Reflections, tools, and truths for the self-employed life—because doing it solo doesn’t mean doing it alone.
Client Perspectives
News
Client Management
Mindset & Motivation
NETWORKING & REFERRALS
Operations & tools
Personal Brand
Productivity & Focus
SOLOPRENEUR LIFE
BRANDING & POSITIONING
MARKETING STRATEGY
VISUAL IDENTITY & DESIGN
Running a business is like shaping a bonsai—small, intentional adjustments lead to sustainable growth. Instead of drastic changes, refine offerings, pricing, positioning, and processes over time. Prune what no longer serves you and cultivate a business that thrives. #entrepreneurship
Not every business deal is about immediate profit—some opportunities create long-term value that leads to greater success. Taking on strategically valuable projects, even at a lower rate, can refine services, build strong relationships, and open new doors. Knowing when to pursue an opportunity and when to say no helps balance profitability with sustainable business growth.
Stop letting overthinking, analysis paralysis, FOBO, hold your business back. You can make faster, more confident choices that drive progress…if you let yourself.
Referral marketing isn’t just a strategy—it’s the backbone of sustainable growth. Referrals harness the most powerful form of advertising: personal recommendations. Turning satisfied customers into enthusiastic advocates can build trust, attract new clients, and create lasting loyalty without stretching your budget.
Here’s a little tale about why you’re always networking, even when you’re just grabbing a plate of free food.
Downtime for solopreneurs and small business owners is essential for boosting productivity, creativity, and work-life balance. Learn why taking breaks, whether through vacations or sabbaticals, is key to preventing burnout and ensuring long-term business success.
Cuts through the AI hype, with practical insights for service-based SMEs. From automating customer relationship management to refining your professional writing and optimizing your calendar, these AI tools streamline your tasks and enhance productivity.
Creating a brand from scratch can seem daunting, but by following these steps, you can establish a powerful and effective brand that sets your startup apart from the competition.
Managing your personal brand is an ongoing process that requires constant attention and effort to build and maintain one’s brand image. But doing so can significantly impact career success and professional relationships.
In this article, we explore seven reasons why you need a brand advisor for your personal brand. Learn how a brand advisor can help you define your brand, create a strategy, develop your voice, establish authority, increase visibility, maintain consistency, and save time and energy.
Setting monthly resolutions can be a powerful tool to help you stay motivated, focused, and on track to accomplish your annual goals.
A “start, stop, continue” list is a helpful tool for reflection and growth. For a business, it can be used to identify projects, initiatives, and activities that are worth starting, stopping, or continuing to achieve specific business goals.
Want to know what makes a great brand? We surveyed friends and colleagues to learn what consumers value in a brand. From consistency to originality, see what it takes to create a brand that stands out and resonates with your audience.
During the week, people all over the world attend BNI meetings to get and give referrals. But as it turns out, few members tap into the full potential of their BNI chapter. There is a system for generating business referrals, and you have to be willing to do the hard work it takes to get them. Here are six step-by-step instructions for helping people to help you.
Going to a BNI meeting having not done any work behind the scenes is like an athlete going to the Olympics without training – neither is likely to win any medals.
One of the most valuable and often ignored assets any business professional has is their network of personal contacts. If you keep an organized list of contacts, you’ll be able to effectively and efficiently build and deepen your relationships, ask for referrals, or simply keep in touch.
Most of us are familiar with the BNI expression 'people do...
If anyone in the room owns a business with staff, you have likely experienced “leaky bucket” syndrome where we train our team only to find a few weeks later they’ve forgotten the training. We have to keep topping off the bucket!
BNI is notorious for acronyms, and one of my favorites is the...
A timely follow-up can mean the difference between closing a sale and hearing that they hired someone else before you got around to it. Use this hack to never forget to follow-up ever again.
As you know, visitors are the lifeblood of BNI. Natural...
A steady stream of visitors is necessary to keep a chapter...
When we look at the overall levels of member engagement in...
During business networking meetings, such as BNI or Chambers of...
Are you stressed out about your upcoming featured presentation?...
Here are some secrets for planning and preparing for your...
Business professionals who want to do business by referral are...
So often, BNI members are frustrated about not getting more...
Think about marketing as planting trees. The trees of brand marketing you plant today will guarantee business growth tomorrow. What you are communicating today is to help potential customers make the buy decision in the future when they need what you are offering.
If you’re like me, you have changed your approach to networking over the last seven months. As we have learned in our chapter, we can all find new clients by watching out for each other on Facebook. But Social networks are multifaceted tools being used to create awareness, promote, and build relationships!
It’s been eight+ months since we started doing our weekly referral networking meetings over Zoom. For some, it’s comfortable and natural. For others, we’re either still finding our way or getting pretty tired of doing this virtually.
With social distancing becoming the norm, networking has moved to online platforms, but it is still an essential tool for building relationships. To be successful, you must have the right mindset, where you focus on how you can help others, not how they can help you. This approach builds mutually beneficial relationships, which is the goal of networking. You can start by nurturing existing relationships, checking in on close friends, family, and colleagues. To meet new people, you can target specific groups or be open to random connections. Allocating just 30 minutes a day to LinkedIn can be an effective way to network online by skimming your feed, commenting on relevant articles, and sending personalized messages to your connections.
Mission, vision, values, and positioning statements are the most widely recognized strategic tools used to define a company’s business, strategic objectives, and overall approach to reach those objectives. Another less frequently recognized strategic statement that many companies neglect to employ is the Purpose statement.
A follow up email or call isn’t about trying to sell additional products or services. The best follow-up is one that adds value to the recipient.
Branding is long-term focused, rather than special promotions or a discounts. The tactics for staying top-of-mind 6 or 12 months from now are different than getting them to notice you right now.
Since so many people are working from now, and Brenits Creative is a 100% remote-work team, I wanted to share the four things that I have been doing consistently for 20 years.