Archive for Business

Chicago Chapter of Weston A. Price, Farm Tour and Potluck

Today we are hosting our first farm tour and potluck since having animals. A few months ago the leader of Chicago’s Weston A. Price group contacted me after having found our Local Harvest listing. It’s been a little nerve wrecking this week since I have had my normal work load to deal with, that many of the things for the farm tour – cleaning the house, making a couple of dishes to pass, getting things to look half decent in the garden and yard, etc. have all had to wait until the weekend. The yard is a challenge since Padfoot is still chewing up boxes or whatever he can find and making a mess every time he’s bored!

We are really looking forward to meeting this new group of people and allowing them to see what we are doing to provide locally grown, healthy, GMO-free, non-chemical food. They are really interested in our farm and would like to promote it during the winter months, as we have offered them significant savings if they purchase a CSA share from us for the 2013 season. (CSA means Consumer Support Agriculture). Here’s to hoping the event goes off without a hitch!

We really want the farm to be self-sustaining, which simply means profitable enough to pay for itself. That’s our first goal. Our next goal is to make enough money for the children each to earn an income from it. Let’s just say lots of thinking has been going on lately as we brainstorm and try to see what businesses we can create as off shoots to poultry, eggs and veggies.

I’ll let you know how the farm tour and potluck goes a little later….

Update: We had about 13 people out for a session of “know your farmer, know your food”, in spite of the rain. Nice group of people. Met another local farmer whom we learned a lot from, so that was a huge connection as he has some great ideas and only 45 minutes away. AND he’s willing to try processing our turkeys for us, I say try because he’s only processed broilers/meat chickens, so we don’t have to make a 4-5 hour drive to the only processing plant in Illinois! We also have the opportunity to volunteer on his chicken processing day so we can see how it’s done (up close and personal) and help him out.

I was took busy talking to get photos of the actual potluck, so the one above is a fake. Our oldest son wants to know when the next potluck is because he liked all the food….HA! ;)

I’d say our day afternoon was a success.


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Signature Stamp

As a business owner there are times when paper work gets piled high, whether that is filing, mail or flyers and contracts to signed and delivered. Sometimes I wish I had my own Virtual Assistant! Recently I found myself sending out a small mailing of about 100 letters (yes via snail mail, shocker I know). I signed each letter individually. Now I didn’t have to sign them individually, I chose to use my signature as a way to give the letter more of a personal touch instead of just running off 100 form letter copies and sending them. However, it took so much time I quickly regretted ever making the decision in the first place.

I can’t remember the timing between that business mailing and an opportunity from Stamps Done Right to review a signature stamp, but when it marched into sight I knew exactly what I wanted to do…Yes, I took full advantage of being offered an easier way to do any future mailings.

My Review of the Signature Stamp


Front


Back


Side


Top

The signature stamp works well. The name explains what it is and what it does. It gives a clean looking signature. The stamp itself is not overly bulky, I’ve seen larger, and does not jam when pressed down upon.


Signature Stamp – I know the watermark defeats the purpose, but we weren’t really comfortable putting my signature out there for the whole WWW (World Wide Web) to have access to, if you kwim?

The Signature Stamp retails for $30.99 but is only $23.49 at Stamps Done Right.

About Stamps Done Right

Stamps Done Right offers a full line of custom rubber stamps for all you home and office needs. For the professional look, try one of the many text stamps and embossers which can be customized according to your preference. Stampsdoneright.com has a large selection of self inking stamps and embossers. Keep your home or office organized and well run with our custom return address stamps, notary stamps and embosser, signature stamp and more.

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.


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Blogging Planner from Brandcation

If you are a blogger then this post is for you. If you are a blogger trying to monetize your blog, this post is definitely for you. It will help you get organized and treat your blog as a business…using the Blogging Planner.

The Blogging Planner is a neat little planner was created by bloggers for bloggers to help us organize posts, keep track of paid opportunities, PR contacts, events and so much more. It holds a year’s worth of planning, after which you will have to get a new one.

These photos say it all:


Front Cover


Brainstorming


Calendar


Monthly Focus Page


Weekly To-Do’s and Income Recording (Making tax time easier having everything in one place!)


Blog Conferences


PR Contacts


Brand Events


Goal Setting – If we don’t set goals we’ll never achieve them!

I love the planner. The concept is very well thought out and it is easy to use. However, I will admit with struggling to get myself into the habit of using it. Old habits die hard. I am use to writing things on slips of paper….and losing them. I write things in notebooks (of which I have many) and forget which notebook I wrote it in because I often grab just any ole notebook not the one I need! Or I can neglect to write something down or add it to my online calendar, which creates mishaps and mistakes to occur. You would think I would just buckle down and discipline myself to use this new tool so I have everything in one spot, but no I struggle against change and it seems like soooo much work. Ha! I know I am fooling myself. That’s why I am determined to use my Blogging Planner consistently for the rest of the year so that I am treating my blog as a business and have everything in one place for when tax time rolls around. I need to just stop procrastinating and do it!

All that to say that I do have other tools that I use to help me keep somewhat organized but they are all in different places. Not in just one spot. That’s what I think the Blogging Planner can do if it is used properly.

When I attended Brandcation in May, Trisha and Lynsey gifted all of us with this Blogging Planner, it also contained the contact info for all those bloggers attending, the PR info of our swag etc. in the front of the planner. This was a special deluxe version of the planner. The one they are selling will not contain PR or bloggers’ info, obviously. Now the planner is also available in two different sizes. I hear the large size is nice and spacious, more for your desk at home, while the smaller one is perfect to take with you when you are traveling to conferences and events.

Are you a blogger? Do you treat your blog as a business? How do you think this planner would help you?

You can learn more about the Blogging Planner or purchase it here.

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.


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Sunshine, Dolphins and a Boat Ride #Brandcation #GulfCoast @CirclePRShawn

On Sunday, May 6, our last and final day of Brandcation, we went on a Dolphin Cruise. We arose at 6-ish in the morning and after a quick breakfast of Dole Fruit Cups and Dunkin’ Donuts we went out to meet the boat at 7am at the dock. Yes, all we had to do is walk down to the dock at the beach where we had the Blogger Olympics. Awesome, eh? It was a beautiful, clear day. We truly couldn’t have asked for a better day. I love dolphins so this was definitely one of the highlights of Brandcation. I have seen them before, but always in captivity. To see dolphins in the “wild” was a new experience. One I will never forget.


Photo courtesy of Trisha at Momdot.

The captain and his crew were very nice and so hospitable and accommodating. They truly made the boat ride more pleasant for our group. From making themselves available to take pictures, to the informative tour guide to even allowing a few of the ladies be “captain” for a few minutes each. They got to steer the boat all by themselves! It was great!


Captain: Nicole of www.WriteSpell.com Photo courtesy of Trisha at Momdot.

We thoroughly enjoyed the conversations, the breeze in our faces and the gorgeous view of “The Sound” as we kept our eyes open for dolphins. When that time came, the captain actually gave me for spotting the first dolphin. One person thought they had seen something, then as I scanned the water I spotted a dolphin and the captain and crew member confirmed it. From there on out we just followed their path.

The water was calm and that green/blue that you see in photos in the tropics. Just beautiful. The dolphins were in smaller pods and one pod had a baby. For a while the dolphins were at a distance but the further we went out the closer we got to them. It was totally awesome. I took mostly video because it was too hard to snap a photo and make sure I actually got one of a dolphin before it disappeared beneath the water again.

I am relieving this whole experience now and it is such a fun, relaxing memory. Thank you Circle PR for providing this opportunity!

Enjoy the videos!


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Stargazing #Brandcation #GulfCoast

I have to finish telling you all about the rest of my Brandcation trip now that my house is quiet. My last post was about our trip to Adventures Unlimited, which we did during the day on Saturday, May 5. Two weeks ago today actually. Then after a dinner of subs we went stargazing. I don’t know what I expected but it was better than I anticipated and I thoroughly missed having my family with me because they would have loved it. Especially my husband and my second oldest daughter as she studies astronomy for fun and often coaxes us outside to see what she sees, but I don’t always see it that’s the problem!

Dewey and his friends had their telescopes and binoculars all set up in stations for those of us attending, which not only included our group but a few others as well. We were there to see what is known as the Super Moon. At the first station I went to Dewey actually had an accessory that enabled us to attach our iPhones to the telescope and take pictures and video It was so neat. I was able to text video and photos to my husband so they could share in the experience in real time, but of course from home. Dewey even put a screen on the telescope so he could make the moon look red, but I cannot remember why.

I believe the next station was of Venus and the clouds were covering it at the time so while I tried to see it, it was too late. :-( Then at the next one I was able to use these huge binoculars to look at the moon, I believe. See already starting to forget little details like that! Getting to look at Saturn was very cool and I so wished I could have got a picture of that but Amy from Grinning Cheek to Cheek did and offered to share.

The last telescope was huge and it was powered by the man’s truck battery, which I didn’t know they could do but it doesn’t surprise me as much as it struck me funny in an ironic sense that it could be done.

The beach was beautiful that night with a gentle breeze and full moon. I wished my husband was there for a romantic walk on the beach, but alas I enjoyed seeing the Gulf side of Portofino Island with Sheri from Kidsumers, Johanna from Mama Chocolate, Lisa from Between the Kids, Amy and a few others that I am probably forgetting were also on the boardwalk with us. I actually did go down to the water very briefly as it is said sharks feed at night and because of so many stories of sharks being close to shore in Florida and I did not want to be a shark snack. Therefore, I quickly felt the water because I wanted to see how cold it was at that time of night – it was warm! Much different than what I am use to coming from living on the Atlantic side for more than half my life, that’s for sure!

Many thanks goes out to Dewey and Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association for sharing their knowledge and time with us! It was amazing. It has motivated me to find local astronomers here to get help learning how to use a telescope that was given to us – thanks to one of Dewey’s friends for suggesting I do that! Oh and by the way Dewey and his friends do this on their own time and for FREE! How awesome is that?


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Get Me Some Swag…Our Swag Party and Awesome Sponsors #Brandcation #GulfCoast

Surf Burger

After our Blogger Olympics, we ate dinner at Surf Burger. It was so funny because being the social media mavens that we are all of us could be seen with our phones tweeting, posting to Facebook and Four Square what we were doing! I had their Surf Chick, which came with their stick fries and a grilled chicken sandwich. It was very good. The service was friendly and very hospitable too.

Brandcation would not have been possible without all the awesome sponsors our hosts worked with in providing so many of our activities. So I hope you will join me in giving them some social media love.

Event Sponsors:

Adventures Unlimited:
Post coming up this afternoon, but we spent all day Saturday here on a beautiful piece of property! In the air and in the water…

Portofino Island Resort:
Which I already posted about here.

Dunkin Donuts: Sadly, I don’t think I ate a single Dunkin Donuts bagel, but I hear they were delish!

Jambu: They sponsored our Blog Olympics which I posted here.

Hotel Coupons: A great place to save money and start planning your next trip!

Circle PR: Thanks to these ladies we got to see dolphins in real time.

Dole: Fruit breakfasts thanks to Dole.

Star Gazing:
This was amazing and would have been the coolest homeschool field night! Dewey even had an accessory that allowed us to connect our iPhones to the telescope to take photos and videos of the moon!


Brandy Goleman Photography

Swag Sponsors:

After dinner at Surf Burger, we all gathered in one condo in our pjs for a Swag Party. Jambu Footwear had provided bags and our event hosts had filled them up with goodies from all the sponsors listed below. There were some oooos and ahhhhhs as well as a few squeeeeees as things were handed out! (Right, Jenn? ;-)) I haven’t even tried everything yet.


Brandy Goleman Photography


Sorry for the red eye, tried editing and I blackened whole heads!

Mogo Charm
Tervis Water Bottle – This kept my water for hydration on the river while tubing
Capsul Cases
The Village Company
Hasbro
Kidz Bop – My little ones are loving rockin’ to this.
Carex – Definitely a handy little kit to have in the medicine cabinet.
Lush Gourmet Foods – They’ve got yummy sugar coated nuts!
Nivea - My daughter and I haggled over the lip glosses.
Lady Fortunes
Pami Pocket - I ditched the little compact wallet I took to Florida for this, as it was perfect to hold my cell, cash and identity during all of the fun activities over the weekend.

Island Def Jam Records
Ayala’s Herbal Water
Wikki Stix - My son got these and is very excited!
Phone Fetcher - This looks like a cool product, can’t wait to put it to good use!
Page Stationery – I love any kind of stationary and ours was personalized with our blog name!
Cereusart
Annemarie Gianni Skin Care
Veri Peri Sauces
Twin Cottage Industries – Amazing handcrafted items!
Kids Gear – My children love the headphones I brought home and I’m lovin’ the peace it brings so I can write! ;)
Smart Mouth
Sacs of Life
Bright Star Kids
KleenSlate – This is a fun little paddle shaped wipe off board.
EAD Designs – These are terrific and I can’t wait to find homes for them!
Wahmies Eats – These were great! I really want to get some casserole covers to save on foil and plastic wrap.
Blue Orange Games – One of my daughter’s snagged the game we received and she and her siblings have been playing it!
DVO Enterprises – Provided a recipe software that organizes your recipes! Can’t wait to get this implemented!
Wordlock – A cool word lock.
Pampers – Provided us with a thing of wipes and a coupon some diapers! They sponsored Tiffany.


Two of my roomies, Sheri and Colleen.

Giveaway Sponsors:

Rubbermaid
Etching Expressions
Belkin – Great little portable charger that I gave to my husband for his cell phone.
Velvet Pepper
Frangelico
Tiny Love
Atlantic Luggage – This piece looked awesome and was incredibly light!
Drama Queen Bows

Photos are mine taken with my iPhone, except the full view of the Jambu bags and the first photo of the swag party those are Brandy’s, since I left our Nikon home…good thing too because I didn’t have much time to take photos!

Thank you to all of the above sponsors for taking an interest in 32 bloggers who went coastal in Pensacola, Florida! We appreciate all you gave to make this event possible!


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Moms in Business – Win FREE UPrinting Business Cards

It is important to do some marketing for your business. For the longest time I only marketed my business when I needed to, silly eh? But I have learned that I get far better results if I am continually marketing my business(es). After all a business does not always grow itself, it needs to be watered – garden analogy since it is gardening season. ;-)

If you are a mom in business, then you probably use business cards in your marketing plan. I have used a number of different companies to purchase business cards and have even received them free on rare occasions. This is one occasion I get to be the source of helping moms market their businesses by offering a giveaway of 250 Free UPrinting business cards! You’ll also get a chance to share your business (or blog) as one of the Rafflecopter options!

UPrinting offers some cool looking business cards. I have used a try fold, but like the look some of the ones UPrinting has to offer and will be ordering some for our farm or blog.

Prize Information:

250 Die-cut Business Cards for one winner

2×3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×2″ Rounded Corners, 1.75×3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×3.5″ Leaf, 2×3.5 Rounded one corner, 2×3.5″ Half-Circle Side, 2×3.5″ Oval, or 2.5″ Circle

14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte / High Gloss (UV), or 13pt Cardstock Uncoated

6 Business days print turnaround time

Free US shipping only

Restrictions:

1. This giveaway is open to US residents only, 18 years old and above.

2. No prize substitutions allowed.

3. Winners are allowed to win once over a six-month period.

4. Only email addresses used for the giveaway will be eligible to claim the prize.

Enter the Giveaway!


a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Motivation Monday: Brandcation…here I come! #GulfCoast #Brandcation

This week’s Motivation Monday post is to prepare to head to Brandcation in Pensacola, FL on Friday. I will be gone for the weekend. Looking forward to learning from some professional bloggers. I am especially interested in finding out how they have grown their blogs from part-time income to full-time income, as this is one of my goals for this year. I am also excited to see the ocean again. Having grown up on Atlantic coast I get a hankering for a trip to the ocean every summer, as it’s been 7 years since I saw it. It’s been 11 years since I have been to Florida, but I have never been to Pensacola. Doesn’t the photo of Portofino below look gorgeous? Definitely looking forward to the beautiful views!

I will be leaving my crew in the capable hands of my husband, who will have my girls to help him run the household while I am gone. I’d be lying if I said I don’t have qualms about heading off by myself. The mommy guilt over leaving my 20 month old, who happens to be still nursing as strong as an infant several times a day and thru the night. I look at him and I will miss him, his cuddles and smiles. I comfort myself with the fact that I will be barely gone 48 hours. My husband says he will be armed with chocolate milk to comfort our little guy while I am away. Chocolate milk is something my husband loves and that he will bring home and share (sometimes) with the little ones. More recently it’s been baby to prepare him for when I am gone.

Brandcation has been planned by 3-4 awesome ladies and so many sponsors that it is incredible! HotelCoupons.com is a major sponsor, as is Adventures Unlimited, Circle PR, Jambu Shoes, Stargazing, Portofino Condo, and Dunkin’Donuts. There are many other sponsors who sponsored other bloggers to attend or have provided lots of different samples and products for us to try. I will be mentioning them in upcoming posts. We will be having a PJ party on Friday to talk about all the amazing brands and see all the items that were sent especially to us for this event. A huge thank you goes out to each and every one of them for making this event possible! We are all in awe and so very grateful to be attending Brandcation 2012!

I am sure I will have many new stories to share upon my return, so stay tuned! ;)


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Taking a Break from Blogging! – Monday Motivation

I read an article last week about blogging less. A few different reasons were given, however, these are the ones that struck a chord in me and made think about taking a break from blogging. Here’s why:

1. For higher views on posts.
2. More time to promote posts.
3. More time for the blogger!

Blogging Less & Taking a Break from Blogging

I can burn myself out trying to blog 7 days a week, though lately I have certainly had enough content! Therefore, since my VA business is growing thanks to USA Virtual Assistants, and it is going to be busy this summer with different farm activities getting in the groove of having animals and all; I thought I would try blogging three days a week starting in May, if not sooner. I haven’t decided which days, but I am leaning towards Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so I can truly have the weekends for my family. All too often I spend the weekend doing up my blog posts for the week since I am busy during the week days working on projects for clients. I’ll let you know for sure towards the end of April, if not before.

I would like to catch up on some overdue posts for Alternative Consumer, plus do some other guest posting as well. Most of all I just want to catch up on life at home. After all I don’t have to blog every day to make money, I just need some good old content and maybe I will write better posts if I took some time off.

Taking a break from blogging is my motivation this week! What about you what’s motivating you this week?


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Kids & Lemonade Stands – Wordless Wednesday

It has been unseasonably warm here in Chicago and we are loving it so much that my children asked if they could have a lemonade stand! A quick call to the city and we were cleared that there was no city ordinances against kids having lemonade stands. Good thing I had ingredients etc. that they wanted/needed!

Our children made the cookies – oatmeal chocolate chip – and the lemonade (with organic lemon juice and organic cane sugar). They had a lot of fun and made a little bit of money. They are hoping to raise enough for a dog and with their combined efforts up to this point are about half way there if we choose to get a dog from the local dog shelter.

Even though we live in the country our city has about 20,000 and we are considered rural. However, at certain times of the day, especially early morning and late afternoon we get a fair amount of traffic. We had some generous people stop and leave tips. One lady left a $16 tip because she wanted to help the children get their dog! If the weather holds out, the children want to do this right through the weekend and who are we to squelch their entrepreneurity? ;-)

Oh and they found that their five year old sister in a pink dress holding their lemonade and cookie sign was a very effective marketing tool! ;-) My husband said, “No one can resist a cute little girl in a pink dress.” So we are shouting out our thanks to our neighbors and those who drive by our house every day for supporting our kids!

One last thing….you know you live in the country when you meet a neighbor for the first time and she gives you a hug! (Really happened! She said she was a huggy person…) Let’s just say we really get a kick out of the friendliness of the people here at our new house/town.


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