As an online business owner, you know that money matters. It's the lifeblood of your business, and without it, you won't survive for long. That's why you need to keep a close eye on your financial zone - the area of your business that deals with money. Managing the financial zone of your online business can be challenging, but it's essential to keep it healthy if you want your business to thrive. Here are 5 questions you need to ask yourself (and take action on when necessary) to make sure your financial zone stays on track:

As a director of operations for online service-based businesses, I have learned that doing what's best for the business often means having hard conversations. Whether it's addressing performance issues with a team member or letting go of a long-standing contractor, difficult conversations are a necessary part of running a successful business. However let’s be honest: they can be uncomfortable, emotional, and stressful for everyone involved. Here are some important points to consider when having hard conversations.

One of the best ways for small businesses to be organized and productive is through the use of checklists. In this day and age, these checklists do not have to be on paper only. There are many software tools that can help with this, such as project management tools. The more advanced tools, such as ClickUp, let you create tasks that are dependent on one another, and this functions like a more flexible version of a checklist. Checklists make sure everyone is doing the right things at the right time.

Okay, time for some real honesty today. There have been days when I felt like the term CEO should mean Currently Extremely Overwhelmed. Anyone ever felt the same? Do I see anyone nodding their heads? I’ve had my days when I forced myself to power through, felt guilty about working too slowly or not at all, and believed that I was being lazy. This is the dark side of business that we usually don’t talk about.

As CEOs, we have to honor the fact that we won’t always feel our best, but we can learn how to preserve our energy and our mental space so we can be 100% later. Here are some reminders that have helped me when the going gets tough.

It’s the first day back in 2022! How are you feeling about the tasks you’ll have going forward? As your business grows, you may start to find yourself busier and busier doing all the things. Suppose you take the oft-quoted advice of hiring another teammate to help. Of course, it is important to delegate tasks that you do not need to be doing, and that usually involves hiring one or more people. With a team, more things are possible, and the potential is there to grow your business faster. However, there is something many business owners are not prepared for when they start hiring. It’s what I call the “management trap.”