If you haven’t caught onto the planner craze that’s been sweeping the nation, you’ve pretty much been living under a rock. Whether you partake in it or not, using physical planners has once again captured the nation’s attention. This comes in stark contrast to the technology-obsessed society we live in today.

While not everyone likes to overload their planner with stickers, colors, and washi tape (decorative tape used to spice up a page - beware, this can quickly become an obsession), a majority of planner people agree on the benefit of consistently using a physical one. 

When you are a one-person business, it can be very overwhelming to run your own event. The cost, details, and timeline are just the start. Don’t forget all the beautiful Pinterest photos you are tempted to compare yourself to. (PS – do yourself a favour and don’t look there first!)

Have you ever caught yourself saying any of these things?

• All I need is more time
• As long as I stay busy I must be productive
• If I could just multitask more
• I can do it all with sheer will power

It’s so easy for us to look at our stress, our never ending to-do list, and think that having more time is the answer that will solve all our problems. 

I love my life. I love my business. But it hasn’t always been that way. 

I had a great start. 

I was raised in an amazing family with parents who loved me. I was the typical teacher’s pet in elementary, overachiever in high school, valedictorian of my graduating class, and worked hard to keep everything in my life perfect. 

Then my 20’s arrived. And with them, the consequences of trying to keep everything together for so long. 

When you think of the stuff you're getting done for your business this week, you probably think of a never-ending mix of To-Dos you need to check off so you can succeed. But most of us don't include one thing that also leads to success: self care.

You might think self care's less important when you have a team relying on you and customers to please. You want to succeed at being your own boss, like, yesterday and that means hustling as much as possible. Sure, you'd feel better if you took care of yourself but that doesn't relate to business, right?

Do you know what the funny thing is? Most of the time I spend on the phone is texting back and forth with clients, because for some reason people these days don't check their voicemails, but with a text you're getting a response back almost right away. And you know what? I'm ok with that. I text a lot for non-work-related stuff too, and as old-fashioned as I'd like to think I am sometimes, I don't think there's any going back to the days where calling someone trumped texting. Because let's face it: in today's day and age, few people will pick up their phone or check their voicemails (what's that noise? my phone is ringing?! I didn't know it could do that!) yet they will respond and communicate rapidly via text. And to be completely honest, sometimes answering a simple question doesn't really warrant a phone call and can be easily and efficiently taken care of with a quick text exchange.

But have you ever thought about how much time you spend texting the same thing over and over again? My guess is that it's more time than you'd like to be spending, given that you could be using that time to do something more productive. If you're at all like me, you might feel like texting slows you down. Every time my phone pings with a message, I feel a sense of urgency to respond right then and there. Then somehow, I wind up getting completely and utterly distracted from what I was doing and sucked into the black hole of social media with the alerts that have popped up since I last checked my phone… omg look at this video…hilarious…mom-in-law would love this one…ding…oops let me see who just texted me back...ping…stop it Facebook alerts you’re distracting me…ding…GAH I need to be working… *deep breath*… ok FOCUS Courtney, focus.

Consistent growth is one of the biggest challenges experienced by bloggers. Whether you’re blogging to grow a business, create a community, or share your passions with others, growing an active and engaged audience is important.

But where does that growth come from?

You’ve nailed your brand, you have a logo, your social media accounts are set up and on a roll, you have a great product or service offering, you’ve been making sales and you’re enjoying what you do… except that eventually, this doesn’t mean much if you’re not offering exceptional online customer service.

We all know how important it is to be clear on not only our goals, but also how we run our business and the tools we use as small business owners. Understanding your business and how it works will give you an upper hand in providing the utmost value, service and trust to your clients or customers.