February 01, 2019

Auditing Jane Doe Chapter 1: Jane Doe

February 01, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

*The following scene contains nudity, violence, and profanity. You’ve been warned!

“Take off your clothes.” The gun was barely a few inches from her face. She glared directly into his eyes as she slowly unbuttoned her blouse. She took her time, still trying to think of a way out of this. She looked over her shoulder at the street below. “Don’t get any ideas,” he warned. “There’s nowhere for you to go.”

As she stripped down to her bra and panties, she closed her eyes, trying to escape to another place. The hair on her arms was starting to rise as she felt the cool air of the spring night. The man in front of her stepped up to her, and she felt his hot breath in her face. She felt the cold metal of the gun touch her skin and she jolted her eyes open, pleading with her assaulter. He leaned in and tried to kiss her. She fought as hard as she could to turn away and she felt the barrel of the gun dig harder into the side of her neck. She gave in.

January 28, 2019

Create a Simple Video Sales Letter Script in Five Steps

January 28, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

Video is gaining more popularity as a method of spreading your message. YouTube is now the second largest search engine next to Google and Google is starting to rank blog posts that include videos higher than similar posts that don’t include videos.

Marketers can connect with video viewers on a more emotional level than they can through a blog post because a video involves the use of more of our senses than reading a blog post.

January 20, 2019

Writing Tips from Author K. Kris Loomis

January 20, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

K. Kris Loomis was one of the first authors I virtually met in a Facebook group when I was just getting started on my self-publishing journey. I read How to Sneak More Yoga Into Your Life some of her short story collections and instantly fell in love with her writing style and sense of humour.

I’ve enjoyed watching Kris’s progress as a self-published author since meeting her in 2016. In the past year alone, Kris wrote and publish two novels and the non-fiction book, Surviving Revision. Kris’s guest posts are some of the most popular on my site, so I knew I had to interview her and share her tips!

January 17, 2019

Is Your Writing Hobby Actually a Business?

January 17, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

Is your writing hobby actually a business? And does it really matter? Absolutely! Especially if you want to save a bit of tax while you’re getting your business up and running.

So you’ve been earning a bit here and there with your self-published books or maybe bloggers have been paying you to write posts for them, but when you look at the money you’ve spent to publish those books or the tools you’ve paid for to run your freelance writing business, you realize you haven’t broken even, so you decide not to include your writing “business” on your taxes.

January 14, 2019

Successful Money Saving Strategies

January 14, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

This post was originally published as Chapter 12 in my book Keep More Money. While the book is about finding the perfect accountant for you and your business, this chapter focuses on personal finance and tips for saving money. Enjoy!

I hope I've shown you how having an accountant is not really expensive when you think of the value you receive for what you pay. If you're still feeling like you can't afford to have an accountant, I hope that some of the money-saving strategies in this chapter will help you find the money to be able to hire yourself an accountant that you can work with to reach your business and financial goals.

January 10, 2019

Achieve Your 2019 New Year Goals

January 10, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

January is popular time to reflect on the past year and look at setting new year goals. I don’t really like resolutions, but I do like setting goals and planning how I’m going to achieve them. Remember when I wrote about September being the new January? Well, now that it’s January, I find myself re-evaluating my goals for the new year.

In 2018, I remember saying I wanted to publish four or five books. I published one. In September, I set an income goal of $3,000/month for myself. The closest I got to that in the last quarter of 2018 was $1,100/month.

January 03, 2019

It's Tax Season! The Best Questions to Ask an Accountant

January 03, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

It’s that time of year when “accountants near me” is quite a popular Google search. But Google or the yellow pages aren’t always the best way to find the right accountant.

Before scheduling an accounting consult you want to make sure you know the right questions to ask an accountant or tax preparer.

Your Goals

Knowing what you want to accomplish by hiring an accountant can help you find the right person for the job. Some common goals of small business owners include increasing revenue, decreasing expenses, staying organized, paying as little tax as possible, and making sure all required tax returns are filed on time to avoid penalties and interest.

December 29, 2018

10 Ways Content Marketing Can Help You Grow Your Business

December 29, 2018/ Michelle Cornish

Content marketing is one of the best ways to show off your expertise, grab the attention of potential clients, and grow your business. It’s all about using information to sell your products and services rather than blatant self-promotion that nobody really wants to hear anyway.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, the amount of traffic to your website is directly related to the amount you publish on your site, with sites publishing four times per week experiencing three and a half times more traffic than sites publishing zero to four times per month.

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