Pay it Forward: Leave Me a Small Business Tip

Hello readers!

Remember me?  The person who started this blog but never seems to find time to write on it?  Yeah, hi…

In the spirit of attempting to keep you updated on my life as an entrepreneur, here’s a post!  Life has been busy over here at MCG Media.  I’m getting comfortable selling my service (which is SEO Copywriting / Digital Content Creation for those of you who don’t know) and I’ve finally instated some process and quality control.  I’ve been doing some speaking gigs, our website is being worked on and we have a few new clients who are doing awesome things too.  Clients like these always make work a bit more fun!

On the event front…

We’re prepping for Ms. Career Girl Connect which is next week, Thursday 3/15, in Chicago.  This quarter’s event theme is Health & Wellness and – like every other event I’ve hosted-  I’m going crazy hoping people will come!  As always, Ms. Career Girl Connect will have complimentary food, champagne and gift bags.

Want a glimpse of what used to be the only free space in my house?  See below.  What a mess!  My fiance is not pleased (AT ALL) with the mess, but I, on the other hand, am totally pumped because over 30 companies have donated to our swag bags and the stuff is great!   I’ll link to all the donors in a post before the event.

At the event we’ll have a special guest who will be sharing how he lost over 100lbs the natural way! Um.. how/wow!?!  We’ll also have a panel discussion featuring Stephanie Mansour (Fitness Realty TV Star and Body Image Coach), Samantha Borrow  (Holistic Health Coach), Steph Turner  (Personal Trainer Extraordinaire), Brooke Schantz, RD – Registered Dietitian, Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD) and blogger at BitchinNutrition.

If you’re in Chicago next Thursday, please join us!

Register here.  Or, if you want to help us promote the event we’ll give you $5 per ticket sold!  Get your unique affiliate link here.

Ok so back to the title of this post- leave a small business tip for me and others…

I’ve written about it several times before – being Ms. Independent is a sure way to fail.  Owning a business that actually pays you is NOT something you can do alone. I don’t care how smart you are or how much start up capital you have either!

Start a Pay it Forward movement and leave a small business tip or word of advice in the comments section below.

I’d love to get your small business advice because I have a feeling it will help tons of others too.  Even if you haven’t started your own firm, leave us something – your professional expertise will undoubtedly help.  I’ve often said ya’ll are my cheerleaders, I want to look back at this post and feel some “RAH RAH I CAN DO THIS” energy!

Here’s my little small business tip of the moment…

In preparation for our Ms. Career Girl Connect event (and in my general pursuit of networking more) I placed an order for post cards, business cards and flyers a few weeks ago.  Perhaps this seems like a lame small biz tip, but for people like me who are constantly printing promotional items, it’s actually quite useful to have a great online printing referral.

I always seem to do my printing jobs last minute and on a tight budget.  Usually this means paying crazy rush fees (Hello Zazzle.com and Moo.com) and not having time to perfect my designs. Or, it means going to Kinko’s and spending $70 on a few sheets of labels… (don’t get me started- true story…)  I have to say after plenty of printers who have let me down, I got my last batch of promo items from UPrinting and am VERY pleased.  Below is a picture of a post card and new business card that just arrived! 

UPrinting’s platform to design your marketing collateral is super easy to use if you don’t already have files pre-made.  In addition, there are plenty of paper choices which is much nicer than being stuck with one that’s either way too flimsy or way too expensive.

Turns out UPrinting does a lot more than just professional business cards. Does your small biz need door hangers?  Labels for jars? Full size posters? Window clings? Yard signs?  UPrinting can do it.  Pretty cool!  Now I’m tempted to go crazy on promotional items!  Um oh yeah… that other little thing small business owners have to deal with… the budget…

Leave your small business tips below and we’ll create a little movement out of it.  I’m going to book mark this post for some good karma!

In the meantime, hope to see many of you at Ms. Career Girl Connect next week!

Cheers,

Nicole

Nicole Emerick

Nicole Emerick founded Ms. Career Girl in 2008 to help other ambitious young professional women thrive in a career they love. Ironically, growing MsCareerGirl helped Nicole transition her own career from commercial banker to digital marketer. Today Nicole leads the social media team at a large advertising agency in Chicago. Nicole also served as an adjunct professor at DePaul University where she helped develop the careers of PR, Advertising and Communications students. Tweet with Nicole @_NicoleEmerick.