Melissa Khalinsky

On Sunday, August 10, one of our members, Jenny Kohen from ID Your Child is participating in The Sun-Herald City2Surf. She is trying to raise as much money as I can for a great cause by taking the 14km journey to Bondi. You can find out more about the charity I am raising money for, by clicking on the link below to visit my very own fundraising page. Please dig deep to sponsor me in this event, it only takes a few seconds.

You can also help my fundraising efforts, by sending this page onto as many people as possible.

Thank you very much.

http://city2surf.everydayhero.com.au/Jennifer_Kohen  

Calling all Sydney Mums:

Date: 28TH JUNE 2008 - 10am - 4pm

Venue: Glenmore Park Community Centre , Luttrell st Glenmore Park (just off the M4 near Penrith,NSW)

Guest Speakers : Come Meet The Mummy Planner Team and a special apprearance and talk from Jodie Brookes who was featured in Womens Day Maganzine and on ABC radio.

We also will have a talk about How you can create a better birth!

Also listen to our Midwife talk about creating a painfree enviroment.

Multiple Births talk about having Twins or more

Talks about postnatal depression and where to get help.

We also tell you what The Mummy Planner is and how we can assit you during your motherhood journey.

Come see some new products and grab a bargain while your here.

You can get a free ticket if you are a Mummy Planner Club Member or check out your local chemist for free tickets.

If you cann’t get a hold of a ticket have no fear its only $5 entry with children under 16 free!

I do a lot of surfing around sites owned by business mums and found this amazing bargain - a sample pack of silver pendants from Beauty Banquet.

Whether you are looking to stock a present box and have some gorgeous jewellery on hand, or simply to treat yourself with some stunning pendants, you really can’t go past this pack. You can also resell the pendants!

I own two of the pendants shown and they are stunning. The packs may differ from the image shown as they will be made up with available stock.

Beauty Banquet are also having a sale, usually this pack is only $50, however if you get in quickly, you can save yourself $10!

Click here to view full details of the pack and to buy.

I was reading on the Tilda Virtual Services blog about a recent promotion she ran, so thought promoting a promotion would be a good Friday Five topic.

So, regardless of your promotion, here are five places you can let people know your promotion is happening:

1. Announce it on your home page - this may seem obvious, but not everyone does it! Let people know as soon as they visit your site that you are running your promotion. A great example is a recent promotion running at Charliepop Kids.
2. Send it to your email list - again, it surprising the number of people who don’t do a “blast out” (special email) to their letting them know about their promotion. I recently received an email from Beauty Banquet letting me know about their latest promotion, and it prompted me to do a blog post about it (come back on Sunday )
3. Blog about it - Most business owners have a blog, so add details of your promotion. This is also a great opportunity to give more details about the promotion, including why you did this. Using Tilda Virtual Services as an example, their recent promotion was to celebrate their second birthday.
4. Tell your network - This may seem like I’m repeating myself, but I’m not. Many business mums are members of online forums, many have places where WAHMs and business mums can post about their business, any specials and so on. Use these tools and post there. Many members of Business Mums Network do this.
5. Promotion sites - depending on your promotion, you may want to list on some of the competition and freebie sites. Recently the Business Mums Magazine was picked up by all the freebie sites and over 300 people signed up!

There are many other ways to promote your promotions, here are just 5.

What are some of the ways you have promoted your promotions?

I thought I’d try something new & post a dilemma on Thursdays… These posts, I really want your comments on how you would handle a situation.

So, here is this weeks dilemma:

How would you deal with a client or potential client who has different values to you and trys to change your mind?

Example 1: You produce breastfeeding advocacy tshirts and someone who bottle feeds tells you to stop selling these tshirts as they make her feel guilty.

Example 2: You produce a product and someone trys to convince you that you should be more envrionmentally friendly and this should be your top priority, when it’s not the thing that is most important to you.

Example 3: You have a shopping website and people who make adult products want to advertise with you, however you feel strongly against them.

These are just a few examples, and you may have examples of your own. How would you deal with these or similar situations in your business, without compromising your own values, dismissing their values and views, and still being professional.

This is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately - and one that my Dad keeps at me about. I have been running Business Mums Network for nearly 6 year, and I haven’t ever paid myself a wage. So, am I really valuing ME? Michelle over at the Shel Design blog recently posted about the same thing, and I know that many business mums & WAHMs are the same. They set their prices low and don’t take in to account the time, energy and expertise they put in to their products and their business.

There are a few different thoughts I’ve come across that may explain this:

• This is a hobby, not a business, so I can’t charge any more
• Look at what so and so is doing, it’s so much better than me, so I can’t charge more
• This doesn’t look professional enough, so I can’t charge more
• My target market won’t pay any more, so I can’t charge more

Basically it comes down to a feeling of not being worth it - and if you’re reading this thinking that I’m any different, think again. You’d be amazed the number of times I’ve been told to put prices up and feel that I can’t. And we’re not the only ones.

It’s time we all sat up and started to value ourselves - this is the only way we are going to start making real money. Money we can use to pay ourselves, grow our businesses, maybe hire someone or outsource so we can spend more time with the kids, or whatever it is we need to do.

And I am right there with you. It’s time we put on our “Big girl boots” (to quote Kylie of Tilda Virtual Services) and start making changes in our businesses so we can value ourselves, our skills and our expertise.

Reviews are a great way to let people know about your products and services, especially as an online retailer where customers can’t touch and feel your products beforehand.

A while ago, I came across WAHMTASTIC, a review site that reviews products made and sold by work at home mums (WAHMs). I thought it was a bit hard for someone to review Business Mums Network membership, and it would take a year of someone’s time, so waited until I had a product that would be easy to review.

A little while ago, I sent out copies of the Business Mums Magazine to some of the WAHMTASTIC reviewers, and the reviews have just been published. I was blown away. The reviewers loved the magazine, both giving it 5 stars!

It’s always a bit nerve wracking (if I’ve spelt this wrong, someone please correct me) to send out something so close to you for critique, but it is well worth it. Especially if you are aiming your products at Mums, then WAHMTASTIC is a good place to get a review. I was able to request the reviewers be WAHMs, as that is my target market.

To read our review, click here.

Kids are unpredictable. You never know what they are going to do next - even if you have the best of routines. They may get sick, have the sudden urge to cuddle you constantly, decide to have a toilet training accident just as you are about to head out to a meeting, or whatever it is. No matter how well you have your day planned, kids are unpredictable.

So, as a business mum, how do you cope? Unfortunately there is no one size fits all answer, but here are some of the things I do to make my day easier.

First thing, accept that kids are unpredictable. Some days they will sleep on time and be happy to play on their own while you make a phone call, check emails, or pack orders, and other days they won’t. Accept that this is part of being a business mum.

Second, give the kids a job! It may be business related or something to make home life easier, such as putting their toys away. If possible, give them a job that is in the same room as you, so they’re “working with Mummy”. My kids love helping stick stamps on envelopes and getting any extras, such as conference postcards, to add to packages. Whatever it is, they love to help.

Third, have a flexible To Do List. Prioritise your tasks and work out which things can be left off if needed. For example, the orders HAVE to go out today, but updating your blog can wait until the evening or another day.

Fourth, automate as much as possible. Things that can be automated include your ordering process so customers can put orders through right away, post date blog posts so that posts still appear when things are busy, schedule your newsletter so it goes out on time. There are many tasks that can be automated to make life easier and business running smoother so if they kids are demanding your attention, you can give it to them.

Fifth, outsource. Some of my friends joke that I’m the queen of outsourcing! I outsource editing the magazine, organising our conference, even my email newsletter! This ensures that tasks get done and they don’t rely on me to do everything, giving me time to play lego, or whatever.

And lastly, accept that kids can be unpredictable. I know I’ve said it before, but it can’t be stressed enough. For example, in the course of writing this post, my 4 year old has asked for 3 cuddles, a drink, something to eat, and a request to play lego with him - and I thought he was happy playing lego on his own!

I’ll leave you with those tips today, and will add some more in coming posts. It’s time to go and play lego.

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