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.

Today I want to teach you how to use link triggers in ConvertKit to make things crazy easy for already-existing subscribers. Obviously there are 1.493723 billion things you could use a link trigger for so this is just an example.

Let’s say you’re hosting a webinar and you want to send an email to your list telling them about it and asking them to sign up but because they’re already on your list (aka, already given you their email address, name, etc) they could really skip the whole sign up page thing.

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.

Flashback 2 years. I was completely unhappy. I didn’t like what I was doing with my life. I didn’t enjoy work anymore. I was totally burnt out. I would fall asleep at 8 p.m. and I was still consistently (and constantly) exhausted. I knew I had to do something about it.

Since I could walk I have always been one to take action. If someone scraped their knee on the playground, I would run to get the nearest teacher. If someone was struggling in school, I would offer to help them through their problems. If friends are struggling with a dilemma, I listen and give advice. But the moment the tables are flipped and I am the one who needs help, I am typically floundering.

Owning a small business is challenging on so many levels, but taxes seem to be a big stressor on the minds of most creatives. While talking taxes is never glamorous, getting to know the basics of tax can save you time and money down the road. Here is a small list of the things you should consider when you’re thinking about your taxes.