Articles and Insights on Business and Entrepreneurship

Starting and owning a business is an amazing adventure, a ton of fun, a tremendous amount of hard work, and an ever-evolving journey. We learn new things every day, meet inspiring mentors and brilliant thought leaders, challenge ourselves to do and be more, and push ourselves harder than anyone we know.

Below you will find:

  • A collection of articles on owning and running a small business
  • First-hand insights on working from home and working with your spouse
  • Advice, lessons learned, and stories from our day-to-day experiences in the small business trenches
  • The best “nuggets” of inspiration and information we glean from events we attend, speakers we hear, books we read, and products we buy

One Profound Question That Can Drastically Improve Your Marketing

May 1, 2013 | By | 8 Comments

Improve Your Benefits-Based Marketing With This One QuestionI’ll bet you started your business to follow a passion, to do something you love, or to create your own future.

And yet, marketing is what you find yourself wrapped up in all the time.

After all, you need leads, clients, and customers, and no one can hire you, buy from you, or learn from you if they don’t know that you exist!

Why Marketing Is So Hard

You’re good at what you do. You know it. In fact, you’re brilliant at what you do. But unfortunately, for most of us marketing isn’t what you do best.

Learn the one question that will make marketing with benefits easy

Filed Under: Business & Entrepreneurship, Copywriting & Communication, Marketing Tips & Marketing Strategy | Tagged With: , , , , ,

Making Decisions Based On Where You’ve Been vs. Where You Want To Go

April 22, 2013 | By | 12 Comments

Decision Making Mindset

The ability to make decisions in business is critical to your success — as long as you’re using the right frame of reference, and frame of mind for your decision-making.

For the sake of this article, I’ll assume that you are not a business owner satisfied with the status quo, but an entrepreneur striving to improve, evolve, and grow.

The Wrong Decision-Making Mindset

There is a popular phrase often tossed around by business coaches: “What you focus on expands.”

With that belief in mind, one surefire way to stay where you are and stunt your business growth is to focus on the past — what has happened before, what was true before, what worked before — and let it hold you back.

Focusing on where you’ve been will result is staying where you are.

The same is true for your decision-making mindset. To move your business forward, continue to grow, and achieve your goals, it is imperative that you stop making decisions based on where you have been.

Learn The Right Decision-Making Mindset For Success

Filed Under: Business & Entrepreneurship, Website Design Tips & Strategy | Tagged With: , ,

VIP Treatment: A Smart Marketing Lesson From Lego

February 14, 2013 | By | 20 Comments

Lego Valentine's Day Special PromotionWhat does VIP treatment equal?

For your clients and customers, feeling like a VIP often equals spending more money!

I think we all can learn a valuable marketing lesson from Lego this Valentine’s Day on marketing and VIP treatment.

For Valentine’s Day, Lego put together a special promotion. As a VIP member, I received a gift in the mail containing special early bird opportunities, discounts, and opportunities to earn double VIP rewards.

It’s no secret we’re HUGE Lego fans in the Bourn household.

Heck, we’re remodeling our entire bonus room into one giant Lego utopia. So when this little package arrived, we were excited. We’ve received special Lego packages like this before and they’re always brilliantly done and well designed.

Learn the Marketing Lessons Lego Teaches Us

Filed Under: Business & Entrepreneurship, Graphic Design & Print Design, Marketing Tips & Marketing Strategy | Tagged With: , , , ,

Take Your Business Into Your Own Hands

February 5, 2013 | By | 25 Comments

If you want to be a leader you must improve your skills

After a three week staycation, we got back to back to business as usual in January, back to the trenches, and back to being crazy busy with new projects … But we’re never too busy to keep learning!

If you want to be a leader, you must continually improve your skills and take your future into your own hands with action.

Above is a photo I snapped of the kids on the Sutter’s Fort cannon crew! Natalie is in fourth grade this year and since she is learning all about California history and the California Indians, I took the kids to the California State Indian Museum — and lucky for us it was also a special historical re-enactment day at Sutter’s Fort. The kids loved it, they learned new things (like what a thunder mug is), laughed a lot, and Natalie brought back some great information and souveniers to share in class.

The schools no longer have the budget to take students on fields trips like they did when I was a kid, so now it’s up to the parents to provide the hands-on learning experiences that come only with experiencing history first hand. We have to be proactive and take education into our own hands and take action.

Surprise! Business works the same way — You must be proactive!

January 24-26, I was in Los Angeles to co-lead a weekend retreat for Today’s Innovative Woman with entrepreneurs and friends Joy Chudacoff and Cathy Alessandra. I was so excited to be surrounded by 20 women who are choosing to be proactive about growing their businesses in 2013, choosing to create a plan of action, and choosing to go big — and the weekend didn’t disappoint!

Get Tips on Being Proactive In Your Business

Filed Under: Business & Entrepreneurship, What's Up With Jen | Tagged With: , , , , , ,

6 Smart Marketing Tips to Increase Your Networking Results

January 31, 2013 | By | 14 Comments

Networking tips to maximize small business marketing successNetworking is how I built my business. Networking got me to where I am today (along with A LOT of hard work). Networking taught me the right way to do business, how to speak about my business, and how I wanted to show up.

I started my business when I was 25 years old. I had no idea what I was doing and when I walked into my very first networking event packed with professional business women, I was so nervous and scared! Joining networking groups helped me grow up as a business owner and grow my business. It has also yielded some of the strongest relationships I still have today.

But there are things you need to know and understand to be successful at networking — and there are definitely wrong ways to network.

Here are six tips I have learned over the years that have helped me maximize my networking results and my marketing at networking events:

Learn My Marketing Tips to Increase Your Networking Results

Filed Under: Business & Entrepreneurship, Client Attraction, Marketing Tips & Marketing Strategy, Social Media & Social Networking | Tagged With: , , ,

Is 2013 your year to see outrageous profits?

January 30, 2013 | By | 7 Comments

Outrageous Profit Revolution

  • What could you do with more money?
  • How would your business benefit?
  • How about you personally?

An Outrageous Profits Revolution is brewing

I’ve been asked to be a part of it — and I want you to join me!

Carrie Sharpshair is a radio host and champion of chief “everything” officers looking for ways to enjoy a business that runs smoothly and is wildly profitable. She’s put together a panel of experts to offer you a FREE educational experience.

From the comfort of your office, this in-depth series will inspire you with powerful and simple tools to hit your revenue goals, time and again. From this one series, you will have a solid foundation to take your business to the next level.

Get ready to discover the REAL keys to running a great business, & let go of the struggle

This event show you how to make & keep more money, deliver great service to your clients, maximize your time and enjoy your life too!

Learn About The Outrageous Profits Revolution FREE Event

Filed Under: Bourn Creative Newsroom, Business & Entrepreneurship, What's Up With Jen | Tagged With: , , , , ,

8 Marketing Tips to Help You Get More Clients

January 29, 2013 | By | 32 Comments

Marketing Tips to Help You Get More ClientsStart up businesses need clients — any clients. Mid-level businesses need more clients and more money. Established, successful businesses need fewer, better, higher-paying clients.

But how does a business owner go about getting clients? How do you get your first client? How do you get more clients? How do you get better clients?

If getting clients were easy, marketers would be out of business!

There is a lot of fluff online about client attraction — some people think it’s magic. That you can just sit there and wish for clients and that they will appear. Or that by putting out the right energy, miraculously you’ll attract clients who will come find you.

But seriously, it doesn’t work like that. You have to work to get clients. Client attraction is just a special phrase that refers to the strategies business owners use to get more clients.

So to help you with your client needs, here are 8 marketing tips to help you attract the clients you need:

Learn 8 Marketing Tips to Help You Get More Clients

Filed Under: Business & Entrepreneurship, Client Attraction, Marketing Tips & Marketing Strategy | Tagged With: , , , ,

Marketing Tips to Position You As An Expert

January 24, 2013 | By | 33 Comments

Marketing tips to position you as an expertThese days everyone wants to be an expert. Heck, everyone thinks they are an expert.

I even think some people just wake up and decide to call themselves an expert out of the blue just because they can.

But what about those who want to become a true expert, a real expert, a respected expert?

How to they become known as an expert? How to they get other people to say they are an expert and endorse them — instead of them saying it about themselves?

Get Marketing Tips to Position You As An Expert

Filed Under: Brand Design & Brand Strategy, Business & Entrepreneurship, Client Attraction, Social Media & Social Networking | Tagged With: , , , ,

5 Important Marketing Tips Small Businesses Must Understand

January 22, 2013 | By | 20 Comments

Small Business Marketing BasicsLately I’ve written a lot of posts about marketing and I’ve provided you with a lot of tips on marketing strategies, including:

While all of these tips can help you build a successful small business, there are some marketing tips and strategies that every small business needs to understand — The small business marketing basics if you will.

Learn 5 Important Marketing Tips All Small Businesses Must Understand

Filed Under: Business & Entrepreneurship, Marketing Tips & Marketing Strategy | Tagged With: , , ,

4 More Marketing Tips to Build a Referral Based Business

January 17, 2013 | By | 18 Comments

Marketing tips to get more referralsRecently I wrote the post 5 Marketing Tips to Build a Referral Based Business, covering some of the lessons I have learned by building a successful referral based business.

And as I was formatting the post, I came up with even more marketing tips to help you build a referral based business too — Four more tips to be exact.

These tips focus more on communicating with your referral partners and/or affiliates, rewarding people who refer new business to you, and even some things to watch out for when working with referral clients. Hope you enjoy!

Learn 4 More Marketing Tips to Build a Referral Based Business

Filed Under: Business & Entrepreneurship, Client Attraction, Marketing Tips & Marketing Strategy | Tagged With: , , , , ,