I always do plan to take my business to the next level to achieve success. My business has definitely been built in stages. There is no overnight success to be seen here, just a lot of long term planning, hard work and consistent effort. In each clear stage of my business there have been changes or upgrades I have made that ultimately resulted in my business growing into the next stage, and in time I have always been able to look back and see that it was this a specific catalyst that helped me grow my business to the next level. Today, I want to share with you 4 things I did to up level my business that had a clear impact on my growth, the impact it had on my business and provide some analysis for why it was a game changer. 

Hopefully, you can spend some time reflecting on these items to determine if you also are ready to up level your business in a certain area and reap the rewards of upgrading tools or strategies.

#1: Moved from Blogger to WordPress

What I did: Upgraded to a self hosted website from a free Blogger site I had been using for years to host my blog.
Impact on my business: Sky-rocketed my blog traffic and page views, and then later gave me a ready made platform to create my online shop.

Analysis: For years I had used a free Blogger/Blogspot account to host my blog, but eventually I knew it was time to upgrade to a self hosted WordPress site if I wanted to go from hobby-blogger to serious-blogger. Luckily, WordPress has many free plugins available to help make that migration from Blogger to WordPress much simpler and it only took me a weekend and an investment of about $200 to get my new site up and running. Almost immediately I could see the impact it had on my traffic and page views. Having a self hosted website is much better for your SEO (search engine optimization) than a free blog site, and my page views grew steadily over the coming months and years. 
Although I have garnered a pretty large following through social media, I still find that the majority of the traffic to my site comes from organic search results and SEO, and I know I have many regular readers who came to me, not through YouTube or social but through a search engine to my site and shop. SEO has been integral for helping the passive income for my business grow and upgrading to self hosted WordPress was the catalyst for this growth.

#2: Upgraded to a DSLR Camera

What I did: Purchased a DSLR camera and learned to use it!
Impact on my business: Greater following on social and YouTube.
Analysis: Once I started using a DSLR camera, the quality of my pictures and videos increased dramatically. This had a positive affect on many areas of my business, including my blog, Instagram and YouTube. Almost immediately, I began to see my followers on Instagram increase as I posted nicer pictures regularly. My blog page views increased as well as my images were getting more hits in search and they picked up significantly on Pinterest as well which in turn drove traffic to my blog and shop. Once I started using my DSLR for video, it took me some time to find the sweet spot for filming and the right lenses to use, but the improvement in the quality of my videos was noticeable. Online marketing has become increasing visual and the quality of your images and video really make a big impact in the polish and professionalism of your business as well as the marketability of your content online.

#3: Found a Business Mentor

What I did: Began working closely with a business mentor.
Impact on my business: Greater clarity for my business, generated new products and revenue streams.
Analysis: I found a business mentor early in 2015, or should I say, she found me! We clicked immediately and through our frequent chats, I gained new insight into the direction I wanted to take my business. 2015 was a big year for me revenue-wise, I was able to introduce many new products and revenue streams that helped propel my business forward in leaps and bounds. Having someone to bounce ideas off of and to challenge me to think about my business in different ways was a priceless experience that really helped empower me.

#4: Automated my Social Media

What I did: Began using social media automation tools that allow me to pre-create and schedule content to fill my feed in certain platforms.
Impact on my business: Established a promotion plan for specific platforms while also giving myself back time.

Analysis: Whenever you can automate actions in your business it is a time saver and it frees you up to do something different or more productive with your time. I started using the social media scheduler Edgar earlier this summer and since then I have put my promotion for Twitter and Facebook on autopilot. Since Twitter and Facebook are not two of the platforms that I actively create for, it was helpful to me to establish a regular posting schedule in these peripheral platforms while also spending as little time as possible managing them. Since implementing this change, I have seen sales of certain products rise, which shows me that these promotion efforts are working, even if I’m not working on them!

I hope you gained some insight from this post in understanding how certain changes can help you up level your business in different ways. Whether it was increased revenue, more traffic or just time I gave back to myself, every once in a while you advance your business in ways that have a positive collateral affect that changes the way you do business for the better!