Tag Archives: management

How Do I Find Time To Scrapbook?

School’s officially out for the summer, the children are home full-time, and unless they are in a rigorous camp program, you are bound to be entertaining at some point. Most people assume that when summer approaches, they will have more time to relax, more time to do the things they want to do, this isn’t always true. Summertime brings people outside, through camping trips and swimming, camp programs and fairs and carnivals, and the list goes on and on. Summertime is statistically the time when the most people enjoy being outdoors. As we all know, scrapbooking is not really an … Continue reading →

Make Your Work Day more Organized, Directed and Purposeful

I know what you’re thinking—you’re thinking that if you COULD make your work day more organized, directed and purposeful, you would have done it already! Unless you are Martha Stewart or some fine impersonation, most of us can stand some improvement in our organizational and time management skills when it comes to operating our home businesses. I know that for me, even after running my business for over two years now, there are still plenty of days when I stumble to my desk or computer and wonder what I am going to do for the next several hours. A little … Continue reading →

The Disney Institute

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Walt Disney World has a corner on the magic market. Not only are the Disney rides and food some of the world’s greatest, but their personnel, aka Cast Members, are some of the friendliest and most helpful in the world. This is not an accident. Disney takes great pains to train all of it’s employees to provide the very best customer service possible. Everyone from the princesses to the street sweepers, and even the cast members you never see, has been trained in the Disney manner of treating customers. This bit of Disney magic has not gone unnoticed by other … Continue reading →

Making it ALL More Manageable

Alright, maybe I’m biting off more than I can chew here–surely I cannot give everyone advice on how to make every aspect of their home business more manageable–but we can put the problem out here on the table and brainstorm ways to take a home business from hectic and scattered to more “under control” and manageable… Here is what I do know–we humans have a tendency to avoid those things that are most problematic for us. When it comes to our home businesses, this can mean that we do the stuff we like and that comes easily for us and … Continue reading →

How to Make a Household Notebook

My household notebook is truly my household manager. Sometimes I think that if I didn’t have it, I would not know which way was up, at least half the time. I discovered household notebooks many years ago. I was shopping at store that sold these little planner things that were very small and you could record all kind of information in them. They were titled Household Inventory. Though truly there wasn’t much in them that made them an inventory. I came home and was thinking about the book. I did not purchase one, instead I had the creativity to make … Continue reading →

Time to Update Your Household Notebook and More

My Household Notebook articles were such a hit last year, that I have decided to write more so I can spread the word further. I have been creating these for years and while I make my own templates myself and almost always have, there are dozens of places to go to get downloadable sheets to fill the notebook. I thought I would first review the Household Notebook to make it easier for newcomers. Many of you might be asking exactly what is a household notebook and why do I need one? Others might be asking how a notebook can save … Continue reading →

Making Business Changes Painlessly

Change is one of those inevitable constants I write about fairly regularly here in the Home Business blog. The truth is that flexible business models that can change and adjust with market fluctuations and trends are a very good thing. BUT, change isn’t always easy. As a matter of fact, there can be a fair amount of resistance and stress around changes in our home businesses—both for us and for our customers or clients. Learning how to make changes as painless as possible for those we do business with can be a benefit to our bottom line. There is a … Continue reading →

So, You Messed Up, Now What?

Mistakes happen. Bloopers, disasters, big messes, oops…all of these are fairly common occurrences and, just because you are operating a home business and attempting to do everything just so—this does not mean you are exempt from making mistakes. So, you’ve made a big mess or an enormous mistake—now what? You can either run or hide from your mistake or choose to face it. Chances are, if you are a sole proprietor, running your own small home business, there is no one else to cover for you or face your blooper for you so it just comes down to you and … Continue reading →

Minimizing Interruptions

As the queen of the multi-taskers, I often don’t even realize I’m being interrupted until I get to the end of the day and it dawns on me I’ve had a scattered, unproductive, and inefficient day. Motherhood has trained me to be able to adjust to multiple interruptions, but this does not always make for a productive work day. With home-based businesses, we seem to be prone to coping with the interruption problem and it often becomes necessary for us to find a way to MINIMIZE interruptions. In order to minimize interruptions, it helps to first identify where the interruptions … Continue reading →

Change is in the Air

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As many of you may already know, Lisa Pietsch is no longer the manager over the blogs portion of Families. She has changed to another website and will be managing blogs at that website from here forward. We will really miss Lisa here at Families–she has been the backbone to this community for a long time, and I have learned a lot from her. I have enjoyed working with her immensely, and I will miss that relationship that we have developed. I want to wish Lisa all the best at the new website, and also remind her to not be … Continue reading →