Small Biz Life

The human brain is funny. It will do many things to protect us. The worse thing it does is lie to us on our behalf. And to be honest Kristin and I see this a lot when business owners share content or try and sell online. We tell ourselves we are launching; however, we are really just checking off a to-do list item.

Sharing on Facebook and saying we are done is a failed launch!

Even if we get a few people into our sales process and make a few sales and most people will not do even that. They will complain that they tried to do it and the people just did not want it. The Truth is we just lied to ourselves, we spent so much time creating something of beauty for the world, we spent no time trying on the marketing and sales process. We wished for success and did set ourselves up for failure.

Start planning for your success

Join Kristin and I as we talk about some actionable steps you can take now to improve your next launch. and talk about some of the tools we use to try and improve our odds of success. Stop letting your fear of failure ensure it happens, listen to the show now and learn about:

For Complete Shownotes go to SmallBizLife.com

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7 key elements to a perfect product launch: https://marketingland.com/7-key-elements-perfect-product-launch-134634

6 elements of a successful product launch: https://labs.openviewpartners.com/successful-product-launch/#.WfdN7mhSxhE

Episode 47 - Trolls, haters, and critics https://www.smallbizlife.com/blog/episode-47-trolls-haters-and-critics

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ThriveThemes link https://thrivethemes.com/affiliates/ref.php?id=3007_1_3_4

Email, Website, Digital Product E-commerce site at Kajabi https://app.newkajabi.com/r/9PKwusgU

I have been working on web applications for over a decade. It is an ever-changing environment that can be confusing for a person that has created apps and websites for a living.

So, I am not surprised for a second that many entrepreneurs are confused by the technical side of their website.

Most website owners fail to understand that there is that SEO optimization is about much more than Keyword strategies. Search engines like google want their users to not only find the best articles on a search. They want them to have a great experience on the site they are going to. Mobile friendly and website speed are essential parts of this experience.

So, join Kristin and I as we talk about the complete picture of Website Optimization. And the simple SBL WordPress Optimization Checklist to get started with the easiest problems to fix.

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Kristin and I always talk to our Facebook group members. The other week the topic of Facebook ads came up. We talked about small business owners about their experience and/ or problems with Facebook ads.

What are the 3 top reasons your Facebook ads do not meet your expectations?

1. No expectations
2. No objective for the Ad
3. Do not understand how to target an audience

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Episode 4 Who is your ideal customer https://smallbizlife.mykajabi.com/blog/episode-4-who-is-your-ideal-customer

Facebook Blueprints https://www.facebook.com/blueprint

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Kristin and I have been working with each other in small business since 2005. We have seen lots of good and bad times since we started working together. We have learned the most important truth about working with your spouse.

A family business is no place for a weak marriage

The truth is maintaining a great marriage is work. No matter how much you love each other. Between survival, family, and friends many marriages strain. In 2015 16.9 divorces happened per 1,000 married women according to researchers at Bowling Green State University. That is over 1.1 Million woman in 2015 alone and that was a good year.

You risk going from husband and wife to business partners.

However, all is not lost. There have been many family businesses that have stood the test of time. They have not only survived the marriage, they have not gone out of business. And to be honest, even if your spouse is not officially part of your small business they often help out the entrepreneur of the family run their business.

The most important thing you can do is learn your 3 Rs

Not the 3 Rs of school. The 3 Rs of working with your significant other.

• Roles
• Respect
• Responsibilities

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DIVORCE RATE IN THE U.S.: GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION, 2015 https://www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resources/data/family-profiles/anderson-divorce-rate-us-geo-2015-fp-16-21.html

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Small businesses are formed for many reasons. We started ours because we loved our hobby of teaching, inspiring, and entertaining people. There are many reasons to start a small biz. You might want to work for yourself or make some more money. However, we live in a changing world. We cannot afford to lose track of the trends in small business or we risk losing the business we love. So we need to understand, where small business if going.

What is the biggest change coming to small biz?

There are many changes that will continue to happen with Small Business. Record numbers will be starting up and failing every year. However, the biggest change is that the older definitions will start disappearing. Local business versus international business and online business versus offline business will merge into business.

It really has been changing with the invention of the online business and people growing more connected to the internet via their mobile devices. The great thing is the growth of this technology provides great opportunities to those willing to keep changing.

These opportunities will create a huge challenge for small biz

We will no longer be able to hide from competition. They will invade our communities and try and lure away our customers. So, we need to adapt and move our business into this space before someone else occupies it.

Join Kristin and me as we look at this vital topic in this weeks episode of the Small Biz Life podcast. Also, check these articles referenced in the episode "Small Business in 2020: Dramatic Shifts Predicted", "10 Businesses That Will Boom in 2020", and "Why Small Businesses Should Prepare For 2020"

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https://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2012/09/10/10-businesses-that-will-boom-in-2020

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/305-small-business-trend-shifts-predicted.html

https://www.digitalistmag.com/cio-knowledge/2017/09/25/why-small-businesses-should-prepare-for-2020-05359724

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Have you ever had that day where you work for hours, and check off dozens of items off your to-do list and feel like you have achieved nothing? I have. I have had so many days I started to look at this years ago when I worked at UPS. I started to find that we have a way of creating busy work for ourselves. We create so much of it, we start to use systems to create track it. And private industry has responded with those applications. The task management apps and website.

Listen to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, Google Play Music, iHeart Radio, or with the player below.

Task Management software can be great

It can make you get more work done. I am a big believer in getting more done in less time. However, It appears the systems can become a burden. I have worked with many large businesses and government agencies that would start creating more and more applications to track the work that then left the workers in a bind.

If you spend more time tracking yourself, then you have less time to complete the work you were hired to get completed. For more check out the show notes on SmallbizLife.com

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Episode 106 – 3 major mistakes getting tasks done, and how you can start fixing it now https://www.smallbizlife.com/blog/episode-106-the-3-major-mistakes-we-make-with-task-how-you-can-start-fixing-it-now

Google task https://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas

Trello https://trello.com/signup

Asana https://asana.com/

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Stop floundering creating task

Have you ever been told that if you work hard you will succeed? I was. I believed it. For years whenever I had an issue I just started to work more. Work more hours! Push! Push! I kept moving.

I would do great for a while and then I would burn out. Sometimes I would kill it and prosper, but to be honest most of the time I seemed to go nowhere.

It was frustrating. However, I just kept doing it. I would also get very focused on the work. I was told if I just work smarter. all my problems would go away. I just needed to focus on the type of work I was doing. However, that failed to make my life better, or my business larger.

I also went through a period, where I cut out all the work that I didn't like, that was the worse mistake. I lost touch with so much that was important to my business because I did not want to do work I did not like. I would store up all that crappy work until I was forced to do it. I managed to 10x the work I hated. This is a 10x you never want, please trust me.

How to fix it?

It all started with a great piece of advice from Brendon Burchard. I figured out what I needed to look like to live the life I love.

It freed me from a trap I was in. I was trapped spending so much time, trying to find new hacks, apps, and techniques to improve my time management. I missed the root problem. I needed to get over myself.

The first part of troubleshooting is finding the problem. If you get stuck in a GTD hell. You need to identify, what you are screwing up. From my work with clients and myself, it appears most people's task management issues is because of one of these mistakes:

1. You Focus on the work
2. You focus on our immediate feelings
3. How hard we are working

What we should focus on for better task management

1. We should focus on the result the output of task
2. How the task moves us forward in our life our goals
3. Think about your next task before you start

This Week in the Small Biz Life Podcast

Kristin and I look at these mistakes and go into much more detail about how we should look at our task management. If you have not, I would also check out episode 104 – How to get it all done. Also read "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" by David Allen.

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episode 104 – How to get it all done https://www.smallbizlife.com/blog/episode-104-how-to-get-it-all-done

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Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen http://amzn.to/2wNmfTi

Before you panic

Yes, it is best to be concerned about your data. Between all of our smart devices and services that connect our data over the web. It seems like it is only a matter of time before we have our identity stolen.

However, panic is never a plan. We need to understand how the latest breach effects us and what we need to do to protect ourselves better.

My biggest concern with the Equifax Breach

Equifax is one of the three credit reporting agencies in the United States. This breach exposes the name, address, birthday, and Social Security number of 143 million people. 209 thousand people had their credit card information lost. And 182 thousand lost documents by Equifax according to www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. The first thing you need to do is go to www.equifaxsecurity2017.com and see if you or your children have been affected.

What to do now?

Chances are you or someone in your family have been exposed. Here are the quick steps you need to do if you are part of the 143 million.

Ways to protect yourself

1. Check your credit reports for free on www.annualcreditreport.com
2. Place a Fraud Alert or credit freeze on Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion
3. File your tax return ASAP
4. Signup for a service like Credit Karma
   1. The market leader is LifeLock
   2. Or what we use ID Shield which is like LifeLock with extra SSN protection
5. Or better yet higher a service that will help resolve problems if you are compromised
6. Protect your passwords and track all the sites you have bad or duplicate passwords with LastPass.
7. Always use VPNs when you are not in a secured network. Try NordVPN

24 other reasons to protect yourself

Since 2016 there have been 25 major data breaches with at least 900 Million records lost. And out of those numbers, there have been many companies who do not know or did not state how many records have been lost. There could have also been other breaches that have not been publicly released. In these days of an interconnected world, you should consider the best ways to protect yourself and assume that at some point you or a family member will have their identity stolen. Please consider a service like Identity Shield as a way to protect yourself.

1. Equifax 2017
2. Taringa 2017
3. Grozio Chirurgija 2017
4. Erie County Medical Center 2017
5. Friend Finder Networks 2016
6. Commission on Elections 2016
7. Weebly 2016
8. Taobao 2016
9. 21st Century Oncology 2016
10. KM.RU 2016
11. Nival Networks 2016
12. Verizon Communications 2016
13. Apple Health Medicaid 2016
14. University of California, Berkeley 2016
15. University of Central Florida 2016
16. Central Coast Credit Union 2016
17. Cox Communications 2016
18. Department of Homeland Security 2016
19. Democratic National Committee 2016
20. Inuvik hospital 2016
21. EyeWire 2016
22. Gyft 2016
23. Ofcom 2016
24. Rosen Hotels 2016
25. TaxSlayer.com 2016

Other Sources

Get An Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN)

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/understanding-your-cp01a-notice

The Equifax Data Breach: What to Do

When Information Is Lost or Exposed

Best Identity-Theft Protection 2017

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_data_breaches

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We all have so much to get done. Our small businesses can turn us into workaholics. Our family and friends are always trying to distract us. And all those hobbies take time. So can we really get it all done?

Human nature says no

Think of how much life has changed for humans since the dawn of recorded history. We have created air conditioning, air planes, escalators, teddy bears, the Theory of Relativity and all those major changes happened in the first 5 years of the 20th century.

As a species, we are driven to make our life, and the life of our family members better. It has taken humans from small tribes of hunter gatherers to data scientist in ~5,500 years. So stop worrying about getting it all done, until we reach a utopian state we will always come up with new tasks to do next.

So stop trying to get it all done

Your time is better spent trying to learn how to figure out what to do and how to do what you are doing better to get to your next goals. And understanding our nature will force us to pick new goals and create new tasks along the way.

So join Kristin and Jeff in this episode as we look how we work to get the most done every day so we can maintain our momentum allowing us to focus on what is important to us and enjoy our this crazy thing that we call life.

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https://www.smallbizlife.com/blog/episode-62-improving-your-focus Episode 62 - Improving your focus

https://www.smallbizlife.com/blog/episode-16-the-why-and-how-of-goal-setting Episode 16 - The why and how of goal setting

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As a CPA, Kristin is asked many questions about how small business owners should deal with money and tax issues for small businesses. There is one question that she is asked to most.

How should I form my company?

Well, as with most questions involving the government and taxes it is never quite that simple.

The common options:

• S Corporation (S Corp)
• Limited Liability Company (LLC)
• Sole proprietorship
• Partnership

There are many reasons to pick any of these selections. However, the first thing you need to understand is an LLC is considered a disregarded entity for tax purposes. That means that if you have one owner, your business will be treated as a sole proprietorship by default. Have two or more owners? Your LLC will be a partnership by default. You can elect that your LLC be treated as an S Corp as well. If you ever decide to move your sole proprietorship or partnership to an S Corp you will save yourself paperwork if you become an LLC.

THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE TO REMEMBER

The time you should really consider paying a bit more to set up your S Corp is when your compensation equals the reasonable salary to replace you in the business, including an additional amount for your management function. The best place to learn your reasonable salary is Salary.com.

There will be some additional cost as an S Corp

You will need a payroll service like Gusto, plus pay for unemployment taxes and additional tax filings. Email [email protected] to get set up in Gusto today.

There are more considerations in the process. Check out the episode to get all the financial impacts for free. It is also a good idea to discuss the legal implications with an attorney. We are not lawyers and do not offer legal advice in this episode.

If you would like to set up a call or a video call to get Kristin's help with your situation create an appointment with Kristin today.

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Salary.com http://salary.com/

Appointment with our CPA https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=11594269&appointmentType=4076834

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