In our final episode of 2022, and before we take our break for Christmas and New Year, we leave you with some thoughts to ponder, about the importance of multiple streams of income. With so much in the news that’s not altogether positive, we think it’s worth reminding everyone, ourselves included, that the future is very much uncertain, and it’s well worth being in the position where you can earn income via a variety of streams, so you don’t ever have to rely on one sole source. Easier said that done, perhaps. But there are many things you can do to put yourself in a better position going fo ..read more

This week’s episode is just a short burst of news and updates you might not have known about. First up, Canva. Canva announces the Canva Visual Worksuite, including Canva Docs at their annual conference. They’re not holding back when it comes to developing their platform even further. They are constantly upping their game! Canva info: https://thedigitalgeneralist.substack.com/p/canva-ups-their-game-again Next up; how to find out what your clients are searching for on Google - the non creepy way. (Trust us). There’s a tool we found called AnswerThePublic, which, when you add in a couple of key ..read more

In this episode, we have a very special guest - and I say special, because our guest, Samantha Fitzgibbons, happens to be Rich’s bestie of some 17 years, and counting! Sam has recently had her debut novel, Happy State, published, so we decided to have a chat with her about the book, and the path which led her to where she is now. Having trained as an actress, then subsequently completing a degree in psychology, to being a professional copywriter for businesses, as well as now, a published author. She’s had quite the journey throughout her life, which has also impacted the way Happy State was w ..read more

At least for as long as The Apprentice has been on air, our lives have been filled with such phrases as ‘smash it!’, ‘knocking it out of the ballpark’, ‘doing it for the team’, ‘absolute home run!’, ‘MVP’ etc. However there are some legitimate ways running a business is very much like sports psychology; so given the Commonwealth Games are well underway in Birmingham, we thought we’d take a little look into the concept. Just like in sport, running a business is a marathon, not a sprint. You’ll have to train, get your business fit, constantly overcome obstacles, and you may not necessarily win t ..read more

With rail strikes looming and petrol prices at record highs - just how much does this kind of disruption affect modern business operations? With more people continuing to work from home post-pandemic, and the business landscape looking like it’s probably changed for good, are there as many people likely to be as affected with these disruptions as there once were? If even more people have flexi-working arrangements and work from home continues to be even more commonplace, will these disruptions be problematic for most? Obviously fuel prices are crippling a lot of people, and so many are stru ..read more

Elon Musk is purportedly in the closing stages of buying Twitter for a cool $44Bn - there have been extremely mixed reports online as to whether people are all for it, or think it’s the worst plan ever. Twitter has been likened to a cesspool for many years - does this mean he’s now going to come in and clean it up and make it a more positive environment? Or will it just make things worse? Then again, as we’ve said many a time, your experience on any platform is predominantly decided upon who you follow and interact with - if you don’t follow or get involved with toxic discussions or viewpoints ..read more

We found an article from Foundation Inc that was all about how to write better headlines from the pros at LinkedIn. Needless to say, our interest was piqued, as getting better at anything has to be a good thing, and if it helped our combined LinkedIn activity, then that’s always good, no? But after finding a couple of useful bits, like keeping things succinct etc, the ‘tips’ went on to be more and more….well….ludicrous - to the point that these ‘tips’ were no longer useful, and were encouraging people to write more and more in a clickbait style. Now, clickbait, as we know, is designed more o ..read more

In this episode we talk about what it means to start a business in 2022, to take the leap from ‘safe’ employment into the world of the self-employed. A topic close to our team (and hearts!), as Jason has recently done just that - stepped back from many years service as an employee in a big business, to starting his own journey into the world of self-employment. We look at the reasons WHY people want to start their own businesses, whether you should go down the Ltd company route, or stay as a Sole Trader. What are the pitfalls, things to look out for, things you absolutely should be aware of ..read more

With the meteoric rise that Canva has seen over the last few years, it was inevitable that competitors would rise to get a slice of the action. Given how Canva has completely changed the game in the world of graphic design, democratising the way graphics (and now of course video) is created by not just graphic design professionals, but by everyone - through the use of templates and pre-made elements that people can incorporate within their designs; a major player had to take notice. The major player that has now come forward to throw their own hat into the ring? Adobe. Yes, Adobe, famed for th ..read more

In our final episode of 2021, we just wanted to give you a few updates of things you need to know.  As you know, we had to cancel our December networking event due to the current Omicron spread and the restrictions that are currently in place - we decided to wait until the new year instead of putting on a substandard event, so fingers crossed this is just a very temporary suspension of our events, and we look forward to welcoming you back hopefully early in 2022. In the meantime, we will continue to run our weekly Twitter Hour, #brummiesbizhour every Tuesday morning at 11am. Our last on ..read more