you could try Gumtree and Craigslist to get you started. Depending on what areas you plan to cover, you could try advertising in all states, suburbs and towns in that area with a view to picking up backloads.

As you start to get some business though, I would strongly recommend setting up your own website so that you look more professional, then start marketing your business through social media, both free and paid ads. Hope that helps, but if I have got it wrong, just let me know with a bit more detail.

Regards,

Terry

I don’t think National Tiles qualify as a small business, but their Frank Walker voice and accent stays in your head. There are a few lessons small businesses can learn from their radio ad. Their message is simple, and important information are repeated, which is like most good radio ads. But the one thing that stood out is the actor’s accent and way of speaking. It is so different from what you hear on other ads that it sticks out and pulls you out of your auto-pilot driving stupor. They did a great job with picking the voiceover guy. At first, I found the ad annoying but after listening to it a few times, it sunk in. I was in the midst of renovating my house and ended up browsing at National Tiles just because of the ad. I didn’t buy anything from them as I found cheaper options, but their radio ad managed to get me through their door.

The Blind Factory one - possibly a bit annoying but very catchy and I'm sure effective. Many have done well with creating sing along and memorable jingles.

Jacky go to Warwick Merry's website and download this complimentary PDF with lots of useful tips about Tradeshows -

www.warwickmerry.com/PDFs/Top10TradeShowTips1.pdf

I think you have the same problem a lot of people who work from home have: you don't treat it like it's work from the office.

Basically, that's the first thing you need to do: treat it with the same respect as you would an actual 9-5 job.

Get up early. Eat a hearty breakfast. Grab coffee. Get yourself in front of your desk and begin chipping away at your tasks.

How about dinner and the dog and the dishes? Get a nanny or someone to help you with the chores. If that's not possible, get your work done...and when you've accomplished the work-related tasks for the day...that's when you do everything else.

There's a lot to be thankful for, when you work from home (not being suck in traffic is a huge plus), so make sure you do a great job at keeping your work from home boss/clients happy.

If you want to know a bit more detail about how I succeeded in working from home for more than a decade, just drop me a SavvyMail.

Hope that helps.

Indeed, there are many distractions when working at home: home phone, chores, neighbors, etc. Over the years, I've developed the discipline to work at the task at hand...I start with making a list. On 1 side are the work tasks: reply to e-mails, work on client files, make/return calls, etc. I set aside the hours I will need to do this and stick to this schedule. On the other side of the list, I write down home chores: shopping, cooking, laundry, etc. I make this list the night before so I know what I have to do the next day. Determine what are the best hours for you to work: are you a morning person or a night owl? A daily schedule is important: do you have children to get ready for school in the morning? Dogs to walk? Check in with elderly parents? Get these done first, then dedicate yourself to your business. I confess...I often throw in a load of laundry before I head to the home office and check on this throughout the day...sometimes it goes into the dinner hour, sometimes I only do 1 load a day. You have to create the structure of how you will work and everyone's needs are different. And finally, I don't often get to finish everything on my list...I do the important ones first and then move the rest of them to the next day....it's okay to do this! Best, Helene