5 Tips on How to Be Consistent as a Small Business Owner

Some days, I feel like I’m standing still while the whole world zooms by in a blur. It’s insane how fast time flies as we get older. I remember as a kid, it seemed like it took forever for the weekend to get here and now I’m confused when it’s gone in the blink of an eye.

Then there are days when I seem to kick life’s ass, rocking my to-do list and exceeding past all my planned goals. I will admit, these days are fewer and a true blessing when they appear. I always seem to get more energetic when the weather turns nicer and the days get longer. Seasonal depression is a bitch, especially for someone who’s already dealing with regular depression, social anxiety, and ADHD.

How to Stay Consistent with Your Daily Routine

Anyone that knows me will tell you that my biggest flaw is procrastination. I can know about something for weeks and still put off anything I need to do until the last minute. But I like to joke with them that at least I’m consistent with my procrastination. Consistency is important.

For me, it’s crucial. Whether I’m trying to adapt to a new habit, break an old one, or if I’m trying to complete a set of goals, the only way I’ll be successful is if I keep up with the change in a consistent pattern. I swear I have undiagnosed OCD. Once I get into a routine of something, it becomes such a habit that I struggle if I deviate from the pattern.

I will say that this abnormal behavior has been beneficial to my career and small business over the last two years. I’ve been jumping into various ventures with both feet, head-first, and my eyes wide open. Yeah, that’s a lot of analogies, but hey I’m a writer! It’s what we do.

Be Competitive – With Others or Yourself

Because I’ve gotten into the habit of writing EVERY day, I’ve been able to maintain a rather massive workload. I have several regular clients, multiple blogs, and three online eCommerce stores. I create written content, digital graphics, and resources for SAH moms, WFH moms, small business owners, solopreneurs, freelancers, and anyone wanting to make money at home.

Don’t believe my consistency? Up until I got sick in December with a flare of my chronic illness, I was on a 97-week writing streak, according to my online best friend, Grammarly. After three weeks of living on death’s door and a weekend in the hospital to start off this glorious year of 2023, I ended up back at the starting position.

Now, I’m competing with myself to beat my record. Grammarly is teasing me with that next badge achievement – 100 weeks! I’m now on week 6, so there are only 94 weeks to go. FML.

Find Tools That Encourage Good Habits

Do you use Grammarly in your business and life? If not, I highly suggest it. Even if you’re not a professional writer. But if you are an expert, it’s an essential freelance tool. As I’m showing, it doesn’t just tell you if your spelling or grammar is wrong. It tracks your progress from the day you start using it.

From the time that I signed up for Grammarly in 2019 – minus the times that I had to sign in under a client’s account to use their business plan – I’ve “checked” 12,671,451 words. It even gives me the number of words I checked last week. Then I can see how my stats compare to other Grammarly users, from productivity to vocabulary.

I’m such a amazing, one-of-a-kind writer that I’ve used 3,418 unique words since the start of 2023. That’s 94% more than other users. Like I said, you can get major feedback on your writing by signing up for Grammarly.

Copyscape is another tool I absolutely rely on, once I’ve got my content researched – Google and Answer the Public – written – Google Docs – and edited – Grammarly. You can run your content through Copyscape to check for plagiarism – using someone else’s work as your own.

Be Smart With Your Time and Attention

If I’m short on time but really need to get something posted or made quickly, I’ve been using PLR – private label rights – which is content made by someone else and available for me to use. While it makes things faster, the downside is that other people also use this same content (not plagiarism because the material is open for multiple uses).

Using PLR, I’ve been able to publish three books in the last two weeks – two in the last two days. I’m hoping that if I can keep up with my routine, I’ll be ready to publish another book tomorrow!

Once I get into the habit of doing something for more than a week or two, it becomes second nature and easier for me to do on auto-pilot. Along with my books, I’ve also gotten into a habit of creating pins to promote my different blog posts. Supposedly, Pinterest is the way to get more traffic. I’ll update in a few weeks to let you know if it’s really working!

I have zero traffic on either of my other sites right now. I’m hoping my elegant pins – made with templates and Canva because ya’ know time-saving – starts getting traffic to those sites. There’s as much to see and learn there as there is on this blog!

Take Shortcuts When They’re Available

Everyone has heard the phrase, “Work Harder, Not Smarter.” So, when it comes to Pinterest and stocking my online stores with goodies, there are a few resources I’ve become obsessed with checking weekly – if not daily.

One of my favorite sites is Creative Fabrica. They have a ton of stuff that you can download for free, including fonts, graphics, embroidery patterns, classes, and SVGs. They even offer KDP content that’s ready to publish and sell, with no work from you.

You can start an entire online business with just resources like this, downloaded for free from Creative Fabrica!

While they have a bunch of cool free stuff, they’re paid content is even better. And at only $4.99 a month for their membership, you can make your investment back in as simple as one sale.

Another of my favorite craft resource go-to’s is Design Bundles (along with sister sites Font Bundles). You can get a bunch of free stuff using DB too. Enjoy this week’s free bundle, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

Or you can also get even more with their membership, which is a bit more costly. But unlike CF, you get more downloads and you can upgrade to larger packages.

Find Inspiration In Everyday Activities

I’ve written a previous post about how I use my daily routine and the events of my life to inspire me on what content I want to cover in my blogs.

I get ideas from everywhere – whether it’s a quote, a memory, a song, something I’ve seen or read, or even activities I have to do in my role as mom, business owner, CEO, freelance writer, wife, pet parent, support system, daughter, sister, auntie – the list goes on.

And many times, I find ways to link to each other, with a overall theme with several sub-themes to suit each of my niches. While I’m writing about consistency as my theme here, on my music blog, I’ll use consistency, procrastination, and the passage of time to talk about my stress over all the things that will be our last this year, with our oldest child turning 18 in April and graduating in May.

While we were waiting on the youngest to get out of her tumbling lesson this afternoon, the oldest girl came along – she’s decided to ignore her social anxiety and join the advanced tumbling class and I couldn’t be happier. And we rode out to the river, where I climbed into the backseat and let her get behind the wheel.

I have more gray hair, a burning in my stomach, and tension in my hands from holding on for dear life, but it was a pleasurable and non-life-threatening event. But it drove home that my kids are getting older and that comes with new challenges, journeys, experiences, schedules, and anxieties.

But this life experience inspired a new product idea for my shop, which I’ll discuss and break down on my crafting and digital design site, Sarandipity’s. And I’ll get into the boo-hoo-ey sappy I’ll be an empty nester before long depression story on my Xennial Mom-fessions page.

And to make up for the guilt I felt for not letting the doggos go along on our ridealong today, I let them go with me while I picked up the two littlest from the youngest girl’s softball practice. She has busy Wednesdays. LOL.

And over on Adventures with Canines, I’ll talk about the chaos the pups caused yesterday when we let them go along to pick up the youngest from tutoring and the youngest boy from football practice. It’s the perfect opportunity to pitch an upcoming training book. Their bad behavior yesterday is the reason they had to stay crated today instead of getting to go for a long ride. But since the teen drove, I’m super glad they stayed behind. They tend to forget their manners when they get excited – usually around water and fields.

When Life Gives You Lessons, Use Them to Make Money

It may sound weird to say that my procrastination led to the expansion of my business, but it’s hard to deny the role this negative trait has had on my life in the last two years. While I may get detoured on my path to my ultimate destination, the stops I make along the way always become useful at some time down the line.

The one thing I’ve learned is that being consistent doesn’t have to mean doing the same thing at the same time every time. It means to get into a habit of doing something enough that it is more than a consistency. It becomes ingrained into a pattern that you can’t help but repeat. It may not seem it now, but when you do something long enough, anything can become routine. And once you learn to do something, there will be plenty of ways to make money from it.