2020 What a year! This was the first time I have taken the lead as Director for a business. While this is still a part-time endeavor, I’m building slowly for now but aiming big in the future.

Wedgewood Cove desired an updated website that showcased the golf course, restaurant, events venue, pro shop, and real estate opportunities. Their current site was over eleven years old and was not mobile-friendly and difficult to update.

After looking at inspirations websites and delving into their ideal client profile and goals, we very quickly found our design direction. We updated the look from mauve and textured grey to crisp and clean white with black and golden accents.

Sing Down the Moon is the third book I’ve read by Scott O’Dell. He is a masterful storyteller of shorter, historically-based books which often feature native peoples as the main characters. He uses beautiful settings into which he crafts his stories. They are full of trial and hardship, often include a journey with unexpected twists, but generally, resolve to a happy ending amidst the given circumstances. Last year I read, Island of the Blue Dolphin, set on an island far off the California Coast, and The Black Peal set on East Baja and Vermillion Sea between the Peninsula and Mainland Mexico.

I’m sure this list comes across as quite ambitious. It is but here’s the thing, I am not trying to read everything on this list in just one month. Sure some of them I will, but the majority of them are slow reads meant to be mulled over and chewed on a bit as I slowly work through them.

Today I’m walking you through how to customize all the essential brand settings. Dubsado is a very powerful CRM and will take quite a bit of time to learn all the ins and outs. Our focus today is what to do when you open the application for the first time. We’ll get all the essential branding item details set and off your to-do list.

Today I’m walking you through how to customize all the essential brand settings. Dubsado is a very powerful CRM and will take quite a bit of time to learn all the ins and outs. Our focus today is what to do when you open the application for the first time. We’ll get all the essential branding item details set and off your to-do list.

As a new business owner one important facet to consider is how you are going to invoice your clients and accept payments. If you are a service provider another important thing to have in place is a contract and a way to collect signatures. 

I believe that the majority of my business will be conducted online versus face-to-face so I went in search of an application that would generate invoices, contracts, collect electronic signatures, and accept online payments. These were my primary needs and where my search started. 

One of my favorite things of all time is to be in Washington DC when spring bursts into bloom.

There is nothing like standing on the banks of the Potomac River or walking from one national monument to another amidst the radiant blooms of all the cherry trees. The National Cherry Blossom Festival is one of the few times I’d recommend blazing a trail among the crowds.

Even if you can’t make it to DC this year, I’ve yet to live in a place where the cherry blossoms didn’t deliver. Last year when we lived in the mountains just outside Santa Fe, they were gorgeous!

The Painted Hills in Central Oregon is a stunning landscape. Your view is serene and colorful, quiet and picturesque, and definitely unique to behold. The wind whips at you constantly while you traverse the paths up to the main lookout.

The Painted Hills in Central Oregon is a stunning landscape. Your view is serene and colorful, quiet and picturesque, and definitely unique to behold. The wind whips at you constantly while you traverse the paths up to the main lookout.

There are so many free tools available on the internet today. I am honestly surprised and very grateful for the continued generosity of developers. They make it so much easier to start and manage an online business. 

The list of free tools is nearly endless, but today I’m going to rein it in and talk about my top three must-have tools to use in your first year of business. 

Many business owners have become true fans of Square payment processing and their innovative and streamlined approach to payment processing.

When we owned our first restaurant, implementing Square and their mobile card reader into our business made an enormous difference in the customer experience, speed of the payment transaction, and where it really counts--their very reasonable transaction fees and quick payouts. 

So you are thinking you want to build a new website for your business. There are several things you can do now before you take the technical plunge down the website building rabbit hole. There are so many things to think about as you begin this endeavor.