business insights
I’m officially building my first Al app. No code. No hoodie-wearing co-founder. Just me, my idea, a no-code tool called Lovable.dev, and two years of quietly training an Al on everything I know about marketing, messaging, and digital products.
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Best Passive Income Ideas for Your Small Business in 2022
In this day and age of online business, it’s extremely easy to give into the elusive passive income trend. We talk about it with our family and friends, and we learn from marketing gurus on the internet that the end goal is to “make money while you sleep.”
Sure, it does sound great. Being able to give little to no effort yet still have money rolling in sounds like a dream. Spoiler alert: What they’re teaching you isn’t really passive income.
Keep reading to find out the true definition of passive income, our honest thoughts around it, and what you should do instead.
How to Host Co-working Sessions to Boost Productivity in Your Business
When you have a team that works from home or any sort of virtual community space, it can be a little more difficult to make sure everyone is being productive. One way we’ve been able to set accountability and give that much needed support to each other is by holding co-working sessions.
Co-working sessions are when you, a team member, or even your whole team hop on a group video chat (we prefer Zoom) to literally work together. Back when Boss Project was just Abagail and Emylee, we’d often hop on Zoom or Google Hangouts to complete tasks together. We’d hang out for hours on end, sometimes a whole working day just to hold each other accountable.
Now, we want to share how we host efficient co-working sessions to boost productivity in our business!
How to Host a Virtual Team Mixer or Holiday Party
Not being in the physical presence of team members means that there’s a bit more extra work involved to make sure everyone feels connected. You can absolutely still have a closely knit virtual team, and we absolutely love the workspace tone we’ve set with our team!
One of the ways we get in some much-needed face time is by hosting virtual team mixers. Since the holidays are coming up hot, hosting a virtual holiday party is the perfect way to get your team members chatting and connecting with each other outside of the usual workplace communication!
Keep reading to find out exactly how we host our virtual team mixers, plus some team building questions to ask to keep everyone engaged!
5 Apps We Use to Keep our Team Happy and Productive
We’ve been outsourcing for a while now and have always had some sort of team regardless of the size. Over the years, we’ve had various highs and lows with our team, and team members have come and gone. However, now we’re at a place with our current team where we feel really good about the energy and cadence we’ve built in the workplace, no matter the fact that we’re virtual.
Our team members are happy to come to work, they know that this is a safe space, that we value life first in our business, and that they’ll be recognized for their achievements. We’re able to keep them happy and productive using 5 apps and tools, which we’re going to share in this blog post!
Lessons from 2020: Sales, Setbacks, and Surprises
We’ll gladly join the masses of people saying that they’re so glad that 2020 is over! And it isn’t so much that we expect the pandemic and all of the issues that come with it to just disappear with a new year, but more so that we’re now able to reflect on the year and kick everything in gear for 2021.
For us, 2020 was a whirlwind, but it was actually our best years ever. Of course we still dealt with setbacks just like everyone else, but we changed up the way we did things at the beginning of 2020, and it had a profound impact on how the year played out.
So what did we change? What actually happened for us in 2020? And what lessons did we learn that we’re carrying into 2021?
How to Stay Motivated by Making Your Goals Visible
The month of December (a.k.a. the month of goal-setting) is one of our favorite times of the year. Nothing fuels us more than to sit down with each other and discuss our aspirations for what we aim to achieve in the new year. For some reason we’re especially fueled this month, probably because we can’t wait to leave behind the chaos that is 2020 (or soon to be was).
However, a struggle for many of our fellow creatives is actually staying motivated all year long. We know the feeling– you’re pumped to crush your goals while you’re planning them, and you still have the ball rolling through Q1, but then.. it slows down.
And it keeps getting slower.. and slower.. and slower until you reflect on your year, realize how shitty it’s been, aim to change that in the next year, get all pumped up again, and the cycle repeats.
So, how do you break the cycle?
Why Reflecting on Your Goals is Vital to Your Business Growth
With the new year right around the corner, you may already be thinking about all of the things you want to accomplish in 2021. Will this be the year you launch that new product or service? Will this be the year you bring in enough revenue that you can hire a web designer? Will this be the year you reach 6-figures?
It’s so fun and refreshing to list out all of the goals we want to accomplish in the new year. The thing is, cooking up new goals and ideas is easy, but unless you’re reflecting on your past goals, you’ll have a harder time bringing them to fruition, if at all.
We think one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your business is not dedicating recurring time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished (or not) in the past. It’s imperative to look back on previous years before jumping the gun and setting new goals, and here’s why.
Pulling Back the Curtain: How We Launched Our Top 30-Ranking Podcast
It’s been over three years (really, close to four) since we launched The Strategy Hour Podcast. Since then, we’ve made the ranks of Apple’s Top 30 Business Management Podcasts, have been featured in multiple blog posts about business-related podcasts, have had X total downloads on Apple Podcasts alone, and we’re coming up hot on the heels our 500th episode (that’s a lot of freakin’ recording time!).
And while we’re so grateful that our podcast took off the way it did and has influenced thousands of lives and launching it was a blast, in no way has it always been easy. So, today, we’re going to be pulling back the curtain on how we launched our podcast, the challenges we faced, all of the hustle we put in to launch, how we plan and upload new episodes, the whole 9.
If the idea of launching a podcast has been tossing and turning in your brain, our totally candid and honest experience will hopefully help you determine whether this is the right next move in your business journey!
How to Tell The Future of Your Business: Find Conversion Rates, Lifetime Value, Profit Margins and More
Conversion rates. Analytics. Measuring growth. Lifetime value. There are so many business buzzwords that get thrown around that can feel really intimidating to the average creative business owner.
However, knowing this information is super crucial to your profits, your growth and the decisions you make every single day in your business.
Keeping track of your business’ numbers allows you to make strategic decisions instead of just saying, “Well, I feel like this is going well, so I’m going to keep doing it” or “I feel like this new thing could really help, so I’m going to try it.”
Honestly? We’d rather make business decisions rooted in facts and data instead of basing everything soley of feelings. We love us a good “gut instinct” and we like to back it up with cold hard facts.
Knowing how much weight a product or service is pulling for you or if it’s time to let it go, the rate of growth across all of your channels, and your overall progress is so important in order to plan and set goals realistically in your business, both short and long term.
So how do you find this information (or sexy math as we like to call it)? Where do you begin?
It all starts with your analytics.
Service Providers Earning Less than $5k Per Month: Essential Skills You Need to Have a Successful Business
There’s undoubtedly a flood of information and resources on the internet for service providers looking to grow their income to $5k+ months. Unfortunately, that also means that it can be difficult to know where to look, what to search for that’ll actually be helpful, and find reliable resources. When you’re a smaller business, your number one priority is essentially increasing your revenue, and there are a number of skills that are essential to have in order to make that happen.
In this post, we’ll be giving you our best resources to help you hone in on those skills so that you can finally break free of the feast or famine mode that so many small service-based businesses find it hard to come out of in the beginning stages of business.
Maximizing Your Potential: Understand the Relationship Between Capacity and Business Goals
One of the largest issues we see in the service industry, specifically related to CEOs and their time, is that they aren’t aware of what their capacity is or how to best split their time to focus on all of the areas that need their attention. Without the knowledge of what baseline their capacity should cover (i.e. 20% in this area and 10% in another), they also aren’t able to see the clear path forward to reaching their goals. In this post, we’ll be breaking down how your time should be spent as a CEO and how to understand your capacity and its effects on your business goals.
How to Know When You Should Pivot or Start Over in Your Business
There comes a point in every service-based business owner’s journey (especially in this market) where they hit what feels like a huge cement wall. Leads feel harder to come by, prospects feel harder to close, and it seems the only way to get through it is to either demolish the wall or change directions. In this case, that would mean pivoting your offer or scrapping everything you’ve built and starting over.
How to Identify and Define Values That Your Business Can Actually Live In
Something we’ve noticed is overlooked by many new or growing business owners is creating brand values. You may think since your business is small or because you may not have a team, that means they aren’t important at the moment, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you want to ensure you’re developing a clear and concise brand, creating consistent brand awareness, and attracting the right kinds of clients and audience to your business, then you need to identify and define your brand values.
Roundup: 5 Must Have Templates to Help You Review Your Year in Business and Plan for 2023
The end of the year is possibly our most favorite season of business! It’s the time where you get to reflect on your year in business, assess your analytics and results, and plan for the year ahead. Because this is such a fun time for us, we love making sure our audience is equipped with the resources to help them make these things happen. In The Creative Template Shop, we drop so many helpful templates for reflection and new year planning.
With hundreds of templates to choose from, we wanted to do a quick round-up of our top 5 must-have templates to review your year in business and plan for 2023!
What You Need to Know About Client Acquisition in 2022
Client acquisition is likely the single-handed most asked about topic we get from our audience and members of our various communities. Lately, we’ve been hearing a common complaint from business owners that they need more leads. While there have been some market shifts recently, they’re not necessarily impacting the way we acquire clients. It may feel like it’s changing when actually, everything with clients is exactly the same.
Here’s the thing; marketing is cyclical. There are things that work now that aren’t going to work in 6 months, then in 2 years, those things could come right back around again. There will always be hotspots, but you shouldn’t rely on them if you want consistency. We have lots to talk about on this topic, so let’s dive in!
Welcome to My Blog
Hey, I’m Abagail Pumphrey!
You know when you are so deeply passionate about something you can’t help but share it? That’s how this blog has felt for the last decade. I’ve written about my latest strategies, tech how-tos, experience with scaling and so much more. I hope you find just what you’re looking for. We’re here to help!
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