I apologize to all of you who have now stumbled across this post as a result of a google search. In fact, this post has absolutely nothing to do with pre-game rituals, must-have appetizers and the cocktail concoctions of choice. Cocktails…. Sorry, I’m back. But since you are here, hi, and welcome to Work It, Mom!!! We rock. Surf around a while. You’ll like it. If only to see what kind of sweater dress and tights Sarah says you should be wearing this season!! I think we could all use a little fashion advice right about now. And wait. I think Chris has some recipes that might work for the big game. She does have a baseball team-sized family she is feeding every day.
Read the rest of this entry

If you can’t beat them, join them. And of course I meant that in the non-corporal punishment kinda way.

Today I set out to get the kids to work for me, rather than against me. You know how I am constantly pulling the kids out of vats of ink while I try to screen print? It hasn’t been very effective. Instead I have decided to include them in my tasks. I’m not saying I am brilliant or anything, but I am pretty happy at the results. Okay, I’m brilliant.
Read the rest of this entry

How about this economy? Are you freaking out as a small business owner? Let’s just blow off all those political promises right now and get down to the brass tacks of YOUR small business. Nobody knows what anyone is going to do for the small business owner until the rubber meets the road. You have to rely on your instincts and sound economic principles now to make decisions that are best for you. Here are some things to think about dealing with your business right now.

1. Know your audience. If the buyers of your products have always been online but online sales are dipping, maybe you need to consider selling local. Or maybe the reverse applies. There may be other ways to expand your audience.
Read the rest of this entry

Today I did my laundry. Silly, right? Doesn’t everyone do their laundry? I don’t even want to tell you how many loads I did (8).

Things have been really hectic around here lately. Between online sales, wholesale orders and craft shows, I don’t seem to have a spare minute in my day. Of course, I have that whole parenting thing going on too. Those two kids? That baby in my belly? I’m just rolling along here.
Read the rest of this entry

Today is commercial day. But it isn’t political, so you can breathe easy.

Every once in a while someone will contact me about sending me something free to review. I like it when it’s something fun (like a car) or something that I can use (a printer). Since lots of my business revolves around printing, faxing, copying, ect. beyond the standard office stuff (invoicing, ordering), I was excited to see what the Epson could do.

Is this where I confess that I am loyal to a certain competitor of Epson?
Read the rest of this entry

Most of my sales from my small business is online. Until recently, ALL of my business was online but now my business is growing through wholesaling and craft shows. Wholesaling is a whole different animal. It’s lots of fun. You put out all the money up front to fulfill orders and then you hound people to pay you money. Now I know how my paper guy feels.

But craft shows? Welcome to the mother lode.

You read that right. Craft shows. Your town has a fall festival? Chances are that festival has vendors. Ranging from the size of the event, you can pay as little as $25 for a table at a local elementary school. The top end I have seen is $1050 for a two-day wine event. That seems like so much money but people were paying $85 to wine taste for only 4 hours. If you are willing to pay $85 to attend an event, you probably will not balk at paying $25 for a t-shirt.
Read the rest of this entry

Oh, let’s get political. Why not? Not really. I just want to talk about the bailout and all the conversation it’s generating. I will apologize upfront. My husband is a free market economist. We subscribe to The Economist. You can already see where this is going.

I listened to the partisan politics. Both sides screaming that the people should be getting the bailout, not the financial institutions. I’m not sure exactly how that would happen but wouldn’t that be awesome? A check in the mail for around $ 4,000 to every taxpayer?

I began to argue with my husband about the reasoning for the bailout. I mean, if my business goes under, there is no one to bail me out. With no expectations that the government is going to hand me a blank check, I make careful decisions. If my decisions are wrong, then it’s on me. My husband said that without money, the banks would have no money to loan. Money to loan to whom?
Read the rest of this entry

I’m banging this post out on my two week old laptop. My laptop which, at this moment, is lighter because it lacks a space bar, numbers 1, 2, and 3, tab, shift lock, shift and maybe a function key? Let me say it again. NEW laptop.

It seems that while I took my 4 minutes to make lunch, The Baby took his 4 minutes to rapidly rip as many keys off my keyboard as he could before he got busted. That would be over 30. To say that I cried would be a mild understatement. This was my laptop that we couldn’t afford but that my husband said I needed because of all the trouble
Read the rest of this entry

Here is the post where I start to complain about how I have so much to do because the trade show in Vegas was so successful for me and then I realize that is horrible because there were lots of people there who would love to have my problem.

So I will make my apologies for whining about success, accept that the day will come at some point of this business where I am saying, “remember that time I was complaining that I had TOO much work to do? WOW, do I wish I had that problem now!!!” and move on to getting my life in order.

And realizing that the only way I am going to get through the day is to set out all my tasks and knock them out one by one. Personally I think it would better to just lie down on the couch in The Defeat of the Overwhelmed, heralded by moose track popcorn and a can of high fructose corn syrup-laced Pepsi. Because when you have your own business, you can just rely on your employees to be responsible and get things done. No, wait. You don’t HAVE any employees. Well, you have Susie Sunshine but she doesn’t count because she is at the end of the earth in Michigan so it’s not like she’s coming any time soon to screen print.

She can be bossy about business from afar though. She was back on her list rampage when I called to tell her that I wasn’t managing to get anything done at all. She reminded me that if I make a list and I just complete one task, I fill find energy and motivation I didn’t know I even had. Brilliant, right?

Sometimes finishing one little task on your list will energize you enough to cruise right through the rest of the list. If it does nothing else, the list gives you a sense of satisfaction when you can cross something off and gives you a sense of closure when you complete it. I think I’ll just be ignoring the fact that my list is two pages long. You can’t let it bring you down.

I’m back from the big trade show in Las Vegas. It goes through Thursday, but Susie Sunshine is holding down the fort for me so I could come back home and get to work. And lots of work, there is. I learned a good lesson in Vegas. Sometimes the business comes from the most unlikely places.

Things went really slow on Sunday. And Monday. I was starting to wonder if this was a big mistake and that maybe I was throwing my money away being at this show. My husband gave me the “you will never know if you don’t try it” speech and I started to
Read the rest of this entry