| 6 Tips for Working at Home With Children Posted: 18 May 2011 05:10 PM PDT I originally posted this in 2006 when I was only working from home for twenty to thirty hours per week. I now work at home 100% of the time. 
- Create an office separate from the main living areas of the house and declare it off limits during working hours.
Help your child make a child readable sign for the office door so that he will know when it is and isn’t acceptable to burst into the office. - Invest in some quality headphones for quiet, heads down, work.
I can’t count the number of times my wife has apologized to me because the everyone was running around screaming, and I responded “Really? I hadn’t noticed.” - Maintain a good work schedule, and stick to it.
Something that really helps in our home is that I have set working hours during the day. At 4 PM, I emerge from my office like someone returning home from work, and I’ll take the children to the park, help with chores around the house, or run errands with the family. - Train the children to go silent when Dad’s cellphone rings, but make sure your cellphone ringer is turned on.
In our house, we have a game. When our eldest son hears my phone ring, he runs and asks his mother for a sticker for his “Daddy’s Phone Log” on the refrigerator. It’s made him become more aware of when I’m on the telephone and has the added benefit of sending him running away when the phone rings. Make sure, though, that you turn your ringer on. If you forget, and answer your phone after it vibrates, no one else will know that you’re talking to someone else and will pester you with “Huh?” and “What?” when they think you’re talking to them. - Take a long lunch and enjoy your opportunity to work from home.
Enjoy the fact you’re working from home and take a time out in the middle of the day to enjoy a long and leisurely lunch. - Ask your spouse to communicate with you via IM or email.
Nothing makes it more obvious that you’re working from home more than having your spouse constantly talking to you. Ask her to email or instant message you so you can ignore them like you would your coworkers’ messages if you were at the office. What are your tips and tricks for working at home with the kids? 
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| Good Advice from Steve Jobs Posted: 18 May 2011 01:23 PM PDT 
Shortly after Mike Parker became CEO of Nike, he called his old friend Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple and asked for some advice. Job’s answer was short and sweet: "'Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.' Parker said Jobs paused and Parker filled the quiet with a chuckle. But Jobs didn't laugh. He was serious. 'He was absolutely right,' said Parker. 'We had to edit.'" Take that advice to heart and apply it to your business. I know I’m going to. Photo by Dunechaser. 
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| Niche Biz: MtEverClimb Posted: 18 May 2011 01:16 PM PDT 
MtEverClimb is a continuous rope-climbing exercise machine. MtEverClimb is a revolutionary, continuous rope-climbing machine that simulates actual rope climbing, one of the oldest forms of successful physical training. This one piece of equipment enables users to achieve a full-body strength and cardio workout. Some of the benefits of this type of combined anaerobic and aerobic training include increased strength, lean body mass, improved posture and muscle balance, and increased bone density. 
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| Reader Mailbag: Sell My Idea? Posted: 18 May 2011 01:10 PM PDT 
A reader asked: Where can I sell my business idea? You can’t. Ideas by and of themselves are worthless. It’s the execution of the idea that has value. Do something, anything, with your idea and then we’ll talk. 
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| Reaching Out To Entreprenettes Posted: 18 May 2011 12:00 PM PDT 
What is an entreprenette? It describes the founder of a company with the same name, Sarah Shaw. As a successful woman in business, she helps fellow entrepreneurs get their own products to market. Before becoming an entreprenette, she created her own handbag line, reports Forbes. Sum up what the Entreprenette does in a brief summary and then sum up what Entreprenette can offer customers that no other service can in one sentence. Entreprenette is a full service consulting firm that specializes in helping our clients launch tangible products; accessories, clothing, cosmetics, home and lifestyle products. We offer an exclusive service as we specialize in building a business by setting a solid foundation of boutiques and specialty stores from which can be used as a lunching pad into larger retailers. What do your future business plans include for Entreprenette? Do you think that now that you've mastered handbags you might want to ask take a stab at the garment industry or making even trying a completely new service, like a muffin shop? Entreprenette is going to expand and develop national mastermind groups this year and we are developing a bigger model for our Instantly Famous Products service which helps young designers place their products in movies and on TV. As for launching my next business? I am so excited about my clients businesses right now that I don't have the "next great idea" just yet. I currently have two other companies that I run as well; Simply Sarah that sells my patented closet organizer for handbags, and Rack And Roll Rentals that owns three wardrobe trailers and rents them to movies and TV shows…….so my hands are FULL. And if that is not enough, I am a single mom to 3 yr old identical twin girls!
Screenshot from Entreprenette 
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| Cute and Funny to Sell Gross Posted: 18 May 2011 11:52 AM PDT 
Nasopure sells a bottle of saline water that you squirt up your nose to wash away mucus. How do you sell an outrageous product like this? Would you believe that cute and funny videos seem to be working for Nasopure? The Wall Street Journal has more on their marketing: A consultant warned, “Don’t ever show the actual nose washing, because it’s gross.” But her gut told her otherwise. To sell this kind of product, “you need to be a little outrageous,” Dr. Solomon says. Indeed, products that are fundamentally icky require a special approach to marketing. “It’s going to be a bit more challenging to market a gross product,” says Bruce I. Newman, a professor of marketing at DePaul University. He suggests hammering home the benefits and attaching a visual image that “makes it attractive to all kinds of people, even though it’s unglamorous.” Dr. Solomon did just that. She rounded up some of her cutest patients—think two-year-olds with long blond curls—and got them to demonstrate Nasopure, complete with water running out of their noses. She persuaded a handsome young man to take off his shirt, stand in a shower and strike a “Zoolander” pose while squirting saline up his nose. 
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| Speed Up The Patent Process Posted: 18 May 2011 11:00 AM PDT 
Are you just beginning the filing process for an idea? Now is the time to consider how quickly you want your application processed. According to Inventors Digest, the patent office offers a three track system for inventors moving at different paces. Accelerated Examination. For an additional fee, applicants may request expedited examination for an application. The goal is to grant a patent or reject it within 12 months. To qualify the application must be an original utility or plant non-provisional application; be filed electronically (EFS-Web); have no more than four independent claims and a maximum of 30 total claims. Normal Examination. Normal examination is the process used by the USPTO today. Applications are examined in the order in which they are filed. Existing fees apply. Delayed Examination. Delayed examination gives an applicant up to 30 months to defer the start of the examination process. At any point during the 30 months the inventor can trigger entry into one of the other tracks by paying the initial examination fee. Payment of fees is delayed until examination begins. There are circumstances where delayed examination is desirable and it can save inventors money by delaying payment of fees.
Photo by Jeffrey Keeton 
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| All Natural Baby Products Posted: 18 May 2011 10:00 AM PDT 
Jennifer Branham had just had a baby when she began to take notice of the chemicals found in baby products. When she didn’t like what she saw, she began to seek out alternatives. When she couldn’t find what she wanted, she launched a business instead. When her baby was just a year old, she launched her own business, Natural Luxe, reports The Charlotte Observer. Q. How do you juggle being a mom and owning a business? I work a lot during nap time and school time, but I’ve made an effort this year to leave the laptop in my office and focus on my daughter (same with my Blackberry!). Q. What is your daily routine? I get my daughter up and going for the day and then I tackle orders, find new products, connect with customers on Facebook and Twitter. I love finding local events to participate in. I really believe you need to be engaged in your local community. Q. What advice do you wish you had been given before you began Natural Luxe? I wish someone had told me that you can’t be everywhere at all times, start slowly and focus on a few goals each month.
Screenshot from Natural Luxe 
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| Niche: Webcam Bedtime Stories Posted: 18 May 2011 09:00 AM PDT 
There are many reasons why a loved one may not be nearby to read a bedtime story to a child, but one company is making it easier for them to reconnect in a special way. Be There Bedtime Stories was founded by Alison Sansone, a dedicated aunt. She wanted a fun way to keep in contact with her nieces, so she did a little digging and came up with a fun bedtime story business that would allow anyone with a webcam and Internet access say goodnight to the kids they love. According to The Orange County Register, they have partnered with Blue Star Families to bring bedtime stories from moms and dads serving in the military to their children back home. She originally thought about putting recording kiosks in big stores like Costco and Target and creating DVDs that could be mailed. But technology such as Skype and Videochat have become so widespread that Sansone adjusted her business model to allow people to record their stories using their own webcams, the Internet and a easy-to-use website. The site has more than 200 children’s e-books from six publishers and a recording starts at $9.99. “We’re giving free stories to Blue Star Families (a military support organization), and we’ve donated a supply of web cams to them to give to families here so the kids can read stories for their soldier parent to watch,” Sansone. Sansone said, “Soldiers are moms, dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles first. They are also our friends and neighbors. A webcam recorded bedtime story can connect them with their family in a powerful way, boosting their morale by letting them take off their helmet and put on their family hat for a while.”
Screenshot from Be There Bedtime Stories 
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