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Archives for September 2016

Overcoming Fears of Failing

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We are conditioned to fear failure!

And the fear of failing is the primary reason why so many of us do not actively pursue our dreams. When I first began my journey of starting my own PR agency, I missed a lot of opportunities because I was fearful. I didn’t allow myself to take some significant risks that I needed to take and I remained stagnant for 6 months before I realized I needed to face my fears and take the leap of faith that would catapult my business to success.

Jerome Knyszewski, LinkedIn expert and marketing strategist says ” We ALL fear something”

  • FEAR of not succeeding if we try something new
  • FEAR of not “making it” doing what we are passionate about
  • FEAR that keeps us from following our heart
  • FEAR of JUST starting
  • FEAR of not keeping up with the digital marketing
  • FEAR of economic uncertainty
  • FEAR of losing the passion and drive
  • FEAR of not TRULY believing in yourself
  • FEAR of not being ready
  • FEAR of not being good enough.
  • FEAR of business consuming your life
  • FEAR of hiring employees
  • FEAR of making sales
  • FEAR of scaling
  • FEAR of prospecting, marketing, cold calling
  • FEAR of being too successful to fast
  • FEAR of taxes
  • FEAR of legal and administrative structures
  • FEAR of the digital age and customs

All that he listed resonated with me because I feared most if not all of these things as an emerging entrepreneur.

So how do you overcome it?  How do you stand up to fear? Below are 5 actions I continue to use to overcome fears of failure.

1.  ACCEPT FAILURE & EMBRACE MISTAKES

Failure is inevitable. It will happen! And it is best to embrace it and embrace your mistakes. You have to understand that, it is in fact temporary. Starting FreeLyfe, I’ve made some major mistakes. Accepting my failure and going back to the drawing board, I was able to start again, much stronger and confident. The difference between the successful and not-yet successful is the realization that failure is simply a stepping stone, not a permanent event.

2. SAY TO YES TO FEAR.

When I first entered the PR industry as a freelance publicist, I was given the opportunity to represent well-known client. I was so afraid. Would I do a good job? Would I represent their brand well? I remember my professor in college telling me “Everything you want is on the other side of fear”. I knew I was qualified, I was just psyching myself out, so I took a deep breathe said YES. It ended up being a great opportunity, provided great connections, and really helped build my confidence.

Oddly, we often fear what we desire most. If we can just realize that on the other side of our fear is success, we’ll be more willing to do what we’re afraid of.

3. SET GOALS AND HAVE A PLAN B

Successful people don’t see failure as catastrophic, they see it as a good data point to guide their next attempts. I like to set small goals for myself and make a plan B, C, and even D. Knowing I have a back up for my mistakes, makes the idea of failing less intimidating.

4.LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE STORIES

Some of the most successful people will admit to having gone through multiple failures before getting to where they are now. You can study facts all day but nothing compares to learning that comes from personal experience.  

“Looking up to successful individuals, and see their dealing with fear of failing, their handling of their failures and mistakes, can be SO up-building and inspiring.”- Jerome Knyszewski.

5. ASK FOR HELP

Sometimes as professionals we are afraid to ask for help for fear of looking less than knowledgeable, but that’s just crazy. You are not expected to know everything. Try to seek out experienced entrepreneurs that can offer viable advice.

“Entrepreneurship can be a struggle, but you don’t have to go through it alone. Knowing who to turn to when you need advice will help make the lows more bearable”-Tyler Arnold

6 Platforms to Create eCourses and Earn Passive Income

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As a business owner, and a creator, you know that one of the best ways to make passive income is to build and sell digital products.

It’s not just profitable, and something you’ll sell forever (considering you’ve chosen an evergreen topic) once you take the time to make it quality and practical, but it’s a fantastic way to become an expert in your niche, to grow your personal brand and actually help people by teaching them how to deal with something they struggle with or learn a new skill.

The most popular digital product is the eBook. You may have already written one and shared your experience, be it on how to be more productive, a better parent, or how to shift your mindset after quitting your regular job.

Then, there are the audio products,  membership sites, artwork, magazines, and software tools.

But when we talk about teaching people how to do something, nothing beats creating a course for beginners on a hot topic.

One of the things people will never stop searching for online is the millions of ‘how-tos’.

The world is going crazy about building skills that can save people time or money, teach them how to build a business, how to be better writers, how to use specific online tools (a few guides on Evernote, for instance, made their creators rich simply because the app is used by millions of people and they love it).

A course is different because it takes more time than a regular digital product. There’s video included, and the modules must be organized in an understandable way so that people can really get value from it and know how to do something new once they finish it.

But which platform do you use when you want to create an eCourse?

First, you need to decide whether you’ll be integrating it with your website. If so, you’ll be interested in the first 4 items below. The other option is to use third parties, which means you won’t have full control over it, but the course will be put directly in front of the eyes of people looking for it and the platform will take care of the distribution. The last 2 items on the list offer you such solutions.

1. Teachable

Teachable is one of the most popular choices of online course creators with their own websites.

The process of building the product is easy. You take care of all the elements of the course (video content, pictures, text, etc.) and simply import it all. Then you can design it in a beautiful way without any coding. The platform takes care of the payments, signups and hosting, so all you need to do after that is keep promoting it to current and new visitors of your website.

One thing that makes Teachable stand out is the variety of features it offers that make your work so much easier and more pleasant.

Prices range from $39 to $299 per month, but there’s also a free plan.

2. Teachery

Simple to use, and with great design, Teachery is another way to have an eCourse and integrate it with your website.

Their support is fantastic and there are no limits in terms of numbers of courses and students.

You can try it out for free for 14 days. If you like what you see, the plans start from $49/month. There’s also a yearly and a lifetime version, if you’re thinking long-term.

3. Thinkific

This one is known as the all-in-one platform for independent entrepreneurs to create, market and sell their courses.

Like Teachable, it offers a free plan where you pay a fee for each transaction. That makes it affordable for newbies or those looking to create useful courses.

The big difference with this platform is you earn your revenue right away versus others that have a 30-day payout wait.

4. Ruzuku

The things people love about Ruzuku the most are its clean looks and ease of use. You can be non-techie and still set up an eCourse fast and successfully, and offer your students a great experience and many features.

There are 3 monthly plans ranging from $58 to $83. There’s also a 14 day free trial.

5. Udemy

If you have a business online, you’ve heard about Udemy. It’s like YouTube, but for courses.

You may not be able to integrate it with your website, but you’ll be selling your course directly on their marketplace as the platform provides you access to millions of students.

It’s free for instructors (that’s you), but they keep 50% of what you sell there.

6. Skillshare

Last but not least, another online learning community that lets you create, sell, promote and distribute your digital product on their platform is Skillshare.

Other entrepreneurs and teachers that are using it are quite happy with the results. Although the admins are picky and don’t approve all people or material.

If you decide to work with them, the commission rates are the following: Skillshare takes %30 of the revenue if you refer the student, and %70 in any other case.

Now that you’re familiar with your options in terms of platforms for eCourse creation, you can gather and organize your content and not worry about the technical part.

Going from Employee to Entrepreneur: The Mindset Shift

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Some of the most inspiring success stories out there are of people who left their corporate job after doing something they didn’t like for most of their life and being part of the system, just to do what they love, move to another place or work remotely while traveling the world.

All that is possible. You can create a lifestyle business. Starting something on the side first until you begin making money from it, and doing it only with the help of your laptop, is a sure way to design the life of your dreams and have all the time and freedom you’ve always dreamt about.

But there’s a mindset shift that goes together with this.

Some people become business owners, but in their head they are still employees. If they don’t have a strategy, if they don’t solve a real problem with their product or service and care about what they do, they just end up creating another job for themselves.

They still work long hours, deal with clients they don’t like, can’t delegate or automate things and thus can’t take a vacation anytime they want to.

The journey from an employee to entrepreneur starts on the inside first. You need to make the mental shift early on, to start creating systems that will one day replace you and still give you revenue, to become your own boss and know how you’ll manage your time once you have all of it for yourself.

So here are some tips on how to stop thinking like an employee:

Get clear about what you want

An awful thing is to work hard for years to create a business, just to realize that you aren’t ready or it’s not something you truly want.

Once you become an entrepreneur, you’ll have more responsibilities than ever. In the beginning, you’ll have to work more than the average, to go the extra mile every single day, to give it at least a year until you can see results.

Not everyone’s patient or strong enough for that. Some just prefer the illusion of security a 9 to 5 job gives.

So make sure you’re willing to make sacrifices for some time before you enjoy the benefits of working for yourself and being independent.

If you’re looking for inspiration and practical tips, check out this guide on how one woman left her 6-figure corporate job to pursue a better lifestyle. Inside you’ll also find 5 worksheets and 25 useful tools to get you started.

Overcome the mental barriers

A mindset shift requires you to get rid of the doubts. You must believe in yourself to such an extent that you should find the willpower to take action in the right direction every day.

Fear also gets in the way. It stops you from even giving something a try.

Work on letting go of these. Build momentum by defining why you want to change your life and become an entrepreneur and always keep this why in mind.

Find your niche

Don’t just start anything that seems profitable, choose a field you’re passionate about. That’s when you’ll do your best work, create products that make a difference and never get bored.

Define what you love doing, think about the things you’re good at and combine all this with what people are willing to pay for.

The Ultimate Guide to Uncover Your Passion and Create a Profit will help you find your true calling and turn it into your career.

Check out what competitors in the same niche are doing and what are the success factors. Make sure there’s a market for that, you don’t want to end up building something no one needs.

Do it on the side first

Start doing this long before you quit your job. Research takes time. First of all, get familiar with all the possible ways to make money from the Internet. That too is part of the mindset shift as you expand your horizons.

See what grabs your interest, what digital skills you’re willing to learn and how you can combine all that and turn it into something profitable.

You can also be a freelancer and still be your own boss, even if you don’t actually run a big business anytime soon.

If you’re a lawyer, writer, teacher, parent, or anything else, you already have experience and knowledge to share with people online. You just need the right medium for you. It may be video, creating courses, self-publishing eBooks on Amazon, having a podcast, running a blog, or else.

You’ll be slowly building your portfolio for some time and finding your first clients on sites that connect freelancers with employers. Once you begin making a decent income, feel free to quit your job and never look back again.

Create your personal brand

You’ll constantly be improving your skills, connecting with people, improving your online presence, networking and building relationships and growing your business. You can have a brand strategist like Brittney Fells help you along the way.

Becoming a lifelong learner is another part of the mindset shift that you’ll be making before you transform your current lifestyle.

Develop the habit of taking little actions a few times throughout the day that will help you build a name for yourself online.

What about you? What’s stopping you from making the mindset shift and starting to think like a boss?

Check out the preferred partners here at Womeneur for more inspiration or advice on anything biz-related from social media management and personal branding to copywriting and running your business successfully.

Tax Planning for Small Business Owners

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Tax planning is the process of looking at various tax options to determine when, whether, and how to conduct business transactions to reduce or eliminate tax liability.

Many small business owners ignore tax planning. They don’t even think about their taxes until it’s time to meet with their accountants, but tax planning is an ongoing process and good tax advice is a valuable commodity. It is to your benefit to review your income and expenses monthly and meet with your CPA or tax advisor quarterly to analyze how you can take full advantage of the provisions, credits and deductions that are legally available to you.

Although tax avoidance planning is legal, tax evasion – the reduction of tax through deceit, subterfuge, or concealment – is not. Frequently what sets tax evasion apart from tax avoidance is the IRS’s finding that there was fraudulent intent on the part of the business owner. The following are four of the areas the IRS examiners commonly focus on as pointing to possible fraud:

  1. Failure to report substantial amounts of income such as a shareholder’s failure to report dividends or a store owner’s failure to report a portion of the daily business receipts.
  2. Claims for fictitious or improper deductions on a return such as a sales representative’s substantial overstatement of travel expenses or a taxpayer’s claim of a large deduction for charitable contributions when no verification exists.
  3. Accounting irregularities such as a business’s failure to keep adequate records or a discrepancy between amounts reported on a corporation’s return and amounts reported on its financial statements.
  4. Improper allocation of income to a related taxpayer who is in a lower tax bracket such as where a corporation makes distributions to the controlling shareholder’s children.

If you need an accountant, CPA or someone to help with your bookkeeping, business taxes or payroll taxes, learn more about the services and Understanding The Basics of Small Business Taxes eGuide offered by Womeneur Preferred Partner Pamela Balentine, CPA

Tax Planning Strategies

Countless tax planning strategies are available to small business owners. Some are aimed at the owner’s individual tax situation and some at the business itself, but regardless of how simple or how complex a tax strategy is, it will be based on structuring the strategy to accomplish one or more of these often overlapping goals:

  • Reducing the amount of taxable income
  • Lowering your tax rate
  • Controlling the time when the tax must be paid
  • Claiming any available tax credits
  • Controlling the effects of the Alternative Minimum Tax
  • Avoiding the most common tax planning mistakes

In order to plan effectively, you’ll need to estimate your personal and business income for the next few years. This is necessary because many tax planning strategies will save tax dollars at one income level, but will create a larger tax bill at other income levels. You will want to avoid having the “right” tax plan made “wrong” by erroneous income projections. Once you know what your approximate income will be, you can take the next step: estimating your tax bracket.

The effort to come up with crystal-ball estimates may be difficult and by its very nature will be inexact. On the other hand, you should already be projecting your sales revenues, income, and cash flow for general business planning purposes. The better your estimates are, the better the odds that your tax planning efforts will succeed.

Maximizing Business Entertainment Expenses

Entertainment expenses are legitimate deductions that can lower your tax bill and save you money, provided you follow certain guidelines.

In order to qualify as a deduction, business must be discussed before, during, or after the meal and the surroundings must be conducive to a business discussion. For instance, a small, quiet restaurant would be an ideal location for a business dinner. A nightclub would not. Be careful of locations that include ongoing floor shows or other distracting events that inhibit business discussions. Prime distractions are theater locations, ski trips, golf courses, sports events, and hunting trips.

The IRS allows up to a 50 percent deduction on entertainment expenses, but you must keep good records and the business meal must be arranged with the purpose of conducting specific business. Bon appetite!

Important Business Automobile Deductions

If you use your car for business such as visiting clients or going to business meetings away from your regular workplace you may be able to take certain deductions for the cost of operating and maintaining your vehicle. You can deduct car expenses by taking either the standard mileage rate or using actual expenses. In 2016, the mileage reimbursement rate is 54 cents per business mile (57 cents per mile in 2015).

If you own two cars, another way to increase deductions is to include both cars in your deductions. This works because business miles driven is determined by business use. To figure business use, divide the business miles driven by the total miles driven. This strategy can result in significant deductions.

Whichever method you decide to use to take the deduction, always be sure to keep accurate records such as a mileage log and receipts. If you need assistance figuring out which method is best for your business, don’t hesitate to contact the office.

Increase Your Bottom Line When You Work At Home

The home office deduction is quite possibly one of the most difficult deductions ever to come around the block. Yet, there are so many tax advantages it becomes worth the navigational trouble. Here are a few tips for home office deductions that can make tax season significantly less traumatic for those of you with a home office.

Try prominently displaying your home business phone number and address on business cards, have business guests sign a guest log book when they visit your office, deduct long-distance phone charges, keep a time and work activity log, retain receipts and paid invoices. Keeping these receipts makes it so much easier to determine percentages of deductions later on in the year.

Section 179 expensing for tax year 2016 allows you to immediately deduct, rather than depreciate over time, up to $500,000, with a cap of $2,000,000 worth of qualified business property that you purchase during the year. The key word is “purchase.” Equipment can be new or used and includes certain software. All home office depreciable equipment meets the qualification. Some deductions can be taken whether or not you qualify for the home office deduction itself.

Republished from JBP Accounting

Personal Branding: Practical Ways to Improve Your Online Presence Today

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Personal branding may be the missing piece in your business.

Many of you are working hard to build a business online, and wonder why you may not get any results. You put in the time and hard work, you’ve chosen the right niche, have done your research and you’re constantly learning things, staying up-to-date on current events and improving their skills to offer even better products and services.

But you may be neglecting a key element of the digital success – your personal brand.

Personal branding is the process of constantly creating awareness for your brand, business and especially your name.

But things have changed in the last decade with the Internet evolving at the speed of light, which also creates opportunities to come up with innovative business models. It’s often hard to keep up.

One thing that’s becoming more and more important in the digital age is the power of your online presence. It’s a combination of all your activities online, every profile you’ve ever created, the comments you write here and there, the stuff you share with your friends, and how you talk about your business.

If you aren’t doing all of this consciously, chances are people will form the wrong opinion about you. Because today you yourself are a brand. Everything you do online becomes part of your overall message and affects the way people perceive you.

Luckily, you can always do something about it. If you’re a first-time business owner and just starting out, begin building your online presence today with the actions below. If you’re already in the game, make a step-by-step plan on how to improve it with concentrated and consistent actions.

Here at Womeneur we take personal branding very seriously. Every element on the site, everything we publish, everyone we welcome on board, every status we share on social media – all these are aligned with our core values.

What’s more, we have Brittany Fells to thank for when it comes to brand strategies. She shares practical advice on how to skyrocket your business and build a following with brand guidance and powerful visual content. So make sure you check her packages out.

Now, here are some things to do connected to personal branding to stand out from the crowd in a competitive niche and build a name for yourself out there:

3 Key Aspects of Personal Branding to Take Care Of

  1. Website.

You can’t go without a website today, that’s needless to say. It’s your digital home and the only place online you have full control over.

You’ll want to make it look great and add useful content to it because that’s where you’ll be attracting visitors and turning them into customers.

So get a domain name and a self-hosted WordPress site and start working on the home of your brand online. If you want to do it right but also save time and avoid the hassle, try our Starter WordPress Website Package

  1. Blog.

After setting up your website, it’s time to create the most important pages. The Homepage, the About page, the Contact page, and others such as one for sponsors, a portfolio, or else, depending on the type of business you run.

Take your time when creating each of these or hire a copywriter to do it for you (serviced by Womeneur Preferred Partner Vanessa Williams). It must look professional as that’s what potential clients will be looking at before deciding to work with you.

Then comes the moment to start your blog. Today every site must go together with a frequently updated blog because content is more important than ever.

It’s another way to get traffic from search engines, engage your audience, become an expert in the niche by sharing practical blog posts, and grow your website and brand.

A big part of your personal branding efforts are also the design elements of your site – your logo , the colors, the images you add to articles, the font, the tabs on the menu and how you name them, etc.

Don’t forget to make professional photos too as you’ll use them all over the Internet.

  1. Social media.

Once you take care of the previous aspects of personal branding, let’s get social.

Your audience is already spending time on almost every social media channel. So it’s your job to be there and connect with them.

That can happen by creating a profile, linking back to your site, sharing your own content and interesting stuff you read online, creating and posting motivational images and quotes at specific times, commenting on other people’s content, and sometimes just asking a question and starting a discussion.

Most aspects of social media can be automated and there are plenty of useful tools for that out there, but there’s still a lot of work to do. You need to get clear about your goals, how you’ll connect with the right people, how often you’ll post and when and what your strategy is. Our DIY Social Media Starter Kit can help you with all that.

Personal branding is a never-ending journey, so learn to enjoy it. You’ll constantly take focused actions in the right direction and see how you become popular in your niche and soon people start to find you more easily and tell their friends about your company and products. How awesome is that?

Before you go improve your online presence, though, check out our preferred partners again, who share their knowledge hoping to inspire more female entrepreneurs like you to transform their life and business.

How to Avoid Procrastination While Working From Home

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When I became an entrepreneur, I dreamed of working from home. No commute, flexible hours and not having to do my hair. And then that dream came true.

After just a few weeks, I realized working from home is way harder than I imagined. I did not know there were so many means of procrastination. I had to make some fast changes if I wanted to get any work done.

Here are some rules I learned along the way to help me avoid procrastination.

1. Have a Defined Work Space

It has been proven that setting aside a particular space for working has a positive impact on productivity. Defining a “home office space” can promote concentration and creativity. This can simply involve clearing the kitchen table or dedicating one room of the house.

2. Maintain a Start and Stop Time

It doesn’t have to be the traditional 9-5, after all, you are at home. But without a set work schedule personal and professional life can become merged. Keeping a good level of consistency to your daily schedule, makes it easier to maintain more distinction between the two.

3. Get Dressed

You don’t have to put on a suit or dress but for me putting on casual attire has a positive impact on your work. This is another way to set the boundaries between relaxing and working.

4. Make a To Do List

Make a list of everything you need to complete for that day. Ensure that you prioritize your tasks and get the most important work done first. Focus on the most effective money-making activities. This will keep you on track and away from procrastination.

5. Stay Away from Distractions

When working from home, there are far more likely constant distractions tempting you to procrastinate. Turn off the TV, social media alerts that are not business related and any other distractions that will pull you away from your work.

6. Take a Lunch Break

Just like you would do at a job off site. Allow yourself some leisure time to recharge and prepare you to go back to work.

Following these steps, helped me eliminate my procrastination and improve my productivity.

How do you avoid procrastinating?