A day in the life of an Entrepreneur

What is it like as an entrepreneur? How have you found ways to keep your life organized?

Behind the scenes

I know I feel like each and every day I am running around like crazy. Taking my daughter to school, client work, networking, videos, errands, letting the dog out, house chores, you name it! I have been an entrepreneur for 10 years now, WOW time flies! It can be hard to balance work and life, some nights you are working late, some mornings you are up early, trying to fit everything in in one day! To be honest with you I have really been an entrepreneur at heart since I was 5 years old. I would travel back to Michigan each Summer and started helping my grandma and grandpa in their H&R Block office in Oscoda, MI. I helped make coffee, answer phones, once I learned how to read they had me filing paperwork, getting forms, speaking with the customers and from that moment I knew I wanted to own my very own business. The joy of having my own clients, my own desk, my own business name it was so exciting to me!  Once I set out on my own in 2007 I have been like the energizer bunny who just keeps going and going! I really don’t know how to STOP! I love working, I love having a busy schedule and learning new things. I feel that to be a successful entrepreneur you need to keep yourself busy with the right things, set your goals, be organized and set boundaries.

Who’s with me as a female entrepreneur we wear many different hats during the day. I can be on a conference call while changing laundry or letting the dog out.  We have to organize the family schedules, work schedules, and fun schedules. People have NO clue what goes on behind the scenes of your day to day life!

Being Organized

I have always been organized in life, ask my mom! I love things neat, clean and organized. I have realized over this past year, life is NOT always like that. We have been going through a remodel of our house and it has been a bit challenging. We have contractors in and out all day, trying to organize their schedules is like trying to find a taxi in New York!

I try really hard to remain ORGANIZED, but sometimes I feel like I am just overwhelmed. I am shifting my schedules and my day around to find time to write blogs, make videos, and take calls. It’s easy for calls because they CAN’T see my office or lack of space for an office. When I do my videos I NEED a nice clean background, that can be hard to find right now. So, what I guess I am trying to get at it, it’s ok to be disorganized once in awhile. It has shown me the importance of setting that foundation early on in my career of being able to adapt to different situations and know what I need to get my work done each day. You just have to be a little creative some days.

A few tools I found to keep my family and business organized:

Google Calendar – Everything I do is on my calendar! I can invite my husband to family functions or my business partner Caitlin to team calls. I can color code each of my calendars, from networking, personal, writing, videos, etc. It keeps me on my toes. I love when things are color coordinated, so this is perfect!

Google Drive and Google Pictures – these allow me to share documents with my family and business life.  I can have different folders for personal and business. I have my daily task sheet on Google Sheets for everything I need to get done each day, our client information, social media posts and more. I am able to share documents or folders with the people I want. The thing I like the most is I can access the items from any device I own! It makes my life SO much easier.

It is important to find these systems to put in place to help you stay on track. As an entrepreneur we can get lost in creating our own schedules so staying organized and setting boundaries is key!

Putting systems in place and being able to delegate

One thing we have earned over the past 10 years is we can’t do EVERYTHING! In order for our company to grow we needed to find people to help with daily tasks, maybe twitter followers, Facebook Likes, Content writing, etc. We wrote down one day things we LOVE to do for our clients and things we know we need to do, but not in love with it. We then reached out to the local colleges and found interns to help!  We have been able to put systems in place for each client on what needs to be done and when. how much time it should take and when the project should be complete. We were then able to implement these systems with our interns and now contractors. By putting these systems in place it allows us to be able to create a schedule for what we want to get done and the flexibility for our team to work when they can.

Don’t get me wrong this did NOT happen overnight, it took us awhile to find the right people and what the right tasks were for them, we have had about 7 people work for us and some didn’t work out, some went their own ways but still keep in touch and for our interns they all ended up getting awesome jobs, thanks to us!

It’s like that motto, “You have to spend money to make money” well in a way it is true. If you try to manage everything in your business you will limit yourself. Start making lists of the things you love to do in your business and the things that you don’t love. Maybe like your books, calls, networking, social media, etc. Then start looking for other businesses that offer those services. Ask friends or even post to Upwork.

It is scary taking the first step to delegating something, trust me coming from a control freak, nothing is the way you do it! HAHA Once you find the right person or company it takes a BIG weight off your shoulders that is one less thing you have to worry about and you know it is getting done.

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Content at your finger tips

Are you tired of going through hundreds of websites each week to find content to share or write about? These two free tools will help you get your industry new at your fingertips!

Feedly

The content you need to accelerate your research, marketing, and sales.Feedly allows you to become a smart reader with less noise!

Google Alerts

Monitor the web for interesting new content. How often. As-it-happens. At most once a day. At most once a week. Sources. Automatic. News. Blogs. Web. Video. Books. Discussions.  And much more!

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Podcasting and Video Marketing (The Real Benefit to Your Business)

With Search Engine Optimization becoming more and more difficult as competition continues to emerge, your business can set itself apart by Podcasting and Video Marketing.

4 Reasons Why Your Business Needs to be Podcasting

Podcasts are a powerful marketing tool. Over the years, it has garnered immense popularity, with more and more businesses discovering how it can benefit their company. If you still haven’t incorporated podcasting into your marketing campaign, then you’re losing out on a lot of business opportunities.

Here are 4 reasons why your business needs to be podcasting.

Brand awareness

As mentioned above, podcasting is a powerful marketing tool. It can help you reach new audience, drive traffic to your site, and even build a community. By broadcasting podcasts regularly, it will help develop your company’s brand to make it a household name.

Simplicity

A lot of people are put off by the seemingly confusing technical aspects of recording a podcast. Producing a podcast is not as complicated as what most people think. You do not need a lot of money either to start a podcast.

To start, all you need is a microphone, a headset, a recording device, and editing software. A good wifi connection is also important for uploading the files.

Easy to consume

Humans have a very short attention span. In fact, an average person has an average attention span of 8 seconds. If you want to get your message across, then you need to make it easier for your audience to consume and understand what you’re trying to say. Podcasts can help you do that.

A 1,500-word article may provide your audience the information they need. However, not everyone will have the patience to read through the entire article. With podcasts, you can convey the message in a more interactive way. Plus, people can listen to podcasts during their commute or while doing other things at work or at home.

Build better relationship with your audience

Podcasts provides a more personal way of getting information. Instead of just reading content on your blog or email, they get to hear your voice through podcasts. This makes your brand more personable. Overtime, people will be more familiar of your voice and presentation style.

Building a relationship with your audience helps in building trust. Once you gain their trust, it would be easier for you to turn them into paying customers. After all, people are more likely to buy something from someone they trust.

4 Reasons Why Your Business Should Use Video Marketing

The use of video in content marketing is on the rise. A lot of businesses are centering their marketing strategies on videos to present content in a more personal, compelling way.

Here are 4 reasons why your business should use video marketing.

Capture the attention of people

Among the different types of content, video content seem to be the most effective in capturing people’s attention. With the sheer amount of new content being published on a daily basis, it can be difficult to cut through the noise. For some people, reading a long blog post can be boring. In an age of short attention span, video makes it easier for time-constrained viewers to consume and digest complex content in a shorter amount of time. If you want to capture the attention of your target audience, try creating more videos.

Higher engagement

According to a study that was conducted by Moz, videos get a lot more engagement as compared to other types of content such plain text posts or photos. In the said study, they revealed that posts with videos receive nearly 300% more inbound links.

There are numerous types of videos that you can use for your business. You can create demonstrations, animated explainer videos or how-to videos. You may also compile photos and videos from people who use your products and use it to promote your products. No matter what video you choose, make sure that the videos you create are congruent with your overall style and ethos of your brand.

Improve SEO

Contrary to what most people think, Google doesn’t just use text-based content to assess the relevancy of your web page to a specific keyword. It also takes into account other types of content you use, including photos, videos, and a combination of text and photos.

For best results, we suggest that you include a transcript of your video. Not only will it be beneficial for your audience; it can also help search engines to understand the relevancy of the video. Also, don’t forget to include the keywords in your video’s meta tags.

Video is mobile-friendly

Most people do almost everything on their smartphone. They use it to communicate with their family, friends, and colleagues, research information, schedule meetings, and even order a pizza. Almost half of the adult population say they can’t live without their smartphones.

In today’s digital world, videos can easily be accessed with a click of a button. By incorporating videos to your marketing strategy, you get to communicate your desired message and encourage your desired action.

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How To Work SMART In 2018

I don’t know about you, but my mind has been consumed with planning for 2018!  Specifically, I have been asking myself “how I can grow my business in the new year?”  The biggest question I have been asking myself is “What are the activities that I need to be involved in to grow the business and how can I tell if those activities will work and are working?”  Almost like kismet, I stumbled over the SMART acronym while surfing social media.  While it is not a new idea, it is definitely a timely one!

If you are not familiar with the SMART acronym, here is how it breaks down as it applies to business and goal setting:

S – Specific (make your goal is clear and not ambiguous) 

M – Measurable (how will you measure your results to ensure you have reached your goal?)

A – Attainable (make sure the goal is something realistic, something you can achieve)

R – Relevant (does the goal make sense for your business and your business plan?)

T – Time-Bound (how long will it take you to achieve your goal or what deadline did you assign to this goal?)

This acronym is a favorite as it reminds me to be laser focused when planning my goals for 2018.  Each goal I set for 2018 will need to be SMART.  Each letter of the acronym will be filled out in order for it to be considered a serious goal for 2018.  To do that, I created a 2018 SMART planner that I am excited to share with you!  You can download the planner and complete SMART for each goal you plan to achieve in 2018.

To get your SMART planner, click HERE.

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Using Canva to Create Beautiful Images

Canva is a great tool for business owners to use, to create those eye-grabbing images for social media. It is an easy to use platform, that allows you to be super creative and make amazing images without being a graphic designer and having to pay a fortune for images. Canva is great for creating your branded images, marketing materials, presentations, menus and so much more! Sometimes you will see an image as you scroll through social media and say WOW that is an awesome image! You may think to yourself “how did they do that?” Now you know! Create images that STOP THE SCROLL as we say! Enjoy!

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Defining Your Core Values

Each business should have a list of core values, your core values are what makes your business run. What type of people you want to hire, or work with. This is the foundation of your business.

We will learn in 5 simples steps how to figure out what your core values are.
Download your FREE Core Values Checklist Here

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2018 Social Media Marketing Planning Guide [Curated Content]

2018 Social Media Marketing Guide

Plan for Social Success in 2018

[This guide was originally published by Simple Measured]

Like the feeling of pulling your “ugly but hilarious” holiday sweater from storage, the arrival of our 2018 Social Planning Guide signals a new year is on its way. Planning next year’s social strategy across teams can feel daunting, but our guide and editable worksheets will have everyone working together.

The Simply Measured planning guide helps you to:

  • Identify and incorporate trends that will keep your messaging current in 2018
  • Outline and capture the social metrics that reflect success for your business
  • Map your social strategy clearly and concisely using our editable worksheets

Download your Social Media Marketing Guide Here

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Google Analytics – Top Three Reports Your Need to Run

Google Analytics Reports

Do you know if writing your blogs and sharing them is actually leading to more traffic? Is it helping you reach your business goals?

Maybe not yet, but I wanted to share some help reports through Google Analytics that will help you to see the benefit of the blogs you are writing. We use Google Analytics on nearly all of our client websites because it is free, it is user friendly, and even though some of the data is hidden, it allows us to make clear, actionable changes based on how users are interacting with a website.

Which Google Analytics reports should you run?

Report 1: Audience >> Location/Technology/Mobile Reports

BIMS Presentation – Introduction to Google AnalyticsHere take a look at the Location, Technology, and Mobile reports which will tell you:

  • Where your site visitors are coming from. If you are targeting a very specific location, you will want to make sure visitors are actually coming from here. Or, if you run a specialized campaign on Google Adwords for a conference, for example, you’ll be better understanding if these folks actually came to the site.
  • The Technology and Mobile reports allow you to see if folks are using one browser or device over others. This could sway marketing decisions in the future.
    google analytics reports to run google analytics reports to run

Report 2: Acquisition >> Source/Medium Report

  • The Source/Medium report shows which sites drive traffic to your blog.
  • Within this report you can dive down to Keyword to see how your blogs are translating to organic traffic.

google analytics reports to run google analytics reports to run google analytics reports to run

Report 3: Behavior >> All Pages

  • The All Pages report will show you which pages people are viewing the most frequently.
  • It can give insights into other topics you should be blogging about.

google analytics reports to run google analytics reports to run

Each of these reports can be altered to provide more detail, but these will provide a good start to understanding how visitors get to and interact with your website and blog.

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