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Hi FBI. It is hardwork trying to get through to the local sorting office.

Best bet is to turn up in person if still open. You can get location info and opening times on their automated helpline: 0345 6050767

Obviously a manic time of year and covid isn't helping with staff being off sick.

Hope you get it sorted, Merry Xmas 

Phishing emails and scams are a sad fact of life and they gradually get better and better.

This Facebook one made me do a double-take, but as always, the devil is in the detail and always closely look at the web link.

"Your page has been restricted from accessing some Facebook features.

If you continue to post content that is fraudulent, misleading or otherwise violates the law, you could be temporarily blocked from posting content on Facebook, or even have your account permanently disabled.

Contact Facebook Support below to learn more:"

Phew, that was a long sentence!

 It's great to see Facebook are on the ball when it comes to taking down a blatantly fake profile called "Restrict Content". I reported the fake profile, and after an hour got the following response...

Ahh the beauty of using AI and removing humans out of the moderator process 

Have a safe and happy Christmas and the My Local Services team wish you all the very best for 2022.

Having been in business since 2005, and have very much rode the self-employed roller coaster, I think these last couple of years has had to be the strangest 

Until early 2021, we had a nice office at the beautiful Minvera Mill in Alcester. But after the first lockdown and work from home guidance, we moved to a homeworking and flexible model, with the team issue with a laptop and an IP (internet) phone. So our office was left empty for a year (still paying rent) and covid rolled on. 

To be honest the new homeworking model has worked very well, we have twice weekly zoom catch-up meetings, an ongoing whatsapp group for urgent collaboration or the good old phone, and occasional face-to-face meetings at the pub. No more traffic issues or fuel costs and everyone loves it, apart from one person... Me 

After nearly two years working from home, I have gone borderline stir crazy, struggling to separate the divide between home and work. So (and before good old Boris's latest advice), I thought it was time to open a new office and I've moved in this week. It's absolutely marvelous  

Just a small office in a business centre, but it's nice to hear hustle and bustle again and for me personally, it sharpens my focus and makes me more professional. We still utilise the Mill as our address and for mail, but the new office is walking distance from my house, in the centre of town. So a nice brisk walk and wind up into work mode, and then a nice wind-down and arrive in full home mode with work left at the office.

It's been interesting talking to lots of people about this, and I have an (unscientifically proven) theory, that the majority of business owners like to work from the office (with the ability of occasional flexible home working, eg it's really raining!). Whilst the majority of employees prefer to work from home or be more flexible with occasional days in an office.

If employees are able to work from home, then it makes perfect sense to offer it as a flexible option, but I think the drive and passion it takes to push a business forward, requires a more professional setting rather than a home study or dual-purpose spare bedroom.

So what does anyone else think?

• Are you loving the homeworking opportunities and can't imagine doing it any other way, or have you gone a bit cuckoo like me once the novelty wore off?
• Am I right in my suggestion that business owners are more likely to be office-based, or do you disagree?

Why thank you, always happy to receive praise, it offsets the moans 

I did revisit this post as we have a new year approaching and wondered if there was anything drastically wrong or needed updating. But everything in SEO land still seems to be ticking over and following the basic rules. There's no golden bullet that's been invented, or no super-secret Google-friendly shortcuts.

A professionally thought out and laid out website, that makes sense across all devices (including voice, ie Alexa), proof read, oozing credibility, ticks up all the on page SEO boxes (see above post), with regular content that positions you as someone who knows what they are talking about. It can be from a digital business, to roofers or house cleaning. 

But before you invest in an SEO journey, look at your website with fresh eyes. No point busting a gut trying to optimise something that makes little sense to people, is poorly laid out or is utilising some kind of freebie website.

It's not really that groundbreaking, it's just called forum spam. Most half decent forum software will strip it out these days and let moderators manually approve it. Hence why it took me so long to get to yours and remove your link 

Even the big boys can get it wrong. As part of Black Friday, any Apple purchases were getting a £40.00 gift card.

I very briefly got excited when this arrived in my email!

If only...

My 5 pence, bigger is better, bottom one

So now is a good time to reflect on the year, albeit a very strange one after covid!

But from a business and marketing perspective, what worked, what went well and what didn't.

What business goals did you have for this year other than surviving!

• Did you meet them?
• Did you bat them out of the park?
• Did you get close?
• Did you have any?

If you didn't have any goals or objectives for the year, why not?

Making it up as you go along isn't an effective business strategy, even if most of us have been guilty of it (me included ).

But don't panic, you still have time to fix it and save repeating what happened before (and the year before, and before...)

Sit down now and examine your business

• Choose 3 overarching goals you would like to have achieved by Dec 2022. Maybe revenue to be xyz, new product etc.
• Now decide on a number of activities, mini strategies or plans that are going to help you achieve each goal.
• Let's break those 12 month goals into 90 day chunks. Jan - Mar, Apr - Jun, Jul - Sep, Oct - Dec.
• Now calendar your 90 day plans, with a list of actions, so you can review every 90 days.

Your first 90 day plan starts in January. This gives you a chance to implement your new ideas, start working through an action plan to achieve your goals, and you can review your progress at the end of March. What worked, what didn't, what needs to change. Tweak things, change things as required, but keep the goal and your targets alive.

If you follow this strategy, even though other work and life pressures will come charging through along with a bucket of distractions, you will still have a plan that you can pick up and get your teeth into. Then monitor progress before your next self imposed review which will pop up in your calendar.

Now when you get to Dec 2022, there should be no surprises. Simply review what worked and what didn't work. Understand why, and plan accordingly for 2023. Learn from failed strategies and ideas and adopt fresh ones.

Are you ambitious or a plodder?

Remember it is better to get 50% of a very ambitious target than 100% of an easily achieved one. Ambitious targets lead to growth, more cash and options.

Easy targets lead to the same as last year and plodding along or just surviving.

This is for any Scottish based residents or businesses.

By February 2022 every home in Scotland must have interlinked fire alarms.

What are they? Interlinked fire alarms talk to each other. When one goes off, they all go off so you will hear them wherever you are in the house. This should help you to react quicker and could save your life.

You can read more by going to our sister site: trustedtrader.scot/news/interlinked-fire-alarms

Or visiting the Scottish Government page: mygov.scot/home-fire-safety