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We didn't get a proper holiday this year with one thing and another so it's been one long year for me! Mind you, holidays with young children are not relaxing anyway. 

 I wouldn't mind a bit of snow but we're travelling to Devon for one night just before Christmas, so preferably not then! 

I nearly froze at the park last week but like you said it's then got milder again. It's very confusing. I don't know how many pairs of socks to put on each day. 

I predict very little snow here although my daughter insists it will snow at Christmas, she's 4 though so perhaps not a trusted meteorologist. 

It's an easy one to start the week.... Borrowed from Tall Tales Mysteries as indicated. 

Your marketing plan should be written and ready for the new year, what strategies are you going to use? Are you going to change what you do or how you do it? Have you got a new budget or are you happy with the one you have? 

I guess this is the time I need to fess up to being  a bit too ad-hoc with my marketing, I guess I was particularly wary of getting too much work when I had no childcare for my son. Now I have some I am going to start a push next year to build up my regular client base, hopefully doing more blog writing and editing. So a marketing plan is definitely on my to do list!!

Running your own business requires the wearing of so many hats and it's impossible to be good at everything, but there's always help around. On the forum itself we definitely have some marketing expertise as well as experts in other areas so you can always get some tips without having to spend, although some things are best delegated if you can't get it right yourself. 

So your marketing plan should be SMART, which I am sure we are all familiar with, but just in case:

S - Specific - don't be vague, if you want to increase you social media marketing specify which one and how much.
M - Measurable  - make sure you are going to keep a record of new leads or new sales, otherwise it's pointless.
A - Achievable - Know your limits, time and money wise.
R - Realistic - Increasing sales by 200% might be a great dream, but setting your sights too high will lead to disappointment and you might give up!
T - Timely - set yourself a number of posts on Twitter to do a month, or the amount of increased leads you want a week.

Don't be scared to set targets, I myself hate failure and this can lead me to shy away from setting myself aims in my business, but when you do it really can push you that little bit further. For example, I now have to earn a certain amount a month to qualify for free childcare from the government and since that started I have achieved over and above that, although it seemed really unlikely at the start. 

Feel free to share any of your own goals or targets for next year here, marketing wise my main thing is that I am going to start a blog and promote my own blog writing and editing service so I increase that side of my business. I am also considering using video, but I am not sure if I can face it or not  

What about you? Any tips you'd like to share?

Some of these look interesting but I find non fiction a hard genre to get into, I guess I've always viewed reading/listening as escapism. I listen to music in the car, my daughter would not be very happy with an audio book, she does like Kasabian though. 

Listening to something before bed might be good though, I'll have to see. Tried to get audible on a free trial but it didn't work and I've never revisited it, I really should! 

This reminds me, I need to badger a couple of new clients for reviews. 

I must say I try and make the effort to leave reviews for businesses that I use, especially smaller ones. 

So you're not going to 'hug a hoodie' anytime soon then? Haha. That was a David Cameron slogan for anyone who's forgotten! 

That's very frustrating though, to have that all in place then still get nothing useful. My ex got beaten up in a town centre, full of CCTV and that was useless too! 

Oh no! That poor Hotpoint served you well and you ditched it for a newer, younger model, which let you down. There's an analogy in there somewhere. Haha.

Part of my business of writing or editing blogs for clients and it really helps them boost their visibility on social media and their SEO. You definitely need something to say though, but I love that about my job! Coming up with ideas for different types of businesses and writing about different subjects keeps things interesting. I really need to make time for my own blog though!