Category: Business

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Business

3 Reasons Why Small Business Owners Should Have an Email List

You’re a small business owner; you have your website and your Instagram following. You get your leads that way, and you are making great sales. Everything is going great, your business is thriving, and then all of a sudden, Instagram deactivates your account. Now what?

Do you have a way to communicate with your customers outside of Instagram? Well, you can if you start an email list. Here are three reasons why all small business owners should have an email list.

If Social Media Shuts Down, You Can Still Contact Your Email List

We’ve seen it before, Instagram and Facebook not working for a whole day. People tend to lose their minds when this happens, and if it happened once, it will happen again. You will still have access to your customers by building your email list even if social media isn’t working. Why? Because your email list is independent of social media. If you are solely depending on Instagram for your sales leads, then the day that it does not work is a day you will lose sales. And we don’t want that. Also, with your email list, you can contact everyone simultaneously instead of having to send individual messages, like direct messaging on Instagram. Everyone gets the same message at the same time.

Inform Your Email List About Products and Services First

Your email list is the best way to community with your customers. You can share your new products and services with them first. That gives them priority over those who are not subscribed and provides loyalty to you. FOMO, or fear of missing out, is a popular marketing strategy that works, and your email subscribers won’t have to deal with FOMO with your business because they will know FIRST what you are providing them. You are putting your email list first, and in return, this will generate continuous sales because your customers will feel valued and appreciated. Major corporations do it; why not you?

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

You Create Your Own Community

You don’t own your Instagram account; Facebook does, so they can de-active your account at any time, and I’ve seen it happening a lot recently. But your email list, that’s yours! Those are your people, your customers, your very own community! You can create exclusive content for your community, offer a special promotion, and so much more. You are giving them a sense of belonging. Everyone loves that. So go ahead and start your own community with your email list!

In Conclusion

            We cannot only rely on social media to generate sales because it’s not dependable. With your email list, you will still have access to it no matter what happens to Facebook or Instagram, you can always keep in touch with your customers and let them know what’s going on first, and you’ll have your very own community! I’m sure there are more benefits of having an email list, but I think these are the top 3. Can you think of other reasons? Share your thoughts with me.

With Love, Heidy

Is a personal development newsletter an interest of yours? With a little bit of poetry? A little of opinion pieces? And some faith-based encouragement? Sign up for my Substack newsletter, “Into My Thoughts.”

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Categories
Business Podcast

One Great Way to Market Your Online Business – Podcasting

tablet with the words online marketing.
Photo by Dominika Roseclay on Pexels.com

Marketing your online business can sometimes be a hassle. There are many ways you can go about it, and the online world is consistently changing. But if you’re looking for a new way to market your online business, I want to ask: have you thought about podcasting? If not, here are three reasons why podcasting is an excellent way to market your online business.

Establishing Authority and Expertise

With podcasts, you’ll dive deep into the topics related to your industry. With each episode, you’ll showcase your experience and knowledge to provide value for your audience. Talking on podcast episodes provides the opportunity to give your audience more explained details and share personal experiences that other marketing tools do not. 

Marketing on podcasts positions you as a thought leader in your industry. Listeners are more likely to engage with businesses that are perceived as authorities in their field. 

Also, inviting guest experts in your field will enhance credibility and will help you reach a new audience and even clients. 

Building a Community and Connection

Since podcasts allow you to reach more people, you can create a community and connection around your show. Podcasts create a personal connection with your audience. Hearing your voice and your guests’ voices can help humanize your brand, making it more relatable and trustworthy.

Listeners can create a sense of loyalty when they subscribe to your show because they want to hear from you on a regular basis. This builds a community of engaged and loyal followers who are more likely to support your business and its offerings.

The great thing about podcasts is that they can be interactive. You have to include the option to have your audience send you questions, and you can answer them on the show. That will make them a part of the show. 

One last thing to remember – not everyone is on social media, so you’ll definitely reach a new audience with podcasting. Also, you won’t have to worry about social media’s algorithms.

The Content is Timeless

People will be able to find your podcast episodes for years to come. Think of it like YouTube videos – those live on forever. Podcasting is timeless in the same way. Even if a person isn’t ready to become a client yet, they will receive knowledge and advice from you, and once they are ready to become a client, they will already have built that trust from listening to your podcast.

Bonus Reason – Repurpose Your Podcast Episodes

One of the best things about podcast episodes is that you can repurpose them for other marketing tools. For example, you can take each of your podcast episodes and turn them into SEO-optimized blog posts. This will help gain organic traffic to your website and your podcast. 

Market Your Online Business with Podcasting

If you are looking to start a podcast – I have a free checklist, equipment, and tools list just for you. Sign up for my podcast newsletter and receive yours today. If you have any questions about podcasting and how to start your own, schedule a call with me to discuss. 

With Love, Heidy

Is a personal development newsletter an interest of yours? With a little bit of poetry? A little of opinion pieces? And some faith-based encouragement? Sign up for my Substack newsletter, “Into My Thoughts.”

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Categories
Business

5 Ways You Can Support Your Friend’s Business for Free

In today’s society it seems like everyone has their own business. Whether it’s a full-time business or a side hustle people are trying to bring in extra income. And with the economy being the way it is, I don’t blame them. So today, I want to provide five ways you can support a friend’s business for free!

1. Follow Their Business Page

When someone starts a business, they usually start a business page because they will want to separate their personal posts from their promotional posts. So, the first way you can support your friend if they start a business is to follow their business page. It takes two seconds and costs you nothing.

2. Engage With Their Posts

It’s not just about following their page; you also should engage with their posts. If your friend is posting a poll – answer honestly. They are most likely doing market research to help their consumers and provide better products and services. If they post a picture and, in the caption, they finish with a question answer the question in the comments, it will encourage other people to comment too. By engaging in their posts, it will help the platforms algorithm and it will help other people find their page too.

friends supporting businesses online with laptop and phones on a round table.
Photo by Canva Studio on Pexels.com

3. Share Their Posts

By sharing their posts, it helps reach your followers who may not be following your friend’s business page. This can help bring more traffic and followers to your friend’s page. In which these followers can turn into customers. Sharing a post with someone else directly who you think might benefit from the information provided. I love receiving posts from people because I know they thought of me, which makes me feel special, LOL. But in all seriousness, sharing a post cost nothing and can help more than you think with their business.

4. Subscribe to Their Email List  

Back in April, I wrote on why small businesses should have email lists, you can read that post here. And if you’re friend starts an email list for their business – sign up! Again, it costs nothing to sign up and you’ll get the inside scoop on what’s going on in the business. Businesses usually use email lists to provide promo codes and discounts for their products and services. But if anything happens to social media, the business will still be able to stay in contact with you.

5. Tell A Friend

There is nothing better than getting a customer from a referral and/or word of mouth. People are more likely to use products and services when a friend recommends it. So, if you know your friend’s business can help someone, let them know. This is absolutely free and definitely helps your friend’s small business.

Alright, there you have it, five ways you can help support a friend’s small business for free. Of course, you may want to support by hiring them for their services or buying their products, but if you cannot do that during this time and you still want to support, these gestures can go a long way. Trust me.

With Love, Heidy

Let’s Connect!

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Is a personal development newsletter an interest of yours? With a little bit of poetry? A little of opinion pieces? And some faith-based encouragement? Sign up for my Substack newsletter, “Into My Thoughts.”

Check out my new Etsy shop! https://www.etsy.com/shop/WithLoveHeidy

Journals for sale!

You can get one or all of my journals on Amazon! Links are below! 🙂
My Prayer Journal  Into My Thoughts Journal Gratitude Journal

My poetry book – Words from the Heart available now!

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Categories
Blog Book Review Business

The Importance of Having a Supportive Community

Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels.com

Recently, I finished reading “Overcoming Underearning – A five-step plan to a richer life” by Barbara Stanny. It was gifted to me by my business coach, and honestly, at first, I didn’t think I was going to read it. First, I had never heard of Barbara Stanny, and second, I wasn’t interested in earning more money; my goal was to get my finances in order (you don’t necessarily need more money to achieve that). However, I’m glad I read this book, and I encourage any woman who has a business or needs to get their finances in order (like me) to read it.

In this book, Barbara provides five steps to a better life, as the title says, and today I want to talk to you about step four, create community.

Barbara says, “Whatever we achieve (or don’t) is significantly affected by our cumulative interactions with everyone we associate with on a regular basis.”

And this statement hit home when I read it. I immediately thought of my spouse, friends, and family members, who have supported all my projects. She says that there are four types of supporters:

  1. True Believers – say, “Go for it.”
  2. Confidantes – say, “I understand.”
  3. Way Showers – say, “You can do it, too; let me show you how.”
  4. Messengers – say, “I can help.”

It’s imperative to have support around you to reach any goal because we cannot do anything alone. I mean, you could, but it will be ten times harder and take ten times longer. You need people around you who will hold you accountable, provide resources, and inspire you.

Photo by Karl Solano on Pexels.com

Think about your support system – do you share your goals with them? Why or why not? Can you share your goals with your friends? What about family members? Are they supportive? Why or why not? Barbara mentions that you are more likely to reach a goal or the next level by sharing your goals with one other person.

What about your spouse? Are they supportive? In the book, she mentioned that after finishing her workshop, some women ended up separating from their spouses because they realized the spouse was holding them back. Now, I’m not saying to get a divorce; I’m saying to re-evaluate who you have around you.

I share my goals with my husband, and I share the steps I am going to take to reach those goals. The kids are with my husband when I have events, meetings, or need to record a podcast episode. When I am struggling or have doubts about anything, I go to my husband for support. He gives me his perspective and sometimes suggestions on how to approach my challenge. If not, he always reminds me to pray.

 My closest friends celebrate my wins like they are theirs, and I do theirs. I try to support them in any way that I can. And you should have people around you like this, who believe in you and your dreams and will encourage and support you to achieve them.

Let me finish by giving you the six principles Barbara says you need to create a powerful community.

  1. Realize no one will do this for you, but you don’t have to do it alone.
  2. Reach out and ask for support.
  3. Hang out with the kind of people you want to be, not who you’ve been.
  4. Recognize the role of the naysayer.
  5. Watch what you talk about.
  6. Respect yourself by taking time for you.

Do you have a supportive community? Reach out if you need someone in your corner; I got you!

With Love, Heidy

Let’s Connect!

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Like this post? Subscribe with your email to receive my free 5 minute journal prompts and weekly newsletters on my upcoming posts! 🙂

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My Prayer Journal  Into My Thoughts Journal Gratitude Journal

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Categories
Business

3 Reasons Why You Should Have a Mentor

I remember working at a law office in my early twenties and one of the attorneys wanted me to schedule her a lunch date with her mentor. I was so confused because I had no idea what a mentor was. For some reason, I thought a mentor was another name for a guidance counselor in school, so my thought when she said mentor was, “I thought you only had one of those in school.”  

It wasn’t until the fourth year of my career that I got the courage to ask my then-director to be my mentor. I had asked her because as soon as she started with the company, she gave me guidance and publications to follow within our field. We also clicked right away. A few months after she started at the company, I found a new job at a different company, and I wanted to stay in touch with her, so I asked her if she could be my mentor, and she said she would be honored.

A few weeks ago, I called her to get her opinion on which position to choose when I was presented with two options, and it was nice getting her professional input.

I don’t only have a mentor for my professional guidance; I have a spiritual mentor too. She prays for me, she is someone I can go to for clarity, and we get together a few times per year to check up. Just like I have mentors in my life, here are three reasons you should have one or two.

Guide You in Your Career or Life in General

As I mentioned above, I have two mentors. One I go to for career-oriented advice, and the other one is spiritual, so this is an advantage of having a mentor, someone to guide you in your career or life in general. If you’re anything like me, you are terrible at making decisions, especially alternating life decisions. I go back and forth all the time, and I do a lot of what-ifs before deciding. I always ask others what I should do – but with a mentor, you’ll have someone who knows you and who’s been there to help you make wise decisions. This person should tell you how it is and shouldn’t sugarcoat things. And they shouldn’t be a yes-man either. You’ll need someone who will be honest and upfront with you. These are the best type of mentors.

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Learn From Their Mistakes

Mentors are usually older than you, so they’ve been through some stuff, and you can learn from their mistakes. Whether guiding you through your career or life, you can definitely avoid making certain mistakes by learning from their experience. Of course, life isn’t perfect, so you’ll still make your own mistakes, but having a mentor can help you avoid a few.

Have Someone in Your Corner to Check In on You

My mentors check in on me from time to time, either by text messages or phone calls. My spiritual mentor sends me inspirational YouTube videos, songs, or devotionals. I also check in on them from time to time too. It’s important for us to have someone who will check in on you occasionally. I tend to distance myself if I’m going through a tough situation, but with my mentors, I feel comfortable telling them and asking for prayers. We aren’t meant to go through life alone, so it’s important for our mental health to have one or two relationships like this. I find this reason to have a mentor extremely important.

Do you have a mentor, or have you thought about asking someone to be your mentor? Who is one person you can go to when there is a tough situation?

With Love, Heidy

Let’s Connect!

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Like this post? Subscribe with your email to receive my free 5 minute journal prompts and weekly newsletters on my upcoming posts! 🙂

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My Prayer Journal 
Into My Thoughts Journal

Gratitude Journal