tips to grow your small business this year

// Business Tips

Today I share with you the top 5 things I did to grow my web design business the most.

Like many of you, I have been reflecting on the past year and setting goals for this year.

Overall, the past year was a huge success.

Here’s what helped me grow my small business the most:

1. Forget All The “Rules”

The most valuable thing I did last year to grow my online business the most was to ignore all the experts.

Well, kind of…

There are literally millions of experts online vying for your time and attention.

In fact, I had started following quite a few of them. Each one of these experts had their own unique advice on how to grow your online business.

Maybe you’ve heard of some of these ideas?

Start a podcast.
Create an online course.
Start a blog.
Blog every week.
Find clients on Instagram.
Find clients on Facebook.
Find clients on Linked In.
Find clients on Twitter.
Grow your traffic with Pinterest.
Post more on social media.
Start a Facebook group.
Give away your content.
Host webinars.
Start an online membership.
Create sales funnels.
Grow your email list.
Do Facebook lives.
Try all these shiny objects.
Sell products.
Sell services.

HOLD IT!

I could continue, but you get the idea.

Each one of these business tips is great; however, when you try and do all of them at once you just end up not doing any of them very well…

…and your progress stalls…

I was trying so hard to catch up and do “all the things” that I forgot about what I wanted to do and WHY I started my business in the first place.

I stopped following my gut.

Which, by the way, had been doing pretty well for me.

Have you ever felt this way?

Here’s to throwing out all the “rules”, focusing on what you want to do and following your gut!

RECOMMENDED READING: Start With Why, by Simon Sinek

02. Invest In One Expert at a Time

The second thing that I did to grow my business fast was to weed through all of the experts and pick ONE to invest in at a time.

Notice I said INVEST.

There is tons of free content online and you can try and piece it all together and DIY it.

Been there.

Done that.

Didn’t work out well.

What I have found is in order to fast track your small business growth you should invest in yourself and your business.

Whether this means a new website design, enrolling in an online course, attending conferences or joining a Mastermind; pick one area of your business to focus on at a time and go all in.

I wanted to grow my Web Design business so I turned to my friend, Troy Dean, the leading expert on training up WordPress Website Consultants.

When I joined his signature course, WP Elevation, I got way more than I could have imagined.

In fact, you get more than a course, you get a community.

A community of WordPress experts to support you and your business growth.

If you are a website designer and want to fast-track your business this year, then you should definitely check out his FREE webinar and get a taste of what you can learn inside the course.

03. Create Systems To Increase Productivity

One thing that I realized pretty quickly as I worked through the WP Elevation course was that I had no systems in place.

Ouch!

I had been sabotaging my small business growth the entire time and I didn’t even realize it.

Sure, I had a way of doing things…sort of...but my processes weren’t documented anywhere so it was kind of like starting over each time I repeated a task.

I had to think through the steps and sometimes forgot steps or even worse skipped steps altogether.

To remedy this, I began to create systems and document my processes.

To make life easier, I invested in DUBSADO.

REFERRAL CODE: CLICK HERE to save 20% off your first month or year at Dubsado.

Dubsado took a number of tools that I was using and wrapped them all up into one:

“From invoicing, signing contracts, scheduling appointments, assigning tasks, creating workflows, generating lead forms, client portals, Dubsado is a business management software built to save you time, impress your clients, and grow your business.” -Dubsado

04. Theme Your Days

Theme your days.

Sounds kind of corny when I say it out loud.

Visions of dress up days when I was in elementary school dance in my head.

Seriously though.

Choosing a theme for each day of the work week has helped me become more efficient.

How so, you ask?

It gives me a clear FOCUS for each day.

To give you an idea, here are my daily themes:

Manifest Monday – set clear goals of what I want to accomplish this week.
Tuesday Tips – blog posts, social media posts, videos, emails – share + schedule.
WordPress Wednesday – launch websites + do all things WordPress.
Training Thursday – schedule all meetings + trainings.
Follow Up Friday – follow up with current + past clients.

What I love most about theming my days is that it gives me a loose framework and I am not held to rigid to-do lists or tasks.

What do you think?

If you would like to learn more, check out episode 256 of the Smart Passive Income podcast.

05. Smartloop For Tailwind

Pinterest drives tons of traffic to my website everyday on autopilot.

How so?

Thanks to my little Pinterest publishing friend: Tailwind.

***“Discover Content, Schedule Posts, Monitor Conversations,* Amplify Reach, and Analyze Results. All with One Tool.” – Tailwind**

SmartLoop for Tailwind is amazing because it allows me to re-share all of the great content that I have created automatically and without being spammy.