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Many creative businesses rely on the business owner’s creative spark.

Recently my colleague at EP Designs has not been well – so lost her creative spark. Another colleague in a local creative business has became jaded and couldn’t find excitement in her work any more.

What happened to their passion and creativity? Often through illness or disaster people get out of the routine of being creative. They then start to layer on fear about whether they still have it in them, which builds more fear about what if they try … and fail.

Others find they lose their creativity when the work they are doing is not quite the sort of creativity they really thrive on. For example if they love painting huge modern masterpieces and all their clients want are small 8×10 paintings of traditional seascapes. Yes, they are being creative, but they are using their creativity in ways that don’t fill their souls – so they slowly wither and die inside.

What is the way out when you have lost your spark? I usually recommend first taking a few days breather by the sea or in the mountains just to take yourself out of the situation.

Then have a go at creating something that will not be sold – it is just for the joy of creating. Now this can be within your genre – painting, design, writing or whatever, or it can be totally left field – carpentry, gardening, finger painting.

The trick is to reconnect with the fun of creating something without the pressure of it having to be for money.

Once you have found your creative fun side, then reconnect with what exactly you do love to create and why – and be more choosy about the clients or projects you accept in future.

Don’t waste your creative gifts doing things that you don’t love. Find your passion and do that – and do it well. Clients will come if you work from your truth and your strength, so take time to rediscover your spark.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance writers

Today as I was sitting in on a meeting on behalf of a client, I couldn’t help but be fascinated with the manager sitting opposite.

She talked a lot about how important it was to focus on people’s strengths as a way to build their skills and to boost productivity …

… yet she was so clearly in the wrong job it was frightening.

The role in the Not For Profit this manager occupied needed a high degree of human touch  and interaction. It required a deep love of people and the ability to connect and care for each person. The manager had her heart in the right place, and knew all of the theories … but she did not have the intrinsic qualities the role needed.

However, she was obviously an exceptional policy maker and strategic thinker. Her focus was on the big picture to the extent that she missed the common touch. Place her in a policy role and she would blossom and the organisation would grow exponentially.  I would have fought tooth and nail to have her in one of my policy teams in the past as she was a real natural. But in her present role she struggled with what was really needed and did not seem aware of the gap.

How many other managers and business owners know the theory, and know they should only work in their “flow” or strength areas – and yet are not truly aware of what their signature strengths are?

If you are not sure what these are for you, what do you find easy that other people find hard? Where do you lose track of time?

By discovering your strengths and capitalising on them you will boost the profits of your business as well as your job satisfaction.  So first focus on your strengths.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance copywriters

Like many mums in Australia, today is back to school day. But in our household today was a special day – the day when my baby started High School.

This morning the nerves were strong – me hoping that she would settle in quickly, find a group of like minded friends and enjoy her new school.

Her – hoping and wishing all of the same, plus more. That she would be liked, not hazed and would find her dreams.  Full of teenage angst, confidence and bravado all rolled into one package.

“Let’s drive past my old school mum”. So we did. It felt strange not pulling in and dropping her at the old school, but she seemed to need the reconnection, the remembrance of where she came from in order to face the new.

I was all ready to park and walk her to the classroom into her new life. “You can drop me here mum. Have a brilliant day – I know I will”. And in a swirl of skirt, a flash of smile and a flick of her long hair … she was gone.

Where did 13 years go so fast? I didn’t cry when she started primary school – happy in the knowledge we still had a long journey together to go. But driving home this morning the tears came.

Memories of a chubby baby batting a balloon and waiting until she had a big enough audience before she took her first steps.  Innumerable school musicals – always in the back row because she was so tall. Learning to read and progressing from Spot to Harry Potter in less than two years.

Now – I have a baby no longer, but a confident, intelligent beautiful young lady. We all have to adjust. We all have to let go. We all have to allow to grow.

But today I mourn the passing of an era. I mourn for all the days I wished her to just “grow up” … and I mourn for a not taking longer to cherish the baby days.

Time goes by – seemingly slowly but in reality the fastest nanosecond of light. Today I vow to celebrate and enjoy the moments as they arrive. To not be caught napping  through life – but to be fully present and fully alive.

Welcome to the next phase of your life Rachel. May it be as exciting and as full of promise as you dream it could be.

With love

Mum

As I sit here at 4am in Brisbane Australia, moved by the inauguration of someone who is bringing hope to the world, I can’t help but think … Obama has to be running the most powerful home based business in the world!

As you work out of your converted garage today, dreaming of moving to a bigger office – why not dream bigger? Dream about running the most powerful nation in the world from your garage instead.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance copwriter

Have you ever wondered what are the average conversion rates for online sales?

Retailbiz reports a study by Coremetrics that shows online sale conversion rates for Australia have dropped from 4.4 per 100 to 2.9 per 100 over the past few months. According to Coremetrics, people are also preferring to buy from local companies in AUD$ rather than in US$ as a result of the falling exchange rate.

Coremetrics reported that internet sales were still strong, and Aussies convert to more sales online than their UK and Hong Kong counterparts.

I will be honest – most internet marketers will tell you that a 2% conversion rate is fabulous and anything above that is cause for major celebration. That said, I do expect there is some softening of online sales conversions as the global meltdown hits many industries.

From personal experience I can vouch that I spend less in US$ when the exchange rate trends towards 50cents per US$ compared to 95c per US$ (sorry Amazon!)

What this means for online websites is to consider offering your product in local currency rather than the standard US$.

It also means local businesses need to be more aware of the power of the internet and the need to increase their web presence in order to capitalise on additional sales opportunities.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – SEO copywriter

Warning – rant coming!  I believe all spammers are the greatest pests to ever have existed. They are akin to plagues of locusts and cane toads in Australia. Just like all pests they are persistent – you just get one loophole plugged and they creep in another. They are the bottom feeders of the internet world.

If you have any on-line presence you will experience the pernicious pain they represent in your blogs, comments sections and all forms on your website. You need to be constantly on guard with your security measures – ever vigilantly upgrading them.

I’ll be honest – over the holidays I missed an upgrade in my newsletter comments software and as punishment spent today deleting 4325 posts about viagra and other useless online medications. Unfortunately I have had to purge all other newsletter comments in the clean up (so apologies to the genuine people out there who have commented on my newsletter articles previously).

I have once more tightened my website security, increasing the numbers of hoops to jump through to allow true and open debate and comments.

What can other businesses learn from my experience?

1. Akismet is your best friend. Make sure Akismet is installed in every part of your internet business that allows open debate. While Akismet isn’t perfect, it certainly reduces the amount of spam that gets through the net.
2. Moderate every comment. Yes, I know this is a pain and time consuming, but all it takes is one spam comment to be posted and the floodgates are opened.
3. Keep the maintenance up. Ensure all security and product updates are installed and functioning on your site.
4. Create and stick to a regular back-up schedule. This is needed in case the whole site needs to be rebuilt after a hacking attack.
5. Monitor your site traffic. This is what tipped me off – an unusual spike in visitors to an archived web-page.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – SEO Copywriters

This is not going to be one of those maudilin posts raving about how great friends are (that’s a given). What this post is about is the results of a whole pile of scientific research just released that looks at the influence of people around you on your success.

The 3 January 2009 New Scientist reports on some fascinating studies that your behaviour is influenced by your friends (and the friends of those friends) more powerfully than you think. Nicolas Christakis from Harvard Medical School in Boston is one of the pioneers of the research.

Everything from happiness, depression, obesity, drinking, smoking, ill-health, food preferences, whether or not you vote, privacy and even suicide have all been studied. And what has been found is mind-blowing. All of these things pass through our social networks in much the same way that a virus does. Yes, happiness is contagious – but so is depression!

Christakis work has found that a person’s happiness is dependant not only the happiness of an immediate friend, but to a lesser degree on the happiness of the friends friends and even their friends friends friends. A person’s chance of being happy increase the better connected they are to happy people.

This is also true of obesity – the researchers found that an individual’s chances of becoming obese increased by 57% if one of their friends became obese, 40% if a sibling did and 37% if their spouse did.

Depression has similar viral transmission – with the spread of depression amongst office workers and nurses showing close links between increased depression in friends and colleagues.

The largest influencers on your overall success on all of the areas tested are your close same gender friends, followed by your friends, siblings and then finally your spouse.

So what does this mean for you and your business?

Well, if your New Years resolutions include anything health or happiness related you may need to audition some new friends who are aligned with how you want to become and spend less time with those who have traits you don’t wish to share.

With employees it is now even more vital to ensure your hires are positive, enthusiastic people and to deal quickly with negativity and backbiting before it spreads through your organisation.

There is a truism often touted in personal development programs that you will only be as successful as the average success of your seven closest friends. Now this truism has a growing weight of scientific evidence backing it up.

Test it yourself – take an average of your closest seven friends in terms of weight, income, happiness and so on.  Interesting isn’t it!

What do you think about this research?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriters

Late last year social scientists in the Netherlands finally proved the link between people obeying the law and the environment within which they were passing through.

Sheila Prakash as well as the Neuromarketing Blog reports the study of an envelope with a five euro note visible in the envelope window hanging out of a letter box. 13% of passers by snatched the envelope, but when the ground around the letterbox was covered with litter then 25% of pedestrians took the envelope. When the same letterbox was covered in graffiti, 27% of pedestrians snatched the envelope.

They also studied compliance with signs. In one trial they put a chain across a gate that asked people not to a) walk through the gate and b) not to chain bikes to the gate. 27% walked through anyway. When a bike was chained to the gate a whopping 82% walked through the gate.

What does this mean for businesses? Well, it appears that the old saying from your parents annoyed at peer pressure   “Would you jump off a cliff if your friends did it too” is right. People are more likely to break the law if they see others doing it or are in a disorderly environment. Social pressure is real.

It also means there is truth to the Broken Window Theory made famous by Rudy Giuliani. One way to reduce violence and social crimes is to fix the environment and get on top of litter and graffiti.

In a business this could mean ensuring your stock is always tidy and well presented, all graffiti near the shop removed the same day and the store and surrounding areas kept clean and free of litter.

What do you think this means for your business?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

Most people these days lead fairly tame existences. We look for things and experiences to give us a thrill and shake us out of the mundane. This means that experiences that trigger an adrenalin rush are a great business niche.

Think about the Queensland Golden Casket scratch it tickets “A little thrill with every one” – tame sort of adrenalin rush, but it is selling adrenalin all the same.

A new crocodile park in Darwin, Crocosaurus Cove is aimed squarely at the full-on adrenalin rush junkies – where people climb into a small perspex cage and then are lowered into one of 4 saltwater crocodile pens. Cost is about $120 to swim for about 15 minutes and you can share the experience with one friend to reduce your costs.

Despite attracting the wrath of some animal activists, this attraction has made news around the world and is going great guns.

While you wouldn’t catch me taking a dip with a crocodile, it still goes to show that people are willing to pay to get a rush.  Does your business create a rush for your clients?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriters

Over the holidays I had a chance to catch up on a backlog of magazines I had been meaning to read. One Time magazine profiled a wonderful business in Japan which focusses only on clients 50+.

Many older people 50+ find themselves single through divorce or becoming widowed. It can be hard for older people to meet like minded partners through traditional dating means, so in Japan there are a number of specialist dating services such as Ai-Senior who help more mature people find love.

In Japan over 17% of all matchmaking clientelle are over 50, with the seniors market share doubling over the past 3 years. Many 60 and 70 year old people are also active in the dating market – looking for both love and companionship.

With increased life expectancy, older people are wanting to enjoy life and to make sure that their life has meaning and purpose. With an aging population there will be an increase in opportunities for niche businesses to develop to meet older persons needs -  this is just one idea of what is possible.

How can your products or service be adapted to meet the age niche?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – SEO Copywriters