My Womens Business Success Blog

Working at home with the freedom to create your own schedule is a dream that more and more women are making a reality. Who would want to work for someone else if she could stay home and earn the same or more than she would at her job? Starting a stay at home... (Read Article)

January 2, 2007 20:17 - Home Business and MLM Opportunities - Separating the Best from the Rest!

With the advent of the internet, home business MLM opportunities are everywhere. If you are a work at home mom or a woman in the process of creating your own home based business, you may have noticed that here has been a huge increase in the number of available... (Read Article)

January 3, 2007 22:05 - New Home Business Idea - Making Money with a Newcomers Welcome Service

There is one new home business idea that won’t go out of style or not be needed in the coming years, because people are always on the move! In the last 10 years I’ve moved far more times than I would ever want to admit. Each time I found myself in a new town,... (Read Article)

January 4, 2007 19:48 - Three Fears that Prevent Women from Pursuing a Small Home Business Idea

For many women who are unaccustomed to thinking like entrepreneurs, starting a small home based business idea may seem like an incredibly daunting task! We're not taught to think like business owners, and so when we face risk, it feels like too much. For... (Read Article)

January 5, 2007 15:58 - A New Feature to our Success Blog

I have been wanting to share more about my own day to day personal experiences of building a business from home, so help other women have an experience of some of the day to day realities of home based business, and especially related to internet business.. so I'm adding a new feature here, which is my own personal entries!

This blog will continue to offer regular articles on building a business from home, and woimen's business success stories as well. I've added a photo of myself here so you can see what I 'sort of' look like! I really don't photograph well and have tried for years to get a good professional photo. This one actually is of me and some of my friends ... I'm here in the yellow shirt. People who have met me in person ALWAYS say "Mashubi, your photo doesn't do you justice!" :-)

Today our site received a makeover and I'm just thrilled with the new design! I started this site in 2001 and never really liked the templates that were available for it. Back in those days there were no web designers that specialized in creating designs for Site Build It sites, and so I just went on, year after year, with a design that I only partially liked. What a difference now! It feels like the ultimate freedom to finally have the site fully express who I am and what I want the site to be. No more fitting into a box that really isn't me! I look forward to sharing more with you about the day to day realities of building a business from home.

January 5, 2007 19:22 - How to Earn Income Selling Information Online

When I was a child, just a few years ago :-) it used to be that people went to the library when they needed information. Information technology has dramatically changed our ability to access information, and now when we need to know something, we turn to the... (Read Article)

January 8, 2007 12:50 - Technical Nightmares

One of the realties of owning a business online is that things break, and they often seem to break all at once! They break more often when you either starting something new, or taking your existing business to a new level. Today I am dealing with multiple technical challenges, as I try to integrate a beautiful, brand new site design into homebizwomen.com .... In fact you might even be seeing my nightmare right now, as the biggest problem is on our Success Blog page! :-) In addition to this, I can't access my site for any changes, and the formatting and design of the e-mail from my autoresponder course have gotten somehow messed up when I added the new graphic. Also, one of my e-mail services is completely unavailable! I find this aspect of business extremely tedious. It is the least favorite thing I do! The main learning I have had about this over the years, is 1. To never give up no matter how frustrated you may feel and 2. To outsource get help when there are things you just can't deal with and 3. To never ask for help from technical support people when you are upset ... this seems to simply make matters worse and prolong the problem. Everything is energy, we are all connected, and when you dump your frustration on others, this has the effect of coming back to you and producing more difficulty!

January 8, 2007 17:47 - How to Find Profitable Online Business Opportunities

Have you ever wondered how those successful internet business women you've read about found their profitable online business opportunities? Sometimes it is by sheer coincidence, and sometimes success comes through smart research and preparation. For example,... (Read Article)

January 9, 2007 20:50 - Unproductive Days

There will be some days in you home business when you can't seem to get anything done. Today was one of these days for me. I spent most of my work time trying to fix the technical problem with these blog pages. I did make some progress... yay!! But it wasn't quite as satisfying as yesterday when I added five new pages to the site and downloaded a trial version of a new software that I'm considering using to add new functionality to the site. You will have some days more productive than others, and the important thing is to stay consistent. Each day do a little on your business. Figure out what your "income producing activity" is ... what activities bring you direct income? For me, adding new pages to my site increases traffic and therefore income. It is a slow process, but it works. When I was doing network marketing, my income producing activity was to talk to five people about my business each day. That really did work! Figure out what your "income producing activity" is and do this, every day! So today, even though I spent most of it fixing problems, I will still be adding new pages to my site before I finish work for the day.

January 9, 2007 21:32 - Build your Business with a Signature File

One of the easiest free methods to market your business online is to use a signature file. If you are new to internet business, you might be thinking to yourself ... "What on earth is a signature file?" You might even have received countless emails with... (Read Article)

January 9, 2007 22:15 - Relationships Online

One of the blessings of working on the internet is that you can meet people from all over the world. Just to share with you a brief example of this… Homebizwomen.com has been nurtured and supported by people from all over the world! Our site building service is in Canada, a gentleman from India submitted the site to 450 internet directories, women from Canada, the UK, and all over the US have written articles for us, our web design team is in the Netherlands, a team in the Phillipines submits our articles to article directories, and our former partner site is now owned by a friend in Brazil. We have visitors from all over the world that benefit from the global effort that has gone into the site.

I love this about working online, but it also has its share of challenges. Communication via e-mail is limited anyways because we cannot hear and see the people we are communicating with. We miss a lot of the nuances and this can be even more challenging when you are communicating with people from many different cultures. The key is to always be very clear when you are doing any kind of work with someone, to address any potential areas of confusion right away. The potential rewards and friendships are precious, and well worth the effort!

January 10, 2007 23:14 - Choosing a Niche Market

When you begin marketing on the intenet, how do you know where do you start? As a small home based business owner, you can't compete with some of the large companies on the net. Niche marketing is much more effective. Here is some information on choosing... (Read Article)

January 11, 2007 21:14 - Taking a Day Off

When you own your own business, there is a great need for discipline AND balance in your life. You need to keep regular business hours, and do your income producing activities... AND you need to take a break once in a while. Today I ended up dealing with more technical challenges, so many that I didn't get anything else productive done. Even though I didn't get my work accomplished, I felt exhausted, and decided this evening to take a break from work and watch a movie. I'm so glad I did this!! I feel more refreshed, and I can do the minimal work that meets my "single daily action", without becoming exhausted. It is a blessing to work for yourself, and there is a unique learning process in it.

January 11, 2007 21:36 - Starting a Web Design Business

Is starting a web design business still profitable even today? The world wide web continues to grow, and more and more businesses understand the benefits of developing a presence on the web. Many business owners are unfamiliar with the internet and have no... (Read Article)

January 12, 2007 19:29 - Following Your Inspiration

Today marked some kind of transition in my business. I feel a corner has been turned somehow into the new energy I've been feeling. I was interviewed today at BlakeRadio.com and it was a lot of fun! I met Denise Turney through one of the women's networking communities I belong to, and felt an instant connection with her. She has quite an amazing work, writing, publishing, and interviewing such interesting people! I was nervous but ended up enjoying the experience, and she did a great job as an interviewer. I'll post the link to the interview here once it us online. After the interview, I found myself unable to focus on any one of my many business projects. For weeks now I've been very productive and working non-stop to add content to the site, to get a new site design up and running. Today, nothing I've been doing feels like what I should be doing, and I also feel I'm not ready for the new projects yet! What to do? I find that I really need to follow my inspiration, this is an essential part of my work and business. Today I'm letting myself take a break from the "heavy lifting" and am doing some of the more mechanical tasks like looking at the new link directory software I downloaded for the site and so on. Some times the rote and simple tasks of home business can be a real blessing!!

January 12, 2007 20:28 - Secrets of Today's Online Money Makers

Earning a good income online used to be easier. With fewer websites, it was easier for people to find you. This is not true any longer. Still, some people do well with internet business. What are the secrets of today's online money makers?These so called secrets... (Read Article)

January 15, 2007 17:48 - Savvy Advertising - Business Internet Marketing in a Nutshell

Savvy advertising - business internet marketing depends on it! Excellent marketing is the key to a successful internet business. Considering how many competitors are vying for your customer's attention, it is not surprising that advertising, business internet... (Read Article)

January 15, 2007 18:03 - Internet Business Start Up Tips

Working at home is one of the best options for women who would like to have more control over their time. Unlike when you are working in the office where you need to abide by the regular working hours set by the company, working at home on your own business... (Read Article)

January 16, 2007 19:05 - Newest Biz ideas

I've been building a new section of the site, called 41 Hot Home Business Ideas for Women. Actually the number keeps going up as I find new ideas! I've enjoyed researching and writing about all the different home based business ideas and opportunities there are for women today. There are quite a lot of options out there nowadays! I loved the creative, relationship oriented opportunities that I found at one of our partner sites. Most places just give you the information to start your home business, these ladies take it one step further by offering you personal one on one support that you’re going to need to become a successful home business owner. These are unique opportunities for women and do not involve MLM or direct sales. Even better, they are discounting their career kits for women until January 31!

January 26, 2007 16:12 - Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

I spent a week away from my computer, and it was fantastic to take a rest from my business. I am returning with some fresh new ideas and lots of new information to share! If you are operating a small or home based business, this may be difficult for you to imagine taking a break, especially at the beginning start up phases... but you MUST take some time to rest and rejuvenate. It is too easy to get burned out by your business! I always know when I'm beginning to feel burned out, as I lose inspiration and I simply stop working. It is TOO easy to sit in your home office at the computer but not be doing anything productive or income generating. Make it a priority to give yourself a break on a regular basis. As you're building your business, find ways to automate as much as possible, and to outsource some tasks so you're not tied to your computer!

January 26, 2007 16:32 - Ingredients For Work At Home Mom Success

Have you ever wondered why you aren't doing as well at your work at home business as you originally envisioned you would? Have you ever wondered just what does it take? After 5 years in business as a work at home Mom I would love to share the ingredients I... (Read Article)

January 28, 2007 14:20 - How to Market Your Ebook

by Terri SeymourWriting and marketing your own ebook is an excellent way to help build your online and/or home business. Being able to offer your own informative, quality ebook will establish you as someone who knows what they are talking about. This will... (Read Article)

January 29, 2007 22:59 - Learning Something New

I've been trying to learn how to create PDF files so I can offer ebooks and special reports for both my business and my non-profit site. What I initially thought was going to be a relatively simple task, to convert a word document to a PDF document, took two days! It was frustrating, as I tried four different programs and none of them worked! I tried Adobe, NitroPDF, Google docs, and PDF995. These programs either converted the document without the hyperlinks, or messed up the document formatting. Yikes! After several days of research and hard work I finally asked for help. Thank goodness for the Site Build It forums. In less than a day I had six replies to my request for help, all of them helpful. One of my fellow webmasters gave me a tip to use OpenOffice.org. I downloaded the program, opened my Word document in it, clicked 'save to PDF' and the document converted beautifully! Now I have a skill I can use over and over again. Persistence does pay off! These forums are incredible, and have given my business an enormous boost because of the wealth of information and support available there. If you'd like to visit the forums as my Guest, contact me and I can give you a free pass as my guest. It's an incredible place!

January 30, 2007 17:02 - Elaine K. Stephen of Angel Cloud Gifts & the Inspirational Gift Gallery

What motivated you to start your own business?:

With many years of customer service and sales administrative experience under my belt, I felt I was ready to undertake the challenge of being my own boss, Since I am a Christian, I wanted to spend my time supporting products that spread messages of Christian love, comfort and joy to whomever received them.

What research or preparation did you do before opening your business?

For many years I dreamed of having a baby and a retail gift shop. Unfortunately, I never conceived and the retail store front I envisioned required a lot of upfront investment that I didn’t have. Even if I did have a baby and a business, I wondered how I could spend enough time with a child and a business at the same time? I spent hours on the Internet researching business opportunities and adoption agencies. I discovered an online retail web site using product drop shippers had low start-up costs and would allow me to work from home and care for a baby at the same time. My husband and I selected an adoption agency and selected a web site provider.

What kind of challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?

The three greatest challenges of my online business is search engine recognition, affordable advertising and continually adding new and unique gifts to my web sites. To overcome the challenge of search engine recognition I took several search engine optimization courses. To overcome the challenges of affordable advertising and acquiring new and unique gifts, I have and still do spend hours online researching and networking.

What do you feel has contributed to your business success?

I believe the key ingredients to online success are: 1. Research, research, and more research! 2. Trial and error, trial and error, continuous trial and error! 3. Work, work harder and then work some more! 4. Don't give up!

What business strategies have worked well for you and helped your business to become successful?

The most successful strategies for my business have been link exchanging, networking and article, story and poetry writing. Link exchanges are not only a good search engine optimization tool, they provide web site visitors with relevant options. Networking has brought many new ideas and avenues for advertising and products my way to increase sales. Not only do I love writing articles, true stories and poetry for my Angel Stories, Angel Poetry, Angel Gifts Blog and my Christian Inspirational Stories, Poetry, Gifts Blog, they provide links to my web site which turn readers into customers.

What advice would you share to women just starting out in business for the first time?

Create a business out of something you love and believe in whatever it is you are selling. If you don't, it will be extremely hard to put in the hours of research, hard work and trial and error that are required to be successful and make it way to easy to give up!

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The Angel Cloud Gifts and the Inspirational Gift Gallery web sites both offer over 500 gifts on sale every day and a gift coupon offer. Their mission is to offer a large selection of affordable gifts that spread Christian love, comfort and joy wherever they go making it easy for their visitors to find and give all the angel and inspirational gifts they love to give. Visit my Business

January 30, 2007 18:07 - How to Succeed with Network Marketing Online

Can you really succeed at network marketing online? Since the advent of the internet, many different types of home based business have developed, but the most popular, especially among women and work at home moms, is the network marketing business. Perhaps... (Read Article)