10 Things To Do in Your First Year of Business

Here are ten things to do by the end of your first business year. Some are essential while others will grow your business. Take a look and get that business going.

1. Make sure you are set up to pay sales tax.

2. Create a business Facebook page.

3. Go to 10 networking events and connect with at least one new person.

4. Register a website domain.

5. Create a mission statement.

6. Start a business checking account.

7. Attend at least 3 workshops.

8. Set up a bookkeeping system (Quickbooks).

9. Read at least 3 books that will teach you to be better at what you do.

10. Create an organization system to organize all business documents and emails.

How to Get Your Maximum Small Business Write Offs

Taxes suck. And so does having to pay a 15% small business tax on all of your income. Whether you are a 1099 contractor or individual business owner, make sure to take the maximum deductions possible to pay the least amount of taxes possible.

Below are some deductions that people usually don't consider.


1. Cell Phone Bill

If your cell phone is used at all in running your business or doing your consulting, make sure to deduct a portion of your bill. Just estimate the percentage usage and multiply it by your monthly cost.

Example:
$100 monthly bill
35% business use
35%*100=$35
$35*12 months= $420

2. Rent/Mortgage

If you have an office in your home, or rental, you can deduct that cost from your taxes. You need to multiply the % of square footage your office by the mortgage or rent payment.

Example:
Rent Payment: $800/month
Total square footage: 1000
Office square footage: 100
100/1000=10%
800*10%=$80
$80*12= $960

Trendy Small Business Packaging Round Up

Whether you're on Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, or have your own site, how you package your product is important. I have rounded up the best Pinterest packaging ideas I've found in the past month.

1. If cute, casual, girl power is what you're looking for, this is for you.

2. Need some free help? Use this to get some free printables to get going fast!

3. Boxes your thing? Make sure to do it right with this tutorial.

5 Entrepreneur TED Talks for Women by Women

(Click the picture above to view my marketing board on Pinterest!)

Whether you're currently a small business owner or thinking about becoming your own boss, these TED Talks will inspire you to take that leap forward.

Leah Busque: Have Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals And Take Baby Steps

This bad-ass knows what she's doing. When it comes to connecting small businesses and getting stuff done, this is the woman to give you the knowledge.

Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend

Contrary to popular belief, she was not in the Harry Potter movies. But, she is a fiesty ginger psychologist who can give you great advice on how to deal with all the stress that comes with a small business.

Tina Roth Eisenberg: Don’t Complain, Create

This incredibly creative woman gives great insights on using the things you complain about to make you more creative.

Margaret Heffernan: Dare to disagree

Love a good argument? Always playing devil's advocate? This TED Talk tells you why disagreeing is essential to progress.

Arianna Huffington: How to succeed? Get more sleep

Whoa. Make money and still sleep? Count me in. Arianna will tell you why sleep will help you succeed.

3 Digital Products You Can Easily Create and Sell

When starting an eCommerce site, sometimes having physical products and dealing with shipping can be overwhelming. More and more sites are choosing to create digital content to sell instead. Then, they can offer instant downloads. Below, I have collected my top 5 digital products that you can make your own.

1. PowerPoint Design

Students are constantly looking for presentation designs that help them stand out in class. They are willing to spend a few dollars to have a great template to use. This is a great way to show off your design skills and can be fairly straightforward to create and upload as a downloadable product.


2. eBook

This is possibly my favorite. Technology has allowed for our creative ventures to be easily viewed and distributed. If you are an aspiring writer or would like to create an informational eBook, it's easy! There are multiple eBook creators out there, and my favorite site to create an eBook cover is Canva. You have all the resources to make this something that people are willing to pay for!


3. Printables

College kids are always wanting fun decor for their apartments, dorms, or houses. Designing high quality, attractive printables is a great way to earn some extra cash. Be sure that the images or designs you use are loyalty free, and WATERMARK your printables. If you don't watermark your design, people will find a way around paying for the printable that you worked hard to design.

3 Ways to Make Your Small Biz Insta Bio Better

Instagram bios are always hard. You sit down and look at that blank space and feel like everyone needs to know everything, and you only have a few lines to use. You have worked hard on your small business AND NEED TO TELL THE WORLD. Yes. I agree. People need to love you. But, your Instagram bio needs to tell people why they want to hit the follow button. So, take some of these steps to make sure people want to follow you.

1. LOGOS ARE NO GOs

One of the first items a person views when they go to your profile is your profile picture. Although you worked hard on creating a cool logo, your potential customers don't care. People want to know there is a real person creating fun and engaging content. Don't be afraid to put your picture, or a picture of your team as your profile picture.

2. BE RELATABLE

Seems reasonable right? Here is where you need to be careful. Don't just write your bio based on your users, but also write it based on your users. Yes. You read that correctly. Down to earth is in, and people don't want to follow fake, self promoting Instagram accounts. But, they do want funny, interesting user centered Instas.

3. EMAIL AND WEBSITE

Let people know where they can find out more about what you do. You should make it easy for potential customers to get more info. If you have a killer Insta, people will click through to your site! If that isn't currently a goal for your Instagram, it should be. The end goal is to get people to interact with your business.

Top 3 Web Design Aspects to Grow Your Small Business

With website becoming more prevalent and an excess of data being available for small businesses, it is hard to sift through all of it. These three tips are at the top of my list.

1. Email Subscription Area (with Freebie if possible)

EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL. You need to be constantly growing your email list. No matter what you sell, or how small you are, gaining email addresses allows you to directly market to your potential and current customers. For new viewers of your website, giving a freebie for an email sign up will allow you to gain more email addresses. Using anything from a free download, or an email of tips and tricks, will allow you to gain more email addresses. People love FREE.

2. Write with Your Audience in Mind

In my opinion, this is the hardest thing to get right. You usually write with your own business in mind. You want to convey all the business value that you think you have to the consumer. This is not what a viewer of your website wants to see. They want to know that you have them in mind.For example, they want to know how your lipstick will make them look like a super model, not that you have great company feminist values. (Not that this isn't important, it just isn't at the top of the list.)

3. Call to Action

You need to make ti easy for someone to buy  your product fast. Within the first half of the homepage, there should be a button that takes them straight to your goal for the website. Whether that's downloading free templates, or purchasing your product, make it easy for a newcomer to do what you want them to do. 

5 Fun Ways to Create Engaging Videos for Your Small Business

Video content is becoming one of the fastest growing content mediums. The videos now have to be enticing upfront to cause engagement, and the video must keep the viewer's attention or they'll move on to something better.

This means gone are the days that any video with some fun music or cool graphics can earn the eyes of the viewer. I have been doing some research on the best ways to create content that will persuade your target market spend their time engaging.

Below are my favorite. Although all of these may not work well for all industries, most can be tweaked a bit to provide a useful, engaging video experience for whatever industry you're in.


1. Share Unique Product Uses

This could be a great way to inform the target market about the flexibility of your product. You can show them the variety of ways it can be used. Also, if you have consumers generating content about the ways they use the product, you will be able to inform others while building relationships with your current customers.

2. Voice Over a Video

This one can be as funny as you want. If you've ever seen Bad Lip Reading, you'll know what I mean. If not, look it up. Worth the watch. This is an easy one and will provide some humor in the content of your small business marketing.

3. Share a Tip

This one works wonders. You need your customer base to view your brand as a friendly helper, and not solely out to take their money.  You want to also provide them with useful, FREE information that can help them. This will build their trust with your brand.

4. Make a Stop-Motion Video

This one is not as complicated as you might think, but a bit more complicated than some other methods. I like using this one when you need a short 10 second video to catch the eyes of some consumers, but maybe not necessarily needing them to have the sound on. I would use this one for new product roll out, exciting announcements, or even a customer appreciation email. The possibilities are endless, and with some practice, they can start to take no time to produce.

5. Prove Something

People love walking away with a bit more knowledge than when they came. Using a video to debunk a certain myth in your field, or show how easy something is that is usually seen as hard, are great ways to build consumer trust and show off your know-how as a brand.


Video is the gateway to more sales! Use it!

How to Use Pinterest to Effectively Grow Ecommerce Traffic

What do I need to pin? How many boards should I have? How many pins is a good amount per day? How do I know it's working? 

These are all valid questions, and ones even I had before doing my fair amount of research and having to experience some of these on my own. Below, I try to knock it down to the most important parts of gaining followers on Pinterest and making sure eyes are always on your pins (which means traffic to your business).

Do you need to be using Pinterest?

The majority, 85%, of Pinterest users are females. If you're target market is males, you may be in the wrong place. In some cases, you may still be okay, if your product could be bought by moms for their boys or by wives for their husbands, but just make sure the content your pinning is relevant to the target buyer of your product. 

How do I make my pins look legit?

Pinterest is all pictures. If your visual isn't attractive, people will scroll right by it. One of my favorite resources to create cool Pinterest graphics is Canva. They have a great platform and many tools to make your Pinterest graphic catch the eyes of your viewers. (Beyond that, they also have templates for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other cool templates that make social media content creation much easier.) If you are selling a product, and need to make sure your product pictures look professional, I have done another blog on how to do that on the cheap. Read that here.

What should I pin?

If you are a beauty company, but you have boards about sports, you're not on the right track. Delete or make private those boards that are not seen as "on brand." When people see your pins and boards, they need to see a cohesive image of who you are as a company. People want to follow boards and pinners who are consistent and have great content.

What is great content?

Ever click on a pin and it says page not found? Or takes you to some random site that doesn't have anything to do with the pin? That is not great content. Make sure what you are pinning comes from reputable sources. The pins that you do not create should be just as visually appealing as the ones you do create, so make sure to keep that in mind also.

How much should I pin?

A good daily goal is 50 pins. OMG. FIFTY. NO. THAT'S SO MANY. Yes, I know. And so does everyone else. That's why there are tools out there to help you pin great content with little effort. A good tool to use is Board Booster. It looks back through past pins for you and repins so there is fresh content daily. 

How many of those pins should be ones I create?

Well, this is up for discussion, your pins obviously direct traffic to your site, but you also want users to see you as someone that is helpful in general, not just solely trying to direct traffic to their site. So the usual rule of thumb is for every 10 pins, 2 can be ones you have created. This will make for diverse, helpful boards, but also drive great traffic to your site. 

How will I know it's working?

IT TAKES TIME. It is good to look at your Google Analytics from your website to see where your traffic is coming from to see how much Pinterest is contributing. But, nothing is going to happen quickly. I would say give it 4-6 months before you will really be able to tell a difference in your traffic patterns and will begin to see returns from all your pins. 

NOW PIN AWAY!

How to Take Kick A** Product Pics with an iPhone (Or Android)

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

More like, 3 pictures, a zoom function, and about 1000 words of product information. Making sure a potential customer has all the information necessary to make a purchase is key. Visuals are increasingly valuable on the online world, as well as in the physical. On average, people who view your product are expecting to see at least 3 pictures of the product before they are willing to commit to the product. I've looked through different guides and ways to take good product pictures. As a result, I have taken the most useful (and cheap) information and aggregated it here.

WINE TASTE ON A BEER BUDGET

Everyone who is running an Etsy shop, e-commerce store, or small business knows the struggle of taking quality product pictures on a low budget. No, you do not need that $1000 camera to be able to take great, professional pictures of your products. There is a great, low budget way to have good product pictures without breaking the bank.

ORANGE YOU GLAD THIS IS SO CHEAP

I will be showing an example of the set-up by featuring my favorite Vitamin C Gummies (ULTRA Vitamin C Gummies) as the product. (Yes, maybe no the most interesting product, but it will do the trick.)

What You Will Need:

Masking tape
Lens cloth
iPhone stand
Roll of white paper or a long piece white cloth
Piece of white foam board
Window with natural light or a tall lamp with a natural light wattage bulb


ARE YOU A CAMERA? BECAUSE EVERYTIME I LOOK AT YOU I SMILE

Make sure you have an app that will allow you more functionality with your camera than you will have in your built in app. I suggest using VSCO app. I'm a fan because it allows you to pinpoint areas of the photo that you would like to change the brightness or contrast in without affecting the whole photo. And the best part, it's FREE.


RAIN DROPS DROP TOP ROLL OUT YOUR BACKDROP

Make sure your backdrop is as high as possible and drapes under the product then down as far as possible. You want this background to be as much like a green screen as possible. This will make the product be the focus and nothing else. Here I have shown how I set up my backdrop.

It does not need to be pretty! Here, I didn't have scissors, so I ripped the paper. Also, I just randomly put tape wherevver would hold the paper. The middle of the backdrop needs to be your biggest worry. Make sure you don't wrinkle the paper!

I have natural light, but if you are using a lamp just make sure it is not pointed directly at the product. You may point it somewhat in the general vicinity, but make sure it's much higher than the product and projects to the whole opposite side of the room. You will be trying to recreate what would happen from window light.


EVERYTHING THE LIGHT TOUCHES IS OUR KINGDOM - MUFASA

The white board is going to be used to reflect some of that light to the darker side of the product. This will make sure all sides of the product are getting adequate lighting for the picture.

Here, I have propped up the board and made sure to angle it so the light reflects onto the other side of the product.

I just used my roll of masking tape to hold up the board. Also, any white, flat object should reflect light well. So just  see what you have around. Don't spend money if you don't have to!

TALK CLEAN TO ME

Clean the lens of your camera! This may seem like trivial task, but it will improve the quality of your photos. Preferably do this with an actually lens cloth. Just using your t-shirt or a tissue will not give you the same clean that a lens cloth will. The fibers from these items will stay on your lens. I know this is annoying, but just do it.

GOING STEADY

The stand for your phone is primarily for stabilization. Our phones don't take as crisp pictures as we would like because we are always moving, if only minimally. Make sure your stand and phone are placed properly in respect to the light sources. You will want the camera aimed straight at the product. I have added the picture below of where I placed my phone in relation to the product.

Really, just make sure the camera is relatively level with the product and that there is only white in the background of the angle.

READY AIM FIRE

Now we are finally ready to take our pictures. This is the part where you really get to see what the VSCO app can do and how it will change the look of your photos depending on your light. Take your time here. After all this set up, make sure you are taking multiple product pictures from multiple angles. Three picture minimum per product.

Also, you can get creative here. Maybe even use props. Figure out what will make people respond to your product. Below I have added my favorite picture.

BETTER MARKETING = BETTER MARK-UPS

The better you portray your product, the more willing people are to purchase it. Taking great product pictures is a BIG DEAL. Be sure to get creative, too. Customers like to see the product in use, all around views, and up-close product pictures, depending on the product. 

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

I love hearing about other techniques people have found to work, or even cheaper ways to do things. If you are a budding entrepreneur, or even an Etsy shop owner, let's get connected!