Category Archives: Proofed by Linds

Proofreader meets… Training Consultant

As part of my marketing strategy to promote my proofreading, copywriting & blogging business, I spend some of my time networking. As a result, I have met some wonderful people working in all sorts of businesses. With my innate interest in “all things business” I invited Lisa Butler, Training Consultant from Adhere Training, to tell me her business story. Here it is…

Lisa Butler, Training Consultant

In 2010, Lisa Butler founded Adhere Training – and later the Adhere Training Club – based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Adhere Training was established to support local businesses in meeting their goals through highly effective training workshops.

Lisa’s experience in the training and development sector is based on several years with Business Link and Train to Gain in the South East. During this time, she worked with businesses to diagnose their training and development needs. This set the path for Lisa’s vision to deliver a truly unique training facility in the form of the Adhere Training Club.

What is the Training Club?

The Adhere Training Club is specifically geared towards small local businesses in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire areas. Employers understand that employee performance and retention is linked to training; they know that, through regular training, their employees will reach their full potential.

What’s the secret?

Adhere Training Club members

Membership to Lisa’s Training Club is based on an affordable pricing structure. Employees can access a broad range of interactive, innovative and enjoyable training workshops for as little at £10 per month per employee. Adhere publishes a full 12 month training schedule; employers can therefore budget for their employees’ development needs through a single training provider, and design a development plan to suit their business objectives.

The training package offered by the Adhere Training Club is unlike any other on the market. Most small businesses know they should be investing in training. However, they are concerned about the cost and time factors.

Customer Service Workshop

Lisa says she often hears “I really must come on one of your social media training workshops. I know nothing about it and I know it will help my business”, or “I really need your finance course. I know nothing about the finances of my business and I want to understand what my accountant is talking about”.

The Training Club solution removes the cost barrier and opens the door to a better way of accessing and planning for training in a way that says: “What’s stopping you?”

The Adhere Training Club is “going places”

Training Club is going from strength to strength. They are already meeting the needs of small businesses in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, with new members joining every month. They now have plans to open further training venues across Berkshire, Surrey and London.

Training Club materials

Lisa is very excited about the direction of her business. She has plans to franchise the Adhere Training Club, and is actively looking for new associate trainers and potential franchisees who want to be a part of this distinctive training concept.

If you would like to know more about how the Adhere Training Club can help you realise the full potential for your business, visit Adhere Training. Alternatively, please email lisa.butler@adheretraining.co.uk. Lisa would also be very interested to hear from associate trainers or potential franchisees.

Photo credit: www.beckyrui.com

Proofreader meets… Nutritional Therapist

Proofreader meets… Architect

Proofreader meets… Recruitment Consultant

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Guest blogging at www.proofedbylinds.co.uk is very welcome.

As part of my marketing strategy to promote my proofreading, editing & copywriting business, I spend some of my time networking. As a result, I have met some wonderful people working in all sorts of businesses. With my innate interest in “all things business” I invited Jayne Johnson, a recruitment consultant, to tell me her business story. Here it is…

Jayne Johnson

I started Better People Ltd Recruitment after working in corporate and high street recruitment for 25 years. I knew there was a market for ethical and tailored recruitment for small to medium sized enterprises. I knew I could offer something more than was on offer for businesses currently. I know my business area very well, having recruited across the Thames Valley and London for most of my career.

My business growth has been achieved through targeted sales calls and mailshots, but the most effective has been referrals through word of mouth. These come about because people have used my service either as a candidate or as a client and they recommend me. I also meet people through my business networking groups who then recommend me to people they know.

My recruitment campaigns are different for each client. I work with each client to establish what is going to work best for them, what sort of assessments and profiling tools they might want to use – if any. I establish which interview questions will elicit the responses we are looking for. I take the brief, go away and only come back when I have around 3 suitable candidates for the client to interview.

I keep up with learning and employment legislation. I recently qualified as a Talent Dynamics Flow Consultant. This enhances the service I can offer my clients through more detailed knowledge of the candidates, saving them money on recruitment and enhancing individual and team performance.

What my clients say – “Jayne has saved me time and money – all the candidates I interviewed were suitable for the role. They all knew everything about us and the job. It was hard to choose between them”.

“We have struggled with this Practice Manager role for a while. Jayne came in, met with us and we didn’t have to do anything else until we interviewed the candidates. We would recommend her highly and will be passing on her details to other practices”.

About the Author:

Jayne Johnson has spent 27 years working in recruitment. Whether she has been running huge multi-million pound contracts for high street recruiters or supporting small to medium sized enterprises as their recruitment partner, it has all been about finding the right people for the job who will stay and add value to her client’s business.

She loves running her own business. It gives her the flexibility she needs to support her teenager who is doing GCSE’s and to continue her love-hate relationship with the gym. It also gives her the time she needs to carefully select her clients and candidates as people who reflect her ethics and values.

www.betterpeopleltd.co.uk

Round the (guest blogging) world in 80 days!

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Phileas Fogg

Am I a modern day Phileas Fogg? Hmm…

In 1872, the fictional character Phileas Fogg, wagered he could make it around the world in 80 days. He would explore the world, using trains… boats… balloons… elephants. It was a worldwide journey into the unknown.

In 2012, the non-fictional character Lindsay McLoughlin – me! – tried to establish an around the world guest blogging reputation in 80 days. I would explore the web, using LinkedIn… Google+… Twitter… Facebook. It was a worldwide web journey into the unknown.

I ventured into blogging territory writing about networking, well-known expressions and proofreading, broadcasting them across my social media. My posts first caught the attention of Belinda Weaver of Copywrite Matters via Twitter in October. My “travels” had taken me to Melbourne! Given that Twitter had made the introduction, I wrote a post entitled “What creates noise but is quiet at the same time?” (One of my favourites!)

My guest posts continued with articles around guest blogging and ghost writing for the 10-12 Business Club and Athena networking groups, respectively. I was back on terra firma - on home ground in the UK.

The next thing I knew, I was in North Dakota in January, guest blogging for Karen Elliott. It’s brutally cold over there at the moment, I can tell you! This time, I wrote “I called my daughter an apple cart!“, an amusing little article that Karen has said has brought her a fresh influx of followers, fans and friends from the UK. (I like to think I might have made some impact!)

My next stop is the beautiful – and hopefully warmer – Cape Town! I have been invited by Lisa Steyn…

I have been around the (guest blogging) world in (perhaps a little more than) 80 days! My host bloggers in Melbourne, North Dakota, the UK and Cape Town have all been very welcoming. Through the social media and their blogs, I have learned a little bit about their lives and lifestyles. I have “brought home” some great friends from my experience on these travels, and I am looking forward to working with them again.

Am I a “Phileas Fogg”? Probably not… but a proofreader, copywriter and guest blogger for business and marketing materials… Yes!

Photo credit: garryknight / Foter.com / CC BY-SA

Proofreading: The devil’s in the detail

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Business Proposal

Is proofreading all about grammar and punctuation? No, siree!

I’m often asked if proofreading is just about typos, punctuation and grammar. Proofreading is, ahem, one of the oldest professions, and I can tell you there is a lot more to it.

Let’s take a lengthy business proposal.

This is your chance to put your client’s requirements in a context that favours your own products or services. You can educate the potential client about how your business can satisfy their needs. A successful proposal results in a sale when both parties get what they want. Win-win.

The compelling business case you are conveying is window-dressed with punctuation, grammar, formatting, styling etc.

Imagine if the font or the formatting changed halfway through. What about if the hyperlinks were broken, or the job titles, company names and postcodes were incorrect! Terminology can change to describe the same thing. (Is it a canteen or a staff restaurant?) Sometimes pictures and illustrations relate incorrectly to the content, or the figure tables simply don’t add up.

Paragraphs using different margins, inconsistent terminology, typos, spelling errors, broken links, poor grammar and incorrect punctuation are damaged window dressing. They interfere with the business communication. The reader’s concentration and willingness to absorb your business proposal has been interrupted. It is likely he is thinking more about the misdemeanour(s) he has discovered than the messages you want him to receive.

Now the content is not so compelling; the reader is questioning the proposer’s quality standards and attention to detail.

A good proofreader will check and verify all of these details with the benefit of a fresh pair of eyes. Proofreaders correct typos, punctuation and grammar, yes, but also anything else contained within the content that could be erroneous. The devil’s in the detail; having your business proposal checked by a proofreader could be the difference between win-win or lose-lose.

Photo credit: the Italian voice / Foter / CC BY

Has your website got the “right vibes”?

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My website “vibes

Attitudes to information-sharing have changed with the internet explosion.

In the spirit of raising online profiles and extending marketing reach, internet users can blog on any topic they fancy in the hope their hints, tips and content will reverberate around the planet through tweets, likes and prolific sharing.

We take “Googling it” for granted if we have a question; we can tweet, blog and share at the touch of a button if we have content “burning” or when we want to get something off our chests.

I had been wandering around WordPress, looking for ideas of how to review my website graphically, when I came across Rarasaur recommending and sharing information about Tagxedo word clouds as a way to illustrate the “vibes” of your website. I followed his steer and put my website through its paces. Happily, the results were positive; I could even style the results into the shape of a tick, which seems only right when you consider what I do for a living! What a great way to test your website and review your activities.

My thanks go out to the profusion of the internet for bringing instantaneous information-sharing to the masses, and to Rarasaur for blogging about just what I wanted to know – just when I wanted to know it.

Don’t Stop Me Now…! I’m blogging

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Water-skiing

I’ve never been much of a water-skier. However, this year I have left miscellaneous brochures, newsletters, flyers and other marketing collateral in my proofreading wake.

Hanging on tight to the ropes, I extended my services to include editing and copywriting. Great! Clients were now giving me blank pieces of paper and asking me to write the copy myself. I’m particularly proud of a management case study I wrote to compare and contrast a democratic hamburger joint manager with the autocratic style of a cafe manager. The challenges in each copywriting case have been unpredictable – but definitely surmountable – unlike my water-skiing experiences!

With the “likes” of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, I had natural outlets to play with my words and – more than that – communicate them! Over recent months, I have written several blogs and guest blogs. I am also inviting guest bloggers to write for my own website. So… as Queen famously sang: “Don’t Stop Me Now. I’m having a good time!” I’m blogging and loving every minute of it.

One of my goals for 2013 is to establish a reputation for quality blogging. To that end, feel free to share, tweet, comment and “like” this blog – and thank you.

Does this blog look and read “okay”?

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How many times a day do you say the word “okay”? My guess is – quite a lot.

The word “okay” is so versatile. Depending on how it is used in the sentence, or the tone of the speaker’s voice, it can be used to denote approval and agreement, or to indicate mediocrity. It can be used to enquire, confirm, describe or – with an elongated ‘kay – it can even convey scepticism or sarcasm. Public speakers use it to call the audience’s attention to the start of their speech. Regular texters are taking the term to the next level by just texting “K” to indicate agreement; the thin edge of an already slim wedge…

But where did the term come from?

It is said that the word “Okay” stems from the Greek words “Ola Kala” meaning “everything’s fine”. When Greek shipping dominated world trade two centuries ago, signalmen hoisted flags for ‘OK’ when they entered American ports, indicating to the shore crews everything was all right. On shore, warehousemen would find the Greek letters “O K” stamped on crates and boxes. Over time, the term “Okay” came to signify approval and agreement.

So, as long as two centuries ago, shipping companies were “getting the okay” – the clearance – to confirm the crates and boxes were present, correct and “good to go”.

The same requirement to check things over is true of today’s business writers with their blogs, newsletters and various marketing collateral. Do they seek “the okay” before their materials are exported into the public domain?

Proofreading is a very important part of writing. For business writers with good language skills, the services of a professional proofreader can ensure – and “give the okay” – signalling the final document is error-free, easy to read and “ready to ship”.

Networking: Fasten your Seatbelts and Hold on Tight!

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Most people have been on a rollercoaster. The train starts slowly; you’re thinking “What’s this going to be like?” and “Do I really have to?” and – before you know it – the train starts to pull away and there is no going back.

When I started my proofreading service, I approached a marketing agency and offered my services. They gave me the obligatory test, and then employed me for all their outsourced proofreading projects. I wouldn’t like to say “I cut my teeth” with them, but they certainly threw everything they could at me to see what I was made of. I proofread slide decks, newsletters, blogs, press releases, presentations; I gobbled it up.

Having got one very happy marketing client under my belt, a friend of mine invited me to visit an Athena Networking Group. It was that rollercoaster moment. Do I ask to get off now or just welcome the opportunity to try it out?

I arrived at my first meeting and was welcomed with open arms. With the first introductions over, I then had a “minute” to tell the room about my business. I signed up that day, and fastened my seatbelt!

Networking takes time. People need to understand what you’re about and to grasp what you do. After a few twists and turns, the work started to come in and – within a surprisingly short time – I had earned back the membership fees.

I met people individually to find out more about their business, and to think of ways that I could help them by connecting them with people I knew. The same thing happened for me. One of my regular proofreading clients is a client reference specialists company based 165 miles north of here. Can you imagine the chances of meeting them without networking?

I set myself a goal of networking with three people per month outside of the regular meeting, including a “wild card” – someone who interests you but who, at first glance, might not be an obvious business relationship. These are the corkscrews; the meetings that spin you in directions that you are not prepared for.

Very soon the rollercoaster ride was picking up speed. I was still on board and, with the increased acceleration, I added a copywriting carriage. My new passengers included training providers, jewellery specialists, business coaches, graphic designers and virtual PA’s.

One of the greatest tips I can give anyone before they take their seat on their networking rollercoaster, is not to dismiss anyone as irrelevant to you or your business. Just this week, a lady who – on the face of it – did not look like an obvious connection for me, asked if we could meet. When I followed it through, I found that – wearing a different hat – she writes subtitles for film scripts!

Networking has been a life changer. It has brought different and exciting new business opportunities, but it has also brought powerful new relationships with inspiring people. I have met and learned from people I would never otherwise have met, never mind worked with.

If you are thinking about starting to build a network, have a look at the different “rollercoasters” available to find the track that is right for you and your business. Once you have one in view, prepare your business cards and LinkedIn profile, invite yourself along, fasten your seatbelt and hold on tight!

You can’t see what’s coming, but it’s definitely worth the ride!

Follow “Lindsay McLoughlin”