JennElwell, Author at Jenn Elwell

Business

How I Got Burned Advertising My Small Business

Over the past three and a half years I’ve invested in a number of advertising options. I’ve found them in various places like Facebook groups, emails I subscribed to, blogs, and personal recommendations. But across the board they have resulted to very little sales for my company. Which makes me very hesitant to invest in future advertising opportunities. But after contemplating what went wrong I’ve found three places that I messed up and, to save you the heartache and pinch in your checkbook, I want to share them with you.

The target market wasn’t right for me

Sometimes I get pulled in by good advertising. It’s a once a year offer! It’s got tons of free stuff! This is my only chance! And these marketing tactics distract me from being diligent on making sure that the opportunity is right for me. Then I end up spending advertising money some place where my target market doesn’t frequent. For instance, my target market for miniPeanuts is moms who work, who have disposable income, who love personalized items, who value quality, and who have a strong faith. So if I spent money marketing miniPeanuts on a platform geared toward single women who value organic items and like to go hiking, then I’m wasting my money. That’s a great place to market if your target market fits their audience, but if not, you’re not reaching your target audience by advertising there.

Takeaway Question To Ask Before Advertising: Does my target market frequent the location/site/magazine/etc that I’m considering investing in?

I didn’t know how many sales I would need to recoup my expense

In the past I’ve looked at advertising from the old adage “any advertising is good advertising” and figured if I could even make one sale from the advertisement that the additional awareness in the mind of the audience could compensate for the rest of my investment. Well, for small mama-owned businesses like us who are on a very limited budget, this could not be further from the truth! We don’t have unlimited funds to spend so if we’re going to invest in advertising, we need to know exactly how many sales we need to make to recover that money. While we want to expand our reach, if we’re not making our money back or more, then we need to move on quickly to another opportunity. If you want to invest in a new opportunity that you’re not sure will make you your money back, then you can work hard over the next few days to make those sales ahead of time to offset the advertisement expense.

Takeaway Question To Ask Before Advertising: How many sales do I need to make to recover the cost to advertise? Am I going to make that before I spend the advertising money or am I expecting the advertisement to make the money back for me?

I didn’t have a marketing strategy in place

In addition to not advertising where my target market was and not having a plan to recoup the money I spent, I also didn’t have a plan for my overall marketing so I would just buy in on an opportunity when it became available. This meant that I wasn’t strategically boosting ads on Facebook at a certain time or always advertising in one location during the non-holiday rush to keep my orders up. My advertising spending was thus erratic and ineffective. I would sometimes have ads running on two platforms and then go months without having an ad anywhere. With no game plan in place I was just throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. Let me tell you, this will not only leave you frustrated and burnt out but you’ll also burn through your money quick! If you don’t currently have a marketing strategy you can be looking out for a new eWorkbook to come to the shop in the next month or so to help you with that. But until then, sit down with a piece of paper, write down each month, and brainstorm how you’re going to market during that month and make sure you aren’t overlapping opportunities too much and you don’t leave any time without something in the works.

Takeaway Question To Ask Before Advertising: How does this opportunity fit into my marketing strategy?

Before we go I want to give you an example using one of my current marketing strategies. And, yes, these are all products/services that I offer but that doesn’t make the example any less accurate.

Company: miniPeanuts

Target market: Mothers who work, have disposable income, shop online, love personalized and unique items, value quality, have a strong faith, believe in a traditional way of life (close to family, respect, honor, etc), and aren’t fans of mass marketed goods.

Advertising opportunity: Mama’s Black Book

Target Market: Mothers who care about giving special gifts, shop online, support women-owned businesses, and value quality.

Does this match my target market? Yes!

How much does it cost and how many sales will I have to make to recoup that cost? A shop listing is currently $45 so I’ll have to sell three placemats or two plates to recover that cost.

Is that number of sales feasible and to be expected from this investment? Yes!

Does this fit into my marketing strategy? Yes, before the holidays I ramp up marketing in markets targeted to mamas for Christmas gifts so this along with participation in a number of gift guides and some promoted products on Etsy is a perfect fit for my marketing strategy.

Health

Anxiety Will Not Run My Life

Late last spring I went for an initial consult with a psychiatrist. I knew I was battling depression but when I finished my first evaluation, my doctor told me that I also had severe anxiety. As she started describing symptoms like racing thoughts, fatigue, inability to sit still, trouble sleeping, trouble breathing, I was able to look at each of them and say that they were daily occurrences in my life. While I was surprised, I was determined to fight back against the depression and anxiety and not let them control my life.

While I want to share more of my struggle and journey to overcome the anxiety and depression more with you over the course of the next few months, right now I want to share an opportunity with you. If you often feel the symptoms I described above and feel like you’re constantly battling worries that consume you, feel like you’re missing out on the time you spend with your kids, or wake up in the middle of the night with a brain that won’t quit going through a list of all the things you have to do or all the ways that you’re a failure, then this message is for you.

My dear friend (and cousin), Meredith, has just released an incredible free online workshop. I’ve been talking with her off and on for the better part of a year on this topic and so I was unsure if I would get a lot of benefit from her More Calm, Less Stress workshop last week. But I wanted to support her and can always use more help with dealing with my problems so I hopped on the call.

And y’all I was blown away by what I learned and how I’ve been able to put it into practice in my life just in the last five days. In her More Calm, Less Stress workshop Meredith dives into it all. From insecurity and anxiety to alcohol and the Sunday Scaries, she talks about all the lonely places stress and anxiety can take you (and has taken her). This workshop is free and is about an hour long and will give you a lot of insight into her background (she graduated from pharmacy school before she started her entrepreneur journey!) as well as give you some skills to control the anxiety instead of letting it control you.

At the very end of the workshop, Meredith introduces the next round of her program, Peace and Presence, where she will guide participants through tangible steps to learn HOW to experience the transformational power of Presence. Her online course includes weekly lessons which include a session in a yoga style that she has developed herself, writing prompts to encourage reflection and processing of emotions, and a mantra to help you fix your mind on success instead of letting the anxiety overtake you. Knowing Meredith’s background in pharmacy as well as her history struggling with anxiety herself, helps me have confidence that this program is going to do amazing things for women who battle anxiety.

The only catch is that the course starts on Monday so if you want to sign up you need to watch her More Calm, Less Stress workshop and sign up today! Her workshop also includes an amazing offer for participants wanting to take the course so make sure you watch until the end to take advantage of that! You can visit the workshop by clicking any images in this post or clicking the link to the More Calm, Less Stress workshop here.

As readers of Tales of a Peanut, you know that I only endorse people, products, and workshops that I fully believe in. As with everything that I recommend I only do so if I feel that it will benefit you and me. I am an affiliate for Meredith’s program which means if you indicate that you heard about this course through me, then I will receive a small commission. As an additional bonus, if you let me know that you sign up for her course, I will also offer a free 30 minute mastermind call with me to help you tackle any problems or questions that you have related to your business!

Also, if you struggle with depression and/or anxiety, I’d love to hear from you in my inbox. Tell me how I can pray for you as well as what you would like to hear about from me relating to my struggle. I’m glad to say that right now I feel pretty good and am thinking that I’ve found the right medicine combo that, along with modifying my thinking through therapy, are helping me to embrace and enjoy life. But I know, at least right now, that this is a daily struggle for me and for a lot of other people and I want to be as supportive and helpful as I can.

Business

Online Courses for the Mastermind Mamapreneur

This week I’ve spent a lot of time talking about online courses and webinars and how you can choose which ones to purchase and how you can maximize your learning from them. So today I want to share some of the online courses and webinars that either I’ve taken or created by people from whom I’ve gotten a tremendous amount of knowledge. These are ideal for creative entrepreneurs and Mastermind Mamapreneurs at all stages in their business.

1. Society for Creative Founders Course

If you’ve ever thought about attending the SCF conference but didn’t have the bandwidth to leave your family, this course is a great option for you. It covers the topics found in the conference but is hosted online. The course also gives you lots of extras like an expert who is in the forums with you each week while you learn and access to the SCF community membership site. Registration closes September 16 though so if you’re interested you need to sign up today!

2. Etsy on Autopilot

If you have an Etsy business or are thinking about starting one, this course by Kelsey is a great one to invest in. Kelsey does a great job showing you how she does things through videos and her worksheets and extras are superb. Plus, she has a thriving Etsy shop so you know she’s mastered the Etsy business model. If you’re not on Etsy but are a designer who wants to learn InDesign, the InDesign Field Guide taught me everything that I know about InDesign and totally changed the way I design.

3. Be Your Own CFO

I took one of the free webinars that Amy held when she launched this course and even the free webinar was extremely helpful. Amy is an accountant who works with creative entrepreneurs to make taxes and bookkeeping less stressful. This course would be great for you if your business finances are a mess and they overwhelm you but you don’t have the money yet to hire the tasks out.

4. Growing with Groups

Val Geisler has this course to help you jumpstart your Facebook group and create a plan to manage and grow your group so that it can start making you money. I’ve worked with Val on a number of different projects and she has provided me with invaluable advice. She also has a free eCourse called Gmail School that will help you whip your inbox into shape if getting to inbox zero is something you can only dream of!

5. Build a Stand Out Business

I haven’t taken a Tara Gentile course (although I did sign up for her free Pricing for Growth course when I went to grab this link), but I’ve learned a lot from her over the past few years. She is a force to be reckoned with in the business world and has a large following in her CreativeLive workshops.

6. Pinfinite Growth

While I haven’t taken this course from Melyssa but my VA, Erin, has and said that it was invaluable. Melyssa puts out so much valuable information that I can only imagine how helpful her courses are! She also has courses available on social media and email list building.

7. Google Drive for Bloggers

This free course from Kirsten Thompson is a great one to clue you in to some of the hidden possibilities that abound in Google Drive. Kirsten breaks topics down into an easy to understand format and is great at doing her best to help you if you have questions that aren’t answered in her course.

8. More Calm, Less Stress

This free webinar is hosted by Meredith McElroy who has battled through anxiety and wants to help others do the same. This is a great place to start your online learning if you haven’t participated in an online course or webinar before.

9. Mastering Content Upgrades

Spruce Rd. is a wealth of information for the mamapreneur and this course helps take your email strategy to the next level. If you have switched your email provider to ConvertKit she also has a course on designing for ConvertKit.

10. ChimpEssentials

If you use MailChimp, this course by Paul Jarvis is a good one to get you running at full speed with your email list. Plus, the course allows you access to six free lessons before you need to purchase so if you want to see all the topics and/or try it before you buy it this is a good one to try.

I know there are many, many more online courses out there that are beneficial. However, if I didn’t have experience with the creator or the content I didn’t include it in my list. I’d love to hear what courses you would add though! Either post them in the comments, or join the Mastermind Mamapreneur Facebook group and join the conversation there.

Business

5 Tips to Maximize Your Learning From Online Courses & Webinars

You can hardly go to a webpage these days without being pitched an online course or free webinar. While they’re everywhere, they can be a very affordable way to learn about new technology and business practices. But unless you do the work involved with the course or webinar it’s simply a waste of money.

Because I know that as mamapreneurs our business funds are tight, I want to give you some tips on how to maximize your learning when you take an online course or webinar.

1. Print any material provided before watching the lesson and familiarize yourself with the topic.

Whether you feel like you are a beginner with no experience on the topic or pretty close to an expert, there is always something that you can learn about a subject. Courses should always have notes accompanying their lessons, but many webinars will also provide notes for you to take notes on as you watch. Make sure that you have printed all of those before its time to watch the lesson and have read through them so that when the host uses a term that you weren’t familiar with before you will have at least a basic familiarity with it.

2. If you will have access to the lesson for more than one time (via a reply or course archives), watch the lesson the first time without taking notes. Then re-watch the lesson while taking notes.

As we take notes we often miss applicable information that might be said sequentially as we are still focused on writing down the previous point. Therefore, if you’ll be able to watch the lesson multiple times, watch it the first time without taking notes. This allows you to become familiar with all of the content presented and you’ll know what areas you want to really focus on. You can also watch it all once without stopping and then the second time pause the recording as needed so that you can make sure and write down all of the pertinent information.

3. After the lesson is over, take 15 minutes and review/write down any points that stuck out to you and made an impression.

In addition to any notes that you’ve taken, after the lesson is over get a blank sheet of paper and brain dump any points that really stuck out to you from the lesson. Don’t refer back to your notes but simply write the points that are still in your mind even without your notes. This is often the information that you will want to remember the most in the weeks and months following a course or webinar.

4. Jump into the course message board or hosts Facebook group to discuss any outstanding questions or receive feedback on the action takeaways that you made after the lesson. If the instructor gave you direct access to them, reach out to them as well.

Just as discussion in an in-person class is important to help us examine the information from multiple points, so is discussion with others in an online setting. Most online courses will provide a forum or message boards for those who have purchased the course to interact on. This is an ideal place to express what you’re currently working on, ask questions about points that you are unclear on, and receive feedback on the ways you are implementing the information in your business. As well, most if not all webinar hosts will host their own groups on Facebook or another platform which is another excellent place to discuss what you’ve learned.

5. Leave a review and give the instructor feedback.

Leaving a review for the instructor is a way that will maximize your learning in two ways. First, it will require you to reevaluate what you learned and how you’re using the information in your business. This will remind you of points of interest that you haven’t yet implemented and show you the ways that you’ve added your new information into your business successfully already. Second, it will help the instructor refine their teaching, materials, and topics so in the future their courses or webinars will be even more helpful for you and your peers. The one caveat for this though is to remember that the instructors are real people just like you. You should always keep any feedback constructive only and only reference things that the instructor actually had control over.

Tomorrow I’m going to share the courses that have helped me in my business in hopes that you can benefit also. If you have a course that you think is great and mamapreneurs would benefit from, let me know in the comments. Or, head over to the Mastermind Mamapreneur Facebook group and join in to our conversations on e-courses and webinars.

Business

How To Decide Which ECourse To Purchase

If you thought you would be through with education when you finished college, being a mamapreneur is probably a huge shock to you. Everywhere you turn there is a new e-course coming out that promises to solve your problems and provide the secret formula for success that you can’t get anywhere else. But how do you decide which e-course you should buy?

I would recommend an in person conference over an e-course any day. However, the time and money that is required to attend a conference is often prohibitive for those juggling being a mama and a businesswoman. E-courses also have the luxury of focusing on a very small speciality to allow you to become an expert in the topic whereas a conference will not give you the same depth of knowledge.

Here are the questions I ask myself before I purchase an e-course.

Have I already purchased a course on this topic that I haven’t completed?

Regardless of what this course promises, if you already have an e-course that you’ve purchased but not completed on this topic you shouldn’t purchase another one on the same topic. If you’re not sure, search your computer for some keywords that are likely to be in the course information and see if anything comes up or search your email in the same way. You should always complete a course that you’ve already purchased before deciding if there is more information that you can learn about a topic.

Is this something that I NEED to have for my business?

Just like I have to ask my kids if the toy they see is a need or a want, so also do I have to ask myself that about courses. Does the course address an area that I am not proficient in but becoming proficient in it would expand my offerings or make me more efficient? Can the course directly help me with my product or service offerings or some other area of my business (i.e. marketing, copywriting, etc)? Will taking this course allow me to charge more for my services due to my increase in knowledge? Will taking this course allow me entrance into an alumnae group that has benefits far beyond the reaches of the information learned in the course? If you can’t answer yes to at least one, but preferably more than one, of these then you shouldn’t buy the course.

Do I have the funds to purchase it outright?

Nothing in life is a guarantee and the results that you’ll see from taking a course are no different. Not only might it take you months or a year or more to implement what you learn in the course, but the knowledge that you learn my end up being not as applicable to your niche as you hoped it would be. This is why I recommend only purchasing a course if you can pay for it in cash. I learned this lesson the hard way from purchasing a course or two that I didn’t have immediate time to dedicate to it but it was a limited time offer and I just had to go ahead and purchase it so I bought it on credit. By the time I started looking into the course I found it similar to other information I already knew, the refund period was over, and I now had a purchase on my company credit card with no direct income to immediately cover it. Don’t make my mistake! If you can’t purchase the course with cash, then don’t purchase it. There is no time that information will never be available again in some form or another.

What would I need to do to recoup this cost either in the future or right now?

If you don’t have the funds in the bank to pay cash for the course right now, calculate what you could do to immediately earn that money or what it will take in the future to earn it. Can you have a flash sale to raise immediate funds? Will it only take the sale of ten products one month to cover the cost and you typically have sales of that or more going to profit each month? Or will it take you multiple months of above average sales to recoup the cost? Determine if you can either raise the money now or if it’s realistic to think that you can make that money back before your credit card bill would be due before you purchase.

Can I allocate the time needed to finish this course from my daily schedule?

This item is typically thought of last but it really should be one of the first things we consider. Do you have the bandwidth in your schedule to actually complete the course. Some courses can be completed with as little as 30 minutes a day or a few hours a week, while some courses require hours a day to go through the material and significant dedication over a number of weeks in order to finish them. Find out how much time you will need to dedicate to the course and whether you can rearrange your schedule to set aside time to the course immediately. If you can’t complete the course immediately, your chances of actually going back and taking the course are much smaller. Either make time to take the course immediately or make a plan with a specific date when you will do the work required with the course. If you don’t set a hard and fast deadline for yourself — and have someone hold you accountable for it — the course will simply sit on your computer accruing artificial dust while the money could have been in your account collecting interest.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve purchased my fair share of e-courses online. Some have been extremely beneficial and some have been a bust. Tomorrow I’m going to share some ways that you can maximize your learning from e-courses and webinars. And then the next day I’ll share the courses that I’ve purchased that have been worth the investment for me. We’re also discussing e-courses and continuing education in business all week in the Mastermind Mamapreneur group on Facebook so come join the discussion there as well.

Business

Tip Tuesday #5 – My Biggest Business Mistake

Over the past few weeks I’ve started sharing some of the tidbits of knowledge that I’ve picked up over my last three years in the entrepreneurial world. I’m calling this series Tip Tuesday and am excited to share tip #5 with you today. I learned this lesson after making my biggest business mistake.

My biggest business mistake has been chasing all the rabbit trails about what I should do in my business. This person posts 10 times a day on every social media channel — so should I! She does a giveaway every week — so should I! She only sells on Instagram — so should I!

I have realized that just because one person does something one way doesn’t mean that doing it that way will be a success for me. I have to figure out what avenues work best for my business and pursue those because someone else’s marketing strategy will not work for my company just like my strategy wouldn’t work for theirs. By limiting the amount of time I spend reading and researching for what so-and-so says works, I’ve spent the time digging into my stats and my business to find what works for me!

Some suggestions on how you can apply this in your business might be

Checking out Iconosquare to see when you get the most engagement on Instagram posts and only post at those times even if those aren’t the “recommended” times by experts
Determining which social media platform works for you and only engaging on it. It could be LinkedIn for you, it could be Twitter, it could be Facebook, but find what works for your business and spend your time there. Otherwise, you’re wasting your time! (Pssst…I would recommend getting your handle on all platforms though and posting one image, pinned tweet, pinned message, etc telling customers where they can interact with you. That way for those who might look for you on the other platforms they see that you are legitimate and no one else can steal your handle on those platforms.)
If your mentor is on Squarespace but you’re on WordPress and love it, don’t switch just because your mentor is on a different platform! They can both work for each of you!
Don’t be offended if you recommend a product, service, or strategy to a friend and they don’t implement it in their business. Just like you, they’ve got to do what works for them.

Have you fallen into the trap of doing things just because you feel like “everyone” is doing it? I’d love to hear some examples in the comments if only to feel like I’m not the only one who has struggled with this!

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