New Urbanism and Working at Home

Welcome back!

I remember back when my two kids were toddlers. I wanted to work from home…so I did.

But I was an “early adapter” for my “working mom” group back then.  I nabbed onto the idea that I could keep my professional ambitions alive and be home with my kids.

I used our computer to connect with other like-minded women online at sites like WAHM.com and in discussion forums hosted by CompuServe (if you remember CompuServe then you now know how “old school” I am!).

Anyhow the quick point I want to make is that I did my research and found out about concepts like telecommuting that supported me in my efforts to successfully pitch to my employer an idea he had never heard of (telecommuting).

I got to keep a job I loved and work from home. That was my goal and I went after it with everything I had.

Today it is so much easier to start a business at home – especially if it is Internet based and especially if you land upon a resource created for businesses like yours (more on that later).

Even if your business isn’t internet based (you sell your products or services from a store front or commercial office) you still need to have a strategy in place to find the place where most of your clients/customers can be found and that “place” is “online.”

For that very important reason I started a business based from my home called “Small Business Study.” I wanted to create a comfortable place on the web for busy entrepreneurs and start-ups to pop-in and find just the right kind of tactical guides and reference information they need to market and operate their businesses online.

I could go on and on here but you really need to visit the website at www.smallbusinessstudy.com.  This is a “membership website” and membership is free!

All you need to do is sign up for one of our free memberships and you’ll get instant access to the information there.  From information about electronic shopping carts to YouTube marketing,  each month ebooks, newsletters and audio materials are are uploaded for the benefit of our small business members.

I hope you’ll visit and let me know what you think of this service.

See you in the “study!”

Sharon

Getting Back to Business

Even though it is still “technically” summer so many of us are focused on the busy fall season. After all, in some communities kids are back in school already and in others school begins after Labour Day on September 8.

Summer hopefully provided you with some much needed R&R and if you’re like me that fall “electricity” has a way of energizing you for the possibilities ahead.

Today’s post is all about those possibilities. There’s an over abundance of information online about starting or building a small business and sometimes the sheer volume of information can be intimidating and paralyzing – especially when you’re busy with your existing career and/or family obligations.  I’m going to try to zero in on two practical resources that would appeal to readers of this blog – people who want to work in their communities (either part time or full time) and who have an interest in using the Internet to jumpstart those plans…affordably.

I have quite a few friends who are savvy marketers and managers in various fields but who have not a clue as to how they can take their interests and skills and apply that to a business that they manage online. In other words they have trouble imagining how to run their business professionally without a brick and mortar building and how to attract clients to what will be their “virtual” home on the web.

Here’s what convinced me to pursue an online business: I got the opportunity to meet women and men earning full time incomes as marketers and experts in their various fields…and doing so completely online.

One of the individuals I found online and eventually met in person is Kelly McCausey.  In addition to the numerous resources she has created over the years, most recently Kelly created a phenomenal book for new online business owners – especially women who are managing child rearing at the same time – called “The Complete Internet Marketing Moms Start Up Guide.” Moms are the target for this book but really the information inside is relevant for men and women.

Among the topics she covers are:

• Reasons to Stay Home
• Your Work History and Existing Skills
• Financial Needs and goals
• Ways to Work from Home Online
• Knowing Your Target market and Unique Selling Proposition
• Choosing a Domain Name
• Choosing Website Building Tools
• Shopping Carts
• Mailing Lists
• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Social Bookmarking
• Developing Systems
• How to Occupy the Kids While You Work
• Joint Ventures
• And more…

My second key recommendation today is another bright star on the Internet marketing landscape.  There are numerous experts online blogging about thousands of different topics, and one of the best on the topic of affiliate marketing is Nicole Dean.  Her blog Nicole on the Net offers daily posts filled with her entertaining insight on the world of affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is about working with affiliates (other website owners) to promote your product or services to their audiences.  Your affiliates do this for a commission and the entire process is automated. You can also be an affiliate marketer for other business owners’ products or services.  Some super affiliates who are really good at identifying products and services that their target audience is interested in, generate a very good income on the commissions they earn from these sales.

In my mind affiliate marketing is one of those sleeping giants ideal for many people especially:

• Those of us working full-time in jobs we enjoy but interested in starting a business “on the side” for financial security and/or for the future (e.g. retirement years). This is the kind of business that can accommodate travel or philanthropic pursuits or whatever your particular season of life demands.
• Professional service providers like writers, designers, accountants or business coaches and consultants for whom earnings are directly linked to the time they put into serving clients…hour by hour.  A catastrophic illness or long vacation can mean less income.  Affiliate marketing is a way of developing passive income that generates revenue even when you’re not at work, running your business.

Here’s a great free podcast Nicole created during an interview with marketer Bob Jenkins that effectively explains exactly what affiliate marketing is all about: “Nicole Dean Affiliate Management Secrets.”

A Video Shout out to Nicole Dean and Lynn Terry

This week’s post is a video inspired by two business owners who both foster a strong sense of community and are the best at what they do professionally. It’s great to be a successful business owner but even better when you love what you do and share your strengths with others so that they might realize their goals as well. I love that attitude and both these women are living, breathing examples of how to run a business and how to be a real caring human being at the same time. I’ll tell you more in the video…

You can also find out details about Nicole and Lynn here:

Nicole Dean: http://www.nicoleonthenet.com

and

Lynn Terry: http://www.clicknewz.com

Click here to view the video on Youtube

When the Virtual Connection Goes Local

Well I am pumped in a big way! I just met some wonderful new/old friends and my business focus just got a little sharper.  Let me explain…

For about 2 years I’ve belonged to a pretty active and engaged women’s small business networking group that has among its membership some of the most successful and recognized online business owners like Nicole Dean, Alice Seba, Leesa Barnes and owner Kelly McCausey.  The group is called Mom Masterminds and it’s a pretty unique destination on the net.

After joining this mentorship group in 2007 I learned how to take my daughter’s art business online, set up a website for my own marketing business and establish a blog–this one– for my 15-year passion about new urbanism.

Rarely does a day go by that I don’t check-in to our online discussion forum to see what questions are being asked or to ask one of my own or even just to welcome a new member.  But that’s just the business side of things.  While this group is about business, it’s also a network of women so you know we inevitably talk about “more” than business on our treasured discussion forums.

At any given time of the day someone may be feeling a little unmotivated because of family demands, someone else may have a sick child–whatever the personal need, our discussion forum has become a place to learn, unload and relax with “virtual” colleagues who in many cases have become friends.

That explains why my first experience hosting an in-person “meet-up” this past weekend in Toronto was like a meeting of old friends.  Our virtual connections went “local” when the group’s Michigan based owner Kelly McCausey with partner Lynette Chandler decided to add a local component to our online network of hundreds of women.  By encouraging local “Meet-ups” of members and non-members in cities across the U.S. and Canada we added one more great benefit to this group.

The information and resources offered through MM are targeted at new or established women entrepreneurs who really want to grow their business through best practices in Internet marketing.  In fact, one of the great treats about this recent local “Meet up” is that Kelly McCausey came in person to talk about the group and also shared her newly published book “The Complete Internet Marketing Moms Start Up Guide.”

This guide contains just about everything a new entrepreneur should know in order to plan, successfully launch and operate an Internet based business.  I feel so strongly about this book that I plan on sharing it at other venues in my own local community.  I know a lot of commuters, neighbours and frustrated professional women who would be interested in the options/choices this guide offers for those who want to work for themselves.

I learned so much from the women I met this weekend and I look forward to connecting in the short term with Leesa Barns, Imie Belanger, Lexi Rodrigo and Angela Wills

Some pictures from our meet-up:

Business Advice: The ONE Thing You Should Focus On

By Lynn Terry

The question is: What are you going to do?

You could:

Write a book or an ebook;  promote affiliate programs via PPC;  sell products on eBay; create & optimize content-rich sites in niche markets; build an empire of mini-sites; become a public speaker; be a web designer, copywriter or VA.

That list could go on and on… and on. What I see all too often is that many people try to do ‘the whole list’. Or at least several at once. And that can be okay if your focus is one and the same in all things that you are doing. Or it can be disastrous. A recipe for failure.

Maybe you can relate to this scenario: You set out to do something, and it takes longer to earn the amount you had hoped for… and then you see another option. You try it out, it does pretty well, so you put some time and energy into it. Something happens – rules change, markets fluctuate, algorithms change – and you’re moved two steps back. You’re introduced with something new, more stable, and you focus on that instead.

This is a familiar story. If you haven’t experienced it yourself – you’ve certainly heard about someone who has. And they’ll tell you that the business idea they started out with originally was a failure, or that there was ‘no m0ney in it’ or ‘too much competition’.

You’ve probably heard that you shouldn’t have all of your eggs in one basket. That you should create 10 micro-niche websites that earn $1,000/month instead of one larger website that will earn you $10,000/month. In less than one hour of surfing the ‘net, you might be told to do this, do that, promote x and build z. All of it sounds good. All of it could work. Try to do all of it at once and you’re going to be in trouble.

The key is to have a FOCUS.

Choose one thing and do it WELL. For example, if you have a content-rich website, you can also offer an ebook on the same topic. You can capitalize on affiliate sales, or Adsense click-through’s. You can build a highly targeted 0pt-in mailing list. You can incorporate an ‘upsell’ and backend sales into your shopping cart. You can set up your own affiliate program.

Basically, you want to build on the foundation you already have – and make it stronger, make it bigger… make it more profitable! Sure you can implement all of these new methods and strategies that you learn. But don’t set out to do something completely NEW when you have already invested the time and energy into a project you haven’t yet completed. Instead, focus on making it the BEST.

Once it is running smooth on its own, and completely automated, you may want to build another – or focus on something entirely different. But if you’re trying to build on 10 things at once, or find yourself working in entirely too many directions… it’s time to take stock, go back to the foundation, and decide how you can best finish building on that original idea of yours.

And that’s it. That’s the ONE thing that YOU should be focusing on right now.

*********************************

The author, Lynn Terry, offers a free brainstorming resource for those that want to turn websites that cost money into websites that make money. Join Lynn’s interactive newsletter & discussion forum where you can
Learn Internet Marketing, free: http://www.SelfStartersWeeklyTips.com

Article printed from LadyPens: http://www.ladypens.com

Freelancing a Proactive Move in this Tough Economy

As the media continues to profile people across the country affected by layoffs, the housing slump and overall financial strain, there is something you can do to feel other than helpless.

If you’ve got a business skill that is in demand in this market, think about offering your services as a freelancer.  Graphic designers, blog/website administrators, virtual assistants, accountants, event planners, meeting coordinators, marketing consultants, public relations specialists and editors are just a few examples of some of people that companies are looking for.

Recessions are a time for companies to be conservative with their hiring plans.  Many will choose to get work done through outsourcing so that they can conserve on the kinds costs associated with hiring full time people.

With freelancers there are no benefits to pay, no additional offices to set up–employers just pay for the hours you work or the projects you complete based on your agreed upon payment terms.

Even if you are working right now, it’s good insurance to freelance on the side, providing you’ve got the energy and interest to earn extra money in this way.

So many people have jobs that are too far away from home or too costly to maintain.  They want to work close to home or at home.  One solution is freelancing and this can be a temporary thing or a way to transition to a full time business (especially if you are currently working).

If you’re interested in getting starting with your freelance career I recommend you visit Shelancers.

Shelancers is a professional association for female freelancers offering job postings and membership services and resources.

Show #17 – Testosterone Free Marketing

When it comes to assigning a price to the services or products you offer through your home-business, do you undercharge? Do you worry about relationships in business to the detriment of your own business success? If you’re nodding in agreement you are definitely not alone…according to marketing expert Denise Michaels this is in many cases a ‘female’ thing.

Denise elaborates on her thinking with her bestselling book Testosterone-Free Marketing: The Yin and Yang of Marketing for Women . Since the book’s publication there has been plenty of buzz about women’s attitudes and strategies when it comes to marketing and building a business. If this is the year you want to kick start your marketing strategy with focus and confidence, you’ll want to listen to this podcast and visit Denise’s website Mentoring With Denise.

Show 17

Grant Program Awards Ingenuity in Fastest Growing Sector

A few months back we announced on the site a national grant program for women entrepreneurs that Carolyn Kepcher (remember Donald Trump’s right hand woman in “The Apprentice”) and Yahoo were sponsoring for women entrepreneurs.  I recently received a press release announcing the winners.  Here it is.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov 25, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — In spite of the struggling economy, entrepreneurship in America has the potential to flourish as people seek new career opportunities or additional revenue streams. As the fastest-growing sector of new small business owners in the country, women, are creating new jobs for themselves and are taking advantage of resources available to them to bring their business ideas into reality. Today, Yahoo! Small Business and Carolyn Kepcher of “The Apprentice” fame and creator of fwm(TM) (Finding What Matters), a network of career/life experts and resources for women, named Dana Rubinstein, founder of the small business Dapple, winner of the national grant program, “Seeds for Success: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs.” The program was launched in April to promote women’s entrepreneurship enabled by the Internet.

Rubinstein’s commitment as a mother to only use organic and environmentally-friendly baby products inspired her to start Dapple, a company that creates natural and safe baby-specific cleaning products, with partner Tamar Rosenthal. Since the beginning of the Seeds for Success program, Dapple has made exceptional progress, developing an e-commerce site with Yahoo! Small Business, launching two new patent-pending product lines, securing distribution in more than 45 boutique stores and two major retailers, and winning an iParenting Media Award, a prestigious consumer accolade that determines best products in the marketplace. In less than six months, Dapple has sold 25,000 units, with sales increasing 43 percent in the third quarter and more than 500 percent in the fourth quarter to date.

The expert guidance, consulting services and monetary grant Dapple received from Yahoo! Small Business and fwm made this contest invaluable to the strength of our company and the speed at which it has taken off. The full package has enabled us to make smarter business decisions that have accelerated our success in a very short period of time,” said Rubinstein. “Through this program, I’ve been empowered to turn my small business dream into a reality. I am excited to continue to build Dapple, and I hope to be a role model for other women who are considering launching businesses online.”

The three “Seeds for Success” finalists were selected from 5,500 applicants and each awarded a $20,000 grant; $5,000 in Web site consulting from Yahoo! partners Exclusive Concepts, Fast Pivot, and EY Studios; and two years of complimentary Yahoo! Small Business services. fwm also matched the finalists with free one-on-one mentoring by a team of business leaders, including Kepcher; Bobbi Brown, founder and CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics; and Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines.

As the grand prize winner, Rubinstein receives an additional grant of $10,000, promotional support, and additional mentoring from Kepcher. She was selected by a panel of judges and mentors who weighed the finalists’ performance against a number of milestones including Web site development, sales, partnerships, public relations and marketing, among others. There was also an online voting portion that attracted nearly 660,000 votes.

At the outset of the program, Rubinstein’s goals were to build nationwide awareness for Dapple, communicate the company’s brand as synonymous with safe, natural baby-cleaning products, and launch new products. Dana’s technology mentor, Scott Smigler from Web design firm Exclusive Concepts, helped her to “make over” her Web site and establish a strong online strategy. The new Dapple Web site is professional, optimized for search engines and complete with Yahoo! Merchant Solutions’ e-commerce functionality.

“Entrepreneurs play a critical role in developing a healthy economy, and strategic use of the Internet is crucial in driving the success of small businesses,” said Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing, Yahoo! Small Business. “In the case of our Seeds for Success finalists, Yahoo!’s tech mentors worked closely with each one to help design and launch Web sites that met their product and marketing needs and the work is paying off. Yahoo! Small Business wants to foster continued online innovation, so we hope this program inspires other women entrepreneurs to turn their passion into a profitable business.”

Carolyn Kepcher added, “When the economy is unstable, people turn to entrepreneurship as an avenue for change. By tapping into the contributing experts of fwm, we were able to provide resources to create a truly unique and personalized learning experience for the three finalists, helping them achieve dramatic growth within a short time frame despite a down economy.”

Other program finalists included Karla Duncan, founder of Head 2 Toe Publications, an innovative publishing company that develops products for parents and therapists to assist special needs children up to age 13, and Abby Port, creator of Red Koala, a company that produces online customizable art for nurseries and children’s rooms.

Starting and Minding a Business in a Tough Economy

One of the things I have always done, whether I was at home raising kids, or at a company working 9-5 ( really 8-7) is mind my “own business.”  Running a business at night and in the wee morning hours has served me well in recent years.  Given discussions I’ve had about the economy and job uncertainty with friends and family recently, I think it wise for more us to consider moonlighting or entrepreneurism as a smart way to equip oneself for what may lie ahead in this economy.

Here’s how I “minded my business” through the years.

I’ve had the entrepreneurial bug since I was a child, but never had the guts to strike out on my own, full-time as a young adult. I’ll blame my stable, government/university employed and pensioned parents for that personality trait.

However, creative ADD person that I am, I found a solution to feed my entrepreneurial appetite and that was to start a business at home.

When my first born came along, I resigned from my job, took the favorite parts of my position and started a freelance meeting planning service. My first contract was to handle the logistics for the planning of a conference around human rights violations in Africa.  That was so interesting and gratifying.  I have fond memories of taking my 4 month old daughter with me to meetings.  Note: In the non-profit sector you’ll find a lot more people willing to accommodate contractors who have “unique” situations like a baby appendage

I followed that up with a few more contracts putting on seminars and conferences in my city.

Then my second child came along and we needed to beef up our family earnings. I actually took a job working nights in a law firm so that I could continue to stay home with my children and meet our financial obligations.

I eventually went back to work but continued to run my writing/PR business intermittently from home. Eventually in 2007 I found a way to really make this business more than an intermittent mad-money venture and actually turn it into a real business.  I did this by joining the mentorship/professional development group for women with online businesses called  Mom Masterminds.

The decisions that really made a difference to my business were the creation of a website for my company and the retooling of my marketing strategy to target online business owners.  Thank you, thank you to the mentors and colleagues that I met at Mom Masterminds – I would have never made the successful transition to becoming an online business owner without their help.

The point of this post is to hopefully give some encouragement to any of you facing financial uncertainty due to this economy or other changes in your life.  Look carefully at your skills and interests – there may be more opportunities available to you than you realize. Then find an established mentorship or networking group where you can learn from members who are successfully doing what you want to do.

Good or bad  economy – having a plan that helps you to generate your own income, independent of an employer, is probablly a good strategy for our times.

Through this Door a Community of Opportunity

You know that saying when the going gets tough the tough get going? Well that’s an appropriate term for the small business sector during these tough economic times.  A recent “60-minutes” television show reported that people are continuing to search out and secure loans and support for their entrepreneurial dreams even as the nation watches Wall St.’s biggest businesses and banks implode.

Why aren’t more of these new small business owners intimidated by the doom and gloom reported on the daily news?  I think it’s because the desire to have control over what they do, what they earn and how they live are strong motivational factors that serve to suppress certain kinds of fear and intimidation.

I also think it’s because many small business visionaries surround themselves with people who inspire and motivate them to follow their dreams.  Sometimes that empty bank account is all you need for motivation.  Other times it’s that late night conversation with a peer that understands your business or that timely bit advice from another friend that helps you to avoid an unnecessary business pitfall.

The challenge for some women seeking an entrepreneurial path is that they have children and other responsibilities that make conventional business mentorship groups a poor fit for them.  That’s why I am such a supporter and promoter for one of the most unique and effective womens mentorship groups on the web specifically for “moms in business.”

This online group is called Mom Masterminds and I’ve referred to this powerhouse source for mentorship and networking before in this blog.  In fact I even participated in a recent “impromptu” regional lunch we had last spring (you can see pictures here).

If you’ve been impacted by this current recession and are looking for some options to become self-employed you really should visit Mom Masterminds.  Perhaps you’ve been laid off or your husband/partner has lost a job or maybe you just need to find a way to improve your family budget–whatever the situation many of the women at Mom Masterminds have been there.

That’s the great thing about this particular mentorship group.  It’s a place to share experiences in building an online business from the ground up for the benefit of newbies and to get constructive feedback from peers who are at the same stage as you are in your business and experts who have been there.

In addition to the peer-to-peer sharing, there is an amazingly rich assortment of reference materials in the online multi-media library. This information is available to all members, 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.  From mp3 audios that you can listen to in your ipod to monthly webinars where we talk to one another and with experts about various business topics from marketing your online business to affiliate sales to starting a blog for profit.

Mom Masterminds offers a comprehensive array of information of interest to women like many of you reading this blog–women who have children and various other responsibilities and who share the common desire to work in their communities and to start a business of their own.

To help give you a better idea of exactly how practical and relevant these resources are,  Mom Masterminds offers a 7-day free preview so that you can browse through the membership center to see if the networking, consultative services and resources offered are what you need to get your business into gear…now.

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