THE BUSINESS BLOG OF SAMANTHA MARTIN

How To Work From Home
Work from home has become the new normal for many of us. But how do you work from home without going crazy?
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5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Business
It’s time to give your business a good Spring clean. Spring is the ideal time to give all the dark corners of your business the once over.
What Else Do You Do?
How often have you been asked, either in a business environment or a personal event, what is it that you do?
Overcoming The Fear Of Failure
The fear of failure will only ever lead to failure. You need to look at the reasons behind your fear and address them to move on
Is Your Business Ready for the Post-Covid Digital Revolution?
I’ve taken a look at 10 different industries to show the changes they may have to implement post-Covid and to be more digital.
10 Ways To Grow Your Business During A Downturn
The past 12 months have taught us that a sharp and sudden downturn can appear out of nowhere. But could your business still grow?
Marketing Your Business During The Covid Crisis
Business life is tough but you will survive the Covid crisis and find new ways to market your business. You just need to change your approach
The Top 3 Strategies To Grow Your Business
The strategies you use to grow your business should not be based upon trends as they can change quicker than the wind. Especially social media trends!
Why Micro Biz Matters
The Micro Business is on the rise in the UK and with changes to how we work, it looks set to increase year on year. So why does Micro Biz Matter?
What Is Work Life Balance?
Have you ever been told that you work too much? Do you feel that it is not really work because you enjoy it? Is there such a thing as work-life balance?
How To Be Original
How original is your content? You may think that everything has been done and nothing is original. But there are still ways to be original and unique
The Art Of Social Sharing
It’s all well and good sharing loads of content on social media because you think sharing is caring. But there is an art to social sharing.
How To Help A Small Business
How can you support the small businesses of your friends and family without even buying from them? Here are 5 tips for helping them out and showing support
How to Deal With A 7 Year Itch
This week I was reminded that I’ve now been self-employed for 7 years. It made me re-evaluate what I do and my income streams and how I can grow more
Why Employee Engagement, Retention And Reward Is Important
Many employers think that employee reward is basically not firing them. But in times of lower job security, employees look at other rewards and benefits now
How To Start A Business From Scratch
Starting a business is really exciting. But starting a business is also really hard work. Here are my 6 tips to help you start a business from scratch.
How To Deal With Difficult Clients
Unfortunately, at some point, you are going to encounter a difficult client. Or just a really bad client. Here are 3 tips for dealing with difficult clients
How To Deal With Business Stress
A stressful day at work is the worst! A stressful day when it’s your own business is the absolute worst! Here are my 5 tips for dealing with business stress
How To Hold Yourself Accountable
Telling yourself that you are going to do something doesn’t really hold you accountable. So how do you hold yourself accountable for achieving your goals?
How To Nail Your Niche
Are you focusing too much on your niche being a person or are you looking at the problems you can solve within a niche to nail your niche?
What Content Should You Create For Social Media
Are you creating content that’s relevant to your audience? Or content that you like to create for yourself? First you need to understand your customer
What Is Holding You Back From Achieving Your Goals?
When it comes to growing your business, what’s really holding you back from achieving your goals? What excuses are you using?
Social Media Posts: Quality Beats Quantity Every Time
Is your poor quality content reflecting badly on your business? When it comes to social media posts, quality beats quantity every time.
How Much Do you Value Your Work
Do you value your work or are you letting others dictate the value of your work? Do you struggle to charge what you work is worth?
Start-Up Obstacles To Overcome
It’s really hard when you’re a start-up business and that’s before a few obstacles are thrown in your way. Here are my top 5 obstacles that start-up need to overcome
Bad Business Habits You Need To Stop
Have you developed some bad business habits? You’ll need to stop them if you don’t want them to hold you back. Here’s 5 you need to stop now
12 Social Media Marketing Mistakes Companies Make And How To Avoid Them
Do you have a social media marketing strategy or are you making the same social media marketing mistakes that many companies make?
5 Tips To Get Started As A Freelancer
Freelancing is on the increase with more people looking to work for themselves. So here are 5 tips to help get you started as a freelancer ahead of Freelance Heroes Day.
Why Freelancers Matter
Freelancing is on the increase with approx 4.8million people registered as self-employed in the UK alone. That’s a lot of people!
10 Ways To Promote Your MLM Using Social Media
People make the same mistakes when they start in direct sales using MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) techniques. Here are 10 tips to help you not be a spam bot
How To Stay Motivated
How do you stay motivated when things aren’t going right or you’re having a bad day? It’s impossible to stay positive all of the time, but you still need some motivation
Are You Busy Or Just Overwhelmed?
Busy, busy, busy. Everyone is always busy. But are they really? Are you really busy? Or are you just overwhelmed? Maybe just a bit unproductive with your time?
How To Start A Blog
Everyone keeps telling you to start a blog. You’ve plenty to say for yourself. You know it helps your business. But you don’t know how to actually start one. Let me help
How To Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
It’s easy to remain within our boundaries, our safe zones, our comfort zones. But what if you took a step outside of your comfort zone?
How To Stop Entrepreneur Burnout
Here are a few tips to help you stop burnout in its tracks and prevent it knocking you off course on your road to success.
Are You Ready To Start A Business
If you fail to prepare then you should prepare to fail. So how ready are you to start a business?
How To Stop Procrastinating Right Now
Procrastination is an absolute bitch when she strikes and can knock you off your road to success. Here are 3 tips from me to help you stop procrastinating
How To Be A Huge Success
So many people are searching for the magic key to success. That little trick that will turn them into an overnight success.
Social Media Isn’t The Shiny New Toy Anymore
Social media isn’t the shiny new toy anymore. It’s mainstream and should be part of your overall marketing plan. So stop treating it like a sideshow!
How To Set Goals Like A Ninja
Are you setting clear goals or just casually wishing for things and giving up when they don’t happen quickly? Learn to set clear goals like a ninja to achieve them
My Own Little Office Narnia
The nice people over at Furniture At Work got me thinking about where I would rather be than in the office. Where would my office Narnia be?
How To Stay Motivated When You Work Online
Staying motivated when you work online can be tough. So what do you do when your motivation has taken an unscheduled week off and you’ve got work to do?
Top 10 Business Start-Up Tools
Having the right tools for your start-up can be invaluable to help get started. Here are 10 start-up tools that I couldn’t manage without
How To Keep Your Blog Legal
The legal aspects of blogging are often overlooked by bloggers. Here are a few tips to help you stay on the right side of the law and keep your blog legal
3 Things I Don’t Miss About Working For Someone Else
When you are self-employed sick pay and a guaranteed wage every month are a luxury. But here are 3 things I don’t miss about working for someone else
Things To Consider When You Want To Sell Your Business
Deciding to sell your business is serious business and not something you should undertake lightly or without help. Here are a few points to consider
10 Basic SEO Must Do’s For Your Blog
SEO is far too complex to sum up in a blog post. Here are 10 basic SEO tips for your website you should be doing to get ranking for your blog
Are You Charging Enough For Your Product Or Service?
It’s quite difficult to decide what to charge, especially when you’re first starting out. Here are my 5 top tips to ensure you are charging enough
The 5 Business Start-Up Distractions You Need To Avoid
Because starting a business isn’t difficult enough, life decided to throw in some distractions too along the way. Here’s 5 you need to avoid
How To Go Freelance Without Going Broke
By 2020 it is predicted that in the US 40% of the workforce will be self-employed or freelance. Here are 10 tips to going freelance without going broke
The 5 Red Flags Of A Bad Client
If you’ve been in business for long enough chances are you’ve had at least one bad client. Here’s how to spot them and stop working with them!
Why Cheap or Free Isn’t Professional
Why ask someone you know in business to work for free or cheap? You wouldn’t go into a shop and ask for something for free. Cheap or free is not professional!
Even the clocks move with the times. Football Marketing Part 2
As promised to a very large number of people, here’s what happened next after my epic rant about the marketing at Preston North End
The Emotional Rollercoaster Of Starting Your Own Business
People think that starting your own business is the path to everlasting happiness. It’s really just a big emotional rollercoaster
A Wake Up Call to Football Marketing
Football marketing at my beloved Preston North End isn’t looking so hot right now. It needs a wake-up call. Please don’t take my sunshine away.
The Importance Of Office Design For Productivity
A good office design can really help your business achieve its goals. My friends at Penketh Group told me the importance of office design for productivity
Faking It Won’t Lead to Making It
It didn’t work for Mariah and it certainly didn’t work for Milli Vanilli either. So why do you think faking it is going to work for you?
Outsourcing with the help of Bidvine
When you start out in business or blogging it’s easy to get bogged down in the detail of doing everything yourself. Bidvine can help ease the strain
When Tweets Go Toxic
In today’s fast moving, social media society, we’re all just one tweet away from getting fired. Especially in the celebrity world. Some tweets are toxic!
Your Fear Of Following Through Is Killing Your Business
If your FOMO is making you jump on every passing bandwagon then chances are your FOFT (Fear Of Following Through) is killing your business
Why We Need Small Business Saturday To Remind Us To Shop Local
We are all encouraged to shop local and with small businesses on Small Business Saturday, but shouldn’t we be doing it more than that? Perhaps every day?
The Social Media Faux Pas You Need To Avoid
Social media seems to have its own ever-changing set of rules. But there are a few rules on social media faux pas you need to know or look silly
Why Celebrities Need Social Media
Social media is essential if you wish to maintain your celebrity status. You may choose to ignore it until the Socially Famous are getting all the jobs
5 Tips For Staying Authentic As A Social Media Influencer
As a social media influencer you have an obligation to stay authentic. You may have rent to pay but it’s nice to sleep at night with your soul intact
Why You Need To Stop Using Buzzwords
If you use buzzwords to describe something it means you aren’t describing it very well. Stop the jargon! Here are 10 buzzwords that need to be retired. Now!
Why Everyone Should Have A Side Hustle
You could side hustle your way to a whole new career or just earn some extra cash on the side. Here’s 10 side hustle ideas to get you started!
10 Things That Annoy Me On Snapchat (and I bet you’re doing some of them!)
Now everyone is jumping on the Snapchat bandwagon the bad habits are starting to emerge. If you are doing any of these things then you need to stop!
Why Vanity Metrics Are Killing Your Content
What are you creating content for? Your ego? Your vanity metrics? Your target audience? A pouting selfie may boost your ego but it won’t help your business
Why are you faking your online presence?
Let me make one thing clear; I absolutely do not like or support anyone that cheats or fakes it online. So why are you faking your online presence?
Keeping it Safe, Legal and Ethical on Live Streaming
The more live streaming evolves and the more I watch, the more I want to bang some people’s heads against a brick wall and have a serious word with them.