Category Archives: WAHM Resources
WAHM Wishes Come True
I must say, Twitter has opened up a whole new WAHM world to me. When I first joined Twitter, there were some WAHMs that I knew I wanted to follow if they were there. I was happy to find and follow Kelly McCausey, Mom’s Talk Network. I thought I was familiar with her work, but have learned just recently of her generousity as well.
Kelly has posted (on Twitter it’s tweeted) her third annual WAHM Business Christmas Wish – asking the question What is Your Christmas Wish? And in the last 5 days, she has made some extraordinary WAHM wishes come true!
With the help of the WAHM community, Twitter, and the World Wide Web – WAHMs have been granted wishes of Mastermind memberships, software resources and learning materials. Some wished for VA help, mentoring and coaching. I even snuck my wish in there for two of Kelly’s ebooks. (I received one yesterday – Hooray!)
If you are a WAHM, or someone who believes they may be able to help Kelly make more WAHM Christmas Wishes come true – follow Kelly on Twitter to learn of the wishes she’s looking to fulfill. She tweets them several times a day, with the hashtag #wahmwish. There’s no way Kelly could do this on her own, but it’s through the generosity of others that she has been able to coordinate this incredible gifting.
I believe Kelly’s still accepting wishes, but today could be the last day! Read this morning’s blog post at WAHMs Talk Radio blog, then watch for her “Big Wishes” post later today to contribute cash for help in fulfilling some big WAHM wishes. That’s what I’m planning to do – my tiny way of “paying it forward”. What could you do to help a WAHM’s Christmas wish come true?
Work at Home as a VA
Why is a Virtual Assistant Business good for a Work at Home Mom?
A Virtual Assistant business can be the perfect way for a mom to stay at home with her kids but feel like she is providing to the family finances. A VA business is often times the easiest way for a mom to become a work at home mom. And I don’t mean easiest as in an easy way to make a buck because it’s going to require a lot of patience, hard work, determination and perseverance. There’s no such thing as a quick buck.
Chances are that if you have been working outside the home in Corporate America in an office setting of some sort, you probably have some skill(s) that you can offer virtually or at least a skill(s) that will be beneficial in starting your own Virtual Assistant business.
Confused by that statement? Let’s look at it a little deeper, for example let’s say you worked as a bookkeeper. Bookkeeping is a highly specialized skill that many people are willing to pay someone to do for them. Many small businesses or work at home moms are in need of bookkeepers and it’s a skill they are willing to pay for to not have to deal with it themselves. This would be the perfect opportunity for you to offer your services as a Virtual Assistant.
Another example could be if you worked as a medical transcriptionist or legal transcriptionist. Again these are specialized skills that can provide you the foot in the door you need to start your own VA business.
What about the mom that hasn’t been working in a long time but is interested in starting her own VA business? The old saying where there’s a will there’s a way comes to mind. There are some basic type skills you can start out offering such as customer service. More than likely you know how to check email, reply to emails, make phone calls, etc. That’s pretty basic stuff and not surprisingly many small business owners outsource this stuff because it’s so time consuming.
Another option would be to look for an internship opportunity so that you can have someone take you under their wing and train in an area of specialty so that you can offer that as a service to your customers.
You’ll need to keep in mind that although a Virtual Assistant business is a great way for a mom to work from home, even possibly one of the easier ways; it’s time consuming and will require a lot of sweat equity on your part. It’s not something you can just throw up a website and expect the money to come rolling in tomorrow. It doesn’t work that way.
Instantly access your guide to starting a VA business.
Fun With Photos
I have discovered the fun of finding and using stock photos in my blog posts and on my web pages. For certain posts, or sites, finding just the right image can really set the tone or add to what you want to say, conveying the message with a visual.
One of my favorite places to look for stock photos is www.iStockPhoto.com. It’s one of my favorite places to go when I want to find a fun image for a blog post, or a set of images, like I used to set the “place” at Mom’s Online Retreat. The pictures aren’t free, and purchase price depends on the size of the image you want – but for my needs I can purchase 10 images for $14.
You can get a lot of uses out of one image though with a little photo editing. Here’s a good example, my latest, favorite image…
has already been turned into this…
I love this because I can get so many uses out of this one image – adding text for my Coordinator Challenges that will be starting at Mom’s Online Retreat, or maybe as a “Specials’ board to post on the front page to draw visitor’s to The Shoppes.
So, consider using images in your blog posts and websites. Gives the reader something more to look at than just ads, and can really aid in creating a nice visual for your visitor. What a way to spice up your pages. 
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