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 forward, so you can potentially earn residual income on an ongoing basis, from a few different sources than your usual ones. Especially if you’re a freelancer earning invoice to invoice.

Consider creating content that can be sold many times over in the form of digital downloads. eBooks, courses, coaching material, creative content, videos, guides, consulting, presentations, whatever it might be - there are ways to monetise your knowledge so you can create something once, then sell it many times over.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

https://thedigitalgeneralist.substack.com/p/the-importance-of-multiple-streams

https://withkoji.com

https://payhip.com

Another resource we talk about is Volley, a website that makes it fairly easy to sell what’s most important to us all - your time. 

https://www.volleyapp.com

And because there’s a dearth of good news stories in the world right now, it’s worth having a look at a newspaper (and social accounts) of one outlet dedicated to good news!

https://thehappynewspaper.com

Iwan’s story of the alternative Xmas advert, very poignant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_KjgSyGhzQ

All that remains is for us to thank you for listening throughout 2022, have a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See you in January…

Brought to you by Brummies Networking, the home of free, stripped-back business networking.

https://brummies-networking.co.uk

Brummies Networking on Twitter: @brummiesnet

BrumPod on Twitter - @brumpod

Produced by Audio Shed - https://audioshedpodcaststudio.co.uk

Twitter: @audioshedstudio

Music by Birocratic - birocratic.com

Twitter: @birocratic

BrumPod - The UK Small Business Podcast. BrumPod is designed for small businesses, because all of the hosts are small businesses! Our goal is to bring you topics that affect you as a fellow small business owner directly; everything from website tools and technology, changes in regulations, business networking tips, business growth.

BrumPod Hosts:

Richard Heathcote (Voice Over Artist) - https://www.richardheathcote.co.uk

Iwan Thomas (Business Coach) - http://www.iwanthomasassociates.co.uk

Jason Jones (DoubleJ Consulting)

Subscribe to Richard’s newsletter, The Digital Generalist on Substack - the best of the internet in online tools, platforms and news for creative businesses that you mightn't have seen before. https://thedigitalgeneralist.substack.com

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 words relating to your industry, will show what the real time search data is, for what people actually search for on Google about those keywords.

This can be massively useful when it comes to planning your blog or article writing content, knowing what things people are searching for, so you can plan your headlines and article content around just those topics, enabling you to directly answer what people want to know about.

Find out more about AnswerThePublic in this article written by BrumPod’s own Richard:

Finally, one more tool to add in to your bookmark folder for when you may need it - TinyWow.

Little in name, but big on functions, it’s a completely free website with seemingly limitless tools, to help you convert any number of files into different formats. Anything from image file compression, to compressing and merging PDFs, you name it. It’s got it.

One of those tools that you’ll be glad is in your bookmarks folder for whenever the need arises.

https://tinywow.com

That’s your lot for this week, catch you again soon!

Brought to you by Brummies Networking, the home of free, stripped-back business networking.

https://brummies-networking.co.uk

Brummies Networking on Twitter: @brummiesnet

BrumPod on Twitter - @brumpod

Produced by Audio Shed - https://audioshedpodcaststudio.co.uk

Twitter: @audioshedstudio

Music by Birocratic - birocratic.com

Twitter: @birocratic

BrumPod - The UK Small Business Podcast. BrumPod is designed for small businesses, because all of the hosts are small businesses! Our goal is to bring you topics that affect you as a fellow small business owner directly; everything from website tools and technology, changes in regulations, business networking tips, business growth.

BrumPod Hosts:

Richard Heathcote (Voice Over Artist) - https://www.richardheathcote.co.uk

Iwan Thomas (Business Coach) - http://www.iwanthomasassociates.co.uk

Jason Jones (DoubleJ Consulting)

Subscribe to Richard’s newsletter, The Digital Generalist on Substack - the best of the internet in online tools, platforms and news for creative businesses that you mightn't have seen before. https://thedigitalgeneralist.substack.com

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 written, and conceived in the first place.

The book is a dystopian novel set in the not too distant future, in the former United Kingdom, now renamed Happy State under a new totalitarian government which seeks to eradicate all forms of mental illness in favour of creating a nation which is outwardly ‘happy’.

Whilst the issue of mental health is handled in a very sensitive way, it’s been quite jarring for Sam to see so many things that have happened in the UK and the world over the last few years, end up being mirrored in some way in the book; even though the book itself had been conceived before many of these events happened!

Think along the lines of The Hunger Games meets ’24’, with a little Black Mirror thrown in, and you’re in the right ballpark with Happy State - and Sam leads us through how it all came to be, and what might be next. It truly is a fantastic read, and would thoroughly recommend you pick up a copy. If you’re into anything dystopian, you’re going to love Happy State.

Find out more at https://www.happystatenovel.com

Brought to you by Brummies Networking, the home of free, stripped-back business networking.

https://brummies-networking.co.uk

Brummies Networking on Twitter: @brummiesnet

BrumPod on Twitter - @brumpod

Produced by Audio Shed - https://audioshedpodcaststudio.co.uk

Twitter: @audioshedstudio

Music by Birocratic - birocratic.com

Twitter: @birocratic

BrumPod - The UK Small Business Podcast. BrumPod is designed for small businesses, because all of the hosts are small businesses! Our goal is to bring you topics that affect you as a fellow small business owner directly; everything from website tools and technology, changes in regulations, business networking tips, business growth.

BrumPod Hosts:

Richard Heathcote (Voice Over Artist) - https://www.richardheathcote.co.uk

Iwan Thomas (Business Coach) - http://www.iwanthomasassociates.co.uk

Jason Jones (DoubleJ Consulting)

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 the gold. However, judging business success is different for everyone.

Some see ‘success’ as being multi-award winners, and then proudly showing off the fact via social media etc. But sometimes in business, awards aren’t the be all and end all - especially when some awards are merely ‘bought’, in cynical terms.

So if you’re not an ‘award winner’, does that mean you or your business are ‘failures’? Far from it.

Same goes for business networking - there are common tropes that go along with networking that some people still carry to this day - concepts like having ‘competition’ in the room, and some being put off by that.

Whereas in more cases than not, there will be common ground and complimentary skillsets that will enable collaboration; creating a new ‘team’.

So have a listen, and see what else the Commonwealth Games can teach the business community.

Brought to you by Brummies Networking, the home of free, stripped-back business networking.

https://brummies-networking.co.uk

Brummies Networking on Twitter: @brummiesnet

BrumPod on Twitter - @brumpod

Produced by Audio Shed - https://audioshedpodcaststudio.co.uk

Twitter: @audioshedstudio

Music by Birocratic - birocratic.com

Twitter: @birocratic

BrumPod - The UK Small Business Podcast. BrumPod is designed for small businesses, because all of the hosts are small businesses! Our goal is to bring you topics that affect you as a fellow small business owner directly; everything from website tools and technology, changes in regulations, business networking tips, business growth.

BrumPod Hosts:

Richard Heathcote (Voice Over Artist) - https://www.richardheathcote.co.uk

Iwan Thomas (Business Coach) - http://www.iwanthomasassociates.co.uk

Jason Jones (DoubleJ Consulting)

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 struggling to afford to fill their cars in order to get to work. So perhaps even more will work from home?

There are reports of some people requesting mileage allowances from their employers to cover the fuel costs, which of course has some tax relief benefits for the company. Will more companies adopt this mentality? It’s not mandatory, but would help a lot of people. 

There’s currently a petition calling for just that - on Change.org, a petition to get the government to reduce fuel duty by 50%..

Conversely, one disruption that could cripple the country far more would be mass broadband outages and strikes from companies like Virgin Media and BT! That would be horrendous. Which would affect offices and WFH workers!

What can we do as small businesses to defend against these and future disruptions?

Companies may be forced into becoming even more flexible with staff in-office, in favour of WFH arrangements and remote working, and requirements to be in the office only for certain days of the week.

Conducting more meetings through Zoom etc to reduce the need for potentially unnecessary travel.

Ultimately, it’s going to have to be down to all business owners to work out the best options for them to help get their business and staff through a very challenging time.

Brought to you by Brummies Networking, the home of free, stripped-back business networking.

https://brummies-networking.co.uk

Brummies Networking on Twitter: @brummiesnet

BrumPod on Twitter - @brumpod

Produced by Audio Shed - https://audioshedpodcaststudio.co.uk

Twitter: @audioshedstudio

Music by Birocratic - birocratic.com

Twitter: @birocratic

BrumPod - The UK Small Business Podcast. BrumPod is designed for small businesses, because all of the hosts are small businesses! Our goal is to bring you topics that affect you as a fellow small business owner directly; everything from website tools and technology, changes in regulations, business networking tips, business growth.

BrumPod Hosts:

Richard Heathcote (Voice Over Artist) - https://www.richardheathcote.co.uk

Iwan Thomas (Business Coach) - http://www.iwanthomasassociates.co.uk

Jason Jones (DoubleJ Consulting)

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, regardless of platform, then your experience will be wildly different to those who do.

We are all in charge of our own networks, both personal and professional, and we are all the masters of who and why we interact with certain people. The network and results we see, is what we deserve, because we are all capable, and should, maintain our networks to keep them positive, useful, and forces for good.

So will Elon buying Twitter make a massive difference? Or will the majority of us not even notice a thing, for the most part?

Is it not simply better to just focus on our own personal and professional networks, treat them like a garden - nurture them, give them life, feed them, so they can be the best they can be?

There’s no short cut to creating a powerful, useful network that’s helpful to all parties. It takes time, patience, maintenance and a lot of nurturing. But the results when done properly can be absolutely fantastic.

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 often than not, to be deceptive in some way. Maybe the article the headline is for isn’t quite what it the article is all about, maybe it’s a ludicrous or sensationalised headline to make the article more appealing, whereas in reality it’s pretty mundane, and/or obvious - leaving the reader distinctly NOT shocked, entertained or informed. Clickbait has become the scourge of the internet, so we’re quite sure that LinkedIn pros SURELY aren’t endorsing such practices?

So we delved a little deeper into the world of clickbait, what it’s for, who does it, and how to combat it so you don’t make the same mistakes in your LinkedIn posts, blogs, articles or indeed any content you produce.

So have a listen, and hopefully it’ll be useful for you in your own business, being able to write enticing headlines, without it sounding like pure, unadulterated clickbait. (Because you won’t BELIEVE what happens next!)

(Joke!)

References mentioned in this episode:

https://foundationinc.co/lab/write-better-headlines-from-the-pros-at-linkedin/

https://bettermarketing.pub/how-to-write-genuine-enticing-headlines-without-clickbaiting-b2728381e26a

Brought to you by Brummies Networking, the home of free, stripped-back business networking.

https://brummies-networking.co.uk

Brummies Networking on Twitter: @brummiesnet

BrumPod on Twitter - @brumpod

Produced by Audio Shed - https://audioshedpodcaststudio.co.uk

Twitter: @audioshedstudio

Music by Birocratic - birocratic.com

Twitter: @birocratic

BrumPod - The UK Small Business Podcast. BrumPod is designed for small businesses, because all of the hosts are small businesses! Our goal is to bring you topics that affect you as a fellow small business owner directly; everything from website tools and technology, changes in regulations, business networking tips, business growth.

BrumPod Hosts:

Richard Heathcote (Voice Over Artist) - https://www.richardheathcote.co.uk

Iwan Thomas (Business Coach) - http://www.iwanthomasassociates.co.uk

Jason Jones (DoubleJ Consulting)

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 before starting your journey into self-employment. As well as plenty of top tips and advice from some useful sources which will hopefully aid you in your own personal journeys.

However we also discuss the countless benefits of being self-employed and all the freedom, flexibility and work/life balance that it can afford to you as well. Can it be a treacherous journey when you don’t have that ‘comfort blanket’ of being employed with a steady pay check? Of course. But if you’ve done your research, put the hours in, build a strong network around you and put your all into your new business - you have every chance of success.

Sources referred to in this episode:

https://www.inc.com/entrepreneurs-organization/3-tips-for-starting-a-small-business-in-2022.html

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/smallbusiness/article-10321963/How-start-business-2022-Ex-Dragons-Den-star-Piers-Linney-shares-six-tips.html

Brought to you by Brummies Networking, the home of free, stripped-back business networking.

https://brummies-networking.co.uk

Brummies Networking on Twitter: @brummiesnet

BrumPod on Twitter - @brumpod

Produced by Audio Shed - https://audioshedpodcaststudio.co.uk

Twitter: @audioshedstudio

Music by Birocratic - birocratic.com

Twitter: @birocratic

BrumPod - The UK Small Business Podcast. BrumPod is designed for small businesses, because 2/3 of the hosts are small businesses! Our goal is to bring you topics that affect you as a fellow small business owner directly; everything from website tools and technology, changes in regulations, business networking tips, business growth.

BrumPod Hosts:

Richard Heathcote (Voice Over Artist) - https://www.richardheathcote.co.uk

Iwan Thomas (Business Coach) - http://www.iwanthomasassociates.co.uk

Jason Jones (DoubleJ Consulting)

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 their legacy of graphic design, photo editing and video production heritage, have revamped their ‘Spark’ offering, and have now created and launched ‘Creative Cloud Express’ just before Christmas.

With a platform very similar to Canva, with the ability to create designs from pre-made and pre-sized templates with the ability to bring in elements from the Adobe stock image library and font collection, they have launched it as a freemium model, so there’s a free account, and a premium account.

Pricing is also very similar to that of Canva, so you know for sure that Canva have taken notice. We know just as in other industries, you don’t have to be the first to market to be the best - so will this be a threat to Canva? Quite possibly.

But what we do know for sure, is that competition breeds innovation, so long term, it’ll mean Canva, (and Adobe) will both need to up their game in features, benefits and services, in order to retain their customers. So if both are going to compete against each other to be ‘the best’, then either way, it’s got to be good for the consumer.

Interesting times ahead I think!

Resources referred to in this episode:

https://www.creativebloq.com/news/creative-cloud-express

https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/14/canva-raises-200-million-at-a-40-billion-valuation/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFk1_o3PbcLXBURS-AudkBIvT19EXPqqKewyLHwJR7n0Hs7oRMpRvN_4KOxXFrmsFPT5Vg2ItfsVoGL7fY0L72xnO1FIJaVX0hQdGCllAECRDA-S9p1rWJKf9FwPV_K0uJJXvkc7pvH5huEh9-Ia8DkJG6gXsuQcWT-yr2sk49GP

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2021/09/14/canva-raises-at-40-billion-valuation-and-founders-pledge-away-their-wealth/?sh=11cdf5cd7ba9

Brought to you by Brummies Networking, the home of free, stripped-back business networking.

https://brummies-networking.co.uk

Brummies Networking on Twitter: @brummiesnet

BrumPod on Twitter - @brumpod

Produced by Audio Shed - https://audioshedpodcaststudio.co.uk

Twitter: @audioshedstudio

Music by Birocratic - birocratic.com

Twitter: @birocratic

BrumPod - The UK Small Business Podcast. BrumPod is designed for small businesses, because 2/3 of the hosts are small businesses! Our goal is to bring you topics that affect you as a fellow small business owner directly; everything from website tools and technology, changes in regulations, business networking tips, business growth.

BrumPod Hosts:

Richard Heathcote (Voice Over Artist) - https://www.richardheathcote.co.uk

Iwan Thomas (Business Coach) - http://www.iwanthomasassociates.co.uk

Jason Jones (DoubleJ Consulting)

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 one of the year will take place on Tuesday 21st Dec, then we’ll be breaking for the holidays, and will return on Tuesday 4th January 2022, to bring you your online networking fix to meet and mingle with other Midlands business folk.

BrumPod will also now be taking some time off for Christmas and New Year, but rest assured we’ll also be back come the new year with lots more great guests throughout 2022 offering some brilliant insights into various industries, imparting knowledge and wisdom and top tips that’ll hopefully spark some ideas for you in your business.

So for now, on behalf of the entire Brummies Networking team, may we wish you the merriest of Christmases, and the healthiest and happiest of New Years, and let’s hope for much better times in 2022 and beyond.

Whatever you’re doing over the festive break, make sure you enjoy yourselves, and come back refreshed and raring to go in January 2022. 

Thank you for listening throughout 2021, we can’t wait to be back in the New Year. 

Merry Christmas everyone.

Sign up to our mailing list: https://brummies-networking.co.uk/mailing-list-sign-up/

Brummies Networking LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/brummies-networking

Brought to you by Brummies Networking, the home of free, stripped-back business networking.

https://brummies-networking.co.uk

Brummies Networking on Twitter: @brummiesnet

BrumPod on Twitter - @brumpod

Produced by Audio Shed - https://audioshedpodcaststudio.co.uk

Twitter: @audioshedstudio

Music by Birocratic - birocratic.com

Twitter: @birocratic

BrumPod - The UK Small Business Podcast. BrumPod is designed for small businesses, because 2/3 of the hosts are small businesses! Our goal is to bring you topics that affect you as a fellow small business owner directly; everything from website tools and technology, changes in regulations, business networking tips, business growth.

BrumPod Hosts:

Richard Heathcote (Voice Over Artist) - https://www.richardheathcote.co.uk

Iwan Thomas (Business Coach) - http://www.iwanthomasassociates.co.uk

Jason Jones (Self Storage) - https://www.accessstorage.com

“Additional SFX from https://www.zapsplat.com“