The Small Biz Book started off as a mini-course, but I wanted to cut costs and deliver a usable tool to help small businesses everywhere, so I turned it into a downloadable book. And to be honest, as a professional writer, I felt more comfortable doing it this way!

The book takes you step by step through the process of writing a book.

Why would you want to write a book?

“I have enough to do creating products, talking to customers and spending a crazy amount of time – and often money – on social media posts in an attempt to spread the word. Why on earth would I spend my valuable time writing a blooming book?”

First of all, I’m not talking here about a 500 page novel, the book you are about to write is:

quick and easy
totally about your business
completely free to create
and makes a wonderful promotional tool to help you get off the social media ads hamster wheel.

Many big companies and corporations produce their own books, catalogues and magazines (think in-flight for example) and there’s no reason small businesses can’t do that too. You may say “but the big corps have gazillions of staff they can give the job to”, and yes that would be true. But it doesn’t necessarily mean the finished product is any good (think in-flight for example!)

The big boys also have huge advertising budgets which means that social media and other media platforms will favour them and get their ads in front of eyeballs before their smaller budget customers. Annoying, I know, but that’s business.

Also, the dreaded algorithms change with no warning, and the powers-that-be can drop your ad, even your whole social media presence at the drop of a hat. This isn’t scaremongering. It’s just a fact and the more you can protect yourself against having all your eggs in one basket stomped on, the better.

So back to the book…..

A book of your business can be used in a couple of ways;

• as a lead magnet – a giveaway to encourage new email subscribers
• as a free gift for customers

and you could, perhaps, even sell it! But for now, we’ll concentrate on a promotional tool. I would suggest using your book as a giveaway OR a lead magnet, but not both. You can always make a second version if you decide to at a later date.

The book itself will be predominantly about you and your business, and because you’re the author, you choose what to include.

I’ve created a couple of test books about businesses I know nothing about and found they took around 8 hours each to complete. I can’t guarantee you will finish your book in eight hours but you may also finish it in half the time.

Work on it for half an hour every day and it’ll soon be a viable product to add to your portfolio, whether as a free giveaway or a saleable item.

Only 30 minutes! How easy is it to lose 30 minutes or more scrolling through social media posts?!

The Small Biz Book is broken down into seven easy step-by-step tasks

Read through the whole book once – don’t worry it’s a quick read 🙂 and then go back and work on the tasks from Step One.
You’ll find a couple of example books at the end; one for a service business and one for a product business.

Use these as templates if you like. They’re designed as a four chapter book with your own brand or style in mind.

Copy how they’re laid out and change what you need to suit your small business. If you have a better idea, go for it!

Creating your own book will give you extra business kudos, attract more customers and develop connections with your existing customers. And without spending an extra penny!

You’ll need a laptop, PC or tablet with Word or an equivalent software – as long as you can export as a pdf you’re good. You’ll also want to add some pictures of your products/business. You probably already have them, but if they’re only on your phone, send them to your laptop ready to pop into the book. 🙂

Okay, let’s get on this. The Small Biz Book is available as a pdf at Etsy right now for less than a fiver (£5).

The Small Biz Book at Etsy

Supporting small business always.

Happy Writing!

Linda x

P.S. I’ve been commissioned by a couple of big publishers and can provide a book-writing service if you’d like to go down that route. Get in touch if you want to discuss having your book written for you. But, honestly, as a small business, you may want to keep your costs down and this little adventure of writing your own book is the way to do it!

You know those days when a certain number seems significant and you decide to run with it. Not lottery numbers, they’re a bit too random for my peace of mind. I’m just talking simple everyday numbers which we tend to take as a sign of something auspicious about to happen:

*A ‘feeling’ for a certain number which, although a good reason may lurk somewhere in your memory, the incident never really comes to mind – and it probably doesn’t matter anyway. This number could be anything, usually between 1 and 200 with a few exceptions such as 333, 444 etc;

*A ‘scientific’ approach to numerology. Which number corresponds to your birthdate or your name perhaps. My birthdate is 9 and I tend to take 3’s, 6’s and 9’s as all being auspicious numbers. This may sound somewhat greedy, but there are no rules here and numbers are infinite after all!

Although I feel my approach is more about ‘Numerology’, the feelings are just as significant and recently a ‘3’ moment arrived when everything I seemed to do was divisible by 3 – and I ended up with 3 projects that all had ‘3s’ in mind!

1. I tidied up all 3 wix websites that I’d kind of forgotten about. They’re all up and running now. The gardening site is the biggest with some great gardening tips, the chocolate site is the sweetest with some delicious recipes and the writing site is the beginning of my quest to help writers get their writing out in the world.

Garden Ideas
Simply Chocolate
Writing

2. I had a lightbulb moment with my crochet creations – to make a family gift that goes on forever called a … wait for it … a Forever Bonbon! I’ve already made 6 designs and put them in my Etsy shop. My goal is, of course, to make 9! **Update. All sold**

They’re handmade gift bags that are designed to be kept by the receiver of the gift inside until the next celebration, when they can either give it back or pass it on, again with a gift inside.

Happy with them so far :-).

3. Hat Trix! Well, three goals is a hat trick and this third project really does what it says on the box. Still going with the handmade and eco-friendly ideas, I’ve designed a product for young children that’s 3 games in one.

No batteries, chargers or plugs needed and lots of soft play fun intended!

I’m not sure how to get this on the market yet.

I’ve made a mock up to help me get the sizes right, but still in the early research stages.

It has a lot of educational value; learning colours, numbers, eye-hand co-ordination etc;

Well, that seems to wrap up my 3 moment nicely. I’d better get on to the next steps. I may make a numbered to-do list and tackle all the items divisible by 3 – or perhaps not 🙂

Stay Safe

Linda x

Since my living off the land days I’ve had many years without a garden. Last year I moved into a lovely house in Cornwall with a smallish but beautiful garden. And over the past few months, my son and I have transformed it into an even more beautiful space 🙂

– we’re growing food

and finding all sorts of wildlife in our inherited pond. This dragonfly visited today

and we found a pond salamander laying eggs – too slow grabbing my phone for a photo but such an awesome experience. Loving nature! After a tidy up yesterday, the pond is looking even better.

I am so sooooo grateful for my garden.

During the last couple of weeks I’ve shared my time between giving the website a makeover and tending plants (and pond) so haven’t written much – haven’t done much housework either but that’s not so unusual for me!

I hope the sun’s shining in your world today.

Stay safe.

Linda x

Sometimes life just stands on it’s head! Had no internet over the weekend and crappy phone signal so most of the weekend plans went out of the window. I don’t have a TV either so rely on netflix for entertainment in zoning out times – which happen more frequently than I care to admit!

But this weekend was different.

I didn’t realize just how many times I google something every day. Before mobile phones, in the days when libraries were our main source of information, did we not ask so many questions? And the questions we did ask were probably related to the bigger picture in all arenas.

I never went to my local library to find out if Spock was still alive, and do I really need to know that?

I’ve heard it said that we consume more information in one day than our ancestors may have done in a lifetime. This sounds an extreme statistic and I guess it depends on how many generations we want to compare with, but it kind of makes sense. Especially when we have information at our fingertips 24/7.

But what to do when you power-down?

I actually had a very relaxing and productive weekend, using the time to de-clutter and tidy stuff. From the flower pots in the shed to the documents on my laptop, the clutter was growing daily. Of course there’s more to do so have a few more things on my to-do list but the tidy bits are great! I might just declare next Sunday to be internet-free…..

Having said all that, I am so pleased it’s Monday and I’m connected to the world again, so yay, it’s Monday! Have a great week 🙂

Linda x

P.S.
De-cluttering is insanely good for the mind body and spirit. Need some tips and guidance? This handy download takes you step by step through the process. Choose from your favourite online book store:

Amazon US , Amazon UK ,

iTunes , Kobo ,

Barnes & Noble , Payhip 

Etsy,

(extract from ‘Afternoon Tea’)

How I turned into a tea snob:

Afternoon tea has been a traditional English affair for centuries but over the years has been dropped in favour of a quick snack at lunchtime and a larger evening meal.

This reflects the speed and ‘lack of time’ we all seem to suffer from nowadays – and the fact that most employers take a dim view of their workforce popping out every afternoon for tea and cakes. 🙂

Many dieticians will promote eating ‘little and often’. Of course, they may question the wisdom of eating cake but, hey, a little of what you fancy does you good!

Back in the year 19something, my school separated boys from girls for science lessons. The boys learned how to do ‘man’ things and the girls learned how to do ‘woman’ things… it was a while ago.

One of the girls’ first domestic science lessons was ‘How to Make Tea’. If my memory serves me, we learned this incredibly important skill over the course of three weeks or so. (!) The attention to detail settled in my mind and slowly but surely over the years I became a tea snob.

I am not a happy soul if I have to go without a cup of tea every day. Going abroad can be a nightmare and if someone serves me tea made with a tea bag, I sip cautiously for a few moments then ‘accidentally’ forget to finish it. I blame school entirely for my addiction to the perfect cup of tea

So, as I rather enjoy the habit anyway, I’m going to share with you the fundamental elements to get the perfect cuppa in this elegant little download that includes:

*How to make a perfect cup of tea.
*a traditional Victoria sponge cake recipe
*everyday scones with an ‘afternoon tea’ makeover.
*sandwiches to savour.
*fruit teas and herb teas that change the tone from time to time.

Create cakes and sandwiches to make afternoon tea a royal occasion. Choose your favourite online bookstore –

Amazon US , Amazon UK , Barnes & Noble , Apple iTunes , Kobo , Google Play , Payhip  , Etsy 

Enjoy!

Linda x
PS: Please note that the recipes contain gluten, sugar and dairy although a little experimenting with alternative ingredients never goes amiss!