Catwoman: I blow that tunnel open, I’m gone.
Batman: There’s more to you than that.
Catwoman: Sorry I keep letting you down.
[pause]
Catwoman: Come with me. Save yourself. You don’t owe these people any more. You’ve given them everything.
Batman: Not everything. Not yet.
via GIPHY That’s what Catwoman thinks
We are coming to the finish line in 2016. Maybe you are cruising across or maybe you are laying it out all on the line, just like Batman.
Earlier this year in the Olympics, there was an epic finish in the Women’s 400-meter-sprint when Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas dove across the finish line defeating American Allyson Felix by seven-hundredths of a second.
Incredible!
See the video here: https://youtu.be/g19ZSw_nQWs
Crazy right? She laid out to win the race.
So, as we bring to a close the year, we will start to think of new year.
Maybe you are diving across the finish line.
That’s okay!
You will surely catch a breath before heading into the new year.
Once all of the New Year parties settle down, you are going to jump-start the New Year. Well, why wait?
You can jump-start the new year today!
I have rounded up 20 resources to get you pointed in the right direction.
These are fantastic resources for WordPress Entrepreneurs.
20 Resources to Jump-Start the New Year
Business Tasks
Process.st is a company I discovered this year. They help you curate all of your processes in one place for your team.
They also have good blog posts on productivity.
Check this one out:
1. 50 Examples of Business Process Automation from the World’s Most innovative Companies
Problogger
Darren Rowse is a veteran in online marketing. The owner of the popular blog Problogger has been making his mark on the internet for over a decade now.
The one thing you will learn about Darren is that he is from Australia. Oh, and he also understands how to make yourself more productive as a freelancer.
Here are some classics from his blog. They actually are a few years old, but still very relevant.
Batching
2. The Science and Art of Batching to Increase Your Productivity
3. How Batch Processing Made Me 10 Times More Productive
Emails
4. From 10000 to 0 Emails in an Inbox in 24 Hours
5. 12 Rules for Getting a Grip on Massive ProBlogger Email
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is something I think most of us dream about. Companies with a big team have the bandwidth to set up some elaborate systems.
There is several different marketing automation software available to help businesses.
Here are a couple of articles that will give you some ideas on what you are able to do with marketing automation.
6. Marketing Hacks: 10 New Ways to Use Your Marketing Automation Platform
Tracking Time
Knowing exactly where your time is going is a tactic that many business experts recommend.
I get it. We get so into what we are doing that we fail to track our time (myself included!).
As we prepare for 2017, here are a number of articles to help you decide what tools to use to track your time.
7. 6 of the Best Time Tracking Apps for Designers, Developers, and Agencies
8. Time Is Money: The 10 Best Time Tracking Tools for Freelancers
9. 8 Great Time-Tracking Apps for Freelancers
10. 10 of the best time tracking tools for freelancers
Product Hunt
Product Hunt has become an addictive tool for many entrepreneurs. The platform allows for users to upvote anything from an app to a blog post.
You can find some of the best entrepreneur resources as well as tools to level up your business.
The Startup Stash is a curated post of resources for startups.
The developer of the page said this:
“I thought it would be fun to build a simple and useful site that can help you find resources and tools while building your startup. Hopefully Startup Stash will become the first thing you look at when you need a certain tool, just like an oldskool startpage! 🙂 “
With over 400 tools, this is worth a look. Check it out
11. https://www.producthunt.com/posts/startup-stash
Invoicing
Once you get started, you learn quickly that you need to have a way to invoice clients for work you have completed.
Even more, you realize you need ways to schedule invoices, set due dates and keep track of your money.
Sure, if you do work every now and again, you might be able to use Paypal regularly.
However, we are fully mature businesses. Even if we are a full-time freelancer, we are a business and invoicing is one area where we need to treat what we are doing as a business.
I have been using Wave Apps for time and it works well for me.
I have included a couple of articles here on invoicing.
The first one is by Jorden Roper, a copywriter who goes over a little bit of her invoicing history. She concludes by showing you the basic functions of Freshbooks.
12. The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Freelance Writing Invoice (w/ Screenshots!)
13. 10 Tips To Invoice Your Freelance Clients Professionally
Finding images for content
More than once I have had clients and friends ask me where to find free images for their blog posts.
Simply put, you need to have good quality images in your blog posts. I have (cringing) added images to my posts using images for my smartphone that were grainy.
The best thing you can do is actually take your own pictures or have a professional photographer take them.
That isn’t cheap, but it is the absolutely best thing to do.
If you have a team and you have someone with the photography chops to get it done, you are in good shape.
By the way, Darren Rowse of Problogger, has a photography blog if you want to learn more. https://digital-photography-school.com/
If you have the budget, you can keep a photographer on hand when you need pics.
The next best thing you can do is use royalty free photographs by, often professional photographers, to utilize images in your content.
I have some favorites including Unsplash. I love Unsplash for that, but they often don’t have what I need.
Additionally, I like to use Canva. To me, Canva is my secret weapon.
Here are several articles giving you tons of resources to find images for your articles.
14. 21 Amazing Sites With Breathtaking Free Stock Photos
15. Top 6 Sites to Find Free Photos to Use on Your Blog
16. How to Find Royalty Free Images for Your WordPress Blog Posts
17. Free Images for Blogs and Marketing (37 sites)
18. 25 Places to Find Free Images Online That You Will Actually Want to Use
And. . .
My all-time favorite article for these kinds of sources by Buffer:
19. 53+ Free Image Sources For Your Blog and Social Media Posts
From one cup to another
Grab your coffee and plan for 2017!
What are some of your needs?
Are you needing to make your business more proficient? Do you struggle with email overload (I do!)?
Tracking time is a good way to see where you have a time suck. Invoicing is necessary and we you get a system in place, it makes it so much easier.
Be careful when looking at Product Hunt. You can lose all track of time.
Put our processes into place makes the ongoing work much smoother. Taking the time to do that will make your business more efficient.
What are some of the tools you use in your business to be more efficient?
