When I was a bookseller, the month of October always meant Christmas because that was when the Christmas new releases arrived. It was a time when our stock level doubled (if not tripled) and the whole build up to the end-of-year busy season began.
The weird thing was, the books that made the bestseller lists at [...]
Lately, I’ve been exploring Needs – those essentials in life. I’ve been wondering what are the simplest building blocks of a good life and how can that be applied to business so that we aren’t continually producing waste (products, time, energy, etc). As I delved into the world of Needs, it became apparent that it [...]
Here’s my latest article from Flying Solo… One of the essentials of business success is understanding and meeting your customer needs. But a valuable first step in creating a business that works for you as well as your customers is understanding your own needs…
To succeed in your solo business, you have to understand your physiological [...]
When you’re self-employed, changing careers isn’t just about looking in the local paper to see what jobs are on offer. You actually have the opportunity to continue creating your own work in whatever field or way you choose. Over the last few months I’ve been re-imagining the work I do (and importantly, could do) and [...]
Creating a sustainable business isn’t just about turning off the lights at the end of the workday. The triple bottom line of people, planet and profits is a useful way to approach creating a business that will manage all your resources sustainably. Here’s Part 1 of an introductory, sustainable soloist series that I did for Flying [...]
Tapping the “hidden job market” is an oft-mentioned strategy touted by employment experts advising how to find your ideal work.
If you’ve been looking for a job recently, you’ll know that relying on the newspapers or job sites for finding out about job opportunities doesn’t turn up many “woo hoo” jobs. At the other end, if [...]
Here’s the second part of the Business Action Group article which sets out the basics for setting up your own group.
Last month we talked about getting together with other soloists to support and grow your business through a Business Action Group (BAG). If you’re thinking “This is for me” then here are the steps to [...]
This article has a special place in my heart. It was the first to get published at Flying Solo in 2006 which lead to google rankings and traffic for the WLD website. For me, it’s a reminder that, even when writing business articles, the good stuff comes when I write from my heart and my experience.
When [...]
I recently had my first non-paying client as a soloist. And, if I may share, it hurt. As someone who likes to go on about the importance of building great client relationships, this really stung. I couldn’t just let it ride.
The decision to make a tree or sea change is relatively easy. But have you thought through how your solo business might be affected by such a move?
It was six years ago when I first uttered the words “Let’s move to the beach!” Only once my sea change boat had been cast from the shore [...]