Business Help
Sometimes the only help you need is for somebody to “tell it like it is”. As business women, WiRE members within the network have a huge amount of knowledge and expertise and are happy to share this with you. Below are Business Help Articles written for and by rural business women. They can save you hours of research, can put you in touch with somebody in the know and help your business succeed. You can print them out or email julie@wireuk.org to request a printed copy.
If you would like to share your knowledge with others in the WiRE network by contributing a business help article, please email articles@wireuk.org with ideas or articles.
Select a category to skip to the chosen item.
back to top
Computers, The Web and Emails
Secrets to selling on eBay
Pay per click internet marketing tips
First Steps in Ecommerce – Sell your product online
The process of making changes to a website in order to improve its chances of being ranked in the top results of a search engine.
Top Ten Essentials for Computer System Security - useful computer security information
Learn from others' email mistakes and learn about effective email use
Tips on creating a successful website
WiRE member Ann Brown offers us her ten top hints to having a successful website. She sees clarity in layout and content as very important factors, and also extols the virtues of interesting content and regular updates.
Observations on the differences between trading online and offline, by WiRE member Judith Lewis.
Ola Andersson is the husband of WiRE member Naomi Andersson. Naomi asked her hubby to guide us through the importance of search engines in internet marketing.
WiRE member Jane Kelly runs Sycamore Training, a Derbyshire based training and accountancy provider. She shares with us ten of the lessons she learned along the way to the recent launch of her website.
WiRE memberAbi Bromirskyi explains why she opted for a Content Managed System when choosing a website to promote a newly launched business centre and conference venue in North Yorkshire.
WiRE member Catherine Buchanan runs two web-based businesses. In this article she points up some of the main issues to consider when launching a website.
Are you switched on to what you need to do to achieve good search engine rankings for your website? WiRE member Susan Hallam, of Hallam Communications, offers a few tips…
WiRE member Helen Mitchell extols the value of Online PR as a means of advertising your business, and offers some advice on how to go about it.
To Helen Mitchell, of Ascendancy Internet Marketing Ltd, Microsoft Excel is a valuable tool. In this article she tells us five ways in which Excel helps her to run her business.
Angie Stokes, of Fourthinking Consultancy and Training offers a few tips on what you should do to get your new website found in search engines.
Any small business owner uses email will be aware of the problems caused by the abundance of spam messages currently in circulation. In this article Tony Goddard gives us his advice on what we can do to minimise the amount of spam we receive.
editable summary
back to top
Customers Satisfaction
The importance of customer satisfaction
Top tips on how to make follow-up phone calls with confidence
How can we get our customers to buy more? well, says WiRE memberCarolyn Storey, it’s all about building happy, long term customer relationships and developing a good reputation based on service. Here are her five golden rules for delivering good customer service .....
back to top
Finance and Accounting
Credit control basics - to keep the cash flowing in!
Grants for women in business - Finding and applying for business grants
Understanding the numbers in your business - business financial planning without the pain!
5 Reasons Why You Should Find Your Accountant Interesting
When to buy and sell business assets - tax planning tips and advice.
Whether your business is a home based small business or a imited liability company Chartered Accountant Gillian Duffy offers relevant personal taxation advice.
Chartered Accountant Gillian Duffy takes a look at Gordon Brown's 2006 budget with the small business in mind.
It has been said that writing a successful funding application is like a good recipe – very much dependent on a few ingredients coming together well. WiRE member Sue Kelly offers her advice on how to obtain the best result from a funding application, emphasising the need to complete the application accurately, supply all necessary documentation, and make sure your project meets the funding criteria …
So, you’ve set up your business and have punters queuing up to buy your wares or services. Well done. But what have you done to ensure that your customers pay you on time? An important tool in your armoury should be your Credit Application Form …
As owners of small businesses do you subscribe to the view that if you insist on you customers paying you on time you will risk upsetting people and lose valuable business? If so, please spare a few minutes to read these few lines, which may persuade you otherwise …
WiRE member Cathy Grimmer is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. Here she offers her advice on the Tax issues involved in working from home.
WiRE member Emily Coltman offers us some sound advice on a very important (but often ignored) aspect of any small business - record keeping.
WiRE member Elaine Clark offers us the benefit of her expertise regarding the most beneficial time to invest plant and equipment for your business.
WiRE member Elaine Clark, of www.cheapAccounting.co.uk, points up the possibility of HMRC regarding your Ebay trading as a profit making business, and therefore taxable.
back to top
Marketing, Advertising and Promotion
Free tips on guidelines for successful exhibiting at shows.
Free tips on writing a press release and getting in the news.
This article gives a practical insight to help you create a marketing plan that really works for entrepreneurs, micro and small businesses.
Email marketing tips: a step by step guide
Small Business marketing ideas
Simple tips for effective adverts that lead to business!
Tips to on how to advertise a business, including helpful advice on advertising and PR.
Tips on how to find new clients
Tips to show you how to write a press release and achieve coverage for your business
Lorraine Davidson gives some practical tips on market research techniques and sources
A marketing case study by Julie McKeown
Writing a press release can be a scary prospect, but once you know the basics it’s a simple and very effective way of promoting your business. WiRE member Claire Robertson-Bennett,a press officer, editor and former news and magazine journalist,offers us the benefit of her experience.
PR, or media relations, is an incredibly successful way to raise the visibility and credibility of a brand. We tend to view press endorsement as being more valuable than any amount of paid-for advertising. So, how do you go about doing it? WiRE member Paula Gardner, of Do Your Own PR, offers us some advice.....
When the Refectory at St Davids Cathedral opened in May 2006, as part of a multi-million pound restoration of the Cloisters at St Davids Cathedral, Pembrokeshire, owner Bill Sewell brought PR consultant and WiRE member Helen Stallard on board to maximise media coverage for the new enterprise .......
Shropshire-based Alternative Meats do everything but the obvious –venison, wild boar, kangaroo, crocodile…even ‘freshly shot haggis,’ they claim, are just some of the delicacies they serve. But Jeanette Edgar has a more home-grown, though appropriate way of describing the company’s approach to raising its profile –she calls it ‘piggy-backing PR.’ Here’s what she means…
Louise Third of WiRE’s own PR agency, Integra Communications, outlines some of the method used to raise the media profile –both for WiRE and its members.
Rosie Beswick runs two companies. Here she offers words of reassurance and encouragement to those of us who are reluctant business networkers.
WiRE member Jacey Lamerton offers her list of essential points to attend to when you decide to exhibit at a fair.
WiRE member and life coach Anna Mason tells us about the first time she promoted her business at a Christmas fair, and shares with us the lessons she learned from the experience.
Sylvia Howe, of PR agency Words Mean Business, tells us of the importance of the written word as a means of promoting our businesses.
Two WiRE members tell us about their experiences of farm diversification.
When WiRE member Ruth Finch set up Babyvision - her Shrewsbury based unborn baby scanning company - a key part of her strategy was the use of her new website to generate business. She therefore brought in fellow WiRE member Helen Mitchell, of Ascendancy Internet Marketing, to help her achieve this......
back to top
Motivation, Confidence and Business Coaching
Free tips on building self confidence and building a healthy self-esteem.
Time management strategies to help you get ahead.
Improving self confidence in business
WiRE member Helen Yarnold on the topic of achieving goals.
WiRE member Sally Campbell looks at how you can help your 18+ child to get through the big changes in their life.
You need to be confident if you are running your own business. But being business confident is more than just having confidence in yourself, says WiRE member Sue Hewitt. To be business confident, you need to be confident of your suppliers, your equipment, your staff and your advisors, as well as really believing in your product or service and overall business idea.
She offers her top tips on how to become more business confident and build a successful business.....
Setting up and running a business involves developing many new skills. It can be an exciting time. It can also be stressful. Here Dorothy Wilson gives her ‘6 Stress Busting Steps’ to balance conflict between the excitement of challenge and feelings of being overwhelmed. They won’t guarantee business success, says Dorothy but they will, she claims, provide a framework to help you move towards it.
WiRE member Mary Lunnen of Dare to Blossom Life Coaching offers some tips, and explains how a life coach can help when your mind seems full of ‘clutter’.
WiRE member and Life coach Louise Presley-Turner asks "Are you a processional caterpillar?" and tells us about the importance of getting out of our comfort zones.
back to top
Networking and Meetings
Meeting tips - Running an effective meeting
Business networking tips
WiRE member Barbara Oldham offers us her advice on a matter of great importance to all members - business networking.
Business and life coach Alison Robinson decided to pioneer a local WiRE network loosely focused on the Worcester area. The outcome - a successful networking group that succeeds in spite (or because) of breaking the usual rules!
Summary WiRE member Carolyn Yates offers some alternative networking methods for those of us who, for one reason or another, are not able to take part in face to face business networking.
WiRE member Julie Cowdy shares with us the networking skills she has developed by being involved in a variety of business network groups.
Jettison the jargon
Psychology of the Buyer - understanding buyer behaviour
Helen Jones takes flight over the pensions maze and looks at pension planning strategies.
Sue Richardson gives us her tips on financial planning
WiRE member Anita Poole’s Top 10 tips on personal image development for business
Liz Wakeham-Jones introduces us to the UK's first site to profile opportunities to work from home
Freya Bletsoe, Director of Homefinder UK Ltd, offers some practical guidance for those of us who may be considering franchise ideas.
WiRE member Lucy Scott Paul, who runs an old fashioned English sweetshop in North Yorkshire
called Bah Humbugs, tells of her experience in setting up and running a website to promote her business.
WiRE member Carolyn Yates holds many of her meetings online, and not face-to-face. That way she can meet people around the UK, and even around the world, without the time and expense of travel .......
Georgina Molly Webb runs an internet shop selling greeting cards and Susan Hallam is an
internet marketing consultant and trainer. Here’s a story of how two WiRE members got together on an ecommerce challenge.
Marie Francis is the Food and Farming Champion for the East of England. Here she reflects on how a campaign to promote food and drink on her ‘patch’ will create more markets for this key business sector.
Lecturer in Entrepreneurship Julie McKeown gives us some guidelines as to what makes a good entrepreneur and a successful business.
Morag Stuart, head of procurement at the 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority, takes us through the way in which businesses, particularly smaller ones, can bid for a piece of the action.
WiRe member Maree Atkinson is the Federation of Small businesses' North and East Herts area Business Consultant, and has been recognised with a number of awards for her work in the business community. In this article she outlines the benefits of membership of the FSB.
WiRE member Abbie Brook demonstrates how Green Pebble,her environmental consultancy business, can help to bring about improved business performance at the same time as playing a part in improving the environment. She does this by telling us how Green Pebble helped a local company to enhance its business by reducing its impact on the environment.
Apart from the obvious benefit to the environment, the client found that implementation of Green Pebble's recommendations had benefits to their business in terms of cost savings, staff motivation and the development of a "green" image for the company.
Sometimes it can be advantageous to your business to co-operate with your competitors. This truism is amply demonstrated in this article, as three individual WiRE members recount their experiences.
10 top tips on working at home from your fellow WiRE members
Useful advice on the importance of taking care of yourself.
Wire member Juliet Mumford explains to us the value of good market research to our businesses. Among other things, good information us to reduce business risk and makes us aware of opportunities. She offers us ten tips to help us devise a successful market research questionnaire...
Businesses are desperate to show that they care about their customers. How often do you read or hear that they are ‘committed to achieving the highest levels of customer satisfaction’? Perhaps you have even stated the same about your business? These claims are made with the best of intentions; however in many cases the level of customer satisfaction has never been properly measured. WiRE member Juliet Mumford makes a strong case for correcting that omission.
Darrington Training provides bespoke training courses for a wide range of industries. Here, WiRE member Alison Darrington advises us on how to overcome our apprehensions about selling to prospective customers.
WiRe member Caroline Price of Peru:se Fair Trade Jewellery offers us some advice to help us make a success of selling at shows - on bad days.
Alison Darrington, of Darrington Training offers us ten tips to enhance our time management, and thus improve our efficiency and effectiveness.
WiRE member Shona Partridge set up Women Mean Business to provide coaching and training specifically designed to provide coaching and training to self employed women. In this article she gives us some guidance, aimed at helping us overcome our concerns about selling.
Susie Keenan runs Shepherd’s Farm Shop, her her recently launched business in Gloucestershire. She has had a great deal of experience of selling, and in this article offers her guide to what makes a good seller.
WiRE member Louise Fellows is a sales and marketing management consultant and personal image consultant. In this article she tells us how to reap the rewards of our good sales work by closing a sale.
Barbara Paul is a quiltmaker and textile artist, and runs Speedwell Quilts. She sells a range of quilts, throws, wallhangings and cushions. In this article she outlines her sales strategy to deal with situations where a prospective customer wants "time to think about it".
Life coach Liz Kentish identifies a number of mistakes that are often made by working women, and tells us how we may avoid them.
WiRE member Jane Pallister is a business consultant and growth consultant with links to Staffordshire University. In this article she argues against the notion that corporate social responsibility is only for big business, and draws attention to six points of reference that any business can audit to ensure that it operates in an ethical and sustainable way.
As well as monitoring a business's progress against the usual criteria, such as financial or marketing success, Jane says that we should also take into account factors such as commitment to the community or trading in an ethical manner.
Building a responsible business in this way can play a part in reducing your business costs and making it more productive.
www.boommm.com
WiRE member Rubana Ahmad recently launched her online business Ethical Boutique. In this article she draws on the experience she has gained and offers her advice on how to organise a business launch.
Wire member and Life Coach Louise Presley-Turner offers us some advice on setting goals.
She explains the importance of goal setting and takes us through the process of formulating our goals - brainstorming and prioritising our ideas - before telling us how to go about achieving them.
Goal setting, she says, is a life changing experience, and a vital step on the way to success, either in our businesses or our personal lives.
back to top
Training and Employment
Effective recruiting strategies for selecting and recruiting employees
Employee Induction, or how to introduce a new employee to your business and help them make a valuable contribution!
Working with a mentor can be a practical alternative to gaining business skills through formal learning. This is the first of two articles by WiRE members, which together give a view of both sides of the mentoring process.
This is the second of two articles which deal with the subject of business mentoring. We learn how WiRE member Joanna Greenway came to work with fellow WiRE member and mentor Jo Hampson, and how she has benefitted from the mentoring process.
WiRE member Liz Walton is a Human Resources Management Consultant. In this article she offers her advice on the issues involved in staff recruitment and employment.
Tips on starting your own bed and breakfast
Develop a business exit strategy
Useful strategies for coping with change in your business.
Eight useful things to do without using a computer
Kate Robbins gives us a brief summary of the ins and outs of small business insurance.