We’ve become so used to seeing electric pylons, telephone cables and satelite dishes in our landscape. Yet when we are taking photos, do we leave them in or cut them out of our image?

If you are looking for a great location to run a course that is comes fully equipped for a great price, have you thought about your local civic hall?

Have you had those times when things you’ve been thinking about suddenly show up? Or people appear in your life with a message that is right for you in that moment. Well it’s been one of those weeks for me.

Isn’t it pretty wonderful that our profession or hobby opens up to us a whole new community of people? Here are just a few bonuses of carrying a camera around your neck.

So then, after writing last week about having lots of new things planned for 2012 how is January going for me so far? Well these last seven days have seen a rollercoaster of emotions.

January’s here and I’m off, at top speed or there abouts to make a start on all my plans for the year both business and personal.

A holiday can be full of wonderful things that you love doing. With all this time off over the festive period, did you manage to put in some of your favourite things?

As the year ends it’s a good time to take a day away from phones and computers to review the business year and think about the way forward.

This week I launched the Healing with Photography website, come and take a look around!

How has 2011 been? How would you like 2012 to go. An exercise that I did this time last year has helped me to have a fantastic year, now I’m about to do it again to help make 2012 the best year yet.

The year is suddenly rolling to a close, just as quickly as it started. Where did all that time go and what is still on the to do list?

Having a local place that I can return to time and time again for different scenes is such a luxury. Today welcome to the village that I get many different images and moods from and this weekend it had a surprise element.

A well earned break where I can forget about work, yet still get pleasure from my photography skills and delightful company.

Healing with Photography courses are under way! The first group session started last week and now it’s time to tweak things a little here and there.

A successful recce, though one that by no means that went according to plan.

So you have a press pass for an event with exclusive access, yet what does happen when the public aren’t around. It’s my first time with a press pass for the RHS flower show so let’s see!

Now is the time to discover if the part of Italy that I love so much is going to make a great venue for a photography tour…….of course it is and now the recce begins in earnest.

Split between so many different activities within the businesses, it is time to sit down and become clear on what I want.

A new year, a new business to bring along. Healing with Photography is just weeks away from launching, though not before the website is up and running. This week all my attention has been on the design and writing of it.

A new project or two to keep things interesting; I take a look at them and how they might diversify.

When you’ve reacted to a comment or someones anger do you ever stop to think about your reaction? If it was valid, if the person venting is really upset with you or if you are an easy target? Well this week I’ve put to bed something I’ve been quietly stewing on for a while.

Last week it was time for my first recce to Italy to see if I’d like to use this area for a base for a photography holiday, a beautiful area, though is it for me?

When you are in the head space for taking photos, the adrenaline is rushing through your brain and your focus is fully on what is in front of you, how far do you go to get that image?

When photographer’s get together we always tend to start talking about equipment, today I wanted to explore that theme further and share our favourite kit shops or websites.

A new toy arrived this week, something I’ve been waiting for and imagining for a while……my new camera!

I find it quit easy really to get carried away with something and then read the small print. It’s like getting a new camera and reading the manual after you’ve messed it up rather than taking a few minutes to read it at the start and save yourself some time. Here’s a time I should have read the small print first.

To bring a plan to fruition sometimes it’s necessary to take routes that you hadn’t intended; mine is sponsorship. Today I take a look at the how and who.

Back to that age old question, what image should represent my new venture? How do I represent all that I need to say from a photo? Do I go to a photo library and buy something? Nope, but it’s taken me a long time to work out the answer!

Do you ever find it hard sometimes to get things done that don’t seem exciting? Or feel that although you enjoy the philosophy of something putting it into action doesn’t suit your make-up as much as other aspects of your work? Is there an alternative?

Have you had that moment in business when you you’ve left many messages for someone and they just don’t return your calls or emails? Is it something you’ve done or are they simply avoiding saying no? That’s doubtful; maybe they are just simply busy!

How many events do you pay to attend because you will use the main focus of the event for your work? Are you paying to attend or are you asking for press passes?

I love getting in my car and driving with no destination in mind; just me and the open road, exploring unclassified roads, finding little hidden gems.

I’m just working on a new business that is very close to my heart. It comes from personal experience and is something that can hopefully help others who are in similar situations to where I was.

Is your company mission statement clear? Does your company name or marketing material clear tell people who you are and what it does? Have you removed all element of doubt?

What do you do when you find yourself taking photos that don’t really fit in with your day to day work, yet deeply resonate with you? I think we have a solution.

Where can you get images of every kind of farm animal, the most delicious cakes and expensive silverware? The summer is in full swing and so are the countries agricultural shows.

A night out or a workshop to listen and be inspired by other photographers can be just the ticket to move you forward in your work.

What do you do when an old fear comes back to haunt you?

There are many ways to advertise on the internet, today I’m looking two free options to increase your presence online.

Following head or heart? Doing what’s best for me or my guests? A few of the decisions I’ve thought about over the last week in the best way to move my business forward and diversify.

Ever posted a message to social media that you wished you hadn’t? Or spent time composing a blog in a fit of anger hit publish and felt the backlash from your readers? Why is thinking before you publish so important?

To do lists sitting on your desk can look menacing at times, particularly if you haven’t gotten through too many of the tasks….here’s a quirky and effective alternative.

When your business is also your hobby, how do you find a way to do both without removing the pleasure of the activity?

We don’t always like to admit it, but it’s good to have a helping hand from time to time, from someone with a little bit more experience than us. A mentor is the perfect person to do this, here’s why.

There’s so much to think about when you start a business and so much to try and remember. This week I’ve done a quick half time review of things that might have slipped your mind.

How do we make sure we nurture and look after our customers and make them feel like they are a king or queen?

The site is live but what other legal things must you take care of and how do you get a continued presence on your site?

Ta dah! The big moment has arrived; the curtain has been pulled back, the ribbon cut and the champagne corks popped. Welcome to my new website!

Getting out meeting your suppliers, making new contacts, playing with new gadgets; trade shows are great fun.

As the site gets closer and closer to being ready for business I’m starting to think and plan for alternative sources of income. Photography courses seem like a good option they require little outlay in terms of finances; it’s more a question of time and planning to make sure the guests get value for money.

As I sign up to a new, free, teleseminar about how to connect with your customers I take a look at different methods and which might work.

I love getting and out doing recces of places with a view to coming back at a later date to do a shoot. With rain dropping from the skies I went out and had some fun.

Checklists have been the order of the week as the day of launch fast approaches. Giving everything a good look over, getting a second third or fourth opinion is essential. Then slowing down enough to remember to look at some day to practical business things is also advisable.

The people closest to us know how to cut the deepest when they criticise. But if we take a moment to step back and understand what it is that drives them to be so negative it takes the sting out of their words and we can find compassion for them rather than resentment.

As launch day approaches I have found so many times I’ve double and triple checked to see if things are right, I’ve let little moments of paranoia give me hours of extra work. Eventually I stopped and remembered to trust my intuition. Welcome to my whirlwind of a week.

Starting a business can be daunting, but what if there is some free help you can get for yourself, where you meet other business people without leaving the comfort of your home? Mastermind groups are well used business technique by many millionaires to help take their business forward.

Getting people to your site is important, get them to willingly sign up for your future marketing is critcal; so how to go about it? Here are few ideas in this weeks article to get your creative pulses racing.

So many things change from the intial concept of a website, it’s a natural process of any project that moves from design to a physical piece of work. Are there any things you are without realising overlooking, it’s time to start taking a hard look at the site as we move closer to launch.

The begining of a new year is a good time to look at what you want to achieve and bring all your knowledge you already have to making it happen.

Although a year can seem to fly by it’s easy to get to December and forget all the achievements and the good things that have happened in the previous months. It’s good to take time to stop and not only remember but feel the joy from these things as we head into the new year.

It’s Christmas in just a few days so lets take a rest from running round like mad people, play a few games and have some fun!

Finding the time and enthusiasm to do everything that needs doing in a day or week can be draining and without realising it the worst enemy self criticism creeps in to give a help hand. How we deal with it decides how successful we are in all walks of life.

Keywords are the buzz words when building a website, but what are they? And are they really that important? We take a wander through the dos and don’ts of keeping search engines and your customers happy.

This week some seemingly little yet important things are on my mind regarding the written style of the site, what is it I want to say about me and does anyone care?

Pricing my photos is one of the hardest jobs I’ve had to do and few people will offer any formulas you can follow. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. Here I offer one system that I am using.

There’s so much to think about when you start a business, it’s so easy to put too much trust in a supplier who on the face of it seems reliable and then come unstuck. Everytime we do anything there is a voice or a feeling inside us guiding us as to what feels right yet it’s so easy to ignore it and; end up in a mess. Listen To The Voice helps us to pinpoint where that voice is and how it can help.

Everyone’s tweeting these days, it’s a marketing tool that could be very useful to your company but it’s also fun as we find out.

Just the other day it all caught up with me, I’ve been so busy looking at different printers, working on site designs and loading all my work up to the site, running through costings and all the other things that go with setting up a business, when I suddenly realised that things were becoming hard work. I’d become so caught up in everything business focused that I’d forgotten to take some time for me.

Getting a web design right can be tricky with so many gizmos out there to catch your eye and lead you down wrong avenues. Take advantage of some top free tips from my web designer.

We’ve probably all suffered from a lack of confidence at one time or another about putting our work out there; moving forward rather than letting our fear hold us back is sometimes easier said than done. There are some easy ways to help ourselves become much more comfortable with this process that I’d like to share with you here.

Finding a trustworthy and good web designer is one of the most important things you have to do when starting an online business; they’ll become a vital part of your team. I’m taking a look at the pitfalls to avoid in finding someone who is fantastic at what they do whilst giving you great service and advice.

The idea was the easy bit now I needed to start doing something about it, the biggest thing for me to find out was, how do I get featured on Google? I knew to be on search engine pages would be crucial. Unfortunately it isn’t as simple as just sending Google a message to say, “Hi guys just created a wonderful website over here, please list me if you don’t mind!”

This is the first article in a series from Ruth Bayley that will document her journeys from the aha moment to actually getting a professional e-commerce site up and running.