Erika M. Schreck Communications & Marketing Support

05/09/2023

Again, I've saved two websites in the last week... sooo many hours. Repost below.
Dear ones. If you have a website, please, please... consider website maintenance. What does that mean?

>> Either hire someone or personally stay current and consistent and regular (at least monthly) with

+ knowing when your domain and hosting expire--and paying those bills

+ updating plugins, website versions, themes and all the things that keep your website running

+ checking that your website is up and running (actually working; also, check links and forms from time to time)

+ backing up your website

I just spent several hours saving and reinstalling a client's website, and I offer this reminder as a caring public service message. This is not the first time I've done this for a client who has not been doing or hiring someone to do the maintenance, which would have omitted this time and money spent today.
My own clients have sometimes been resistant to "website maintenance," and I can't emphasize its importance enough. In my own consulting work, I offer very reasonable payment plans, simply because these regular steps of maintenance save so much pain later. In a world of icky hackers, updates, security and so forth, we need to be more diligent. Again, hire someone or ask your web person, if you don't do these things yourself.

03/24/2022

Dear ones. If you have a website, please, please... consider website maintenance. What does that mean?

>> Either hire someone or personally stay current and consistent and regular (at least monthly) with

+ knowing when your domain and hosting expire--and paying those bills

+ updating plugins, website versions, themes and all the things that keep your website running

+ checking that your website is up and running (actually working; also, check links from time to time)

+ backing up your website

I just spent several hours saving and reinstalling a client's website, and I offer this reminder as a loving public service message. This is not the first time I've done this for a client who has not been doing or hiring someone to do the maintenance, which would have omitted this time and money spent today.

My own clients have sometimes been resistant to "website maintenance," and I can't emphasize its importance enough. In my own consulting work, I offer very reasonable payment plans, simply because these regular steps of maintenance save so much pain later. In a world of icky hackers, updates, security and so forth, we need to be more diligent. Again, hire someone or ask your web person, if you don't do these things yourself.

Even with all of the time I spent and so forth, I still saved my client $350 today because I do back-ups for the site files and know a lot about websites, related fixes, and different hosting details and plans. Yay.

01/10/2022

New business cards on the way! Time for an update, and it feels so exciting to design and soon share something new. What NEW are you doing for your business brand these days?

04/14/2020

Entrepreneurs, self-employed and small-business owners, I see you.

04/11/2020

Like a lot of you, I'm Zoom-Zoom-ing a lot more these days. Great article to consider. Zoom can be exhausting. I'm so, so grateful to work on-line as much as I can. And. Friends, I'm so sorry that sometimes I'm just friggin' exhausted to do that Zoom happy hour, too.

Steven Hickman, Psy.D., executive director of the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, offers this timely perspective on managing our new virtual reality.

04/07/2020

Entrepreneurs, self-employed and small-business owners, I see you.

04/04/2020

As a self-employed, amazing person here to do important work, enjoy this supportive hour-long replay for community, fresh energy, perspective and motivation for your work. You receive insights and best practices and ideas for self-employed people during the time of COVID-19, as well as ideas and questions from the five live participants on March 31, 2020.

This event was FABULOUS! How amazing and valuable to have such a balanced assortment of five self-employed, wonderful people: we had a PR consultant, jewelry designer, massage therapist, artist and animal communicator/coach/author on this call–and I’m #6 and have both a communications/marketing consulting business and a holistic health and healing business (Turtle Healing Energy: reiki, tarot, grief coaching, Spiritual Warrior coaching, numerology). WOW! These are wild times, and we self-employed need some extra support, too.

Some immediate feedback from the live participants:
♦ “Thank you, Erika. That was fabulous. I hope you put this out as a resource.”
♦ “Thank you! It really gave me a few new ideas to think about, and I’ve been a part of similar discussions already.”
♦ “What a great call! Wow!”
♦ “Thank you for all of your support, Erika!”

Learn more and invest and receive this supportive, rooting-for-you goodness at erikaschreck.com. Sliding-scale investment: you choose: $10/$15/$20.

03/31/2020

THANK YOU to the five self-employed, fabulous people who joined me today for my free offering *Self-Employed Inspiration and Strategies* for these COVID-19 times. We had a PR consultant, jewelry designer, massage therapist, artist and animal communicator/coach/author on this call, and I'm so grateful. Lots of inspiration!

03/30/2020

Are you self-employed? Consultants, massage therapists, hair stylists, coaches, artists, reiki practitioners, acupuncturists, hair stylists, yoga teachers, therapists, rolfers, and and and.... I've been thinking a lot about self-employed people like us, and I want to offer some community and insights. I've been supporting individuals and companies with communications and marketing strategies and materials for nearly 25 years as a consultant, and we're in some very unique times.

FREE Offering and Invitation: Watch the video intro here: https://youtu.be/fsrvZlc9N_I. On Tuesday, March 31, during our hour together [11 a.m. MT | 10 a.m. PT | 12 p.m. CT | 1 p.m. ET], I'm planning up to 30 minutes of reminders, framework, mindset and strategies; then, I'll invite discussion and ideas. I'm not claiming to have all of the answers, but I do know what it's like to rally and support you.

03/29/2020

Self-employed? Hi, consultants, massage therapists, hair stylists, coaches, artists, reiki practitioners, acupuncturists, hair stylists, therapists, and and and.... I've been thinking a lot about self-employed people like us, and I want to offer some community and insights. I've been supporting individuals and companies with communications and marketing strategies and materials for nearly 25 years as a consultant, and we're in some very unique times.

FREE Offering and Invitation. On Tuesday, March 31, during our hour together [11 a.m. MT | 10 a.m. PT | 12 p.m. CT | 1 p.m. ET], I'm planning up to 30 minutes of reminders, framework, mindset and strategies; then, I'll invite discussion and ideas. I'm not claiming to have all of the answers, but I do know what it's like to rally and support you. PLEASE REGISTER by 10 a.m. MT on Tuesday, March 31, at erikaschreck.com--form is on home page.

Hello, self-employed coaches, massage therapists, stylists, artists, artists, jewelry designers, reiki practitioners, acupuncturists, hair stylists, therapis...

09/11/2019

THIS IS YOUR SIGN. Make sure you've backed up (saved) your files, pictures and any other important data on an external hard drive... the important files and programs on your computers and any images on your phone (all of mine go to Dropbox automatically). I use Dropbox for a lot of my important files now and have another backup--an external drive. As of earlier this week, my nine-month-old laptop's hard drive is toast--a very unexpected and expensive event, *and* I'm glad I have my important files saved. Sometimes we all need reminders. Set a schedule for backing up and saving your important data. Stress-reducer indeed.