Featured – Page 13 – Business Plus Baby

June 27, 2012

Surfin’ USA: What we can learn from Silicon Valley

Last night I listened to Liz Weston of Weston Communications talk about her visit to the businesses in Silicon Valley. She was speaking at The Likeminded Network women’s networking group in St Neots, Cambs.

The whole presentation was recorded on video (and yes, Liz did get me to do a piece in front of the camera too!) so I hope to be able to post a link to the presentation once it’s been edited and posted up on the internet.

There were a lot of ideas to take away and I’m still processing most of them the morning after. But I’ve recorded a two minute audio of one idea that really stood out: simplicity.

listen to ‘Liz Weston talks about her visit to Silicon Valley’ on Audioboo

(That was recorded at about 11pm when I got home. I love Audioboo.)

Here’s what else really stood out. You’d expect senior people from Facebook, Google and LinkedIn to be talking about money and how to make plenty of it. But the message was that we should focus on our purpose, making lives better, simplifying. If we get those things right, the money will follow.

I also want to say a few words about networking and The Likeminded Network:

listen to ‘The Likeminded Network and why networking is so important for solo business owners’ on Audioboo

(By the way, you can hear my two year old telling me he’s had a wee in the background! Just to prove I’m an authentic business mum. :))

The Likeminded Network is a fabulous group of women, very supportive but also energetic, dynamic and full of ideas. Thanks ladies!

(The photo is one of Liz Weston winning the Future 100 Entrepreneur of the year in 2010. Photos of the night to follow!)

June 25, 2012June 24, 2012

Free Pinterest marketing training

I wanted to tell you about a free Pinterest training webinar that I’ve just watched. (It’s free and you can sign up yourself here.)

Pinterest is the fastest growing website in history and the number of users has increased 145% since the beginning of 2012. It’s dead easy to use, fun and seriously addictive.

There has to be huge marketing potential in Pinterest, but how do you actually use it to make more sales? I’ve used it to get traffic to Business Plus Baby, but know there’s a lot more I could be doing. That’s why I wanted to take a look at this webinar.

I really did pick up some useful tips, too. Did you know that you should include keywords in your pin and board descriptions? I didn’t! And I’ll be promoting my Pinterest boards outside Pinterest too, such as in my newsletter, Twitter and Facebook from now on.

By the way, you can follow me on Pinterest here 🙂

Andreea also mentions how important it is to build your Pinterest follower base and to interact with them so that you keep them engaged with you and your business. Up until now I’ve been focusing on adding content to my boards, which isn’t really getting the best from Pinterest from a marketing point of view.

Oh, and I need to add a ‘Pin it’ button to Business Plus Baby, too!

If you haven’t ventured on to Pinterest at all yet, this webinar will be really useful as it explains what it’s all about and the best way to set up your new account.

Click here to sign up for the free Pinterest Advantage webinar.

(Contains an affiliate link.)

June 22, 2012June 22, 2012

Quick money vs long term business: Which is right?

When I first started looking for business ideas, my plan was to build a long term business. Something that would grow as my children grew; I never wanted to have to go back to a job.

Almost four years down the line, I’d still agree with that. But (you knew there was a but, didn’t you? 🙂 ) it’s not as simple as it sounds.

The problem with growing a long-term solid business is that it takes time. Lots of time. And time is one thing you don’t have with young children around. There’s a big learning curve for starters, then there’s market research, getting the product or service right, marketing and finally after that you might make some money.

Many mums with young kids get stuck in a trap where they can’t afford childcare because they haven’t made enough money yet, but they don’t have the time to build their business without the childcare. That can lead to an agonisingly slow and frustrating start-up period.

Whether you can free up time to get your business off the ground or not varies. If you’ve got just one pre-school child, you may be able to pay for a little childcare a week (I found this harder as my children are just over a year apart in age and that meant childcare was seriously expensive for a couple of years). If you have a relative or close friend nearby that can look after your child for one day a week, that can make a huge difference. Or if Dad can look after the little ones all day Saturday, that’s a big plus, too.

Throughout this start-up period, there’s a good chance that you’ll be making very little money. Some families may be able to tighten their belts for long enough to get through this but what if you really do need cash, and fast? Continue reading “Quick money vs long term business: Which is right?”

June 15, 2012June 15, 2012

Why aspiring work-at-home mums are vulnerable

As a mum with young children who is looking to earn flexibly, you are the target of many skilled marketers.

It’s no surprise that there will be scammers looking to take your money in return for business opportunities that don’t exist. But I want to talk about business opportunities that are entirely legal.

In the (almost) three years that I’ve been running Business Plus Baby, I’ve seen sophisticated marketing techniques designed to snag aspiring work-at-home mums. In this post I want to shine a light on them so that you can make an informed choice about whether to ‘tune in’ or not.

You see, I’ve been in that truly uncomfortable position where you simply can’t put your baby in a nursery and go back to work, but you have no idea how you’ll pay the bills if you don’t. That desperation makes you open to marketing that you simply wouldn’t have paid attention to before.

There are plenty of perfectly legal business opportunities out there where the vast majority of recruits will make little more than pocket money. The few people who are doing well for themselves will be used as the case studies given to potential new recruits – after all, that’s just good marketing. My problem is that often, their stories don’t show the reality for 90%* of the people who sign up. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll often find that the successful few have a background in sales, which is a huge advantage.

You could argue that a high failure rate is to be expected if people are buying into these business opportunities with little or no business experience and are only working part time.

But I don’t think that’s good enough. If a business opportunity is being offered to you at a price, your chances of success (and by that I mean at least an income equivalent to what you’d get for those hours in an average job, providing you work hard) should be far more than 10%*(and I suspect the reality is often a lot less).

Here are some clues to look out for:

“Recession-proof” – nothing is recession-proof.
“Anyone can do it” – not everyone has what it takes to succeed as a self employed person.
“Everyone needs to buy these” (e.g. consumables like household cleaners, gas or electricity) – true, but that usually means your competition will be fierce.
The founder of the scheme being presented as an ordinary housewife – Look closely and she’ll often have run businesses before. True, she may be working part time for a few years while she brings up her kids- but is it likely that you can replicate this success with your own skills and experience?
“I’ll be your partner in…” – you SHOULD get support and training but always keep in mind that you are a customer and you are being sold to. You’re not an equal partner in the usual business sense.
Using the lifestyle as a selling point – “I get to travel the world and earn money at the same time” – if you’re starting a business, your focus should be on what you have of value that your customers want to buy. Keep in mind that this ‘lifestyle’ tactic is putting you firmly in the customer role when you need to be thinking like a business owner.
“I’m working flexibly around my kids and loving it!” – Great, but are you earning more than minimum wage?
Any suggestion that you can earn a full-time income by working part-time hours. This is possible, but it usually takes about five years of hard work to build up to this point. And only a relatively small number of people have the stamina, mindset and skills to do it. Are you one of the few?
“No hard sell, just sell to your family and friends” – do you want to be hassling your family and friends on a regular basis to buy these products? Will they want to buy these products?

These tactics are NOT definitive signs that you’re about to be ripped off, but they are indicators that you should keep your eyes open, read between the lines, check the small print and definitely Google the company to see what others are saying about it. It can be hard to tell a good opportunity from a poor value one and you do need to do your homework.

Just to make it clear again, I’m not saying all direct selling schemes, multi-level marketing schemes, franchises or other ‘business in a box’-style opportunities are dodgy or unethical, I just want you to be able to make an informed choice. That’s not easy to do when you’re faced with slick marketing and are worried about putting food on the table.

*These percentages are my estimates. I haven’t yet found any statistics, so if you know of any please do tell me. I’m basing this article on the experiences of mums that I have spoken to over the last few years.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you enjoyed this post, why not make sure you stay in touch by joining my mailing list? I’ll also send you a copy of my e-book Running a business around a family: 9 steps to success.

June 12, 2012June 12, 2012

How to overcome information overload: Dealing with too much info as a mumpreneur

Business books, audio books, eBooks, blogs, websites, ezines, newsletters, webinars, podcasts, downloads, infographics.

The list is endless.

As a mumpreneur trying to learn as much as she can while staying on top of her game and building her business, the amount of information that is available to us in this electronic age is indeed, vast and often, overwhelming.

How does one make the time to read it all and absorb it all?

Actually, one doesn’t.

Here are simple steps to deal with information overload in the digital world:

1. Know what you want

Begin by jotting down or at least, identifying what you want to learn, know more about or do. Have the goals in mind before you begin signing up for newsletters and webinars. For instance, if building an email list for your business is your goal, it is best if you look for someone who offers just that via their eCourse, eBook or podcast instead of signing up for a general business newsletter and hoping that they’ll talk about email list building sometime.

2. Organise your information

Say, you have multiple learning goals for this quarter or year, create folders in your email or on your computer to store the information you receive according to the need it will fulfil. This will help you find what you need when you need it. There is little point signing up for an eCourse and then, not using that information or worse, finding it when you want it.

3. Use only what’s most valuable

Even when you’ve identified your goals, you still have to filter the fluff from the real deal. Yes, unfortunately, in the digital world you’ll often come across information products that aren’t really all they’re cut out to be.

Filtering your information will help you unsubscribe from anything that doesn’t add value to your business goals or actually teach you something new.

4. Have a technology turn off time

Finally, the best way to deal with information overload is to turn off technology and just switch off. Do this every weekend or at least on a Sunday so that your mind gets some rest and can recharge itself for the busy week ahead. Try it!

How do you deal with information overload as a busy mumpreneur?

About the Author: Melissa Vandermeer is the founder of Zayth, an online women-centric marketplace for digital products and services. Zayth will help you deal with information overload by bringing everything you need as a mumpreneur under one virtual roof. Sign up for the Zayth newsletter or join us on Facebook and Twitter to simplify how you find and sell digital information.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net