Our Best Articles on Entrepreneurship and Running a Business
When I was doing my MFA, I was really comfortable with the idea of drafting in the creative process. When you first sit down to write a book, you literally CANNOT write the final draft. Your job is to get all of the story out of your brain. And from there your job is to shape the story, to edit and refine. Maybe you get lost, and you definitely write chapters that never see the light of day. It's part of writing a book. You cannot write version 17 without first sitting down and writing version 1, 2, 3, ...16. So why would I think I could jump to "final" with my business?
Jenni here, and it's no secret that when it comes to our partnership dynamic, I am definitely the one who is always geeking out about new systems and technology. I love a good CMS, or automation platform — anything that you can program to "make it do" without having to manually participate. Last October we launched a "Primd 2.0" if you will — new website, and LOTS of new systems to help us tackle growing and scaling in 2016. Today I am going to share with my 3 favorite systems we've implemented in the last 6 months, and why they work for us.
Sophie here, and this week I will be talking about obstacles of working from home. When it can be mentally hard to switch gears, the boundaries of running a household and running a business can blur. This time of year boundaries can also come into play if you give up our home office when family or friends come to stay with you.
Here are some suggestions to help you set healthily boundaries working from home, and how to adapt to change over the summer without it affecting your productivity and consequently your income.
As summer begins to the sound of the school bell ringing, those who run their business from home while raising kids will be about to embark on a fragmented schedule over the next few months. Sophie here, and the warmer long days are a nice prospect but the juggling act that comes with them can be challenging. You will be adapting to finishing earlier in the day to head off to camp pick up or arranging childcare cover that will change week to week. Friends will be heading to the park or the pool, but the endless emails and calls from work, will make you feel divided and overwhelmed at the thought of slowing down to be with your kids. This was me last summer. But I have decided this year will be different, and adapting to the change requires both preparation and a new mindset.
How do you get clarity when your feel stuck or divided about an importance decision?
Perhaps its an unfamiliar issue that feels like you are trekking through uncharted territory without a compass, or maybe it is a reoccurring problem that is draining your energy and affecting the efficiency of your business. A few easy and creative ways to make better decisions have presented themselves to me recently that I wanted to share with you.
"Do we really need a blog?" is a question we hear from our clients all the time. And there is a facial expression that accompanies that question: head tilted slightly forward, maybe an eyebrow raised and a gaze that says: You don't understand — I am spread so thin already. If am even going to consider adding something else to my plate, I need to know that it's going to pay off. I am so tired. And so busy. And so tired. Sound familiar?
In the last few weeks, we've had some exciting activity elsewhere on the Internet — Jenni wrote an article and featured in a video for LinkedIn around her experience losing a job and leveraging that opportunity to get herself into a new career field. It's gone viral! So we thought we'd share part of it here on Prim'd Notes blog for those who are hustling for their first break!
As a business owner, motivating yourself is probably one of the hardest parts to running your own business. Whether you are trying to get a business idea off the ground or trying to move things forward to grow your business, when you find yourself stuck at a roadblock or what feels like a dead end, it can be challenging and sometimes makes you want to give up.
The good news is, there are many ways you can help yourself in these situations, and most of them involve taking the time to be around other people in similar situations to you. Its amazing how talking about the everyday problems you face, and exchanging stories can be so helpful and rewarding.
These past twelve months have been one heck of a year for Sophie and I. In fact, twelve months ago, we were working together at a different company, but we had no idea the wild ride that was just around the corner for us.
In the spirit of this week, we thought we’d try something a little different. We took some time to think about what we were really thankful for as business owners and entrepreneurs, especially since this is our first Thanksgiving as Women in Business.
Jenni Heffernan Brown
Jenni has a skillful eye for writing and design and a love helping clients discover who they are and how they're different through words and visuals. At Prim'd Marketing, she's the resident branding and web strategist — she guides clients through identifying the best pieces of their experience, personality, and style to form a cohesive and authentic brand.
She's an end-to-end story teller; she has sharp skills in design coupled with an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco. She has 7+ years of marketing experience with clients ranging from Fortune 500 such as Pepsi and Taco Bell to small businesses and personal brands. Since moving to the Bay Area from Los Angeles, she's worked with startups as well as in the publishing and lifestyle industries.
When she isn't creating beautiful marketing and brand strategies through The Brand Plan for Prim'd clients, she writes and designs for Prim'd.
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One of the really interesting things that happened last year is that we launched a "new" product, Web Ready Kit. This offering seemed to click the rest of our packages into place. I say "new" because all of these services are things we've been doing for clients for years. But it's just been the last 12 — 18 months or so that we've started to formalize this process into even more clear cut steps: