It’s spring break for the kids around here. I was rather surprised to realize that my daughter’s school gives them two weeks off rather than the one I’m used to. The kids certainly don’t mind. It just takes a bit more planning on my part.

Yay grandparents!

The kids are taking advantage of the time to visit friends and grandparents. I’ll be taking what advantage I can of the extra quiet time, but since the baby stays with me, it’s not as much as it might sound like. But I’ll take what I can get.

How to Raise an Entrepreneur

The majority of us struggle with entrepreneurship simply because we don’t know where to start. Teaching entrepreneurship to our youth has been largely ignored, coupled with the fact that many parents leave it up to our school system to teach business acumen. With school-wide budgets cuts, the probability that your child will learn these vital skill sets before he leaves high school is rather slim, perpetuating the problem of an unskilled entrepreneurial population.

The fact is the wealthiest people in the US aren’t doctors, lawyers or engineers. They’re entrepreneurs. This small segment of the population is responsible for the majority of job creation and introducing new innovations to the marketplace that make all of our lives better. How do you raise an entrepreneur and offer your child a future that’s full of choices?

Let’s face it some kids naturally possess the motivation to create something with monetary value. Others need more exposure to business fundamentals. Learning how to become an entrepreneur requires practice just like one would practice playing a musical instrument or a sport. And the earlier your child is exposed to entrepreneurship the better off she will be.

1. School and extracurricular activities take up a substantial amount of time, so encourage your child to start a business around something in which he has a deep interest. When his product or service is something he is passionate about, he is more likely to put more effort into running his business.

2. Encourage your child to draw up a short and long-term plan for his business. Have him start out with simple steps that he can easily accomplish as he starts and grows his business.

3. You child doesn’t have to start a business all on his own. Advise her to find a friend who has similar interests to run the business with her. This will help with teamwork skills while giving your child freedom to explore her creativity.

4. Provide your child with the resources he needs to succeed. Businesses aren’t built overnight and there’s a lot to be learned in starting and running one. When you give your child the resources he needs to be successful, his outlook on entrepreneurship will be positive. Don’t set your child up to fail with their endeavor by failing to give him the tools he needs to succeed.

5. Patience is a virtue and if your child wants instant gratification, encourage her to stick with her business. Her hard work will pay off in the long-run. Once she starts making money at her endeavor, the financial rewards will help motivate her to continue with her business.

Any kid can become an entrepreneur given the right frame of mind and the right resources to make it successful. By allowing your child to learn business acumen at an early age, you are helping to make a difference in his life.

http://www.bizinaboxx.com Kids starting their own businesses. Young entrepreneurs have amazing clarity, insight and confidence; and the number of successful CEOs under the age of 20 is growing everyday. And they’re not prodigies. They’re simply kids who took a chance. If you’re ready to read more about how your child, grandchild or a child you know can start and run their own business, visit our Open for Business, Getting Started page. Join the many people who have helped a child start a business and gain a sense of ownership. Visit us today at bizinaboxx.com.

Aside from dealing with sick kids the past week, it’s been a pretty good week around here. I’ve gotten a fair bit done.

Working at home with sick kids is even more challenging than just working at home with kids around. They need you so much more – especially when one of the sick kids is an infant or toddler. It’s just hard to get a break from caring for them to get some work done. And if you catch the bug yourself… be prepared to still not get a break from caring for everyone else.

Then again, isn’t that why we work at home? To be there when our family needs us and not have a boss complaining about how much time you take off? Having sick kids isn’t fun, but it’s a lot easier to deal with it when you’re your own boss.

Small Business Website Tips – 10 Ways to Increase Traffic and Gain New Business

Whether you have had a website for years and are satisfied with it or if you have just put a website up and would like to draw more traffic to it, there are a few simple things you could do to increase traffic and convert those website visitors into new clients.

1) Put your website address at the bottom of every email you write. All email providers allow you to create a signature on your emails so you do not have to re-write it each time. Put a catchy invitation in front of it saying something like, “New products arrived this week. Check out my website at [insert your website here] to see them today!”

2) You will increase traffic to your website by writing about it on Facebook or Twitter. Even if social networking is not your cup of tea, you can benefit from opening a simple Facebook group that people become a member of. This way you have a direct mailing list of interested people who would like to know about your sales and services.

3) Most businesses know this by now, but in case you need a reminder, put your website on every single document that has your name on it. All business cards, letterhead and products should have your website on it at all times.

4) Keep your website current by making additions to it frequently. By updating it often, Google will recognize your site as active and “traffic worthy” bringing it up towards the top of Google searches for your business.

5) Use key words often on your site as that will also help Google recognize your page. If your business is Homemade Teddy bears you want to use these words as many times as you can throughout the site. Each page would have these key words in it.

6) Turn visitors into clients by encouraging them to receive your newsletter. Clarify that the purpose of your newsletter is to offer information about the products and services in your industry and that you will assure their privacy by not selling or trading their emails.

7) Be clear about the benefits that you can give to your customers on the homepage. Typically, a visitor to a site will spend 30 seconds on a website deciding if it is useful to them or not. You want to convince them in 30 seconds that there is more on your site of interest to them and the services you provide are of great benefit.

Be very clear on your home page how they can contact you. Having your photo there as well as an email or phone number will relieve a visitor’s ease and help them to take the step to contact you. Showing a photo helps to build their trust and when they trust you then they will come to you for business.

9) Don’t make the mistake of saying too much on your first page. Generally, lengthy sentences and paragraphs will not be read and your client will leave the site not really knowing what you are all about.

10) Believe in yourself and show that on your site. Know what makes you unique and then make that your unique selling point. Do you have a special niche that you can tailor your services to? If so, write about that on your front page and you will catch the attention of more visitors and turn more visitors into clients.

Rachel Leigh Perry is a writer and educator who writes about self-actualization and living fully in your own life. Discover how you can use your virtues and strengths to overcome any life challenge. Go to her blog today at http://www.virtuesforwellbeing.wordpress.com.

Oh my goodness, I just registered my son for kindergarten yesterday. It’s still months yet before school starts for him of course, but still. He’s going to be in kindergarten!

There’s good and bad to getting another kid into school when you still have a younger one at home. On the plus side, one less kid underfoot when you want to work during the day. On the minus side, there’s no one to play with the younger sibling, so you’re the sole entertainment.

Still, it’s going to be fun for him. He’s nervous but so ready to have more friends.

4 Useful Productivity Tools for Social Media

We all want to do more in less time with social media. The good news is that there are lots of tools to help automate your social networking activities.

Although I don’t suggest automating your entire experience (that’s kind of missing the point), there are some great productivity-boosters worth checking out.

1) Ping.fm: Have you ever wanted to update your Twitter status as well as Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites all at the same time from one place? Ping is great for this. Tools like Ping are one of the top “secret weapons” of the most savvy social media users.

So, if you have something to say to your Twitter followers but that you would also like to share with your Facebook friends and fans and your connections on LinkedIn, you can-without going to each site and logging in separately. Ping has the ability to update over 40 different social sites. Talk about a major time saver!

In addition, you can even create groups, so that if you only want to update Facebook and Twitter but not LinkedIn, for example, you can do that. It’s definitely worth exploring.

Ping also has a browser toolbar you can install, making it simple to update your social networks with a link to any web page you are on.

2) Hootsuite: I consider this to be the ultimate Twitter tool-and its ability to automate so much of your Twitter experience is pretty impressive. Hootsuite is web-based and free and here are just some of its most useful features: * Manage multiple Twitter profiles

* Pre-schedule tweets to go out ahead of time

* Monitor keywords of your choice

* View multiple columns to see @ replies, direct messages, keyword tracking and more

* Have multiple administrators for your Hootsuite account

* Create groups of friends by simply dragging and dropping them into columns

* Integrate with Ping.fm to update many social networks including Facebook and LinkedIn

* Track statistics of how many people have clicked on the links in your tweets

* Automatically feed RSS to your Twitter stream

3) Selective Twitter Status: If you use both Facebook and Twitter, you’ll want to take advantage of integrating the two in order to reach even more people–without more effort.

Selective Twitter Status is an application you can add to your Facebook profile or Fan Page in order to update your status with your tweets. Once you have this application installed, you simply add #fb to the specific tweets you want to make your Facebook status as well.

4) Facebook Fan Page to Twitter tool: If you want to do the reverse and send your Fan Page status updates to Twitter, you can do that with Facebook’s Twitter tool. This is nice because you are allowed to use over 140 characters for status updates on Facebook, so when you update Twitter (which has a 140 character limit) with a longer message, it inserts “…” along with a link back to your Fan Page so people can finish reading your update. This means more people are driven to your Fan Page from Twitter.

So, if you’ve always wanted shortcuts to help manage your social media activity, check out these four tools and start streamlining your experience like the pros.

Christine Gallagher, MLS, MSIS, founder of CommunicateValue.com, teaches small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. For FREE tips on how to build profitable relationships, leverage technology and create your own successful online business, visit http://CommunicateValue.com

It amazes me how much work time I lost having a third baby. I knew having another one would have an impact, but the degree of it caught me off guard. Good thing babies are so much fun.

Fortunately, I seem to finally be getting more completely back on track. It took a lot of effort, but I think I have a lot more of it figured out than I used to. It probably helps that the baby is on a pretty regular nap schedule and is starting to sleep better at night at long last (except when she’s teething, such as right now).

No, it’s not always easy working at home with a baby. But it’s definitely worth the effort to figure out how to do it.

Social Skills and Kids – Do Video Games Harm Their Social Life?

Are you aware of how your kids are doing socially? I am not talking about how many friends they have or how popular they are at school. Do they get along with other people, can they hold their own in a group, do they have a social group that they fit into?

It is tough to be a teenager these days. Kids feel a need to fit in to the crowd, any crowd. Life seems easier if you can find a group of friends that share your interests and your passions. However, it seems that more and more kids are withdrawing into a make believe world of gaming. They are drawn by the fast cars, world domination, and shoot your enemy games that are so popular these days. Unfortunately, these games become real to many kids. They live to play in their make believe world and as a result their everyday ‘real’ lives suffer.

How can parents know if their kids are spending too much time in the make believe world of gaming? Does your child spend most of his free time either playing games or learning how to master the next level? After school, do they head straight to their room to play? When friends come over do they spend their time playing video games? Or more importantly, do friends come over?

While playing video games can be a fun outlet for many teens, spending too much time playing can create a social dilemma. In the gaming world if you fail, you can start over. If you die, you will come back to life. If you cause damage or hurt someone, there are no consequences. In fact, in many games causing havoc is the point. Many times when kids immerse themselves in to the world of gaming, they have a hard time separating the consequences of real life from the lack of consequences of the game.

What can parent do to help their kids find a healthy balance? First of all, move the gaming system out of the teen’s bedroom and into the family room or another common area of the home. If you set boundaries and rules, your child will learn to find other ways to spend their time.

Spend more time as a family. Have family game night, and make it a board game! Take your family bowling or hiking. Plan a family outing and let everyone participate in the planning stage. If you give your child other options for fun they just might find another interest. Parents need to set limits on gaming and encourage their kids to get outside and socialize with other teens. Your child will build important social skills and you will find you have a stronger bond. Put family first and it will benefit all of you!

Jamie is a mother of three who enjoys fitness and the outdoors. Check out her new website, http://www.milkshakemaker.org to learn all about the different Oster blenders so you can make great homemade treats too!

I’ve been hitting that delightful point for a work at home mom lately… getting lots of work done and still making enough time for the kids. We won’t discuss the sleep issue, although it’s not really that bad. I promise.

It’s a tough balance to reach and often harder to maintain. That’s why I’m not letting the sleep side of the equation get too far out of whack. Getting run down physically or mentally is a great way to quit being productive and to enjoy being at home less.

But when you need to work, you need to work. Sometimes that’s just how it is. Keep pushing to make it all happen in the way that works for you and you may find that great productive spot for yourself.

MLM Tips – How to Get Your Online Videos Ranked on the Search Engines Fast

Video Marketing is on fire! As of now, YouTube is the #4 visited site website. A lot of people use YouTube as a search engine, I know I have many times! Watching a video of someone is definitely more personal than just reading text on a page. If you involved in a MLM business, this is a good way for people to get to know you without having to pick up the phone. And the neat thing is that when you do finally talk on the phone, the person already feels like they know you!

Video Marketing Facts

- There are 30 Billion Videos viewed in the US monthly
- Video attracts almost 60% of web traffic
- Videos are viewed by 200 million people in the US monthly
- Video listings can show up in all search engines, in as little as 10 minutes, if you use the right video distribution tool
- Video Marketing Tips

You want to create curiosity and have a catchy title – You want to entice the person to want to watch the video. You will want to brand your video – There are some people that will steal your video and use it for themselves. If you video is branded to you and it is stolen, it is free advertising for you!

Do not use the same video twice. Video sites will not allow it. You can use the same video as long as you make slight modifications. It is worth doing, if you have more than 1 keyword that fits with your video. For Example: If you have a video about article marketing, you can make minor changes and make 2 videos and use the following 2 keywords: article marketing strategies and MLM recruiting using articles.

Do Keyword Research – This is so important. You are wasting your time making a video, if no one will be able to find it. Ideally, you need a keyword research tool will allow you to find keywords that are not competitive and that folks will not be able to find just using the Google AdWords Tool. Finding less competitive keywords will increase your chances on showing on the front of the search engines.

Keywords – Be sure to use the keyword in your title, description, and tags sections.

Don’t forget to add the URL to the description field – Make sure this is listed first, so people can just click on the link to go to your website. Don’t forget the http:// before the www – to make your URL a clickable hyperlink.

Video Distribution tool – Using a tool like this will save you hours and hours of time. This will allow you to submit your video to various video sites and social networking sites with a push of a button. It will also convert your video into a podcast to create even more exposure.

Using these mlm tips will allow you to generate 20-50 leads daily for your business as long as you are consistent. To learn more about internet marketing online, visit: MLM Tips.

Want to know something amazing? My baby girl turned one this past weekend. It seems impossible to me.

Celebrating it took more time out of my work schedule than usual. She shares her birthday with her great grandfather in Sacramento, and he turned 90 this year. Big family party and a very fast trip there and back. I’m still exhausted.

It’s a great reminder though, that even when you’re busy you can find the time for things that really matter to you in your life. Why else have your business at home if you can’t enjoy the flexibility a little?

Between Business and the Kids – How to Find Time For Your Marriage

As women and mom entrepreneurs there are so many things to juggle – work, kids, marriage, self, friendships, spirit and family. Keeping them all going is a challenge and one that requires consciousness and compassion.

The truth is over the past few months my focus has been more on my business and my kids than on my marriage, and we’ve all suffered. From conversations with many, I don’t think that I’m alone in this. It’s a BIG problem for busy couples, especially with the financial pressures to make a business work. Raising your kids and running a business can quickly take a toll on your marriage. You may feel like you HAVE to go to an important meeting with a new client or go to your son’s first baseball game but it’s okay to skip that lunch date with your husband – he’ll understand. But too quickly it becomes routine to put your marriage too far down on your list of priorities.

Here are a few suggestions that I’m beginning to put in place because I’m committed to making my marriage work, and want to support those of you in a similar place:

Get Him Involved in Your Business

You can’t expect your husband to be involved with your business if he doesn’t know anything about it. This is more than just sharing your basic business plan, talk to him about your vision – and why you’re working so hard to achieve it.

Help him understand that you see your business as a family business where you share the rewards. Talk about the advantages of entrepreneurship. Maybe the benefits of being at home with your kids or even the financial benefits of reduced child-care costs and being able to write-off home business expenses.

Let him know exactly how he can help you. Guys aren’t always super intuitive so instead of nagging him, do your best to let him know what you need to be successful. Maybe it’s not a business task, maybe he can help pick up the kids from soccer practice or help out with certain household chores so that you have some extra work time.

Develop Good Boundaries

When you work from home the temptation is to work all the time. You finally have the kids to bed so you naturally want to get some work done. That’s fine sometimes but boundaries are critical. Schedule a few nights each week when work is truly turned off (this means turning off your Blackberry or iPhone) so you can connect as a couple.

It’s so important to make time to communicate – without interruptions – with your spouse to keep the household flowing smoothly. Don’t just leave this to when you have the time because when do you ever really just have extra time? Schedule the time like you would a business appointment. Texts, e-mails and cell phone calls are fine, but for connection purposes nothing replaces a quality face-to-face conversation.

Schedule in the Romance

You have to figure out as a couple how to make love the top priority. Maybe when you were first married and had free time you could just be spontaneous and wait for the “right moment” but now that you have more responsibilities, it’s not likely to happen without a little planning.

Build a structure you can count on to keep these priorities straight. For example, schedule once-a-week “dates” with each other to talk and rekindle romance. If you can, go on a getaway once or twice a year – even if it’s just a day or two to relax and enjoy each other. Doing this will help you remember why you’re working so hard anyway…to share your success with the ones you love.

Marriage requires commitment and attention and like a plant, it will not continue to grow, without nurturing. People sometimes say “marriage is hard work.” I guess it is. But I think everything in life that’s worth having is worth working for. Having a partner that loves you and supports you is worth the effort.

Kim DeYoung is the original Metromom-a driven, evolving woman committed to her family, her career and achieving success on her own terms. Also known as the “Get It Done Girl”, Kim is the dynamic and creative force behind Metromom.com, a comprehensive resource for the busy mom entrepreneur, providing solutions on marketing, money, mindset and motherhood. Order your own FREE CD – “5 Surprising Secrets Every Mom Entrepreneur Must Know” and learn more at http://www.metromom.com. To see if you’re in fact a Metromom, check out her 3-minute video at http://TheMetroMomMovie.com.

What a weekend it was! So long as you count Friday last week as a part of the weekend, which I did last week. You see, it snowed. About 3 or 4 inches, which is a big deal here. More than the area usually gets. They even closed school for the day. Makes sense when you think about how hard it would have been for the teachers to get the kids to pay attention all day. My kids had only ever seen snow on the ground once before, never mind getting to see it fall.

I lost a lot of good working time, but what’s the point of working at home if you can’t sometimes take a little time off to really enjoy being with your kids?

Work at Home Moms – Childcare, Or No Child Care? That is the Question

Congratulations, you have started your own business, and it’s going rather well. Going SO WELL in fact, that you need to dedicate more time to it. What if that little bit of extra, uninterrupted time, could mean a BIG difference to your income? Of course uninterrupted time is the thing that we all know and miss as work at home moms, in fact it is darn near a thing of the past in most households where there are young children.

What if just having a few extra hours a week of uninterrupted time was all you needed to really break into the next gear, finish that awesome high paying assignment or project?

The fact is, that at some point you may need to consider a hiring someone for a few hours of help so that you can complete your major project or assignment.

Some of us are blessed with extended families that are only to happy to take our children into their homes and their busy schedules, for a morning a week, or an afternoon here or there. However, there will be that one situation where you absolutely HAVE to get things done, your deadline is looming faster than a sprinter on steroids, and murphy’s law, that will be the one day, that all your family are busy, or out of town, or ill.

It *will* happen. You know it will, it has happened before. So what do you do? What about those of you who don’t have extended family nearby, or even in the same country? What do *you* do? Sooner or later you may need the help of a qualified nanny, baby-sitter, or if you’re really lucky an au-pair.

Moms are notorious suckers for punishment, and many are taken aback, or even offended at the idea of having to hire someone. What? We’re not perfect? Who says? Hello? We are all HUMAN. (Ok, as women we know we’re really super human, but still, we’re not perfect). Why not hire someone, who’s job it is to care for and entertain your kids for a few hours?

I learned a valuable lesson from my youngest son, when I made the difficult, heart wrenching decision to let him go to a playgroup for a few hours for the first time.

I was torn apart.Less at the idea of letting him go, but more with the idea that I should have been able to entertain him ceaselessly, see to his every need and still close that multi million dollar deal. Isn’t that what every mother does? Here I was, feeling like I was a failure simply because I could not do it all, all the time, twenty-four hours a day.

Until I realized just how ridiculous that sounded. At what point did I decide that I HAD to be this perfect person, who did everything? It really dawned on me how silly it was, when I was packing his little back-pack to go to the playgroup again and he saw what I was doing, and he started clapping his little hands together and shouting, “Yay, Yay, Yay!!” I realised that the person who ran the playgroup, had chosen this as a career.

She chose it because she loved children.

She chose to spend her time with 5 little youngsters and make their day as fun, as entertaining, as educational, and as routine as possible. Her absolute mission was to make sure that the kids were looked after as well as if she were their real mother, ha ha, their well rested, imaginative, never-runs-out-of-patience mother, who also closes multi million dollar deals. Hah.

Being a mother is something I chose, but reality insists that I also earn an income. My chosen form of income bringing activity is graphic design and photography. It is not child care. Though some aspects of childcare come naturally to mothers, I must admit, that I am absolutely terrible at thinking up fun and games all the time, and certainly not when I’m trying to finish that huge project that demands so much of my attention.

So in the same way that I take my child to the doctor when they are sick, I also choose to take them to a childcare expert when I need time to do what I am good at, and that which allows my children the lifestyle that they enjoy, and some months it is the only reason that the food on the table is there at all.

So if you find yourself in the position where you are needing childcare, I implore you, do not feel like a failure, think of your strengths and the many advantages that YOU and your strengths bring your family, then make your decision.

Vanessa MacLeod is the Editor in Chief of NessWorld Magazine a website which aims to promote business and support amongst WAHMs (work at home moms).

The Magazine is always on the look out for WAHMs who would like to advertise their home business for free, and who would like to contribute helpful articles to the network, and to the print version of the magazine due out later in 2010.

Life gets pretty crazy when you work at home, especially when the weather starts turning colder and the kids want either to be inside more or outside in weather that’s going to mean a little more mess when they come back inside. We’ve been getting rain here, which means my kids are trying to figure out how often they can go out and get soaked and muddy.

A little chaos isn’t a bad thing – it keeps things interesting. But being somewhat organized can help you keep going throughout the chaos.

Six Secrets of Organized Moms

A mom often wears many hats, taxi driver, cook, housekeeper, bread-winner, shoulder to cry on, and more. So, how does mom juggle it all? The following are six secrets of organized moms to help make things easier:

1. Routines. Organized moms serve dinner at the same time each night, have strict bed times, have after school routines with homework and socializing. If you want to be an organized mom, you have to have a routine you stick to. This might mean that you get your child up at the same time each day, and expect them to get dressed and make their bed before they come in to breakfast. You may have a few different routines, such as your morning routine, your after school and evening routine, and your weekend routine. A routine helps you, the mom, keep things on track, and helps your children to know what to expect, and what is expected of them.

2. Meal plans. Organized moms do not spend extra time in the grocery store, or standing in front of the refrigerator trying to determine what to prepare that night. Organized moms take a few minutes once a week to create a meal plan for the week. Monday: Soup, Tuesday: Chicken, Wednesday: Pizza, Thursday: Hamburgers, and the list goes on. The idea is that if you know what you are going to make you can be prepared throughout the day. For example, if you are going to roast a chicken for dinner, you will need to get it out of the freezer in the morning in order for it to be defrosted by dinner time.

3. Rules. Organized moms have rules or guidelines for their families. They may be simple like dinner is at 5:30. Or they may be more complex like, no friends, television, or snacking until your homework is completed. A mom can’t keep the whole family organized without some participation, so rules, and guidelines are helpful. Make them clear, and enforce them.

4. Time off. An organized mom does not let herself get overly stressed, or overwhelmed because she knows when to say no, when to de-stress, and when to take a break. She knows that when she is starting to lose her cool, that letting dad take the kids to McDonald’s rather than fixing a nice meal, is sometimes better, even if it is not the healthiest option. The organized mom knows when she needs a break, and figures out how to take one.

5. Organized home. The organized mom has an organized home. She creates a place for everything so that school mornings are not spent hastily trying to find shoes, backpacks, pens that work, etc. Instead, everything has a place, and the kids know where things go, and contribute by being sure to put their backpack on the hook, in the cubby, or whatever the case may be, the night before.

6. Back-up plans. Organized moms always plan ahead, and prepare for the worst. They carry a spare outfit, some cash, and phone numbers of friends and family, just in case. They take things in stride. So, for example, if your tire goes flat while driving, and it is your day to do carpool, the organized mom has the numbers of the other carpool moms on hand, and knows which ones can typically swap days. So, have a back up plan.

Beverly Frank is a stay-at-home mom and writer. For more parenting tips, visit http://www.surfnetparents.com.