Forge News and Updates |
You may be wondering, where do I begin? If you are new to the entrepreneur world or just looking for a way to improve your business more, you came to the right place. Forge wants to promote your business in whatever way we can, that is why we have compiled a list (in no particular order) on some resources to help you and your business succeed.
1. The Elevation Academy
The Elevation Academy is an online digital marketing resource that is available 24-hours a day. It is available to you, yes you! It provides training and knowledge on social media, email marketing, website development and marketing strategy for small businesses, brands and organizations. Their courses are designed to help you begin or to refresh your brand’s marketing with strong foundational information and skills. When you join The Academy, you become part of a community of small business owners and entrepreneurs seeking to elevate their marketing.
https://theelevationacademy.mykajabi.com/
2. Profit to Prosperity
Profit to Prosperity was started by Stevie Jones and is a way to clarify and manage the finances of a thriving business on your own. Through her program, members are given full access to financial resource library, live group coaching program and community that was created to support female entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners. The group focuses on business financial foundations, so that members can be set up for long-term growth.
https://balanced-by-stevie.mykajabi.com/profittoprosperity
3. Create Foundations
Create Birmingham is all about investing in imagination and invention. Through their programs, they both construct and support diverse avenues for commercial and nonprofit creative success. Create provides a multitude of programs and coaching methods to help you run your business or nonprofit more effectively. Embracing your creative side and identifying potential weaknesses in your business or nonprofit before they get out of hand.
4. Co. Starters
As a part of Create Birmingham, Co. Starters seeks to equip aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills and ideas to put their plans into action. It applies the lean business model methods that is popular with high-growth startups and businesses of all kinds. This program will train you to turn a passion into a thriving and sustainable small business or nonprofit.
https://createbirmingham.org/programs/co-starters/
5. Connect
The best way to grow your business is to grow your network. Birmingham’s newest virtual network, Connect, is designed to do just that. It is a weekly meeting that enables you to meet other individuals. We have both virtual and in-person meetings and breakfasts that focus on growing your network and your business.
https://workatforge.com/connect/
6. Legal to English
Legal to English is a new online community with resources for business owners brought to you by Gatehouse Law. At Gatehouse, we know it is true that every business needs legal, but we recognize that not every business is ready for a lawyer.Every entrepreneur should have access to quality information about the legal that impacts their business every day no matter what stage they are in their journey. Legal to English is a community driven source of information and support from our lawyers and the entrepreneurs who work with us. Legal to English will provide you with clear guidance and steps to protect your business where you are right now and give you clear answers in an “it depends” world.
https://www.legaltoenglish.org/
If you are looking for a place to network and grow your business even more, book a tour of Forge today! See how our memberships can help fit your needs. Click the link HERE.
Forge News and Updates |
Coworking offers a wide variety of benefits, many of which cannot be found in other work environments. At Forge, we strive to create an environment where you and your business can grow. Here are our top 7 tips on how to get the most out of coworking here at Forge!
1. Engage with Others
Take advantage of a space that allows you to network with others by having conversations with those around you, attending member events and learning what others do. Engaging with others promotes both growth for your business and you personally.
2. Set a Consistent Schedule
With scheduled work hours you can work around your most productive time. Forge is open 24/7- providing the morning bird and the night owl all with equal opportunities. With a wide range of when you can work, pick a time to so that you can have a consistent work schedule and enable yourself to balance life better.
3. Attend Member Events
We have a multitude of opportunities for you to meet others and enjoy doing so. Our member happy hours, breakfasts and lunches connect you with new faces and help you form connections in your workspace. We have so many members make connections with fellow members that help their business grow and we love to see it!
4. Use the Phone Booths to Take Calls
Here at Forge, we have three phone booths available for you to take your calls in. Hop in a phone booth for a Zoom meeting or phone call as needed! This allows you the privacy of your own space and you never have to worry about being interrupted.
5. Conference Rooms
Wow your clients in our beautifully designed conference rooms, and no longer have to meet in crowded coffee shops. Our 5 different sized conference rooms are perfect for holding meetings, whether one-on-one or larger group sizes. A benefit of being a member of Forge is getting discounted conference rooms rates! Easily book a room on our website.
6. Sign up for Connect
Connect is a virtual networking event that allows you to connect with other business leaders in Birmingham. Do this all from the comfort of your own home or from our coworking space. These weekly meetings allow you to introduce your business to the group, hear from others and most importantly CONNECT!
7. Take Advantage of the Location of Forge
Located in the heart of Downtown Birmingham we are within walking distance of amazing restaurants, coffee shops and companies. Being just steps away from the Pizitz Food Hall allows you to treat yourself or your clients!
Forge is a coworking business focused on creating a professional, clean and exciting work environment to encourage the productivity of all of our members.
If your business is looking for creative opportunities to expand your business and get out of your home office, schedule a tour of Forge!
Forge News and Updates |
This past week at Forge we had the pleasure of hosting our first in-person event since the pandemic. And even better is that it was a Lunch and Learn with one of Forge’s members Kameron Monet!
Instagram is a great platform to promote your business, reach your target audience and show the behind the scenes of running your business. One of Kameron’s favorite tools to use on Instagram is Reels! Kameron shared how she creates various types of Reels to connect with her audience in a fun, creative and effective way!
Kameron is a YouTuber, influencer and lawyer – a queen to say the least. During her Lunch and Learn she dove into how to grow your business or personal brand using Instagram reels.
Benefits Of Using Reels
She highlighted 4 of the benefits of using the reels feature on Instagram.
- You can create fun, unique and engaging short videos.
- Instagram prioritizes reels
- It increases engagement from your followers through video content
- They have a longer “shelf life” and continue to get views even for weeks after the original post
Instagram provides many different tools to help users create and edit their reels content. These aid in pushing content to the forefront of of reels. Kameron included Important things to remember when creating reels
- Adding humor or creating a more serious topic into something comical can attract more attention.
- Use trendy songs and sounds (these can be found by googling “viral Tik Tok sounds or music now”)
- Always have a call to action- whether that be in your caption or the video itself.
- Don’t be afraid to repurpose content- it is okay to reuse photos from the same day or videos you took months in advance
Always keep in mind that the type of following you have is more important than the number of followers. This may look different for everyone, but remembering that you would rather have a handful of loyal followers who actively engage with your content than hundreds of bystanders who are not supporting you personally or your business.
Creating a Reel
- In the Instagram app click create where you would usually begin a normal post or story
- From there it will give you the option to create a reel
- Once you click that, it will open up to allow you to use multiple tools including adjusting the length, adding audio, a timer to align your videos and effects to change the overall appearance.
- MOST IMPORTANTLY- always save your reel and once you take it off of your feed and only have it in your reels tab you cannot undo this action.
Remember, people buy from people so don’t be afraid to share the story behind your business!
If you were unable to attend the event the YouTube video can be found HERE!
In addition, Forge is running a Summer Special for new members! If you join in the month of May or June you can buy one month of Coworking or Dedicated Desk space and receive an entire month FREE! Book a tour today!
