What do we actually do with information overload? When it comes to making plans for your small business you’ve got ideas and game plans out the wahzoo.

You see a shiny new course from this A-list business strategist and you just have to buy it, or maybe your favorite influencer has just released another free resource, so you rush to download it. Perhaps you’ve spent hours scrolling through Pinterest and saving tons of Pins that look interesting. Or you’ve just finished watching yet another webinar about a new thing you think could help, and you’ve filled a page or two with notes.

Can we get real with you for a second?

All of those countless courses, freebies, saved Pins, and webinar notes don’t mean a darn thing if you aren’t going to actually start doing something with them.

Sure, “knowledge is power”, but we’d like to think you don’t have much power if that knowledge isn’t being applied or even retained because you forget about it the next day when a new shiny squirrel catches your attention.

So, what do you do with a strategy once you’ve learned it besides just letting it sit in your virtual cupboard to collect dust?
These actionable steps will help you to figure out your own actionable steps when wanting to implement a new strategy. And if you have no idea what you even want to implement, stick around for a surprise at the end!

We’ve seen firsthand how crucial working with brands and partners can be for our business. Heck, relationships we formed led to actual dollar bills and made up nearly 20% of our total revenue in 2019! And chances are there’s a brand or 12 that you’ve had your eye on to work with for a while. But you freeze and get stuck because...how the heck do you communicate why you’re so amazing?

We see you, babe.

You’re advertising the shit out of your products or services, talking them up on every social media platform that you can be found on, going live on Facebook and Instagram, spreading your business through word of mouth, and every other thing you can think of.

Still, you just aren’t getting the results you’d like to be, and you’re tired of repeatedly seeing the straight line creeping across your sales chart or– God forbid– a slow decline.

The last thing you need to do is give up. You may think you’re showing up everywhere you possibly can be. You may think you’re directly targeting your audience.

Many small businesses are basically “doomed” from the start.

Although done unknowingly, many entrepreneurs design their business in a way that keeps them stuck in the Merry-Go-Round trap.

They’ve designed their business in a circle. Doing the same things over and over again. Answering the same questions. Dealing with the same problems. And they aren’t growing.

I bet you know the feeling: you’re working and working and working, but you just aren’t seeing any progress. And where the heck are all those clients you desperately want to be working with?

Blogging is a long game strategy - meaning it’s effects are best measured months and years after a blog is posted. It can be a fantastic way to add valuable keywords to your website and to up your search rankings through the power of SEO (search engine optimization).

But here’s a secret about blogs that no one is talking about. Blogs are likely not reaching your potential clients. Blogs are reaching people who want solutions to a problem (think how to type content), not people looking to hire.

As photographers we convince ourselves that we all have to go through this same “rite of passage” in order to be legit. It looks something like this:

Get Camera -> Work For Free -> Charge $50 -> What the Hell Happens Next

Most of you are probably in between the “Charge $50” and the “What the Hell Happens Next” stage of business. Maybe you’ve upped that $50 session fee to a *gasp* $150.

So the goal here today is to take you from “I could make more money working at Target” to “Holy sh*t I’m looking at a $2k+ deposit”. Ready?

So you keep hearing the following statement, “As a business you should probably get around to sending out some ‘professional’ email.” And you may be wondering where the heck you should start or if it is even worth your time.

Email Marketing has some powerful benefits, but to be successful it has to be well thought out and carefully managed. Today, we will cover some of the benefits, how and where to get started and then the ideal anatomy for your newsletter.

When it comes to social media schedulers it seems that it’s usually a bit of a piecemeal to get all the functionality you need for your business. The terms of service for each platform varies so much that it’s hard for one scheduler to be an “all-in-one”. So, while we still use and love Later for our Instagram scheduling, we haven’t really been in love with our options for posting to Twitter and our Facebook group.

When we were voicing our frustrations with our options someone in a Facebook group suggested we check out Post Planner. Holy Moly, were we impressed! First off, it’s $2.00 a month cheaper than what we were using (#DollaBills y’all) and it had some unique features that we didn’t even realize we were missing. If you’ve been considering Post Planner or if you already have it, but not quite sure how to use it, then read below for a full tour of our favorite features.