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Change Management in Business While driving, it’s incredibly important to use our turn signals to let other cars know our intentions. Not only is it considerate, but it’s also a matter of safety. Cars often move at high speeds which requires rapid decions and have little time to decide which actions to take and the little blinking light gives insight. I can think of another instance that a turn signal could have been paramount. Chris (my husband and VS’s VP of Technology) took me snow skiing once. I had never been, so everything was new. He took me to the top of a mountain and as we started our descent, he decided to show me, impromptu, how to stop. Directly in front of me. Without telling me he was planning to do so. I’m sure you can imagine the results.  I’ve been thinking lately about other practical applications of this

Technology in Business Have y’all noticed how many things we’ve started doing online as of late that we used to do in person? Yes, it’s been heading in this direction for years, but during the Pandemic it seems to have really escalated. Shopping – I’m not just talking about buying from Amazon – but even our orders placed with local companies are ordered online many times. We’re interacting with our favorite local businesses more and more in a digital way. I see some of my customers with digital appointment scheduling links on their websites. I see customers with text or app-based loyalty systems.  I see customers with contact forms receiving record-level messages. I see signs all over the place of local businesses utilizing technology, and I don’t see this changing, ever. These are all customer-facing technologies – I haven’t even gone into the behind-the-scenes technologies we’ve been able to help

Customer Feedback Because I am in my line of work, I see a lot of comments for a tremendous amounts of businesses. These comments come in a variety of ways: social media messenger, contact forms, comments on posts, reviews, etc. And for better or worse, sending these comments over a digital media, there seems to be no filter at all. I’m guessing many of you are familiar with the Jimmy Kimmel’s Mean Tweets where the celebrity reads aloud things that have been written about them. While the celebrities roasted are good sports about it, they are really, really mean comments. And I have a feeling that most of the amateur authors would have never said that to the person if they had to do it in person. When a business receives a really mean message, it seems like the instinct should be to ignore it. File it away as garbage

Business Tax Credit There’s a popular hash tag these days #IYKYK which means “if you know you know.” I like it. I definitely had to google it the first time I saw it, but now I’m in the club. #IYKYK. 😉 What’s been so shocking to me in this business adventure is how much I don’t know I don’t know. There are smart business strategies that some companies take advantage of and other businesses have never heard of. How did President Trump only pay $750 in federal taxes? I’m not making a political statement here, I’m really looking for literal answers. As a business owner, I have *tried* to be intentional about working ON my business, not just IN my business. And in doing so, tax strategies have been one of my focuses. No, it doesn’t replace a great CPA – I’m just trying to give her a little more

You have a friend that’s a business owner. You use her products/services as much as you can and recommend her products/services to everyone. This is amazing and you are a great friend. That’s all you can do, right? Wrong. There is something else. It will take you less than 5 minutes, cost nothing, and help your friend win business from people you’ve never even met. She needs your online reviews. According to a recent study I read, 89% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. That’s a whole lot of prescreening online before they even meet your fabulous entrepreneur friend. And 79% of consumers trust the reviews they read. This is your chance to tell people you’ve never met how wonderful your friend’s business is. To give your friend the absolute best review possible, think for a minute what questions you’d have about that business as an outsider.

Am I the only one that feels work stress is just a little heavier than everyday stress? I’ll be honest, I’ve been stressed lately. I’m typically a person that handles stress well. Nothing in particular wrong, the weight of running a business is a lot sometimes. It seems like it should be true that the more employees you have to handle the workload, the less stress the owner will have; but we have a lot of capable and talented employees at Vitality South and from my seat, that doesn’t ring true. I believe that the stress that I’m feeling is actually the weight of my responsibility. I feel responsible for the livelihoods of my employees. I feel responsible for the success of my customers’ businesses. I feel responsible for the toilet paper staying in inventory for the work bathrooms. I feel responsible for the culture and morale of the office.

Vitality South is well known for its website design. Website development is not going away and is exceptionally important. I have been asked “why do I need a mobile app if I have a great website?” For some, the answer is – you don’t. However, there are multiple distinct advantages that mobile apps can offer above and beyond a website. Why choose mobile apps? Off-line availability – One feature that mobile apps can provide that websites cannot is off-line availability. You instinctively know you can use your maps without internet connectivity, but there are many other use cases for this service. We made one app for a customer’s internal business needs that required uploading photos from varying locations in the area – that may or may not have internet access. A mobile app is able to accommodate this need. Push notifications – In the marketing world, we talk about 2

I recently lost a friend and mentor, John Lovorn, owner of  The PACE Group. Over the years, John freely shared a lot of wisdom with me in hopes that it would be helpful to me and my business. He even had a short book published called “Wit and Wisdom” with inspirational quotes and lessons that he often gave away. There are certain pieces of his advice that I have adapted into my business and life that have helped shape me into the businesswoman I am today. To honor his legacy, I’d like to share some of these with you today. Do everything with humility. John had many things he could have boasted, but never did. But he did share many wonderful things his customers were doing. He challenged me to put the customer first on an even higher level than anyone else ever had. There was a quote in his

Back to school time is such an exciting time of the year. I LOVE school supplies shopping. (Yes, I realize this is totally nerdy) Really good writing pens, planners, mechanical pencils, highlighters. I get excited just thinking about it. And there’s so much more to be excited about. Finding where your desk is, learning who your teacher and classmates are, your outfit for the first day of school – EVERYTHING! I get to relive this excitement year after year through the eyes of my girls and I cherish seeing their excitement. But it’s been many years since I’ve felt the thrill first-hand. However, there is a similar excitement with a new job. Maybe no new backpack, but new friends, new planner, new excitement. Hopefully, I’ll never experience that again, for myself, ever as well. So how do you keep the “romance” alive in your job without the excitement of newness?

Inspired by something found on YouTube, my now 11 year old daughter, Vivienne, loves to do what she calls “24 hour challenges”. She finds a single location and commits to stay there for,  you guessed it, 24 hours without leaving. She prepares with snacks and entertainment. She takes great pride in her challenge accomplishments. She’s completed a challenge in a bathroom, several in a bedroom, once in my closet, once in a tent, etc. I don’t particularly enjoy these challenges and try my best to convince her that it’s a bigger accomplishment if she completes these without me. But I promised I’d do one with her for her birthday. So, last year I completed a 24 hour challenge with Vivienne in her bedroom. (Yes, we can take super quick potty breaks – I know you were wondering.) So this year, as Vivienne’s birthday rolled around, she began asking me when

This past Monday night, I did something that comes exceptionally unnatural for me. I accepted the invitation of a friend and took both of my girls to a dance class. I knew my youngest would love it, and thought my oldest would tolerate it, so off we went. We all learned a beginning version of the hustle. (No, don’t ask, I won’t demonstrate it for you-even if you persist.) And even though the steps were simple and clearly defined and demonstrated, I felt like a fish out of water. Totally self-conscious. Our instructor made the statement that there are 2 kinds of dancers: experienced and inexperienced. Not good or bad. Natural or unnatural. And it made me think: it is so comfortable to do the things you’re experienced at, and often extremely uncomfortable doing the new. As a business owner, I think we all need to think thru this on

I know it’s true, but it always seems crazy that a great way to get rid of water weight is to drink more water. And sharp knives are safer than dull knives – another thing that seems just wrong. When successful people buy stocks, they usually buy them when the price drops, not when it’s climbing. The goal is to buy low and sell high – yet many do just the opposite. In business, marketing is an important component of a revenue strategy. Yet I’ve heard many “not now” reasons that baffle me. “I just started up and want to wait until I have money coming in.” “My business is struggling right now, I want to wait until it’s doing better.” “We’re going to let word of mouth be our marketing.” Sometimes, it may feel counterintuitive, but marketing is actually the thing that helps solve these issues for you. Marketing,