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Spots for Christmas?

It’s day 7 of my Next Twelve Days of Christmas and I’ve had a couple of surprises. First, there are still 12 days left to order from Next.co.uk if you want them to deliver by Christmas. Not bad at all. Plus I had no idea you could actually buy a kitchen online from Next!

Today’s recommendation is also for the kitchen. I love this cute spotty dinner set with matching soda glasses and cutlery, but maybe that just shows I’m spending too long in the company of my 2 year old daughter these days!

Have a good weekend and I hope your Christmas shopping isn’t too hectic.

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Here’s The Problem With Your Service Business…

Most mums starting out in business don’t have a lot of money to invest and they need to get cash coming in quickly. That makes service businesses like holistic therapies, virtual assistance, web design, writing,  childminding and bookkeeping popular choices.

These business have other advantages too, you can run them all from home and you can do as many hours as you want.

The snag with these businesses is that you’re exchanging your time for money. Lets say you’re working 20 hours a week. Up to half of that will be taken up by admin and marketing, leaving you not much more than 10 hours of time you can charge your clients for. You can’t earn any more because you don’t have any more hours.

The way around this is to find a way of earning without exchanging time for money. Here are two examples:

– Are there products that your clients buy or would like to buy? If you sign up for a direct selling scheme, you can sell a range of products without having to buy lots of stock. The direct selling company will provide things like brochures and order forms so all you need to do is buy a starter pack. You can sell anything from eco products to cosmetics to utilities! Check out  the direct selling section of Business Plus Baby for more info.

– Helen Pritchard is a holistic therapist and baby massage tutor. She was limited to working with people face-to-face, but she created baby massage DVDs and video downloads so she can sell them around the world. You can read more in I started a business with a baby: Helen Pritchard of New Stork Times.

Can you think of a second income stream that you could add to your business?

If you’re just starting out and feel like taking on anything else will make your head explode, then don’t worry about extra income streams just yet! It’s worth keeping the idea in the back of your mind just in case you do spot a good opportunity in the next few months, though.

Would you like to know more? My Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur E-Course is full of practical steps you can take to make more money from your business. Sign up for more info and you’ll be able to download my e-book: Price It Right: Five simple steps to choose a price for your product or service.

Photo credit: .shock

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Do You Run a Social Enterprise?

Do you run a social enterprise or know a mum who does? Next year I’d like to feature a social enterprise owner (who is also a mum) on Business Plus Baby – and it would give you some publicity too.

So many mums start businesses with the aim of helping people as well as earning an income. So I’m wondering if  a social enterprise would be a great way to do both at the same time? The trouble is that I don’t actually know much about them! Here’s Business Link’s definition…

A social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.

But I’d really love to hear from mums who are actually running social enterprises. I’d like to know…

  • A little about your business – what do you do?
  • Why did you start a social enterprise rather than a traditional business?
  • Is it harder to run a social enterprise? Or does it actually bring business benefits as well as social ones?
  • What would your advice be for a mum thinking of starting a social enterprise?
  • Anything else you’d like to tell us!

If you’ve got a story to share, please send me a message. Looking forward to hearing from you!

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The Easiest Way Earn Money From Your Blog

Find out more on ebuzzing.co.uk

This is the first in my series of posts about making money online.

Have you got a blog, either personal of for your business? Starting to make money from your blog can be a struggle; most of the ways of earning aren’t really an option unless you’ve got  a lot of readers. And that readership takes time to build up.

Here’s a way of making some money that doesn’t need a huge following. Even better, you only recommend brands that you already like, plus you can be completely open and honest about the fact you’re getting paid to do so. Continue reading “The Easiest Way Earn Money From Your Blog”

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Use Your Creativity To Improve The Environment

open planet ideas

How can today’s technology help us make the most of our planet's resources?

That’s the challenge from Open Planet Ideas, in conjunction with Sony and WWF, who want you to help create a more sustainable environment for current and future generations.  

This challenge caught my eye because as business mums we’re inventive, creative and we care about the environment.  With so many of us glued to our iphones, blogs and Facebook, were pretty clued-up on technology too!

The challenge is to re-use and mix-up existing technologies and products to come up with bright new ideas to tackle environmental issues.

My idea is to weigh the recyclables left out for kerbside collection by each household then tell each household how much waste they have recycled, what could be made from it and how much energy will be saved compared to making these items from new raw materials.

Why? Well, one of the problems with engaging people in taking action to improve the environment is that often we feel we can't make much of a difference as just one individual. One way to tackle this is to give individuals feedback on the difference they have made personally.

I’ve already entered my recycling idea so why not join the challenge with me?

A panel will go through all the concepts and choose the best one for development. Then  Sony will invest engineering and R&D resource to develop the idea into a proof of concept stage but will not commercialise or make any profit out of it.  Instead the results will be released to the public domain and can be used by other parties for environmental good. 

So you could make a real difference to the environment for future generations. And if you're an inventor mumpreneur you might even be able to use it in your PR too!

Find Out More About Open Planet Ideas

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