Do you want break through your traditional job barriers and live a more balanced and impactful OT career online?

From talking with countless OTs who want this for themselves, I've found some common roadblocks that are holding OTs back from leveling up to a thriving online OT career. 

So let's break through them together!

Breakthrough #1: What's your fist on the table moment?

To start your own online business, you first need to want it bad enough.

What’s a life experience that made you smack your first on the table and say "I've had enough"? Use that to propel you to pivot your career online.

Breakthrough #2: What will keep you moving forward?

Without momentum, the fastest runner in the world would even lose a race.

You've got to keep your eyes on the prize. That means figuring out what your end goals in online business are in the first place.

Imagine that you can have anything you want. The sky's the limit....

"Should I start a Facebook group for my business?"

I get this question asked ALL the time.

I started my Facebook group, Taking OTs Online, about three years ago. But I only started intentionally running it as a way to pour value and a TON of free resources into OTs/OTAs looking to start an online business about a year and a half ago. Can't believe we're 6k members strong now!!

From a marketing perspective, the idea of providing value and serving your audience is (in my personal opinion) the best way to market a business because you get to organically build trust with your audience. I love that we get to do that in our group in a way that makes our community engaging and enjoyable unlike a lot of other static Facebook groups that don't necessarily nurture community. 

The short answer...

Is starting a Facebook group a good business strategy overall? Yes. I know lots of business owners who have had great success with their groups. 

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Hey there, fellow OT practitioners! Today, let's talk about a topic that's close to home for many of us in our female-dominant profession...

Why is there so little female representation in OT entrepreneurship?

We live in times where women are breaking barriers in all spheres of life, including the workforce. Yet, despite the strides we've made, women still tend to be more risk-averse when it comes to pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors. 

A large study from 2022 on thousands of women in the workplace found that women experienced less positive consequences from risk-taking in the workplace compared to men. This resulted in women taking less risks in the future compared to men. 

So it's not that women are more averse to risk than men. It's just that women are more likely to experience negative consequences from taking risks at work which deter them from taking more risks.

No wonder that even as women take on more responsibilities...

Have you ever heard of the “Marketing Rule of 7”?

In the 1930s, the movie industry researched a sample of moviegoers and discovered that customers needed to see or hear an ad for a movie AT LEAST 7 times before they decided to go see the movie at the theatre.  

The same rule applies to email marketing today, though experts argue that you may need to make contact with your potential customer MORE than 7 times on social media before they purchase your products and services.

Why does social media marketing require more effort to reach your ideal clients than email marketing? Think about it.

With email marketing, your content goes directly to your audience's inbox. You can't control whether they read it or not, but at least you have peace of mind knowing your message was delivered.

General rule of thumb is to get in your audience's inbox weekly to stay on top of their minds

On the flip side, content you...

If you're looking for a quick financial win in the online business world today, you've come to the right place!

Start making a return on your investment quicker by starting with a "minimum viable product".

What's an MVP?

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a profitable online product that takes minimum effort to organize and doesn't require you to have a full blown online product made yet.

It's a quick way to start earning money and build rapport with your target audience.

Here are my top favorite types:

CHARGE FOR A 1:1 CALL

People are paying to talk with experts in different niches ALL THE TIME.

Just think about a person you've met before who made you wish that you could pick their brain for an hour or two. 

You might have been that person before for some people looking for help in your expertise area. 

So instead of giving your knowledge away for free, you can charge within reason for your time, just...

Have you ever feared of losing your professional license by venturing out into the online business world and accidentally doing something "illegal"?

Lots of health professionals that I've talked to share this hesitation.

But I've come to learn that this fear stems from a lack of knowledge on how to run an online business legally and safely. 

Let me explain:

When you're teaching someone something through an online course, you're not providing formal occupational therapy services.

No evals

No goal setting

No formal treatments

All you're providing is general education and online resources for clients, caregivers, or other professionals that they can take and apply on their own.

So first and foremost, you should add a disclaimer to your course that:

• You are NOT providing formal therapy services.
• Your online resources are for educational purposes only.
• Your services are NOT a substitute for any necessary medical,...

When was the last time you bought something without looking at the price tag?

I hope you answered never because that's not very smart consumerism. 

So the same should apply for starting an online business. You have to and deserve to know how much money you can expect to invest in to get you started.

First things first.. the freebies 

Yes, you read that right.. there are goodies that you can get for FREE when starting your online business!

For starters, you can begin by using the free version of a video conferencing platform like Zoom or Google meets (thank youuu, pandemic ) to meet with clients interested in your digital product or service, team members, and others.

Most of these plans have limited participant and meeting duration limits, but you can get away with it for a few months as long as you're not planning to host big online events with a massive number of attendees.

Another handy, free tool is a meeting scheduling app like Calendly...

Creating a course requires careful planning, structuring, and a dash of creativity!

Here are my 6 simple steps to making a profitable online course:

1. Define Your Goals and Objectives

Before beginning the course creation process, ask yourself:

• What do you want the students to learn?
• Who is your target audience?

Having a clear answer to these two (2) questions will help you gain clarity in developing an online course that sells. 

2. Outline the Format and Course Content

Break down the information into modules and lessons and decide what course material will be covered in each lesson.

For example, the outline should resemble something like this.

• 123s and ABCs:
  • 123s represent the topics or modules (approximately 4-6) 
  • ABCs represent the subtopics or your lessons (4-10 lessons).  There can be many lessons under one module. Just make them short (no more than 3 slides each).

The number of modules and lessons are...

Anyone who knows me in the online business world knows that my absolute FAVORITE type of online product is online courses.

There are so many reasons why… but I’ll save them for a future blog post  

The focus of today’s blog is to delve deeper into why it’s so important to involve your audience or “ideal clients” in the creation of your online side hustle.

Since course creation is my forte, I’ll be using it as an example throughout. Feel free to substitute “online course” for whatever online product applies to you.

Before we dive in, let’s see what involving your audience can look like:

• Hosting a brand logo contest 
• Polling your audience on their favorite course platform
• Surveying your audience’s course learning preferences

These examples are just scratching the surface, but you get the gist.

Now that we know how to involve our audience when creating...

Have you been thinking about starting an online business, but don't know where to start?

I was once in your shoes so I know how overwhelming it can feel sometimes.

Over the past three years in this industry, I've learned tips that I think everyone should know when starting their first online business.

Here are my top 5 favorites!

1. Choose a business name that'll last.

Many of us don't think long-term when starting our first online business. Truth be told, I never imagined I would end up creating 10+ online products when I first started out!

But plenty of people end up having multiple online products and courses to replace their full-time income on they've established one.

So, it makes sense to choose a broad enough business name to group all your products and courses under. This simplifies your business (oh, and your taxes too ).

The best advice I've gotten is to name your business after yourself if it's not...