Heads up! Ill be shutting Bambina Ballerina.com down a few days for orders, just so I can get caught up on the many orders from last week. I have about 18 retail orders to complete and unfortantly my tulle came in cut in the wrong size, so the roll has to go back and the bolts have to show up. I have just about enough pink tulle to complete what I have in house right now, so dont want to get too behind. It will just be a few days and then ill be back up with the cart again for orders.

 Thankyou for making Bambina Ballerina TUTU Hairbow holders a sensation!

trisha

went! LOL.

 We (my dad and I went together) got there this morning and went to scout it out and there is an icerink in the mall, that was where it was all at. About 4 people were there and we had left our apps in the car (on purpose) so we went back to go get them. By the time we got to the car and back, there were about 15 people there. We sat down and everyone was staring at us. My dad and I are so interesting together. He is really charasmatic, but because he is young, no one is ever sure if we are dating. I pull out the laptop and start chatting with an online forum. Some lady a row in front of me says..I wish I had brought MY laptop.

THere was these really interesting girls (very nice though) next to me w/ crop top shirts and long skirts on. OMG. And crimped hair and just about the entire 80’s country look going on.  The guy in front of them had FEATHERED HAIR. He had on shorts, flip flops, and had his “investment portfolio” with him he was bragging about every 2 minutes. My dad leaned over and said to me, just loud enough, that $18 doesnt count as a porfolio. I love my dad.

There was a woman 2 rows in front of me, 36, looked 46, who looked right at me and said “all these 23 year olds here”. Whatever. Dont hate because i look good. Im not even close to 23, Im 30 in a few weeks. Thats what you look like when you dont drink, dont smoke, and dont worship the sun. Why do older women assume anyone younger then them is young and naive?  

I go out to the car to bring my laptop out and put it up and while I was gone, the newstation gets everyone in a promo for a commercial, w/ my dad in front. Damn. Im going to see if I can youtube it or find it on the website of the station to post.

CBS shows up and gets everyone pumped. Tell us to get our IDs done, they sign us up in groups. Tell us we have two minutes in front of the camera to say why we would be a good contestant. Our group gets called and we go into another room and wait. They take our pictures quite a few times, then they give us numbers w/ our names on sheets. They put my maiden name on it..which was fine becuase its my dads last name so I wanted them realize we are related.

We sit down to wait and the producer comes over and starts chatting w/ us….and like half the newscrew shows up and we must have been interesting because everyone was laughing (all the news people) at everything we said and we were the life of the party. My dad is freaking hysterical and we get on a comedy roll..it was fun.

Our numbers get called and we go for our 2 minutes and they wont let us do it together. So we go to seperate rooms and you ahve 2 minutes and if you go over your 2 minutes you are auto disqualified.

I said that I was “sick of boobs and ass on the show and they need a woman w/ some damn brains who wasnt going to get caught up in shomance and emotions and finally put the boys in their place. ANd that 3 years of winning in a row was unacceptable and I was there to take it back for the women and give everyone a run for their money. I also said that I managed to control (uh, cough cough) 70 women everyday (I run a forum), so running that house should be a piece of cake.”

I maybe talked a full minute? I walk out and my dad is done too! We had perfect timing. He also just said what he wanted and not the full 2 minutes.

I asked him what he said and you will never guess. I thought I was going to piss my pants. He said that they have never had a “metaphysical minister on the show and its about time another group of people were represented because he has to tell the world about the coming of the cosmic Christ.”

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After that we left and went to the casino where I won $50. So all in all, it was a really fun father/daughter bonding day. We wont know anything unless they call, which would be in May or June sometime. Together my dad and I would have made a better on camera case, but seperatly we are two completly different personalities, so I have no idea what kind of impression we made, if any at all.

 Here is what I did to my application though, I dressed it all up cool, so hopefully Ill be semi-memorable. Here is a sample of one of my pages.

I will update you if they call!!

Trisha

Wish me luck! Im only going to spend the day w/ my dad and to see all the crazies in line. Ill probably be picked though….you watch. Only that would happen to me! LOL

I thought this may be a good spot to talk about dropshipping your product..in light of all the excitement lately, lol!

 As a designer, you will always have people contacting to dropship your product. As we discussed earlier, dropshipping is when someone else represents you and once an order is made, they send you the order, with an agreed upon lower payment (generally 15-40% retail) and you ship directly to their customer, and they keep their percentage of the profit as reward for “selling” your product.

Dropshipping is good in some ways. It allows you to get your product on the market in as many places as you can handle. You have a constant flow of sites ordering and it allows you to gain business relationships. You also get exposure and your name out to people that you may never have reached before.

Now the downside..I find that in a product like I create, that my fabrics change so often that it makes it where I have to be very meticulous about what I offer, so when an order comes in, I am not out of what has been sold. You also have to make sure that your product is being shown in a light that you are proud of, that your pictures are protected properly, and that the customers can easily identify your products.

 A few things to remember with dropshipping:

If someone approaches you for a dropshipping account, check out their site. Talk to people that link w/ them and make sure they are reputable. Both of you depend on eachother. THey have to trust that you are going to make a superior product that is going to paint them in a positive light when it gets shipped and you have to know that they are putting your product out there in a way you want it displayed.

Second, dont compete with your own products. It wouldn’t make sense to sell something for $29.99 and a site you dropship for is selling it for $19.99. Your gonna lose your own customers. I suggest to make unique designs for your dropshippers, therefore your not competing against them. You want them to make money! As long as your products are selling, you are branding your name as well as, keeping a steady flow of orders coming in.

Third, make sure they use your name. I don’t want my product to say Hairbow holders next to it. I want it to say Bambina Ballerina hairbow holders. Nike wouldnt sell “Shoes” at Target, they are Nike Shoes. You are only as good as someone knowing who you are.

Fourth, keep a really good record on who sells your products, which products they have that they sell, and the negotiated terms for the agreement. I know that I have negotiated different terms for different sites. I have a little roladex with a companies name, information, federal Tax ID number, and website listed on it, along with any special terms we have. THings may change and your percentage may go up or down in the future, so keep track of who you told what to.

 Fifth, only hook up with sites you want to be associated with. Dont just accept any client. If you come on and thier page looks bad, and their products look bad, dont add yours! I did not follow this in the past. When I first started I added to anyones page that asked me. HA! Even pages with misspelled text on their front pages of their site (ie person who stole my design). If its calling out to you NO, dont do it!

Sixth, allow those that dropship to compete with your sales when you have them.

Thats really about it. I find that dropshipping your product, while exposure is nice, is not all its cracked up to be. I feel a lot under pressure when I have several dropshipping accounts laying on my desk in the middle of my own orders. I know that thier reputation is as good as me getting out the product, so I have this need to stop what Im doing and get it out the next day, and its nearly impossible. So make sure you have enough time set aside to have many accounts out there!

trisha

First, I wanted to invite you to join my moms social network, its at www.thekiddieclique.ning.com (and anyone else that is a mom, blogger, or boutique can join as well).

Second, I wanted to address your comment..

I do have another question, this one I find more personal than business.

I feel that I have an apprehension, perhaps even a borderline fear about starting this business, what if things get busy? What if I fail? What if I don’t have the support I need from my family? ~Did you have these “fears”? Did you find that your mind was trying to sabatoge you? How did you overcome them if you had them?

I have always had dreams of my own business..for years. My husband wants/wanted to open a resteraunt and I wanted a Couture high end store that sold handbags, scarves, and fancy dresses. I thought about sitting there all day with this gorgeous store and picking out the items (no, I didnt think about finding those items or even funding, lol). Once I had a child, my dream turned to a baby boutique instead and I focused on that. As I became more and more internet savvy, I knew that an online store was right for me.

Once I came to that conclusion, all I could do was think about it was how the heck do I do it?!?! I consider myself a pretty intelligent person, I went to college, I have worked with a lot of great people and companies, but for the life of me, I was still afraid to take that step.

 WHAT IF I fail. What if!! I held off for about ….2.5 years because of what IF? ANd yes, I could have failed. I jumped in with both feet and decided WHO CARES if I fail. Who exactly would it hurt if it didnt work..the worst that could happen was I learned a few things. I spent so long worrying about the what if and what I didnt know in making it work, that I didnt do it. Now I am coming up on my year annivesary in Sept of owning my store and I could kick myself for not believing in myself more.

I think its engrained in us women to completely ignore our self worth so many times and just KNOW we are going to succeed.

A long time ago, Im talking about 10 years ago, I got a fortune cookie and on the inside of it, it said Desire Creates the Power.  I took that fortune and taped it to my computer when I was in college. I carried that fortune around till about a year ago when it got lost, but the saying still remains.

Desire CREATES the Power.

If you really, really want something and thats all you think about, you will find a way to make it work. Yes..long nights, self doubt, wrong decisions will be made, but those will all be small in the scheme of hard work, satisfaction, and the joy you feel when you have completed something or made someone happy on the other end.

One thing I can suggest is to set tiny goals at first. Dont let your goal to be in one month to make $5K or have 4500 visitors. Its unrealistic in a lot of ways. Make your goals to be

1) finding a webmaster …check

2) joining online mom business communities like divapreneur.ning.com and poshmama.com for assistance w/ other moms

3) looking at other business to find things you like and dont like

4) making up a launch date and signing up with blogs to advertise your launch date

5) putting X amount of products on your site a week

Etc. All those little goals are the things that are YOU accomplishing what you DREAM of. They say it takes a year to really start making money and you have to keep that in mind. I can remember in November working literally sometimes into 3am and then taking the money I made and having to reinvest it right back into the company and I thought..i will NEVER get this off the ground. I just want to KEEP some of this money..LOL! Now its April and the profit is finally there. (not this month, I had to go buy supplies for the next 6 months, lol).

Last but not least, while family support is wonderful, dont let it keep you from accomplishing your goals or bringing you down. A mom working at home is so hard for families. They see you, but cant bug you, they see you sitting on the computer and they want to think you are just playing around and why cant you hang out. Being at home is tempting for kids and husbands because your HERE. It takes not only discpline on your end, but on theirs as well. I cant even explain how many times my husband wants me to just stop and go to bed for the night or watch a movie and I have to resay…IM WORKING!

Find support in other arenas, with other moms, with online communities and business networking with other moms, that will give you the push when you want to let go, for them to say…just keep going. The difference between failure and success…is that the people with success, never quit.

Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon… must inevitably come to pass

I have a personal blog and this one and I am combining it so I can give equal love! Please go to

www.thekiddieclique.com/main to get all my updates!

http://pink-heels.blogspot.com/

 http://www.themoderngoddess.com.hk/blog/

 http://www.blogwhammy.com/

By Deborah Robinson on February 12th, 2008

Women face different challenges than male entrepreneurs. This was the finding of papers presented at the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship (AGSE) 5th International Entrepreneurship Research Exchange at Swinburne University last week.

“The research undertaken into female entrepreneurialism in Australia, Germany, Denmark and Canada found that women in entrepreneurship face more challenges than men because of their family and home commitments,” said Patricia Buckley, Associate Professor at the AGSE.

An Australian study analysed how the digital economy is increasing opportunities for business and changing the nature of how we work, offering advantages to female entrepreneurs.

“The digital economy reduces the importance of location and a ‘standard’ day, which makes the sector more attractive to female entrepreneurs, many of who juggle home and family responsibilities” said Ms Buckley.

A study into male and female SME owners in Australia found that female SME owners consult more frequently with family and friends (informal networks) and male SME owners consult more frequently with banks, business consultants, industry associations and solicitors (formal networks).

Formal and informal networks improve the chances of survival for the businesses of both female and male SME owners but don’t improve the chances of the business achieving growth.

“Formal, and often after hours, networks are more difficult for female entrepreneurs to access due to their home commitments,” said Patricia. “However, this research demonstrates women are still getting the support they need to run a successful business from family and friends,” she said.

A German study found that female entrepreneurs faced significant misapprehension of their entrepreneurial activities by financial institutions. This caused them to be less likely to start a business than men due to limited capital to invest in their enterprises. The size of the businesses they seek to develop also inhibited their ability to get their business off the ground.

A Danish study found female and males provide different resources to entrepreneurs. If entrepreneurs required emotional support, they are more likely to receive it from females who also provide highly sought after encouragement.

While a Canadian study found that many women in the advanced technology sector believe they face gender specific career challenges. More than 60 percent ranked obtaining work-life balance among the top three challenges, second was the lack of best practice for women in leadership, and a lack of women mentors and coaches was the third highest ranked challenge.

“This research demonstrates that women throughout the western world are still juggling with the demands of work and home. They are also struggling to receive the financial support required to see their entrepreneurial ideas come to fruition and there is a lack of leadership and mentoring among women,” said Patricia Buckley.

Ten Ways to Work from Home Without Going Crazy

Working from home is one of the great perks of being self employed - no more commute, more flexible workday, eating lunch at home, being home when the kids get home from school.

Yet one of the questions I get asked most frequently is how to stay productive when working from a home office. And it’s true, there are many more ways to get distracted when working from home - the tv, the telephone, the laundry - can all conspire to throw you off track.Here are some of my tips that have done well for me over the years:

1. Set Up a Separate Home Office

Particularly if you have kids you must have a separate office space. This does two things: it sets a signal to your family that your business is real and it creates a mental shift for you.

When you’re in your office, you’re “at work” and when you leave your office, you’re “at home”. Trust me, this is essential or you’ll be working 24/7. Even if you’re not sitting at your desk, it’s easy to be mentally at work instead of with your family. Having a physical barrier between work and family can help you mentally let go of the day.

Getting your family to respect your work can be difficult. You’re home so they may just naturally drop in. In my house, my son learned fairly quickly that I was serious about my business.

My husband on the other hand still wanders in while I’m in the middle of writing and starts telling me some story he read in the paper. The key is to be tough. I keep writing and ignore him. He’s starting to remember not to bother me during work hours unless it’s important.

That said, it doesn’t mean I won’t deal with my family at all. When my son comes home from school I take a break and greet him, fetch him a snack and have a brief conversation about his day before doing back to finish my day.

2. Don’t Share the Family Computer

Whether you use the computer all day like me, or only for accounting and email, having a business-only computer is essential. When I first started working from home we shared one computer. This rapidly became unworkable. I was always competing with the family for computer time. And I could never leave work on my desk that I was planning to start with the next day. If I did, it would be moved, mixed up or have food spilled on it.

Even though cost is an issue for many start-up businesses, purchasing a second computer will be the best investment you make. It doesn’t have to be overly costly. Many computer stores sell used computers very cheaply. In fact, when I first started my business we bought a used computer that was faster than the one we already owned for less than $100.

3. Make Your Home Office a Work Space

Try to make your home office look as professional as possible. This isn’t just about meeting clients - I have a policy of never meeting clients at home. It’s about my own productivity and mental attitude to work.

You don’t have to reproduce a cubicle from the corporate world, but you need to have a professional feel. You don’t want your office to be something that’s squeezed into a room that has a different primary use.

That said, it doesn’t mean your home office can’t have secondary uses. We live in a century home and one of only two closets in the house is in my office. This means the closet is full of clothes, not office supplies. I also have a pull-out couch in my office which means at Christmas this room becomes an overflow guest bedroom.

However, the rest of the time it is for work only. Besides my desk and computer I have proper filing cabinets, cupboards for office supplies, a bookshelf of business related books, a scanner, printer and fax machine and a bulletin board.

4. Dress the Part

The myth is that self employed people are at home working in their pjs. Now I won’t say that I never work in my pjs. Since I write most of my blog posts between 5 am and 7:30 am it’s not completely unheard of for me to start writing before I get dressed, but it is rare.

However, I’ve learned that I’m most productive when I’m dressed for business. Now this doesn’t mean I wear a suit and pantyhose. That’s not my style. However I do wear “business casual” to my home office. It makes me feel more professional and as a result I get more done. It also means that if I do have to run out to meet a client, I don’t have to change first. I can throw on a jacket and be presentable.

5. Minimize Distractions

Don’t let the fact that you’re at home mean family and friends can drop by any time. Let them know what your office hours are and don’t tolerate distractions. If someone calls to chat during your workday politely let them know you’re in the middle of something and that you’ll call them back later.

If possible, set “office hours” and let friends and family know what they are. I have friends who only call me during the lunch hour during the day because they don’t want to disturb me. Having set office hours also lets clients know when they can reach you, which makes your home business seem more professional.

6. Don’t Share Your Business Phone

Sharing a phone with your family can be a recipe for disaster. You don’t want to miss an important call from a client because your teenager is monopolizing the phone. You want to be sure that your business phone is always answered professionally. My son has a bad habit of answering with “hi”. I don’t want a client hearing that.

You don’t want to miss important messages from a client because someone “forgot” to give you the message. Having a separate line means the message can go to voicemail - and you’ll be the one to pick up the message.

Finally, you want to be able to walk away from work at the end of the day. Having a separate phone line means you won’t be temped to take that one last client call.

7. Keep Your Goals, Vision and Purpose Prominent

If it’s a nice sunny day it can be easy to forget why you’re working. Keep your goals, vision and purpose where you can see them. It will remind you what it’s all for and help you stay on track even when other priorities are fighting for your attention.

8. Use Your Calendar

When you work from home it’s easy to lose track of times and even dates. Get in the habit of looking at your calendar at the beginning of each day so you know what deadlines are coming up and what appointments are happening that day. It will keep you motivated and ensure you don’t miss anything.

9. Keep Track of Your Time

Working from home can easily cause you to fritter away your day doing non-work activities. Whether it’s putting on a load of laundry, running to the kitchen for a snack or taking a break to watch Oprah, if you’re not careful you can lose large chunks of your workday to nonessential activities.

If you’re consistently feeling like you’re not getting enough done during the day, consider tracking your time. You may discover you’re wasting more time than you realize.

Create a weekly chart with your day broken down into half hour segments. Then note each of your activities throughout the day. Be sure to note which activities are actually earning money and which are administrative or “busywork”. You may be at the computer but if you’re surfing the web or playing minesweeper, you’re not really working.

At the end of the week, review your chart and count up the hours you actually spent working - including those hours that actually earned you money. This will help you determine if you’re using your time wisely.

10. Be Realistic

Yes saving the commute by working at home means you have more time than working in a job. But remember that you also have other distractions. And just because you can work at 5 am, 8pm and midnight, doesn’t mean you should. Don’t fall into the trap of working all day, every day. Make sure you set a realistic work schedule for yourself so you don’t burn out.

And don’t forget to be flexible once in a while. If you can’t take an afternoon off to sit in the sun or go to the movies once in a while, what’s the point of working for yourself?

Andrea J. Stenberg

Do you have tips or strategies that make working from home work for you? Please leave a comment and tell us how you do it.

http://thebabyboomerentrepreneur.com/130/ten-ways-to-work-from-home-without-going-crazy/

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If you own a boutique, you must go here. This is boutique sales all listed in one spot. Its fabulous for bringing in new customers who are interested in your products and they are very quick in getting your sales up! They have a variety of categories and you can choose to be listed in 5 of them at once.

The best part…its free!!Baby Boutique Sales

There are so many great, and free, ways to market and advertise your site. Over the course of the past 8 months, I have maybe spent $50 in different advertising techniques testing out new and inventive ways to get my name out there.

First, let me tell you what doesnt work. Top “100″ sites are sites that list boutiques in hoards…you put your banner on there and their banner on your site. The only way you can stay near the top where people can find you, is to get thier banner clicked through from your page, which raises where your banner is on the site, and then in turn you get clicked on. What I find top 100 sites good for, is finding other like businesses. I can go in there and have a one stop shop to clicking and contacting other mommies like me who maybe want to cross promote or exchange links.

In the beginning, I spent a lot of time wasting my time adding my banners to lots of Top 100 sites. After I got my sitemeter tracker, I realized I maybe got one or two click throughs a week from them, and those were probably from other site owners doing the same research.

I do recommend going out there to check out Top 100 sites, if for anything so other boutiques know who you are and you know who they are. You can find sites that you never would have been exposed to here and I think for that, they are worth checking out.  Spend some time finding, and emailing, boutique owners and asking to exchange links on the link pages. THAT is advertising that is free that works!

E-Boutique Online -

I’ll admit it…I am a workaholic. From the time I wake up till midnight, I spend all day working. If I am not physically working, I am mentally preparing to work. Im designing in my head, I’m planning my next thing I have to do.

Having a family in the same place as your work environment can really present quite a few challenges. Unlike someone who works away from home, you always have your office staring you in the face and even when its dinner time or family time, you are wondering if your email is racking up or you have another order you have to fill.

One thing that has really helped me recently is to have a schedule. I recently made myself plan out Monday-Sunday what I needed to do each day.  I figure out what has to go out on what date and plan for each day a little at a time. Last week I literally worked 14 hours straight on Saturday, and I was so dead, I took two days off. So instead of getting ahead, just really made me even when I took those extra days.

I find that when I schedule things, it makes for more structured hours, a happier husband, a happier child (yes, mommys working AGAIN), and a much needed break. Also, let me emphasize that finding time outside of your work and family life is so important. Do your store trips alone, go put gas in the car alone, make time to read or take a bath in the evening.

Get your household organized, pre-prepare or pre-plan your meals so you are not scrambling, or worse, heading to McDonalds again. Let your family know what time is theirs and what time you HAVE to work. Paste your schedule in your work place so its not staring at you in your home, but only when you ‘go to work’ itself. Set your items up for the next day..if you create a product, make sure you stay well organized, your supplies are ordered in the right amount of time, and your accounting has a specific day.

One thing I also do, is when I complete an order, I tear out the order sheet and put a big checkmark through it so its a big official Im done! It always makes me feel good.

Because if you dont enjoy your life, why are you doing all this?

One thing that no one can do without, is knowing what is working for you in the online marketing and advertising realm. You need to know how many people are coming, how long they are staying, what pages they are linking in on and leaving from, how long they are on your site, and most importantly, the referring URL.

A referring URL is the link that tells you where your traffic comes from. You can see if a forum is talking about you and go to the link to read (good or bad!), you can find out if your traffic is from ebay or etsy click throughs, if the its from the search engines and what key words they used to have your links come up.

Its also really useful in knowing how far in the search engine you are on the keywords.

 Adding a free counter to your website footer, which you can put as invisible or visible, is a very easy process. ONce you have added the HTML that they provide you in the footer of your webpage, its as simple as checking in on it every day or a few times a week. I always like to know if I recieved tons of purchases for one day, if everyone came from the same spot.

The free counter that I use is at SITEMETER. When you log into site meter you will see all sorts of useful information like who is on, where did they come from, what link did they click through, how long were they on your site, and even a traffic prediction for the month.

Here are my current referrel links from my last 5 customers on my site…when I am logged in, I can click ont he links and go straight to the link and find out where they came from, or I can click on the number beside and find out more about that indivdual customer.

Here is a sample of clicking on a number and the inof you can find out ( i removed thier IP address for safe keeping).

Domain Name		xo.net ? (Network)
IP Address
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Texas City  :  Dallas Lat/Long  :  32.8098, -96.7993 (Map)
Operating System		Microsoft Win2000
Javascript		version 1.3
Resolution	:	1280 x 768
Color Depth	:	32 bits

10,270

Now I know that someone came through my main site, clicked through to my blog and sat on it for 21 minutes total. I can see that google referred them and the keywords they typed in.

See how useful this is?

Head on over to 5minutesformom to enter the Toys for Two weeks contest! I have entered to win the Rose Petal Cottage, which my little princess would love! Right now she has this plastic barbie house thing in the corner of her playroom, but its not nearly as cute as these Rose Petal Cottages. And to have the add ons with the laundry room and baby carriages, its just so darling!

5minutesformom.com is excellent at promoting mom made products, as well as, bringing some of the best contests on the web straight to you, all while promoting mom businesses and blogs. Head on over to enter today!!