In my role as COO (sidekick or otherwise), I talk about scaling and growth quite a lot with my clients, mentees, and colleagues.  As we gear up for another round of Scale Society, the conversations I’m having on Instagram have one slight misunderstanding in common: online business owners are using the words “growth” and “scaling”  […]

Email. Love it or hate it, it’s ingrained in pretty much every area of your business so you better get good at it. A well-written email can,  …turn an irate customer into a raving fan, …educate a team member, …make someone’s whole week, …transform a looky-loo lurker into a paying client.   They can affect every […]

Here’s a rule that has no exceptions: Every business has to do email. I know definitive statements like that can raise a skeptical eyebrow. They certainly get mine up. I’m always looking for the exception and the only one I can think of at the moment is this one: And honestly, even he could benefit […]

One of the benefits of being an Online Business Manager is that I get to see behind the scenes of many different businesses across many different niches.  I love learning from the differences between them, but I love even more seeing the commonalities.  No matter what industry or niche they’re in, any business can only […]

Regular analysis and assessment may not be the sexiest part of running your business, but it’s a crucial part of sustainably scaling your business, saving on expenses, avoiding disasters big and small, and increasing your profit margin. The only way to get better at anything is to put attention and focus into it.  And the […]

Sick of working 12 hours a day and still feeling behind? Holding out hope that simply wishing for more hours in the day will actually come true? Do you know that you definitely need to hire a virtual assistant but the thought of it makes you nervous? Hiring a virtual assistant is a big step […]

In an effort to be more mindful and purposeful with our time, Caleb and I decreed official “date nights” and added them to our calendar. For our second official date night, we decided on a whim to walk the pier…and froze our butts off in the late fall wind while wandering around looking for a […]

Happy New Year! I hope your December was restful and, if you celebrate, festive and full of wonder. How are you feeling about the beginning of a new year? Full of pressure to choose your “one word” or an arbitrary revenue goal? A little guilty about the projects you didn’t quite finish last year? Or […]

What comes to mind when you think of December?  Fairy lights, eggnog, fruitcake, and parties? Or deadlines, annual revenue goals, and all those projects at risk of ringing in the new year unfinished? If you’re a business owner with a tendency to reach for big revenue goals at the end of the year, or to […]

Despite what the popular adage says, the customer is not always right.  But right or wrong doesn’t matter when faced with an unhappy customer, refund requests, or negative feedback.  What matters is figuring out what the actual problem is, taking the time to reflect on what the customer is actually saying (even if it’s hard!) […]