Day three of our blog competition guest posts – first today we have the refreshingly straightforward Sheree Lowe, of Sundowner VA.

The original guidelines for entry are here, read all the featured entries, you could also read about how we chose the winner, or what we learned from running the blogging competition.

I was bullied at school. A lot. A LOT, a lot. I never fit in socially, was a bit more academic than the average (and undiplomatically opinionated with it) and better at sports than most (which makes you cool if you’re male, but not if you’re female).

I pretty much spent my entire childhood and teenage years trying to appear unexceptional in every possible way so as to stay under the radar. I worked hard to hide opinions, thoughts, emotions, tendencies, habits, character traits – just to be able to live a quiet life.

The bullying and self-repression had no negative short- or long-term consequences. That I can remember.
By the time I left school it was simply habit to behave this way, and spent the next ten or so years as an unhappy and unfulfilled employee not living up to any kind of potential (ie, as a PA on £20k – who was a member of Mensa with a first in Classical Latin – and considered by head office incapable of progressing beyond that role). The problem is, you can’t repress your entire self for years without something big happening. Something, as they say, has gotta give. In my case, it was [...] Continue Reading…

Day two of our blog competition guest posts – today we have the runner up, Joanne Dewberry of Charlie Moo’s, Networking Mummies. The original guidelines for entry are here, read all the featured entries, you could also read about how we chose the winner, or what we learned from running the blogging competition.

I thought this would be really easy to answer … and I’d be able to write an awesome post on how amazing I am haha!! Not quite!

My biggest marketing lesson hummmm …… Never miss an opportunity!! Always see a way to work your business into a situation.

Everyone knows how much I love twitter for finding great #journorequests there is usually an opportunity for you to promote your business. I sometimes reply to journalists looking for case studies for parenting magazine and ask everso nicely if they will mention Charlie Moo’s. If they say no, I send this image …

Photo by Andrea Pittam Although Megan is only a baby in it! She is clearly holding a Charlie Moo’s bag and if the image is large enough in magazines/newspapers you can sometimes make out the the name and webaddress. There is also the possibility that they may google Joanne Dewberry and Fabric Bags and viola there we are!

I recently sat reading a Trade Party Suppliers Magazine and was annoyed by a comment made about children’s party ware. So I emailed the editor and left my feedback plus a few lines about myself and Charlie Moo’s. [...] Continue Reading…

JupiterJasper is featuring some of the entries to our blog competition over the next few days, beginning with the winning blog competition entry, from Sarah Arrow, of Arrow Light Haulage, Same day courier services in Essex. The original guidelines for entry are here, read all the featured entries, you could also read about how we chose the winner, or what we learned from running the blogging competition.
The biggest marketing lesson I have learned so far…is that most marketers don’t listen.
It’s true.

Do you recall a few months back I blogged about the term “haulage”? and how I get a slew of calls relating to selling me something? Because when people search for the term “haulage” rather than the term same day courier (which we wish to be found for), they are looking to sell me a fuel card rather than build a relationship or even understand what our services offer!

I have found over the years I have had similar experiences with marketers; they don’t listen to what your business is about in order to market it.

For example, I recently attended a networking event and got chatting to a marketing expert. When the marketing expert heard what we did he promptly informed me I was missing a very big marketing trick.

“Go on” I asked, curious to what the response would be.
“You need to sign write your vans and advertise on them”.
“Why would I want to do that” I replied, “we do confidential deliveries”.
“You need to do it so you get more [...] Continue Reading…