Who in their right mind would plant seeds in the dead of winter? Smart small business owners, that’s who! The biggest hope for a new year is growing your business. That’s what most New Year’s Resolutions are about, people want to grow. Grow their business, grow their income, personal growth. Growing your business doesn’t happen by accident though, you need to plant seeds. For an entrepreneur, the seeds of growth are plans for the future, and January is the perfect time to make them. Seed #1: Make a New Year Business Plan Do you have a business plan, written down…
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There are some holidays that seem almost custom-made to give you the perfect excuse to reach out to former and current clients, telling them how much you appreciated their business. There is Christmas, of course. Valentine’s Day is another popular occasion. And then, there is the November holiday that is coming up fast, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the time of year where we gather with family and friends to give thanks for all of the wonderful things in our lives. For the small business owner or entrepreneur, Thanksgiving also gives you an ideal opportunity to be thankful for your business, including…
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How long is your to-do list? To-do lists are awesome things. Just trying to get through the day-to-day work at your business can be stressful. When you need to tackle a huge project, the work can sometimes seem overwhelming. By using a great to-do list, you can mitigate that stress by seeing all of the tasks of the day, week, or month laid out in front of you. The trick is that, when you are running a small business, your regular to-do list might be a bit too limited to get the job done. This is one of the reasons…
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Have you ever heard the old saying, “Show, don’t tell”? Visual and graphic design is an absolutely essential part of any company’s branding. Without an attractive visual element, a brand is simply words on a page. With great graphic design, a brand can pop and get into the minds of potential clients and customers alike. Unfortunately, many companies tend to put the importance of graphic design on the back burner, either believing it doesn’t makes a huge difference or feeling that they can do just as good a job themselves. This kind of thinking can make or break a business.…
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Having to work when you are suffering through an illness is a nightmare. Every step, every thought, every burst of energy requires so much effort that it can feel like you are trying to run through a swimming pool. Everyone has had to do it at one point or another, no one enjoys it. But when you don’t have a cold, flu, or easily identifiable illness, we don’t really think about the our health or the energy we expend. We simply go about our day, exerting the necessary energy to complete tasks. As small business owners, we often put our…
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Entrepreneurs and small business owners have one of the most time and energy-consuming jobs a person can have. They throw themselves into their business, giving it their all and focusing entirely on its growth. This means that they can start to let their health slide when things start to get hectic around the office. Ask a doctor what the #1 thing is that you could do to improve your health, “Exercise.” The problem is that many small business owners and entrepreneurs just don’t feel like they have the time. The thing about an exercise routine is that it doesn’t just…
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What would your company be without your clients? One of the keys to a successful small business is to develop long-term client relationships. For a business to become truly successful, you need to build a foundation of repeat customers and clients you can rely on. This can require a tremendous amount of time and effort, just like developing any other lasting relationship in your life. Here are some tips on how you can get started strengthening your client relationships, with the goal of eventually converting them into regular, long-term clients: Communication is the KeyAll of my long-term client relationships have…
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Being a small business owner is a little bit like juggling, you have to keep all of the balls in the air. The trick is when your business grows and you are expected to catch more and more balls until finally… some of them are dropped. There are a ton of online tools out there that can help you better manage your business and relieve some of that stress. By unloading much of your workload, you might even be able to double your income! Here are some incredibly useful online tools that I recommend you check out to help keep…
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One of the most exciting times for a small business is when they launch a new product or program. Small businesses rarely have unlimited capital for product/program development, which makes the success of a launch absolutely imperative. This can make it a very tense and stressful time in the office, as everything involved in the launch needs to be executed flawlessly. If you’re doing everything on your own, it can consume every bit of your bandwidth, pulling your focus from other, still important projects and clients. By partnering with a Virtual Assistant, you can instantly relieve this stress on you…
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Does this situation sound familiar? You’re a small business entrepreneur, doing it all yourself. You have a big project due by the end of the day that only you can work on. Unfortunately, you also have to post your company’s social media, finish up writing a blog post, sort through your emails, and build a sales page. And that isn’t even counting the hundreds of distractions that can occur throughout the average business day. How on earth are you going to get your big project finished with all of those little, non-specialized tasks in your way? The answer is that you…
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