6 Organization Tips for Small Businesses

By Jennie Lyon / May 29, 2015

Being organized, especially as a small business owner with a long to-do list, keeps your business productive, focused, and profitable—and keeps you sane. Spring is the perfect time of year to re-focus your energies and get your space and task list in order. Here are 6 great organization tips for your small business. 1. Use the CloudStoring documents in the cloud is a great way to protect them from computer crashes or viruses. Additionally, it’s a much cleaner, faster way to share files and information if you work with a virtual team. Applications to consider include Google Drive and Dropbox.…

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4 Tools for Strategically Branding Your Business

By Jennie Lyon / May 1, 2015

“Branding”, a term that once meant simply stamping your business logo on everything, has evolved into the process of building a company’s identity and personality. While branding still involves developing a name and symbol or design that sets your business apart from the rest, it is so much more than that. Effective, strategic branding gives you an advantage over competitors and makes it possible for your company to target markets as tight or broad as you like. Because branding is so foundational to success, I thought I would offer a few more tips for creating a strong brand that I’ve…

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10 Easy To Use, Must-Have Small Business Software Programs

By Jennie Lyon / April 10, 2015

Technology has given us so many incredible things, like modern medicine, instant toast, and spaceships, for example. For me and many other entrepreneurs, one of the greatest gifts technology has given society is the virtual office. We now enjoy the ability to instantly access just about any person, piece of information, and resource imaginable—all from the comfort of a home office. In addition to the virtual container of the Internet, cloud-based small business software has made it possible to hold online calls and meetings, erect storefronts in cyberspace, and share schedules, data, and media of all kinds. Here are my…

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5 Healthy Lifestyle Habits To Grow Your Business

By Jennie Lyon / April 3, 2015

Like most women, you have probably heard that you can’t do it all—and you probably try to anyway. It is easy to run ragged trying to juggle your business, social life, family, and household. Remember, though, that you are your company’s most valuable asset! Successfully managing all aspects of your life requires balance and prioritizing self-care. Healthy habits help us to be more effective in both business and life. When we are healthy and balanced, we can “do more”—and in less time (which is always the goal). Here are 5 healthy habits for women in business. 1. Healthy Diet and…

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How to Choose a Virtual Team for Your Small Business

By Jennie Lyon / March 27, 2015

More and more small businesses these days are home-based or physically scaled down, operating out of a small office with minimal equipment. Additionally, more businesses start with modest budgets and aim to cut overhead costs in order to develop into successful startups more quickly. Because small businesses still need a team to operate, the cost-effective, simple solution is to partner with a virtual team of workers instead of staffing an office with salaried employees, which requires a bigger office rental, bulkier payroll, and an HR department—to name a few things. Even though virtual support teams are non-traditional (though they are…

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5 Prompts to Help You Generate Business Blog Topics

By Jennie Lyon / January 30, 2015

Even if you’ve partnered with a virtual assistant or content manager to create your online business content (i.e. blog and social media posts) you’ll still need to come up with the topics that your online content will be about. As an entrepreneur, you are probably great at coming up with new ideas—for your business. Coming up with topics to address for your audience may not be as easy. When you live, breathe, and move in your business every day, you have an unlimited amount of information about your principal service or product; it can be challenging to know what information…

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6 Ways to Nurture Your Small Business During Maternity Leave

By Jennie Lyon / January 23, 2015

Owning and running your own small business means that your attention is on your work 24 hours a day: what needs to get done, what’s most urgent, what you’ll respond to first tomorrow morning. It’s almost like taking care of in infant! If you’re a woman who owns her own business and is also expecting a child, you may feel as if you’re about to have two babies to care for. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, like women in most work settings you are probably planning to take a few months off, if not more. You…

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5 Steps for Choosing Your Small Business Idea

By Jennie Lyon / December 19, 2014

The decision to go into business for yourself is an exciting, liberating one that often sparks an endless stream of creative, imaginative business ideas. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, the brainstorming process is a fun and important step in making your dream of independent business ownership a reality. In the end, though, you’ll have to settle on one—at least to start with! Because entrepreneurs tend to be high-energy, inventive people, it can be a challenge to settle on one idea and to make sure the one you’ve chosen is the right one. By following these five steps, you’ll be well…

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Essential Elements of Small Business Content Marketing

By Jennie Lyon / December 10, 2014

In the past, the only businesses that were required to produce daily quality content were news, academic organizations, and entertainment companies. In today’s world of online branding and representation, all businesses are required to maintain professional, interesting content if they want to succeed and maintain contact with their market. Providing your audience and clients with relevant, regular content via social media platforms (including LinkedIn), blogs or professional articles, newsletters, and up-to-date websites strengthens your brand and builds your expert reputation. First thing’s first: your business must produce quality content. Grammatical errors, too casual of a tone, and content that is…

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