Archive for March, 2010
School holiday ideas
Posted by: | CommentsIn Victoria, the school holidays are here. It’s day 2 and already the boys are bored! My Mum gave them the task of creating an Easter Garden to show the family on Easter Sunday. This was a great idea in theory, in practice it’s a bit more complicated… Thankfully we had some boxes they could cut down & they’ve made crosses ready to go. We’ll get into it more this afternoon.
I read a fantastic idea on the EP Designs blog. To find it, you will need to scroll down to the post from March 13 called “Mystery Solved”. Elena sent letters to her son with clues and activities and he had to work out who the Mystery Bear was. The Mystery Bear was revealed on Easter Day, arriving with a basket of chocolates. This sounds like a fun activity and something to keep the kids busy over the holidays.
Another thing to do during the holidays is find some school holiday programs. We have ROCK running next week. This is a free holiday program run by the local churches. And, you can drop the kids off for the morning and do your own thing, or you can hang around and chat with other parents and enjoy a cuppa. If this is not your thing, then there are often holiday programs run at local schools.
Finding activities to keep the kids busy during the holidays can be a challenge, especially if you need to get work done on your business. If there are tasks the kids can do, then put them to work too. My kids want to earn some money so they can buy a bionicle!
If you have any great activities your kids are doing this holidays, please share your ideas with us by adding a comment.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyMarketing Monday - School newsletters
Posted by: | Comments
On the weekend, I went to a quarterly business planning morning through Time Retrievers. I was brainstorming some marketing ideas for the network when the suggestion came up about school newsletters. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, however never did anything about it.
Some schools allow advertising in their newsletters, others don’t. Those that do generally charge a small amount to include an advertisement. Sometimes you may be able to supply fliers the school can staple to the end of the newsletter. The requirements are different from school to school, however if your target market is parents, especially parents of school aged children, this can be a good way to get your business in front of this market.
Every family in the school receives a newsletter, and most parents read it. Often, they like to support the businesses that support the school - giving you a better outcome.
As with any form of advertising, you will want to put an ad in more than once. Parents are busy and often need reminding you exist. Plan to include your ad in at least 3 newsletters, if not more.
If possible, see if there is any other way of sponsoring the school or a school event, giving you more exposure to the school community. There may be raffles you could donate a prize to, give a gift to the “Student of the Week” or similar, or sponsor a sausage sizzle by providing the sausages or the bread. Most schools would be happy to talk with businesses who want to support them.
An ad in a school newsletter can get you some fantastic promotion. Don’t forget to test and measure your results so you can plan campaigns later in the year as well.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyDon’t be a hero
Posted by: | Comments
Does the lady in the picture look like you? Are you trying to do everything - housework, business tasks, childcare, not to mention spending time with friends, your hubby or partner, and trying to squeeze in a little bit of time for yourself?
Recently I saw a post on Facebook asking how other Mums do it. My simple answer is “Don’t be a hero, get some help“.
A lot of business mums tell me they don’t have the money to get help in their business. Getting help doesn’t have to cost a lot. One thing to do is teach your children to do things around the house. Are they able to make their beds, put their clothes away, even make their own lunches for school? Depending on their age, there are a number of things around the house they can be responsible for.
If your children are not old enough, consider hiring a cleaner. I have one that comes once a fortnight and we pay $50 for 2 hours. It’s fantastic as she cleans the toilet, bathrooms, and vacuums, as well as any other tasks she can fit in that 2 hours. It saves a lot of stress and I know things get cleaned.
On a business front, there are many ways you can get help. This may include outsourcing your book work to a bookkeeper, or getting someone else to look after your website updates. If your children are old enough, you can get them to help out too.
Another thing to remember - if you were working for someone else, you’d be working 9-5 (give or take) and in the evenings you could relax. Add this to your schedule and make sure you take evenings off. Same goes for weekends.
If things start getting on top of you, then give yourself permission to let something go.
One great example I read on a blog was from Annette Piper. She recently “played farmer” while her husband was overseas. You can read an account of her fortnight here. She apologises in a later post for being quiet on her blog. Something had to give, so her blog went quiet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyAre you charging enough?
Posted by: | CommentsI thought I’d share this blog post with you, it’s called “Top 10 signs you may be charging too little“.
As well as giving me a laugh, it also makes a good point, and something that many business mums have problems with - that is they undervalue their time and skills. And yes, this is something I do too.
Many business mums say “but I’m just a mum” or “but WAHMs can’t afford me if I put my prices up” or any number of other excuses.
It is important that business mums value their time and expertise. After all, people are paying for what you do, so it must be worth something to them.
While I’m on the topic, head over to SuperWAHM and download their WAHM Manifesto. It is a free download with no strings attached. It is worth a read.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyFacebook fans - how to get more
Posted by: | Comments
Not this sort of fan...
Facebook fan pages are a great way to promote your business. Recently I read a post on Super WAHM about Facebook banning businesses. This is an excellent post and one that every business mum with a Facebook fan page should read. As well as the post, read the comments as there is more information in there, including one from a business who had their company page banned.
Running a competition or giveaway for being a fan is off limits. So, how do you go about getting more fans? Here are a few ideas.
- Recommend other Fanpages - this may sound weird, however it works! With my Business Mums Daily fan page, if I know one of the sites or blogs I am posting about has a fan page, I link to it in the status update using the @ tag. A number of people from those fan pages have since joined and become a fan of my page too.
- Invite your friends - your friend list will change from time to time with new friends being added. Regularly go through your friend list and invite them to join your page. Just remember not to invite the same friends too often as this can get annoying and be counter productive.
- Link on your website & blog - include a button or link on your website and blog inviting your visitors, customers and readers to become a fan of your Facebook fan page. Not everyone will join, however if they don’t know you have a fan page, they won’t be able to.
- Invite your newsletter subscribers - if you have an email newsletter, invite your subscribers to become fans. Include an invitation and link with your newsletter and include your button in every newsletter to encourage new subscribers to join.
These are just a few ideas to help you increase the number of fans on your fan page. If you have any other ideas that are in keeping with the terms of service of Facebook, please add a comment and share your ideas. I look forward to hearing them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyMarketing Monday - Directory listings - add a logo
Posted by: | CommentsIn my surfing, I visit a lot of online directories, including my own and am constantly amazed at the number of listings where businesses have the opportunity to add a logo or image, but don’t.
I know there are some businesses out there that don’t have a logo. If that is you, you could add another image to represent your business, like Cyber Coffee does, or even a screenshot of your website, like Direct Publications has. You could even add a photograph of yourself, like Business Solutions & Services does.
Adding an image to your listing helps the visitor to connect with your business, often bringing an emotional response and increasing the likelihood of them clicking to view your listing, then going further. It also shows that you’ve taken the time to set up your advertising and care about the image your business presents to the world.
It can often be hard to keep up with all the directory listings you’ve created on the web. However, if you add your logo or an image when you first set up your listing, you won’t need to worry too much about it, unless you are re-branding.
If you are having issues adding your logo or image, contact the owner of the directory and let them know. They may have some tips to help it work (for example your image may be the wrong size or format) or they may be able to upload the image for you.
Logos and images can make a huge difference with directory listings. If you aren’t sure which image to include, then test and measure by changing your images from time to time and seeing what the response is.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyFriday Five - Blog tips
Posted by: | Comments
I have been looking at a lot of blogs lately. These are to include in the Daily Blog feature of the Business Mums Network website. Whenever there is a gap, I try to find a blog I like to include in the space so there is a new blog every day. The last couple of days there hasn’t been a blog because I have struggled to find one!
There are a few things I look for in a blog for this feature, and thought I’d share five of them with you.
- Australian - For this feature, I want to promote Australian blogs. If I can’t work out where you are, I won’t feature you. If the information is on your main site, include a link to that site.
- Active - I know that life can be busy, but if there hasn’t been a post on your blog since January or before, I’ll move on.
- Interesting - if the blog is all advertisements for your business, then it’s not interesting. Blogs that have some useful tips and resources as well as information about the business are interesting to read and ones I’ll consider including.
- Author - the author must be a business mum. Again, often this comes through in the posts, otherwise make sure you fill in the details on the About Us page on your blog. You don’t need to include full details of your children, even a statement that says you’re a Mum or similar would help.
- Easy to navigate - believe it or not, some blogs are hard to navigate around. The blogs I choose are easy to read and easy to go back and read older posts. Reading older posts helps give me an idea of what the blog is about so I can describe it. If it’s too hard to navigate, then I’ll move on.
I hope this can help you with your blogging. If you have a blog that meets this criteria, please share it by adding in a comment. And if you want your blog to be included as a Daily Blog, the details can be found here.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyBlogging - Guest Bloggers
Posted by: | Comments
If you are stuck for ideas on what to blog about, invite a guest blogger to submit a post. For a one off post, the easiest way is to ask your guest blogger to write something you can copy and paste into your blog.
There are many advantages for you. These include:
- A post you don’t have to write yourself
- Cover topics you may not have expertise on that are of interest to your readers
- Support some of your supporters by giving them promotion in this way
- Possibly attract some new readers by covering different topics
There are also advantages for the guest blogger. These include:
- Promotion for their business at the end of their post (with any guest post, include a link to the authors website)
- Share expertise and be seen as an expert
- Exposure to a possibly new group of people
When contacting someone to be a guest blogger, it helps to know what you want them to blog about - give them a specific topic, rather than a general invitation to contribute to your blog.
Example:
- Monique over at Your Cheeky Monkey blog regularly has guest posts on her blog. The most recent post is about photographing children.
There are many more examples out there, just look at your favourite blog and see what they are doing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyMarketing Monday - Business Mums Daily
Posted by: | CommentsThere have been a number of promotion ideas I have posted about lately, including TEEs Me! Please, where you can buy a day to promote your business.
At the start of this year, we started the Business Mums Daily. This is a daily site, blog and Facebook fanpage that we promote on weekdays, excluding public holidays.
You can buy a day to be featured. You get a write up about your site, blog or fanpage, or you can provide the text yourself. It is then featured on our home page and the Business Mums Daily page on Facebook. The number of fans are growing and we are getting a band of loyal followers who visit the page regularly and check out the site, blog and fanpage we have featured for the day.
It doesn’t cost much to be featured, only $25 and your site, blog or fanpage remains on our site for 12 months.
To find the full details of advertising on Business Mums Daily, click here.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyFriday Five - Rethinking…
Posted by: | CommentsI haven’t been keeping up with the Friday Five reports over the last couple of weeks, so I am rethinking what to do.
Watch this space to see what changes I make to this so you can still get some great information, and I can keep up with the workload.
If you have any suggestions for topics, or ideas how this could be done better, I’d be happy to hear them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums Daily