Photo by Ferenc Horvath on Unsplash Sometimes it feels like I just can't slow down. I rush all day while I work—and then I rush to fit in a walk, make dinner, fold the laundry, run to the store. My internal pace is frenetic—but so is my external pace. I'm speeding...
Before entrepreneurship, there was retail. That's basically my career path in a nutshell. My retail jobs were pretty varied, a stint at CVS as a pharmacy technician, some time at Kohl's as a cashier and supervisor, a particularly mind-numbing engagement at a hotel...
What happens when time really is money? Not just that we’re trading hours for dollars, but when we start to see each minute of the day as an asset that could be sold to the highest bidder. In May 2021, a new app, called NewNew, dreamed up by entrepreneur Courtne...
Do you remember the internet before influencers? Before teenagers were regularly becoming millionaires on YouTube or TikTok? Before billions of us started sharing our lives online? The opening bit of Iliza Schlessinger's Elder Millennial special on Netflix always...
Consultant and virtual assistant Janice Plado Dalager joins Tara for a conversation about the unique skill set that virtual assistants and other support professionals bring to small businesses. How VAs end up mistreated by entrepreneurs—and the gendered and racialized components of these relationships that make mistreatment more likely. Why emotional labor is an undervalued skill for support pros, as well as why it should be a key part of how this work is compensated. How small business owners can check their own behavior to make these working relationships more humane
I’ve known When I Grow Up Coach Michelle Ward almost as long as I’ve been working for myself. So when she emailed me a couple of weeks ago to ask if she could come on the pod to talk about how she’d retired the When I Grow Up Coach brand and gone all-in on her 90-Day Business Launch program, I said: hell yeah!
This is a story about wrestling with long-term success and the decision to go a different way. It’s also a story about recognizing that, any time you make a big move, things like money and marketing won’t magically stay the same. And finally, it’s a story about recognizing abundant long-term opportunity over short-term consistency.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Michelle Ward!
It’s easy to think 2-dimensionally about the money in your business: revenue and expenses. But 2-dimensional thinking makes it much harder to find the money to grow. If you can start to think 3-dimensionally (revenue + expenses + time), then you can expand your opportunities.
Managing for cash flow gives you a way to see the interconnected components of money in your business. Plus, it’s a way to powerful financial systems and live out feminist & anti-colonialist values.
It takes money to start a business. Money can come in the form of a loan, a credit card, a savings account, or even pre-orders. Or, time and sweat equity become a proxy for money until there’s enough cold hard cash to invest in growth. It also takes money to grow a...
Our feeds are full of people trying to sell us goals. More money. Passive income. Working far fewer hours. Building a community. Working 1-to-many. Charging more. Writing a book. Building a team. These are all solid goals. But are they your goals? Marketers sell us...
Most new business owners treat business-building like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. There’s the backbone of the story—the plot points that have been chosen for you. You know that you need to have something to sell, a customer to sell it to, and a plan for...
Host of What Works
Tara is a podcaster, small business community leader, strategist, and speaker. She’s been helping small business owners build stronger businesses for over a decade.