As the leaves begin to fall and we enter the last quarter of the calendar year, planning for the following one should be on your mind. Before the holidays eat up all your extra time and your client work doubles as the year comes to a close, you should spend some time thinking about how to improve your business’ online presence in the upcoming year. Early autumn is the perfect time to put together both an editorial and social media marketing calendar for 2017. Here are some reasons why these simple organizational tools can help grow your business next year. Editorial…
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It doesn’t matter what industry you work in; challenging clients are something every entrepreneur will need to deal with at one point or another. (I am lucky, all of my clients are pretty darn wonderful!) It can be frustrating when a client assumes you can read their mind, or changes their expectations on a daily basis. This can especially become a challenge when you only interact with clients online, with no chance to meet face-to-face. Having run a virtual business for years now, I’m very well versed in working well with clients via online means. Even before I owned a virtual…
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Getting a good start to the day can set the tone for the rest of it, make you feel happier, and improve your productivity when working. For entrepreneurs, and especially those of us who work from home, this is even more important—if you don’t have a time you’re expected to be “at the office” it can be far too easy for the morning to slip away without getting anything accomplished. Plus, the morning is such a great time for adding more “life” to your work-life balance equation, because there are rarely any demands or interruptions until the standard business day…
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One of the biggest challenges facing small business owners is staying organized and finding a system that works for them to keep all those projects under control. Without some kind of organizational system in place, deadlines get forgotten, clients feel neglected, and it’s easy to waste time on less important tasks. The solution to all of these problems is to use a project management software—it helps you by dividing up tasks by client and project, setting deadlines, and providing reminders about work that needs to be finished. Modern project management systems are usually web-based, with mobile or desktop applications available.…
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For an entrepreneur working with a virtual team to run a small business, communication is the single most important factor determining whether things run smoothly. It is absolutely critical to be able to communicate with your team members in an instant as things come up during the course of a work day. When there is seamless communication between your team members, you can set a more productive pace and get more accomplished. Email and phone calls have their uses, but for instantaneous communication, there is a popular new tool, called Slack. Slack is a platform for team communication that can be…
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Many small business owners first try out the services of a virtual assistant when they want to take a longer summer vacation and need someone to handle client care and social media while they’re away. While this is a completely legitimate way to utilize a virtual assistant, there are so many other things they can help with after the summer is over! [Tweet “A virtual assistant can free up large blocks of time, so you can focus on expansion.”] With September comes more business, and more work on a day-to-day basis. For a “solopreneur”, that can mean long hours and…
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Things tend to slow down for a lot of small businesses during late summer, but the smart entrepreneur knows this brief respite from constant client care and project work is the perfect opportunity to really work on improving systems and making changes to the way their business functions. When there’s less daily grind to get through, you have the chance to take a look at how your business is performing, plan for the future, and set new long-term goals. Last week we talked about how to use the slow period to integrate a new virtual assistant into your team, and…
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Most small business owners probably think of green initiatives and sustainability efforts as something that only affects big business, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. With our climate being more and more affected by global change—leading to increases in droughts, hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters—the onus is on all of us to take whatever action we can to help the planet. Living green has been a big part of my life for a long time, and I’ve been blogging about sustainability as a family activity since 2009. My business practices have also been overhauled to be more…
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As an entrepreneur, your time is one of the major limiting resources when it comes to your business, and having a good system for organizing your schedule is a must. In my own business, I use a number of systems to keep my business organized, allowing me to be most productive possible each day. In the past I have discussed steps for managing your calendar, so I wanted to check in to see how that is working for you. Do you feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks you have at any given time during the work week? Does the…
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In days past, it used to be that a potential client’s first impression of your business was your office. Just from the way it looked from the outside, they would instantly make a judgement. Your office was the first thing they had to go on about your professionalism, attention to detail, and level of success. But in today’s business world, a potential client’s first impression of your business is no longer your office. It is your website! [Tweet “In today’s business world, a potential client’s first impression is your website!”] Your website should be a portal into your entire business.…
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