Want to Do Your Own Business Branding?

Do Your Own Business Branding!

When you do your own business branding, you need to remember it is so much more than your colours and your logo but choosing colours to represent you and your company’s image is usually where more people start in the branding process. There’s no shame in choosing your own brand colours instead of hiring a designer but it’s not exactly simple. Let’s dive into an explanation of the colour wheel and how it can help narrow down your colour choices.

A colour wheel consists of colours with the following distinctions: primary, secondary, tertiary, complementary, and analogous.

Primary colours are those which cannot be achieved by mixing other colours together. Red, blue, and yellow are primary colours.
Secondary colours are those which can be made by mixing two primary colours. Orange, green, and purple are secondary colours.
Tertiary colours are created by mixing primary and secondary hues together
Complementary colours are located at direct opposite ends of the colour wheel and
Analogous colours appear close together on a colour wheel

How does this help you and your small business? Go to the Canva colour wheel and take a look. You probably have an idea already of at least one colour you want to use in your branding, so find that colour/hue on the wheel. Now, look at the four colours next to it. Those are analogous colours that will look appealing when used together. Or find your first colour and look at the colour directly opposite. Those are complementary colours which will also be appealing together. If you use the accompanying drop-down menu, Canva will have selected the secondary colours in the above distinctions for you.

Once you make a decision on colours, Canva will show you the HEX codes for each colour. Write those down in a safe place so you use those colours consistently with your website, social media pages, and products without having to look them up numerous times. (I have them in my daytimer, sticky notes on my desktop and my business binder.)

As the famous artist, Marc Chagall once said, “All colours are the friends of their neighbours and the lovers of their opposites,” and this is certainly obvious when looking at the colour wheel itself. Choosing complimentary or analogous colours in a family that represents you and the image you want to portray is the first step toward branding your company.

Want to Learn More About the Psychology of Color? Join My Webinar…

Did you know that different colours evoke different emotions? Did you know there are warm and cool colours? Inside the TVS Workshop Facebook Group, you will find the “5 Free Tools to Build a Beautiful Brand,” training. Where I delve a little deeper into the psychology of colour and what exactly the terms “warm” and “cool” mean when speaking about colours. I’ll also show some examples of well-branded websites and share my favourite free colour wheel tools! Register here TVS Workshop.

P.S. Don’t forget to take a peek at this great article on defining your brand identity!

Defining Your Brand Identity

Do Your Own Business Branding

How to turn a dream into a workable plan.

How to turn a dream into a workable plan
As a business mentor, it can be difficult to watch the lack of progress of so many promising entrepreneurs. They’ve dreamed for so long about creating a solid, sustainable business, and yet, all they do is dream.

You know the people I’m talking about. They attend conferences, sign up for free webinars, buy paid training, and sometimes even work with a coach or two. And yet week after week, month after month, year after year, they fail to make any progress toward their dreams.

Are they just lazy? No. It’s something worse. They don’t know how to move from a dream to a plan and they’re stuck.

It is my mission to get every single woman who is “stuck” in that phase of their business moving toward their dreams and accomplishing their goals. So, if this is where you are, here are a few tips that may help give you that gentle nudge.

Starting With the Long-Term

If you’ve ever been on a job interview and were asked, “Where do you want to be five years from now,” you might have thought it an odd question. But as a business owner, that might just be the most important consideration you can have.

Without knowing where you’re headed in the long term, it’s impossible to create a map to get there. You need to know what your destination is, so that every day, week, month, and year you can check your progress to be sure you’re still headed in the right direction.

Create Milestones

Once you know your ultimate destination, you can draft a plan for getting there, and create the interim goals that will help you stay on track.

For example, if in five years you want to be free to travel for 8 weeks every year, then you need to have a few pieces in place before that can happen:

Enough income to cover travel costs
Passive income to sustain your business while you’re not working
A staff who can manage the business while you’re away

With this list, you can then work backwards from your five-year goal, and create milestones along the way. If you know you’ll need to earn $150,000 annually in order to fund your travel plans, and right now you’re earning $60,000, then reasonable milestones might look like this:

Year 1: $70,000
Year 2: $85,000
Year 3: $105,000
Year 4: $125,000
Year 5: $150,000

With these milestones in place, it’s much easier to figure out exactly what you need to do to achieve them, by setting monthly, weekly, and daily goals.

Create Small Goals

If you have ever spoken to me, or read any of my articles on goal setting, this is given…If you say to someone, you need to move from $60,000 to $150,000 in five years, that’s a pretty overwhelming task. After all, it’s a $90,000 increase and most people will look at that and immediately dismiss it as impossible.

But when you break it down as I have above, and then again into smaller steps, it suddenly doesn’t look so daunting.

In the first year of the plan we have outlined here, your income needs to increase only by $10,000. That’s less than $1000 per month! Surely that’s easy enough to accomplish!
You can further break that down by week: $1000 per month is just $250 per week. If you sell just one more service package, big-ticket item, or five more of a $50 training program, you’ve already reached your milestone.

That might mean sending one more email to your list, or investing an additional $20 per month in Facebook ads, or perhaps reaching out to one more JV partner. The point is, reaching this much smaller goal is far easier than thinking about that five-year plan.

So what’s your big dream? How can you deconstruct it into achievable milestones, workable goals, and finally, daily and weekly tasks? Share in the comments below!

If you can do this (and you definitely can) then you can achieve anything in business and in life.

Download My Superstar Business Plan Template

If you don’t already havea business plan, download my Superstar Business Plan template. It is a step-by-step template on how to create an effective and simple plan for your new business, along with a few other great resources to turn your dream into a plan!

Why not join us inside the Studio Workshop and share your dream and tell us your plan!

How goal setting can help in the pursuit of happiness.

the pursuit of happiness
In your pursuit of happiness, you’ve likely focused on all of the obvious things – de-stressing and doing the things you enjoy. However, did you know that setting goals can also contribute to your happiness?

It doesn’t matter what type of goals you’re setting yourself, just the process of goal setting itself has its benefits. Keep reading to discover why goal setting can help in your pursuit of happiness.

Writing Down Goals Helps you Visualize a Better Future

One of the reasons goal setting can help to boost happiness is because it forces you to think of your future in a positive way. Visualizing what you want and how your perfect life looks, will automatically make you feel happier.

It’s short-term happiness, but it does help to get you started in terms of thinking more positively. If you’re stuck in a rut for example, and you’re creating goals to help you out of it, you’re going to find it great to visualize how your life is going to be once you’ve overcome your current situation.

They Help You See the Progress You’re Making

Of course, it’s not just the setting of the goals which you’ll be focusing on. You’ll also be working towards them, ticking your short-term goals off the list as you go along. This allows you to see consistent progress.

As you see that you’re getting nearer to your goals, it can have a wonderful effect on your happiness. Often, the reason we give in to negative thinking is that we don’t see anything changing. With goal setting, you get to actually see how things are changing and celebrate your progress.

Why it’s Important to Set Goals to Help Others

While personal goals are no doubt important, it’s also important to set goals to help other people. Setting a goal to make somebody smile that day, for example, will really help to boost how you feel.

Studies have been carried out over the years, which have shown those who set goals to help others, are generally happier than those focusing solely on personal goals. So, don’t forget to focus on making others happy too.

Overall, goal setting can really help in the pursuit of happiness. It keeps you focused and helps you actually achieve the things you want in life. Whether it’s relationship goals, financial goals or career goals – they’ll all help you to become a happier, more successful person.

I would also like to mention that a little TPOH goes a LONG way on a long day, so – why not hit play and listen to their album below, while checking out these goal setting tips.

P.S. Join us inside the Studio Workshop Community and share your goals! We’d love to hear them and support you on your journey to happiness.

the pursuit of happiness

Apps for Creative Entrepreneurs

Apps for Creative Entrepreneurs
Apps were made to make our lives easier and more exciting. But mostly easier! There are also apps that are specially made for all you creative entrepreneurs out there. Here’s a list of the most common and popular apps that proved to be helpful to the creative business person.

Easy Scanner Pro

This app helps when you need to scan documents on the go and don’t have access to a different scanner. This app is very convenient when you need a digital copy of print contracts. The Easy Scanner Pro app costs $4.49.

Business Calendar 2

This app is perfect for scheduling things around your hectic schedule. It’s easy to use and you know exactly what you have going on the next day. This app doesn’t cost you anything to use.

Evernote

If you’re looking for a good app to use when taking notes, this may be one of the best ones you can get. You can keep a unique journal of all the projects, ideas, and reminders all in one place. For some people, it’s a lifesaver for spur-of-the-moment events and any ideas that may come to mind. This app is also super handy as you can sync all your devices onto the one app.

TripCase – Travel Organizer

If you’re looking for help in keeping your travel plans organized, TripCase is the app you’ll want to look into getting. It’s a free app that lets you keep all of your bookings in one place and organized.

Dropbox

Dropbox allows you to be instantly connected to people so you can share your photos, videos, and documents. This app makes it easy to share files among the people on your team so that you can ensure everyone has the same information.

Audible

I LOVE Audible! This app can be used anytime you have free time and can enjoy a good book but don’t have the time to sit down and read it. You’re able to listen to books on the go and allows you to not have to focus on the books as you are travelling.

Slack

Slack allows you to easily collaborate with your team members on any project. You and your team get notifications whenever something has been changed. You can then talk to your team members about any changes made, using the chat feature on the app. This app is most useful on a computer because of the drag and drop features but can be used with your phone. When using the app with your phone, you may notice that the app isn’t as easy to use, unless it is for a chat.

It’s easy to get caught up in life and forget things. But with the use of these apps, hopefully, life can get a little bit easier and less hectic.

Use one of these Pins to save this article to your productivity board on Pinterest!

4 photographs of successful business women at work and the words 7 Apps for creative Entrepreneurs

Someone taking a photo with their smart phone of their work desk and the words 7 Apps for creative Entrepreneurs

7 Apps for creative Entrepreneurs

Apps for creative Entrepreneurs

Starting an Online Business: How to Set Clear Goals

Starting an Online Business:
If you are starting an online business, you are joining the ranks of hundreds of thousands of others. There are many tasks to achieve when it comes to your online business. One of the most important and perhaps the most beneficial ways to achieve success is to set clear goals for that business.

There are several ways on how to go about setting clear goals. For many individuals, their goals are so broad that success is something that never happens. However, you can learn to rely on your set of goals to achieve success if you set them up correctly.

How to Set Clear Goals for Your Online Business

1. Be specific

When you set a goal, it is imperative that you be specific about that goal. Simply stating that you want to reach a specific target audience or to make money is not a specific goal. A specific goal would be something like “I want to gain 100 more likes on Facebook in the next three months.” Or, “I want to make an additional $5,000.00 in the next three months.” Goals need to be specific to be successful.

2. Write everything down

No matter how trivial you may think it may sound, it is imperative to write everything down on your action plan. Without writing it down, it is as though you are not declaring it to the world.

3. Break it down

Break down your goals into sub-goals. It is as though you are choosing a niche and then choosing a sub-niche. For example, if your niche is women over forty, perhaps you could break that down even further to make it divorced women over forty. Break it down and be specific.

Breaking down your goals makes them easier to reach. If you have a goal to gain three more clients in the next six months, break it down on how you plan to reach that goal. For example, “I will guest blog on other sites” or “I will join LinkedIn and promote my business.” However, you want to do it, make sure to break it down precisely.

4. Put a timeline to your goal

Giving yourself a deadline to achieve a goal is probably the best thing you can ever do for yourself. You are accountable to yourself and your business partners by attaching a timeline to your goals. By doing this, you put a little pressure on yourself to achieve that goal by or before the set time.

5. Be accountable

Being accountable to yourself and someone in your new business is an excellent way to make, keep, and achieve goals. Giving your word is a powerful tool not only reaching but also in exceeding clear and specific goals.

When your goals are specific and clear, success is just a stone’s throw away.

Get started on your business with these free resources from inside The Virtual Studio

Be sure to join us inside the TVS Workshop Community for inspiration and support the journey ahead!

Starting an Online Business

Advantages of Face-to-Face Networking

With the internet making the world a smaller place, it’s easy to think that networking can be done through social media and social media alone.

However, even with those you meet on social media, you still need to find a way to have face-to-face meetings, when possible. Here are 5 reasons why there are advantages to face to face networking.

Gives that personal touch.

Having face-to-face meetings is more personal and will give you a better way to show who your true self. It’s hard to see what someone’s personality is when you can’t see or hear them. If you want your personality to shine, then you need to have those face-to-face meetings.

Builds stronger relationships

We all crave human connection and when we get it, it builds stronger relationships. You can think a person is great when you meet them online, but to see them in action and be a part of their energy creates a better and more inviting experience.

It is hard to build a strong relationship with someone if you’ve never shared physical space. In person, you get to see how they connect with other people and truly know how strong your connection is with them.

Provides Immediate feedback

If all of your meetings are done through email or on social media, then you don’t get that immediate and direct feedback that you do when you’re face to face. You also can’t tell someone’s tone or demeanour if everything is done through typing. This makes it very easy to misconstrue someone’s intent or what they were saying.

When you are discussing something in person, then the exchange you have will go differently. There’s more give and take, so to speak. It’s just faster this way.

Ability to Read Body Language

There’s a way that we communicate in person that just cannot be expressed on the internet. You can read someone’s body language; you can pick up on sarcasm better when you can hear the tone of someone’s voice or see their face. You just learn so much about a person by seeing their mannerisms.

Avoid misunderstandings

You might think you are being very clear when you communicate on the internet, but how someone else interprets can be entirely different. This is why emotions fly and things get so heated on the internet. A simple misunderstanding escalates into something out of your control.

Using social media to network is great but it is still important to get out there and make personal connections. Whether it be at local business events or you find ways to meet up with your online connections, it’s crucial to create face-to-face meetings to strengthen those connections and build your business.

Now, I want to hear from you! How often do you get out to a local networking event or see your customers face-to-face? Share below in the comment section or join the conversation in the Facebook group.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

We have all heard the saying “don’t sweat the small stuff.” right? I am sure you know that getting stressed over the little things is a significant way to bring unnecessary grief into your life. It’s believed that we can avoid a lot of negative feelings, and even health problems, simply by learning not to let the little things get to us.

I truly believe it so, here are a few things that I try, and I do mean try, to do and hope they also help you not sweat the small stuff!

Focus on the Big Picture

When something small happens that makes you want to get angry, compare the moment’s significance to everything else going on in your own life, and in the world around you. You may have spilled your cake batter on the floor an hour before your guests are due to arrive, but… Are your friends still going to love you and enjoy the evening even if you don’t have a freshly baked cake for them? Probably, so clean up that mess and put your energy somewhere other than berating yourself for this small mistake.

Don’t Forget That We All Make Mistakes

When something threatens to destroy your positive outlook, remember that everyone makes mistakes. Whether it is yourself or someone else who caused the situation that right now, feels like a train wreck, keep in mind that mistakes are a normal part of life and they happen to everyone. Don’t let one bad moment take you by surprise.

Forgive Others

It can be hard to forgive someone else when it feels like they have brought you extra work and stress. If someone rear-ends your vehicle or swings their car door open far enough to bang into yours, you may be tempted to lash out at them verbally. However, stop and think about how it would feel if the roles were reversed. I am pretty sure these types of things are not done on purpose, so don’t act and feel as though you have never made a mistake. React with kindness and choose empathy.

Forgive Yourself

Forgiving others, for the most part, is easy. Forgiving ourselves – not so much. There are many moments that we treat ourselves worse than we would ever allow a friend, client or even a stranger to treat us.

When you are having a difficult time forgiving yourself, think of how you would handle a similar mistake made by a team member friend. Stop and think before bullying yourself, and consider seeking professional help if you can’t stop a cascade of negative thoughts every time you fall short of perfection.

A perfect example would be when a team member falls ill, do you tell them to stay home, rest and get better? I am sure you do! Then why do you push yourself to work when you fall ill? If you are anything like me, you would power through and rest after work is done for the day. It wasn’t until after I started seeing a counselor that I realized that I was not able to treat myself with kindness and forgive myself for the littlest of things.

Ask Yourself Will It Matter in Ten Years?

We all have problems, and usually, at that moment, any problem seems big. Perception is not always the truth, though, and it is up to us to put our situation into perspective so that we can adequately deal with whatever comes our way.

When something negative happens in your life, ask yourself if it will matter in ten years. If it won’t, let it go. Heck, I sometimes ask if I will even remember in 10 days! So, if someone gives you the middle finger in traffic, don’t lose your cool, it’s just not worth it. Save your emotions for things that are life-changing and deserve your full attention. Laugh it off and move on.

I guess, in short, when something goes wrong, you have two choices. You can slip into a range of emotions, or let it go. Making the choice not to sweat the small stuff will bring you life-changing happiness, and you will be thankful for your own shift in perspective.

Now, I’d love to hear from you. What are some of the things that you practice and suggest for others to do, to help not sweat the small stuff?

3 Surefire Ways to Create In-Demand Products and Services

If there’s one thing that holds promising entrepreneurs back from launching their business, it’s this: a lack of confidence in their products. Sure, you think that new product or workshop is a great idea, but how do you know it will sell?

Imagine spending weeks or even months of time—plus the cost of document design, video editing and all the other pieces that go along with it—only to discover it’s not what your audience wants or needs. How frustrating would that be?

You don’t have to leave it to chance, though. There are plenty of ways to test your idea before spending the time and energy on a full launch.

1. Ask

This is the simplest way to get a feel for what your market needs and wants. Simply ask them. Create a survey with Survey Monkey (or even a Google form) and send it out to your mailing list. For best results, keep it short, but do ask:

What they’re struggling with?
What problems are these struggles causing in their life?
How would their life be different if they had [insert your product or service here]?
What do they feel your product or service is worth (what would they pay)?

These four pieces will tell you everything you need to know to create a product or program that’s practically guaranteed to sell.

2. Listen

If you have a community (or are part of one) that is full of your ideal clients, pay attention to what they’re asking about the most. These are the things they need help with. For example, if you’re a business coach and your Facebook group is filled with questions about running Facebook ads, then clearly there is a need for some training in that area.

3. Know

Hopefully, you have a list of competitors and you’re reading their blogs and emails, joining in their Facebook groups and getting to know them. Network and build relationships with them, this is a great way to gain insight into what is out there—not to copy them but to discover what’s hot in your industry right now.

Creating products in a vacuum is a great way to waste a lot of time and money on programs that won’t sell. Instead, pay attention to what your market is asking for, find out what they’re willing to pay, and delve into your competition’s offers. The information you gain from these three activities alone will give you incredible insight. Not just into your market but what they want and need, making it easy to create your own hot-selling products.

Now you know what to creat, take a peek at 3 Proven ways to Market Your New Business to help promote your new product!

3 Proven Ways to Market Your New Business

The world is filled with great ideas and broke business owners with fabulous products but no sales. Trust me. So here are 3 Ways to Market Your New Business.

The fact is, ideas are not what drives most business success. Marketing does. So before you quit your day job to branch out on your own, it pays to have a solid marketing plan in place. Start with these 3 ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Free Webinars

For information product sellers, coaches, and service providers, one of the best sources of new clients is in free training webinars. No matter what your niche, the promise of in-depth training at no cost is enough to entice potential clients to part with an email address (which you’ll be able to market to later) and an hour of their time.

Not only that, but webinars are a fantastic way for those potential customers to get to know you better. And the better they know you, the more likely they are to buy.

Content Marketing

Not comfortable hosting a webinar? Hit the keyboard and start sharing your thoughts and ideas via your blog, ebooks, guest articles and other written content. For internet marketers, this gives readers a taste of what they can expect from your product. If you sell physical products, it provides the perfect opportunity to share useful tips and other important information with your buyers.

Of course, there’s another important benefit to content marketing, too: search engine optimization. Google and other search engines index the words on your website and use the information to present search results to their users. Content marketing is a tool you can use to make the most of these results and to bring more potential buyers to your website.

Paid Advertising

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google and plenty of other sites all offer paid placement, and with today’s powerful analytics tools, it’s easy to create ads and drive traffic inexpensively. Consider starting with Facebook, since the cost is low and it’s easy to target your ads to your ideal client. Once you’ve perfected your funnel, you can branch out into more costly ads with a larger reach, such as Google AdWords or another ad network.

Don’t limit yourself to these three marketing methods though. There are dozens of others you can try, including affiliate programs, JV partnerships, automated funnels, direct mail campaigns, and even television advertising. The key is to keep testing and tweaking to make the most of every marketing effort so that your business continues to grow.

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3 Ways to Market Your New Business

“You are responsible for your life.” Oprah Winfrey – TRANSFERED

Have you ever thought that you just lived the same year twice? Noticing that you are in the same place today as you were last year or the year before? You are responsible for your life
I have, I had repeated the same problems, my challenges hadn’t changed, my thought process was the same. Total deja-vu, everything was-the-same… I had been working like crazy, putting in a crazy amount of hours but nothing was different than it was the year before. There was no growth and nothing had improved.

When I realized this, in that pivotal moment, I realized that it wasn’t that I was not working hard enough but because I had not been taking 100% responsibility for my life.

It’s a powerful lesson that Oprah says she learned at an early age. If you want to move forward in life, only you can make it happen by taking responsibility. Watch below as Oprah shares her story.

[Tweet “”Only you have the power to take the responsibility to move your life forward. The sooner you get that, the sooner your life gets into gear.” Oprah Winfrey”]

TVS has launched the Inspired Action Mastermind!

A premium mastermind for mission-driven, service-based women entrepreneurs who are ready and willing to put in the work it takes to reach the next level!

Inside the Inspired Action Mastermind, we are an intimate group of entrepreneurs, all of which are committed to the success of one another’s businesses. It is a mastermind that provides the support and guidance you need to help you move your business forward. Because, when you’re in the right mastermind group, you can start to see your business and yourself through someone else’s eyes as you support one another and leverage each other’s experiences.

If you are ready and willing to shift your mindset and tackle all the hard questions to accomplish your dreams, then join us.

Learn about the Inspired Action Mastermind

You are responsible for your life