Women Unlimited Inspiration, lnnovation, Collaboration

There are certain moves you have to take to protect your brand. Most are second nature, such as copyrighting and identifying authorship of content, checking for plagiarism, monitoring reputation, social media engagement, etc. It’s all just par for the course, and we don’t blink an eye when attending to each one. Yet, so many people miss out on one of the most obvious (and easy) ways of protection from the very beginning. I am speaking, of course, about domain variants. It might not seem like a big deal, but if your ... Read More »

The temptation to sign up for every new social media platform can be overwhelming. As small business owners we’ve got entrepreneurial spirit in spades and chasing new shiny objects is our biggest downfall. What’s more, we are constantly blasted with facts, figures and recommendations about how ‘this’ social network is better than ‘that’, and how ‘this’ social network is the vital ingredient missing from our failing marketing plan. So off we go, starting yet another social media account – usually before we’ve given ourselves a chance of succeeding on our ... Read More »

Creations of the mind, like brand names, inventions, designs, images and written works are intellectual property. These are valuable assets for many small businesses. So protecting them to prevent competitors using your ideas is crucial. Types of Intellectual Property 1. Trademarks protect your brand, helping your business stand out and get customer recognition. You can trademark representations of your brand like the name, slogans, and logos. Other businesses cannot use anything resembling the trademark to sell similar products, if this would cause the public to confuse the two of you ... Read More »

Due to a recent change in the law, advertising regulation under the CAP Code has been extended to websites, Facebook and Twitter (and any other non-paid-for online space under your control such as other social networking sites). Previously the CAP Code had only applied to advertisements in newspapers, catalogues, posters and other media, with the digital remit only covering advertisements in emails and text messages and advertisements in paid-for space, such as banner and pop-up advertisements or keyword advertising on search engines. The CAP Code says, amongst many other things, ... Read More »

A client asked for help recently as she was concerned about her lack of success online. Opt-ins to her list had virtually dried up and she wasn’t getting much uptake for her courses. She felt totally overwhelmed with all the sharing, tweeting and blogging and despite putting more and more effort into promoting her business, she wasn’t getting the results she wanted or hitting the targets she’d set herself. Like many successful entrepreneurs she had all the pieces of the online marketing puzzle in place but as her business had ... Read More »

So you’ve set up a Facebook business page because you’ve heard that it’s a brilliant way to raise the profile of your business. After all, with over 1 billion regular users it’s a no brainer, right? But you’ve hit a snag… Where IS everyone?? If your page is more like an empty waiting room than the lively, fun soiree you expected it to be, you’re not alone. For your Facebook Page to take flight, you need some pre-planning, a pinch of patience and a little elbow grease. So you’re at ... Read More »

Twitter can be a fantastic marketing tool, but you need to be aware of the legal implications. 1. Make sure you comply with advertising regulation The CAP Code now applies to websites, Facebook and Twitter (and any other non-paid-for online space under your control such as other social networking sites). The CAP Code says, amongst other things, that advertising should: be legal, decent, honest and truthful. be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society. respect the principles of fair competition generally accepted in business. not mislead by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration or ... Read More »

Feeling overwhelmed with your emails but not sure what to do? Well, here’s a little story… Once upon a time there was a lady (let’s call her Molly). Now Molly lives in a time when email doesn’t exist, instead she gets all her communication by good old fashioned ‘pen to paper’ post through a letterbox. Molly gets an awful lot of post, infact she gets around 50 letters a day. The thing is, Molly’s post comes more than once a day. She doesn’t just get one visit from her friendly ... Read More »

Recently at Women Unlimited we have had a lot of questions from our community, around colour for personal branding, colour for business branding and just all round confusion on the lens we should apply to ‘colour’.  So we thought who better to ask than our resident colour expert Karen Haller.  Here we’ve put a number of questions to Karen to get the inside scoop on colour. 1. Can you tell me what drew you in to the world of business colour? I’ve loved colour since childhood. After I left school I studied fashion ... Read More »

Say the word “happiness” and half the room will cringe and glaze over at the prospect of another mumbo-jumbo self-help talk. The fact is “happiness” just doesn’t cut it for many business people, especially when times are tough and the focus is well and truly on the bottom line. But what if I told you that happiness is the greatest source of competitive advantage in our experience economy? What if I told you that most businesses have their paradigm of success the wrong way around? That the common belief of ... Read More »