Blog

Back in pre-COVID times, when I planned out monthly blog posts for 2020, the post for early July was going to be about taking time at the midpoint of the year to evaluate your business – a sort of halfway check-up as to how things were going, and what needed to change in the second half of 2020. But then the pandemic arrived and the first – and possibly second – half of 2020 changed dramatically.   Many small businesses are now struggling badly; worse still, others have had to permanently close. Those that have survived are not – on the whole – likely thriving as they were a year ago. If the first half of 2020 was a disaster for your business, what will the second half of the year bring, and how can you best plan for a successful recovery or, at least, mi ...

One trend that is likely to last for a while after the current pandemic crisis has receded is working from home. When nations across the globe went into lockdown in March, hundreds of thousands of employees found themselves suddenly expected to work from home as their workplaces closed down. Now it seems many of them – having tasted the freedom and advantages of telecommuting – have little desire to return to the workplace. Productivity – to the surprise of some employers – tends to improve when employees work from home and morale is often improved also. Add in the benefits to the environment of reduced commuting, and the ease with which offices can ensure social distancing with 50% or less of their original employees now based there, and you have a win-win situatio ...

If you saw our April post on writing with clarity, you will be well on the way to making your content more effective. You are already organizing your copy, keeping to layman’s language, and including relevant visuals, etc. A quick reminder – attention spans, especially for digital readers, are notoriously short. Leaving white space, using clear headings and sub-headings, and including visuals will only go so far in terms of making your message effective. Brevity is key. If, like many of us, you are inclined to write rather lengthy prose, it’s time to sharpen up your writing and eliminate unnecessary verbiage.   Writing Concisely   1. Avoid redundancies Repetition does not make your message more effective. Say what you want to say just once. While not repeating y ...