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Blazer (ThePreppyMAG Boutique)

Happy Monday! Is it just me or did that weekend go way, way, way too quick?! For some reason I’ve gotten into a really bad habit of sleeping these winter weekends away, which is partly great and partly stressful. Great because I start the week super well rested, but stressful because the weekends are usually the only time I have to focus on my blog/boutique side hustle.

Luckily, this week ends with a three-day-weekend, so hopefully I’ll have a bit more time to focus on the side hustle in the coming days. If you are a side hustler like me or even a straight-up entrepreneur you probably know the constant struggle to ‘find time’ to do more for your business. And recently, I’ve been ending every day asking myself, ‘Did you do everything you could possibly to do today to make your business succeed?’. Quite honestly, it is CRAZY stressful! There is always MORE you can do, so this question can be pretty daunting.

A big part of answering this question is investing in the tools your business needs to thrive. Since my blog and boutique are two side-hustles of mine, I try to strategically invest in tools, products, and experiences that allow me to do THE MOST for my business as efficiently (time + money) as possible. Below are three tools that I’m currently using to help my business THRIVE.

1| Campaign Monitor.

This tool is all about streamlining my email marketing for my blog and boutique to be quick and easy. Campaign Monitor allows you to create completely customizable emails (web and mobile optimized!) to send your subscribers and customers. Not only does Campaign Monitor help you create flawless emails, but you can also see a complete dashboard of analytics on your emails. Analytics include: Who is clicking? What they are clicking? Where they are clicking from? All of this data can be used to learn what resonates with your subscribers or customers so you can create even more impactful email marketing campaigns and get a higher return on your investment.

Once you’ve perfected your email marketing technique within Campaign Monitor, you can get really fancy and use their automation tools to create completely personalized emails that can drive HUGE results for your business. This means, if you’ve noticed in the past (through Campaign Monitor’s analytics tools) that a customer clicked through to a specific product page or landing page on your blog, you can send them a personalized email serving up more similar products or content that they may be interested in.

You’re probably thinking that this tool is too good to be true and costs $$$$, but you can start for only $9 per month, which is the plan that I use!

2| Instagram Presets

This is actually something I haven’t invested in yet, but know that I have to, AND soon! If you are unfamiliar with presets, they are basically Instagram filters that you can buy from editing apps or even photographers to ensure that every photo that you put out into the world feels consistent with your creative look & feel. This is how some of your favorite Instagram stars have consistently light & airy photos or that vintage grain. Instagram presets make your Instagram posts look flawless, but also cuts down a TON of time that you may be using to edit your photo to ensure it is Insta-Perfect. Seriously, sometimes it can take me up to an hour to edit a photo to perfection. At the very least, this is an investment I need to make so I can spend more time creating meaningful content for ya’ll instead of editing Instagram photos.

3| Create & Cultivate

One of the most important things I do for my business is investing time in reading industry thought leadership. From reading inspiration on the Create & Cultivate website to listening to success stories from Create & Cultivate’s podcast, Work Party, I find this organization such an important resource in growing my business and most of the time it is 100% FREE. However, recently this company has made me feel EXTRA inspired so I invested in a ticket to their upcoming NYC conference this June. Hoping all of the inspiration that this organization gives me on a daily basis turns into even more inspiring and meaningful connections with other bloggers and entrepreneurs.