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How Do Stay at Home Moms Get the Holiday Shopping Done?

Stephanie — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:31:00 +0000

One of the more difficult things to do as a stay at home mom is to find time to get out without the kids tagging along, especially when they’re younger. It’s bad enough the rest of the year, but when the holiday season comes and you want to get presents for the kids without them catching you at it, things can get pretty difficult. How can you handle all that shopping when you need to watch the kids?

These are just a few of the ways I handle things. It’s not always easy to get time on my own, but something is usually possible eventually.

Shop Online

This one should be obvious these days, but it’s not always easy to keep kids from peeking over your shoulder, nor is it always a replacement for going out and actually seeing the things you want to buy. When you’ve got just a little time and privacy, it’s one of the easiest. Great selection, shipping free from many sites, this stuff can be good.

Amazon is a common favorite because they carry such an amazing range of things. I also have a deep fondness for ThinkGeek. I’d imagine you have your own favorites too.

Shop During School Hours

If the kids go to school and you have a few hours without them, it’s a great time to get your holiday shopping done. It means watching the clock a little, but that’s not usually a major problem.

Have Someone Else Watch the Kids

I love this option. Usually it’s my husband or a grandparent watching the kids to give me time out for holiday shopping. Grandparents are particularly useful if my husband and I want to go out shopping together. It’s fun picking things out with someone else to talk to, after all.

If you don’t have family nearby, see about trading off with friends. Surely you know someone else who has a hard time getting out to shop because of their kids. Make a deal which benefits you both.

Remember Toddlers Don’t Really Understand Everything

I do a lot of my holiday shopping with my toddler in tow, even if it’s for her. I can show her things, even put them into the cart and buy them, and know that by the time I give them to her, she’ll be excited all over again. She also doesn’t yet have the vocabulary to spoil any surprises for her siblings.

Shop Later

One of the presents my kids ask for most often is that I take them shopping after the holidays or a birthday. They love that a big part of their present is time out with me or their father, whoever they pick. A budget is set, the kinds of things I’ll be willing to buy explained, and off we go. Usually there’s ice cream or a movie involved as well. It’s fun and it ensures that whatever is bought is what that child wanted.

I try to make this one on one time, but it can be done with siblings along if desired. Just make it a little extra special.

What Do You Do If Black Friday Marks the Slow Season for Your Online Business?

Stephanie — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:24:43 +0000

Not every business picks up as Christmas and other winter holidays approach. Some slow down. What do you do if that’s your business, but you really need the money to keep coming in? This is especially a problem for freelancers, as many clients send out less work as the holidays approach, as they’re busy with the holiday season.

1. Brush up your skills.

Less activity in your business means you have time to work on your skills. Think of something you’d like to do better, and make it happen. This won’t earn money immediately, but could pay off in the long run.

2. Get ready for tax season.

You know it’s going to have to be done some time, what better time to start getting your paperwork in order for when you need to figure out your taxes than when you don’t have customers or clients to care for? Get things organized now, and it will be much easier to figure things out or get them to your accountant later. Remember, if you’re sending in estimated tax payments, there’s one due on January 15. For those of us in the U.S., anyhow.

3. Consider new income streams.

This one may be very important if things dry up badly for you around holidays. Can you come up with something to do during the holidays to bring your income back up?

You may also come up with income streams that relate to what you’re doing already. Are there other services or products you can offer clients and customers? It doesn’t have to be your own product or service, it just has to be relevant to your customers’ needs, and you have to earn something from it, whether it’s a direct payment to you or a commission through an affiliate program.

4. Offer holiday specials.

If business isn’t coming to you the way you’d like it to, encourage it a little more. Make special offers for the holidays so that clients and customers are more motivated to make a purchase.

5. Review your goals.

Many people make goals for the new year. It’s getting close, so why not get a head start? You can have a plan ready before New Year’s Eve rolls around.

6. Take a break.

It’s the holiday season. You may be stressed if you aren’t earning what you’re used to or what you’d like, but are you taking some time to enjoy the holidays yourself? Especially if you have little else going on with your business, why not?

7. Pray for January to come.

When you’ve done everything else you feel you can, and things are still going slow, it’s time to start praying or wishing that January will come. It won’t make it any sooner, but it can be on your mind.

Is It Too Late to Market Your Site for the Holidays?

Stephanie — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:59:47 +0000

We’re deep into the holiday shopping season and you have a site or shopping page you’d like to promote for the holiday season. Is it too late to get results by Christmas?

That depends on what you do to promote it.

The quickest way to effectively promote your page is to pay for advertising. Use pay per click advertising or buy ads on relevant sites. It can work. You’re getting right out there in front of potential shoppers.

It can also add up fast. You must keep track of your expenses and earning to be sure that you aren’t taking a loss on the whole thing. Getting more sales doesn’t do you any good if it costs you more to make those sales than you earn… unless you know you get good backend sales. But most of the time you’re safest looking at the immediate costs and profits.

You can try free methods such as article marketing as well, but you will usually do better with a more direct approach than using article directory submissions. Contact relevant sites and see if you can get them to publish an informative article on their site. Your byline may generate sales, and can do your SEO efforts good as well.

This far into the season, you must consider things that get directly in front of shoppers. If they help SEO, that’s good too, but that may not work fast enough to build your sales for Christmas.

You can’t waste any more time on thinking about what you’d like to do. You have to get it done. Otherwise, the shopping season will pass, and you’ll still be trying to get things moving.

Consider your list. If you have one, even a small one, make sure to send a few offers out. This is the time of year people are thinking about buying. Give them the excuse.

Don’t do anything that will ruin your chances to do well with that site in the future. Most of us don’t do so well with disposable sites.

Remember that sales continue immediately after Christmas. People are returning things they didn’t like and may be shopping for the things they wanted but didn’t get. Others just can’t resist the great sales.

Speaking of the future, set up a reminder to start your holiday marketing earlier next year. If you want SEO results, August is not too soon. Get things moving so that your sales improve with the holiday season. You’ll do better if these things are not left until December.

How Do You Balance the Holiday Rush with Your Home Business?

Stephanie — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:41:08 +0000

The holiday season is a hectic time for most of us. Not only are there all the usual things to deal with in terms of running a home business or otherwise working at home, there are all the extra delights the holidays bring. Extra shopping. More demands for family time, especially with extended family. Lots of events to consider attending. Traditions you need to make the time to follow.

Sometimes that really throws a wrench into your plans to follow a normal work schedule. There’s so much to be done, and you’re usually the one with the flexible schedule expected to handle it.

It gets even more difficult when you’re looking at the things you enjoy doing. You may feel more motivated to do the fun stuff and less motivated to work on the things that bring an income in, at least until you start thinking about the incoming bills.

This isn’t something that people who work outside the home always understand. They can work their usual hours and handle all the holiday stuff, no problem. Why can’t you?

It’s more challenging to deal with the holiday rush when you work at home because you often aren’t working standard business hours. You may work a part of the day, then again at night. You may work weekends. You usually work when it fits into your schedule, not when your employer wants you to. That flexibility means your work hours often take a hit when life gets busy.

How Do You Decide How Much to Work?

It’s helpful to decide how much work you need to do to keep up the income you need to have at this time of year. There’s no one answer to that. If you have a lot of passive income, you may be able to let things go for a while. If you earn based directly on the work you do, you will need to work as usual, especially if your family badly needs the money.

This takes sacrifice if a lot of family events are at times you’d usually be working. That’s the life you chose when you decided to work at home. You may be your own boss, but that often means being a harsh taskmaster. Find a way to get that work done.

Know When to Take Time Off

We all need time off, and the stressful holiday season is no exception.

If you’re feeling tired or burned out, it’s time for a break, even if you have a lot more to get done. You will be more productive after you’ve taken a break. Don’t stare at your computer monitor, getting nothing done just because you’ve told yourself you need to get a certain number of hours of work done today. Staring at the monitor doesn’t count as work, it only counts as wearing yourself out.

Consider Hiring Help

If you just can’t get it all done, this is a great time of year to hire help, whether it’s around the house or for your business.

Hire a housekeeper to get your home clean enough for company if you don’t have the time to do it.

Hire someone to do the writing for your site, some research, or whatever else you need help with. You’re better off with this option if you’ve done it before and either have a regular assistant or know how to find good help. Otherwise it can add to the stress. Teaching someone how to meet your expectations is not always easy.

Don’t Hold Yourself to Unnecessary Deadlines

If you’re running your own business, most of your deadlines are the ones you set. If you’re running behind, you’re the one who knows if the deadline is necessary or just something you set for yourself.

If it’s not necessary to keep to the deadline, don’t! Give yourself a break.

Remember to Enjoy the Season

No matter which holidays you’re celebrating this time of year, remember to enjoy them. Don’t drive yourself crazy thinking about work when you’re supposed to be having fun. The work will still be there when you come back to it.

What Are You Promoting for Christmas?

Stephanie — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:19:32 +0000

It’s that time of year again, and the brick and mortar stores may have beaten you to it. Are you starting up your Christmas promotions?

Brick and mortar stores are doing so already in some locations, and more will do so in the near future. It may feel early, but if you aren’t ready for Christmas now with your online business, you should be thinking about what you’re doing to make the most of the biggest shopping season of the year.

You can start by checking to see which of your shopping pages need to be updated. Are they offering current products?

Next think about what you would like to start promoting this year. Get those pages and/or sites up and running.

Don’t feel as though it’s too early. Lots of people start shopping for the holidays early. There’s no need to miss out on sales just because you feel that it’s strange to be thinking that way already.

I don’t mean for you to decorate your sites all in Christmas colors, of course. And please don’t autoplay Christmas music when people come to your site. There’s plenty of that in the malls. All you really need is to have your sites set up to make some good money for you over the holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

Stephanie — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:00:10 +0000

No, I’m not working today and if your family celebrates Christmas I hope you aren’t either! I even wrote this post a few days ago!

If you’re looking for some end of the year cleanup work to do, take a look around! Come up with your own ideas and share them in the comments.

Are You Letting the Holidays Slow You Down?

Stephanie — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:55:11 +0000

This time of year can be quite challenging for keeping focused on your work. There may be school events to deal with, parties you’re invited to, family and friends wanting to visit, gifts to be bought and in general fun to be had. It’s not entirely conducive to being productive in your business.

Depending on what you do, that may not be an entirely bad thing. If your business drops this time of year you may feel justified in taking a break along with it.

And you certainly want to take the time to appreciate your family and friends. Life would be pretty boring without them. But how far should you take it?

I look at things a couple of ways. The first is to consider that time has to be made in life for enjoyment. The second is that even if business is slow there’s no time like the present to plan for the future.

That second part is what keeps me working hard whenever I can manage it at this time of year. I can see a difference in my traffic, but that’s just the kind of visitors I get being fairly busy at this time of year. Doesn’t mean I should slack off too much.

I’m spending a lot of time planning out what I want to get done next year. It’s a great time of year for setting goals. I’m planning blog posts and trying to figure out the best ways to increase my income.

And of course have fun. I’ll be making cookies with the kids, all the usual stuff.

There’s always the temptation to slack off more than a little, but that’s not a luxury I’m allowing myself just now. Too much to do and I still enjoy my work most days. Quite a bit in fact. I’ll just ignore the part about having a certain sweet young baby’s current fascination with my keyboard. Nap time and bed time can feel like a blessing some days. Her nap and bed times, that is.

This time of year figuring out that work-life balance can be even more difficult than usual for work at home parents, but it’s no less important to get it right. Most people can’t afford to vanish from one for the sake of the other. But a little shift to really enjoy the season isn’t a bad thing at all.

It’s November. Is Your Home Business Ready for the Holiday Season?

Stephanie — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:26:18 +0000

Hard to believe the holiday season is upon us already. Whether or not you personally celebrate Christmas or any other holiday at this time of year, you probably need to get ready for those who do if you sell anything that might be given as a gift.

This time of year is great for making sales. Even when people are cutting back, there are still many chances for your business to do well.

Time to decide if you can increase your advertising to gain the attention of those who are spending money. Time to make your products stand out as great gifts. Time to be certain that you can fulfill customer needs promptly.

If you’re selling physical products, that’s a lot of work. Your workload has probably long since increased just in terms of preparation. November’s pretty late to be getting ready, after all.

It’s not too late, of course, even if life has been hectic enough for you that you aren’t as ready as you would like. Just means you have to push a little harder to get things done.

You don’t want to run out of stock. You don’t want to run behind on shipping. You don’t want to ignore customer needs even if you’re swamped with other things.

Even if you’re an affiliate you should be geared up or gearing up by now. Take advantage of the season and the extra shoppers! Be willing to answer questions that will help you to make sales.

I’ll admit I’m running behind on much of this myself this year. It has been crazy, but I know that I need to get it done.

Figure out what your business needs and do likewise. There’s no time to waste.

The Popular Gift with My Kids This Year Was…

Stephanie — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:01:12 +0000

Electric toothbrushes.

No, really. In the things my husband and I gave them, the electric toothbrushes were the biggest hit. Just simple ones, a blue and a pink Crayola electric toothbrush.

It was hilarious how delighted they were.

But the toothbrushes did finally get beaten out by a gift from my mother on Saturday. She gave my daughter an EyeClops BioniCam, and it was a hit all around. Even their 13 year old cousin wants one now.

They’re under $20 right now on Amazon, so a really good deal. How long that will last is up to Amazon, of course.

The kids of course wanted to use it at 400x magnification right away. Well, that’s really, REALLY hard to focus. I mean really.

My daughter was just crushed to find out that her initial images were terrible. You see, she had decided that she was going to make tons of money selling her images. Mommy’s little entrepreneur!

So I switched her on down to 100x magnification, and she’s just delighted with the results. Finding the focus there isn’t too hard, and it holds it pretty well. She still thinks she can sell the images, but that’s the kind of thing you think when you are 6 years old. She figures she can solve all our money problems by doing this. It’s really sweet.

My mother also got one for one of my other nieces who is about my daughter’s age. It was a good thing that I looked at the packaging while we were all there. These come with a 32 Meg USB key for pictures to be saved on. My brother-in-law didn’t notice it at first, stuck in the front of the box, and was grumbling about how the kids couldn’t save the pictures. I had looked at them online, and knew there was something, so I checked our box which hadn’t been opened yet, and told him where to find it.

Somehow he had mistaken it for one of the images on the box, not an actual USB key. Good thing the box hadn’t been thrown out yet.

All the kids were wanting turns. It didn’t matter that all except the 13 year old are under the 8 years of age recommended on the packaging. Once the focus is done, it’s pretty easy to show a child how to save an image. And unlike the original Eyeclops, you aren’t stuck to the television!

We haven’t even tried the movie function yet, although you can take a few seconds of movie to save on the card. Right now the kids are plenty happy just to be able to take interesting pictures.

A fun one was where my niece took a 100x image of her thumb, then washed her hands and repeated. I got to tease her about the two specks of dirt she missed in washing up. A great little lesson in how much dirt there can be on hands that looked reasonably clean.

My daughter is having to share this one with her younger brother, who is also pretty good at taking pictures with it. That’s fine with her, as he has to share his remote controlled car. Fair is fair, after all. They came to an agreement about taking turns every 10th picture taken, which has worked out so far… except for my daughter trying to insist that only 30 pictures be taken a day, and she would take the first turn. Sneaky, sneaky, but oh so cute! We’ve corrected that one, but as my son gets older he’s going to have to learn to watch out for her. She’s good at making deals like that.

Take a Family Break – Free Fun Friday

Stephanie — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:19:29 +0000

Congratulations. You are now past the worst of the holiday season. Take a break with your family. Enjoy yourselves. Sleep in if you can. Play games and enjoy the beauties of the season as they appear in your area.

And yes, I’m taking my own advice. I wrote this post on 12/21 and scheduled it for today!