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Cash is King: The Importance of Sales

2/11/2019

By Laura Renner

I feel like I won’t have a real business until I have office space.

I once said the above statement to my mentor, David. His reply back was, "That's just ego." David then told me a story about how he used to have a big office that included a conference room for his company. Everyone had been working out of the spare room in his home, but his ego led him to get an office. When the father of one of his key employees became ill, the employee requested to work remotely so he could move back home to care for him. David said yes and worked out a plan to make that work. Over time as they saw it working, other employees began to ask if they could work from home too. Soon it was just David and his assistant working in the big office space. He then got rid of the office that was costing him $5,000 a month in rent!

Recognizing a Fad from a Trend in Your Business

2/4/2019

By Laura Renner

As a consumer, we see fads all the time. They go as fast as they come. But as a small business owner, how do you recognize if your actions are part of a fad or more lasting trend? I see this most often in marketing tactics small business owners use. You probably see this a lot amongst your networking groups (in person or online) and your business owner friends:

“You should be doing XYZ to grow your business.”
“So and So said they got a ton of business doing XYZ.”
“I feel like I need to be doing XYZ to grow my business.”

Measuring the True Success of Your Business

1/28/2019

By Laura Renner

I have been reading the book, Lean Startup, by Eric Ries. Though it is focused on tech startups, it is useful for small business as well. Particularly, Ries’ focus on metrics is applicable. He highlights the difference between Vanity Metrics and Actionable Metrics. It turns out those concepts also apply to the small business world.

Maintaining a Strong Social Media Presence While You Sit at the Beach

1/22/2019

By Jenny Boyles

If you are a small business owner today, social media may be important to your business. Some sort of presence may be necessary to stay relevant and move your business forward. Social media helps you build brand awareness, grow your customer/client base, and connect with both current and potential customers. One benefit for smaller businesses with social media is that you can really engage with your community more. Unlike larger corporations, you know your client intimately and can shape your social media to local events and happenings.

Social media tends to be one of the biggest struggles for business owners because it needs to be maintained and active. It can be such a pain to stay on top of it. In fact, Freedom Makers is receiving more and more requests for social media management. Small business owners know that they must have a social media presence, but have a love/hate relationship with it. And Freedom Makers is answering this call by finding virtual assistants to step in and help these business owners. With Freedom Makers, you can spend your time doing other things like sitting on a beach somewhere and not worry about your daily posts.

Not All Marketing is Created Equal for a Business

1/14/2019

By Laura Renner

During a meeting with a friend who is also a colleague, she mentioned that she was joining a group that meets at 7.30 in the morning. After expressing my extreme dislike for early morning meetings, her response was: “I don’t like morning meetings either, but this is important enough that I’ll do it.” And I totally agree with her, because her business runs on in-person referrals. It is critical she finds groups that will send her good referrals. For a virtual business like mine, I do not need to meet people in person for referrals. So a 7.30 in-person meeting is not as important for me.

After this conversation, I created a Marketing Decision Tree for choosing the best marketing tools for your business. So many business owners get caught up in what they think they are supposed to be doing with marketing that they may not be getting the best bang for our buck.

What is Your Power Hour?

1/7/2019

By Jenny Boyles

2018 is a thing of the past and it is wheels up for 2019! But if are like me and took time with family and friends over the holidays, getting back into the swing of things in the new year can be rough. I sat down on January 3rd (my first full day back) and it was all I could do to stay focused and on task. So it has been back to basics for me these first few days of 2019:

Calendar Maintenance
To Do List
Daily POWER HOUR

The 2018 Freedom Makers Highlight Reel

12/17/2018

By Laura Renner

Don’t you just love this time of year? The holidays has everyone out and about. People are gifting and smiling just a little more. Yes, the end of the year can bring a certain amount of stress for a small business owner. There are details to tend to and things to wrap up before starting fresh on January 1. But if you are able, I encourage you to slow down for just a minute at some point and create your highlight reel from this past year.

One of my favorite things as a kid--and still to this day--about the end of December is the myriad of highlight reels you see on the news, sports channels, and in publications. My personal favorite was always the sports blooper reel from the past year. Nothing like watching million dollar sports stars drop a ball in some crazy way or somersault over a teammate bringing them back down to human status. These reels are a great way to remember all the greatness of the past year. Yes, there is always tragedy and unhappy things that happen in a year, but the highlight reels showcase the successes and the awesomeness of the year.

I encourage you to take stock and share with your team and clients the awesomeness of your past year. Here at Freedom Makers, we have compiled our highlight reel to share with you. 2018 was a growing year for us and many of our goals were realized and surpassed. Sure, there are things we still need to work on, but today and over the next couple of weeks, we will showcase our highlights.

Make it a Happy New Year: Prep Your Business Now

12/10/2018

BY Laura Renner

Now is the time of year when you start seeing a lot of articles on preparing for the new year.

Vision boards, budgets, BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), resolutions, goals, plans. They all are designed to help you prepare in a way that works for you.

There is something about the changing of the year that encourages us to make changes in our lives and our businesses. A change could be as specific as switching providers (which may make sense for accounting purposes) or a change in your approach could be needed.

Either way, as you prepare to spend your holidays balancing your business and loved ones, you can also take some time to think about what you want or need to do differently next year.

Closing out the Hustle: Taking Inventory on the Past Year

12/3/2018

By Laura Renner

With the holiday season upon us, many people use this time to reflect on the year and begin setting goals for the next year. As business owners, we do the same for our businesses.

“Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week”

This popular quote refers to the “hustle” entrepreneurs are willing to do in order to succeed. It also refers to how entrepreneurs do the work they want to do rather than what a manager or employer orders them to do. Yet, the uglier side is that we get sucked in to our business and working upwards to 80+ hours a week leaves little room for anything else.

We hope you will take some time this month to close out your year in a meaningful way. Below are some questions to consider.

Here Come the Holidays. What is Your Plan?

11/26/2018

By Laura Renner

Owning a small business is like being a single parent. You never get a day off. If you are going to travel, you need to bring the kids with you or have someone you trust to care for them while you are away. The same goes for your business. When you travel, you can take the work with you and/or delegate as much as you can to keep the wheels turning during your absence.

However, the holidays are a different animal altogether. For many small business owners, we struggle to balance the holidays with running our business. We feel as though we just cannot step away from our business. But spending time with our loved ones is important too. Can we afford to take time off? Will the world fall apart if we do?

Below are some tips for working through the holiday season.

<<Previous

Cash is King: The Importance of Sales

Recognizing a Fad from a Trend in Your Business

Measuring the True Success of Your Business

Maintaining a Strong Social Media Presence While You Sit at the Beach

Not All Marketing is Created Equal for a Business

What is Your Power Hour?

The 2018 Freedom Makers Highlight Reel

Make it a Happy New Year: Prep Your Business Now

Closing out the Hustle: Taking Inventory on the Past Year

Here Come the Holidays. What is Your Plan?

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