In order to build a thriving and profitable online business you will need to invest in the right business tools and services to ultimately grow and scale your business to success.
The key online business areas you should consider when making an investment to grow your business include:
Client Management
Project Management
Content Marketing
Online Business Platforms (for course creators, entrepreneurs, influencers, etc.)
Graphic Design
Personal & Business Development.
The goal is to select online tools, platforms, and services that align with your online business goals that get the job done best without putting your business under financial strain.
There are plenty of cost-friendly tools on the market designed to grow your online business while simultaneously saving you time and money.
Fortunately, there are also a range of affordable plans available to meet the needs for just about any business owner.
So let’s dive in!
CLIENT MANAGEMENT
Client management is the processes your business has in place to manage every interaction between you and your current, past, and potential clients within a system.
Some great client management tools to consider investing in for your online business include:
Possibly my most favorite investment I’ve made so far in my business!!
HoneyBook is a client management software for creatives and small business owners. It includes robust features such as: invoicing, contracts, proposals, client portal software, workflows, and payment management tools perfect to stay on top of all the moving parts of any project and client journey.
Monthly plans are set at $40/month or $34/month when billed annually.
Or use my link to save 20% off HoneyBook for one year!
The goods get you:
Free account setup & training
Concierge customer service
All HoneyBook features
Your branding everywhere
Customized workflows
Payment processing of 3%
Fraud protection
Powerful mobile app
All backed with a 60-day money-back guarantee. If you aren’t ready to invest just yet you can sign up for a 7-day free trial to test out all the features laid out above.
Schedule meetings without the constant back and forth emails! No one likes that!
With Calendly you are guaranteed to never be double booked again with automated reminders, timezone detection, and automated scheduling.
Setup is super simple and easy and allows you to input your availability, share your link, and the rest is done for you as you sit back and watch your schedule fill up.
Features that everyone will enjoy regardless of plan include: calendar integration, control, flexibility, and timezone intelligence.
One of the best features of going with Calendly Pro at $12/month billed annually is being able to add the checkout function to avoid having to bill your client manually and preventing not getting paid on time.
Additionally, with Calendly Pro you can opt to receive SMS notifications, customized workflow automations, color customization when added to your website, and Stripe and/or Paypal integrations.
If you aren’t ready to invest just yet you can sign up for a 14-day free trial to test out all the features laid out above with no credit card required.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Having an online business inevitably means having to balance multiple different projects, tasks, and responsibilities to drive business growth.
Integrating project management tools within your business will ensure a streamlined process of leading the work of teams and/or projects to achieve business goals and ensure criteria is being met or exceeded during specific timelines.
Some great project management tools to consider investing in for your online business include:
ClickUp is the ultimate productivity tool that replaces all the other apps and introduces a project management system that includes everything from tasks, documents, goals, time tracking, and chat.
With ClickUp you can bring all your projects into one place to collaborate, organize, and track progress and goals.
Another amazing feature is tracking an entire project from start to finish with beautiful views with gantt charts, boards, and list views making planning easy and simple.
If you are visual like me, you will fall in love with this tool!
In terms of pricing, you have three pricing tiers – forever free, unlimited, and business.
An enterprise option is also available for larger businesses that would benefit from this option.
With ClickUp Business billed at $9/month annually you get unlimited spaces, storage, and custom views. From a branding perspective the Business plan feature includes branded and customized forms and workflow automations which is a big thumbs up.
Get 30% off the Unlimited Plan and 15% off the Business Plan using this link or if you already have a free ClickUp account use my discount code “LivinVivaciously”
Get your business the tools to create, communicate, and collaborate all in one place.
A Google Workspace Business Starter plan priced at $6/user/month includes a custom and secure business email, 100 participant video meetings, 30GB of cloud storage, security and management controls, and standard support.
For $12/user/month you can upgrade to the most popular Business Standard plan which increases your cloud storage to 2TB, shared drives with your team, and 1st party data with Cloud Search.
As an online business owner it is key to having a strategic marketing strategy focused on creating value-driven, relevant, and consistent content directed towards your ideal audience and to maintain your current audience.
Some amazing content marketing tools implemented at Livin Vivaciously include:
Designing and using email marketing in your business has never been easier than this!!
Flodesk is the holy grail for creatives for perfectly designed emails, opt-in forms, and workflow sequences that look and feel amazing on any device.
In a few uncomplicated clicks, you can design and send on-brand marketing emails and forms to your growing email list.
Everything feels intuitive with this powerful email marketing tool and one of the key reasons we love it here at Livin Vivaciously.
A typical Flodesk plan costs $38/month which includes unlimited everything.
This is one of the many pros of Flodesk, especially as a growing online business. You won’t need to worry about the increasing cost for your email marketing as your email list grows.
If you are into saving money, you can use my Flodesk link to get it for $19/month!
Don’t worry if you’re not ready to fully commit yet. Flodesk offers a 30-day free trial, where you can check out and test all its specs from creating a landing page, testing our workflow sequences, customizing a preloaded template, and learning everything you need to know about an email list.
Do you have a new business idea, service, or product you’d like to introduce to your audience? Not sure what features and details to consider?
Typeform specializes in dynamic digital form building and online surveys so you can reach your customers and learn everything you need to know to create the best service possible based on user needs.
Typeform is the leader in creating interactive digital experiences with your audience to drive more responses and data from your market research efforts. It’s conversational, interactive, and engaging.
With a free account for life option getting started on Typeform is quick, easy, and simple.
Alternatively, there are three pricing tiers available for businesses that are looking for a powerful approach to forms and online surveys. Available Typeform plans include:
Essential Plan – allows for a more personal touch to forms for only $35/month
Professional Plan – includes everything from the Essential Plan plus more powerful and interactive forms to improve user experience and responses. You can get the Professional Plan for the same price as the Essential Plan when billed annually at $35/month
Premium Plan – advanced features including team collaboration, file uploads of 4GB, and Salesforce integration for just $70/month
Check out Typeform here and get started with creating your own custom forms and surveys.
ONLINE BUSINESS/ E-LEARNING PLATFORMS FOR COURSES
Digital learning and courses have been steadily rising in popularity. With many looking at various ways to create digital products and multiple revenue streams for a growing online business, courses can definitely help reach these goals.
An E-Learning platform is a place to find educational content and search and purchase courses on almost any topic from entrepreneurship and business, yoga, travel, or fashion.
With tons of options available to choose from, here are a couple we can recommend:
Kajabi is a complete online business platform for serious entrepreneurs, businesses, coaches, experts, or influencers. Pretty much anyone can teach, consult, or coach on a topic they are knowledgeable and experienced in.
Kajabi provides anyone with the framework to create profitable content on almost any subject without having to become a coder or marketing expert in the process.
Your website can be up and running with just a few clicks, while your landing pages and emails are being sent to people who want your digital course or product.
Additionally, customizable templates take care of the framework so all that is left to add is your special sauce, experience, and expertise.
Getting started on Kajabi is easy and free with a 14 day trial. You will probably be hooked after the trial so the most popular Growth Plan for $159/month billed annually will look very enticing.
With tons of features including 15 products and pipelines, 25,000 contacts, advanced automation, and affiliate programs to join. Get ready to prioritize your success with Kajabi.
Another great option to create online courses and coaching is Teachable. Build an online business you are proud of while Teachable takes care of the rest and keeps it growing.
Join over 100,000 creators who are already on Teachable sharing their knowledge with the world. With unlimited courses and students available on all paid plans.
While you can’t join a free trial of the Basic or Business paid plans, Teachable does offer a 14-day free trial of their Professional Plan. This will provide anyone with enough exposure to experience the versatility of the E-learning platform.
Some of the amazing features of Teachables’ Professional Plan includes:
0% transaction fees, live chat support, 5 admin-level users, Zapier integration, graded quizzes, course completion certificates, upsells, and an unbranded website.
To get started create an account on Teachable and enroll, where you will automatically be entered into a Professional Plan trial. Bonus points for not requiring a credit card for the free trials.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Having a well thought out, purposeful, and intentional visual content to communicate your brand message is vital for your online business to grow and flourish.
With a brand kit including a logo, submarks, color palettes, and brand elements not only makes your brand look and feel professional but elevates your core message, value, and expertise brought to the table compared to other businesses.
Canva is a graphic design platform with the main purpose for anyone, with any design knowledge level, to be able to create social media graphics, presentations, templates, guides, and other types of visual content you can think of.
With a wide variety of preloaded templates for users to pick and choose from allows any business owner to become their own in-house graphic designer.
The free version might be good enough when you are starting out, but as your business grows, I highly recommend investing in Canva Pro.
To get access to features not available on the free version such as customizable brand kits, downloading transparent images, access to stock images, and one click background eraser you will be taking your graphic content to the next level!
As an avid user of Canva Pro on a daily basis, signing up for the upgrade is guaranteed to streamline your design processes so you can focus on other parts of your business.
Sign up for your Canva Pro account today for $119/annually and get access to the “one-click magic resize” feature plus many more with my link here.
From Youtube videos to IG Reels, InShot is hands down the easiest app to use.
With just a few clicks you will be video editing, playing with filters and effects, adding popular vlog music, and incorporating fun stickers and texts to videos.
The app is completely free to download and quite a bit can be accomplished without upgrading to the Pro version. However, with the app’s premium version you won’t be facing any limits on the effects, filters, stickers, and transitions you can use.
And as a bonus the Inshot watermark will be removed on your creations plus you won’t be dealing with ads.
Inshot Pro has three pricing tiers at $3.99/month, $14.99/year which includes a free three-day trial, or a one-time charge of $34.99 for lifetime access. I recommend just paying for lifetime access cause you won’t regret it and you will be on your way to creating on-brand content.
BUSINESS AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
People will always be behind the reason for success for any type of business whether online or not.
To invest in your business is to invest in amazing people, experiences, and knowledge. Some of the best ways Livin Vivaciously has grown and flourished into what it is today is by investing in both a Virtual Assistant and Coach.
Virtual Assistance (VA) services
A Virtual Assistant is a professional specializing in just about anything from administrative duties, public relations, web development, to design and branding.
As Livin Vivaciously was growing at a steady pace with our Brand Development Coaching Program, Social Media Branding Package, Strategy Sessions, and digital shop it was time to bring someone on board that could help with branding & design work, content marketing, the brand development program, and any ad hoc problems and tasks that come up with being an online business owner.
I had an initial call set up with a potential candidate, where I met someone who I not only clicked with but shared similar values, passions, and were driven by our love for design and branding.
This is when my experienced Design & Content Marketing Virtual Assistant, Aliyah joined the Livin Vivaciously team.
We have been inseparable ever since Q4 of 2020 and work amazingly together building on the Livin Vivaciously brand to help freedom obsessed womxn build authentic and profitable personal brands!
I can definitely recommend Aliyah for everything design, branding, strategy, and web development. Feel free to reach out to her for a chat at hello@aliyahaisha.com
A coach
Looking to grow your confidence, create a lifestyle you love, and build a true-to-self brand.
A brand development coaching program might be the answer to getting out of that rut, feeling lost and overwhelmed to having a roadmap towards the life you deserve.
Finding the right person to mentor and coach you is the first step towards developing your confidence, making the essential mindset changes required to create your story, to show up as YOU, and to finally start that brand, business, or project you’ve been procrastinating on.
As a Brand Strategist I’ve had the opportunity to meet, network, and work with some amazing coaches and friends who are amazing at what they do.
Check out Cynthia Pong from Embrace Change a Career Coach for Women of Color. Feminist career coaching for women of color who are ready to step into their power and build their business and earn more money.
I can also recommend Vivienne Okafor from thevoguide a Brand and Content Strategist. With her impactful storytelling abilities and a unique voice, Vivienne might be the perfect mentor to propelling you forward with your online business.
In this program, I will help you define your core message, value, target audience as well as a long-term content strategy for your brand so you are able to make money online.
Interested in learning more on how you can reach your goals and how to achieve them, let’s chat!
Stay Vivacious,
Marina
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For full transparency, please note that some of the links featured in this blog post are affiliate links. If you sign up for any of the platform(s) listed above, I will earn a small commission from the sale. You will not be paying anything more for utilizing these links. Whether you decide to join these platforms is completely up to you and your full discretion.
In the world of content creators, social media brands, and influencers there are close to an infinite number of ways you can monetize your personal brand on social media.
Every one of us can offer a fresh and unique perspective on just about any topic, skill, or experience that can bring value and insight to others.
Building your personal brand on social media provides you with the platform to become a thought leader by sharing your thoughts, content, and ideas with a community of people who share similar values and interests as you.
Here are seven ways to monetize your personal brand on social media.
Sponsored posts and brand partnerships
A sponsored post is when you create a deal or agree on a collaboration with a brand you like, know, and share similar values with.
If you are just starting off with your personal brand, one way of making money on social media is pitching yourself or your personal brand to a business you are interested in working with.
With pitching you will need to have a clear idea of the types of brands or businesses you want to work with.
This would be an amazing opportunity to develop a unique media kit showcasing your work to get you ahead of the competition!
Additionally, some questions you should consider before sending out a pitch include:
Does this brand share the same or similar core values as your personal brand?
Do you align with and believe in the product and/or service you will be promoting or creating content for?
How does this sponsorship or brand collaboration drive you closer to your why and help evolve your personal brand?
Depending on the answers to these questions, you might find that you’ll need to be selective and driven by your brand’s purpose—your WHY—when working towards monetizing your personal brand.
Alternatively, you can use Instagram to look up people/brands who are in a similar niche as you to connect and build a relationship with.
The goal here is to collaborate with someone with whom you’ve genuinely connected with and create value-driven content that will reach both your audience and theirs.
As you consistently start sharing content and value on social media you might find that a brand reaches out to you with a collaboration opportunity.
This could include creating content for their social media channels or website in turn you would get paid for this work.
Payments can range anywhere from $50 to $3,000+ depending on the industry, skillset, and your ability to communicate the value you bring to the table.
If done strategically and with purpose, there is a lot of money to be made here through your personal brand and online content.
Affiliate links
Affiliate links are a way to earn money through commissions off a sale of a product or service that you generated for a company. This is usually a percentage of 5-20%.
With affiliate links, just like brand partnerships and collaborations you need to decide whether the products and/or services you will be promoting align with your personal brand.
To get affiliate links, you can reach out directly to brands that you align with and ask to promote their product or service using an affiliate link.
If your personal brand is centered around branding and design tips for running a successful online business, it makes sense to promote an app to create amazing graphics and visuals, like Canva, for example.
This ensures that you actually convert sales because your audience will be interested in what you are promoting and will eventually sign up using your link.
The higher the value of what you are selling, the bigger your earnings!
Essentially, affiliate links give you the ability to introduce and sell a product to your audience.
Selling advertisement space
For many, monetizing your personal brand through ads on YouTube, Google, blogs, and customized ads is another great way to generate some money through social media.
Although this method isn’t currently available for Instagram we might not be too far from it in the future.
One of the great benefits of utilizing ads is the ease of getting it setup on your website, blog, or YouTube channel.
However, keep in mind you will not be making an entire year’s salary through selling ads on your blog or website but, you can earn up to $1,000 with a little catch…
Your personal brand needs to have a high level of traffic and audience reach to see any sort of high-level revenue from ads.
To keep it transparent and real, you will be looking at earning $10 or less through selling advertising space if the traffic and audience reach isn’t quite there for your personal brand.
Don’t let this dishearten you because this is still a great incentive to monetize your content online in the future by building a powerful personal brand that focuses on serving people and providing value first.
One-on-one coaching or similar services
This is one of the more popular personal brand monetization methods for individuals who have a valuable skill set and experience to offer.
I truly believe that everyone can do this to make money on social media!
Do you have a skill or a story that can help others? If so, then you are ready to start earning money from your content by promoting a service.
Once you have identified your skills, your passion, and the types of services you want to offer to your ideal client you are ready to monetize on social media.
The options here are limitless!
Examples of services are virtual assistance, life coaching, branding, graphic design, writing blogs for other entrepreneurs…and the list goes on and on.
With that being said, the only limit here is that you have to build an authentic audience and attract your ideal client through your social media.
You need to develop a plan to curate your own content and strategy in order to find the people that want to hire you. OR you can always go out there and pitch yourself!
Creating digital products
Did someone say PASSIVE INCOME?!?!
This is the best way to make it!
By developing and creating digital products unique to your personal brand to earn a passive income via social media.
Another, great example of a digital product is an online course. Did you know that you can teach just about anything in the world to an unlimited number of niche markets.
If you have the knowledge and skills on a particular topic why not bundle it up into a digital course and use your personal brand to make some money on Instagram?
As you can see, digital products are a great way to make money while you sleep and it really can add up over time as you build your audience and make connections on social media.
Speaking engagements or live workshops
For many people, their ultimate goal and dream is to be booked for speaking gigs or live workshops to share their voice, values, and story to anyone willing to pay and listen.
As you build your personal brand, start to hone in on core your message and what you want to stand for.
Once you complete this step, start to craft your message in a way that resonates with people emotionally. Create content on social media platforms around your message.
Live your life true to this message.
The key here is to position yourself as a thought leader who inspires others to take action.
Make people want to listen to you speak!
Be engaging, authentic, and relatable.
Overtime, you will be seen as an “expert” in your field and within your online community.
Realistically, not many people build an entire career off being a speaker but it is definitely something that you can monetize on through your personal brand in addition to various other income-generating sources.
Speaking opportunities won’t magically be knocking on your door one day but, position yourself as someone who has a truly inspirational message that stands apart from everyone else.
In-person or virtual retreats
Retreats both in-person and virtually have been popping up a lot in the past couple of years.
There is a good reason for that—people want to learn and build relationships with other like-minded people!
You can find, attend, or organize a retreat for just about anything you like!
Travelling, knitting, coding, or spirituality.
Through your community on Instagram you can conduct market research to learn about what types of topics your audience is interested in, budget, and the pain points you can solve through hosting a retreat.
Ultimately, if done correctly your mission and message will resonate with your community and audience and they will pay money to learn from you personally and to spend time with you.
Bonus Tip: Buy Me a Coffee
Buy Me a Coffee is a simple, meaningful, yet effective platform to monetize on your personal brand.
Your community can support you through monthly membership options or simply buy you a coffee or two to support the creation of your valuable content.
This is the perfect way to build a loyal community of engaged followers and space for you to be a thought leader and share your expertise.
In this program, I will help you define your core message, value, target audience as well as a long-term content strategy for your brand so you are able to make money online.
Interested in learning more on how you can reach your goals and how to achieve them, let’s chat!
Stay Vivacious,
Marina
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Thinking about starting an online business as a digital entrepreneur?
Or maybe you started your online business but can’t seem to grow your followers, reach your revenue goal or make any money online, for that matter!
I completely GET IT! I have been there, too!
As a new digital entrepreneur myself, I made plenty of mistakes when I started that stopped me from reaching more people on social media and making money online.
However after doing these 5 things, I now make a full-time income through my Instagram and digital business.
Here are the top 5 mistakes digital entrepreneurs make when they start out and how to avoid them:
Digital Entrepreneurship Mistake One: You are NOT niche enough
I know, niching is possibly the hardest thing to do as a digital entrepreneur, however it is necessary to succeed in the online world.
Let’s break it down.
A niche is an area of focus or segment of the market that your product or service occupies.
Initially, you might be thinking “I do not want to focus on one thing, I’m good at multiple things and I don’t want to limit myself”
Trust me, you are not limiting anything but your income by not picking an area of expertise for your digital business.
There is a good reason we pay specialists more.
How to pick a good niche?
Pick something you enjoy doing and can do for a long time (your zone of genius)
Choose something that the market needs and is missing
Select something you can continue to monetize and expand on
When I made the decision to shift and start to focus on social media branding for online business owners, these things happened in my business:
I saw an increase in my income
The number of clients I was retaining was also increasing because clients were able to refer me out for a specific service
The type of people I attracted to my business was much more aligned with me
So by niching down I am now seen as an expert in my field.
Digital Entrepreneurship Mistake Two: Researching ways to procrastinate
Do you find yourself downloading and signing up for freebie after freebie “to learn more”?
Do you feel you need to research “one more thing” before you launch your brand?
But all that time spent researching could have been spent doing the damn thing!
I truly wish that I didn’t waste as much time researching as I did in the beginning.
A much more productive use of our time would be to start putting in the work to create more valuable content that will help build traction and increase our visibility online.
Instead, we are so stuck in our own heads, waiting for the perfect time to create perfect content so that we can seem to be perfect and all knowing….
but watch out because that is our EGO!
Your ego is stopping you from reaching your greatness and full potential. It’s constantly telling you that you aren’t ready enough or not good enough.
How can you crush this ego?
You can start by shifting your focus from yourself onto the people you can help and serve through your expertise, experience, and knowledge as a digital entrepreneur.
Digital Entrepreneurship Mistake Three: Not knowing who you are serving
AKA your target audience!
For some time I was struggling with defining who my target audience was. Like you, I thought I wanted to work, talk, and engage with anyone and everyone.
But you can’t be talking to everyone because not everyone is your type, sort of like dating.
You need to really hone in on your ideal client, audience, or customer and create a specific message just for them.
How can you start defining your target audience?
First think about who you would enjoy serving with your business.
Then think who needs this service.
Lately define these things:
what are their values
what is their background
what do they like
what do they dislike.
Then you open up a Google document and brain dump everything about this ideal audience.
Get all your thoughts out and then go back and make some changes once you have a better understanding of who and what you want to attract.
Once you have this step completed make sure you are creating content that is directly talking to this ONE person.
Remember, you are NOT talking to everyone.
No one will find you that way, not everyone is your person. Now go out and find your ONE.
Digital Entrepreneurship Mistake Four: Not investing in your business early enough
A major mindset shift I had to consciously work through when I started my online business was—to start investing in my business before I felt ready to!
I know a lot of people think investing means hiring people onto your team or business, and for some it does.
But, I am talking about investing in terms of putting in the time, passion, self-work, and skills that your business deserves to GROW.
From experience, I can tell you that the return on investment is HUGE!
I was able to two times my income all because I invested into a business coach.
This is the biggest mindset shift you need to understand.
When you invest in your business, you are NOT spending money you are investing, which means that you will be getting a return on that investment. PERIOD.
My advice is to really invest in your business in whatever capacity this means to you.
And make sure to do this BEFORE you are ready because you will never feel ready, you will always feel like you never have the money.
So invest now.
Digital Entrepreneurship Mistake Five: Defining your WHY
To do that you can begin by asking yourself the following:
Why did I start my business?
Why am I running a business?
Why am I posting on social media?
Why do I want to do this?
Why am I spending my time sitting here reading this blog post?
Why am I a digital entrepreneur?
There has to be a good reason why you decided to start a business in the first place.
Because if not then you will soon be finding yourself feeling burnt out and your marketing efforts had no purpose.
You might eventually start feeling sad because your content isn’t reaching enough people, not many followers are engaging with you on social media, you aren’t hitting the number of calls or bookings you had hoped for.
All this can be easily avoided when you know and define your why!
You must realize you are helping someone, but this realization only occurs when you know you are speaking and connecting to a specific person.
When your ideal client receives your purpose-driven message you begin changing their lives.
Today, I get a lot of messages from followers and my clients telling me how I’ve inspired them to take steps towards building their dream lives and brand.
These messages are what keeps me going. I know I am changing lives, even if it’s a single person through a single blog post.
I know why I am running Livin Vivaciously, do you know why you are running your business?
Now that you know all the mistakes I made early on in my business, you will hopefully be able to take away lessons from them towards success in your online business.
What big mindset shifts do you think you need to make to get to that next level of your business?
If you are ready for that next level in your brand, find your purpose, and build an authentic online brand then you can join my 1:1 8-week Brand Development Coaching Program.
