There are some people in this world that are born readers, they will read anything they can lay their hands on.  That happens to be me.  I love reading.  As a child, I would look forward to the day the “Book Club” brochure would arrive at school.  I would carefully go through the catalogue and rate each book as to which ones I would like to order.  I had a maximum spend each month so I would want to make sure I got as much reading as I possibly could for my allowance.
At school from an early age, I could regularly be found in the library.  I was mortified when the library closed during play break and only opened during lunchtime and before school.   It was a relief to go to high school where the library was open extended hours.  The local council library was also one of my favorite places to visit.  
As a young adult, train, and bus rides to and from work gave me the ability to devour books at a great rate of knots.  Once the responsibilities of adulthood, corporate roles and relationships came into fruition, reading quickly took a back step.
A commitment to myself and a new Kindle has reinvigorated my love of reading yet again.  What I found is just twenty minutes of reading a day has such a positive impact, many you don’t think of.  NO matter whether you are reading education books, romance, drama, a magazine or the paper, there are certainly benefits.  Here are just a few:

• Transport yourself to another place with a few turns of the page
• Time to unwind from the day
• Time for you
• Educational
• Self-help books can really help and give you a new perspective
• Inject curiosity
• Spelling improves
• Vocabulary improvements
• Positivity improves
• Awareness
• Concentration and focus improve
• Contributions to conversation increases

There you have my twelve benefits that I found reading twenty minutes a day can bring to or back to your life.  Give it a go, you will love it!  Check out Podcast episode 135 for more detailed information.

As a child growing up in what used to be what seemed the end of the line country town in WA, I remember how everyone knew everyone. It was an era where the local grocer, pharmacist and store owners knew our names. I clearly remember the pharmacist giving out specially made jellybean bags just for the kiddies. Mum’s and dads were greeted at the door with “Good morning, Mrs so and so or Mr so and so.”  It was personalised good old-fashioned service.
As we become more populated and the end of the line towns become major cities and suburbs along with automation, the ability to offer personalised service is becoming less and less doable but increasingly wanted.
Let’s throw into the mix things such as social media, automated phone services and self-serve checkouts that drive everybody mad, plus the onset of automated intelligence and it seems that good old-fashioned service and personalisation can be left behind. Or have they?
As a small to medium business owner, we can personalise our service and go the extra mile. Let’s face it, everyone has a big sign above their head saying, “Make me feel special.”  So how can we make our clients and customers feel special?
Here are some top tips:

• Send emails with the person’s name <<First name>> in the subject line and body of the email. Use mail merge or your email service such as Mailchimp or Sender
• Run Poll’s in your FB group to determine the needs of your audience
• Run competitions with your product such as photo ops wearing or using your product
• Send SMS’s specific to your database around a new product or service (use their name)
• Mention locations they are familiar with in emails and SMS.
• Call outs on your socials for your customers businesses or services
• Stay in touch, call, email, text with pertinent topics, articles, or information of interest
• Email or SMS birthday vouchers, exclusive offers specific to an occasion, their birthday, your birthday, anniversary of them becoming a customer/client
• Celebrate their wins and special occasions. Send a handwritten note or card for birthdays or special occasions. Leave the sales pitch out, that is in your email or SMS. (Send cards from your phone try bit.ly/chcardapp)

Drop a comment below if you have ways that you incorporate customer appreciation and personalisation into your business.