…is, first, an expression of genius.

And I mean genius in the late middle English sense. Spirit attendant on a person. Isn’t that beautiful? I believe we all come into this human experience with spirit attendant upon us, with Source/Nature/Mother/God/Love/Greater Power/Spirit-given gifts and that using those pure abilities in service to others is the essential foundation of kind business.

…spreads joy.

A kind business aims, ever, to delight.

…is fair.

A kind business prices its services fairly to its clients, to its greater industry, and to its owner (and the people who rely on that business owner).

…makes money.

Because money is so good for buying birthday presents and stamps for love letters and flowers for grandmothers. It’s so good for paying team members and other service providers. And it’s really, really good for giving away. A kind business knows how to receive, and release.

…nurtures human connection.

Through the shape of its services, through the wording of its emails, through the videos on its website and posters on its Facebook page, a business has a thousand opportunities to make its clients feel un-alone and welcome and wanted and understood.

…does good, and greater good.

A kind business seeks to improve the lives of its clients, and the people who aren’t its clients.

One of the things I love about being self-employed is that I get to make all the decisions. One of the things I don’t love about being self-employed is the same thing. Some days, by 4pm, the idea of choosing dinner – making one more decision – feels like too much. (For this, meal planning ahead of time works well for me. Paprika is one of my favourite phone apps.)

As business owners, we need to decide what to offer, what to charge, how to get the word out, with whom we’ll collaborate, which experts to follow, which experts to stop following, which skills need nurturing, what we’re already doing well enough… whether we are doing the right things. In the online realm, we are inundated with information and recommendations. Sometimes two different roads are equally appealing and there’s only you to choose between them. It’s a lot of responsibility. And filtering the data – both concrete and intuitive – requires considerable energy. Decision-making is taxing, even for the decisive. Especially when people are relying on us.

For the last two years, I’ve been sitting with what feels to me like a big question. I rely heavily on my intuition and, with this particular question, I wasn’t getting a clear answer. I needed help interpreting the information I was getting… and I needed other ways of accessing the information than what I’ve always done. So I reached out to friends for advice, asking “How do you make decisions when both choices are right?” and now, combined with my own, I have a list of different ways to approach decision-making, which I like so much, I want to share it with you, fellow big decision-makers.

Carrie

1. Free-write in a journal exploring the question and possible answers without judging what comes out. Write until there’s nothing left to write.
2. Flip a coin. (If you’re happy with the result, stick with it. If you’re not, you have your answer.)
3. Draw a mandala. Here’s how. (That one’s from my creative stylist-friend Wendy.)
4. Consult a trusted intuitive. Laurie Anne King is mine and has been a guide for 15 years now. Carmen Spagnola has also offered me profound insight.
5. Give it (more) time and wait for clarity.
6. Spend a day pretending/living as though you’ve made the decision. (Then do the same with the other choice.) What sorts of things would you do and not do? How do you feel in this life? (This is an exercise I learned from Randi Buckley that I use A LOT.)
7. Have a Tarot reading. I’ve worked with the lovely Elle North. I’ve heard great things about Theresa Reed, too.
8. Close your eyes. Put each choice in a corner of the room, then imagine yourself sitting in each. Where do you feel comfortable/warm/expansive/happy? Where do you feel restricted/constrained/cold? The feelings may be subtle but usually you’ll be able to read a difference.
9. Pray. Whatever that looks like for you.
10. Walk a labyrinth.
11. Move your body in a way that disrupts your thinking. A hard run, a long walk, yoga… Dance for six fast songs in a row.
12. Stand near a moving body of water. The negative ions help.
13. Call your mom.
14. Have a session of equine therapy. (Jennifer Schramm’s Breakthrough Intensive was how I finally got my own big answer, plus more, this week – it’s seriously worth flying in for, if you’re not near Toronto.)
15. My friend, author Sarah Selecky, gave me this question, “If you were a creature with no language, what direction would smell the tastiest?” I love that.
16. Imagine yourself three years from now looking back. Which decision looks better from that vantage point? How about from ten years on? Or – let’s get dramatic – from your deathbed?
17. Follow NASA on Instagram and contemplate the galaxy. It can put a decision in perspective. And the images – WOW. (That’s another from Sarah.)
18. Take one drop of jack-in-the-pulpit flower essence in a little water and then give yourself some quiet time indoors or – even better – in nature.
19. Meditate.
20. If your questions are business-related, you could schedule Gentle Business Advice with me.
21. Ask an elder.
22. Place your hand on your heart and just feel what you are feeling. Usually an answer is on the other side.
23. Write out a conversation between you and your indecision. Ask it questions, write down its answers.
24. Surrender the idea that there is a “right” choice. Just choose and see where it leads. And if it doesn’t lead where you feel called, just choose again then. (This is inspired by my friend, Jennifer.)
25. Book a [Spotlight Session with Tanya Geisler](http://www.tanyageisler.com/spotlight-session/). That lady’s mind is lightning.
26. Use a pendulum and ask it yes or no questions. (I have a rose quartz one on a silver chain that is really pretty.)
27. Collect more data for each of the choices. Google. Go the library. Dip your toe in each option.
28. Open a book to a random page (usually inspiring books are best but any will work) and find the message for you there.
29. Pull an oracle card from a deck you like.
30. Assemble a small personal council of trusted advisors who know what you value and who you are and who wish you highest good, and ask them. (Or ask them how they make decisions, and you might get your own excellent list.)

If you found this list helpful, I think you’ll appreciate my semi-regular newsletter (and subscriber-only special offer codes)…

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Two weeks ago, in one of my neighbourhood Facebook forums, I saw a post about a health clinic with a reflexologist on staff that had just opened around the corner from me. I’d been looking for a new reflexologist since we moved to this part of town three years ago so I was excited. I found their website and — joy! — they have online booking. (They use Cliniko, a web-based booking service I hadn’t seen before. Maybe worth checking out if you’re in a similar business?)

The calendar showed one opening for the week and it was at 11am, the next morning. My first reaction was delight — I wouldn’t have to wait. And then my next reaction was something different.

I considered my to-do list for the next day. I had time to fit in the treatment, but I wanted the opening to be in the evening instead of the morning so that it could be my reward. So that I could feel like I’d earned it.

I am a master of delayed gratification.

A lot of the time, I think it’s a good way to be.

But as the happiness drained from me, I paused just long enough to reconsider my position. And, you know what? Rest isn’t a reward. Rest is a necessity. (When did I forget that?)

In a strange paradox, for those of us who provide services, our businesses are separate entities and they are us. I am my business like you are your business. We’re never apart. And for creative people like us, there is always an idea to pursue, always a running stream of What I Could Do Next. And, honestly, part of me loves that. I love the ideas that come in the shower and while I’m brushing my teeth. I love that I always have a mental list of ideas to dive into. I like making things.

But it means, as I’ve set it up for myself, that there is no end to it. There is no Flinstones bell ringing at 5pm. There’s no Human Resources manager telling me I have vacation time I must use up or I’ll lose it.

In the second year of my business, I had a moment of clarity around this same lesson when I realized that I didn’t actually have to work weekends. I could decide that the “office” was closed from Friday night to Monday morning. It’s so obvious, but, for me, it was revolutionary.

The reflexology appointment’s been another revolution. I need to write it for myself again:

So, I booked the morning appointment and, as you’d probably expect, it made me more productive that afternoon.

Okay, so “rest isn’t a reward.” Got it. Nothing more to learn here (again), right?

Oh, of course there was. As soon as I think I have something figured out, I find a way to create the situations that will show me all the ways I totally don’t.

My dear friend Wendy (she’s also my favourite stylist) is the kind of friend every woman needs at least one of. Among other things, she is a creative plan initiator and not just an initiator, but she makes good things happen. After one of those you-know-what-we-should-do-one-day conversations, she found a Scandinavian spa and booked a two-night escape for four of us. (I actually launched my program, The Pink Elephant School of Kind Business, while I was in the woods of Quebec because technology is magic and because the incomparable Nita agreed to woman the desk for us alone and because I decided a few launches ago to stop worrying about launches.)

I’m a gal who is cold year-round except for the height of summer here in Toronto, so the first place I headed was the sauna.

I settled my back into the cedar bench and readied myself for relaxation.

My mind rushed. My nervous system buzzed.

After the sauna, I went to the next station, a cold pool, and after the cold pool, you’re to relax for twenty minutes. So, I went to the relaxation chalet, and thought about … everything.

My mind rushed. My nervous system buzzed.

Two more cycles of this and I began to feel some of the tension in my body releasing. Some of it. (My husband teases me that I spend a lot of time with my shoulders up at my ears. I really do lose myself — including the proper shape of my spine — happily writing at my desk.) The tension in my mind, though, it had a stronghold. And it’s not that I was worrying or problem-solving (although, yes, I was doing those things too) so much as I just couldn’t feel peaceful. Have I been resting long enough? I want to be doing the next relaxing thing to really make this relaxing happen.

It was in one of these “resting” cycles that I got the other half of the Rest Lesson: I’ve actually forgotten how to really rest.

I didn’t know a person could do that. I’m good about booking a massage when my shoulder blades knit themselves together. I’m good about asking my husband to handle the toddler bedtime routine when I’m feeling spent. I’m good about meditating before a project and praying at the end of the day.

I do a lot of things that have the appearance of relaxation/renewal/rest. I’m very pro-rest, philosophically speaking. But I rarely surrender to Actual Rest.

Oh.

A-ha.

Some people run on coffee all day. I think I’ve had a tendency to run on low-grade anxiety that masquerades as creative energy. Or maybe it is creative energy? Whatever it is, it isn’t restful.

I wonder if you have a little of this affliction too? And if you do, and you would like permission to rest (and, if you’re like me, permission to practice resting so you can get good at it again), then please let this be that. As self-employed people, there are so many permissions we have to remember to grant ourselves. It’s okay to need a blog post to give you (and me) a friendly reminder nudge.

Rest is a requirement. I want you to have plenty of it. Almost more than you can handle. Because it’s the healers and helpers and creative spirits who have the most to offer when they’re replenished and I want more of what you’ve got to give.

The photo at the top of this post is taken from Nordik, the most wonderful spa I’d ever experienced. If you are ever near Ottawa, I so recommend a visit.

* * *

Writer Carrie Klassen is a green tea enthusiast, fine point pen aficionado, INFJ Scorpio, and chief creatrix at Pink Elephant Creative, a website writing and design boutique for inspired small business owners and self-employed people in helping professions. She also writes workbooks at Pink Elephant Academy for Entrepreneurs, and is the founder of The Pink Elephant School of Kind Business.™

I read an article in The Atlantic that my friend, Carmen Spagnola (do you know her work? she’s an exquisite person) posted – Home Economics: The Link Between Work-Life Balance and Income Equality by Stephen Marche. It was published in July 2013 and remains relevant. The extract describes his article this way:
“The central conflict of domestic life right now isn’t men versus women or mothers versus fathers; it’s the family against money.” And although he’s writing from his own experience – a working, cisgender father in a heterosexual marriage – and the topic he’s chosen is work-life balance for working parents, I think there’s an analogy here for everyone who seeks to work and live with purpose. Which is all of us, right?

Purpose, obviously, isn’t just for parents.

Marche wants policy reforms that support children and he wants more feminist men to raise their voices for this because supporting children means supporting families which means supporting everyone. And, specifically, he wants more affordable childcare. In his experience, affordable childcare is what allows parents to feel supported in creating the kinds of lives they want for themselves.

I am with him in being in favour of affordable childcare, but/and, again, I see it as an analogy. We all need specific (and varying) supports to do the work we feel called to contribute (coaching, writing a screenplay, raising a child, all three?).

A few months ago, I was talking with my friend Sarah Selecky, who is an author and writing coach. After confessing I wanted to write a book but couldn’t now because so much of my time is devoted to other responsibilities, and, anyway, I have no idea where to start … , she said something I needed to hear: “Carrie, what you need is scaffolding.”

On one level, she meant for the book. There are existing structures that any writer could borrow and then fill in with her own “stuff.” It’s the same reason I think my own website writing workbooks are so effective. (Novels have a million different stories but a limited number of plot structures. Websites have a million different businesses but a set number of marketing communication principles to follow.) But she also meant for my life.

She knew all I needed was scaffolding, structure, supports… so that I could do the things I wanted to do.

What I realized on the drive home was that I already had the scaffolding; I just needed to reconfigure it a little bit, something I’d done before several times.

Sometimes we forget that we already have everything we need. Or that we know where to find it, if we don’t.

Pink Elephant, this business, is my scaffolding. I reorganized my offerings a little bit and I gave myself the support I needed to fulfill my personal responsibilities and take on a new personal project (and by November of this year, I expect I will have completed the first draft of my book).

Self-employment does for me what affordable childcare does for Mr. Marche – it grants me the freedom to make the contributions I wish to make at the levels I wish to make them. I have solved his problem for myself in my way, and it was only this morning, in reading his article, that I realized again what a powerful force small business and self-employment can be. It’s my own private policy reform (with reverberations beyond me).

Feminism is nothing more than all genders should have equal rights and opportunities. My husband and I both get to work. My husband and I both get comparable opportunities to parent together and separately. My husband and I both get to pursue personal projects. Because of my little business, we are supported in fulfilling our personal and familial responsibilities but also our individual interests and purposes. Pink Elephant allows my husband and I both to have unconventional work schedules and when we’re not together as a family or as a couple or working, we have our own creative endeavors. Because of my little business, neither of us is restricted by old ideas of gender roles and we both have the scaffolding to create the kinds of lives we each want to live. (And this also would be true for me, alone, if I were on my own.)

We aren’t rich but we are wealthy.

In his piece, Marche takes exception to Sheryl Sandberg’s call for women to “lean in” and do what’s necessary to lead. (He argues that without affordable childcare – his preferred scaffolding for people who are parents – it’s unrealistic.) I agree with Sandberg that we need more women in corporate and government leadership roles – we need more diverse perspectives across the board. And, in truth, as a woman and feminist, I’ve sometimes wondered if I have taken myself too far out of that conversation. I threw my arms up in surrender and left the corporate world. My ambitions do not include a CEO title. Am I shirking responsibility?

I don’t think so anymore.

Some feminists should be in political office so that we can vote for them. Some feminists should run multi-national corporations so they can institute more humane policies. And some of us should continue creating an entirely different paradigm of work, one that isn’t hierarchical, one that is balanced between personal and professional fulfillment, one that recognizes all people as whole people and allows for human contributions including _and beyond_ those that generate financial revenue.

My business didn’t do any of this in the beginning because it didn’t support me. At that time, it was an escape. (And escapes are important. They are often the first essential steps. I am resolutely in favour of escapes.) But now, now my business holds me up. And I determine the worth of my time. I determine the division of my time.

There is no glass ceiling here because I’m not even in the building. I’m busy building something else. A lot of us are. You are.

And, as I think about it, my business is helping other feminists to do the same (whether they call themselves feminists or not). The aim of The Pink Elephant School of Kind Business was to help self-employed people (primarily in helping professions) to structure their businesses so that they can support themselves in living whole lives.

All of us here, we are doing work differently, and every time we make a success of this self-employment thing (and support others who are too), we don’t dismantle the patriarchal hierarchy of modern corporate work so much as we move to make it less relevant, which is such a beautiful way of kinda doing the same thing.

Every season there are more and more “how to make money doing what you love” programs with really compelling sales pages. And while I’ve written before on the subject of what icks me out about The Glorification of More, what I want to talk about here is how hard it is to assess our own business needs and our own abilities in the face of so many confidently-presented program offers.

The sales page script is something like this: I used to have the same problem you have but then I solved it and you can too if you do as I do. Click here to buy.

I know I sometimes think “Oh, maybe I need THAT?” when, before hearing about a certain program, I’d been pretty sure I needed something else. Or – ha! – that I hadn’t needed anything.

Because I don’t know enough about the solution, I have to trust that if the “problem” the expert describes having solved sounds a lot like mine, then her solution will work for me. It seems like reasonable logic. And in the absence of other information, it’s really all I have to work with.

What that expert needed to learn (and then teach) may not be what you need to learn or what I need to learn. I wish sales pages wouldn’t presume to know what we need to learn, or speak with such authority on the subject, but I don’t think it’s malevolence – more a case of everything looking like a nail when you’re a hammer.

So what to do about this? Well, I’ve been studying self-employment for several years and have had the privilege of seeing behind the scenes of small businesses that are successful and those that are struggling and, from my vantage point, clear patterns have emerged.

I’ve also identified an order to these skills. Each lays a more solid foundation for the one that follows. (In my case, I had a good handle on clear communication and client empathy but because I was weak in understanding sustainable pricing, I struggled.)

1. Client empathy

Successful small business owners know their clients and feel their clients. Because their understanding is empathetic, they offer the specific services that are needed and communicate them in a way that makes their marketing compassionate (and compelling).

2. A solid understanding of sustainable pricing methods

Successful small business owners know how to price their offerings. They use basic math, taking much of the emotion right out of it.

(This is a core module of The Pink Elephant School of Kind Business™ because it was my own biggest lesson.)

3. Clear communication

Successful small business owners know how to explain what they do clearly, genuinely, and originally so that people understand, remember, and tell others. It’s not about scripts; it’s about clarity and, ultimately, kindness.

(The website writing workbooks in the Pink Elephant Academy Bookstore are designed for exactly this purpose, and How to Write a Lovable Homepage is our best-seller.)

4. Website savvy

Successful small business owners don’t necessarily know how to code their own websites from scratch (although that’s a handy skill if you’ve got the time and interest) but they do know how to do (or delegate) basic maintenance and how to organize the content of their site. The experience and design of their websites reflect the spirit and heart of their businesses. Their websites do a lot of the work for them (and sometimes, all of the work).

5. Community building

There are a lot of sales programs that can teach you “techniques” for closing deals but I find it feels much better and is far more sustainable to be surrounded by people who like and support you. Successful small business owners may or may not have big communities, but the people who like/follow/read them want to be there and are enthusiastic. There are a few different means of reaching out and building community: email marketing, blogging, social media, and public relations are four key ones. Get good at just one (and then layer in another when you’re interested in trying something new).

6. A healthy relationship with money

So many of us have ideas about money that don’t serve us well. We believe people in helping professions shouldn’t make much or that to focus on money is “bad” or “greedy” or we feel unworthy so we over- or under-spend. We can be afraid of financial success and we can be afraid of poverty and sometimes we don’t even know what mental scripts are running that are taking up valuable real estate in our beautiful minds. Successful small business owners recognize and ignore their own scripts, knowing that having a healthy relationship with money is the only way to open ourselves to receiving it and being conscious stewards of it.

7. Productivity

Successful small business owners have systems and/or support people in place so that they can be primarily focused on doing their great work in the world. They know how to optimize their personal rhythms and schedules to create a lot.

8. Personal Resource Management

Successful small business owners know it’s not selfish to take care of themselves – it’s good business sense, and they make it a priority. Their well must be full in order to be of service to their clients, their colleagues, and their families and communities.

I think if we know what specific skills are essential (and you’ve read this post so now you do), what our own business strengths and opportunities for growth are, and what trusted programs and experts support the development of each (that suit business owners like us), then we won’t feel so susceptible to the “authority” or allure of a sales page. And we’ll support real experts who are doing good work – not just money-making work.

Sometimes, it’s hard to know objectively what we’re doing well in business when our revenue or client numbers are telling us that something is wrong. Sometimes, it feels like we need every business coaching or marketing program out there – and we don’t.

I’ve developed a neat, little online self-assessment tool I’m super proud of. It takes about five minutes and will tell you how you’re scoring in each of the eight business skill areas listed above. After you’ve got your scores and can see where you’re strong and where the opportunities for development are, I also have a list of experts and programs recommended by the Pink Elephant Community, other small business owners like you and me, so you can choose experts to follow or programs to take based on information and reliable recommendations (no affiliates here!). I hope you find it very helpful.

Click here to take the (really pretty fun) Pink Elephant Business Skills Self-Assessment Quiz.

~~~

Writer Carrie Klassen is a green tea enthusiast, fine point pen aficionado, INFJ Scorpio, and chief creatrix at Pink Elephant Creative, a website writing and design boutique for inspired small business owners and self-employed people in helping professions. She also writes workbooks and leads business workshops at Pink Elephant Academy for Entrepreneurs, and is the founder of the Pink Elephant School of Kind Business.™

I am convinced all of humanity is born with more gifts than we know. Buckminster Fuller

A PINK ELEPHANT PRIMER ON WRITING THE ESSENTIAL PAGES OF A SERVICE-BASED SMALL BUSINESS WEBSITE

(while sipping tea)

{a writing tip sheet especially for life coaches, therapists, nutritionists, birth workers, health practitioners and other self-employed people in helping professions}

If you’re a small business owner in a service-based or helping profession, your website is often your first welcome. It’s a friendly greeting to prospective clients and it’s a means of connecting you with the people you’re meant to help and serve. It doesn’t have to be poetry; in order to be effective, it simply needs to be clear and it needs to communicate the essentials with empathy. Not certain you’re sure what those essentials are or how to write with empathy? Then, read on. I’ve got a plan for you here that will help you write (or re-write) your own website in a weekend.

I recommend your navigation bar – the menu that’s usually along the top of a website – be made up of these pages, in this order: Home | About | Services | Blog | Contact. This is a fairly standard ordering and because it follows an expected format, your website feels welcoming and easy to manage for first-time (and repeat) visitors. And that’s our first goal – to provide a kind, warm, stress-free welcome.

Your Friday homework:

1. Open a new document.

2. Type your navigational menu at the top of your file and then type in the other page titles. Tomorrow, when you come back to this, it’ll feel good to have this super-simple framework ready and waiting to be filled in.

Bonus website design tip:

I do not recommend using drop-down menus, as they force visitors to make decisions without any helpful information and that can be subtly stressful. We want our guests to feel at ease in their travels through our sites.

The homepage is where I see the most mistakes in small business websites, mistakes that really hurt businesses, but the happy news is that they’re usually easy fixes. Open that document you started and under your Home heading, start typing…

Your Saturday morning homework: Complete this crash course in homepage writing:

1. Write a headline that speaks to the problem you solve or your unique point of view. For instance, for this Pink Elephant Academy website, my headline is: Marketing can be quiet, gentle and kind … and still be marketing. That tells you about my philosophy (quiet, kindness) and it tells you the basics of what I do (marketing). If I were a relationship coach, my headline might be a question: “Do you want to have a more loving marriage?” Ask yourself what those you help are seeking and speak in that language.

2. Write a paragraph that describes how they might be feeling right now. Demonstrate empathy for their current place of struggle.

3. Write a paragraph about who you are and how you help. This kind of clarity is so thoughtful for your readers, who may be feeling overwhelmed.

4. Include a bulleted list of your services. Yes, you have a separate Services page that site visitors can access through the top navigation, but we also want to give them a path there in the page content.

5. Include a clear “call to action” at the bottom of the page. What do you want your reader to do next? Book an appointment? Read your blog? Sign up for your ebook. Let them know so that they can feel gently guided through your site.

Bonus website design tip:

Include a professionally-taken photo of yourself on your homepage. It gives a face to the voice and makes the experience feel more like a conversation.

Bonus small business marketing tip:

Add a sign-up form and a generous opt-in gift to your website sidebar so that visitors have an easy way to keep in touch, and something that can help them right away without cost.

My most helpful homepage resource: I’ve written a comprehensive workbook for small business homepage writing that takes you through each step, swiftly and sweetly… if you use it this weekend, you might have more time for a Saturday brunch date.

>>Click here to check out the How to Write a Homepage Your Clients Will LOVE workbook (with sliding-scale, honour system pricing and a percentage of proceeds going to charity).

Okay, so here’s the thing about writing the About page. It can feel hard. How can you be objective about yourself? If you’re not certain what to include and what to leave out, then you can run in mental circles of wondering, right? I totally get it. But we can make it manageable by having some content “buckets” and I’ll outline them in the writing tips below. So, open your document again and set your cursor below that About title.

Your Saturday afternoon homework: Follow these tips to write your website’s About page:

1. Write a headline. This one’s much easier than your homepage’s because we can be straightforward. Here are a few options: About [your name], About [your business name], About [your name] and [your business name].

2. In the first paragraph, get straight to the point. Tell us 1) what you do and 2) who you do it for. You might use a subheading like “What I do.”

3. Tell us why. In a paragraph or two, share the story of how you came to be doing what you’re doing. Everyone loves stories, and small business owners usually have good ones with a lot of heart! You might want a subheading like “Why I do what I do” or “My story” or “The story of [business name].”

4. Do you have a lot of credentials that feel important? You could add a section called “My professional credentials” or something like that, and then list them. This section is optional.

My most helpful About page resource: When I write About pages for clients, I use my own The All-Important About Page writing workbook. It saves me so much time in figuring out where to start and what questions to answer. You may also find it helpful.

>>Click here for The All-Important About Page workbook (with sliding-scale, honour system pricing and a percentage of proceeds going to charity)

This is an easy one but it’s so important to handle well.

Your Sunday morning homework: complete your Contact page.

1. Type your headline: Contact, Contact me, Be in touch, Say hello, Bonjour! … whatever you like that feels friendly.

2. Write a sentence or two, encouraging site visitors to be in touch with questions or bookings. You might also want to include a line that lets them know when to expect to hear back.

3. Write your contact form. Common fields are: Name, Email, Message. You may also want to ask your correspondents to select the services they’re interested in, or to provide their estimated budget, or to provide their own website address. What information would be helpful to you to have right away so that you can respond to them most helpfully? Ask for that.

4. Include a heading that says something like, “Connect with me on social media” and include links to other places you hang out online.

5. Include your sign-up form with opt-in gift again (unless it’s already right there in the sidebar).

Bonus website design tips:

If your website uses the WordPress platform, there are easy plug-ins you can use to create contact forms. Contact Form 7 is one that’s really well-reviewed.

If your business is local, it’s also a great idea to include a Google Maps thumbnail on your Contact page, along with your address.

A lot of writers stress about the Services page as though all the pressure to be persuasive lives here, but if your homepage and About page are clear, the Services page nearly takes care of itself. I think we can knock out this first draft in an hour. You’re so close to being done!

Your Sunday afternoon homework: Write your Services overview page.

1. Type a descriptive headline that explains what you offer in brief. Think: Gentle Parenting Coaching Services or Vegan Nutrition and Weight-loss Coaching Programs or Small Business Website Design Packages. If you have a local business, it’s a good idea to add your location to the title to help with search engine optimization (SEO): Eco-friendly Landscape Design Services in Toronto.

2. Write a sentence or two that, again, tells what you do and for whom. Phrase it a little differently than you did in your About page, for variety. This is your first paragraph. If your business is local, it can be helpful to work in your geographic location in this paragraph too.

3. Do you offer more than one service, or offer your services in various formats/experiences? Then type those subheadings. For instance, you might offer home-study courses, in-person workshops, and private coaching – each of those would be a subheading. Or, maybe you’re a doula who offers prenatal support, birth support, and postpartum support – those are each clear subheadings, dividing up your services tidily.

4. For each of your subheadings, write one to two paragraphs, explaining 1)  the goal/outcome of each service  (“My Gentle Discipline coaching package provides an easy-to-follow, respectful discipline plan for your child that will make parenting feel more peaceful…”) 2) what to expect the experience to be like in practical terms (“This offering includes three one-hour coaching calls, recorded for your re-listening, plus a written plan, delivered by email three days after our first session, that includes specific activities and approaches to try with your child to address behavioural challenges…”).

5. Now, for each of these sections, you’ll need to write a “call to action” – the thing you want your reader to do with this information. Your service may be simple enough that it doesn’t require extra explanation, in which case, your call could be “>>Click here to book your appointment” (which could link to an online booking tool like Square Appointments – a service I haven’t used myself so I’m not vouching for… it just looks handy). Another appropriate call could be “>>Contact me directly with questions about this service” with a link to your Contact page.

6. Sprinkle in some testimonials. Your Services page is a great place to have a few lines from a few happy clients. It sets prospective clients at ease to read the stories and confidence of others, like them.

Bonus small business marketing tip:

Ideally, down the road, you’ll write a full offer page for each of your offerings, so your calls to action would become “>>Click here to read more about [service name].” (When you get to that point, Selling Sweetly is the sales page writing workbook I designed for business owners like us who want to communicate effectively and want our work to sound appealing but without sounding sales-y or being pushy, or you could read offer pages you like and try to emulate them.)

Reward yourself with some Sunday night “sleepy tea.” I found this recipe by Jenny McGruther on The Nourished Kitchen and with lemon balm, mint, fennel, licorice and flowers, I can barely imagine sipping something more beautiful.

Cheers to you! And thank you for writing with me.

Each morning, my husband and I have coffee together. Today, while he was pouring mine into a white porcelain mug, I was quickly scrolling through my Facebook news-feed. Because I’m self-employed and because of the online company I keep, a lot of the sponsored posts are about business and marketing programs. Because you’re here on this page, that’s probably true for you too. I don’t have a problem with ads but I do have a problem – a very big problem – with a trend I’m seeing: The Glorification of More.

I see ad after ad with shiny business/marketing/sales coaches with big smiles and brags about how much money they make, how many figures – and they tell you and me that we could have this too (by learning their “secrets”). Some of them even use “spiritual” language and they invite “heart-centered businesses” and promise to teach how to use the “law of attraction” to “manifest” your “abundance.” They say it’s easy to do what they’ve done. And that’s the one thing that feels honest to me.

Because selling the promise of money to people is the easiest thing to sell in the world.

If you are not making “six figures” or “seven figures” or “$10,000 in 30 days”, it isn’t because you failed to properly manifest it, it isn’t because you aren’t good enough, it isn’t because you haven’t marketed “right” or learned the secrets of selling with free consultations or an automated sales funnel, or because you don’t have enough “premium offerings” or because you don’t feel an intrinsic sense of worth (that a coach implies they can find for you).

It may be because what you are selling is not as easy to sell as more money.

It may be because your services help vulnerable people with sensitive issues and they will not always be ready for you when you meet. They may have personal resistance to overcome. They may be nervous that hiring a nutritionist right now may mean they don’t have enough money for groceries for their children, or that they may have to choose between hiring a life coach and making the summer’s mortgage payments. These things are real. And if you aren’t financially rich right now, it may be because you’ve respected these considerations of your very human clients and potential clients and because you have refused to use tactics that compel or push or frighten.

And, holy hell, I do not want YOU, you who is being gentle and honest and compassionate and human with your prospective clients, to feel like you are failing at business and at being of service because of a number someone else tells you you could make based on what they’ve done. I don’t want you to feel “less than” because a business coach makes a million more dollars than you and takes selfies with Richard Branson (and, I’m sure he’s a fine fellow, but when did that become a barometer of personal success?).

This idea that we can manifest whatever we want is, to me, partly true. And that’s how we sometimes get hooked by these messages. We know that part of it feels right, and we’d all certainly appreciate ease where money is concerned.

What is being sold, though, is the idea of “more” and that misses, I think, a very vital aspect of true wealth: gratitude.

The Glorification of More tells you that what you have is not enough (and, ultimately, that YOU are not enough), then the pain you feel from having heard that message (in post after post after post, in sometimes subtle and insidious ways) is precisely what’s used to motivate you to buy. Ick! Infuriating ick!

You, who is not flawed. You, who is doing something hard and sometimes having a hard time with it (because you’re doing something hard). You, who is offering the world something other than more money.

I like money and I want everyone to receive money equal to the output of their energy, time, and care. I think that business and marketing and sales coaching can be helpful, when you need to get the basics. And there are some wonderful coaches! (Tad Hargrave and Racheal Baxter Cook and Jac McNeil and Leonie Dawson and Mark Silver all come quickly to mind, and I know there are others…)

But when I’m watching my husband stir cream into my coffee and I find myself doubting my contribution to our life together because another sponsored post told me my bank account should have different numbers than they do, when I stop feeling grateful for what I have, when I feel deficient because I have “enough” instead of having “more” – and I AM A BUSINESS AND MARKETING COACH MYSELF and I KNOW I KNOW ALL “THE SECRETS” and, therefore, should be immune to these sales tactics, shouldn’t I? – then I wonder how difficult it would be for anyone doing what we do to be bombarded by those messages and still honour enoughness. How painful it would be.

And here’s the thing. I believe that Enough is beautiful. I think it’s sacred. I believe it’s the true heart of joy, the true source of abundance.

I guess what I’m feeling is this: Enough is enough.

And I’m writing this long post so I’ll remember.

~~~

 Writer Carrie Klassen is a green tea enthusiast, fine-point pen aficionado, INFJ Scorpio, and chief creatrix at Pink Elephant Creative, a website writing and design boutique for inspired small business owners and self-employed people in helping professions. She also writes workbooks and leads business workshops at Pink Elephant Academy for Entrepreneurs, and is the founder of the Pink Elephant School of Kind Business.™

…is, first, an expression of genius.

And I mean genius in the late middle English sense. Spirit attendant on a person. Isn’t that beautiful? I believe we all come into this human experience with spirit attendant upon us, with Source/Nature/Mother/God/Love/Greater Power/Spirit-given gifts and that using those pure abilities in service to others is the essential foundation of kind business.

…spreads joy.

A kind business aims, ever, to delight.

…is fair.

A kind business prices its services fairly to its clients, to its greater industry, and to its owner (and the people who rely on that business owner).

…makes money.

Because money is so good for buying birthday presents and stamps for love letters and flowers for grandmothers. It’s so good for paying team members and other service providers. And it’s really, really good for giving away. A kind business knows how to receive, and release.

…nurtures human connection.

Through the shape of its services, through the wording of its emails, through the videos on its website and posters on its Facebook page, a business has a thousand opportunities to make its clients feel un-alone and welcome and wanted and understood.

…does good, and greater good.

A kind business seeks to improve the lives of its clients, and the people who aren’t its clients.

If these Principles of Kind Business speak to you, you might be interested in a short and sweet course of study over at the Pink Elephant School of Kind Business.

~~~

 Writer Carrie Klassen is a green tea enthusiast, fine point pen aficionado, INFJ Scorpio, and chief creatrix at Pink Elephant Creative, a website writing and design boutique for inspired small business owners and self-employed people in helping professions. She also writes workbooks and leads business workshops at Pink Elephant Academy for Entrepreneurs, and is the founder of the Pink Elephant School of Kind Business.

If you’re Canadian, you’ve probably received a lot of emails in the last few weeks, asking you to confirm your consent to continue hearing from various businesses. This is part of the new CASL legislation that goes into effect today (July 1, 2014) and if you email Canadians (even if you’re not Canadian), you need to know about it.

What I like about this Canadian anti-spam legislation is that it supports what I consider the best practices (and good manners) of permission-based email marketing. Requiring consent is not only nice and respectful, it’s the best way to encourage long-lasting, mutually-supportive relationships with your community.

I encourage you to read up on the actual law (here’s a helpful site from the Canadian government: http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home) but, to get you started, here’s a very quick overview of some of the essentials:

• You must identify yourself and your business in your enewsletters
• Your email must have an easy unsubscribe mechanism (and unsubscribes must be honoured within 10 days)
• Your email must contain a valid mailing address and either a telephone number, email address, or web address
• You must have consent (and proof of consent) to email the Canadians on your list

You won’t be receiving a “consent required” email from Pink Elephant because we’ve always been compliant. If you receive mail from me, it’s because you requested it through Pink Elephant Academy or Pink Elephant Creative (and I love you for it, dear readers and friends!).

Not on our list? I’d love to write to you, now and again, with marketing musings to help you reach more clients, and exclusive (and time-sensitive) discount codes to help you save a little money while you do it. Click here to opt-in, and to take the Happy Homepage Quiz.

~~~ Writer Carrie Klassen is a green tea enthusiast, fine point pen aficionado, INFJ Scorpio, and chief creatrix at Pink Elephant Creative, a website writing and design boutique for inspired small business owners. She also writes workbooks and leads business workshops at Pink Elephant Academy for Entrepreneurs.

When Racheal from The Yogipreneur asked me to join the other writers in her ❤ Your Community Blog Tour, it was an easy yes.  (Did you catch Cailen Ascher’s post yesterday? So great!) Hello, hello! to everyone on tour with us (and a special welcome to folks who are meeting me for the first time… I hope you’ll make yourself at home here).

I’ve seen lots of telesummits and online programs and e-books that promise to teach folks how to “get” 10,000 followers, and they always irk me a little bit.  A small business doesn’t need 10,000 followers. Or 1,000 followers. A small business needs enthusiastic supporters. In my experience, you can have a comfortable, successful business with an email list of 200 (or even fewer), if those people have signed up because they are excited about exactly what you want to offer.

The biggest mistake I made in my own business (I used to be broke, if you don’t know that about me) is that I wanted to do everything for everyone. I have often said, “When your arms are open to everyone, no one feels special.” I offered marketing planning services to entrepreneurs and small businesses and I offered any kind of copywriting for anyone and I offered advertising agency request for proposal writing for corporations and non-profits. I’m really good at all of that stuff and have a lot of experience so of course that’s what I’d offer, right? Except, who could ever remember all that? And who would trust that I was a specialist in all those areas? And how could word of mouth ever work when I had so many different kinds of clients with different needs? It was a mess.

Step one: I got very specific about who I wanted to hang out with.

I went from “anyone who needed copywriting or marketing services” to “women in helping professions – like coaching, counseling, alternative health, birth support and the arts – who are running their own businesses and not making as much money as they need to support themselves, partly because they aren’t sure how to feel good about marketing.” Way more specific, yes? You can probably think of someone in your life who fits this description. You might even tell her that someone like me supports people that sound like her. (And lest you fear I’ve just cut off half the population; nope! the thing about getting really specific is that people “get” you quicker and will ask for exceptions… and let me tell you, the men who contact a business open about being dedicated to supporting women are totally cool guys.)

Step two: I decided on a service offering that would help my chosen community the most.

I know that one of the most powerful marketing tools is a business’ website, and I knew that without a lot of money to hire a professional designer and writer, that a lot of small business sites look pretty amateurish, which doesn’t instill confidence in a buyer, perpetuating the crummy revenue problem. I decided I could be a huge help by empowering my clients to re-write their own homepages to include essential marketing messages and content in a way that could feel friendly and good (to them and their readers). I ran homepage writing workshops and produced homepage writing workbooks (still my favourite thing on this site because of all the heart in it!), and I offered homepage writing services. I became the homepage lady.

Step three: I gave a gift.

I made a homepage assessment quiz called “How happy is your homepage?” available for download. It’s short, it’s sweet and it can point out serious gaps in a homepage that, if filled, can start to bring in more revenue. Recipients opt-in to a newsletter subscription, where I share my guilt-free marketing advice, and discount codes for the bookstore.

Step four: Tell people what you’re doing, consistently.

I’m most comfortable (and HAPPY!) behind a keyboard so I let my community know what I’m doing through my newsletter and Facebook. Every six weeks or so, I also tweet. And that’s it. But I’m reliable about it. Consistent. People know what I’m about. And I try to be generous. I give tips and advice I hope are useful. Everything I do is about: 1) helping, 2) letting people get to know me.

The good news is that the people who like your Facebook page and the people who subscribe to your newsletter and the people who buy your stuff are people, not a market. Not a list. Not a bunch of potential sales. People. And you already know how to talk to people.

When I first made these changes, I had about 250 people signed up to my newsletter. Within three years, I had 2,500. At 250, because my offering was so specific, I had enough supporters to have a sustainable business. Today, it’s just a little easier. So, go easy on yourself about the numbers if you’re just starting out. Focus on being of service to the people you’re meant to serve, and the rest will follow. Organically. Sustainably.

 ❤ Your Community Blog Tour participants: Kimberly Riggins will be posting tomorrow as part of our entrepreneur-only cruise around the internet. I bet it’ll be good!

~~~ Writer Carrie Klassen is a green tea enthusiast, fine point pen aficionado, INFJ Scorpio, and chief creatrix at Pink Elephant Creative, a website writing and design boutique for inspired small business owners. She also writes workbooks and leads business workshops at Pink Elephant Academy for Entrepreneurs.