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Why Bother with a Business Plan?

Why Bother with a Business Plan?

Starting a business from scratch is a wonderful process that draws out your creativity, your vision and all sorts of positive ideas about how to make your envisaged enterprise survive and prosper into the future. But it can also become overwhelming and requires structured discipline from the founders or else wires can get crossed, directions can become muddled up and crucially, costs can be…

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The Value of a Mentor

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The Value of a Mentor

The Value of a Mentor

So, here’s something I never thought I’d do… after mulling over it for a few weeks I decided to ask someone I know to mentor me in ‘the craft’. In other words, help me along on my journey to becoming a full-time, bona fide real author-person. And already it is proving to be a wise decision if I do say so myself. Okay, so here’s the backdrop: on the author/writer food chain I’m right at the…

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My First Poem... sort of...

My First Poem… sort of…

Well, this is different… I wrote something the other day (and even finished it too – well done me!). It’s extremely personal, but I have no shame and am used to being shot down in public, so I’ve decided to put it on here, instead of hiding it in a journal forever. Disclaimer: This written piece is 100% my own thoughts and feelings and is not meant to resemble anyone else’s work. If it does it is…

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Never Surrender!

Time for a bit of Churchhill (the wartime leader, not the dog with the wobbly head that sells insurance)… ‘Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.’ Winston Churchill This bit is very apt for me at the moment. Remember that writing workshop I recently applied for a place on? Yup, nada, zilch, niks nie. That’s how the dice roll and just like the Global Literati…

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Aspect County

Quality Publishing Spanning Four Decades Post Written by Andrew Thomas, 27 April 2017 Original post here… Is your business ready for Brexit?

Well, 2016 was an interesting year, wasn’t it? Firstly, the EU Referendum result that was definitely not going to happen, happened, and then the man that was definitely not suitable to be the leader of the free world became exactly that. Baffled yet?

If…

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Freelancing and Writer's Workshops

Freelancing and Writer’s Workshops

Okay, so I’ve started to do freelance writing jobs for PeoplePerHour and it is going really well. As in, I have become really busy in a short space of time and I am getting paid regularly to write other organisations’ blog posts and articles for them. You’d think I’d be happy – and I am. Very much so. Only, here’s the thing… (more…)

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Why I Choose to Not Smoke

When I was a lot younger and more stupid than I am today I started smoking and carried on for about sixteen years. After two periods of abstinence of about eight months each, I restarted my nicotine habit again and again, until I finally quit for good in 2007. That currently makes it ten years 100% smoke-free. No slip ups and no ‘accidents’. I also went cold turkey and didn’t bother with nicotine…

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The Baker Street Kitchen

The Baker Street Kitchen

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Mini Series

A collection of mini works inspired by a desire to experiment with different colours and styles. Simply click on the images to purchase over on Etsy. Source: Mini Series

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SMART Goals for Creatives

SMART Goals for Creatives

Everybody needs a hero… In the early days of learning your creative craft, in whatever form it may take, it is good to look upwards to those who have gone before you for the purposes of learning from the example of a role model. In the early days of learning your creative craft, in whatever form it may take, it is good to look upwards to those who have gone before you for the purposes of learning…

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Will South Africa Choose Change Over Corruption?

Will South Africa Choose Change Over Corruption?

Surprise..! 2016 has been a year of astonishing surprises in global politics. Firstly, the unthinkable happened in the UK, with a majority of citizens voting against what the government had planned for them, and choosing Brexit over the EU. And not a country for being outdone by their cousins over the pond, the USA then went and voted for the most unlikely of candidates in Donald Trump to become…

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Birth of a Book

Birth of a Book

Once upon a time I got it into my head that I was capable of writing a non-fiction type of book on something, as a challenge to myself really, to see if I could complete such a project. And so I did, and in 2012 I self-published Quit Smoking Forever across Amazon, Apple, Kobo & Smashwords. Four years later and it still sells a few copies every now and then, but as of the middle of 2015 it was all…

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Brexit - Waiting for the Apocolypse

Brexit – Waiting for the Apocolypse

This post has undergone several rewrites because frankly there is so much to discuss and criticise, and a mere blog post by some random nobody cannot possibly do this seismic political event the justice it deserves. I have also stumbled over how exactly I would like to convey my thoughts and feelings on the UK’s European Union membership referendum. This post was always going to be about the lead…

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Nanowrimo - Do You Dare?

Nanowrimo – Do You Dare?

Or, How I plan to Complete Nanowrimo 2016…

Okay, honesty session to begin with…

I have developed the craft of procrastination well beyond my current mastery of the art of creating meaningful content.

I can become obsessed with perfecting a task that I have set myself. I can also be bone idle if the task bores me to tears.

I can sway between total self belief and confidence in my abilities, to…

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Time Management

Hard Work, Persistence and Belief

You really need to be ruthless with the management of your time if you want to be making some decent progress towards your target goal. In my case that is achieving set objectives that I have with my writing, and a few specific goals I have with my running. I realise that without shrewd planning, and even more self discipline, I will simply fail to achieve all…

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The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Farce?

The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Farce?

I had some free time this weekend and stumbled across some literature about ‘this shocking novel that would rock the Christian world’, so I took some time to explore it. Armed with nothing more than Wikipedia and internet access I have satisfactorily read all the ‘disturbing arguments’ put forward by Mr Browns characters, had a look at a few websites, and found the facts as portrayed in the novel…