Hello from No. 11.
A short note on why this journal exists, what I plan to put in it, and how often you should expect a new piece.
This is the first post in a journal I have been meaning to start for about a year. It exists for two reasons.
The first is selfish. Writing a thing down is the surest way I know to find out whether I actually understand it. Most of the work I do for clients sits in spreadsheets, dashboards, Google Business Profiles, and ad accounts. None of those teach you anything when you read them back six months later. A short post does.
The second is for the people I work with. A lot of what an independent business needs to know about getting found online has not changed in five years. A lot of it has changed in the last five months. The journal will sit somewhere in the middle of those two truths, and try to be useful without being clever.
What I will write about
Three rough categories.
Getting found. How small businesses turn up in search, in maps, in the answers ChatGPT and Perplexity give. What works for an independent café in Wanstead is, broadly, what works for an independent café in Sheffield, and the journal will say so when that is true.
Running the studio. Notes on doing this as one person. The walk-in audit model, the choice not to mark up ad spend, the choice not to take on more clients than I can read every monthly report for. A studio of one is unusual enough to be worth writing down.
Things I have changed my mind about. Marketing has more dogma than most fields. I will keep a public record of where I was wrong.
How often
When there is something worth writing. Not on a schedule. The aim is for posts that hold up six months later, not a calendar to fill.
If you would like to know when something new lands, the RSS feed is here. If you would prefer to read on the High Street, post me your address through the audit form and I will include the latest piece with your audit.
Matthew