The whole experience was interesting and slowly it became something exciting as I began uploading products from Doba to my store. As I was uploading the products, i find it amazing to have so may dog products available in the market. Just on dog beds itself, there are literally 15 different beds for example , dog bed patterns, unique dog beds, orthopedic dog beds, luxury dog beds and washable dog beds.

During the journey, I came across some hiccups and had to contact the technical support team from Instantestore. And I must say they did a good job at assisting me.

All in all, I was really happy with what I have achieved and the whole process was definitely a great experience.

Right now, I am more excited than anybody. I wonder when will I get my first sale?

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Hello All!

If you all have been following my blog, I would like to apologize for not writing for a while. The reason behind my lack of blogging is because , I have finally launched MY OWN STORE  selling dog supplies. Yes, you heard my right. I am selling dog food, dog beds, healthy dog treats and dog clothes.

You all might be wondering why a dog store selling dog supplies?  I came about having this idea one fine day as I was grooming my dog. Normally I would send it to a professional groomer but I was lazy to drive to the grooming center and thought it might be fun to learn to do it myself. Besides, it can get quite expensive to send to these groomers once a month considering I have two dogs with thick coat of hair!

I started surfing the web for dog grooming tools and such. An idea just automatically popped up and told myself to maybe consider selling dog supplies. I went about doing research and apparently the drop shipping company (http://www.doba.com)  I was telling you  a few post back has more than a thousand dog supplies to choose from.

I then discussed it with my husband and he was more than helpful and supportive with the idea. We went through looking for a reliable shopping cart software. Some were charging as high as USD$70 to USD$100 a month. It was no where near our budget.

I was already getting frustrated. I then looked up on Doba again .

How silly was i? If i took time to read carefully on the instructions, it would have saved me time. With doba, there was already e-commerce shopping cart company ready to integrate doba products directly the store. We could even try the first 30 days for free. And if we are happy with the service we subsequently only pay USD$50 a month. It was definitely something i can afford.

So i started building my store and it took me 3 weeks to complete the look and the descriptions of my products. Although the shopping cart was rather easy to use, i still had to juggle between work and my kids. That was why it took longer than it should. But I am sure after a while, I’ll be able to get the hang of it. I guess i should plan my schedule soon.

Please feel free to pay a visit to my store - Dogsconcept.com

If you have any comments or any improvement I should amend on my store, kindly let me know.

Thanks all!

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Before you start anything, you have to give it a try. The word triumph always has a meaning of ‘try’ in it. There is of course a slight risk that your home business may go bust. But if you don’t try, you will never know the outcome.

There is a big difference between those who have positive and negative attitude. Sometimes, people cannot accomplish anything positive because they let circumstances control their attitude. During the first few months of your new home business venture, you can be assured that there may be some pittfalls. During these time, don’t give up.

There are two kinds of people :-

A pessimist -   The pessimist are normally people who gives up easily and tend to exaggerate the size of their problems. Some of them even refuses to find a solution to solve their problem. They normally get disheartened if things doesn’t go their way.

An Optimist - An optimist are people who has a positive mind. This group of people does not give up easily. And if they fail, or their home business does not to turn out the way they want it to be, they will make changes or find a solution to solve the problem.    Normally, this people strive to work harder and they are most likely to be successful in whatever they do.

We as a human being  tend to make choices subconsciously. And yet, we forget that we have choices. Sometimes, we choose not to make a choice at all - not realizing that it is the worst decision we can make. And when the worst comes, you do nothing to solve the problem. It is important to know what attitude to follow because the outcome of our lives is determined by the choices we make daily. You can control your life and destiny by the choices you make. Life is full of problems and the same goes to your home business venture - and when a problem arise, you will only have to solve it yourself. Choice is the starting point to everything that we do in life. With whatever choice we make, the important thing to remember is that it’s not what happens to you that matters, but how you choose to respond.

If you want to be a successful work at home mum, get rid of your negative attitude and replace it with a positive mind. Whatever you say will influence the work you do.  Control your thoughts to maintain a positive attitude.

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• My Home Business Venture (2)

If you are a home business mum like me, why not consider setting up your own home business venture and manage it for youself? It could be a way of filling up your free time while your kids are in school or a way to earn your way to financial independence.

To tell you a secret, setting up your own online store  does not need  big financial capital and making money online is easy .  

This is why :-

• Easy Transactions

  Online business can be fully automated. There are some shopping carts (esolved.com / Volution.com) that has all the payment gateways ready  when you sign up with them. It also means that you won’t require much work to look for a secure payment gateway. Once you have programmed a system for your online business, you can sit back and wait for sales. Of course, you will need to think of some web marketing tactics once in a while to keep your business going.   

• Reach Wider Market

  Because the internet is global, you are actually selling your products and service to the whole world. There are no limitation on the internet. Your products and services can reach as far as the other end of the world. This means that you will have more potential customers and sales. This is true especially if you offer services that are not limited to your location.

• Manage Business From Anywhere

  Wherever you have access to the internet, you will be able to check for your performance on your online store. You can still work while you are on your beach holiday in Hawaii with your family and still being able to access to your online store and manage your business from there. You can work whenever and whereever you want to and do not have to answer to anyone. Your “online store” will be up and running 24/7 even while you sleep or play.  

• Increased Sales

  Selling products and services online will give you the highest possibility of getting more sales. Firstly, you will be able to get more potential customers because you are able to reach a wider market. Secondly, if you have an excellent sales page, there will be a higher conversion rate in your business. Thirdly, the more converted customers you have, the higher your sales will be. But of course this must be done with some home marketing ideas such as to develop a good rapport with your customer in order for them to get more referrals to buy from you.

• Easy Marketing

  Do a home marketing plan before launching your online store. Don’t worry but go for something easy for the start. It is easy to market your products and services online and it is a whole lot easier and cost effective than doing traditional marketing because there are not much cost involved.  You just need to optimize the sales page and probably offer some free information or discounts and you are all set.

With all these reasons, there shouldn’t be any doubt in you about selling your products and services online. The internet is highly promising and don’t miss the opportunity of selling your products through it.

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 Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves 4

Here are the RECIPES you need for the BANANA CREPE

• 120g plain flour
• 1tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 100 ml full cream milk
• 75ml water
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp melted butter (or 1 tbsp light vegetable oil)
• 4 bananas, peeled and cut into neat slices
• vanilla ice cream for serving

Directions

a) Place flour, sugar and salt in a small mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.

b) Add eggs and milk into the well and gradually incorporate the flour using either a wooden spoon or a wire whisk. Mix to make a smooth bater.

c) Stir in the water, vanilla and melted butter or oil. Set aside for 10 minutes.

d) Heat a (preferably non-stick) frying pan over medium heat and grease lightly with a smudge of butter. Pour about 1/3 cup of batter into the pan and immediately rotate pan to encourage batter to spread evenly over the pan, making a thin pancake. When lightly browned, flip pancake and cook for 20 seconds on the other side. Transfer pancake onto a plate and continue making more pancakes until batter is used up.

e) To serve, lay banana slices on the pancake and fold or roll up.

f) Serve the delicious banana crepe with ice cream.

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From The Kitchen

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Let me just elaborate more on this -

• Internet is known to its inherent nature and is within global reach,  because  there are no geographical boundaries on the internet and it allows people from all over the world to come together and interact. It even allows you to browse catalogs and get all the information you need about a product from the comforts of your home.
• There are also a wide variety of goods available in the virtual mall. For example, you can find one product with different brands compared to buying traditionally. Yes, the shop may be selling one product with other brands as well, but how it is going to be compared to hundreds of brands that is already available online?
• The virtual mall is open 24×7. Therefore, you can decide the time you want to shop because there are no set of time for online shopping, which traditional shops are accustomed to. You can purchase online whenever and wherever you are and you can even find products which are not available in your country.
• Buying online is cheaper too because you are eliminating the middle man’s cost thus making the goods you want to buy cheaper. There are also suppliers who are offering free shipping, which results in much lower price.
• If a buyer is reluctant on purchasing the product on a particular store, they can always run through the product review section. There are comments or rating system available on some stores where previous buyers are allowed to leave feedbacks regarding the seller. Buyers can easily read through the product review and rating system online. This serves as a guiding factor for subsequent buyers  and give them a pretty good idea about a particular product that they are interested.

These pretty much sums up the advantages of buying online. So next time, when you want to shop for something, why not try the virtual mall that is connected to your computer? You don’t even need to drive to your local mall anymore. And the great part is, you get your product deliver to your doorstep!

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If you are despairing at your dry, split ends, oily roots or overly-styled locks, here is an old-fashioned remedy from my grandmother.                                

Egg wash!

Yes i know. Sounds disgusting isn’t it? I wonder if its an Asian thing? When i heard about it I was pretty grossed out too.  But my grandma swears by it. I gave it a try and love it since.  

When i first tried it, it was rather messy and not to mention smelly but using eggs on my hair is apparently an age-old beauty tip ( in Japan) for restoring vitality and boosting shine.

First, wet hair, then massage a whole, beaten raw egg into your scalp, from roots to tips. Rinse with cold or warm water before washing with shampoo.

Try this at home and tell me what you think about it!

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Do you consider yourself  a successful work-at-home mum that is earning lucratively every month from your online store?

Then why not e-mail me at yukistevenson@mummyathome.com and share your success story with me? (i.e. How you did it? What were the problems you faced? How did you work with your kids around?)   

I would like to compile all successful work at home mums success stories and  share with other work at home moms - basically targetting those who are looking at setting up their OWN ONLINE BUSINESS or are just about to look at starting one.

Your story and your online store will be showcased in my blog. It is just a way of inspiring those home business mums (including me)  that working from home and having it running successfully is possible.

I am looking forward in sharing your achievement with others. Would love to hear from you soon!

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Mummies Who Made It

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Read further for this home business start up ideas…

If you have missed that post, let me re-cap; drop shipping companies  basically acts as drop shipping wholesalers that supplies merchants with products to sell - often in bulks but if you’re  a work at home mum like me and you are new to this, I would personally advise you to pick out single item orders just to try out first. The drop shipping companies have all the pictures ready for you to select  and with just a few clicks the pictures are automatically posted up on your e-commerce store.

You don’t have to go through the hassle of taking pictures of the product you are selling or even clutter your house with the inventory. Once an order comes through, your customer will pay you the sale price and you just need to pay for the wholesale price to Doba. And the profit goes to your pocket! It is an affordable home based business opportunity!

 I am pretty much resorting to this idea since it is going to save me time and money and of course the trouble of looking for suppliers is no longer an issue to me. And the great thing is that Doba itself has more than 1.2 million drop shipping products to pick

I have a few products in mind and they are:-          

b) Personal appliances

c) Kitchen and housewares                                                                

d) Books, music or videos like pilates, aerobics and yoga

e) Beauty and health

I have a fickle mind, and it makes it even harder for me to choose because there are so many great drop shipping products available. I might even put it into categories and sell all of the above (I’ve got nothing to lose anyway). But if you have had experience in selling any of the products above can you please advise me which are the most saleable product?

Thanks so much in advance!

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Lighting - Always use natural lighting; it’s best to shoot near a window or a white wall. Early morning and late noon light is easier to shoot in, campared to harsh, direct noon sunlight.

Flash - If you need the extra lighting for reflective items like jewellery, tape a small piece of white paper over your flash to tone down the strength of the light.

Background - To maintain focus on the product, specifically small items, use a plain tablecloth, textured art paper, or wooded or metal surfaces. Coloured backgrounds add a nice touch too, but avoid colors that clash or patterned motifs. For larger items like clothes, shoot against a clean wall as a backdrop.

Shooting - For small items, get close-up shots to make the potential buyer feel like they can reach out and touch it (use the zoom in function for this). Use a tripod if you can; zooming in can cause blurring with the slightest shake.

Angles - Take photos from every angle; more ways than you think is necessary, so people can see what they are buying such as close-up, detail shot, and a full shot. If you are photographing jewellery or clothes, try to get a friend to model for you.

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Note :You can make the pineapple filling a day ahead and keep it refridgerated.

 Weight-watchers can also bake the rolls instead of deep-frying them.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes                                       

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 cups pineapple flesh, cut into 1cm cubes
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) water
• 1 vanilla pod (optional)
• 80gm sugar , 2tsp plain flour (mixed together)
• 8 sheets spring roll wrappers
• 1 egg, beaten
• Oil for deep frying
• Ice cream for serving

Directions

1. Place cubed pineapple and water in pan.
2. Split vanilla bean lengthwise and carefully scrape the tiny black seeds out and add to pan
3. Bring mixture to the boil and then turn down heat. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes or until prinapple is softened.
4. Stir in sugar/flour mixture and cook for about 5 minutes or until sauce thickens enough to coat pineapple pieces lightly.
5. Transfer filling onto a shallow plate and cool to room temperature. Lay a spring roll wrapper on your worktop diagnolly and place a generous spponful of cooled filling in the centre. Neatly enclose the filling in the wrapper, rolling it up spring roll-style.
6. Brush the edges with a little beaten egg to seal. Make all the rolls this way until filling is used up.
7. Heat oil in a small pan or wok over medium heat. Oil should be about 2cm deep. When hot, slip spring rolls into the pan. Fry 2-3 rolls at a time. When golden brown, crefully remove rolls and drain well on absorbent paper.
8. Serve hot, accompanied with vanilla or any fruit flavoured ice cream.

**To bake rolls, lay them on a baking tray lined with non-stick parchment. Brush with melted butter and bake in preheated over (190 degrees) for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

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From The Kitchen

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I just read something on the internet and thought this might be useful for all work at home mums. It is just something general about doing a home marketing plan for your internet store and how you should do it. I will write more, once I have more in-depth information about ways to market your product. For the time being, this is what i have gathered :-

Home Marketing Ideas For Home Business Mom

Standing out - How are you going to make yourself stand out with so many competitors out there? This is not an easy answer, right? I am also cracking my head how to make my product special compared to others - something no one can offer.

From my point of view,  sometimes it is hard to determine what can be considered special? Take a baby stroller for example, they all have wheels, they are made to carry babies/toddlers,  they all fold. But why do customers choose this stroller over another? Is it because of the brand or the comfy cushion they have? As a mother, we instinctively know what our child needs but sometimes difficult to recognise or understand what a mum or child wants out of the stroller. Different things will appeal to different group of parents.

Like i mentioned earlier, we need to be somewhat special compared to others. How about giving extra warranty on the stroller? Will this attract them to buy from you?

Next, get to know who your customers are, because knowing them will help you where to find people like them. For example, your cutomers are mums who are looking for organic food. You can start to do an online survey (i.e forums) . I don’t know about you, but as a mum i like to chat. I like to share stories with others about - my kids, ways to take care of my health, where to find family friendly place to eat and etc. You can start chatting with them in forums and ask them questions that bothers you. Maybe you’ll be able to get something out of it.

Customer relationship is no different than this actually. It is about getting to know your customers. Good customer service like e-mailing them when you have new stuff coming in or giving discounts to loyal customers may not only attract them to come back to your store frequently and buy from you, but with the service you provide, they might even recommend their friends to you.

Once you have got the relationship built with your customers, getting them to buy more from you isn’t going to be difficult. Take supermarket for example, they normally get you with their ‘buy one get one free’ offer - you are probably not looking to buy baby nappies today, but with the offer they are offering, it is hard to resist.

‘Sales promotion’ techniques with a bit of care and judgement can really help. Knowing when to use it and what type of techniques will be right for your product will help you get your customer to spend more.

Hope this home marketing ideas for all home business moms helps!

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Now, what?

How about start a business plan create from home?  But why all the hassle? Many home business mums may wonder why can’t they just start their business straight away? Well, yeah you can definitely do that, but 80% of the people who does that are bound to fail. But some are lucky enough to succeed even without a business plan created. But are you willing to take the risk?

How to create a business plan?

Here is what you should do :-

Defining your customer is as important as defining your product or naming your business. Here are some questions you need to ponder before starting your home business venture :-

Step #1

• Who are my targeted customer?

• Will they be female/male or both?                        

• Age?

• Does my customer spend a lot of time / minimal or most of the time on the Internet?

• Do they buy my product for themselves or as a gift?

• How much are they willing to spend?

Once you run through the questions, you should have an idea on where to start looking to place your advertisement and how to write your message copy so that you can market your product the right way.

Step#2

• Where are you going to advertise your product?

  - A coordinated effort across several sites and venues which are frequented by your customer is the most effective marketing campaign. There are also some complementary sites that helps you cross-promote to your visitor. This will provide excellent reinforcement of your message.

• If you are looking at submitting articles to the article’s directory, look at factors such as traffic, search engine placement, external link (how many links are allowed), quality of current ads and types of message being placed on current ads. Check whether if the competitors of yours are already placing ads at the complementary sites or are the ads related to yours?

• Pay-Per-Click is also another Internet marketing source. But those people who have not use this before may find it daunting to this form. If you are a newbie, stick to places that allows you to set limits on daily expenditure.

Do monitor closely on your conversation rate. Track down how many visitors clicks on your ads and where was the ads placed? This will let you know what is working and what is not. Once you know what is not working, do not hesitate to change, tweak and modify your advertisement if needed.

All you need to do when creating a simple marketing plan is to know what product you are selling and go from there.

Good Luck in becoming a successful work at home mum!

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1. Do you have time for your kids?

Most work at home mothers find that they cannot allow children to have unlimited access to them during working periods. So you will need to make appropriate arrangements for their care and set boundaries regarding when you will and won’t be available to them.

2. What are you going to wear since you are working from home?

Experts advise that it is best to dress smartly but comfortably because this will put you in a working mode. But of course, there are still people or rather mothers who can work effectively by just wearing their pajamas all day.

3. When will you eat lunch or take a break?

Will your lunch time be 20 to 30 minutes? Having the kitchen only steps away often becomes a problem for people who work at home. Consciously deciding how you will handle this should make it easier to keep your weight and concentration in bounds.

4. Which hours of the day will you work?

Should you be working while your kids are in school or during their basketball game? Or maybe work at night when they are sleeping? If you consider to work at night, think again whether you will have enough rest? The reason why you should set a time to work is because you can work effectively at hours better suited to your circumstances.

5. How many hours a day or week will you work?

If you can’t set a precise figure how long you will work each day, then you can define clearly how you will decide on the amount of time you will spend working from week to week or day to day.

6. When will you do your household chores?

(i.e wash the clothes, clean the house, pay the bills)/ Some people like to take a break for household chores and find that the change of pace allows them to come back to their home office refreshed and ready to work. Others find that when they stop to do a household chore, the next thing they know the whole morning has been slipped away.

7. What interruptions are you willing to allow? 

 My advise to you is to have a caller ID installed on your phone. When you received a call, you can choose whether or not to pick up. Or better still invest an answering machine so that you can return those unimportant calls when you are free. Do also remind your friends that you work from home now so that they do not turn up on your doorstep unknowingly.

8. Under what circumstances will you take off a day, afternoon, or a morning?

Sick leave and days off take on a new perspective when you work at home. You will be on your own to coordinate your work with the established leave policies.

9. What information do you need to keep track of?

 Usually, in-house office procedures include policies for records you need to keep. Working at home, however, you will probably have to establish your own record-keeping procedures.

10. When do you decide to get someone to help you with your work?

Many work-at-home moms try to do everything themselves. Some can, but others end up saving money by spending it to hire help.

11. How do you manage your money?

 Setting up your own business will need you to establish a system for managing the financial aspects of your business. Even if you’re working at home on a salary, you’ll have to arrange a procedure for managing your home-office tax records.

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Do a company name search on the internet and have a grasp or feel about how they come about naming their business and next…

• Pick a name that is easy to remember but also it needs to be catchy because the name of your business plays a big role in telling what your business does.
• Avoid using generic names like Sandy’s Boutique or Luke’s Motor Shop. Try to get a unique name that is different from others and also  make sure there is a feel to the name when heard.
• Words tend to create visual for people and if the title of your business does not make sense, it will be difficult for customers to envision what your business is about. Stay with traditional ways of spelling and try to avoid unfamiliar words. You can think about related words and phrases that evoke the feelings you want by searching synonyms from thesaurus for your words and phrases.
• The name you choose should be short and simple so that customers can remember you. Try to include the name of your business with some information or give a clue about what your business does. You want people to be able to remember your website or business when spreading the word - so the shorter the better.

Now that you have read all that, write down at least 10 possible business names idea you think might be suitable for your small home based business. Get a second opinion because how you feel might not be the same as others. Their every bit of opinion helps. 

Next, find an inexpensive registrar to register your domain name and get your business going!

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Home Business Startup Tips

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Being a home business newbie, you may need to realize that to operate a business from your house, combines work and family from now on. And with both of these life aspect located in one roof, you will need to develop a new set of rules and disciplines. 

You may need to prioritize between work and family now. And sometimes, there are days when you have the need to answer all your e-mails first before your laundry or other days, you may feel the need to do your laundry first before working on your e-mails.

In order to work productively, consider the following advise when you are setting up your home office and find a space in your home to make it a place where you can work effectively. 

Rule #1 – When organizing your home office, find a place where it is brightly lit such as buying overhead lightings and floor lamp. The wall of your office is important at creating an ambiance too. Choose colors which are not too dull or dark because it will affect the productivity of your work. Also, keep the room from getting stuffy by providing proper ventilation. 

Rule #2 – Keep your home office or rather yourself far away from any possible distraction like having your TV right in front of you or have music playing at the background. Even noise from your kids screaming or whining can cause you to get distracted from your work. To avoid this, work out a time management schedule and plan out your day so that you can allocate adequate time for you and your family. 

Rule #3 –Organize your home office supplies in a way that promotes your efficiency. Estimate how many pens and how many stacks of A4 paper you need every time you go shopping for your stationery. Because if you don’t do that, the fuel you are paying to drive to the mall would be more expensive than your office equipment. keep the supplies you don’t need in a cupboard or drawer. Be as neat as possible. Stuff you use daily should be on your desk but stuff that you hardly use should be kept away. Just don’t clutter your table because it all adds up to an unsightly and distracting mess that could affect your work. 

Rule #4 – Clear out all the old clutter in your home office. Make sure you have enough room for all your requirements and try to maximize the layout of your home office space with the goal of promoting efficiency of operations. Be as neat as possible when organizing your home office. For example, remove stacks of paper next to your fax machine that could eventually block and jam incoming documents. It is always difficult to work in a place filled with stuff irrelevant to your business. However, if you cannot remove these things from the room, make sure that you move them out of your vision. Tidiness of your home office can help improves your productivity. 

Rule #5 – The best is to have an ideal designated working area where you can work everyday. You wouldn’t want to have work in your kitchen today, and living room the next. A proper workspace helps to tell your mind that this is a place to work thus making you feel more productive and have the mood to work.

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Over the weekend, my hubby and I went to the mall to look for office supplies for my home based business. I thought it was going to be exciting, but believe me, after spending hours (yes, hours!) looking at different kinds of stationery, at different price, it could get rather hard for us to choose. I mean, we’re looking at spending as little as possible, but there are so many to choose from!I was surprised at how many different office equipment that I will need - from pens and papers, to post-it-notes and trays.

And the bigger investment I am thinking about would be a laptop or a desktop? Should I be sharing the desktop I already have with my family or should I just buy a new laptop for convenience sake?  I’ll worry on that later …

While shopping for the stationery, I was trying to be as careful as possible to pick the right office supplies for my home office. I didn’t want to overspent. But the more I spent my time looking through them, the more stuff I picked up.

You’re wondering why, aren’t you? Here’s the reason -  I wanted to keep a small cache of supplies handy because I know it will save me a large amount of time if I were to keep those essential home office supplies within easy reach. Otherwise, I will find myself making two or three trips a week to the supply closet and at the end of the day, I will be spending more than I should because of the gas I used.

If you’re like me (buying more office supplies than you should), just remember to organize your home office supplies that you don’t need in a cupboard or drawer. Be as neat as possible. Stuff you use daily should be on your desk but stuff that you hardly use should be kept away. Just don’t clutter your table - it all adds up to an unsightly and distracting mess that could affect your work.

Note down whenever an item is running out. Once a month or so, or when you are at the mall, replenish the supplies so that you’ll never run out of cartridge ink when you need to print something urgent!

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Preparation time: 20 minutes

Baking time: 20 minutes

Serves 4-6

Here’s the recipe:

1) 3 large apples (roughly 300g)

2) 1tbsp lemon juice (optional use only if apples are of a sweet variety)

3) 3-4 tbsp sugar

4) 2tsp plain flour

5) 1/4-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

6) 2 tbsp golden raisins (optional)

7) Sheets of ready-rolled puff or short-crust pastry

8 ) 1 egg, beaten

9) 4-5 small heatproof bowls or cups

10) Vanilla ice-cream to serve

Directions:

• Peel and core apples. Cut into 1cm cubes and place in a mixing bowl
• Combine sugar and flour (amount of sugar will depend on whether the apples are sweet or sour)
• Mix sugar/flour mixture,ground cinnamon and rainsins (if used) into the apples
• Spoon apples into heatproof cups. Brush the edges of each cup with a little egg.
• Cut pastry into squares or circles 1cm larger than the top of the cup/bowl and position pastry to make a tight lid
• If desired, decorate the pastry with pastry leaves. Brush pastry all over with beaten egg and bake 180 degrees for 15-20minutes or until pastry is golden brown.
• Serve hot, accompanied with ice cream.

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Okay, here’s a rough idea how I plan on achieving my goals and I have put it into questions whereby I would be asking myself :-  

• How’s my attitude? Is any part of my mindset holding me back? (Note: If you see yourself having      problems, set a goal to improve your behaviour or find a solution to your problem)
•  What level do I want to reach in my career?
• How do I find time to spend it with my kids/husband now that I am a work at home mom?
• How much do I want to earn within 6 months?
• Do I have any knowledge on Internet business? Do I need to read more? Where do I find the products I want to sell?

I will be taking some time to brainstorm these questions and I hope all the home business mom out there will take time to go through with it too. It will definitely paint a clearer picture for you once you have a mindset of what you want to do.

Just a short advise :-

Always remember to be precise about your goal. Set goals that are only realistic to you. Write down the dates and times so that you can measure your achievement. Also, when you have several goals listed out, give each a priority. This will help direct you to work on the more important ones first.

*Goal setting = Goal Getting*

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According to Wikipedia ” Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer’s orders and shipment details to the drop shipping  wholesalers, who then ship the goods directly to the customer. The retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price”.

So, what does this mean? Does it mean that I can forget about wasting time hunting for suppliers and sending out countless e-mails or calling arrogant suppliers (which i dread the most)? From the looks of it, I guess it is a YES! After reading that, I went for a thorough research and found more drop shipping companies online.

I must say this is somewhat a start for me. I intend to browse through their drop shipping products after dinner tonight. It should take a while because it says they have up to 1.2 million wholesale products to sell online ranging from fashion apparel, beauty and health, bed and bath supplies, skin care, computers, and more…

There’s another website that caught my eye as well - www.alibaba.com But if i am not wrong, I think they only allow you to buy in bulks.  

I will keep you informed. Hopefully by this week, I’ll be able to make up my mind on what to sell on my e-commerce store.

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Now that I am almost ready, the next question is what do I want to sell? And where do I start?

Here are a few products to sell online :-

Beauty products - Nowadays, beauty products are not just sellable to women. A lot of men these days are looking at taking care of their appearance. It was only the other day, one of my girlfriends told me her husband uses her concealer to conceal his pimple scar (how vain can guys be these days??!) When I heard about it, I just couldn’t stop laughing. And an idea actually popped up.  With anti-aging face and skin lifting products to be sold online, both men and women can reclaim their youthful appearance and also helps them to boost their confidence. And if men are shy to buy products from the counter, they can always purchase them at the comfort of their own home. 

Fashion and Accessories - Since I am a shopaholic, i was looking into selling clothes and accessories. I could either target men or women or maybe both? Correct me if I am wrong, almost all girls love to shop, and men are sometimes known to be metro-sexual too! I was thinking, if i managed to present high quality fashions on my website at a cheap price, the probability of making money online is fairly high. Also, the plus point is that, fuel is extremely expensive nowadays, wouldn’t it be nice for people to shop from home?  

I haven’t exactly made up my mind just yet. Just that I have that two products on my mind and decided to share it with you. I am still looking at other stuff to sell.

It just occured to me, where do i get my inventory? Do I have to look for suppliers myself? Anyone have any ideas?

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Ingredients

• 1 cup mochiko sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour)
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• katakuriko, for dusting (potato starch)

Directions

1. Mix mochiko and sugar in a bowl.
2. Add water and mix thoroughly. (will be watery).
3. Put in a microwaveable dish. Cover with plastic wrap.
4. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Take off plastic wrap. Cool for a few minutes, if you want. Cut. Serve.
5. Opt. Dust with katakuriko or kinako to prevent mochi from sticking everywhere. If you don’t have these, you can just put the mochi on cellophane.
6. Variations for Filling: You can add red bean paste, ice cream, chocolate, etc. in the middle if you want BEFORE you dust. add a teaspoon of filling and pinch edges closed.
7. Variations for Dough: Add a few drops of food coloring into batter for color variation. A few drops of flavoring (strawberry, grape, orange, blueberry, etc.) may also be added.  For chocolate flavor, stir about 1/4 cup melted chocolate chips into mochi batter before cooking.

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From The Kitchen

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With my home business starting soon, I am looking forward to work with my kids and i intend to let them learn and get to know more about what I am actually doing. They can be dialling phone numbers, fold brochures, pack small orders, help out at the post office or any other little chore that pertains my business. Who knows? Maybe with this experience, it will instill some entrepreneurial traits in them that will last a lifetime. 

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People were telling me, the more organised you are, the more productive you will be.

Hearing that, I intend to:

Clean up my study room, because in future, half of the room will be shared with my husband. I am trying not to mix his stuff with mine. You won’t believe how much paper/documents my hubby have on his table. (heh..I really don’t think we’ve come to the age of the paperless office just yet). Having said that, it reminds me of clearing the files on our family computer as well.

It is also important to create a filing system at home. Knowing where your things are will instantly let you lay your hands on anything you need.

You just need to file things on an ongoing basis as you don’t want it to all pile up. Looking at a huge pile of filing to do will only make you dread to the job. However, if you file it on a daily basis, you will no longer have a huge pile of filing to work on.

Write a to-do-list. I normally have so many errands to do. Without having a habit of writing down what I need to do, I would definitely missed out a thing or two. It is aways good to prioritise the to-do-list. From my experience it is no good having a huge list then panicking because you have so much to do. Put a priorty system in place. Screen through the list, and whichever that needs to be done urgently, do it first.

One key thing is never procrastinate. Do the stuff that you hate doing first,  then  the rest of your day will get better. Imagine the relief you will feel when you get that job out of the way.

Go get started with clearing your clutters. I believe that by being tidy will only get you started with a tidy mind.

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(Confession: I can’t say I have the best skin on earth but I sure gave it plenty of TLC!)

Supple, satiny and even-toned skin can be yours :-

Moisturise - Moisturise your body, arms and legs daily. It is best to slather the cream right after your shower as it absorbs faster and keeps your body smooth all the time. Moisturisers also work as exfoliants, so use them to get glowing skin. It’s best to massage richer creams in for better absorption and penetration.

Exfoliate - Use body scrub twice a week for a good 2 weeks to reveal a brand new you.

Hair Removal - Shaving is quick and cheap way to remove hair. And contrary to popular belief, shaving doesn’t make your hair grow back faster or thicker. However, for a cleaner hair removal that lasts longer, go for depilation or waxing  (ouch! but trust me, its all worth it).  

UV Protection - Last but not least, don’t forget sun is bad for your skin. Don’t leave home without sun protection to prevent your skin from sun damage that would result in pigmentation and dryness.

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Despite the tiredness, over breakfast this morning,  I had a good conversation with my hubby about my business. He pointed out that I should keep my business and personal accounts separate. I wonder why didn’t I think of that?

There are a few good reasons why both accounts should be separated. And here’s why :-

a) There is nothing more confusing than adding your business money to your personal account. When you combine business income with your personal accounts, you tend to have a more difficult time during tax time plus you can ‘accidentally’ spend business income on personal expenses and vice versa.

b) Don’t use your personal credit card because in the long run, as your business grows you will tend to accumulate expenses, having a separate business account is necessary. It will make a big difference not only in managing your business finances, but also in making finance-related decisions.

c) All expenses will be automatically included in your summary of account. So you can be sure that every purchase or every transaction you made are all listed at the end of the month. The transactions you made are also categorized for easy reference for bookkeeping and accounting tasks. 

d) These days, online banking makes life easier for us. For busy mummies like us, all transactions like transfer of money or checking account balance can be done with just a few clicks.  

I wish i have more time to tell you more about the benefits, but I have to rush to the bank and pick up my kids.

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An advise for all work at home mums - Before investing any money on your business, do a thorough research on the company first. There may be a lot of honest work at home business opportunities out there, but also some are also a lot of work at home hoaxes and scams(actually the majority of them are, so be alert when picking one! ) . 

I have seen hundreds of ads published on the internet that says you can earn $XXXX amount of money within a week. It does sound too good to be true. But from my point of view, it’s ridiculous! (Confession: Want to know why?  I tried it myself before …and yeah, I was stupid and naive, but anyway, i have learnt my lesson)

Just be careful because there are companies that does direct selling, offering kits, training and system that may or may not work. If they ask money upfront, do remember to keep your money and don’t get conned!

I found a few good website - Go on to the Internet , check scams or look for internet shopping and fraud by clicking on the links i have for you below :-

Better Business Bureau - Provides information to help you find trustworthy businesses and charities.

Direct Selling Association (DSA)- You’ll be able to find 200 direct selling products here. If you can’t find the name of the product you are selling, chances are they are not legit.

Scam Busters - Helps protect people from Internet scams.

As for those who got scammed before (like me), can report to:

National Fraud International Center - Call them at : 1800-876-7060 

Internet Fraud Complaint Center - Blacklist them!

Spend a few hours reading reviews and articles, form your own opinion and make an intelligent decision today…

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Last night, my hubby brought home a brochure.  The brochure showed that there will be a special conference about starting an online business at home where easy tips and ideas will be revealed. With my hubby’s encourangement I decided to sign up. One of the reasons for signing up is because I don’t want to disturb him unnecessarily (or maybe at the start of bringing the brochure back, there was already a motive behind him) Heh, either way, it was for good reasons.

After having read so many articles online, I guess in any type of business, one must become an expert in their field and keeping themselves updated to the trends. I was thinking of taking up a computer course as well, but I am still contemplating on this. In the meantime, i’m doing some ’self-teaching’ from home by reading information, and articles online. It is cheap, convenient and helpful way in educating myself about the online world.

I know that owning a business is not easy. One has to know everything about what her business is about ..be it products or the contents/ chemical used in it/ company  and etc. By taking initiave in  knowing everything about your own business,  will easily help you reach your full potential and ultimately become successful. If a customer were to throw you a question, you should either know the answer or where to look for the answer. Apart from that, being someone who is known to be realible on information, will not only build close rapport with your customers but it can also open the door for you to do speaking engagements and will automatically help you gain new customers and clients. 

I hope this conference will be beneficial to me.  And by benefiting me, it will only mean more postings for you…stay tuned for more!

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Here’s The Best Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe Ever …

• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 lemons, juiced and zested
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
• 4 egg whites
• 6 tablespoons white sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. To Make Lemon Filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1 cup sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt. Stir in water, lemon juice and lemon zest. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in butter. Place egg yolks in a small bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2 cup of hot sugar mixture. Whisk egg yolk mixture back into remaining sugar mixture. Bring to a boil and continue to cook while stirring constantly until thick. Remove from heat. Pour filling into baked pastry shell.
3. To Make Meringue: In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy. Add sugar gradually, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pie, sealing the edges at the crust.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until meringue is golden brown.

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But the bad side of it is, remember I was telling you I am a health freak? Sigh..there’s only so little I can eat. Bummer! Ok, ok..I have something to confess, maybe sometimes I do indulge in chocolates and pizzas. I just got to work harder at the gym to shake off the calories the next day!

But that aside. I must admit I am a good cook.  I am not letting myself to stop me from posting good recipes. You may find some food I recommend are healthy but I assure you, they taste yummy!

If you have any delicious recipes to share, feel free to post it here…

I’m looking forward to it!

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