Archive for the 'Articles' Category

Finding that Balance

Published on November 18, 2007 in Articles, Entreprenuers, Work/Life Balance and Working At Home. 0 Comments

Balanced life…is that an oxymoron? Life is just that…LIFE! You never know what’s going to come your way, but as a business owner, spouse, parent, friend, etc. you must attempt to find that balance.

Running your own business can take a toll on you if you aren’t careful. I like to call it between a rock and a hard place. Why? Answer this question…what’s more important — the kids that want attention or that 5 o’clock deadline for a client? Toughie, isn’t it? That balance is what I couldn’t find and it almost cost me everything.

How to find balance

Set limits

For me, I run a part-time Virtual Assistant (VA) business in addition to a full time career. I decided that I wanted to work no more than fifteen hours a week. Then I scheduled that time on a calendar I created specifically to make sure that I was staying on target. I also decided that I needed time off. Therefore, I set aside Friday nights. I don’t work on Friday night, period. If the kids are with their dad, then I spend time with my boyfriend, and on the Fridays that I have kids, its pizza and a movie night. I now look forward to Friday nights where as before I dreaded them immensely.

Prioritize

What can you give up? I have problems with the word “no”. If I’m asked to join something, I join; if I’m asked to do something, I do it. It doesn’t matter if I know I don’t have the time or not! I went through the “extra curricular” activities that I had and deleted them from my schedule. There were two local organizations that I didn’t particularly enjoy but felt that I needed to attend their meetings and felt guilty when I couldn’t. I determined that I wasn’t getting anything out of going and that attending the meetings were more of a hassle than they were worth, and freed up some time.

Do you have clients that aren’t “meshing” with your ultimate goal? My very first client had work that needed to be done during the week. Everything was honkey dory until something unexpected came up and then I would have to scramble to either do it myself, or find someone else to help me at the last minute. I finally had to re-evaluate the situation. I was able to find another VA that could take on his work, and there was a HUGE part of me that was sorry that I had to do that, but another part of me felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders.

Household Chores

If your family is anything like mine, they believe that mom will do it and take care of it - I allowed it to happen. If I was particularly busy with work things, it didn’t get done and no one seemed to care. I CARED!! I didn’t want to live in a pigsty, and I wanted clean clothes, and dishes in the cupboard instead of having to wash something in order to use it! DELEGATE!! Your children can help! Your spouse can help!

Amazing concept, isn’t it?

With my family, I sat them down and explained the situation to them: “I enjoy my business and the money that I receive is for us. I can’t do it alone, so I can either give up my business and the vacation, remodeling, and so on that it will pay for; or, you all can pitch in and help around here.” I can tell you that none of them were happy about this, but they realized that I wasn’t just doing this for me.

Make it fun for your kids to help! I gave my kids checklists of things to do every morning before school and every evening before playing. As a reward, if they help me out with some of the chores, they get some of my time in the evening. (I’d give it to them anyway, but this way, they feel like they are allowing me to have some free time with them. They feel good about helping me.)

Put a set cleaning schedule into place. I’m not a great housekeeper. I went online to find suggestions, advice, ANYTHING that would keep me on track. I found FlyLady and Organized Home. Neither of them worked perfectly for me, but I was able to take some of their ideas and make them work for me. I gotta tell ya, FlyLady’s biggest challenge is to “go shine your sink” and I’ve accepted the challenge, and I now LOVE walking into my kitchen!

Dinners

Darn kids…I just fed them yesterday and they’re hungry again today! Every day, from 5:00pm to 5:30pm I would spend my entire drive trying to figure out what I was going to make for dinner. We need easy meals, and most of ours came from a box. They are okay for awhile, but then….

GET A CROCK POT! My boyfriend got me an awesome crock-pot for Christmas. It’s what I asked for. I used it all of twice and used the frozen crock-pot meals. I then had an epiphany! What if I planned my meals a week in advance and shopped for what I needed, and made them in the crock-pot? (I’m a slow learner, I know!) So, I went online and found recipes that I was pretty sure the kids would eat and that were easy to throw together. I made my list and went shopping. The first night I made a crock-pot meal, we walked in the door (I had set the table when I came home for lunch) and ate! What a concept! No whining about being hungry and the question “when’s dinner?” for 30 minutes while I try to prepare!

Something else I’ve recently implemented is having the kids cook one night a week. You may laugh, but those PB&Js are the best meals, because I don’t have to make them!!

“Me time”

As a full-time employee, girlfriend, mother, friend, and business owner, I rarely got “me time”. For a long time, I saw my VA work my “me time” as it was work that I truly enjoyed. However, work is still work. It wasn’t relaxing, and many nights kept me up until after midnight. There was a time that I read in the evening before I went to bed, or watched TV. I finally realized that I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was “managing” everything else except me.

I started reading again, and I scheduled reading time. I now read almost every night. I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure and decided that I was going to do that at least once a month. I also joined an online class through Barnes and Noble University. The only cost for the class is the book. The class itself is free. I love to learn, so this suits me just fine. I’m taking a forensic science class, and I love it. Some nights, that’s my reading time.

For once, I’m taking care of me, and doing things for me and it feels great!

It takes time….

We still have some kinks to work out in the system, and things still come up out of nowhere and throw us all off, but we regroup and get it all back together. Are there some weeks that I’m working more than 15 hours? Sure! But I make sure that all the things I need and want to get done are done first. I’m not going to pass up that extra money unless I can realistically fit it in.

Am I fully balanced? No, and I never will be. However, in one month’s time, everyone at my house seems to be happier. No one person or thing is being overlooked, or if it is, it’s not for very long. The house is cleaner, we’re eating better, and we’re spending more time together. I still have everything that I want and I’ve really not given up anything that I can’t live without.
About the Author:

Heather Jacobson is the owner of Valley Virtual Assistants, a virtual assistant business catering to solopreneurs who need assistance with their marketing efforts and the author of Making Dollars Out of Cents:101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer. For more information, please visit http://www.heatherjacobson.com

The Top 5 Misconceptions About Working From Home

Published on November 18, 2007 in Articles and Working At Home. 0 Comments

Let’s face it…I love to tell people that I work from home. The looks are priceless. You can see the envy in their eyes. What I don’t love, or even like for that matter, is people who don’t understand what working from home means. Therefore, I’ve come up with the top 5 misconceptions about working from home. (I could go on and on, but 5 filled up my space!)

1. I Do Not Work in My Pajamas

WRONG! How productive are you when you are in your pajamas all day? You would never know that I work from home if you followed my morning routine. I get up and get the kids off to school. I get in the shower, get dressed and head to work. I just happen to walk into the next room instead of getting in the car to go to the office. The only thing I do differently now from when I worked in the office is that my attire consists of jeans and a sweatshirt and I don’t wear shoes.

2. I Cannot Volunteer at the School Every Time They Need Someone

I’m going to admit that one of the reasons I was excited about working from home was so that I could volunteer more at the kids’ school. I’ve always wanted to be more involved but working in an office didn’t allow me to do that.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from the volunteer coordinator asking me if I could come in today and help out because someone cancelled. I replied that I couldn’t because I was working and she said “but you work from home.” What part of the “work from home” did you not get? I WORK from home. I’m not available at the drop of the hat to go and volunteer. Give me some notice and let me schedule it in. I would be more than happy to help.

3. I Cannot Take Time Off Whenever I Want To

Well, I could. And I could also stand in line at the soup kitchen with my kids because I don’t have money to put food on the table. I’m a business owner. I don’t get paid holidays, vacation days or sick days. Basically what that means is, if I don’t work, I don’t make money.

That’s not to say that I don’t take time off because I do. But I take the time off when I can afford to take time off and not just because my best friend wants to drive to the outlets two hours away and make a day out of it.

4. My House Is Not Clean

Ha! Ok, I’ll admit to this one. When I decided to leave my full time job and work from home one of the arguments I made to the family is that the house would be cleaner and I would put better dinners on the table.

The reality of it is. I am working. That doesn’t mean that I can’t pick up after myself as I go about my day, however, this house does not look like a museum, nor will it ever. (For one, I have too many things working against me – 2 kids, 2 dogs, and a boyfriend.) I still have to find time to clean just like I did when I was working outside the home. I would say it was probably easier when I did work outside of the home. I knew that the only time I could clean was from 6pm until I went to bed. Now, it’s a free for all and when your to-do list is a mile long to begin with, fitting the laundry and the dishes in there somewhere is tough!

5. I Do Not Play On the Internet All Day

Oh, this is my favorite. A comment was made shortly after I began working from home that went something like this: “She’s at the computer, but that doesn’t mean she’s working.”

Rarely do I even turn my instant messenger on anymore. I used to have it on and just make myself invisible, but I found myself still chatting online and not getting much done.

Yes, I am infront of the computer most of the day. Yes, I do take breaks to chat, email, and surf the ‘net but most of what I do is work.

There you have it! The top 5 things that people think about working at home that tick me off. Working from home is not as easy or as glamorous as people think it is, however the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks – for me anyway.
About the Author:

Heather Jacobson is a the owner of Valley Virtual Assistants and the author of Making Dollars out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer. For more infomration, please visit http://www.heatherjacobson.com

Do You Have Entrepreneurial Spirit?

Published on November 18, 2007 in Articles and Entreprenuers. 0 Comments

You’ve created an informational product. Now, what do you do with it? Whether you’ve created it to give away or for profit, you must market it; otherwise, you’ve just wasted a lot of your time. What good is your information if no one knows that it’s there?

There are several ways that you can market your product inexpensively. These are tried and true methods to get the word out there about what you have to offer.

• Put up a website.

The best way to advertise your product online is for it to have its own website. I’m not saying don’t promote it on your main page, but give it a home of its own too so that there’s more room for search engine optimization.

When deciding on a domain name, choose keywords that depict what your product is about and not necessarily what the name of the product is. For example, the name of my recent book is Making Dollars Out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer however you’ll find the site at www.inexpensivemarketingideas.com .

Taking that one step further, the actual site is hosted at www.inexpensive-marketing-ideas.com however I promote www.inexpensivemarketingideas.com . The reason I host the site with the hyphenated domain is because the spiders crawl the domain name first and then the content on your site. It could take months for the spiders to crawl your web site, but it doesn’t take that long for them to crawl the domain.

• Announce your product to all of your networking groups

If you belong to a listserv that allows you to post advertisements, go ahead and send an announcement. (Check the guidelines, as not all listservs will allow ads or self promotion.) Then take it to any forums to which you belong. If it’s a business related forum, most all have an “advertise your business” section. The key is telling them that it’s done and ready for their viewing or purchase.

• Add the link to your signature line

One of the best places to advertise what you’ve done is in your signature line. Don’t just put the link and expect people to go there. Put something catchy. In my signature line it simply says 101 Free and Inexpensive Marketing Tips and its hyperlinked. That catches their attention much quicker than “Making Dollars Out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer”.

Make sure you include this in your email signature line as well as the signature lines of any forums to which you belong. Just because the forum isn’t your target market doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put it there. It’s a free way to advertise and you don’t know if someone in your stay at home mom group can or cannot use what ever it is that you’re offering.

• Send out a press release

Sending out a press release is another way to gain exposure for your product as well as help with indexing in the search engines. Don’t go into this blindly. If you don’t know how to write a press release, either learn or hire someone to do it for you. Once it’s completed submit it to PRWeb.com. I suggest giving a minimum $30 donation instead of the free submission because you will be able to see the statistics as well as have more exposure with the search engines.

In addition to PRWeb.com, find the local media outlets and submit it to them as well. When I sent out a press release for the book, I contacted every business journal in the six states closest to me. It didn’t cost me any more money since I already had it created and to email and fax it didn’t take long at all.

• If you are selling your product consider having an affiliate program

Why should you have an affiliate program? The answer is simple. You’re basically paying someone else to market your product and the commission can be anything that you chose. For example, with my book, I pay affiliates a 25% commission. No, it’s not much, but it’s something and all they have to do is stick it on their website.

There are several affiliate programs out there. I personally use ClickBank because they have over 100,000 affiliates selling products in their market place. My book is also listed in the market place and ClickBank handles the majority of my customer service issues as well as the credit card processing. The fees they charge are nothing in comparison to the time they save me.

• Send out an email to your subscriber list

If you have a subscriber list, use it. Send out an email that the product is now ready. You can even chose to offer them a discount because they are a valued member of your list. Typically, you can expect a sale from 25% of your list. If you have a list of 100 people, you’re more likely than not going to get 25 orders.

These six tips offer a great start to inexpensively marketing your product. If you’re holding back on creating an informational product because you think the marketing of it will cost you an arm and a leg, think again! You can find 95 additional free and inexpensive tips at www.inexpensivemarketingideas.com .

Happy Marketing!

About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to. Discover how she does it and claim 10 free marketing tips at http://www.10freetips.com

Does Your Thank You Page Redirect Potential Profits?

Published on November 18, 2007 in Affiliate Marketing, Articles, Mailing Lists, Newsletters and Passive Income. 0 Comments

When I began my newsletter, I needed a page to redirect my subscribers to once they signed up. Because I was in a rush to get it set up, I redirected them to the archives page of my newsletter.

Big Mistake #1.

When I had some free time I went back and made a thank you page that simply stated, “Thank you for subscribing. Your first issue will arrive shortly.” and listed the archives.

Big Mistake #2

What I failed to realize when I set up those two pages is that I had my visitor’s attention. They were already interested in what I had to say because I convinced them to sign up for my newsletter or eCourse and I let them get away. I missed an opportunity. I missed potential profits.

When I redesigned my thank you page I included the standard “thank you” and “make sure you look for your confirmation email”. I also instructed them to make sure they added me to their safe senders list to ensure they receive my emails. But this time I included “You may also be interested in these additional free offers:” and listed a free eBook, the opportunity to sign up for a free eCourse, and information about my favorite business author – all using my affiliate links.

Guess what happened? When I checked my affiliate stats, my click through rate increased 100% in just two days. Every person who subscribed to my newsletter also subscribed to the free eCourse I offered. My affiliate sales for the three products I promoted have doubled.

I’ve been publishing my newsletter for five months and it makes me sick to think about how much money I’ve lost because I didn’t take the time to talk to my visitors.

Do you know what’s mind blowing? Not only did it take me 30 minutes to set up the new thank you page, it didn’t cost me a dime. I already had all the information tucked away in my personal affiliate tool kit and was just too lazy to pull it out and put it to use.

Don’t make the same mistakes. Take a look at the page you’re redirecting your new subscribers to. Are you offering targeted product recommendations? Are you keeping them with you or just letting them close that window to possibly never return? Take thirty minutes of your time and the resources you already have available to you and update your redirect page.

Your bank account will thank you.
About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to. Discover how she does it and claim 10 free marketing tips at http://www.10freetips.com

Marketing Your Info Product…Frugally

Published on November 18, 2007 in Articles, Info Products and Passive Income. 0 Comments

You’ve created an informational product. Now, what do you do with it? Whether you’ve created it to give away or for profit, you must market it; otherwise, you’ve just wasted a lot of your time. What good is your information if no one knows that it’s there?

There are several ways that you can market your product inexpensively. These are tried and true methods to get the word out there about what you have to offer.

• Put up a website.

The best way to advertise your product online is for it to have its own website. I’m not saying don’t promote it on your main page, but give it a home of its own too so that there’s more room for search engine optimization.

When deciding on a domain name, choose keywords that depict what your product is about and not necessarily what the name of the product is. For example, the name of my recent book is Making Dollars Out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer however you’ll find the site at www.inexpensivemarketingideas.com .

Taking that one step further, the actual site is hosted at www.inexpensive-marketing-ideas.com however I promote www.inexpensivemarketingideas.com . The reason I host the site with the hyphenated domain is because the spiders crawl the domain name first and then the content on your site. It could take months for the spiders to crawl your web site, but it doesn’t take that long for them to crawl the domain.

• Announce your product to all of your networking groups

If you belong to a listserv that allows you to post advertisements, go ahead and send an announcement. (Check the guidelines, as not all listservs will allow ads or self promotion.) Then take it to any forums to which you belong. If it’s a business related forum, most all have an “advertise your business” section. The key is telling them that it’s done and ready for their viewing or purchase.

• Add the link to your signature line

One of the best places to advertise what you’ve done is in your signature line. Don’t just put the link and expect people to go there. Put something catchy. In my signature line it simply says 101 Free and Inexpensive Marketing Tips and its hyperlinked. That catches their attention much quicker than “Making Dollars Out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer”.

Make sure you include this in your email signature line as well as the signature lines of any forums to which you belong. Just because the forum isn’t your target market doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put it there. It’s a free way to advertise and you don’t know if someone in your stay at home mom group can or cannot use what ever it is that you’re offering.

• Send out a press release

Sending out a press release is another way to gain exposure for your product as well as help with indexing in the search engines. Don’t go into this blindly. If you don’t know how to write a press release, either learn or hire someone to do it for you. Once it’s completed submit it to PRWeb.com. I suggest giving a minimum $30 donation instead of the free submission because you will be able to see the statistics as well as have more exposure with the search engines.

In addition to PRWeb.com, find the local media outlets and submit it to them as well. When I sent out a press release for the book, I contacted every business journal in the six states closest to me. It didn’t cost me any more money since I already had it created and to email and fax it didn’t take long at all.

• If you are selling your product consider having an affiliate program

Why should you have an affiliate program? The answer is simple. You’re basically paying someone else to market your product and the commission can be anything that you chose. For example, with my book, I pay affiliates a 25% commission. No, it’s not much, but it’s something and all they have to do is stick it on their website.

There are several affiliate programs out there. I personally use ClickBank because they have over 100,000 affiliates selling products in their market place. My book is also listed in the market place and ClickBank handles the majority of my customer service issues as well as the credit card processing. The fees they charge are nothing in comparison to the time they save me.

• Send out an email to your subscriber list

If you have a subscriber list, use it. Send out an email that the product is now ready. You can even chose to offer them a discount because they are a valued member of your list. Typically, you can expect a sale from 25% of your list. If you have a list of 100 people, you’re more likely than not going to get 25 orders.

These six tips offer a great start to inexpensively marketing your product. If you’re holding back on creating an informational product because you think the marketing of it will cost you an arm and a leg, think again! You can find 95 additional free and inexpensive tips at www.inexpensivemarketingideas.com .

Happy Marketing!

About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to. Discover how she does it and claim 10 free marketing tips at http://www.10freetips.com