Here are some other ways you can expand your business.

Ask for help

There is nothing wrong with asking for a little helping hand along the way – this is what every business does in order to have that boost when they need it. There are plenty of companies out there who offer out their expert services by handing their tools to you, so that you can get to a level that suits you. They can help with anything from upgrading your ranking in the search engines so that people can find you a lot easier, to even having the CPCs can also help you to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing so you know what your next move should be.

Upgrade your brand

Your brand is such an important focus on your business, because essentially it’s the personality that runs throughout it. It’s what people see first, and of course, will judge you by the impression it makes on them, and this is why it’s always good to upgrade it. The basic traits should stay the same, as they are what make you who you are, but there’s nothing wrong with giving it a little bit of a makeover. For example, the fashion world is constantly changing and evolving, so your brand should be too to ensure that it’s always current and on trend for its customers.

Get more followers

Social media has a huge role to play in your business, as this is what everyone uses when they need to find someone or get news about something. We live in the modern world now, and believe it or not, people make a decision about you by the number of followers you have, so you need to boost up your game if you don’t have a lot. The more followers you have, the more of an influence you have, and the higher that is, the better for business. So post interesting content that actually creates a reaction. Post things that are a little different so more heads will turn, and be as honest as you can, as people fall in love with the truth.

Now you have a few ideas to think about, see how they can help to take your business to that next level. The more things you try, the more doors of opportunity you may be opening, so always have a go.

The post How to Expand Your Business Today appeared first on Atterbie.

However, this is what makes growing a company such a confusing and difficult task–there are just too many things to consider! Do you focus on developing a public image by attending trade shows and displaying your products and services, or do you focus on the more modern social media approach and grow your digital presence?

You only have so much time and capital as a small business, but we think we’ve found the best component to focus on for sustained business growth; search engine optimization. Your digital presence is arguably one of the most important factors to focus on especially as a modern business. So let’s take a look at some of the ways your business could benefit from SEO and why it’s such an important component.

SEO converts leads more efficiently

SEO is typically targeted at certain audiences and keywords. This means that if someone finds your website thanks to your SEO efforts, then it’s highly likely that the lead will eventually convert into a sale or even more exposure. The quality of your content (and thus your SEO) will have a dramatic effect on the quality of your leads.

Every business can use SEO

As long as you have the help of an SEO agency, any business can make use of SEO. It’s not an expensive or magical treatment to help you grow your company. Instead, it’s just a tried and tested method of exposing your business on the internet and giving yourself a digital presence boost. So no matter what you sell or offer to the public, SEO can help your business get noticed.

SEO increases profit margins

Finding leads takes money. In most cases, you’ll typically rely on paid advertising (with most of it usually being irrelevant to your audience) to secure leads, and this can be expensive due to all the failed leads you couldn’t convert. SEO, on the other hand, doesn’t cost nearly as much once you understand how it works, meaning greater profit margins and less money spent on promoting your business.

Billions of people use search engines

Search engines are the single most popular way to find information, businesses, services, products, and generally anything you could ever want. Google regularly sees billions of searches and it’s estimated that 93% of all internet activities start from a search engine query. If you want to get noticed, then it’s important that you focus on ranking high on Google and other search engines.

SEO helps in the long-term

Good SEO prepares your business for success. It’s not a temporary solution to your problems, but a long-term plan to help your business continuously grow and consistently build more leads. Once you understand how SEO works and how it helps your business, you’re going to have a much easier time growing your company.

The post Why All Businesses Can Benefit from SEO appeared first on Atterbie.

Here’s your answer… a blog.

Here Are 10 Reasons Why Blogging Is Important For Your Business

Reason #1 – Blogging Keeps Your Website Updated

If your website looks like it was developed way back when the internet first became a thing, it’s probably hard for potential clients to tell if you’re still in business. While you could likely use a complete website make-over, publishing new content on your blog is the next best thing and it’s 100% free if you do it yourself. A consistent publishing schedule lets your website visitors know that you’re still relevant and ready to take them on as clients.

Reason #2 – Blogging Gives You An Opportunity to Add Content

Does your website have a super sleek design that you don’t want to clutter up with a ton of words? No worries. Blogging regularly allows you to plug all kinds of new content into your site without interfering with the design.

Blog posts are typically kept all together within one feed on a ‘blog’ page of your website. Super simple. Super clean. TONS of excellent content. If you don’t already have a blog, you should set one up today. You may not realize it yet, but blogging is important for your business! Keep reading…  

Reason #3 – Blogging Helps You Establish Your Expertise

Let’s pretend like you are a world renowned cat trainer. You create a beautiful website that provides contact information and cat training services. But now what? Without anything else, how are potential clients supposed to know that you’re freakin’ awesome when it comes to training cats?

You blog! That’s how!

Blogging is important for your business because it allows the opportunity to provide your audience with information that will establish your expertise and set you apart from the competition.

Let’s go back to our cat training example. Here’s a quick list of the blog post topics I’d recommend that our beloved trainer begin blogging about right away:

• Experience with cat training.
• Different cat training methods, which ones work best?
• Cat training education – do you need a degree? What matters and what doesn’t.
• Case studies – how successful cat training has impacted the lives of clients.
• Can a cat really be trained? YES – of course!  
• Break down the services… how do you know what package to pick for each cat?
• What to expect during the training process.
• How do I know my cat is actually going to learn something?
• Can you guarantee success?

Alright, are you picking up on what I’m saying here? Each of the answers/responses to these questions will help our fave cat trainer share their message with potential clients without having to reach out to each one individually. You dig?

Reason #4 – Blogging Helps You Stop Answering The Same Old Questions

Potential clients are going to have the same basic questions. That’s just how life is. But you don’t have to spend tons of time answering that same question over and over again. Rather than writing yet another boring email, send that client a quick personal note along with a link to the blog post that will not only answer their question but talk about related issues as well.

Bonus points here. Make sure your services are linked well throughout your website and answering one of those ‘same old’ questions may actually help you sell your products/services!

Wondering how? That may be a post for another day, but long story short – every blog post should have a call to action (CTA) at the end. Whether you’re inviting someone to sign up for your newsletter, inviting them to your Facebook group, or selling a product – ADD YOUR CTA! Always. Done and done.

Reason #5 – Blogging Helps Build Your DA & PA

Yep, this is a little technical, but DA and PA are important and both can be improved by adding excellent content to your website on a regular basis (likely through a blog).

DA is your domain authority. It’s a search engine score developed by Moz that is calculated by evaluating a number of different factors including the number of links that connect back to your site.

PA is your page authority. It’s another score developed by Moz that indicates how likely a page of your website is to show up in a web results for a specific term.

So why do you need content for this? It’s all about the common word – authority. You want to build authority through excellent content that will then be linked by other websites. A link from an external  is basically a voucher saying that your site is legit. A big deal in the search engine optimization (SEO) world when you’re trying to get more organic traffic.

Wondering where you rank? Check out your DA and PA here: SmallSEOTools.com

Reason #6 – Blogging Gives You Something to Share On Social Media

Sometimes you just need a little more oomph behind a post than an inspirational quote. Rather than writing a SUUUUUUPER long Facebook post that people have to click into a new window to read, write it all down on your blog and then share a link on your social profiles.

You won’t want to do this for every post, but every now and then sharing a link on your social profiles can help boost the traffic that gets to your website. You worked hard to create it, might as well show it off – right?!?

By the way, something I’m loving lately is Linktree. For platforms like Instagram that only give you the opportunity to share one link, it’s a dream come true! Check it out and start gathering your favorite links now.

Reason #7 – Blogging Gives You a Competitive Advantage

When shopping online, potential clients are going to do their research when it comes to the options available to meet their needs or solve their problems. They’ll start by comparing the basics – services and prices. But then what?

They’re going to judge you. Whether you realize it or not, the decision on whether or not a client will hire you or purchase your products depends on way more than whatever it is you are selling. The decision to buy depends on their overall impression of you and your business/brand.

The biggest factor of this being your website. How it appears. How it functions. What message it gives. And yes, you’ve probably guessed where I’m going with this. Aside from the cornerstone content on your main pages, blog posts are the best way to communicate your brand’s message to your audience.

Reason #8 – It Gives You The Opportunity To Earn Money

Some brands will actually pay you to publish their content on your website. Yes, it’s true!

This is often referred to as a sponsored post. While these are not the easiest to seek out, if you get a website up and running with consistently published well-written content, the opportunities will find you. Just make sure that your contact information is easy to find on your website and you’re golden.

There are other ways to find these opportunities on your own, but more on that later.  

Another way you can make money with your blog is by selling ad space. Often placed in the side bar or within the body of a post, banner ads can pay big money if you get a good amount of traffic to your site.

Last but not least, blog posts give you a great opportunity to plug your affiliate links. If you aren’t familiar with affiliate programs, here’s the basic breakdown… affiliate programs are kind of like being a salesperson for a business. You share information about a specific product or services and if someone uses your affiliate link to make a purchase, you get a cut. The commissions can range from pennies to a serious chunk of change, depending on what you’re selling.

Reason #9 – Blogging Will Help You Improve Your SERP Ranking

When people ask me why blogging is important for their business, I will often ask what context they are considering in terms of ‘importance’. There are obviously a zillion reasons (10 of which are listed here), but one of the most popular is that content writing (blogging) is often one of the major factors in a search engine optimization strategy.

Every blog post gives you the opportunity to cram it full of wildly valuable content that your clients will devour and the search bots will use to rate your site. While most think that ranking is all about cramming keywords into your meta title and meta descriptions, that’s not at all true. Yes, keywords need to be there, but not in a spammy way. In fact, Google may even penalize those who just stuff keywords into their sites without adding relevant content to go along with it.

So how does a blog post help you rank on Google? Blog posts allow you to answer questions that potential clients are asking. Let’s go back to the cat trainer example. If someone does a search on Google for ‘how to train a cat’ – Google wants to provide results that will actually help that person figure out how to train a cat.

So rather than just plugging the words ‘how to train a cat’ into the cat trainer’s website, they’ll need to back up that title with real strategies for teaching people how to train a cat. This doesn’t mean that you can’t sell yourself, but for this example – the cat trainer might start with five different tips and then at the end of the blog post they’d go into a sixth tip of ‘hiring the right cat trainer’.

See how that works? Always. Always. Always. Add a call to action.

Always write real content that relates to your title and never spam. It’s not worth it. There’s no value and it may end up actually hurting your ranking in the long run.

Reason #10 – Blogging Lets You Control Your Content

One of the most valuable reasons why blogging is important for your business… unlike social media posts, you get full control over how your content is communicated on your blog. Do you want your photos to be giant or do you want them teeny tiny? Veritical? Horizontal? Whatever you prefer, darling.

While you might need a little assistance from a website designer, the world is yours.

You also have full control over the longevity of the content, so you don’t have to worry about some platform deleting your well thought out words just because they feel like it. Say what you want, how you want. And do it as often as you’d like! Publishing content on your website is a worry free zone that you should enjoy and take advantage of to the fullest.

Now you see why blogging is important for your business. Right?!

But wait.

You hate writing.

You can’t stand it.

It gives you anxiety looking at a blank page, watching the cursor blink at your.

Staring you in the face. Daring you to put words down. Judging you. Marking your typos with bright red lines and throwing in green marks for grammatical errors. Darn you

DO NOT WORRY.

I’ve got your back. I can handle this. Seriously.

I will write for you.

This is not a dream. No typos. You’re reading this correctly. I’m a ghostwriter. I write thousands of words each day and get zero public credit for it. No one knows it me, but that’s okay.

I love writing and am thrilled to be able to provide this services to businesses and brands around the world. Wondering what it costs or just interested in learning about how the whole ghostwriting process works? Let’s talk. Fill out this quick form and I’ll be in touch ASAP.

Want to just chat about why blogging is important for your business? Email me at amy@atterbie.com and I’ll get in touch right away. In the meantime, here are a few other posts you might be interested in:

• Are freelance writing services the same as ghostwriting services?
• What industries can you hire a ghostwriter for?
• How and why to hire a ghostwriter for your photography blog.
• What to expect when you hire a ghostwriter for your business.
• Find a ghostwriter for your business… now!

Let’s get personal for a minute. Are you someone who is building a brand? Maybe a mom who works from home or someone with a great idea that will help make the world a better place.

Here are six reasons why blogging is important for you on a personal level!

Reason #1 – There are no limits.

If you’re just getting started, blog away. Don’t worry about reading tutorials or how to do it ‘right’. Just get started. Get use to writing. Use your voice. Develop your style and learn along the way.

Reason #2 – Reach far and wide.

It’s called the World Wide Web for a reason. When you publish something to the web, anyone with an internet connection can access it. This is good and bad, because while you need to get a hang of writing you also must make sure that you don’t publish something you’ll eventually regret. Off topic is one thing, inappropriate is another. Be smart, peeps!

Reason #3 – Connect with your friends and family.

Do you love keeping your friends and family in the loop about your latest adventures? Blogging is ideal for you! Another reason why blogging is important for you on a personal level is that you still get to control the content and how it’s displayed 100%.

Reason #4 – A blog will remain as long as you maintain it.

Social media channels may not. All I have to say to explain this is one word… MySpace. Enough said?

Reason #5 – You can monetize a personal site.

You don’t need a business to make money online. If you have a self hosted site, you can monetize it.

Reason #6 – Age matters.

The length of time that a domain has been registered (age), is a serious factor when it comes to domain authority (DA). If you have any plans to monetize a personal site or build a business site in the future, register that domain today and let it start the aging process.

There’s no better time to start a blog than yesterday. You won’t regret it!

Ready to register your domain and set up your new hosting plan? Check out BlueHost!

I use them for this site and many others. They’re super cheap (only $3.95/month) and their 24/7 support is helpful. I should note that this is an affiliate link, so while it does not cost you any more to purchase – I earn a small commission if you end up making a purchase.

The post 23 appeared first on Atterbie.

At least that’s what I thought.

12 years ago I hired a professional photographer for the first time ever. Gone were the days of the Olan Mills and JCPenny photo shoots that I’d grown up with maybe once a decade. I’d decided to embrace this whole adult thing and capture my ‘now’ with professional photos.

My ‘family’ at the time was made up of myself, my boyfriend, and our combined four dogs.

In order to make sure I was getting the most for my money, I did all kinds of researched. Checked directories, scoured through website after website, emailed and gathered all of the appropriate intel.

Once I found a photographer that fit my budget and my style, I dug in a little deeper. I clicked on every page of her portfolio (even those gorgeous newborn baby photos that I knew nothing about), dove into session pricing options including digitals and prints – becoming wildly familiar with what she offered and what she did not, and of course…

I stalked her blog!

Photo day finally came. I wore a black knit sweater, stiletto heeled knee boots, and skinny jeans. My guy (now my hunky husband) loathes having his photo taken, so he reluctantly grabbed two of the leashes and headed out to the session with me.

We went to a nearby park and then back to the house to have a snuggle session on the sofa. Before we had the opportunity to take photos sans dogs, we were both covered in dog hair and appeared to be a hot mess. Nonetheless, we persisted.

We took a few cheesy pre-engagement pose ‘love’ photos near my neighbor’s tree and the entire time I just prayed that the photographer would be able fix the dog hair that covered me head to toe.

The hour we spent with the photographer was a non-magical barking mess where I struggled to restrain four dogs and keep my guy at least partially smiling.

After the session, I expected this kind woman to run home and immediately publish some type of post on her blog that lovingly doted on my family. The words would be flowery and kind. I’d blush, smile, and then read it over and over again.

I must have hit the refresh button on her blog a thousand times over the next few days.

And nothing appeared.

No new blog posts. Nothing mentioning my name. Nothing saying how much she loved spending time in my home and with my family. No sneak peek photos because she ‘just couldn’t wait to share’. Nada. Zero. Zip.

Even worse, like a solid punch to the gut, other posts were published. Other clients were getting all of the digital attention that I anticipated. These people weren’t as cute as my family. They didn’t grace the pages of her blog like I knew our images would.

Then one day. Finally, right at the deadline stated in our contract, she published it.

A blog post. All about my family. Only our photos. And it felt….

Lame.

It mentioned the fact that I asked to include the dogs, which was unusual but something she loved. Other than that, there was no personal shout out. None of the butterflies and glitter that I had imagined in my brain a thousand times. Just very basic words that said ‘we had a photo session’ followed by a selection of photos.

I was so happy to have my images. Seriously happy. She did a good job. The images were consistent with her portfolio and represented us well.

However.

I felt like I got the short end of the stick. Like I had missed part of the experience.

I expected (for some weird reason?!) her to dote on my family. To gush over the time spent with us. I know it sounds a little crazy (especially now, a zillion years later), but I thought that her publishing beautifully written and of course, wildly flattering, words about my family would just be the icing on the cake. That it’d top off my experience and make the purchase worth every penny I spent.

Who doesn’t love a nice pat on the back every now and then, right?

I expected that a pro would just make this magically happen, but it did not.

Fast forward 15 years and I totally understand what happened, I think.

My photographer was BUSY. She was bouncing around to a zillion sessions throughout the week and by the time she got home after ours, she was ready to put down her camera and hang with her own family. I’m pretty sure that the last thing she wanted to do when she got home that night was to immediately pop her memory card into the computer and post a sneak peek on her blog after a few ‘quick’ edits.

My photographer was OVERWHELMED. She was (is) really good at her art and the business was run by her and her only. There was no team backing her up. No processes that took place when she got back to the office with dozens of little elves just waiting for her to say go. When you’re a one-man-band, business life is hard and you often have to just make sure the basics are covered in order to keep things moving on a daily basis. You are spread thin and don’t always have time to do the ‘extras’.

My photographer was likely NOT SURE WHAT TO SAY. Let’s face it, the session she did with my family was probably a little overwhelming. With four dogs involved, we didn’t have a ton of time to make a personal connection and become BFFs in the matter of an hour. As much as my pride wouldn’t have wanted to admit it back then, she probably didn’t have anything flowery and flattering to say.

Here’s the funny part…

I now spend the majority of my days gushing over photography clients as a ghostwriter.

What does being a ghostwriter mean?

I write the words that you see on blogs, websites, and brochures but get zero credit.

For photographers, I write the flowery, kind, loving, generous, doting notes that you see connected to the client session sneak peeks on their blogs. This isn’t something that is required in any photography session contract, but I can tell you from first hand experience (ah hem, story above) that a simple blog post can make clients feel special, loved, acknowledged. That it will keep them coming back and leave you with happier clients and most importantly for your business – return clients.

For others, I write blog posts that help educate their clients, grow their overall brand awareness, and boost their search engine optimization (ranking). The goals are the same for the pieces that I am a ghostwriter for. We want happier clients and return clients.

So why should you, as a business owner, find a ghostwriter?

Here are four reasons that you should find a ghostwriter for your business today:

1. You want to get stuff done.

Not you personally, but you want your business task list to shrink rather than grow. If you need help checking things like blog posts or other content writing off of your list, find a ghostwriter today. You’re not going to believe how much stress it can take off of your plate!

2. You’re spread too thin.

If you know things need to happen but you just don’t have the time (too busy?!) then you need to find a ghostwriter. What you should know is that when you find a ghostwriter, it will allow you to hand things off in a way that doesn’t require you bringing on a full time employee. Ghostwriting is typically completed on a contract or per project basis, which allows you to keep costs affordable and controlled.

3. You don’t know what to say.

If you know you need content and see the value in what it does for your brand and what it can do to help evolve your customer relationships, but just aren’t sure what to say – find a ghostwriter now. Seriously. The thing about ghostwriting is that the writer does all the work and you get all the credit. All of it. People will think that you’ve got all the right stuff in all the right places, even if you don’t.  

4. You know the value of excellent content.

Whether you’re focused on the client relationship benefits (we’ve talked about that, right) or just love what solid content does for your search engine optimization (SEO) and overall ranking on Google, you need content. Right? If so, you need to find a ghostwriter that fits your style and budget, and get a writing project started today!

Convinced that you need to go out and find a ghostwriter?

Let’s move on to the next question that I know you’re going to ask… how do I find a ghostwriter that knows my niche, fits my budget, and can write in a voice that represents my business well?

The answer is pretty simple here. The first thing you should do, is connect with me. Here’s a basic form that you can fill out to help us connect about your ghostwriting project. It makes the process of you finding a ghostwriter super simple and allows us to  get straight to business. (Don’t worry, we will still chat and make sure our energies work well together before any $ are exchanged or formal projects are assigned.)

Okay, now that the form is complete, here are a few things you need to consider while you’re on the hunt to find the perfect ghostwriter for your project.

1. Does your project require technical expertise?

If your writing project needs a formal degree, certification, or some kind of knowledge outside of what can be gathered with a reasonable amount of research – please be up front about it. You need to find a ghostwriter that is a good match with your project requirements, not just your budget.

2. What is the purpose of your ghostwriting project?

I mentioned a few reasons above, but here are a couple more:

• Establishing a consistent online presence with your blog.
• Letting potential clients know that you are still in business and ready for their business.
• Boost your SEO and overall ranking.
• Create backlink opportunities for possible sponsorships.
• Create excellent content for any affiliate relationships you might have in place or may want to implement in the future.
• Educate your clients and potential clients.

If you don’t know the reason why you’re writing, it’s going to be a tougher pill to swallow when it comes to paying the bill. It’s easier to invest in something when you see the value in it, trust me.

3. Are you ready to find a ghostwriter?

I don’t mean ‘do you need one’ because chances are you do. I’m referring to your digital assets here. Is your website live and ready for new content? Are your social media channels prepared for sharing content and connected in a way that allows everything to work together to support your overall brand and clients?

4. Do you want your clients to love you?

It happens. I hope you’re okay with that. When you start creating content that clients will love and feel supported by, you’re going to find that your products and services will sell themselves. Ideally, your clients will start selling for you! How, though referrals. Word of mouth. Shares on social media. You get it! It’s all good stuff.

Okay, let’s cut to the chase now – you need to find a ghostwriter.

I want you to reach out to me so that we can connect and see if I’d be a good fit as a ghostwriter for your business. I’d love to write for you! To make things super easy and get the process started, I’ve already compiled a collection of writing samples for you to easily review.

Here’s the link:  atterbie.com/writing

Have you already worked with me and are ready to start another project? Let’s do it! Standard blog posts are available for purchase (individually and in bulk) in the store here. If your project is outside of these parameters, email me at amy@atterbie.com and I’ll reply ASAP so we can get to writing.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

The post Atterbie FB-13 appeared first on Atterbie.

Here’s a quick list of the pros and cons of being a freelance and working remotely.

The PROS of being a freelancer and working from home:

• You make the rules and have absolute control over every aspect of your workday.
• You can make as much money as you want and you get to keep it (well, about 75% of it after taxes).
• Skip the long commute! When you’re working remotely you just pick up your laptop and get to work!
• You can work from the comfort of your own bed, snuggled up on the sofa, in your assigned seat on an airplane, or oceanside with a cool drink in your hand.
• As a freelancer, you can write-off your home office, marketing expenses, mileage, equipment costs, and other business expenses when you do your taxes. Be sure to check the IRS’ website for details.
• Take as many vacation days as you’d like!

The CONS of being a freelancer and working from home:

• You have the power to make yourself incredibly successful, or not.
• Your time and effort equals money and you’re responsible for making it all happen.
• You need to purchase whatever equipment and software that it will take in order to make your freelance business successful. This can quickly add up and cost you a pretty penny.
• Because you can literally work from anywhere, people will expect you to be working wherever you are. Be sure to set boundaries for yourself so that you get some downtime. Otherwise, you’ll quickly get burned out and even consider heading back to that exciting 9 to 5 lifestyle.
• When you’re working remotely, taxes get a lot harder! It’s so nice that you can write things off, but rules are sometimes in the grey area and this can cause a lot of undue stress. Lessen your burden by keeping very detailed records and hire a professional to do your taxes.
• Time = Money, I mentioned this above. So take as many vacation days as you’d like, but don’t forget that you aren’t getting paid. If you’re relying solely on freelance work, the paycheck stops when you stop delivering. So be cautious with how you schedule and diligent with your budgeting to make sure you’re covered at the end of the month.
• Freelancers do not get fringe benefits, including health care. If your spouse does not have health insurance that covers you as well, be sure to plan accordingly.

Ready to get your freelance business started? It all begins by setting up a simple website that serves as your marketing hub to showcase the products and services you have available for clients to purchase. If you’re all ready to do it all yourself, head over to BlueHost to get your hosting set up and install WordPress. It’s super simple!

If you need help getting your website established, let me know. I’d love to help.

Here’s how you can reach me:

Amy Sallie
ATTERBIE LLC
Hudson, OH 44236
amy@atterbie.com

Today we covered:
The Pros & Cons of Being a Freelancer and Working Remotely

You may also be interested in reading:
How to Start a Blog In 9 Minutes

In the spirit of honesty and full disclosure, this post contains affiliate links, which means that I may get a commission if you decide to purchase anything from one of my favorite companies listed above. I only recommend products and systems that I use and love myself, so I know you’ll be in good hands.

The post The Pros & Cons of Being a Freelancer and Working Remotely appeared first on Atterbie.

If not, we’re here to help you get started with six super simple steps:

STEP 1:  Take a moment to reflect on 2016.

• Consider how you feel about the year in general.
• What is the best thing that happened? And the worst?
• Are there any lessons that you learned this year that can be applied to 2017?

STEP 2:  Get to know your numbers from 2016.

• Gross Income
• Total Expenses (and expenses by category)
• Net Income
• Number of Clients (new and repeat)
• Profit per Product/Service
• Website Traffic
• Number of Blog Posts Published
• Number of Social Media Followers

STEP 3:  Figure out what you want.

• How much money do you want to make in 2017?
• How much time are you willing to invest in your business on a regular basis?
• Are there any achievements that you want to obtain?

STEP 4:  Create a plan that will help you reach your goals.

• What will you do to set your business apart from the competition?
• What products or services will you provide in order to earn an income?
• Do you require any additional education in order to provide your clients with the absolute best there is on the market?
• How will you reach new clients and maintain current clients?
• What is your marketing plan? How will you take advantage of all your communication channels?
• Can you achieve these items with your current staff or does your business need to grow?
• Define the specific steps that will be required (including timelines and specific resources required) in order for you to reach your goals.
• Don’t be afraid to try something new, think out of the box, and step out of your comfort zone.

STEP 5:  Follow through on your plan and CRUSH YOUR GOALS!

• At the beginning of every month, evaluate the steps that you will need to take in order to achieve your goals.
• At the end of every month, determine what you need to adjust to make the next month even better.
• Don’t forget that while a plan is incredibly important, flexibility is vital.

STEP 6:  Enjoy the fruits of your labor. 

Seriously.

Defining your goals should be immediately followed by defining the rewards that will be enjoyed after you crush your goals. Whether you are working towards a dream vacation or just want to spend a little more time at home, taking a break to enjoy the benefits of your hard work will keep you motivated to continue growing your business.

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