Summer is officially here! Hooray! For some of us that means slower days filled with leisurely reading books, lying in your hammock, sipping lemonade and getting out of town for a few camping trips. For others of us it's a busy season for work and homeschool planning. I fall a bit in the middle.

As a homeschooling mom and solopreneur, finding time to get everything organized for the month can take some time. I set aside the 1st of the month to do this (or as close to it as I can get). It usually takes me 1-2 hours. However, this month it is taking a bit longer than usual because of our recent move. There are a number of new activities to research and decide which ones will make the cut and get added to our family and my business calendar.

Last month I mentioned that February seemed like a bit of a ”Groundhog’s Day” from last year. Well, my March was pretty much like last year too. I had the same scary news plus having the flu run through our household did quite a number on my ambitions.

I accomplished quite a bit in February despite illness running through our house and am excited to be here another month to keep at it. I started out in February writing a series on goals for your life and your business.

Big news this week from my favorite CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Platform, Dubsado. In conjunction with their annual birthday sale, #6 this year, they announced a new starter plan, have several new training webinars and a big giveaway!

I start thinking of goals in December and start a note in my Notes App on my phone. You just need to have a go-to place that is handy and available when an idea strikes. Next year, I hope to spend the 1st week of the month reviewing the current year's goals. I evaluate what worked well and what did not. I also consider if the goals I didn’t get to at all will stay on the list or I will let them go and move on. I also want to set aside a few brainstorming sessions to bring together all the dreaming and review.

Last year’s goal planning and executing was cut short for me. Perhaps yours was too? My hope is you had a stellar year of course, but if things were not quite as you’d hoped, know that you are not alone. I pray you can have the courage to continue as little steps add up to so much, especially when we look back from the other side.

If you’ve recently started a side hustle, are in the beginning stages of developing your business, or are several years in, you need to set some actionable and measurable goals. This will help you to have a plan to move forward and can provide some parameters on which steps or actions to focus on first.

Today I’m walking you through how to customize all the essential brand settings. Dubsado is a very powerful CRM and will take quite a bit of time to learn all the ins and outs. Our focus today is what to do when you open the application for the first time. We’ll get all the essential branding item details set and off your to-do list.

Today I’m walking you through how to customize all the essential brand settings. Dubsado is a very powerful CRM and will take quite a bit of time to learn all the ins and outs. Our focus today is what to do when you open the application for the first time. We’ll get all the essential branding item details set and off your to-do list.

As a new business owner one important facet to consider is how you are going to invoice your clients and accept payments. If you are a service provider another important thing to have in place is a contract and a way to collect signatures. 

I believe that the majority of my business will be conducted online versus face-to-face so I went in search of an application that would generate invoices, contracts, collect electronic signatures, and accept online payments. These were my primary needs and where my search started. 

There are so many free tools available on the internet today. I am honestly surprised and very grateful for the continued generosity of developers. They make it so much easier to start and manage an online business. 

The list of free tools is nearly endless, but today I’m going to rein it in and talk about my top three must-have tools to use in your first year of business. 

Many business owners have become true fans of Square payment processing and their innovative and streamlined approach to payment processing.

When we owned our first restaurant, implementing Square and their mobile card reader into our business made an enormous difference in the customer experience, speed of the payment transaction, and where it really counts--their very reasonable transaction fees and quick payouts. 

So you are thinking you want to build a new website for your business. There are several things you can do now before you take the technical plunge down the website building rabbit hole. There are so many things to think about as you begin this endeavor.