Sales MOMS Network Blog

With juggling kids, homeschooling, home, business, everything that we as Mothers have in our hands, it can really get tough sometimes.  So, what do you do to recharge? What helps you make it through and feel creative or inspired or just able to face things again?
Here are some things that work for me.

• Meditate or Pray: Taking time to be still and quiet, and to reconnect can do wonders for the spirit.
• Journal: I journal most days, even if it’s only for a few minutes. I write down my visualization exercises and then I write down at least 5 things that I am thankful for right then.
• Thank Someone: A few times a week I randomly pick someone who I am thankful for and/or inspired by and just send a little note or email. I find that my effort to lift someone else’s spirits lifts mine too.
• Movement: Yoga, pilates, or dancing. I turn on iTunes and exercise or dance with my kids. It can really relieve stress. The days when I least feel like doing this are the days when I need to the most. If I can just make myself move I find I feel much better the rest of the day.
• Quiet Time: Sometimes I light a candle and just sit and read quietly from my Bible or an inspirational book.
• Bubbles: Yes, I know this is a stereotype, but it works. If I’m lucky and the kids are all asleep I’ll give myself 5 or 10 minutes in the bath to relax with bubbles and just work to clear my mind of all the stress.
• Coffee (aka Reward Yourself): I purchase frappucino mix and make them at home as a treat when I’m particularly stressed. Use something you love as a reward for surviving your day.
• Foot Massage or Reflexology: Giving yourself a foot massage or doing reflexology on your feet can really boost your energy level.
• Energize with your Nose: I find certain essential oils to be energizing as well — peppermint, lemon, or orange oils work for me. Some people like pine or rosemary or thyme to energize.
• Identify and Attack: A few days ago I was really stressed and I cleaned out a closet. As strange as that might sound, I identified that I was feeling “out of control” about a particular situation, and so by doing something that helped me feel organized and in control I resolved that feeling, and then was able to focus on work.
• Write it Down: Making a “to do” list before bed helps me sleep better because I don’t worry that I’ll forget something that way. It also lets me easily rank what’s important, and what I can let go of, and that helps me feel more focused and energized.
• Support Group or Coach: Sometimes we all need a little support and encouragement. One of the things that helps me tremendously is when I have a session with my business coach. Just the listening ear, outside perspective, and relentless positivity is so inspiring. I really questioned it before I gave it a try, but I can say that this is one of the best business decisions I’ve made. The accountability doesn’t hurt either when I need to motivate myself to action. Knowing someone else is going to ask if I made positive steps this month is a good motivator. But more than that it’s really recharging to get out what’s going on, what’s going wrong, what’s going right and have someone there to help you through it. So get a coach! Or find a sounding board. Talk to a friend or colleague about being accountability partners. Surround yourself with support and you’ll find comfort and inspiration.

And now, let me give you access to some great free resources for small businesses including 101 Free/Cheap Ways to Market Your Business, 119 Things You Can Outsource, and more at www.michelleshaeffer.com

Michelle Shaeffer has been a work at home mom for more than 10 years and loves to share the tips and strategies she’s learned to help other home based business owners balance, manage, and market their businesses.

When you begin your journey as a woman entrepreneur, your most important action step is to get clients and create a “buzz” about your product or service so you can keep the business alive and get on a path to profitability. With effective marketing, your business will grow and over time, word will spread about the results people are getting when they work with you. If becoming a leader in your industry is a goal for you, now will be the time to consider an updated look in your business – a new brand image – both personally and professionally.

Over the last few months, I’ve completely revamped my online presence and I’m in the process of updating my personal brand as well. When you have a big vision for your business, it’s essential that you stay “current” in every area. If you’re in a product business, you’ll need to keep a fresh, new look for your product packaging. If you’re in a service based business, you’ll want a “new and improved” version of who you are becoming as a leader in your industry.

You may be reading this and thinking, “This sounds like a lot of work; my personal and professional brand seems to be working for me.” I, too, was slow about creating my own “new and improved” upgrade for far too long because I didn’t want to spend the time making the necessary changes. In the last few months, amazing opportunities have presented themselves to me and I know this is no accident. It’s because I stepped up my professional and personal brand image to reflect who I am becoming as a leader in my industry.

Not sure where to start? Here are a few tips and solutions on how to give your business a “new and improved” look and feel:

Online/Offline Brand

1. Website/Blog – Take some time to review your website and ask yourself if it truly reflects your business and more importantly, where you are going in the future. This is one of the first places people look to “check you out” and make buying decisions.
2. Social Media – Make sure your profile or Like page reflects the message you desire to send to your potential clients and referral sources. Tip: Add a current photo to all your social media pages. There’s nothing worse than going to connect with someone and finding a photo of their dog or worse, no photo at all.
3. Printed Materials – Carry your desired “new and improved” look all the way through to your business cards, brochures and any other printed material.

Personal Brand

1. Manage The “Mane” – Is it time for a new hairstyle? For years, the length of my hair was much longer until one day I realized this style no longer served me or my business. I’ve opted for a shorter more current look.
2. Say “Cheese!” – Is it time for a new photo? It’s essential that you update your professional photo at least every two years. It’s not as expensive as you might think to hire a professional for a few hours and it’s a worthwhile investment if you’re ready to uplevel yourself and your business.
3. Hit The Mall – Is your closet full of clothes that no longer reflect who you are? You don’t have to break the bank buying a whole new closet full of clothes. Invite a “nutritious” friend who has great sense of style to join you for a day of shopping. If your budget permits, you might want to hire an image consultant for a few hours to give you some tips on what colors and styles highlight your beauty and genius.

If you’re ready to step out in your business in a bigger way, these tips and solutions will cause people around you to sit up and take notice that you are serious about success in business. Taking these steps will unleash more referrals, more clients and more income – 3 necessary ingredients for complete success.

Anything is possible. Everything is waiting for you.

© 2012 Joy Chudacoff

Joy Chudacoff, ICF, PCC, is the founder of Smart Women Smart Solutions®, a Professional Certified Coach to 1000’s of women, Motivational Speaker, and Entrepreneur. She publishes a weekly buzz generating ezine, Reflections On Life and Business for Women Entrepreneurs. If you’re ready take your life and your business to the next level, get your FREE Tips, FREE Report and FREE MP3 now at Profits With Passion.

Any successful online business owner will tell you that it takes time, hard work, motivation, and constant perseverance to make a home business work. If you don’t apply these elements, then you are doomed for failure…it’s that simple. Money will not just fall into your lap. You will not make money overnight.

Still, there are people that sadly believe that you can set up a business online and then forget it and the money will roll in. NOT!

You have to work, and work hard at your business to make it a success. That means spending time everyday promoting it, working hard at keeping your customers up to date and happy, applying the goals you have set forth for your direct selling business, managing your time well around your family’s needs, and finally…remaining focused and motivated with your business.

The largest obstacle at succeeding in any direct selling business is lack of interest and motivation, You can have loads of time to devote to your business and you can have lots of nice products…but if you’ve lost your passion for it, you’re not likely to succeed. A sad fact, but true!

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do I love the products I’m selling?
2. Do I personally know and use the products I’m selling?
3. Do I love my customers?
4. Do I love to sell?
5. Do I enjoy what I’m doing enough to do it for the long haul?

If you’ve answered “yes” to all the above questions, then you’re on the right track. Your home business is your lively hood. Therefore, you need to literally use and have a real passion for the products you are selling. You have to love everything about what you are doing on a daily basis.

Be enthusiastic about your business and your products. Know your products. Establish a friendship with your customers and stay in contact with them. Get to know them, and above all, make for sure your customers are your number one priority. Remember…A happy customer will always come back for more of your products.

If you are someone that has lost interest in what you are doing, then begin thinking of ways to reinvent your business, or go into an alternative business that you really have a passion for. If you are someone that would like to start a home business…go back and ask yourself the questions above. Take them seriously, as they will be your key to success.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

Tammy has been successful in the work at home industry for 4 years now. She is an Internet marketer, article marketer, and ghostwriter. She offers free job leads for the job seeker, as well as other work at home resources, work at home articles, tips, and more at Work At Home Jobs.

You can also find Tammy at Work At Home Job Leads, offering legitimate work at home companies, more free job leads, work at home articles, and much more.

We all have a lot of paper coming into our homes constantly; either from the mail, work paper, children’s paper and other sources. In order to conquer the paper problem that many of us experience in our homes and to reduce clutter we need to have a working filing system where we can find anything in 10 to 15 seconds that is in the filing drawer.

Here are tips on setting up a working filing system which will reduce clutter in your home and in your office:

• Use hanging files. Don’t use a manila folder inside the hanging files because they are just something more to purchase, take up more space and they hide the tab behind them. There are a few times where they can be used such as to separate different financial information that is kept in the same folder.
• Organize by categories. Select a color of folder for each category. This keys our mind where to go when we need to find something. Some ideas for categories are:

Action: This is for events or things that have to be done within the month.
Remove/replace: This is for items that is constantly changing like health care information that changes yearly or policies that are sent out twice a year or it is a good place to file telephone lists of association and club members.
Permanent: This category is for things that we will keep “forever” such as warrantees of appliances and other items in our homes. Or for certificates and family histories.
Resource: This is the fun section. We keep things we want to refer back to. Before filing anything do consider if you need to keep it or can you find the information some other way with a minimum of effort and expense.
Taxes: Label a folder for each year you pay taxes. Keep tax records as a general rule for seven years. Go to IRS.gov for complete information.

• When setting up the folders put the tabs in front of the files so they don’t get hidden by other folders.
• In the action files have a tab labeled Bills to Pay. If you get a paper bill immediately put it in this file. Plan on paying your bills once or twice a month on the same day. When that day comes, take the bill out and pay it.

Mark the date paid, clip paid bills together, and move them to the back of the file. Or, make another file that says Bills Paid. Utility bills can be thrown away after paying, but most people are uncomfortable with this, so I suggest keeping bills for one to three months. If they are used for tax purposes, move them to the tax folders. Rotate them to the recycle bin when you pay your bills again. You do not need to save most paid bills because you can prove two ways that you paid it – by canceled check, or credit card, or the next bill that will reflect your payment.

The biggest tip for cutting down the paper coming into your home is to get off junk mail lists. There are several companies that do this for you. Google to find out what one you want to use. Some have a fee others are free.

Pay bills online. This cuts down on paper work, time and money (stamps and for some bills envelopes). Set up bill paying through your financial institution and go in monthly and pay the bills you want to pay. Your institution will notify you when they have sent payment. Make a folder in your email and send this information to the folder. You have a record if you ever need it.

Many people don’t file because they are afraid they won’t be able to find it again, but with the right system that won’t ever happen again. I use the Freedom Filer system and it has saved me a lot of time, worry and money. A good filing system helps reduce clutter in our homes and offices.

Marilyn is a professional organizer who works with women and seniors in clearing clutter and providing organizing tips. Visit her website www.marilynbohn.com for free organizing tips on her blogs, articles and videos.

Growing your business is a must when your only source of income is from your business. In order for this to happen, you must continually work your business. There are a number of ways to do this, but they need to be done on a regular basis.

1. Article Marketing – One of the most important things you need to do is article marketing. Writing articles and submitting them to article directories is what you need to do to make it happen. You can either do the writing yourself or you can hire a ghostwriter to make it happen. Your ghostwriter may be willing to submit the written articles to directories or you may need to hire a Virtual Assistant if you don’t have time to do it yourself.

Article marketing promotes your business through the bio you include at the end of your article. You’ll also be able to promote your business through the profile page you set up on the article directories. Most directories offer the profile so you’ll need to make sure it’s always current and that your links work.

2. Social Networking – Another important task you need to do to promote your business is to use social networking. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are valuable when used correctly to promote your business. It’s important to not only promote your business, but to communicate with others and offer tips to your followers. It’s important to build trust with your followers and that won’t happen if you only promote your business.

3. Blog – One last task you need to do regularly for your business is write for your blog. Your blog is a great way to share things about your business with your readers. These can be highlights about specific products or services, tips that will help your readers, and information about your field that will encourage your readers to use your business over someone else.

When you use these three tasks with your business , you’re sure to see growth. While it’s not going to be immediate, if you do it weekly at the least, you’ll see it happen over time. It’s important to find out how to do it correctly and these tips will help you to have a better understanding of how to do that so you can make it happen.

Corrie Petersen runs a successful Virtual Assistant business. She enjoys helping her clients reach their goals through the services she offers. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, click here to see how she can help you make that happen.