If you’re a small business owner you need one thing more than anything — your imagination. Your ability to conjure up new ideas and create new possibilities are why you’re here. There’s one tried and true technique that can nurture your imagination like nothing else and you can start today — journaling!

Failure honestly needs a rebrand. It’s gotten a bad reputation for being the scary thing you don’t want to have happen to you. But the truth is if you live long enough and if you have a healthy relationship with risk, eventually it’s a game of diminishing returns — you will fail. That doesn’t take the sting out of it but it doesn’t have to be a terrifying thought. Instead, try and see failure through a different lens.

When you’re so busy managing the details of your business it can be easy to forget to manage your people; not just what they’re working on but how they work with each other. To get the best out of your team, you’ve got to actually know them and build a workplace environment that helps them grow.

Rest isn’t just sleep but creative, mental, and spiritual. You may not be able to provide for all of those but you can begin to create the space necessary for your team to feel like they can rest. Here are three ways you can begin to do that today.

The tone and voice you use in the writing associated with your business is as much a part of your brand as your logo. It helps set you apart and contributes to your overall personality.

A significant area of your brand’s marketing is use of color—whether in your logo, website, product packaging, or content. One of the most common areas that we encounter a lack of accessibility is with branding and color. To understand color contrast in your brand requires you to assess potential blindspots.

You likely are scratching your head and asking yourself, “WTF is Alt-text? And how do I get some?” Well...alternative text (alt-text) is not necessarily something you get. Alt-text is more so something you provide to others, particularly on a website and most frequently to accompany an image on any given digital platform.

Over the past several years, the term authentic has become a highly popular catchphrase used to define one’s brand. At VVITCH, we can understand why! Every business wants to appear authentic in how they market their business services or products. However, it is time to unpack the catchphrase and whether its use serves the purpose you intend.