My fav posts of 2014 to power your small business journey

by on December 10, 2014

My fav posts of 2014 to power your small business journey2014. A year with a lot of changes with online marketing and social media. Perhaps, a year with a lot of changes in your small business. Beyond that, maybe even a year with a lot of changes for you personally.

The tides are soon approaching to wash away 2014, and bring new waves of change for 2015. The dawn of a new year is always a great time for reflection and for planning ahead.

Being the busy small business owner that you are, you may have missed some of these posts throughout the past year. I’ve compiled a round-up to get you caught up and ready to move on into the new year informed with the latest online updates and, hopefully, a little inspired as well 🙂 

Inspiration

 

GoalsGoal setting… my way! At the beginning of 2014, I made some resolutions. I know, I know. New Year’s Resolutions are cliché. But as a business owner, they can really help steer you in the directions you wish to go. Perhaps you might be inspired to set some of your own intentions for 2015?

perfectWhere you’re at right now is perfect. Forget what that online guru said that made you feel like a failure. And ditch that negative little voice voice inside your head. As entrepreneurs, it’s not helpful to play the comparison game. In fact, it’s downright destructive. Let us make a shift…

BrandingBranding is a journeyVisuals, personality, what the business is about, values and mission, raison d’être. Phew! Branding is pretty darn important, wouldn’t you say? As a result, it really, really stresses people out. Take the pressure off and enjoy the process, the evolution and know that it’s OK to change! (Great resource included to help if you’re struggling with branding.)

It's ok not to love your businessIt’s OK not to love your business all the time & what to do when you feel like throwing in the towelEven though we might not like to admit it, all of us small business owners at one point or another will think about throwing in the towel. Sometimes that is absolutely the right decision. Sometimes, it’s a matter of riding through that rough patch and making it through to the other side!

Internet marketing updates

 

Canada Anti SpamWhat’s up with Canada’s new anti-spam law? It went into effect July 1, 2014. You probably got a bunch of emails from businesses and organizations asking for your consent to stay on their list. Have you been meaning to look into this and worrying if there’s anything you need to do? The answer could be yes, or it could be no…

Google+ iconGoogle My Business – from business directory listing to social media profile. It’s official – Google has officially merged its Google Places listings with Google Plus to create Google My Business. Phew! Did you follow me there? There’s a bit of work to be done to polish up your page.

Linked inHaven’t been on LinkedIn in a while? Some things you might want to check out…  Quite a few new features were introduced over at LinkedIn. Here’s a sum-up to get you Linked (back) in, covering the latest updates like sponsored posts, publishing posts, managing your newsfeed, disappearing email notifications and more!

Facebook icon email signatureThe Facebook “best practices” you can throw out the window. Things have changed a lot over at Facebook. There were some “best practices” being used to get likes/interaction that Facebook is now frowning upon. This includes techniques such as like-gating or click-baiting. Maybe you’re not aware of what these are exactly? They’re all summed up for you here.

Online marketing strategies

 

Twitter for email signatureGetting started with Twitter advertising. In early 2014, the Twitter Ad Platform rolled out to accounts in Canada. I gave it a test drive and provided a step-by-step guide to setting up Twitter Ads you if you’d like to add this to your marketing ammo.

Living Light Coconut Tree Logo

Small business marketing case study – running a successful crowd sourced funding campaign with Living Light Coconut TreeRya, owner of Living Light Coconut Tree, was able to get her organic coconut butter business on its feet with a crowd sourced funding campaign. Rya shares her tips on running one successfully & also gets into other juicy topics such as “win-wins”.

Why I love footersWhy I love website footers (and what you can put in them)A website footer, that space along the bottom of every single page of your website, can be leveraged as a marketing tool. Something a lot of businesses don’t bother to do. What can it help with? Use it for your SEO, to initiate contact and otherwise be helpful to your website visitors. Pedicure time for that footer!

small business free email addressSending out an e-newsletter – email marketing options for your small businessOnce you’ve decided that you want to do email marketing for your business, you need to decide how you’re going to deliver those emails. Here, I get into the 2 most popular options (and why I chose the provider I use) as well as a great baby step option if you’re just getting started.

 

There you have it, folks. My 2014 sum-up. I hope that it proved useful as a round-up of what was shakin’ in the last year. Onwards comes 2015, full of all sorts of new possibilities!

 “Move on. Walk forward into the light.”

-Barbara Kingsolver,  author of “The Poisonwood Bible”

Image sources:  hin255David Castillo DominiciSOMMAINaypongcuteimage, and Stuart Miles from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Ryan Biddulph December 13, 2014 at 2:57 am

Inspired list Martina! That throw in the towel post – or wanting to – works so well for me. I’ve been there. I’ve thrown it in too; not for my entire online business collection but for certain aspects of my blog, or for my blog itself. Hey, we’re human and we will get annoyed, agitated, and perturbed from time to time. We will want to quit yet at those moments our love of being free has to override our fear of doing uncomfortable things, then, you’ll be on the road to freedom, and you’ll never quit.

Or if you do quit your small business you’ll move in an even more freeing, fulfilling direction. That’s the key of keys; you really need to want to be free more than anything, to make this business thing work. It’s why i’ve been able to blog from paradise for so many years and it’s also why I didn’t quit along the way, Neatly enough, it’s also the reason why I ditched my old blog to start my Blogging from Paradise blog. I wanted to be free more than I feared doing the uncomfortable thing of trashing my old blog, and naturally, I did free myself and BFP took off in record time.

Can’t believe 2014 is down in the books just about. It was such a freeing, fun year for me, and I am so looking forward to 2015 as I know we’ll grow like weeds during it 😉

Martina, thanks for the inspired share and thanks for all of your support!

Ryan
Ryan Biddulph recently posted..Review of I Will Teach You SEO

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Martina Iring December 15, 2014 at 9:09 am

Thanks for yet again for sharing your insights and personal experiences Ryan! You’re awesome 🙂 Totally agree that such a huge part of being a small business owner is facing so many situations and decisions that take us way outside our comfort zone. While this can be incredibly scary, as you say it is also so freeing. I have found that being an entrepreneur is so powerful precisely because so much responsibility falls on your shoulders. It’s much harder to shrink away from or avoid what makes you uncomfortable. You are accountable. And that really can propel you forward in ways that you may have never thought possible. Really appreciate your support too Ryan!
Cheers,
Martina

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