15 business advice "snacks" you can use today

In the June 2026 edition:

• Some tasty summer snacks; advice snacks, that is 🍦🍓

• Free money for your business: who’s giving it and how to get it

• A good read for Pride Month 🏳‍🌈

SOMETHING USEFUL

15 “advice snacks” for solo business owners

Summer’s here, and hopefully you’re sitting by the pool with the cold adult beverage of your choice. Or at least at your laptop near an open window with an iced coffee (me 🙋).

In lieu of a long, chewy article today, I thought I’d go more bite-size: 15 quick pieces of advice that keep coming up in conversations with clients. No matter the industry or revenue model, these tips and mindset shifts are useful for any business owner.

Take a look and let me know if any of these “advice snacks” help you save a little time, money, or sanity this summer. If one of them resonates with you but you’re like, “But how do I apply this to my business?”, I can help with that.

Dig in!

1. It's not “playing small” to know your limits and operate accordingly. I’m so sick of business influencers goading people into feeling bad about having a manageable, stable business. We all need balance and boundaries in our work and personal lives, and there’s nothing wrong with aligning your business with your boundaries. Knowing your limits doesn’t mean you’re limiting yourself.

2. To spend less time on Instagram while still keeping up with people and accounts that are important to you, add them to your Favorites list, set your feed to only show Favorites, and you’ll see all of their recent posts. A huge time saver!

3. Money is like oxygen for your business. There’s a lot to criticize about capitalism, but if your business doesn’t make money, it’s game over. Pursuing profit doesn’t mean you’re greedy, and focusing on your finances doesn’t make your passion less credible. If serving your customers is meaningful to you, profitability is how you make sure you can continue to be there for them.

4. Uncertain customers don’t buy, and everyone is uncertain when someone or something is unproven. Address their concerns and demonstrate your credibility proactively, and new customers will be more willing to buy. How to do this? Customer reviews & testimonials, FAQs, clear return or refund policies, and sharing information about who you are and why you’re qualified are all great for this.

5. Every single person is capable of managing their business’s finances. I hear “I’m not good with numbers” a lot and I’m here to tell you that with the right support and commitment, anyone can learn and apply financial management skills. A lot of the business finance information out there is overly complex for solo-owned businesses; financial management really can be simple when you focus on the fundamentals.

6. Don’t pay for QR codes (or use temporary ones) if you’re subscribed to Canva. From the Canva Home page, go to Apps, search “QR code” and choose Canva’s QR code app to make any QR code you need.

7. Growth isn’t always good. It’s usually expensive and risky and any benefits are not guaranteed. Growth should always be tied to specific goals, and if those goals are financial, make sure the math works first. If you aren’t sure how to do that math, figure it out or find some help before moving forward.

8. Following up is more important than reaching out. Yes, reaching out has to happen first, but very few people respond to a pitch, invitation, or partnership opportunity the first time they see it. People are busy and emails or DMs get buried within a day. Following up (respectfully, of course) isn’t annoying, it can actually be a helpful reminder for people who forgot to reply to your first message. Always follow up twice. No response after that? Let it go.

9. A lot of social media content about small business ownership is provocative, not helpful. You don’t need to be “insane” to succeed, you don’t need to have “6-figure months” (total BS), you don’t need to scale. It is perfectly legitimate to run a one-person business that makes enough to help support your family and leaves you with free time to live your life. You don’t need to sacrifice yourself for your business.

10. If you’re hosting an event, the most crucial time to market it is 7-10 days leading up to it. If you feel like you’re posting, emailing, and sharing about it too much, that’s the right amount. People are barraged by tons of content and they often need to see your thing several times before they decide to attend, and they usually don’t make that decision until about a week (or less) ahead of time.

11. Make email marketing easier with a simple email template: Two or three sections that have the same theme every time, plus a specific call-to-action for how your subscribers can buy from you. If you want to see an example, you’re looking at one—my emails are organized this way, and it makes writing them so much easier.

12. You can get it all done, but not all at once (and maybe not actually all of it). Burnout and overwhelm are not synonymous with business ownership. There will always be tons of ideas to try, events to attend, and opportunities to pursue, but trying to do it all isn’t sustainable. Set priorities for now, the next 3 months, and the next 6 months. Free yourself from ideas and commitments that aren’t giving you the results you need (whatever that looks like for you).

13. If you feel overwhelmed by the size of a project or the number of things on your plate, spend 30 minutes on an action planning session. For each project or goal, figure out the next 3-5 tiny, granular steps you need to take and decide when to do them in the next 1-2 weeks. Once they’re done, action plan the next round of steps. You can accomplish so much this way, without feeling overwhelmed.

14. Marketing is essential, but social media may not be. Align your investment into social media with the return you’re getting from it, and expand your visibility strategy to include other business development tactics to get better results. Social media is one of the most visible marketing tactics, but it can’t be the only one you use.

15. It’s normal to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. Most business skills aren’t widely taught, and that’s especially true for solo-owned businesses where some things just work differently. Never feel bad for not knowing how to do something—but it is important to know how to figure things out (a true specialty of every business owner I know!) For more on what you really need to know how to do to run a business, read this.

SOMETHING NEAT

Everyone wants a grant for their business, but they’re notoriously difficult to win.

This article from They Got Acquired goes deep on how to find grant opportunities and craft a winning application, plus it has a huge list of current grants and pitch opportunities, and links to grant databases.

Grants for entrepreneurs: A huge list of funding options, plus how to win them

(P.S. They Got Acquired is a great resource all on its own. Even if you’re not thinking about selling your business, they have excellent advice for how to make your business run effectively and sustainably, because that’s what buyers are always looking for.)

A LITTLE TREAT

I picked up Better Living Through Birding by Christian Cooper at Black Rock Books a while ago and finally read it this month. It’s a memoir about Cooper’s life as a gay black man, told through the lens of his love of birding and his experience of being threatened by a racist woman in Central Park in 2020. (You may remember the video, which went viral after the incident.)

While Cooper became a household name came after a horrible incident that never should have happened, his memoir tells his whole life story—one that’s unusual, thought-provoking, and so much bigger than one awful moment in Central Park. Recommended!

WORK WITH ME

This newsletter is for everyone, but a one-on-one consulting engagement is tailored to you and your business. Here’s how I can support you:

• Strategic Action Planning—For solo business owners with a lot to do, and never enough time. We’ll refine, prioritize, and organize your goals, and I’ll create a road map for you to get them done. (My most popular service.)

• Resilience Jumpstart—Turn analysis paralysis into decisive action with affordable 1:1 support to get you moving in the right direction fast.

• Operations Analysis—Is your business built on a strong foundation? An operations deep dive will tell you exactly what to do to make your business work better from the inside out.

• General Consulting—Get expert support with business challenges like workload sustainability, financial fundamentals, pricing, client communication, and more.

When you’re ready, schedule a free 30 minute intro call with me.

Thanks for reading—see you next month. If you have a business owner friend who would find this newsletter useful, please share it with them!