When you're a small business owner, your business is like your baby - you love it so much! You try to do everything while wearing multiple hats. The desire and drive to make your business dreams come true can be powerful. However, walking away from work even for a short time can be really difficult, especially when you really enjoy what you do.

Imagine a clothing store that provides you not only with beautiful clothing to fit your body but also offers you the chance to come and have a personalised shopping experience with the girls? That’s exactly what you’ll find at Curious Clothing - a charming clothing boutique nestled in the heart of Mosgiel, just outside of Dunedin City.

In this blog we will be covering the many different image types and formats used in our digital sphere. It’s important to know the difference between image formats because there are many different types of formats that best suit different situations, both on the internet and on applications. We will be covering the pros and cons of Jpeg’s, TIFF, Bitmaps, Gif’s, and much more.

You see them everywhere on social media - usually at the end of a post caption or within a comment. But what do hashtags do? Instagram hashtags are an effective way to get more eyes and engagement on your posts and profile. A post with a least ONE hashtag gets 12.6% more engagement than posts without a hashtag. So having a strategy to use hashtags is worth it if you want to increase your account.

Identifying your audience is the most important understanding any business can have. If you don't know who you’re selling to and what they need or like, how are you meant to cater to their needs? In the beginning stages of business, I guess we just take clients or sales wherever possible to build that income, positivity and portfolio. But spreading your audience wide isn't as effective as deep. I know I don't sound like I'm making any sense, but read more to find out.

Pinterest is a one-stop-shop for inspiration.

Pinterest is a place where shoppers go to find things to buy and draw inspiration for anything in their lives. If your website is struggling for traffic, it’s time to leverage the powerful marketing tool PINTEREST.

First things first - if you don’t already have a business account - let’s get it set up and sort out some basics.

Content creation is a way of coming up topic ideas that appeal to your target audience - and then transforming those ideas into written or visual content. We absolutely love creating content - which you'll notice we do this with our blogs, reels, emails and photos we share with you.

We took up a challenge to do 30 reels in 30 days. Within the past month, we have watched our Instagram Audience reach increase by 72%. Reels are a 15, 30 or 60-second clip with music on Instagram, and you’ve likely heard them being compared to TikTok’s. Many people use them to share jokes, dances, outfits and ‘how to’ snippets - and now businesses are using them in their Marketing Strategies.

When you think of smoothies - you think of noisy blenders, frozen ingredients getting stuck in the blade and having to clean up everything afterwards.

But what if you could make a smoothie in less than 1 minute WITHOUT the noise, the use of blenders or having to pull half the kitchen utensils out. What if it was as simple as putting it in a cup and walking out the door? Or easy enough for your toddler to make?! As well as ingredients being native plant foods, locally grown and sourced.

Close your eyes and imagine a lavender field in full bloom. The day is warm and the sun is shining on your face. The lavender fragrance wafts up to your nose as you stand amongst the rows. Next, you notice the sound of our busy friends the bees moving from plant to plant foraging for pollen. Now you open your eyes and are mesmerised by the combination of intense colour, smell and sound. It's a moment in time that will make you fall in love with the amazing plant that is lavender.

It’s 2 degrees of separation in Aotearoa, as our mutual business circle has come right around. Michele came to one of my Masterclasses with a friend and we got talking. She was telling me all about her business, and I knew I just HAD to see it for myself. She’s the type of creative individual who can adapt and create with any medium she puts her hands to. She’s handy on the tools and seriously creates every masterpiece from scratch. Her studio is goals and her property has it’s own Lavender rows and beehives, which she uses to make her own honey and lip balms. She does it all.

As it all comes down to you and the form, regardless of whatever process I’m using. From this sense, it seems to me that this is what I should be doing with my life. I strive for perfection, using simplicity of form, defined by natural materials. I am Inspired by natural forms, the window to the reason and why of existence. To create images that inspire and transform our view of the everyday. I’m driven to express the beauty around us, that is fast disappearing. Creating something that be treasured and lasting the test of time.