Declutteright - Tips for a clutter-free Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere we go.......... Isn't it just!

Christmas gives clutter a huge opportunity to infiltrate and take over our homes, leaving us feeling overwhelmed and disorganised. Don't get me wrong, I adore Christmas and love making our home festive with all the decorations. There is something special about this time of year when everything is all cosy and Christmassy. However, there are some parts of the Christmas holidays that can easily lead to having too much stuff in the home before, during and long after the big day.

So read on for some useful tips that can help you maintain some control over that Christmas clutter.

Christmas creates clutter

It can be hard to know what to get for people at Christmas time but worry not, as the retailers have mastered this market and have come up with lots of ideas for you. These tend to be novelty gifts such as Christmas branded items or books which quite frankly end up at the back of a cupboard or are even re-gifted the following year. Whatever way you look at these things, they usually end up as clutter somewhere in the home.

Well make this the year, the year where you rebel against the novelty gift and go for something that won't end up on the clutter pile.

So, what are the alternatives?

Some simple solutions can include:-

• Food and drink as they tend to get consumed quite quickly. Just make sure you are getting something you know the person likes, otherwise they will get lost in the pantry until they are no longer good enough to eat.
• Gift vouchers for places you know the person shops are also a great idea and can always be presented nicely if you want to turn up with something wrapped.
• Restaurant vouchers are a good contribution to a night out or for those who can't get a babysitter, how about Take-Away vouchers.
• Experience gifts can be more cost effective than you might think. These types of gifts range in price but you can usually find something within your budget. Cooking classes, gin tasting, afternoon tea, treatments, and theatre vouchers, the list goes on, just make sure you pick something that the person you are buying for will be able to use.
• There are even experience options for kids such as vouchers to go to the trampoline or climbing park, bowling, the arcade or cinema.
  
• TV Streaming, gaming and e-book vouchers are also good options that won't cause physical clutter and will definitely get used if the receiver is an avid reader, gamer or TV box set binger. You don't need to spend much on these things either.
  
• Charity gifts are also a nice option such as sponsoring an elephant or tiger or an animal closer to home such as a local wildlife centre or dogs home. Charities have some great, cost effective, packages that keep on giving throughout the year. It is lovely to get updates on how your sponsored animal is getting on.
  
• Memberships can be a nice present for a family or couple such as The National Trust or English Heritage. This is a gift that will create memories for a family long after Christmas Day has gone.
  

So, you see there are lots of ideas out there that don't have to create physical clutter. You just have to think outside of the box.

Dropping Hints

So kids get to write their letter to Santa of exactly what they would like for Christmas. As grown ups this isn't common practice, understandably so. But how many of us have opened up a gift on Christmas morning and had to use our best acting skills to say how much we love it. I know, we should be grateful for getting anything at all, and I know we are. But if it's the difference between getting a gift that will just add to the clutter pile compared to something you want, need or love, then where is the harm in dropping a few hints for Santa to hear.

Managing Present Expectations - Quality vs Quantity

We can sometimes feel a pressure to ensure there are piles of presents for our kids under the Christmas Tree. Some of us feel the need to buy lots of little things, as well as the big things, so that when the kids come down on Christmas morning, they see a big stockpile of presents. One of the problems with this is maintaining it year after year. Especially when you find that as our kids grow bigger, the expensive toys they want tend to get smaller, and so that pile doesn’t seem as big anymore.

A top tip for those small expensive toys is to wrap them up in a bigger box. They will love the present just as much, and there will be a bit of fun whilst they wonder where that present might be. Filling under the tree using this tip will mean that you don't have to buy extra things that they don't necessarily want or need.

Financial Pressure of Presents

This year in particular is a time when we should really think hard about the choices we make when buying presents for those who are not in our immediate family. We should not feel like we have to if we aren't currently in a position to do so.

Spending time together and creating lasting memories are much more important, especially at a time when people might be struggling.

I always find the Christmas message from Martin Lewis a great way to understand the pressure on people to buy each other presents, and it is also a good way to start the conversation, if you do want to discuss it. Here is the link to his message for this year, which includes a video he did in 2018.

Is it time to ban Christmas presents? - Martin Lewis' Blog... (moneysavingexpert.com)

If you are worried about having the conversation then you don't have to, most people would understand if they don't receive anything from you this year.

Declutter the Kids Toys

It is always a good idea in the run up to Christmas to have a clear out and make some room for the new things that Santa will be delivering on the big night.

Involving the kids in this process will depend on their age but a good incentive is to start thinking about it around the time that Christmas Lists are being written to Santa. Making room for that new toy can be a great motivator for some children. Also don't forget to use that Naughty and Nice List as another way of getting your kids to tidy their room ready for Santa's visit.

This is also a good time of year for selling toys as people will be looking for bargains or for things that may have sold out or are no longer even available. Or if selling the items isn't important to you there are charity shops or even pop-up charities around Christmas time that are on the look-out for nearly new toys that can be given to kids who may not be as lucky as others.

100% Recycled - Eco Friendly Wrapping Paper and Bows

Why is this such a good idea, aside from the obvious of being better for the environment than non-recyclable wrapping paper?

Think about Christmas morning when the presents are being opened and the wrapping paper has been ripped up, screwed up and tossed to one side. Some of us find it quite annoying and dare I say stressful when you have to separate what can and can't be recycled. It's so much easier if you know things can go straight into the recycling bin.

The day I discovered most wrapping paper couldn't be recycled I was not a happy bunny, and feel guilty when I bag it up to go to landfill. Some people find it a huge barrier to letting things go if they can't be recycled and it can become part of a much bigger problem.

So please think before you buy this year and go for an eco-friendly option.

Pantry Purge

If you are lucky then Christmas is a time when lots of food and drink can find its way into your home. So, make sure you are prepared for this! Otherwise, your pantry will be bursting at the seams, and you will lose items at the back of cupboards and forget you ever had them.

Now there is a line of thought that we should be doing a meal plan of what to buy for Christmas, and whilst this is the sensible option, we don't always have time for. But let's at least make some space for what is inevitably going to arrive.

Declutter your Toiletries

Christmas is the time of the gift set. How many of us end up with items we know we will never use? These things will take up space in our cupboards, shelves and drawers, if we let them. So, before Christmas arrives have a clear out.

If items haven't been opened, they could make a nice gift for someone else, maybe as part of a small hamper of items. Make your own gift set that you know someone will like. You could also donate the items to a charity shop or even a food hub (they do take non-edible items too). Maybe look locally to see if any schools are collecting contributions for their Christmas fayre raffle or tombola. These items can help to make money for those who need it.

If you have empty make-up or beauty product containers, there are now retailers such as Boots, Superdrug and The Body Shop who will take them in as part of a recycling programme. The Perfume Shop will even take back empty bottles and give you a discount voucher in return.

Whatever Christmas brings, do enjoy, keep smiling and remember wherever there is clutter there is a way to let it go! Merry Christmas.

It has been remarked on a few times recently, that I appear very calm and gentle compared to other Business Coaches.

Being compassionate and nurturing in my coaching style has always come naturally to me. I see the innate human vulnerability in everyone (even the apparently really confident, high achievers), so it never made sense to give my clients a hard time if they haven’t completed an activity we’d talked about. It’s also never felt like it is my place to do so.

After all, it’s their time, their business, their life - not mine.

My role is to support and help them find their own strengths and work with the challenges in front of them in as positive a way as possible. The support can be emotional as well as practical. Whilst many of my clients want and appreciate having some accountability in their business, it’s essential to me that they don’t give themselves a hard time if it hasn’t happened for whatever reason. They aren’t going to perform at their best if they are feeling bad about themselves - so I am definitely not going to add to that.

What we may work on, however, is the reasons that the activities weren’t completed and see if I can support them to make some changes there (whether in mindset, or practical ones) if that is appropriate. I occasionally wonder whether people assume that coaches have it all together and never experience any difficulties, so it feels important to point out that I am a human too and sometimes my own to-do lists go out of the window!

Last Wednesday was a classic case of this. I had an hour or so in the morning before my first client of the day and I had written a to-do list that I wanted to get through as much of as I could. (I have a nearly 3 year old, so that childcare time is precious and whizzes past in a flash!) Bea had been a little under the weather and when my parents arrived to collect her, rather than marching off happily with them, with barely a backward glance, we had sobbing and her wanting to be held by me. My chosen approach to parenting means that I gave her what she needed and held her until she was feeling happy enough to go off with my parents, which she eventually did after about an hour. Gladly, I didn’t have to postpone any of my clients, but my to-do list was rather compromised! In that situation, I just have to pick what is the priority and what makes the most sense to do at that moment.

There really is no point getting stressed/upset with yourself if your to-do list doesn’t get done because life gets in the way. However, if this is a regular occurrence, you might feel instinctively that there is room for a little improvement – whether that is in mindset, or in practical application - and that some gentle outside help may help you with that. If that’s the case, get in touch. I’d be happy to discuss your options with you and see if I am the right outside help for you.

‘Content’ is such a buzzword these days – it is a concept surrounded by myths and anecdotes. There isn’t a small business owner who hasn’t been told “you need good content.”

Yet, when you dig a bit deeper you find that ‘you need good content’ creates a lot of confusion and anxiety and, as a result, no one really understands why they need good content or, even, what is really meant by ‘content.’

So over the next few blogs, let me unpick that for you. Let me show you how to Make Content Work For You.  And let’s start with the absolute basics.

What is Content?

Google the word content and you get a range of definitions (depending on how you pronounce it). The two that are closest for our purposes are:

• the material dealt with in a speech, literary work, etc. as distinct from its form or style.
• information made available by a website or other electronic medium.

Frankly, I’m not mad keen on either of these. They don’t really help you work out what you need to do, so I’ve found a better one. Content is:

anything which adds value to an audience

Okay, we’ve got a definition – and we’ll be coming back to that in a moment to make it more meaningful for you, but let’s pause for a moment and consider another really important question

Why does content matter?

There are broadly four reasons that content can help you if you are in business or running a charity or wanting to make a statement for any other reason:

• Visibility: by producing a regular supply of content, you are showing up to show that you have something to say in your market
• Attracting new customers: people may not know that your product exists so you have an opportunity to explain hat you do and how you do it in a way that appeals to them
• Differentiation: This is really important in markets which are over-crowded. Why should someone chooses you over all the rest? Answer: Because of the value you offer – and content is explaining that.
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), if someone searches online, the more new content you have the higher up the list you appear

So, we have what and we have why. Now let me debunk the three biggest myths about content so you can start to think about how content can work for you.

Myth 1: My content has to appeal to everyone.

Your audience is unique to you, so tailor your content to that audience. Don’t try to make it universal . By doing that you risk alienating the very audience you sought to cultivate. For example, if you’re writing a computer guide aimed at IT experts but waste time on basics, you risk the expert audience getting bored and switching off even though they should be your primary concern. They want to the nitty-gritty technical stuff. And yes, your average home IT user will be baffled – but that doesn’t matter.

What does matter is knowing who your audience is. And it won’t just be your customers.

Let’s take another example. Let’s say you make printed football shirts for youth teams. In this case the audience is diverse. We have:

• Customer- The team manager who is buying shirts for his team
• Prospect- The manager of a team which needs new shirts.
• Supplier- Who has provide shirts in all colours and sizes
• Community- The people of town in which the team plays
• End user- The children who wear the shirts
• ‘Connected users’- The parents who have to wash the shirts
• Staff- Your team who take orders, make and pack the shirts
• Regulators- The Football Association who have rules about football strip

Your situation will have just as many potential audiences and many more. So think it through and identify them.

Myth 2: Value is about money

If content is anything that adds value to your audience you could be forgiven for thinking that’s all about financial value. In this context, however, value is anything which your audience might find useful. Let’s take the previous example of football shirt printing and think what value you can add to your audience.

• Entertain- Feature videos of football being played, football memes, the latest scores, etc.
• Give ideas for other users- Maybe some users don’t play football, but the shirts look good off the pitch too.
• Inform- Show the ‘connected users’ how to wash the shirts so the colours don’t run
• Educate- Demonstrate what the manufacturing process for the shirts is
• Support- Post images of the local teams to help them find sponsorship
• Align – Show what your values are as a business so others with similar values feel a connection

It is always worth working out what are the different values you can bring for your own specific audiences. Knowing what they want will really pay off.

Myth 3: Content is written

Content is anything which adds value to the audience.

It can, of course, be written in blogs, social media posts or articles, but it can also be:

• Audio– Podcasts, radio, songs
• Video– Facebook Live videos, Youtube clips, DVDs
• Visual – Photos, infographics, memes
• Personal – You in person at a networking event, training course or presentation

It can be Anything…. REALLY Anything

Going for a cup of coffee and a chat is content!!!

What you should be getting from this is that your skills are the basis of the content.

If you own a restaurant, your recipes and techniques are the content.

If you install kitchens, advice on adjusting doors is content.

If you’re a Content Alchemist, advice on developing content is content.

Now that we’ve gone through these myths, I hope you feel more confident to go out and produce your own content. You might even have gained some new ideas for your next content project. If you have, post them below – I’d love to hear them.

Want more help with your content. Visit my blog for more hints and tips. 

You’ve got this great idea and you decide you want to turn it into a business. Amazingly you realise you could become an entrepreneur and be the one making the decisions. Scary but also exciting and very tempting to be the one responsible for engineering your own success and reaping the benefits too. But hold on - before you start visualising that yacht or wonderful lifestyle, you need to get a grip on your business idea and actually turn it into a success that you love, and that makes your bank manager smile.
Where do you start, though, if you’ve been an employee all your working life and don’t mix with entrepreneurs (so far)? There is an amazing amount of work involved in taking an idea all the way into a product or service you can sell to an appropriate market, which might or might not know that it needs your idea and should part with money for it. 

Without any doubt you start by writing your business plan

Why? Because it makes you answer all kinds of questions that need to be answered so you can work out whether your idea is viable - especially if you’re considering risking everything you own, such as your house, car and savings to back it. 
Your business plan outlines what your business does and what you are trying to achieve. It explains what the market opportunity is, what makes your business special and how you will make it a success. 
Writing a business plan means you have a written document that describes your business. It covers objectives, strategies, sales, marketing and financial forecasts.

What you should aim for is this:

• Clarify your business idea and proposition 
• Use research to understand your audience 
• Plan your sales, marketing and business operations 
• Spot problems and work out how to overcome them 
• Set out your goals and objectives and the financial return you expect
• Work out what financing you need
• Convince other people to back your business 
• Allows you to measure your process
• Set out your goals 
• Measure your progress

When you write your business plan keep it professional, brief and use clear language - to the point that you are able to outline your plan verbally if you have to, without looking at a presentation or a document. You should know it like you know your own face - it’s expected. Specify numbers and dates, don’t be vague. Be clear about your ambition and how you aim to get there and what you need to make it happen. Only then will people be in a position to make decisions about how they can help you. 

A business plan is critical because: 

1) You must ensure your idea will make money – it’s shockingly true that some people get so excited by their great idea that they don’t stop to check this. In fact, they’re determined to make it work thinking that they can beat the odds of what the market is willing to accept. Don’t be that person. But also don’t be put off by making a loss in the early stages either – if your idea is great enough, you may have to accept losses during the first growth phase before you start to turn a profit. Think Silicon Valley tech businesses which all started small too.

The way to know if your idea is any good is that if you have investment companies fighting to help you carry the brunt of those losses then you know you’re onto a good thing, because they’re betting on big returns in the future. Just remember though that while investment is the key to fast-tracking growth, you will have to offer a degree of control and ownership to the investment company. 

Understanding that is really important and watching Dragon’s Den is a good way to figure out the costs and benefits of a partnership, and to visualise what kind of arrangement you would be comfortable with. The rule is they will always want more than you’re willing to give, and before you even get to the point of pitching to investment companies there is much to do before anyone will take you seriously. The key thing here is to keep a level head and be professional – and still hold onto that enthusiasm for the energy you need to keep going and bring other people with you. 

2) Fast tracking growth needs sound expertise and advice as well as investment, to help a newbie to avoid making the kind of expensive mistakes that could derail a great little business. It’s a crushing experience. There is a great deal of reliable advice out there and much of it is available from national and local governments who are keen to support budding entrepreneurs who may become the economic engines of the future for local and national economies. 

 3) You need to operate within the law, file tax returns, meet your legal obligations as an employer if you have staff and be insured for liability. You need to think of everything and pay good attention to it, even if it’s boring. And if you can’t get your head around it, then bring in professional advice and pay for the best you can afford. It’s a false economy to skip this. If you didn’t choose to be an accountant when you came out of education, then chances are you’ll never be able to do even simple accounts. Accept your limitations. 

 4) Source advice from people and organisations you can trust. Your friend in the coffee shop or pub may well be completely useless. This is your future and you must take care about where your advice comes from and what you’re basing your decisions on. 

 5) You need to work out what kind of risk-tolerance you have. Are you a risk taker or do you feel the need to play safe? This will influence and shape your plan. It will allow you to decide whether you need to go after investment early or are happy to start small and build your growth organically using early business income which may be supplemented by another job. You may also find that there are local government backed initiatives that will give you a grant to help you start removing some of the pressure of borrowing money commercially. 

PINK SPAGHETTI CAN HELP YOUR SMALL BUSINESS GROW 

If your business is at the idea stage, it could be ideal to put a VA in your plan to help you achieve specific training or task goals economically as you grow, instead of thinking about employees. This is a sample of what you can expect. 

• Administrative help 
• Sales and customer service calls 
• Professional sounding board 
• Corporate experience 
• Managing projects on your behalf  

We’re committed to pricing which is transparent and fair, and our UK-based virtual personal assistants can step in and become your business manager working within your framework for growth. We have provided this service for many small business owners and we recommend downloading this Business Manager PDF to find out more. 
 If you are writing a business plan now and planning on becoming your own boss, we salute you! And if you’d like to find out more about virtual assistants, we’re ready to answer all your questions. Click Here to contact us now. 

Feeling unfulfilled?

Not living out your full potential? The following quote is from the book 'Conversations with God' by S.D Walsch ''Hell is the opposite of joy, it is the unfulfillment, it is knowing who and what you are and failing to experience that, it is being less, that is hell and there is none greater for your soul''.

A bit about me

My history is in cancer nursing, I went onto an oncology ward as soon as I qualified at the age of 22. I stayed in that unit becoming the ward sister and then later moved hospitals to be a Cancer Nurse Specialist. That period of my life gave me far more than I ever gave the job or the patients it must have paid me back a thousandfold. It was at times the hardest job ever, but at the same time uplifting and positive. I can remember on many occasions, bursting into tears at the slightest thing, seemingly blowing it out of proportion, but I soon learnt that to release the stress 'Crying over spilt milk was a safety value. What it did do was teach me what my values were and that anything is possible if you align what you are doing with the values you hold. It also taught me valuable lessons about priorities, and when I read the book ''What the dying say before they die'' I completely understood and agreed with the author, that the following are the most common things you hear.

I wish...

I wish I'd had the courage to live the live true to myself, not the life others expected of me. To do this takes a lot of courage, but also a lot of self awareness and self discipline. You may be happy enough with your life, relationships, and jobs, but what if there was something better, more rewarding that you could be doing? Sorting out a personal brand can help you on this road of self awareness, who you are, and what your skills, talents, and experience you have that can take you where you want to go.

I wish hadn't worked so hard. You can go through life thinking that work is something to be endured. Lots of creative people say though ''I was lucky, work never felt like work because it was my passion, hobby, the thing I loved to do'' (think artists, singers, dancers). We all find work easier if we are working in our talent and strength areas, do you know what yours are? It is said that so long as we work hard enough at something, we can become good at it shown in the American saying ''You can be anything you want to be'', I don't think is true. You cannot be anything you want to be BUT you can be a lot more who you already are! Most people think they know what they're good at, they are usually wrong, learning what you are good at naturally means you can be amazing at what you do, and inevitably that feels easier.

I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings. I wish I could say that I had a magic wand for this one, but, I think, it comes down to believing in yourself and being proud of who you are. If you are proud of something you find it so much easier to show and talk about it. Learning about yourself makes you realise, that you are unique and that your feelings, wants and fears are as valuable as everyone else's.

I wish I'd stayed in touch with my friends. This is a hard one, it usually comes down to not having enough time. We all have friends who were friends at a particular time in our life, like the mothers/fathers of our children's friends at school. It is natural for some friendships to come to an end. But not all, sometimes it happens because of bad time management on both sides. Time management is about learning how to manage your time! We need to get out of the BUSYness of business. It is an interesting task to work out exactly what we do in a day, track it absolutely, and then work out what you can delegate, buy in or even, just not do. Put friend's time into the diary the same as for family time, put the time into the diary.

I wish that I had let myself be happier. Our brains are geared to keep us safe, not happy. Being happy is a choice, it's not there all the time, nor should it be, otherwise we'd never recognise it when it arrives. Self awareness isn't easy, it takes work. It is made far easier when you have someone helping you, but above all, it makes the process so much quicker, which addresses the time management part of giving you the life you want. Finding your talents, skills, and values is part of your Personal Brand and it is the first thing I address with my clients, which is great for their business, but more importantly, it is great for their life in general.

Don't spend your life wishing and not doing

Do book a chat with me if you are intrigued to discover your uniqueness and define a clear personal brand.

Love Sally x

Sally Inkster Finding Brand YOU!

What is a Personal Brand? ''It's who you are, your values and beliefs and the ENERGY you bring to all you do''