By guest contributor Erin Loechner.

When it comes to packing for conferences, I’m a firm believer that less is more. Stick with the bare essentials and little else. You get bonus points if you can fit everything into a carry-on. You don’t want to deal with missing luggage should you be one of the unfortunate few, like myself, who nearly always end up with lost bags during a business trip! Still, there are a few essentials you simply can’t leave at home for Alt. Get that suitcase ready!

 

By Sara Urquhart. Photography by Casa&Co.

Being an entrepreneur means wearing lots of different hats to keep your business moving forward. Hopefully you love most of the work associated with your business, but you’ll almost certainly come across something you’re either not good at or you just don’t like doing.

You bring the most value to your business when you’re doing the things you’re passionate about, so create a situation in which you don’t get hung up on things you don’t like doing.

These kinds of tasks are easy to discover—they’re the things you ignore or avoid until the last possible minute. They’re the things that produce a knot in your stomach, or bring you to tears, and they won’t go away until you face them.

First, ask yourself if it’s an essential task. Is it something you can eliminate or reduce, and still have a viable business? If the answer is yes, congratulations! If the answer is no, keep reading.

You can muscle your way through unpleasant tasks in small, regular intervals (ignoring it altogether makes it worse!), but a better solution is to find someone else to do these things for you. You may need to hire an accountant or a marketing guru to get the help you need. If funds are tight, consider arranging a trade to create value. At the very least, collaborate with another blogger to see how you can help each other.

The bottom line is that no successful entrepreneur is doing everything herself. Getting the help you need frees you up to do the work you truly love.

By guest contributor PJ Feinstein. Photography by Torrie.

Our blogging voices may be unique, but what we should all have in common is good grammar. Readers do notice if you mistakenly use your instead of you’re—and you’d be surprised how often I catch that grammatical error. If you want to take your writing to the next level, start by refreshing yourself on some basic rules of grammar and reviewing these commonly misused words and expressions.

Alright/All right
Although you may see alright used in informal writing, it is properly written as two words—all right.

Compare to/Compare with
Use compare to when pointing out similarities between objects: “My fluffy dog has been compared to a stuffed animal.”
Use compare with when pointing out differences: “I have fewer days off in November compared with last month.”

Effect/Affect
Effect, as a noun, means “result.” “The effects of this anti-aging cream are amazing!”
Affect, a verb, means “to influence.” “His charm does not affect me.”