Hello and welcome to 2018!

If you’re new around here, I started sharing quarterly updates about my business to give you all a peek at what it’s really like to start a business from the ground up.

They say to write blog posts that you like reading and I love reading these types of blog posts.

My hope in sharing these with you is to inform you on what it really looks like to intentionally build a business, encourage you when you’re feeling like you can’t go on, and help you realize that this ‘ish is a twisting rollercoaster that is always evolving and changing.

If you want a bit more background on my business as a whole, check out my update from last quarter.

I wanted to share what Q4 of 2017 looked like for my business as well as a look at what’s coming in 2018 and my word of the year. Hope you enjoy!

Q4 Business Update + 2018 Word Of The Year

Review of what happened in Q4

Attended the FinCon Conference in Dallas

Uhhh, what? Where did this come from?!

This was not on my radar at all to attend, but one Thursday night I got it in my head to look up conferences in my area and lo and behold, FinCon popped up.

I had heard of FinCon before but had never considered going because, well, a financial blogger I am not.

But on this Thursday night, I was desperate to meet new people in person. I was having somewhat of a breakdown, feeling alone in entrepreneurship and really craving being around other people physically.

I’ve talked about the rollercoaster of running your own business, and of course, my husband and friends (both in the flesh and virtual) are amazing, but there’s nothing that beats in-person meetups where you can talk with other people who get it.

So when I saw FinCon pop up, and I was vaguely familiar with it, I decided on a whim to attend. I mean, it was happening 10 minutes away from my apartment so I basically had to go, right?

Attending this conference changed the trajectory of my business. Bold statement, but it’s true.

I had several huge realizations during this conference, but the one that stood out to me most was that for my own personal development and for the betterment of my business, I need to be going to more in-person events.

I met a group of girls at the conference that I immediately connected with, I got to meet Pat Flynn who was the person that introduced me to this whole world of online business, I even got a couple of clients out of it (maybe more, a few are in the works)!

Overall, my business is all about building relationships with other people and the best way to do that is in person. I have 4 conferences planned for 2018 and I can’t wait to see how else I grow as a person and business owner.

Follow me on Insta!

Lesson learned: Prioritize in-person meetups, whether it’s ones that are in your own city or traveling to conferences across the country.

Check out how Q4 2017 went down for @BrittneyLLynn's business and see what her word of the year is for 2018! https://brittneyllynn.com/2018-word-of-the-year Click To Tweet

Connected with a lot of awesome people

Speaking of connections…I connected with so many amazing people in Q4. Most were via a video chat or phone call, but several people I got to meet in person!

Alli Hoff Kosik

This girl and I were meant to meet. You may remember her from episode 010 of the podcast but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

We’re working hard on a fun project these next few weeks that I can’t wait to share more about and we’re even attending the Ignite Your Soul Summit with Amber Lilyestrom in April together so to say we became fast friends is an understatement. Can’t wait to meet her in person!!! Check out Alli’s blog if you want to know what it’s like to be a freelance writer.

Nevica Vasquez

Nevica and I are in the same circles online and I’m shocked it took us until last quarter to finally chat. Turns out, we’ve had several of the same clients and had no idea!

Nevica is one of the kindest people I’ve ever met and boy is she good at her job. I’m hoping I can find an excuse to travel to NYC to meet her. Are there any entrepreneurial conference I should go to in NYC?

Jessica Lawlor

I’ve followed Jessica for over a year now (can’t remember how I found her blog!) and since we started our businesses around the same time I’ve always loved following along. She’s also a fellow PR gal and I loved getting to talk shop with her.

She just celebrated her 2nd anniversary of leaving her corporate job and shared her top 10 popular blog posts. All are must reads!

Jaimie Myers

Jaimie and I have been Insta-friends for a while but we exchanged services in Q4 and this girl…LOVE HER.

She’s an Instagram strategist and I’ve never really been strategic about Instagram so I knew I needed help.

In exchange for her giving me an Instagram strategy (that allows me to actually BE myself), I gave her a 90-minute PR intensive and we both had so many breakthroughs. I love witnessing those “aha” moments with people.

Met up with my clients in person

I got to meet FOUR of my clients in person during Q4. This never happens so to be able to see four all in the span of a week was amazing. I feel really lucky to get to work with some amazing women (and men!)

It’d be amazing to meet all of my clients one day, but I currently have three overseas. Looks like I need to plan an international trip 😉!

Went to a FinCon meet up

Lucky for me, the FinCon team is actually based here in Dallas and they have a local meetup every quarter. Of course I had to attend after going to the conference!

Everyone that’s in the FinCon community is incredible (and so nice), I feel so fortunate to get to hang with these people. I even got to speak with PT, the founder, of FinCon for a bit about PR. Who knows, maybe I’ll get the opportunity to help out even more! I already booked my ticket for this year’s conference :).

Lesson learned: Have Skype dates, phone calls, or grab lunch with people you admire. You never know what ideas could pop up out of these conversations.

Review of Q4 goals

Let’s quickly review my Q4 goals before we get to the good stuff: my word of the year for 2018!

1. Closing out 2017 with a bang with my clients: I feel like I did a great job at this while also being able to take a break for Christmas while we traveled to LA. I have some big projects on the horizon with my clients and I wanted to be prepared for the year ahead.
2. Dream, plan and think about the future of my business: I spent a lot of time dreaming and planning for 2018 and beyond. My PR business has grown in ways I didn’t imagine, so I find myself constantly pivoting and reevaluating where I spend my time. Overall, I’d love to continue to grow my business, not only by bringing on more clients but also increasing my influence to help even more people learn how to use PR for their business. Stay tuned for more lower-priced options such as ebooks, courses, workshops, and more!

My Word of the Year for 2018

My word of the year for 2017 was Growth and holy heck did I grow.

I…

• Started outsourcing to a variety of independent contractors
• Brought on 9 new clients
• Started going to therapy
• Doubled my income from 2016
• Went to my first conference as a small business owner
• Bought a house

Whew, I got tired just typing that out!

But in all seriousness, 2017 was an incredible year of growth for me, in more ways than I expected. The part I’m most proud of is the mental and emotional growth I’ve done.

Going to therapy regularly really helped with this and while it may seem odd that I’m sharing this part of my life with you, it’s not to me.

My mind is what runs my business. If I’m not mentally in a good headspace, I can’t be the best business owner I know I can be. Going to therapy and having someone to talk to about my fears, struggles, and stresses extremely helped me. It’s even what I credit for accomplishing all I did this past year.

If you aren’t taking care of yourself, who else will? 

Now, for my word of the year for 2018…

Visibility

I’ve never been someone who likes the spotlight. I’d much rather be behind the scenes. Which is fine, I’m not ashamed of that in the least.

But, I do think much of that has to do with fear of being seen, not necessarily because I do my best by being behind the scenes.

I’ve never liked rocking the boat. I prepare myself so I know exactly what to expect in any situation. The thought of offending anyone or even disagreeing with someone gives me a lot of anxiety, so I often say nothing.

These things aren’t inherently bad, but there are times that I wish I’d spoken up.

I want to be more visible in my own personal life: sharing my thoughts and ideas about topics that may be different from other people, standing up for the people in my life, standing out in my faith and Christianity, etc.

I also want to be more visible in my business: going on podcasts, landing more editorial interviews, doing more live videos, etc.

Putting myself out there will, of course, help me continue to grow as a person, but it will also help my business. I already had someone message me sharing that they appreciated me sharing press I’ve gotten for myself because it shows that I actually do know what I’m doing for PR.

I need to practice what I preach for myself, even though it’s slightly terrifying.

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed my Q4 business update and getting a look at what’s coming up next for my business.

I’m excited about the rest of 2018 and would love if you shared your goals for the year too! Leave a comment below so we can cheer each other on.

Heads up! There are affiliate links in this blog post. What that means is if you click on a link and then make a purchase, I make a small percentage of money because I referred you. This comes at no additional cost to you. I only share products and resources that I trust and that I know will help you in your business. Grateful for your support!

Hello and welcome to Q4 of the year! Per usual, I’m behind on getting this update out but hey…better late than never!

If you’re new around here, I started sharing quarterly updates about my business to give you all a peek inside what it’s really like to start a business from the ground up.

They say to write blog posts that you like reading and I love reading these types of blog posts.

My hope in sharing these with you is to inform you on what it really looks like to intentionally build a business, encourage you when you’re feeling like you can’t go on, and help you realize that this ‘ish is a twisting rollercoaster that is always evolving and changing.

If you want a bit more background on my business as a whole, check out my update from last quarter.

Q3 Business Update + Goals For The Next Quarter

Review of what happened in Q3

Prepped for the podcast

From July through September, I prepped a ton for the podcast. I was initially going to have the podcast go live on September 28, but due to some unforeseen circumstances with family, I had to delay until October 10 (don’t worry, everything is fine!). I will talk about launch day/week in the next business update since it’s technically in Q4.

A lot of work goes into creating a quality podcast, and I wanted to give myself plenty of time to figure things out. There was definitely a learning curve, as I was starting from complete scratch. I knew nothing about creating quality audio or podcasting tools, so it was kind of exciting to start a new project as a newbie.

Here are things I did to prep for the podcast launch:

• Outsourcing: I quickly realized I did not want to do #allthethings for the podcast. While I definitely could do all the things, I only have so much time and energy and I didn’t want to spend it teaching myself how to edit audio. I hired an editor who edits the podcast, created the intro and outro, uploads my episodes into Libsyn, etc. I have a graphic designer who created all of the album artwork, social media graphics, etc. I also have my VA work on things like formatting and scheduling the blog posts, creating and scheduling social media, etc.
• Recorded episodes: I think I recorded 10 or so episodes before I even launched the podcast. This helped me immensely because I didn’t have to worry about recording new episodes immediately after launching.
• Setting up systems: There are lots of moving pieces with having a podcast. From scheduling guests and getting their information, to creating marketing materials, to scheduling in Libsyn, there’s a lot going on. We finally nailed down a system that works for us, but I had a lot of it figured out beforehand. I use Acuity to schedule guests (and have an automated follow-up process so guests know what to expect), Asana to communicate with my editor & VA on where episodes are at in the process and relay relevant episode info, and Planoly to schedule Instagram posts & Instagram stories. I also use SmarterQueue to schedule out social media.
• Prepping marketing materials: My graphic designer created templates for the social media graphics which was amazing to have ahead of time. We prepped a lot of social media content as well as set up a landing page on my site for people to join the email newsletter.
• Facebook group: I started a launch Facebook group of people who were my biggest supporters who wanted to help start the show with a bang. After the launch, I turned it into a group of listeners and super fans of the podcast. Join the group to chat with other fans and guests!

 

Lesson learned: Working ahead of time can pay off. Also, outsource things you either aren’t good at doing or isn’t in your zone of expertise. It’s WORTH IT.

Hosted my first paid live masterclass

At the beginning of August, I hosted my first live paid masterclass, Master Your PR: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Story, Building Relationships, and Getting Noticed. You can actually still sign up, you’ll just receive the recorded version 🙂

I’ll admit, this was somewhat of a last minute decision but I really wanted to help people learn more about PR and how they can use it for their small business.

The fact is, not everyone can afford to hire someone like me on a monthly retainer to do their PR but they do want to learn how PR can help their business but they aren’t sure where to get started.

This masterclass is a great place to start if you aren’t quite sure how to start using PR for your business but want to learn (which, by the way, PR is not only for big businesses. PR is free, which is why it’s perfect for any type of business, even beginners!)

For a two-hour masterclass, this took a lot of time and energy from me. Maybe it was because I was nervous, or maybe because it was my first live masterclass, but whew buddy did it take me forever!

I haven’t done the best job at promoting it after the fact (horrible, but the truth), but I’m trying to kick my butt into gear and promote it because it’s a great class. Hoping to do more in the future!

Lesson learned: Take the time to create digital products so people can buy something from you if they land on your site. Up until this point, no one could buy anything from me except my services.

Took a vacation

Say what?! Yep, took a real-life vacation and it was great to take a break from everything and get away. 

I will mention that because of some personal things that happened with family, it did make the vacation a bit more stressful. I basically took off the week prior to vacation to focus on family, so then it ended up being two weeks “out of the office.” Which, isn’t truly me being “out of office” because I still worked, so it was a difficult time to balance everything.

Lesson learned: Find more time throughout the year to take breaks. I don’t want to rely on one big vacation in a year. Ideally, I’d take smaller vacations throughout the year to be fully refreshed.

Check out my business update for Q3 and what my goals are for Q4! #smallbizhttps://brittneyllynn.com/q3-business-update/ Click To Tweet

Review of Q3 goals

Let’s quickly review my Q3 goals before we get to the good stuff: what’s coming up for Q4!

1. Launch a podcast: Nope didn’t launch but took A LOT of steps forward. More on the launch day in the Q4 recap!
2. Find me time again: I’ll admit, I did not succeed at this at all. If anything, it got worse (and it got really worse in Q4) but I’ll save that for a future post. 
3. Work smarter, not harder: In some ways, I accomplished this and in other ways, I definitely did not. I’ve slowly realized I’m not the best at creating systems for myself (I need someone to tell me what to do) so I’m considering hiring outside help to help me get my ‘ish together.

What’s planned for Q4

Planning for 2018

What Q4 is really about is closing out 2017 with a bang with my clients and prepare for 2018. I set aside a day in December to just dream, plan, and think about the future and what I want for my business and I’m so excited.

A client of mine recommended purchasing Amber McCue’s Frest Start 2018 to help me and I’m so excited to dive in.

Plans will include planning for the podcast, growing a mini-PR agency (!!!) and focusing on becoming a better leader/manager. I have a lot to learn but I’m excited to see what 2018 brings.

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed my Q3 business update and getting a behind the scenes look at what’s coming up next for my business.

It’s interesting because my word of the year is “Growth” and I am definitely growing in a variety of ways: outsourcing, bringing on new clients, mentally, and emotionally. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year holds!

Hello and welcome to Q3 of the year! So what if it started over 20 days ago…better late than never, right? Right! 😜

So if you’re new around here, I started sharing quarterly updates about my business to give you all a peek inside what it’s really like to start a business from the ground up.

They say to write blog posts that you like reading and I love reading these types of blog posts.

My hope in sharing these with you is to inform you on what it really looks like to intentionally build a business, encourage you when you’re feeling like you can’t go on, and help you realize that this ‘ish is a twisting rollercoaster that is always evolving and changing.

If you want a bit more background on my business as a whole, check out my update from last quarter.

Q2 Business Update + Goals For The Next Quarter

Review of what happened in Q2

Lost a client

Unfortunately, one of my biggest retainer clients and I stopped working together. There was nothing bad or negative that happened, it just turned out that they didn’t need my services anymore.

To be honest, I felt relieved. It was a social media client and in full transparency, my overall business goals and vision has shifted from offering social media management as a service.

I’ve been doing social media management for 7 years, yes, that is literally since the beginning of time for social media management for businesses, and I feel like I’ve moved on professionally from creating social media content and managing company profiles.

Now that the PR side of my business is exploding (more on that later), I don’t have the mental capacity to also be keeping up with the latest social media trends and all of the different platforms. My passion for social media isn’t there as much and I’d rather focus on other services.

Lesson learned: A huge lesson I’ve learned this year is just because I can do something doesn’t mean I should do something. While that’s not the most unique thought anyone has ever had, I had to learn the hard way.

Gained 5 new clients

Holy cannoli how did that happen?!

Nearly all credit goes to my current clients. They are awesome and refer me to their network and I’m so, so grateful for that.

This isn’t to say I had nothing to do with it. Obviously, I had to be doing great work for them to refer me

Lesson learned: Deliver awesome work to your current clients and they will refer you to their network. Also, talk about want you want out loud (whether it increases your number of clients or sell more of one of your products) and watch what happens.

Hired a Virtual Assistant

Say what? Yup, I now have a VA and she’s awesome. Her name is Jessie and you can check out her Day in the Life here or check out her website here.

Hiring out to an independent contractor is not something I take lightly. I struggled with this for months, just ask my mastermind about it 😂

But one day, they challenged me and asked: “Do you want to continue being a solopreneur….or do you want to build a team?”

At first, my answer was, “Umm…I don’t know?” But right after the call, I knew what my answer was.

I wanted to build a team. I didn’t want to do everything on my own. I didn’t want to be a solopreneur.

I struggled with this realization though, because that’s kind of what I built my business around, being a solopreneur that can “do it all.”

And by golly I can’t EVER change my mind because then what would the world think…that I’m flaky? Inconsistent? Indecisive?

Yes, I thought people would think all of those things and maybe some people do, but you know what? I DON’T CARE ANYMORE.

I’ve been working through some MAJOR mindset roadblocks because I realized I was constantly working from a negative headspace and having negative thought patterns and low confidence in my abilities to run a profitable business. I even started seeing a therapist earlier this year because dudes, if your mind isn’t well, how can you expect the rest of your life to be?

There were other reasons I struggled with hiring out and can be narrowed down to three mindset shifts I’ve had to make (and am currently making to be honest).

1. I don’t like giving up control: Yup, I said it. I think many business owners don’t like giving up control whether it’s because they think they’re the best person to do every job or they just straight-up don’t trust other people. For me, it wasn’t me thinking I was the only person that could do the job well, it was that I overcomplicated outsourcing help, thinking it would take me for-ev-er to teach but the time it’s saved me after those initial few weeks after hiring has been so worth it.
2. I didn’t want to part with the money: Yup, I said that too. This statement is kind of the elephant in the room that I find not many people want to admit, but it’s the truth. Investing my money in someone else is a lot of pressure for me to continue at least making the same amount of money. Since I don’t outsource lightly, I don’t intend on only working with these people a few months and then letting them go. Investing more money into my business is scary but I know it will be worth it in the end.
3. Who am I to be hiring someone?: This is the biggest mindset shift I had to make. I had always dreamed of one day building a team of my own to help me grow my business, but I never really thought of what it would be like when I actually did it. I’ve often had the feeling of “well who the heck am I to be hiring someone? I don’t make millions. I should have to suffer through and do it all on my own.” You want to know what that is? Freaking ridiculous! Why am I punishing myself when I have the ability to outsource? Why shouldn’t I take advantage of building a business that has the capability to comfortably outsource a few tasks each month?

Lesson learned: Don’t be afraid to hire and don’t let the fear of the unknown keep you from outsourcing. Also, be confident in your abilities. You can do more than you think you can.

Check out my business update for Q2 and what my goals are for Q3! #smallbizhttps://brittneyllynn.com/q2-business-update/ Click To Tweet

Review of Q2 goals

Let’s quickly review my Q2 goals before we get to the good stuff: what’s coming up for Q3!

1. Get one more PR client
   Well…you can say I DEF accomplished this one. Not only did I get one more, I got 5!
2. Launch a podcast
   Nope, didn’t launch but took A LOT of steps toward making this dream a reality. More on that below!
3. Grow my affiliate income streams
   While I did increase my affiliate earnings, it’s not anywhere near it could be. I didn’t have enough capacity to focus on this.
4. Launch a digital product
   I launched my first paid masterclass on August 2nd, so I’m counting that as a goal win, even though it’s two days short of the end of the quarter. If you want to learn more about using PR to grow your business, you can check it out here.

What’s planned for Q3

Podcast launch

Guys, the podcast is launching. Like, for real launching. Omg it’s like a dream come true!

To say I love recording the episodes is an understatement. It feels so natural to me.

K but let’s back up a second. What the heck is the podcast about, Brittney?!

Glad you asked 🙂

The podcast is called Day in the Life and will be launching on September 26. You can sign up for my launch email list if you’re interested or you can join the Facebook group to get sneak peeks of the episodes.

What’s it about?

Well as you probably I know, I have the Day in the Life series on the blog, where I feature business owners from all over the world, in every kind of industry, sharing what a day in their life is really like.

The podcast is based off the series, but features a wider variety of people, including people in all different industries (not just small business owners).

I’ve been interviewing people over the last few months, including a Speechwriter for the Dept of Defence, a counterterrorism expert, a DJ, an online life coach, an entertainment assistant (like Lloyd from Entourage), a productivity expert, and more.

I’m SUPER excited about this passion project of mine and I can’t wait for it to launch.

Join the launch email list or the Facebook group if you want the inside scoop!

Find me time again

It’s no secret I’ve struggled with finding a balance between being a business owner and being an interesting human being that does stuff outside of their business.

There are a lot of things I’ve pushed back to the back burner in my personal life that I’d love to get back to.

I don’t have a desire to build a huge empire where my life is solely focused on my business. It works for some people but that’s not the life for me.

I’m excited for an upcoming vacation in September so I can take some time to reflect and figure out how I can better balance everything. I know there isn’t a perfect solution to balancing everything at once, but I’d like to be in a better mental space after this quarter.

Work smarter, not harder

I know there are a lot of missed opportunities for me to work smarter, and not harder and I really want to hone in on this area, which I think will, in turn, help my goal of finding me time again.

I’ve never really setup workflows for my business and to be quite frank, have basically flown by the seat of my pants for the past year and a half and I’m tired of doing that. I need to set up some order and structure for my business so I don’t have to waste brain space on tedious, repetitive tasks.

I also think this goes hand in hand with focusing on some affiliate/passive income strategies. Most of the work I do is currently tied to my time, so if I’m not working = I’m not earning money.

While that’s fine and dandy to start, I think it’s time for me to look over all of my potential opportunities and be a bit smarter about the tasks and projects I do take on.

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed my Q2 business update and getting a behind the scenes look at what’s coming up next for my business.

It’s interesting, because my word of the year is “Growth” and I am definitely growing in a variety of ways: outsourcing, bringing on new clients, mentally, and emotionally. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year holds!

Hi there! I’m trying out a new type of blog post where I share the ins and outs of what goes on behind the scenes of my business.

In all honesty, I’ve been hesitant to share these types of posts because it’s intimidating to me. I don’t have a huge following. I’m nowhere close to making millions. Who would care what’s going on behind the scenes of my business?

But then I realized these types of posts are my favorite to read. And just like how I started the Day in the Life series, you should write posts you like to read.

So, here I am, writing a post that I would want to read if I were just starting my freelancing business. Hope you enjoy!

Q1 2017 Business Update + Goals For The Next Quarter

But first, a little background

I started my online marketing business in January 2016. I had just moved to Dallas with my husband and dog, and we decided now is as good as time as any to start my own business, since I had to quit my job in Wisconsin to move here. We had zero connections in the area and I also had no online presence whatsoever and had never freelanced before, so I was building this thing from the ground up.

I initially offered social media services, but ironically most of my clients hired me for other online marketing services. Below is an explanation of the types of clients I work with and what my services look like.

Retainer client services

Most clients I work with are on a monthly retainer, where I do the same type of work each month. I occasionally do one-off projects (website copy, email funnels, podcast research, etc) but I primarily stick with monthly retainer clients. Here’s a breakdown of what my current clients look like (by the way, these are in no particular order in which I got them).

Client #1: Online Marketing Manager

I started primarily ghostwriting blog posts and email newsletters for this client. Then it progressed into other one-off projects (content audit, online shop audit, etc) and eventually, she asked me to come on as basically her online marketing manager. A lot can fall under that title, but here are a few of the tasks I do: Ghostwriting for their blog, email newsletters and funnels, create and launch marketing plans, grow their affiliate program, brainstorm and implement new ways to market their business…the list goes on.

Client #2: Social Media Manager

My only social media only client! I was introduced to a local real estate group that needed help maintaining and creating content for their Facebook and Instagram profiles. It’s been fun having a local client and a great way to get to know Dallas! I go into their office about once a week for an afternoon. I’m also starting to tour houses with them, so that will be really fun!

Client #3: Assistant to her clients

One client, whom I met via Craiglist (strange, but true), I help with her clients. She is an amazing copywriter and needed extra help with social media content creation, copywriting, launch planning, etc. So she is technically my client, but I get to work with her clients which has been an exciting way to connect with even more people!

She now lives locally so it’s nice to work with someone in person, instead of my usual virtual meetings.

Client #4: Ghostwriter

This client, who ended up being local (we met in a non-local Facebook group!), has me ghostwrite her blog posts every month. I’ve also written her email funnels.

Client #5,6,7,8, 9: Public Relations and Outreach

Holy public relations, Batman! Public relations has been booming for my business and for that, I’m so thrilled (and grateful!). PR wasn’t even on my mind as a service to offer when I first started but now it’s probably one of my favorite services.

Public relations and outreach can mean a lot of different things. I think when people think of PR they automatically think of a publicist for a celebrity, and while some of my clients are pretty big in the online world (not celebrity status…yet 😜), I also work with some clients that are smaller than you’d think.

Here are some of the PR tasks I’m doing for clients:

• Podcast outreach (getting them as a guest on a podcast)
• Podcast guest management (helping them get guests onto their own podcast)
• Writing pitches to media (this can be magazines, local media, websites, blogs, etc)
• Campaign management (for any special launches or projects they have for their business, i.e. a book coming out, a new series, etc)
• Influencer outreach (I use the term “influencer” loosely here because I believe making connections with all sorts of brands and industry people is important…not just people with a “huge” following)

As you can see, I do a variety of tasks but it all relates to online marketing and PR. I personally think small business owners can really benefit from using PR as a way to help grow their business. Perhaps I’ll do a blog series on it? Let me know if that’s something that interests you!

I put it out into the world that I wanted to sign on one more PR client this current quarter, and I ended up with 3 in one week (I talk about this later in the post). Talk about putting your goals out into the universe!

One thing I recommend to anyone starting out

My biggest tip for people just starting out is to talk about your business to everyone you know. Go to in person meet ups, talk with people on the phone or on Skype. Almost all of my clients have come from some sort of networking or referrals.

I’m currently coaching a small group of women and I gave them this advice, and what do you know…after only two weeks of coaching they all had potential clients come out of the woodwork and hired them for their services. This works, people.

I strongly believe that not enough credit is given to building relationships with other people to grow your business. You never know who you will meet, who will be introduced to, and what kind of work will come your way.

So currently a majority of my income comes from client work, which is awesome! However, now that my client work is on somewhat of a routine, I’m ready to dive into other revenue streams, which I’ll talk about below!

What’s coming up next

I have four big goals for Q2, which is probably not attainable but I like to torture myself 🙃. I’ll be super happy if I accomplish 2 of them, #justbeingreal.

1. Get one more PR client

My PR clients are so fun and I’m really hoping to grow that part of my business.

Ironically, at the time that I wrote this I didn’t have any prospects for this yet but now that I’m editing it, I’ve landed not one, not two, but THREE new clients! Writing your goals down actually works!

2. Launch a podcast

I’ve wanted to launch a podcast for years. I never had a solid topic idea but I knew I didn’t want it to be strictly marketing related. Once I launched the Day in the Life series, it hit me, this could make a really good podcast.

Several people (strangers even) say I should launch a podcast because I have a nice voice (ha!) so maybe that’s the universe’s way of telling me to start this dang thing.

Since I’ve already accomplished goal numero uno, I’m moving forward with the podcast. I’m sending out emails this week for potential guests, fingers crossed they say yes!

3. Grow my affiliate income streams

I should probably put an amount of money to this but to be honest, I just want it to grow at least some amount, ha. I feel like I’m established enough now that people can trust the products and services I recommend.

I take this very seriously and am only going to ever recommend products I know and love. I’m not looking to make a quick buck, I’m looking to grow authentic relationships with my followers, no matter how small my little group is.

4. Launch a digital product

I’ve had this on my list for…6 months? And I’m just now getting around to it! I think my biggest struggle I have had is maintaining my client work in addition to growing my own business. Client work is a priority for me right now, so anything new I want to launch always gets put on the back burner.

To help out with this, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that I need help. Up until this point I’ve done everything on my own.

Yes, I have a list of services I invest in, but I’ve never hired out or outsourced for any work and after a long discussion with my mastermind, I realized I don’t want to be a solopreneur working by myself.

I want a team that works by my side (either virtually or in-person). I don’t know why it took me what feels like forever to admit that but now that I have I’m hitting the ground running outsourcing #allthethings.

Currently, I’m in the midst of working with a graphic designer (ugh, I HATE doing graphics), a project manager (I can somehow do this for other clients perfectly well but for my own business? Nope. Not happening and nothing gets prioritized), and a virtual assistant.

I’m feeling better already starting these conversations with these potential contractors because I know once we get going I’m going to feel even more motivated to continue to grow my business. It’s true that “it takes a village” and I’m sure at the end of this quarter I’ll be wondering why I waited so long.

So that’s a comprehensive look at where my current business is and what I’m hoping to grow in the next 3 months.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below!

One of the mistakes I failed to mention in my 6 mistakes I made in my first year of business post was that for most of the first year, I was flying by the seat of my pants (aka I had no business plan whatsoever).

My “business plan” (if you can even call it that, ha!) was “find clients who will pay me.”

While finding paying clients is absolutely important (check out how I got my first five), I wouldn’t really call that much of a plan.

When you’re just starting out, I don’t think there’s any reason why you need an 84-page document on how you’re going to build your business but I do think it’s important to have a bird’s eye view of what you want your business to look like and how it will function.

In today’s post, I share the aspects you should be thinking about to create an actionable, revenue producing business plan. I hope you enjoy!

Building An Actionable Business Plan For Your Solo Business

What is your why?

Defining your why is so important. Actually, it’s the most important step to take while you’re creating your business plan.

Let me tell you, if you’re going into small business ownership solely because of money…you need to figure something else out.

Money cannot be the main focus of your solo business. It will not work. You will get burnt out and you will end up despising the business that you built.

On the days when you are struggling, when money isn’t coming in, when you’re having a hard time, when you feel like you can’t do this anymore (and rest assured, you will have ALL of these days at some point), money is not what will keep you going.

Hence why you need to define your ultimate why.

• What is your ultimate purpose for your business?
• Why do you do what you do?
• Why do you help who you help?
• What is that you want to accomplish with your business?

Answering these questions will help you define your why so you can push through the rough times and truly savor the best times.

What do you have experience in & enjoy doing?

If you’re just getting started with your solo business, you may be still figuring out what the heck it is that you’re even going to do.

I recommend thinking of the things that you’re already good at and enjoy.

• What do you have experience in?
• What do you enjoy doing?
• What are you good at?  
• What do people know you for? (Think of friends and family too!)

Considering all of these questions together, at the same time, will help you figure out what niche you belong in and what you will succeed in. Sometimes a business idea is staring at your in your face, you just need to recognize it!

Related post: Building A Social Media Strategy For Your Solopreneur Business (Cheat sheet included!)

How are you different from everyone else?

The fact of the matter is, there are hundreds if not thousands of people out there that offer something similar to you. This isn’t to compare yourself or feel bad because someone is better at something than you, it’s to realize that there are people out there that already offer what you want to offer.

So how are you going to set yourself apart?

This isn’t to scare you and make you think you shouldn’t try because there are other people offering similar services/products, it’s to get you to think strategically about what you can offer the world that’s unique.

• What makes you different?
• Why should people buy your products or services?
• What’s your story?

Writing out your past experience in life (whether related to your professional job or not) can help you start to see your unique perspective and how you can offer something different to the world.

You do have distinguishing characteristics that will make you stand out, you just need to be able to clearly define what those are so you can find the right audience that will love and support you.

What are you selling?

Now that you’ve defined what makes you different, it’s time to figure out what you’re going to sell.

It basically boils down to three options:

• Products
• Services
• Mix of both

There are pros and cons to each. I initially started only offering services, because that’s what I was comfortable with and knew the best. I would advise you selecting what you are most comfortable with and what makes sense for you.

You can always add or take away in the future, but don’t try and overwhelm yourself with doing everything at once. Remember, you’re just getting started!

How much will you charge?

There is a lot that goes into pricing products and services. Charge too little and you’re viewed as a novice and people take advantage of your low prices leading you to burnout, charge too much and your customers will go to someone else that charges less for the same product or service.

My personal opinion is there’s no right pricing for anything.

Some people pay $10 for a cell phone. Some people wait in line for days and pay $800 for a cell phone (hello, iPhone).

I know a lot of people feel conflicted about pricing, whether they feel like they’re charging too little or too much.

Your circumstances also play a major role in determining pricing for your services and products. Are you relying solely on your income? Do you have children to support? How much of a nest egg do you have? Where do you live and what is your lifestyle?

Here’s how I do it: I know how much I want to make in a year. It is a reasonable salary, something I could obtain if I were working a regular 9-5 job in this same field.

Once I determined that number, I worked backward and figured out how much I would need to make per hour to get to that salary. Then, when I’m pricing out clients for projects, I make it based on that hourly rate.

I’m sure some people think I charge too much. Others think I charge too little. I charge what I know I’m worth. Whether that fits into someone else’s budget is up to them.

Learn how to build an actionable business plan for your solo biz with these tips from @BrittneyLLynn! Click To Tweet

What does the client/customer process look like?

Your client/customer process is important to consider while you’re building up your business. Say someone says yes to your pricing (yay!), what are your next steps?

I send mine a contract, detailing out everything we have already discussed and any other stipulations depending on the project.

Then, I have different processes for each type of client.

For ghostwriting clients, I use Google Docs to share a folder with the client and get them set up as a project in Asana.

Determining the tools that you will use (check out mine) and how often you will be communicating and what you need from them will help you stay organized and always one step ahead of the game.

If you’re selling products, there is still a customer process that occurs.

• How do people receive their product?
• What information do you need from them?
• What is your follow-up process with customers?
• What happens if a customer wants to make a return or is unhappy?

You don’t have to have all of these things figured out before you get started, but spending some time considering how you want to handle each of these situations will make it easier for you in the long run.

How will you market yourself?

Ah, my favorite part of the business plan! You can have the best services or products in the world, but if you aren’t marketing them you won’t get very far.

First things first, most solo businesses (especially an online business) will require some type of content creation on your part (or you can hire someone to help you!).

Content doesn’t have to mean blogging. Some people hate writing and don’t want to upkeep a blog. The great thing about right now is that you don’t have to do blogging.

You can create a podcast. A YouTube. Webinars. There are a lot of different options right now so pick one that you love doing.

Next up is your email newsletter. It’s funny, I have friends that work in other industries and they’re like, “email marketing still works?!” Uhhhh yes friends, yes indeed.

Particularly if you run your business online. You need to have an email list. You’ll then have to think about what type of content you will send them (gotta give them a reason to stay subscribed!).

Social media is another way to market yourself. I recently saw on a Facebook group a question about how important social media actually was to growing a business.

Here’s my take: can you build a business without a social media presence? Yes. Social media has only existed roughly over the past 10 years and obviously businesses have succeeded without it.

However, you’re going to miss out on a lot of business if you aren’t on social media. Why? Because that’s where people spend a lot of their time.

You may not like that answer but it’s the truth. The fact is, people spend a ton of time online, and specifically on social media platforms. It’s going to take you a lot longer to build a presence online without social media, but it is doable.

Related post: How To Be More Consistent With Blogging, Social Media, And Basically Anything In Life

What does success look like to you?

Last thing you’ll want to determine while you’re building your business plan is what success looks like to you.

If you’re building your solo business, you’re probably doing it for a reason. Everyone has their own reason. Reasons can include:

• Freedom with time
• Money
• Work from wherever
• Spend more time with family

Comparing yourself to other’s successes will not get you anywhere. This is why it is crucial for you decide what success looks like to you.

Maybe you want to spend more time with your family. Maybe you want to travel wherever you want, whenever you want. Maybe it gives you more free time to do other things you love.

Whatever it is, it’s important to keep this as a reminder for when times are tough. You may have a different idea of what success looks like compared to other people, and that’s okay.

Final Thoughts

I hope this post was helpful for you. The point of building a business plan is not to have a document that you are tied down to and have to follow to a T, it’s to give your business some guidance and a path to follow to create your own successful solo business on your own terms.

Click the button below to get access to a free workbook to help you figure out your solo business plan. It’s time to get to work!

Want more content just like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for my email list to get inspiration, exclusive content, and more. P.S. You also get access to my free resource library, wahoo!

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I’m writing this post as we travel to visit family for the holidays. As we trek along for the 12-hour drive (yep, we’re crazy), I think back on my first year of business.

If you haven’t been reading for long, I started my business in January 2016. I began as a social media specialist for small businesses and then grew into offering a wide variety of marketing services for online business owners.

In just one year I’ve grown my client list (check out how I got my first five) and connected with so many people across the globe. It’s been a wild ride to say the least and I’m so grateful for it.

I’ve discussed the highs and lows of business ownership, and I’ve even shared what a day in the life is like, but I haven’t yet shared the mistakes I’ve made throughout this first year.

My hope in sharing these mistakes is that for those of you just beginning your journey to learn from, however sometimes you need to make the mistakes to really learn. Mistakes are a part of life but it’s how you learn from them that really matters.

The 6 Mistakes I Made In My First Year Of Business

I didn’t create time for my own business

In the beginning, I was solely focused on getting client work. Which was great! That was what was going to increase my income and get my name out there. It was necessary for me to focus on getting clients.

However, at some point, I stopped focusing on my own business.

I stopped blogging. I stopped writing email newsletters. I ignored my social media profiles.

Client work always took priority and while most times that is absolutely important, I also needed to give the time for my own business and treating it like my own client.

It can be hard, because when you work with clients, that’s primarily what pays your income. But if you continue to never dedicating time to work on your business, it can end up growing into something you don’t enjoy doing.

My hope for this next year is to make sure I spend time on my own business while still dedicating the proper amount of time to my amazing clients.

I compared myself. A lot.

Gosh this one is hard to admit. But it’s true. I compared myself often to other business owners and it’s something I continuously work on.

“Look at what she’s doing. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Why did they get more email subscribers in their first month of business?”

“I wish I just made half as much as her in one month!”

It feels gross to admit these thoughts but I’m all about sharing the good and the bad of running a business.

Comparing never gets me anywhere except in a negative headspace. I’ve recently unsubscribed from a lot of blogs and email newsletters that were causing much of the comparison. I also try to spend my time wisely on social media.

Because you can end up spending all day comparing yourself and where does that get you? No where.

Stay in your own lane, focus on your business, and celebrate the wins of other businesses. Other people winning doesn’t mean you can’t win in your business.

Related post: My Struggle With Finding Balance As A Solopreneur (And What I’m Doing About It)

I did a lot of tasks that I didn’t need to

When I first started, I didn’t want to spend money on anything. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat, especially if you’re just starting out.

While keeping things low cost is great when you’re just getting started, at some point you do need to invest in services/people to help you do things that you don’t have the time to do.

I mean, let’s get real, I was manually pinning 30-40 pins a day on Pinterest. That is crazy. And I don’t have time to do that anymore.

So I invested in BoardBooster for $10/month and it saves me so much time.

As my business continues to grow, I’ll continue to invest in my business to save me time, effort, and money.

@BrittneyLLynn shares the 6 mistakes she made during her first year of business. Check out the post & learn from her mistakes Click To Tweet

I stressed way too much.

Man, I stressed way too much about everything.

“Did my email subscribers like my email or was it stupid?”

“I just need one more client to get to this amount of money each month!”

“I don’t have any good photos to share on Instagram. Ugh!”

Yes, in all honesty I stressed out about Instagram photos. Instagram. People. If you’re stressing about Instagram photos it’s time to take a step back and evaluate your life.

Fortunately, when I started, we relied upon my husband’s income to live on (read our debt paying story to find out how!).

That means I didn’t have to stress about earning a living wage to be able to feed, clothe, and house us.

So if you’re in that situation your stresses are valid and very different from mine.

But I was stressing about things that did not need to be stressed about. I’m slowly learning to take a chill pill some times and realize that it takes time to build a profitable business. Not everything is worth stressing out over. Especially Instagram photos. Yeesh.

Not investing in a web design

I don’t think I talked about this on the blog (but I did on Instagram stories, follow me!) but I had a major breakdown about my website.

Long story short, the free WordPress theme I initially used on my website was banned from WordPress earlier this year.

This free theme had thousands of users, so I thought I was safe from that ever happening.

In fact, I had no idea it was banned. I tried to update it and I kept getting errors. I put a call out on Instagram stories and the wonderful Jess from Jess Creatives told me that my theme had unfortunately been banned.

Uh, what? How is that possible?!

I quickly purchased a new theme from Bluchic (amazing, feminine WordPress themes!) and installed it in a weekend.

I should have done this WAY earlier than I did but lesson learned: You always get what you pay for and free is not always the best.

I didn’t network with people sooner

I think this may have been my biggest mistake of the year.

I didn’t realize that one of the things I missed most about working in an office was interacting with my co-workers.

I should have known. I’ve always loved collaborating with other people and always think two brains are better than one.

I’m also an introvert so I recharge by being by myself.

I figured since I didn’t mind being by myself that I would be totally fine working alone as a solopreneur.

Wrong. So wrong.

After about a month I was going crazy. My husband travels often for work and while my dog is a great coworker he doesn’t talk much.

I started feeling really isolated and alone.

Another contributing factor to feeling isolated was that my friends and family don’t really get what I do.

I mean, they understand I work for myself, and they know I do marketing, but they don’t really get what it’s like to run an online business.

And if you’re anything like me, you’ll want to talk about your business all the time.

Two of the best things I did for myself and my business:

1. I found a group of girls in Dallas to meet up with.
2. I started a mastermind group.

These two things alone have helped immensely in feeling better during my days. My mastermind especially has been amazing. There are just three of us, but it is so incredible to have two other people who get what it’s like to be a business owner.  They have both been so incredibly supportive and helpful and I can’t wait to see what the next year holds for all of us.

If I could recommend anything to you for the next year is to find a mastermind group, or even a business coach, to talk business with. It will do incredible things for your mindset.

Final Thoughts

Part of running a business is making mistakes. There’s just no way around it and the mistakes you make help you grow as a person and as a business owner.

I hope in sharing my mistakes that you remember to take time for yourself and make you a priority. How can you run your business if you aren’t taking care of yourself?

I’d love to hear about your mistakes from the past year and what you’re hoping to do for 2017. Please leave a comment below!

Hey there. It’s been a bit since I’ve updated the ole blog and there has been lots going on behind the scenes. This isn’t a typical type of post I normally do, but I’ve been feeling the need to share what’s been on my mind, my heart, and give you guys an update.

I’ve felt this urge to share more about my journey as a solopreneur business owner, as I think a lot of people can (hopefully) relate to everything I’ve been going through. I hope this post gives you some insight into what it’s really like to be a business owner.

A Business Update: Sharing My Wins, My Struggles, & What’s Next

Business Wins

It’s been a whirlwind few months. To be honest, it’s been slightly crazy since getting back from Europe. We moved to a new apartment in a new part of town, which is great! We love it so far and are enjoying trying new places to eat and things to do.

I also signed on two new clients. In the same week. In all honesty, it was totally stressful for me but you can’t plan timing on these types of things and they are two clients that I’m so thrilled to be working with.

Work also picked up with one of my current clients, which is obviously awesome too! I’m so grateful for each person and business I get to help.

My Struggles

With all of this growth though, I started feeling a little scared.

Can I handle all of this? Will they like my work? Will I be enough for them? How do I continue to grow?

I’m at near capacity for taking on new client work. I like to leave room for growth with my current clients (as many times one project turns into two, turns into more) and I also don’t want to work 80 hours a week doing client work, so I have to draw the line somewhere.

So with all of that in mind, I started to feel stuck? Unsure? I don’t even know what the feeling was but I basically felt restricted since I couldn’t grow anymore client wise.

Which, of course, this is what I wanted in the first place! This is why I built a business, to serve others.

But I still have this nagging feeling that I wanted to do more than client work. I feel like there is a whole group of people out there that still need my help, but I’m unable to help them by being a client because 1) I don’t have as much time and 2) People can’t afford to hire out for an online marketing manager/copywriter/etc.

As a small business, growth can be great but it can also be uncomfortable. I don’t like being uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is hard. Uncomfortable takes time. Uncomfortable is…well, uncomfortable.

What’s Next

As I started to feel these what I like to call “growth pains” I also decided to take the plunge and invest in the biggest purchase for my business thus far: an online course.

It’s been absolutely eye-opening and we are only two weeks in. I’m taking Alex Beadon’s Killer Impressions course, if you’re curious.

While the course has been amazing thus far, it also started to become, you guessed it, uncomfortable.

It started bringing up questions about my business that I hadn’t yet faced and I’ve had to really start thinking about where I want this little business of mine to go in the future. While answering these hard hitting questions and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone was part of the reason why I signed up for the course (nothing like a monetary investment to give you a kick in the pants!), it doesn’t make it any easier.

As I’m making my way through the modules (it’s dripped out over 7 weeks), I had to answer questions about my business that I’ve never been asked before. That I’ve never even thought of. And in all honesty, things I’ve avoided answering until now.

Maybe it was because I was scared of what growing my business meant. Maybe it was because I wanted to avoid answering these questions because they were, well, hard. And required time to sit, ponder, reflect, and think.

Eventually, I came to the realization that 1) There’s a group of people that still need my help and 2) They may not be able to afford me and even if they could, I only have so much time left I can give.

But I still want to make a huge impact in the world.

I want to help as many people as possible, especially without the barrier of money.

I know how hard it was for me when I was starting out (heck, it still is!) to spend money on my business and I know that’s a huge barrier for some for investing in courses, info products, etc.

With all of that in mind, I’ve decided to pivot my content and offerings to be geared toward the solopreneur that’s just starting out. Think of me as your solopreneur strategist.

As I analyzed my business, most of my clients have been running their business for at least 2+ years (many of them at 4 or more). Which is great! I love working one-on-one with this type of business owner.

But as I mentioned above, there are many more people out there that still need help. And they haven’t been in business for 2 years. They’re just starting out.

I can totally relate to those people, because I was just starting out a year ago. I remember how confused, lost, and overwhelmed I felt when I was starting out.

I, along with what I assume many of other solopreneurs who are wanting to get started or are just getting started, also can’t afford to hire someone else to help them out.

So I want to help bridge that gap, and gear my content, courses, digital products and more to the struggling solopreneur.

To the people who need some help getting started.

To the people who have a business idea but aren’t quite sure what information they should follow.

I know I certainly couldn’t afford $400, $600, $1,000 courses and products when I was starting out, and I want to give the people who need the most help getting started a way to affordably grow their business.

I have a lot of ideas for new features and methods of content to share with you all and I can’t wait to get started. I’m not sure of a timeline of when all of these new projects will be started, but if you want to be the first to know, feel free to sign up for my email list.

I want to share more behind-the-scenes of running a solopreneur business, including the good, bad, and ugly (which sometimes ends up being the funny 😂).

I want you to know that we’re all in this together, taking it one day at a time. You can do this. I believe in you.

I can’t wait to get started!

I think I would go plain crazy if Feedly didn’t exist. That sounds dramatic, but it’s true! I no longer have to stress about finding 3rd party content to share on my social platforms and I also don’t have to go to a million different websites when I’m ready to schedule.

I had so much fun sharing my BoardBooster video tutorial last week that I decided to make another sharing how to use Feedly! Scroll to the bottom of the post to check it out!

How To Use Feedly To Streamline Your Social Media Scheduling

What is Feedly?

Feedly is an aggregator that compiles news feeds of blog posts, news articles, and web content into one place so you don’t have to go to a million different websites to read your favorite content around the web.

Feedly came about because Google Reader shut down in 2013. I was an avid Google Reader user and I thought no other program could compete but I’ve certainly been proven wrong after using Feedly!

I not only use it to schedule content to my business social media accounts (follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest!) but I also use it to keep up with my favorite recipe blogs, news sources, and friends and family members who have blogs.

Why use Feedly?

The #1 reason why I suggest you to use Feedly is that it will save you so much time. I’m talking hours. Who doesn’t want to have more hours back in your day? I know I sure do!

Another reason is to have all of the 3rd party content you read in one place. Isn’t it annoying to go to 20 different websites every day to catch up on what you missed?

Feedly loads everything into one place so you only have one website to go to and catch up on all your favorite blogs and websites.

How to set up a Feedly account

Setting up a Feedly account is easy.

Step 1: Go to http://feedly.com.

Step 2: Create an account.

When Feedly first came out, you could import your Google reader account, so I connected with my Google account. You can choose whichever option you would like.

Step 3: Start adding your favorite feeds!

If you don’t have any specific blogs you want to add, you can browse by topics and the sources they have to get started.

Related post: How To Streamline Your Social Media Scheduling

Learn how you can use @Feedly to streamline your social media scheduling from @BrittneyLLynn Click To Tweet

Organizing and finding content

You can organize your content by creating different categories. For instance, say you have a lifestyle blog, where you share all kinds of content related to recipes, fashion, and home decor.

You can create three different categories: recipes, fashion, and home decor featuring all of your favorite sources of those categories.

Then, when you find a new blog or website you like and want to share their content, you just add it to the appropriate category!

Check out the video below for more on how to organize and find new content.

How to share social media content through Feedly

Yay! My favorite part of Feedly: sharing social media content!

So here’s a piece of content that is in my Feedly account that I would want to share with my audience. There are multiple ways to share this to your social media accounts.

You can connect your Feedly account to your Buffer account and share content to your Buffer feed. This is free to do.

This is what it looks like once you click the Buffer button:

If you use the paid version of Buffer, you also have the option of using the power scheduler.

The power scheduler allows you to schedule the same piece of content multiple times in the future. I would recommend only using this feature to schedule out tweets.

You can then remove and/or edit the piece of content to say whatever you would like. You can also hook up your Facebook page, Google+ account, and LinkedIn profile to your Buffer and directly share from Feedly as well. I don’t have those connected to my Buffer account.

You can also share to your Facebook page and Twitter profile for free as well.

You can also highlight parts of the text and send the highlighted portion directly to Twitter.

You can also pin directly from Feedly for free. Just hover over the photo, and the pin it button will appear.

Once you click the pin it button, this will pop up:

Then you just pick whatever board or boards you would like to schedule it to and then you’re set!

You can also hook up your Hootsuite account to Feedly, but you will have to pay for the premium version of Feedly to be able to schedule directly to Hootsuite. I cover more of this in the video below.

Related post: 35 Ways To Promote Your Small Business On Social Media

Video!

Check out the video for a full tutorial on how I use Feedly to schedule my social media posts!

Final Thoughts

As you can see, I am a big fan of Feedly and if you’re stressed out by scheduling your social media and finding content I think you too should be a fan. It’s absolutely free and worth your time to at least check it out!

Please leave a comment below if you have any additional questions about how to use Feedly! I’d love to help out.

There are affiliate links listed in the post, which means if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a small commission, which comes at no additional cost to you. Please know that I only recommend products I use, love, and have experience with and have found helpful in running my business.

Does anyone else loving taking a peek at what tools other small business owners use to run their business? I know I do. When I first started, I thought everyone did everything on their own and I wondered how the heck people actually got work done while doing all of those pesky business tasks.

Then I realized they aren’t doing everything on their own! Duh Brittney!

Below are the ten tools I use to keep my small business booming. Some are free, some are paid, all are awesome!

FreshBooks

I’ve talked about FreshBooks before but it is seriously at the top of my tools I use list that I would recommend to other small business owners, especially those that do invoicing.

FreshBooks was designed for small businesses and it makes your accounting tasks a breeze. You may even look forward to invoicing your clients because it is just so easy.

Currently, I primarily use FreshBooks for invoicing clients twice a month as well as tracking my time for client project work. You can also track your expenses, but I currently don’t have a ton of overhead expenses.

I also look forward to tax time where I can easily pull reports for my tax guy making taxes a breeze!

Try FreshBooks for free for 30 days now (affiliate link)

Asana

Oh, Asana. Asana is basically my BFF. Though our relationship was rocky to start (totally my fault) it’s now my best friend fo’ life.

Asana is a project management tool that you can use as an individual or as a team. I use it for both purposes. I have several clients that I work with that we manage various projects in Asana together. In Asana, we can both make comments to projects, send and receive Google documents, view project tasks in a calendar view and more. This cuts down on my emails significantly, which is the main reason I started using Asana.

I also use it for my own business planning, detailing out content calendars and projects for my own business.Get your project work organized by using Asana

Trello

Trello is another project/task management tool I use. You can organize your projects onto boards, where you can see what’s been worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process.

If you have a team that you work with, Trello might be a good option for you to try.

Since it’s just me, I don’t need to see details of who’s working on what, so I use it in a slightly different way.

(image source)

I organize my Trello boards by categories of topics. For instance, I have a board called “Ways To Make Passive Income.” This serves as a reminder of when I’m ready to start pursuing passive income strategies for my blog, I already have a list of ideas to start with.

The ones that have the paragraph lines below also include a description of ideas for that particular topic.

You can also add links, create a checklist, assign a due date, and attach documents. Trello can get pretty in depth, which is great for complicated projects. I’m sure I will dive in more once I’m ready.

Organize your projects and task work by using Trello for free

Hootsuite

I’ve been using Hootsuite for years. In fact, I started using it at my first job right out of college in 2010. How crazy is it that was 6 years ago!?

Before I spend too long going down nostalgia lane, Hootsuite is super useful for small businesses. One of the main reasons I like Hootsuite is that there is no limit to what you can schedule on the free version. Many other social scheduling programs don’t have that option.

How I make the most out of Hootsuite is that I have a spreadsheet of all of my blog posts with 5 different tweets per post. You can see a screenshot below.

When I’m ready to schedule, all I do is copy and paste these into Hootsuite and schedule. You can upload an excel document if you are using the paid version but I currently use the free so this is how I make the most of my time.

I also have the Hootlet extension installed on my Google chrome browser, so if I’m reading an interesting article I can quickly schedule it into Hootsuite.

Pretty easy!

Start scheduling your social media for free using Hootsuite

Buffer

Buffer! Bless you Buffer, you make my life so much easier. I just signed up for the premium version (as in, literally yesterday) and it’s already rockin’ my world.

Buffer is another social media scheduler option you can use. The layout is much different than Hootsuite, which some people like and some don’t. I think it comes down to personal preference.

You can pick the ideal times that you want content to go out, and then any time you are scheduling a piece of content, it schedules the piece at the next available time slot.

There are two main reasons I started using Buffer: 1) You can re-buffer items, which is essentially a one click way to re-schedule a tweet you’ve already sent out. 2) They have a “content inbox”  section where you can input up to 15 of your favorite blogs where it will pull in their blog feed so you can easily re-share their content. The content inbox is only available for the paid versions, which is why I ultimately decided to sign up for the Awesome plan.

Schedule your social media with Buffer

Sneak a peek at the 10 tools @BrittneyLLynn uses to keep her #smallbiz booming Click To Tweet

MailChimp

MailChimp is great for the beginner small business owner that wants to start using email marketing to promote their business. Are there other programs out there that can do a lot more? Of course. But not everyone is ready to take on complicated systems.

I currently use the $10/month version of MailChimp. This allows me to have an automated sequence for my free email course. If you won’t be doing any automation for your emails, you can use MailChimp for free if you have under 2,000 subscribers.

Start email marketing and sign up for MailChimp now

Google

Google, man. It rules the world, doesn’t it? It definitely rules my business world, that’s for sure! I, like millions of others, use Google for multiple reasons.

Currently, I use Gmail, Google docs, Google sheets, Google calendar, Google slides.

Google docs

I do a lot of writing for various clients, whether it’s email newsletters or blog posts, and Google docs is the easiest program to use to share these. We can make comments back and forth, you can track changes, and it hooks up directly to my BFF Asana.

Google sheets

Spreadsheets. Some people hate ’em, but I love them. So much so that my husband and I manually tracked our expenses for almost 3 years using a spreadsheet. Another story for another time.

Anyways! For business purposes, I have my tweet spreadsheet, monthly Instagram spreadsheet, and my business finances. Yep, even though I have FreshBooks I also like having a spreadsheet I can manually edit too. Girls gotta keep an eye on her moolah, am I right?

I sporadically have client projects I use spreadsheets for as well.

Google calendar

Aka where my entire life lives. No seriously, you could probably figure out everything I’ve done in the last 5 years (including what I ate for dinner) by looking at my Google calendar.

I schedule in everything (I go into more detail about my calendars in this post) personal and business related. I like having a digital calendar so I can move things around (especially because I always underestimate how long tasks will take me, anyone else?!).

BoardBooster

You can read an entire post about how to use BoardBooster for your business (there’s also a video included!) but here’s a brief description:  BoardBooster is a program that helps schedule out your Pinterest pins. Yes, there are other social media schedulers out there that can schedule Pinterest but I have found BoardBooster to be the best.

If you’ve ever been wondering how bloggers and online business owners find the time to pin all day every day, they are probably using a paid program and it is probably BoardBooster that they are using.

It’s been suggested that pinning throughout the day is better than pinning all at one time, but who has the time to pin all day?! Not me.

One feature that makes BoardBooster stand out is the looping feature. This essentially loops older pins into your feed so that new people that have recently followed you will see your older pins.

It’s a great way to boost your website traffic and I highly recommend it. You can start for as little as $5 a month (I currently use the $10/month plan).

Grow your Pinterest account by using BoardBooster (affiliate link)

Canva

The Godsend for those of us that are graphically challenged. If I had to create graphics in Photoshop or Illustrator on my own, my graphics would resemble something that a 3 year old could do. I just don’t have the graphic design talent which is unfortunate, but that’s when Canva comes in to save the day.

See the graphic at the top of this post? Made with .

But blog graphics aren’t the only designs you can make! They have pre-designed templates for social media posts, flyers, presentations and more. It’s such an amazingly useful free resource to use and I use it almost every day.

You can also buy stock photos through Canva for starting at just a $1!

Improve your blog and social media graphics with Canva

Feedly

When Google reader ceased to exist (RIP) I panicked. How am I supposed to keep up with my favorite blogs?! There’s no way I will go to their website every day!

Thankfully Feedly came along and I haven’t even given Google reader a second thought.

Feedly one of my favorite tools I use and is a way to organize all of the blogs and articles you read online in one place. Instead of going to 50 different websites each day to read the latest news, I go into Feedly and all of the blog feeds are right there waiting for me to read.

I have categories of content that I segment the blogs I read, one being other small business owners blogs.

Another bonus to using Feedly is that it can connect with your Buffer account, so you can share content directly from Feedly!

Keep up with the blogs you read by using Feedly

Paper Planner

As I mentioned above, I’m obsessed with my Google calendar, but I do still have a paper planner that I use every day.

Mine is nothing fancy, just a simple planner from Target that I bought on a whim. One feature that I require from a paper planner is that I can write at length for each day. I can’t fit everything into a tiny calendar box.

I keep mine pretty simple, listing any personal to-dos on the left side, and business/work related to-dos on the right. It works for me so I’ll keep it simple for now!

I hope you enjoyed seeing the tools I use to keep my small business running! Tweet at me and let me know if you start using any of the ones I mentioned!

Question: What tools do you use to keep your small business going?

There are affiliate links listed in the post, which means if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a small commission, which comes at no additional cost to you. Please know that I only recommend products I use, love, and have experience with and have found them helpful in running my business.

I started working with my very first freelance client in January of this year. While that was only 8 months ago, I’ve already learned so much organizing my day to be the most productive for both myself and my clients.

Everyone has their own systems and tools that work for them, so if you already have a well oiled machine system for your business, this post might not be for you.

But if you’re just starting out or if you’re struggling as a small business owner, perhaps you can take away a few tips from how I stay organized and productive as a small business owner!

How I Stay Organized and Productive As A Small Business Owner

Batching

I’ve discussed batch processing for creating social media updates before, but I take it even further and use batching across my business.

Before I get into my batching process, let me first explain what batching even is, if you aren’t familiar.

Batching is doing similar tasks all at the same time, so you aren’t flitting from one task to the next. No matter what type of business you have, I bet you there are similar tasks that it makes sense for you to do all together, versus separately and scattered.

Here are the ways I batch my work:

• Social media scheduling: I have a spreadsheet for pre-written tweets for all of my blog posts. I set aside 10-20 minutes to quickly copy and paste those tweets into Hootsuite so I can more quickly be done with tweeting, instead of going into Twitter multiple times a day. I do not currently spend money on social scheduling for Twitter, so this spreadsheet is my way of being efficient while not spending money yet (though I probably will eventually pay for a service!).

• • Assigning client days vs. personal work days: I started doing this a few months ago and it has done wonders for my productivity. I have several clients that I do various types of projects and tasks every week, but I also have my own business to promote and run. Each week I was feeling like I never had enough time to do both and when I would be working on client work I felt like I should be working on writing a blog post for my own business, and vice versa. Then, I started strictly doing only client work on Mondays, Wednesday, Thursdays, and half the day on Fridays. Immediately I felt so much better and much more organized, as I had assigned time each week to get tasks and projects done. Though sometimes I have to be flexible with re-arranging days every now and then, it has been going very well so far.
    

Learn how @BrittneyLLynn stays organized and productive as a #smallbusiness owner! Click To Tweet

Tools

• FreshBooks: I think I would break down sobbing if FreshBooks ever stopped existing. Dramatic, yes, but sadly I’m not kidding. Ever since I signed up and started using their services, I spend SO much less time doing financial tasks. FreshBooks makes invoicing a breeze, has a time tracking option (very important with some of my client work) and is just SO easy to use.
• Asana: Confession time: when I first started using Asana I wasn’t fan. I know. What was I thinking?! It took me trying a few times but now that I’ve gotten the hang of it and I’ve found how it’s most useful for me, it’s been amazing! I think I’ll do a video post going through exactly how I use Asana, but briefly here’s a run down: I am a part of 3 teams, 2 for individual clients, 1 my own personal one. Within each of these teams are all of the projects that we are working on.

For my personal Asana team, this is where I organize blog topics, email newsletter ideas, etc.

You can write notes and attached documents from Google drive and Dropbox, which is one of my favorite features. Ah, Asana is just the best!

• Trello: Another confession time: I had an even harder time with Trello! Ha. I think I maybe tried using both Asana and Trello in the same week or something because it just wasn’t clicking. I even messaged one of my friends who is obsessed with it and I was like, “uh, how do I use this?” and her response was, “Brittney…how do you not get it?” Well I’m here to tell you that you aren’t alone if you’re sitting there scratching your head about Trello. Right now, I only use Trello for myself. I am not using it to share information with any clients, though I may eventually implement that.

I mainly use Trello to organize client on-boarding and workflow, places to pitch for guest posting, affiliate links and more. Similar to Asana, you can use it with a team if that’s what you’re looking for.

Google calendar

You know how I said earlier I would break down sobbing if FreshBooks ever went away? Well I’d probably just give up on my business and go live in the woods if Google calendar decided to no longer exist.

I put everything in my calendar. I mean everything. Some people swear by only using paper calendars, and if that’s you, that’s awesome, but I need a digital aspect for my calendar. I have 9 calendars currently in my Google calendar and while that may sound excessive, it’s what works for me.

Here are my calendars:

• • Gmail calendar (this is the given one to your email address)
  • Appointments (this is for personal appointments such as dentist, doctor, vet, etc)
  • Birthdays (so I remember my friends and family’s birthdays because I can barely remember what I did 10 minutes ago)
  • BLL work (this is for tasks such as writing this blog, social media scheduling, course creation, guest post writing, updating my website, etc)
  • Client work (obviously, all client work projects and tasks)
  • Important to notice! (this is a shared calendar between my husband and I for when either of us are out of town or we need to remember to do something like moving dates or something of that nature. My husband travels often for work, so this is important (hehe) for us to keep schedules in sync)
  • Meals (I am a meal planner through and through and this helps me decide how labor intensive of a meal I want on a particular day, or if my husband is out of town and I can make something that is primarily mushrooms or tomatoes (he hates those)).

• Trips/Fun stuff (this is for vacation trips or if friends are coming into town, or fun outings like concerts and such…aka things to look forward to!)
• Workouts (I have to schedule in my workouts otherwise…it ain’t happenin’.)

Being able to click these calendars on and off is essential for my sanity, and another reason why a paper calendar just doesn’t work for me. Sometimes I only want to look at my personal priorities, other times I need to have an entire view to know of everything I have going on.

I do use a paper agenda for day-to-day to-do lists. I usually put my personal to-dos on the left side, business/client to-dos on the right. I find I like having a separation of to-dos so I know what I need to get done in the day for each.

While there is some overlap between what I write in my paper agenda and what I put on my Google calendar, for me this system works.

My suggestion for you is to find what works for you. There is no right or wrong way. It may take time to figure out the system that works for you, and that’s okay. Just keep trying and you’ll figure it out.

So that’s it! While business and life are ever-changing, this is what works for me and my business currently. I’d love to hear how you stay organized and productive, so let me know your best tips in the comments!