How I Am Successful At Work (Online Biz Edition)
Hi friends and fellow online business advocates! So, I think success at business is a pretty important topic. Specifically, a business that is online, and something that you create and care for all on your own. I could talk about how to be successful at any job, but working for someone else, outside of your home is a lot different than building your own business from the ground up. Technically, social media business is different than other types of entrepreneurial businesses. In my case, I do Youtube as a full time job, but I also have thrown in a writing component (my blogs here on my website, as well as on a writing platform called Medium), and a sticker/planner shop as well. I cannot simply refer to that as a sticker shop because I don’t know what the future has in store for me and I am not placing any limitations on it just yet.
As I have said in another blog, “How To Be Successful At Home, and At life” (which you can read here: https://sandradahl.ca/organization-productivity-1/https/sandradahlca/blog-page-url/https/sandradahlca/blog-page-5), success is relative…everyone has a different goal that they want to achieve…some people want to make more money, others simply want to see if they can learn new things and satisfy their need for creativity or to contribute to the world somehow. Everyone has a different level they want to get to; your experience, age, wisdom and previous knowledge will be the limitations you work with. To be successful means to achieve, but everyone has a different state of mind, and there are many roads that lead to your version of success.
Let’s talk about some ways I have found success (big or small) because it’s important to celebrate all the wins.
I started.
Sounds simple enough, right? It’s really not all that simple. Some people are so afraid of not doing everything absolutely perfect so they never let themselves have a chance to start. Trust me, there is a difference between doing something perfect, and to giving something your all. (Perfect means there is no room to do better, or to learn, and again, perfect is all in the eyes of the beholder. Perfect to you is not perfect to me necessarily.
Sometimes all we need to do is to get the ball rolling, and things start to fall into place. That’s kind of what happened to me. If you were to ask me three years ago what I envisioned for my business, I probably never would have described everything that I’m currently involved in. I didn’t know if I liked or would even continue with YouTube. The beginning was a huge learning curve, and everything seemed so stressful. Looking at the numbers at the beginning seemed absolutely hopeless, and I didn’t see myself going anywhere fast. At times, I felt downright discouraged and there were times I wanted to just give up.
2. I didn’t stop
It’s a lot easier to stop doing something (especially if it’s challenging) than to keep doing it. I wanted to give up in the beginning, many times in fact. I would easily get frustrated because at the beginning of anything, it’s hard work. You need to research, and you need to work. Its good to have a cheerleader in your corner. You need someone you can bounce ideas off of and someone’s shoulder to cry on.
To be completely honest, the first year in I was more anxious than at the beginning. I wanted to quit, but I also realized how much hard work I had already invested. I didn’t want to throw away all that time, money and energy when it was so much more worthwhile to hold out and see where things took me. Looking back, I’m so glad I did. After a few tweaks here and there, I have established my niche. I feel like the most lucky girl in the world to do something I love every single day, and also to make money at it, which now, seems like the icing the cake.
3. Plan
You guys know that I am a huge advocate of having a planner. I’ve used many different planners in my lifetime, some have worked better than others. As a matter of fact, I am always changing my planner system - sometimes it means a completely new planner type, or maybe just new inserts or decorations. Either way, for me, planner peace does not mean sticking to one planner. It means making my planner work for me, and when I start to get bored (which is easily, and all the time), my planner no longer functions for me the way it should.
So I’m really using the term “have a plan” as an all-encompassing catch-all for everything you need to do in your business. This includes creating goals (which stem from your values, and where you want your business to grow and thrive), making a schedule, planning content, marketing, advertising, taking pictures, and administration tasks such as taking care of finances. Where do you keep all this information? It could be all digital, so it’s portable and easy to share between different people. I am a paper planner - I love the physical aspect of having and maintaining a planner (but in my case, my planners and planning processes are the basis for my business). Some people may even keep all their documents and work in physical file folders, similar to larger businesses.
4. Schedule
This is a really important aspect of planning. When do you work on your business? Do you do different tasks at different times or on different days? My schedule has changed quite a few times over the last three years, for many different reasons. For starters, I had a baby and had to cut back my video schedule of six videos a week to a total of three. As my daughter got older, I added back more content as I found more time.
In my case, I have many different tasks that I do during a given week. Some of these are:
Writing Blogs
Editing/Proof-reading
Posting/Scheduling
Marketing
Filming
Prep/Set up for Videos
Editing
Posting/Scheduling
Creating thumbnails
Designing Stickers
Creating Sticker Orders
Designing & making planner charms
re-ordering supplies as needed
Adding Content to Website
Designing/re-designing website
Brainstorming Ideas
Analyzing data, checking stats
Monthly Finance Close Out
Finance Admin (adding receipts, etc)
Content Marketing
I made four executive decisions for myself:
I batch content (over days and weeks)
This means that I take all of one type of task and do it all at once. For instance, if I make five sticker sheets in one day, I’ll do all the designing at once, then I’ll do the white background, then I send them all to my computer, etc… (as opposed to doing one sticker sheet, sending it, and then another, etc…) It is proven that this saves you time. (I have learned this from experience also). Sometimes I do this with videos. When my husband is home from work, I will take that week to film up to seven videos for the weeks when I don’t have the time to film.
I theme my days (and weeks)
Theming is giving your day (or half-days if you can manage that) an over-all plan. For instance:
Mondays I work on my journaling, spiritual and shadow work goals; I also transfer my blog from my website to Medium.com.
Tuesdays, I work on sticker design and uploading them to Etsy and my website.
Wednesdays are for filming budgets and writing blogs
Thursdays I reserve for editing
Fridays are filming my Plan With Me videos and planning my work week
Saturdays are catch up days, so if I am done all my work, it becomes a bonus day off.
I give myself Sunday off as an absolute day off
You want to give yourself time for self-care and that includes relaxation time. It could look different for everyone, and I use it for different purposes. Sometimes I will use it to visit family or friends, or I’ll have a hot bath, or go swimming. It just depends, but whatever I don’t do, is work. (I also try not to think about it either).
I limit how many social media platforms I use
In this ever-expanding world of the internet and social media, it’s not wise to spread yourself too thin. Many different platforms are excellent for different things and it is my suggestion to do your research. Ask what can this platform do for me? I have limited mine to just Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Patreon, Medium and my website). I have not joined the tik-tok band-wagon, nor will I in the future. I also never really got involved with Pinterest on a professional level, although I know many social media professionals who have and have had great success with it.
The majority of my filming work and marketing is done on Youtube and Instagram, with my website and medium picking up the slack for my sticker shop and blog. When I first started adding new platforms and new tasks to my list, I found it very challenging to make it fit into my schedule. However, as you get used to doing things, you learn to do it faster and better until it eventually becomes second nature.
Remember, no matter what business you have, create your schedule, but then you need to actually follow it. The key is consistency. People will come to depend on your schedule (either employees, customers, other businesses, or even yourself). Being consistent helps with habits in all other areas and you know when you are expected to do certain things.
5. Use Social Media to your advantage
Unlike me, your business might not actually revolve around social media. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t use it. You can’t deny we live in a digital age, even if you are not used to using it. No matter what kind of business you have, the good old door-to-door campaigning and paper business cards just aren’t cutting it anymore. Not to mention, more and more people are using unlisted cell phones, so you can’t simply go through the phone book to call people.
Like I mentioned above, it’s good to limit the number of platforms you use for marketing and advertising, because you don’t want to burn yourself out. However, you could always hire contract workers or employees to help with marketing on social media platforms. This is very common today in online business. If you use an online project management tool like Asana or Trello, you can easily communicate ideas with a team remotely.
Many social media platforms have their own built-in store management tool. For example, you can set up a store front on Facebook or Instagram and market and sell all from one platform. Or, you can send people to a website or landing page from a link on one of these platforms, which is what I did.
The fun thing about social media is that it is all remote. You can market, search, sell and advertise all from the comfort of your living room. Also, you can cross promote across all the different platforms. With the click of a button, people can click on a link and be sent where ever you want them to go. Beautiful, bright pictures and inspiring content are eye-catching and will get you more clientele quicker than you can say “online business”!
Lastly, don’t get caught up in the comparison game. There will always be other people with gorgeous pictures and great content. My advice to you is use that content for inspiration. Use it to create your own ideas in your own niche. It’s easy to see someone else’s posts and compare what you’re doing to their work. DON’T DO IT. You are an individual with different ideas, a different voice and a different outlook on life. You are able to offer your audience something different than anyone else in the world, and that’s saying something. Be unique, and your audience will love you for it.
6. Brainstorm
Give yourself time to think of new ideas, even if it’s a whole day. New ideas are important. Use inspiring content from online (as I said above), and come up with your own new ideas in your niche. If you feel stuck, come back and try again.
You might surprise yourself and get a great idea spur of the moment. Make sure to keep your phone or a notebook handy at all times so you can jot down notes about ideas that come to you over the course of your day.
Having conversations with other people can also help to get your brain rolling. Someone might suggest an idea and it might spark a whole new idea. Collaborations are great, even if you don’t technically have employees. Sometimes I talk to my mom about new ideas for my blog, and she can be a great inspiration!
Thank you for reading today’s article! I hope you found some useful and inspiring content that you can put to use in your own business!
Cheers,
Sandra