Christy Smirl is a private librarian: she helps clients build and maintain beautiful collections of books in the home. After years working in public libraries, Christy combined her love for literature and information with an eye for design to launch Foxtail Books & Library Services.
Minor rant*
If you’re on the receiving end of the advice monster, you know that It. Is. Exhausting. And totally not effective…When someone is going through something tricky, LISTEN FIRST. It’s the most powerful and kind thing you can do!
Today I did some browsing at one of my favorite local retail shops. It's a beautiful store with great displays, helpful staff, and quality products so stop by fairly often to see what's new.
As I was wandering around, I came across a display of fancy tea accoutrements—nice mugs, loose leaf teas, steeping spoons, and so on. One of the items was a little box of flavored sugar cubes. They were packaged elegantly in a clear box with a nice, matte label with pretty typography.
There were 27 of them in the box, and they cost...(wait for it) $33 bucks. Yep. More than a dollar per cube. For pressed sugar.
The other day I realized that over the course of my work day I had used 16 computer programs or platforms to get through my to-do list. And that’s not even all of the programs I use frequently.
There are additional Adobe programs, CRMs (customer relationship management), CMSs (content management system), social media channels, video editing software, audio recording software, and more.
So when people tell me that they’re intimidated by technology or that the suck at it, I realize it can be a tremendous barrier to creating an online business. If nothing else, it certainly feels crazy-overwhelming.
If you feel like your level of technical savvy is an obstacle, read on! Here are my tips and tools to make things just a little bit easier.
Discipline is key to running your own business. But, man it can feel like drudgery sometimes.
If you find yourself putting off things that you need to do for your business time and time again (even though technically they’re in your “plan”), this video is for you.
These two mindset shifts have made a big difference to ensure that I don’t get distracted by the shiny objects that pop up constantly in my day.
Monica Purington is the Chief Toxin Hater at Will.it Wellness, marketing director for Rex Specs, and avid mountain adventurer. If there’s one thing I know about Monica, it’s that determination is in her blood. Whether it’s a slope she’s skiing or a creative project she’s working on, she’ll push herself in impressive ways. As she says, “I’m obsessed with productivity whether it's watching sales go up or gaining miles in the mountains - I can't stop moving!” Here’s a little more about her journey into entrepreneurship.
…It was interesting because both of them were coming from the perspective of not wanting to be too rigid. They wanted to create options to fit whatever the customer wanted/needed, which in theory is a great idea. Create the thing the customer wants, right? In the case of the new business owner, she just wanted the sale—any sale!—so she didn't want to have too many restrictions. The more experienced business owner was tired of the same ol' boring proposals and was hoping to do something creative with his potential sponsors, so he didn't give any parameters either. But the problem was that instead of keeping things open ended and easy, they essentially put the burden of decision making on their potential client/partner.
How do you know when to stop and switch gears or keep going and wait for the return on your efforts?
I got this question in an email recently and thought I'd share my response, because we've ALL asked ourselves this question somewhere along the lines.
If you use my favorite analogy of climbing a mountain as a way to think about building your business, this question is much like asking "Are we lost? Because we've been hiking for-ever! When are we going to get there?"
Imagine a new email comes in from a potential client or customer asking about working with you. They're asking for a proposal for some custom work, a commissioned piece, or an on-going service.
You're excited! A new client is just what you need!
You want to get everything just right, so you spend the next 30 (50?) minutes carefully crafting a reply. You eagerly await their response and then...nothing.
Ever had that happen?
Now, not only did you not get a new client, but you burned valuable time and energy as well.
It goes without saying that there is a ton of incredible content out there, but you don't have time for ALL of it. There are just so many hours in the day and you have priorities.
So I decided that occasionally I'd share just a couple things from the internet that caught my eye. The kinds of resources or ideas that I found particularly insightful or useful. Or maybe just something that stayed with me for a few days after reading/watching it.
You have been crazy-busy getting your marketing tasks completed. You've build a great website, you have beautiful photos, you've been posting to social media, you have helpful blog content—the works!
You've been putting it out there...but you're stumped as to why you're not selling more.
Chances are, it's because you're not creating relationships.
When we're stuck in a decision or tricky situation, often times it's because all we can think about is the doom and gloom of the worst case scenario. We think, "if I lose this client because of [some issue], my reputation will be ruined!" Or "if I fire this employee, she'll steal all of my ideas and clients, and then she'll become my biggest competitor!" The thing is, we're so focused on the worst part of the worst case scenario, that we don't actually play out the scenario to the end.
