Starting Your Own Business with Successful Entrepreneur Erica Douglass

Every year here on erica.biz, at the start of the year, I post goals that I want to achieve. Some of them I’ve achieved with wild success–like growing my blog and starting a startup–and some I’ve miserably failed on. But all have been learning and growth experiences.

In December, realizing the new year was coming up, I again sat down to write goals. At first, I wrote them privately–in my notebook. (One of them manifested almost right away, which was surprising.) I fully intended to faithfully copy them down and expound on them in a blog post for the New Year. I even started writing the blog post.

But I never finished it. And the more I wrote, the less it felt “right.” It got to the point where I didn’t blog for three weeks because I was stuck on that post.

I was stuck on my #themeword for a while in December, too. Actually, it kept coming up for me, but I felt like it wasn’t right. The word? Breathe.

I feel as though I’m sitting on the cusp of a huge transition in my life. (more…)

How to achieve your goals is a guest post by Jaime Tardy.

“By setting goals and measuring their achievement, you can focus on what is most important, waste less energy on noncritical tasks, and achieve greater results. “ – Harvard Business Essentials

Most of us have heard the statistic: People who set goals are more successful. You know how to set goals. But do you know how to achieve them? (more…)

When I was younger, I believed that money would make all of my problems go away. House dirty? Hire someone to clean it. Hungry? Go get whatever kind of food you want. Car broken? Go get it repaired, or buy a new one that has fewer issues. And on and on.

I’ve had three years now where I haven’t really had to worry about money, and it’s really eye-opening what problems it makes go away…and what problems remain, or get worse. (more…)

After you read this post, you may think I’m incredibly stupid.

Either that, or you will think I’m a genius.

Perhaps both.

There’s a valuable piece of online real estate that you’re probably not using to its fullest potential. And even though you may have heard this advice before, I bet you’re still not implementing it.

I didn’t implement this tiny tweak for months, even though I knew about it. (That’s the stupid part.) But once I did, I gained $804/month in passive income.

Here’s my big “Duh” moment, and how you can easily put my stupidity/genius into action and gain some income as well, even if your site doesn’t get a lot of traffic. (By the way, I’m not selling anything here. But this tweak–I’m not going to lie–could make you more income than a lot of products you buy for $497 do.) (more…)

Happy third birthday, erica.biz! It seems like yesterday that I decided to change my little personal blog into a powerhouse business blog with a real community behind it. When I launched erica.biz on December 4, 2007, I wasn’t sure where it would go. A lot of people held the opinion that the blogosphere was “saturated.” What I learned was that a new perspective–if it’s fresh and interesting–is always welcomed.

The first heartfelt blog post I wrote after I launched erica.biz was called “Hitting the jackpot doesn’t mean instantly becoming happy.” In it, I emphasized an issue I see with all too many people: Thinking that once you win the lottery, sell your business, or meet some other huge goal that everything will be okay.

The reality is that it doesn’t change much. You’re still you. And if you’ve made a goal–and then met it–that involves having a lot more free time, your life can become difficult. Suddenly, all those things you’ve been ignoring, like your health or broken relationships, come sharply into focus. (more…)