What's Up With Jennifer Bourn

Whether she’s sharing her insights from business travels, stories about her family and vacations, challenges with balancing motherhood and business, lessons learned as a business owner, or even her notes from live events and conferences, check out the articles below to get to know Jen and get the inside scoop on what she’s up to!

Oh, and just for fun, here are a few things you may not know about Jen (as chosen by Brian and the kids):

  • Hates milk, mushrooms, bananas, and sushi
  • Just started cooking in 2012
  • Loves reading trashy romance novels
  • Was a Pampered Chef consultant for 6 months but didn't actually cook
  • Loves pretty much all shows on Bravo
  • Collects City Legos and really wants the discontinued "Green Grocer"
  • Volunteers as the art docent for both kids' classes
  • Is obsessed with office supplies &$8212; especially brightly colored ones

3 Steps to Turn Your WordPress Site Into a Lead Generating Machine

February 25, 2013 | By | 26 Comments

Last week Brian and I both gave lightning talks at the Sacramento WordPress Meetup. Brian’s talk shared the 5 must have plugins we recommend for every WordPress website.

My talk covered how to turn your website visitors into clients and customers — more specifically I talked about website strategy and three steps you can take to turn your website into a lead generating machine.

How to Make Your Website a Lead Generating Machine:

Creating a complete small business website takes comprehensive strategic planning of the content and user flow, the user experience, the sales funnel, the design, the navigation menus, the page templates, and more. Usually my website strategy presentation is an hour long, but for the Sacramento WordPress meetup, I was limited to only 10 minutes!

These are the three website strategies I shared in my talk — the strategies I think are most important for a website owner to understand:

  • STRATEGY 1: Use the Know, Like, Trust, Conversion approach to naturally lead your visitors to take action
  • STRATEGY 2: Create multiple opportunities for visitors to find your key money content
  • STRATEGY 3: Eliminate all unnecessary distractions from your sales funnel and conversion pages

Now, let’s dive deeper into each of these three strategies:

Learn Three Website Strategies to Turn Visitors Into Clients & Customers

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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

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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

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Letting Go: Clients and Customers Always Have Final Control

January 10, 2013 | By | 11 Comments

Lego Village

If we’re connected at all on Facebook, you’ve probably already seen glimpses of my Lego Winter Village. It took hours, upon hours to build and it’s the only Christmas related decor that we haven’t put away. I just don’t want to break it down yet!

This past Christmas, we trimmed the tree, decked the halls, hung the stockings on the mantle … and built the winter village. Think this was done by my kids? Think again. The winter village is all mine.

As soon as I was done, I photographed it and called the kids in to check out my hard work … The layout was carefully planned, each scene was set, each mini figure was placed … and then …

Learn How Legos Parallel Business

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Learn How Successful Entrepreneurs Are Packaged For Profit (and Freedom)

November 2, 2012 | By | Leave a Comment

Packaged For Profit and Freedom

There are lots of ways to make money in business; there are lots of ways to make a difference that don’t make money; and there are CERTAINLY lots of ways to make money and make a difference that don’t give you, as a business owner, the FREEDOM you desire.

Unfortunately many entrepreneurs have created offerings in their businesses that excite them — and it’s not that they aren’t creative people and talented providers — they just haven’t considered all of their options.

How many times have you seen this from entrepreneurs (or yourself?):

  • Getting online and researching the “industry standard” and going rate for their profession, and using that information to decide what they’ll offer.
  • Offering “freelance” services that requires asking each client what they want, a lengthy proposal process, and agonizing over what to charge time and time again.
  • Developing products and programs that mirror those of a coach or mentor because that is what they have said works… yet it’s not really working.
  • Longing to make money while they sleep, yet not understanding the ins and outs of passive and leveraged revenue, or what it takes to truly make it happen.

How would you like to go behind the scenes with 14 thriving business owners to understand their journey to being “Packaged for Profit,” and pick up some inspiration for your own business design?

Watching business owners struggle to declare “what works” to their clients, and claim the rate they desire is exactly what inspired my friend and colleague, Darla LeDoux, to create the free virtual training: Packaged for Profit (and Freedom!)

Learn How You Can Be Packaged For Profit And Freedom

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Successful Speaking and Celebrating in Bathrobes…

October 11, 2012 | By | Leave a Comment

Jennifer Bourn Speaking From The Stage at the Today's Innovative Woman Success Summit in LALast week I spent four and a half days in LA for the Today’s Innovative Woman SUCCESS! Summit and a special private mastermind session the day before. From the mastermind session and the VIP cocktail party, to the full day event, hosted lunch, and wrap up cocktail party, every aspect of the event was exquisite.

I was one of the featured speakers at the event, sharing 5 Ways to Transform Your Blah Business Presence into An Extraordinary And Lucrative Brand. My presentation — especially the exercise I walked the audience through was a huge hit and I had a blast.

It was incredible to watch the audiences’ faces as they “got it” and see them take action and put into play some of the things I taught that day, on the spot!

Check Out How I Unwound The Day After the Event

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How to Take a Vacation And Detach From Your Business Without Freaking Out

August 5, 2012 | By | 6 Comments

Natalie playing in the wavesI used to hate vacations. Not the actual vacation itself mind you, but everything before and after them — and sometimes just getting through them. That sounds horrible right? I know it does.

But as a business owner, and more specifically, as a solopreneur or entrepreneur, taking a vacation is extremely difficult. And taking a vacation where you completely detach from your business is even harder.

This may be because you don’t have the support you need or the systems you need, or you may just be in a phase of your business that requires constant attention.

I’ve experienced all three. I went through times in my business where I had no support and tried to do everything myself. I started my business and got through several years of it with absolutely ZERO systems in place. And, when actively trying to grow parts of the business or launch something new, I’ve needed to be in my business 24/7.

Get My 10 Best Tips For Taking a Vacation From Your Business Without Freaking Out

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Juggling Business and Family

August 1, 2012 | By | 8 Comments

Vacation From Business

This summer has been jam-packed with fun! We kicked it off by renting a house in San Francisco, then we camped in Santa Cruz, and we just got back from a fantastic vacation house in San Diego right on Mission Beach — And mixed in there were dance camps, play dates, barbecues, movies, and lots of play time with the grandparents.

Summer is definitely a time of year where juggling your business and family is a primary focus for most business owners, especially with the kids on their summer break. The key for Brian and I is understanding ourselves and our kids behavior styles. For example …

Both Brian and I are morning people. We love to get up early and because we are the most productive in the mornings, we keep that time open and free from interruptions as much as possible. So most of the time our kiddos wake up and play for a couple hours together before even coming down stairs to eat breakfast.

The mid-afternoon is when things start to get more interesting. That’s when our productivity wanes and the kids get restless. So we schedule most of our phone calls, meetings, and other appointments for the afternoon, and when we plan activities for the kids, which works out great for all of us.

Read More About Juggling Business and Family

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Do You Suffer From Scope Creep?

July 6, 2012 | By | 6 Comments

First, I hope you enjoyed a fabulous 4th of July!

Here’s a view from one of my favorite spots to relax and occasionally work outside (below), which I’ve been doing A LOT this summer! I also love working in the cabana because we’ve got a huge table in there to spread my stuff out on.

View From My Outside Preferred Workplace

The holiday was a great break from the daily grind — just this past week, I’ve designed four new client sites, moved another into programming, and worked on revisions to three others. Plus, we’re still working on our new site. Yes, still.

It seems like we’ve been working on it forever … and we’re dealing with some serious scope creep. Scope Creep is the term we use when projects expand past the original scope of work little by little and get bigger and bigger.

Scope creep can be a time-hog and a profit killer. When this starts to happen, service providers need to communicate clearly and provide the client with a change order or amendment to the original agreement.

Read More About Scope Creep

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Summer, Balance, & Irons In The Fire…

June 24, 2012 | By | Leave a Comment

It’s summer … and I don’t know about you, but we’re having so much fun!

Camping In Santa Cruz California

We just got back from a fabulous week camping near Santa Cruz at New Brighton State Beach. I have wonderful memories of camping there as a kid and it’s been years since we’ve been there, so I was so excited to go back and play at the beach, toast marshmallows, and relax!

The trip was our annual almost tech-free vacation. No computers. No work. But yes, we brought our iPhones. We rode the train to Roaring Camp, hung out on the Boardwalk, relaxed at the beach, shopped in Capitola, played Pirate mini golf, biked through Monterey, visited the aquarium, explored Fisherman’s Warf, and made s’mores every night.

Lots of people talk about achieving work/life balance

I hear some coaches and consultants talk about achieving work/life balance like it’s achieving constant harmony and perfection.

But for us it’s just not like that. I don’t think it will ever be. I see it as a balancing act. Like we’re constantly walking back and forth on a teeter-totter — our business on one end and our family on the other.

As long as I am always moving back and forth, not spending too long at either end, we’re doing just fine.

Hear What’s New and See Some Websites We Recently Completed

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