Moms In Business

My Twitter Weekly Digest

A roundup of some of my Twitter posts from last week.  Yeah I got kinda carried away :)

Enjoy!

Here's some good ideas for getting content for your blog. http://snurl.com/270ah

Can you write a good blog post in 5 minutes? http://snurl.com/271bx

[BLOGGING] Make your blog better in just 15 minutes. http://snurl.com/271b7

[BLACKBERRY] Email tips and tricks. http://snurl.com/271bg

[PODCASTING] 10 Tips for Launching a Solid Podcast http://snurl.com/271ax

Here's 5 essentials for the mobile web worker. http://snurl.com/26vqy

[PR TIPS] Amp up your PR campaigns by making them newsworthy. http://snurl.com/27199

Reading A Secret to Blogging Success from Problogger. http://snurl.com/26vo2

Powerful, good stuff on how to deal positively with your fears. http://snurl.com/26qsq

If you are a singer, speaker or use your voice a lot, here's why you should make sure you keep your voice hydrated. http://snurl.com/26qrt

Viewing Social Media Optimization and Marketing 101 presentation at SlideShare.com http://snurl.com/26nbb

How to Be a Stress-free Web Worker. http://snurl.com/26n53

If you are a new freelancer, here's some helpful tips on how to set your rates. http://snurl.com/26l9q

The 2 Magic Words. http://snurl.com/26ew3

Ahhh! The joys of self employment... http://snurl.com/26cz9

Dreaming of blogging around the world. http://snurl.com/26bkc

Direct Marketing vs. Social Marketing. Good stuff! http://snurl.com/26bhh

Can you juggle? http://snurl.com/26beb

Reading Seth Godin's advice on how to write like a blogger. http://snurl.com/252vd

Reading Anywired.com's Complete Guide to Becoming a Lifestyle Entrepreneur. Fantastic! http://snurl.com/25sdi

Two good places to find free pics for your blogs. http://snurl.com/25san

What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You?

Here's a fun article and quiz from The Home Office From Hell Cure by Jeffrey A. Landers.

Read it to find out what kind of entrepreneur you are.

What Kind of Home Based Entrepreneur Am I?

Mom Becomes Singing Star in Second Life

Kim Seifert, a 42-year-old mom, has found a new way to launch a singing career using Second Life, an online virtual fantasy world.

The former paralegal, who used to have a long commute to work, now makes as much money through her singing career online.

Singer gets second career on Second Life

Become a Design Mom - 5 Business Ideas

Is Home Garden TV your favorite channel?

Do you have a flair for home decorating, organizing, painting or other home improvement projects?

Then, check out these ideas to find your perfect home design business.

5 Home Design Businesses to Start

The Accidental Role Model

by Barbara J. Winter

During my daughter Jennie’s last year in college, she called me with a startling accusation. “You’ve ruined me,” she said.

“What do you mean?” I asked while bracing myself for the worst.

“Well,” she explained, “my friends are all writing their resumes and going on job interviews. I can’t do that.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and said, “I know. I did that on purpose.”

After years of working unhappily in traditional jobs, I started my  first homebased business the year that Jennie went off to kindergarten. Right away, it became obvious that my daughter was reaping the rewards of having a happier mom. I was having such a good time in my new creative lifestyle that I became a better parent. I also would find little business projects for Jennie to help with, like putting stamps on a mailing. She loved it. We were growing something together and she was proud of her contribution.

Although I started my entrepreneurial life out of a desire to find more joy in what I did, I also didn’t want Jennie to grow up with the negative messages I’d grown up with about work.  We can’t really model what we haven’t learned ourselves, of course, but we can be conscious about the messages we’re passing on to our children. “Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on children than the unlived lives of their parents,” warned psychologist Carl Jung.

So, naturally, I’m excited when I see a parent make positive changes for themselves — like Rob McCarthy. Rob and I knew each other for years before we met. Rob worked for a large video and audio production company where I bought my seminar tapes so he was the guy I’d call when I needed to replenish my inventory. One day I called to place an order and was told that Rob no longer worked there. A month later, Rob called to tell me he’d moved to a smaller company and wondered if I’d like to move my business there. I promptly made the switch.

Then the same thing happened. I called to place an order and was told that Rob had left. A few weeks later, I got another call from Rob saying he’d decided to start his own business. “Congratulations,” I said. “Where’s your office?” He explained that he was running it from home and planned to create a mobile studio. He sounded excited and said it was a new experience for him to be home alone all day.

“Do you have kids?” I asked. He told me  he had two. “You probably don’t realize this, “ I said, “but your working from home is going to have an impact on them.”

“Besides being around to drive them places after school?”

“Most kids get a really negative message about work” I explained. “They don’t understand what it is that their parents do. They just see them leave in the morning and come home tired and crabby. By the time they get ready to work themselves, they have a rather bleak picture of what’s in store for them. But if you’re working at home, love what you do, and involve your kids in it from time to time, they’re going to get an
entirely different idea about work.”

“Wow,” Rob said. “I never thought of that.”

I cannot recall one single adult that I knew as a child who was joyful about their work. Is it any wonder, then, that many of us grow up thinking of work as a miserable life sentence? I’m optimistic that many young people are going to get a different message as more of us become committed to doing work that we love, and doing it in front of our children. Although some people decide to start a homebased business in order to spend more time with their families, I suspect that few realize that sending a positive message will be a side benefit—one that will have a lasting impact.

When Jennie was about eight years old, she decided that she wanted to go to Disneyland and decided to organize a yard sale and sell her old toys in order to fund this adventure. Her entrepreneurial spirit was already showing her how to solve problems creatively. I wish I had learned that lesson early in life.

Whether you know it or not, you may be more of a role model than you realize. A few years ago, I spent six weeks as a Junior Achievement volunteer teaching fourth graders about the free enterprises system. On my first day there, I confessed that I knew nothing about nine-year-olds.Then I told the kids that I had my own business, but I didn’t have a store or an office. After I’d explained my one-person operation, I asked the class if any of them knew someone who was self-employed. At least two-thirds of them raised their hands. I suspect that wouldn’t have happened even a decade ago.

I was heartened by the number of my fourth graders who had an entrepreneurial role model in their lives. It is not a responsibility to take lightly. “There is no power on earth,” said Booker T. Washington, “that can neutralize the influences of a useful life.”

Barbara J. Winter is a Las Vegas-based writer, speaker and entrepreneur. She is the author of Making a Living Without a Job and the publisher of Winning Ways newsletter. She conducts seminars throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. You can learn more at www.joyfullyjobless.com.

Understand to be Understood - It's Good Office Karma

by Lisa Martin
The Working Mother's Coach

As the media and several mommy-lit authors continue to promote counterproductive “mommy wars” between stay-at-home and career moms, what about the very real conflicts that can occur between mothers and their workplace colleagues?

Today’s working moms feel under incredible pressure to do it all – and to do it well. With society’s high expectations to navigate successful careers, raise well-adjusted children, manage Martha Stewart–like homes, keep the fires burning, and be ageless and slim, it’s no wonder many career moms are looking for emotional and physical support (and perhaps considering a very long vacation far, far away).

So, what can you do when your co-worker(s) and/or your boss don’t understand your family-related needs or ignore your requests for family time?

Here are four strategies to consider if you find that no one on your team empathizes with your need to work from home when you have a sick child, leave early for medical appointments, concerts or tournaments, or exit the office at 5:00 p.m. regularly for daycare pick ups.

1. Know What You Really Want
Before you feel your blood pressure start to rise, thinking nobody “gets it” at work, consider first whether you’ve “got it.” It’s easy to blame others or become annoyed with your situation if you are not very clear about what you want.

If you are angry with your leader because you have an inflexible work schedule or crazy deadlines, ask yourself whether you’ve actually articulated your ideal schedule. Have you mapped out how you wish to be working?

All too often, we complain of little or no support yet we haven’t clearly identified what we are looking for. Are you interested in part-time hours or a job-share position? How exactly do you want a flexible work arrangement to work? Know what you want first and then go forward.

2. Understand Your Colleagues and Your Workplace
Do your best not to judge others until you’ve walked in their shoes. We each have to map our own path to balance and define what is “right” for us. In reality, everyone’s needs, decisions, and daily actions are complex and intertwined. Although it might be difficult to accept that someone else’s situation or point of view is as valid as yours, it is important to be accepting and to try to understand their position.

Does your boss really have as much power to rearrange work teams as you might think? Are your colleagues unwilling to pinch-hit for you because company policies might put their jobs at risk? Is your corporate culture quietly non supportive of working mothers who take a full maternity leave?

When you fully understand your work reality, you will be better prepared to deal with it.

3. Say Something Sooner Rather than Later
Most women avoid conflict (unless someone has grabbed away our favorite pair at a warehouse shoe sale). We’d rather tell our friends, and anyone else who’ll listen, how we’ve been wronged than speak up to right a problem.

If you face a work situation that you consider truly unfair or which has put you in a real bind, talk to your colleague or boss about it. Don’t let resentment simmer only to boil over at the most inappropriate time, like at a performance review.

Set a meeting and come armed with a solution for your co-worker or boss. Talk to your colleague about how you can best arrange your schedules as you job-share. Ask your HR manager about flexible work options and develop a plan together that you can take to your leader. Ask someone who is really interested in golf to take your place on the charity tournament committee.

Communicate well and get the support you need.

4. Give in Order to Receive
The best way to gain support is to give it. Think about how you can be selfless and help others in your work environment. Could you stay late one night when your leader has an important meeting the next day? Perhaps take a lunch meeting for a colleague who needs to write an exam? Offer an employee additional holiday time?

The more willing you are to lend a hand, the more likely it is you’ll receive the same back. Be as giving as you can possibly be.

So whenever you find yourself facing workplace conflicts, use this four-step process to minimize your frustration and create solutions that benefit all involved. Leave the “office wars” to someone else.

© Copyright 2008.  Lisa Martin. All rights reserved.

Lisa Martin is a certified coach who inspires working mothers to achieve success that’s balanced and is the author of Briefcase Moms: 10 Proven Practices to Balance Working Mothers’ Lives

Lisa is a sought-after expert and speaker on work-life balance issues. Known for her very personal and practical approach, Lisa coaches working mothers to know what they want and get what they want.

With 20 years of entrepreneurial and corporate experience, Lisa is also the founder and president of Briefcase Moms – a work-life coaching and training company that helps organizations attract, engage and retain working mothers. A mother herself, Lisa’s powerful presentations and programs have helped thousands of women define success and balance on their own terms.  http://www.briefcasemoms.com