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Monday Motivation-Build Your Dream
They say when you work for someone else you’re helping them live their dream and not your own. This week, think about what type of business you can launch. Could it be one that starts out as a side gig or something you do for a few hours every night when you come home from the job you’ll leave when you become your own boss? This week, let’s dream BIG.
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Friday Ramblings-Happy Valentine’s Day
Wishing you all a Happy Valentine’s Day. How was your week? What plans have you put in place to start a business or take your current one to the next level? I’ve been working on upcoming classes I’ll be teaching this summer and also my first digital product for you, the Budget Smart Girl audience. I hope to launch it next Thursday. It will also be part of a bundle sale that April Lemarr (hope you checked out her interview with me), is hosting in March. In fact, knowing I wanted to be part of it, gave me the kick up the you know what to actually get something created.…
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Passive Income-Everybody’s Dream
Imagine if you could put earning money on some sort of cruise control… You’ve probably seen no end of books, YouTube videos, podcasts, well, you name it on the topic of passive income. We’re going to explore the topic here at BSG continually. Lots of side gigs and many business pursuits involve passive income, so let’s talk about what it is and what it’s not. Passive income, as I mentioned in my intro is sort of like putting your car on cruise control. You do the work of starting the car, driving it onto the freeway and then getting it up to freeway speed, and then you press a button,…
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Wednesday Interview with April Lemarr
This week’s guest is April Lemarr. I’m on April’s mailing list and I’ve bought products from her and I strongly encourage you to sign up to her mailing list and check out all the wonderful products she provides content creators. We’re going to talk more about PLR and how you can use it to add content to your site but for now, enjoy my interview with April. Tell us about yourself and your business. Hi my name is April Lemarr and I own Niche Starter Packs. My business provides done-for-you content to small business, bloggers, entrepreneuers and coaches. There are three easy steps — Download. Personalize. Use as your own.…
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Making Money by Sharing Your Skills
Teaching, coaching, tutoring, so many names for the ways you share your skill with others. One thing they all have in common is it’s a great way to make some extra money or even turn it into your full time business. I turned to tutoring during the Great Recession when more freelance assignments were far and few between, and more work was getting outsourced. I enjoyed it so much that I actually started to drop some of my freelance writing gigs and switched more to teaching others how to write. I began teaching classes through some of the chapters of the Romance Writers of America. About four years ago, I…
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Monday Motivation-Be Happy
I saw this quote by John Lennon and thought it would be perfect for this week’s Monday Motivation. Pursue things that make you happy and surround yourself with people that make you smile.
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Friday Ramblings-Tackling the To Do List
February is under way and how are you doing with your to do list? This week I finished creating lessons for a promotion boot camp I’ll be teaching next month. I’d been working on them and the workbook for about two or three weeks so I was happy to have that project completed. I thought about switching to something completely different but then decided I might as well stick with lessons and workbooks. I’ve opted to get started on creating the lessons for the upcoming summer writing retreat. For the last month or so, (if you add up the lessons, the blog posts, my other writing projects), I’m probably averaging…
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Domain Name and Hosting
Domain name, hosting WordPress.com versus WordPress.org….. Lots of people have their own views on web sites, platforms to use, where to register domains, but as promised, I’ll share with you, what’s worked, and what’s not worked for me. I’ve always been loyal to WordPress and I should add initially I used their .com version. Anything too technical isn’t for me. In fact, ask anyone who know me and they’ll tell you, I get into a panic! Someone suggested WordPress and it’s the only platform I’ve ever used because even for someone like me, it’s easy to use and enables you to use have a site up and running in no…
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Monday Motivation-
I love this quote because it reminds us that no matter what we’ve done in the past, businesses that didn’t take off as planned, savings that got drained, a project that got sidelined, none of that matters. What lies ahead is what counts. This week, put away all negative thoughts, moments when you dwell on the past and those times when you catch yourself saying if I’d only you’d done this or not. Let it go and look to the future. It’s there where you success awaits you.
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An Entrepreneur’s Journey
This week, I’ve been creating the lessons for the how to promote your book boot camp I’m teaching in March. Today, I worked on a lesson on social media and realized that I hadn’t worked in public relations for twenty years. Twenty years, I thought, had it been that long? It’s what actually gave me the topic idea for this post. It was back in 2000, yes, the beginning of the new century that I decided to venture out on my own. It wasn’t something I’d intended to do. I’d been working for a publishing company as a publicist. During my third year there, I got a sense that things…
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Monday Motivation-Keep Your Dream
Each of us has a dream that’s unique. What’s yours? Think about it often. Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be achieved. The one and only thing that can prevent you from living your dream is you.
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Business Talk Thursday-Let’s Focus On Why
The difference between success and failure is often due to lack of motivation. When things get hard like when you’re freelancing, running a business, or just simply trying to make some extra money, it’s often lack of knowing your true why that puts an end to your plan. Get a sheet of paper and write down why you want to pursue whatever it is you dream about. Are you saving to buy your first home? A comfortable retirement? An early retirement? The once in a lifetime trip around the world? Living the life you love is different for each of us so simply writing down I want to make more…
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Thursday-Business Talk
It’s Thursday and beginning next week, that’s the day we talk business here at Budget Smart Girl. Some weeks the focus will be on promotion and marketing you and your business. Other weeks, growing an e-mail list and getting people to buy whatever it is your selling. We’ll also focus on money, how to run your business the budget smart way, and how to manage it once you’ve made it. We’ll even talk about things like passive income and maybe even a review of products and apps that are supposed to help us run our business and manage our time more effectively. Is there anything you’d like to see discussed…
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Blogging Tuesday
This week I’m giving you a preview of what each Tuesday will feature here at BSG. The first Tuesday in each month will focus on blogs and blogging. It’s a popular way for people to make money, promote a business, or even set up a web site if you freelance or sell products. I thought I’d kick things off with my own blogging story and how Budget Smart Girl actually came to be. I was writing for a site called Hearth and Home and had a column there called Eating Well on a Budget and then had a second column called The Budget Smart Girl’s Guide to the Universe. I…
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Monday Motivation-Keep Your Vision
Happy 2020. Welcome to the first Monday Motivation. Each week I’ll post an image with a quote that I hope will guide you through the week. A motivating thought that will help you when you feel like giving up your dream of making money or just simply living the live you love. Let’s begin this debut post with this quote about sticking to your vision. And if you’d like to see another Monday Motivation quote or have an interest in writing, check out my other site at www.thiswriterslife.com Enjoy your week and remember to live the life you love.
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What’s Ahead in 2020?
As 2019 slowly draws to a close, it’s time to begin thinking about 2020. Do you already know what’s on your to do list, or what goals you’re going to tackle? As you know, I’m giving Budget Smart Girl a makeover. I’ve been brainstorming things I’d like to feature on the site and what sort of content I’d like to provide. I can’t promise that we’ll have the full week’s line up straight away but here’s what I’d eventually like to feature each week. Monday-it’s all about getting motivated. Lots of us have ideas for earning money and launching a business but what separates the just thinking about it from…
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E-Book Giveaways
2020 is just around the corner. BSG going in a new direction, and maybe you are too. I’m giving away a copy of each of my new planners (you’ll get the e-book versions). The first one is the goal planner perfect for writing down everything you plan to do (and get done!) in 2020. If you have a blog or starting a blog is on your list then you might like to win the blog planner. I’m eager to get working on filling in mine so I can plan out great content for this site…more about that next week. One person will win the goal planner, one, the blog planner.…
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Two New Planners for the Entrepreneur
I have two new planners I created with the budding or established entrepreneur in mind. One is a blog planner and the other a goal planner. The print versions are available at Amazon and cost $5.99 each. The digital versions are on my Etsy store and are $4.99 each but I’m running a Thanksgiving sale with 20% off which makes them $3.99. Here are the links to both sites. I got my print copies of these two planners and have to say I’m pleased with the product and I’ll be putting them to good use in 2020. If you’ve signed up for the free mini-retreat, ‘see’ you on Monday. Have…
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Free Mini-Retreat
Many of you know that I’m an author and also teach and tutor aspiring writers. I’ve been teaching for various chapters of the Romance Writers of America for a decade. Together we’re always trying to come up with something new and we decided in 2020, I’d teach an online summer writing retreat. We also came up with the idea to offer a free mini-retreat next month to give prospective students a glimpse into what the main event will be like…it’s going to be fun! Some of you might be aspiring authors so I thought I’d share this information with the BSG community. In the holiday spirit, I’m going to give…
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Do You Know How You’re Going to Make Money?
I’ve been putting together ideas for the direction of this site and where I want to take it in 2020 and who my target audience will be. I want to help people make money, help people with businesses and side gigs make more money. I also want to help people find their passion, find their calling, and make money doing what they love. I’ve got a long list of ideas for posts, people I want to interview, people just like you who now run a business and it all started one day when they simply had a dream about making more money. There are classes I want to teach…well, the…
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Multiple Streams of Income
I’ve been working for myself for twenty years, dappling in some sort of work that brings in extra income for close 25 years. One thing I’ve learned from fellow entrepreneurs is you need to have multiple streams of income for those just in case times. Trends come and go, businesses take off then fail, recession hits and all three can take their toll on your bottom line. I’ve always followed the multiple income stream theory and I think it has kept me afloat many times. However, recently I’ve been wondering if it’s such a great thing. Besides my writing, teaching and coaching, I have t-shirts I sell on Merch by…
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Making Money Has Never Been Easier…
Selling on Etsy, running a store on Shopify, eBay, Amazon, creating t-shirts, offering gigs on Fiverr, teaching on Udemy… The list could go on and while making money has never been easier, that’s what’s making it so hard. The ease at which anyone, anywhere in the world can make earn income has actually made it harder to make money. Taking blogging for example, ten years ago a handful of people were running blogs and now it seems just about everyone has one that flash ads galore, selling this and selling that in order to earn themselves some commission. Do you know anyone who doesn’t have an Etsy store? Resells stuff…
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Catching Up…
I know I said I was going to start posting to the site on a regular basis again, but as you guessed, it didn’t happen. I’ve been thinking about the direction I want to take this site. When I started it back in 2005, there were only a handful of other money minded blogs. These days just about everyone has a money blog. I’d like to do something completely different. Over the summer, I even thought about selling the domain name and site but something deep in my heart couldn’t let it go. Budgetsmartgirl will always be my baby. With that in mind, I’m going to keep it up and…
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Opening an Online Store
Thinking about opening an online store? The great thing about the Internet is it not only makes buying more convenient, it makes selling items a breeze. Years ago, if you wanted to open a store you had to find a brick and mortar building to lease or buy, and then remodel, stock it…yeah, a pain in the you know what. Now with the click of a mouse, you can open your store for not only local people to visit, but the world too. I’m making it all sound, easy, wonderful, yes, rose colored glasses sort of thing, but this ease actually becomes it’s downside. Yes, everyone in the world can…
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Budget Smart Girl Interview with Shante Hassel
It’s Wednesday, which means it’s interview time. This week’s guest is Shante Hassel. I’d love for us to show support of each other here at BSG and encourage each other in our business ventures. So, with that in mind, please check out Shante’s site, and if any of Shante’s books or planners are of interest to you, I encourage you to buy from her. Tell us about yourself and your business. I am a writer and a publisher of notebooks, workbooks and journals. www.shantehassel.com I just launched a journal prompt club where members can get free monthly journal prompts. Since I was young girl I loved to write, read and…