Information vs. Information “Overload”

Throughout my eight years as a Public Relations business owner and creator of Do-it-Yourself information products, I’ve worked with thousands of women across the country and the world.  And I’ve really loved doing this.

But I realized there’s a major problem about information in today’s world: too much of it!  Too lengthy, too repetitive, too useless, too “I-already-knew-that.”  With the Internet and social media, the amount of information has reached crazy proportions (even for an information junkie like me).

So, in January I launched WBO Digest – a monthly 12-page print publication exclusively for Women Business Owners.  While WBO Digest has gotten an incredible response and feedback (“There was more interesting, useful, actionable information in the first issue than other newsletters give in a whole year,” noted Wendy Guarisco of the Guarisco Group, Atlanta, GA), the time and costs involved in printing and mailing the subscription-based publication did not allow me to reach – and to help — as many women as possible.

The Idea:  An Online, No-Cost WBO Digest

An online, no-cost version of WBO Digest will allow everyone to have access to this information.  Here’s what it will offer you:

• A streamlined, concise weekly format via email so you don’t have to go to various Websites to get the information.  You can read it at your computer or on your mobile phone.
• Brief, actionable and useful “nuggets” of information from the best online and offline sources. As a time-saving “digest,” this becomes not “Oh, no, not another email,” but “Wow – I can’t wait to open this email.”
• Other tools as needed.

So – How Can You Help?

As a firm believer in market research, I decided to do a survey to make sure I’m providing what WBOs want.  According to survey experts, I need at least 385 responses to have measurable, business decision-making information.

1.  If you already signed up for WBO Digest and took the survey, thank you.  Please forward this message to five other Women Business Owners you know.
2.  If you haven’t done #1, please sign up for WBO Digest at WBODigest.com, and take the quick survey.  If you fill it out by 5 p.m. Eastern, Friday, August 28, 2009, you will be entered to win $100 for you or your favorite charity.  Then, fill out the survey here.

It’s called “Shine: The New Entrepreneurial Model That’s
Changing the World”

If you haven’t heard of Ali, get ready to have your world
changed forever. This dynamic woman is leading the way for
entrepreneurs with her business models and income growth
strategies.

The important thing to know is Ali’s methods work – she’s helped
everyone from home-based moms to millionaires double or triple
their revenues by ramping up their businesses. She leads by
example, having started with so little and having become a
multi-millionaire herself.

Well, Ali’s ready to launch something new, innovative, and
relevant to today’s changing business model. And she’s revealing
all on this o.

You see, there’s a monumental shift happening in business, and
the world. Previous income models are failing and fading.
Entrepreneurs who are continuing to operate as they have
previously are finding the same old strategies are not working
anymore. In fact, they are likely hurting their business.

Ali will explain it all on this one-time call. She’ll also be
sharing about her groundbreaking new LIVE Shine event this fall
in Las Vegas, Nevada. (And you’ll learn how you can enjoy a
generous $500 discount off the ticket price.)

Again, learn more and register for this free teleseminar TODAY
click here.

You don’t want to miss this call with Ali – she’s leading the
evolution.

See you on the call!

Before you make another complaint to a boss, coworker, spouse or friend I encourage you to pick up a copy of Jon Gordon’s “The No Complaining Rule”. It’s been awhile since I’ve completed a book that has left me so challenged to evaluate the negativity that can float around in my own thoughts and then fly right out of my mouth without being conscious of it. Is it safe to say that we’ve all been guilty of that a time or two? Complaining can sometimes seem like such an effective solution at times, but Gordon states that people complain “(1) because they were fearful and helpless and (2) because it had become a habit” (39)

Complaining can sneak up on us whether at home, at work or even at church. Gordon encourages specifically in his introduction, “one of the most important things we can do in business and life is to stay positive with strategies that turn negative energy into positive solutions” (xvii) and he shows us just how to by composing these truths into a story creating a very identifiable setting for the readers.

The story begins with Hope, a recently divorced mother of two, who is Vice President of Human Resources at EZ-Tech. Hope, already worn down with the complaining she faces day after day from fellow employees walks in early one morning to discover that her company is in severe jeopardy. The computer batteries that EZ-Tech produces have been catching on fire and the media has picked up on blogs created by EZ-Tech employees complaining of management. The company is now in a fight for it’s life to regain the credibility that is slipping away. As Hope not only struggles with the fear of an arising health issue she must also put together a plan to save the company at the request of the CEO. At a doctor’s appointment Hope is then introduced to her nurse who in turn inspires Hope with a radiant plan to save the company and renew Hope’s look on life, The No Complaining Rule.

Even before addressing ways in which we can go about fixing the negativity in our lives, Gordon reminds us of the damage that it can cause such as,

1. “Ninety percent of doctor visits are stress related, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” (28).

2. “Negativity affects the morale, performance, and productivity of our teams” (29).

3. “Negative emotions are associated with the following:

* Decreased life span and longevity
* Increased risk of heart attack
* Increased risk of stroke
* Greater stress
* Less energy
* More pain
* Fewer friends
* Less success” (29)

It’s obvious from these stunning facts that to survive a change is in order. What I think can be most be learned from this book is that there is hope and with some determination “you can get off the negative road and hop on the positive road right now” (44). Gordon provides some excellent ideas to jumpstart your positive thinking including a guideline to a No Complaining week that refocuses your attention with activities such as creating gratitude lists and beginning your day with a little exercise focused on the things you are most grateful for in life. In the book Gordon provides the “Three No Complaining Tools” (49) which you can also find and print out on his website at www.nocomplainingrule.com. This is a wonderful resource that even I have printed out to encourage my family during the day.

Gordon’s tips are endless and the best part is that they are not just compatible to the workplace or to adults only. These guidelines can do some wonderful things within the home environment and are unbelievably good habits to instill in young children.

Megan York is a small business owner and writer residing Texas. You can read more at her blog, A Boy, A Girl and A Pug.

Be the first two to comment below for your free copy of “The Complaining Rule” by Jon Gordon!

Here’s a couple of the stops she made on her way throughout the blogosphere: a guest post and detailed interview.

Life has been beyond hectic these days–with my biggest and newest full-time project: Salma K Farid Academy (our new site was launched this week, of course we’re utilizing internet branding with a blog!). Here’s my humble welcome letter as I feel destined for this wonderful new role…

Anyways, as I agreed to be Elizabeth’s last stop…I actually had to fit in reviewing the book myself (something I haven’t done in months!)

How timely it is!

hile I’ve been starting up home-businesses for over a decade (ie, foreclosures/short sales real estate business, freelance writing, becoming an author, etc.)–Heading Salma K Farid Academy is my biggest endeavor yet.

And, I’m it my dear: The Head Administrator–spearheading a grand opening for September with a building presently getting being constructed, hiring an entire teaching staff, and reviewing applications for an entire student body–and that’s just my main duties

As you can imagine, I’m doing thAngs-differently–with my Empowered-womanly-flare!

And, with much more risk involved than any start-up I ventured into before…God willing, the rewards will be well-worth the investment…so, I’m in great need of some advise!

Fortunately, our owners are multi-million-dollar-producing businessmen; so while I’m surrounded with great company–I will always be Me…and I’d love to say “Chic!”

So, here I am with only 2 owners dedicated to our simple mission, and our simple yet altruistic goals...They’re basically supporting me as I make some of my Biggest Dreams come true–while they honor their beloved mother, may God have mercy on her.

So, HOW am I going to forge forward, you may ask?

First and foremost, in pure faith and God will continue to shower me with health and strength if I humbly put Him and Only Him at the forefront in all that I do. Ameen.

Second, Elizabeth’s guidebook to being a Chic Entrepreneur by my side–as I network like crazy of course.

No lie–girl!

Elizabeth writes with spunk, authority, humor, and gives detailed tips, outlines and breaks things up one-to-one on an entrepreneur’s level; but reminds you of the big-picture of becoming big-corporation (only if that’s within your goals, she inspires you to reach that goal…but, if you want to remain on a smaller-scale that’s totally cool too).

Being the fashion-chick that I am–yes, I LOVE clothes–Elizabeth kept me chugging along with many Ah-Hah moments and smirks of delight.

She reminded me to stick to processes and systems–but most importantly, to document them.

People thought  I was crazy when I hired an intern during her 3rd-trimester only to loose her when everyone thought I needed her most.

Well, I really DO need her today…but we were well-prepared.Based on her critical experience with other private academies, we spent her last day handwriting out as many Process Maps (p. 134-136) as possible.

Now, I’m getting my FAIR share of criticism for my hiring processes too.

But with Chapter Four’s “The DMV or Google: Attracting and Retaining the Best Employees“–I know in my faith and heart (and thankfully–Elizabeth’s proven business-advice) that soon (possibly not until the end of our 1st year), people will be able to appreciate ALL the time I spent being absolutely nit-picky about the very staff I am hiring.

Because I believe wholeheartedly in our mission & vision, I am doing Everything in my power to have all our staff embrace our grand-goals, and will implement as many if not all the tips Elizabeth offers to retaining them for the long-run too.

Elizabeth had has me racking my brain with Chapter Nine. Everything Financial. #s, $-signs…urgh ;-(

Everything I’ve leaned heavily on hubby to do, upto now!

But, with our numbers SO much greater and Hubby and the girls overseas vacationing (yay, that’s another story)–planning, assessing and projecting our financial status is critical. And, I HAVE to understand everything myself: upfront & personal :-/

Fortunately, Elizabeth breaks things down step-by-step.

Listed above are only a few examples how comprehensive this book is.

To close, I must share that I have marked up this book Something-Silly!

There are folds on the top-corners, bottom-corners, multiple-colors highlighting phrases and sections so “important things” can Pop out the pages–but its nearly impossible to leave any section un-marked.

So, my advise–big or small (start-up or mid-career): Read & Embrace this book! It’s practical and the analogies are just well–Chic!

As for EWN–we’re making many changes, trying different writers and projects; and I’m basically leaving things it to my partner and assistants to lead its way. I’ve obviously removed myself; not out of choice, but by the demand of the limited hours of my day.

Please know that I am forever grateful for your loving support and know that whatever we do here–it’ll be Empowering to All Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners: just like Elizabeth Gordon and Leanna Adams!

Here I am running off the gasoline in my generator. A nasty storm came through that left thousands, including us, without power. It made me thankful that I was prepared – are you? Can a bad storm or other glitch in your service take your business down? Following are some things to think about:

1. Are your desktop PC’s or servers on a battery backup? Windows doesn’t like to be shut down unexpectedly and has been known to corrupt files and drives when that happens. Thankfully we had all our computers (that weren’t laptops) on a Uninterruptable Power Source (UPS) so I had time to run around and shut them down when the lights went out. You can ever get software that closes down your computer automatically when it runs off the UPS for a certain amount of time. The disk you save could be your own!
2. Do you know where the closest Wi-Fi Hotspot is? Mine is the little coffee shop in town. It’s free, so when the power is out they get a lot of business from the folks in my neighborhood.
   
   
3. Do you have an old-fashioned phone that doesn’t require power? I am amazed at how many people have FORGOTTEN what a regular phone is. Keep at least one in your house (they’re dirt cheap!) for those black out times.
   
   
4. Have you considered a generator? We lose power quite often and I can’t afford to stop working every time, and I CERTAINLY can’t afford to restock my freezer either when my meat spoils. We invested in a fairly-moderate generator a few years back that my husband was able to connect in through the circuit break panel so it runs most of the house. Don’t ask me how he did it, but it works great when we need it!
   
   
5. Last but not least, do you have an off-site backup of your critical data? I know this is nothing new, but I know a lot of people who don’t do this. Do me a favor: don’t wait to lose everything to start backing up your files. I’ve had too many hard drive crashes (don’t buy a Toshiba laptop!) to not be diligent about backing up. Don’t get caught with your without your data duplicated somewhere.

Don’t wait until a hurricane, thunderstorm, or rolling blackout interrupts your business. Take some proactive steps NOW to make sure you’re ready when the lights go out in Georgia (or wherever you’re located)…

Julie Lenzer Kirk, an award-winning entrepreneur and mother of two, grew her business to multi-millions in revenues while raising her family. She cashed out of her company and now teaches entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland while providing workshops, consulting, and keynotes as the President & CEO of Path Forward International. She is the author of The ParentPreneur Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Business. Sign up for her monthly “Boot in the Butt”(TM) e-newsletter at www.JulieLenzerKirk.com

Please welcome Allon Bloch, co-CEO of Wix – a free online software that allows you to make your own flash website, blog, MySpace and more!Supposedly, it’s incredibly-simple to use. U know how non-techie I am. While I really want to give it a whirl, “test” it out, and report back to you…something better brewed ov’r yonder. Since time and energy is scarse & after developing a nice rapport with a few of Wix staff while hosting the below interview/article, Wix offered to contribute a weekly series specific to “Internet Branding for Entrepreneurs & Small Business Owners”. How sweet is that!?

Phew! Having Amit share tips, how-to’s, and more, I’m hoping we will all soon have some kickin’ flash websites ourselves.

P.S. Read to the end, and find out how You can be apart of this invitation-only closed-Beta opportunity!

So, what is Wix Allon ?

Wix is a start up that’s venture backed.

It’s a classic story of a few founders frustrated with a big problem – and spending time and energy to resolving it. In this case, Gig Kaplan, Avishai and Nadav Abrahami (brothers) were looking at the web publishing market in 2005 and were frustrated with the inability to create a web site that looks good and is easy to make. To create a good looking website you need to pay many thousands of dollars to a team of coders and designers, and once you have the site published you need to run back to the coders when you want to make a change. The other option is typically a dreary looking template site that provides no creativity, self expression or a true way to tailor a site to one’s needs.

- So the guys (yes sorry all the founders are guys in this case…) felt like they could tackle this problem and moreover felt like it’s a pretty basic problem. During the last couple of years the emergence of widgets as an important part of the web, especially on social networks, have increased the importance of creating a web-top publishing platform that could enable users to create great stuff online WITHOUT the need to code and WITHOUT being constrained by templates.

- I joined as co-CEO in February 2008, and Nir Zohar as head of operation about a year ago. We’re HQed in NY with a large team in Tel Aviv, Israel

- We’re still in private beta, and while I can’t reveal any of our numbers/targets, we are amazed at the kinds of web documents people are creating. The three broad buckets we have are the following:

o Consumers who want to express themselves- creating personal sites, widgets, slideshows, greeting cards etc

o Artists and musicians who create web stuff for their fans

o Small businesses

- Let me elaborate about our impact on small businesses: instead of spending many thousands of dollars creating a site and then spending weeks every time you want to make a change, a small business owner can create their own site, on their own, and publish it wherever they want. Furthermore, despite the fact that we are in flash our sites are searchable like any HTML sites (that’s part of our secret sauce). We provide a lot of professional looking content that people can use. Certain small business owners would want a graphic or web designer to create this for them – which is fine, and in the future we will create a marketplace to connect designers with site owners. This will still cost a fraction of creating a site today – because it takes much less time to make it – hours or a couple of instead of weeks. And you can do a collaborative design – you don’t just provide a general idea and get a black box – the site owner can change anything they want in real time. And once it’s finished they can change whatever they want on their own

- Let’s take an example: let’s say you’re a small flower store with and you want an online presence. You go to wix, create a site and publish it. Now you want to promote a certain event to your customers – you can say create a flyer widget on and email it to your customers or post it on your site or on your myspace profile. And you can prepare that promotion easily on your own – you take imagery from your site, add some text, press publish and voila you have a promotional flyer that you created in minutes – a much easier way to market yourself online

- Business model: wix is now free for our beta testers. In the future we will charge a fee to our business customers for using a premium offering, but it’s going to be around $10 a month (and we host the site – which is what you pay for hosting today in any case). So for the price of two cups of cappuccino

You have a striking presence online….

Since Wix is still in closed beta, they only approached a select number of quality blogs whose readers will most benefit from Wix.
I’m proud and honored that EWM makes the “cut”, and they happily offered to give me AND You advanced access so we can all test the product for yourselves!

Here’s how:

The following video offers a quick look at our editor.
For further information, please see our blog kit. [BTW, I really like that "blog kit" instead of "press kit" ]

For those of us without kids running around all the time (mine are both in school), being home alone all day really can be a problem. My friend Terry actually joked that she was going to buy a volleyball, put a red hand print on it and call it “Wilson” (if you haven’t seen Tom Hanks in Castaway, you won’t get that).

I am an extrovert. While I really enjoy those days where I get to really focus and dig into my work, there are other days when I just want to talk to someone other than my cat. Oh, I talk on the phone a lot but somehow that just doesn’t do it. I feel drawn to GET OUT…to press the flesh, as they say. To meet people and hear about what they’re doing (because it might spark an idea for me) or brainstorm with colleagues about what I should be doing.

It really hit home (no pun intended) when I was looking through an old photo album from my first entrepreneurial venture. That business outgrew my house after 4 years, but I still worked from home on many occasions. We had picnics, went bowling and played laser tag. Every year we had a fun holiday party in the office (complete with piñata – don’t ask!) and an opportunity to dress up for an elegant soirée at a nice restaurant. Looking at the pictures of the smiling faces from the company I had built made me realize I MISS WORKING WITH PEOPLE.

So what’s my solution?

For me, I learned the hard way the first time around that having a company that depends solely on my direct efforts for revenues was NOT the way to grow. At the same time, I am not in a hurry to move out of my comfy home office and incur the expense of an office and employees.

I’m working on bringing partners into my business that will remain working out of their homes, but we’ll make opportunities to get together at least once a month to talk about the business, where we’re going and how we’re going to continue growing.

I’ve also found a few fellow women entrepreneurs with whom I have lunch every couple weeks. We take turns mentoring and being mentored, and some days just spend the whole time laughing. My own little mastermind group – it’s a great release.

For everyone else, what you do depends on what your ultimate goals are. If you’re happy flying solo, make sure you get out there and find fruitful opportunities to network. Volunteer in your community. Sit on the board of your professional association. Just GET OUT and you’ll grow to appreciate the quiet times at home and look forward to the next venture out.

Julie Lenzer Kirk, an award-winning entrepreneur and mother of two, grew her business to multi-millions in revenues while raising her family. She cashed out of her company and now teaches entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County while providing workshops, consulting, and keynotes as the President & CEO of Path Forward International. She is the author of The ParentPreneur Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Business (John Wiley & Sons) and can be reached at Julie@JulieLenzerKirk.com or sign up for her monthly Boot in the Butt™ e-newsletter at www.JulieLenzerKirk.com.

Kathrien Ahn, Community Manager at docstoc first reached out to us to see if we’d feature their innovative software that “provide bloggers with the ability to embed any document (word, pdf).

Then, they announced some really exciting news.

So, I thought it’d be great if we ran a quick interview with Kathrien so she can to share their news herself.

So, Kathrien, besides developing an innovative program, what’s your Great New News?

Sure, I’d be glad to share.

On April 29^th, we secured our Series B round of financing for $3.25 million which was led by Rustic Canyon Ventures. It was a crazy day for the entire team and we were all over the blogosphere from Techcrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, and many more

But, now the REAL hard work begins as we’re working to continually innovate docstoc, something that we believe, can touch the lives of all people via their documents.

We’ve also launched our Content Partnership Program (CPP) that allows organizations and professionals with either a vast quantity of content or a set of premium content, to share their documents on docstoc and include advertising and promotion built into each of the document pages free of charge. This will allow you to monetize your content and use your docs as valuable marketing and self- promotion, whether you’re a service-based professional, small business, or large organization.

Since you’re a *very* young and new company can you share any empowering words to our readers (entrepreneurs and small business owners) who’d LOVE to be able to express the same incredible news one day?

Yes!

First of all, anyone can be an entrepreneur.

It doesn’t matter if you’re the quiet, bookish type or someone who can “work” a room. All that matters is that you have a great idea, the passion to pursue it, and the work ethic to have it come to fruition. Oh, and having the ability to raise capital is definitely a plus. (tongue in cheek) But seriously, what it comes down to is doing the work, implementing your idea. Action. Late-nights. Luckily, when you have a great team, It’s definitely easier. [I'm all about Quality Team work!]

What’s so unique about docstoc and why do you think it’s crucial for us busy entrepreneurs and small business owners?

Docstoc is the “youtube” for professional documents where you can find and share any document for free, with categories ranging from legal, business, financial, educational and creative. Granted, we’re not saying that having a document will take the place of a lawyer, but it does allow the consumer to have access to legal and business documents that would enable him/her to be better informed about their business/legal needs.

Also, in the state of the current Economy, free advertising is widely sought after, as we’re pinching pennies in the midst of rising food and gas costs. docstoc proves useful for free advertising because when you upload your professional documents, you are essentially allowing them to be highly indexed in search engines because docstoc is looked upon as a reliable source. This is why it’s important to have specific tags and titles when you upload your documents. Also here are ways that docstoc has helped users:

Entrepreneur Gets Multi-Million Dollar Term Sheet from Using docstoc

Local LA Entrepreneur finds business plan templates and spreadsheets on docstoc for his business, customizes it for his potential Financiers, and receives Multi-million dollar Term Sheet

Stay-At Home Mom Starts a Successful Business At Home using Business docs from docstoc

One user took various documents from docstoc and started a jewelry design business. Then she uploaded documents promoting her business, her bio, and several local press clippings. And traffic to her business website increased by 25%.

docstsoc Levels the Playing Field for Small Firm Attorneys

Many Small firm attorneys, who do not have access to Westlaw or Lexis Nexis, have been visiting docstoc on a regular basis to find documents such as operating agreements, real estate deal docs, and sample contracts.

Administrative Assistant Finds Legal Templates on docstoc for free.

An admin at a fast-paced law firm was frustrated because she couldn’t find the right legal template for her boss. She went to several other sites but was discouraged by the fees for paying for documents. Luckily, she came across docstoc and was able to download several versions of legal templates for free.

Graphic Designers Get Opinions from Strangers on their Work

Fashion designers, shoe designers, graphic designers, or fashion bloggers can upload their articles, press clippings, portfolios, and work to their docstoc profile, and hear what people REALLY have to say.

Authors Sharing their Books Across the Web

A number of authors are using docstoc to promote their books. They upload a couple chapters of their published work. Then 1) It gets indexed at the top of search engines on docstoc, 2) we promote some of their work in our featured section and 3) They use the embed feature on their blogs to have their content virally spread all around the internet.

Professionals Getting Business Leads by Sharing Documents.

We have numerous examples of attorneys, accountants, and consultants who have posted documents with all of their contact information. Those documents get thousands of views, and in turn they have had people who visit their document on docstoc, contact them through our site and turn into paying clients.

docstoc is Where Students Find/Share Notes

docstoc has become a popular source for MBA students, Graduate, and Law School students to share their outlines, class presentations, case write-ups, and financial spreadsheets.

Dude! Those are impressive testimonials—and some great publicity tips too !

BTW, I literally *hate* attaching docs to email, or zipping files, or making sure I updated my latest file into my flash-drive. Will docstoc save me from all these hassles of daily livin’?

Yes!

Attaching docs to e-mail and zipping files are definitely annoying which is why the docstoc embed feature is so useful. You can embed everything from powerpoint presentations to PDF’s on to your webpage, allowing your readers to stay on your page instead of going to an outbound link. Or if you just need to e-mail a doc to someone, just use the URL of the document on docstoc, so that it eliminates the need for you to “attach” documents.

How would you categorize docstoc? Like a social-media-user-generated-document-sharing community? With an optional revenue-sharing-model built in? Talk about Web 2.0 biz-application.

Our goal is to be the largest repository for professional documents on the web including legal forms, business presentations, financial templates and technical white papers. We’re also the premier online community for professional content, facilitating the sharing and promotion of docs as well as being the platform for processing, storing, and indexing documents that can be viewed anywhere as embedded objects.

And going back to our Content Partnership Program, you will be able to easily embed your documents across the Web, get referral traffic, more customers, subscription and sales, get indexed in search engines, and sell premium content. (in select cases) Here is more info. once again.

Well, this has been great Kathrien. Anything else you’d like to share? Closing remarks? Empowering tips? Instructions? Contact info?

Yes, well, first of all, thanks for taking the time to interview me and giving docstoc a shout-out on “Empower Women Now.” I think your blog is a tremendous resource to women entrepreneurs and just anyone who is looking for inspirational tips as well as important business related information. [Aww...you're too kind, Kat]

And I’d just like to say that we have an really hard-working team, Jason Nazar, our CEO, Alon Shwartz, our CTO, and our amazing developers, Ilya Tchak and Andrew Belous [Don't see you're name there chickie…you’re too modest ]

…but now that we’ve gotten the Series B, we’re looking to hire several Front End .Net developers and Flex developers, so if you’re interested or know anyone, feel free to submit a resume at www.docstoc.com/jobs

[What a wonderful opportunity for anyone qualified to jump in.]

As for empowering tips, I’d just say that the thing about tech is that people are open about sharing helpful information and advice to the newbies. They’re not afraid to admit their mistakes because it’s kind of a rite of passage here because when you screw up, you learn from it and you move forward. So I’d say that if you’re an entrepreneur or small-business owner who is looking for advice on how to start or grow your business, read A LOT, from blogs to top magazines, get advice from anyone you can, get a business plan (you can get a template from docstoc…I needed to get another plug in. Sorry! [No apologies necessary ], and then the most important things: Take Action. Stay Pro-Active. Be positive. [Here, here!]

And if you have any questions, feel free to message me on docstoc, as I usually respond to all user mail. Here is my profile.

And thanks again, Ponn! Your story, in general, is an inspiration to female entrepreneurs everywhere.

Thanks so much Kat, the honor is all mine!

I really look forward to reading our community’s experiences and thoughts below.

[At the time of this interview, this cute and funny blogpost shares the kind of entrepreneurial atmosphere surrounds docstoc! hee hee. ]

We’ve all enjoyed Julie’s previous posts here & here, and its with great pleasure that I introduce her as a regular contributor to “Home Office” as her primary area of expertise with us…though she can speak with much authority on all aspects of entrepreneurialism (especially being Parentpreneurs) I value her tips and experience and always empowered by her contributions. Hope you enjoy and welcome her as well. Please keep the dialogue alive!

When I started my first business out of my home it took me a good 9 months to get used to it. Where was the water cooler? Oh, yea, it’s my faucet. Who wants to go grab a bite for lunch? No one’s there. There were certain adjustments I had to make. There were also challenges and temptations I had to learn to overcome. Should I be cleaning the house while I’m home? What about that treadmill? It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to make it all work.

Fast forward 13 years, 2 companies, and several offices-outside-the-home later and I am back working from my home office. This time, I’m taking to heart the lessons I learned the about how to overcome the temptations and challenges of working from home:

1. Keeping your priorities straight. My first office was in my basement staring directly at the washing machine. It took me several months to get over the draw I felt to get laundry done while I was working. Because I was new at this self-employment thing, I was not yet able to prioritize myself between home and work. They seemed intertwined and I felt pulled between the two. I had two separate lists – one personal and one business – each prioritized individually. Now I’ve learned to combine my list into one Master List with both personal and business items on it. THEN I prioritize the resultant list and find I am able to get the high priority tasks attended to without that nagging feeling that I’m missing something.

2. Setting up a routine. When my husband then joined me in my business a couple years after I had started it, he still felt the need to keep an ‘office’ routine even though his commute was 30 feet down the hall. He set his alarm, got up and took a shower, worked until lunch when he would go out and eat and run errands, and then work until 5:00. He really needed that routine. It took him several months to realize he could be more flexible with his schedule. Although he still sets his alarm, he’ll now go out and run errands before the office lunch crowd takes over the stores.

3. Closing the door. Having an office in your home provides for a great deal of flexibility as well as temptation. That great sucking sound heard in my house at night is the call of my work, pulling me in. I have found that in order to maintain my sanity, I have to be able to not only close the door, but LOCK IT. There are just times when enough has to be enough. There are other times when being able to

4. Reaching out. Working from home can be very lonely. If you’re an extrovert like me, you need people and working from home you’re normally ALONE (and little ones under 6 years old don’t count). Therein lies the dilemma. When I was traveling to see customers, it was not a big deal. I actually looked forward to a few quiet days by myself in my office. Now that my travel schedule is less hectic, I find that I need to schedule a day or two a week out so that I maintain what’s left of my sanity. Networking events, with the right groups, can be not only fruitful from a business perspective but also enjoyable. I also use the time to catch up with former colleagues or friends I haven’t seen in a while. It feels good to get out!

So what are the challenges that you face working at home? How do you combat those temptations? Do you wish you could do it more or less? Share your tips and let’s see how others make it work!

Julie Lenzer Kirk, an award-winning entrepreneur and mother of two, grew her business to multi-millions in revenues while raising her family. She cashed out of her company and now teaches entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County while providing workshops, consulting, and keynotes as the President & CEO of Path Forward International. She is the author of The ParentPreneur Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Business (John Wiley & Sons) and can be reached at Julie@JulieLenzerKirk.com or via her website at www.JulieLenzerKirk.com Sign up for her monthly Boot in the Butt™ e-newsletter at www.JulieLenzerKirk.com.

A very long-term supporter, Mark and I started off on-line back in 2005; and we both evolved with the times, to say the least. Anyways, I always supported his work and found his niche critical for all women entrepreneurs, and small biz owners in general: You must have and/or gain support of your spouse in order to really succeed in business. Why run a biz “for” your family, if your family is not even there at the end of the day to share your “success”? I’m happy to introduce Tuesday as “Family Life Balance” Day with Mark Semple of SuccessfulTogetherCoaching.com as our regular guest contributor. Please welcome him, share your thoughts below…Hey, start a heated debate; he’s ready for it

Part I – Start Within

If you are an Empowered Woman with a partner who supports you in all that you do – you are blessed. If your partner has yet to realize the incredible opportunity he has, these articles are for you …

Please note: This is written from the perspective of the woman entrepreneur where the husband/partner has the support opportunity. There are, of course, many instances where the roles are reversed. Please read in the appropriate context for you.

Most women enter the world of the entrepreneur alone. Some of them simply want to have some time out of the house. Some of them want a little extra income for themselves. Many want to make a difference for their families.

Regardless of the reason, they have entered an exciting new world. As you get to know amazing people, like our friend Ponn Sabra [aww....geez, thnx Mark] , you realize what is possible and you become aware of how empowered you are.

Now, this is getting exciting! The business you started for whatever reason initially, now has the potential to become something phenomenal for you and those you love.

What do you do when you are excited about something in your life? You share it with that most important person – your partner.

And then you are quite surprised when he isn’t interested.

What’s going on?

He must be a pretty decent guy overall or he would not have the honor of sharing your life. He does a good job with his responsibilities with home and family. Why doesn’t he get the message about your business and the great opportunity it represents? Not just the financial potential, but the opportunity for you to do something meaningful for your future together?

There are a multitude of reasons why the guys don’t get enthused about ventures such as this and, to be honest, they really don’t matter. (The reasons, not the guys).

I know that sounds like a strange thing to say when the most important person in your life is resisting being a part of something that is very important to you.

The reason is that you can either focus your attention on what you CAN do, or you can spend your time and energy trying to gain an understanding.

An Empowered Woman chooses to do what she can do, right?

Please note that we are referring to a male partner that currently doesn’t get the message and doesn’t want to be involved.

There are those, unfortunately, who are openly negative toward the business venture. Although this information will be of value, negativity is a force that must be dealt with separately. It doesn’t belong in a relationship or a business.

Your first step on the road to gaining the support you desire is to understand a simple truth: You don’t actually need his support.

It is a fact – no woman actually needs a man in order to be successful. It is a powerful truth for you to know & believe – as it is for your man to believe also. (Trust me – that will come).

Success is an inside job. Regardless of whether or not you have the support you desire, the level of success you achieve is determined by the passion, dreams and intention that you hold within.

This will be the source of your energy and your inspiration – your knowing that you are achieving that which you desire.

As you strive to make your business venture attractive and appealing to your significant other, it will be substantially more powerful when it is radiating out from within you. And thus, when you speak about your vision, the ‘words and the music’ will match.

And, you are in your empowered space. By focusing on the success within, and doing that which you can do, you are building the momentum that will move you towards your success. If you choose to focus on that which you don’t have, your momentum is going to slow down.

Remember always that your energy will flow toward where your attention is.

In summary: The first step to gaining the support you desire is to focus on your greatness within.

Mark Semple is a Certified Comprehensive Coach and the 2007 International Coach of the Year. Most importantly, Mark is the dedicated supporter of his wife in her business. For Mark’s insights on Success Together, visit:

www.successfultogethercoaching.com