Archives for May 2017

May 30 2017

How To Get Your Business Started Online Without Having A Website

“Start Before You’re Ready”

Do you find yourself excited about starting your new business but you’re not getting the word out about it because you don’t have a website yet? Creating a full blown website can seem like a long and daunting task – honestly because it can be! Don’t let not having a website be the excuse you use for not letting the world know about all the great things you have to offer.

While you’re working on that website, get these things going in the meantime:

Be Active In Facebook Groups

Find the groups where your ideal clients hang out and start reading the posts and see where you can add value. Don’t go in and immediately start promoting your services but instead start by being helpful, making connections and establishing yourself as an expert in your field.

Create a Facebook Business Page

Once you become active and start to get noticed in those Facebook groups, people will naturally become curious and will want to know more about you. They’ll most likely click on your profile and start snooping around to get more info on what you do. Create a Facebook Page for your business and have the link to that page in your personal profile. Start creating interesting content whether it’s written posts or doing live videos. Even if no one is there to watch live, they can always catch the replay.

Get Active on Instagram

Let’s say you’re a photographer and want to show perspective clients your work but you don’t have a website to show them your portfolio. Instagram is the perfect social media platform for creatives!! It’s very visual and you can use it like an online gallery. Start posting your best work and begin to engage and connect with your ideal clients.

Start An Email List

Just because you don’t have a website doesn’t mean you can’t communicate with perspective clients. Sign up with an email provider such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact. Ask your friends and family if you can add them to your list and start with that. You have to start somewhere! You can have links in your emails to both your Facebook Page and Instagram Account.

Having a website is nice to have but as you can see it’s not the “be all, end all” to starting your business online. No more excuses – get these other things going while you’re working on that website of yours!

PIN IT!!!

Save

May 27 2017

Quality Over Quantity

Earlier this week I was scheduled to teach a Marketing Fundamentals workshop at the KRVC office in Riverdale.

I taught 2 previous workshops there in the past couple of months – one a vision board party and the other about Instagram. Both were really fun with about a dozen people in attendance – the perfect amount for the intimate KRVC office.

I was hoping and expecting the same turnout for this workshop but when 7pm rolled around (the official start time) it was me and a big old platter of cheese meant for a dozen people!

At first fear and self doubt kicked in but I only engaged in that way of thinking for a minute. I thought to myself, well I did my part to show up and the worst that could happen is I stuff myself with cheese and crackers. What could be wrong with that?!? One of my favorite foods!

Sure enough 3 people did end up coming and it turned out great! (and I had to share the cheese!) Instead of me standing up at the front of the room giving a presentation, we all sat together at a table and had the chance to connect and really dig deep on the individual businesses.

It turned out to be more like a group mentoring session than a workshop – being able to give personalized solutions to their individual business needs.

In this case, as is true most times, it was quality over quantity that won out. When you make the effort to show up great things can happen! Connections are made, relationships are started or strengthened and business happens!

So next time you want to put yourself out there whether it’s to run a workshop, write a blog post, start a Facebook group or anything else, just show up and do it and don’t focus on the numbers. Whether it’s 1 or 1000, you can still make a difference and an impact.

Quality over Quantity.

May 15 2017

Mindset Monday: Are You Aware of Your Resistance?

Does this ever happen to you?

You know there’s something you could be doing that will help move you towards reaching your goals for your business.

It could be creating a great valuable post for Instagram or your blog, something you want to write in your newsletter or online groups, a new product offering that you know your clients will love, developing an amazing idea for a workshop or even learning a new skill.

You put it on your to-do list and that’s where it sits for days. Maybe those days are now turning into weeks or even months. Each day it nags at you and you know you should start working on it but you find every excuse in the book to avoid it.

Things like…

I have to check my email.

I have to check what’s going on in my Facebook Groups.

I have to see how many new Instagram followers I have.

I have to go to the bathroom.

Time to start making dinner!

I’m too tired – I couldn’t possibly focus on it now!

Sound familiar?

This is called resistance. You are resisting something that you know is to your benefit but it will somehow take you out of your comfort zone….and your brain definitely doesn’t want that!

Anyone can stay the same. It takes courage to change.

– John Assaraf

This happens to me on a regular basis but the other day I was listening to a training by personal development expert John Assaraf on the topic of resistance and that’s when ti hit me and I became FULLY AWARE of my actions! Right then and there I was smack in the middle of one of my resistance episodes.!

It was later in the evening after my girls had gone to bed and I had intended to go on my computer to write a blog post. But first I made a slight detour to my In Box This led to a string of other time sucking activities. By now I felt waaay too tired to gather my thoughts together to write a valuable post, so instead I decided to open up Photoshop and edit some recent personal photos.

Helloooooo! If I was too tired to write, why wasn’t I too tired to edit images?

Once I became aware of what I was doing, I realized that Photoshop is my happy place – my comfort zone. But spending hours in Photoshop is not going to help me reach my goals or grow my business. (It would be a different story if my business was photo editing).

Once you become aware that you’re in resistance mode, it’s helpful to figure out how it’s taking you out of your comfort zone – what is it that you fear?

In my example, I was making writing the post seem too big. Fear of taking a lot of time. Writing, editing, looking for a photo to go with the post, creating the featured image for the post, etc. Then beyond that it could be a fear of being visible, being judged, thinking “does what I have to say even matter to anyone else?” (besides my mom, of course)

I’m telling you – awareness is key to busting through resistance. The things you are resisting are usually the most important things you could be doing.

Become aware first.

Write out your fears

Then go and do it anyway regardless of the fears!

Each time you do the thing you resist, you are stretching your comfort zone making things that much easier for you.

Not to mention a shorter to-do list!

What is it that you are currently resisting?

May 13 2017

Instagram Workshop Recap + A Freebie

A couple of weeks ago I taught a workshop at the KRVC office in Riverdale called Getting Started with Instagram For Business. As a creative, Instagram is by far my most favorite social media platform!

We had a room full of other creative entrepreneurs representing a variety of industries including hair styling, videography and photography, yoga and life coaching, real estate and pet grooming, graphic design and even a math whiz!

Many of the people in attendance weren’t familiar with Instagram so we first covered the basics of how to use the app and then dug deeper into strategy – how to use this fun app for business.

Thanks so much for your smarts and your time tonight. Great information! I’m now rethinking my strategy.

It’s always great to connect with others in person – get the conversations going, eat, drink and learn from one another. I recently ran into one of the attendees (the math whiz) and she suggested we use a custom hashtag to easily follow one another’s posts. I currently do that with other groups and it’s been great and easy to check in and see the new and inspiring posts everyone is creating.

So…let’s use hashtag #LHNinsta Along with the other hashtags you’ll be using in your posts, make sure to also include #LHNinsta so we can easily find and engage with your posts.

If you weren’t able to attend this workshop and are still confused about how to use Instagram, go ahead and download this free Startup Guide that I created:

Later this month on the 23rd, I’ll be heading back to KRVC to teach another workshop – this time on marketing fundamentals. I’m really looking forward to it! If you’re in the Riverdale area and want to attend this free workshop, you can g et info and register here.

My Instagram account is @life.happens.now Follow along for inspiration, tips and techniques on how to start and grow your creative business online. Put a link to your account in the comments so I can check it out.

Save