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My 3 Favorite Business Tools to Help with Productivity

January 24, 2017 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when running your own business is finding the time to do all the stuff that it takes to run your business. The day-to-day work can be overwhelming.

Fortunately, there are a lot of companies that create business tools to make it easier for us small business owners to do what we love.

Here are three of the business tools I use every day.

Timely

Keeping track of how much time I spend on any given project has always been an issue for me. I’d vaguely observe what time it was when I started and vaguely estimate how much time I’d spent when I was done. Not terribly efficient.

Enter Timely.

I looked at, and tried, a few different time tracking apps before I settled on Timely as one of my regular business tools. I like it because it is sleek, easy to use and gives me exactly what I need to keep track of time spent on each project, but doesn’t pile on a bunch of extra stuff I’ll never use, or that I already have through other apps and programs.

Timely lets me track my working hours by project and client. I can bill different projects at different rates, if I need to. I can also set a certain amount of money or a specific amount of time for a project, and Timely will tell me when I’ve gone over that amount, and by how much.

Because I typically bill by the project, this helps me determine how much I ‘really’ made per hour when I go over my allotted time or budget. It’s good for helping me estimate future projects and noting if the number of hours for the project need to change.

I can also look at reports on what I’ve done. This helps me keep track of the project and what I need to do next. I can also export the report in Excel or as a PDF, to send to clients.

Timely integrates with several apps, including Google Calendar, Trello, GitHub, Asana and Office 365. Timely will automatically enter the time I spent on work appointments. This is great if I forget to start the timer once I’m on a call, or at a meeting.

Timely also has great customer support. Any time I have an issue or I’m confused by something, they’re always quick to respond with useful information or to help me fix the problem.

Timely offers a free plan, but it limits the number of projects you can have running at a given time. It also allows for multiple users, depending on the plan you choose.

Timely is keeping me on track, by tracking the amount of time I spend on each project. It’s fantastic. Learn more about Timely here.

Calendly

Setting appointments is one of my least favorite time-wasters. I hate sending emails back and forth with, “Can you meet at 2:30 on Thursday?” Only to hear back that Thursday won’t work, but how about next Monday.

To avoid all of this, I use Calendly. It’s a fantastic scheduling app that integrates with my Google Calendar. I just send someone a Calendly link for the appropriate type of appointment, they go to the app, choose a time we’re both available, and book the appointment.

We’re both sent a calendar invite, which goes right into my calendar, so I don’t forget. I can schedule reminder emails to go to the person who booked the appointment, so they don’t forget either. They can cancel the appointment from the reminder emails if something comes up, and Calendly prompts them to reschedule immediately.

On my end, I can send different appointment types of varying lengths, with buffer times on either end to make sure I don’t overlap appointments. I can control the times clients can schedule appointments, and I can block off certain days if I know I’ll be unavailable.

It’s a pretty slick system.

Calendly integrates with several apps and programs, including Drip, Salesforce and Zapier. They also have an API key and webhooks available for those who are more proficient at programming than I am.

Calendly does offer a free account, but your appointments will have Calendly branding on them. It’s not terribly intrusive. If you only have one event type (one type and length of appointment you need scheduled) it’s a great free scheduling solution.

If you have multiple event types, like I do, want to send appointment reminders and integrate with other apps, you’ll have to go with a paid account. The Premium account is $10 a month or $96 a year, per user.

Calendly has made my life a lot easier when it comes to scheduling appointments with clients and I recommend it highly. Learn more about Calendly here.

Quickbooks Online

I’ve used Quickbooks to handle my billing for years. Before that, (back in the dark ages) I used Excel spreadsheets. Not a fun game, I don’t recommend it unless you’re really good at Excel spreadsheets. I’m not.

Life in general has moved online. So has Quickbooks. It’s a fairly simple system to use, especially if you’ve used Quickbooks in the past.

I can create and email invoices to clients from the desktop interface. I enter a client’s contact information and Quickbooks sets up the email for me, then sends it when I’m ready. I can create recurring invoices and send them monthly to my retainer clients. They go out automatically, so I don’t have to think about them.

I have control over how the invoices look, including adding my logo, changing colors and specifying which columns and fields appear on the invoice. It’s very similar to designing an invoice in the desktop version of Quickbooks.

I can also accept payment via Quickbooks. I had to sign up for this service, and there are fees. It’s 50 cents per direct deposit and 3.5% of a credit card payment. But it’s worth it to have clients pay directly from their invoices.

All of my business bank account transactions are downloaded into Quickbooks, so I can manage everything in one place. The download interface is easy to use, though it took me a few times to get used to using it. Quickbooks automatically enters any payments made through its system into my checking register, as well as the fees it takes for letting me use that system.

Quickbooks offers a free 30-day trial. I pay about $16 a month for the version I use. There are several different versions, depending on the size of your business, number of users, etc.

Using Quickbooks online has made my billing and accounting much easier. Learn more about Quickbooks here.

What Productivity Business Tools Do You Recommend?

I hope this round-up of business tools to increase your productivity helps. I’ll keep doing these posts as I have more tools to pass along. Meanwhile, what business tools do you use? I’d love to hear about them. Perhaps I’ll end up adopting them myself, and mentioning them in one of my future posts.

How to Create Your Elevator Speech in 4 Easy Steps

January 19, 2017 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever been in a business course or a course on learning how to ace your next interview, you’ve probably heard of the elevator speech. It’s that 2 to 3 sentence speech that you rattle off to someone you meet, that explains what you do.

Ideally, it’s a concise speech that you can rattle off to a fellow passenger during a short elevator ride. Thus, the name, “elevator speech.” And it should give some reason for what you do, some benefit to the activity. That way, whoever you’re talking to is engaged and asks for more information.

For many small business owners, this can be a major hurdle. A lot of people never get around to doing the simple exercise of creating their elevator speech, because adding that benefit can feel overwhelming.

It’s easy to say “I’m Bob and I make widgets for woodworkers.” It’s a lot harder to explain what benefit the woodworkers get from those widgets in less than 20 words.

Today, I’m going to show you a simple method you can use to drill down from a full explanation of what you do and why you do it, to a one-sentence elevator speech. I learned this method from the amazing Pat Flynn at last year’s Converted conference.

Step 1: Figure Out What You Do and Why You Do It

The first part should be pretty simple for most people. Generally speaking, you know what you do for a living, whether you own a small business or you work for someone else. The “why” part is where many people get hung up, especially small business owners.

Is the “why” supposed to be about why you started your own business? Is it supposed to be about what your product does? Is it supposed to be about why people should use your product or service?

Technically, it’s the third one. But it goes a bit beyond that. It’s what benefit does your product or service give the end user.

If you haven’t figured that out yet, I recommend reading my “Finding Your Why” blog post. It will help you figure that “why” part out.

Step 2: Write It Down

Take between 5 and 20 minutes and write down what you do and why. Be as descriptive as you want, but make it 1 page or less.

I’ll model that here:

I am a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant. I help my clients by taking care of their marketing, so they don’t have to think about it. I offer a wide range of services, including:

Website copy
Landing pages
Squeeze pages
Online sales letters
Content marketing
Blogs
Articles
E-Newsletters
Emails
Autoresponder series
Case studies
White papers
Direct response packages
Press releases
SEO copywriting optimization for websites, blogs and articles
Keyword research
Site audits
AB testing and analysis
Refining and improving your sales funnel
Email list building
Customer conversion – the art of turning website visitors into repeat customers

I work closely with my clients to capture their company voice and work with their overall brand. If they haven’t established those, I help them create their voice and brand, then use them throughout their marketing.

I set up email list building and sales funnels to convert website browsers into life-long customers. I help my clients grow their businesses through well-written content and strategic marketing practices.

Okay, that’s a lot to tell someone in an elevator. Even if you had 40 floors to tell someone all of this, they’d have tuned out a long time ago. The next step is to hone this down to something reasonable.

Step 3: Reduce Your One Page Down to One Paragraph

Yes, editing is hard. All those precious words you just worked laboriously to create, how can you let them go?

Once you get going, it’s easy.

First, take out anything a total stranger doesn’t need to know. A lot of this information may be great for your website, but for a succinct one-paragraph description, it’s too much. As you’re doing this, feel free to change what you wrote originally so you’re happier with the way it sounds.

My single paragraph would look something like this:

I am a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant. I take the burden of marketing off the shoulders of small business owners so they can do what they love best, run their businesses and make their products or perform their services. I offer a wide range of copywriting services to my clients, from website copy and landing page creation to lead and sales funnels. I help my clients grow their businesses through well-written content and strategic marketing practices.

Well, that would be a lot easier for someone to get through during an elevator ride, but there’s not a lot of room for conversation. By the time I finished all of that, whoever was riding with me would want to get off a floor early and take the stairs.

Now, I’ll reduce this down even further.

Step 4: Reduce Your One Paragraph Down to One Sentence

“One sentence?” I hear you cry. “My business is far too complicated to explain in one sentence.”

No, not really. Most people explain what they do in one sentence. If you ask someone “What do you do?” They usually answer with about 3-5 words:

I’m a copywriter.
I’m a lawyer.
I work at a grocery store.

When you add the “why” into that sentence, things can get complicated. The “why” is usually where all the extra words come in.

Take a moment and think about your “why.” If you’ve done the “So What Method” exercise, you should have a pretty good idea of why you do what you do.

My “why” is, I genuinely want to help small business owners grow their businesses. I do that by helping them with their marketing.

I could say something like: “I’m a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant, I help small business owners grow their businesses.” That is what I do, and even a little of why I do it. But there’s not a lot of end-user benefit there.

And honestly, I don’t have to tell people I’m a copywriter. Half the people I meet assume I work for the government in the Copyright Office, which I don’t. I usually say “I’m the kind that writes words for advertising” when I get that response.

I’m going to take the word “copywriter” out of my elevator speech entirely. Instead, I’m going to tell people what I do. Here’s my final elevator speech:

“I help small business owners grow their businesses by writing advertising copy that converts website visitors and leads into customers.”

This sentence tells you who I serve, what I do and the benefit my clients receive from my services.

See, easy.

Thank you, Pat Flynn.

Does this still seem overwhelming to you? Download my Pat Flynn’s Guide to Creating Your Elevator Speech checklist, so you can reference every step as you create your own elevator speech.

DOWNLOAD PAT FLYNN’S GUIDE TO CREATING YOUR ELEVATOR SPEECH NOW

6-in-6 Freelance Copywriter Report – 10 Months

January 10, 2017 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

In case I haven’t said it to you, Happy New Year!

It’s January, 2017, month 10 of my freelance copywriter life. Here in Minnesota, it means snow and cold. It’s the time of year when we all find as many things to do indoors as possible, and wear as many clothes as possible to get between our cars and whatever buildings we’re running to.

It’s also a good time to hunker down and get work done. Fortunately, I have plenty of that coming in.

My two regular clients have plenty going on this month. I also have a new potential client, and a trial project that may develop into a regular project, in the works. All of this moves me closer to my goal of making $6,000 a month, net as a freelance copywriter.

Just so you’re aware, that means making $9,000 a month, gross. Why so much? Because when you’re self-employed, 1/3 of everything you make automatically goes to Uncle Sam.

When you’re employed by a company, that company takes out tax for Social Security and Medicare from your paycheck automatically. They also pay a portion of that tax for your out of their coffers.

When you’re self-employed, you pay that yourself. 12.4% for Social Security, and 2.9% for Medicare, for a grand total of 15.3%. Plus, you still pay your normal income tax.

That’s how I arrived at the $9,000 a month, gross, figure. That way I can just take 1/3 of what I earn and stash it away to pay taxes.

Yes, that sounds intimidating. But I’ve already come darn close. In November of last year, I was $750 short of hitting that goal. So, it’s doable. The trick is getting enough regular freelance copywriter work coming in so I can hit that goal every month.

December wasn’t great on that front. But January looks to be more promising for reaching my goal. I promise you, you’ll hear about it when I do!

Meanwhile, I need to get motivated and get to work. But mostly, I want to sit here and stare out the window at the snow and the birds and squirrels eating from my feeders. (That’s my current view at the top of this post, by the way.)

I think that’s one of the hardest things about working for yourself. There are days it’s just hard to find the motivation get the work done. That doesn’t change the fact that the work needs to get done. But some days, it’s easier than others.

Fortunately, I get to work on projects I enjoy, which helps a lot.

Speaking of which, if you have a project coming up that you want me to work on, please contact me ASAP. My schedule is filling up quickly for the next couple of months. If you want to be on my calendar, act quickly.

As always, thanks for reading my ramblings and following along on my crazy freelance copywriter journey. It’s kind of scary to think that in another 2 months, I’ll have been writing this blog and doing this job for a full year.

Here’s to my reaching my goal before then.

Finding Your “Why” – The Key to Creating Your Content Marketing Strategy

January 3, 2017 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

Every business needs a good content marketing strategy. Most businesses decide that their strategy is to sell their products with their content. This floods the internet with billions of articles about everything from hair brushes to online courses, and these articles are boring.

They don’t give you good SEO results and they don’t sell your product.

Why?

Because they don’t engage your audience.

Ask any marketer for the key to a healthy marketing strategy and they’ll almost always tell you, “audience engagement.” This is true. If your audience doesn’t care, they won’t buy your products.

But the key to a good marketing strategy isn’t just audience engagement. It’s solving your audience’s problem. “Why does your product exist and how does it help your audience?” are the questions you need to answer, not “What is your product and what does it do?”

The Difference Between “What” and “Why”

I decided to write this blog post after I read an article from the Content Marketing Institute with a similar theme. I do recommend that you read the article. It’s quite good. However, that article only goes into the “why of your why.” It doesn’t explain how to find your “why.” That’s what I’ll do here.

First, I’d like to discuss the difference between “what” and “why” when it comes to your content marketing strategy. And to do this, I borrowed a YouTube video that was posted in the CMI article. You should take the 3+ minutes to watch it. It’s a great explanation and this guy’s voice is fantastic!

https://youtu.be/a_y5XpLUla0

Now that you understand the difference between your “what” and your “why,” let’s apply that to your content marketing strategy:

Your what, is your product: What it does, how it works, etc.

Your why is the benefit it offers to your prospective customer: Why does your product exist? What problem does it solve for your customer? What need does it fulfill?

Once you figure out your “why,” you’ll have a much better foundation for your content marketing strategy.

How to Find Your “Why”

You use the “So What” method. I wrote about this in one of my early blog posts last year, but it’s a great exercise and it bears repeating.

Basically, you ask the question, “So What?” to drill down to the deeper benefits of your product. Those deeper benefits need to do more than talk about your product and what it does. They need to strike an emotional chord with your audience.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. “So What?” is the question they ask every time they look at a product or service. “Okay, this cereal provides me with 15 necessary vitamins and minerals. So what? What does that do for me?”

That last question is the one you want to answer when you come up with your “why.”

Here’s how you do it.

Take your product and come up with a list of features.

A feature is:

Something that is true about your product
Something your product does.

My favorite example is duct tape. It’s easy, and pretty much everyone knows what it is. Just to start you off, here are 2 features of duct tape.

True: Duct tape is made of fabric.

Does: Duct tape sticks to just about any surface.

Now, ask yourself, “What does that do for me?”

My favorite answer to this is “duct tape makes the world stick together,” but that’s not really relevant to this exercise, just me being silly.

The real answer would be something like:

If your car breaks down, but you have a roll of duct tape handy, you can probably repair the problem so you can keep driving.

Now, go a step further. Find that emotional appeal. So what? Why does this matter? What problem does this solve?

Honestly, it solves a few problems:

You can get wherever you’re going without a long delay because of a tow and an expensive visit to the auto mechanic.

Repairing your car yourself costs less, even if it’s only temporary.

You can take care of yourself and keep yourself safe, instead of sitting on the side of the road, possibly in the middle of nowhere.

You see where I’m going with this, right? I’m appealing to my potential customer’s sense of:

Confidence (not being horribly late to their destination.)

Self-reliance (making the repair themselves.)

Safety (getting themselves off the side of the road, where who knows what could happen.)

Your emotional appeal should do more than trigger an emotion. It should also solve a problem your customer has. All of the emotional appeals above do just that.

Once you answer that question of “So What?” you will have your “Why.”

Using Your “Why” in Your Content Marketing Strategy

Now that you’ve found your “why,” it’s time to apply it to your content marketing strategy.

Instead of writing blog post after blog post or Facebook ad after Facebook ad talking about what your product does, write about why it helps your customer.

For instance:

Your weight loss product gives people confidence. (Losing weight is a feature, not a benefit.) Write about how great your customers feel after losing that lingering 10 pounds.

Your software product improves productivity. (The software function is the feature, the productivity is the benefit, the money saved by speeding up the process is the deeper benefit.) Write about how much easier, faster and cheaper it is to use your software than the current process.

Your toothpaste gives people a longer-lasting smile. (The anti-cavity ingredient is a feature. A person’s sense of confidence and their overall health are the deeper benefits.) Write about the effects of dental problems on a person’s health, or how much better your customers will feel when they can smile with confidence.

You get the idea.

I’ve included the “So What” Method sheet again here for you. Please click on the button below to download it and use it for your products, your company mission, arguing with your spouse or children, wherever you can apply it in your life. Trust me, it helps.

Download Your Free Copy of the “So What” Method Now!

Do You Know Your “Why?”

If so, tell me about it in the comments below. If not, let me know how I can help.

Reflecting on 2016 as a Small Business Owner

December 28, 2016 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

2016 was a year of transformation for me. I lost a “real job,” left the corporate world, and now I’m a small business owner working for myself. That’s a lot to handle in one year.

So, I’m taking a moment to look back and see what I’ve accomplished for my small business in the last year.

In 2016, I:

Started a new small business.
Started a regular blog.
Worked on 20 projects for 14 clients (not all of which are finished yet).
Started and completed my Leadpages Conversion Marketing Certification.
Started and am still working my way through several new marketing courses.
Joined a Copywriting Mastermind Group (they’re awesome, by the way).
Learned several new marketing tools, like SamCart and Drip.
Attended 2 marketing conferences in one week.
Traveled the country and had fun with friends and family, while working.
Did a ton of research and learned many interesting new things.
Worked on my own business a lot.

That may look like a short list, but it was a lot of work, trust me.

And most importantly, I enjoyed it. I’m happier working for myself. I make a great boss of me.

I would encourage you to do this exercise as well. Whether you own your own small business or you work for someone else. Whether you’re happy where you are, or are looking to move on to another position in your current company, or on your own. You can do this if you’re retired or not working too. It’s just a useful reflection exercise.

Take a few minutes right now and write down what you’ve accomplished in 2016. Your accomplishments don’t have to be huge, but they should be notable to you. Projects you’ve finished at work or at home are good candidates. Working on projects for yourself are also a good idea.

They can even be as simple as “survived 2016” which can be considered an accomplishment this year. I don’t know about you, but 2016 has seen the demise of some major icons in my life, as well as several friends.

The point is to see what you’ve done in the past year. I expect it will be a lot more than you anticipated. And it can help you plan for the coming year.

This is something just for you. It’s not meant to be criticism or compliment. It’s just so you can take note and realize how much work you’ve put into the last year. It’s a good thing. Don’t compare yourself or to anyone else, or your year to any other. Just take a moment to recognize and be proud of what you’ve done.

A friend of mine who worked for AWAI spoke at their Bootcamp conference this year. One of her “secrets to a happy freelance life” was to avoid the Comparison Coma.

The Comparison Coma is when you look at your own life, stacked up against others who are doing better than you (regardless of what they’re doing). No matter how hard you’ve worked, it always seems like your life pales in comparison.

My friend recommended just being happy with where you are and what you’re doing. Others are doing what they’re doing. Some will do better, some worse. You can be happy for them, (or offer to help) but let any comparison go. You’re doing what you’re doing right now. That’s what matters.

That’s why I recommend you look at this past year and appreciate what you’ve done. You can make goals for the coming year, but don’t be disappointed in what you’ve done this year. And even if you didn’t reach some of your goals, remember, they’re goals. You can keep striving to reach them.

So, here’s to celebrating our successes in 2016, whether we’re small business owners or working for someone else.

And here’s to an equally (if not more) successful 2017.

I wish all of you a prosperous and happy New Year.