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Welcome! For this week’s blog post, I asked some of 2016’s busiest female entrepreneurs about their businesses. Favorite tasks and which tools they use. They dished on their love, or lack thereof, of social media and which tools they love to use. And what they love about being an entrepreneur and why they chose this path.

These girls know what’s up in this online business world! Read their responses below and take some ideas back to rock your biz!

BAILEY RICHERT - Business Coach for Beginning + Budding Infopreneurs - baileyrichert.com

I love creating sales funnels! It's fun to craft a truly enjoyable journey for my community members to travel through as I work to educate them about infopreneurship. Clickfunnels is the software I use to build my entire business, and I recommend it to anyone who is seeking an all-in-one solution for their infopreneur product marketing.

I love social media when it's used for its intended purpose: for people to be social with one another, not just spam each other with pre-scheduled content! That's why I adore my Facebook group, the Infopreneur Community. This is where the bulk of my time spent on social media goes - interacting, connecting and supporting my audience members in that group.

My favorite part about being a business owner is the ability to craft my own schedule. If I want to travel, visit family, or even just sleep in, I can thanks to the control I have over my own work. It was the desire to have my freedom and autonomy back in life which led me down this path in my mid-twenties, and I would not go back for anything!

LAUREN HOOKER - graphic designer, business strategist, and creative entrepreneur behind Elle & Company - elleandcompanydesign.com

I love to create, so I most look forward to tasks like writing and design. Google Docs and Google Drive are lifesavers for keeping up with all my drafts for blog posts, newsletters, and course transcripts, and Adobe Illustrator is my go-to program for all of my design work. As far as scheduling tools go, I love using MeetEdgar to schedule social media, Board Booster to schedule pins, and Calendly for scheduling meetings.

I wouldn't say I'm a lover of all things social media, but I definitely love the opportunity to attract potential clients and interact with them for free! I invest the most time in Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram because that's where my audience hangs out. Pinterest and Instagram are more visual, too, which is helpful for my design business.

I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. In fact, I swore I would never own my own business after watching my dad own and manage a gym in our hometown during my childhood. But after a terrible 9-5 job as a graphic designer at a startup company, I realized that entrepreneurship would allow me to pursue design on my own terms. It's frightening and exhilarating, all at the same time, but I'm oh-so glad I went back on my promise and started Elle & Company 3 years ago. Entrepreneurship is the most rewarding thing I've ever done.

KRISTA DICKSON - Pinterest Management Specialist - blogbeautifully.com

Lately I spend a lot of time working on passive streams of income, like creating e-courses and eBooks. For creating my courses, I use the Teachable software, which I really like. Some of my other favorite tools are Hootsuite for scheduling my Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram posts, and BoardBooster for automating my Pinterest account.

Gosh, if only I had known about these tools way-back-when! My blog and business would’ve run so much more smoothly.

I LOVE Pinterest. It’s been so good to me in terms of blog traffic, email list growth, and sales. Luckily, Pinterest is my “job”, as most of my income comes from managing Pinterest accounts for other bloggers. So I don’t have to feel guilty for spending too much time on it!

I’m also on Twitter pretty often, mostly sharing resources, motivational quotes, and little tidbits from my day-to-day life. It’s fun to connect with my audience in ‘real time’ on Twitter, which is something I don’t get to do on Pinterest.

What I love most of all about being an entrepreneur is the freedom.

I love being my own boss, setting my own schedule, deciding on my own rates. I love that I can decide to take a trip out of town last minute and my work can come along with me. I love that I can “skip out of work early” to meet my girlfriends for drinks on a Tuesday afternoon.

I started down the entrepreneurial path at the beginning of 2016 when I became fed up with my (dead-end) 9-5 job. I was stressed out, to say the least, and I knew there had to be something better out there. And I was right!

MELISSA HEBBE - Social Media Strategist for E-Commerce and Brick + Mortar Retailers - melissahebbe.com

Some of the weekly tasks I love to do are finding content to share and checking on analytics. I love reading blog posts and sharing them with people who would also be interested in reading them. For analytics, I'm a numbers person so I want to make sure the work I'm putting in is showing results!

For finding content, I use Feedly to keep track of the blogs I follow and Bulk Buffer with Buffer to schedule. Best tools ever! I've been working with Buffer since day one, but then started using Feedly and Bulk Buffer and haven't looked back.

I LOVE social media! It's fun for me! For work, I probably spend the most time on Facebook, but for personal use I spend a lot of time on Instagram because I love Instagram Stories. I've been really getting into Snapchat too. For both Instagram Stories and Snapchat, I love sharing what's going on in my work and a bit of behind the scenes. For instance, I love to cook and share what I'm making. My dog, Riley, makes appearances a lot on both too!

My favorite part is making social media easier for others. Yes, social media is a marketing tool, but it's also meant to be fun and well, social. I actually started off as a graphic designer, but began using social media more and more in college and work which led me to this career. Moving over to social media was definitely a great choice!

SUMMER TANNHAUSER - Pinterest Strategist - ladybossleague.com

Probably my favorite thing I do each week is writing emails to my list. Yep, I actually enjoy writing them! Normally I do a rough draft in Google Docs, and then transfer them over to ConvertKit when I'm ready to schedule them out. Other than emails, I've been trying to incorporate more live video recently, and am often either prepping for a webinar or getting on Facebook Live more. For webinars, I use YouTube Live inserted on a ClickFunnels page, with a chatbox added. Works great!

I'm not a "huge" social media person actually! I have MeetEdgar set up to take care of keeping a consistent posting schedule on my Twitter and Facebook accounts, and then my VA keeps Tailwind filled up for my Pinterest account. I've been getting more active on Facebook recently with the live streaming, but I don't really do FB groups, and I just can't seem to stay consistent on Instagram. I'm online enough for business, that I don't do much personal social media! :)

I absolutely adore being able to set my own schedule, work when I want, and be completely in control of my own earning potential. My days are normally spent split between taking my kids on fun adventures and fitting it work during the nap times. I wouldn't have it any other way!

SHANNAN SCOTT - Creative Business Strategist - shannanscott.com

As a former event planner, one of my favourite tasks to do in my business is plan and prep for the week ahead. On Sundays I do a big brain dump on paper of every single thing swirling around in my head that's related to my business -- every task I need to complete, every email I need to write, every social media post I need to schedule, etc! Then I take that list of items and upload them into ASANA, a free online project management tool that I love. Using ASANA, I assign due dates and tag each 'to-do' with a different area of my business (Content Creation / Marketing / Tech / Client Management / Community Engagement ... just to name a few!) The hardest part of entrepreneurship is always the follow-through so this weekly ritual keeps me laser-focused during my work hours and allows me to keep moving forward in my business.

Another task I love to do on a weekly basis in my business is engage with my Facebook group community via Facebook Live! Using this platform really allows me have these amazingly real, raw and transparent conversations with my audience about how to navigate the often rocky road of entrepreneurship. It's also been a great way to share my brand story, generate excitement about upcoming events and best of all, answer questions live and have an immediate impact.

Definitely! My go-to social media platforms are Facebook and Instagram. I think Facebook does a great job of fostering community and holding space for engaging conversations.

When it comes to Instagram, I love its simplicity and the fact that someone can land on your profile and immediately get a feel for who you are and what your overall brand vibe is. Photos are powerful. And now with the new Instagram Stories feature we're able to create that connective tissue between ourselves and our audience that much quicker by sharing the behind-the-scenes of our lives and business!

I think my favourite part of being an entrepreneur is getting to spend my time with incredibly driven women. The energy is contagious and there just isn’t anything else like surrounding yourself with other people who are on the same page as you. We shine the brightest in the context of community. So I guess what I love is the fact that as much as I get to empower other women to boldly and bravely build a business for themselves, their drive and commitment keeps me in the game, too. Win-Win. Breaking down the walls of competition and building more community in the entrepreneur space is a big passion of mine.

I decided to take this path and build my own business because I knew I was made for more than my 9-5 and I was seeking the freedom + fulfillment that a corporate career couldn’t give me. I fiercely believe in being intentional with how you choose to live your life. I’m on a mission to help women quit the status quo, redefine success and bravely build brands and businesses they are wildly passionate about!

BRIE BEEKS - Business Coach and Passive Income Specialist - blissfulbosses.com

Oh, I love LOVE creating sales funnels and passive income products to go in those funnels. That requires me to create presentation slides, teaching scripts, and email sequences. I love strategizing and finding ways to help women while automating most of the workflow. I use Leadpages for the landing pages in my funnels, ConvertKit for the email sequences, and Thinkific to host my online courses to deliver the meat of this system. I really wish I knew about ConvertKit when I first started out. It was just one extra item on the to-do list to switch over but it really wasn't hard!

Yes, I'm totally a lover of all things social media. During my "work" time, I spend the most amount of time in my Facebook community the Blissful Boss Society. Outside of business, I spend most of my social media time either in my Facebook news feed or Instagram! I think I'm addicted to my Facebook newsfeed because I get a daily update on everyone back home and I get to celebrate big events with people I haven't seen for years. Who doesn't love that??

My favorite part of being an entrepreneur is not having to go work for someone else every day, doing something that I'm not passionate about, and not having the opportunity to give myself a raise on a daily basis. I made this decision for freedom - to do what I love and work on passion projects, for time freedom to work when I want, location freedom to work where I want, and for financial freedom to be able to be able to upscale in my business. Entrepreneurship is no cake walk and can be an emotional rollercoaster. It takes discipline and a lot of hard work, but I wouldn't trade it for a more predictable work day and salary any day.

KAYLA HOLLATZ - Marketing, Social Media, Blogging & Online Community Building Strategist - kaylahollatz.com

My favorite business tasks each week are hosting my #createlounge Twitter chat, writing blog posts, and writing newsletters. I love getting a dose of true community every week through my Twitter chat and with it being on Wednesday, it really helps me sustain my motivation for the rest of the week. TweetDeck is my number one tool for hosting my chat. I couldn't keep up without it!

Along with connecting on Twitter, I also love writing my weekly blog posts and newsletters. Squarespace makes it easy for me to quickly format and schedule all of my blog posts. I also can whip up a landing page at midnight on my own without having to call a designer to do it for me. It happens more often than you think!

For my newsletters, I switched over from Mailchimp to ConvertKit halfway through the year and I went from hating email marketing to looking forward to it every week. I see my newsletters as my most private space to share my intimate struggles and triumphs as a business owner and people seem to really connect with that.

Social media is totally my native language. I spend the most time on Twitter hands-down, but in this season, I've also been focusing a lot of my time on Instagram. Twitter is where I host the hub of my community so I'm constantly checking in throughout the day to interact with my audience but Instagram is perfect for late night scrolling and interaction.

A favorite part... That's a tough question. I'd say it's between the freedom that comes with entrepreneurship (freedom of location, time, etc.) and the ability to connect and work with the clients I'm passionate to help. I did similar work for a communications agency before taking my business full-time but I wasn't as excited about their big brand clients as I was about creative professionals and entrepreneurs. I'm so glad I made the leap!

KAYLEIGH HANNON - Virtual Assistant - letstalkladybiz.com

I love researching, creating and scheduling social media posts! These are my favorite tasks to do for my own business and my VA clients. To get all of this done and keep everything organized, I use Buffer, Hootsuite and Canva. They've all been a HUGE help to me and my clients. I didn't realize how easy Canva makes it to create quick, eye-catching graphics until fairly recently and it's been a total game changer for me! Within minutes I have an image created and scheduled in either Buffer or Hootsuite.

You could say I'm pretty obsessed with social media! I spend a little bit of time each day on Facebook in entrepreneur Facebook groups and have made amazing connections with amazing women entrepreneurs. I've even found most of my clients in those groups! I also started to focus my marketing efforts on Instagram the past month by revamping my feed to reach my ideal audience. During my personal time, you can find me scrolling through Facebook. I think I love Facebook so much because you find such different types of content - pictures, videos, articles, business tips, quick dinner recipes - it's so addicting!

My favorite part of being an entrepreneur would have to be time and location freedom. When I worked in the corporate world I felt so tied down having to get up at the same time every day, sit at a desk for 8 hours and do work I didn't truly love. I was blogging at the time and kept getting the urge to turn it into a business. I've never felt more excited than the day I put in my 2 weeks notice to pursue my love of social media and marketing!

These girls know what they’re talking about. They have all started wildly successful businesses with a dream and a computer!

These women have also learned to multi-task, automate, and DELEGATE. Many of them have achieved their level of success in their biz because they have strategized and hired additional help when needed.

And that’s why I have created these virtual assistant service packages to help you do the same. My goal is to help you save time and scale your biz the way you want to. I want you to see the success of these amazing entrepreneurs. Let’s chat about what’s weighing you down so you can reach your goals!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in this post! I LOVE following you and your businesses! You’re an inspiration!! 💜