Archive for March, 2009
Keeping Your Feet On Uneven Ground
As we live these interesting times, it’s important to watch what we read, think and do. For our thoughts and deeds greatly impact our business and personal affairs. Don’t believe me? Read this true tale…
For ten years I’ve walked my dogs on the same river trail without injury. Today I saw a new sign: UNEVEN [...]
Spreading Yourself Too Thin – Part 2
Part 2 of 2
So there I was, simultaneously promoting free T-shirts and $120/hr copywriting on the same Web 2.0 channels. Visitors to my websites must have felt like they’d entered a dentist’s surgery, only to find themselves in a jumping castle.
I ignored all I knew about conveying a constant, relevant and significant message to a [...]
Spreading Yourself Too Thin
Part 1 of 2
It’s hard to pop a balloon with open hands; the force dissipates over too great an area. A pin in two fingers gives a dramatically superior result. When you focus all your energies on one point, you all but guarantee success.
This post and the next show me using both methods. As we [...]
Bleeding Between the Lines
Recently my friend thwarted a costly deceit from a corporate reference book publisher. I tell the tale in case they try the same stunt on your business.
Pat* from the publisher called Fran^ my friend, asking her to approve her firm’s listing in the new edition. Pat called again a few hours later, saying the deadline [...]
How to Get Upset
Pythagoras said, ‘In anger we should refrain both from speech and action’.
Someone else said, ‘Never send a message in anger’.
But they never had to struggle from sleep, stumble down the hall and switch their printer to fax mode – just to receive an unsolicited 10% OFF!!! toner cartridge offer.
Buddha said, ‘Holding on to anger [...]
Flip & Goliath: A Breakfast-Time Story
Muesli: it’s hard enough to eat; how hard is it to make? Here’s a quick small business owner’s guide. The story is true. And the muesli is delicious.
Wait until midsummer.
Scour the city for tiny batches of insanely expensive, uber-high-quality ingredients. Make extra trips because your car is small.
Ask a friend to lend you his commercial [...]
The Black Art of Bookkeeping
It may surprise (and even reassure) you to know I don’t use MYOB. I have other software, having seized a one-year-free deal without knowing what it meant.
I now pay for updates each year that cost more than the original program. Worse, I chose a version to handle five staff, who all had to go when [...]
Welcome!
Hello and thanks for visiting! This blog is written by me (a qualified, high-end copywriter, editor & proofreader with 20 years experience) and others for you.
It tracks our companies, clients, colleagues and partners as we try to make an honest buck without killing the planet or going mad.
It’s a frank, fair dinkum and [...]
First, the Good News!
On snaring this blogging gig, my first instinct was to discredit every shonky supplier who’d ever crossed me. The question was, what to cover first:
The sturdy, black hair in my special fried rice?
The too-thin tin my builder used to gild my roof?
The gob of machine grease in my pack of sliced almonds?
On reflection, however, I [...]
