My questions are in bold, and her responses are below.

What are some of the steps you took to evolve your passion for knitting into an online business? 

Anna: It really was a gradual process – my casual hobby turned into an avid hobby when I discovered knitting toys, and then once I started sharing photos online (using Flickr), I quickly found that other people wanted to knit my toys too, and that’s when I started thinking about making a small business out of it.

The biggest step in making that happen was setting up a pattern shop where people could buy my patterns as PDF downloads. My husband was a big help with this, researching the best digital sales service (we went with E-junkie, which has been great), and then creating a website.

From there, I relied on word of mouth in the online knitting community to market the patterns – I tried to let my personality and love for knitting toys come through via my blog and through Ravelry (a popular social network for knitters and crocheters).

How did you come up with the name Mochimochi, and the tagline? 

Anna: Mochimochi is a Japanese word that means “mochi-like,” as in something sticky and squishy. I’ve spent some time in Japan, and I’m very much influenced by Japanese character designs, so it seemed natural to use a Japanese name. 

Mochi is my favorite Japanese food, so it wasn’t hard to decide to go in that direction.

Elizabeth Anne LeGear is the creator of Purse n’ Boots and the owner of Elizabeth Anne Shoes. I asked her  how marketing helped her create a thriving business. My questions are in bold, and her answers are below. 

Describe how you entered your current position.

The journey to my current position has been really exciting. I started the Purse n’ Boots concept about four years ago. I used to lose purses, wallets and cell phones whenever I went out. Knee-high boots have always been a wardrobe staple of mine so I started keeping things in my boots. It worked OK until the bartender would give me change and I would dance so hard that my phone would jump out.

I looked everywhere to find a pair of boots with pockets. When my search came up empty I decided to make them myself. There was a lot of years of research, designing and patents that had to be done but now I get to enjoy the fun part – getting the boots on feet.

How did you get started with marketing? Was it challenging, or did it come naturally?

I got into marketing when I started Elizabeth Anne Shoes. I knew that I wanted my Purse n’ Boots concept to become a bone fide style trend. The marketing came really naturally. I think when you’re promoting something you really believe in and are proud to show it off that makes the process easier. The products end up selling themselves.

What preconceptions about sales and marketing, if any, did you have when you started?

I was definitely really shy about it at first; I didn’t want to be pushy. However I think when you have a great product and you love what you do, it would be a shame not to share that with the world.

I think a lot of people starting out have the preconception that marketing is just cold calls, spam and useless flyers when in actuality it’s so much more. I learned quickly that there are all sorts of fun ways to promote such as gaining press, having contests, blogging, article writing, hosting events, social media relationship building, and cross promotion with other companies that I love.

How important of a role does marketing play in your day-to-day business?

It’s so important. Marketing is the pipeline between great ideas and actual success. It’s easy to get caught up in the creative side of the business and ignore it but it’s very hard to achieve success that way. I always make sure that I balance my time between the two; it’s almost a 50/50 split.

What marketing advice would you give to other women in business?

Get creative with it. Read marketing blogs and write down ideas that could work well. Try everything. Contact anyone and everyone within your business genre and pitch yourself.

Is there a way that you could mutually benefit? Is there something about your story that is newsworthy? There are lots of inexpensive ways to reach large audiences using things such as social media, blogging, article writing, contests and giveaways.

To what do you attribute your success?

I attribute my success to intuition. I really try to stay neutral and not get too caught up in my hope and fears for the business. This allows me to make good decisions from that calm and centered place. Most importantly though, my success comes from all of the enthusiastic women who have proudly been the trend setters for the Purse n’ Boots concept. Without them I would not be where I am today.

For more information, check out Elizabeth Anne Shoes, or connect with Elizabeth on Facebook.

How did you get to where you are today, and what role did marketing play in helping you get there?

Gretchen Roberts: Marketing was almost solely responsible for helping me succeed in my business, because I had no contacts or “ins” in the magazine world. I had to start at the bottom and build my career, solo.

When I first started, all I did was market, market, market. Many writers get frustrated at this stage, because what they really want to do is write. But I liked the thrill of the chase enough to keep at it. My efforts began to slowly pay off, and soon I was turning work down and hearing from editors who had gotten my name from their colleagues. That’s a great place to be.

When you started, did you have any insecurities about pitching your own work? If so, how did you overcome them?

I was afraid editors would ignore me because I had a pretty thin resume when I started out. I was a bit intimidated at big glossy magazine editors (sometimes with good reason … I got some rude/dismissive responses back occasionally, though most rejections were form letters).

To make up for feeling like I was the nerdy girl at the junior high dance trying to hang out with the cool kids, I was absolutely, completely thorough and professional with my pitches, hoping they would stand out. My Better Homes & Gardens editor—who assigned me my first national story—actually noticed me because he liked the look of the package I’d sent in.

What do you find is the biggest challenge of working from home? How do you tackle it?

I absolutely love working from home and don’t find it challenging whatsoever. A home office is tailor-made for my work habits (I’m easily distracted) and personality (I’m an introvert). Well, okay … that’s all true when I’m home alone. Trying to work when the kids are around? That’s definitely a challenge. I shut the door and hope for the best, both from my work and the state of the rest of the house!

What’s your marketing routine these days?

I do less marketing now than when I started out, but more than I did in, say, 2008, when times were good in the economy. I probably spend about 15 percent of my time marketing, mostly consisting of pinging old clients and jumping on opportunities to get new clients as they come in.

I’ve found that if I let the marketing pile up, it’s hard to get to. I’m better at sending a quick email to a new web editor if I hear she’s changed jobs than putting it on a to-do list.

Sometimes I just get on a marketing burst and go crazy for awhile. That always feels good, to get your name out there into the universe and see what seeds sprout from the effort.

What marketing tips would you give to small business owners or solo entrepreneurs who are just starting out?

Two things. One: plan to spend the majority of your time marketing at first. Eventually, as you you gain business, the scale will begin to tip the other way.

Two, in order to hasten the scale tipping the other way (where you’re actually doing more work and less marketing), make sure that your product or service is the absolute best it can be. You’ll get repeat clients, which save time and money, and they’ll tell others about you. You can’t go wrong doing your best work and allowing others to market it for you because they love you.

What made you decide to launch an ebook? Can you tell me a little about the process?

It was a “just for fun” thing, really. Every year I like to do a project that’s strictly for me, something that allows me to take a creative risk because I don’t count it toward my income goals. Ebooks are the Big Thing in the writing world right now, and I thought it would be fun to try one and see how it felt to write a book, design it, and even be my own publisher.

You know what? It feels great! I loved both the process of writing about a subject I care deeply about and want to share with others, and also reminding myself about why I’m in this business, what I’ve done in the past to be successful, and how I can continue on.

The process was fairly simple. I wrote the book, hired a copyeditor, fixed all the stuff she found, sent the text off to BookBaby to turn into Kindle, eReader, Nook, and iPad versions, and designed my own cover and PDF version. I also put up a website for the ebook. Because this was just a fun side project, I kept it as DIY as I could, although the copyeditor was a terrific investment. Even professional writers need good editors.

A part-time freelance writer since 2003, Gretchen Roberts quit the corporate world to balance work and kids, and she’s never looked back. She writes about food, wine, home, and gardens for national consumer magazines and websites like Better Homes & Gardens, Real Simple, Woman’s Day, Health, Cooking Light, MyRecipes.com, and HGTV.com. She also does marketing development and copywriting for top national companies including Rich Products, Kroger, Lowe’s, and Costco.

Marketing your small business takes a lot of ingredients. A dash of daring. A pinch of expertise. A big scoop of passion.

One of the most important traits a small business owner can have is courage. Courage to stand up for what you believe in. The courage to ask money – yes, real money – for your products and services.

Life coach Kate Swoboda has the courage thing down. In fact, she’s titled her business Your Courageous Life.

I asked Kate about her own experiences with marketing. My questions are in bold italic, and her answers are below.

When you decided to become a life coach, how did you start attracting customers?

I became a Life Coach in 2006, before the coaching explosion. Back then, the most common response to telling people that I was a Life Coach was, “Huh? What’s that?”

So in terms of attracting clients, I gave a lot of thought to exactly what I believed as a Coach, and then I simply announced on my blog (it was a personal blog at the time) that I wanted to start working with clients – and that I was doing so, for free.

I learned a lot from working with people for free – namely I learned a lot about my approach as a coach as well as the workflow practices that were best for me. More people started to make inquiries, and I began charging just a little, and my practice has been building slowly and steadily from there.

I think that what really got things off to a good start was getting totally aligned with what *my* purpose was, as a Coach: What did I believe? What did I have to offer?

What has been the most challenging part of marketing your business? What has come naturally?

The months between January 2010 and right around April of 2010 were a time of amping up my practice and really stepping into it more fully. That was an immensely challenging time because “marketing” was this concept that I felt I had to learn if I wanted to play a bigger game, and I didn’t feel I was doing so well at it.

It was driving me crazy, so I switched my focus to, as your question puts it, “what comes naturally:” writing. I love to write.

I decided that rather than obsess over whether or not advertising with click-through thumbnails on someone’s site was really paying off, or obsessing about SEO, I’d just write, write, write, because that’s what I loved to do, anyway.

I decided to put my own coaching principles in place in my business – with one of those principles being that I wanted to be keen to noticing places in my life where I was being the agent of my own suffering. Comparing myself to others, constantly checking my social media stats, and losing more hours of my life to reading about marketing all felt like suffering.

The best decision I ever made around marketing was deciding that I would just create and do my thing and hope that the message resonated with others. It freed me up in the hugest way. It involved a lot of trust and surrender, but it felt great and still feels great.

It’s worth noting that the within days of having that A-ha!, I started getting more calls and emails – literally.

You do video, e-courses, email marketing, blogging … how do you make time for it all?

I’m a huge fan of working in blocks. I sit down for long stretches and churn, churn, churn. I like creating that way, because I find I can get into a zone.

Often when I’m in the middle of writing one blog post, I’ll start to deviate from the topic I started on and realize that I can make that one blog post into two separate posts. Or if I’m going to go to the work of setting up my video camera and the proper lighting (and, ahem, hair and makeup, of course!), I might as well shoot a few things at once.

Additionally, I use HootSuite for social media (cuts down on the time of switching between different social media sites).

Do you think of Kate Courageous as a brand?

Nah. I embraced courage as my word (and tattooed it on my shoulder in Sanskrit) long before Your Courageous Life or the moniker “Kate Courageous;” though now I confess that your question has me wondering if anyone else views it as a brand, and if so, what they think the brand stands for (aside from courage).

You’ve said that the biggest challenge that comes up for your clients is their inner voices. Do you think this effects the way small business owners and solo entrepreneurs approach marketing? If so, how?

Yes, absolutely – the inner critic voices definitely have an effect on small business owners and solopreneurs.

I mentioned that during the first quarter of 2010 I had a really challenging time. I was faced with this new space that I knew nothing about as I tried to grow my business, and the fear was so loud.

I was in a heavy space of both being inspired by all of the new opportunities and feeling completely inadequate in meeting them. I didn’t have the money to hire anyone to do my marketing for me, and even if I had had the money, I didn’t want to hire someone if I didn’t know what they were doing, either – I felt strongly that my message had to be my own and come from me, rather than being spun or crafted by someone else.

I have a ton of tools for working with fear, and even I had any number of days where the “you’re not enough” voices were so loud that I just put my head in my hands and cried, and cried, and cried.

How can we approach marketing courageously?

By practicing courage. I define courage as: feeling afraid, diving in anyway, and transforming.  I tried a lot of things when I first started out – for example, giveaways. They generated traffic, but I never really felt good about it, so I quit doing them.

Now, some people might say that I’m crazy – “You found something effective that generated traffic, and you stopped doing it?” And of course, for a moment I did have some fear when I really “got” that I just didn’t want to do the giveaways any longer – What if no one comes back? What if I fail at this?

But for me, there really was no question. I didn’t let go of my old job in order to just be unhappy at a new one. The regular use of giveaways to draw traffic to my site never resonated for me, so I stopped.

At the same time, I don’t really have rigidity around the rules I make up for myself. When I launched my Courageous Living Guides in January 2011, I held one day of giveaways on my blog. I did it for the practical reasons (web traffic is important on a launch day), but I also aligned with it internally, first – I only gave away things that felt good. I wanted to throw a virtual party on my website, and on that day, giveaways felt fun.

Right now I’m working on a new e-program that’s specifically for Coaches, helping them to set up their practices successfully and in ways that feel aligned with who they are (marketing is just a piece of a successful practice). A huge part of what I’ll be teaching in that program is that we don’t feel good when we don’t listen to who we are inside and then act from that place.

The courageous approach is to feel the fear of risking (risking trying something new, as well as risking letting it go if it isn’t a match); diving in anyway (take action rather than simply stay stuck in fear); transform (that’s what always happens when we meet our edge and step outside of our comfort zones).

Kate Swoboda (aka Kate Courageous) is a Life Coach, speaker and writer working with changemakers to amplify their greatness. She’s the creator of the Courageous Living Guides e-programs, as well as the forthcoming Coaching Blueprint. For more information, see http://www.yourcourageouslife.com.

As a freelance writer of marketing materials, I often wondered what it would be like to do marketing full-time, say as a chief marketing officer or the creative director of an advertising agency.

What did women in those jobs know that I, as a solo entrepreneur, didn’t?

The following interview answered some of those questions. It’s a true career story as told to MarketingJobs.org and is one of many interviews with marketing professionals which include Internet Marketer and Marketing Communications Executive.

A Day in the Life

I currently work as the Director of Interactive Marketing for the local office of a major real estate company in the Philadelphia suburbs. I’ve worked in this position for the past five years, and actually started as an intern during my junior year of college.

I spend my days communicating our marketing message and other news via Facebook and Twitter. The position actually started out as simply maintaining the website, but has since expanded to social media as the primary way of informing potential clients about our products.

I’m responsible for creating entertaining 140-character tweets about our new rentals and homes for sale, which is surprisingly more challenging than I thought it would be. There are only so many jokes someone can make about one-and-a-half baths!

Marketing Job Satisfaction

What I love about this job is that I so directly connect with what I do every day. Throughout my life, I was always a technology enthusiast and was consistently the “early adopter” of new things. I think I had a smartphone before they were nearly as smart as they’ve become today, and I was one of the first people to open a Twitter account.

So I get to work every morning and I see what’s going on via the social media outlets, I sort of “plug in” to the surrounding communities and counties, and try to do new things with these new technologies. I love what I do, and I love the challenge of creating these very short micro-marketing statements that draw users into our office.

How’d You Wind Up in That Field?

I actually minored in marketing while I was an undergrad, and I chose that minor because it was “easy” to add on to my existing business administration minor. It turns out that I was far more interested in, and entertained by, the marketing classes that I took. So becoming a professional in this field was sort of an accident, but I have no regrets. It is simply who I am and what I was meant to do.

One of the hard things I learned early in my career was that lots of people do not understand the importance of technology — especially in real estate marketing. This is a field that has traditionally operated via newspaper advertisements and radio spots. It was extremely hard to convince agents and management to provide me with the information I needed to really “take us social.”

I soon learned how to make comparisons between short Twitter posts and short radio spots, and comparing the new with the old helped usher in a new way for us to market our properties.

What I Learned and What I Love

I think the most important thing I have learned since graduating from my university and working in this position full-time is that textbooks are highly hypothetical. There are so many scenarios that explained, and you learn the “perfect” way to handle them, but it never works out like that. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and do what works in the moment — and that’s something I never really learned in a classroom setting.

Dealing with Facebook and Twitter on a full-time, daily basis has provided me with tons of strange things to talk about. Our Twitter account has been spammed so many times, and in so many creative ways, that I can’t even keep count.

A good part of my daily job involves removing more illicit, family-unfriendly followers from that account — which is always entertaining and somewhat embarrassing. The internet is like an ongoing reality show when you partner with it on a full-time basis!

I get up and enjoy going to work every day because I enjoy the marketing profession as well as the great staff I see on a daily basis. We’re constantly trying to give back to the community we serve, and our recent effort to support anti-bullying efforts in local schools (which have been directly affected by some incidents lately) caught the attention of some national bands. They retweeted the information for our charity event and really expressed concern about what was going on in high schools across the country.

It was refreshing to see just how many people care, and how far marketing can go — even when it’s 140 characters or a simple Facebook status update.

Benefits, Salary and Other Details

The job itself, agents aside, is the least-stressful job I have ever had. The combination of internet-facing marketing along with the interaction I engage in with clients prospective buyers is rewarding. I’m a people person, and I really like creating new ways to stay in touch with other people.

This job pays pretty well, with a salary that comes in at just over $45,000 for myself. That’s with five years of experience, however. The room for growth is immense, especially as marketing continues to be revolutionized by technology and the demand for people with an understanding of that technology increases.

I get two weeks of vacation a year, which I love. I think everybody wants more vacation time, but my workaholic tendencies would be out of control if I took too much more time off. There’s a great balance between work and life, although I admittedly do not go home and maintain a personal Twitter account after spending eight hours on Facebook and Twitter at work.

A bachelor’s degree in marketing or public relations is sufficient to get into the marketing business, though interactive marketing requires a more thorough knowledge of computers and the internet in order to get a foot in the door.

If a friend of mine were considering a career in interactive marketing, I would tell them to make sure they had a solid amount of patience: despite the internet’s fast load times, it can take months to see the full fruition of a well-directed online marketing campaign or sweepstakes promotion.

The Big Picture

Five years from now I would love to be in charge of more than just the online, interactive marketing angle of this particular business. I have no desire to go elsewhere with my career, as I love working where I am currently employed, but I would certainly love to try my hand at print and radio marketing efforts in addition to the electronic medium I currently deal in.

What have you learned from your own interactive marketing efforts? Let me know in the comments section below!

Why? Several reasons: Great graphics, great content and plenty of calls to action. Goddess Leonie proves that you don’t have to be a slimy salesperson to make a living online.

I recently asked Leonie to share her marketing secrets, and she kindly obliged. My questions are in bold italics, and her responses are below.

Has marketing always come easily to you, or were some aspects challenging?

Oh gosh no! It hasn’t always been easy for me at all. I made a really conscious decision a few years ago that I really needed to build my marketing and business muscles. I’d spent years building my art and spiritual muscles and they were seriously buff. But I needed some of them marketing muscles to actually create a profitable, abundant business around my gifts.

So it was very much a conscious effort for me to learn marketing and play with what worked for me.

My focus now is: How to share my gifts as clearly as possible so I can help as many goddesses as I can.

How do you maintain a balance between selling goods and services, and connecting authentically with your audience?

I’ve really learned that you need to talk about your stuff WAY more than you think. People really just don’t notice unless they are seeing and hearing about it often.

My whole thing is to keep turning up, sharing from my whole heart, and speaking very clearly about what I offer.

And I always say “I’ve got this new e-course happening if this is something that is calling you!”

Because I really don’t care if it doesn’t call to some people – it will call to others. It’s a no pressure thing. All in sweet time.

I love the way your site, your images and your products all resonate with your own unique personality! Is that a conscious decision? (And do you ever think of yourself as a brand?)

Hellllllll yeah! I absolutely adore bright colours and art and watercoloury goodness and things that make me feel rainbow and shining.

I totally detest creating anything that ISN’T like that.

So I pour my own art and writing and photography into every crevice of my website & products.

There’s gotta be me in there… it’s gotta light my eyes up whenever I see my own stuff

You’re always coming out with new products and services, something that a lot of small business owners and solo entrepreneurs never seem to find time for. How do you manage it?

Because content creation is 1000% important to me. It’s important to my clients. It’s the stuff that brings in the moolah. It brings me great joy to create. So why wouldn’t I?

I always ride the wild donkey and create things in mega bursts with short deadlines. It’s how I get things done.

Are there any small business owners or solo entrepreneurs whose marketing inspires you?

Anyone who is pouring all their spirit into their business – I love Gala Darling and Marie Forleo and Alexandra Franzen.

What marketing advice would you give to small business owners who are looking to grow their business online?

DOOOOOOO EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET.

Share from the depths of your soul. Give away gifts of incredible beauty so people know just what you are offering.

Howl your song out loud and strong, and your tribe will gather around you.

Visit Leonie’s blog, follow her on Twitter or visit Goddess Guidebook on Facebook.

Have you ever stumbled across a blog that made you want to cancel all your appointments, then spend the rest of the afternoon reading its posts from start to finish?

That’s how I felt when Elise Blaha popped up in the “Recommended Items” section of Google Reader yesterday. She’s not only a talented artist; but also a marketing-savvy solo entrepreneur.

Like many artists, Elise sells handmade books and art prints on Etsy. But unlike many artists, Elise has a ton of resources on what to do with these handmade books. Photos, videos, step-by-step instructions — even a dedicated Flickr group where customers can upload their own creations.

In other words, you’re not just buying a product. You’re buying membership into a community of like-minded creatives (and inspiration to boot!)

Elise’s work got me thinking about how I could personalize my own blog. Marketing for solo entrepreneurs doesn’t always lend itself to pretty images and creative crafts, but that doesn’t mean the two have to be separate.

I also learned a lot from watching Elise’s many video tutorials. She shoots them with what I assume is a web cam, and usually in just one take — regardless of whether she stumbles over a phrase or tapes a piece of paper on backwards. Doing so not only makes videos more efficient, but also makes her more relatable.

In the future, I’d like to stop being such a perfectionist and do more videos of my own. Feature more personalized graphics and illustrations. Maybe I could even create a “One Woman Marketing” Flickr group where users can showcase their own marketing designs! What do you think?

I hope Elise’s marketing inspires you, too. Check out her blog, shop her Etsy store or follow Elise on Twitter. All images in this post are hers.

Tara Gentile and I connected a few years ago. Since then, I’ve watched her blog, Scoutie Girl, explode into one of the top online resources for passionate creatives.

I recently noticed Tara’s blog and personal site have undergone a redesign. Curious about the process, I asked her a few questions. She was kind enough to let me share her answers. My questions are in bold.

First, I LOVE the design, especially the icon you created for yourself. Did you create a brand strategy as a foundation for this new look, or did you just go with what felt right? (And is this your work, or someone else’s?)

Tara: Thanks! The change at Scoutie Girl is a part of a greater transition of my business as a whole.

As my business has grown, changed, and refocused, it was important for me to step away from Scoutie Girl as an identity for myself and allow it to live & breathe on its own as an identity for a movement.

My brother created the little “me” avatar. She’s me but she’s not. Just like Scoutie Girl is!

She represents a creative woman who has strong opinions, doesn’t mind making unconventional decisions, and wants to learn, learn, learn. She’s creative, doesn’t follow instructions well, and values diversity. She’s a bit introverted but she’s in love with community.

Introducing little Scoutie Girl allowed me to created a more personal & direct image of myself at taragentile.com. In order to maintain some continuity between sites, I used a similar color palette and pulled the glasses (my signature accessory!) out of little Scoutie Girl to include in my banner.

My branding rarely comes from a well thought out strategy but this is as close as I’ve come yet. It has already reaped great rewards as Scoutie Girl grows with a whole new set of voices and as I expand my voice to a more diverse set of topics.

I also love your copywriting, which is so warm and full of personality. How do you balance that style with making sales?

I always try to write with a purpose: answering a question, sharing my opinion, making a sale, promoting an affiliate, etc…

I’m direct and that allows me to write conversationally, even meandering a bit, because I know where I’m headed. Bloggers and copywriters who never quite develop a following or make regular sales tend to suffer from lack of purpose in their writing.

You don’t want to be preachy or salesy so you opt to write a lot and say very little. That really doesn’t get anyone moving.

My whole point in writing is to inspire action, further ideas, and serve others. Being wishy-washy or forgetting that purpose doesn’t help my cause!

My other secret weapon is really understanding my readers & customers. I spend a lot of time trying to get inside their heads, understand their problems, and “feel their pain.” I try to give a voice to the things they can’t articulate yet and then I go even further and try to offer assistance.

When I get comments (and I get a lot) that say “You’ve been reading my mind!” I know I’m doing a great job. That ability to empathize with my audience means that I always have a blog post, product, or idea brewing. And I know how to write about it to get it noticed.

You mention you’ve brought on new contributors and an assistant editor. How did you make the transition from being a solo entrepreneur to having a team of helpers, and was that a tough transition?

Not really. I had spent enough energy growing & shaping Scoutie Girl into the community that it is that when I brought on the new team they new exactly what was expected of them.

My assistant editor, Carrie, has been my virtual assistant for over a year now. Without her, I wouldn’t have a 6 figure business. She’s been around long enough & volunteered for enough off-the-wall tasks that she can captain the ship much better than I could.

I also understand that my role at Scoutie Girl now is that of visionary. It’s my job to supply to vision and my team will supply the how-to. Of course, in a blogging business, that looks a little different than your average car parts manufacturer or even marketing firm.

The lesson, however, is the same. You can’t craft a great team that gets things done without having a big vision & a leader to carry it.

How do you juggle running a business with marketing, future planning and new product creation?

I do my best to look at everything as one. I am always listening, always planning, and always looking for opportunities.

If a blog post sparks a lot of discussion, I use the comments to craft new posts. I continue the discussion on Twitter or Facebook. I ask questions about the concepts on my social media platforms. I bring in experts.

Sometimes those posts turn into products or bigger ideas. Sometimes they just generate a lot of buzz about me & my business.

Of course, the reverse also happens. I keep my “ear” to Twitter & Facebook and look for emerging trends. I turn casual conversations into more expansive blog posts.

I stay attuned to what’s going on in my own life & the lives of my readers so that I can always be writing my email updates, blog posts, Twitter updates, and sales pages with the most relevant information possible.

It’s all about repurposing information & ideas for each of my platforms & purposes. It takes an open mind and a keen understanding of what works where – but it’s so rewarding when you get it right!

What are your plans for the future?

Takin’ it to the streets!

No, seriously, my plans for the future include doing lots of live workshops. I’m one of the most extroverted introverts you’ll ever meet and I just adore sharing, teaching, and leading groups of people.

Creating & growing a business and social movement (might I be so bold?) from the confines of my home is empowering. But it gets old. I want to meet people and learn about them & from them face-to-face.

I want to inspire & be inspired.

I want to lead & be lead.

I know that, while these events are exhausting, they’re also energizing. I want to bring that kind of energy into my online business and work to create that kind of electricity in my community.

Find Tara Gentile at Scoutie Girl, Taragentile.com or on Facebook or Twitter.

In 2008, Lynn Baldwin-Rhoades created her own online community for women entrepreneurs. Today, Power Chicks International overflows with content and helpful resources. I asked Lynn to answer a few questions about her marketing and her experiences in business.

One Woman Marketing: What was the inspiration behind Power Chicks International?

The inspiration was my own struggle to grow a brand-new business. In late 2008, I left my steady corporate job because I knew there was so much more for me to do in the world. I had a deep desire to live life on my own terms – and for me, that meant diving headlong into the entrepreneurial life.

Because I’d been in marketing for so long, I thought creating a marketing company was a slam-dunk. It was incredibly tough, though and of course, the economy was limping along then. The first year, I made a pittance!

So, I reached out to other women business owners for help. Basically, I wanted to freely offer what I could as well as learn from those around me.

I imagined a handful of women gathering to support one another, but the group really took off and grew to include thousands of people. To handle the growth, I transitioned Power Chicks as a grassroots group into Power Chicks as a business earlier this year.

Now, I’ve partnered with business and life coaches to offer women the skills, strategies and motivation they need to build a rock star companies.  I’m also am affiliated with a growing number of chick-owned companies through my Stuff We Love column. This is where I partner with wonderful companies I know, like and trust to bring Power Chicks special deals.

OWM: You’ve been in marketing for 20 years. Has that background helped with self-promotion, or do you still find it challenging?

My background is tremendously helpful. Marketing is a bit of a twisted art, but I love it. At least, the kind I do: based on integrity and truthfulness around good products and services I believe in.

Self-promotion is (cough, cough) very easy for me. I truly believe that when I or anyone else has something worthwhile to offer the world, we owe it to others to shout it out! Not in an annoying, spammy, slimy way (heaven forbid!) but in a way that’s based on authenticity and, as I said above, integrity.

OWM: What’s the single biggest thing that’s helped you grow the site and your following?

My genuine appreciate for and support of women. Some stuff, you can’t fake. Well, all stuff you can’t fake! And my commitment to Power Chick entrepreneurs is woven in to the tapestry of who I am.

Consistently, women tell me they feel inspired and empowered by the Power Chicks community. And, honestly, I’m so humbled to be surrounded by so many fabulous people. These are women committed to showing up authentically in the world, living out of their deepest values and expressing their uniqueness through meaningful work – their businesses. Honestly, how did I get so lucky?

OWM: How do you make time to run your business AND market your business?

Time? What time?

Truly, my time feels uncomfortably squeezed right now. I’ve definitely reached the point of needing help; running two businesses simultaneously is too much! I have a long list of people to hire and am doing so as I have the means.

OWM: What marketing advice would you give to other solo entrepreneurs?

Be sure your business plan is solid before you start marketing. Too many people confuse biz development with marketing, so they’re trying to market something that’s not solid in the first place. Then, they wonder why they’re not making a profit.

Also, find a mentor or hire some help. The entrepreneur who tries to wear all the hats will struggle to get very far – we simply can’t know all things on our own. Hiring strategic help has catapulted me farther than I ever could have gone alone.

Check out Power Chicks International, or find Lynn on Facebook and Twitter.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Debi Watson. Debi is a watercolor artist whose paintings have won awards in juried shows across the nation. She’s also my mom.

For a visual artist, having your art online is the modern version of a business card. It’s just expected. Yet for many artists my age, finding our way around the internet is like living in a foreign country without knowing the language.

I’m no computer geek, but I actually embraced computers from their beginning. I took Fortran in college.  I had a blog. When I started painting seriously, I created one web site, then another. I started an online newsletter, and began growing a mailing list. Technology changed rapidly, often forcing me to let go of programs I was comfortable with for the new and scary.

Balancing Art With Marketing

As a budding self-taught artist, it was irritating to interrupt my painting for online marketing, but it was essential. The art field was changing as rapidly as the internet. On-line and in shows, I was competing with the most talented artists from around the world.

How can one person find enough time to accomplish anything of worth when you’re trying to produce, market and have a life?

My salvation was to create a business plan. Figuring out my goals helped me focus my energies into actually achieving them.

Working With Your Own Limitations

I’m honest with myself about my limitations. As a creative person, I have tons of ideas, good ideas, but I have to sacrifice the good ideas to focus on the great ones.

I know I’m a deadline-driven person, so I set my own deadlines. I let go of some activities I’d like to do so I can keep up with jobs that are really important, which sometimes means paperwork or other not so fun tasks. To offset that, I also schedule rewards for myself, like a new book to enjoy, once the tasks are done.

As an artist, I’m under double pressure, not only to create outstanding art, but also to be effective with my marketing. In many ways, that pressure has helped teach me a valuable lesson: it forced me to see that time is valuable, to be enjoyed or used to further my goals in the most effective way.

By planning, focusing my efforts, then evaluating, I’ve created a cycle of success that works for me. Not every day goes smoothly, but with a written schedule of painting and marketing to keep me on track, I can make some progress in almost any condition.

Staying Sane in a Busy World

My plans include regular ‘reality checks’ with my community of art friends. Working with a group of like minded people helps keep me motivated and up to date on new happenings.

The quality of my painting has earned me many sales and awards. The quality of my marketing has helped increase my national recognition and brings in new students and collectors. I paint, and people on-line from around the world enjoy my artwork and give me feedback. It’s a worldwide art community and I’m part of it.

More posts about Debi Watson’s marketing:

•   Art Marketing With Calendar Magnets

•   How To Create A Branded YouTube Channel

•   Marketing Podcast 8: Budget-Friendly Marketing

How do you balance marketing with running your business? Let me know in the comments section below.