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As a solo-preneur, I understand the hardship of passing along projects and tasks that you have started from the beginning and are the only person who has worked on it. We start our business from scratch and build it up, on our own. But if we are looking to move our business up the ladder, we should take a minute and really think about how we can make better use of our time. As a Virtual Assistant, I talk with many small business owners about delegating and outsourcing tasks so they can gain time and energy to focus on the most important aspects of their business.

If you saw my office right now, you may tell me I need to get organized. It is not messy per say, but yes, I have a few piles of papers, folders, books, notebooks, an arrangement of post-it notes and a good collection of glasses (ok, I have a few) on my desk. Can you relate? I also have a pile of running shoes in the corner that I use each AM. 🙂 Sometimes we just need neat piles and stacks to KEEP us organized. I do wish I had a cleaner ‘looking’ office though. 😁 I know exactly what each stack has in it, what each notebook stands for and what is going on with every folder. While it may ‘look’ unorganized, for me it is my organized system. I also have a very organized morning routine. I wake up early, start a cup of coffee, take 1 sip before I walk, run a 5k, walk again, and get back for my full cup of coffee. I then get in a sauna session before I am at my office desk. While that might seem detailed and crazy 🤪, it is that routine that works for me to plan my day to keep it organized. The run and sauna times are my daily, mental clarity moments that help me create my to-do list for the day and market new ideas. Organizing just has many “looks”. 👀

Social Media … the world that we can’t live without, but sometimes wish we did. It started with one platform and grew to multiples, it is hard to keep up. I remember my first days with Instagram. It was the grid platform where you could share a picture with little to no words and it felt like a magnificent thing. It was a quiet, peaceful feed to read posts, look at pictures, and a place to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones. My first post was of an old paintbrush stuck in the dirt to mark a garden row on my family’s farm. How funny is th is ? 👇🏻  It got 3 likes and 1 comment.

‘Do you use Google? I’m guessing that answer is a firm yes, it is in our everyday lives somehow, someway. Need an answer to something? Google it. Need directions? Google it . Looking for a holiday recipe? Google it. How many times have you heard that? Can I be honest with you for a second though? When I started Virtually Brady, I did not know I could set my business up on Google. 🙈 I thought businesses on Google were just ‘put there by them’, that they stumbled upon you and added you to 'the Google'. I was also under the impression that the Google car I saw driving lots was looking only for the Brick & Mortar businesses to share, when in fact Brick & Mortars aren’t the *only* businesses that can have listings on Google. Sure, I was using Google, but I clearly was not understanding how it really worked for local and small businesses. Since then, I have learned many things that I use to help many businesses and entrepreneurs. If you are a small business owner without a Google Listing, I encourage you to create one – and I promise it’s easier than you think! Why do you need a Google Listing? Short answer? To GET FOUND. Before I talk more about that, let’s first be clear on what I mean by “Google Listing.” You know when you search something on Google you are fed results that look like this:

‘I don’t send many emails as I don’t want to annoy anyone and have them unsubscribe’. That’s what I hear with almost every email marketing meeting, and it fires me up. I’m going to be pretty direct here … Why do you care if someone unsubscribes? What does that do to you? So you have 324 subscribers and now you have 323? Even if 10 unsubscribe, you now have 314 … so what? Why are you focusing on the subscriber number? Ok, I know why, but first, let’s take a step back, why do we use email marketing in business? In this blog post, I’ll be diving into the power of email marketing in your business, why it matters, and HOW to do it for your business specifically. The Power of Email Marketing In Your Business If you have an email list in your business or are thinking about starting one, the main reason is to promote and share your business, right? You want people to see what you have to offer, add value, and ultimately get them to sign up because they want to learn from you! The best way to think about email marketing is like your VIP list – it’s your ownership list that gets you in front of your ideal audience. In this instance, “ideal” means they sign up for it because they have an interest in what you do and offer. To grow your email list, you may offer a discount or freebie for them providing their email address, and at first, they may only join your list for that. (We’ll talk about those in just a second!) But the way that you KEEP them there is by continuing to email them on a consistent basis. And no – that doesn’t mean you have to spam their inbox! (In fact, I would highly discourage you from doing so. One of the biggest myths I hear is that emailing your list over and over is annoying and might cause people to unsubscribe. But let me ask you: why would they unsubscribe when they CHOSE to sign up to hear from you?! Can you over send emails? Sure, if you do it every hour, multiple times in a day, every day for 365 days, maybe that can get overwhelming in someone’s inbox. But sending emails consistently, with value and information for your audience, is not overwhelming. They are waiting to hear from you, to see how you can help them. How To Decide How Often To Email Your List Knowing that mailing your list is a normal and expected thing, it’s time to decide how often you’re going to do it. The FIRST thing I want you to do is to stop thinking that you are annoying, and SECOND, look at your schedule and time. How quick can you write an email? What is your time capacity to sit down and write an email each week? Those things will play a part in the consistency. Once you’ve decided on your consistency, it’s time to consider, what information want to share with your audience, what your business goals are, and how email can help you reach those. When you’re thinking about what to promote in your emails, I want you to remember the Rule of 7. If you’re unfamiliar with this phenomenon, it essentially says that it takes a consumer 7 times to see a brand/product before they buy in. 7 times. There is more behind that 7 and the strategy, but let’s use that number for a minute. If you send an email once a month starting at the beginning of the year, it takes you until July to start to resonate with the consumers. When you think about it, that’s a long time – over half your year. Is that ok? Yes, it can be if that works for you and your business – that is something you will decide and plan based on your goals. If you are looking for more growth or sales, I would look into sending more emails. Let’s say you bump that up to bi-monthly, now you can at least grab them around April and see things start to grow sooner. And just think, what would once a week do for sales? Also, give this a thought – if you send once a week and your competitor sends bi-weekly, whose brand are they more familiar with? YOURS! And that’s the goal isn’t it? The point is, sit down and plan out a schedule for how it can work best for your business and goals, and be consistent with it. If you have a sale every 2 weeks, you need to tell them about that every 2 weeks, and that is NOT annoying. What is annoying is you have a sale and never tell your email list about it. Now…back to that unsubscribe possibility. Let’s say you create your plan, you work hard to create your email and content, you finally hit send and sit back to relax… And then you see it – the report says ‘2 unsubscribed’. When this happens, I BET YOU – do not panic. That simply means those 2 contacts do not need what you are offering right now, they kindly removed themselves and made room for others to join in. (no, there’s no cap on how many people can join your list, but you get the point.😉) For example, let’s say you own a kids' store and you offer 20% off 1 item when they sign up for your email list. Let’s say Kim is shopping for her niece because she drew her name for Christmas and needs a gift. She does not have any kids of her own and rarely buys kids gifts. She finds the perfect sweatshirt and sees the 20% off offer. She jumps in and signs up, makes her 20% off purchase, and is happy. Next week your email hits her inbox and she thinks to herself, ‘I already got the gift, I don’t need these emails in my inbox’ and hits unsubscribe. Is that ok? YES. Should we panic? No. She doesn’t need what you have right now. Could she down the road? Absolutely, and she will remember you for your offer and come back. She doesn’t fit the ideal audience right now and that’s okay –move on and create your next email to send to the people who DO. Overall, it is time to let the unsubscribe GO. It is OK. That ‘number’ doesn’t matter (just like the number of social followers you have doesn’t matter, but we can talk about that another time), so stop looking at it repeatedly and deciding how many emails to send based on it. You could have 1,000 subscribers and only 1 opens the email you sent – does that hurt? No, because it could take just 1 open email to give you a sale or a new client you serve for years to come. Can we work to increase the open rate and clicks? Yes, but that is for another time too. 😁 Bottom line, email marketing builds your business and loyalty with your customers so it should not be overlooked. An email list is owned by YOU , is a direct connection to your audience where you can not only share items or services you offer, but tell your audience about you, your business, events you will be at, your community, and more. Use this platform consistently to build your business, do NOT think it is annoying, DO send emails, and take NO worry in the unsubscribes. Want To Get Started With Email Marketing? Click HERE and let's create your  plan.

As a solopreneur, I get it, we think we can do all things. And let’s face it, we are the best at what we do so technicallyyyy yes, we can do all the things.  The question is, do we have the TIME to do them? When you focus on doing all the things, you end up not focusing on anything at all. You stretch yourself over the day and find yourself rushing projects, making mistakes, forgetting things, working late, and not getting everything done because you run out of time … even though you know how to do it all. It starts to feel like you work in chaos. ‘Do three things well, not ten things badly.’ As a business owner, it’s important that you don’t spend your days being pulled in a hundred directions and feeling like you never have time, not doing a good job, and losing focus on your business. It’s for this reason that I encourage you to take a step back and look at exactly what you are doing and what is working for your business. The 80/20 Rule. Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? This rule asserts that 20% of what you do results in 80% of your outcomes. So as you are working all day, 20% of those tasks are bringing you results. It feels a little overwhelming knowing how full and rushed a day can be and only 20% of all those things are working. The important thing to think about here is which specific tasks you do well that directly help you reach your goals. For example, if email subscriber growth is a goal you want to see, focusing on the 20% each day would be a great start. Look at 3 things you do well and can bring in results for that specific goal, not the 10 you don’t have time for. Those 10 things you don’t have time for are the 80%. The time-consuming tasks sucking away the hours in your day, not producing immediate growth or revenue, leaving you with no time to work on the important tasks. Maybe you can relate to that feeling… You take a quick minute out of your morning to work through 127 emails sitting in your inbox, and you are rocking it, cleaning things up and responding to clients, and suddenly you look up to the clock and it is NOON! You started this at 10:21 AM! You are now mad at yourself for taking time to go through the emails when you have a client meeting at 12:30 and a list of things you HAVE to do today. Que … ‘it is going to be a late night’. The Solution To Making The Most Of Your Time As A Business Owner Time has an interesting way of showing us what really matters. Yes, we all can work on our inbox and send emails, but is that helping our business grow? Not necessarily. But we also NEED to answer our clients, customers, and inquiries so we are a good business, building loyalty that will help us down the road to growing business. While the simple tasks might not be tons of ‘work’, it is TIME, and time is valuable. When you work those day-to-day tasks all on your own, you don’t have the time to work on growth. So what is the solution to finding the time to get it all done? Work smarter, not harder. I bet you have heard that before. Is it that simple? Yes, Does it feel like it is simple? Maybe not. Outsourcing is working smarter, not harder. Outsourcing grows your business. Outsourcing isn’t about not knowing how to do the tasks , it is about prioritizing what you work on to get results and getting assistance with the time-consuming tasks that take you away from it. While the day-to-day tasks are simple things you can do yourself, they might be wasting your time. Instead, investing in outsourcing can be the thing that grows your business and frees you to grow your passion. What tasks can you outsource? There are many to outsource, including inbox management, email marketing, social media planning, updating business information, proofreading, onboarding new clients, and more. Prioritizing what needs to be done and making a plan is something I customize for businesses. Mapping out the 80|20 is a great start to growth. If you’re ready to start outsourcing in your business but aren’t sure where to start, CLICK HERE to connect so we can map out your 80/20 and determine a plan of action that’s best for you!

H appy New Year. 🎉

This time of year is always a hard one for me. Summer is my favorite season. I love the heat, the sun, wearing shorts and t-shirts, sitting on my deck with a good read. But summer is also a non-routine season, and I live for a routine.