This column is all about creating and honoring “the big enough company”, that is – one that is grown purposefully and in accordance with particular goals, rather than one that pursues growth for growth’s sake.

In our super-sized culture we’re programmed to look at status symbols, accumulation, and consumption as markers of success. But the truth is that success is not about size, it’s about satisfaction. Instead of automatically continuing to grow, entrepreneurs today are getting wiser about identifying their unique goals and needs and then build a business that’s big enough to support them.

Exploring the rewards of entrepreneurship

Defining your READ MORE »

Sometimes our commitment to the ways things are overshadows good decision making. Maybe it’s the whole ‘devil you know is better than the devil you don’t’ kind of thinking. Or maybe it’s that even good change can be annoying and distracting. In any case, this tendency can be particularly dangerous for those of us who work for ourselves. We don’t have bosses or organizations to pressure us into changing our outdated or nonsensical ways. We are in charge – for better and for worse.

In order to challenge myself and keep my own bad habits in line, I came up with this list of READ MORE »

Bookkeeping is a task that is hated, or at least avoided, by most entrepreneurs. Many experts say this aversion comes from a lack of basic understanding and comfort with the principles and value. I thought it’d be helpful to start this tax year with the right attitude. So we are scaling it way back and starting at the very beginning with these helpful resources.

***Since we are always on the lookout for advice & tips to make managing our social media presence easier, we found a fantastic guide for building your  WordPress website by Cody McBurnett, founder, Loki Loki Marketing by Design. We hope you find her advice as helpful as we did!*** My clients want a website that looks beautiful, engages their audience, and highlights their product/service… But they also want one that they can manage on their own without having to learn a whole new skill set or pay someone each and every time they need to post to their blog or update their hours. This is why I work with WordPress: READ MORE »

The beauty of entrepreneurship is having the freedom to create meaningful and satisfying work on your terms. The allure of this alone drives millions of people to abandon their corporate gigs each year to pursue something that is “theirs.” But the truth is that it’s astonishingly easy to create a business that is unsatisfying. Despite clear goals and the best of intentions lots of entrepreneurs make big compromises in order to do what they think it best for the business. They end up feeling overworked, underpaid, and exhausted. Not exactly the beacon of fulfillment they were hoping for.

One way that READ MORE »

As a new entrepreneur, I remember believing that it was my job to know everything, especially when it came to my business. While I was always grateful for the good ideas that others gave me, I would also think self-consciously, “I should have come up with that.” I thought (foolishly), that it was important to have clear, decisive answers and to never say “I don’t know.”

Boy, was I wrong. As I soon learned, entrepreneurship is all about being a work in progress. And the more you embrace that, the more you stand to gain. Here’s a short list READ MORE »

Productivity and time management are personal topics! Each of us ticks a little differently and therefore responds to different systems and sets of guidelines…yet we all face common challenges.

Here are 5 helpful productivity posts that highlight what you really need to know about staying productive without getting caught in the weeds.

These principles are important to keep in mind when designing a system that works for you!

***Since we are always on the lookout for advice & tips to make managing our social media presence easier, we found a fantastic guide for building your  WordPress website by Cody McBurnett, founder, Loki Loki Marketing by Design. We hope you find her advice as helpful as we did!***

My clients want a website that looks beautiful, engages their audience, and highlights their product/service… But they also want one that they can manage on their own without having to learn a whole new skill set or pay someone each and every time they need to post to their blog or update their hours. This is why READ MORE »

A recent New York Times article entitled The Rise of the New Group Think by Susan Cain gave me – an uber extrovert – trepidation. Cain is the author of newly published Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. The gist of the article is about how important solitude is for innovation and how introverts may have an advantage in creative thinking. The current trend in work, education and religious institutions is to congregate in big groups. Think brainstorming sessions. And it’s this lack of alone time that causes people to “create fake meetings in order to avoid a real READ MORE »

Who doesn’t love a fresh start? For many entrepreneurs the New Year ushers in renewed enthusiasm and determination to get organized and do things “right.” With visions of perfectly organized documents and plans, we set up new protocols for every aspect of our business, sign up for new courses and initiatives and, after much scrutiny, purchase a new calendar, which we hope will make us all the more productive.

Predictably, we overindulge, biting off more than we can chew. More often than not, the complicated routines and infrastructure that we’ve created causes us to abandon our efforts and within weeks we READ MORE »

I want my daily work routine to be more inspired so I decided to make a few small purposeful changes. Here’s the plan:

1. Start with Something BeautifulBEFORE I open my email I want to feel inspired and motivated. I’ve bookmarked a few sites in my Google Reader that make me instantly happy and calm – home décor seems to be the thing right now.

Brabourne FarmModern Country A Life’s Design Home and Harmony

 2.       Enhance The View.

I’ve made a concerted effort to surround my immediate workspace with simple visual pleasures.

A few affordable prints from 20×200

My great Dolphin Studio Calendar

A READ MORE »

OK, sports fans. Here’s a small business marketing tip that can save your business. Groupon has grown really big because they find you new customers.

But their promotions can be very risky.

That’s a hard lesson the owner of Need A Cake in London just learned.

Groupon’s business model is simple: deeply discount your wares, Groupon will promote your products to its multi-million person database and bingo!

You get a huge increase in sales over night.

There’s just one catch — you have to pay Groupon a percentage of those discounted revenues whether or not you make money.

Witness Rachel READ MORE »

As entrepreneurs, all we’ve ever wanted is to be our own boss. But ironically, most of us are pretty terrible at managing ourselves. Our to-do lists are long, time is short, and the pressure for results is high, and we often don’t know where to begin. Everything seems important. It’s hard to prioritize. And we often realize at the end of the day that all we’ve done all day is respond to emails.

There are hundreds of time management gurus out there, each who promotes a different way to be more productive and READ MORE »

I love the New Year mostly because of the clean slate it provides. I think it is fun to fantasize and plan for the upcoming year. I get excited about creating a wish list of things I’d like to experience, learn, and accomplish. This year I thought I’d formalize and share my process. Don’t worry…it is easy and fun…maybe even indulgent.

As I see it, taking full advantage of a fresh start requires three things…

1. Goals

2. Inspiration

3. Stick-To-It-ness

How To Get Started:

GOALS.  – Define what you want.