Fiona’s Book

Whether you’re sharing my fighting spirit and optimism from my last post, or you’re feeling a bit jaded after the seasonal festivities and a lack of direction I would love for you to join me on my Branding Masterclass.

It’s an online class that starts on 6th Feb and runs for a month. You can pace yourself, so whatever your responsibilities, and where ever you live in the world, it can fit around you. All you need to do is commit to a couple of hours a week where you really focus on your business brand.I promise that it’ll be creative, inspirational and informative, and it will make a big difference to your brand (whether you have a lovely logo and website or not).

• Clarity and purpose around your brand strategy, niche, profitable clients and brand messaging
• A mood board to help you visualise and communicate how you’d like your brand to look and feel
• A marketing plan that helps you own and defend your niche and attract and retain the right sorts of clients
• A communication plan for your clients journey from enquiry to invoice that wows and inspires them
• A plan for a truly powerful website that attracts, engages and wins you business

In addition I’ll be sharing lots of inspirational case studies, behind the scenes insights from the design team at Flourish and plenty of useful tips, tools and techniques you can start using in your business immediately to make 2012 your best year yet.Here are some of the nice things people have said about previous workshops:

“It was very helpful to take time out and refocus on marketing priorities and how to be more consistent with the marketing messages I put out. Lots of clear, practical ideas – thanks!”

Anne Williams, Worklife Balance Solutions

“Thank you so much for a very inspirational and practical workshop. I feel much more confident about promoting my business now.”
Sue Goodson, Floreal Therapies

Investment for the whole four weeks is just £165+VAT when you book your place before 23rd January and this includes all the course notes, follow up support, bags of expert info, a 20 minute one to one with me and a £75 Flourish gift voucher.So why not start your year as you mean to go on – with purpose and inspiration, and join me for a fun, creative and purposeful Branding Masterclass. Book your place today and prepare to take your brand up a gear!

Tagged as in Branding, Fiona's Book, Flourish Stuff, Inspirations, Marketing, Workshops

Over the last week or so I’ve been carving out a little time to pick back up the branding book that I started writing in February. And in a vain attempt to get me motivated and moving forwards (as opposed to procrastinating by writing blog posts) I thought I’d share with you my plans for the book. This is mostly to make sure I actually do get it finished, but also because I’d really love your opinion on what I’m writing, and to do that, you need to know the premise of the book.

The premise

There is absolutely no shortage of books out there on branding. From incredibly highbrow books on how big corporates brand their businesses, to some inspiring stories from the likes of Starbucks and the Body Shop (didn’t think I’d ever see those two names in the same sentence) right down to books aimed at small businesses. The world is overwhelmed with branding books.

“So why bother” you may ask? I ask myself that question a lot too!

I choose to bother because I have a passion for branding and I guess I’ve always wanted to write a book about branding. But that in itself doesn’t make for a good reason to write the book or people to buy it. What I hope is that I can bring a different spin to the market.

The branding books that I own are all very knowledgeable but some of them are just too highbrow for the busy business owner. I also have a lot of design books that are inspiring, but they lack accessibility and aren’t really aimed at small business owners.

What I’d like to do is create an inspirational guide that small business owners can work through to brand their businesses. For me it’s not about theory, it’s about inspiration and action.

As inspiring as a craft book

Why do business books have to be so dull in their design? There seems to be an unwritten rule that (in the main) if you publish a book for business that it needs to be A5-ish in size and wall to wall black and white text. I own a lot of books like this and they’re fab. I’m not knocking them. But I own hundreds of cookbooks and craft books, and you know what? They don’t just get me thinking and pondering. They inspire me to get up off the sofa and take action. And that’s exactly my brief for this book.

I want it to be as inspiring as a craft book. Beautiful images, plenty of white space and encouragement to try out projects for your business. What do you think?

Tagged as in Fiona's Book

You might be aware that I’m starting the process of writing my second book which will be all about branding. I’ve been wanting to start writing this book for at least 18 months and I’ve been counting down the days until I can give myself the time and space to start writing. That time is finally here and as of last Friday, I officially started writing my book.

How many words do you think I’ve written? Excluding titles and subtitles – it’s less than this post!

I blog about branding, I tweet about branding, I speak about branding and I run workshops on branding. I also spend much of my working life helping other businesses brand themselves more effectively.

You could say I know my stuff when it comes to branding.

So why is writing a book so hard? Why am I procrastinating? And why, when I have been blogging so prolifically am I finding the art of general blogging quite so difficult as well? I think I have a classic case of writers block lumped in with a smidgen of impostor syndrome.

I’m going to just stop for a few days, mull things over at the back of my mind and find my mojo again. I’ll be reading Tom Evans Blocks (designed to unblock writers) and I’ll be walking, thinking and generally not writing. Watch this space!

Tagged as in Fiona's Book

The time has finally come for me to start writing my second book. In a different life I’d love to be an author full time, I could easily hole myself up for months on end surviving on a diet of chocolate cake and cups of tea whilst whirring out thousands of words, oblivious to the [...]

Tagged as in Fiona's Book

Have just received this glowing review from a local publication, Guildford Means Business from Ezie Publishing and as it’s so lovely I thought I’d share it with you. Over to you John Hines and John Ashcroft… (and thank you. My mum is delighted The exclamation mark is the most overused – and misused – pieces of grammatical [...]

Tagged as in Exhibitions, Fiona's Book, Flourish Stuff

Excuse me a little moment of self indulgence here… My book, Exhibit!: The SME’s Guide to Using Exhibitions to Grow Your Business is now available via Amazon. It does exactly what it says on the tin: shows you how you can plan your next exhibition much more effectively to significantly improve the result you get [...]

Tagged as in Exhibitions, Fiona's Book, Flourish Stuff

I’ve always used exhibitions as a core part of my marketing strategy. At my first exhibition I picked up 100 leads and converted 70 of them into paying clients over the course of the year. When I tell this story people are always astounded – they don’t often find they have such a profitable experience! [...]

Tagged as in Business Strategy, Exhibitions, Fiona's Book, Marketing

On Tuesday night I had the pleasure of judging “Best Exhibition Stand” at the Best of Richmond’s Networking Expo. Nick Taimitahara and his team had put a huge amount of effort into ensuring that his exhibitors made the most of the opportunity. Not only did Nick employ an expert to run a seminar on how [...]

Tagged as in Exhibitions, Fiona's Book, Flourish Stuff

A jubilant Kim and David of the Wedding Community returned from the National Wedding Show last weekend and as we have helped them plan their stand, design their website and create their brand identity, how could I resist sharing the story with you? The Wedding Community is a social networking site for engaged couples and [...]

Tagged as in Case Studies, Exhibitions, Fiona's Book, From The Studio, Marketing

Most small businesses pour thousands of pounds into exhibitions every year and fail to walk away with a single client. And yet when they're done properly exhibitions can help you build your database, boost your brand awareness and develop relationships with your clients. I've used exhibitions as a fundamental part of my marketing plan to [...]

Tagged as in Exhibitions, Fiona's Book, Flourish Stuff, Marketing