Work at Home Grandmothers

You can still sign up to hear the following FREE seminars to help you build your business. Below is a list of what’s happening today, Thursday, April 30th…for more information and sign-up details, click here.

EVENT: Bernadette Doyle Rapid Profit Boosters Interview
DATE & TIME: Thursday, April 30th at 12:00pm Eastern
TOPIC: How To Promote PROFITABLE Workshops, Seminars, Training Courses and Teleseminars That SELL OUT Every Time

EVENT: Jeff Mulligan Rapid Profit Boosters Interview
DATE & TIME: Thursday, April 30th at 2:00pm Eastern
TOPIC: QuickieProfits: Quick Tips, Tricks and Tactics to Boost Web Profits

EVENT: Mari Smith Rapid Profit Boosters Interview
DATE & TIME: Thursday, April 30th at 8:00pm Eastern
TOPIC: Social Marketing Business. In this interview, you will learn how to use the top two online social networks - Facebook and Twitter to significantly increase your profits!

Again, to sign up for this free event, click here.

Yes, it’s free!

I’ve signed up to take part in this event and wanted to share it with you as I know it will help you build your business.  It runs from April 27 - May 1st.

Even if you are seeing this a day or two after the event starts, please sign up and be there for what you can….you can’t get any less expensive than FREE.

This is a week long EVENT that will help you in the following ways:

• Learn to use Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging to your advantage for maximum results.
• Stand out from your competition using video marketing.
• Learn to keep yourself motivated while your business is growing no matter what.
• Grow your clients, your lists, your sales.

Do you want to know the “business failure” statistics that you want to avoid?  Please click here.

Do you want to know how to avoid being one of those statistics, and enjoy the process? Click here.

This isn’t hype, it’s a wonderful event with a great lineup of successful speakers, I’ll see you there, I need this as much as most of you reading this do.

Please click any of the links to visit rapidprofitboosters.com and sign up right now…only takes a minute.

This is a blog tour, you can visit the following links for a different perspective… yesterday the blog event tour was with Sandra DeFreitas, Tech Coach for Coaches

Tomorrow, this will be continued with Wendy Y. Bailey of Group Mastery & 33min Group Coaching Program

Setting goals was probably one of the hardest things for me to get used to when I started working from home. It is hard to go from the “servant” role of a secretary or administrative assistant to the “leader” role of running your own business…yes, you are still serving your clients and customers, but you are also the owner and operator of your business.

I hope the following article on goal setting in business will help you, written by a successful business woman.

Business Goal Setting And Then Following Through

By: Joy Gendusa

Your business cannot go according to plan if you have no plan.

What do you want to achieve this year? More new customers per week? Higher average order amounts? Better customer service ratings? No matter what it is you are shooting for, goal setting is one of the most important things that you will do in the New Year. I’ve got a few tips to help you get there.

Keep it Challenging but Realistic.

Any goal that you set for your company should be challenging but don’t over do it. For example, if you had an average order amount of $700 last year, you wouldn’t want to set your goal for this year at $3000 per order. Unless you make drastic changes in how your company runs or what you are selling, that goal is just not realistic. You know best what you may be able to achieve in your particular industry, so be honest with yourself and set your goals accordingly.

Write All Your Goals Down.

You may say to yourself on January 1, “I want to get 20 more new customers per week this year.” A few months later you will be saying “Did I say I wanted 20 or 30?” Or more realistically, you have forgotten that you even made that goal. If you have all of your goals written down you will be able to not only go back and check them, you will also be able to go down the list every few months and check to see how many of them you have completed.

Assess Your Current Situation.

To set goals you have to know where you are at right now. In 2003 I wanted to assess our customer service rating so we sent out a survey to all of our customers on which they could rate us in each department of our operation. That helped us establish our base. Now we send the survey to every customer after every order. This way we can keep track of how we are doing and if there is ever a hiccup we can fix it quickly. Don’t assume anything. Always assess the current situation before setting a new goal.

It is Only Going to Hurt A Little…

Now, in financial goal setting for your business, one invariably comes to the question: “How do I decide on a budget when starting a marketing plan?”

This is obviously the first question that you have to answer in order to get started on your new campaign – and in order to reach the income goals you have set for yourself.

So how do you figure out what your budget should be? Here is an easy method to help you find a number that is going to work for you and your business. Some might say that it is a good rule of thumb, but I personally judge things on whether or not they work and get results. That’s all.

Moving on… Start with the amount of income that your company generated last month and multiply it by .14 (or 14%). That means that if you had $50,000 in Gross Income last month you should budget to spend $7000 on marketing in the next month. Wait… I know, it sounds painful but it is just like a shot at the doctor. It might hurt for a minute (or in this case a month) but down the road you are going to be glad that you went through it. Putting that much toward the right marketing will bump up your income the next month and start you on a cycle of steady growth.

I know that some businesses run tighter than others and it is possible that you won’t be comfortable with that amount in the beginning . Don’t misunderstand me, any marketing is better than no marketing. Don’t get discouraged if your budget is lower than 14%. But use 14% as the ideal to strive for because, for me as well as many other growing businesses, it has proven to give the best rate of growth possible. How do I know, you ask? My company has expanded 400% in the past 2 years. Now picture your business at 4 times its current size… There’s that smile I was looking for!

The growth of your business is based on three factors; quality products, great customer service and the proper amount of marketing. If you know you have the first two taken care and you still aren’t experiencing healthy growth then you need to take a serious look at your marketing budget.

So sharpen your pencils, start calculating and decide how rapidly you want your business to grow.

Please take a moment this week to sit down and decide on your goals for the New Year. Even if it is past the New Year and even well into the year, set your goals for the rest of the year.

Everything is easier when you are working towards a goal. My goal is your success and I assume that is your goal as well.

Author Resource:-> Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania ( www.PostcardMania.com) in 1998, her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2005 the company did over $12 million in sales, employed over 100 people and made Inc. Magazine’s prestigious Inc 500 List as one of the 500 fastest growing companies in the nation. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy.

Article From Selling With Articles

Submitted By ArticleUnited.com

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed a book on my book review site called “The Celebrity Experience” by Donna Cutting.

This book shows you how to think outside the box..at least the box that our current society seems to be in, when it comes to how to treat your clients. To read my review, please click here, and to read more about the book, please click the image in this post. This is more than just another one of those “must reads” for anyone who owns or is thinking of starting their own business.

Here is a great article I stumbled on while surfing the net, about the coming wave of “mature women” entrepreneurs. It is from the http://www.grandmabiz.com website. Here’s the article, although I may not agree with every detail, generally, there is a lot to be learned from the article.

Introduction:

There is a growing trend in the field of the home based business which is retired female workers getting in on the massive amount of money to be made. The list of products and services that the older worker can provide is almost endless. Older workers usually come from the school of thought that if a job is worth doing it is worth doing properly and this gives them the edge in modern business. I know I would trust an older person to do a job a lot more than a younger person.

The empowering effect of a retired female worker augmenting a restrictive retirement income or better yet, getting off welfare and starting her own home based business, is spreading like wild fire as one person seeing the benefits tells another; the growth is exponential.

One of the biggest problems facing retired people is the amount of idle time they have when they leave the work force. It leads to depression and feelings of general worthlessness. Both of these things are combated quite effectively by a retired female worker starting her own work from home based business.

Avoiding Scams

It is not all smooth sailing though for the retired female worker who decides to take this route. Many obstacles that she has never come up against before will surely pop up and if she has no support or guidance in the ways of modern business it can be fraught with pitfalls. Some of the difficult things that the retired female worker is likely to encounter are the ever present internet scams that seem to raise their ugly head at every corner you turn. A person with no experience in the wicked ways of the internet fraudster is much more likely to fall for the riches they promise.

The most common of these is the multilevel marketing company that does not follow the government rules and regulations for how they sell their wares to the home based business operator. This can eat up the very limited capital that most retired female workers have to spend on starting up their home based business. One of the others is discrimination from young males in the business who deem the world of internet marketing as their own domain.

Handling Discrimination

Discrimination was not a major issue for most of the retired female workers when they were young for the reason that oppression of woman was just accepted. In this day and age discrimination and discriminatory attitudes can land a company or person in very hot water. There a few organizations out there that cater to the specific needs of the retired female worker who wishes to start her own home based business. These organizations will provide information on how to deal with discrimination and will also provide help with almost any facet of starting your own home based business.

Resources for the Mature Woman Entrepreneur

AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons, is an organization that caters not only to retired female workers but to older workers in general. AARP is a North American organization that caters to people over fifty and will help to provide information on pretty much anything that concerns older people such as health, investment and small business information, Medicare and where to find the best insurance.

There are however some sites that cater to the specific needs of the retired female worker and one of them is called WAHM. Work at home mothers is set up to provide support and advice to any female with children or grandchildren that has a vested interest in starting or continuing a home based business. This can range from financial backing without the discrimination hassle or just counseling for when things get too tough to handle on your own.

Another site on the net that is dedicated to women is the MLM woman’s newsletter. This reviews problems and solutions specific to the needs of the home based business woman that is involved in multilevel marketing. Any retired female worker that wants to start a home based business can rest assured that there is plenty of support out there and you do not have to do it alone.

by Ted Riley, (c) 2004 Android Technologies, Inc.

Today in church, my Pastor asked a question: “Do you want to survive or thrive?” It got me to thinking.

You know, it’s never too late to set goals. So what if you didn’t achieve your original goals when you were in your tween years. If you’re reading this, it means you’re not dead yet. It means you still have a purpose and a mission to be accomplished. Just because you’ve reached the “grandma age” doesn’t mean you have to cancel out those things you didn’t get around to doing. You just didn’t get around to doing them YET. As long as you’re still breathing, you still have time. As baby boomers and beyond, we’ve been given more opportunties to accomplish the goals and dreams we have for ourselves.

Here are some of my tips for setting goals at midlife:

1) Make each goal something you really want, not something that just sounds good: The truth of the matter is, you’re not getting any younger so you want to make what you do, from here on, mean something. But don’t do it just because. Some people like to play “follow the leader.” Because Mary wrote a book and it was a best seller, you think you can too but maybe that’s not really your calling and maybe your book won’t sell as well. Concentrate on doing something you are passionate about. Trust me, you’ll do a much better job at reaching your goal!

2) Don’t let your goal conflict with other goals: Your goal may be to purchase a million dollar home but if your salary is only $50,000 what sense does that really make? You should first focus on how you can increase your income or come up with creative ways to do some million dollar improvements on your current home.

3) Develop goals for both personal and business: If you have big dreams for your business, why not have equally important goals for your personal life. All work and no play can create something called S-T-R-E-S-S and stress kills. Develop a plan to ensure that you will spend quality “me” time to give yourself an opportunity to be renewed in mind, body and spirit. That way you’ll have more energy to continue pursuing your business goals.

4) Set high goals: The higher the goal means you’ll work HARDER but the REWARD will be that much sweeter!

5) Create a Vision Board: How do you know where you’re going if you can’t SEE where you’re going? Habakkuk 2:2 in the Bible says: “And the Lord answered me and said, “Write the vision and make it plain upon tablets…” My vision board hangs in my bedroom. It is one of the first things I see every morning. It reminds me of the goals I’ve set and what I must do in order to achieve those goals. A vision board keeps you focused.

Even as a baby boomer, who’s also a wife and grandmother, I still believe in dreams and I’m a witness that dreams still can come true!

by Beverly Mahone