How often do you find yourself overwhelmed by your daily to-do list? As a small business owner, I know how quickly a to-do list can balloon to impossible lengths. There are always so many things to get done and only so much time to do them. When you run a small business, countless small tasks are on your shoulders as you must likely wear several different hats. In larger organizations, these tasks would be the responsibility of dedicated employees, but you likely can’t accord a full-time worker to take care of your social media, for example. While hiring a virtual…
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Do you have big business plans for the new year? With the previous year in the rearview mirror, I’ve been putting a ton of thought into revamping my business plan. I’m a firm believer in coming up with a new business plan every January (And then of course, I revisit it quarterly to see if I need to tweak it). In this year’s plan, I’ve been specifically focusing on ways I can grow my brand through digital marketing. Branding encompasses everything in a business, including your personality. Your personality, goals, business sense, beliefs, everything goes directly into your brand. And…
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You know the old saying that mistakes are why they put erasers on the end of pencils? Well, that might do the trick when you’re in the 6th grade, but when you’re a small business owner, mistakes have slightly higher stakes! As a small business owner, I’ve faced countless difficulties throughout my career. Heck, like everyone else in the world in 2020, I’ve faced incredible challenges over the last few months! The good thing is that I’ve learned how to take those mistakes and learn from them. But trust me, that wasn’t easy! I’ve always found that the next best…
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About 30 years ago, do you know one of the best places to connect with your customers? Their car. The very first thing they did after they got into their car in the morning was turn on the radio. And chances are that it remained on for their entire commute to work, both back and forth. This offered advertisers a captive audience (literally, if the driver was on the highway!) But then around 15 years ago, things started to change. People stopped listening to the radio as much when they headed to work. Instead, they would put on music from…
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I don’t know about you, but every week I get “emails” touting a new secret SEO growth tactic or hack that promises to get me on the first page of Google! It got me thinking about how overwhelming SEO can be to entrepreneurs, because there are so many components to consider. Keywords, on-page and off-page optimization, link building, oh my! The list goes on and on. So, let’s start here, how much do you know about SEO? Sorry (not sorry) for the rhyme there, but it’s a question that every small business owner should be asking themselves. Over my many…
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Do me a favor. Go onto your Instagram or Facebook account and see how long it takes you to find a picture of a cat or dog. Don’t worry; I’ll wait. My guess is that it happened WAY faster than you expected. Pets have taken over the social media world. We might be torn apart by world events, pop culture, and trolling on social media, but there is one thing that brings us all together: Cute pictures of animals. So, the big question is, how can you harness the awesome power of pets to put a spotlight on your small…
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I’m sure that you’ve visited websites that read… a little bit oddly. They keep mentioning the same word or phrase over and over again. “If you’re looking for the best car repair in West Palm Beach, Florida, then you will want to visit our West Palm Beach car repair shop. We offer the best car repair service in West Palm Beach, Florida. WEST PALM BEACH!!!” This kind of search engine optimization is a holdover from the early days of search engines. Back then, they could be fooled into thinking that your site was a leading one simply by stuffing it…
Read MoreLet me ask you a hypothetical question. Imagine you are looking for a virtual assistant to help with your small business (a fairly good bet, seeing as you’re here right now). You narrow your choices down to two VAs. To make your decision, you bring up their websites. Both of the sites look good. They are cleaned and polished, not looking dated at all. There are lots of services offered, some solid testimonials, and the graphics and copy are all high quality. Ah, but then you visit the “Blog” sections. In one of them, you see that they haven’t updated…
Read MoreOne of the most common questions that I get asked in free consultations is, “How do I grow my business?” And boy, is that a loaded question! As a virtual assistant, there are a ton of ways that I can help you grow your business, ranging from taking advantage of my digital marketing services to business coaching. But I have always found that one of the most effective methods is to host a webinar. A webinar is essentially an online seminar, and there are so many benefits to creating one! Figure Out What Aspect of Your Business You Would Like…
Read MoreThere’s a great Jerry Seinfeld comedy bit that perfectly sums up how some people feel about public speaking. “According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.” In my experience working with clients, I’m afraid that I have to agree. Speaking in front of people is a fear born right out of “show and tell,” back when they were a kid. Getting up in…
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