Over the last year and a half, many people have been shocked that working from home does not always lead to a healthier business-life balance. In fact, working from home can often make things much, much trickier! Of course, that isn’t a big surprise to most small business owners out there. Those of us who have experienced working from home know how easy it can be to drive ourselves to the bone, burning the candle at both ends, sometimes for years at a stretch. Your body and mind need time to recover from a hard day’s work. Usually, that’s done…
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As a small business owner, I really dislike being locked into a contract. I’ve heard horror stories from my clients who got locked into long-term contracts with a firm that didn’t deliver what they promised! Now, I’m not bad-mouthing my competitors here! The aim of countless virtual assistant firms out there is to help your business succeed. When you’re running a small business, you need to have flexibility, especially when you’re first starting out. Your income might not be predictable and having a big fixed cost can become a nightmare for your budget. With many reputable virtual assistant firms, you don’t…
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It’s July! Are you ready for a vacation? Over the last year and a half, many people have been putting off going on vacation. They might have been worried about money, or they simply didn’t have anywhere to go, given the pandemic restrictions. But now that things are opening up across the country, and the future is looking bright, countless small business owners are deciding to take well-deserved vacations! Well, at least they are in an ideal world. Many entrepreneurs worry about what will happen if they take a week, or two, more weeks off. Heck, some are even worried…
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When you see a “sign up for my newsletter” on a website, do you click “Yes?” I would put money on your answer being “No, of course not!” And I understand why. We are conditioned to HATE email. Every time you check your email, you likely have dozens of messages sitting in your inbox telling you that “Won a free cruise” or “Your Outlook Email is About to Be Cancelled!” Spam has ruined email, plain and simple. So, why on earth would anyone want to give their email out to a random website? With all of that in mind, when…
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When was the last time you attended an in-person seminar or event? I’m going to take a wild guess and say it was sometime before March 2020! Personally, I don’t much miss them because a much more powerful, targeted, and accessible tool has taken their place. A successful webinar! For years, remote seminars and events were a staple in the business world. The problem was that they were expensive and somewhat inconvenient affairs. Though potentially informative to certain people, they usually only attracted limited audiences. Using real-time video software like Zoom or my favorite Demio, small business owners and entrepreneurs can…
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Have you ever sat down at your computer to write an email or social media and feel… stuck? For some reason, nothing comes to mind! You stare at a blank screen, knowing what you want to say but not being able to put it into words. Congratulations, you’re experiencing the bane of countless novelists, scriptwriters, and digital marketers: writer’s block. Writing can be daunting for many small business owners. You’re an expert in your field, but that doesn’t mean you’re also an incredible wordsmith! Even savvy entrepreneurs don’t always consider just how much time they spend writing while running their…
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Confession time: I’ve been going nuts with spring cleaning my business this year! Maybe it’s because 2020 was out of control, but I need to pull some order out of all the chaos! And boy, it’s been challenging! Some things go out the window when work is overwhelming, and business spring cleaning is usually one of them. For example, you might look at your office, think, “This is tidy enough,” then get back to work. Have you thought about spring cleaning your business? You’d be surprised how keeping things tidy at your small business can improve your productivity and overall…
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It’s difficult to believe that many people didn’t know what a podcast was only a few years ago. While podcasts have been around for 20 years, it wasn’t until the last decade that their popularity exploded. Today, they’ve mostly replaced radio as the primary form of audio entertainment and information. And the best thing about podcasts is that anyone can start one. With incredibly low overhead, podcasts are an ideal form of digital marketing for small business owners looking to make the most of their marketing dollars. That said, starting a podcast isn’t easy. If you want to deliver a…
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How often do you check out the Instagram Stories that show up at the top of your account? As a digital marketing expert, I think that Instagram Stories are a brilliant addition to Instagram (and the other platforms like Twitter that are introducing similar features). Instagram Stories are a limited-time form of social media: short-form videos only available for 24 hours. While this might seem like a downside, it’s actually a big plus! People rush to watch the Stories while available, boosting the number of eyes on your posts! As videos tend to have a well, video component to them,…
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I’m a huge believer in going the extra mile to “WOW” my clients. And it all begins in the first interaction I have with them: the client onboarding! It goes back to the earliest days of marketing before I started this business! In high school, I was a manager at Nordstrom. Yes, high school! As you can imagine being the youngest manager at Nordstrom made me really, really want to shine! While I wasn’t wowing clients but instead customers, it was a huge deal to me! I wanted every customer to feel like LITERALLY the most important person in the…
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