If you dread Mondays and feel like your business is more draining that life giving then you may have lost focus on what it is you want to be doing, on who you want to work with and on connecting with them.

Now could be the perfect time for you to take stock and figure out exactly what you love doing, this could mean a change in direction for your business which should be exciting. It could mean you realise you're actually wanting to target a whole different audience and provide a range of different products and connecting with them should be different also.

By figuring these out makes for a simple straightforward marketing. Knowing exactly who you want to work with makes connecting with them that much easier and when you know exactly what you're doing on your marketing day-to-day, month-to-month saves you time, keeps you motivated and excited.

1. Figure out who are now, what work do you do now that you enjoy, maybe its a service you don't offer now, but have actually been asked about. Research overseas and see what others like you are doing, maybe they are doing something different you'd like to do
2. Who do you enjoy working with, who loves what you offer and comes back for more? You may find there is more than one market and that's ok, as long as you know about them you are able to connect with them
3. Work out some simple goals for your marketing. Is it to increase turnover by $___ and or grow your database and or fans to ___
4. Where will you connect with them, is it social media and blogging for a wider reach or events for a more local audience. List what you think appeals to each market.
5. From here you can work out 4 marketing strategies these could be online, events, email and print and then a 90 day promotional plan for each strategy working out social media posts and more including seasonal events that influence your markets. 

For me being in business from before my boys were born and throughout their little lives to date has been mostly very fulfilling, I have a creative outlet and a way to stimulate my sometimes exhausted mind as well as bringing in some more income for our little family. It means I get to spend time with them and also give them good memories of their childhood like going to the park, making Lego together, baking, going to the library and seeing what they're up to at Kindergarten. We have fun and sometimes during the day (but mostly at night) Mummy has work time which means they do an activity together by themselves for a while or watch a DVD (keeping screentime to a minimum of course : )

To be able to stay home and nurture your children and still have a creative outlet while bringing in that extra income I think is much more successful when you:

• Can work online via email, avoiding phone calls when you can when as I find as soon as I pick up the phone my almost 2 year old wants me and is very persistent!
  
• Know your audience, work out your dream client - who you really want to work with, these clients will pay what you're worth
  
• Know your value and charge accordingly. As a busy Mum providing a cheap product or service just isn't sustainable, packaging your expertise and listing the benefits (intangible) and features (tangible) positions you as a leader and means you can charge a higher price and differentiate yourself
  
• Work out your brand and plan your marketing strategies, keep it simple and aim for 4 or 5 strategies and plan a years or 6 months schedule from there, this is exciting!
• Block out work time and don't cross those boundaries between work and family time, enjoy your kids, get out and do something you like doing like a simple walk by the river ending up at the park, or a swim, these times are magical, switch off your phone and be in the now with your children
  
• Don't apologise to people that you have children and don't feel embarrassed that you are a Mum in business, if someone phones you and you have children making noises in the background so be it, be proud you are a pro and a Mum - WOW!
  
• Try to design some ways to earn passive income, perhaps you can write your expertise into an e-book?..
  
• Make the most of Social Media and email marketing, be creative with these and plan ahead to give you focus. This means you can quickly post what you'd planned to while the kids eat breakfast instead of taking an hour to think of something creative to post and then feeling guilty for not spending time with your kids.
  
• Don't feel the need to be a supermum, do what you can and feel proud, being a nurturer to your children is your first priority, don't stay up until midnight to get something finished if you can help it, a cranky Mum is an unhappy Mum
  
• Don't beat yourself up if you don't get your household chores done, there's always tomorrow
  
• Get help with babysitting from time to time, get out and do something you love, even as simple as visiting a gallery
  
• Become known for something, get creative and start a movement
  
• And lastly be the queen of positivity and feign confidence when you don't feel it until you do feel it especially around money if bills are flowing in, but work isn't, don't lie awake worrying about it, instead start a plan, work out ways to increase your income, it gives you such a boost!
  

Design is the end result of collecting the thoughts and ideas in your head and turning them into a visual presentation filled with personality.

It gives you confidence and clarity to show up in the world, claim your space and share your genius and (along with a few other key areas) is what sets you apart from anyone else!

Design Means:

• more money, because design says a lot about the value of your offerings
• more confidence, because you’ll feel great about promoting your new “thing” if it looks amazing
•  more time, because you’ll be able to focus on what you do best & leave the rest to me
•  more clarity, because when you design, you bring something to life

With most of the best online tools for your business freely available we can offer you one on one training on how to set these up and how to use them either on person on your device or via email.

Including:

Getting an email newsletter set up for you with design to match your brand and training to enable you to send out regular emails yourself, plus get a sign up form on your website to build your database

Getting Google Analytics on your website and learning how to find out who is visiting your site, how loing they are staying, where they are from and where they came from to get to your site as well as a lot of very details statistics to enable you to know if your website is workgin to it’s full capacity

Find out how to write for Google, how to set up your website pages to get on page one of Google and the tools to help speed up the process

If you're begrudgingly seeing the need to set up social media pages for your business and need some help to set them up, how to use them, how to make the most of them and what not to do, also which ones are a right fit for your business.

Adwords: Given Google can take a while to get on page 1, get on page 1 instantly with Adwords, we can show you how to set Adwords up, write some ads and set a budget and schedule. Get $75 Adwords credit when you spend $25 on your first Adwords campaign.

Plus more

In a noisy digital world and the force of social media you may be wondering if email newsletters are still worthwhile. Whether you send out a regular email newsletter already or are thinking about it sending a brief regular email newsletter in your marketing mix alongside your social media marketing is still worth doing. And using a free platform like Mailchimp means you can measure the opens and clicks, set up a sign-up form on your own website to build your database and even divide your database into groups for what you want to send to them.

Mailchimp is a very easy to use platform and makes sending out email newsletters a pleasure. If you’re thinking about changing over to something more simple or setting up a new newsletter then feel free to chat to me about what you could include for your audience, training to set it up and send yourself or send on your behalf options and design to make it eye catching.

If you’re thinking about your website and wondering if it is working to full capacity then it might be worth having a chat to see what if anything needs changing. I now offer a range of tools for you to make sure your site is working for your business…

• Nice looking easy to add to Photo gallery/s

·         Simple edit yourself portal meaning you add your own updates as often as you want

• Contact, order or quote form (Fully customisable forms for any use)
• Focused and effective Search Engine Optimisation
• Training session to learn how to keep the site up to date and add on to
• Slideshow/s with click on buttons
• Google map to show your location anywhere on the site
• Search site capabilities if you have a lot of content
• HD Video to capture your audience or ‘how tos’
• Audio music to accompany your site
• Documents like pdf, word or excel
• Youtube embedded into your site from your channel
• Flash for special effects
• Google Adsense to make extra income from your site
• Surveys if you want to find anything out from your audience
• Feed reader to create interest on your homepage for your blog
• Online bookings for clients to make appointments with you
• Forum for getting interaction
• Newsletter sign-up to build your database and find out what they’re interested in
• Blog on the same platform to create content for your brand
• Google Analytics and a wide range of Google tools to be in full control of your site including refreshing your changes
• Affordable Shopping cart website to start selling online
• DIY options for building your own site if you are on a budget
• Ways to keep your website fresh, get found online and get the action you require on the site whether it is getting people to request a quote, make contact, place an order or simply sign-up to your newsletter/s
• Making your site work better on mobile devices.

Search engine optimisation

Are you getting found online for what you want to be? Are you on page one of Google for your industry and location? If not there’s a good possibility you could be. If you think you might be missing out because your site isn’t optimised for the right phrases anymore then just be in touch, I have some options for you.

Have you looked at the new website? There are now a range of training options available for you.

Facebook
Best time: 1pm-4pm
Worst time: 4pm-8am

Pinterest
Best time: Saturday morning
Worst time: 2pm -8am

Simply let us know where your best advertising happens.