Adunate Word & Design

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self-employment

Working Through the Madness

In just two short weeks March Madness went from being a tournament to a pandemic. It also permeated our internet with how-to wisdom, everything from the proper way to cough to productively working from home. 

The fact is, being self-employed for 15 years, I already was a sponge for the subject of working from home. And while it’s all sound advice, I’ve come to realize when it comes to our business we each must do what we’re each wired to do. 

Here are some examples.

Tip #1: Set consistent work hours
This morning I started work at 5:30 and later spent a FaceTime breakfast with my 2-year-old granddaughter. Tomorrow I may forego work until noon and spend some morning time in the sun. Obviously, I’m a highly unscheduled person. For me, freedom from routine is a necessity.

Tip #2: Keep your work and personal lives separate
Let’s be honest, this is as unrealistic as the separation of church and state (see this more applicable tip #4). Who isn’t going to take a break and throw in a load of laundry? And anyone who bakes bread knows it’s a wonderful way to work through a creative block. 

My point with all this rambling?

Yes, it’s good to be open to ideas. But it’s also important to know yourself and how you operate. Whether you’re outdoors with your hands in the soil or you’re indoors with your eyes at a computer, each of us must run our business in a way that works for us. 

LET’S WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

Meet The Real Estate Duo—fun-loving, highly skilled Realtors serving the Lake Country community. We’ll debut their new website soon. Stay tuned! 

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Love in the Time of Coronavirus, by Regina Brett. Love could make this our finest hour.
  2. Chicken and Dumplings. Chaos behooves comfort food and no one does it better than Smitten Kitchen
  3. InstaCart: Kudos to innovative business ideas. This one’s a lifesaver, especially for the elderly during stay-at-home guidelines.
  4. Help for Small Business: The more local you go for assistance, the faster and more personal it is. This site has A-Z information.

Stay safe everyone. May God protect you and keep you well.  

Wisconsin Women are Go-Getters

I’m always proud to be a Wisconsin woman. However, this month my heart swells even more as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. On June 10, 1919, Wisconsin—movin’ people that we are— was the first state to take such action. We even beat the U.S. Congress, which didn’t ratify the amendment until the next year.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has a great exhibit on display in our beautiful State Capitol Rotunda all the way through November. My pictures don’t do it justice so definitely take time to see it for yourselves.

Certainly, a tip of the hat is due to those progressive thinkers of Wisconsin’s legislature. But the real heroes are the women who fought more than 70 years to bring the 19th amendment to fruition, women like these Wisconsin demigoddesses.

Women’s rights groups began forming in Wisconsin in the 1860s and they rallied for an array of social reforms such as anti-slavery, temperance, education, health, and married women’s property rights. The Wisconsin Women’s Suffrage Association (WWSA) was started in 1869. Besides campaigning for suffrage, these ladies fought to improve public schools. By 1869 they were running for school boards and by 1886 women could vote for issues “pertaining to school matters,” according to the Wisconsin Women Suffrage in School Matters Referendum.

Notice a whole lot of nurturing going on here?

“Bitches get stuff done.” — Tina Fey

When women rise up, they by nature don’t do so with self-serving ambitions. If we examine the motives behind what some label as “women being bitches,” we see they’re most often raising their voices for the welfare of others; family, children, the sick, the poor. Even 19th-century women’s quest for rights to their property was done with their children in mind; to prevent a drunken husband from taking a mother’s earnings or to will a woman’s inherited land to her own children rather than those of her husband’s second wife. Sometimes women being bitchy is the only way people listen.

Today I’m admiring…

These days inspiring Wisconsin women continue to stand up for the good of others. I’m thinking of several in my world alone, caring women who have dedicated time out of their busy lives to basically make things better in Wisconsin. Women like:

Be a Wisconsin Woman

Wisconsin women are gutsy go-getters. They get things done. But really, you don’t have to live in my beloved Badger state to be so emboldened. Just get up and go wherever you are.

And don’t forget to vote!

Yesteryear’s Brewery: Today’s Small Business

While enjoying last year’s Octoberfest Brewery Tour, I came across the book Badger Breweries, Past and Present. Definitely on the rare list, it’s a detailed account of all the breweries known to have existed in Wisconsin. Look at how many it shows for my small town alone.

Badger Breweries: Past and Present

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, nearly every town in the 1800s had its own brewery. A town’s brewery was its heart, providing steady employment, commerce and togetherness. It was also its fingerprint, each with a unique history and terroir.

While most of these breweries have died long ago, we’re now savoring a renaissance with the craft beer movement. These new breweries—most of them small and independently owned—strengthen communities just like the old days. But like an egg in our beer, their innovative owners have been bestowing neighborhoods with food venues, tourism and charitable causes.

As interesting as beer history is, what I really want to talk about are small businesses. This week is National Small Business Week and in the same way those small, 19th century breweries were the lifeblood a community, so small, locally owned businesses are today.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.

Maybe you want to become one of those owners! Maybe you want impress your fingerprint into the community. The SBA has great information online to get you started, everything from funding to launching your business.

And if you’re looking for help branding and marketing your new business, please keep me in mind!

A Wolf Moon Welcome

Happy upcoming first full moon of the year!

Interestingly, not only will this be the Wolf Moon, it’s a Super Wolf Blood Moon. Super Moon, in that it’s closest to the earth in its elliptical orbit; Wolf Moon, because that’s the name given to January’s moon; and Blood Moon because of the reddish tint that’s going to appear when, yes, a lunar eclipse occurs. 

Barring cloudy skies, here in Wisconsin this stargazer’s phenomenon should appear this Sunday, January 20, between 10:41 and 11:12 p.m. You can bet I’ll be outside watching for it!

Back when people named moons according to the seasons, our northern ancestors hunkered themselves inside near a fire while wolves howled distantly in the January cold. Wolves are a common metaphor for hunger, yet families kept this wolf—hunger, that is—from their door with the food they’d put up earlier in autumn. 

These days, while in the cozy warmth of our homes, we’re browsing garden catalogs and dreaming of the spring months ahead when we can plant those first seedlings. The plans we make now shape the crops we grow in summer and the food we put up in fall, which in turn keeps “the wolves from our door” next winter. 

Preparedness: It’s ongoing through the seasons

For self-employed farm entrepreneurs, winter is time to plan your seed purchases. It’s also time to promote your farm and sign up members for the upcoming growing season. 

Next month is the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Conference and I’m presenting a workshop that offers great ideas for promoting your farm. The workshop is Marketing & Branding 101 and will be Saturday, February 23, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. We’ll talk branding, because you have to brand yourself before you can market. We’ll then discuss marketing and how social media has become the easiest and most cost effective way to promote your small business. 

Hope to see you next month in La Crosse!

Branding or Marketing: Which Comes First?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? We’ve debated this question for generations, have we not? Thankfully, when it comes to branding vs. marketing, the answer is much less scrambled (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Regardless of size or industry, successful businesses practice both branding and marketing. But it’s the order in which they approach them that really matters.

Branding first. Marketing second.

Branding and marketing are often interchanged but in truth they’re completely separate entities. Branding is determining who you are. Marketing is telling who you are. You must know who you are first, then you can tell who you are.

But what is a brand?

Your brand is not your product. It’s not even your name or logo specifically (although those develop through branding). Your brand is the whole of who you are, what makes your business (product or service) what it is. It’s the image of your business in the eyes of your customer.

In the third (episode 61) of our In Her Boots podcast series, Lisa Kivirist and I discuss the elements of branding, namely the Five W’s and an H—who, what, when, where, why and how. What is your business? Who is your target market? How do you want to be perceived? Answering these questions and more lays the foundation for your brand. They convey who you are.

Once you’ve examined yourself and determined your brand, you can then go forth and visually present your business. You can create your logo. Hang your sign. Begin your marketing!

Those Five Ws and an H

In the corporate world, much time and expense is used for brand strategizing. Small businesses commonly don’t have that luxury, but we can build a brand nonetheless. I’ve come up with a fun questionnaire to get you started. These are the same Five W’s and an H questions I ask new clients in our initial interview.

Once you complete the front side, flip the sheet over and continue asking and answering your own questions. Your goal should be 50 questions minimum! The more you brainstorm, the more questions come to mind, and the clearer you see your business!

Check out my questionnaire. It’s Free!

Where We Talk About Women and the Difficulties of Self-Promotion

My cousin JerriLynn is an amazing woman. When we were both barely into our 20s, she was an audacious entrepreneur with her own whole foods store. Since then she’s succeeded in a variety of ventures, always with moxie and always with finesse. These days she’s in real estate and even though I’m a Great Lake away from her Lansing, Michigan market, I love following her work.

I’m bragging about my cousin because just about the time Lisa Kivirist and I were taping our In Her Boots episode on the difficulties women have promoting themselves, JerriLynn’s quarterly newsletter came in the mail. I was blown away by how skillfully she announced her latest achievements, all the while keeping to her genuine and unpretentious self (and anyone who’s met JerriLynn knows this is who she truly is).

No matter what industry you’re in, tooting one’s horn is a necessary component of running your own business. It’s marketing, after all. Interestingly, many women think of self-promotion as a necessary evil. Maybe you do too? I admit I have to push myself, but I’ve also learned ways to make advocating my work easier and more authentic.

So here’s our In Her Boots, episode 60. Lisa and I share great first steps for telling your story and effectively promoting what you do. Listen up and then share your own ideas!

Marketing Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Okay, we hear this all the time: life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Like when you explore places you’ve never been. Or hang a shingle for your own business. Or, in my case, do a podcast for some of the coolest ladies ever.

That was me recently when I was interviewed by Lisa Kivirist, host of the In Her Boots Podcast. This is a great series celebrating the collaborative spirit of women farmers and, yes, I was a bit outside my comfort zone (who doesn’t cringe at the sound of their own voice?). But Lisa is awesome and her talented son, audio engineer Liam Kivirist made me feel right at home. It was super fun.

Lisa and I talked marketing—specifically marketing for small farms and women farmers. Both entities are unique and often find marketing to be outside their comfort zone. For some it’s a time constraint, for others it’s not in their personal nature. We discussed how marketing overall has changed and how we can adapt these new strategies to better fit who we are.

Stay tuned in the weeks ahead for each of these episodes!

Speaking of small farms and women farmers—last week my husband and I explored the cranberry regions of western Wisconsin. Neither of us knew much about this industry and we found it fascinating. While touring the Wisconsin Cranberry Discovery Center, a great place to learn all things cranberry, we asked where we could buy fresh cranberries (certainly the one and only item not in this well-stocked gift shop). We were directed just up the road to Wetherby Cranberry Company (ahem, strategic marketing happening right there, folks).

Wetherby Cranberry Company has been in business since 1903. It’s been owned by Nodji Van Wychen’s family since 1972. They’re one of the few farms—or marshes, as cranberry growers call their land—that sell their product independently rather than through cooperative giants such as Ocean Spray. I’m in awe of how Nordji promotes her cranberries.

Guess what I’m serving for Thanksgiving this year!

Wetherby Cranberries, Warrens, WI

 

Cr(h)acked: The Concrete Security of WordPress

When we poured concrete in our barn, the contractor said there are two kinds: Concrete that has cracked, and concrete that will crack. Apparently if we just change the word cracked to hacked, the same can be said for WordPress websites.

Knowing this, why was I surprised when back in January my site was invaded by some beastly no-life? Someone who could’ve easily applied such skills to things more productive. Upset? You bet!

(It’s okay…take a deep breath…things have since worked themselves out…)

According to Sucuri Remediation Group, of the 34,371 infected websites it analyzed in 2017, 83% were built on the WordPress. Of course, there are statistical considerations: WordPress is now powering 30% of the internet and the number of sites on its platform increases every year. Even though I sometimes contemplate moving mine somewhere else, I’m always drawn back to the ease and convenience of WordPress.

So, if I’m not setting up shop elsewhere, then I personally must take responsibility for my site’s well-being. The Sucuri team agrees. It’s research showed hackings were more the fault the webmaster than the WordPress framework.

With that in mind, here are a few of the practices I’ve taken on with vigor.

Adunate.com is SSL secure

Moved my website to HTTPS

As of this month (July 2018), Google Chrome has begun flagging all HTTP sites as insecure. To avoid this, I moved my website to HTTPS by installing an SSL Certificate (Secure Sockets Layer). This acts as an encrypted security between the web server and browser.

I purchased the SSL Certificate from my host provider and installed it from the AutoInstallSSL in my cPanel (your host provider can help you with this). I then went into my WordPress settings and changed my website address from HTTP to HTTPS. I also installed the WordPress plugin Really Simple SSL, which automatically made the necessary configuration changes to all my site’s pages.

Overall, the process was fairly straightforward.

Installed a WordPress security plugin

There are plenty of effective WordPress plugins that provide security from known threats. I chose Wordfence and use it to regularly scan my files for infection. It sends me an email whenever I log into my website administration and would also email if anyone else did, like say a hacker. It also notifies me when plugins need to be updated.

Speaking of plugins: I’m keeping them current!

Sucuri’s research shows the most common way hackers get into WordPress sites is through out-of-date components: plugins, themes and installations. I’m embarrassed to say I was guilty as charged. Call it a classic case of the shoemaker’s children having no shoes—while I was busy keeping my client’s websites current, I let my own fall behind.

Now I obsessively update my plugins. I’m demanding the same of developers as well—if a plugin or theme hasn’t been refreshed by its creator in the past 12 months, I won’t take the chance of using it. And if I’m not using it, I delete it. As for my own creations, I previously had test folders that sometimes sat empty and unused. Not anymore. Basically, I’ve decluttered my files as thoroughly as Marie Kondo does her closets.

Privacy Policy: Protection of a different nature

A privacy policy details what personal information you collect from your viewers, how you use it, and how you keep it private (here’s Adunate’s privacy policy).

Does your site need a privacy policy? It depends. Google “privacy policy requirements in U.S.” and you get a myriad of answers. Basically, to play it safe, if you’re a business and you collect data from your viewers, you should have a privacy policy. If you’re collecting money, don’t even think of going without one.

Don’t know where to start in writing your own privacy policy? There are plenty of templates online to help. Here’s one from the Better Business Bureau.

And now…drumroll, please…may I present Adunate’s New Website!

As I said, in the end things worked out well for my website. After weeks of back and forth with my host provider and continued cleansing of my files, I finally just scratched the whole thing and rebuilt it. This proved to be a good thing—I was long past giving my site its biennial overhaul and it was ready for a new look. It now comes with an https in its address and a cute little padlock.

I was also able to catch up on the latest and greatest of WordPress; including StudioPress, producers of WP themes I’ve purchased and customized. This, of course, enables me to better serve my clients.

Best of all, each time I redo my site I get a greater sense of the real Adunate—and that’s who you get when you hire me as your contractor. I’d love to help show the real you in your website.

Let’s talk!