Karen Skidmore's Kick-Ass Blog | CanDoCanBe

How to write press releases effectively for home businesses

It’s one thing knowing that getting a press release published in a magazine or newspaper can create an enormous amount of publicity for your home business, but it’s another thing entirely knowing how to do it so you get the results that you want.

Melissa Talago runs Peekaboo, a communications and marketing consultancy specialising in the mother & baby market.  She has kindly shared with me some great tips on how to write an effective press release, which I just know many of you would love to read and take action on.

Over to you, Melissa:

Press releases are the most basic tool for getting your news out to journalists. They follow a very specific format and written well, can secure press interest with very little follow up or selling in by you. However, I keep seeing 'press releases' that are nothing more than product fact sheets or advertorials.

 So here is a quick overview on how to write a good press release:

1. Make sure you are writing it for the audience. A journalist isn't interested in helping you to promote your business. They're interested in things that will be of interest to their readers.
   
2. The headline. This needs to capture the journalist's attention yet still say what the release is about - and it needs to be short. This can be a challenge! Lots of people rely on clever puns, but leave that to the red top papers. If your headline alone can't fully explain what the release is about, use a sub-head underneath it (I normally do this in italics). This will give a bit more information to encourage the journalist to read on.
   
3. The intro paragraph or press release lead. This is the MOST critical paragraph and if the journalist reads nothing else, he should know what your story is about from the information contained in this vital paragraph. It should cover the four Ws and H - Who, What, When, Where and How. There's no space for hype - just facts. You should include the date and ideally the city where the release is generated from. 
   
   Here are two examples of made up intro paragraphs that show the difference between a good and poor intro:
   
   Poor intro: Reading, 9 May 2008 - Mummysonline, the leading website for parents committed to helping parents do their best, has conducted a poll with its 50,000 members. The aim was to determine what mums really want and the findings made for interesting reading with some surprising results.
    
   Good intro: Reading, 9 May 2008 - British mums want a full night's sleep - and more sex. That's according to a recent poll conducted with more than 50,000 members of Mummysonline.co.uk, a parenting website. The survey asked mums to spill the beans and reveal what they really desired.
    
   Notice that it's the news that comes first, not the bit about the company.
   
4. You now get into the body of the release. The second and third paragraphs add more detail to the introduction, explaining why the reader should care, more findings, more colour - and usually include a quote or insights from either a company spokesperson, a third party expert or customer to add human interest.
   
5. The final paragraph should contain details of pricing, where products can be bought or additional information found. Then write ENDS to signal that it's the end of the release. 
   
6. You then add a sentence or two about the company and what you do. This paragraph is known as the "boilerplate" - an old newspaper term meaning a block of standard text that's used over and over again. It's text that you might use at the bottom of all your releases. 
   
7. You then add a Notes for Editors section offering them further information, images or interviews. Remember to always include your contact details.

Some key things to remember:

• Don't use hype phrases - like innovative, unique, state of the art or breakthrough
• Don't use too many adjectives
• Always write from a journalist's perspective. Never use 'I' or 'We' unless it's in a quote
• Shorter is better - if you can say it in two pages, good. If you can say it in one, even better.
• Make your quotes sound like something a normal person would say and make sure they add something new - not just repeating what the release has already said
• Remember to hyperlink key words and phrases back to your website. This makes them more suitable for online news sites and helps get them picked up by search engines.

If you'd like to see samples of press releases, look at the news section of Melissa’s website.
 
For more information about Peekaboo Communications, visit www.peekaboocoms.co.uk

Is your bookkeeper a registered ASP?

Many people starting out in business find themselves using friends of friends to “do their books”.  Bookkeeping, although a relatively simple process for most businesses, can be a huge headache and has usually been one of the first business administration tasks to be delegated and out-sourced.

And quite rightly too!  But do you know if your bookkeeper is a registered ASP?

ASP stands for Accountancy Service Provider and as of 1^st October, all bookkeepers providing a bookkeeping service need to be registered with an accountancy body such as ICAEW, ACCA or AAT, the Institute of Certifies Bookkeepers or the HM Revenue & Customs.  They will need to apply before the 1^st July as this has come about from the new money laundering legislation last year.

After 1^st October, it will be illegal for your bookkeeper to trade.  If you require further information click here. 

How do you juggle life AND grow a home business?

A typical day for me is to hang out the washing while my children eat breakfast before shouting at them to get their shoes on and get in the car to get to school.  Get my morning run in (as long as it is not raining!) and then be ready for work at 10am.  Work like crazy either speaking to one of my 1-2-1 clients, bash away at the keyboard writing copy for a website or an article or dash out to a networking event before skidding in to the car park for 3.15pm to do the pick-up.

On goes mum hat and its time to do homework, cook tea, put plasters on cut knees and play diplomat for any arguments.  Time for bath, chuck another load of washing in and sit down with a cup of coffee with husband before heading back up to the PC to "tinker" on my web-gadgets and social networking profiles.

Phew!  But would I ever change this routine? 

Absolutely not.  Like many of you reading this, I started my business to create a new, flexible career.  My reasons were my family but I know others of you have decided to become your own boss to fit around ski seasons, partner's careers and, let's be honest, to get out of the rat race.

But a question that I asked a lot is "How on earth can you grow a business and still have a life?"  Is it possible to juggle it all and still move a business forward?

Well, yes it is and this week I thought I would share some practical advice and tips that have helped me and other home business owners have a life AND a successful business.

1.  Remind yourself regularly of your reasons for starting up in business.  When times get hard and more and more projects tumble around you, it is easy to scream and ask yourself why it seemed such a good idea to set up in business.  I remember my first Easter holiday, trying to keep my work momentum going whilst my 2 children where home from school.  After 2 weeks of unsuccessful TV watching and several shouting matches later, I had to remind myself that it was my children that motivated me to become self-employed.  I needed to take my foot of the pedal during the holidays and fire it up during term-time.  OK, it did take me a couple of years of hard juggling to really enjoy the ebb and flow of a term-time business and still have a 12 month income - but it is possible! 

2.  Just say NO!  In the early months, it is tempting to take on as much work as is offered to you.  But just because it pays, it doesn't mean it is always the right work to do.  Accept the projects that you do "just for the money" or take on clients because they have a cheque book, and you will not allow you or your diary to be open to the opportunities you really want.

3.  Create opportunities to fit around you.  If you are designing a business to fit in to your rules (which is always a good idea!) then having the ability to create the right opportunities to fit around your diary and your priorities is a great skill to have.  Networking events is good example of this. I hear many women say that they can't find networking events to fit around school hours but to be honest, if you start digging around it is amazing how many networking groups operate at all times of the day.  Lunches, mid-morning, evenings.  It's a case of asking around your network and if you can't find one that suits - start one yourself at a time that suits you!

4.  Take on one project at a time.  I saw Nicola Cairncross of the www.themoneygym.com present again the other week and she demonstrated this point exceptionally well.  If one project takes one month to complete and you take on a new project each week that month, each project is going to take four times longer and results from your first project will take at least four months.  Focus on the first project and by the end of your first month, the results and income will start to happen to help spur you on for the next new one. Make sense?

5.  Do less and achieve more.  This principle is particularly useful when it comes to marketing.  It is easy to feel that you have to have lots of irons in lots of fires to attract as many clients as possible.  But advertising one week, posting furiously on social networking sites the next, followed by a leaflet drop in your local neighbourhood and finishing off with random visits to various networking events is just going to make you dizzy!  Do one thing well, measure your results and then work out whether you carry on or adjust your marketing strategy.

6.  Know that you can't achieve success by yourself.  "No man is an island" is a famous quote by John Donne (I googled that - didn't think I knew that, did you?) and when you start up in business, the sooner you realise this, the stronger and more successful you will be.  This doesn't mean that you need to recruit business partners and start offering a percentage of your company, but it does mean that you can seek out business buddies to share ideas with, virtual assistants to delegate work out to, associates to share the work load and networking contacts to help and support you. 

7.  Make time for you in your diary.  You put clients meetings and telephone appointments in your diary.  But when was the last time you actually dedicated a few hours to yourself in your diary.  Make a commitment to join an exercise class, meet a friend for a dog walk or book a table for one at the local coffee shop.  It's amazing how more effective you can become by having some time away from your business. 

I am sure there are some other great suggestions and practical advice out there and I know there are others who would love to read them.  So add your comments, along with your web link if you have one, below and share your thoughts.

The importance of a site map on your website

“Can you just remind me the importance of having a site map on your web page, is it the spiders impact?”

As I answered this question today for someone on email, I thought I would share my comments on my blog just in case there are a few of you out there with the same question

The importance of having a site map is so that the search engines can “trawl” through your site easily.  It is like giving someone a map of the local town centre so that they know where all the shops are and can visit them all without missing any out.

It’s not essential as the search engines will certainly find your site eventually through external links to your site and be able to get their way round a site with simple and easy navigation but as it is free to submit, it doesn’t harm to possibly speed up the process.

Google’s site map facility can be found here and Yahoo’s can be found here.  You can do more but to be honest, these 2 are the main ones and spend the time on the others focusing on writing compelling copy for your website!

Hope that helps.

Searching to get to the top of google

Interesting article in the Business section of the Sunday Times, which highlighted the fact that firms are investing more in their search engine optimisation rather than on google adwords.

Costs are increasing rapidly on the pay-per-click advertising and highly sort after key word phrases are fast becoming out of many businesses’ reach.  So it comes to no surprise, really, that big businesses are spending more money than ever bringing in seo expertise.

What does this mean to those of you without the big corporate budgets?  Well, you don’t need to spend mega bucks to get your website listed on top of google. But you do need to spend some time and researching in to how you can do it. 

A lot of SEO work is common sense. If you know how the search engines work it certainly helps, but don’t lose sight of the fact that is the human beings that will stick around and become your paying customers – not the search engines.

If there is only SEO thing that you do, then write compelling content for your website which includes your focused key phrases.  For more information about how to make SEO easy, then check out the CanDoCanDo SEO Made Easy audio recording on offer. 

Business Plans Don't Work .. Without a Strong Business Vision

When you start up in business, one of the first things that you "should" do is to write a business plan.

But hands up who has felt dread or even panic at the thought of writing a 20 page document that starts with your mission statement an d synopsis, before finishing with detailed cashflow projections for the next 5 years?

And for those of you who have written a business plan, hands up who has filed it nicely in your top drawer of your filing cabinet, never to refer to it again?

Business plans, essential that they are, can just feel too "corporate".  When you have decided to work for yourself and set up a business from home, most business plan advice out there can be just too darn complicated.

(The worst business plan advice I ever saw was the recommendation of the number of pages to write.  The answer given was between 20 and 30 pages long!!)

Now, I am not for one minute recommending you just go out and start a business on a wing and a prayer - not unless you have money to lose and time to waste.  A business plan is essential in making sure you know exactly where you are now, where it is you are heading and how you are going to get there.

Just think of it as a journey planner for your holiday.  You wouldn't just turn up at the nearest airport hoping to catch a plane that will get somewhere near the villa that you have booked.  You would know exactly which flight you where on, what time you had to check in at and know how you were going to get from the airport to your luxury villa on that private island (OK - let me dream!)

But the problem with business plans is that too many of you feel overwhelmed by the process and often are a little daunted by those 20 page templates you can download from the internet.

So, if this is you, don't do a business plan.  Spend the time on creating a strong business vision.

A strong business vision is far more valuable to you as a home business owner than a document sitting in your top drawer.  A strong business vision will give you the desire, the inspiration and the determination to get you to where you want to be.

How do you create a strong business vision?  Here are some simple steps you can take.

1.  Describe your ideal working week.  If you could wake up on a Monday morning and know that you have the ideal week ahead of you, what would that week look, feel and sound like.  Who would you be working with?  Where would you be going?  What hours would you be working? And the list of questions can go.

2.  Where will you be in 12 months time?  Following on from this ideal week scenario, write down some of the specifics that relate to your dream.  For example: the number of hours you will be working, the number of clients you would be working with, the amount of money/turnover/profit that you will be creating.  The more specific you can be with this, the easier it will be to turn these simple thoughts in to goals.

3.  Create a SMART goal.  OK, goals may sound scary to some of you but they aren't if they are truly of your own making.  Goals are simply specific dreams to aim for.  And if you can create a SMART goal you will be on your way to creating a strong business vision.  (A SMART goal means that the goal is specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and to a timescale.)

4.  Make your goal visible.  Decide whether you can relate to images, words, numbers or sounds better.  Which ever format you prefer, choose this medium to display your goal.  For many of you, images and pictures work the best.  Most entrepreneurs (yes, I know you think you aren't one, but you are starting up and growing your own business, aren't you?!) are visual people, so think more powerfully in images.  Find a photo, magazine picture or lots of images if you prefer that represent your SMART goal and put them up in your office so you can see them everyday.

5.  Start to live and breathe your goal.  Close your eyes and imagine how it would really feel when you are achieving your goal.  What sounds do you hear?  What emotions do you feel?  The more in tune you are with your goal, the stronger your business vision will be and the more likely you will do whatever it takes to get you there.

6.  Not working?  Then get the right vision.  Some of you out there may go through these steps and not feel the connection, the drive nor the desire to make your business work.  You may still feel a lack of confidence or even find yourself making lots of excuses.  It's OK, you know.  It's only because you haven't given yourself the opportunity to find your real and true vision.

To share my personal story, step 6 was where I found myself in January and February this year.  It was the first year in 4 years that I started a New Year without a vision.  I felt lost and a little like a hamster in a wheel.  But I got through it and my vision is once again clear as crystal.  The path to get me there suddenly lit up with floodlights.

And it can happen to you too.  Just make sure you spend the time to create your strong business vision!

What are your thoughts?  Agree, disagree, got more ideas? Add your comments below.

Why did you start up in business?

Every one has their own personal story as to why they are now self-employed and running their own business.  Reasons vary from wanting a flexible career to fit around school holidays or a partner’s career to wanting to be your own boss so you can make up the rules.

But what ever your original reason is, how true is your business to that reason?

When business gets tough – your sales take a tumble, your refunds may go up because of a faulty product – things feel a little shaky.  You could end up taking on more projects than you can physically juggle in a week.  Stress levels can rise and you end up working more hours than ever before but for less money.

This wasn’t why you went in to business, was it?

Keep your reason for starting up in business fresh in your mind at all times – it will help you make the right business decisions, keep you focused on the right projects and keep you motivated to stay on track.

 

Can you help me to 300 comments?

A big thank you to everyone who reads this blog.  And a special thank you to those who contribute and leave a comment.

At the time of posting, Kick-Ass Blog has reached a grand total of 278 comments – which I must admit to being pretty chuffed about.

Your comments help make this blog full of practical and (what I would call) “real-life” tips and advice.  And the more received, the more inspired I am to write more articles.

Could you help me with a small something though?

It would be absolutely fabulous to reach 300 before the end of the month.  And when we do, I promise to post a small thank you from my collection of teleforum recordings on the blog.

So go on – leave your tips or thoughts on the article you are reading