Smart Digital Strategies for Small Business Owners

If you've been reading My Mom Spark for a while, then you know that I am passionate about helping small business owners promote their products and services. 

You may not have realized that I've spent the past 12 years helping businesses, individuals, and corporations of all sizes harness the power of digital marketing to find successful and smart digital strategies.

Are you a small business owner looking for some helpful tips on your digital marketing strategy this year?

Here are a few of my smart digital strategies for small business owners looking for success in 2019:

• Own your own website and make sure it tells your brand story - so many new business owners think they can rely on a Google Business Listing or a third-party marketplace shop as their primary real estate. The reality is, if you don't invest in your own digital footprint, you could be at the mercy of those third-party platforms; their changes, their algorithms, or worse their departure. Buy a domain name and build a simple website for your customers to find you.

• Don't neglect mobile users - now that you have your own website, make sure it is designed for mobile users. Over 70% of users are accessing the Internet from their smartphone. Make sure your new website is easy for mobile users to find what they want and your brand looks good on those smaller screens.

• Content continues to be king - we've been saying it for years... but it is true! Content, now more than ever, is critical for many reasons. It helps you tell your story. It should provide value to your audience. The search engines love fresh content. Content comes in many forms - video, blog posts, guides/ebooks, emails, quizzes, and so on. Find a format that speaks to your target audience. Develop a few pieces that highlight's your business's unique selling proposition and helps buyers make a decision for your product or service.

• Build your email list - if you don't have a sign-up form or subscribe now call-to-action on your site, consider adding this today! Building your email list helps you develop an audience who has given you permission to speak to them via their inbox. Perhaps you take some of that content and use it as a lead magnet. Find something of value and offer it in exchange for your website visitor's email address. Over 98% of most website traffic will leave without taking action...make it easy for them to sign up to hear from you in the future. 

• Embrace email automation - now that you are building your email list, don't forget about the follow-up. Email automation creates digital customer journeys that help keep your audience engaged and moves them closer to the buying decision. Create an email automation strategy that steps your audience closer to doing business with you.

• Build an expert team - digital marketing is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. With all of the newest tools and ideas, digital marketing is an ever-evolving part of your business plan. Be sure you find the right team to help you. 

If you or someone you know is looking to better understand smart digital marketing strategies, check out Smart Girl Digital, a digital marketing agency for small and medium business owners. We can help you take your business to the next level with a variety of digital services focused on harnessing valuable content and strategic automation to builds a revenue-generating funnel strategy. It is like having a virtual Marketing Director for your organization without the cost and overhead. 

Get smart with your digital marketing strategy - hire Smart Girl Digital for your next marketing campaign!

Until Next Time,

Katie

PS - I offer free 30-minute mini-marketing audits if you aren't sure where to start. Check it out!

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How Moms Can Earn Extra Money By Becoming A Doula #GuestPost

It is always helpful to find ways to earn a little extra money when you are a mom. There are lots of different ways you can find the right side hustle for you and your family. Today's guest post is a more than a side hustle. Learn how you can make some extra money by becoming a doula.

How Moms Can Earn Extra Money By Becoming A Doula

Doulas are professionals in the healthcare field that provide support to mothers during their pregnancy and labor.  Moms make the best doulas because they have all the qualities that are right for the job: compassion, patience, and understanding.  These qualities are needed as a doula in order to be a caretaker and a companion for women undergoing childbirth.  Moms understand that pregnancy and birth are not only a physical change for a woman, but also an emotional process as well.  Moms who become doulas know this intimately and perform incredibly well during their training.

What is the role of a doula?

A doula serves her client by providing supportive care during pregnancy, labor, and shortly after during the postpartum period.  The support comes in two forms: physical and emotional.  Physical support can come in the form of massages and aromatherapy to help reduce stress and relieve muscle aches caused by pregnancy.  Emotional support is just as important.  A doula gives emotional support through assurance, being an active listener, being a warm companion who is always there, and not being judgmental regarding the mother's choices.

The second important role of a doula is to provide childbirth education to her client in order to empower the mom into making the best choices for herself as well as her newborn.  By answering her client's questions regarding her pregnancy and birth in a non-biased manner, a doula becomes an integral part of helping making the birth a happy and fulfilling experience.

How can a mom become a doula?

Moms can train to become doulas by reading training literature and attending childbirth events. Doula certification programs such as Doulas of North America and Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association have a standardized training curriculum for moms interested in how to become a doula. These programs offer reading material, classes (both online and offline, as well as training workshops for both birth doulas and postpartum doulas.  While having a certification is not required, it makes landing a job much easier due to having past training experience through the certification program.

How much do moms earn as a doula?

After getting certified as a doula, moms can find work by networking with potential clients through the certification programs' contact list and through outreach via social media. As with most jobs, more established doulas tend to earn more due to having more experience.  Furthermore, doulas are more in demand in larger cities such as New York City vs. a rural town.  The average salary of a doula is $30,000.  This salary increases as the doula builds her reputation and brand through word of mouth and social media.  Birth doulas and labor doulas typically earn more than postpartum doulas due having to support the mother during the week before the birth as well as the entirety of her labor.  In contrast, postpartum doulas serve the mother during the few days after the childbirth.

About the Author
Doulatrainingguide.com is a website devoted to educating women interested in a career in healthcare about doula training opportunities and certification requirements. The author is Emily Thompson, who is also the editor of the website and a doula who wants to help future doulas in training.

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Kate and Bean - Taking the Grunt Work Out of Running Your Own Handmade Business #Review

Kate and Bean - Taking the Grunt Work Out of Running Your Own Handmade Business

I dream of being crafty enough one day that someone would pay for my handy work. However, I recognize my limitations and appreciate those of you who can make fabulous handmade gifts, jewelry, clothing, art, and more. That is one reason I love supporting handmade businesses here on My Mom Spark.

If you run your own handmade business, you know there is A LOT more to do after you’ve worked hard on your creations. From setting up a shop (online and offline), finding the right buyers, marketing materials (like business cards), there is a lot to do in order for you to start making money from your creative and unique creations. 

Have you found the right place for your products? Good news. A new marketplace for artists and vintage sellers is opening their doors. 

Kate and Bean is designed to take the grunt out of running your handmade business. They offer vendors resources for marketing – personalized business cards, professional photography, online shop, featured listings, and social media shout outs, to name a few. Kate and Bean also helps handmade business owners with storing inventory, shipping, customer interaction, and other operational details that can take you away from creating more fabulous finds!

Kate and Bean will be accepting applications for vendors in early April. They welcome any questions you have about their new marketplace. You can sign up to be notified when applications open so you can be one of the first to take advantage of their services.

Do you have your own handmade business? Share a link in the comments so I can share you with the My Mom Spark audience. 

Until Next Time,

Katie

This post is sponsored by Kate and Bean. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Brand Your Own Australian Natural Soaps

Brand Your Own Australian Natural Soaps

Have you ever thought about starting (or expanding) a retail business? Gifts and accessories are always a popular retail or e-commerce solution. From all the gifts and accessories you can find on Etsy to the local boutique, these stores are a fun way to combine your passion with your entrepreneurial spirit.

If you are interested in starting or expanding a gift or accessories business, you need wholesalers for the types of products that you want to sell. Natural soaps are great products that can fit into a variety of retail stores – a gift shop, a beauty shop, a holistic health and healing shop. French-milled soaps have great fragrances and sell at an unexpectedly low price.

Wholesale organic soaps from Australian Natural Soaps offers these organic French-milled bars of soap. Based in Massachusetts, they import the bars and distribute them to retail businesses around the United States. You can choose to sell these soaps under their own Simple Scents Australia and Wavertree and London brand names. Or, if you’d prefer to create a private label organic soap line, they will help to provide you with unbranded bars so you can put your own brand on it.

Wholesale organic soaps from Australian Natural Soaps is one vendor you can use to expand your product lines or start your own natural soap business.

What would you sell if you were starting your own retail (or e-commerce) store?

Until Next Time,

Katie

This post is sponsored by David. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Website Coding: A New Year – Develop a New Skill

Website Coding: A New Year – Develop a New Skill

If you are in business for yourself or looking for a new skill that can help support your family, the new year is a great time to add to your toolbox of marketable skills. In today’s economy nothing is more valuable than having a foundation in website coding.

Website coding is a great way for moms (and dads) to earn extra money while at home. Whether as a side job, a full-time business, or a skill for your resume, website coding can be done from almost anywhere. All it takes is some knowledge, training, and practice.

Coding is one skill you can use across any industry or business type. So, it is a skill worth developing. If you are interested in learning website coding, let’s take a look at a few things you need to know to maximize your chances for success.

• Do not start with the technologies difficult to understand. Website coding is highly technical. So make sure you are working with a system that teaches you in a format you can easily understand.
• Make sure that your friends, relatives and family members will encourage you. It’s always good to have a support team in place to help you on your journey to a new goal. Rally your friends and family and share your new skill so they can help you.
• Accept help from those you are close to. Those friends and family you rally to support you might have some good ideas on your new venture in website coding. Be open to their opinions and help.
• Learning a technology needs a high level of dedication and time management skill. Examine your current schedule and find time you can dedicate your time and attention to learning the in’s and out’s of coding.
• Keep your eye on the goal. You know that website coding is going to help you, your business, or your job opportunities. Whatever your reason for starting this learning adventure, focus on your goal and what it means for your family.

So, where should you get started in learning website coding? Develop Intelligence offers online course for stay at home moms and dads who want to learn a variety of skills on their own time frame. They offer a wide assortment of IT and web development courses that you can find the right skill to fit your interest or unique ability.

So, what website coding course will you take this year?

Until Next Time,

Katie

This post is sponsored by DevelopIntelligence. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Your Kids Depend on Your Confidence -Special #GuestPost

Parenting takes confidence. Business takes confidence. Life takes confidence. This is why I bring you today’s guest post from Jordan Mercedes and The RePurpose Work Confidence Course. Read more about how finding her confidence has helped Jordan change her life…and how she can help you find your confidence too.

Your Kids Depend on Your Confidence

Fifteen minutes before I was to take the stage, the woman who invited me on a speaking tour in Uganda slipped me a piece of paper. It said, “I want you to speak to the students about how to protect themselves from sexual abuse.” 

Sexual abuse? 

My subject matter was how to recognize your God given gifts, talents and special abilities. Didn’t she know that? All of my material would have told her that. 

I had a moment of pause as I searched myself for the message for the students. I asked her how many students I would be speaking to; in a calm voice, she said there would be about eight hundred elementary school children in the first assembly and about five to six hundred high school students in the second assembly. 

I held the paper in my hand and read the words a few times, “sexual abuse.”  It wasn’t my story, but it was their story. At that moment I made a decision. “Yes, I’m going to give this talk and it’s going to go straight to the heart of these kids. I will hold nothing back and I WILL NOT BE AFRAID!"

I could never have pulled it off if I had not overcome the deep roots of fear and insecurity that plagued my life for years. I’d fought the battle against fear and won. It was a hard battle, but that day made every struggle worth it. Those kids, who needed to learn how to protect themselves from predatory people, were totally and completely worth it. 

Learning to be a confident woman has changed my life, but what’s more important is, it’s changing the lives of those around me. Fear holds you back, confidence moves you forward.

Confidence is simply believing that you can accomplish what you set out to do. 

When you understand how to live from a place of confidence, you can teach your children how to do the same. 

So let me ask you, are you fighting the battle of fear in any area of your life? If so, you need to know that this is a temporary fight and one that can be won, if you want to win it. Each day millions of people wake up to face the giants of fear and insecurity. 

With the right tools, support and practice you can take out your sword, slay the giants, step over them and keep going. This January and for the rest of the year I’m teaching the confidence course to those who are ready to win their battle like I won mine. 

My victory was a victory for those students; your victory is a victory for your kids and the people you influence.

About  our guest author: Jordan Mercedes is an author, speaker and owner of RePurpose Work. She helps people love the work they do and helps companies love their people. Enrollment for the next confidence course is open; you can go here to sign-up. 

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It's All About Millimeters: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Impact in Your Business and Your Life #BookReview

It's All About Millimeters: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Impact in Your Business and Your Life

With the New Year approaching, it’s a great time to reflect on the past year. More importantly, it’s a time to focus on the future. As a mom with a business, I like to find business minded books that inspire greatness in both my business life and my personal life. 

It's All About Millimeters: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Impact in Your Business and Your Life by Dr. Donna Galante, is one of the books I am glad I got a chance to read for the New Year. Dr. Galante takes a practical approach to focusing on these small changes you can make in your business. She covers everything from hiring to creating systems and processes. It really is a complete approach to changing your business in a big way.

I’m glad I got a chance to read this book before the New Year, but I see myself referring back to it as we get into our plans for 2015. If you run your own business, this book is a great read and full of great ideas and helpful tips. 

You can order It's All About Millimeters: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Impact in Your Business and Your Life on Amazon for only $14.95 (Prime eligible).

What do you hope to accomplish in your business next year?

Until Next Time,

Katie

This post is sponsored by drgalante. All opinions are 100% mine.

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123Employee – Finding the Right Virtual Assistant for Your Business #Review

123Employee – Finding the Right Virtual Assistant for Your Business 

There comes a point in every entrepreneur’s journey where they have to realize they cannot do it all. Hiring employees or virtual assistants can be quite daunting if you don’t know what to look for or how to go about finding the right people for your company.

123Employee helps business owners and entrepreneurs find the right virtual assistants for their needs. Entrepreneurs using this service can find virtual assistants for almost any business need – from social media to article marketing to video marketing – you are able to find great employees as easy as calling or emailing their staff.

The team for 123Employee consists of over 100 virtual assistants who are based at 3 of their premium outsourcing centers in the Philippines. They are creating opportunities for Filipinos while helping business all over the world to lower expenses and increase productivity. 

While I’ve never personally booked an outsourced employee from 123Employee, I have worked with international outsourced designers – from the Philippines and other locations – and have found the experience to be sufficient. Once you adjust for time differences for deliverables, the process can be easy, efficient, and affordable. Plus, when you are running a digital business, the beauty is that many partners, vendors, and assistants can all be connected virtually regardless of their location.

So, if you are looking to outsource some of those tedious business tasks that take you away from doing your best work, consider outsourcing with virtual assistants from 123Employee.

Do you work with outsourced virtual assistants? Share your experience in the comments.

Until Next Time,

Katie

This post is sponsored by 123Employee. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Productivity Tips for Busy Moms in Business

Being a busy mom requires organization and scheduling skills that keeps everyone on task and on time for school, activities, meals, chores and everything else in life. I personally rely heavily on a variety a calendaring options to schedule myself, my kids, and my husband. 

From a shared Google calendar for work, blogging and business schedules to physical calendars on the walls in the kitchen and office to my pocket calendar in my bag, I have a calendar everywhere for everything. It may seem silly and repetitive, but its what works for me. 

Productivity Tips:

1. Find the right calendar planning option for you (wall calendar, pocket calendar, digital calendar, etc).
2. Color code your tasks (green for business, purple for personal, blue for spouse, red for kid activities, etc).
3. Ink the time on your calendar dedicated to key business activities (marketing, accounting, organizing, networking, etc).
4. Ink the time on your calendar for required family, kid and spouse activities (nightly dinner prep, dance class, football practice, etc).
5. Don't be flexible with 'inked' calendar items.
6. Use a pencil for non-essential activities (social activities, play dates, etc).
7. Don't be afraid to ink in some personal time on your calendar (for reflection, relaxation, a massage, mani/pedi, etc).

One of my favorite stops at the end of the year is the calendar store. This year I've found Calendars.com. It is e-tail equivalent of the calendar kiosk pops up every year at your local mall. At Calendars.com you can order wall calendars, desk calendar, themed 'of-the-day' calendars, pocket calendars, and even calendars designed to keep mom organized.

Calendars.com has themes for any passion, pet, sports hero, or classic design you can think of. Check out their top 50 calendar designs and check out their December savings.Shop our 50 most popular calendars. Free Shipping available!

Calendars make great holiday gifts for kids, parents, friends, and co-workers. So, shop now for holiday savings.

Do you have a calendar strategy? How do you stay organized? Share your productivity tips with us in the comments.

Until Next Time,

Katie

This post contains affiliate links. All opinions and experiences are 100% mine.

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