Continued Professional Development

Phew! What a great few months it has been for my own personal development.

Chris and I started the practice in 2013, and since then I have given social media my best shot. I even created our very first website (using the create a website tool available online).

I was incredibly proud of the site, and it brought us in some business – success! Then we fell from the first page of Google, and I couldn’t understand why. Sure, I heard the term SEO, but I didn’t actually know the in’s and outs of it and that was a barrier.

I used Facebook and Twitter to the best of my ability, however, something was always lacking.
I knew that using images in your posts made them more visible as Facebook’s algorithm preferred something more than just text. What I didn’t know how to use, and I found frustrating, was how to utilise the many great features that Facebook has for getting your business out there. How did other businesses make their pages look so professional?

So, for the past 5 years, I have been ambling along and doing my best to promote our practice, but I needed assistance. Enter Business Gateway and their fabulous Digital Boost scheme.

It’s easy to get bogged down with the every day running of your business, it takes up so much time. It’s good to remember that there are loads of courses out there to help you on the way – whether you are a new enterprise or if you’ve been in the game a bit longer.

Business Gateway has been brilliant for us; they offer a plethora of half-day workshops covering lots of different topics. The Digital Boost scheme is slightly different and was one that was introduced to us by Renfrewshire Council initially. It was so easy to sign up – you visit the Gateway website and take a short survey. The results of this survey determine the type of support you are offered.

We were allocated three 1:1 sessions, provided by Gary Ennis of NS Design. The sessions were quite intense but so informative. I was able to state the aims of each session, to ensure everything I wanted covered, was.

I have learned so much from Gary and I will be forever recommending his services to anyone who will listen. I can now edit our website, write a blog (hurrah!), use Facebook to the best it has to offer (our most recent advertising has brought in 12 new page likes – more than ever before), my LinkedIn profile and Twitter page are optimised to bring in business. But not just this, more importantly, we now have a brand that people can identify with, and that was one of the biggest aims of starting the practice. We wanted to stand out from other accountants, in that we know our client’s personally, and we are approachable and on hand to help.

If you’re reading this and are in the same position that I was – you know what you want to do digitally, but you don’t know how to do it – get in touch with Digital Boost. You have nothing to lose and a whole lot of knowledge to gain.

 

To undertake the digital health check for your business visit https://www.bgateway.com/driving-growth/digitalboost