In her former life, Mary Murphy was a longtime Kindergarten teacher, making learning fun for young children. Now, as the founder of Hooray for Books (HFB), she offers “Creative classes where kids look, cook & devour good books!” ™
After the birth of her third child, Mary left her teaching job with an idea to start educational classes for young children, teaching them to read and cook in new and creative ways. Local mothers encouraged her to “go for it,” and in 2001, she started teaching a few classes per week.
Mary used her teaching background to create unique, one-of-a-kind programs for her young students. Next, she used her experience as a mom to make the programs attractive for parents, too. She offered 90 minute drop-off classes, allowing parents enough time to run to the grocery store while their kids were in their classes – a win-win for all.
Cooking is something Mary has been passionate about since she was young, so making that activity a centerpiece at Hooray for Books was only natural. Mary is also a self proclaimed “humor expert” creating theme days, wearing costumes to match the theme and greet excited learners with “out of the box” recipes with learning challenges built in.
Her Hopkinton, MA-based company grew due to popular demand. Today, she offers classes for ages 2-11 as well as birthday parties, summer camps, and book/cook clubs at her two local locations.
The next chapter? Mary is franchising her successful business, with the goal of opening locations first throughout New England and then nationally. As a business convert, she knows moms want exciting, yet flexible business opportunities.
Running a Hooray for Books franchise is that and so much more. Her ideal candidates don’t need a background in education. In fact, she’s considering people from corporate backgrounds who have taken time off from full-time careers to spend time with their children. Franchise owners will receive HFB lesson plans and recipes, as well as personal support and a proven track record. Franchisees can arrange their class schedules based on their own family responsibilities and be part of a fantastic company.
Mary’s advice for others who are considering an entrepreneurial business concept: Go for it. She believes that women are fantastic at finding and filling a need, and then turning it into a business.
The busy mom of five kids (ages 17, 12, 9, 7 and 5) strives to maintain a healthy work-life balance. She finds time in her schedule to work guilt-free, usually from 9 pm until midnight. That way, she can spend quality time with her family, and then carve out a chunk of uninterrupted time to concentrate on work projects when her kids are in bed. (She calls herself nocturnal!)
Mary understands that children’s attitudes towards reading are formed between ages 2-8, and she’s delighted to give them positive experiences in her classes. She enjoys promoting that positive attitude through books, making letter associations through cooking activities, being silly, wearing crazy costumes, planning creative projects for them to enjoy – and watching them learn.
For more information about Hooray for Books and franchising opportunities, visit www.hoorayforbooks.com.
If you had the opportunity to follow your passion and make money doing it, would you?
Now, acclaimed best-selling author Tamara Monosoff reveals the clear road map in Your Million Dollar Dream: Regain Control & Be Your Own Boss, Create a Winning Business Plan & Turn Your Passion into Profit(McGraw-Hill, May 2010).
Tamara has helped tens of thousands of people take control of their lives and careers by launching and growing successful businesses of all types. In Your Million Dollar Dream, she brings her years of experience directly to readers, providing expert insight, invaluable resources, and examples to help readers:
Link your dream to practical business possibilities
Identify your skills & motivations
Get your business in the media spotlight
Use Twitter, Facebook & the Internet as powerful business tools
Create Value & Build Your Brand
Find the funding to support your business
Create a compelling & effective business plan
SAVE THE DATE — Wednesday, April 28th – This is the only day you can get awesome free gifts with the book purchase!
Tamara has put her heart, experience, and knowledge into creating a book that has the valuable insider tools you can use to make money your way. She admits it has been an enormously rewarding experience, and each day she finds herself using the tools she has outlined in the book!
“As we climb out of the global recession there is an opportunity to access our creativity and construct our career on our own terms,” says Monosoff. “Many people dream that ‘someday’ they will finally do what they’ve always wanted to do — be their own boss and make money doing what they love. I wrote this book to provide the actionable steps necessary to make that ‘someday’ — Today!”
Your Million Dollar Dream combines clear step-by-step guidance with the resources needed to start immediately. It offers compelling and true stories of others who have created rewarding businesses and made significant lifestyle changes.
Your Million Dollar Dream features stories like that of Jean Thompson, a former Microsoft employee who built Seattle Chocolates and Kelly Strowd, who traded in a 10-year law enforcement career for a pet-sitting business. This book makes otherwise daunting tasks fun and enjoyable and paints the exciting picture of successful entrepreneurship.
This video has circled around the blogosphere quite a bit. But in case you have not seen it, I highly recommend. It is very creative.
It is a palindrome, which reads the same backwards as forward. This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video. Make sure you read as well as listen…forward and backward.
This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled “u @ 50″ by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it.
Articles rich with keywords and placed with online article directories are a great way to spread your expertise virally. Article directories are a great source of information for bloggers and others looking for content for their posts. Your bio information, included with every article, is now showing up in several different locations online increasing your chances of being found. There are hundreds of article directories to choose from. I suggest placing your articles with the top directories according to Alexa and page rank.
Having a complete email signature is like running a free advertisement every time you send an email. Include your name, company name, address, phone numbers, website and/or blog link, tagline and a few social networking links (i.e. Follow me on Twitter). I also include a message at the bottom of The Mom Entrepreneur signature. Currently, it says: Enter to win the Business Baby Shower, a contest that celebrates entrepreneurial moms.
Whether you’re working in your business suit or birthday suit, working from home offers many challenges, benefits, and adventures.
Working Naked Day on February 1st is dedicated to helping the more than 37 million home office professionals who are working naked—working without the support of the corporate workplace—to improve the way they work from home.
Home office expert and author Lisa Kanarek offers five tips for making working from home a little easier:
Know the best place to do it. Before you decide where to set up your home office, evaluate every room and ask yourself: Will I actually work in this area? Can I keep distractions to a minimum? Is there enough lighting and are there enough outlets? Is there enough room for all of my equipment, files, and supplies?
Find the right position. There are five basic furniture arrangements for your home office: L-shape; U-shape; Parallel (desk with credenza behind you); corner (desk faces the wall); or reverse corner arrangement (desk faces into the room). The arrangement you choose depends primarily on the size of your office, the type of furniture you have, and how much work surface you’ll need.
Size doesn’t matter. You can work in a 15’ x 15’ home office or inside a small, walk-in closet. The size of your home office won’t affect how productive you are. What matters is how you use that space. Make use of your walls and add shelves above or near your desk. Use a 3-in-1 printer, copier and scanner to save space.
Decide if it’s better by yourself or with your spouse. Before you share a home office with your spouse, consider whether you have compatible working styles. A neat spouse can drive a pack-rat up the wall and out of the office. Spouses work better together if each person has his own desk and “space” that’s off limits to the other spouse.
Don’t wait until you’re in the mood. Set a specific time to work in your home office each day. The time will change daily, but if you don’t target a certain start time, it may be late afternoon before you get to work.
With these five simple tips, your home office will be a place where you enjoy working, even if your commute is only seconds each day. For more home office tips, visit Kanarek’s site at www.workingnaked.net.
Your bio should outline your experience, credentials and anything else you feel is important for your target audience to be aware of. This is especially important when trying to establish your personal brand. Use this bio, tweaking as needed for the different social networking sites, on your blog, website and anywhere else your profile appears online.
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In her former life, Mary Murphy was a longtime Kindergarten teacher, making learning fun for young children. Now, as the founder of Hooray for Books (HFB), she offers “Creative classes where kids look, cook & devour good books!” ™
11 as well as birthday parties, summer camps, and book/cook clubs at her two local locations.
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