Built By Graced

If you are a small business owner you have probably experienced your share of ups and downs. The number one factor that determines success and failure when it comes to business is your mindset and your ability to be tenacious. In this episode I explain why keeping a positive mindset and staying tenacious can help you succeed in your business and life. 

Do you ever feel overwhelmed when it comes to posting to your social media accounts? Do you sit and scroll through the images on your phone and you can't seem to find something that is "good enough" to post? It's time to stop the social media stress and get a plan. It is possible to automate your social media strategy in just a few hours a month so you can start enjoying social media again. 

What would happen if you woke up one morning to find that Instagram and Facebook crashed and you lost all of your friends and followers? How would you get in touch with your audience? That is why an email list is so so important to the success of your business. In this episode I talk about why you need and email list and what you should do with your list once you get those first subscribers. 

For this episode I imagined myself sitting down to coffee with you, my entrepreneur bestie, and spilling the beans on the things that keep me up at night. I let you in on some of my mindset road blocks and how I am working through them as a small business owner and I'm pretty sure you will be able to relate. 

When you're first starting your small business it's hard to know where to start and which tools you should be using to manage your day to day. In this episode I give you the inside scoop on what tools and software I use everyday in my business and which tools you can use even if you are starting your small business on a budget. 

In this week's episode I take you behind the scenes of my branding photoshoot with photographer Allyson Elise. Learn why investing in a branding shoot can help market your small business and reduce the stress of needing images that you can use on your blog, website or on social media. 

It's always sad when the weekend wraps up but when you love your job, like I do, Mondays don't make me depressed. In fact, most weeks I am pumped to get the work week started.  I don't fear the workday because I have set up a system to make sure I stay on track, cross things off of my to-do list and crush my goals. In this episode I walk you through how I plan my work meet and how I make certain I stay on track and have learned to love Mondays.

If you are thinking about starting a podcast, this is the episode for you! Learn the 4 questions you should ask yourself before you make the commitment to starting a podcast for your small business.

There is a massive amount of information out there about how you can leverage the power of Pinterest for your small business. Unfortunately, most of the information is outdated and just plain incorrect. It’s hard to make sense of it all. I’ve spent hours researching the tips that not only current, proven, Pinterest approved and that I have personally used with success. In this episode I walk you through 8 simple steps that you can start using in your business to generate traffic for your website or blog. 

One of our biggest fears as small business owners is that our business will not appear professional and legit to our ideal client or customers. When you are first starting out your business you may need to be scrappy and do many things yourself but that doesn’t mean you can’t make your business look legit without breaking the bank. There are several things you can do to make sure that your brand, website, advertising and marketing look professional (even if it’s all DIY). In this episode I talk through 5 mistakes you might be making and more importantly, how to fix it.

We all dream about how amazing it would be to work from home. We envision hanging out in our pajamas all day, slowing drinking coffee at our desks and crossing all the things off our to-do list. Then when we actually work from home we realize that it may not be as easy (or laidback) as we hoped it would be. In this episode I give you my five best tips that I use to ensure I actually get work done while working from home. 

As small business owners we tend to think we can do it all and take on the role of Jack of all Trades, Master of None (I’m over here raising my hand high, sound like you?). The reality is that no one, no matter how organized can take on all of these roles and do them all well. When done properly outsourcing can free up your time so that you can focus on the creative and visionary work that only you can do in your business. Outsourcing will also help relieve stress and save time by having experts efficiently do the tasks that you likely dread in your business.

Starting a small business can be scary. There are so many tasks and activities you feel like you should be doing but you're unsure as to what is actually going to move your business forward. In this episode, I talk about the four areas where I believe you should be spending your time when you are first starting your small business and where you should really be focusing your efforts for maximum impact.

If you're like me you have a to-do list that is about a mile long. When you are an entrepreneur, a creative girl boss and/or a small business owner the work never stops. I used to dread my days because I knew that I had so many tasks to complete and I would be lucky if I was able to accomplish one or two things at best.  I knew that having a successful business requires consistency but I was falling short on delivering consistent social media posts, consistent blog posts and consistent podcasts. I knew there had to be a better way. Then I discovered batch tasking.  

If you have a small business, an online business or are a creative or artist you know how important it is to provide valuable content to your audience. Your content (blog posts, podcasts, graphics, images..) help you to build a relationship with your followers and establish trust and credibility. Most people use social media to connect with their ideal clients or customers. This is a great place to connect but if you're like me, you often feel stuck and frustrated. What do I post? I know that captions and content are important but I don't have anything to share. Just a few months ago I struggled with now knowing how to serve and connect with my audience and then I had a thought... if I had a bank of content that I could draw from I would never need to worry about what to post. Seems so obvious, right? 

In this bonus episode, I go through the 4 lessons that I have learned over the past several years from my weekly horseback rides and how they relate to owning, running and growing a small business.

In this week's episode I lay out the five mistakes I see small business owners making, why these mistakes are holding you back and how to start changing your habits so you can be that bad-ass small business owner you know you are inside. Ready for it? Good, let’s do this.

Finances can be a scary part of running a small business. With taxes to pay, payroll to manage and figuring out profit and loss statements it can feel over whelming. In this episode we have an honest conversation about how to start your business when you don't have money in the bank, how and when to take risk and where to find help when you need it. 

How do you achieve your goals? By building habits! Habits are the building blocks to your success but how to you create habits and how do you make them last? In this episode I talk about the 1% better everyday theory and how achieving your big goals is only achieved through consistency and dedication.