Tashia

This is a great reminder about testimonials. It’s so easy to forget to keep these updated and ask for new testimonials on an ongoing basis from people with whom we do business.

Thanks for the reminder!

I even read of creating a Vision Book!
This is a scrap book version of the Vision Board.

Thanks for reminding me, Lucinda.
I’ve been meaning to do both a Vision Board and a party.
I’ll get started with the invitations right away!

Small Biz Women’s Breakthrough Coach, Oma Edoja

One way to get around this is to find ways to generate passive income in your business. Can you create a product or service one time, and get paid for it over and over, even when you aren’t physically present to serve your customers/clients? Examples of this could be licensing a workshop/system/recipe you’ve created, setting up an affiliate scheme where others sell your products/services for you, giving out re-sellers rights so that people pay you for the right to resell your work/creations, packaging and re-selling information in the form of books, e-books, CDs, DVDs etc, franchising, leveraging your efforts by joint-venturing with others so that you gain access to a wider pool of prospects/clients. Think of ways you could create passive income in your kind of business.

Another way to deal with being absent and still earn some money is by setting up an on-line store so that customers can buy from you 24/7, 365 days a year, whether you are dead or alive! Paypal makes it very easy. You can just add a Paypal button to your web page, or send your customers a link if you don’t have a website and they can pay you. They don’t need to have a Paypal account to do this. And there are many other sites you could sell from too.

One more way to get around being absent from your business is to systematize everything and take on board an assistant to follow your systems. I personally prefer a virtual assistant (V.A.) VAs are not physically present as employees but work for you over the phone or internet. So you don’t have employee paperwork and responsibilities. VAs are widely used all over the world, not just by small businesses but also by large corporations. Not only can a V.A. cover for you in your absence, he/she can also take off your hands those time-consuming but low-paying aspects of your work, such as admin and clerical stuff, so that you can concentrate on the higher-paying tasks such as seeing clients.

Yet one more solution is to automate as much as you can. Set up autoresponders to answer your emails or send out newsletters. Put your product fulfillment on auto-pilot by engaging the services of a fulfillment company. Set up systems to ship orders or deliver downloadable products once customers make their orders. Think of all the ways you can automate in your business.

Being a corporate mom drop out or work-at-home-mom has its benefits as well as it’s tough sides. But if not getting paid whenever you aren’t there has been one of your tough sides, I do hope that by now your mind is agog and your creative side a-whirl as you come up with befitting solutions.

All the best,

Work-at-home-mom and coach to female small biz owners,

Oma Edoja http://zestwithoma.wordpress.com