I’m an expert, Part II

By On · Leave a Comment · In Online Business Manager, Tech Admin

Today I thought I’d share part II of I’m an expert….

A huge part of my business is supporting my super start OBM clients. I only have two at the moment ( I keep it this way so I can focus more time on them and their businesses ) and one of them gave me a huge task last year that was sure to be fun! I was switching her from a 1ShoppingCart/Mailchimp/Paypal/Wishlist member hybrid platform to Office Autopilot.

Office Autopilot is my #1 all time favorite all-in-one system. This was my first time really getting to set everything up from scratch instead on inheriting someones chaotic mess. From their kick arse step by step getting started videos to their easy to talk to tech support folks, I seriously can’t stop raving about this system. I also have to say I love their plugin, Pilotpress. It’s made my life so easy when it comes to setting up membership sites.

Everything in Office Autopilot is simple to do. There are no jumping through three hoops while crossing your fingers. It simply works as an all-in-one system should, easy and clean. As with any new system, there is a slight learning curve, but only because my brain has been tightly wound by all the crappy systems I’ve tried in the past. Since the new year I’ve setup three different programs for my lovely client (I so hate calling clients – CLIENTS, still need a word for that ) and each one has been more exciting than the last.

Right now she is running a quick promo for her Change Your Life in 90 Days program. Thankfully, Office Autopilot made things quick and easy to setup. Love it!

Note: There has been some chatter online about Office Autopilot *not* supporting a few things. One is multiple products like a shop. This is true, it is NOT a shopping cart but does function well for online programs or bundled things. It also doesn’t allow for discount codes, but that is in the works. To us, these things aren’t really deal breakers, we just moved around the obstacle and made it work.

If you ever have questions about systems, feel free to hit me up. I have seriously tried them all! From this point forward I will only be working with these two systems. I won’t be supporting 1ShoppingCart or any other stand alone cart. I will fix little bugs, but won’t implement any other systems as I feel my skills are best utilized working with systems like Office Autopilot and Infusionsoft.

 

 

Rules of Business, Fight Club Style

By On · 2 Comments · In Inspiration
Photo By xJason.Rogersx

Photo By xJason.Rogersx

I’ll admit, that I was a business novice who made such bad decisions! Even 4 years in, I still willingly admit that my business skills have been something I struggled with.  So what gives? How was I able to turn this business from hobby to business? It most def isn’t easy but it was such an easy concept to learn. The thing I had to fix, shouldn’t have been broken in the first place. That is where the bad stuff all started and the good stuff took over once I had my head on straight. Here are the rules of business, Fight Club Style. Totally without the violence but with as much eye opening profoundness as the movie…..

Setting an appropriate rate to charge for your service or product is FUNDAMENTAL. Undercharge and you are basically telling the universe you are funding a hobby and not running a profitable business. Money matters in business. If you don’t profit, you won’t survive and to put it blunt, you don’t ever merely want to survive. You want bags of money falling from the sky. Get your relationship with money straightened out right now. Money loves you and can’t wait to jump in your pocket.

The risk of starting a business is high, but not as high as everyone makes it out to be. In this world, even a regular day job that you’ve been at for umpteen years runs the risk of going away. The risk of running a business that fails only comes in to play if you don’t have your crap together. Setting low rates, catering to the wrong (or no ) market and overall just having a hobby mentality will KILL your business.

Your overhead is your safety net. Be frugal, but don’t be a tight wad mcwaderson. You have to spend money to make money. My overhead is extremely low but I do have to spend in order to make things work. Don’t carry more overhead than you can handle, ever. Even if this means starting small, it means being ahead of the money snowball. Remember business is an investment of time and resources. Pick the right resources to support your time and you are golden.

Yes leaving a so called secure job sucks, but you can create yourself a happy little place you want to go to everyday. How much is that worth to you? When I say a happy little place, I mean the exact place you want to be, everyday, doing exactly what you want to be doing. Sometimes day jobs are necessary. You can learn tons of things at a day job but if going there makes you unhappy, you have a choice, remember that. No matter how hard or how much work it may seem to be, the resulting space you create JUST FOR YOU is priceless.

You can’t run a business if you are depressed, poor or uneducated. These are all LIES. There are so many self made millionaires who are so so so successful in business that were depressed, poor or uneducated. Guess what? They made it and so will you. Most of them started with little money and only an idea.

On second thought, drop the entire crapping on yourself thing too. Your business only has room for CONFIDENCE.

Learning as you go, will take you far. You will never know it all, it’s impossible! Take your talent and combine it with your souls yearning, then find yourself a mentor. No one should ever do it alone. Not every business idea is as amazing as we think it is. Research, poll and hang out where the people you want to sell to hangout. Get to know them. Know their pain, know their joy. Don’t listen to the static, block almost every single newsletter from your inbox and schedule the sh*t out of your day/week/month.

Have a conversation with yourself. Be real, talk to YOU about where you want to be. Take that big wild amazing lustful dream and put your hands around it and drag it in with all your might.

I believe in you, the question is do you believe in you?

 

Just a Reminder as to Why I love TeamworkPM so much

By On · 2 Comments · In Project Management, Time Management

This is my 80th post!!!!!!!

I’ve been really evaluating my personal systems lately and I recently had some thoughts about leaving my beloved TeamworkPM. First, I have always loved this system. I have turned many people onto it and I really think it’s easy to use. I can’t say that it does anything wrong per say, but I have felt like I wish it was more visually appealing within the actual system.

I have mine setup so that each project is actually just a clients name/company name. This helps me cut down on the confusion of setting up projects all over the place. I then setup task lists based on what my to do list is for each client and just tick those off as I go.  In most cases I grant my clients access and I also have my staff setup in the system as well. It’s so easy to use and you have the ability to assign tasks via email which I LURRVE.

So this week I started to research other systems and I came across this amazing post. It helped remind me that A) the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and B) I totally DISLIKE basecamp. Foliovision basically took the words out of my mouth. With TeamworkPM, even if you go the free route you get a whole lotta system. Yeah it only took me 5 minutes to remember what I disliked about most other PM systems.

I guess all of this is really great news, especially since I believe there is an ad out there with my praise for TeamworkPM on it LOL! Oh and I also recommend this for personal to do list stuff too, especially if you are a to do list person.

Sent

Because I Work From Home Part II

By On · Leave a Comment · In Home Office, Location Freedom

Ok first, I normally don’t blog every single day. This month I happen to be participating in the Wordcount Blogathon. Whew. It’s been tough but fun.

Yesterday I wrote about boundaries and how hard it is sometimes to really get people to respect your time/space when working from home. In all honesty today I managed to get two newsletters out, work on two different systems for clients, research and fix about 5 tech issues, update 2 websites, work on a new sign up form (plus tons more work stuff) clean out my closet, do two loads in the dishwasher, put away 4 loads of laundry that piled up on a chair in my bedroom, scrub the tub ( with the help of my little papaya), cook dinner and clean out the cat little box. Pretty sure I was never able to fit all of these things into one weekday when I worked in corporate America.

Working from home is a blessing. It’s also super freaking hard work on top of the normal client hard work. I have to essentially balance my family life with my work life while walking on a tightrope. It’s not easy, it’s sort of fun and it can be dangerous because of all of the temptation there is to just drop work and do something else. The key to this is making sure your work isn’t really work. Make the work be something more, you know, fun.

I chose to work from home so I could see my Papaya grow right before my eyes. So we could easily home school her, so we could easily take off on family getaways and so I could heal after years of crappy jobs and even crappier health. These things all matter.

Working from a home office most definitely has its perks such as:

  1. There is no such thing as NSFW. I mean no one blocks my internet so if I want to read some of my favorite comics or just curse a lot when reading the news, there really isn’t anything anyone can do.
  2. I can eat what I want when I want. Wait this may not be a good thing. But I guess if I burn the pop corn no one will complain about the smell.
  3. If I’m smart, I can strategically fit my work around my life. This is freaking amazinggggg.
  4. I get to hang out with the most annoying cat in America, Finn.  Get off my desk cat!
  5. I can get ice cream from the ice cream man. I used to miss him EVERY SINGLE TIME due to my 8-5 schedule at the office. Again, not necessarily great for the figure but fabulous for the brain.
  6. I can google chat with my BFF all day, he is smarter than me and helps me do so much crap so much better than I could do alone.
  7. I can Skype with my mom to cry about some video I just watched, just because.
  8. I can make grocery lists while at my desk without feeling guilty, like I was on company time.
  9. I can print whateverthehell I want when I want. Not like that one time my coworker printed her entire wedding invitations on the company printer. That is just all kinds of wrong.
  10. I can wear leopard shorts and a green tank top to work and probably not brush my teeth too. Not that I’d do that you know, just you know, if I wanted to I totally could.
  11. I can have food delivered without the office nosy nancy all up in my business. YES this is the fourth time this week that I’ve ordered Chinese thanks.
  12. I can find out the in-laws are on their way over and not have to tell a white lie at work to get off early and clean.

See so much to be grateful for.

 

Just Because I Work From Home

By On · Leave a Comment · In Home Office
Photo Courtesy of PureSolitude on Flickr

Photo Courtesy of puresolitude on Flickr

When you work from home, you have to set boundaries.

Just because I work from home doesn’t mean I have nothing going on. If you see me sitting at my desk, staring into space chances are I’ve got lots to do, I’m just taking a quick mental break. This job is tough yo!

Just because I’m home doesn’t mean I am the maid, the trash taker outer nor the kitty box litter changer, all day every day. Our agreement on chores stands. Sometimes when I need to clear my head from a rough project, I’ll step out of my home cube and step into our mess of a house to clean something. Consider that as rare as a hot pink skunk.

Just because I work from home doesn’t mean I have ‘extra’ time to run your errands or quickly mock up your Aunt Bertrice’s resume and fill out online contest forms for you. I know I rant and rave about all this wonderful flexible time I have but the truth is if I want to be a grown up, with a grown up biz, I’ve got to be on point when it comes to how I spend my time.

Just because I work from home doesn’t mean every meal rests on my shoulders. There are days when ALL of my clients need something in the next hour. That means that we, as a family, may need to pitch in. And by we, I mean all of you who are old enough to cook. This goes for all meals. Don’t even try to sneak in a ‘oh you’re home so I thought you’d take care of cooking us all a big breakfast’. For the love of god don’t assume, ask, always.

Just because I work from home doesn’t mean I can stay up late every night. Some nights I do because it’s much quieter and I can do some super focused work. Sometimes it’s just really hard to concentrate with everyone doing their own thing in the house so staying up late just seems like the right thing to do. Come morning I’m generally cursing myself out for doing so, therefore I try to limit this to rare occasions when possible.

Just because I work from home doesn’t mean I want to chit chat all day – catching up or connecting is great, but please respect my time. Ask me if I am available. I totally disliked chit chatting in the cube farm because I didn’t want to get in trouble. Now that I call the shots, I still don’t want to get in trouble….with myself. Myself says get your arse to work or else you’ll stay up late and then end up cursing yourself out in the morning.

In all honesty today I managed to get two newsletters out, work on two different systems for clients, research and fix about 5 tech issues, update 2 websites, work on a new sign up form (plus tons more work stuff) clean out my closet, do two loads in the dishwasher, put away 4 loads of laundry that piled up on a chair in my bedroom, scrub the tub ( with the help of my little papaya), cook dinner and clean out the cat little box. Pretty sure I was never able to fit all of these things into one weekday when I worked in corporate America.

Still, boundaries people, boundaries!

What about you, has anything like this happened in your home work environment? Feel free to pass this along to anyone who seems to cross your work from home boundaries…..

 

 

 

The Internet is Currently Bursting at the Seams

By On · Leave a Comment · In Inspiration
Artwork By Naomi Chung

Artwork By Naomi Chung

I don’t know about you but my brain has been on information overload lately. A few months ago I decided to go on a personal Facebook hiatus and that really helped me out a ton. I am back on Facebook, but only after really deciding WHY I wanted to spend my time on there.

Upon my return to Facebook I was sad to see that I missed out on a few of my friends big announcements. Some got married, some were pregnant, some had started businesses. I quickly realized that even though I missed out on the social media announcement, it wasn’t really that big of a deal. I could still hug and congratulate them the next time I saw them in person or simply send them a card filled with well wishes.

So back to information overload. I remember when I started trying to find people to look up when I first started out in the business world. I remember finding some really big names who I THOUGHT I wanted to be like, then as time moved on, I really found myself not wanting to be like them at all. I knew I wanted to help people but couldn’t really see myself having this giant business like say Oprah. I think that my reason for not wanting to be Oprahesque was more because I hate the limelight, and love being behind the scenes.  Although if I had the money like Oprah, Ellen etc I could for sure help more people out.

Two times this week I’ve been approached with the idea of becoming someones life coach. When they both told me that, my brain automatically went into the Facade of No mode. Oh you can’t do that! or Oh my, who wants to get advice from YOU? Both of these things are completely untrue of course. I also was reminded of this article which pretty much spells out my life. I’ve always thought I wasn’t ANYONE’S 10. Maybe my partner, and of course my daughter thinks the world of me, but to everyone else I was just a mediocre person (or so I thought).

You see, you will always be someones 10/10.  Since online business is an ever evolving thing, there will be people just starting out, people a year into it and beyond.  This is awesome because there is always someone who will look up to you. The person who doesn’t have a blog will look up to the friend who just bought their domain. The person who bought their domain will look up to the person who has been blogging for months and so on. You can’t compare yourself to others or else you’ll get lost. Just do what you do, and do it well and if you haven’t started, at least you have ideas churning in that little head of yours. Of course this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t monitor your competition. It just means that no two people are the same exact thing. So don’t get discouraged.

I can also thank Tania Dakka for her words of wisdom last week. She got my brain churning when it came to all of the products I want to release and how to look at my competition when doing my analysis. The internet is currently bursting at the seams. It’s good to have mentors and friends you can look up to.

 

 

I’m an Expert!

By On · 2 Comments · In A Day in the Life

Lol. I love saying that. Especially on days when I’m not really that much of an expert.

A huge part of my company is getting to work with two insanely awesome systems. I’ll admit, I have a favorite, but the other one is not going away anytime soon so I make the best of it. It’s good to have things that challenge you!

One system is Infusionsoft. Do I love it? Sometimes I do. Do I feel like I want to stab my eyes out sometimes when trying to figure out how to use it, yes, that too.

When I moved up in the world of technology and told the universe I deserves A) More money and B) More responsibility, she basically threw me into the fire. I had been using Infusionsoft for about a year but wasn’t being paid to really absorb it. I was a task ticker and to my own fault, I just didn’t really connect with Infusionsoft like I connected with other systems so I totally blew the whole relationship from the get go.

Well lucky for me, the business woman I partner with and that I dedicate a majority of my time to ( and more in the future yay! ) uses Infusionsoft. I had to get to know it more intimately and make sure I knew what the heck I was doing! It’s been a fun ride and I am really happy to share this resource if you use Infusionsoft.

Infusionsoft User Groups

These are local user groups that host meet ups of other Infusionsoft users. This is totally rad for so many reasons. For those of you who are new to the world of online business..Infusionsoft is an All-in-One Sales and Marketing system. It’s a message delivery system, a shopping cart, an affiliate system and more. It’s not for the faint of heart though, I thank my Info Tech background for helping me through that one. I will say that Infusionsoft has changed ( in a good way ) more recently. You used to have to be a genius to figure out their stuff and they are now priding themselves on being more user friendly.

So I guess this makes me an Infusionsoft expert right? lol

 

PS. Thanks to Rowena for pointing out that I left off the second thing I work with daily. I’ll write that post up in a day or two.

Things I wish I knew BEFORE starting my business

By On · Leave a Comment · In Small Business

I’ve been reflecting back on my small business journey. Here are a few things you should know BEFORE starting your biz.

Working from home isn’t really all peaches and cream.

If you have kids, or someone you personally take care of at home, you better be flexible as heck. Your work also better be even MORE flexible. Flex your arms, your legs and back. Then twist and contort your body into ways you never thought possible. Yeah, you still aren’t flexible enough to start a small business.

Not receiving regular pay sucks.

Oh man if I had a dollar for every dollar that passed me by, I’d be rich! On top of that, if I had a dollar for every single time I was broke because of how my clients paid me ( before I got the money part right ) then I might not have almost become homeless.

Pay people well.

The difference between paying people you hire good and great, means all the world. In most cases, if you pay people well, you are going to get better results. I’m not talking about the random fiverr job. I’m talking about the people you trust to put their hands in your business candy jar. If you can’t afford to pay them well, you aren’t ready to hire someone.

Being different doesn’t automatically make you valuable.

It’s true, you can be a weirdo and have an online business. Just don’t assume that the clients will come running towards you just because you are different. You still need to have some sort of inkling about how businesses run. You also need things like a marketing plan, a target market and a good looking website. I’m starting to agree that content isn’t king, but web design is. How many times have you gone to a website only to click out because of the ugly factor? See, visuals first, content second.

This list isn’t meant to be all inclusive, just a few things that really keep popping up as learning experiences that I wanted to share.

How about you? Do you have any advice on things you wished you had known before starting your business? I’d love it if you shared!

It’s the Paramedic’s Birthday!

By On · Leave a Comment · In My Story

Today, I have the honor of celebrating The Paramedic’s birthday with my little family.

For those of you who don’t know who that is, The Paramedic, is my spouse. We’ve been together for roughly 7 + years and not only are we polar opposites when it comes to career choices, The Paramedic also has no clue what I do for a living! lol. No seriously, listening to The Paramedic talk to someone about what I do is amazing. I love hearing it.

The Paramedic has been my partner though some of the best parts of my life. We have a daughter who is 4 and I can’t imagine my life without either of them. Before they came along I just felt like something was missing and that there had to be more to life than just the crazy crap that went through my mind ( Space travel anyone>? ). I’ve always been kind of flighty and eclectic, and finding someone as sensible and loving as The Paramedic has helped ground me.

From doing things like painting Papaya’s toes with stars and stripes, to saving people’s lives, The Paramedic is one of the bravest and gentlest souls I know.

Here are some of my most fav photos of The Paramedic. Happy Birthday Baby!

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What Home Based Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Their Health In Order To Thrive Part Two

By On · 3 Comments · In Uncategorized

This is part 2 in my Home Based Entrepreneur Health Series.

What was the issue? My Vitamin D levels were at a 12. She said I have VDD or Vitamin D Deficiency. She then told me she suspected almost every symptom I had was related, including my hearing issues.  She said my other test results ( Diabetes, Cancer, Thyroid etc ) weren’t back yet but she needed me to get on the ball in regards to taking care of this.

When I got off the phone I thought, wow all of these symptoms were so generic or I just attributed them to aging. (I’m 35). I also attributed some of them to a traumatic experience I had back in 2009 and it sort of became my crutch. In addition, I have a pituitary tumor that also received some of the blame.  Right now it’s too early to tell what is going to get fixed but I just started taking Carlson’s Vit D Drops, the high dosage per her recommendation. I’ve also started sitting in the sun everyday for at least 20-30 minutes, no more hermit living for me.

Why do I think it’s important to write this post? Because now that I look back at this I realize it was caused by starting my business. While it has given me more freedom, it has also given me more home time and less out and about time. No more getting sun on the way to work and on the way home. No more sitting at the picnic table at lunch outdoors to escape the cubicle farm. Why do that when I could sit cozily in my beautiful little work cocoon at home. During all this I also looked back at old blood results and it showed my Vit D levels were at a 50 when I started my business. That also helped me realize my plan of action going forward.

If you are a home based entrepreneur, I suggest that you pay attention to your body cues. Here are a few things you can do to make sure this doesn’t happen to you. Suffering with these symptoms for years, feeling like I was dying or just inept because I felt so tired and sick, was just plain silly on my part.

Make sure you are getting regular checkups.

If you don’t have insurance, please check this link. If you are a freelancer, find out about getting insurance at the Freelancers Union if you can afford it. Find a resource within your community to get the testing you need to ensure optimal health. If things are really bad in the financial dept. I suggest finding a lab and at least getting the basic blood tests you need. There are several to choose from like Any Lab Now ( Not affiliated or endorsed, just showing you options ). I know for those of us in the USA who run businesses or don’t have insurance, it’s often hard to afford healthcare. Trust me, this isn’t something you want to push aside. Find a way and if you need help finding that way, please contact me and I’ll find some resources for you.

Make GOOD health a priority

We make time for vacations, work, weddings and other stuff in life. Make time for your health. You can’t possibly have a good life if you just let stuff like this happen to you without investigating.

Think about getting some sun or talk to your health care provider about supplementing.

If you live in an area where the sun doesn’t like to shine, talk to your health care provider about getting on supplements. Diet rich in Vitamin D is also helpful. Our culture has been listening to the experts telling us to slather on as much sunscreen as possible and there is now some thought as to sunscreen being one of the causes of VDD. More on this later and I’ll try to link up the research study I found about this. Another thing to note, research is also being done on the possibility of using diet as a way to not get sunburn or UV damage to your skin. So interesting!

Get out. No really, get out of your little hermit crab shell.

Don’t be like me. My theme song for the past few years has been this. Really, I’ve always been kind of non outdoorsy type. I didn’t own a pair of shorts when I lived in Florida. I wore jeans, even to picnics in the park where it was 150 million degrees.  In my present life, we take our daughter out hiking etc but I still wear long sleeves and pants because I find the weather where I am to be cool. I admire the beauty of the outdoors, in fact it just seems I find lots of peace being in the outdoors, I just always covered up.

So if you find yourself, having any symptoms like I had, get checked out and make a commitment to yourself to FEEL better. YOU are worth it!

Have you suffered with VDD? Please leave me a comment below and let me know how you were able to overcome it. If you need any support or have questions please feel free to comment too!

What Home Based Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Their Health In Order To Thrive

By On · Leave a Comment · In Health, Home Based Entrepreneur Health Series

This is part 1 in my Home Based Entrepreneur Health Series.

I wasn’t really sure I was going to write this post, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I need to.

For the past few years I’ve felt very sick – like I was on a downward spiral towards losing my mind, but physically. There were a few major reasons why I wanted to start a business from home, and a few reasons I HAD to. The feeling sick thing was one of the reasons why I had. I rarely missed a day of work in my corporate career and it was normally only when my little one was sick and I had to stay home. For me to miss work for any other reason it was usually due to having the flu or some other contagious thing. In my mind a day off meant no pay ( I worked 37 hours a week, no benefits at my last job until the last month or so ) or just having to admit I wasn’t on top of my health.

So being able to start my business and work more in tune with my body and mind, was essential. I wanted to sleep the right amount of time, eat better, get out more and just give my whole self the break it needed from 15 years of working non-stop for someone else. The not feeling good thing was something I had hoped working from home would fix. Now, four years in, I’ve been feeling worse than I’ve ever felt. List of symptoms include:

  • Loss of hearing in one ear, loud ringing in the other
  • Psoriasis on my scalp, ear and bridge of nose. I treated this with dandruff shampoo for years and had no idea that was what it was. I just thought I was an unlucky person who had peeling skin everywhere. Even on days when I had painful welts on my head, I just blew it off as normal.
  • Depression that never seemed related to any situation.
  • Anxiety and inability to handle stress.
  • I caught every cold or virus that came across my space. This was something that has never happened to me in the past. I blamed this on Papaya attending child care with other kids. Getting the ole immune system back up to par.
  • Heart palpitations.
  • Weird sleep habits that I was unable to control. Like wanting to sleep 24 hours, but of course couldn’t.
  • Feeling very very exhausted all of the time. I mean every waking moment. This one scared me the most as I felt like I was dying. My bones and joints ached. Several of my toes were in pain daily like they were broken. (don’t worry it wasn’t my shoes, I wear the most comfy shoes ever ).
  • Muscle issues including weakness in my left arm that I laughed off as being a repercussion of working on my laptop constantly.
  • Horrible PMDD symptoms that included binge eating.
  • Concentration or focus issues. Having to adjust to working in spurts before I’d get a headache.
  • Hypertension
  • Bladder issues.
  • Severe sensitivity to cool things like water and cold weather.

All of these things popped within the last few years and while I did discuss them with my doctors, I never did so at the same time. Dealing with all of these things on top of life, really made me feel like I was losing it. How was I supposed to run a business and care for myself and my family if I felt this crappy? Well, I just made it happen, that’s how. I won’t say things didn’t suffer, because they did, but I really just tried to hold it all together and not run us into the ground.

It wasn’t until the Paramedic graduated that I really had some time to put all of this together. I went to an amazing health practitioner who listened to all of my complaints. She set me up for a ton of blood work and called me the next day. One of my test results was in and she needed me to take care of it right away. What was the issue? Well I can tell you it was something super easy to check for and I can’t believe it took me this long to really find out I needed to fix it.

Check back tomorrow for a full write up….

 

Not All Work From Home Jobs Are Created Equal

By On · Leave a Comment · In Self-Esteem, Small Business
“**Looking for determined and ambitious people to join my awesome team and WORK FROM HOME. 27+ year old Health and Wellness Company, backed by the BBB with an A+ rating. Job involves advertising, referral, and setting up customer accounts, pay is commission based with bonuses and incentives each month. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, MESSAGE ME for more details.**”
“Looking for motivated people to help with customer accounts and referrals, full time and part time positions available to work from home….The Company I work for is a wellness/pharmaceutical company. They are BBB accredited and have won many awards. I need help posting ads, contacting customers, and entering some data online. It’s very easy! You don’t need any experience because training is provided. This month’s incentive is great. Refer 8 people to the company and get $1,000 automatically. I am currently scheduling appointments for everyone to view a live webcast, which will provide you with all the details. Let me know if you’re interested and we can set something up! Please INBOX me, for I don’t always see the comments.”
“ISO of MOTIVATED INDIVIDUALS, with a DESIRE and DRIVE to work from home. No SALES, NO PARTIES, NO COLD CALLING. NO SPECIAL SKILLS REQUIRED. Must be willing to complete an online interview! PM ONLY for more information.”

I call BS.

These are examples of Ads placed on some of the groups I belong to on Facebook. First of all, NONE of these postings are for jobs. They are for “business opportunities” if you even want to call them that. Second, I get people wanting something turnkey, but what I don’t get is why these advertisers try to trick people into thinking they will be getting a job. In jobs, the employer pays taxes. This is most def NOT the case.

So what can you do if you want to work from home, in a legit manner.

Get clear on what service or thing you can offer. I normally tell people to grab a copy of their resume and circle everything they did that they loved and scratch out everything they truly disliked with a sharpie marker. What you are left with is exactly what you want to focus on. If you are left with NOTHING, then you want to explore your own inner curiosity and get to figuring out what sustains you when all else falls away.

Think about the money. What is your overhead going to be. How about our accounting skills, is this something you can handle? Do you have the cash to run this for a while?

Ask yourself, is there an audience for this? How will I make myself stand out. What can I offer that no one else can?

One you get that all figured out, you need to most likely build an online presence. If you make crafty stuff, everyone knows that Etsy is the place to be. If you make stuff or offer a service, then WordPress baby, it’s the best route to an online presence EVER.

Mixed in with all of this you need to decide on a mentor. Mentors are amazingly helpful beings and if you can purchase time with this mentor, even better. No one should EVER have a go at running a business alone. It makes no sense to start off that way.

So instead of buying some turnkey kit, what can you bring to the business table? Do you have an idea that you’ve been afraid to lunch? Tell me in the comments and I’ll lend you some inspiration.

 

 

Life as a Parentpreneur

By On · Leave a Comment · In Life as a Parentpreneur

I’m a homeschooling business running mama.

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked my daughter this week “Was she excited that school was out for the summer” I’d be taking us all to Hawaii. Here is how the last encounter went:

Take 4 year old to local ice cream stand…

Worker says: ‘Hey little girl, aren’t you glad school is over’.

4 year old says: No I dislike school, If you make me sit at a desk for more than 250 minutes it makes me bored. I’ve got things to see and do, including checking out this vewy (yes she said vewy) new species of ant you have crawling on your floor. As she walks away she mumbles ‘I plan on being an ant photographer not a desk jockey..’

Me: Nods my head in agreement while 4 year old whips out her magnifying glass to look at some new ant species she believes she just found. I also can’t believe she just said desk jockey. Ha.

I then let the 4 year old get completely covered in chocolate from her ice cream and we walk out while discussing space weather plasma. People stare at us because she has a chocolate stache.

This is totally normal right?

When I get back home I tell her I have to do a few tasks so she goes over to her craft table and starts making some cotton ball animals. At this point I feel like I’m totally #Winning because this kid is a genius.

 

Not Too Many People Can Do That!

By On · Leave a Comment · In Inspiration

I just had the coolest conversation with my mom about business. She said and I quote “You and I have managed to support ourselves without ever leaving our homes. Not too many people can do that!”

She’s right ya know.

While she doesn’t run a business right now, she does work for an at home customer service provider. She answers calls from her little desk in her house. I think I may have helped her go in that direction at some point because she was having car trouble and needed a job at home. She worked in customer service and office management throughout her life, as well as provided both personal assistant and housekeeping services to rich folks.

I always admired her hustle when I was a kid. Seeing her come and go as she wished, and more importantly, seeing her be flexible with whatever was going on around her. My mom wasn’t the stuffy business type, but she had a really good work ethic and cared about everything she worked on.

So here we are, two regular gals just chatting over SKYPE IM discussing our work from home stuff. I also realize that her twin sister, who is a nurse, works from home too providing nursing support for a doctors website. She too must have caught the work from home in my PJ’s bug.

So working from home, while challenging, can be the answer to many many many problems such as:

  • Lack of transportation. You don’t need a bus pass to park your ass at your own desk.
  • Low wages vs high cost work costume syndrome. You can wear whatever the heck you like, even work nekkid if you want really. You can dress to the equivalent of your pay instead of being forced to buy $40 pants on an $8/hr salary.  Did you know it takes you half a days work to pay for those stupid pants!
  • Eating out when I really can’t afford it syndrome. You know when your friends all go to Applebees for lunch on days when you know you could not afford it but you went anyways. Eat fresher, better food from home.
  • Oh crap I need to go to the doctor but my boss needs me to fax something syndrome. Yeah because faxing his personal tax forms is waaaaay more important than a mammogram. Can’t that fax wait while I get my boo.bs painfully squeezed?
  • How the hell am I going to afford childcare syndrome? If you don’t believe me on this one, just ask my in laws. They left their kids with the lady down the road when they were little. They would show up to pick up the kids ( very small at the time ) and the lady would be asleep on the couch while the kids played around the house.  I’m sure she was inexpensive and this is something most parents just have to risk in order to be able to go to work and support themselves.
  • Damn, now how will I pay for my student loans syndrome? This is a tough one. Still not sure how student loans are so high while pay is so low. Running your own biz means making whatever money you want so it pretty much erases this issue.

So there you have it. Do you work from home or do you wish you could work from home? What problem do you want to overcome by working from home?

I Never Remember to Censor Myself

By On · Leave a Comment · In Self-Esteem, Small Business

Yes it’s true. These days I can hardly remember to censor myself.

We are taught in school to think inside the box, except when competing with others. We are taught to win win win and if not, you are a lose lose loser.

If you can stomach that, great, if you can’t, then welcome to my world.

I’ve sort of always had this rebellious streak. I’ve been colorful in describing how I feel. I’ve left situations abruptly and done all this without compromising my ethics.

When it comes to dealing with family, I don’t really censor myself (anymore). I used to walk on eggshells and make little pies with bows for everyone. Now I realize that confidence and trusting my intuition goes a bit farther than pie, so censorship isn’t needed.

When it comes to work, there can’t be any censorship. When it’s your business to work within other peoples businesses, you have to know when to speak up. I’ll say that when I was a Virtual Assistant, it never felt right to me, just being the peon. I censored how I felt and told everyone the job was great but I really wasn’t being truthful. Working from home was great, but working from home while being treated poorly sucked. When I decided to support businesses in a larger capacity, that made me feel amazing.

You see, censoring normally means you are doing something wrong or something just doesn’t fit.

So tell me, what are you doing right now that you feel you need to censor? What can I do to help you let it go….

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