Good or Bad Habits Always Deliver Results!

Your habits determine your outcomes. Successful people don't just drift to the top. Getting there requires focused attention, personal discipline, and lots of energy every day to make things happen. The habits you develop from this day forward will ultimately determine how your future unfolds.

One of the problems for people with poor habits is that the results of their bad habits usually don't show up until much later in life. When you develop a chronic bad habit, life will eventually give you consequences. You may not like the consequences, but life will still deliver them. The fact is, if you keep on doing things a certain way, you will always get a predictable result. Negative habit breed negative consequences. Positive habits create positive consequences.

Make it a goal to change one bad habit a week in a years time, your life will look drastically different.

Seriously, check it out...

I am getting ready to go on vacation this Friday and, as always, there is more to do than time! I was looking over my long "to-do" list and calendar and noticed quite a few people that I've been meaning to contact or who's birthday is coming up in June that I'd like to remember. Now, I don't know about you, but I love getting good mail - not junk mail. It's wonderful when someone has been thoughtful enough to send correspondence that you can hold and put on the fridge. :) Don't get me wrong, email is great but sometimes a card says it best. Well, since I am a Smart Mom, I have a shortcut; a way to email actual cards that come to people's home mailbox. So...tonight I've been having a great time, with my computer, sending cards that will arrive in all my contacts and friends mailboxes while I'm on vacation! Rebekah posted about staying in touch with people a while back but I wanted to encourage everyone again to check it out for themselves and have a free card on us!

Whether you are an MLMer or in a traditional business – you have clients and friends that would love a card from you. If you send holiday cards every year, this will save you time and money, be attractive, personalized and unique. Not to mention FUN! Now I send cards to people “just because” and I don’t have to drive to the drugstore and post office to do it!

Seriously, check it out.

.

Choosing the Right Company

If you are considering starting a home based business, it can be a very overwhelming process. Just taking a look at all of the various companies could send someone over the edge! In order to help you with this process, I have outlined several key areas that you should evaluate in a company before joining.

1. Cutting-Edge Consumable Products
This is one of the most important factors to considered...what does the company sell? Look for a company that offers consumable products ~ items that people will buy over and over again (i.e. skin care, cosmetics, vitamins, weight loss, internet downloads, etc.) . If the company is selling a high quality, in demand product, then your customers will consistently buy from you, thus creating a steady stream of income.
It is also important that you personally use and truly like the products. You will be a walking testimony and people will expect your honest opinion!

2. Timing and Trends
If a company was selling records in our current market, they would quickly go out of business. Consider this same concept when evaluating companies. It is estimated that the health, wellness and anti-aging industry will be a 1 Trillion dollar empire by 2010. If you would like just a small percentage of this growth, then find a company that offers health, wellness, and anti-aging product(s)! Another big trend is the Internet, more specifically, downloadable content. More and more people are downloading music, movies, video games, ring tones and list continues. Finding a company that embraces this trend is like hopping on the money train. You just can't go wrong!

3. Leadership and Commitment
When looking at a company be sure to evaluate their growth as well as their leadership. Growth will give a good indication if their products are selling and if they are embracing current trends and the leadership will show if the company can support such growth. Leadership can often be a key component that is overlooked, so be sure to do your homework. Often times you will hear that an older company is a solid, more reliable company. Although this is often true, be sure not to discount a newer company that offers a revolutionary concept. If a newer company offers a product that is embracing modern trends, then getting on when it's young might prove to be a wise investment!

4. Large, Expanding Target Market
Where are the products sold? Are they only in the United States or are they also available in foreign countries? If they are sold over-seas, how does the company help you in reaching those markets (internet access, marketing materials, etc.).

5. Internet, Support and Marketing
How are the products sold and distributed? Can the products be purchased on the internet? What is their return policy? What is their retention rate (meaning how many people continue to buy over and over again)? Does the company have an appealing, high tech website? What type of training do they offer (this is a crucial area where a lot of companies lack)? What types of marketing materials do they offer? Are you impressed with what you see? These questions just scratch the surface of important things to consider, but will give you a solid start when researching.

In conclusion, the company you choose must be a good fit. You have to be confident about the products, have faith in the company and know that you will be equipped with the right training and knowledge to actually make money!

If you would like additional information or would like to speak personally with an expert in the field of home based businesses, please contact us at info@smartmoms~smartbusiness.com. We are here to help and would happily assist you in your efforts!

Home Business Record Keeping

Spring is the time for cleaning out and cleaning up! This can really apply to your business, especially if you work from home. Record keeping is important to the integrity and foundation of your business so here are a few things to check off your list as you get organized this spring!

1 - Separate Checking Account - Establish a separate checking account and use the account for business transactions ONLY. This is the account you should deposit your business checks into each month and pay bills from, such as your business credit card bills. Transfer funds from your business checking to your personal accounts as needed.

2 - Small Business Credit Card - Establish a small business credit card and use it ONLY for business transactions. Find a card with bonus points or frequent flyer and reap the rewards for buying business supplies and items you would be purchasing anyway. If you reserve this card for business transactions only then accounting at the end of the year will be much simpler.

3 - Scheduling Calendar - This will be one of the most important documents you have. The calendar is the basis for daily scheduling, logs for documentation of business activity and tracking the business use of your automobile. Maintaining your calendar on a daily basis will enhance your ability to keep your business organized.

4 - Expense Documentation - The definition for allowable business expenses is that they be "necessary and ordinary in the course of running your business." The key to documentation is that you collect the documents as you go through the year. Then it won't be overwhelming come tax time. Make a file system and as you have expenses, save the paperwork and/or receipts to show as proof of the expense. Remember, the IRS cannot read your mind and they need to see why the expense was "necessary and ordinary." To cover your bases, don't just rely on the credit card statements as proof. Note the event, lunch, meeting, trip, mileage in your calendar and save any documentation (schedule of events from a conference etc.)

5 - Establish a home office - Having a place to work is necessary to running a successful business and it is an allowable deduction for tax purposes, however, the IRS has specific requirements. It must be an area of your home that is used exclusively for business purposes. It cannot be your kitchen table with a laptop. The tax benefit can be as much as $1500 to $3000 a year in deduction from your business income. That translates into $450 to $900 in actual tax savings. So set up a specific space with definite boundaries and no other use, and use it for your business!
Then, calculate the ratio of the square footage of your home to “office” and apply it to overall expenses required to maintain your home.

6 – Estimated Tax Payments – It’s not all yours! You need to realize from the beginning that as a business owner of a home based business, the income from your business does not all belong to you. It is your responsibility to either set aside money in a savings account to pay your taxes or make quarterly payments to the IRS. Talk to your CPA or Tax Attorney for more specific information relating to your situation. If you are in the state of Florida (like me) my husband is a tax attorney practicing in the areas of trusts, estates and business planning. His email is freemanlaw@bellsouth.net.

7 – Employing Family Members – If you have children under the age of 21 you can hire them to work for you. You can pay then up to $4750 a year and they will not pay taxes on that income. The requirement is that they service they provide is necessary to your business (filing, shipping, deliveries, organizing etc). The key is to set up a checking account for them and issue them a check from your business. Of course, they must be old enough to actually provide a service to your business!

Business is Booming

Right now the direct sales industry is BOOMING in areas such as Canada, Pureto Rico and Australia. Around the world people are being inspired to go for their dreams and build their own business instead of being leveraged by someone else. Imagine building a sales network around the globe. If you are interested in learning how to build a business not only in the states but in those areas as well, drop us a line.

Contest!

We are holding a contest on our forum and wanted to share it with the blogging world! To build our membership on our forum, we are challenging anyone who joins or is a current member to bring a friend to the forum. Whoever successfully invites a new member before May 27th will win a prize! It's not hard and the prize will be well worth it!!!

Feel free to drop in and check us out!!!
Smart Mom Forum

Work At Home Opportunities

The four of us are on a few different forums for work at home moms (but the best one is our Smart Moms forum!)and there have been many questions about people looking to work from home but don't know what to do or how much money they will have to spend. Some have even asked for free things to start. With our vast amount of learning we have encountered over the past few months, we have compiled a free report to give to anyone looking to start a home based business. We have ideas for working in direct sales, increasing your business in direct sales, internet based businesses (not direct sales) with you own website, and internet businesses with someone else's website you utilize. This report is almost in the final stage (as of today- if you are reading this in later days, I hope it is done!) and we want to share it with anyone looking to start or do better in a home based business. Subscribe for our newsletter (on the sidebar of this post) and we will send this free report to you as soon as it is finalized, within the next few days. You will not want to lose out on this MONEY MAKING report- plus it is free!

Articles

Through our studies we have learned the importance of articles. Not only do they add content to your website, but they can also be a great source for additional traffic. By using different article submissions sites, you can expose your articles to literally thousands of people. Just imagine if only a handful of those people read your article and clicked onto your site? Your traffic would increase overnight...with just a little bit of effort!

To support all of the hard working moms, we have added a Article section on our forum. Feel free to stop by and submit your articles. You never know who will take your article and post it on their website or ezine!! http://smartmoms.freeforums.org/viewforum.php?f=23

Looking forward to reading all of your great content!!

Wisdom from Grandpa

My Grandpa is a great man. He's a hard worker, intelligent, loving and kind person. Over the years I've heard many crazy stories about his growing up in Mt. Airy, NC and all the adventures and experiences he's had. He's given me tips and advice from time to time and unfortunately I can't remember them all but there is one that I will never forget. He told me the key to being happy in your work is to find a hobby that you love and make money at it. As a child this seemed a simple thought - doesn't everyone do that? Isn't that how you decide what to be when you grow up? Obviously, as an adult it's not that simple, or is it? I wonder what this world would look like if more people pursued what they loved or even liked as a career/business and were less concerned with amassing wealth. We really need far less than we have so let's try to have fun with what we do! Life is too short to spend it on things you don't really need and doing things you don't like to buy them. I for one am thinking of ways to embrace simplicity in what I have and what I do.

Build Your Business With Traffic

Being fairly new to the internet commerce business plan, I am always learning more about how to increase traffic to our wonderful work at home mom site that we have created and the wonderful ones that are in the works. Without traffic, your site/blog/store is worthless. If it looks great, but no one is looking, what would be the point in working so hard at it?

First, we have found THE GREATEST web page designing program called Site Build It. We looked at this at the beginning of our internet venture and did not consider it because we did not want to spend the money so soon. Our mistake. Site Build It completely teaches us all of the things we needed to know earlier! We could have saved so much time and possibly earned so much more. The action plan is laid out for you with brainstorming features and even a way to choose a great domain. Click here for some work at home mom testimonials. Don't be like us and choose the cheap route- do what works first!

Second, we have joined forums with other work at home moms that are so helpful in offering information to help others. In her blog, Andrea has written a great post on getting traffic to your site. Check out her ideas.

We have a source for information for you! First you can go to the sidebar and subscribe to our ezine. We will send you tips and information to improve your traffic and your business. We also have a great new forum for Smart Moms. Come on over and join us!

Imagine what and extra $400 a month can do.

Most people start a home a home based business because they need some extra income. What if you looked past the strain of where you are and look to where you will be if you start going to work on it now. Do some imagining and see on the conservative side what making $400 a month could do for you and your family long term. The key is making your money work for you consistently over time. You need to commit to keeping your expenses the same, consistant marketing of your business and stay on a budget and then put your home business income to work for you. What if you put that money every month into a Money Market Account at around 5.5% interest for one year.? Find an amortization calculator see what you would have. Then keep it there and as your business grows, keep putting the $400 a month into your account. Set it up automatically. Don't even think about it and in 5 years time you will be amazed at the beauty of compound daily interest. It is a beautiful thing. If you begin to look long term at what your business could do for you, you are much more likely to do what it takes to learn how to be successful and stay in the game.

Increase Traffic Through Forums

Recently the Smart Moms Team has been on a mission to learn how to increase traffic to our site (www.SmartMoms~SmartBusiness.com). Of course there are many options, some free and others that require lots of money. We decided that we would focus our efforts on the "free" first and track our numbers.

We agreed to combine our efforts and join several forums and made a commitment to contribute at least 2 times a week. We started our efforts just last week and in the past 3 days have had 187 unique visits to our site. We are very excited about this traffic, especially since we did it for free!

If you're looking to drive traffic to your site, feel free to join our Smart Moms forum (http://smartmoms.freeforums.org). It's a great way to get started especially since you won't feel like a number. Everyone is very helpful and you will learn tons to help you in your business! See you on the forum!

Maximum Impact

I love reading business and self-help books! They really give you the opportunity to work on yourself which is always good for business. Recently, I attended a leadership event with author and leadership expert, John Maxwell. He has written TONS of wonderful books on leadership and I would recommend picking a title that jumps out to you and start there. He hasn't written a bad one yet. However, if reading isn't your thing, you can still get leadership training from Maxwell on a monthly basis or even for free via his podcasts and newsletters. After hearing his leadership seminar I subscribed to the Maximum Impact club. I receive an audio CD with workbook every month and a binder to organize and store everything. The first CD came yesterday so I will give it a listen and share more later but check it out for yourself and keep growing!!

:)

Keeping In Touch With Your Clients

In any business, keeping in touch with your clients is important. It is especially important if you are in a service or product related company. In order to get repeat order, referrals, and increase customer loyalty, the customer needs to remember your name and needs to know how to find you.

Ways to Follow Up
You can also follow up in many different ways. Phone calls, personal mail, flyers via email or real mail, and regular email correspondence are all effective ways to follow up with a client. You want to have a good balance between all areas. Try to use all the methods to keep in contact. You cannot call everyone all the time and you should not email everyone all the time. Email is cheap, but can easily be ignored. Phone calls are direct, but can become annoying. Real mail is effective, but can be costly. There are positives and negatives to each option. Balance each type to be effective.

Why Follow Up
What are the reasons for following up? You may find more benefits than just repeat sales. Nothing is better for business than customer loyalty. The endless referrals, sales, and word of mouth advertising are priceless. You may also want to contact a client to show your appreciation and to give them a special promotion. The more you follow up, the better name recognition your client will have with you. You may also want to follow up to provide more product knowledge. This will expand the types of products or services the client is exposed to within your company. By sending your client information about your products, services, and company, the client is not only building a relationship with you but also building a relationship with your company. They may become one of your prospects!

The Smart Moms have found a great online system for following up with your clients. You can send a real card with a real stamp right from your computer. Getting real mail is such a novelty these days with so many businesses using email. If you would like to try this system out, fill out your information here and someone contact you for your free trail.

A Family Affair!

If you are new at network marketing or are an old pro, you probably can identify with the guilt that accompanies your business. More than likely you are a full-time mom who wanted to find a simple way to add a little extra income to your family. Of course a home base business is a viable and excellent place to start, however, there is always a learning curve and in order to be successful, you have to devote a great deal of work and time to your "business."

Because of this learning curve, often you have to spend some time away from the kids. This can be taxing on both you and the family. In order to bridge the gap, you can include your family in your business! Over the years I have heard of some great ideas on how you can include your family in your efforts. I personally think it's crucial to have them involved in what you're doing. You need them on your side for support and motivation. And why not start teaching them at an early age all about the business world!

1. Family Goals~
Gather the troops together and have a little heart to heart. Explain to them what you are doing and ask them for their support. Ask them what they would like to do if you meet X goal. Would it be a trip to a theme park, a weekend at the beach or just going to the movies. Choose whatever type of award that is appropriate for the goal. The bottom line, though, is to get your family excited and on board to help and support you in your efforts to attain your goal!
2. Dream Board~
A dream board is a visual symbol of your goals. You can use a cork board, a poster or anything else that is big and can hang on the way. Choose a prominent location so everyone can look at it on a daily basis. Once you have established the rewards for meeting your goals, ask the family to look through magazines to find pictures of those goals. For instance, if your goal was to visit Disney World, have the kids look through magazines until they find a picture of the Magic Kingdom or something that would visually describe the your trip. Then place the clippings on the board for everyone to see!
3. Accountability Chart~
Your kids have a great way of keeping you accountable. That is why it's a wonderful idea to ask them for their help. Create a chart that has all the task you need to complete in order to meet your goal (i.e. number of calls per week, number of presentations/parties, number of sales, etc.). Create a checklist to show what you have accomplished for either the day or week. To include your kids, ask them to hold you accountable by requiring you to fill in the checklist. Have them ask you daily/weekly if you've done the necessary requirements to meet your goal. Of course you won't want to let them down because all of you know what's in store when you meet your goal! Sometimes knowing that you will let your kids down will push you to make just one more call!
4. President of Operations~
Give your children specific tasks that they can do to help you with your business. Perhaps it's putting labels on envelopes, filling gift baskets or dropping items off to customers. Whatever the task, make sure to include them. Whenever we have ownership in something, we want to do our best! It's the same way with kids. Plus, you'll be teaching them valuable lessons along the way!

Hopefully these tips will encourage you to include your kids in your business and make it a successful endeavour! Wishing you great success!

Ideas on Selling

Suzy has some great thoughts on the idea of selling over at Her blog. Here is a little teaser. You can check the rest out there!

Here's an interesting thought: Everything comes back to selling. Think about that for a second. The world revolves around sales.... every business regardless of what they do, have to sell. Every person sells. You sell your favorite movies, favorite books, favorite restaurants, favorite shoes. You even sell yourself on ideas and thoughts.

Ask! Ask! Ask!

In his best selling book, Success Principles, Jack Canfield discusses in Chapter 17 the importance of asking for what we want. Although one of the most important principles, asking happens to be one of the hardest to follow. Because a lack of asking is routed in fear, most times people will by-pass what they truly want in order to avoid the possibility of rejection.

Recently I was reminded of this chapter after hearing about my sister's courageous request. My sister, Amy, and her husband, Nathan, live in Denver Colorado where Nathan just finished his Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Counseling. They had just recently learned that they were going to have to move from their campus apartment once Nathan graduated which meant two moves in less than a year since they would be moving back to Florida in January.

Last weekend Nathan's family was hit with the devastating news that his brother, Matt, was killed in a hunting accident. While they were with Nathan's family, the president of his College called and said if there was anything he could do to please let him now. Without missing a beat, my sister quickly explained how being able to stay in their apartment would be a great help (since they hadn't found a new one yet). He said "done" and then she said, "until January" and he agreed immediately.

After hearing this story I couldn't believe how brave my sister was to make such a bold request. But now looking at it, what did she have to lose? If he had said "no" they would have been moving anyway. And now, they are blessed to stay in a safe environment where they have great friends who will support them through the grieving process. And...they don't have to move twice!

So, if there is something that you have been wanting, but are too afraid to ask for it, just remember to to be courageous like Amy! You just never know what could happen! And as Jack says, "you may have the capacity, but you also have to have the tenacity! To be successful, you have to ask, ask, ask, ask!

If you haven't read the book, Success Principles, I encourage to pick up a copy today. Just click on the link and the ordering process will be at your finger tips! This is truly a great book that will inspire you to take action in so many areas of your life!

Is Network Marketing a Scam?

I used to be offended when some would ask me this question, or say "Oh it's pyramid" with utter disdain. Now I honestly laugh (inside of course) to this thought. If you take an honest critical look at what is going on in culture you will see that EVERYONE is building a web. That is they way I view direct sales or network marketing. Like a vast web of links and connections that allow the original connector the benefit of additional income for actually making those connections. We are paid to be educators or distributors of information firstly. It is that information that ultimately sells a product and adds new business partners.

Unfortunately, there has been way too much hype about the industry and some unscrupulous people giving this industry a bad name. It is a shame. But mark my words....you watch the next 5 years and see the serge in growth around the world in this underground business model. In fact, the DSA's numbers about the industry don't lie. There are some great books to read about the industry just to educate yourself as you pursue a business opportunity or grow your current work at home business.

Get honest for just a moment. If you were going to go get a 9-5, work for someone else job.... after you pay for child care, dry cleaning, meals and the cost of driving studies show that you make less than $5 an hour. So what if you could decrease the stress in your life, keep your home rhythm consistent and make more than $5 an hour working form home a few hours a week? Not to mention the many tax benefits you get from actually being a business owner. Why wouldn't you get educated about this industry, choose a winning team and be committed to learning how to make it work. For the 4 of us it has been life changing.

Forums For Work at Home Support

I wanted to jump off of Betsy's last post. One helpful way to find support for building your home based business is to let your fingers do the walking. That is precisely why we started our forum so that we could nurture and encourage anyone and everyone who works at home. The 4 of us originally met in our first network marketing business. When we met, we knew it was for bigger reasons. Now we are learning so much about building our OWN business. The things we are learning are bigger than any one company. Stay tuned because we will definitely be able to help you establish yourself even if you are with another company. Trust me, there are TONS of ways to make an income from home and we are mastering them right now as you read this. Keep digging friends. We promise we will let you in on all of the "insider secrets".

Support System

It is rare in life to find a friend who has your same passions, affirms your goals and encourages you to be your best. That is why I am in awe of my three friends and partners of the SmartMoms group. The other day Kim and I were talking about support and I realized that I truly depend on these women for support. Unfortunately my immediate environment isn't as supportive as I would like, nevertheless, I always know I can turn to these ladies to encourage me and lift me up.

If you are beginning to build your business, maybe you are finding that friends and family are questioning your decision to start a home based business. Perhaps they even make you doubt yourself and your decision. If this is the case, I encourage and challenge you to follow your heart. If you feel this is the right thing, then find someone who will support you and lift you up when times get tough. Possibly this is someone you don't know well...right now! Maybe it is your sponsor or your upline or maybe it's someone sidelined to you. Either way, be sure to find those people who will encourage you and support you in your endeavours. Stay clear of the dream stealer's and keep a steady focus on YOUR goals! Lean on your support team and you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish!

Thanks ladies!!!!

Creating a Mastermind Group

A few months ago, the four of us decided to partner up and try to improve our businesses by utilizing our individual strengths into one large conglomerate. We created our mastermind group, just as Jack Canfield suggested in his book The Success Principles. Each of us have our area of expertise and contribute a different strength to our group. We are now formally a LLC (as of this week) and are now "legally" operating as one unit. Having a mastermind group is a great strategy that many choose not to pursue because it is hard working with another person, much less three or four other people. You do not have to join businesses together- each of us continue to operate separate businesses as well. A mastermind group is for bouncing off ideas, getting advice, and being accountable for moving forward in your business. I encourage each person reading this post to think of three or four others you can mastermind with to improve your business. Who can you turn to to find solutions to your problems and who can you help?

If you haven't read the book yet, The Success Principles is a terrific start to improving your business and your life. You can purchase it through our website Smart Moms - Smart Business or through our Amazon link. After you read it, come back and tell us what you thought and what you learned.

Who We Are!

Thank you for taking the time to preview our blog. We are a group of moms who together have nearly a decade of experience in various home based businesses. We all have children and can relate to the working mom as well as to stay at home mom. Combined, we have backgrounds in education, real estate, corporate finance, fitness and nutrition, and early developmental learning.
Through our experiences in “Corporate America” as well as our personal home based businesses, we have learned methods and strategies for becoming successful. Knowing that it can be frustrating and daunting when first starting any type of business, we launched our site with a hope that we can share our knowledge and experience with all types of women at various stages of life. Whether you’re looking to make some extra spending money or you want to replace your current job with something more flexible, we know how to help you achieve your goals.
We encourage you to ask questions and visit our site at www.SmartMoms~SmartBusiness.com

The Smart Moms Team,

Amber Bishop, Betsy Canevari, Kim Freeman, and Rebekah Kogelschatz