7 Common Mistakes when Women Start a Business

January 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Hi! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You'll get all my posts plus private posts plus special offers I occasionally share with my subscribers for free!

From all my networking, consultations and my own lessons about a women starting a business, I found these very common (and some obvious) mistakes business women make that could cost them their business dream.

Lack of Plan
Failure to pay attention to the numbers
Try to do it all and be all to everyone
Spend too much
Don’t have a business mentor
Lack of Self Confidence
Fail to find the right niche or do the appropriate market research

Bonus Failure: Don’t understand the difference between markting, advertising, & public relations

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Kids and Television

January 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Going on Day 7 of being home bound with sick kids.. eeeikkkk… so with plenty of time to think and little adult interaction I find myself thinking about two popular topics. The first being Kids and the effects of Television the second being Kids and the effects of over the counter medicine.

I’ll hit the T.V. topic in this post. I found this website The Parent BLOG that shows the specifics of a study on kids in different study groups and their findings when kids watch various shows.

I find this interesting because I’m actually torn on the T.V. topic. I don’t like my kids watching a TON of T.V. and we do go thru phases. There are days that they don’t even ask for a show and there are other days when they want it on all day. However, the days when it is on I find they are busy doing other things and may glance at it for a few minutes here or there.

I have to admit my six year old loves the most violent shows like Star Wars and Power Rangers but he also has this amazing love of the History channel. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since he has wanted to be “an Army man” for the last two years. I dare you to quiz him on the Civil War or World War II because he most likely would woop you in trivia. He can also explain how and why they sink old battleships to create ocean reefs and various other topics that is covered on the History or Discovery channel.

The funny thing about Drew is that he can watch old war movies, Darth Vadar melt into lava or other “violent” shows but he hates movies like “Hook” or “ELF” because they both have scenes where the baby is lost from his mom. We can go into another whole psycho analysis of this I guess and I’m sure it will come back in 20 years that I did something wrong as a mom and ruined him for life. That always seems to be the excuse of adults who don’t want to take ownership for their actions.

I guess I shouldn’t justify T.V. watching but I add points that we watch it together in the kitchen while we are playing at the counter with legos, coloring, play dough and it gives us good topics of discussions and they ask really good questions.

Then again, there was a teacher at the kids school who advised my neighbor that she should not be letting her third grader watch the evening news. I have strong feelings on that topic as well. I watch the five oclock news when I’m making dinner and if the kids are in the kitchen with me, well , they see it too. They are really good at the weather forcast! While I am watchful of the headlines and stories that they hear I don’t believe in sheltering them totally from the outside world. Another touchy subject I know, but again, we discuss the topics and they ask good questions and I personally like that my kids know there are bad people and they need to be aware of certain situations or that sometimes good people make bad choices or that house is on fire because kids were touching matches when they shouldn’t be.. hmm hmm hummm and we talk about those as well.

The whole topic can go into so many directions and there are more studies I can count on Kids and Television and they all seem to battle the others findings so I will continue to stick to my gut instict and be an imperfect mom.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Must Have Gift 4 the Sugar Tooth

January 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I have found my new “splurge” that is ohhh so good. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner you will have to check out Fretzels. These gourmet hand dipped, large pretzels come in a variety of flavors and package options.

Peanut Butter Fretzel

I even like that Jill, the Founder, will make special orders for corporate events and favors.

Perfect for Baby Shower Favors or Teacher Gifts, it is a gift that will go to good use. The company has done a fantastic job in it’s overall branding scheme with classy upscale look that matches the bigger price tag (then what I would normally pay for a pretzel) but without doubt well worth it.

If you are seeking to impress that special someone, order them a Fretzel of the Month membership. That would have won me over hands down (guess I’m easy to please!)

The flavor of this month?

Pomegranate Bellini
A sweet toast to 2008…with a twist!

Creamy white chocolate infused with a bubbly burst of champagne flavor, dusted with sparkling sugar crystals, and drizzled with sweet pomegranate flavored red chocolate.

How does she come up with these things? How can you NOT want to try that?

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Work at Home Solutions

January 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Work at Home solutions are available scam free, but it is still work, and you must be a bit of a workaholic like me to make it profitable.

Trying to understand where to start is often one of the hardest steps for people, then getting up the guts to “Just Do It” is a close a second.

Below are a few ideas to help you identify a potential work at home solution that will fit your lifestyle.

First, if you have a job already and you are a good employee, have a conversation with your managment to see if a telecommuting job would be possible. Depending on the company you work for they may have strict rules about what is allowed or not but it’s worth a conversation.

Ebay, everyone knows you can sell your own household items or your friends for some extra cash. I personally have become a bit dischanted with Ebay, once upon a time I made some good extra spending money but with fee increases and the number of “ebay businesses” that have saturated the auctions I find I don’t make much money there. But there are plenty that do and if you find yourself in a good niche, give it a whirl for awhile and see what you can do.

Blog it baby, it’s all the rage! Build a loyal enough following and generate some traffic and you can make extra money with multiple income streams including paid membership areas, google adwords, selling advertising space, product reviews and affiliate programs (you get commission on any readers following your recommended product/service). You need traffic, traffic, traffic and make a commitment to post good quality content on a regular basis.

Create and offer your own product, I offer my own product the Tubby Bundle baby bath towel apron on my own website as well as with retailers. Of course, there is a lot more financial commitment and logistics to offering your own physical product when you consider manufacturing, legal, and distribution channels but if you can make the numbers work it’s well worth it.

Perhaps you don’t want to deal with manufacturing and production, an info product may suit you fine if you have expertise in a niche area. This can be created and sold online with various techniques - google auto marketing for a wealth of information and programs to help you get your product in front of cyber customers.

The next option- mail order- for an ecommerce site includes a full catalog of products that are dropshipped for you. This means you find products from manufacturers who for a higher price then wholesale but lower then retail will ship their product to your customer. You will need a good tracking system since one customer may order three items from three different manufactures so you need to work out your pricing to take shipping cost into consideration and you need to be sure they are good manufacturers that will do as they promise since it’s your business reputation on the line with the customer.

Work at home as a customer service representative. This option may be tricky if you have small children (or barking dogs) since you need a quiet environment and it often requires you to purchase additional tools like a seperate phone line.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Movie Review Day

January 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Since this is offically the “sick house” we don’t have any visitors coming in and none of us are leaving so basically the five of us (I’m not counting the baby) are wearing thin on eachother.

Does that sound bad? Is a mother supposed to say that? After five days in the house with everyone being crabby, sick and demanding and no sleep I’ll give myself permission to say that this once about my family.

This afternoon we had a family day on the couch and watched “Transformers” the actual movie. Although, I was skeptical if this mom would like it, especially since I’m not the type of person who can generally watch a movie from start to finish I have to say that I really did enjoy this movie.

Who would have thought? I found myself laughing at the jokes and the kid from Even Steven that is the actor (I’ll have to look it up and edit the post with that info) was amusing to watch and the action scenes on the big screen T.V. looked pretty cool.

I was taken back a couple times at a few bad words here and there or sexual references but luckily that all went over the head of the kids.

Overall, Transformers got a thumbs up from this mom.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Mail Order Brides

January 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I know I shouldn’t judge others, much less blog about it for the world to see… but I just can’t let this one go.

I guess the fact that I haven’t left the house in four days since both the boys are still sick doesn’t help since I have no adult interaction and plenty of computer time.

So while surfing from one blog to another seeking the hottest information I almost fell over when I fell into a Mail Order Bride network. How I got there, I’m not sure… but what a booming business! I had no idea how “popular” this was and you know what? They take credit cards and ship you a wife.

The whole concept is craziness to me. I can understand ordering a batch a chicks from the hatchery that come from the postman but a women? I understand that some women are seeking a new, better life.. but what sort of man pulls out his credit card and says - “Hey, I’m gonna get me a wife today!”

I know, thou shalt not pass judgement but I would love to hear if this actually works out for people. Then what about the people who run Mail Order Bride catalogs? It has to be a profitable business but are they doing it for the money or the kindness of placing true love together?

Just my musing of the morning!

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

It’s 3:30 a.m. but I fixed it!

January 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Copying and pasting and reloading finally paid off and I fixed my blog horrahhh! It looks the right way so I won’t try to mess with the header again….sadness.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Messed up my style sheet

January 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment

If you are visiting my blog and the page is grey and thinks look wacked…well they are! I tried to mess with my style sheet and add a new custom header is so wonderful I really want to use it but I tried to change one tag and POOF there goes the site!

I’m a total non-techie learning as I go so what was my answer? Try to undo and resave and yet it’s still not working….HELP…..If you know what I did let me know… I REALLY don’t want to have to re-do everything…. sigh

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

The WAHM Plan Success Guide

January 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I’m thrilled to announce that finally my WAHM Plan Success Guide is almost ready to launch. I’m proud of my first venture into creating and selling an ebook. The hardest part was choosing what topics to keep in this first round of resource information.

I’ve learned so much since I started this venture 3 years ago I want to share it all! Are you looking for information and resources on a certain topic? Let me know and I would love to share my insight.

Interested in getting your copy of the ebook when it’s launched? For the pre-launch and launch week ONLY I will be offering this great guide book of practical, hands on tips, advice, and information for $20.00 off the retail price.

This is going to be an incredible savings of the lessons I learned when I wasted thousands of start up dollars and more hours of work then I’ll ever admit to my husband.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Tips on How to Balance Working at Home

January 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I hate to admit it, but there are weeks when my family believes my computer is a physical extension of my body. Hard enough to admit, those are often the weeks that I get the least amount of work “accomplished” no matter how much I try to fit a few minutes in here and there.

I am sharing my best success tips on balancing your home based business and your family. If you have school age kids, working from home may be a bit easier but if you have small kids underfoot like I do, it can be challenging.

Make a designated work area It is often easier to have a seperate area that is just for your work papers so you don’t have your business plan soaking up the spilled milk. If you have a seperate office where you can close the door for seperation and quiet even better!

Create a set work start and stop time. Let your family know you have work to be done and tell them how long you will be working. I find that setting a fun kitchen timer in 15 increments help during the day to give the younger kids. They know that I will work until the buzzer sounds then it’s play time with mom. I do this in cycles so we can go from work to play, work to play.

Work Smart Don’t waste precious work time cruising the web or emailing friends. Stick to that Goal List. Email is necessary but can often “suck you in” and waste your precious time. Set aside two work sessions of 15 minutes each to focus on only email at the beginning and end of day.

Be Realistic. Set goals for your work day and stay with them. Getting distracted is easy to do, especially when you see the laundry pile in the bathroom.

Work when others sleep Yes, it stinks for us, but it is often a reality that if you need to work on a project or focus and concentrate it’s easier to be done early in the morning while everyone is still in bed or at night when they have gone to sleep (if you can stay awake). I personally have found that my best work time is from 1-4 in the morning. I go to bed at 9 because I’m tired but find that I wake up on my own at 1 and I’m on the ball.

Don’t be afraid of the word NO. You don’t need to be everything to everyone. Just because you don’t go into an office every day doesn’t mean you have to be the one that volunteers in school at every event.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Work at Home MOM