Just when I thought we were getting out of the hellacious year that 2021 was, my family was hit with Covid and over three weeks of isolation without childcare. Funny how when you run your own business and you’re the one doing nearly everything, it’s really hard to recover from that. Extending deadlines can feel like knocking down dominoes, and I’m only now finally feeling like I’m able to poke my head out again. But it’s made me think about how grateful I am to my past self for setting up templates + processes for almost everything in my business so I can partially go on auto pilot.

I’ve spoken about it and gave workshops on it before, but I don’t think I’ve ever put it down in writing on my blog. So, today I’m talking to you again about how to use and develop processes in your small business.

Last month I wrote a post about the 3 Tools I Use Every Day To Run My Business and I got so many responses letting me know how you were able to start streamlining your processes with these online services. I loved hearing your great feedback so much that today I'm sharing 3 more online tools that I use on a regular basis to help run my business smoothly. And you're in for a treat because these ones are all FREE! Let's dive in.

Running an online business is real hard, you guys. And when you're trying to go it alone and there are one billion + one tasks on your to-do list, it makes running your business even more of a challenge. Luckily there are tons of tools you can use to help you be more efficient, stay organized and hopefully keep a single shred of your sanity. This week I'm sharing 3 online tools that I love and use everyday to help run my business smoothly.

Believe it or not, colors are tied with a psychological and emotional response for us humans. When you put on a bold red lip for the day, you’re telling the world to watch out for your confidence. When you choose the bank with the blue logo, it makes you feel like your money will be well taken care of. When you look at the bright yellow flowers sprouting in your neighbors yard, you feel a sense of warmth and happiness because spring has arrived. Those are all examples of how color can say something without actually saying anything. So you can see how important it is to know exactly what the colors your choose for your business are saying about your brand.

You don’t have to tell me twice, writing the content for your website is freaking hard. Where do you even start? What the heck do you put on the homepage? What even is a homepage? Helping clients with their website content and how they present it is something that I do every day, and when I see people struggling with their homepage all I want to do is pat them on the head and make it easier for them. So I’m sharing my basic method for crafting an intentional homepage. This is what I start with this as a template for each client that I work with and you can do the same.

We as humans are visual people, so it makes sense that by adding images to your website you immediately make it more dynamic. But you don't have to just plop an image in and call it good. With the Squarespace image block there are 6 different layouts to choose from to add more creativity to your site. And they work the same no matter what template you're on! Watch the video for a crash course on the Squarespace images block or read below for a description of each layout style.

It’s 2018 and the times are a changing. Even more rapidly for the marketing world. A couple weeks ago I went to a panel focused on digital marketing trends for 2018. And while the topic of many of the presentations were focused on much larger companies than I normally work with, there’s no reason that we as small business owners can’t apply some of these same tactics and to great results. Here are my top three takeaways translated for small business owners and entrepreneurs.