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Business

Entrepreneurial: Introspection & Routine Building

This is the first installment of my new feature, Entrepreneurial; a monthly journal entry chronicling my experience as an entrepreneur, my victories and failures each month, and the lessons learned along the way.

Hello my lovely readers! Welcome to my first installment of Entrepreneurial, my monthly business journal. When I first suggested the concept of this blog feature, many of you were incredibly supportive so I hope you enjoy these posts and that you learn a thing or two about the realities of being an online business owner. It’s not an easy job, but it is fun to be able to wake up and have complete control over what you will be doing. I like it. And most of all, I really want to remember it. I think I may have some sort of long term memory problem, because unless I write things down, I forget them, and I often can’t recall the things that happened the day before. Actually, one day last week, I completely forgot what I had done all day and what day it was. My husband was only moderately concerned. Now, I don’t think their is anything medical wrong with me, I just think I have too much information in storage already, so new items just get kicked back out of my system. I’m not very happy about this, and I wanted to do something to change it, find some way to chronicle my journey as a business owner, but most importantly, have a record of what I was doing so that I could keep my eye on the big picture. So, this year I started journaling. You may have seen my disc bound day per page planner/notebook/journal combo in a recent video, I’ve been faithfully writing in it almost everyday and if I do forget, I go back the next day and fill in what I was working on to the best of my recollection so I don’t forget about it. I’m the type of person who gets really excited about a project, starts it, gets it nearly done and then forgets about it. It’s funny because for all the content and products I create and launch, I probably have about twice as much nearly completed that just lost steam or I decided to change direction on. The journal has honestly been very helpful at forcing me to remember what I was doing and why I was spending time on a certain project. I actually started catching myself before I would start a random project that was off topic because I recognized I was about to distract myself from what I really needed to work on. So, I’d say that the journal is working, it’s like my accountability buddy and sometimes it’s like a therapist for me too. If I’ve had a bad day or made a mistake, I vent to my journal and make a plan for how I will course correct and learn from my mistake. I’ve been doing this with some new routines for the year which have actually started to take root. If you want me to do a video or another blog post where I go into the way I use my journal, let me know and I will!

So, let’s talk more about my results for the month. If I had to suggest an overarching theme for January, it would be Introspection. I spent a lot of quiet time this month alone thinking. Not planning, not strategizing, mostly thinking. I thought I had done all the necessary thinking about my business back in December, but apparently, there were more thoughts stuck inside of me that really wanted to break free. I finished a number of books this month, most of them were fiction reads I listened to during the day to keep myself entertained, but for the most part this month felt very quiet. It was a good quiet though, because I never ended up taking an official break from my business at the new year and I quickly realized that not taking a vacation was a grave mistake. By the end of the month before my Charmed Life Master Class launch, my sanity was hanging on by a thread! In fact, within an hour of completing all the work for the master class, my husband and I booked a vacation that we will be going to in just a few short weeks! It will be the first week off I have had since Aruba in June, and technically that was just five days off and I did a good amount of work while I was there, so not a true vacation really. So it was this stress of being worn out from 2015 added to the pressure of a major creative endeavor that left me wiped to the point that I was unable to focus on blog posts, and even creating my videos for the month was like pulling teeth. It was like I only had a certain amount of creative energy to use, and if I put it towards the master class, there was nothing left for other areas. Ultimately, I decided that it was fine, I just had to go with the flow and not get too wrapped up in what I wasn’t doing because I had something important on my plate. If you’ve ever wondered how it is that I get it all done, I think you now have your answer; I don’t always get it all done. If I can’t make it all happen, I have to identify what my priority is and focus on that, and then take it one day at a time!

So, now that we know what went wrong this month, let’s talk about some victories. Like I mentioned earlier, this month I launched my Charmed Life Master Class, a personal development course that teaches you my strategies for creating the life of your dreams. Other than the launch of the new master class which was a major victory for the month, and the success with my daily journaling, I also was able to slowly build up some positive routines. I had been very lax in November and December in terms of my daily schedule and so it was hard to get into a groove in January. I was extremely tired from being mentally tapped out and it took me a few weeks to get my regular schedule back. Thanks mostly to my journal, I was able to retrain myself to wake up early in the morning, and then I started to build up a morning routine that kept me awake all day without needing to take a nap in the afternoon. This was a major success, because I was really worried that I might never be able to wake up before 9am again! Now, I’m waking up between 6:30-7:30 with my husband and getting straight to my morning tasks. Another positive routine I have built this month is my meal planning. I have gotten back into the habit of cooking myself fresh meals instead of eating packaged food that’s filled with junk! I’m back to eating plenty of fruits and veggies, healthy snacks and I’ve been making the most drool worthy Pinterest dinners! Finally, I’ve also built up a self-care routine that involves a simple but consistent skin care regime and weekly lush baths. Overall, I am very happy with what I have accomplished this month. Although many of these items were not directly related to my business, trust me, building up these good habits and routines is going to make a world of difference in my business!

xoxo,

Business

The Basics of Business Planning: How Should I be Spending My Time?

I’m often asked about how I spend my time as an online business owner. From day to day, my tasks and priorities vary since I am a one woman operation responsible for all the ins and outs of my business, but for the most part, the types of activities I preform can be broken down into one of five categories for how I spend my time. These categories are Developing New Products, Taking Care of Customers and Clients, Creating New Content and Forms of Advertising, Developing Business Systems, and Improving Current Products and Offerings. All of these categories are important priorities for my business, but on a daily basis, one may be prioritized ahead of another for a variety of reasons. For the sake of this blog post, however, I am not going to talk about them in terms of priority, instead I am going to rank them by the amount of time I spend on each overall. As you may expect, I cannot quantify exact measurements of time, nor can I break up these categories into any approximation of percentage of time spent because it can vary. So, here are the five ways I spend my time as an online entrepreneur ranked from greatest to smallest amount of time spent.

Developing New Products

An an online entrepreneur, my livelihood depends on me spending a large portion of my time developing new products because in the ever changing online market, you are only as good as your next idea! I am constantly working on brainstorming, concepting and designing new products and service offerings to help diversify my income. The way I look at it, each new project I undertake is a new venture and a new stream of income in and of itself. Since most of my products are digital, I am able to spend a dedicated amount of time developing one new product after another to add to my shop, creating variety to my offerings so that I am providing products that are interesting to a greater number of people in my community. I never expect that everyone wants all of my products, but as an online business owner I want to create more products so that everyone can find something of value in what I have to offer.

Taking Care of Customers + Clients

There is no doubt in my mind that my customers and clients are my top priority, and because of this they get a great portion of my time and energy. I spend time everyday responding to emails and comments from my customers and working on client products. It is very important to me that everyone who has purchased one of my products or receives my services get their money’s worth from me and I always want to leave my customers feeling positive about their experience working with me. This is probably one of the many reasons that I get so many repeat purchases in my shop. I cannot stress highly enough the importance of taking care of your customers. It makes such a difference to your businesses reputation and the advancement of your brand! I feel very lucky that at this moment in time, my business has not grown so large that I cannot personally handle all customer service inquiries that I receive, because it really gives me such satisfaction to be able to help my customers personally. Customer service tends to be the first thing that gets outsourced as a company grows, and I personally believe that this decision shouldn’t be taken lightly. I have seen many small and very personable businesses take a hit to their reputations once they grew because of poor management of customer service, and so I am very attuned to the needs and concerns of my customers for this very reason.

Creating New Content + Forms of Advertising

Content creation is probably the biggest task I undertake on a daily basis that yields me the least amount of direct income. Every week, I put out three blog posts, two YouTube videos, and a handful of images and tweets to social media, all for the express purpose of giving back to my community. I make very little income from these methods in proportion to the income I generate from direct means like my shop and consulting, yet, these tasks take up a significant part of my week. I cannot stress, however, how important these tasks are to my business overall. Blogging and YouTube are my direct means of communication with my community and the primary means I have for advertising my products. If I didn’t show my products in videos or explain them in blog posts, no one would know about them! And if I didn’t continuously put out high quality content to my blog that adds value to my readers or create fun and informative videos for my YouTube channel on a weekly basis, none of you would trust me enough to purchase what I was selling! You have probably heard the phrase “the proof is in the pudding” and in a lot of ways, that is how I think of my content. It’s my social proof that what I am doing and saying works and is worth your time and attention!

Developing Business Systems

I have done a whole video explaining my various business systems, so I won’t go into much detail here on them, but it has taken me months of working and organizing for me to get this far with my business administration, and this is definitely an area in my business that is frequently improving. To be honest, for me the business administration is the not so fun part of running a business, but thankfully, I spent years doing this sort of organizational work for my previous Fortune 50 employer so I happen to be very efficient at it! Because of this, I am able to get away with paying relatively little attention to this area of my business for the majority of the quarter, and then I may spend a whole day organizing and working out important knitty gritty business things like taxes and filing and fulfilling my obligations as a business owner.

Improving Current Products + Offerings

The ongoing improvement of my existing products is definitely a priority for my business and although my offerings are mostly digital, I still always like to make sure that I am fixing any issues or flaws in my designs as I become aware of them. For someone who may run a business with physical products, I would assume that this subject may be of greater importance as it also ties into quality control, sourcing materials and the ongoing struggle to keep costs low and quality high! For me, however, this is the area of my business where I spend the least amount of time overall, although time spent is certainly not a representation of priority. I take quality control with my products extremely seriously, and whenever I am made aware of any issue with my designs, even something as small as a typo, I immediately act to correct the issue. This ties into good customer service for me, but also an ongoing effort to retain a premium feel to my products.

I hope this gives you some more insight into how I work as an online entrepreneur and perhaps some areas that you may want to be focusing on as well if you run an online business of any kind! I’d love to hear your thoughts and if there are specific areas of your business that you spend a great deal of time on, or perhaps not enough time on, I’d love to know what those are and how I could possibly help you by making those tasks easier or more streamlined! Don’t hesitate to leave me some comments below!

xoxo,

This article was first published on Strange & Charmed on April 27th, 2015 and being reposted as business inspiration for the New Year!

Business

Get Your Business Ready for 2016!

Get Your Business Ready for 2016!

With 2016 right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to start giving some deep thought to your business planning for the new year. Yesterday I held a live business planning session over on my YouTube channel where I shared my strategy for wrapping up 2015 and starting 2016 strong. In order to help organize the information, I also put together a helpful study guide for the attendees to help them keep track of their thoughts and plans throughout the event. If you are a business owner or an aspiring business owner who is seriously contemplating starting a business in the new year, I highly encourage you to check out the video. It is about an hour and a half long, but packed with some excellent insight. Definitely time well spent in my opinion for anyone who wants to make sure they have covered all their bases for business planning.

Make sure to grab my free study guide to follow along with the video. You can download it from my Digital Resource Library. If you are already subscribed to the library, head on over to the library home page and download the file, or else sign yourself up here! And be sure to follow the video to the end to get a special limited time offer that expires on December 12th, 2015!

I hope you have had a successful 2015 in your life and business and together I want to ensure we have an even more productive year in 2016! Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have after you finish the video and I hope that you can I can work together in the future to make your business the best it can be!

xoxo,

Business

Use this Periscope Script to gain more followers + My $5 Must Have Periscope TOOL

Use this Periscope Script to gain more followers + My $5 Must Have Periscope TOOL

Since July I have been doing weekly broadcasts on the up and coming social broadcasting platform Periscope. I’ve even done a YouTube tutorial on how to use the app with suggestions and tips for growing your following. Today I have over 1,500 and being active and growing on this community building platform, I’ve seen a lot of scopes. Pretty early on I adopted a script for using the platform, which has served me well as I broadcast because sharing on Periscope is much different than any other platform and has specific challenges and barriers you need to make sure to navigate if you are trying to host an informative and engaging live cast!

1. Preplan + announce your Periscope broadcast to other channels of social media you use. First of all, it’s very important that you do a bit of prep work for your live cast before it begins. You will want to have an idea for the topic and content you will be sharing on and even make some notes to help you stay on topic for the duration of your scope. Next, you will want to share information on your topic and when you will be on Periscope chatting before your event. Use whatever communication channels you have like your blog, social media or email list and make sure to provide details for how people can find the event when it begins!

2. Create a clever headline for your periscope chat and use a custom hashtag as well as some popular topical hashtags to help your scope get discovered! Good headlines always help to capture the attention of your audience. Make sure your headline is descriptive yet engaging, and make sure to use relevant hashtags so that your headline is searchable. Remember, Periscope integrates with Twitter so you want to make sure that your headline and hashtags would make an interesting tweet to grab peoples attention!

3. Introduce yourself, what you do and where people can find you online. To help me with this, I have developed a set of cue cards that I even hold up at the start of the event and at various times with short links and info to help people find and follow me outside of periscope. It’s much easier than having to repeat or spell out my handles or important links I want them to be aware of!

4. Say hello + engage your audience with shoutouts and calls to action. You can ask your audience to tap to give you hearts, to share the broadcast or to subscribe to you if they aren’t already. This buys you some key time at the start of your event while people log on.

5. Introduce your topic + reintroduce yourself to new people who have jumped on. Remember that as you broadcast, new people are constantly jumping on and current viewers may also be leaving, so even if your viewer count remains much the same throughout your broadcast, you may have completely different people watching you at different points in time. Make sure to stop regularly during your broadcast to quickly reintroduce yourself, explain the topic of the chat and recap any important points you have made!

My $5 Must Have Periscope Tool

After my first Periscope broadcast I knew that I was going to need some sort of stand to help me hold my iPhone while I was chatting live. For my first event, I had created a makeshift stand from books, but it unfortunately wasn’t the easiest setup! Not long after this, I actually picked up a very inexpensive iPhone accessory called a gooseneck mount from a store I frequent called Five Below! This mount, which was actually meant to secure your smartphone to your car windshield or dashboard was the perfect stand for my Periscope broadcasts and it only cost me $5! I love it because it holds my iPhone in place while I talk, let’s me go hands free, and allows me to keep my phone plugged into the charger while I broadcast to prevent my phone from dying during a long scope! If you don’t have a local Five Below, here is a similar stand I found online for less than $10!

Looking for more information on how to use Periscope to support your online business?

On Wednesday October 21^st at 8pm eastern, join me for a LIVE #CharmedBiz Chat over on my YouTube channel where I will be discussing how to use Periscope for your brand with two of my favorite Periscopers, Anne Samoilov and Mandy Jean! Anne, Mandy and myself each have different strategies that we use for Periscope and so if you have been questioning whether or not to get started scoping or if you have had some trouble gaining traction on the platform, this content is going to be very valuable to you! Make sure to join us live to get your specific questions answered and I will also have the replay up on my channel for future reference!

Can’t wait to see you on Wednesday!

xoxo,

Business

How to Add Passive Income to Your Blog or Business

How to add passive income to your blog or business

As some of you may already know, the majority of my business income is passive, at least a good 75-80%. So I know a thing or two about passive income strategies! If you aren’t sure what passive income means, let me explain. Passive income means that a business is making money and sales without direct action, i.e., making money in your sleep! For example, a large part of my business comes from my shop which sells digital products, courses and programs. Once I have gone through the effort to create a product, because it is digital, I can list it on my shop and sell it indefinitely without having to do any work. The system is automatic, customers come to my shop, they look around, they check out and they have instant access to my downloads without me ever having to get involved with the process. Once the system is in place, I let it run with very little observation.

Having a business with a majority passive income is an amazing blessing, but one that took me a lot of time and effort to create. Nothing comes overnight with any business, and behind the scenes, I do ongoing work to promote my brand and put those key systems into place so that they can continue to generate income for me. Now, if this sounds like an awesome way to make money, I’ll tell you, it is! There is nothing more exciting then waking up in the morning to see that you’ve made sales and income while you were sleeping. Although my business took a good amount of time to get to this level, there are actually a few things you can do to get the ball rolling and add passive income to your overall business. If you are someone who runs a shop where you craft or resell products, you have an active, hands on business. Perhaps you are lucky enough to have some assistants so you are not the only person fulfilling orders and getting product created, but whether you have a team or you are a solopreneur, there are ways you can add passive income into your mostly active business to bring in some much needed additional revenue.

Two easy strategies for how any business can implement passive income!

Create an info or digital product: Many people that sell physical products miss some great passive income opportunities by not branching out and creating digital or info products that go along with their business. If you already have people coming to your site or shop, you are missing opportunities for easy sales of passive digital products. It’s all a matter of drawing on your strengths and knowledge base to craft a product or resource that makes sense for your brand. Here are some examples to get your brain thinking!

An Etsy shop owner who sells craft supplies can write an ebook with a few project ideas using their items.
A social media consultant could design a set of printable worksheets covering key action items and social media strategies that anyone starting out in social media could use.
A blogger could create a set of downloadable design templates for new bloggers to use to easily craft posts and lay out images.

Incorporate affiliate networks: Affiliate networks give online creators the ability to monetize links to specific products or services that the creator may be promoting. For example, when a beauty blogger writes a post outlining a makeup routine, if they are part of an affiliate network, they can include links to the specific products that they used in their tutorial. If someone reading that post wants to purchase the items, they can use the links and in doing so, the blogger makes a small commission (usually a few percent) of the purchase. Affiliate networks are great because they can give you access to a wide variety of products sold online and it’s easy enough to add a link into a blog post, video description or social media comment and once that link is in place, if anyone buys a product using the link, you earn income from it. Affiliate networks are a popular way for bloggers to earn income from their efforts, but even an online business owner can use affiliate networks to help boost revenue. If you watched my business photography webinar, you know that styled photographs are an important tool for helping to generate sales online. As a business owner, if you are executing those styled photographs and using peripheral items and accessories to set the scene, you can use affiliate links in your shop listings or on your social media posts to monetize the items you are using in your images as well! You’re doing the work to create those awesome images so you mine as well monetize every inch of them!

Additionally, as online business owners, we use a lot of tools and software to help us build and run our businesses. Again, sharing affiliate links to the camera you use or your office printer can also generate income for your business and help fellow small business owners or those getting started to understand the professional grade equipment used by your successful business. People always want to know where you got x accessory or which computer you use or even the name of your website host. You mine as well make a commission from recommending these products to your customers or audience!

Looking for more tips on how to add additional income to your business or blog?

If you are looking for more ideas on how to maximize your income from either a blog, business or social media presence, check out the Income Blueprint in my Empire Building Online Business Program. It’s packed with ideas on how to grow your business income and exactly what you need to know about online businesses if you want to get started!

I hope this post gave you some ideas for how you can easily implement passive income into your existing blog or business. If you thought that passive income wasn’t an option for your business, I challenge you to use the examples provided in this post and think of a way you can either use affiliate links or create a simple digital product to add to your product or services line up! It may take a bit of creativity but I do believe that any business can add in passive income and I know any business would be glad to have the extra income!

xoxo,

Business

This ONE Priceless Business Resource Tripled My Income and it cost me NOTHING

This ONE Priceless Business Resource Tripled My Income and it cost me NOTHING

When I first left my job to go full time for myself about a year and a half ago, I did so with the full support of my husband and family. Six months later, when I launched my shop which would come to help me replace and grow my income beyond what I had been making in corporate America, I did so with the support of my growing band of followers who were eager to enjoy the designs and products I was creating. But it was months later, only a short while ago really, that I realized there is one single level of support that keeps me moving forward in my business, creating products I never expected to develop, and helping me solve problems I faced in my business in creative ways. It was a type of support that I didn’t have when I left my job, nor had I acquired it by the launch of my shop. This support was something that came to me after months of searching and has honestly become my secret weapon of my business resources. Can you guess what it is?

The One Priceless Business Resource that helped me triple my income this year was the amazing community of like minded female entrepreneurs that I have been lucky enough to call friends.

Yes, it’s true! If it weren’t for the support, advice and encouragement of the awesome friends I have made on this entrepreneurial journey of mine, I don’t know where my business would be right now. At the end of 2014 I made some projections for my business income for 2015 and I have already surpassed those income projections. At the beginning of 2015, I laid out a rough plan for the projects I wanted to accomplish throughout this year and so far I have been able to fully develop each of the ideas and bring them to fruition. Yes, I have myself to thank for all my success, but I also recognize that I have had the support of some amazing women who were able to help me solve problems and overcome barriers I had put up for myself and my business. As the end of 2015 quickly approaches and I begin to tackle the enormous task of brainstorming my plan for 2016, although I have no idea what my business will look like a year from now, I am confident that I am going to continue to grow leaps and bounds thanks to my awesome business besties who have been by my side, testing my products, troubleshooting my concepts and promoting my brand and business along side me. There is seriously no better feeling in the world then when you find your tribe, and I’m so glad to say that I’ve not only found my tribe, but I am actively growing my tribe day by day!

Now, if you are a new or aspiring business owner and you have not found your tribe yet, I am here to tell you, I know what you are going through. Before I found my tribe, I felt like I was all alone. It was me and my business against the whole the internet, and no amount of support from friends and family can ever bring you the comfort you desperately need.

So I want to personally invite you to join me and my tribe in my new Facebook community, the #CHARMEDBIZ Collective! We are a tribe of female entrepreneurs, bloggers and small business owners gathering together to share information, resources, inspiration and support so that we can all become the best versions of ourselves and our businesses. As they say, “a rising tide lifts all boats,” and that is exactly what this community is about. No #GIRLBOSS will be left behind! Join me today in the private group and also get access to my new Digital Resource Library, a collection of FREE business building resources created by me and updated regularly to help you build your business and brand online as seamlessly as possible! I know together we can do great things and I look forward to meeting you in the group!

Will I see you there?

xoxo,

Business

How to Use Synchronicity to Empower Your Brand!

Yesterday I got a message from a friend telling me to check out a recent scope from Lewis Howes. It was called “The #1 Thing That Separates You Online from Your Competitors,” and it was all about how the best brands online have the best photography, a topic I had just posted about with the launch of my #CharmedDSLR Photography Challenge and Mini Course. As soon as she told me, I joked “I’m a trailblazer!” Then I proceeded to insinuate that perhaps Lewis Howes was one of my blog readers. Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t (hi Lewis, if you’re reading this!) but this was certainly not the first time that I had covered a topic on my blog or in a YouTube video and then began to notice other creators discussing the same topic. It’s synchronicity and it’s a concept that I believe every creator needs to be fully aware of and comfortable with as they learn to navigate the online space.

If you have never heard of this concept before, synchronicity is that sometimes eerie occurrence when things happen simultaneously, and although they may appear to be related, they really have no connection. Personally, I find that this happens to me all the time, I’m sure it has happened to you, or will happen to you, and I think it’s something you need to be mentally prepared for. Too often, I see online creators tear themselves apart with grief or anger over an innocent instance of synchronicity. You write a blog post on a topic and then another blogger you are familiar with covers the same topic. You make a YouTube video about a subject and another YouTuber you follow makes the same video at nearly the same time. Is this coincidence or are they copying you might ask yourself? More times than not, I find that this is a simple case of synchronicity and I’ll explain to you in very simple terms why I believe this happens and why you should use synchronicity to empower your brand instead of allow it to destroy you.

In my opinion, synchronicity happens because ideas are cyclical. Like fashion trends they rotate through the seasons and during certain periods of time, it’s natural that more than one person would have the same idea or concept. This is especially true if people have the same interests to begin with. Take the planner community for instance. I find that ideas rotate through the planner community constantly. A few years ago when I made my first planner video, I showed a Martha Stewart disc bound planner that I had purchased. At that time, I didn’t notice very many people using this notebook, and as time progressed I naturally began to rotate into new styles of planners. Now, a few years later, I am right back where I started using a disc bound planner yet again. Why? Because the planner world is small and there are only so many directions you can go before you end up right back where you started. Now, I see people talking about disc bound planners pretty often and its all part of that same cycle! Do I think people are copying me? Absolutely not! I would like to think that I have influenced people in the community, but I certainly can’t claim credit over their choice of planner because planners are a small world. And I think the same thing happens in other communities online as well. In the beauty community I will notice that a certain brand or product is getting a lot of attention from beauty bloggers or within the business community I will notice that everyone is launching a course on branding. Ideas come and go and there is bound to be overlap!

Now, personally, I love synchronicity and I think you should learn to love it as well. To me its validating to know that the topic I am currently passionate about is getting notoriety via other figures online. While some people might think of these other figures as competition, I take a more reasonable approach! The way I look at it, the more people that are talking about a certain topic, the better! More people talking about it means that more viewers are noticing the topic and searching for the topic because there is a buzz in the air. Now, this is my opportunity as a creator to really step my game up and make sure that when people are searching for this buzz worthy topic, they find me and that I put my best foot forward to get their attention so they engaged with my content, join my community and hopefully purchase one of my products! Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what someone else is doing, the only thing I have control over is how I manage my brand. That is how I am going to stand out and overcome any perceived competition.

What you really need to watch out for when it comes to synchronicity is that concept of competition and getting into a victim mentality. I have watched as other creators have torn themselves apart with anger and grief because they took a simple instance of synchronicity out of context and accused someone of copying them. This is such a dangerous mental state to be in. I can understand how frustrating it can be when you believe someone is copying your content, I have definitely been there, but it’s so important that you keep a calm head and a clear mind and really see the innocence in a situation of synchronicity. Not understanding synchronicity and allowing that victim mentality to overtake your mind will only cause you mental destruction and will put a serious block on your ability to create in the future.

So, I hope this has helped you to understand the concept of synchronicity a little better and that this helps you avoid any unnecessary anguish if you find yourself a party to content sync up! Let me know down below if you have ever found yourself in a situation like this and how you handled it. Did you take the synchronicity as a sign from the universe that you were on the right path, or did you have a negative experience that you had to learn from? I’d love to know your thoughts!

xoxo,

Business

How I Left My Job, Built My Online Business & Replaced My Income in 6 Months!

It dawned on me the other day that I have never told you the story of how I left my job, started my online business and replaced my income all in the span of six months, so that’s what I want to share today. I also want to take some time, as I recount my tale, to highlight some important details that may help in the event that you follow a similar path as I.

Let’s go way back…

… To sometime in the spring of 2008. I had just graduated college, didn’t have a job, and I was looking for ways to entertain myself online while searching for employment. I had been reading a few blogs and watching some interesting people on YouTube, and I thought to myself “I can do that!” So I did. I started my first blog in the spring and my YouTube channel launched a little less than a year later in January 2009. At the time I used my blog to talk about lifestyle things I was enjoying, basically using it the way many blogs were used back then, as a digital scrapbook of things I liked, my opinions and the occasional recipe. My YouTube channel, however, was the place I shared my love for all things technology. You may not be able to tell so much today by looking at my site, but I was obsessed with Apple technology, gadgets, and the whole online/virtual space.

At about the same time that I started on YouTube, I also found full time work at a fortune 50 company as a lowly administrator. At the time I thought that this job would be a temporary thing until I found better work, some career that truly fulfilled my love for writing, creating, and hopefully, technology! Of course, I had no clue at the time that by the time I did finally leave the company five and a half years later, I would have risen quite substantially to a management level position complete with bonuses, a company car and an expense account. What can I say? I’m a smart cookie!

So while I worked my way up the corporate ladder, I continued to work on my online presence. I kept up with blogging, although it was not anywhere near the scope of how I blog today, went through a few iterations of blogs as I decided on what it was that I really wanted to write about, and of course, made YouTube videos in my spare time! Being tech obsessed, I also stayed up to date with social media and used those platforms in an attempt to promote and connect my content to other like-minded women.

Now, this is the thing you need to take away from this part of the story. My success, although I agree, seems to have happened overnight, was really the product of years of effort setting up systems and communication methods that would support my eventual leap into working for myself full time. I learned a lot about the online world in the years before I officially started my business, made a lot of mistakes, but also stumbled upon some great information and practices that would eventually bring me success once the moment was right!

The Months Leading up to my Launch

In the months leading up to my launch, a lot of things started to happen very quickly. In early 2014, I got intimately involved with the planner community, fan girled on planners, and made some videos about it. This was the tipping point for me and my business. I knew that this community I had stumbled upon was going to be my salvation and would enable me to go full time for myself.

You might be wondering how I knew this? Let me explain. First and foremost, my subscriber count jumped significantly. I was already making a steady income from YouTube before this shift, but after it, my income grew substantially. Second, I had a few things going on in my personal life that were leading me to be unhappy at my job. That isn’t necessarily a unique situation to be in, however I began to notice a weird pattern. I would have a very bad day at work, and then I would have a great day on YouTube. I’d start a day feeling terrible because of a conversation with my boss, but by the end of the day, my community on YouTube had me feeling like it was the best day ever. For lack of a better explanation, I felt like the Universe was telling me that it was time to leave my job and do YouTube full time. I also began to get opportunities I had never been offered before that ended up supplementing my side income even more! Once things reached a certain point, I knew it was time to make the leap!

What I want you to take away from this is that often times, things happen for a reason. I do believe that God or the Universe (however you prefer to think of it) does guide us and we need to be vigilantly watching for the patterns that can show us exactly when we need to make our move. I personally feel like I get signs from a greater power all the time that help me to decide which path I should take or which opportunity to explore, and as this story illustrates, following the signs can lead to major success!

Setting Goals and Preparing for Launch

It would be convenient for me to say, follow the signs and leave your job and the Universe will catch you, but we all know that’s not how it works! Once I decided that 2014 was going to be my year to launch my own business, I made specific preparations and set important goals to measure my progress. First and foremost, my husband and I began putting away as much money as possible. We have always been savers, but we wanted to make sure that we had enough money in the bank so that we could live comfortably if we both were out of work for six months to a year! Let’s be honest, in this economy, it was a real risk for me to leave my secure Fortune 50 job, and although I was confident that I could find another job if things didn’t work out with my business, we wanted to have the money in the bank to ensure our solvency.

The next goal I had to hit involved the income I was making outside of my job. My husband and I set a specific amount of money that we wanted to see my side business make before I was able to leave my job. It was like a challenge and an exercise in law of attraction all at once. If the Universe wanted me to go full time, the Universe would need to bring me x amount of income per month through my #sidehustle! As soon as I hit the number, I gave my notice!

For those of you who are looking to start you own business and go full time for yourself, you really need to make sure you follow my lead on this one. Make sure you have money in the bank just in case things don’t work out of or if you have to supplement your income as you get off the ground! Also, set those financial goals if you have a side hustle that you want to turn into your full time gig. It’s a great way to measure your progress and it gives you a concrete number to work up to instead of a vague concept.

How I Replaced my Income in 6 Months

Once I left my job I made a plan to focus on YouTube as it was a significant portion of my income when I launched my business. My plan was to make YouTube videos five days a week, and continue supplementing that content with my blog and social media channels. This strategy didn’t end up panning out for me, and after a few months of this crazy filming schedule, I decided to change course. So for a few solid months I continued to research and concept out ideas for where my business would go, and then I decided to turn to my community.

My community on YouTube had asked me time and time again to sell my printable planner inserts because they were unlike anything available on the market. I decided that if YouTube wasn’t working for me, I should go ahead and set up a shop and make a bit of money from the inserts I had already designed. So, I tested the waters a bit, offered my inserts for sale in my shop and something wonderful began to happen. People were buying my inserts! So, I started making more inserts and designing other printable planner accessories like stickers and journaling cards and by the end of the year I was officially bringing in the same income I had been making at my Fortune 50 company. It was a pretty awesome end to my year, that’s for sure!

What you really need to take away from this portion of my story is that you need to be flexible and persistent in your business if you want to find success. My original plan to do YouTube full time didn’t yield me the results I was looking for, and because I was willing to try new things, I found a business model that worked for me. Likewise, persistence is also key in business. I didn’t let the fact that my first plan failed stop me from finding a new path. I wanted my business to work, was open to what that business would look like, and eventually found my solution. Sometimes the path to success isn’t linear, so you need to be ready to take detours and turn to plan B, C, or D if you truly want to run your own business!

So what does this whole story mean for you?

I really hope that hearing my story helps you to understand the nature of online business, and that you see parallels to your own situation. I am here as a resource for anyone who wants to find success as a business owner online, because for me and my story, that was the one thing I didn’t have. I had my own passion and intelligence, but I didn’t have a mentor. Yes, I made it on my own and I can be proud of that, but I often wonder how much easier it would have been for me had I known someone who had done this before and could help me through it.

This is exactly why I developed Empire Building, my online business program that teaches you all the information and lessons that it took me over 6 years to learn!

So I want to ask you. How important is starting an online business to you?

How much would you pay for the tools and lessons to get you from idea, to launch, to building a successful brand? Too many of us pay tens of thousands of dollars for traditional four year educations that unfortunately don’t yield us, not just our dream job, but even a job that pays a living wage upon graduation. There are many online business programs out there that offer the same caliber of content and information as Empire Building, but will cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars for access to notable figureheads that end up being MIA when you need them most. Empire Building isn’t here to put a premium price tag on information and education. Remember, the secret to building a successful business online isn’t secret, it’s based on tried and true methods, tips and lessons that I myself learned through years of trial and error. I’ve just packaged up all my knowledge of the online sphere, my methods for growing a brand presence, and my best tips for earning income online to save you years of effort and error so that you make a strong start when you enter the competitive business world online!

How much would you pay to have a head start on your business? The competitive value of this information in other courses is over $2,000. Instead, you can join Empire Building for a fraction of the price!

Like I said before, I am here to help you, to mentor you and to make this process of building a business easier for YOU! Let me know in the comments what business issues or questions I can help you with and if you’d like to join Empire Building, I’d love to have you!

xoxo,

Business

The New Social Media Secret Weapon

My latest social media obsession: Periscope! Hopefully, at some point in the last few weeks and months, you’ve become familiar with this new social platform. Periscope allows users to live stream directly to the world, either to the general public or to a private group of friends. Like other social media platforms, users can follow each other and become notified when someone they are following holds a live broadcast or can gain access to any recent missed events as well. As the app integrates with Twitter, it’s easy for users to promote their live event instantly and for their follows to share the event! How cool is that?

It’s no secret that visual platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube are growing out of control. Images, after all are the future of social media. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Why write or read a blog post if you can just instantly stream your thoughts to your followers or watch your favorite guru or internet personality in real time! Although Youtube is one of my favorite platforms, it requires much time and energy to produce a high quality video. That’s not the case with Periscope. A short live-streamed event means very little prep but instant and direct communication with your community. A scope may not get as many viewers as a YouTube video might, but the direct interaction is the gold. No matter how many comments I reply to on a YouTube video, nothing will replace that direct interaction that Periscope provides where you have the ability to reply to a question or comment directly on live video. I am always looking for better ways to add value to my community and directly interact with as many followers as possibly so that they learn, they aren’t just my followers, they are my friends too! Bringing your community through that transition from follower to friend is the magic of social media and any platform that gives your community that level of access and connection is going to be a magic bullet. Whether you are trying to grow a following through social media or build a business online, connection and interaction will propel your efforts forward at warp speed!

After hearing so much buzz about the app, I decided to download it the other week onto my iPhone. The app for Periscope is only available on mobile devices via the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Shop, and it’s a completely mobile based broadcasting system! I’ve been following all my favorite business and lifestyle gurus, watching and interacting with them as they do a quick “scope” and share some tips or hold a Q&A. “Scope,” if you haven’t already guessed is the official term people use to refer to one of these live streamed sessions. Now, Periscope is only a one way video output, so you can watch, but the event host can’t see you. Interaction happens one of three ways via the app. First, through hearts! When you tap on the screen of your smartphone during a “scope” you send virtual love to your host which helps their video rankings. The second way to interact with your host, as well as the rest of the community watching the event, is through comments. Like I said, Periscope integrates with Twitter so you can see the comments of others which pop up with their profile picture and account name from Twitter, which is pretty cool! Like Twitter, you can reply to comments made by others by tapping on the comment, which gives you an @reply option. The third and final way you can interact with the host and the event is by sharing the event on Twitter or with specific friends within the app by tapping on the user icon on the bottom right hand of the screen during a broadcast.

As you can probably tell, I am really fired up about this new platform and I can’t wait to get started using it myself! Obviously, with my move this past weekend, it was hard for me to figure out a time to jump on and host a scope, but I am very excited to announce that this Friday, July 24^th @ 3pm eastern, I plan to broadcast live on Periscope! For my first event, I want to cover YOU, my community, on the topic of social media and forging that direct connection. So please, download the FREE app Periscope onto your iOS or Android smartphone, follow me @MissTrenchcoat, and mark your planners for Friday at 3pm!

I can’t wait to see you and please, let me know if you plan on attending my first scope by sending me a tweet and using the hashtag #charmedscope which I plan to use to announce my future events as well! So excited for Friday!

xoxo,

Business

My Small Business Starter Tool Kit

As a small business owner, one of the single most frequent questions I am asked relates to the tools a small business owner needs to get started. Truthfully, the tools or items you need to run your small business vary from person to person and business to business. It depends on what core functions your business performs, so it’s not a one size fits all scenario. Last month I shared the software tools that keep my small business running, so this month I will share the hardware part of the equation. Keep in mind that these are the tools that I choose to use, they are by no means the best or only options, although I do highly recommend them. My small business starter tool kit includes:

1. Macbook Air 11”: Since December 2013, I have been working exclusively from my Macbook Air. I am often asked if it can handle processor intense software like Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut Pro, or if it’s sluggish. The answer should be obvious. Yes, the Macbook Air can handle a variety of software- if it couldn’t, I wouldn’t be able to run my business! I run professional grade design and creative software like Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator and Final Cut all day long as part of my business and often times, I am running multiple programs at the same time without issue. The Macbook Air is small, super slim and portable, which I love! It did take me a short adjustment period to get used to the 11” screen moving down from a 13”, but I don’t even notice the small size anymore. I really do love this machine and it was certainly an excellent investment for my business!

2. iPhone 6 Plus: You may think that as a small business owner, your main contact with your customers or clients will be via your computer, however, I do far more interaction with mine through my iPhone. Earlier this year I upgraded to the iPhone 6 Plus from the iPhone 5, a big transition for me, size-wise that took me quite some time to get used too. However, I do love my iPhone 6 Plus and because of it’s larger size, I am able to conduct business in a whole new way. I do a majority of my email, photo editing and social media directly from my phone. It lives in my hand and while some would say that isn’t good for your health and wellness, I have never felt more free! I don’t see my iPhone as a burden, but as a tool that gives me ultimate flexibility with my work. Perhaps that’s because I’m the boss and don’t fear the tether to my work the way some with more traditional jobs do, but I love my iPhone because of the increasing role that social media plays in next to all segments of business, I couldn’t recommend it more!

3. Canon EOS Rebel T5i (700D): I’ve waxed poetic time and time again about my love for my T5i. My DSLR plays a key role in my business as I use it each and every day. Photography and videography make up a significant portion of my business, from a creative standpoint and a marketing standpoint. When it comes to online business, visual media plays a crucial role, so it was important to me to have a DSLR with some great lenses. For my day to day shooting needs, I use the 50mm 1.8 lens, and for my videography, I use the 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 lens, both from Canon. If you are looking for more information on how I shoot, watch this video, and if you would like some of my best photography tips, try these!

4. Toshiba Flash Air: Normally, I would never include my SD card in a list like this, but the SD card I use isn’t your standard issue. The Toshiba Flash Air is a major tool in my business process because it’s actually wifi enabled! Essentially, my little SD card pops into my camera, stores my pictures and video as per the usual SD card functions, but it also includes special software that pairs with my iPhone so I can wirelessly transfer the media from my SD card to my iPhone for instant use without needing a computer! If you use a camera that already has wireless capabilities, this SD card won’t sound that amazing to you, but if your camera doesn’t have wifi built in, you can use this card to get instant access to photos and video on the fly, move them to your iPhone and then edit and upload direct from your phone. Think about being out and about shooting and capturing a great shot that you’d love to post on Instagram, but you don’t have your laptop with you, so you need to wait until you get home to download the photos. The Flash Air bypasses this step, and even though I do most of my photography at home, I can’t tell you how much of a time saver it is to use an wireless SD card to quickly move photos for upload online!

5. WD My Passport External Hard Drive: I’ve trusted my computer backup and external storage needs to Western Digital for years and they have never let me down. As a small business owner, especially one that works with photography, video and custom designs on the daily, backing up my files is a non-negotiable. Now, you could use a cloud based service for your backup, which works extremely well, however, I prefer external hard drives because they are inexpensive compared to equivalent storage sizes in cloud service, and it feels like a more secure experience since I see and hold my backup in my hands as opposed to the invisible cloud. If you don’t have a hard drive for back up, check mine out because I love it and it could save your business!

6. HP Office Jet Printer: Now printers are a topic I am often asked about due to the fact that I exclusively sell printable inserts and designs in my shop! I use an HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 series all-in-one printer that I happen to love. It’s a great daily business printer with capabilities for faxing, scanning and copying and I think it does a solid job of printing my inserts, stickers and wall art designs! Is it the best printer for artwork? Definitely not, but it works for me and my needs, which is all that matters. Having access to a printer like this does help when running a business with all the contracts, bills, invoices and other paperwork that can cross your desk, so I would recommend some sort of all-in-one printer for a small business even if you don’t deal with graphics and design as I do.

7. Wacom Bamboo Capture Tablet: The final tool I use for my business is a Wacom tablet. If you have never seen one of these before, this is a pen tablet that essentially replaces the mouse of my computer while I work on designs in Illustrator or Photoshop so that I have more accuracy and control while using creative software. The Bamboo Capture isn’t a drawing tablet, although Wacom does make those, but it’s just another tool I use to help me work quickly and efficiently. Some designers love these tablets and rely on them, others do not. It’s a personal preference that does come with a learning curve, but if you spend a lot of time designing in Adobe Creative Suite or art programs like Corel and you get the chance to give one of these a try, I’d suggest it!

Those are the tools I used to start my small, creative online business. I hope this gave you some insight and good information to help you find the tools that are right for your business! If you would like some additional resources, I’ve recently written about some Free Design Tools for Bloggers & Business Owners, and Apps for the Creative Business Owner that may also help you get your business going! Let me know what other business issues or questions you may have so that I can create some more dedicated content to help!