Archive for the ‘work at home mom’ Category
Thursday, November 18th, 2010
Today’s guest post is from Mom Entrepreneur Support Group member Marla Murasko. She is the President of ExecuEssential Administrative Services, Inc, a virtual assistant company, and President of SpecialMompreneurs a networking group for moms with special needs children. She is also a Direct Sales Consultant for Clever Container an organizational products company. Her passion is to provide tips and tricks to achieve a cleverly organized life. You can find her at www.MarlaMurasko.com.
The change of seasons is upon us. Fall came and went, and the cold winter months are beginning. Now comes the season of sweaters and coats. This is the perfect time to re-organize and de-clutter your closet.
Having a neat and organized closet not only looks nice, but also simplifies your life, making it easier to get dressed every morning.
The key to a cleverly organized closet is to “personalize it”. Create an ideal environment that you want to go to every morning. Here is a quote I heard the other day “it’s like creating a little store in your closet that you are excited about shopping in everyday.”
You can create different sections to your closet. Knowing exactly what is in each section makes it easier to find things. Having these sections will also make it easier to put things away, since each item will have a “home.”
Here are three easy steps to creating a great, organized closet:
- Grab and Go Section. This area is for those basic foundational clothes that you wear every day. For example: nice pair of jeans, nice t-shirts or even khaki pants. Things you know will mix and match together nicely.
- Originality Section. This is for items that are not so basic in nature, but add some flair to your ever day clothes such as prints, beading or lace. Ruffled blouses or fitted jackets would go in this section.
- Archive Area. Grab the clothes that you wear almost weekly and take them out of play for a little while. Store them in this area in a plastic garment bag. This will force you to take a look at some older clothes that you may have not utilized in a while. You have a choice; you can start to wear them again or it will force you to de-clutter your closet by getting rid of unused items. It will also give a new, fresh look to your wardrobe without having to spend the big bucks to do it. It’s called re-purposing 101.
Have fun!
Tags: Clever Container, getting organized, Marla Murasko
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Whether you’re starting a new business or you’ve decided to go to the next level, you must be prepared—and that means having a business plan.
Imagine jumping in your car and traveling to a distant location without a map. Chances are you wouldn’t attempt it. You wouldn’t know the best route, any costs, or what to do to avoid delays.
On the road to success in business, you often travel to places you’ve never been before. You need to plan the best route to reach your goals and map out potential roadblocks. What marketing strategy and budget will you need? How will you implement the plan and measure the return on investment (ROI)? Will you need to seek financial assistance from venture capitalists or angel investors (affiliate link)? What’s your exit strategy? Once you start this trip, you’ll want to check and review your business plan regularly to ensure you’re heading in the right direction.
The hardest part of putting a business plan together is allocating the time to dedicate to it. It takes discipline and time—more than a week—to write an effective business plan. If you are unable to dedicate the time needed, you should seriously reconsider going into business for yourself. Preparing a business plan is a simple test of the discipline and time required to start a company.
There are many resources available on the Internet that will provide you tips, techniques and templates for writing and preparing a business plan. Steer away from business planning software. These programs may look tempting, but they do not teach you much about writing an effective business plan. You’ll learn how to fill in blanks, but you won’t learn how to write an attention grabbing executive summary, calculate operating expenses, make sales and cash projections or set up a marketing strategy. In addition, these software packages do not account for the wide variety of businesses that are out there or the different stages of development they are going through.
Take a basic template and build the business plan yourself; researching and learning about the business process along the way. The business plan outline on the Small Business Administration’s Web site is thorough and descriptive, yet still allows you to think for yourself. If you have never written, or much less seen, a business plan before, then this process will take you some time. You will need checks and balances along the way to ensure that you are developing the plan correctly.
There are many free resources available to businesses seeking assistance. The following nonprofit organizations have offices in every state; you can visit their Web sites to locate the office nearest you.
• Small Business Administration
• Small Business Development Centers
• Women’s Business Centers
• S.C.O.R.E. (Service Corps of Retired Executives)
In addition, these organizations offer support groups, workshops and libraries of materials that you can use. Counselors are available to speak to you and offer advice on just about any business planning subject. They will also review your plan and offer valuable feedback. Most of all, write your business plan with confidence. You have a dream and you can make it a reality.
(Originally published in the Women’s Business Boston Journal)
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
What my husband did today:
- woke up
- took the dog out
- fed the dog
- went to work
- came home
- ate
- fed the dog
- went to dog training class (dog did not go due to recent surgery)
- picked up a few grocery items – including beer
- watched TV
- went to bed
What I did today:
- woke up
- got kids up
- checked email
- fed kids breakfast (I did not have time to eat)
- fed cats
- took dog out (she is recuperating from her spay surgery)
- dropped off older son at school
- picked up mail
- worked at home while youngest son watched TV
- took dog out
- worked while son played
- had a client tell me they wanted to end their campaign 3 months early – today
- took dog out
- fed my son lunch
- fed the dog lunch
- finally ate my breakfast
- worked while son played
- took the dog out
- took youngest son to dentist appointment
- picked up older son at school
- took both kids home and fed a snack
- took dog out
- went back to work and made some phone calls
- started making supper – dog pulled pizza off counter and started eating
- fed kids
- fed husband dog slobbered pizza
- went back to work while kids watched movie
- filled out multiple pages of forms from school (first day paperwork)
- wrote multiple checks for hot lunch and Kindergarten cafe
- wrote this blog post
- read youngest a story – put him to bed
- took dog out
- fed cats
- went back to work while oldest watched TV
- put oldest son to bed
- went back to work
- ate a comfort snack
- went to bed around 10:30pm to watch the news
Can’t wait for tomorrow!
Mom entrepreneurs, is this a typical day? What other fun tasks were part of your day?
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Ariane Griffiths of Foundation Studio Special Events, who is also a member of The Mom Entrepreneur Online Support Group, recently announced a free Platinum Blog Design Pkg. valued at $350.
The package includes:
- Custom header
- Coordinating graphic/color background
- Optional background detail (a.k.a “glare”)
- Custom template
- Optional navigation bar
- Favicon (Check out ours to the left of our address bar)
- 1 – 125×125 web button
- 1 – 120×40 vertical banner
- Post signature
You are invited to enter your name to be included into the drawing. Enter here – http://foundationstudio.ca/archives/350. One lucky winner will be picked at random on February 23rd . Good luck!
Monday, December 1st, 2008
Have you heard of the company Send Out Cards? I like the concept. A website that allows you to pick and personalize a card, add a gift if you want and then the company takes care of printing and sending. As a mom entrepreneur, I have a large network of people I work with and communicate with through both of my companies. A service like this can be extremely useful for managing your network, keeping in touch and saying thank you. In this economy, I feel we can all do a better job of telling our clients, vendors, people who refer us business and others how much we appreciate them.
Ja (pronounced Jay) Thomas, mother of two daughters and an independent distributor with
Send Out Cards is also a member of
The Mom Entrepreneur Online Support Group. I recently asked her if she would write an article about how we could use her service to increase and strengthen our relationships with our networks. I am a busy mom like all of you reading my blog, however, we would not be successful entrepreneurs if it were not for our networks.
How to Easily Keep in Touch with Your Network – By Ja Thomas
If you are anything like me, your head is filled with good intentions. Good intentions include sending a thank you note to the customer that made a large purchase, the friend who gave you a referral or a fellow business owner you met with and would like to build a relationship with. Eventually good intentions turn into feelings of guilt when you don’t send a note. I have two small children and the thought of dragging them to the card store does not excite me, let alone finding the time to actually write the note and get it mailed.
As a busy work-at-home mom, I understand the importance of building relationships. According to a study conducted by the Technical Assistance Research Project in Washington DC, 68% of customers leave because of ‘perceived indifference’. In other words, customers don’t think you care about their business. I know my customers and clients want and need to be appreciated, remembered and thanked, it’s just that up until now, I had not been able to find a simple way to do that until I learned about Send Out Cards.
Send Out Cards is an online greeting card company. The catch is that while they are online, they
mail out traditional greeting cards with actual lick and stick stamps. The real cards that show up in your mailbox and make your heart do a little skip because someone remembered.
Send Out Cards makes it easy. I simply log in to my account, browse through the card catalog, write my own personal message that shows up in my handwriting, sign the card with my real signature, pick the recipient and hit send. The company prints it, stuffs it, addresses it, stamps it and mails it the next morning! They will even include a gift or a gift card if I choose.
I’ve come to realize that my new system sets me apart from most every other business my customers are working with. Ask yourself, when was the last time you received a hand-written note from someone you met in a business setting? Honestly, I’m receiving thank yous for my thank you notes. More often than not, the recipient will call or email me to say how much they appreciated the card. That is great relationship building!
I don’t include a business card or a coupon when I send the note. There is not even a mention of my business, just a sincere note of good wishes. It seems to mean more to my customers and not come off as an advertisement. Is it working? Yes! It was working so well that I changed my business path and now work with Send Out Cards. My name is the one that pops into my customers’ minds when they think of Send Out Cards and that was my goal. I want my customers to think of me first, refer me to others, and not even have a passing thought about using another company because we’ve built a relationship. Goal accomplished! Next?
For more information about Send Out Cards and to send a few cards for free, visit Ja at www.soclink.com/18747.
TOP TEN REASONS TO USE SEND OUT CARDS
- No more running out of stamps.
- Addresses at my fingertips.
- Sending cards in my handwriting.
- Creating my own cards with digital pictures.
- Mailing a card in less than two minutes.
- Never forgetting another birthday.
- Mailing over 200 holiday cards in less than ten minutes.
- No more dragging the kids to the card shop.
- Showing my customers how important they are to me.
- Getting those good intentions in the mail.
Thursday, November 27th, 2008
Today I am taking a break from the “lemons to lemonade” marathon to wish all of my readers and their families a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Today is a perfect day to take pause and reflect upon everything that we are grateful for. In addition to my friends and family, I am thankful to all of you for your support, feedback and great ideas. Enjoy the holiday!
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
I think the title of this article sums things up nicely. The article is by Lisa Druxman and it was originally written for Entrepreneur.com.
I’ll tell you right now that you’ll never get it all done. Your inbox will always have e-mails, you’ll always have dirty clothes to wash and your nightstand will always contain unread books.
I’m not trying to depress you: I say this only to make you realize an inevitable truth–a truth that’s in direct conflict with my belief that having finished tasks in your life gives you peace and happiness.
How many times do you tackle your e-mails from newest to oldest? Do you go through your to-do list from top to bottom? Do you answer the phone because it rings and do the laundry because the hamper’s full? This is true for almost everyone. The mom entrepreneur is juggling raising a family and a business, and she’s usually overwhelmed.
To read article, click here…>
Filed under 
