Lifestyle Blogger
Here comes another hotel review for all you keen travellers! This weekend we stayed at the Risley Hall Hotel & Spa as part of a Red Letter Days gift that we received for Christmas and the hotel was so pretty I thought I’d write a little review as it’s a great location for the East Midlands.
I’ve been listening to a lot of the Girl Boss Radio podcast by Sophia Amoruso – the founder of Nasty Gal. I featured it in my 3 Podcasts You Need To Listen To post a few weeks ago, check that out if you haven’t already! She interviews loads of great business women over a huge range of subjects and areas of business and recently one of them said something that really resonated with me.
Our lives are becoming busier than ever. We fill up every moment with activities; work, holidays, nights out, seeing friends and family – there’s rarely a spare moment. We are constantly on the go and whilst it’s fun to fill up every day and leave little room for boredom it has definitely lead our lives to become pretty cluttered.
All businesses, no matter how big or small, can benefit from reviewing the way things are done from time to time. Remain flexible when running a business and a pragmatic approach will often lead to greater success. Here’s the top five things any business owner can do, often with little effort, to improve their operations! I’m not a business owner myself but I’ve studied business and marketing and now work for a start-up that’s grown rapidly in the past few years so I understand a bit about strategy and switching things up!
1. Develop a Short to Mid Term Strategy
When you are growing a business, perhaps even from scratch, your eyes can be fixed on the ultimate goal which might be years, even decades, away from fulfilment. By looking more into the mid-term and even short-term, you can gain greater focus on what is needed right now. Give your company weekly targets for achieving certain results. These need not all be sales led – some short term aims might be to raise your brand awareness, for instance. However, by focussing harder on monthly or weekly goals, you should find that your overall business strategy starts to fall into place of its own accord.
2. Keep Your Records Up To Date
All successful businesses need to have detailed records on which they can rely. This means updating your list of clients, orders and suppliers regularly. If you try to keep too much information in your head in one go, then the results can be disastrous, especially if you cannot deal with everything yourself. Employees need to have access to records so that they can do a professional job without always having to ask the boss. By keeping detailed records which are as up to date as possible, you will also gain a better understanding of how the business stands financially at any given point. This means you can deal with things like credit risk much more effectively.
I love discovering new apps and fresh ways of shopping and it doesn’t get fresher than Octer at the moment! This cool little app (and website!) lets you shop from a massive selection of stores from Zalando to FarFetch and pretty much everywhere you can think of in between and compare prices and products to see where you can get the best deal. You can save any items that you like the look of, just like on ASOS.
Super MTV babe Maya Jama (also Hello! Magazine’s Rising Star of 2016 FYI) headed down to the last dating event and got into the Swedish spirit and mingled with some singles. Rekorderlig Cider is definitely on course to bring true love to the streets (or waterways!) of London this summer. The next dating event, if you fancy heading down, is on 21st July at Paddington Basin.
“The Seven Flowers Swede Dating event follows on from a time-honoured Swedish folklore on Midsummer’s Eve in Sweden where it’s tradition for single women to pick seven flowers and place them in under their pillow at night, and they’ll dream of their future husband. With this in mind, Rekorderlig Cider is hoping the single men and women of London will find the partner of their dreams during the swede dating events!”
I know, I know, peonies are such a blogger cliche but they’re just so beautiful, how can they not be Instagrammed within an inch of their pretty pink life? This gorgeous Peony Perfection bouquet from Blossoming Gifts is amazing and it arrived in great condition. Sometimes I think that flowers through the post can be risky and I’ve had bouquets in the past that have turned up a little bit bashed but Blossoming Gifts are always spot on as their packaging is super secure.
The South of France has been the inspiration for art from Picasso to Matisse and for some of the most iconic films of all time. Along the French Riviera, there are some incredible art museums and the journey in between each one is one of the most beautiful drives you will ever take. To explore these villages which inspired some of the great artists, rent a car at a luxury car rental in Nice through sites such as PrimeRent for example and start your unforgettable journey along the coast. Here is an example of a great itinerary for Southern France.
Festival season is something that us Brits live for. The mud, the unpredictable weather, the abandonment of tents (not advised) and the taste of cider in the sun. Obviously, if you’ve just been to Glastonbury you’ll be a pro at these but there are so many more festivals to come in the UK this year. There’s Reading & Leeds, Latitude, V Festival and loads more so these tips from My Voucher Codes might come in handy.
What’s better than cosying up with tea and cake on a rainy Saturday afternoon? Pretty much nothing in my opinion. We headed to Browns in Nottingham to sample the Royal Afternoon Tea which comes with all your usual Afternoon Tea goodies but with a bonus British Royale cocktail topped with juicy blackberries.
