Staying Solo

When you think about building a strong relationship built for success and longevity, what do you think matters most?  Whether it's business or personal, trust is going to be one of the most important building blocks you'll need.  Unfortunately, the status quo of online business is all about teaching us tips, tricks, and tactics that make us THINK we're building a foundation of trust — only to find...

Would you do business with someone you don't trust? Of course not! Problem is, we don't always know a business is trustworthy before we're in too deep.  What we initially view as trust is actually superficial. It's built using toxic and twisted tactics to get us to a place where we think trust exists. And those tactics are exactly how we're taught to build an online business, which brings the ques...

Do you ever feel a disconnect from what you see going on in the world of online business and how you're actually running your business?  There's so much chatter that seems to be focused on making more (and more and more) money that sometimes we can start to feel like maybe we're not doing things right.  Now, don't get me wrong — running a business can be awesome. But having to unlearn and think cr...

Do you ever feel a disconnect from what you see going on in the world of online business and how you're actually running your business?  There's so much chatter that seems to be focused on making more (and more and more) money that sometimes we can start to feel like maybe we're not doing things right.  Now, don't get me wrong — running a business can be awesome. But having to unlearn and think cr...

Have you ever looked at someone else's business and wondered what *really* goes on behind the scenes? The end of the year is often a time for reflection, and here at Small Business Boss we always like to take a look at what went on during the past 12 months to celebrate the wins and learn some lessons.  That's why In this episode, I sat down with Sara, our director of community and client service,...

Is it just me or do you sometimes feel like December can be a pressure cooker of expectations to plan, plan, plan for the coming year? Now, don't get me wrong — I loooooove me some planning.  What I *don't* love is this ridiculous and arbitrary demand on me that I must plan NOW.  Could be my rebel nature, could be the cumulative effect of things being really hard to plan in the midst of a pandemic...

Have you wondered if your money goals are actually YOUR goals?  How to make money, how to manage money, and how much money you "should" be striving for is always a hot topic in the world of online business. We're flooded with so many messages that sometimes, we end up pushing ourselves to meet goals that don't actually serve us or our business.  We're told if we're not scaling we're failing, and t...

Have you ever assumed that just because something is high ticket, it must be good? We've certainly been there, but here's the problem -  What exactly IS "high ticket", anyway?  A certain dollar amount? A specific level of service? A high return on investment? The reality is that one person's high ticket could be loose change for another, and the big price tag really means nothing in terms of actua...

Have you ever felt like no matter how much you do you're always seeing messaging telling you to hustle even harder? As an industry, online business is alllllll about the hustle. Hustling is worn as a badge of honor, but what we don't talk about is what that 24/7 hustle can mean for us — Burnout, feeling apathetic and overwhelmed and more. So, is this culture of hustle really the dream we should be...

There are a lot of stories we tell ourselves as entrepreneurs, but there's one, in particular, I hear time and time again from the people I work with: "I'm bad at sales." Now, you may or may not be a gifted salesperson, But so much of how we think of sales is wrapped up in antiquated myths and a ton of BS about what we "should" and "shouldn't" do.  Add in a never-ending stream of courses and progr...

*Check out the first episode of Duped, season 2* Stop us if you've heard these ones before - "Make money while you sleep!" "Never trade dollars for hours again!" "Create it once and set it on autopilot!" We all know celebrity entrepreneurs make BIG promises when selling us a course that teaches us how to create… another course. But do courses actually live up to the hype? Are they the passive inco...

Does the idea of having to hand off work to other people make you break out in a cold sweat? Do you ever find yourself thinking "it will be faster if I just do it myself"? *raises hand sheepishly* The struggle is real, my friends.  As someone who has a somewhat challenging relationship with delegation, it's a muscle that I have to consciously work on building.  Thankfully, I've had someone guiding...

Despite how those FB ads make it look, running an agency and being the boss isn't all sitting back and watching the cash roll in while your team gets the job done. No matter how much you *think* you know about what the reality is, like so much else in life, you don't know what you don't know until you're actually in the thick of it.  That's why in this episode, I'm sharing 7 things I wish I knew b...

Do you ever feel like you don't have enough hours in the day? Like you're already working too much but could still be doing more?  Then there's the fact that your services are in demand and you would take on even more work if you were able.  You WANT to grow your business, but driving yourself into the ground isn't a solid strategy. Right about now, running the agency business model may seem like...

You know those low cost products all over your social media feeds making big promises?    You may like them, or you may find them annoying, but there's a very specific strategy around them. And a lot of those strategies are a big problem from my point of view. So I got curious and bought 9 of these products to analyze them.  In this episode and essay, I'm sharing my findings from that analysis I d...

When you think about your values, it's probably pretty easy to list what matters to us personally. But what about your biz? We've all done those exercises where we sit down and write out a mission or a vision statement, or define the values for our business. But all too often they just end up in a file folder and forgotten about while we carry on with getting our work done. How do we ensure the va...

Have you ever been talking to a potential client and they ask you what sort of results working with you will get them? I have, and honestly, it always gets my back up a little. Is it a valid question? Absolutely. But in the online world, "results" are all too often tied directly to cold hard cash. People are selling the promise of making big money if you work with them or buy their system, and tha...

You know what's annoying? How much people in the online space crap on service businesses. Celeb entrepreneurs are selling ways for us to get OUT of service businesses, with an understanding of an unspoken hierarchy where those who offer services are seen as less than those that focus on courses or programs.  This results in more and more people getting lured away from their service businesses and...

Have you ever heard someone say that there's no money in services? I have, and I strongly disagreed.  The service business model is one of the simplest around, and you can definitely make money — if you know what you're doing.  A service business doesn't have to be complicated, despite what you may have been told.  The reality is those celebrity entrepreneurs  and inexperienced coaches — who like...

Have you ever felt like things in your business aren't running the way they should? Like your services are out of whack or what you sell is a struggle to deliver? While every business is unique, the online business world often tries to tell us there is one way to do things — not accounting for any of the complexities we may need to consider when building our business model. And that sets us up to...

Have you ever had a coach try to jam you and your business into a cookie-cutter system or blueprint?  I have, and guess what? IT DIDN'T WORK!  While there's nothing wrong with looking to "experts" to provide some guidance, the reality is that these one-size-fits-all solutions are rarely going to yield the results we're looking for.  In this episode, we're looking at the problem with these blueprin...

Tell me if you've heard this one before… It's time to raise your prices. Raising your prices is one of the most common, yet potentially problematic pieces of advice in the online business world. Pricing is complex and layered, and the way it's taught typically only serves one person - the seller. The goal of so many of these strategies is to help the seller amass wealth, even if it does harm to th...

I'm back from my content sabbatical and I have news. **A NEW LIMITED SERIES PODCAST** Introducing: Trusted: Alternatives to the BS of Online Business. Are you tired of the BS?  ME TOO.  When it comes to how we market and sell our businesses, and what we buy, we've got choices.  The people marketing and selling to us just don't want us to know it.  In the new limited series podcast Trusted, we're g...

If you're a fan of the BS-Free Service Business Show, check out Duped. Duped is a limited series podcast hosted by myself and Dr. Michelle Mazur, where we talk about the dark side of online business that you need to know about, and more importantly, how to protect yourself from falling prey to these tactics and tricks.  __ Have you ever seen something online and felt like it looked awfully familia...

If you're a fan of the BS-Free Service Business Show, check out Duped. Duped is a limited series podcast hosted by myself and Dr. Michelle Mazur, where we talk about the dark side of online business that you need to know about, and more importantly, how to protect yourself from falling prey to these tactics and tricks.  __ Want to buy a Ferrari? Use a private jet? Stay in 5-star hotels?  According...