November is the last month of autumn, but the beginning of a new adventure; time to take risks and do the unexpected!
The internet has an insatiable appetite for information. Billions of searches are conducted every single day looking for everything from how to bake an apple pie to why zebras have stripes. For anyone who conducts business online, these searches represent a steady flow of potential customers who are looking for what you have to offer. You just need to be very clear on what you offer, in order to be able to provide that value.
Who is your ideal reader? What does she want? What are her questions? What does she find entertaining? What could help her right now?
Your blog should position you as an expert and industry leader. Are you using your voice and personality to establish yourself as an expert?
Define your goalsWhat will separate your blog from the rest will be your ability to visualize a direct and coherent vision, with long term aims and strategies. So, be sure to establish your goals and have them tie into your blog’s brand and values.
Remember: Blogging is not a fast business-growth strategy but it is excellent for long-term sustainability. Those posts you write this month will continue to work for you many years from now, bringing in more and more traffic and potential clients.
Also, if you haven’t already, be sure to read 52 Blog Ideas for your business, who couldn’t use 52 blog ideas?
[Tweet “Quick Tip: Listen before you blog. It’s not about how smart you are, it’s about how well you serve.”]
P.S. Do you know someone that would benefit from this 30 Day Blogging Masterclass? Send them over to the TVS Classroom to sign up.
Top Ten Home Business Ideas for Parents
If you are looking to start a home business and are a parent, you may have to make special considerations. You will need to be able to work without punching a clock or having to be available at particular hours, otherwise, you’ll have to get a babysitter. If you don’t want to hire help, you will definitely have some special challenges. But, it’s not impossible. In fact here are the top ten home business ideas for you that don’t require clock punching, or answering to anyone but yourself.
Stock photography is used in numerous applications, from websites and blogs to print ads. The demand is quite high for good and unique photographs to use for these reasons. Therefore, most stock photography companies allow independent contractors to upload pictures for sale on their websites. You can also start your own website offering the images for use.
Designers are needed everywhere; the demand is high. If you’re good with using creative software to make webpages, advertisements, banners, book covers (eBook and paper) and more, you can work for many companies at the same time performing these services. While it’s deadline based, you can still work at 3 am if you need to.
As a freelance writer, there are many different opportunities today based on your skill level. You can write for so-called content mills, individuals looking for writers, as a copywriter writing specific sales copy, or you can write for yourself and publish your own books as PDFs or via Kindle Direct Publishing.
If you’re artsy and like creating art, you can do more than just create. You can sell, and you can make bank. Sites like Etsy.com, DeviantArt.com, and Art.com make it easy for individuals to upload pictures of their work to sell. You are responsible for shipping it on time, and you’ll give a percentage of sales to the website you list on. You can also start your own website but usually, you’ll make sales faster working through an established and trusted venue. 
Fulfillment by Amazon has started a trend in individuals selling both new and used merchandise through their service. Learning how to sell on Amazon can take a little time but there are people who are making six-plus figures doing it, and you can too. This is something you can do on your own time, with your children in tow.
Yes, eBay is still around, selling on eBay is a little harder than the other choices, but many people do it successfully as a full-time job. If you have access to the right products, you can do it too. Again, this is something you can do on your own time. The only thing that might take a lot of work on your part is packing and shipping.
You’ve likely seen the movie, “Julie & Julia” right? Well, Julie started out as just another blogger, blogging about her adventures cooking from Julia Child’s cookbook. She became very popular, sold the rights to her story, and a movie was made. She made money off the deal, of course. Today, bloggers blog about all sorts of things and earn money through advertising, affiliate marketing, and product promotions. You can, too.
This work-at-home business takes a little time and work, but it’s healthy, the children can help, and you can make about 60K a year from your back yard if it’s allowed in your area. You can sell at farmers’ markets but you can also sell directly to restaurants if you plan and market right.
If you’re detail-oriented and like to work at your computer, the life of a virtual assistant might be for you. Don’t want to be tied to one office or person all day, every day? Consider becoming a virtual assistant, which allows you a more flexible work environment.
If you love social media, consider starting a social media management business. You’ll be paid to hag out on your favourite platforms, all day! It doesn’t require a large investment or special equipment to get started, especially if you already have a computer and internet service.
Working from home is often a parent’s dream. They can be near their kids, not have to work by someone else’s clock, and still, earn enough money to not only pay for needed items but vacations, dream cars, and more.
It might be time for you to consider starting your own business. I know it was the best decision I ever made for me and my family! If you are unsure where to start, take a peek at the Studio’s resource page, there is plenty there to help you get started today.
Tell me, if you could start your own business TODAY – with nothing stopping you, what business would you launch?
I’d love to hear from you, tell me in the comments or join us over in the Studio Workshop, my free Facebook group for women in business!
Top Ten Home Business Ideas for Parents
Are You Using Blog Drafts To Get Ahead?
I have a quick tip for you today that will come in handy as you’re working on getting ahead on your blogging. It’s using the draft feature. Yes, it’s handy that WordPress and most other blogging platforms have a way to save your posts as drafts so you can continue to work on it over the course of a few days. It’s even better that they usually auto-save for you – at least it is in my case. But there’s another great way to use the draft feature.
You can use drafts to get ahead of the blogging game in several different ways.
Let’s start with the most obvious one.
The most obvious way to use drafts is, of course, to work on your current blog post until it is ready to publish. But don’t just stop there. If you know you have a busy day tomorrow or later on in the week, go ahead and give yourself a head start by creating a draft and working on it here and there as you can fit it in your busy day. You’ll be glad you did when it comes time to wrap up that particular post.
You can also use drafts to plan out your blogging for the week. Let’s say you want to post 5 times per week. Come up with 5 topics and create a draft for each. Then start working on them, making sure you wrap up and publish at least one of the posts on each of your publishing days.
Not only will this keep you on track and show you at a glance what you’ll be blogging about this week, but it also allows you to work on multiple posts throughout the week, giving you options when you get stuck on writing one post.
Let’s wrap this up with my favourite way to use the draft feature. And that’s to use it as a storage container for ideas for future blog posts. Here’s how to do it. When you get an idea for a blog post, go ahead and create a draft. Come up with a working title and make a quick note of what your blog post will be about. If you’re feeling ambitious, go ahead and write a quick outline for the post. Then save it as a draft.
To be honest, I have over 75 drafts sitting in my post calendar! Some are just titles, some are full blow written blogs that just need to be formatted. This makes it super easy when I am “not in the mood” to write, I can choose one, format, and publish.
Also, if you haven’t already, be sure to read 52 Blog Ideas for your business, who couldn’t use 52 blog ideas? Or just head straight to the Classroom to download the PDF!
Now, hop into the Studio Workshop and let us know, have you always been a drafter?
Do you have a Vision Board
Do you have specific goals? If so, do you have a Vision Board?
If not, think about what you want simply by asking yourself some questions:
• Where do you want to be with your business in the next year? In 5 years? In 10 years?
• How much money do you want to make in these same time frames?
• Do you want to hire employees or a virtual team?
• What services or products do you want to offer your clients?
• Where do you want to live?
• What’s on that bucket list?
One friend of mine who is in sales told me he likes to have two vacations booked a year with his family because he needs something fun to look forward to and the single summer vacation wasn’t enough anymore. Another friend in direct sales recently told me that she stopped dreaming big a long time ago because she got depressed when she couldn’t make those dreams a reality. Now she’s found great success with her company and has started dreaming big again.
I’ve also seen some gurus online say they are motivated to earn more because then they are able to give more to their favourite charities and causes that are close to their hearts. Again, there are no wrong answers when defining your goals. It’s more important to have them defined so you know when you reach those goals so you can find something new to achieve.
Jack Canfield, the New York Times Bestselling Author of the “Chicken Soup For The Soul” book series, is a big believer in the power of vision boards.
Canfield said “Creating a vision board is probably one of the most valuable visualization tools available to you.” The Law of Attraction is a powerful thing. Our thoughts can lead to amazing things.
Simply put, the Law of Attraction is the ability to attract into our lives whatever we are focusing on. The Law of Attraction which uses the power of the mind to translate whatever is in our thoughts and materialize them into reality. In basic terms, all thoughts turn into things eventually. If you focus on negative doom and gloom you will remain under that cloud. If you focus on positive thoughts and have goals that you aim to achieve you will find a way to achieve them with massive action.
This is why the universe is such an infinitely beautiful place!
I adore creating vision boards because they are visual reminders of what you want to achieve. They also serve as a daily reminder of what makes you happy and they are meant to give you motivation when you just don’t feel like working that day.
Take those answers to the goals questions above and find visual representation for each one. In today’s digital age, most of us use Pinterest and create a vision board there. Some still love to use photos and magazine images onto poster board or even to paste images into a Word document. Do what works for you – what will motivate you. What you will see every single day.
When creating your board, take notice of photos that catch your eye, even if it doesn’t specifically answer a goal question. There’s something that attracted your subconscious to the photo so it’s worth posting on your vision board. Post your vision board prominently in your office or as your computer wallpaper so you can see it every day. And remember that action is mandatory in order to reach those goals.
[Tweet ““Creating a vision board is probably one of the most valuable visualization tools available to you.” Jack Canfield”]
P.S. It is also a great idea to check out this blog post about goal setting and happiness!
https://www.thevirtualstudio.ca/how-goal-setting-can-help-in-the-pursuit-of-happiness/
Cindy Sherman is the first woman to break $1 million in a photography sale. She studied painting before she became a photographer and is known for her conceptual and chameleon-like self-portraits.
Below read a snippet on how she speaks on her budding career as a female artist in Time Magazine’s FIRSTS Women Who Are Changing The World.
I never felt pigeonholed as a child in terms of my potential. But I did feel that I’d probably be expected to settle down and get married and have kids at some point. I definitely remember from all the old movies and TV shows from the time, like The Donna Reed Show and Leave It to Beaver, all these women that were portrayed as these perfect moms. I never really saw myself as that. I never imagined myself getting married, I never imagined myself in a bridal gown, and I really never imagined myself having kids – and I never did.
In an issue of LIFE magazine, I saw Lynda Benglis as a young artist throwing paint on her floor. I don’t know how old she was then. I was probably in high school, but it was the first time it dawned on me that a woman could be an artist.
When my career got started in the ’70s, I did feel like I was being taken seriously. I didn’t really notice any kind of difference between men and women artists until I would say the early ’80s, when specific men started to become very successful. Even though I was critically successful, it was definitely a big distinction between what their work sold for and what my work sold for.
As I evolved in the ’70s, I think I took for granted what the first wave of feminist artists had to go through. I never felt like an activist because I didn’t experience that kind of fighting., It’s not like I would say I’m not a feminist, I just couldn’t quite identify with those women. Of course we’re all feminists, right? We all want women to be seen as equals. I am shy and not a person who can debate and take on critical political talk. But at the same issues definitely piss me off and show up in my work, and I definitely have always used my work as a forum to address a lot of things that I can’t say, that I can’t articulate.
Cindy Sherman, American photographer and film director.
Tell me, who inspires you? Share below in the comment section or join the conversation in the Facebook group.
We have all heard the saying “don’t sweat the small stuff.” right? I am sure you know that getting stressed over the little things is a significant way to bring unnecessary grief into your life. It’s believed that we can avoid a lot of negative feelings, and even health problems, simply by learning not to let the little things get to us.
I truly believe it so, here are a few things that I try, and I do mean try, to do and hope they also help you not sweat the small stuff!
When something small happens that makes you want to get angry, compare the moment’s significance to everything else going on in your own life, and in the world around you. You may have spilled your cake batter on the floor an hour before your guests are due to arrive, but… Are your friends still going to love you and enjoy the evening even if you don’t have a freshly baked cake for them? Probably, so clean up that mess and put your energy somewhere other than berating yourself for this small mistake.
When something threatens to destroy your positive outlook, remember that everyone makes mistakes. Whether it is yourself or someone else who caused the situation that right now, feels like a train wreck, keep in mind that mistakes are a normal part of life and they happen to everyone. Don’t let one bad moment take you by surprise.
It can be hard to forgive someone else when it feels like they have brought you extra work and stress. If someone rear-ends your vehicle or swings their car door open far enough to bang into yours, you may be tempted to lash out at them verbally. However, stop and think about how it would feel if the roles were reversed. I am pretty sure these types of things are not done on purpose, so don’t act and feel as though you have never made a mistake. React with kindness and choose empathy.
Forgiving others, for the most part, is easy. Forgiving ourselves – not so much. There are many moments that we treat ourselves worse than we would ever allow a friend, client or even a stranger to treat us.
When you are having a difficult time forgiving yourself, think of how you would handle a similar mistake made by a team member friend. Stop and think before bullying yourself, and consider seeking professional help if you can’t stop a cascade of negative thoughts every time you fall short of perfection.
A perfect example would be when a team member falls ill, do you tell them to stay home, rest and get better? I am sure you do! Then why do you push yourself to work when you fall ill? If you are anything like me, you would power through and rest after work is done for the day. It wasn’t until after I started seeing a counselor that I realized that I was not able to treat myself with kindness and forgive myself for the littlest of things.
We all have problems, and usually, at that moment, any problem seems big. Perception is not always the truth, though, and it is up to us to put our situation into perspective so that we can adequately deal with whatever comes our way.
When something negative happens in your life, ask yourself if it will matter in ten years. If it won’t, let it go. Heck, I sometimes ask if I will even remember in 10 days! So, if someone gives you the middle finger in traffic, don’t lose your cool, it’s just not worth it. Save your emotions for things that are life-changing and deserve your full attention. Laugh it off and move on.
I guess, in short, when something goes wrong, you have two choices. You can slip into a range of emotions, or let it go. Making the choice not to sweat the small stuff will bring you life-changing happiness, and you will be thankful for your own shift in perspective.
Now, I’d love to hear from you. What are some of the things that you practice and suggest for others to do, to help not sweat the small stuff?
I belive that one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time. Taking time to be more fully present. ~ Oprah Winfrey
Just under a year ago, the crazy successful TV series from Oprah Winfrey, Super Soul Sundays, was converted a podcast. Oprah talks with a fascinating selection of writers, philosophers, spiritual leaders, and celebrities about discovery, growth, life, experiences and so much more. It is designed to motivate you, guide you through life’s biggest struggles and help bring you one step closer to your best self.
I don’t have cable tv, haven’t for many many years, so I didn’t even know that Supersoul Sunday even existed until I came across the podcast! And I am so glad I did, listening to each episode has been very inspirational and motivating. The conversations are always along the theme of conscious living, self-discovery and how to live a fulfilling life.
Subscribe, listen, breath it all in and begin your journey!
Do you listen to podcasts? Share your favourites below or in the Facebook group, I’d love to find more to listen too!
