Word Constructions

If you leave a comment in a blog, you presumably want to contribute and have your comment included on the blog site. So make sure this is going to happen by getting it right.

Recently, I have received a few comments and pings that aren’t spam but have faulty links so I have not approved the comments.

In one example, the same person gave two comments and had a URL starting with http://http://www so the link obviously didn’t work. The lesson here is to check whether you need to add http:// or not when completing a form - don’t assume every blog/website owner will take the time to fix this error.

Another example if a link that takes a very long time to open and then goes to a page that doesn’t display well or completely. The credibility of the site, and therefore the comment, is reduced. In my case, it meant I couldn’t see how they had linked to me so I wasn’t comfortable accepting the link in my comments.

The result? Your comment is not approved or is only approved once the link is deleted.

Did you know that you are allowed to say no sometimes? Even to new clients or a long standing client, it is acceptable for you to say no - politely of course!

It is a little silly, but I was reminded of this through the Rat in the Hat! Melissa Khalinsky often uses children’s TV shows to point out business lessons, and in one of her blog posts, she shows how Rat is quite the entrreperuner.

Melissa wrote “Don’t overextend yourself - this is something Rat does often in his quest to meet the needs of everyone on Cuddles Ave. Unfortunately Rat doesn’t know how to say no ” and I had to nod in agreement, both for Rat in a Hat (yes, I’ve watched him, too!) and for many business owners I know.

As a small business owner, it is hard to turn down a client - there’s that little fear that maybe this was the last work request you’d get for 6 months so how can you afford to not do this project? Or maybe it is a fear that saying no will make that person hate you and bad mouth you to other potential clients?

But let’s look at it the other way:

• if you take on too much work, you will end up doing inferior work for a number of clients, thereby damaging your good reputation
• if you continue doing too much, you will burn out and really not be able to earn anything for 6 months
• if one client has found you and asked for a quote, it is likely others can also find you next week and next month
• a well managed ‘no’ will leave the client feeling positive about you even if you couldn’t do their work - they may try you again another time, or at least tell others you acted professionally
• do you really think your clients have the time and inclination to bad mouth you just because you couldn’t work for them?

I will cover the various reasons for saying no, and how to say no nicely in the next few blog posts. But for now, just take on the belief that you can say no and the world (or your business!) won’t end!

In an earlier post, I wrote about cuboree - a camp for Victorian cubs and leaders and the wind storm that hit the camp.

When they joins cubs, each child makes a promise which starts “On my honour, I promise to do my best” - and doing their best is one of the key principles we use to encourage and develop the cubs. Every week, the cubs also reaffirm their promise to do their best.

The cyclone that hit during cuboree gave the cubs (and their leaders!) a challenging afternoon as they were kept indoors under cramped conditions.

Leaders did their best to keep the cubs occupied - in the marquee I was in we found pencils and paper, folded paper planes, sang songs, told jokes and played a DVD as part of keeping everyone busy and happy. Leaders also did their best to keep fear away form the cubs by managing the risks for them and protecting them as much as possible - a number of times I saw leaders leaning over cubs to protect them from falling debris, and leaders escorted children who needed toilets rather than letting them face danger alone.

Camp cooks did their best to provide nutritious and interesting snacks and meals, despite lack of power and/or gas to cook with.

The police did their best to keep us safe and arrange for the most dangerous trees/branches ot be dealt with.

Camp organisers did their best to keep us and families informed, everyone safe and accounted for, and to get some people home early as required.

But above all, we all were so proud to see the cubs do their best in trying circumstances.

Yes, cubs did ask “will we be in here much longer? when can we go outside? where will we sleep tonight?” and similar questions, but I did not hear one complaint from them. The cubs devised their own games and activities, moved around and spoke to cubs from other packs and places (they found it a great opportunity for badge swapping!) and did whatever was asked of them. They even queued for toilets trips without making a fuss. Sitting on the ground eating salad rolls for dinner didnt even raise a complaint.

The cub’s behaviour made difficult circumstances bearable and we were all proud of them. It was also inspirational to see them behave so well - it made it easier for us to do our best, too.

Next time you feel like doing ‘good enough’ in your business, take a moment to think about those cubs and ask yourself if you are dong your best in the circumstances or not - and what you will do about it if the answer is no.

I just saw this fantastic video and felt I had to share it…

It is about leadership (relating to a Californian company, but that is not noticeable until the end) and how we can all make a difference to our world; but it is also about being a decent human being and ending each day satisfied with ourselves and our lives.

Thank you to Donna-Marie for sharing this in her blog for me to find, too.

I hope you find it as inspirational or encouraging as I did.

At the end of March, I wrote about joining 4,500 scouting people at the 5th Victorian Cuboree. I’ve been back home for a bit over a week now and am still exhausted from it, but figured it was time to report back!

The camp was a lot of fun - we were busy with activities all day and entertainment at night, lots of fun and walking around in the bush (well, the bush with lots of people and tents anyway!) We arrived on the Monday and came home (late) on the Friday.

We had some extra excitement with massive storms on the Wednesday - the worst to hit Victoria I heard, with winds hitting 130kms an hour! We were in the area of Victoria worst hit so we certainly were aware of the storm, lol. We spent nearly 8 hours in a strong marquee (rated to 90 km winds) with over 700 cubs and leaders, plus support staff - the kids coped with it really well which made the experience manageable. As leaders, we were really proud of how the cubs behaved well and accepted the limitations forced upon us - they lived up to their honour and promise of doing their best. In our pack, we had one tent damaged beyond use and two tents we considered at risk from a branch so we sent 12 of our cubs (plus some leaders) to sleep in the marquee although the rest of use slept in our usual campsite.

The entertainment consisted of a group of four wanderers looking for the 2010 Australian Jamboree - finding the 1908 jamboree, Rio’s carnivale and cuboree instead! Many of the cuboree cubs are now looking forward to attending jamboree.

I enjoyed being with the cubs - most of whom I didn’t know beforehand, plus three from my home pack - and we had a great bunch of leaders in our pack, too. Will I go again? I’d definitely consider it! Seriously, if the circumstances were right for me personally, then yes I would go again - but would ensure I had some extra time off to recover afterwards!

Would I send my own kids to the next cuboree (age limits allowing of course!), most definitely - I think it is a great experience for them.

Have you ever been to something like cuboree? Is it something you look back on fondly?

And I even learned a few things that may just come in handy as a writer and business owner Watch for upcoming blog posts!

You might think surfing the web, playing games online or deleting spam are some of the biggest time wasters in your business, but I suggest that fear may actually be the biggest waste of all.

Think about it - if you fear making cold calls, you will suddenly find time to tidy your desk, sort emails and check links on your website! Or fear of a big project may make you procrastinate submitting your application, so much so that you do a rushed job and miss out.

Fear means we don’t get tasks done, and they stay in our minds so we can’t focus 100% on other tasks either. Although I don’t always do it myself, lol, I believe that the things we fear in business are the things we need to do NOW so we can get passed them. That doesn’t mean we won’t be scared of them next time they come around, but maybe we’ll know we can survive them!

As Michelle says in her ShelDesign blog,“if we let fear control our actions, it WILL steal our dreams.” And losing our dreams is a huge waste of our time.

How do you manage fear in your business? Do you find fear of failure or fear of success to be a bigger issue for you?

Can you believe I just received an email about Christmas? And it’s only mid March!

Ok, it was a request to fill in a survey about Christmas in your business  - a survey where the answers will be used to provide information to magazine readers preparing for Christmas. So it is reasonable to mention Christmas this early, but it still shocked me!

But it does raise the question - how soon do you plan for major events in your business? Not just Christmas, but Easter, change of seasons, new financial year, awareness weeks and so on that are relevant to your business in some way.

A few days ago, I posted about the importance of checking presentation as well as details of your content. Today, I am going to list the details I check for when reviewing a draft for a document’s design elements.

This list is in the order I think of them, not necessarily in any importance.

• does the design complement your other materials, such as a website or business card? Does it suit your brand?
is your logo and/or business name included and in an appropriate way?
does the design match your message?
are headings and contents together? A heading at the bottom of a column and text in the next column is disjointed and looks strange
• do any paragraphs end with a single word on a line? Professional designers call these ‘orphans’ and do everything to avoid them! I have often adjusted text to pull that last word onto the previous line
• do contact details stand out sufficiently? People having to search for them are less likely to contact you
• is there a consistent font size throughout the document? Headings may be bigger than the text, but should be the same as each other
• are any tables, diagrams or pictures clearly labelled? Sometimes formatting pushes labels away from the item
• do headings stand out enough? This includes table headings, too
• can the design be adjusted to fit everything into one less page if it is currently an odd number? For example, printing is usually done in multiples of 4 pages so a 5 page document will actually need 8 pages printed
• does everything match any relevant rules or style guidelines?
• are the right things emphasised? For instance, if you have text in highlight boxes, do they stand out from the text? Are disclaimers and privacy statements attracting more attention than your main message?
• are colours and fonts consistent throughout, except as design elements?

If you are happy with all of these details, you will be very close to the correct design for your needs.

On behalf of Australia, Kevin Rudd says sorry to the stolen generation and their families and communities.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1jeWeDpc68&rel=1]

This apology may not be a business or writing topic, but it is important and is a significant moment in Australian history. I was proud to hear our Prime Minister say those words, to express the sorrow so many of us feel at what was done to those Aboriginal children and their families.

The suffering of those families is more than I can imagine, and I hope that this apology can help a little of that pain and bring us closer together as Australians.

I was shocked to realise the practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families was done as recently as the 1970s - 7 decades of it is 70 years too many.

It is my hope that a positive change will arise from this apology - that people can heal, that positive actions will take place and that we will remember the unity and emotions of this momentous event.

Welcome to a new Australia.

I just read a blog post about writing online as a great career. Don’t get me wrong - I think writing is a great career! But I did not like this blog post.

However, the author of that  particular post (and I won’t link to it as I don’t want to been seen as supporting their site!) wrote about how the only writing worth doing is online writing (not business writing mind you, although he also referred to business writing being good) and that anyone can do it.

The standard of writing in the post itself was not particularly high and he was offering writing work to others even if you hate writing essays and just know a few advertising principles.

In response, I want to say that writing is a great career but not everyone has the language skills and knowledge to do it. It also requires some business ability in order to get enough clients and succeed.

As a professional in any industry, why would anyone downgrade the skills of that industry? By saying ‘anyone can write’ he is downgrading his own employees and business - and is not building up a trust in their abilities for prospective clients. And downgrading the industry in that way could also decrease accepted price ranges for the industry, too, therefore he is not helping his employees either.

As a blog writer, the other lesson from this person’s post is - don’t make your blog posts ads. There is no useful information in his post - it effectively says (in 5 or 6 paragraphs) that writing online is a great job so apply with him now.

Reading an ad instead of an informative post is not going to entice many people back to read another post. People want ads they can go anywhere - blogs are for information of some sort.