Last year was a fantastic year delivering creative, high-impact PR campaigns, across all media platforms for my clients which included The Centre, Livingston, Business Gateway Edinburgh, Edinburgh Women’s Aid and Foxlake Adventures. 

Results included a multitude of coverage across various online and offline national, regional and local titles and a flurry of activity on social media. Over 30 clients were also featured on BBC TV Scotland and Radio & STV with everything from beehives on rooftops to charity launches and business expansions.

I’ve hosted many workshops for start-ups and growth business too on behalf of Business Gateway Edinburgh, on areas including marketing, branding and PR, and loved every minute of it and as a huge fan of networking I decided to launch my own networking club exactly a year ago, Love Your Business, which runs on the last Thursday of every month at Black Ivy in Edinburgh.

It was a huge success with fantastic speakers every month, including –

Alice Thompson co-founder of Social Bite, former STV reporter Zara Janjua, blogger & vlogger Kim McAllister, Cal Mark, General Manager at Foxlake Adventures, John Robertson founder of Drinkly, Karen Knowles founder of Bon Accord Soft Drinks, Keith Jeffrey founder of The Roberts Partnership Ltd, Scott Newby of NewbyCore Consulting Limited, Andy Johnston founder of Eido Studio, Marcus Henderson, Investment Manager at Par Equity, Michael McCuish, Consumer PR Manager at VisitScotland, Sarah Robertson founder of ScotBeer Tours, Bruce Walker co-founder of FutureX, Michael Harkins founder of Turtle Pack, Larah Bross founder of Bross Bagels, Stephanie Foulds co-founder of The Eco Larder, Sarah from Sarah Laing Sings, Mike McGrail founder of Velocity Digital and Getgo Studio, Brian McGregor founder of Henry’s Coffee Company, Michael MacLeod, former editorial associate producer at Instagram and now senior producer at Vogue, Dani Trudeau founder of Tribe Porty and Alison Grieve founder of G-Hold

All shared great stories about their business journey’s and gave invaluable tips on starting and growing a successful and profitable business.  This year I have even more fantastic speakers lined up, which I’m really excited about.  Tickets for January at https://bit.ly/2LiM6Gq

It was also attended by some incredible entrepreneurs who I’m delighted to say I will be collaborating with this year to run my own Love Your Business Skills Labs at Black Ivy.

These include –

• The Power of PR with journalist Gina Davidson – 26^th January
• In collaboration with Mike McGrail, Director at Getgo Studio & founder of Velocity Digital –
  • Harness LinkedIn for Max Results – 23^rd March
  • Video Content & Creation for Max Results – 27^th April

Would be great to see you at the LYB Skills Labs or monthly networking club.  Details can be found on Facebook @howtolyb

Till then, here’s my top 5 tips to help get your business off to a great start this year –

 1) Bring a new element to your business – something completely new or identify a better/different way of doing something or stop doing the ‘thing’ you know is taking you off track and costing you in time, effort and money

2) Take time to plan well – financially and strategically for the next 12 months but be kind to yourself and be realistic

 3) Be even clearer about your goals, objectives and ROI in 2019 – are you charging enough, when did you last do a competitor analysis and how often are you measuring your success and shouting from the rooftops about it

 4) Devise a strong marketing plan which is creative and cost-effective and includes a content planner for relevant social media platforms for the next 3mths with engaging and exciting copy. Also, attend more networking events to meet people face-to-face and share practices and referrals.  Networking events allow you to market yourself direct to people on a personal level and works, especially as most of us tend to buy into the people behind the brand – it can also help you feel less isolated if you work on your own

 5) Take more ‘me’ time to help keep you motivated and refreshed – walks in the park/beach and time with family and friends works for me and is something I plan to do even more of this year!