A while ago, 3 things came into my head before getting out of bed.

• A Fiverr $5 USD reward I was given;
• Richard Branson; and
• An email I received

These three things combined made for a great start to my day. For no particular reason other than it was a sign that I was on the right path in my mind.

I spent over a certain threshold in Fiverr during a promotional period, which gave me an additional $5 USD to spend before a set date.

At the time I did not have anything to spend it on.

I needed a logo, but I was going to design that myself using either Canva or Visme.

I already knew, roughly, what I wanted in a logo and my impression of professionally designed logos were that they were too busy and complicated. So, using it for a logo was not an option.

As luck would have it, I was going to promote a post using Quuu Promote. Quuu Promote provides a service where you can promote your blog posts, podcasts, infographics and videos on social media by using influencers on social media. They use strict guidelines when reviewing each piece of content submitted for promotion.

Each post is read by a human who checks to make sure each post is grammatically correct, with no spelling errors.

I was able to find a proofreader on Fiverr that cost $5 USD to proofread a couple of posts, which I then submitted to Quuu Promote.

A concern I have regularly is that I would run out of money before my business is able to start breaking even. I track my expenses frequently and part of my process to keep my expenses in check is to unsubscribe from apps and services if they do not give me a good return on what I am spending. This has lead me to find different ways to do things for free or by only paying a one-time fee.

For instance, I created 2 methods to pin to my Pinterest boards by using free tools that is available for everyone to use.

One method automatically re-pins other peoples pins to my boards and the second method schedules pins to be pinned at specific times throughout the day to my boards. Both methods do not require subscribing to any paid scheduling service.

Constantly monitoring my expenses got me thinking of a Richard Branson interview I saw, where he said in the early days of being in business, his goal was to have a year’s worth of wages in the bank.

For my business, this means having a year’s worth of operating costs in the bank. In fact, I am aiming for 2 years in the bank.

This is hard to do when a business is just starting out as costs far outweigh income.

So what makes me happy about working towards having 2 years’ worth of operating costs in the bank? Well, it is a way to make sure my business keeps going during periods when there is little to no revenue coming in.

The third thing that contributed to a good start to my day happened after I woke up.

I checked my personal email as soon as I got up. I know there are those who think you should not check email first thing in the morning as your plan for the day can get derailed depending on what comes through.

I had to check my email that morning as I was expecting a response from an email I sent, before going to bed.

While looking for the email response, I noticed an email from one of the largest domain registrar companies with the subject line, ‘Even the biggest websites started small.’

It reminded me of what my mother once said to me when I felt intimidated starting a new job and everyone around me had been with the company for 10 years or more. She said, ‘everyone had a first day.’

So, seeing the phrase, ‘Even the biggest websites started small’ made me smile, thinking of what my mother said to me.