Working Anywhere and Experiencing Real Freedom
Over the past few years I’ve considered starting a number of businesses including; eBay powerselling, a sandwich shop, a knick knack shop and an online shop selling a unique product.
The business that I’m in now is selling information, which includes eBooks, eCourses, and mentoring via telephone and email. I absolutely love what I do and if I can build the business up with my partner then I’ll be very happy to continue doing it for the forseeable future.
I love it for a few reasons, firstly I really enjoy sharing my knowledge and seeing how it can benefit others. I also find it very satisfying that I can earn a living helping people to earn a flexible and fulfilling living for themselves. The sooner more women realise that there are tons of opportunities to create your own income streams the happier many of us will be.
On a personal level I really love the fact that I can work for myself, I don’t rely on someone to pay me a wage and for me personally that is very satisfying. My business because it’s all based online can be done from anywhere, providing I have a laptop and an internet connection I’m completely location free. This gives me complete freedom to up sticks and go anywhere whilst still being able to work, this freedom coupled with a few passive streams of income makes for a very flexible lifestyle and one that we like to promote in our courses.
Last week I road tested (literally!) a Car Mi-Fi modem from Three Mobile which provides mobile broadband along with in-car chargers, it was extremely useful and demonstrated to me how I now have the power to work from anywhere. This isn’t a big deal right now but I hope in the future we can take advantage of one of us being able to work remotely from anywhere, if travel opportunities arise then I know I’m in good shape to take advantage.
Life Planning and Living Purposefully
I’m a list person, I like making lists.
I have a list for household jobs, a shopping list, a work ‘to do’ list, and a ‘life’ list.
My life list is a broad plan of some of the things I’d like to see, do and own (the own one is very small in comparison to the other two!). I began doing this after reading The 4 Hour Workweek which had an activity for life planning which encouraged you to think big and break down the costs of the things you’d like to see, do and have. The activity’s benefits were two-fold, it helps you to be more focussed about where you’re going and what you’re aiming for and secondly it shows you that even the most exciting and fulfilling life doesn’t cost nearly as much as you might expect.
Once you’ve totted up how much your dream life would cost it makes you ultra focussed on earning that amount in the shortest space of time. As a result of this focus I’ve gone down the passive income route, I’ve built my monthly income from £0 to almost £1000 per month, by the end of the year it’s my target to exceed £1000 per month every month. This is the amount it takes to achieve my list working part-time only, I currently ‘work’ for around two hours a day, about fifteen hours a week.
Over time I’ve added more detail to my list including forecasts of how much I’ll need for each thing and when I’d like to achieve it. For things within the next two to three years I have broken down each thing into a steps I need to take to make sure I achieve all the things on my list.
This may all sound a little anal and lacking a bit of spontanaeity, but even being spontaneous takes a certain amount of planning so it’s hardly spontaneous anyway. By doing it this way I always have things to look forward to and when money comes in I know just where it’s going rather than frittering it away. I feel without at least a rough plan I’m merely existing. When I sit down to work I know exactly why I’m doing it.
I know exactly how much I need to earn to make my dreams a reality so I do what is needed to earn that amount. Sometimes I do more because I’m thoroughly enjoying my work at the moment, but that’s my choice and some days I don’t do extra if I don’t feel like it. This may sound a bit lazy but there are no prizes for working yourself to death in this life. I never look at someone who works ten hours a week and makes £500 and think he’s lazy, I think that’s smart! Especially when he spends the rest of his time with family and pursuing hobbies. As well as my fifteen or so hours of work I’m doing a full time degree and continuing to look after my daughter (although that will be around school soon), the point I’m making is one – it’s not lazy to want to spend time doing things that involve not earning money, and two – you can have it all, but you need to sacrifice a bit and work hard (read: for free) before you get it.
I feel that by creating a plan and working towards it I’m living purposefully. I love how my plan has hard figures that I know if I can earn that amount then I get to do all the things I want, and when I say ‘I’ that actually means my family too as we create the wish list together.
Do you set goals or do any sort of life planning? Do you have ‘before I die’ list or a five year plan?
Treating Maternity Leave as a Sabbatical
A few weeks back I was invited on BBC Radio Scotland to talk about maternity leave. I was the one who’d taken extended leave (almost five years in total!), a decision I don’t regret at all.
The discussion began relatively balanced before becoming more pro work at the end. Callers were predominantly promoting a quick return to work, citing the usual reasons from financial need to social reasons.
On reflection of the debate I began to think that the benefits of taking a period out from work weren’t promoted enough. We seem to have the same debate over and over again about whether it’s right to return to work as soon as possible or become a stay at home mum. One aspect that is overlooked is that maternity leave can be an opportunity to take stock, reassess your life and take it in a different direction. Maternity leave brings a chance to study, retrain and even start your own business, mums who do this have become known as ‘mumpreneurs’.
It’s all to easy for us as women and mothers to complain about glass ceilings and inequality in the workplace. I’m not for a second saying that these don’t exist (it’s clear they do) or indeed that it’s right (it’s not) but I don’t see why we don’t focus more on what we are given – a decent period of time out where we can change our paths and opt out of the unfairness and inequality.
Most mums take at least six months out these days and although that period can be physically and emotionally tiresome I personally still felt that mentally I had space for other things – so much so I ended up starting my blog and doing some part time study. As my daughter has grown up I’ve managed to gain an HNC and even start and fail at a few ‘would be’ businesses.
Although I’ve had my failures I’ve stuck with it and am now on the verge of being self employed doing something I love – teaching small businesses and mumpreneurs how to use the internet and social media effectively to raise their profile and sales. It’s been a long and often disappointing and exasperating road but nowhere near as unfulfilling as I would have found some of the alternatives. I’d encourage more women to embrace maternity leave and use it to their advantage. We don’t have to settle for the low-paid, part-time, temporary and often dull work that society offers us. If you count up how much you’d earn from a job like that and take off your expenses you may find that starting even the smallest venture could be more lucrative and a hundred times more fulfilling.
Over the five years I’ve been a stay at home mum (albeit with a few part-time jobs – see above!) I’ve learned that if you really want to make it happen and you’re willing to sacrifice and put the hard work in that anything is possible and the pay off at the end is huge!
Are you a Boomerang Blogger
I was reading a few posts earlier and came across one where the blogger was saying he was off on a blogging hiatus, he was unsure how long he’d be away and wasn’t sure if he’d ever return.
I’m hearing (and reading) this more and more these days, bloggers either having an extended ‘blogoliday’ or even giving up blogging altogether before returning either to the same blog or returning under a different guise complete with new social media accounts.
Bloggers state reasons from blog fatigue, to family reasons to lack of time.
I’ve been blogging non stop for over four years and have never had a break so I’m interested to find out what makes people take an extended break or start a new blog altogether. Some people seem to do this really often, take extended breaks or start new blogs, I’ve coined the fun term ‘boomerang blogger’ for these people.
Are you a boomerang blogger? Do you often take breaks, returning with fresh content, a new look, or even a completely new blog?
Photo by flickr user Mundoo
There are no bad blogs – but content is key to success
This is a guest post by blogger and journalist Liz Jarvis for the Great British Blog Festival
OK, if you’re blogging for friends and family and you don’t care about attracting more readers then this post isn’t for you.
Before you throw your hands up in horror, let me stress I believe strongly that there are no bad blogs, only different ones. What you choose to write on your blog is entirely up to you.
But if you would like to grow your blog then I believe content has to be paramount.
I’ve worked on some of the UK’s leading magazines, helping to drive hundreds of thousands of readers to buy. So I know the difference a great coverline or story can make to sales.
And in my opinion it’s the same with blog posts. If you want to encourage readers to invest their time and energy in your blog, you have to make your content as compelling as possible.
So before you start writing a post, think about the following:
1. Who am I writing this post for? Who is my target audience? Do I want it to be read by other bloggers, or non-bloggers? (It can help to have your target audience in your head when you first start writing a blog – e.g Mary, 32, SAHM of four or Gina, 25, mum to a baby – although as your blog grows and you get to know your readers you’ll be more confident about who you’re hoping to attract to your blog).
2. What am I trying to say? (There are very few bloggers who can get away with ‘streams of consciousness’. Most of us need to actually think a little about what we’re writing before publishing it.)
3. Is it interesting? Would I want to read it? Will my target audience want to read it? Is the post passive or interactive? Is it thought provoking, moving, funny? Or will people reading it feel no need to comment?
4. Will the post generate comments? (Sometimes this isn’t always possible, particularly if it’s a commercial post, but it is worth bearing in mind).
It’s also important to keep learning. Read other blog writers whose success you would like to emulate, look at which posts of your own attracted a good response.
I often hear bloggers complain they are stuck for something to write about. It really shouldn’t be that hard (!) but if you’re struggling, ring your friends, have a look at newspaper websites, watch the news, think about events and experiences which have happened in your life or the lives of those closest to you. Inspiration will soon come.
I don’t believe you should ‘overthink’ a post, but at the same time, paying attention to all the above will help attract more readers, I promise.
Blogging For Business
Thank you to T-J who submitted this post as part of the Great British Blog Festival.
I started seeing if I could blog last December. The sole motivation at the time was ‘to blog for business’. Everywhere you turn for advice in the business world about ‘online presence’ tells you “You must have a blog”. But why? I just couldn’t work it out. So, I dipped my toe into the water to see what would happen.
I already had the domain name support4women.net, and felt this was right for what I wanted to blog about. It wasn’t going to be an outright sell for my businesses bras4mums and bras4all, but was more about supporting women through a number of different decisions. One’s I’ve been through. I guess I wanted to share my experiences to help others. That in fact is an extension of me in real life. So, it shouldn’t be difficult – right?
Well, there’s all the technical stuff to do and set up. I managed this OK with the help and guidance of Little Mummy’s E-course. Then it was just the writing, and promoting the blog. That’s the hard part! I’ve found it difficult to think about the next topic I should write about to keep the blog balanced, but interesting. I read other people’s blogs, which really helps. There are those I like and find interesting; others I don’t. This has helped me get the shape for the blog and develop it over the last few months.
But, “what about the business?” I hear you cry! The support4women blog has:
§ increased the number of back links to my online shops, (this is good for the rating of your site);
§ increased people’s awareness of me as a person, and as an expert in my field. They’ve seen the human side of a business woman, bra fitter and Mum;
§ helped me engage with my customers via the blog and twitter;
§ made me comfortable to share things about my life and the business without fear of commercial copying. I’m sure it goes on, but for me and how I run my business, it’s encouraged me to share what I do. This is helping when recruiting agents. I’m not a different person on-line to the one they’ll be working with, or doing business with;
§ led me to start other blogs which are in their infancy, but are more closely related to my bra businesses. These are specialist blogs offering more information and support about bras to those that need it;
§ helped me make friends with people that I would never have met without having a blog;
§ made links with other business owners. Some of these links are developing into business relationships to the benefit of both our businesses;
§ been a cathartic experience for me personally. If you read the blog you’ll see I’ve shared some personal grief. Writing it down and publishing it has helped me get through. I could have written it, but if no-one saw it I don’t think it would have had the same effect in my recovery.
So, can I blog? I think I can. I still feel very new, and I was certainly unsure about being ‘good enough’ for this carnival. I’ve written my submission anyway, in the hope that it is useful to others.
Should everyone have a blog for their business? I don’t think it is for everyone. Some people are scared, others don’t think it would help them engage with customers, or like me, think they’re good enough. Business owners I meet question the time spent on blogging vs the direct benefit. For me, and my business, I’ve found it beneficial. I enjoy doing it. I couldn’t spend time planning, writing and promoting the blog if I didn’t. At the moment the business is fairly small, but it is growing. I have to think hard about where I spend my valuable time…..and that’s before time with the children, my husband and friends!
So, for me, it’s not simply, “Blog for Business”, it’s more, “Blog because you want to”.
How to Create a Successful Parent Vlog
This vlog by Karin is part of the Great British Blog Festival. Karin has been nominated in the most innovative category of the MADs for her multimedia content.
A Blogger’s Guide to Picasa
I’m Magic Mummy and you can usually find me over at The Diary of a Frugal Family, but I’m here today as part of The Great British Blog Festival to tell you all about Picasa which is an easy to use, free program to edit your photographs. I’m in no way technical (in fact my husband says I’m technically challenged) but I have found Picasa to be very easy to navigate and the results you can achieve are fantastic.
First of all, you need to download Picasa which you can do here.
When you’re set up, you can click on the import icon in the top right corner to upload your pictures from an external device or to transfer photos from another folder on your computer and then the fun begins….
There are lots of different options and icons on the Picasa home page. The icons you’ll see across the bottom of your screen allow you to upload your pictures to web albums, e mail them, print them and export them elsewhere on your computer. The export option also gives you the option to add a watermark to your pictures which can be handy to prevent people from using your photos. The shop icon will take you to a list of all companies that you can use to print out your photos and also give you a handy summary of which companies are offering free prints if you register with them and any other special offers on. The collage option will make a random collage out of all of the photos you have uploaded to Picasa, I made a lovely one but I have that many photos in there that it looked a bit busy to use for anything. They’re the only options so I’m not sure about the other icons but you definitely don’t need to know about them to use Picasa successfully.
To edit a photograph, double click on the one you would like to edit and it’ll be enlarged. To the right of your photo are the editing options under three headings, Basic Fixes, Tuning and Effects.
Basic Fixes
Crop – Get rid of any distractions from your photo with this option.
Straighten – If you select this, gridlines will appear on your photo and you can straighten it up.
Redeye – Speaks for itself, it gets rid of any redeye.
I’m feeling lucky – Picasa will adjust your image to what it feels will work best.
Auto contrast and Auto colour – Again, speak for themselves.
Retouch – Allows you to retouch any minor blemishes on your photo.
Text – Another one that speaks for itself (see, I did tell you this was simple)
Fill light – Add more light to your photo with the magic of technology.
Tuning
Fill light – Use the sliding bar to adjust the lighting on your photo.
Highlights – This brightens up your photo.
Shadows – This option will make your photo look darker, adding shadows to it.
Colour temparature – I never use this option but it allows you to play with the colours in your photo.
Effects
I won’t go into much detail about each of the effects as the best way to master this bit is to have a play. You can add all sorts of different effects here, tints, focus, saturation, and even a warm glow For me, the novelty wore off this bit after a week or so and I now mainly stick to the Basic Fixes and the Tuning, although I do like the Warmify and Saturation option in the section.
When you’re done with your picture, click save and that’s it. Your lovely photo has been made even lovlier and is now ready to share with the rest of the world!
Picasa can do so much more than just edit your photo’s but I think that’s a whole other post, hopefully Erica will host another carnival for that 
I hope you go and have a try with Picasa, it’s not the best photo editing software but it’s certainly the best free program and for an amateur like me – it’s fantastic.
If you’re still here, thank you for reading, I hope you find this helpful.
5 Reasons Why You Should be Podcasting
This is a post for the Great British Blog Festival, a five day celebration of all that is good about blogging. Enjoy this post on podcasting written by MelitsaAvila, and please leave a comment.
You’ve heard it mentioned but have you wondered is Podcasting for me? What is podcasting anyway?
A podcast is an audio file of recorded material available to download or listen via a website. It’s become popular because of the mobile devices, MP3 players and Apple products ( ipod and iphone) that allow us to take these files and listen to them in the car, at the gym, on the go, 30 000 ft up and in every room in our house.
Read these 5 reasons why you should be podcasting
Passion
You are passionate about your subject, let’s say “seaside destinations with a preschooler” and have lots of topics to talk about;
- Top 10 places to go with your preschooler
- places to avoid with your preschooler
- European seaside destinations
- seaside destinations on a budget
- exotic seaside destination with a preschooler
- Beach destinations for families
- Can you go to the seaside out of season?
- Emily’s excellent adventures touring seaside destinations etc….
Start a little brainstorming session and note what you love to talk about and could talk about a lot. Dip your toe in the water with a short series ( 3-5 episodes) of podcasts of a predefined length. ( 1-15 minutes)
Storyteller
Along with your passion you love to tell a story or share information in a way that people love.We all want to know what happened with Harriet, the sandcastle and the handbag….although I think we can guess that Harriet was in trouble for a long time. We can relate to buried keys at the beach.
You have an audience or know that there is an audience. If you blog about the subject then look at your statistics; ask your readers. If it’s a new idea or direction then look around. Is anyone else talking about “Seaside destinations” and ask yourself what can you do that makes you different or why are there no others? While you maybe passionate about Seaside places blogging/podcasting takes time and effort. Don’t waste your time on doing something without a goal and an audience in mind.
Build community and extend your reach
We’re all busy and busier by the day with social networking, families, work and life. If we have 5 minutes we may read a blog post or two or watch a video. But now those that are commuting to work, in and out the car on school run/after school shuffle, runners, those working out at the gym, nursing mothers, the isolated, newbies to new towns, friends from around the world, those with no time to sit for a moment but can listen while they work will have access to and enjoy your content.
Listen to the latest antics of Harriet at Bognor, 5 must haves for the beach living this summer or the best time to get to the beach at Brighton.You reach a wider variety of people that enjoy listening to their content via video and audio and in our time pushed life having a choice and variety of ways to hear, read and see our favourites online means we don’t miss out but we get to learn more.
While searching for great seaside destinations for my little Trevor this summer I’ll stumble upon your podcast about Seaside destinations. Your down to earth talk, personal anecdotes and reviews show me more than purely the articles I’ve been reading. I might even write to you and share my review of the area. I’m likely to subscribe to your podcast, tell my friends and become a new listener and consumer of your other projects. Podcasting is an additional relationship builder.
Talking comes easy
Is writing a chore? Worried whether you can start a sentence with AND. Can we really write how we speak- you know? Or perhaps you want to write longer articles that would benefit from being read?
The audio format is flexible that you can decide the tone of your podcast. A podcast full of tips and tricks, reviews, interviews or a mix with talking the emotion and colour of our voice is clearly there. We experience the exasperation and resolution of your stories? We learn. We hear the excitement in your light bulb moments? We feel your melancholy and sadness and want to cheer when things look better than they did before.
What type of show do you want to produce- review? interview? comments about the news? opinion? satire? comedy? show case buisness clients? There are so many different styles and angles all allowing your unique voice, personality and brand to shine through. Are you funnier in conversation than in writing?
Diversify your outlets and formats
We all take in information in a different ways. Podcasts can be 1 minute, parenting thought/tip ” Never give your preschooler your handbag as prop to use at the beach” to hour long and more segments and discussion.
I love hearing stories and how they relate to life. Interviews make me think and show me things about the person I would never have seen in print. Audio draws you in.
WE REMEMBER
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we see and hear
70% of what we discuss with others
80% of what we personally experience
95% or what we teach others
- Edgar Dale
The podcast format gives ample opportunity to read ( transcripts or summaries of the show, links to blog posts and link love); hear ( at your leisure); see ( create a picture in the mind) see and hear ( Video podcast) discuss with others ( live shows. chat rooms, foundation for parenting discussions with playgroups/friends.) personal experience ( share your stories and connect with others) teach others ( tutorials, Pdfs, ebooks, seminars, interviews, books, tips etc)
Thinking of starting a podcast? Start by listening to a bunch and finding ones that you love. The iTunes store is a good place to find a range. Download the free itunes application. You don’t need a MAC. Go to the iTunes store and download free podcasts. Blubrry and Blog Talk radio are also good starting places. There are many podcast directories and podcasts. Ask your friends.
Join the group “Podcasting and New Media” at British Mummy Bloggers. Everything seems so much easier with a group to cheer you on and a place to ask questions.
Melitsa Avila is a mum of 3 smiley active boys. Her passion is Early childhood play for parents and carers. She writes, blogs, edits and podcasts about appropriate Early childhood play activities that parents can do at home. Check out her weekly play newsletter Play-Activities.com and podcast at Raising Playful Tots
photo credit: the tartanpodcast
The Blogger’s Guide to Twitter
Twitter is known as a microblogging site, and it’s become very popular with bloggers.
You can sign up for a free account here
Twitter is actually very basic and far easier to jump into than blogging. It’s based around members ‘tweeting’ messages up to 140 characters, like texting, except all your followers can see them.
The stream of messages moves in real time allowing several conversations at once.
Following People
You begin by ‘following’ people.
You can do that by following me if you like, I’m here – http://twitter.com/Erica
You can ’search’ for people to follow by putting keywords in the search box. Once you’ve found someone interestng click on their username and you’ll be directed to their page where you can click ‘follow’ you’ll now see all of their messages.
Most bloggers on Twitter also have a button on their blogs which will take you to their twitter page where you can follow them.
You can also follow anyone that follows you, and vice versa some of the people you follow will follow you back.
Tweeting
Writing a message is called ‘tweeting’. You do this by writing something in the ‘what’s happening’ box and clicking update. This message can be seen by anyone and will appear in your followers’ stream of messages. ‘Tweets’ need to be 140 characters or less, but don’t worry twitter will let you know once you’ve gone over.
You can indicate you’re talking to someone specific by using the @ symbol. For example if you wanted to talk to me to ask how I am you would put this….
@Erica How are you?
This will be seen by all but if I’m only checking messages with @Erica (which you can do in your sidebar, it will have @username <--your username) then I can see this.
If you are talking about someone you also use their @username, here's an example
Had a great time with @Laura and @Tara today. Hope to catch up again soon.
Promoting Yourself on Twitter
Most bloggers will promote their own blog posts in Twitter. I would usually put the title of the post and then the URL. Sometimes the URL is too long so you can make it shorter at Tiny URL.
The key is not to overdo it, linking to a blog post once or twice is plenty in my opinion.
Promoting Others
More important than promoting yourself is promoting others. You can do this by retweeting. If someone tweets a link you like or says something (funny/good/interesting) you can either click the ‘retweet’ button in the bottom right hand corner of their tweet. Or you can do it manually by copying and pasting their tweet and putting RT before their username as follows;
RT @Erica Mum Blogger E-Course Opened
Also if you want add an extra comment (if there’s space) you can do that like this;
RT @Erica Mum Blogger E-Course Opened —->I’ve signed up!
This just shows what part you added.
Unfollowing & Blocking
Occasionally you may want to unfollow or block someone and you can do this from their page.
Simples, yeah?
If you can add any other pointers please do so in the comments. Cheers!
For more guides like this join the Mum Blogger e-Course