So here is your slightly delayed, post-Bulgaria Weekend Takeaways complete with the sense of innovation and energy I’ve brought away with me from our trip.
Bulgarians love life; more than that, they apply that verve to setting up all kinds of businesses big and small, from the young accountancy graduate I met who had not only set up her own beauty salon but an accountancy business and chain of gas/petrol stations as well to the lady I talked about who has built up a one room village shop into a thriving, far larger concern.
Keeping that can-do attitude in mind, I want to share some free resources with you today that will help you hit September running.
This is the back to school and work month and usually I find myself looking at life and business afresh. I hope what I have here for you will help you do the same.
One great tool that will help you plan and innovate is Mindomo which takes the concept of mind mapping to a whole new level. It’s available on a range of platforms and the free package is excellent as a starter option:
While innovating and trying new business paths is fun, it helps to be as organised as possible so that when it comes to the paperwork side of things you don’t need to waste hours on the less interesting stuff.
Outright is a great free online bookkeeping solution that will help you keep track of income and expenses as you go – an absolute boon for online business owners everywhere.
The free version is great although bear in mind some parts are more geared to the US user. Still, very useful for us all and you can try it out here:
I’ve talked about the importance of having a blog and creating great content that can be spread around to bring more traffic to your site, especially when you are wanting to bring fresh life to your business.
One tried and trusted way to do that is by guest blogging or by having an event such as a contest or giveaway that will be covered by other bloggers. The trouble is, it’s time consuming to find blogs that need your content and/or who will be interested in your event.
Blogger Link Up is a free site where you can not only find blogs looking for content in one place but also announce your event to the wider blogging community as well as offer products for review. A brilliant resource and you can find it here:
This week’s Kindle freebie is primarily aimed at authors but contains valuable information on creating a buzz for all of you, including how to write a killer press release, creating a marketing plan and brand and much more:
http://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Marketing-for-Authors-ebook/dp/B008DHNQYY/
As a change from TED talks, I’m featuring an episode from Chris Penn and John Wall’s Marketing Over Coffee podcast this week.
Always a good listen and thought-provoking stuff that will get your innovative juices flowing:
http://www.marketingovercoffee.com/2013/08/29/now-with-more-twerking/
