Service Based Business Society Podcast

Season 1
Episode 17
Title:Summer session + Seo part 1

Hello, and welcome to the service based business society podcast. I'm your host Tiffany. out in our weekly episodes, we will dig into everything you need to know about scaling your service based business without losing sleep. With my experience in creating over seven figures per month, and a passion for marketing, finance and automation, this show will provide tangible tips and techniques for scaling your business. Let's get started.

Hey, guys, welcome back to another episode. This week, we are going to take a moment and reflect that it is August. Does anyone else wonder how that even happened? Time is flying by this year. And I've really noticed in the last few weeks that the season of summer is in full swing. And now you might think, of course it is. But when I say the season of summer is in full swing, I mean summer brain is prevalent, summer grade has kicked in. And you know, it's that final push, if you're in the United States, it's almost time to go back to school for the kids. If you're in Canada, you have about a month of summer break left. But it is really starting to feel the full effects of summer chaos. So you know, what are we seeing, what comes along with the season of summer? Well, some things, some projects, some, you know, ongoing pieces, I'm seeing them get put on the shelf, and really a focus on what is really required right now. And you know what I am all for it. Rather than setting yourself up for failure and saying, you know, I'm going to do this and that and this and that. Knowing full well, it's not going to happen.

Let's really focus on the objectives right now, whether you are going all in and it's a busy season for your business, and you need to be leaning out that past list, or whether you know you're coming into a busy time in September. And now is the time to really take that moment to be clear on the objectives. But one thing is for certain no matter what that is, we're coming into, you know, the real meat and potatoes of the second half of the year. And it is time to take a moment and really reflect on the business objectives and decide if you are on track. And if not, it is not too late to really take a moment. And whether you're changing objectives, changing strategy on how to get there. It's it's time it is now the time to take that, you know moment and really hone in on the plan, strategy. action steps, everything that is required to get to the end of the year, and celebrate success.

You know, back at the beginning of the year in January, one of the questions I was often asking was, what does success look like? What do you know? What, what is worth celebrating for you imagined it to just before the end of the year? You know, maybe you're at a New Year's party, maybe you're at home, whatever that, you know, New Year's Eve looks like for you. And you're reflecting on the year? What business milestones? Would you be saying, Hey, this is exciting, we accomplished XYZ. This is awesome. Or, you know, we missed the mark on these other objectives. So, you know, as much as the year has been flying by, there's still lots of time to create massive impact, to create massive change to hit every single one of your objectives. So breaking that down, and really deciding what are the objectives, what is the best strategy and action plan to get there will be essential to really having that moment of celebrating your success before the end of the year.

Well, we also reflect on the fact that it is summer and there's, you know, time for change. I also want to just highlight a little bit of housekeeping. So you may have noticed the podcast got a bit of a fresh new book. And so the podcast branding, Facebook, community blog, all of these things are really in alignment now with our business management agency. So if you don't know, I am a CEO of butcher Business Management Agency, and we do operations support things like bookkeeping, SEO, social media management, business mentorship. I'm all for service based businesses. And so while we had originally, you know, gotten one direction with the branding, I really wanted to take the time to say, hey, even though it may not be the best time, as a business owner, as a CEO, when I want to make this change, when I want to be more in alignment with a certain direction, I can do that. And so this is something I often discuss with our clients where it's like, hey, if something is no longer in alignment with you, if something is no longer serving, you take it, there's no reason why you can't. And so really, you know, following through with that, practicing what I preach, I decided, hey, I want to mix things up a little bit by actually stripping out some complexity. So, you know, we have a number of different pieces in typical serial entrepreneur fashion, and I decided I wanted to simplify, you know, the season of summer is great for highlighting areas where you need to simplify, it's also a great time to decide, hey, this is no longer part of my success plan.

So we've done a little bit of a rebrand in order to be in alignment with our Business Management Agency, because ultimately, the service based business society serves any of our agency clients, and any of our future agency clients, it really is all one pool, we serve service based businesses. So here we are with a brand new, fresh orange look, ready to tackle the rest of the year. If you haven't joined our Facebook community, yet, now is a great time to do so. Because heading into that second half of the year, that, you know, it often feels like September is the start. And I know it's not. But September is that fresh start. And I think that really goes back to being in school. You know, if you're anything like me going back to school, I mean, I still love school supply shopping. So, you know, I recently made a trip. So because I'm in Canada, we don't have a target. I love Target. And so I made a little trip down to the United States, Washington and hit up the local Target and the school supply shopping in full swing. I love it. I was like, oh my goodness, you know, there's always some new things each year. And so, yes, yes, I'm a bit of a stationery nerd, it's, I'll just, I'll just own it. And, you know, coming into September, you've got that fresh start of the year, and a lot of people are really re-engaged. So if you have taken time off, if your clients have been taking time off, you know, in July and August, often as the kids go back to school, everybody re-engages, and you really see September VH, a giant month for so many industries. So, you know, as we take that step into September, we'll be focusing in the Facebook community on a number of things that we need to be wrapping up in 2022. So we will be focusing on things like strategizing for 2023.

Looking at objectives, key results, we're going to be looking at budgeting, this is a big one, your budget should be finished by the end of 2022. So now is the time to join the Facebook community. And we're gonna go through a lot of these pieces. And the best part is it is a great community filled with entrepreneurs, and it's totally free. So come on over to the Facebook community, come hang out. And we're going to work through some of these, you know, budget issues, and strategizing, really optimizing everything to start 2023 off on the right foot. Okay, enough about the Facebook community and forward thinking into September, because honestly, August really just started

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Let's take a moment and really decide and focus on what our objectives are for the rest of the month. If you are in the mindset where, hey, I just need to hold on for just a little bit longer. And I know that stuff is piling up on my desk, my email box is completely crazy. But you know what the kids are going back to school soon, or, you know, my clients will be back soon, or maybe your team members have had a whole bunch of vacation, whatever that is for you, you know, if you're just holding on that little bit longer, then just know, this is a short season, and you're nearly there. If you have some things that you committed to yourself to getting done. Over the summer, maybe they were projects, maybe they were books you wanted to read, maybe they were audiobooks you wanted to listen to, there is still time, there is time to pull it all together, and really push forward into the rest of the year. Filled with that positive energy and forward momentum. I myself have been focusing on reading a little more, you know, I love to read and I tried to touch on it last episode saying I'm a bit of a book nerd. You know, just like Sam, who was our guest on our last episode. And I will admit that in, you know, the last five years, I've really turned to audiobooks more than I have listened like, you know, read paper, books, conventional books, if you will, I do not enjoy reading on a tablet or anything like that, you know, it really reminds me of my digital textbooks from university, I was never a fan, I enjoy actually reading. And so this summer, I wanted to take some time to joy and really dig into a few books that I had my eye on for a little while. And so I have been doing that, you know, reading poolside, while the kids play or even at the park sitting on a bench, always drinking my fizz reading. And I honestly just feel this a little bit of a sense of calm, it reminds me how much I enjoyed reading, and how much I really just, you know, enjoy that, that quiet time.

You know, it's interesting, when you're listening to audiobooks or podcasts even, and you're listening a lot of the time, you don't, it's not the same mindset wise, it's just quiet reading time. So um, you know, if you enjoy reading, or maybe you enjoyed reading in the past, you know, I recommend giving it a go again, even if you're just going to read a chapter a week, you know, set a tangible reasonable target. And, and really follow through, I can say that this is something that I focused on this summer, and I've truly enjoyed this new direction. I have finished up three books already this summer, and have three more on my list, already purchased them. And writing down my focus has been, you know, I usually choose kind of a focus of books, maybe it's something I want to learn more about an area of development I'm really leaning into. And right now I'm really leaning on, you know, advertising, copy, you know, all of these different, different pieces and techniques, because this is an area that I did specialize in, I didn't learn, you know, originally in my career. If I go back to, you know, the second year of university, I remember my professor who was in an advertising class. And he said, at that moment, you either are an accounting student, or you're a marketing student, but you're never both. So if you were taking this class, to support, you know, getting your any kind of accounting degree, then let's just get you through this class. And let's just carry on. And I said, okay, in that moment, I really felt like that was the truth. You know, I was not really an advertising student. And I ended up taking one more marketing class in university. And you know, the interesting thing is, you know, I love education, and I advocate heavily for investing in yourself, but often on things like marketing. The industry is always evolving so quickly that by the time something has been written about in a textbook, and been part of a curriculum, it's super outdated.

So just knowing that I really did focus on accounting. And you know, I have a business degree with a major in accounting and a minor in Business Communications, none of that had anything to do with marketing. And I took exactly to mark giving classes during my undergraduate degree, I have taken a whole lot of marketing classes since I am digitally digital marketing certified, all these different things. But back at that time, I really felt like this wasn't a skill that I needed to learn. Boy was around, when we started to look at the second advertising and marketing glass I took. I laugh now, because I came to the project from such an analytical brain. So if I go back to this project, you know, I took the first advertising class, where basically, you know, it was told to me that if I was an accounting student, we just need to get through this class. And then I reflect on the second one I took. So this was in my third year of university.

And I could remember this class like it was yesterday, it was on a Saturday morning, it was three hours. And back at that turn, I used to work super late on weekends, because I worked in the restaurant industry while I was going to school. And so on Saturday mornings, I was super tired. And this class just went on and on and on. And it really wasn't something that, you know, I felt like I really needed to learn. So the last and final project of this course was a group project. And we were assigned this product. And we had to develop a social media marketing campaign, or this project, the project, or the product was a construction industry. You know, this was basically business to business sales, in the construction industry. And it was this super unique product that would be used on construction sites. So coming at this from a totally analytical mindset, and reflecting back on my group, who also came at this with a fairly analytical mindset.

Part of our project was to do some research. And so when we researched and contacted our ideal clients, you know, you know, as a side note, it's a lot easier to get information from businesses and whatnot, if you're calling as a student, you're asking them for information, most people want to help. So I felt very lucky at that time that businesses would talk to us and give us the information. And what was super interesting at that time, was, I would have the, you know, 20 businesses be contacted, most had bands on social media. I mean, this was a number of years ago, and a lot of businesses at that time, basically blocked. websites like Facebook, and whatnot, directly from their network that they could not access. And so I remember thinking, well, this does not seem like a good product to use for a social media campaign, we ended up really putting up this project and not really doing what was asked, because we determined that the social media campaign would actually not be effective. And so we went a different direction, we ended up, you know, getting put forth for some innovative thoughts. For, you know, going in this different direction, that you're in university, but at the end of the day, we didn't really complete the exercise. And that was really the last time in university that I focused on advertising, and, and whatnot, you know, fast forward a number of years, and ultimately realizing that if you're an entrepreneur, you have to be able to sell, because all of what I do anyway, you know, in order to be able to do those things I'm really good at, you know, in order for those things, for you to do those services and perform the services that you are really good at, you have to earn the opportunity to, to perform those services. And ultimately, that comes down to sales. So, you know, never having been really a part of sales, all through my education. And even, you know, through my corporate career, very little sales.

It's been an area that I have heavily invested in, in the last year and a half, two years, reading books, joining groups, you know, working with experienced professionals, going to conferences, listening to people speak, studying what they're doing. And so, you know, this summer all of the books that I had been reading podcasts I've been listening to have really focused on This area. So, you know, if you have highlighted an area in your knowledge that, you know, you think, Oh, it's so frustrating, I just need to know more about that. Or, you know, I really wish that I had more information so that I could know the next steps to take. Often it's not about learning something from start to finish, it's about learning enough to know which people you need to ask, you know, it's about learning enough to know the right questions. And, you know, be able to qualify people you're going to hire to help you or teach.

So, you know, if, if advertising over sales is something that you're interested in developing, you know, I'd love to connect on some of the books I've been reading, and, and really chat about some of these pieces. Because as an entrepreneur, ultimately, sales is a part of everyone's role until you can scale your business large enough that you can hire that role. And so for me, someone asked me early on in my entrepreneurship journey, is sales, something you want to learn, because you want to do it forever, or a sale, something you want to learn, so that you can scale your business enough to hire. And for me, I would love to scale my business enough that I can hire, you know, a full time sales team that is an objective of mine, sales is not something I enjoy. But again, it's something that I want to learn enough about, that I can ask those questions, hire those correct people, and really start to dig into the metrics that I really can. Okay, enough about sales, it's definitely not an area that I want to spend a whole podcast episode on, not by myself anyway, you know, looking to some of our future guests, and realizing that we have some super talented people in this area means that there will be some great sales discussions coming up.

Today, I really wanted to chat about SEO. And so, you know, before you shy away and think, Oh, my goodness, I don't want to learn about SEO, we're just going to highlight a few basics here in this episode. Because if you have a business, and you have a website, ultimately, this is something that you should be considering as part of your strategy. So we're gonna say, SEO, we're talking about search engine optimization. And so today, we're really going to break it down and look at some basics that aren't super techie that we want to focus on, and ensure that our website is working for us.

So when designing a website, we really have two core functions, we have the aesthetic, the brand, the feel, the messaging, this is an area where most people get it, right. I mean, there are some not so great websites out there. But on the whole, if you are investing either in, you know, a web designer, or even there are some, you know, pretty good all in one platforms that can offer you templates and suggestions. And you can build a lovely looking website. But there's also the second piece, the functionality that often gets missed.

This does not just get missed by those who are building their own websites using templates and things. This also often gets missed by a lot of web designers that don't come to the project. From a functionality standpoint, they come at the project with an aesthetic in mind. And depending on the experience of the web designer you choose, this can actually cause quite a significant problem. Looking at things, you know, with that functionality standpoint, really allows us to ensure that the website is working well for our customer. And it's also working well when Google is trying to determine what is important to our business so that Google can help pair people who are searching for, you know, our keywords with our business. And so over the next two episodes, individual episodes, we're going to be digging into a few more pieces that everyone needs to be looking at when it comes to search engine optimization, basic things that you want to be looking for making sure that your your beautiful website is visible, searchable, and that it is fast enough for mobile users. This is going to be our tangible tip of this week. I want you to go and I'm going to drop a link in the show notes.

That is where you can check the speed of Your website and know that most people are using your website mobile. And that mobile speed is super important and often most affected. So, you know, today we're going to be just briefly talking about mobile speed, looking at things like how we can improve that speed. And then over the next few individual episodes, we are also going to be talking about other tips and, and things to look for to ensure that your website is optimized. Now, even if you have an SEO provider, even if you have invested in a website designer, anyone who has a website should be checking these things. Because ultimately, we see hundreds of businesses a month that are investing in SEO, that aren't getting the results, that still have a slow website that still have lots of errors. It is so common, because a lot of business owners feel like they don't know about search engine optimization. So they say, I'm going to outsource this, outsource this, I'm going to find a professional, this is not something I know about. And so they, you know, the entrepreneur starts with the right idea, hey, I don't know about this, I'm not super interested in it. So I'm going to outsource it. That's good.

However, we need to know enough about it, that we can still ask those, you know, good questions, that we can still have that conversation so that we can ensure that we are getting results, we can ensure that the provider that we are working with is doing a good job, that, you know, the money that we are investing into this is leading to an outcome. And so, you know, first things first, we want to really take a look at the website from that aesthetic versus functionality. Have you gone through your website from a functionalist perspective to make sure that it is working well? Next, not next week when we have our guest. But the following week, we are going to talk about exactly how to do the steps to go through your website from a functionalist perspective, and ensure that your site is working well for you. But this week, we're going to focus on the speed of your website. So if your website has a slow load time, especially mobile, and someone has found your website, so you know, perhaps they've sourced your keywords on Google, you know, they've gone, they've clicked on the website, everything so far has happened as it should. And they click on the link for your website, and nothing happens. blank screen. Or, you know, I often call it the spinning wheel of doom. If you're on the computer, or something is loading, people will wait for a few seconds. And then some will hit refresh.

A lot of times, it'll just be the back button. And they'll click the next business. We need to make sure that when someone is reaching our website that our website is opening, so that they can see our content, that whatever our action is, whether that's to book a call, whether that's to lead contact information, whether that's, you know, whatever your next step is, your client can only take that step if they can open the web page. So this week, that is our focus, I'm going to drop the link in the show notes for you to take, you're going to go onto that website, you're wanting to check the speed of your website.

This is an area we really want to improve. And if you have questions, you're concerned about the speed of your website, come on over to the Facebook community service based business society. And we can talk through some of these solutions. We'll also be talking through them not next week, but the following week on the podcast, you know, so you have some time to go test the speed of your website, and we can start really working on a solution. So that's all for today guys. Thank you so much. And don't forget, grab the link from the show notes and go test your webs.

Well, we are all out of time for today. If you guys have not joined the service based business society Facebook community, make sure you head on over to Facebook and we can continue the conversation. Be sure to also follow the show by going to any podcast app and searching surface based business society. Click subscribe, click the fifth star and leave us a written review. Have a great week and we will see you soon