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 More
Get as much work done in as little time. This is the overriding goal in your head when you’re a small business owner. Time is money. If you only have a few hours every day to get everything done, you’re going to need to be super-efficient. Unfortunately, there are a ton of little, but essential tasks that can get in the way of your efficiency. For example, social media. Why You NEED Social Media Social media is a crucial part of every digital marketing strategy. Being on all of the major social media networks is how you reach out to…
Read More
For some small businesses, getting a new client is “Good news, bad news” time. The good news is that you have a new client! The bad news is that if you don’t have an automated onboarding system, it can be a massive headache. There is the first consultation, the follow-ups, sending/signing the contract, convincing them of the importance of filling out their client information form, invoices, scheduling your kick off call, learning their habits and preferences… It’s a ton of work! Of course, you can make things go much smoother by streamlining your entire client onboarding sequence. And a big…
Read More
Oh, the joy of tech support… Just about everyone has had the experience of their computer dying in the middle of an important project, only to have to spend the rest of the day wrestling with tech support. Listening to hours of “Your call is important to us” hold music and low-level clueless employees whose advice basically boils down to “Turn it off and then on again.” Then, if you don’t mysteriously get disconnected, you MAYBE might get to someone who can actually help you with your problem, if you’re lucky. So imagine trying to deal with tech support while…
Read More
Do you remember sitting in school as a kid, vaguely staring at the walls as your teacher droned on and on about geography, history, or math… You were kind of paying attention. Maybe take a note every now and then, but the sad reality is that your attention is elsewhere. The material just wasn’t engaging you. But why? What your teacher was saying might have been interesting, but without a visually engaging element, your attention was lost. What if the teacher had a winning slide deck? We like to think that, as adults, we have more focus. That we can…
Read More
Do you have a business plan? Something that I highly recommend all of my clients (and pretty much every entrepreneur) do is create a business plan at the beginning of the year. Spending the first week or so in January putting together a comprehensive business plan can pay off dividends for a small business through the new year. A business plan gives you a map, with goals and strategies that may help you confront the biggest challenges facing your business. But here is the problem: plans change. Things change! Life happens! Maybe your business did even better than you expected…
Read More
Do you have any tricks or tips that help get you through your daily workflow? Back when I first started my small business, my daily workflow was very different than it is now. There were very few applications out there that not only make my business easier to manage but also helped me get so much more done throughout the course of my day. Today, I have tons of programs, automated processes, and other tools that help me be super productive from the first thing in the morning until the very end of the night. If you’ve ever been curious…
Read More
Have you ever thought about deleting your Facebook account? Trust me; you’re not alone. There comes a time when everyone feels fed up with all of the social media drama: Terrifying news stories about privacy issues, “vaguebooking” when your friends post vague and worrying statuses, or just the general feeling that everyone else is living their best life but you (spoiler alert: they aren’t). When this kind of thing happens to my friends, I almost always suggest taking a break. You can deactivate your accounts for a while and take a breather, no problem. That is, you can for your…
Read More
The funny thing about our social media networks is that we still don’t have any idea of their potential. Do you remember back when Facebook first made the scene? It was thought to be a digital Rolodex. Today, it’s a multimedia sharing hub and one of the premier marketing platforms in the world. Social media networks and other digital services often grow in ways that you can’t expect. Just look at Instagram. From its humble beginnings as a mobile-only Facebook knock-off, it’s emerged as the biggest competitor to Facebook (Well, sort of competitor, seeing as Facebook bought them). And we…
Read More
Have you ever heard the phrase, “aging gracefully?” While I personally think that aging gracefully is a virtue, I can tell you one place where age really does matter: your website. After just a few years, even the most cutting-edge, beautiful, and well-designed website starts to look a little dated. And there are many websites out there that look like they haven’t been updated since 2005! Whenever I see one of those websites, I know that there is only one solution: a “facelift!” And believe me, when it comes to websites, I’m the cosmetic surgeon of your dreams! Look at…
Read More
