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-
- EPnews -- from The Entrepreneurial
Parent
a work-family resource for home-based entrepreneurs
@ www.en-parent.com
- Volume 3, Issue 7
August 18, 1999
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Do you find EPnews useful?
Please forward to a friend, or recommend it to your favorite
Web site or
e-zine. Thanks for your support!
For easy reading, simply print
out this newsletter.
_______________CONTENTS_______________
- The Funny Things EP Kids Say
& Do!
EP Times -- An Editorial
What's It Worth?
Making Money Matters
EP Q&As
We Recommend
What's Happening at EP
_________________________________________
Note to New Subscribers: EPnews
is published and distributed on the second
and fourth Wednesday of every month. The Entrepreneurial Parent
at
http://www.en-parent.com
is updated every weekend; look for new content on
Mondays.
____________________________________
THE FUNNY THINGS EP KIDS SAY & DO!
Submitted by EPnews Subscriber,
Diana (mailto: [email protected]):
=====
Recently my three year old had
an assortment of footwear on the living room
floor. I had to ask her several times to pick them up. Finally,
after
becoming quite frustrated, I brought her into the room and said,
"Renee, I
have asked that you pick up your shoes three times now...WHY
are these not
put away?"
She put her hands on her hips
and said, "Those are *sneakers*!"
=====
Share with the EP Community something
your child said or did recently that
made you smirk, giggle, or LOL. Send your submission via e-mail
to:
[email protected]
with the subject heading "A Funny Thing My EP Kid
Said (or Did)". And if you need a stockpile of smiles to
get you through
your EP day, pick up your own heartwarming copy of Grace Housholder's
"The
Funny Things Kids Say" @ http://en-parent.com/familybooks.htm.
On those
stressed-out EP days, you'll be glad you did!
____________________________________
EP TIMES
-- AN EDITORIAL
Lisa is on vacation this month
-- check back in September for the next EP
Times column!
=====
Lisa Roberts
is the mother of four, Web Producer of The Entrepreneurial
Parent and the author of "How to Raise A Family & A
Career Under One Roof:
A Parent's Guide to Home Business." Copies of her
book are available for purchase at: http://en-parent.com/order.htm
and
through Amazon, at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0943641179/theentrepreneuri
_____________________________________
WHAT'S
IT WORTH?
"Back to School on a Budget"
by deB Sechrist
It's a milestone for our family
this back-to-school season: last week my
oldest son started his senior year of high school and his little
brother
started Kindergarten. Definitely exciting, but what a shock to
the budget!
Here are a few things I've learned to help that "BTS"
budget stretch as
needed.
Many schools have adopted a standardized
dress or uniform policy. Although
I know my 5 year old would love to wear his Star Wars shirt to
school, I've
found that the standardized clothing is much less expensive per
piece, and
quicker/easier for him in the mornings getting ready. We call
them his
work clothes, because school is his "job" and just
like dad he changes into
"home" clothes as soon as he gets home. This helps
the school clothes stay
cleaner and wear longer. Shoes and outerwear have the same rules.
My older son's school doesn't
require standardized clothing, but he still
has separate school and home wardrobes, so that just a few pieces
(4-5 pair
of pants, 6-7 shirts) will last all year. For items that cost
significantly
higher than the uniforms, he contributes most of the difference
in price
from his allowance money.
In years when money has been
tight, we usually buy just 2-3 outfits at the
start of the school year and pick up individual pieces throughout
the year
as we can budget them in. It's a lot easier to budget $30 per
month for 6
months than to spend $200 all at once in August. I also like
to wait until
the late fall and pick up bargains at the resale and consignment
shops, and
have an extensive hand-me-down network with my family and friends
to help
keep costs down.
Wash and re-use the smaller heavy
duty sealable food storage bags for
home-packed lunches. If you handle the edges and seal area gently
when turning the
bag inside out for cleaning, you can use each bag for weeks.
I've found
they can withstand about 30 washings: a single box could last
an entire
school year. Just be sure to teach the kids to leave them in
the lunchbox
instead of throwing them away.
Avoid buying the individual snack
packages of chips or crackers: buy a
large bag of chips or pretzels and parcel them out using the
sealable
sandwich bags. Recycle margarine or cream cheese containers for
free and
handy sealed containers for fruits, salads, and finger foods.
Using a
thermos for juice or milk is much less expensive per serving
than using the
individual drink boxes or buying sodas from machines.
Finally, when buying school supplies,
I've found it easier to purchase the
supply package that the school's PTO has put together. After
one
particularly rough year running from store to store trying to
find the best
prices (or any price on some of the hard-to-find items!), I determined
that
it wasn't worth my time to save the minimal price difference.
I did notice that
retailers are charging anywhere from $3 to $10 for assignment
books. Simply
make a form on the computer and print out several copies, and
store in a clasp-type folder . Homework and chore progress charts
and checklists can be made the same way.
=====
deB
Sechrist is the mother of three, Webmanager of The Entrepreneurial
Parent and owner of deBweB, a web design business. Find out more
about deB
at http://www.en-parent.com/webdsn.htm.
____________________________________________
MAKING MONEY MATTERS
Being available to your kids
and managing a career under one roof sounds to
many like the best of both worlds, but without pulling in some
kind of
income what's all the effort for? Making Money Matters! This
month Denise Turney, owner of Chistell Publishing, shares her
marketing tips with us. You can contact her at:
Denise Turney
Chistell Publishing
2500 Knights Road
Suite 19-01
Bensalem, PA 19020
Ph: 215-245-6222
Email: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.chistell.com
Please note: If you'd like to
submit a contribution for an upcoming issue,
email: [email protected]
with the subject heading "MMM Survey," and we'll
send you our survey!
=====
1. In a 2-3 sentence statement, explain what your home business
is about,
including your target market and "mission statement."
My business is books! The name
of my company is Chistell Publishing. We
write, print, publish and distribute books. Readers our are treasures!
Without them, we would not exist.
2. What are the most popular
products and/or services you sell? How much do
you sell them for (or what's your hourly rate), and how did you
find the
right price/fee schedule for them?
Portia is our main book right
now. It's a best seller. Next year we hope to
have Girlfriendz on the market. Portia cost $8.00. Shipping and
handling is
free. Studying the market is how we found the right price for
Portia -- that,
and listening to our readers. A product that is priced too low
is seen as
being "cheap" by consumers. On the other hand, if you
over price, consumers
think your only concern is money and not quality or their best
interest. It's
crucial to price each product right, otherwise you could lose
sales or gain a
reputation for being "cheap" or "too expensive."
3. What are *your* favorite products
and/or services? Why do you like to sell
them?
Portia is our favorite. Readers
from around the world have enjoyed Portia and
contacted us to tell us how deeply the book touched and encouraged
them. What
better reward is there?
4. Tell us a bit about your marketing
campaign. When did you start noticing
your first sales (after which marketing technique), what marketing
efforts
have you noticed yield the greatest results, and how do you make
your first
contact and subsequent sales (via online, phone, fax, mail, face-to-face)?
We market via phone (leave a
message about your business on your voice mail);
email discussion lists; "targeted" newsgroups; we have
an "excellent"
newsletter that features incredibly successful writers-publishers
around the
world giving out solid, valuable advice; press releases - everyone
in
business should send press releases each month; business cards;
t-shirts and
our web site at http://www.chistell.com
5. Any additional comments are
welcome.
Treat your customers right and
they will treat you right. Make people feel
like you are more concerned about providing them a service or
product that
will enrich their lives than you are about making money. Do business
with
integrity and always remember that the greatest value is human
value. Provide
"excellent" customer service! "Connect" with
your customers.
____________________________________
EP Q&As
Have a question? It may already
be answered in 1 of the 16 EP Expert Q&A
pages now up and running! Check them out at
http://en-parent.com/experts.com
(follow the "Q&A" links). If your question
isn't answered there, then send it to: [email protected].
We'll be glad
to help you out if we can!
=====
"Advice from A-Z -- Help!
Labor Day is still Three Weeks Away"
by Azriela Jaffe, copyright 1998
It's not at all surprising, come
around the second week of August, to hear a
cry for help from an exhausted working mother who has been responsible
for
full-time care of her children over the summer, as well as working
her
business. This woman's distress raises universal concerns that
apply to dual
career couples all over the country:
Q. My husband and I both run
our own businesses. I work out of the house
with a network marketing/nutritional business and my husband
and his partner
work outside of the house with a computer company that has been
growing
quickly. The good news is we finally have some financial stability,
but my
husband works long days and occasional hours on the weekend.
Over the past three weeks, my
husband has been working night, day, and
weekends on a software update release for a large corporate client.
I thought
I could handle it, and we did pretty well for two weeks, but
then it dragged
on a week longer than expected, and I am clutching at the very
end of the
rope.
My business has suffered from
almost a month of neglect, and now trying to
get back on top of everything is overwhelming. The stress and
frustration of
the last weeks has nearly driven me out of business. I am exhausted
from
being a primary parent without a break. Any advice/recommendations
would be
greatly appreciated!!
A. Your cries are echoed all
over the country by other women just like you,
who overpromised, put their needs last, underestimated the demands
of
full-time child care, and are counting the calendar days until
the start of
school. THE most important point for you to get is this: The
stress you are
currently feeling does *not* mean that you will go out of business,
does
*not* mean that you don't love your kids, does *not* mean that
your husband
will *never* be available, and does *not* mean that you are destined
for this
level of stress for the rest of your adult life. Even though
it feels like
that right now. The light at the end of the tunnel -- Labor Day
weekend, and
the completion of your husband's work project -- may as well
be years away,
rather than just a few weeks, when you are feeling this overwhelmed.
Let's talk about what you can
do right now, since at the moment, you can't
imagine making it through the rest of the summer.
Today, tomorrow, or very soon,
you need a break. You have put everyone in
the family first, and your needs last. We all do that from time
to time when
circumstances demand it. You need to restore your energy and
your
hopefulness. You need to be selfish for a few hours. My guess
is, when you
have a spare minute not dedicated to caring for the children,
you are
pressuring yourself to work your business. That won't work if
your energy is
depleted.
Here's my assignment for you.
Hire a babysitter or find a friend who will
take the kids for an afternoon. You can return the favor when
you are
restored. Schedule yourself a full body massage for one whole
hour, or a
facial, manicure or pedicure if you prefer. Then, I want you
to go to the
mall and spend at *least* 50 dollars on yourself for something
you don't
need, and something that is *not* for the family. Don't worry
about the cash
-- look at how much money you saved on childcare this summer.
Buy something
entirely luxurious that will give you joy. Invite a friend to
come along, or
enjoy some time alone -- whatever would satisfy you the most,
depending on
whether you most long for adult conversation or silence.
NO excuses! You'll have plenty
of them, because you are used to putting your
needs last. So act out of character as an experiment, and blame
it on me.
Second, I want you to plan, with
your husband, a romantic evening or
get-a-way for the Fall, when his work demands lessen, and the
kids have
returned to school. Do you have family you can leave the children
with for a
weekend? Since your husband is unavailable to you now, you need
something to
look forward to, so you don't start believing that it will
*always* be this way. If he's not even available for this kind
of
discussion, surprise him with something outlandish. Planning
it will give
you something creative and fun to focus on.
Third, lighten up your expectations
and your fears about your business. I am
sure that your business will not disappear so quickly. It seems
as if most
of the country slows down in the month of August. If you keep
yourself from
heading to the loony bin in the next few weeks, you'll be ready
to pour
serious energy into your business when the time is right.
Tread water for the rest of the summer. Keep in touch with key
contacts, and
do something for your work every day to feel productive, but
now isn't the
time to be worried about building your business. Focus only on
building your
emotional and physical reserves, and your much desired business
success will
naturally follow.
I'm sure you learned some hard
lessons this summer that will help you and
your husband plan a more reasonable summer for you next year.
We could
spend some time talking about next year. But you need to get
through today
and tomorrow, and for you, next year is a long time away.
You say your husband's business
is finally starting to take off and you are
pulling out of survival mode. You are probably used to an austerity
budget.
Go be selfish for a few hours! You are long overdue.
=====
Azriela Jaffe is the author of a NEW book: "Starting From
No: Ten Strategies
to Overcome Your Fear of Rejection and Succeed in Business."
(Dearborn),
available at the EP Bookstore
(http://www.en-parent.com/Experts/exp-jaffe.htm).
E-mail
mailto:[email protected] for
free online newsletter for Entrepreneurial Couples,
or visit Anchored Dreams: http://www.isquare.com/crlink.htm
for information
on other books, newsletters, and nationally syndicated column,
"Advice from
A-Z." To learn more about Azriela and/or to ask her a single
question, go to
http://en-parent.com/Experts/exp-jaffe.htm.
_____________________________________
WE RECOMMEND
www.ka-ching.com
www.oxygen.com
ka-Ching.com (think cash register)
is a business and finance site for women,
with simple, practical and upbeat info and extremely useful tools.
ka-Ching
was created by Oxygen Media, a TV and Internet start-up that
aims to combine
entertainment with education to empower women in all facets of
life. Owned by
Gerry Laybourne " the executive who turned "Nickelodeon"
into a popular
household name " Oxygen Media is on the cutting edge of
women's programming.
It is also now the parent company of Moms Online, Thrive and
a number of
other new specialty sites that are coming on board. Keep your
eye out on
Oxygen this October...and on ka-Ching in particular ;-)! (See
"What's
Happening...")
_____________________________________
WHAT'S HAPPENING AT EP
NAEP NEWS
The National Association of Entrepreneurial
Parents (NAEP) is having a BIG
summer! The press release officially announcing our Association
to "offline"
EPs went out to over 400 media contacts by snail mail and over
500
electronically during the last week of July. Response postcards
have all been
very positive, and the news is already starting to spread in
regional
parenting pubs throughout the country. Present Charter Members
as well as
Lisa & deB are all very excited!
FYI, new/updated pages on NAEP
at our site include:
Press Release -- http://en-parent.com/NAEP-release.htm
Member Quotes -- http://en-parent.com/NAEP-quotes.htm
NAEP Snapshot -- http://en-parent.com/NAEP-Snapshot.htm
Welcome Letter -- http://en-parent.com/NAEP.htm
Membership Benefits -- http://en-parent.com/membership2.htm
And to join the paid membership
option at EP -- with expanded membership
benefits including the print version of EPnews -- go to:
http://en-parent.com/member2.htm
ASSOCIATE MEMBER LISTINGS
We've gathered your suggestions
and expanded the business categories on your
EP Member Business Category listings. Now your alphabetical listing
links
directly to your business listing, with links to your site and
your email
address, all in an easy-to-use format. We welcome your comments
and
suggestions!
Meanwhile, if you haven't visited
the EP Member Listings recently, you might
want to check them out now -- there's over 150 new members to
learn about ;-)
Go to: <<http://en-parent.com/memberlist.htm>>
Have fun!
PUBLICITY/PR
Did everyone catch the review
of EP in Parenting Magazine this month? If not,
pick up a copy at your local bookstore/newsstand/pediatrician's
office and
check under the "Work/Family" column, August issue.
EP was recommended as one
of the TOP THREE Internet sites on working at home! The other
two were
www.workingsolo.com and www.quicken.com
STAFF NEWS
Lisa Roberts is the new resident
"Home Office Expert" for ka-Ching.com (!),
starting this fall. Look for Lisa's weekly columns, chats, Q&As,
plus more at
ka-Ching in October, '99. Please wish her luck... :-)
CONTEST
Need a bulldozer to plow through
the clutter on the bedroom floor? Does it
take a crowbar to pry open the door to your kids' safe haven
(and your
cleaning nightmare)? To help you with the Back to School Countdown,
Let's Get
it Together©, in association with Calendar Systems U.S.A.©
and The
Entrepreneurial Parent, is sponsoring an essay contest: Why My
Kids Room is
the Messiest Room Anywhere! In 1000 words or less, send us your
family
story. We'd love to see photos, too, and will display them with
the winning
entry at www.organizedtimes.com.
If selected as one of our winners,
you will receive:
---> Your own copy of The
Family Organizer to start the new year right and
get your family on the right track.
---> Lisa Robert's book, How to Raise a Family and a Career
Under One Roof
---> An Introduction to Home Organizing, a live teleclass
with Debbie
Williams recorded on audio cassette
The contest officially begins
Sunday, August 1, 1999 and runs through
September 30, 1999. Winners will be notified by email or telephone,
and
posted on www.organizedtimes.com
October 1, 1999. Winning entries will also
be published in Organized Times, the "Let's Get It Together"
organizing
newsletter, which goes out to over 1450 subscribers...
TO SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY:
By Email: Email your essay within
an email message or as a "text"
attachment. Graphics can be attached as jpg or gif formats. Send
to:
[email protected]
By Snail Mail: Mail your essay
(photos optional) to Let's Get it Together,
Messy Room Contest, P.O. Box 590860, Houston, TX 77259
* Please write your name and
address on the back of enclosed photos.
=====
That's it until September. The school year is right around the
corner -- hope
all of you are squeaking out the most/best family time you can
before we're
all thrown back into the steady, action-packed rhthym of the
school year. See
ya all then!
___________________________
CONTACT/SUBSCRIPTION INFO
The Entrepreneurial Parent, LLC
is not engaged in rendering legal or
financial advice. If expert assistance is required, the services
of a
licensed professional should be sought.
This newsletter may be redistributed
freely via the Internet. Re-publishing
of separate articles for your print publication needs approval
first; write
to: [email protected] for permission.
© 2000, The Entrepreneurial
Parent, LLC
Editor: Lisa M. Roberts
EP Webmaster: Deborah Sechrist
POB 320722, Fairfield, CT 06432; http://en-parent.com
Ph:/Fax: (203) 371-6212, Email: [email protected]
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