As a ’wannabe’ artist currently learning how to paint, I’m always in awe of talented artists.
Tara, my journal business partner has been busy painting. We are in our final stages of designing our next journal, Journal for the Pregnant Goddess. This journal has five different images with the fifth image going to be part of our third journal, Journal for the Mother Goddess.
I’ve loved watching Tara’s paintings evolve because I can actually see where she’s come from to where she is now, and every now and then I get a glimpse of where she is going. You can see a sneak peak of the journal cover painting on our website, Journals for Empowerment.
Tara has not only been painting for our journals, but she has also been painting for her business, Nirvana Visions. I love one of her recent paintings of her daughter, aptly named ‘The voice of the toddler‘.
Another artist who has been busy is Jenny over at Jenni’s Papercraft Designs. Jenny is a keen cardmaker and in between running her business and making cards, she has been learning to paint. She has combined her cardmaking and artwork to offer a set of 4 notecards in her online store.
In my post, Business Success Factor #1 one of the factors is to evaluate your personal goals and consider if they suit the lifestyle of a small business owner. What these women have in common is that they’ve successfully combined their passion with business.
Looking for something that you enjoy or are passionate about is a step in the right direction forumlating a business idea. Of course there are other factors, but doing something you love is a good start.
What are you passionate about?
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Welcome to Empowering Women - Issue 15 and this issue focuses on finance and money. Enjoy!
We start with Wenchypoo from Wench Wisdom who suggests a range of perks and benefits for those of you who are working for others. These tips can be applied to your working life in whatever country you live.
Then Carole over at The Healthy Living Lounge helps you find your wealth location and offers guidelines to welcoming the wealth energy into your home.
If you are in a relationship, the article, How to talk about money to your partner offered by The Eclectic Female over at Women’s Lifestyle Blog are invaluable.
Next up is John from Truthful Lending who offers a range of tips on paying off your mortgage. These are great for everyone, whether you live in the US or not.
Lastly, if you have kids then the article, 90 low cost or no cost activities to entertain your kids by Jeremy over at Destroy Debt will be very helpful.
Tell others about this Empowering Women Carnival… pass on the love, the knowledge and the wisdom and help anothers become empowered. Have a great week!
Thank you to everyone that submitted articles. I would appreciate author’s linking back to this carnival.
You are invited to submit your blog article to the next issue using our carnival form.
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“In the heat of action, the mere ability to remeber our priorities, our goals and the specific reasoning behind the course we have taken is an element of courage.”
– Robert Grudin
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I love my notes and here is a recent one I wanted to share with you.
***
Ever have one of those days, Nicole, when you’re feeling so good, crossing a street, driving your car, shopping at the mall, when, from a distance you see a complete stranger, with a kindly face, and you simply can’t help yourself from whispering a silent “I love you…”?
Oh, cool, because there has been many a time, in many a place, when some unknown face whispered the same to you….
Love you,
The Universe
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While reading a recent post by Annette over at Annette Piper’s Handmade Jewellery she reminded me how important it is for businesses to send newsletters. She said she hadn’t sent a newsletter for a while and when she did, someone bought from her.
An important lesson can be learnt from Annette’s situation. For businesses who have a blog and blog regularly, blogging is only a promotional tool out of many. One of the others is the old fashioned newsletter.
Blog readers may not be subscribed to your newsletter and your newsletter readers may not be blog readers, therefore you have to remember that you have a whole other audience out there waiting to hear from you. If someone has subscribed to your newsletter it means that they have an interest in your product or service. They may not have bought from you yet, but with regular contact via a newsletter, they could buy from you in the future.
With that in mind, here are some newsletter tips I thought I would share:-
- When sending a newsletter make sure you’ve got something interesting to say - introduce new website content, offer a special that you are not offering anywhere else, profile a product or service or introduce a new product range.
- Do not send newsletters more than once a week and no less than once a month. Today I unsubscribed to a newsletter because the owner sends an update 3 or 4 times a week. Instead they could easily compile all the small paragraphs and send one out each Friday.
- Build the relationship between you and your readers but sharing a little bit about yourself. You do not need to share your life story but just enough for them to get to know you and feel safe in buying from you.
- If you are publishing articles from article banks, be careful as your readers may have read it elsewhere.
- Every now and then reward your readers with a special give-away just for them.
Can you add any other tips?
If you are a little shy about sending out a newsletter on a regular basis, work up to it. Start quarterly if you feel that once a month is too much, once you’ve got the hang of it, start sending newsletters every second month and then monthly.
Good luck!
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In my previous post, Women in Business, I wrote that there is no perfect recipe or formula for small business success. However, research and expertise have shown that if you consider and act upon certain basic factors of small business operation, then your chance of success will be greatly improved.
I then listed 7 key success factors and the first success factor is your suitability as a small business owner.
Not everyone is suited to having their own business and, a realistic and honest self-assessment of your personal suitability right from the start could help you to avoid the problems and costs associated with small business failure.
To help you assess your suitability you need to ask yourself four basic questions:-
- Compatible with Personal Objectives - Evaluate your personal goals and consider if they suit the lifestyle of a small business owner.
- Essential Personal Qualities - Do you have the energy and drive, commitment and involvement, confidence, decision making skills, communications, responsibility, initiative, patience etc?
- Basic Business Skills and Knowledge - What skills will you need for your business? What skills do you not have? What do you feel you need to brush up on?
- Accepting the Risks - What are the risks to your business? Are there any natural hazards?
Entering into small business is similar to being place in a job. Not everyone will be suited to a job because it will require a certain personality, knowledge, training and/or experience. The same applies to small business.
What do you think are the basic business skills and knowledge?
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As the Balance and Lifestyle Editor for WE Magazine for Women, I thought I would tell you about the Spring edition. It is jam packed with 64 pages of inspring stories and articles about being ‘Green’.
This edition is dedicated to Mother Nature in recognition of Earth Day 2008.
To read the current issue visit: http://www.wecai.org/wemagspring08.pdf. To read past issues, go to www.wemgazineforwomen.com.
If you are interested in submitting articles to the magazine, please read the submission guidelines on the magazine website.
To submit an article for the Balance and Lifestyle section, email me - nicole(at)moderngoddessonline.com - your article for approval.
The next issue is in July and the themes are renewal, getting organised and communication. Submission deadlines are 25 June 2008.
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Small business and business generally does not operate in isolation from the society in which it exists. In fact, most businesses have an impact on the local community or the wider society where it conducts business activities. This ‘impact’ may vary depending on how the business engages in business behaviour and practices.
Either way, individually and collectively, businesses have a social impact on the community through a number of ways:-
- environmental issues
- public safety and health
- exploitation of workers at home and abroad
- human rights issues
- business behaviours and practices
These ’social responsibilities’ contribute towards the improvement and welfare of the local community and the wider society. Whether a business is online or face-to-face, you do need to consider how you are being socially responsible.
In the Academy of Management Review, volume 4, number 1, it defines social responsibility as covering three different areas:-
- Social Obligation - minimum compliance; only enough to comply with the law.
- Social Responsiveness - a business which will engage in socially beneficial activities because there is a pragmatic benefit for doing so.
- Social Responsibility - a business that is willing to pursue long-term objectives that benefit society, even though there may be no individual gain for doing so.
As a person who has a couple of different sites and businesses, and is classified as a micro business; being socially responsible as described in point 3 is difficult, particularly when I need to consider the four key areas of my operations - the workplace, the marketplace, the community and the environment.
The resources available to businesses are more relevant to larger businesses, and there is not a great deal of government support or incentive for small businesses to adopt social responsible activities.
In a consumer driven, over crowded marketplace, many companies strive for a unique selling point and being social responsible is definitely one option. However, aside from the cost of producing a product or service, the majority of small businesses do not have the funds to market themselves as strategically as larger businesses.
Consumers are becoming more aware of the environment and social implications of their day-to-day purchases, however many consumers are also price conscious and unless they see the value in purchasing a socially responsible, higher priced product, they are likely to purchase the cheaper version.
In writing all this, I must say that I have been doing a lot of research on how I can be more socially responsible through my online store, Modern Goddess Gifts. My product range is slowly growing and according to Michelle from My New Shiny Shoes, online shopping is on the increase.
In her article about online shopping she talks about the advantages and disadvantages to online shopping. One thing that she didn’t mention was that shoppers can shop from all around the world, whether it is by visiting many online stores or through one store. While reading her article a light bulb went off… I can be socially responsible by including a Fair Trade range of products from all around the world. I travel a fair bit and I can create opportunities whereby I can connect with Fair Trade businesses that also support women in business.
This has gotten me excited! As I prepare to head off to South America, I am exploring such opportunities. I hope in the near future that I will not only be providing unique gifts just for ‘you’ but unique, socially responsible gifts just for ‘you’.
If you are in business, why don’t you start looking at ways of being socially responsible. Explore your options before dismissing it entirely.
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As part of the Soul Coaching program we work with affirmations on a daily basis. I thought for those new to working with affirmations, it might be good to have a little bit of a background on what they are and how to work with them.
An affirmation is a statement we make about a person, thing or situation. It is something that we “state” to ourselves or to others on a regular basis. Affirmations are created based on our beliefs and can be positive or negative in nature.
Whether the statement is positive or negative you are affirming that belief on a regular basis and eventually you will believe it and act according to that belief.
The amazing thing about affirmations is that those negative statements can be turned into positive, powerful statements, which in turn can be used daily to bring more light, love and happiness into your life.
Positive thinking is essential for your personal growth.
By working with positive, powerful affirmations you can begin to change the way you think and feel about yourself, and start to create a future that you desire. You do this by identifying the negative and unproductive beliefs you have, and turning them into positive, supporting beliefs.
We suggest that you create affirmations that are in tune with your current situation but that can still effect change in the areas that they hope for.
Before you begin to create your positive, powerful affirmations, it is important to remember a few key points:
Present Moment – Your affirmation must be written in the present moment. For example, “I am financially supported” represents the now, whereas, “I will be financially supported” makes you feel like it is off in the future, not in the now.
Positive Words – Chose your words carefully because if you said “I am not poor” your energy is focusing on not being poor, and the universe hears the word “poor”. Instead change your words to be positive and uplifting “I have enough money for all that I need” or “I am wealthy” are better choices of words.
Short and Specific – While creating your affirmation, you want to chose words that are to the point and allows you to keep your affirmation short. The more succinct your affirmation, the easier it is to remember and the easier to work with.
Feels Right – When creating your affirmation, you want it to “feel” right and be in tune with your current situation. For example, if you are completely broke and there are bills attacking you from all sides, it is not going to help just saying “money now pours into my life offering me great abundance” as this is clearly not the case and trying to repeat such an affirmation would just create an undercurrent of disappointment with your current circumstances. Instead you could use an ‘umbrella affirmation’ such as “the universe now supports me in my endeavours to manifest great wealth”. Create something that you feel is right for you but is also a little bit of a stretch.
Repeat, Repeat and Repeat – Once you have created your positive, powerful affirmation say it to yourself as often as you can, write it down as often as you can and think it as often as you can throughout your day. The best way is to write it down and place it where you can see it often. They say it takes 21 days to break a habit, use this rule with an affirmation and repeat it often throughout the day for 21 days.
Visualise – As you repeat your affirmation, visualise yourself being in the situation. Really feel yourself there, having achieved whatever it is that you wished for. Visualisation helps you with the feeling and belief of your affirmation.
Update – As you work with your positive, powerful affirmations your energy will change and you will begin to feel better and better. Update your affirmations with your feelings and take into consideration that you want affirmations to be a little bit of a stretch for you.
It is better to create your own affirmation that is applicable to your own situation however if you choose an affirmation from a book or the internet, change it to fit your situation. If you are using an affirmation daily and it is not manifesting, think about why and maybe you need to create an ‘umbrella affirmation’ that will help support you in achieving your affirmation when the time is right. You need to honour where you and why before you can move forward.
Affirmations are truly the key to getting yourself in line with what you want, need and desire in life. Keep an eye out for our beautiful affirmation videos in the coming weeks.
If you already work with affirmations, what is your favourite one?
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“To admire, to expand one’s self, to forget the rut, to have a sense of newness and life and hope, is to feel young at any time of life.”
– Charles Horton Cooley