Little Entrepreneurs

Kara English

The other day my kids approached me and informed me that they wanted to start their own online business. They have a fantastic idea so I figured what the heck; this will be a great summer project. We sat down and brainstormed over lunch, and before I knew it we had been talking for over an hour. I was amazed at their ideas, their creativity and their passion for their idea. Watching and listening to them reminded me of my early days when I was building our first website. Before I knew it they had come up with a brand, a domain and a very basic business plan. We are now in research mode and the kids still haven’t lost sight of their goal. Since I started our business I have dealt with the guilt of being home, but feeling like I’m n…

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Little Entrepreneurs

Confidence as a Mom-preneur and as Myself

Kara English

Something that I have struggled with since making the choice to stay home and making the choice to start and run a business from home is having confidence in myself. It may seem crazy to think that an entrepreneur would lack confidence. In fact I’ve always felt that confidence is one of the strengths of an entrepreneur which makes my struggle even harder to accept. I think all stay at home parents go through this when we leave the mainstream workforce. Staying home with newborn twins I found that I became lost in a world of diapers, feeding and naps. I completely lost touch with the outside world. I felt like I literally crept out of a cave when the kids were about 6 months old. They kids were eager and happy to face this wonderfu…

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Confidence as a Mom-preneur and as Myself

Free Education and Networking (and I didn’t even leave the house)

Kara English

I apologize I haven’t been blogging a lot here on Practical Ecommerce. Our busy season has begun and of course I am in the never ending quest to keep up with the business, my kids, the house etc. etc. I wanted to blog about something that I experienced this weekend. I know many of us are work at home Moms or work at home Dads. I also know we all feel alone in our quest to run our business and balance our families. Many of our peers think we have it “easy”, and that because we are home we have the time to clean house, get the laundry done and of course prepare a healthy homemade meal each night. How many of you are laughing right now? If you are like me the laundry is piled on the floor screaming for attention (I swear its alive an…

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Free Education and Networking (and I didn’t even leave the house)

Ecommerce and eBay Yearly Check-List

Danna Crawford

Making a list and checking it twice is the best way to start a new year, a new job or an old life with new plans! List building can help everyone with getting organized no matter what business you are in. I even encourage my kids to build lists with future plans, goal setting and saving money. There are many questions you should ask yourself when building a list. Depending on the direction you are heading, a few list suggestions are: How much money do you need? What career level do you want to be at? What goal do you want to reach? What weight do you want to be? Quit date to stop smoking? And: What do you want to be when you grow up? Once you have the basic idea of which goal you want to accomplish, the list building part can begin…

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Ecommerce and eBay Yearly Check-List

Time to diversify..

Michelle Lambert

Happy Halloween from Salt Lake. It’s our first Halloween here, and my kids are sooo excited.. sorry.. Indiana Jones and The Vampiress are already so hopped up on sugar, they’re sure to crash before we even hit the pavement. But I’ll let them indulge, to me, that’s what it’s all about.. too much sugar and staying up too late! Ahhhh, the life of a kid! Gotta let up on them sometimes. All is well here in hat land. We are working hard to keep things going. Last month I talked about cross selling on the site. I’ve done that with some success. I have to say that whenever I make changes, I see sales. Moving things around on my site is probably the fastest way to make things move. I have to remember that people don’t tend to scroll down. I str…

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Time to diversify..

Preparing for the Holiday Season

Kara English

With the holidays coming up fast I thought I would blog about something that happened to me a few months ago and how I plan on applying this experience to improve my business. Last Spring at the end of the school year my kids and I went shopping for teacher gifts. Our first stop was the local florist. My kids really wanted to give their teacher some flowers. They had big dreams of very large bouquets and arrangements. I had a budget. Not only was it the last week of school, it was also Memorial Weekend and Graduation for all of the area high schools. Busy times in our small town! As we shopped around the clerk approached me and asked if she could help. I explained that I was looking for teacher gifts, maybe a small flower arrange…

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Preparing for the Holiday Season

Separating Work from Home, When Home is Work.

Kara English

For the last four years I have struggled with the balance between work and home. The main struggle is that I work at home so it can be very difficult to shut the door to the office and try to be just Mom. I realized not too long ago that my children needed MOM, not CEO. Here are some tips on how I have tried to balance the two. Set hours and stick to them. I decided that I didn’t need to work constantly from 3pm until 8pm. This is the time my kids get home from school until they go to bed. One of the reasons I wanted to work from home was to be at home with my kids. This is the time they need me. We play, do homework have a nice family dinner and end our day together with some bedtime stories. This is my favorite time of day. I …

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Separating Work from Home, When Home is Work.

The Life of a Mom-Preneur

Kara English

I am constantly asked what I do for a living. The answer is complicated and it can be answered in many ways, but I find no one really understands what exactly it is that I do every day. My typical answer is, I’m a Mom but I also own my business and work from home. Now most people think I’m joking or that I must be selling Tupperware or something. Some politely say, oh that’s nice and move on. I met a woman on the airplane who went on and on about her job as a corporate VP at some large corporation. When I told her I worked at home she said ‘I think it is so cute that Moms like you are able to stay home with the kids and find a way to keep busy with a little job.’ Okay, Number 1, Moms don’t NEED anything else to keep them busy. …

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The Life of a Mom-Preneur