The new book, Corporate Mom Dropouts, has just been released and is now available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Borders and other major distribution stores Nationwide.  I will be doing a book tour locally and looking to reach NC, ATL and Chicago early 2010 to help spread the word and give away free copies, t-shirts, bags and journals.

The book, in short: Published in October 2009, Cross’ new book Corporate Mom Drop Outs – Women who have traded in the life sentence for a profitable lifestyle will help “wanna-be” mompreneurs everywhere turn their dream of owning their own business into a reality. Written in trimesters, the book mimics the birthing process from inception to a healthy full-term business.

Whether you are tired of making money for someone else, or missing out on your child’s soccer games or music recitals, feel like you are worth more than what your are being paid, or feeling anxiety over leaving your newborn at home 40+ hours a week – this book will give you the tools you need to lead you down the entrepreneurial path to success!

Throughout 2009, Cross-interviewed hundreds of mompreneurs around the country who shared their personal stories of how they found the courage to leave their jobs and forge ahead into greatness. These women “bare” their souls by telling readers how to understand their own value, about the challenges they faced along the way, how they turned their dreams from idea to conception, how they overcame their fears, how they got out of the “start up phase,” and, perhaps more importantly, how they achieved a work/life balance.

I need help finding venues.  Here are my criteria

• An audience of women and mothers
• Non-profit organizations, sororities, direct sales business, MLM companies, book clubs, associations are ideal
• Speaker series
• Women business events

If you are interested in helping, here is what you can do:

• Scan your connections and your network. If you have, contacts that might want me to give a free presentation or interview, let me know who the contact is and I can forward my media kit.
• If you’re asked for more information, you can send them to www.corporatemomdropouts.com to learn more about the book and my bio.

I look forward to scheduling as many presentations as I can in the month of November and December for the Tri-State area.  A book is like a new record that hit the billboards you have to get it while it is hot. So help me to schedule at least 10 presentations for the month of December.

News Flash: I am set to do several appearances and book signings in November so please let me know if you have some exciting, projects that you know of.

Thanks for your support and assistance Please leave a comment or contact me directly lucinda@corporatemomdropouts.com

I am sure most of people have dreamed of working from home but don’t know where to begin or are not aware of what to expect while working as a work at home mom. If you are one of them, I am here to help you to understand it.

Here are some of things you should expect as a work at home mom:

Traveling is a thing of the past: Working as a work at home mom, you do not need to travel any longer in the mornings and in the evenings to and from your employer’s offices. What you need to do is just be organized and can create a favorable work schedule for the projects you are working on just from your home office.

You are your own boss: A work at home mom? Thank God for there is no longer a boss to push you around with burdens of work with stringent deadlines! What you only need is self discipline and your days through out the week will run smoothly without being harassed by anybody.

A variety of work to do: If you are individual who has a wealth of skills in varying fields, then you have plenty of work for you to do. A work at home mom can do all the work that does not need one to be in the client’s office to be done. Therefore, it depends on you on whether to specialize in one or several services.

No sick pay, holiday pay or retirement benefits: This is the point where a work at home mom differs from an onsite employee. As a work at home mom, what you earn is based on the work you have done. Therefore, planning, spending and saving is crucial especially for the unforeseen misfortunes and time when you are no longer working. This is the main point of attraction for majority of employers to utilize work at home moms in that they will be able to cut down on costs.

Can you work for more than one client: As a work at home mom, you can work for several clients at any one time depending on the kind of projects or services you are providing. This means that you will not be depending on one source for your earnings thus making you more stable financially because of the various sources of income.

As a living testimony, I am personally a work at home mom for many years now and I have never regretted for joining this noble field. I enjoy creating my wealth while working on the projects for my clients from conducive home environment as my own boss. You can also be one as long as you have self discipline, determination and focus on what you need to achieve in your life.

For you to stay on the “cutting edge” as a business mom, you have no option but to research your competition on an ongoing basis, and look for new and innovative ways. Some of the ideas in which you can go about this matter are as given to you below:

Keep a close monitoring on your competitors: Some of the ways in which you can go about this is by setting up google alerts on the internet. This will enable you not to be caught off-guard by updating you with whatever is going on in your competitor’s side on a daily basis. The other way is also by reading your industry’s magazines, news papers and journals. A close following on what is being broadcasted through television and radio will also facilitate your updating on knowledge concerning your competitors. So in short, you have to continually research your competition.

Continually improve you products and services: This can be best done through utilization of the latest technology. You should always know that whoever utilizes this facility first between you and your competitors is the one who will reap most from it. The best way to access such information concerning the new technology is through close monitoring using the above mentioned means of communication depending on a particular industry.

Get frequent updates on your customers’ tastes and preferences: This is so vital considering the fact that the customers’ tastes and preferences keep changing with time. You should keep track with the changing trends and strive to produce what will meet the customers’ needs at any particular point of time. By doing this, you will definitely be able to win the loyalty of the existing customers and win new customers who are after quality and satisfaction of their tastes and preferences.

Promise what you can deliver: It would be suicidal to your survival in business if you mislead your customers by promising them what you can not deliver. The act of promising what you cannot deliver could give so much detrimental results in cases whereby your clients’ contacts or leads are through the word of mouth. As a business mom, you have to establish a good reputation to be able to attract new clients and maintain the existing ones.

In conclusion, you have to be organized and carefully plan on how you will be monitoring competition, capitalize on the new and noble ideas as this is so vital towards meeting the ever changing customers’ tastes and preferences and go a head of your competitors. In any case, it is the duty of the virtual assistant to help his clients thrive in their businesses. This can only be achieved if you as a Corporate Mom Dropout is organized, competent, self disciplined and focused.

Most business moms run of time and they always wish they could get more time in a day which is impossible. However, a busy mother can learn some ways of creating time for the things that need to be done. Briefly, the steps that one can take include:

1. Set the priorities. It is advisable that at the start of the day, begin by listing all that need to be done in the order of priorities. You need strategize what to do the following day before going to bed; orally or written though the later is advisable so as to avoid forgetting any of them.

2. Avoid anything that can waste your time. Such things include frequent checking of emails, watching TV or chatting with friends and other online programs. These are known to take a lot of time and energy which would otherwise be better channeled towards productive activities.

3. Do not hesitate to ask for assistance if need arises. The notion that women should do everything by themselves is very wrong. You should not hesitate to ask for help from any one willing to help for that is the reason we are not in the this world alone. This can be done temporarily hiring some one at times when the work is at the peak or someone on a long term basis if there is a continuous flow of substantial work load.

4. You do not need to do everything. You do not have to accept all invitations to participate in many things as this will wear you down. So do not be afraid to say no as taking too much will prevent you from achieving the best in what you do. The best way of deciding what you need to turn down is by maintaining a list of the list of what you would like to do during your free time.

5. Take breaks. Taking rests is important as this enables one to renew energy. This will enable you to work at a faster rate than just working continuously with no breaks. You can utilize the breaks to do some physical exercises as this will refresh your mind. Other helpful activities include meditating and yoga.

As said, where there is a will, there is a way. So business moms can in no doubt succeed if they organize themselves, plan their time well and be self disciplined. Many have been successful thus you can also succeed as long as you take into consideration the above information.

In simple definition, marketing is the act of bringing new customers and keeping them. On the other hand, marketing plan is the guideline towards starting, nourishing and keeping the company-customers relationship.

From the beginning, I would like to state that the widespread notion that one can employ marketing and immediately a turnaround in the market performance is not true. The truth of the matter is that there has to be a long term investment undertaking for your business to thrive. It therefore calls for careful strategizing and patience before reaping the fruits of your labour.

In the same case, the key to successful company’s operation is a good business plan, the key to the promotion of your products and services is the marketing plan. The vital undertaking to the achievement of this objective is a comprehensive and objectively created marketing plan.

A marketing plan will guide you in directing your energy towards the main objective of expanding your business operations. It facilitates your establishing of new links while at the same time creating lasting bonds on the existing ones. For you to achieve this, you have to self-examine and establish the attitudes held by your customers towards you. This will definitely put you in a good position to project your future.

It is worth noting that running of the advertisement is not enough but is the last of the many ingredients of a whole and all inclusive marketing plans. The internal marketing review enables you to objectively examine the marketing strategies that are in place and their capabilities. On the other hand, carrying out a customer survey enables you to establish the customer’s attitudes towards you and your products. It is worth noting that it would be very difficult for the customers to be loyal to you if they do not have a clear understanding of your business. The survey will thus be helpful to you as a guide in building a bridge between your company and the customers. Therefore, we can authoritatively say that the goal of the marketing plan is to build the bridges between you and the customers.

The three components that when carefully blended bring about a strong marketing mix are advertising, self promotion and public relations. The three should be employed together in consideration that the three create a synergy thus the achievement of well rewarding success unlike in the case of employing only one strategy.

In conclusion every one should note that the main purpose of marketing plan is to get you there from here and it has to be thorough, well organized and supported.

There is no doubt that in the current information era where information is becoming online, you and I are receiving a high number of emails on a daily basis. It is due to this fact that we are continually getting overwhelmed by these emails thus calling for a need to device on a strategy so as to manage this situation. The seven proven methods of handling emails so as not to feel troubled by the current technology of using e-mails are outlined below:

• Receiving emails does not mean you have to answer all of them.
  This specifically applies to the cc’d emails. One only needs a little time to read    the email as compared to time needed to reply it as in this case, one has to think, write and review before sending. My advice is, only reply when you really have to do so.
• Move those emails that you are not replying immediately are better be flagged. You can do this after reading by moving them to a @Reply folder. This enables you to differentiate them from those mails that you need to reply them immediately as they are added into your inbox thus saving time which would have otherwise been used in mind filtering for the second time.
• Extensively utilize the filtering facility. It is advisable that you filter all the incoming mails with those that are directly sent to you. For your point of information, the use of IMAP server in together with a server-side filtering system enables one to set up the filters thus ensuring that all the files will be placed in folders despite the type of email client being used.
• Particular senders are better black listed. The individuals known to either send or forward non important stuff to you are better filtered out from the inbox. This will enable you to read them at your on pleasure since they are placed in a special folder.
• Move the emails that you are not in hurry to read to the @Read folder. Apply this to those emails you have started reading and found there is no need for urgent reply. They are better manually filtered to @Read folder where by a particular time is allocated for reading all of them.
• Reviewing the folders is better done at a scheduled time. This is best done at a time that will not affect the working hours and specifically applies to those mails that are carbon copied and memos since they act as point of information and do not call for the need to reply to them.
• Emails are better read as a thread. The general rule is that emails that are carbon copied to many recipients are known to have many replies. The best way to deal with them therefore is through getting both the information and conversation at the same time when they are viewed as a thread.

I hope these tips will be helpful to you in managing your emails. May you enjoy every moment of email communication.

It is a fact that in affiliate marketing, there is high level of competition. This calls for the employment of brilliant strategies so as to gain a competitive advantage. Any player in this business who wants thrive has to be equipped with these strategies. Are you one of them? Then you need to employ the following:

a) Have your own domain(s).
It is important that you come up with a .com domain of your own. This definitely makes the cost per click to be cheaper if you are engaged in such a program thus enabling a higher position of the advertisement you are running. Your score from the company you are affiliated to will also be definitely higher. Furthermore, the targeted clients tend to be attracted to the site of your merchant with the aim of buying the commodity being advertised since there is a feel of reliability on your domain. It is worth noting that having your own domain comes with a sense of authority together with credibility.

b) Equip yourself with pre-selling techniques.
You have to equip yourself with the dynamics of generating interest and being enthusiastic to the prospective clients preceding their visit to the website of the seller with the aim of buying the product. The aim of pre-selling is to trigger a prospective buyer to see the need for procuring the product and therefore taking the next step of making the decision to buy it in his own. This should act as a complement to the merchant’s sales page and in no way should the exercise be taken to extreme levels. This can be best achieved through a life story concerning the product on sale.

c)  Seek help from the expert.
Participants in affiliate marketing normally specialize in a particular field. It is to the exception of a few individuals who have equipped themselves in all areas. Finding someone to mentor you in getting to know the products to market and how to go about the whole activity is so vital.

There is no doubt that employing these strategies keenly in their right measures will put you at a strategically advantaged position.

During my 5am prayer, the thought of having this so called Business Success really hit home.  Success is temporary satisfaction in my book and a Victory is a battle won.   My battle is not to only reach my goals which is so cliché and loosely thrown these days in the business world but I realized that I am going for a Business Victory.  In search for victory, I am looking to make a change…Many people I have come across like how it sounds when they say, “I have a business and I do, I am a coach and I, I’m a speaker an I or I am a …”  There is more out there than that statement, I am not looking for fame, that dies in 12 weeks or money that I can’t take with me…I am in this to make history, I want to be remembered. And I will.  How about you?  Are you aligned with that notion in your heart?  In the early morning when the world is sleep and the forefathers and foremothers wisdom is in the air, take the time to reflect on your next step and ask your self who is this going to help.

Children have all have in common is the drive to conquer whatever gets in their way.  They are consistent, and put their all into whatever it is that they do…whether good, bad, evil or indifferent.  They are who they are and they probably can teach a few of us “women business owners” how to build a business, get paid, and get past the fears of failure, success, procrastination and the perfectionist syndrome.  They have a mental blueprint, they have other kids they look up to, in our case, a “mentor or coach” and most of all they follow the success trail, and they don’t play in the safe zone.  They play out the box and push themselves to the limit.  Who is your coach? What blueprint are your following?  What trail are you leaving for the next successor?  What steps are you taking to be victorious in your industry?

Children compete and go for the Victory, they go for the goal, and they follow the “done is better than perfect” model.  While we “women business owners” procrastinate to get things done and then blame life for it not being done. Let’s being to focus and recognize what it takes to succeed and what it takes for a victory.

Recognize your beauty

Recognize your power

Recognize your greatness

Recognize your strength

Recognize your talents

Recognize your abilities

Go for Victory…Victory is within and reflects everywhere you are…Success is like lust; it feels good for the moment then fades away until the next feel good moment.  I am building a victorious business what about you?

Bartering is something that many people in my industry do.  When I started my business with less than $500 in my account, I had to get things done and one of the major projects that were holding me back was my website.  The first thing I did was create a list of things I needed for my business and then I highlighted what was priority and what could sit on the back burner, before I approached a barter situation.  To my surprise just like the Law of Attraction I ran into someone who literally changed my image, brand and the way people viewed my business, she was known as the Online Success Queen and her work was fabulous, but she was costly.  Since getting a website was at the top of the list and when I had consulted with the her about what she could do for me and her prices , I knew there was no way I would be able to pay her $1500 for my website development and design when I only had 3 clients at the time.

What to do, what to do…I decided to offer her services in exchange. I tallied up a bunch of services that I could provide her in exchange for my website to be developed.  Let me take a step back, first came the relationship.  I had taken the time to talk with her, meet with her, share ideas and tips with her, and after I had established a “know like and trust with her”, I hit her with the big bang.  I asked the magic question of “Can we barter, I desperately need a website built, I am a virtual assistant and can support you in a number of ways”.  I told her I was losing money, and that I can also advertise her on my website to help build her traffic since most of the clients and prospects I came across needed websites built or optimized.

To this day, I still have the same website; I absolutely love it and get rave reviews behind it.  It is optimized, it works well and it pulls in massive traffic according to my google analytics, yes, she installed the whole works.  The best part of this barter agreement is that I was able to support her with in return.

I sat down with her, reviewed her business goals for the next 90 days and helped her come up with a plan to get more exposure and market her business.  I customized a package for her and had delivered a powerful marketing strategy that we implemented and she was pleased.  This led to a deeper relationship and the next barter agreement was ready to role out, I began to get bold and savvy with this no money down agreement called “bartering”.  When bartering you have to feel good about it.  There were times were I tried to barter services with other business owners and was completely unsatisfied and upset because either party felt like they did not get what they bargained for.  In this case, I was blessed because she then went on to build a second website for me for my training.  I started to create a training module for virtual assistants and stay at home moms and she built the site and included other features such as the online training log in.  This was a value of $2000 plus because she did all the graphics and banners and plug ins.  I have received over $5000 in web design and development work from this one barter in less than 6 months.

Bartering has to be focused and outlined.  You must know what you want to barter and make sure that it is of value.  You can visit my site at www.ultimatevasupport.com if you’re interested in outsourcing or delegating and my training site at www.ultimatevatraining.com if you’re interested in learning how to work from home. These are two examples of a barter that I did not pay a dime for and have traded my hours and skills such as Press releases, article marketing and database management for something that changed my business image.

What services can you provide to barter for what you need, post a comment and maybe you can find one that is mutually beneficial.