Author: Lisa White

Organization tools I can’t live without!

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Being a small business owner is crazy sometimes, thinking about everything you NEED to do outside of actually making your product can make your head spin…or leave you running for your big fluffy bed wanting to pull the covers up and hide.

While it is a lot easier these days to get your name out there with social media, blogs, your website, etc keeping up with it all can be completely insane.

I recently set out on a quest to try and make my online life a little easier, more organized and efficient. I found some really cool tools that do just that so I wanted to share them in the hopes that it helps you pull the covers down over your head, jump out of that big fluffy bed and start kicking some booty!

TO DO LIST

Ahhh the dreaded to do list! Yes, we all have one and while I used to like being able to use pen and paper to write them down, it got to be WAY too much to keep up with. I use Wunderlist which is so freaking awesome! I can’t say enough about this app. I have it on my phone and my laptop so I can see everything no matter where I am. You can organize everything into lists and with the bookmark app on Chrome you can add things to wish lists from Etsy, Amazon and a bunch more websites. If you are a more than one person team, the ability to add to each others lists is awesome. My assistant, Amanda and I use this feature a lot!

SOCIAL MEDIA

My biggest challenge is trying to post to all of these different sites at the same time. You are probably like me and use Facebook, Twitter and Google +. These are the biggies BUT then you have to break them down even further. I have a personal profile for Lisa White, a business page for Moxie Pear Creative and then one for Yonder Years – all on Facebook. With Twitter, I just stick to one account for everything and then Google + I have my profile page and a business page for MPC and one for Yonder Years. Pretty crazy right?

If I want to schedule helpful articles I have found or random stuff, I use Hootsuite because it lets me schedule each one of these. It’s free and while I HATE the cluttered dashboard, I only use it for scheduling so I can get over that in place of convenience. I also use it every now and then to post actual happenings on each of the social media outlets. But again, the cluttered dashboard wigs me out so I would just rather use IFTTT for push notifications that go to each site.

I have to say that IFTTT is the bomb! It will let you set up all sorts of “recipes” that basically trigger each other. For instance, I have one set up that if I post to my personal Blogger blog, it goes to FB and Twitter. I even did a video on my blog showing you how I set mine up!

* I still haven’t figured out a way to post on my Google + personal profile using any of these services. Right now, Google doesn’t have the API available for companies like Hootsuite or IFTTT…they need to add it like pronto because dang, that would save even more time!

BLOGGING

Having a blog for your business is crazy important. It’s a great way to get new content out on the internet which in turn is great for search engine traffic. Keeping up with posts and what you are going to blog about is a pain in the arse though. Enter Google Calendar….I use this bad boy to schedule all my blog posts (for both my personal and business). You can color code each calendar so you know what is what when you take a look at the monthly view. I also use this to schedule monthly client newsletters and Brand Moxie subscriptions. Everything is stored in the cloud so your info is safe and you can plug it in to a lot of different apps like iCal for Mac and your Android calendar on your phone. So when you update one, they all update!

Along with Google Calendar, I also use Google Docs (that comes with Google Drive) to keep notes for my business and blog posts that I write. We just started using this for all of our new client files like proposals and stuff which is working out great.

If you can’t tell, I am kind of a Google freak…when I find something that works, I try and see if I can integrate it all together using one company and what they offer. Google seems to rule the internet when it comes to stuff like this so I will gladly stick with them. 🙂

Before this post gets REALLY long, I did want to show you some of the other apps and plugins I use.

Feedly – feed reader for the blogs I follow

Pocket – I use this to organize and save blog posts from feedly (they integrate really well together) you can also save websites and stuff by using their browser app

MightyText – I can read and respond to texts on my laptop so no searching around for my phone

I am always on the lookout for new apps that make business life a little easier so if you got em, share em! My overly organized heart will thank you! 🙂

Grab Customer’s Attention on Your Website in Less than 15 Minutes!

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Getting your website ready for the Holiday rush can sometimes feel overwhelming (like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done). I mean seriously….how in the world is it already November?! Well, I am here to give you a quick and easy way to grab your customer’s attention and add a little awesome to your website at the same time.

When I say quick and easy, I am not just whistling dixie (please don’t make me try because it would be an epic fail). It will take you less than 15 minutes AND you may even have a little fun in the process!

You have probably heard of PicMonkey before…I rave about it to my clients at Moxie Pear Design all the time because 1) It’s free — who doesn’t love free?! 2) It’s easy — yep, just drag and drop or point and click 3) It gets results — you can look like you just spent an hour editing photos using some big fancy and expensive software BUT you didn’t! It’s a great way to take your photos from just ok to awesome super quickly. It’s an all around great tool for resizing and editing your website photos.

Ok, enough bragging about it…let’s get to it shall we? 😉 When a potential customer comes to your website, they usually land on the home page (depending on your traffic the average is about 75%). So this is prime real estate to show off your products. In order to do that, it helps to have several large images (or a collage of them) to really bring in the customers, keep their interest and make them want to click around to shop. It also helps to put an incentive there that makes them want to do something (we call these little tidbits “call to action”). In the case of a photo collage, it would most likely be to make them shop. So, how do you make one of these collages for your home page?

In the video below, I am going to walk you step by step from start to finish on how to create a collage of your own with a call to action in less than 15 minutes using PicMonkey. You don’t need an account and can follow along and start creating your collage immediately.

PicMonkey Fall Collage from Lisa White on Vimeo.

You can also do this for your Etsy or other marketplace-type shop. You can choose the size so the sky is pretty much the limit!

If you have any questions, just leave them in the comments…oh and if you create your own collage, link to your website because I would LOVE to see it in action!

Just a quick disclaimer….I am not associated nor do I get paid by PicMonkey. If they had some sort of “Hey, everyone use PicMonkey because it’s awesome Ambassador” I would be there in a second (but sadly they don’t). 

Mismatched is only cool if you are 5 years old

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I remember when my daughter first wanted to dress herself. Like all 5 year old little girls, she wanted to be fiercely independent, especially when it came to her wardrobe. Most days she would come out of her room wearing a fluffy pink tutu, her favorite cowgirl boots, a long sleeve shirt with some sort of princess motif (every 5 year old owns at least 3 of these) and a pink crocheted winter hat complete with ear flaps….in the dead of August…in the south. And yes, even though she looked like a half hobo ballerina cowgirl, we let her wear it out and wherever we went people would smile and say how adorable she was. Do you know why? Because she was 5 years old and at that age, mismatched just happens to be cute.

Now, stop and think about that same scenario but instead of a sweet, adorable 5 year old put yourself in that get up (get up – southern expression meaning crazy outfit). Hmmm not so cute anymore huh? In fact, you may actually get carted off to the looney bin because you must have lost your ever loving mind dressing like that in public!

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So where am I going with this lovely tale of 5 year olds and looney bins? Well, straight to your branding of course! (10 points if you saw that coming) Being mismatched just isn’t cute, in fact it leaves an impression that you are scattered and don’t have a clear direction for your business. Customers notice this…oh yes, they notice and they run as fast as they can because really, who would want to spend their hard earned money in a shop that looks scattered and clueless? Potential customers thought process – If the owner of said shop doesn’t bother with the outside why would they bother with the quality of the products there selling?

With all of the social this and website that, your brand is in a lot of places which means it’s being seen by some of the same people. If you have one design for your website, a completely different one for your etsy shop and possibly even a third or forth for twitter and Facebook it gives a horrible impression to those people you are trying to impress the most!

You want your branding to be consistent wherever your are…not only is it more professional but it’s how you build….(drumroll please Brad*) BRAND RECOGNITION! And we love us some brand recognition because it’s what helps potential customers remember who you are.

So would you rather be a sleek, sophisticated kick ass woman dressed to the nines or a half hobo ballerina cowgirl?

*Sorry ladies, there is no Brad…although if there was I am sure he would look a lot like Jensen Ackles. Don’t know who Jensen Ackles is? Google him, you won’t be sorry!

Do you feel like your brand is cohesive or do you need to do some work on unifying the style? Share your brand recognition struggles + stories in the comments!