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When was the last time you practiced something? How long has it been since you repeated a task, over and over again, so that you could get better at it? On a recent mastermind call, I brought up this concept of practicing with the group. We each have businesses and we all want to get better at our craft. But, I wondered how often we actually sit down and practice so that we can improve our skills. Find the full show notes at https://www.ellorywells.com/practice

When I started CigarScore in December of 2018, I only had a rough idea of how I'd monetize the platform. I knew I wanted to sell upgraded listings and advertising, but I didn't yet have a marketing plan or a strategy I could put in place. But on January 11th, just 27 days after launch, I released the product and started contacting business owners around the country. Four days later, on January 15th, I made my first sale. Seventeen hours later, I made my second sale. Fast forward to today and this business gets over 5,000 highly targeted visitors a month, has a 4-digit email list, multiple advertisers and affiliates, and generates thousands of dollars in revenue each year. I've already written about how I launched a new business here, so today I wanted to focus on how to market your products better so you can make more money. Cool? Click here for the full show notes

Updated April 2, 2020. While much of the content remains mostly the same, most of the tool recommendations have changed. When I first wrote this, I'd just begun my online business journey. Now I've been in the world of online entrepreneurship for almost 7 years. If you're like me, you didn't go to business school. You don't have a background in finance, and your parents weren't entrepreneurs. Also, if you're like me, you're building a business one step at a time. You're figuring things out along the way, getting many things right, and other things, well... they're "learning" experiences. However, unlike me, you may have never worked for a Fortune 50 company. Maybe you haven't managed revenue in the tens of millions but would love to know how it's done.   Ok, I lied. Sorta. I did go to business school, but only for a semester during my freshman year at Baylor. Although I didn't graduate with a degree in business, I did get an education in the real world. While on IBM and Dell's dime, I spent five years learning how to do business on a national scale. During my years at those companies, I learned about profit and loss. I spent my time figuring out how to sell to current customers and acquire new ones. My "Corporate Education" taught me the basics of how to run the businesses I'm building now. If you happened to study biology, or art, or creative writing in school, and if you haven't had the benefits of Corporate training, don't worry. This post will provide you with some of the essential business tools the Pros use to build the foundations for their businesses, connect with their customers, increase sales, and scale their startups. Some of the resources will help you get started, others will make you more efficient, and others still will help you communicate with your ever-growing team (if you chose to have one).  

A true but unfortunate fact of life is that we learn more when things go wrong than we do when they go right. If things work out, we assume we're awesome and move along. But if things go sideways, (hopefully) we stop what we're doing to diagnose the problem and see where we messed up. As we get deeper into the effects on our economy and lifestyle that COVID-19 is having, I thought I'd share some experiences I've had. And, if possible, teach some lessons about managing a business that might help us all survive and thrive and still serve or customers during a downturn in the economy. Last Thursday, I was driving through Albuquerque, New Mexico, on my way to pick up my wife from the hospital. She works there; she wasn't sick. We'd already discussed ordering take-out from Trombino's, one of our favorite restaurants, which I was about to drive by. As I passed, I was shocked to see that the normally packed parking lot was completely empty. No cars. Not one. "Oh, sh*t," I thought to myself. "I better call to see if they're even open!" I did. They were. And we got our Italian food. Social distancing, self-quarantining, and sheltering in place is the new normal. In the last few weeks, our lives have been turned upside down. Businesses who've avoided change and been stuck in their ways for years, perhaps decades, are now being forced to evolve or die. As of two weeks ago, every business is an online business. Let's take a look at what we can learn about business from the businesses that're still in business, as well as the ones who've shut their doors, perhaps for the final time.

Speed. Building a business is all about speed of implementation and speed of delivery. Whenever you have a solid idea for a new business or product, the key to success is how fast you can deliver.

Have you ever spent time with a prospective customer only to find out they weren't interested in you or your product in the first place? Master salespeople are also masters at qualifying their customers. By learning how to weed out the tire-kickers, you can spend your time with the people who truly want what you have to offer. And qualifying questions (and how to use them) is what we're going to talk about today.

When it comes to effective content marketing, it's great knowing what types of content to create and things you should do to maximize the impact of your efforts. However, it's also important to understand what not to do and what to avoid. Having the right ingredients can spur experimentation, but without knowing what you should avoid as well, you might make mistakes.

Would you like to get featured on more media as an expert? If you were interviewed on TV as a leader in copywriting, email marketing, or healthy eating, what would that do for your brand and business? Like most business owners, if you've ever wondered how to get publicity for your brand or business, keep listening!

I bet you've got some really good ideas for your business. I'd even bet that many of them are great ideas! So, with so many great ideas, how do you know which ones to pursue, which ones to save for later, and which ideas deserve to be taken out back behind the shed and put down?

If you've been following me for very long, or if you've read my book Exit Strategy, you've heard me talk about the importance of "know, like, trust" in business. To really be successful, you need people to know you, like you, and trust that you're producing great quality products and services. But today, we're going to talk about why you need people to like you, and why knowing and trusting you isn't enough.

I thought I'd make a bold move today, and lay out what I believe specifically and my beliefs about life, success, and entrepreneurship. This post might not be for you, or, maybe it's precisely what you need to read today. Regardless, this is what I believe, and if it resonates with you, then awesome. If not, it's cool, we can still have a beer and talk about it later. Read more here: https://www.ellorywells.com/whatibelieve

Do you have a website for your business? Why? Why not? Your website, if designed properly, can be one of the most powerful tools you could have in your business. Learn more here: https://www.ellorywells.com/youneedawebsite

Have you been thinking about starting a business? Are your daydreams filled with visions of entrepreneurship? When you look back at your life, do you want to be able to say, "I changed the world; I started a business"?   Learn more at: https://www.ellorywells.com/3thingsyouneed 

Do you want to start your own business? Are you looking to make some extra cash on the side? Whatever your reason for wanting to make money online, I'm here to help. Everyone should start a business at least once, so let me share six ways you can make money online.   Read More at https://www.ellorywells.com/makemoneyonline

Do you ever see those awesome looking websites and wonder how they did it? Are you the type of person who wants the absolute best software for your business? Or, maybe you just want something that's easy to use? Well, I've got a software recommendation for you that I tell all of my clients about. And, if you said "yes" to any of the questions above, this might be exactly what you've been looking for!   Read More

I would not have the life I have if I hadn't started my blog in 2012. After writing over 600 posts, publishing a book, and moving across the country to live the laptop lifestyle, I've learned a lot. And I want to pass what I've learned on to new bloggers. Read more at https://www.ellorywells.com/TipsForNewBloggers

I wasn't going to write about this, but I saw another post on Facebook, and I couldn't let it go. Read more at https://www.ellorywells.com/putinthework

At the beginning of 2018, Ashley and I decided to hit the road, leave our life in Austin, Texas behind and become pseudo-digital nomads. We packed up our things, got the Cadillac of cat carriers for Boomer, and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Since the end of March, we've been living the laptop lifestyle. I won't go into all of the details here, but Ashley and I are moving from city to city in 13-week increments. At the end of each contract, we look at our options and decide where we'd like to visit next. If you'd like to see why we moved to Cincinnati, and why we decided to pick up and travel, you can watch this sweet video. But traveling takes a little bit of planning. And there are a few things that I take with me to help me create videos for YouTube, write content for Catalyst Monthly, and keep building my business. So, besides my laptop, what else do I carry with me? Read more at https://www.ellorywells.com/travelbag

In the middle of June, in the middle of downtown, across from a parking lot, and without much fanfare, a new restaurant opened. Although the owners could cook, and they'd proven themselves in the kitchen, they struggled with one of the key components of starting a business in the internet age. They didn't have a website. Read the full post and show notes at: https://www.ellorywells.com/4websitethings

We all we want a great looking website, right? One that looks good feels good and makes a good first impression. But some websites are better than others. They instill more confidence, they get more visitors, and, ultimately make more money. As much as we love homemade and homegrown, we want to have confidence about where we're getting our information and spending our money. We still buy from companies we know, like, and trust. And that usually means we buy from professional websites. Read more and see the notes at: https://www.ellorywells.com/professionalwebsite