For moms running a business, raising a family and rocking both
OK, it’s Weigh-In Wednesday and today’s question for you is…
What plan do YOU need most right now? What plan would help you most right now?
Just some ideas…
Weigh in below in the comments! Can’t wait to hear your answers!
Heather
Heather Allard is the founder of The Mogul Mom, wife to Scott and mom to Hope, Grace & Brendan and The Dude, her 95-pound Boxer/Shepherd mix. She’s been a mom entrepreneur since 2001 and has built 3 successful businesses, including one she sold for six figures. Heather loves bird-watching, Papermate felt tip pens, red wine and laughing her head off. Read more about Heather here.
Heather has written 384 awesome posts.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I need help figuring out how to flow my workload. I have been in business for 5 years now and you would think that I would have figured this out by now! Workflow and time management are my biggest problems.
How about all of the above.
Product management for us. We’re introducing matching pinafores and baby trousers for our cool-weather bonnets and hats because we saw that when we introduced our matching diaper covers for summer, our sales doubled. Duh, lol. Where to go from here? We seem to be growing more into a clothing line than just accessories… but this is good because that’s my mom’s experience, in clothing and design… but what to come up with to continue to compete and make our line even more cohesive…
Hi Heather,
I would love to learn about sales representation vs distribution vs licensing and how each work. What kind of commissions are standard, how to find a sales rep vs distributor in the US, what are the advantages of one over the other?
Perhaps another topic also would be how to bring a product into the US in terms of safety standards etc.
Thanks!
Catherine
Marketing or PR – I’m not sure where or how to get the word out in new places, but I don’t want to move into brick and mortars. I’m stricktly an etailer.
I need a financial plan, I have a home-based cookie company that is growing and I need advice on how to make that happen. I would love to hear what is the best way to go, investors vs loan or are there grants out there? Where to look? Thanks for asking.
Definitely a business plan and time management plan! I’m all over the place! LOL
Right now, I feel like I need something long term…perhaps a 5 year personal plan. Way back when, I always had a personal 5 year plan. They were big things…buy a house…become a VP…start a family…well you get my point. In the past 2-3 years, I haven’t really focused on any long term goals. Maybe it’s time…
I would have to agree that after having reached certain goals – family, owning a business, working from home, etc – I have neglected to reset my long term goals. I am wrapped up in the day to day goals of keeping my business running, spending time with my daughter and trying to find time for myself somewhere in there. Thanks for posing the question! Time to do some goal setting…
Twitter: heathall
February 19, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Tracy & Brandi,
I’ve heard recently that 5 year plans are too far to plan ahead – things change so quickly these days and Lord knows we moms are far too distracted sometimes by the day to day “fires” to have the foresight & ability to map and execute such a “far out” plan. LOL.
Maybe a better thing to do would be to see what you can take off your plate NOW to make achieving daily, weekly and monthly goals more achievable. What could you delete from your to-do’s altogether? What could you outsource to someone else? What could you put off for another time? Creating these “open spaces” will leave more room for you to carve out your goals and write a plan.
Heather
Hi Heather – the 5 year goal is simply a destination, a direction to set sail for. I agree that a detailed plan is useless because too many things change so quickly. However, my thought was that I need to think (REALLY think) about where I want to be in 5 years. Perhaps a valid analogy is that you probably won’t get to Miami if you don’t even think you need to get there.
Twitter: heathall
February 22, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Of course, of course, Tracy. You know I love to set goals and game plans.
Heather
Time management!!! I keep moving from fire to fire–reading Brandi’s post and feeling somewhat the same. I sort of know what needs to be done, but it can’t ALL get done, so. . .Found mindmeister.com a while ago–did the free trial, and just signed up for real. I’m totally a visual organizer, and this really helps me focus. Big planning day scheduled for tomorrow
Twitter: heathall
February 19, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Hi Jen,
Thanks for sharing the tip about MindMeister. The important thing is to find the planning tool that’s right for you – and it sounds like MM is that for you.
Heather
I am in the initiating stages of my business and I would love to know what types of small business grants exist for women in California! That’s the plan I need – financial!!!
Thanks for any suggestions.
Kristy