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Friday, August 31, 2007

Back to School Blues

This has been a tiring week. I forget every year how tiring the first week of school can be. My kids are in high school and college now, so you'd think it would be a bit easier. But it's not. There's still the overwhelming barrage of school supplies to be bought and forms to be signed. But most of all, there's the return of the dreaded homework.

My kids are pretty independent when it comes to their homework. But there's always something they need that they don't have, which can only be purchased at this particular store for this particular price. And it must be in this particular color or they'll get an "F." And do I want them to get a bad grade?

Of course not. So off we trot to get the item, whatever it is. And it's at this point that I'm thinking, "Why was I looking forward to school starting back?" And the picture above? Just the way I'm feeling about now.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Show Me the Money: Financing for Your Startup

I have great ideas for new businesses all the time. So what's stopping me from actually doing something about them? Often, it's simply money. Finding the cash to get a business started is frequently the biggest challenge for women entrepreneurs.

And traditional sources - banks, credit unions - are often unwilling to take a chance on an untried idea. This despite the fact that women-owned businesses employ approximately 27 million people and comprise 48% of all businesses in the United States, according to The National Foundation for Women Business Owners.

The NFWBO also states that 55% of women provide half or more of their household's income. And yet 80% of all women in the workforce earn less than $25,000 a year. It's no wonder, then, that so many women dream of starting their own business and determining their own wages.

But it's more difficult for women to obtain seed money for a new business, partly due to the scoring system currently used by credit bureaus. One site that offers such help is Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence. Count Me In provides loans of $500 to $10,000 to women starting or growing a business.

Your first loan must be $5,000 or less. But each time you repay a loan, you are eligible to borrow again. You can find more information on applying for a Count Me In loan at their website. No more excuses. If you have a great idea for a business, get over there and apply!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Stay at Home Mom Runs Successful Online Book Business


When I first started this blog, I wrote a series of articles on starting and running an online used book business. I supported myself and my three children with my own online used book business for five years. And so I found the following article on Steve-Olson.com to be interesting, and thought I'd share. Enjoy.

Cool, Clean, and Hip Silver



My daughters will wear nothing but silver jewelry. Gold, they inform me, is out. Who knew? I'll have to admit that I've grown to love the smooth, clean look of silver jewelry myself. And when I saw Shop4Silver.com's hip, upbeat website, I knew my teens would absolutely go ballistic.

With origins in Encino, California, Shop4Silver.com has one mission: "to bring style to silver and silver to style." And they succeed on both counts by specializing in the latest and most fashionable silver jewelry at affordable prices. Gorgeous chains, lockets, charms, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, rings, and sets - Shop4Silver.com has it all.

My personal favorites are the Designo Silver Pendants. But my daughters loved the New Age Silver Rings and the Millefiori Murano Glass Earrings. And since Shop4Silver.com's buyers are constantly tracking the latest trends, searching boutiques for the most unique, high-quality jewelry available, then buying it at wholesale prices, they can pass that savings on to their customers.

Featuring jewelry from such brands as Stingray, Millefiori, Millacreli, Ferroni, and Designo, and with a vast variety of styles to choose from, there's something here for everyone. I loved perusing the colorful site and admiring the colorful millefiori and murano art glass. With a great user-friendly interface, it's a great place to window shop on the Web. With free shipping and a generous 30-day return policy, Shop4Silver.com is a four-star favorite.

This is a sponsored post.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Hot Off the Presses: VIPDesk Undergoing Major Hiring Push


I just received word from a reader that VIPDesk is going through a major recruiting push right now. They offer two different work at home positions, one in virtual contact center solutions and the other in virtual concierge services. You can read the press release about this major recruitment here.

Monday, August 27, 2007

To Blog or Not to Blog: That is the Question


Thought this was funny and oh so true! Thanks BLaugh!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Interviewing for a Customer Service Position? Be Prepared!

Opportunities to telecommute have expanded rapidly over the last few years, thanks to the Internet. And customer service, in particular, seems to be opening up more and more to home workers. Companies like LiveOps, Working Solutions, and Alpine Access have taken full advantage of technology and the ready availability of home workers.

Most customer service jobs require a reliable computer with 256 MBs of RAM and at least a 1Ghz processor, a broadband Internet connection, and Windows XP. In addition, you'll need a telephone line, headset, and printer. Most important, though, you must have a quiet working environment. That means no barking dogs or crying children in the background.

After filling out an application, you will be scheduled for an interview, most likely conducted over the phone. It is crucial that you take the call somewhere quiet, so as not to be interrupted. And don't forget to make a list of the questions you want to ask. Better to understand exactly what the job entails before going any further.

The following is a list of questions you might be asked when interviewing for an at-home customer service position:

1. Why do you want a work at home position?

2. What characteristics do you possess that make you a good candidate for a work at home position? For our company? For our client?

3. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

4. How would you handle an irate customer?

5. Give an example of a time when you provided superior customer service.

6. Describe your office area and how you plan on keeping it quiet during your working hours.

7. What do you know about the company? And why do you want to work for our company?

8. How do you relieve stress?

9. When are you available to start? What hours are your available? Are you available weekends?

10. What is your expected pay rate?

Special thanks to the ladies at Wahm.com for sharing these typical interview questions. Links to the companies mentioned in this article are in the sidebar.


Find high quality Hispanic jobs at LatPro.com.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

A Spoonful of Vinegar = Weight Loss?

Okay. I've tried cutting out sugar, cutting back on fat, even a little exercise (and I stress the word "little"). But lately, it seems nothing I do makes a difference. I just can't seem to lose any weight. So I'm Googling the words "diet" and "weight loss," and I come across this post: Does Apple Cider Vinegar Help You Lose Weight?

Now drinking a few tablespoons of vinegar a day might sound ridiculous to some people. But I'm at the point where I'm game to try anything. I was most intrigued by the mention of the author's 93-year-old grandmother who drank vinegar every day and remained thin and active until the day she died. A small sacrifice to make, I think.

The only thing that gave me pause was the author's note that it was best to buy the organic vinegar with the "mother" floating around in it. These are the "stringy globs" floating around inside. I'm thinking I'll stick with plain old clear apple cider vinegar. No globs for me. If you want to read all about it, head over to Weight Loss Diva's blog.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Cool Tool: A Great One-Stop Billing Solution


As an independent contractor, I'm always looking for tools that will make my life easier. And a huge problem for any small business is not only finding a way to invoice clients and send out quotes to potential clients, but also to appear professional while doing it.

And while some services offer the ability to invoice clients, most do not offer the ability to invoice clients from any computer, track payments, create tax invoices, and keep track of unpaid or overdue invoices. Invoiceplace does all this.

Not only that, Invoiceplace offers the flexibility to expand your business overseas with its multi-currency support, which includes 19 countries, including Australia, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. It's the perfect solution not only for independent contractors like myself, but also any freelance, small, or home-based business wanting to step up their business presence.

The site has a wonderful demo and easy-to-use interface. At a glance, you can see quickly which invoices are overdue, awaiting payment, and paid. And if you sign up now for a free account, you can create unlimited invoices, quotes, and receipts for up to three customers.

All paid subscriptions have, and I quote - "a 30-day 100% unconditional money-back guarantee." How can you lose? Give it a try and see how easy it is to produce professional looking invoices, quotes, and receipts for your business.

This is a paid review for Invoiceplace. WAHMR will only endorse products and tools we feel would benefit the WAHMR audience.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Back to School


My kids go back to school on Monday. And while it will be nice to have the house to myself a little more, experience has taught me that the honeymoon period won't last long. A few short days after school starts, it will begin. The homework. The projects. The list of things to buy.

We went out today to look for some last minute back-to-school items, little stuff like notebook paper, socks. This year, however, my kids have been working all summer. So they didn't mind contributing to the cause. And I so appreciate it. This has always been one of the most expensive times of year.

Hopefully the transition back to school will go smoothly this year. No student/teacher personality conflicts. No messed up schedules. No $1,000 calculators to buy. Wish us luck. Monday morning is just around the corner.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Freelancers: How Much is Enough?

It's difficult to know how much to charge as a freelancer. Do you charge the going rate in your part of the country, or do you average the going rate across the country? Do you charge according to your level of experience? Or maybe you take all of these factors into consideration when deciding what to charge.

It's more important, I believe, to make sure that what you charge takes into consideration your time and expenses, and that in the end, you can make a living doing whatever it is you do. When reading forums and message boards for freelancers, I'm often saddened to find that so many are willing to work for less than minimum wage, simply because it allows them to work from home.

And while I completely understand the desire to work from home, I also think that charging far below what your work is worth will only drive the market down and hurt all freelancers.

And that's why I was so excited to come across this wonderful Hourly Rate Calculator at Freelance Switch. It takes around 20 minutes to complete and can be altered to fit your particular situation. It helps you calculate your business cost, your personal cost, your billable hours, and finally, how much you want to make each year.

It then gives you your ideal hourly rate and a break-even rate. That way, you can set your goals high, knowing exactly what it will take to reach them.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Back, Back, Back it Up

It hasn't happened to me yet, but I've heard horror stories about blogs disappearing into cyberspace, never to be seen again. Gone are hundreds of posts, images, links. Some bloggers avoid losing it all by emailing their blog posts to themselves and keeping copies of all images on a hard drive. But that sounds like too much work to me. So I started looking for an easier way, and I found it. Check out BlogBackupOnline. Right now, an account is free, and BlogBackupOnline will automatically back up your blog once a day. Each blog has 50 MB of storage. All of the major blog platforms are supported. BlogBackupOnline gives bloggers the ability to restore a blog and transfer a blog to another platform. You can also export your backup file in RSS format. Check them out.

Also found a cool site that lets you make your own banners. These are great for sig lines on forums. The price is right. It's free. I even made myself a couple of banners last night. The site is AdDesigner.com. Enjoy!

These are NOT paid advertisements.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Bread Ties, Dryer Sheets, Coca-Cola, Ants, and Burnt Tongues


Here's a few of the more interesting helpful hints I ran across today while surfing the Net. I'm not sure any of them are actually true. But they're worth a try, I suppose.

Ant problem? Put a small pile of cornmeal wherever you see ants. The ants will take it home for a midnight snack. But because they are unable to digest it, they will perish.

If you place a dryer sheet in your pocket, it will keep mosquitoes at bay.

Coca-Cola will take out grease stains.

Fresh bread is delivered to grocery stores five days a week. The color of the twist-tie shows the day of the week each loaf was delivered. Monday = Blue. Tuesday = Green. Thursday = Red. Friday = White. Saturday = Yellow.

If you burn your tongue, put a little sugar on it.

Peanut butter rubbed on with a paper coffee filter will take scratches off CDs.

If you try any of these at home, let me know if they work! I'm definitely going to try the one for getting rid of ants this week.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

A Bittersweet Day

My oldest daughter is turning 20 today. She's no longer a teenager, and it's hard for me to believe that 20 years has passed so quickly. It seems only yesterday they were plopping her on my stomach, a writhing red and blue ball of 8 lb., 10 oz. screaming baby. And my whole life changed in an instant.

It's just as I tell/warn my daughters now, once you have a baby, your life is no longer your own. You will always take a backseat to the needs of that child. No more hopping in the car and taking off to who knows where without a second thought. No more staying up as late as you want and sleeping in. It is truly the only job I know of that is 24/7 and lasts for your entire lifetime.

But it's worth it. Although she put me through my paces, she's turned out to be a rather nice human being, someone I enjoy spending time and talking with. She's nothing like me, really. She's her own person, complete with her own opinions, feelings, likes, dislikes - which is much nicer, I think, than some clone of myself.

And so my baby is growing up, and I am feeling old, but proud. Happy Birthday baby.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

I.Q. and Career Choice

Do you know your I.Q. score? And does your I.Q. score jibe with what you do for a living? The I.Q. test was originally created to identify children with special needs. But it's use as an indicator of intelligence has expanded over the years, and so has the controversy surrounding its validity.

Some argue that I.Q. is relative and must be combined with other considerations, such as emotional and social intelligence. But despite this debate, it has remained the standard for measuring intelligence. The ranges of I.Q. are:

Below 70: Definite feeble-mindedness
70-80: Borderline deficiency
80-90: Dullness
90-110: Normal or average intelligence
110-120: Superior intelligence
120-140: Very superior intelligence
140+: Genius or near genius

I found an especially interesting web site that charts the modern I.Q. ranges for various occupations. Some were quite surprising and challenged the stereotypical notions I had about I.Q. and career choice. Check it out yourself. See if your I.Q. falls in line with your livelihood.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

For Your Laughing Pleasure

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Last Day of Vacation


This is the last day of my beach vacation. And unfortunately, it's cloudy out. Weep. Weep. Oh well. Maybe we'll hit a movie. I'm actually kind of ready to get home to my own bed and my solid Internet connection.

As I said before, we were trying out Time Warner's Speed Zone service while we were down here. I actually didn't sign up for it, since my brother wasn't too impressed with it. (He was the guinea pig.) I just picked up networks, when I could, to check my email. I don't think he ever picked up a great signal on Speed Zone. So lesson learned on that one: rent a house with cable Internet next time.

The other lesson: keep teenagers off your computer. Somehow they completely obliterated my bookmarks folder. Ugh.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Slow News Day at ABC?


It must be a slow news day at ABC News, as they just threw up a story from April. But it caught my attention, because it's about finding work-at-home jobs. It has a lot of useful information in it. So I thought I'd throw the link up for anyone interested. It's Tory Johnson's Work from Home Tips. Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Face-off: Angelina Jolie and I Could Be Twins


Okay here it is. Adrian of First Time Dad challenged me to a Face-off. He asked me to reveal the face behind my blog, an accurate likeness of my self. And so after digging through my current photos, I present it to you now. It's not my best pic. But doesn't everyone hate photos of themselves?

I'm also supposed to provide a few details about myself. And so here they are:

Name: Lisa

Country: USA

Occupation: Transcriptionist

Email: Workathomemomrevolution@gmail.com

Birthday: June 29th

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Drink: Sweet tea (Yes, I'm from the South)

Favorite Fruit: Strawberries

Favorite Dessert: Key Lime Pie

Hobbies: Blogging, Reading, Writing

Some of the blogs that have published my likeness: I am all over the Internet. Go to People.com, TMZ.com. My likeness is smeared across the sides of buildings.

Here are the mystery men and women I tag to expose their true faces:

Sabrina of Sabrina's Money Matters

Deb at Freelance Writing Jobs

The Chick at Outta the Coop

I would tag more, but I'm on this incredibly slow Internet connection here at the beach. And so to do more might lead to a nervous breakdown.

Life Sans Internet


Help! I'm stuck on a beach without the Internet, or at least not much Internet. I had hoped I'd be able to get online down here with Time Warner's Speed Zone. But to put it kindly, the name of the service is not exactly accurate. More appropriate would be Time Warner's Barely Online Zone. Very frustrating, especially when I had hoped to get a little transcription work done down here. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to relax and enjoy my vacation.

Monday, August 6, 2007

My Polyphasic Sleep Experiment

Surfing the net on vacation, I found that I've been experimenting - although unintentionally - with sleep patterns for the last year or so. What I've been doing is something called "polyphasic sleep."

Polyphasic
sleep, as opposed to monophasic sleep, is when you sleep in several small stretches throughout the day, instead of getting your sleep all in one big chunk. The theory is that this form of sleep reduces your need for sleep to about two hours a day, and actually leaves you more mentally alert than getting eight hours in one stretch.

Now I'm not really practicing polyphasic sleep as it was meant to be done. True polyphasic sleep should be about 20 minutes every four hours. But who can live like that? Supposedly, this alteration in your sleep will provide you with an extra six hours a day of productive waking time. I'm a little skeptical.

My polyphasic sleep pattern is more out of necessity. I have one daughter that swims very early every morning, requiring that I be up before the sun. And by the time everyone at my house is in bed at night, I absolutely have to have some alone time. Therefore, I stay up too late.

The result is I don't get enough sleep between bedtime and my first wakeup call. So after my daughter's swim practice, I go back to sleep for a few hours. Then sometimes in the afternoon, schedule permitting, I'll nap for a few minutes.

Most people think my schedule is crazy. But I'm relatively healthy and get through my day without mishap. Besides, I can't figure out any other way to do it, unless I give up my alone time and go straight to bed at midnight every night.

But I love my alone time. I get more done late at night than at any other time. How about you? When is your most productive time of day? Am I the only person who lives by this wacky schedule of broken up sleep?

Thanks to Interesting Thing of the Day for the great article on polyphasic sleep.

Friday, August 3, 2007

I'm Going to Be a Beach Bum


That's right! I'm going on vacation this week. And boy, it's just in the nick of time. I am burnt flat out. I got nothing. But hopefully, I will have Internet access while I'm gone. So I'll be able to post and keep you guys updated. Maybe I'll even post some pics for you to drool over.

I'm also taking some transcription work with me. We're going to try a new Internet service. And if it works out, I'll be able to download audio and upload transcripts. I'll write more about that later. Keep your fingers crossed that it works. I can't afford to go a whole week without making a little money.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Hot Link: 150 Fabulous Resources for Writers


Just found a fabulous site for writers of all kinds: technical writers, fiction writers, songwriters, playwrights. You name it! It's an article on the Online Education Database that lists 150 great resources, including research sites, free software, almanacs, dictionaries, professional organizations, citation styles, etcetera. Bookmark it for future reference!