Claire Witz, Author at Mums in Business Network

Author: Claire Witz

Zoom Tip – How to add your logo as a background behind you during a video call

Posted on 29 April 202029 April 2020 by Claire Witz

During lockdown we’re holding all our networking meet-ups on Zoom, which has been a bit of a learning curve for us all. Here’s a tip shared by some of our members during our last meet-up which I thought was brilliant, as it replaces your (messy?!) room in the background with your logo, or another image you’d like to share instead, like this:

Pardon my total lack of make-up!

Don’t worry, it won’t actually look backwards to everyone in the call

Although in my screen shot the logo appears backwards, when other participants in the online meeting see it it will be the right way round.

Here’s how to do it…

Step 1 – Wiggle your mouse around so that it brings up the black Zoom menu bar. For some people this is at the top of your screen, for others at the bottom (not sure why).

Step 2 – Click on the little arrow to the right of “Stop Video” and select “Choose Virtual Background”.

Step 3 – Where it says “Choose Virtual Background” go to the plus symbol in a little square to the right and select “Add Image”.

Step 4 – Select your logo file from your PC and upload it.

Step 5 – You’ll the see it in the image thumbnails below alongside the default backgrounds that Zoom offers.

Step 6 – Click on the thumbnail of your logo and bingo!

Christmas Grand Raffle 2019 – Prizes, Winners and Money Raised

Posted on 13 November 20199 March 2020 by Claire Witz

The results of our 2019 Christmassy get together and (almost) world famous Grand Raffle in aid of local charity The Sam West Foundation.

See the photos, find out more about the charity and why we supported them, the prizes, the donors and how much we raised in total.

7 Tips to Use Influencer Marketing for your Small Businesses 2019

Posted on 13 November 20199 March 2020 by Claire Witz

Last year Google reported that there were a whopping 61,000 searches for the term “influencer marketing” per month compared to just 3,900 in 2015!

Unless you’ve been living in a cupboard you’ve probably heard of the term “Influencer Marketing” and seen it in action, but may not been sure how to use it for your own small business.

Here’s a summary of a talk we had all about it and how to use it for our own businesses at our Sevenoaks MIB Networking meetup from marketing expert extraordinaire Wendy Wyss of Wendy Wyss Marketing.

Retirement for Mums in Business – Are you planning?

Posted on 1 November 20199 March 2020 by Claire Witz

Do you have enough savings to provide an income for 40 years?
For most mums in business (me being one of them!), the answer is almost certainly a big fat “heck no!”.

According to the Office of National Statistics, someone currently in their 40s has a 25% chance of living until they’re 100, with more of us projected to live well into our 90s. As women tend to live longer than men, there’s a fair chance that might well be us getting letters from the future king.

Last night pensions specialist Kadi Wyke of St James’ Place came to talk to us about financial planning for mums in business.

30 Tips for mums starting a business from women who’ve been there 2019

Posted on 3 October 20199 March 2020 by Claire Witz

I asked over 1,000 mums in business what would be their top piece of advice to someone considering starting a business to run around their family…

This week as part of our “Promote your Bizday” weekly activity in our Facebook group, I asked everyone what would be their top tip for a mum starting out in business for the first time. We’ve all been there and there’s a huge amount of experience in the group from over 1,000 women who’ve already taken the plunge and are “living the dream” of juggling a business around family life.

So here’s some of our advice and tips, I hope they help.

LinkedIn for Small Business Top Tips 2019

Posted on 27 September 20199 March 2020 by Claire Witz

Another week, another meeting write-up!

This time the wonderful Cécile Jemmett of LinkedIn with Cécile came to talk to our Tunbridge Wells Mums in Business Network about how to use LinkedIn for your small business.

Interestingly Cécile was first inspired to use LinkedIn at one of our meet-ups about 5 years ago and has never looked back. Since then, helping others use it has turned into her entire business.

15 SEO Tips for your Website 2019

Posted on 13 September 20199 March 2020 by Claire Witz

Google is a powerful beast and continually changing it’s algorithms (whatever they are?!) to make sure that if you search for something, you get the results you’re looking for. And because it’s so good at what it does it accounts for 90% of all searches on the internet. That compares to Bing (4%) and Yahoo 3%. So it’s kind of important to make sure your website is Google-friendly if you want to tap into that!

When you search for something, the first 3 results are usually paid-for ads. Under those, the top 5 “organic” results (that means the ones that aren’t paid for) account for 70% of clicks. Very few people click through to the second page of results so those first few spots are the prime organic ones that we all want to reach.

Nobody knows exactly how Google’s algorithms work and they’re constantly changing to keep search results relevant, but there are a few things that we know do help, so that’s what this blog will focus on.

How to use Pinterest for your Business

Posted on 18 July 20199 March 2020 by Claire Witz

Why we had a talk about Pinterest for Business…

A while back, it came up in discussion at one of our meet-ups that none of us knew a great deal about Pinterest. A lot of us had dabbled in it personally but none of us felt we were using it effectively for our businesses and there was probably some scope to do so. So last night Pinterest and marketing expert Darren Lock of Populo Marketing gave us a very insightful session on it at our Tunbridge Wells monthly meet-up.

It turned out that Darren is an absolutely mine of information about marketing, apps and tools and how they all work together and here’s a summary of his talk on using Pinterest for business….

10 Time Saving Tips for Social Media for your Business

Posted on 10 July 20199 March 2020 by Claire Witz

Although social media is only one of the many hats that we need to wear as solo business owners, it can often be one of the most time consuming and is a black hole that seems to take over everything.

Last night was our monthly Sevenoaks Mums in Business Network meet-up, and as part of it Gemma Lloyd of Social Mums came along to share her expertise with us about how to be more time efficient with our social media. A while back I asked our members what they’d like her talk to focus and this subject was the hands-down winner – so it is at least reassuring that we’re all in the same boat I guess.

Mums in Business: Not so local apparently!

Posted on 17 May 201918 July 2019 by Claire Witz

I run the Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks Mums in Business Network (MIB Network) groups. I’d noticed that we have quite a smattering of accents, and after a chance conversation I thought it would be interesting to find out where we all came from originally. It’s turned out to be a VERY interesting conversation, so I made a map!

How fabulous is this?! It turns out that only 4/75 of our members of these two groups actually come from the either of the towns originally, and others from as far afield as the north of England, lots from Germany (which is unfortunate when my surname means “joke” in German!), California, New York, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Yemen, via lots and lots of other places across the world.

How wonderful that life has brought us all together to where we are now and turned us not only into a community of women running our own businesses, but into friends too.

What better way to highlight how much diverse experience, knowledge, wisdom and contacts we each bring to the group, and that we all in turn benefit from.

Claire Witz

MIB Network