7 Ways To Go Paperless In Your Small Business

Laptop and smartphone on a table

**This is a collaborative post

As companies became increasingly dependent on electronic communications, we all believed that the age of the paperless workplace was upon us. However, shops, restaurants, hairdressers, legal firms, and small manufacturing businesses still heavily rely on tangible documents. Learning how to be paperless helps minimise office waste, saves time and money, helps safely store sensitive documentation, and can help to save a few trees!

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What do I need to start a blog? // My Top 5 Blogging Essentials

A laptop, a mug and a plant

#AD

I have been blogging here at Toby Goes Bananas for six and a half years now (and I had a different blog for about four years before that). So although I don’t claim to be an expert I’ve been around for a while! If you are just starting out with a blog then it can be a bit daunting so I thought I’d share my top 5 blogging essentials for getting started.

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What makes a good Pinterest Pin? // My top five

What makes a good Pinterest pin? My top 5 pins

I have to admit that Pinterest is still a bit of a mystery to me. I mean, I understand it and I know it is basically a search engine, but I haven’t quite figured out how to make it drive traffic to my blog yet. It’s just another one of those things that seems to need a lot of time put into it, and at the moment that’s time I don’t have! Read more

Ten things I love // Family blogs

So I’ve been blogging here at Toby Goes Bananas for getting on for four years now. I started writing in 2013 when Toby was a few months old, and since then I have read a lot of other parenting blogs too. Some of them I’ve been reading since before Toby was born, others I have discovered more recently. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to share some of my favourite parenting and family blogs with you too…

Ten family blogs I love

What the Redhead Said

Donna’s blog was one of the very first parenting blogs that I started reading. Read more

The changing face of Instagram // Microblogging

I started writing this blog three and a half years ago. It was intended as an online journal of our lives and that’s what it still is to a degree. Although I have been trying to write more in the last few weeks I go through periods when I write very little at all. But there is another place I write, and I write there almost every day. That place is Instagram and I suppose what I do there could be called microblogging.

Instagram is a funny beast. When I first started using it, posts were shown in chronological order, the whole point was that it was ‘instant’ – people posted pictures of what they were doing right at that moment. If you were so bold as to post a picture that hadn’t been taken just then there was even the #latergram hashtag to use.

But over the last six months or so it has changed. And I have changed the way I use it too. As Instagram is owned by Facebook it didn’t take long before a similar algorithm to the one which determines what you see in your Facebook news feed was also introduced on Instagram. Instead of seeing posts in chronological order, the Instagram algorithm now uses a combination of factors such as previous content you’ve liked, engagement on posts and things or people you’ve searched for to decide what it is going to show you.

As a result fewer people are now using Instagram to post pictures of life as it happens. There are more ‘curated’ feeds that have a theme or post to a schedule. And Instagram has also become a place for brands and ‘influencers’ to make money so there are a lot more adverts and paid for posts now too.

So how have these changes affected how I use Instagram? Read more

I’m going to #BML16 with Ardo Breastpumps

You may have noticed me mention that I went away at the beginning of May to Blog On, a blogging conference in Manchester. I had a great time, mostly catching up with friends, as well as attending a few of the sessions too.

Well next weekend I’m heading to London for another blogging conference; Britmums Live (or #BML16 as it has been rebranded this year). I went to Britmums in 2014 and I really enjoyed it. At that point I’d only been blogging at Toby Goes Bananas for about 8 months and I was a bit overwhelmed by the whole experience. This time I’m older and wiser (ahem!) and I’m looking forward to meeting up with some old friends, and meeting some in person for the first time too.

This year I have been lucky enough to be sponsored to attend #BML16 by Ardo breastpumps. I reviewed an Ardo double electric pump when Gabe was first born and it was fab. It definitely helped me keep breastfeeding for longer. Although I’m no longer breastfeeding I still believe that Ardo have some great products, and their website also has lots of brilliant information and advice for breastfeeding mums.

Anyway, I thought I should probably join in the #BML16 linky and introduce myself.

Sarah (Toby Goes Bananas)

  • Is this my first blogging event? No, I went to Britmums Live in 2014 and Blog On MOSI last month.
  • I will be wearing…something comfy! Jeans probably, and a top that is clean and not covered in baby snot hopefully!
  • What I hope to gain from #BML16: A chance to catch up with friends and to be inspired to keep on blogging even when I feel like I just don’t have enough hours in the day.
  • My tips for a great conference: Choose your sessions wisely, and remember you don’t have to go to them all – spending time in the brand hub and chatting to other bloggers is just as worthwhile. Oh and stay to the end if you can!

If you see me next weekend please do come and say hi. And please accept my apologies in advance if I don’t know your name – I am rubbish at matching bloggers to their blogs!

tobygoesbananas-ardo

Blog On Ice Breaker

In just a couple of weeks I will be leaving Toby and Gabe in the capable hands of my lovely husband and heading down to Manchester for the Blog On blogging conference. I went to Britmums Live back in 2014 but I haven’t had chance to go to another blogging conference since so I’m very excited. And I am very grateful to Barry for taking on the unenviable task of looking after both boys on his own for two days!

Before I go I thought I would join in with The Great Big Blog On Ice Breaker Linky and share a bit about myself, and hopefully find out a bit about some of the other bloggers who will be attending. I’m really looking forward to meeting up with some of my blogging pals but it would be great to meet some new people too – so if you see me then please do come and say hi!

So, to the questions…

  1. Share a recent picture of you
    I’m usually the one behind the camera these days but this is one my husband took when we went for a walk in the woods near our house at the weekend. I think I look knackered but I reckon that’s just my face these days!
    Me looking tired in the woods
  2. If you had to describe yourself in three words…….
    Tired mother and teacher
  3. How long have you been blogging and what made you start?
    I have been blogging since 2009 but I started Toby Goes Bananas in 2013 when Toby was about three months old. I’d started reading lots of other parenting blogs during the many and long night feeds and thought I’d like to keep a record of Toby’s childhood. Since then I’ve had another baby; Gabriel who was born in August 2015.
  4. What was your favourite TV program as a child?
    Ooh, now that depends at what age. As a pre-schooler I loved King Rollo and Button Moon, when I was a bit older it was probably Byker Grove or maybe Neighbours – I’m definitely from the Jason and Kylie era!
  5. Something interesting you might not know about me is . . .
    I can tap dance, knit, play the ukulele, speak French and Spanish and say ‘there is a naked man following me everywhere with a butcher’s knife’ in Dutch!
  6. What is the weirdest food you have ever eaten?
    I don’t think I’ve eaten anything weird – I’m quite fussy about food, I don’t even like baked beans.
  7. What was your biggest fashion faux pas?
    Oh there are too many to mention – I grew up in the 80s and 90s! Not clothes, but I did have a straight bob with a permed fringe when I was about 10!
  8. What are you pet peeves?
    Bad driving, inconsiderate neighbours and vegetables that go off before their use by date.
  9. Who would be your 3 perfect dinner party guests (dead or alive) and why?
    Michael Mosely because I always really enjoy his documentaries and we’ve recently started following The Fast Diet that he advocates. Jojo Moyes because I love all her books and I think she would be interesting to talk to. And lastly Johnny Depp because, well, Johnny Depp.
  10. If they made a movie of your life, what would it be about and which actor would play the part of you?
    Hmm, my 20s and early 30s were pretty busy – I lived and worked in France for six years on and off, and I travelled to America on my own twice. I did spend quite a lot of it drunk though so I don’t know how good a narrator I would make! And I think Carey Mulligan would play me, but mostly because I covet her hair.
  11. If you could live in any sitcom, which one would it be?
    I’d have to say Friends. I was in sixth form when it started and I remember the buzz about it. And I probably know all the scripts off by heart the amount of times I’ve seen every episode since!
  12. Name a famous person you have met
    I’ve met Tim Minchin quite a few times, I even hung out with him backstage at one of his gigs once. And I met Fatima Whitbread in MacDonalds during the Barcelona Olympics too.
  13. Which social media platform best describes your personality and why?
    Probably Twitter – always busy and I’ve forgotten what everyone has said five minutes after they say it.
  14. What picture do you have on lock screen on your phone / computer?
    This one…
    Siblings February
  15. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
    About 20? Not including various dancing shoes. And how many do I wear regularly? Three!
  16. What period of time from the past would you most like to have lived?
    1950s – mostly because I love the clothes and those 1950s dresses really suit my body shape.
  17. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
    Oh this is hard. There are so many places I’d like to go… Australia and New Zealand are near the top of the list. I love America though – I’ve been three times (once to New York, once on a West Coast road trip on my own and most recently on an East Coast road trip for my honeymoon) but there is still so much of it I’d like to see. I’d love to go to South America too, especially now I can speak Spanish.
  18. What is your guilty pleasure?
    Chocolate and far too much of it.
  19. What is your favourite tipple?
    Rose wine or Southern Comfort and Coke although I don’t drink very much these days.
  20. If you had a magic lamp and a Genie, what would be your three wishes?
    I would wish that my boys grow up happy and healthy, for a cure for the common cold (then maybe I could help Gabe get rid of the one he’s had for nearly two months now) and lastly on a purely selfish note I would ask to be able to eat whatever I like without getting fat!

I’m really looking forward to meeting up with some of my blogging pals at Blog On but it would be great to meet some new people too – so if you see me then please do come and say hi!