Are You Using Pen & Paper to Manage Your Projects?

I hope your month is going well and business is booming even in the midst of the Covid virus. How are you keeping track of all your new & existing clients and any associated notes? Is the process you are using creating more freedom in your business to work on more projects? If not check out this article I wrote about how to choose the best project management tool for your business. This post will give you some great ideas on what tools are available for you to use now so that you can ditch your pen & paper.

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How Solo Entrepreneurs Can Be More Productive In Their Business

Running a business is hard work especially if you are a solopreneur business owner. I fall into this category and I can tell you from personal experience that it can be challenging if you are not organized. My number one goal is to not forget things so I write down everything and put it on my Google Calendar, My Wall Calendar and I send myself text messages.

You have to do what works best for you

A little overboard you might be thinking BUT it works for me. It helps to manage my time better and get items on my list done. I am still a work in progress and I am always looking for new ways to manage my time better so I don’t feel overwhelmed. There are many ways to approach time management but at the foundation of everything surrounding it is a simple to-do list. I know this isn’t rocket science but how many people do you know that actually have a to-do list as a part of the daily management of their business AND is effective? Well if that person isn’t you then after reading the information below then you can be that business owner who gets things done and create more freedom in your business. Are you ready? Let’s go!

Planning: What makes a good to-do list?

According to Lifehack.com, “When you build an effective to-do list, the main goal of the list is to provide clarity and focus.” The best way is to have a place to write down thoughts as they come up in your day. Then set a time daily to look at your thoughts like at the end of your business day during your planning time for the day ahead. Once you have the thoughts down on paper then start organizing your thoughts into 2 separate lists: Daily To Do’s vs. Get it Done Soon.

How many items should you put on your list?

Think small. I know that creating a to-do list can quickly turn into an exercise in frustration and overwhelm so it is important that you pick a number of items that you want to get done each day and then cut yourself off. I was able to look at my notes from the previous month and saw that on average M-F I usually get about 3-4 main items done on my list each day. So I picked 4 to be my magic number for items to get done daily. There is an important thing to remember that things will pop up in your day but the goal is to make sure you still get your items on your list done by the end of your business day.

Prioritize your list In order of easy to difficult

After you decide on how many items you want to tackle daily then it’s important to prioritize them into difficult to easy. According to Business Insider.com, “When we are overwhelmed and busy, we just go with easier tasks, and the difficult tasks tend to pile up.  Harder tasks may be more annoying to tackle, but they are more important to make progress.” 

Tips and tools for managing your to-do list

• Make sure it is easy to find. Decide if you will write it on a calendar, use a meeting planner or an electronic tool like Evernote or Todoist.

• Deadlines (gotta have it)

• Have a plan for brain dumping of thoughts. You can use Evernote or a plain Google Doc for dumps but set up folders and keep them organized so you know where to find stuff.

• Give yourself a small reward for getting items accomplished on your list each week. The reward could be something as simple as making the weekend start sooner by wrapping up early on a Friday.

  Running a business as a one-woman/man show can be challenging at best. It is important that you have a system in place to create your to-do list and get items completed so that you can begin to create more freedom in your business to do the things you want to do.

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Happy Early Fourth Of July & Welcome To The Month Of July!

What does freedom mean to you?

I am guessing that this question has a variety of responses. Freedom means many things to me. It means being able to express freedom of speech without fear of reprisal. It means being able to live and vote in a democratic society. It means capitalism is alive and well. It means having the ability to create the American dream as a business owner. None of these type of freedoms would exist without the brave soldiers who honorably defend our country. I have many of them in my family. As we move toward celebrating the 4th of July weekend let’s take a moment to thank our soldiers and remember that freedom is precious and not free.

Someone has paid the price for it and is currently paying the price for it.

This month I would like to take a look at a variety of ways that we can create more freedom in our business that would allow us to live more intentonal.

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Month of June Roundup!

Small business owners were hit hard by the Covid-19 virus crisis. Unfortunately, many businesses had to close their doors because they could not survive the closure of their business over the past 2 months. As bleak as this sounds I saw this season in our business journey as a time to fine-tune different areas within our business. This month we took a look at how using a bookkeeping system can help you to pull reports so that you know how much you are making in your business. Additionally, we also took a look at tools you can use to automate things in your business. Today, I want to take a look at how you can get paid faster by your customers by getting paid online. Here are 3 tools you can use to get paid faster:

Quickbooks Payments - According to their site, Quickbooks payments allow you to accept debit, credit, and ACH bank transfers from your client. This is an excellent tool and has many features like recurring charging for customers that are billed the same thing each month. The pricing ranges from 1% per transaction for ACH bank transfers to 2.9 % + 25 cents per transaction for online invoicing. This pricing is for existing QuickBooks Online Customers. For new customers, you will need to set up a QuickBooks online account and then sign up for the payment feature. They do have an option to use the payment feature as a stand-alone product with Go Payment or their desktop offering. But if you want to use the online feature then you will need to have a QuickBooks Online subscription.

Freshbooks - Freshbooks is a cloud accounting software that has an invoicing and billing feature that can help you get paid faster online. You can use it with Stripe as the backend merchant servicer that pushes your customer deposits into your bank account. It has the option to accept credit, debit, and ACH payment methods and it also has a recurring billing feature. The pricing to use Freshbooks ranges from $15 to $50 for their most popular plans. Currently, they are offering a six month discount on all their plans and if you just want to try them out you can do that for 30 days and get your money back if you don’t like the service. Stripe charges 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction.

PayPal - PayPal is a well-known site that many of us use for personal money sending transactions. The online invoicing feature for businesses makes it easier to get paid online from your customers. You can send your customer an invoice and they can pay via credit card or their PayPal bank balance. There is also a feature for recurring billing to your customer. There isn’t a monthly fee to use the service and the rates are 2.90% + 30 cents per transaction and you only pay the fee when you get paid by your customer.

There you have it! 3 tools you can use to get paid faster online and a quick recap of the month of June’s Blog posts. And as always…..Keep IT Sunny!

Tools You Can Use To Automate Things In Your Business

“Entrepreneurship can be a grisly, volatile mess of toxic ingredients on the verge of combustion, threatening to consume your health, relationships, and life” according to an article on Shopify.com.

This is true.

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart and is certainly much more challenging than being an employee.

Period.

With that said, it is important that we look for ways to minimize the stress in our busy lives and this can be managed in part with using technology. Here are 3 tools you can use right now to automate things in your business.

Boomerang - We all love email right? Most likely the answer is no but using this app will make it a lot easier to manage your email communication. Boomerang is an email productivity app that allows you to create email messages and then schedule them to be sent in the future. I use this often and it helps to take things off my to-do list. Once I see an email in my inbox that needs a response I can create a response on the spot to have it sent at a time that makes it easier for me to ensure that my clients are taken care of within 24 hours Monday through Friday. This means there is less of a chance that communication will fall through the cracks. They offer a free version across a variety of platforms like Gmail, Outlook, IOS, and Mobile.

Freshbooks - We all like to get paid on time right? Well, Freshbooks makes it even easier to get that done via their recurring invoicing process. You can set up customers to put a card on file and at a specified interval they will be charged instantly and your invoice will be paid on the spot. it makes everything easier for you and your customer. If there is an issue with the payment method then Freshbooks will notify you and your customer so that communication surrounding invoicing is not lost. They have an offer to try it for free right now.

Hootsuite - Hootsuite is a social media scheduling tool that makes it easier to manage your online content. Do you ever get stressed out thinking about writing and scheduling posts to your social channels? Well, this software will help to alleviate that stress. You can try it free for 30 days to test it out.

The entrepreneurial life can get complicated fast. It is good to know that there are tools you can use to help manage your communication, social presence, and to get paid on time. What tools do you use to automate your business? Share in the comments below.

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Do You Know How Much Money You Made Last Month?

We work hard as entrepreneurs. This is a fact! There are many spokes in the entrepreneurial wheel but after the dusts settles do you take stock of what you are making in your business month to month? As a bookkeeper, I encounter many clients who manage their business using spreadsheets and pen and paper. This might feel comforting and easy but it isn’t the best way to manage your business finances and it won’t give you a good glimpse into how much money you are making in your business. The best way to do this is to get your business finances into electronic format using an accounting software system like Quickbooks Online.

My spreadsheet and my bank account tell me all I need to know which is how much money I have in the bank to spend.

I hear this a lot too and again these methods might give you some information but it won’t give you the complete picture. The best way to know how much money you made last month in your business is to do the following:

1. Do your bookkeeping regularly using an accounting package.

2. Reconcile your accounts each month and make sure they agree to your statements.

3. Pull your financial reports like your balance sheet, income statement and your statement of cashflows.

By using the methods above you will be more informed about how your business is doing and it will give you the knowledge and tools to be able to plan for a successful future.

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Welcome To The Month Of June!

The COVID crisis has touched people in a variety of ways. The one common area that has affected entrepreneurs is their bottom line. The daily news reports on what businesses did not make it as a result of the crisis. This got me thinking that there had to be something else going on within the business financially before the crisis hit to take them down. So I would like to take this month to focus on business finances in a few areas: figuring out how much you made in your business and how to get paid faster using online payment tools and tools you can use to automate or delegate things in your business that don’t need your constant attention.

This is a pivotal time in history for us as entrepreneurs and like previous periods in history, great businesses can be created and go on to thrive. The heartbeat of a business is money and knowing how to track it, get paid faster, and how to manage your time to make more of it are the keys to business success.

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Month Of May RoundUp!

The end of May is upon us. I hope you enjoyed Memorial Day with your family and took time out to remember all of our soldiers who fight to help us keep our freedom.

This month we took a look at 3 video conferencing tools to help you stay connected. We also took a look at 5 marketing tools you can use in your business right now. I hope the month of May was very productive for you.

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5 Marketing Tools You Can Use Right Now To Run Your Business

Do you have a steady pipeline of customers walking through your doors? In these tough times the answer is probably no but just because things are challenging right now doesn’t mean that your marketing efforts have to take a back seat. Here are 5 marketing tools that you can use in your business right now! Even in the middle of the Covid-19 virus.

Meetup - This is a great way to get your message out and connect with your ideal customers. “Meetup is a service used to organize online groups that host in-person events for people with similar interests.” You can create virtual Meetup events to get started or create an event outside that has social distance measures in place.

HubSpot - This software is a one-stop-shop for marketing your business. They have tools for customer relationship management, content management, and of course marketing software. They offer free certification too.

Mailchimp - This tried and true email marketing platform is one of the most popular email solutions out there for managing your growing or beginning to grow email list.

Google Analytics - I know this sounds really nerdy and complicated but it is easy to connect your business website to this tool that can give you some serious data and feedback about visitors to your site.

Hootsuite - This is a must-have tool for managing your social media channels.

There you have it! It can be challenging to get customers to come through the door right now but it is not impossible. You can use these 5 tools that all have free versions to test them out on your business and start connecting more with your ideal client.

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3 Video Conferencing Tools To Help You Stay Connected!

The great pandemic of 2020 has revealed many realities. We learned that toilet paper is pure gold, the ability to hang out with our friends and colleagues for dinner or lunch is deeply missed and the best way to stay connected is to use an online video conferencing tool. There is an array of tools to choose from and they have different features and price points. So let’s take a look at 3 video conference tools that you can use in your business right now:

Microsoft Teams - We have all seen the commercials on t.v. promoting this tool as an alternative to using Zoom given some of the security challenges it has faced. What does MS Teams offer and how much does it cost? According to their website you can, “Chat, Meet, Call, & Collaborate From Anywhere Without Compromising Privacy & Security. Host Meetings. Cloud Phone System. App Integrations. Instant Messaging.” There are different price points. My favorite one is for FREE. To learn more about how to use this tool for free click here.

Blue Jeans - Blue Jeans is a “Secure video conferencing platform that makes you more productive.” They have two price points: BlueJeans Standard which is their entry-level plan which is $12.49 per month & BlueJeans Pro which is their most popular plan and is $17.49 per month. The plans both come with unlimited group meetings, unlimited 1:1 meetings, 5 hours of meeting recording, and an array of other features. The main difference between the two is the integration of apps which is found on the higher paid plan and the ability to host more participants also comes with this plan. They also offer a free 7-day trial to try out the meetings feature. Check out the features here.

Go To Meeting - Go To Meeting has been around for a very long time. It has different pricing plans that are categorized as professional, business & enterprise. All the plans offer a one-click meeting feature that has screen sharing, web audio, dial-in conference line, unlimited meetings, no meeting limits, chat feature, personal meeting room, and meeting locks. The plans start at $14.00 per month for up to 150 participants. Additionally, they offer a 14-day trial to check them out.

The technological era is here to stay. Check out these easy to use and affordable tools to help you stay connected to your clients and your team.

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Welcome To The Month Of May!

Welcome to the month of May!

I can’t believe how fast this whole year is going by. I am sure that the strange array of events is helping us to lose track of days. May is full of fun events most importantly celebrating Mother’s Day. It is also a good time to stop and take stock of where you are in your business. This month I want to take a deeper look at tech tools to help run your business better and online marketing resources that can be used to reach your customers. I hope you are taking advantage of all the government-related business financing resources available to keep your business running smoothly.

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Wrapping Up The Month of April

The month of April is over and we took a look at a variety of things to help us run our business better. The covid-19 virus has put many of us in precarious situations. The sudden order to shut down our business if it was not essential in accordance with our local government has put a strain on our business and personal finances. Although these are trying times there are many resources that came to light in an effort to help us survive these challenging times. We took a look at what financial capital resources were available to help us weather the storm until we can get back to business as usual. We learned that it was a good time to take a business financial and service offering pulse check to make sure we know where we stand in our business and how we can work differently to deliver new services to our customers.

Yes, this challenging world event has put us all in a tailspin BUT we also learned that we are tough and can come out on the other side of this event stronger than ever.

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Is It Time To Revamp Your Services?

Living in a state of a shutdown is no fun but if you use the time wisely it can take your business to new heights. The one thing that the shutdown has forced people to do is reimagine how they work snd do business. The use of video conferencing tools like Microsoft Team, Blue Jeans, and Go To Meeting is making doing work remotely a little easier. Some businesses are using technology to extend or expand their business services. Here are 3 ways to revamp your business services:

1. Use technology - Are there in-person services that are easily adaptable to being digitized? Now is a great time to take a detailed look at your service offerings to see if you can use Youtube, Vimeo, or any number of online tools to bring more personal experience to your clients. If you offer services that require privacy concerns to be taken into consideration like online or virtual counseling, then you want to ensure that the tool you use has end- to- end encryption and has privacy guidelines that closely follow the very strict GDPR EU privacy policy. Incidentally, Zoom does not support end-to-end encryption.

2. Rethink Your Target Market - Have you been so busy working in your business that you have gotten far away from who your target customers are? According to Investopedia, “A target market refers to a group of potential customers to whom a company wants to sell its products and services. This group also includes specific customers to whom a company directs its marketing efforts.”

3. Get Social-If you haven’t been much of a social media person in the past then now might be a good time to dig into using this tool. We are all at home and now more than ever people are using social media to stay connected. This is a great inexpensive tool to use to engage with your customers. To get started check out this article from Entrepreneur.com.

The Covid-19 virus has thrown a wrench in all of our lives but if you stay focused on how you can use your downtime wisely to grow your business then you will come out ahead of the game.

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Check The Pulse Of Your Business Finances

We are all aware that maintaining positive cash flow in these stressful times is paramount. If you had a chance to read my post last week about how to keep your business afloat in the midst of the storm then you already are aware of some tools you can use to do just that. Today I wanted to share one more resource:

SBA.Gov’s EIDL Program - The Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance is “A loan advance that will provide up to $10,000 of economic relief to businesses that are currently experiencing temporary difficulties”. The eligibility requirements are:

“The SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan provides vital economic support to small businesses to help overcome the temporary loss of revenue they are experiencing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This program is for any small business with less than 500 employees (including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and self-employed persons), private non-profit organization or 501(c)(19) veterans organizations affected by COVID-19.

Businesses in certain industries may have more than 500 employees if they meet the SBA’s size standards for those industries.

The Economic Injury Disaster Loan advance funds will be made available within days of a successful application, and this loan advance will not have to be repaid. “

These are challenging times that we are facing but we will get through this season of life and move forward stronger than ever before.

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How To Keep Your Business Finances Afloat In The Midst Of The Storm

The Covid -19 virus has wreaked havoc on all of our lives in more ways than one. Outside of the world health crisis that is unfolding before our eyes, it has put many businesses in financial jeopardy that has lingering consequences.

According to a survey from PwC, “The findings show that businesses are prioritizing cash spending, while assessing options for financing and/or deeper pullbacks as they look forward toward a recovery time frame.”

• 67% of finance leaders surveyed have already taken steps to contain costs as a result of COVID-19.

•  64% are considering the need for taking further actions on costs or investments.

•  76% of respondents expect that their business would be back to normal within three months if COVID-19 were to end immediately. 

What does this all mean for you?

Find ways to reserve cash on hand by cut expenses that are not necessary - Now is a good time to take a look at your business expenses to see which ones are absolutely necessary to run your business operations and which ones are just “wants.” If you have your bookkeeping accounts organized this will enable you to see all of your expenses in one quick snapshot so that you can make these types of decisions.

Look for alternative ways to get capital - There are a variety of ways to get financial help during this time of crisis like applying for the much talked about small business assistance loan offered by the government called the Small Business Paycheck Protection Program. This program is a part of the Cares Act and is designed to, “Provide small businesses with funds to pay up to 8 weeks of payroll costs including benefits. Funds can also be used to pay interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities. Small businesses with 500 or fewer employees—including nonprofits, veterans organizations, tribal concerns, self-employed individuals, sole proprietorships, and independent contractors— are eligible.” Check out the top-line overview of the program on the US Department Of The Treasury website here. I also shared another great resource for obtaining capital in my previous blog post called BlueVine.com.

We are in very troubling times. But the good news is that we have resources to help us to get through this storm together.

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Welcome To The Month of April! Now Is A Great Time To Do Business Planning

The world seems to be in a tailspin. We are all glued to our t .v and computers to learn about the latest developments surrounding the Coronavirus.

It can be easy to get overwhelmed and lose a grip on all things business.

Instead of living in fear and hopeless take this time to do some business planning. This month we will take a look at two areas: Business Finances & Business Services. We will look at tools to gauge what the current health is for our business, discuss resources to help us stay afloat during the pandemic, tools we can use to set and measure revenue goals for the future. Additionally, we will look at our current services offerings for ideas on how to expand on our services.

These are challenging times, to say the least. But it can also be a great time to do business planning so that you can be in a position to provide amazing services to your customers.

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March Monthly Recap

The month of March marks the beginning of spring. It also moves us closer to the end of the first quarter of the year. It is a great time to assess how you are doing in your business so far. This month we took a look at how to choose the best project management tool to use in your business and 3 practical steps to apply in your business to help you reach goals successfully.

This month has been an unprecedented challenging time of transition and change for all of us. It can be easy to get lost in all the noise that surrounds us and lose focus on what is going on in our businesses. I would challenge you to use this time to do business planning, learn new skills and get organized within your business rather than live in a stressed-out state. If you're looking for a resource to get capital check out BlueVine.com,” a fintech company providing flexible working capital financing to small and medium-sized businesses.”

Be proactive and get ready for the next phase in your business journey.

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Ready Set Go! 3 Practical Steps To Help You Reach Your Goals

Are you good at setting goals and reaching them?

Do you still remember your New Years Resolutions?

According to an article in Inc. Magazine only, “92 percent of people who set New Year's goals never actually achieve them. And only 8 percent of people who set goals actually obtain them. But don’t be discouraged. The key thing to remember is that people who set goals that are not elated to novelty events like New Year’s Eve can actually obtain them. So it’s time to start setting those goals.

1. Start with the end in mind - Where would you like your business to be in 10 years or 20 years? If you have no clue then start dreaming. It’s important to have a BHAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goal. This is “An idea conceptualized in the book, “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by James Collins and Jerry Porras. According to Collins and Porras, a BHAG is a long-term goal that changes the very nature of a business’ existence.”

2. Set a plan for your goals and break them into small manageable bites - I am sure you have tons of time to spend on your goals right? That really sounds laughable as most entrepreneurs are crazy busy and find it challenging to juggle their business, family, and self-care. But what doesn’t get planned doesn’t get done. I use a business planner notebook and my project management tool Teamwork to plan goals by breaking them into small bite-size chunks. For example, my goal for writing this blog post was to block out 30 minutes to write the post free from editing and then I set another goal for a different day to read, edit and then schedule it to go live. This helps me to not feel overwhelmed and to stay energized and focused.

3. Reward yourself - It is important to give yourself a reward after you have reached a goal to keep yourself motivated. According to an article on StunningMotivation.com, “When we give ourselves treats, we feel energized, cared for, and contented, which boosts our self-command — and self-command helps us maintain our healthy habits.”

Setting and reaching goals can seem overwhelming. This can be minimized if you figure out where you are trying to go, put a plan in place & execute it and then the best part of all give yourself a nice reward.

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How To Choose The Best Project Management Tool For Your Business

The life of a busy entrepreneur can get chaotic fast! A few stickies here and a notebook full of barely legible scribbled notes can quickly add up to a headache. What is the solution? Find a system that works for you and use it. The first stop on the “getting organized train” is to find a project management system to use in your business.

What is a project management system?

According to Study.com, “A project management system is a means of managing a project by planning, organizing, and managing its different required aspects. Depending on the sophistication of the project management system, it can include:

• Estimation activities

• Scheduling

• Cost control and budget management

• Resource allocation

• Quality management

• Risk management

• Change control

• Decision-making managing

So now that we know what a project management system is then the next question to answer is how do you choose one that works best for your business?

There are many options to choose from like, Trello, Basecamp, Asana, Active Collab and ClickUp to name a few. The challenge is figuring out which tool will work for you.

1. Determine your specific needs - According to Hive.com, “The first step to finding a project management tool is identifying the current problems in the way your team works.” The team can be a team of one. Do you need help with organizing e-files, a to-do list, customer management?

2. Once you are able to determine your needs then it is time to start shopping - There are many sites that can help you compare different tools like Capterra.com or GetApp.com. I like the idea of picking your top 3 choices and digging more into the details of their features.

3. Is it secure? We all know how vulnerable we can be to a data breach. It only takes a minute for some nefarious person to try to steal your information. One of the best practices out there is called GDPR which is short for General Data Protection Regulation which has been adopted by the EU and is widely acknowledged as a best practice for protecting data. If your project management tool adopts these regulations within their software that is a good sign to move them to the top of the heap.

4. Determine the cost - There are so many choices out there and along with them come some pretty hefty price tags. But do you really need all the bells and whistles? It is time to take a look at your top 3 choices and figure out which has the features you need the most like, managing your to-do list, goal setting and client management then figure out the costs, simplicity of use and make your decision.

Running a business can be an arduous task. You can be your own hero by getting organized and implementing an easy to use project management tool that will help you to focus on the core part of your business which is delivering your special brand of awesomeness to your customers.

What are you using right now to manage different aspects of your business? Share in the comments below.

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Welcome To The Month of March!

Spring is in the air and it is time to start planting new seeds for your business success!

Did you reach your goals last month?

Do you have a system in place to track how your doing in your business?

If not then this month we will look at two areas of your business: project management & goal setting. We will take a look at tools you can use in a practical way to help you reach business success. What doesn’t get planned doesn’t get done. It is time to start getting things crossed off your to-do list and reach business success!

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