WARNING! If you receive any sort of message that appears to come from someone you know, or used to know, via a “new social media platform for business” called “empowr”, DELETE IT. Don’t click through to see the person’s profile, don’t click the email to unsubscribe. You’ll find that you have inadvertently created a profile/account for yourself on their website….

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Hello to all you lovely, patient people!  It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I apologize for seeming to have abandoned you for so long. My life, especially my business life, took a 90 degree turn around the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013. While I really enjoyed doing both web strategy and web development, and still do for that…

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A very wise woman once said something to the effect of: “You will have balance in your life. Maybe not every day, maybe not even every year. But over the course of your life, you will have balance.” (Note: I can’t remember who said that. She was a panelist at a luncheon honouring some women of distinction that I attended…

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It’s coming up to tax time here in Canada, and the US. Pulling together year-end reports on revenues and expenses is, for some business owners, the first time all year they take a good hard look at the numbers. Bad, bad business owners! At least having to file my GST return every three months forces me to balance my books!…

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I was working with a client recently on creating a marketing plan and more specifically a content plan for her business. She’s changing some stuff up: dropping some things that haven’t been working, expanding on some that have been, adding some new ones, and planning others. That’s a lot of balls in the air, and we wanted to make sure…

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Everyone has a style. I’m not talking about your hair or your clothes or what colour your glasses frames are. I’m talking about the way you approach life, the way you solve problems, the way you think about the world. It’s especially obvious for those of us who coach or train. Maybe we do more conscious thinking about how we…

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I love lists. I get tremendous personal satisfaction out of stroking completed items off of lists. And I know from experience if I don’t write something down, it likely won’t get done. Frequently the mere act of writing it down helps me to remember to do it. (Which is why I like pencil and paper, but that’s another discussion.) I’m…

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We’ve been hearing for years that we need to identify and target our “niche market”. Lately the buzz has been around identifying and marketing to our “ideal client”. Some marketers will focus on one concept, and some on the other. What’s an entrepreneur to do? Answer: Savvy entrepreneurs do both. And here’s why. First, let’s look at the difference. It’s…

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Stuff happens. In my experience, it tends to happen at the most inconvenient time possible. If your computer is going  to be stupid and lose the whatever you’re working on, it won’t be the draft of the letter you’re writing to your sister, or even the Facebook status update about your latest blog post. It’ll be something like last year’s…

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I like Gmail. I really do. I have a Gmail email address that I use for personal correspondence. I use the Calendar and Contacts features to sync my Android phone and tablet with Outlook. But it drives me absolutely crazy when I see a small business owner — even one who HAS a website — use a Gmail address as…

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Nothing beats live music. I listen to a lot of music. There’s almost always something playing in my office when I’m working (which prompts another post about auto-playing audios and videos on your websites…). I have very eclectic taste in music, more wide-ranging probably than I do in art or literature. And one of my very very favourite things is…

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I really wish that when entrepreneurs decide to start marketing online, they’d learn – and respect – the rules for playing in the various sandboxes. Last week I wrote about one disagreeable practice: tagging someone in a Facebook post when the content has nothing do to with them. This week I’m writing about another disagreeable practice: adding someone to your…

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As entrepreneurs, there is sooo much we need to know about different aspects of marketing. What can I do? What can’t I do? What should I do, or not do? How do I get my message across in the best way to the most people? Want some help? My friend and colleague Bonnie Taylor Wachowicz is one of the best…

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A funny thing happened to me last month. It made me do some thinking on what to do – and what NOT to do – when you use social media to promote your business. (The photo is just for fun; I couldn’t resist the kids playing tag at the beach, as it’s cold and snowy here!) Someone tagged me in…

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Is your WordPress website getting slammed with spammy comments? Congratulations! You’re getting enough traffic to attract some attention. The bad news is that you’re attracting the wrong kind of attention. And the last thing you want is to offend your REAL audience with shady or off-colour or downright nasty comments that unscrupulous attackers are sending your way. I’ve tested a…

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I grew up on the Eastern seaboard, which is a much damper climate than where I live now, and we used to get these tremendous ground fogs at certain times of the year when the temperatures were just right.  When you drove especially at night, it was sometimes really hard to get a clear vision of the road ahead of…

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What do you do to grow your business? I do a lot of networking. I like being in the community, the company, of other like-minded individuals. I especially like being in the company of creative, passionate, empowered women who strive to change the world. That’s what I get from eWomen Network. Headquartered in Dallas, it’s the biggest women’s business network…

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The last two weeks, I’ve talked about some myths that can keep us from moving our business and ourselves in the direction we want to go. The first myth was about not being able to let go and delegate: “No one knows my business as well as I do, so no one can do these things as well as I…

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One of the most important ways I can take care of my business is to take care of myself. I have a wonky knee. In the summer of 2006 I managed to dislocate my kneecap and rip up the cartilage. A year of physiotherapy and a series of cortisone injections right below the kneecap helped some; arthroscopic surgery in 2007…

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As entrepreneurs we buy into all sorts of myths sometimes, beliefs that can keep us stuck and prevent us from moving forward. For me, there are three traps I can find myself falling into if I’m not careful. Last week I wrote about the trap of thinking no one else can do {xxx} as well as I can so I…

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Invoices and accounting are not exactly my favourite part of being in business.  Doing my books was a necessary evil, something I had to do regularly to keep my bank and Canada Revenue Agency off my back. I do a lot of business online, so I was really quite pleased to find an online tool to help me out! For…

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Have you ever seen a performer who is spinning plates on sticks?  He has to keep all of the plates moving fast enough to keep them from falling.  If he turns his attention from any one plate for too long, it’ll crash to the ground and break.  Does your business, your life, feel like an array of spinning plates? We…

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You’ve spent hours, days, weeks writing your website copy. You’ve thought about your niche market, your ideal client, and have carefully crafted just the right words and incorporated just the right images to reach them. It took meticulous keyword searches, and thorough examination of the sites of others in your field, to make sure that your uniqueness, the special qualities…

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One of the unexpected bonuses from working with a VA is that since she’s doing a lot of the posting and updating for me, I need to get her content in a timely manner for my blog and ezine and social media posts. Having to think about all those bits in advance keeps me accountable for actually getting them done!…

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This recommendation is a little different from my usual post on a tool or bit of technology. I’m going to recommend that you take some time over the next week and start thinking, really thinking, about 2013. I don’t care what method or tool you use! I’m fond of pencil and paper, whiteboards and sticky notes, erasable yearly calendars and…

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Video is hot these days. Your clients love them, your prospects love them, Google loves them (when they’re on YouTube, anyway!). But what’s an introvert to do? How can I have video on my website if I really really don’t want to be on camera? Or if I don’t own a video camera? Easy. Create a screencast video instead! It’s…

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I’ve used SnagIt, TechSmith’s screen capture software, for years. So back in January when I was looking into an online course for learning how to create videos, and the course price included a license for Camtasia, I signed up and grabbed the software. Even if the course hadn’t been good (and it was) the price for the license was too…

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We’ve all heard the expression “If it’s to be, it’s up to me”. That’s a powerful statement, one that really resonates with me. I’m a “doer”. I’m the rock my family relies on. When I was building websites for a living I always said, “I don’t make things pretty,  I make them work”. As an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, for the…

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Online, one of the most significant keys to success is getting website traffic.  The more visitors you have, the better your sales and profits.  If you read my earlier articles The Foggy Mirror: Get Clear About Who You Are and The Blurry Lens: Get Clear About Your Market and Your Message, you have figured out a niche and you know…

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I’ve worked with a lot of entrepreneurs over the years.  I’m an entrepreneur myself.  I have to do the same things you do, and chances are I struggle with the same things most of you do. Most of the time, with one or two exceptions, entrepreneurs start their own business because they’re really good at something, and really passionate about…

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A picture is worth a thousand words. I’m a writer.  Give me a blank page, on screen or in person, and my immediate reaction is to fill it with words.   While I’m creative in all sorts of ways, I do NOT draw, or paint, or participate in the visual or graphic arts.  I love to write. But reading paragraphs and…

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This is the fourth post in my series Get Unstuck and Say Goodbye to Overwhelm.  The first post talked about what I’ve found to be the first step I need to take to get unstuck: Get Clear.  Figure out what I want for my life, what and who I want to BE, and then I can figure out what I…

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When my Blackberry reached the end of its useful life, I switched it up to an Android phone.  I didn’t realize before I bought it that Android phones don’t have something similar to the Blackberry Desktop Software to sync my contacts and calendar.  To be honest, it never occurred to me that it wouldn’t! So when I got my lovely…

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Last week I talked to you about my second step for getting unstuck: Get Focused.  I need focus to turn my plan (which I created through the clarity I talked about in week 1 into action steps, tasks on my to-do list. Oh, yes, that to-do list.  Ever feel as if for every item you knock off your list, three…

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Do you have a coach?  I’ve got a few, and they each serve a different purpose or fulfill a different need.  I’d like to tell you about one: Rosemary Bredeson. I met Rosemary when we were both members of Ali Brown’s Millionaire Protege Club in 2011.  You know how sometimes you meet someone and you feel as if you’ve known…

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Last week I talked to you about what I’ve found to be the first step I need to take to get unstuck: Get Clear.  I have to have a plan, a roadmap, a direction in which I want to go — or I don’t go!  I know very well that plans can change.  But like a budget, which really is…

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I get a lot of email. I mean, I get a LOT of email.  I collect from seven active email addresses, and some of them have been around long enough, and have been posted online in enough places, to generate a fair bit of spam. My web hosting company has good spam filters on their computers (thanks, Michael!), and they…

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Overwhelm. Stuck. Spinning my wheels. Busy, busy, busy but not productive. The to-do list that never ends. The “where do I start?” question. The “I can do it myself so I *should* do it myself” reasoning. The “no one can do it as well as I can but I never seem to get it done” feeling. I hear all of…

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I’m a paper and pencil kinda gal.  I take notes when I’m on the phone with my mother.  My projects are sorted into binders, and notebook paper is one of my standard purchases at Staples.  But when you travel a lot, it’s not terribly convenient to carry a bookcase full of binders everywhere you go. Enter Evernote. It’s a free…

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I’ve looked at a lot of websites over the years, both as a web developer and strategist and as someone who spends time online, someone who buys online.  Years ago when I first started building websites, it was enough for a small business just to HAVE a website!  A website added credibility; it helped your potential customers take you seriously,…

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One of my external drives died recently. Gone. The computer it was attached to couldn’t read it. Lucky for me, there was nothing on there that was absolutely essential and that couldn’t be recovered by The Geek Squad. (The drive itself didn’t fail, just the power supply to the case.) Have you ever had a hard drive fail? Do you…

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WPMU.org is the number one source on the web for WordPress news, tips, plugins, and theme reviews. I’ve been a member for a while now, and I use a number of their plugins. They’re celebrating because they’ve reached the 100K users mark. Check it out! Celebrate 100k users at WPMU DEV to enter the draw for a free annual account!

Buying decisions are emotional decisions. If you’ve ever read anything about marketing, or copywriting, you’ve heard that you need to address the needs and wants, the emotions, of your potential customers. That while people may ask you about the bells and whistles, the functions and features, of your products and services, even the most level-headed, logical, left-brainer plunks down their…

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Content. Connections. Confidence. Clients. Clarity. I’ve started attending live events again.  I didn’t for a few years: since I wasn’t sure of the direction I wanted to go, it didn’t make sense to spend a lot of money to attend, let alone adding air fare and hotel and meals. Since the first of this year, I’ve attended several. Some were…

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When I talk to people about writing blog posts, or articles, or email newsletters, one of the things I hear back a LOT is that they don’t like to write, don’t think they can write well, don’t have time to write. Usually, these folks are tremendously well spoken. They have powerful stories that need to get out, and they’re good…

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The Value of a Plan I like lists. I have a whiteboard in my office, and just about every Monday morning I sit down and write a list, of tasks I want to accomplish and scheduled events (meetings and phone calls and webinars and whatever), and any other reminders. Yes, I have a smartphone, and I live in Outlook, but…

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I get all sorts of marketing emails from all sorts of companies.  And I do have accounts with a number of stock photo websites, so I can help my clients source images for their projects. As it happens, I was on a coaching call yesterday with a client who asked about using music on her site.  We talked about the…

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Overwhelm is a funny thing. I’m a list maker, always have been. I get great satisfaction out of crossing items off of a list. I have a two-sided rolling whiteboard in my office.  While the back is for my annual planning calendar, the Big Picture stuff, the front side that always faces me is split into two lists: This Week…

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