We’re no stranger to Instagram Stories, and we’d venture to guess that you might not be either. Even if you aren’t utilizing Stories in the way that you could, they’ve been around for almost 5 years now, and over 500 million people use them each day. (source) Their popularity is only increasing, regardless of the new takeover by Reels. Stories are, you could say, a classic!

They’re the perfect way to connect with your followers on a more personal level than just a static feed post, or really even an IGTV video. Stories are more real-time, with photos and videos posted having usually been taken right there on the spot. The plus of also being able to see your face and mannerisms and hear your voice gives your audience the opportunity to see the face behind the brand, which can be so essential for small businesses.

They hold a great power for business owners to build relationships and trust with their followers. But sometimes, they almost seem like a strange artform that some have perfected and some haven’t, so that’s why we want to share with you 8 ways to use Stories to boost engagement for your business!

So, you’re either about to launch your business or add a new service, but you want to know if the logistics of that are possible using just Dubsado? We’re here to tell you that the answer is yes!

Dubsado is a CRM that has many robust features that can be turned into whatever you need them to be to help you launch, meaning you don’t even need a website nor sales page to make it happen. For example, lead capture forms can be turned into waitlists, proposals can act as a landing page, workflows can allow you to send automated emails, and more.

We know you’re wondering But how?, so that’s what we’re going to dive into today!

Starting a product based business is stressful enough. You have to brainstorm ideas for a product to sell, figure out how to bring it to life, develop a marketing strategy, and basically leave the space left on your calendar wire thin.

More often than not, packaging is the last thing you’ll think about because, let’s face it, it’s simply just a way to deliver the product to the hands of your customers, right? Wrong.

In the world of online transactions, the packaging your product comes in may very well be the only physical interaction your customers have with your business, so it’s important to make it a great one.

The time may come as your business grows to invest in some branded packaging. We’re not talking about when you have your own warehouses across the country and are rolling out hundreds of orders per day. In this day and age, branded and unique packaging can be more affordable than you might think.

Keep reading as we dive into the effects of product packaging in today’s world and how to use it to communicate your brand messaging and impress your customers!

One thing about us is that we’re always looking for ways to improve our systems and processes to keep things streamlined and running smoothly. And a favorite system of ours that allows you to do this very thing with your client processes is Dubsado.

When we were a service-based business that dealt with one on one clients, Dubsado was our absolute favorite CRM, and that was back when they were fairly new and weren’t as robust as they are now. Since they’ve made total updates and added new features, they’ve become every business owners dream system.

So, today, we’re going to share with you different ways that you can use Dubsado to streamline your projects and tasks!

Owning and operating your own business generally means that you end up wearing lots of hats, especially when you haven’t yet formed a team. You’re not only the director of pushing out and creating all the content, but the one who markets it, organizes getting paid, communicates with clients, and so much more.

Needless to say, all of this can be beyond overwhelming, unless you have the tools and systems in place to help you save energy, time, and money. If you know anything about us at all, it’s probably that we’re all about tools and systems. It’s like therapy for us knowing that we have a system for every part of our business.

Today, we want to share our top 10 favorite productivity tools for 2021 and how they impact our business, in hopes that they can help you in your business, too! And, yes, we actually use and love the tools on this list!

In the age of Myers Briggs and the Enneagram, personality types have never been more of a topic of conversation in the online business world than they are now. This increased popularity is leading to more talks about strengths and weaknesses, which we think is absolutely wonderful!

Knowing this information about yourself allows you to learn how to leverage those qualities in the way you do business. Not only that, but you’re also able to find business companions that you fit along with really nicely, which can be especially useful when growing a team.

But in what other ways does your Enneagram affect your life and business?

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?

If there’s anyone that knows a thing or two about launching, it’s us. In the past 5 years we’ve been in business, we’ve launched more times than we can count with a multitude of different products and services as our business transitioned and grew.

During the different seasons of our business, we’ve had big launches, small launches, and everything in between, so we’ve also picked up on how to do it without being so stressed. We think the number one important thing about launching is that it’s fun and simple. Otherwise, who the heck would ever want to launch anything?

So, today, we’re going to share with you a little about our plan for launching simply, and show you our little secret for making launching even easier.

2021 is right around the corner, and last week we talked all about the never-ending cycle of being super super motivated to crush your goals in the new year, and then as the year goes on, momentum starts to fade ever so slowly.

We even talked about the importance of reflecting on your goals the week before and how doing so can help you plan strategically and intentionally, so you aren’t just writing down goals that aren’t realistic or reachable.

Now, what about the actual planning process? At the end of 2019, we tried a new technique that helped us plan for 2020 tremendously, and we’re going to break that down for you today.