‘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''

You want to support your child’s learning and think that getting a tutor is the answer, but you’re not sure. This video will give you a different way to think about supporting your child’s learning and development while helping them succeed at school.

https://www.facebook.com/LessonsAlive/videos/991172874688428/

We’re all savvy business people and we understand the importance of niching, right?  So I’m not going to waste your time telling why you should niche, or even how to do so, I mean, I’m not a marketing guru or even a business coach.  What I am going to do, though, is share a personal story about how I arrived at my particular niche.

Starting out

Despite working for over thirty years in the corporate sector, I hadn’t really considered the concept of niching.  I worked for a huge global manufacturer in the automotive industry – we had markets for our products, and advertising campaigns, and customer avatars, and I was even aware of the concept of big fishes in small ponds, but I don’t recall anyone mentioning niches.

When I retired from that job, I retrained as a life coach and suddenly the importance of niching overwhelmed me.  What?!  I couldn’t just be a life coach and help people fix…well…their lives?  Nope, way too broad.  What about being a health and wellbeing coach?  Hmmm, still too broad – do you want to specialise in gut health, menopause, fitness, weight loss, or what? 

Now don’t get me wrong, there are coaches out there who are doing very well with a vague niche, but chances are they’ve been going for a while and have built up credibility.  The coaching market is expanding fast, and launching a new coaching business means you need to be able to cut through the noise with some very targeted messaging.

On my life coaching course, we had spent some time exploring how we might niche.  We considered our values and beliefs, our interests and passions, and our personal experiences.  Aha, I thought, I’ve got it!  Body confidence has been a big issue for me so that’s where I’ll focus.  I wove it into “my story,” I spoke openly about my experiences, I revealed things about myself that I’d kept hidden for decades, and it was liberating in a way.

And then the dreaded Imposter Syndrome hit.  Who am I to be coaching others in body confidence when I don’t really have it myself (even though I was successfully coaching others in exactly that)?  What do I know about body confidence?  There are so many amazing body confidence coaches out there with far more experience than me.  I don’t think this is for me after all.

Re-niching

So I reined it back in and set about relaunching myself as a type of health and wellbeing coach specialising in ageing well.  It wasn’t a great success and I didn’t get a single client.  For starters, I didn’t really know what to call myself, which can be a bit of a challenge in networking meetings.  I also struggled to crystalise my messaging, so it wasn’t clear who I help or how their lives would be better after working with me.

I retreated into the background and set about gaining my NLP certification – whatever my niche, this would at least add a whole set of useful tools to my coaching practice.  I enjoyed the hot summer of 2022 and spent time with my family. 

Yet every time I introduced myself at a networking meeting, I could feel my enthusiasm for the ageing well niche dimming.  The lure of body confidence started to tug away at my subconscious.

Eureka!

It was actually at a WIBN meeting in August when my Eureka moment hit! 

The lovely Carla Watkins, branding photography specialist, was urging us to be 3,000 per cent ourselves.  After pedantically thinking that you can’t be more than 100 per cent, I embraced the sentiment with open arms – helping others to be themselves, wholly and completely, warts and all, that was what I wanted to do!  And I most wanted to help people like myself, people with a physical disfigurement that has eroded their self-worth and sapped their confidence, that’s held them back and kept them playing small.

I suddenly realised I had actually come a long way on my own body confidence journey, and that I wasn’t an imposter after all.  Looking at the websites and posts of other body confidence coaches, it struck me that their messaging doesn’t resonate with me because they’re not talking about my issues.  Their starting point is different.  They don’t get what it’s like for someone like me.  And if I feel like that, maybe others do too.

Coming home

So here I am, re-niched again (I’m making it a verb!), back to body confidence but this time with a focus on physical disfigurement.

When I was describing this to a business friend, her response was to exclaim that finally, the aeroplane has landed!  And to be honest, that’s what it feels like – after months of circling and approaching, I’m down, I’ve come home to the niche that feels absolutely right for me.

** Image credit: Sarah Padilha **