By Kaila Ruan 

If you have an online business you need to have an email list. 
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I have spent a lot of time listening to successful entrepreneurs talking about mistakes they made in their business, and a good majority of them have said, “I wish I would have started an email list sooner.”


We all know we don’t own our Instagram profiles or Facebook groups. People get locked out of their social media accounts all the time, and let’s not even get into how annoying the algorithms are. For instance, common social media engagement rates are around 5%!!! 


However, with an email list, you get to communicate directly to your potential clients as the message gets put right in their inbox, which I bet they check multiple times a day. Think about that exposure!

By Laura Renner

I am a firm believer in mentoring. Done right, it offers a safe place to ask questions, learn, and grow. But mentoring can also be disappointing. A successful mentoring program can yield tremendous results for yourself and your team.

Benefits of mentoring

• Grow your people
• Grow yourself
• Learn from questions, not just from mistakes
• Low-pressure environment
• Always learning​

By Jenny Boyles

Freedom Makers from the beginning has consisted of virtual assistants who work from home in remote offices. But now more than ever as the world is forced into remote work, home offices are popping up in most homes. People are even moving homes to better accommodate home offices. 

When I started as a virtual assistant about 5 years ago, my office was sad. I had a computer, some notepads and, of course, a great assortment of pens. As my business grew and my experience broadened, I discovered some non-negotiable items that I needed in my home office.

​​By Laura Renner

Capital is often the most critical factor in the success of a small business. Yet it is so often misunderstood as far as what options are available. Listed below are some good and not-so-good (but do not count them out) options.

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By Laura Renner

In this 3-part series, we discuss 10 things to consider when building your team.

• Series 1: What kind of business owner are you?
• Series 2: What type of team do you want?
• Series 3: Other factors (icing on the cake) to consider

Other factors to consider
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In Series 1, we shared why knowing what kind of business owner you are is critical to know what kind of team to build. 

In Series 2, we shared how to determine what kind of team you want. 

In this final part of our series, there are two factors that we see many small business owners struggle with in their business. Check them out below and how to handle them. 

By Laura Renner

In this 3-part series, we discuss 10 things to consider when building your team.

• Series 1: What kind of business owner are you?
• Series 2: What type of team do you want?
• Series 3: Other factors (icing on the cake) to consider

What kind of team do you want?

From our first blog in this series, What Kind of Business Owner Are You?, we discussed that as a business owner it is important to know whether you want to sustain, grow, or scale your business. 

To sustain, you may want to hire a virtual assistant to help with some aspects of your business just to keep you sane.

To grow, you will want to hire virtual assistants and operations people to run the parts of your business that do not directly generate revenue. For instance, a photographer may hire for scheduling, marketing, editing, etc. 

To scale, you will need to hire for the roles already mentioned but you will also want to plan on hiring others for service delivery. To continue our example of a photography business, you will need a plan for hiring other photographers. 

Knowing what kind of business owner you are is essential for your business’ future. Once this is determined, building the right team is important as well. There are crucial factors to consider when getting ready to build your team.

By Laura Renner

In this 3-part series, we discuss 10 things to consider when building your team. 

• Series 1: What kind of business owner are you?
• Series 2: What type of team do you want?
• Series 3: Other factors (or the icing on the cake) to consider

What kind of business owner are you?

By Laura Renner

​Managing cash flow was a long and tedious lesson I had to learn the hard way. Eventually, I learned that “hope” was not a strategy and that there is always time to start over and hit the “refresh” button on your business.

By Laura Renner

Transition is never easy. It is even harder when it is thrust upon you unexpectedly. In small business, transition ranges from things like losing a client or employee to shifting to a remote team to completely changing your business model. 

You can turn to the cliches to help you adjust. The only constant is change. Or if you are not riding the wave of change, you will find yourself beneath it. Insert eye-roll emoji here. Do not get me wrong, I do find inspiration from quotes like those. Indeed my personal favorite is: Change from the outside brings pressure, change from within brings power. 

However, when you are in the midst of transition, you need more than inspirational quotes. Here are 3 steps to help you deal with transition as a small business owner. 

By Jenny Boyles

Running a small business can lead to an overwhelming amount of work. Allowing your inbox to go unchecked or trying to keep up with everything in your head will only lead to disaster. You don’t have to go it alone these days! There is a myriad of helpful tech tools and resources to help support you. 

At Freedom Makers, we have clients from many different areas of business. The one theme that runs the same for all of them is their need to stay organized. Here are our top 3 recommendations that will help your small business be more organized and ultimately more successful.