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Let’s face it, as a busy mom, it’s not always possible to spend lots of time at the computer during the day. Whether you’re spending time in a waiting room, or cooking dinner, you can use small minutes throughout the day to help you grow your biz or blog thanks to the smartphone.
My favorite times for doing business on my phone?
- When I’m watering the cows, because those big stock tanks take a couple of minutes to fill
- While in the waiting room
- When I’m snuggling on the couch at night with my son who has a sleep disorder
- While nursing my newborn
While you might not have those opportunities throughout the day, I’m sure you can think of a couple of five-minute chunks of time when you could whip out your phone.
Now that you know when you might use your phone, let’s talk about what. What can you do to grow your biz or blog with a smartphone?
Lots! I’ll break it down into categories for you:
Market Your Business with a Smartphone
There are apps for everything now days, and all the major social media platforms have apps. Be sure to download the ones you’re on.
With just a couple of minutes, here are a few things you can do:
- Pin a few pins to your boards or a group board
- Retweet something that will resonate with your readers
- Post on Facebook
- Take a pic for Instagram
- Reply to comments on any platforms
- Connect with new followers
- Buffer something
Make Connections with Blogging Outreach
You can’t grow your business by staying in a bubble. Dealing with other people is an essential part of the growth formula.
Thankfully, you can connect with influencers right from your smartphone. Here’s how:
- Comment on posts
- Respond to comments
- Make connections on social media
- Research sites you can guest post on
Find Work
Do you need a new client to grow your business? From your smartphone, you can:
- Check job boards
- Draft an email to pitch
- Post on social media that you’re taking on clients
- Email a current client for a referral
Improve Your Website
My site always seems to need some tweaking! The good news is, the WordPress app is pretty functional for my purposes. Here are some ways to improve your website with your phone:
- Check out your mobile optimization
- Check your stats
- Take care of spam comments
- Brainstorm different headlines to test for a post
- Create copy for an “About Me” page
Do Some Paperwork
Paperwork from your phone? Well, if you use physical papers for your records this might not be applicable. But, I’ve switched to digital records for all of my business expenses. From my phone I can:
- Create an invoice (thanks to the Wave app)
- Update my income tracker (it’s saved on Dropbox)
- Follow up with potential clients
- Organize Google Drive folders (mine are a mess, anyone else?)
Self Improvement
Improving oneself is essential to business growth. I’ve learned so much since launching my business! From a phone you can:
- Listen to a podcast
- Read inspirational quotes
- Write business goals
- Document your “why”
Download Apps
There are plenty of useful apps to download as a freelancer! Need some suggestions? Here you go:
- Buffer
- Google Drive
- Evernote
- Dropbox
- IFTTT
Develop a Product
Develop a product from a phone? It might sound crazy, but that’s exactly how I started piecing together my course.
It started as an idea in my notes app. Then, I started outlining the topics I’d cover. I even drafted a couple of lessons on there, while waiting for one of my son’s doctor appointments.
From a phone, you can also:
- Draft a poll to see what your readers need
- Read three-star reviews on Amazon to find a need
- Email people about collaborating or testing
- Proofread your content
Local Outreach
Even though I don’t currently have any local clients, I still like to make some nearby connections. There’s something special about face to face communication. So from a phone you can:
- Check out your Chamber of Commerce and see if it’s something you should join
- Arrange for childcare so you can attend a networking event
- List your business on local yellow pages
- Make a list of local business that might need your service
Take Care of Images
Every post needs a picture (or two!). High quality pictures are desired, to increase the likelihood of getting shares. If you need to take care of images, you can do many things from your phone, such as:
- Taking a picture
- Editing a pic (download an app first)
- Upload images to your website
- Make a list of images you need to look for
- Browse stock photo sites
I’ve been enjoying using the Canva app to make new pins for all my old blog posts. It works really well!
Benefits of Growing a Business or Blog with a Smartphone
I’ve done plenty of work on my phone, and I’m so excited for the growth I’m seeing. Here are some benefits of working from a smartphone:
- I can take my phone pretty much anywhere.
- My phone is a lot smaller than my laptop, so it’s easier to pack around.
- I almost always have my phone, it’s accessible.
- I can use voice recording apps to record ideas when I can’t type
- There’s an app for just about everything
Downsides of Growing a Business with a Smartphone
Using a phone to grow a business isn’t all rainbows and lollipops. There are some definite disadvantages:
- Harder to put down (which makes setting work hours a bit of a challenge)
- Easy to get addicted to (I’m still struggling here!)
- Risk getting so absorbed in a task you forget what else you’re doing (like the time I burned the food cooking because I wanted to “finish this email.”)
- There’s stuff you can’t do.
I mean phones are pretty amazing, but there are still some tasks I can’t do on my phone.
Do You Want to Do More to Grow Your Biz from a Phone?
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Very informative article! You painted a realistic picture on how you can be successful when you are away from your laptop. I agree with you 100%. Growing your business from your smartphone is very convenient. We can’t forget that there are things we need to do outside of our smartphones. Thank you for the information!
You’re welcome Terrence. It definitely is convenient to use the phone, but it doesn’t work for everything.