There comes a point in every entrepreneur’s life when they realize they need a little bit of help. Or a lot a bit of help (yes, “a lot a bit” is a thing, thank you). Most of the time when someone finally admits this to themselves or out loud on social media, they don’t know where to start — they just know they’re overwhelmed. Now, I’ll say this and leave it here — there are many different types of virtual assistants and it can get cray-cray sorting through them all, but by knowing your business, you’ll be able to wade through the different types easier. But today we’re focusing on what to do before you decide to hire someone.

We all know that it can be difficult to work for yourself and that stress and burnout are real concerns. As an entrepreneur, you often have to deal with unusual working hours, time pressures, risk of failure constantly looming, irregular money coming in, and limited social interaction.

The number of new small business owners and entrepreneurs is rising every day, and prioritizing your self care is an integral part of success. Self care is any activity that you do voluntarily which helps you maintain your physical, mental or emotional health. It can help you feel healthy, relaxed and ready to take on your work and responsibilities. Sounds like something we all need, right? But I wonder how many of you are engaging in enough self care to balance out the incredible stress that comes from running your own business.

The impact that blogging has had on our small business has been incredible. When we first started, we knew blogging would be a great strategy, but we didn’t quite understand the reaches it would have. We knew we had stories to tell, strategy to dish out and tactics to teach, so we went for it.

Over the course of our blogging career we’ve pivoted our content, cut back on the amount that we blog and have since welcomed on guest bloggers to generate fresh stories and tactics for you guys. We continue to reach people from over 189 countries, bring in over 75k visitors every month, and are able to use this platform to showcase our products (i.e. make money). We know that this outcome is the goal for a lot of you, but it’s hard to get started.

From ideation to outlining, drafting, editing, to formatting, consistently creating content for your business can feel like a never-ending to-do list. No sooner are you done with one blog post, vlog, or podcast episode, and it’s time to move on to the next one.

But what if instead of creating more content, you could just add just a few extra steps to the content you’re already taking the time to create and turn it into two, three, or even four additional pieces of content?

That, my friends, is what’s called content repurposing, and if you do it strategically, you can save a ton of time along with your creative sanity.

If you own a business, especially if a portion of your prospecting is done online, you have undoubtedly been asked, “What do you do exactly?”. We’ve struggled with this question ourselves in the past, and used to find ourselves stumbling over our words, feeling like we needed to adjust our elevator pitches based on who we were talking to at the time. It’s easy to become a little frustrated, although you can’t show it, because even though you understand your business and your business model, not everybody else does. Plain and simple, people are not in your head. They don’t read everything you write. And they definitely have no idea what you’ve already said to other people.

When selling a product or service, you are automatically categorized. You might be the local boutique or the big-box name brand, but these are just categories. And once you’re in a category, people compare you to others in the same category. Instead of making yourself or your business what you “think” you are supposed to be like, make it more about YOU.

Woah! What a way to start the year. January was a total whirlwind. In just a few short weeks we launched a new program, started a podcast and Emylee adopted Penelope! We definitely learned a lot, pivoted and restructured a whole bunch — so read on to see all the strategies we started to implement in January of 2017.

Why we do income reports?

In an effort to be as transparent as possible in our own business we have chosen to make 2017 the year we showcase the good, the bad and the ugly. That means we talk about money on months we bring home the bacon and on months we’d rather not discuss finances. We hope you learn a LOT from these reports. Replicate and tweak our strategies to use in your own business. Get inspired, learn from our mistakes and grow your own online business.

If you’re a product based business, chances are you’re already on Instagram (if you aren’t yet, you should be!). Being a predominantly visual platform, Instagram is a vital business tool for those of us who are makers and creatives.

So you’ve made some beautiful things and you’re ready to take the photos and share them with the world... But what do you actually SAY?

Ultimately you want people to buy your work, but you need to write something other than “I made a thing, go buy it” for every post.

I’m going to let you in on four super-secret golden rules of using Instagram as a maker.

In preparation for working from home once we our babe was here, I did a lot of Googling. I mostly found articles that said stuff like “work while she sleeps!”, “time block your tasks!” or “don’t expect to do anything for at least 4 months!”. I hated all of that advice.

First, let’s get real for a second. I’m freaking napping while she sleeps (especially in the early days) or staring at her or hosting yet another person who has chosen to stop by to meet her. The thought of hammering out a blog post at that time was laughable

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. We know that heartfelt connections, strong relationships and soulful collaborations can transform a side hustle into a thriving small business. It’s hard being a solopreneur, and having someone to vent to, and brainstorm or celebrate with can help you accomplish twice as much. But taking the leap and committing to group work can be scary, so here are 5 conversations to have before choosing a business partner, so you can team up with confidence and success.