Life pulls us in all directions, doesn't it? It can be so unpredictable, especially for business owners & entrepreneurs. Anything we can do to make our business more predictable, for the people who invest their time in us, makes the experience more positive, right?

But I know blogging can be a time suck; I totally get it. Especially when you're first starting out.

To solve that problem, you can batch like-tasks (blogging & posting to social media, for example) & schedule ahead, so that throughout the days/weeks ahead, you don't have to think about it on the day-to-day. Who's got time to post live, anyway???

You've got enough on your plate already; don't add even more unnecessary stress to your day!

You probably have a vague idea of what type of design services you need, and maybe you even know who you want to work with. But maybe you have no idea how much (if any) work you’ll need to put in or how much it’d cost to hire the help.

That goes for pretty much anything in the service industry, right? But there’s Angie’s List & HomeAdvisor for those kinds of professionals. So where do you go to find out more about design services? (Please don’t say Fiverr or Upwork. 😄)

That being the case, whether you have/haven’t worked with a graphic designer before, I’d be willing to bet you’re not sure what to expect, especially in a remote work or freelance situation.

It can be scary to hand over your trust & money to a stranger you’ve never met in person & don’t know. Right? I totally get that!

Because I know that there are a lot of you out there who have no idea what to expect, I’m gonna share my process since basically it’s industry standard.

This legal stuff is pretty boring, so I'm going to make this as simple as I can so you don't fall asleep on me! 

I've gotten a lot of questions about who needs to be compliant, and while I don't have all the answers (I'm certainly not an attorney, so I'm not giving you legal advice here), I do have some helpful info, suggestions, and resources to share with you that will help you figure it out.

I've been a graphic designer since 2006. That's more than 10 years! This field is full of people who are both self-taught, and college educated; some who have the natural instincts and some who only know how to use the tech.

Because of the variety of designers out there, I see a lot of mistakes being made, either from a lack of innate skill or inexperience/knowledge.

But I'm definitely not here to bash anyone; just the opposite, actually. I'm here to help! 

So here are some branding no-no's I see a lot, and some suggestions on what to do instead, to make your brand even better.

If you suspect your current branding falls into this category & want to know how to fix it, I've also included a MINI BRANDING AUDIT DISCOUNT CODE for you! Just purchase through my shop & apply the code at checkout, then I'll take a look and provide some personalized feedback to help get you out of the design-gutter.

My own Free Resource Library has evolved a lot since I initially set it up. It was password protected for most of that time and I never really felt right about that. 

I don't know about you, but I like to see the resources before I decide to sign up & grab one; ya know? (Confession! I'm on SO MANY lists! 😂)

So I decided to open it up to everyone. That meant no more password!

But how do those freebies still work as opt-ins, if the page isn't password protected anymore?

It’s a valid question, to be sure.

I'll walk ya through how to set up your own Free Resource Library on Squarespace that will still work as opt-ins, but without the pesky password protected page.

A few years ago, Anna came to me & asked for help designing a logo for the band. I took on the project, feeling both happy & excited to help her.

The thing is, Souljam is a very talented jam band, and designing their logo meant designing a little outside of my comfort zone.

For those of you who don't know exactly what that means, think (or lookup) Grateful Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, Allman Brothers and have a listen. The band members in this genre are typically free-spirited hippies, lovers of music, & super talented. They produce songs that are long & wandering to take advantage of every available second to show off their mad skills & just feel free while they play.

While I do love the Billy Breathes Phish album and I've been to see Widespread Panic live once with my husband, generally that style of music is not my jam. I can appreciate the talent it takes to play it, but I don't personally love that style of music. I find myself listening to a Widespread Panic song that's 10+ minutes long, wondering when the hell it will end, because I can't tell what the structure of the song is (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, etc.). 

So this project became a prime example of stepping into my client's shoes to get the design right. I knew enough about the style of music & what appeals to their listeners, to step in & give them a design that matched their musical souls.

The first organization tool I ever heard about was Asana, and while I like what Asana can do, the way it worked just didn't mesh with how my brain functions. And as we all know, if we don't like how something works then we're probably not going to use it.

I wanted a more visual way to organize things. Then I was introduced to Trello, but I wasn't really sure what to do with it, or how I could use it. I set it aside to come back to later, and for months I completely forgot it existed.

Then finally, I ran across a mention of it in Think Creative Collective's Facebook group, or maybe it was their blurb about their online course for Trello during their podcast. No, I'm not an affiliate, but that super cheap course was worth. every. penny (& probably more).

Once I dug in, I found all sorts of fun ways to use Trello both for business & for home, so today I'm sharing 7 ways you can use Trello too!

If you've been following along for the last several months, then you probably already know I use Dubsado for my business. In fact, I'm kind of obsessed with it!

Dubsado has an online scheduler now, but I still haven’t gotten around to setting it up and since it's not ready yet, I’m still using Acuity because it integrates well with Squarespace and it also has a lot of features, like the ability to take a payment when a client makes certain types of appointments.

Acuity has a free plan, but it allows limited customization among other limitations. At first that was fine, but eventually I wanted the features that the paid plans offer.

One of my goals for 2018 is to consistently plan & write several blog posts in advance and schedule them to post at regular times, so I stay ahead of the game and have more focused & consistent content for you.

So far I have to say, I've failed miserably! I've written 2 posts this year, including this one, and neither were written until the day I posted them. *sigh*

That's okay though.Shit happens and I'm rolling with it.

It's been a really tough & interesting few weeks for me and my husband. There's been some good and bad, and because I'm a more private person I had no intention (zero) of sharing any of it with you, until this morning when I sat down to write today's blog.

So I'm gonna get personal, and tell you what's going on. More importantly though, I'll also tell you what and how I'm finding the positive things in each situation. 

I love to read, and because I don't have much time for my favorite hobby, I also love to listen to audiobooks. Gotta get my fix in somehow!

I don't love listening to self-help/nonfiction though, or at least I used to find the idea abhorrent. The idea of listening to someone talk on and on about how to "up your game," or become "more focused," ...blah, blah, blah... could have easily been a form of punishment for me.

That is, until I read a couple of business books (of my own free will, I might add!) this past fall. (I got sucked in, okay?!) They opened my eyes to a whole new genre which I can actually tolerate, as it turns out, and some of which I really (REALLY) enjoyed reading/listening to.

So, as with most things I get excited about, I dove in head first and created a list of books I want to read in this genre. And since I went to all that effort, I figured I should share the wealth of knowledge with you too!

A few years ago my old laptop was running a little slower than I wanted, so I backed up everything onto an external hard drive, uninstalled & removed all my software, and wiped my computer. Started over, fresh.

It was a lot of work, but that made things so much better. I reinstalled the operating system, put most of my files and software back onto my computer, and I was ready to move on.

I opened my internet browser and realized I had never backed up my bookmarks!! Who would remember to do that? I hope you would, but for whatever reason, I didn't even think about it, even though I tediously went through the entire contents of my laptop to make sure I had everything else, including old emails.

I had a few years worth of bookmarks saved, before I wiped my computer. I frantically logged into my Firefox account, and then Chrome... but they weren't there. I hadn't turned on the native backup so they'd be stored in my account. CRAP.

Months later, after building up important bookmarks again (and this time they are backed up) that major loss of info from before led me to also put my bookmarks in a new location. One that I can access anywhere, any time, from any device.

That's why I chose to use Trello to save my browser bookmarks.

PLUS: grab a copy of my Bookmarks Trello Board, and add it to your own Trello account! Includes all the lists, cards, links, and more!

Ever see a new business pop up, get let down when you see their branding and think 'what the...? Where did they get that done??'

Yep, happens to me all the time, and ya know what's definitely not socially acceptable? For a designer to contact that business and be all, "hey, I see you clearly need some serious help redesigning your logo; I can totes help with that!"

I'm sure 90% of those businesses have a reason for doing things the way they have, and that's fine if they're also fine with mediocrity, right? 

Bad branding usually happens because...

If you're a business owner (big or small), an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, a freelancer, or just consider yourself someone with a side-hustle, you're probably trying to figure out all the ways to to drive traffic to your online home base: your website.

You probably already know there is thing platform called Pinterest, and everyone is on it, but what are they doing with it? How does it work? Where on earth do you start??

Maybe you have a brand new account and you don't know how to grow a following, or if you should even grow a following?! (Do followers even matter on Pinterest??)

Maybe you have an old account, but you aren't sure what to do with it, or how to make it work for you.

Whatever the case, if you're not utilizing Pinterest for Business, you're missing out on a huge traffic driver, second only to Google (for me). In fact, Google & Pinterest alternate between 1st and 2nd in the largest traffic driving sources for my own website. 

So, on that note, let's talk about how to start using Pinterest for your business.

I was an absolute mess! I had physical AND digital sticky notes, notes on legal pads and in notebooks. Notes in documents on my computer and in the cloud, notes in Google Drive and in Dropbox. Plus I love stationery, but rarely end up using it, so I have a couple planners where I intended to put notes but never actually did... that...

I thought I was organized, until I realized I wasn't.

🙌🏻   Then I found Trello. 🙌🏻  
(it really deserves a standing ovation!)

Now before you say, "ugh... not another paid app to download." Nope!

This is FREE! 

As in: you-can-use-99%-of-what-they-have-available-without-ever-having-to-upgrade. Yeah, that kind of free.

Never heard of Trello before? It's okay, I hadn't either! I'd heard of Asana, and I tried it but, ...I didn't really like it so I never actually used it = ineffective.

You can use Trello to plan for pretty much anything going on in your life, whether that's for home or business related tasks. You can view those tasks in both a visual list view and in a calendar mode, so you can see which tasks in your board overlap with each other. You can also attach stuff, comment, tag and the whole system is drag-and-drop friendly too.

Does any of that sound good??? Awesome. Then you better keep on reading, because Trello could change your life! 😉

Getting started (or even just knowing where to start) with client onboarding can be tricky. I know this, because I've been there! My old process was cumbersome, unorganized and complicated, because I didn't really have one... at all. 🙈

I'd miss steps during client onboarding simply because I didn't have a system, or even worse, maybe I was so excited to get started on the project that I just bypassed all that "stuff." 

Luckily for me, I have wonderful clients and no problems ever came up because of my previous lack of onboarding organization. BUT I knew then, as I know now, that wouldn't last. Not that my wonderful clients would suddenly become something other than wonderful. No, no, no.

I'm saying my obvious lack of organization would eventually lead to an error SOMEWHERE, whether that was accidentally missing a client's deadline, or not getting paid on time because I had to manually set up invoices in PayPal and send them (or soooo many other possible scenarios).

As I mentioned (in detail) here, in Why Dubsado is My Favorite App, ...it's my favorite business app! I have many others on the list (I 💚  you too, Trello).

But in case you missed that (HINT: go back & read it too!), Dubsado is FREE to try, with no time limit on your trial; it just caps you at 3 clients before you'll have to upgrade.

SO WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? 
LET'S GET STARTED!

I sent out a reader survey recently, because I wanted to know what kinds of specific things you wanted to hear from me, so I can serve you better!

Several of you mentioned that you needed help with your branding, so today I'm tackling how to figure out what you need in your business branding!

I've got an example, sample questions to ask, and of course,...

+ Don't forget to grab the free client workbook:
'Unearthing Your Brand'

I want to hear from you!

I’m checking in with you to see what kinds of things you need help with, or want me to discuss here.

I want to know how I can serve you better!

My #1 goal for this blog is to be a resource with tons of helpful, actionable information and I want to be on the right track!

Whether it's a Squarespace tutorial, some topic about how I run my business, how to do something specific in Adobe, how to interact with designers or clients, I want to know.

I can't wait to read your responses! 😁

Holy shit, you guys! When something is this good, you don't keep it to yourself; you share it!

I don't know if I've been living under a rock, or what, but I'd never heard of this company until a few months ago. I'm scratching my head now, trying to figure out what the heck took me so long to move forward!?