My work day consists of my day job in the mornings, this job in the afternoons, and chores/social life/relaxation in the evenings. I have to fit a lot of work into a small time frame - so these are some of the apps I use to stay focused and make the most of my time.

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?

When you're just starting a business or blog it can feel like everything costs way too much. I started my business with $0 and now it's earning a living income for me, so let me be a shiny example: It IS POSSIBLE to start a business for free.

There are free alternatives to 95% of the tools you see the pros using, so that's what I'm going to share with you today. I do want to start this off with a bit of a disclaimer, though. The free tools I list here are all tools I have used and some I still use to this day, however, there are some "free" options that are not that great. If you have a little bit of money to invest in your startup (even $10) check out this blog post here for a guide to what you should purchase first. 

According to Campaign Monitor, “For every $1 spent, email marketing generates $38 in ROI.”

Yet, most bloggers and entrepreneurs - just like you - will never see such a conversion rate.

Do you know why?

Because whether your list is growing or not, chances are you’re focusing on all the wrong ways to build your email list.

There are thousands of ways to make money online and I'd bet that most business owners don't pick just one. Adding variations to your income will keep you safe from market swings and give you a better chance to make a profit every month. Today I'm sharing the 9 ways I earn money online and how you can do it too.

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.