December 2008

Easy Time Management Tricks for WAHMs

by Work at Home Magazine

Many people assume that work at home moms have it easy; however, if any of those people have ever lived a day as a WAHM they would know it isn’t so simple. There are children to take care of, a house to clean, a dog to walk, groceries to buy, dinner to cook and dishes to wash. Oh, and then there’s that business to work!

It may not be easy, but it isn’t impossible, either. By using some simple time management tricks, a WAHM can find time to “get it all done!” One thing every WAHM should have is a planner. Schedule your family time first! Then schedule in the time you are going to work your business. Once you have your “work time” scheduled, make it a priority to stay focused on your business during those hours. It is very easy to procrastinate when you are a WAHM.

If your work requires you to do lots of different tasks, try to group similar tasks together. For instance, if you are in a direct sales business and you have a team under you, designate one day to be your “training day”. Instead of helping various team members throughout the week, schedule all of your mentoring sessions for one day. Set aside an hour in the morning and an hour in the late afternoon to respond to email and/or return phone calls. By scheduling that time in, you will find that you are able to get more work done and feel less scattered.

You might also consider outsourcing some of your activities. If you find that you are spending too much time on responding to email, returning phone calls, or updating your website, hire a virtual assistant to do those tasks for you. This will free your time up to work on your business, and by spending more time on the parts of your business that actually bring in money, you will be able to increase your profits.

You can also save time by setting aside a block of time each week to do your “regular” errands, such as grocery shopping. If you plan your meals for the week and go to the grocery store once, you will save lots of time during the week by not taking those daily “quick trips to the market”. And while you are planning your meals, try to schedule a few “cook once, eat twice” days. For instance, you can plan on having spaghetti on Monday and tacos on Tuesday. So, on Monday, brown the hamburger you will need for both days. On Tuesday, half of your work will already be done. And if you are making a meatloaf or lasagna, make two and freeze one for later.

Most importantly, do not feel as if you have to do it all by yourself. You are not a super hero. If you have a spouse or significant other, ask them to chip in on household chores. Children love to help out, and depending on their ages, there are multiple things they can do. And when it is all said and done, don’t forget to take out some time for yourself. Everyone needs a break– WAHMs included!

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Walking the WAHM Tightrope – Balancing Work and Family

by Work at Home Magazine

Sometimes, being a work at home mom can feel like walking on a tight-rope! Balancing your work-time and you family-time can almost feel overwhelming, but it can be done. As a WAHM you are ahead of the game. The following are some tips to help keep you balanced – and sane!

You have the ability to set your own hours, so take advantage of that right now. If you can handle some tasks at “odd hours”, you will have more family time during the day. Are you a morning person? If so, try to get up an hour before your family to take advantage of some “quiet time” to focus on your business; night owls can take care of emails and other administrative tasks after they have put their children to bed.

If you pick your children up from school, use the time you spend waiting for them to get out of class to return customer phone calls. A wireless headset for your cell phone will allow you to keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road if you make calls while driving.

During the week, when schedules are busiest, plan speedy dinners. Let your kids help out in the kitchen while you cook – you’ll be spending time together and teaching them skills they will need. There are plenty of cookbooks out there dedicated to “kid friendly recipes” if you need some inspiration on what to make.

Blend family time and work time by getting your children involved in your business. Smaller children can affix the stamps or mailing labels; older children can help hang flyers; and teenagers can take on some administrative tasks such as data entry.

Set aside some time each day to spend with your children with no distractions. You don’t have to go anywhere special; the time can be spent reading a book or playing a game. The point is just to let your children know that they come first, and the business comes second. Remember – you became a work at home mom so you could spend time with your family. Don’t forget to take some time out to enjoy them!

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Simple Ways for WAHMs to Balance Work, Marriage, and Family

by Work at Home Magazine

No one has ever said that marriage is easy. Balancing your business, kids and marriage can be especially difficult. When you are feeling stressed, it is easy to put your relationship on the back burner. Here are some ways to keep it front and center.

Just as you schedule time for your children and time to work, schedule time for your spouse. Set aside a weekly “date night”. Your dates don’t have to be expensive – it can simply be going out to lunch at the local diner, going for a stroll together around the neighborhood or playing cards after the kids go to bed. The point is just to set aside some distraction-free time for you and your spouse to talk and connect.

If you think you are too busy for a date night, ask your spouse to help you with some of the household chores. Just because you work from home, doesn’t mean you should be responsible for all the cooking, cleaning and laundry. You are working, and it doesn’t matter if you work across town or in a make-shift office in the corner of the dining room.

By sharing the chores, you are freeing up time to spend together. You can make it a family affair by getting the kids involved. For instance, designate every Saturday from 10 am till noon as “cleaning time”. Divide the chores among the family, turn on the stereo and have a “cleaning party”. You’ll be having fun together and getting the chores done.

It may not sound fun initially, but why not run your weekly errands together? You have to go to the grocery store anyway, so why not go as a couple? Having someone to talk to while you wait in line at the check-out stand could be a nice change!

You can also find time to spend together by asking your spouse to help you with your business. Your spouse will learn more about what you do and see you in a different light. Who knows? Your spouse may enjoy helping you and with their help, you will be able to achieve your goals twice as fast.

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Creative Childcare Solutions For WAHMs

by Work at Home Magazine

If you are a work at home mom, you probably became one so you could spend more time with your children. However, there will most likely be times in your business when you will need to arrange for childcare. The following are some creative solutions to your childcare dilemmas.

WAHMs in direct sales are very often faced with childcare predicaments. A main portion of their business is conducting sales presentations, usually held at someone else’s home. If you are a party plan WAHM, the most obvious choice would be to schedule these presentations when your partner can watch the children, but what if your partner has an odd work schedule or you are a single parent? You can hire a local high school student to come to the party and be the “party nanny”. Check with the hostess first, but she will probably love the idea (and so will the other guests – since they won’t have to worry about getting a sitter for their children, they will be more likely to come to the party and the more guests you have, the bigger your profits!).

If you just need an occasional sitter, try setting up a “child care group” with your friends and neighbors. Each woman can designate a time frame on a certain day of the week or month to be “the sitter”. Any of the Moms in your “child care group” who need a sitter that day can drop their kids of at the “designated sitter’s” house. The children will get to play and interact with one another and each Mom can get free childcare on an “as needed basis”.

Check with your place of worship as they may offer a “Mom’s Day Out” type of program where you can drop your children off for a few hours per day, a couple times per week. This may be a free or low-cost service. Also, check with local library as they may have “story hours” where you can drop your children off and the librarians will read the children a book and after the book is read, the children can participate in a craft, game or activity.

If you just need some “quiet time” to do some work, you can hire a neighborhood teenager to come over and play with the kids while you are tucked away in your office. You will have some uninterrupted “work time”, but will still be there in case ‘something comes up’. If you have regular meetings that take you away from the house, check with friends and family to see if they can help out by watching the kids. Offer your product or service in exchange for their time. They may jump on the offer!

And don’t feel guilty if you need to put your children in daycare part-time. Yes, you may have had every intention of working at home in order to spend time with your children, but, there may be times when your business will need your total focus. By taking that time and completing your business tasks, you will be able to focus 100% on your children during family time.

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How to Start a Business Selling Ebooks to Moms

by Work at Home Magazine

Ebooks are fast becoming an in-demand product on the Internet. Found on many websites, written by authors of all walks of life and on many different topics, Ebooks can be downloaded for a fraction of the cost of traditional print books. If you are an online business offering products or services to moms or even if you’re new to online business, you can sell EBooks to this already huge and growing population on the Web.

The use of Ebooks is unlimited and because there’s no need for keeping a large physical inventory, you can sell them over and over again and adapt them to your customers’ needs. In short, this is an inexpensive business to start and has a high profit margin.

Why Moms Love Ebooks
In online communities everywhere, there are moms who enjoy learning new things and improving the lives of their families, by visiting websites, libraries and schools. Ebooks can be a great way of sharing that knowledge to this growing market of readers in a convenient format.

Not only are Ebooks easy to access for quick reference, but they are portable with the advent of Internet-ready cellular phones and iPods. A mom can locate an Ebook on any topic of her choice, download to her portable device in a matter of minutes, and take it wherever she’d like to enjoy it later.

Ebooks can be read over and over again and they can be stored for later use. Ebooks are environmentally friendly; no trees have to be killed in order to print out books that will sit around on people’s bookshelves and collect dust years after they are read. And that’s a relief to many moms who are environmentally conscious and probably already have enough clutter in their house…books in digital format help keep things clutter-free.

How to Research Your Topics
Over the last five years, moms have contributed much to the Internet as a whole. Many moms have created an online presence on social networking sites, specialty forums, and personal blogs. These moms are a perfect source of research on topics you can create ebooks about. Plus, they are perfect candidates to help promote and sell your ebooks for you. Simple set up an affiliate program that allows them to earn a commission on the sales they refer to you.

Sell and Give Away
You can use Ebooks to build your business in many ways. One, as we’ve discussed is to sell your Ebooks, but giving away Ebooks for free can also boost your sales.

For example, a business selling beauty products can publish a free Ebook about how the company’s makeup can be applied to achieve the most desired looks. Or a natural products store may want to offer an Ebook explaining the origins and uses of the organic ingredients – which the store happens to sell.

People are starving for information, solutions to problems and more. Find out what they need and deliver it to them.

Creating Your Ebooks
Publishing Ebooks is not as hard as it may seem. Topics and resources can be found by a simple search online or can be drawn from personal experience. Ebooks are generally around 25-100 or so pages in length and offered in an Adobe Reader format.

But if you don’t want to or don’t feel you can put the ebooks together, you can hire a ghostwriter or…

Get More Help with Your Mom Ebooks Business
To get help with selling ebooks…plus have the ebooks and promotional materials created for you, check out Mom PLR Ebooks. You receive a new ebook to customize and sell each month, plus a ton of great resources, promotional graphics, sales copy and more. It’s a super easy way to break into the business of selling ebooks to moms.

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Making PDF Ebooks Just Got Easier

by Work at Home Magazine

Do you ever wish you had an easy way to make your own information products and ebooks in PDF format…without shelling out an arm and a leg to do it? Then read on…

If you have ever tried to make PDF ebooks without using the official Adobe Acrobat software then you have probably encountered some of the typical difficulties.

For starters, most software applications that authors use to write their manuscripts do not allow you to quickly and easily convert your document into PDF format.

And if you have tried any of the cheaper so-called PDF making “solutions” you probably discovered some of the following problems with your PDF documents:

- No Bookmarks
- No Web Hyperlinks
- The Table of Contents is not hyperlinked to any pages
- No Security to prevent people copying your content!

In summary, your new PDF file looks amateurish…even if your content was terrific!

Well, someone had finally decided to do something about it, with Easy PDF Templates. Now, making your own PDF ebooks is less expensive, quicker and much easier than ever before!

I recommend you get over to this link and take a look for yourself…

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How to Start Your Own Gift Basket Supply Business

by Work at Home Magazine

A gift basket business is a year around business. There are always holidays and occasions where a gift basket makes the perfect gift… Valentine’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, weddings, birthdays, get well, thinking of you, baby showers, new baby, bereavement… these are just a few special occasions where someone would order a gift basket.

At the end of the blog post are some gift basket business publications that can be helpful in starting and maintaining your gift basket business.

Gift baskets are in great demand. They make fantastic presents and you can now find gift baskes to suit just about any occasions. This means that you can start a gift basket supply business which offers anything from from gourmet foods, chocolates and teas to body lotions, birthday items, special occasion products for wedding gift baskets, and more.

What skills are helpful?
Some knowledge and experience in the gift basket business along with knowledge of a wide variety of wholesale companies. Your familiarity with the business will help you keep your stock fresh and interesting for your clientele.

Organizational skills are a must! It is going to be imperative that you be able to keep your inventory organized. You also need to keep customer information and orders organized.

Creativity is important, you’ll need a little bit of a creative flair to set up beautiful looking baskets.

What tools are needed?
If you’re selling wholesale supplies you’re going to be selling large quantities of supplies at a time. To run a successful supply business you need to have an area large enough that you can keep stocked full of inventory; a room with shelving space is a good option. You are also going to need boxes, packaging bubbles/material, and tape to send out purchases.

If you’re offering gift baskets which you design and build yourself you’ll need marketing materials such as a website, business cards, flyers and basic computer equipment such as a fax machine, telephone and a computer.

You’ll also need to find a good supplier to supply you with all the gift basket essentials and a large table in a roomy area of your home to design and build the baskets.

How do you get started?
Once you’ve made up your mind to go with it you will need to check out legal issues. Businesses that involve lots of shipments coming and going can often be subject to more rules than other home based businesses. Make sure that you have appropriate insurance on your home that will cover your business; you may need an additional policy.

Take your time and develop your first line of products. Provide a nice variety of products and plan to keep introducing new items on a regular basis to keep clients interested. You’ll need a well organized and easy to use website along with an attractive catalog. Both will be important in promoting your product line.

Make your customers happy, build a personal relationship with them, and let them know you care about them and their businesses. Customer satisfaction is the quickest way to grow your business as current clients will spread the word about you if they’re happy.

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Finding Fresh PLR Content for Your Blogs, Newsletters, and Websites

by Work at Home Magazine Articles

Do you need fresh articles and content for your your blogs, newsletters, and websites but don’t have time to write it? You could pay someone for each article or piece, but that could run into some serious money, cutting deep into your profits. Private label rights articles and content could be the answer for your [...]

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