Monthly Archives: July 2010
Focus on….. Amanda Armstrong – Hill Cottage Bakery
Eighteen months ago, mum of 2 Amanda Armstrong baked lots of cakes and took them out on the road to see if she could drum up business for herself. She managed to get customers from this madcap marketing idea, formed hill Cottage Bakery and has been baking beautiful, tasty cakes for clients in and around Bristol ever since.
At the beginning of the year she started an online delivery service, inspired by it being the Girl Guide Association’s Centenary Year this year and the idea of ‘brownies’ by post! She has been gained FoodLoversBritain.com approval and has just supplied a large order of chocolate fudge brownies for the BBC crew that were going to Glastonbury (and apparently they gained better reviews than the Gorillaz from some members of the BBC)!
School Holiday Manifesto
Are you looking forward to the summer holidays or dreading them? However you feel you can’t escape that they are now upon us. As we embark on the holidays I’m actually really looking forward to a break from the school run routine – but I know that a week or so in I may be longing for some structure and routine back in our lives!
However this year I will be reminding myself that, come September, my youngest will be starting preschool so I really am on the home straight in terms of reclaiming some me-time. But to help me, I’ve come up with my holiday manifesto – the things I publicly pledge to do over the next 6 weeks, to ensure we ALL have a harmonious and enjoyable holiday.
Let the picture do the talking
In this post our blog PR expert Lesley Singleton talks about the importance of good quality photographs for your PR campaigns.
They say a picture speaks a thousand words, yet I’m often surprised at the high number of businesses placing photography so far down on their list of priorities when it comes to running a PR campaign.
It’s not just that business owners don’t always see photography as a priority; it’s that they tend not to realise the impact a decent, professional image can make. Recently, I requested a shot from a client to illustrate a news story their local newspaper wanted to run… I was emailed a grainy, blurred, photograph which, it later turned out, had been taken on a mobile phone. Needless to say, we lost the coverage as well as the kudos with that particular journalist.
Focus on….. Sarah Christy – Christy Plumbing and Heating Ltd.
Until a year ago Sarah was a childminder and now she runs her own plumbing business. Sarah had already run her own business in her thirties, and always loved the flexibility and the immense sense of achievement being self-employed gave her. Plumbing did not originally press her buttons, but her husband’s passion for the trade started Sarah thinking why couldn’t she combine his skill as a plumber and heating engineer with her ability to run a business? She now has an increasingly a practical role – especially in putting together bathroom and kitchen projects.
Golden Rules of Bookkeeping – Rule 1. Keep Everything!!
As Mums, we are used to dealing with paperwork left, right and centre, for school, the home, the endless lists….But what do we need to hang on to for our businesses? This blog will help guide you through the maze of what’s required.
Keep your financial records for 6 years
Do you need to go out and buy an enormous filing cabinet to keep the mountain of paperwork you will be inundated with? Not necessarily.
HMRC states that you should keep your financial records for 6 years in case they come to investigate your tax return. If they did appear on your doorstep (don’t worry, you’d get a letter first!), they would want to see the original records that went into the figures on your tax return. If you hadn’t kept your records for six years you may have to pay a penalty.
Focus on…..Karen Woods – Just Love Food Company
Karen Woods is a busy mum of three. Having two children with severe nut allergies has inspired Karen and her husband Mike to establish Just Love Food Company, a company specialising in the production of delicious nut safe food. The company is launching this month with two children’s birthday cakes which are available in 200 Sainsbury’s stores nationwide.