Archive for November, 2009
Marketing Monday - Open House
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If you sell a product, you may want to consider having an Open House for your customers. An Open House is where you open your home, or another venue, for your customers to come, view your products and do some shopping.
On Saturday, I went to the annual Open House for Elena of EP Designs. She had her shop set up in her garage and invited her customers to come and shop.
Also on Saturday, Bernadette from The Needlework Boutique had her monthly Open House. She sets hers up in the bungalow behind her house.
Whether you want to set up a regular time for an Open House or just do one occasionally, it’s up to you. If you don’t have a garage or bungalow you can use, and you’d prefer your customers don’t come to your home, see if there is a hall somewhere you can use. You may have to pay a hall hire cost, however if you join forces with another business mum, you can share this cost between you, as well as introducing your customers to another, complimentary business.
If you are doing something regularly at home, check the council regulations as you may have to register with them and comply to guidelines to make your home safe for customers.
Saturday Site - Heather Monro
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Heather Mono is the author of Peggy, a book about a washing line. She is an author, teacher and a Mum, so when she set about writing her first children’s book, she wrote with her audience in mind.
On her site, as Peggy, you can also read more about children and reading and how important reading is for children. While you’re there, read all about Peggy.
Peggy is a delightful story. The book is A4 with full colour illustrations and has an audio CD in the back so children can listen to the story and follow along. It makes a great book to listen to in the car on long trips too.
My 5 year old loves Peggy and is excited that he can now read it all by himself.
To find out more about Heather and Peggy, go to www.heathermonro.com
Friday Five - Jewellery
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Whether you are looking for a special gift for a friend, or something for yourself, you can’t go past gorgeous jewellery. This week, check out these 5 fantastic sites from business mums who create and sell stunning jewellery.
- Baubles, Bubbles and Bags - OK, so Norlin doesn’t make the jewellery on her site, however she does have stunning pieces and on occasion resells jewellery by business mums.
- Annette Piper Handcrafted Jewellery - for something extra special, you can’t go past the stunning designs by Annette. There is a wide variety of colours and styles, including some amazing gemstone necklaces.
- Sparkling Dragon Designs - Alana has some great ideas for Mum’s stocking with her $5 specials. With baby number 2 due not long after Christmas, she is clearing old stock to make room! While you’re there, check out her new season range too.
- Love Mum - Little Girls Jewellery - Not to forget the younger girls in your life, Jodie has a range of jewellery for little girls in her shop. Currently the range includes bracelets and necklaces, and any little girl will love them.
- The Needlework Boutique - For something a bit different, Bernadette has a range of stitchers jewellery, including beaded fobs for attaching to your scissors. The perfect gift for the stitcher who has everything.
I hope these ideas will help with your Christmas shopping. Stop by next week to see some more gift ideas.
Hobby to Business - Get help
Posted by: | CommentsNo man or business mum is an island. Quite a few times I’ve heard people tell me that the business can only grow as big as the owner - unless he, or she, gets some help.
The first thing I ever outsourced was my bookkeeping. It was a task that I hated, so would always end up at the bottom of the list & was hopelessly out of date (or so I thought). Once I got a bookkeeper in, my accounts are reconciled every month and I know where I stand.
There are many different ways you can get help. It may be outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant, recruiting your kids to help pack orders, bringing in a staff member, or getting sales consultants to sell your products.
Getting help also doesn’t need to cost you a lot of money. For example, if you are worried about having enough work for a full or part time administration assistant, hire a virtual assistant for the hours you need help. If you want your phone’s answered by a real person instead of an answering machine, look in to getting a virtual receiption service rather than hiring someone to be in your office when you are out.
If you want to grow your business to bigger than you, then get some help. Not only will you see results in your business, but with the right people around you, you will find your stress levels decrease and you will enjoy family life more.
Marketing Monday - Media Page
Posted by: | CommentsHave you received publicity for your business in the media? You have, do you have a media page?
One thing I have found with publicity, is that publicity often brings more publicity. So, promoting any media appearances you have had, can help you get in the media even more.
It also helps gain trust with customers, especially if yours is an online business. People tend to trust editorial in the media more than an advertisement.
Your media page doesn’t have to be elaborate. Having images of covers and articles is a great idea. Be careful about copyright, however. It’s a good idea to ask permission of the publication before reprinting articles. Some publications are happy to give you a PDF or image of the article for you to use.
A few examples of media pages can be found below:
Do you have a media page yet?
Friday Five - Gifts for Baby
Posted by: | CommentsIf it’s your baby’s first Christmas, or even if it’s their second Christmas, finding something special can be a challenge, or it can simply be a lot of fun and you end up spending a lot of money!
This week, I’ll share with you 5 great places you can pick up some great gifts for baby.
- La Toriana - Elizabeth prides herself on stocking gorgeous gifts that are unique. She supports a lot of business mums by reselling their products. For Christmas, she has a great range of baby toys that are sure to delight babies of any age.
- Twinkle Lily - Katerina has a stunning range of products in her store. For Christmas gifts, she has put together some great gift packs and also has a range of limited edition embroidered cloth nappies. Either of these would make a great gift this Christmas.
- Your Cheeky Monkey - Monique has a range of hand made gifts for baby with new products coming out all the time. One item to keep your eye on is her Thursday Gift Pack where she puts together a limited edition gift pack that is available on Thursday. If you can’t wait for Thursday, check out some of the gift packs she has available at all times.
- Pink or Blue - While Sheree specialises in the sale of breast pumps and other pregnancy accessories, while looking on her site I came across some stunning muslin wraps. Muslin wraps are a must have for babies in Summer and the range Sheree has perfect for a baby gift this Christmas.
- Golly Gumdrops - Nicole has a stunning range of baby products in her store. The baby gifts category has some wonderful ideas for Christmas gifts including gift cases and baby cakes . One of my favourites is the baby sock sushi.
I hope this gives you some great ideas for Christmas gifts for baby. Tune in next week for some more Christmas gift ideas.
Hobby to Business - Where are you?
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Where are you?
Recently, I heard about a business that was making it hard for people to contact them. The only contact methods were a mobile phone number and an email contact form.
When turing your hobby to a business, include as many contact details as possible on your site. This includes:
- Postal Address
- Office Address
- Mobile phone number
- Landline phone number
- Fax number
- Email address
- Live help details
You may not have all of these, and there may be some you don’t want to give out. For example, I don’t include my mobile number anywhere. I don’t want to be contactable all the time and have one more as an emergency contact for my kids school.
In the same way, you may not want to put your home address on your site. In that case, invest in a PO Box and/or a virtual office so you have at least one address to put down.
By having additional contact details available, you come across as a legitimate business, rather than a hobbyist, and you’ll find that instantly people will trust you more, especially if they have been burned by a company they can’t contact.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailySweeten Your Blog - Blog Tips
Posted by: | CommentsI hear so many business mums complain about their blogs - mostly that no one is reading them!
Over at Her Business Life, Anni has a great post with some tips on how to keep your blog interesting. The tips she shares will help your blog be appealing.
Anni’s final tip:
Jazzing up your business blog shouldn’t take time away from your business. Start by adding just one thing a week.
It won’t be long before you’ve built up something tasty!
What are some things you’ve done on your blog to keep it interesting?
Marketing Monday - About Us Page
Posted by: | CommentsI’m sure I have blogged about this before, but it’s worth saying again. Your About Us page is a powerful marketing tool for your business and you should make sure it’s well written and has relevant and useful information include. This includes your blog as well as your website.
Why should you fill in this information? There are a few reasons. One is to connect with your customers, especially if you are an online business. Let them know there is a real person and real team (if you have one) behind the website. Make sure you include a photo or image of you and your team. If you don’t want to include a photo, include a cartoon image, like the ones Lucie from MultimediART has on her About Us page.
The second reason is for publicity. I know I often look at sites by business mums looking for interesting stories. The first place I look is the About Us page. I know a number of other journalists do the same, especially after looking at advertisements in publications such as Melbourne’s Child. With publicity in mind, make sure your contact details are up to date and include a phone number. If a journalist is on a deadline, they don’t want to email you and wait for a response.
If writing is not your forte, hire a professional writer to write your About Us page for you. You can find a list of business mums who are writers on our directory. They will spend some time with you finding out about your business, then will put together your About Us page. A well written About Us page is an investment in your business.
Friday Five - Gifts for Dad
Posted by: | CommentsIf your Dad is anything like mine, finding a gift can be a challenge. We have some amazing members of the Business Mums Network who have made shopping for Dad a whole lot easier.
- Cyber Coffee - if your Dad loves coffee, this is the place to go shopping. Inessa and her team have a fantastic variety of coffee machines, coffee grinders and other coffee related accessories. You will be sure to find a great gift for Dad here.
- Recipe Blocks - following on from Masterchef, many people are getting back into cooking. Get Dad into cooking with the great recipe book from Mums on a Mission. It is full of quick, easy and tasty recipes the whole family will enjoy.
- Soap for Men - Gabbie from The Soap Dish has created a range of soap especially for men. They include a sandlewood soap bar that looks great and I’m sure smells great too. These bars would be a wonderful addition to Dad’s Christmas stocking or to his Christmas parcel.
- Artwork from Belinda Lindhardt - if Dad loves art, then a piece of art from Belinda Lindhardt would make a wonderful gift. I have one of her prints on my wall and it is beautiful. You can view her gallery of artworks here.
- Books from Suz’s Space - if Dad loves to read, check out Suz’s Space. With a wide variety of second hand books, Suzie is sure to have something Dad will enjoy. She is adding new books all the time, so if you can’t find the exact book you want, then visit again regularly or send Suzie an email to see if she has it, but hasn’t added it to her site yet.
I hope you’ve found some great ideas for shopping for Dad here. I’m sure Dad will love these gifts.
