Articles by Janet Barclay
How to Select a Theme for Your WordPress Blog
By Janet Barclay, MVA
So, you’ve decided to start a blog to let the world know what’s going on in your professional life, to share your expertise or your opinions, or to showcase your business. You have something to say, and you’re ready to say it!
If you’ve chosen WordPress as your blogging platform, once you installed [...]
Market Your Own Business
By Janet Barclay, MVA
Many entrepreneurs struggle with finding customers, especially in the early stages of the business. Some spend a large sum on advertising, only to find it isn’t leading to the results they expected. Others decide to hold off on marketing until they have brought in enough income to pay for it, and then [...]
Book Review: Time Management for Unmanageable People
By Janet Barclay, MVA
By the time they seek the help of a professional organizer, many people have already read countless books about getting organized, only to become frustrated when they’re unable to apply the authors’ suggestions. While teaching time management courses, author Ann McGee-Cooper noticed that the prescribed systems worked well for half of the [...]
Is Your Schedule Out of Balance?
By Janet Barclay, MVA
Life today consists of a flurry of activities, including work, shopping, family, household chores, social engagements, community service, continuing education; the list goes on and on. In fact, there may be days when you find yourself eating “on the run” or while you are working, or rushing from one place to another [...]
Going Green in the Office
By Janet Barclay, MVA
How green is your office? Do you regularly practice the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle? Listed below are ten strategies for reducing your office’s environmental footprint. How many of these do you do on a regular basis?
A Website for Your Small Business
By Janet Barclay, MVA
Although more and more small businesses are online every day, there are still some business owners who don’t think they need a website, because they only provide services locally and not globally.
Keep in mind that over 70% of the population in Canada and the USA are Internet users, and for an increasing [...]
Tips for Effective Time Management
by Janet Barclay, MVA
One of the greatest challenges many people face in business and in their personal lives is that there never seems to be enough time to accomplish everything they need to do, let alone finding time for things they want to do! They look with envy at those who are able to [...]
Organizing Paperwork for Your Bookkeeper
by Janet Barclay and Jennifer Kubilis
When starting out, it’s not uncommon to personally handle all the work involved with running your business, but if all goes well, you’ll reach a point where it makes more sense to pay someone else to perform some of the administrative functions, so you can devote more time to serving [...]
The Year-End Wrap-Up
by Janet Barclay, MVA
It’s no secret that December is the busiest month in the retail industry, as people shop for Christmas presents as well as other products and services for the festive season. If you’re in a different industry, you may find that business is slow at this time of year. In this case, you’re [...]
How to Write an Effective Email
by Janet Barclay, MVA
It’s a scenario we’ve probably all been in at one time or another. You’re working on a project when you realize you don’t have everything you need to complete it, so you fire off a quick email to request the required information. You watch for the reply, and when it arrives, you [...]
