3 Easy Steps to Create Useful Content

Content truly is king online. Google has confirmed that high-quality content is important for your search rankings.

As a small business owner, you really need to step up your online content so it is useful and provides a great user experience. Here are three steps that will get you creating useful content.

What does your audience need?

The first step in creating useful content is to determine what your target audience’s need is. Look at your customer feedback and data you’ve accumulated to tell you what the need is.

Go beyond blogging

While blogging may be one of the best ways to get out great and fresh content, it shouldn’t be your only avenue. One way to increase the life of a topic is to repurpose it for different channels.

Try repurposing your blog into a video or infographic. Everybody learns in different ways so putting the same information out in different formats will increase your views and likes. Also visual content, such as a video, often performs better than text-based content and can easily be shared on social media.

Write a catchy title

You want your visitors to read your blog post or watch your video so you must come up with a catchy title. This will entice them to read the entire post or watch the entire video. Remember, the title may be clever but it has to be a good representation of the content that will be read or viewed.

Used your keywords in the title too to boost your SEO (search engine optimization) so you rank higher in online searches.

Expect the unexpected, and whenever possible, be the unexpected. – Lynda Barry

Happy Easter!

How Effectively Manage Your Time

As a small business owner, managing your time can be one of the hardest parts of your job. You need to balance your business needs with your personal needs and perhaps even add in the need of your employees.

Finding this balance has a lot to do with prioritization and staying on top of your short- and long-term goals.

That’s often easier said than done, so here are some great tips that small business owners can use to achieve that balance.

Manage your email

We all know our inboxes can get to overflowing on some days. As a small business owner, you need to keep up on your email but you also have to get client work done too.

Set aside specific times during your day to check email. Try not to look at your email in between.

Some business owners have organized their email inbox into three folders – Action Needed, Read Later and Reference. Putting your emails into these folders can filter them so you can read them when you have time.

Block time to work

You have to set aside time to get stuff done. Sometimes you can get pulled into a lot of different directions and it can seem impossible for you to find time to work on projects.

A solution to this problem is to block time on your calendar to work on specific client work. That way you won’t schedule a meeting or coffee during that time if your calendar shows you are busy.

Book meetings in chunks

Having to leave your office for a meeting, come back and then leave again later in the day for another meeting can really break up your day and your rhythm of work.

Book all your meetings for one or two days a week, back to back. Know which days each week you want to be available to go out for one-on-one meetings or client meetings and those are the days you are out of your office. The other days are for working on client projects in your office.

Be flexible and reprioritize

Sometimes things happen and you have to change up your schedule. When you’re a small business owner, every day is different and that’s part of why we love owning our own businesses. But needing to prioritize as things come up is part of the job. The most effective business owners are able to recognize which tasks need to be done first and which can wait…and for how long.

To prioritize your list of tasks and stay on track every day, know what your goals are. Plan out your day based on what you must get done that day.

What tips do you have for managing your time effectively?

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. – Thomas Edison

Happy First Day of Spring!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

How to Get Your PR Message Out on a Small Budget

Don’t let a small budget discourage you from getting the news about your small business out to the media. Use these tips to build a successful, cost-effective media campaign.

Make a list

Research your local newspaper reporters and find the ones that cover your industry. Next, look at the industry publications you already read and write down the names of the reporters that cover the topics you want to talk about.

Your list doesn’t need to be long – you want to focus on a few key media outlets to start.

Follow your target list

You’ve got a great list of reporters. Now it’s time to do something with it. Engage with the reporters on Twitter and LinkedIn. Use social media platforms to share articles written by your targeted reporters and to comment on the articles. Ask questions and offer great feedback on their articles.

Reach out

You’ve established a ‘relationship’ with your reporters over social media for a few months. Now it’s time to reach out to the reporters with your story. Make sure your story is relevant and the publication, and reporter, would be interested in it.

Reaching out to the media the right way can get your story published without a huge budget. It just takes a little of your time and energy. 

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. – Coco Chanel

6 Tips to Boost Your Productivity When Working From Home

Many small business owners run their businesses from their homes. Isn’t working from home awesome? It’s convenient and your commute is just down the hall.

To work successfully from home, you must be aware that you can sometimes be your own worst enemy. It’s so easy to spend time checking Facebook when your boss or co-workers aren’t stopping in your office like when you work for a company at an office. 

Sure, you can multi-task by working on a client project and running a load of laundry at the same time but it can be very easy to get distracted from the actual work you have to do to earn money.

I’ve compiled a list of some great work-at-home tips that I’ve learned from working at home and from other great ladies that I know work from home too.

Act like you’re going into the office

If you get up and get dressed in the morning like you are going to the office, your mind set will be on work. And you’ll be less likely to crawl back under the covers to sleep for an extra hour or two.

Have a dedicated workspace

Have a place where you go to work every day. Have your office set up so you can sit down and work immediately.

Sometimes it’s so easy to just grab your laptop and sit at the dining room table to work but having a dedicated space to work in will get you into the right frame of mind and you don’t have to spend time finding all the things you need to get your job done. They’re already neatly organized in your dedicated office space.

Work when you’re at your most productive

Most people have a specific time of day when they know they are their most productive so you should plan your day accordingly. If you are a ‘morning person’, then get into your office first thing in the morning. If you’re a ‘night owl’, then working into the night is most productive for you. All that matters is that you take advantage of your best times to work.

Set expectations with your family

When you work from home and your family is around, it is so easy for them to interrupt your day. If anyone is going to be home when you are working, you need to set your expectations with them so they are clear that when you’re in your office, you are working…even if it looks and feels like you’re just hanging out at home.

Take breaks

Be sure to take breaks and remember to eat lunch at lunch time. It’s so easy to be caught up in your work that you forget to eat or take a break. You do need to get up from your desk and stretch every so often.

Don’t stay at home

Get out of your home office and work at a Starbucks or Panera Bread. These types of places have free WiFi, tables and chairs where you can get your work done. For some people, the noise of places like these can help you work better than if you’re in a silent house.

Getting out also removes the temptation to watch TV or do laundry. Coffee shops are a great place to meet other small business owner so you never know…you might meet your next client there.

What tips to you have to be more productive when working from home?

When you cease to dream you cease to live. – Malcolm Forbes

An easy way to track your mileage

As a business owner, I’m sure you have to keep track of the mile you drive for work. Do you remember to do this?

Well, I’ve discovered an easy way to do it. MileIQ is a smartphone app that tracks miles for you automatically. After an outing, swipe "business" or "personal." That's it. The app instantly downloads IRS approved reports whenever you want.

For years I’ve kept small notebook in the car and often forget to record my mileage. With this app I can input names of places, add notes, such as why I was there and much more.

You get 40 free trips a month. Or, you can subscribe monthly or annually.

Here is a video that explains the MileIQ app.