10 Marketing Tools for Home-Based Businesses

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Owners of home-based businesses sometimes view marketing as an unnecessary expense, but nothing could be further from the truth. Because a home-based business doesn't have a storefront for passers-by to notice and no opportunity to generate walk-in business, home-based businesses need marketing more than other types of businesses, not less.

Not marketing your home-based business will almost certainly doom it to failure. Here are ten ways you can advertise your home business on a budget.

1. Direct mail. With the rise of email marketing, direct mail has fallen out of favor. But it is still a cost-effective way to advertise in many industries. To be successful, your direct-mail piece should look professional and feature well-written copy. Hire a professional copywriter and designer if these skills are beyond you ability. You may even be able to barter for design or writing work.

2. Voicemail. Even the outgoing message on your answering machine or voicemail system can help promote your business when utilized correctly. Make sure your message provides additional product or service information so that it is working for you, even in the middle of the night.

3. Brochures. Brochures are still an effective way to present your product or service to new customers. They are relatively cheap and easy to print and you can distribute them by mail or by leaving them at locations where they will be noticed. A professional-looking brochure can help convince potential customers that are still “on the fence” about your products.

4. Press releases. The only thing better than cheap publicity is free publicity, and well-timed, professional press releases can result in just that. By timing a product launch or promotion to coincide with a related local or national event, you may be able to get editors to include your release in their media vehicle, be it newspaper, radio, or television. (Read "How to Write an Effective Press Release.")

5. Case studies. Case studies aren't just for scientific applications. Studies of your products in action can help your potential customers learn more and make an educated decision before they buy.

6. Referrals. Referrals are probably the single best way to find new customers. If you do something well, chances are people are going to talk about it. Offering incredible customer service to your clients will ensure that you end up with satisfied customers who are willing to share your information with their friends and colleagues.

7. Radio interviews. If you can speak knowledgably about your product or service and tie it in well with current events, radio interviews are a great way to reach a wide audience and improve your customer base.

8. Affiliate programs. Online affiliate programs are one of the most cost-effective ways to market your products to a wide range of potential customers. It's like having the benefit of a commission-based sales force, but without any of the hassles of managing actual employees.

9. A well-designed Web site. Your Web site will be the first impression for your company for many of your customers. Make it a good one. Your site should provide information about your product or service in a clear and intuitive format. Many people prefer to do their research online before making a purchase, so make sure your site leaves them with the right impression. (See "Building a Web Site for Your Home-Based Business" and also "Web Site Quick-Start Guide."

10. Ezines or Newsletters. When you provide interesting and informative content related to the products you sell, you can turn a subscriber list into a frequent buyer list. If you do not have the time to run your own ezine or newsletter, you can submit articles with your information to different publications. When you are perceived as a knowledgeable expert, potential customers know that they can rely on you for quality information and quality products.

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How Google Measures Link Popularity

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Link popularity is by far the most important factor for determining your search engine ranking. You need to know what link popularity is, why it is so important, and how Google measures your link popularity (over 50% of all search engine traffic comes from Google, and if you can rise to the top of Google, you will rise to the top of all the other search engines as well). But, before we talk about how Google measures linking, we need to cover some basics.

Link popularity is defined as the number of sites that are linking to your site. Some websites have thousands or even millions of sites linking to them, while others might have only a few. The search engines use the number of inbound links your site has as a measure of how important your site is, which translates into your search engine ranking.

The actual number of links to your site is not the only variable used to calculate your link popularity. The search engines also examine the relevance of the links to the subject matter of your site. For example, if a website that sells vitamins has 4,000 inbound links, but the source of most of the links are websites that have nothing to do with vitamins, then the algorithm that search engines use to determine link popularity will take that into account, and the link popularity score will not be very good.

It is possible for a website with a relatively small number of quality inbound links to be ranked higher than a site with a bunch of irrelevant or insignificant links. If I have a website that offers quotes for auto insurance, and I have 800 quality inbound links, then I might receive a much higher search engine ranking than another mortgage site that has 3,000 links that stem from link farms or Free For All (FFA) pages.

If you try to acquire inbound by using link farms or FFA pages, not only will it hurt your search engine ranking, but you might get permanently removed from the search engine listings. Links farms are sites where you can instantly exchange links with all the sites listed in that directory. FFA pages are pointless link directories. The search engines usually discount any links that come from either of these sources.

Now that we understand what link popularity is and how it works, we need to look specifically at how Google measures it. Google uses a number of variables in their algorithm to calculate your overall link score. The higher your score, the higher you will be ranked in the search listings.

One factor that Google uses in their algorithm, obviously, is the total number of sites linking to you. The more links you have, the higher your score will be. However, their algorithm is a little more complicated than that, and it is possible for a website with fewer links to be ranked higher than a website that has more links.

The reason for this is because Google also measures the quality of your links. If your website is about vitamins, and the site linking to you is a video game site, then that is not considered a quality link. The link still helps your score, but the link would help your score much more if it were from a website whose subject matter is the same as yours.

Also, Google gives a higher score to a link if it comes from a page that has actual content that relates to your keywords. For example, if your site is about jewelry, and another jewelry website has posted a link to your site on their links page, that link is not as valuable as a link to your site coming from a blog or a message board where a lot of information about jewelry is being written or discussed.

Also, Google gives an even higher score to a link if it contains anchor text that matches one of the keywords that describes your site. For example, if I have a site that sells lawnmowers, and a blog about lawnmowers has posted a link to my site, it helps my score even more if the link text (also known as anchor text) is LAWNMOWERS. To learn more about anchor text, go to a search engine and look up ANCHOR TEXT and you will be able to learn about it.

Another factor used by Google to score your link popularity is the diversity of keywords contained on sites linking to you. For example, if you have a site that sells handbags, and all the links to your site are from other sites that contain nothing but the keyword HANDBAGS, Google considers that to be abnormal. To get a higher score, you need to have links coming from sites that contain a variety of keywords related to handbags, such as BUY HANDBAGS, LEATHER HANDBAGS, etc.

It is difficult to increase your link popularity, but now that you understand how your score is calculated, you can devise a plan to improve your score. You might want to consider posting to forums and blogs that contain information that is related to your site, and when you post, include a link to your site. As long as you are persistent and tailor your strategy towards Google, you will do fine.

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About the Author: Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers create a free web form with the code to email the web form responses.

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Dialing for Small-Biz Dollars

In the half-century I’ve been around, I’ve seen arrogance be variously acceptable and unacceptable in mainstream culture.

Three-year-old Rhode Island-based roofing company AS Enterprises had a big, albeit common, problem: not enough customers. Owner Ann Marie Appleton had tried offering free estimates in local circulars and flyers, but her competitors were doing the same, and the resulting leads were lukewarm at best. She considered an ad in the SuperPages yellow pages, a division of Verizon (VZ) spin-off Idearc Media (IAR), because of its large distribution and solid reputation, but the next edition wouldn't be delivered to homes for eight months.

Eventually, Appleton's sales representative sold her on the idea of a monthly agreement for the company's new Pay For Call service, where businesses pay for each call made to their business via SuperPages' online local search results.

Appleton couldn't be happier with her choice. The service costs around $600 a month, depending on how many times her ad is served and how many calls she gets. AS Enterprises totaled more than $240,000 in sales in 2006, up from just $60,000 the year before, and Appleton says a good 70% of that business came directly from her pay-per-call advertising.

Calls Over Clicks

People used to call just for the free estimate, says Appleton, but those who call from SuperPages are ready to do business. Her closing rate on calls went from 25% to between 60% and 70%, and her call volume has tripled. Since the service requires that she bid against other businesses, each call costs about $25, but Appleton says she'd gladly pay twice that. "It pays for itself with just one job, and I get between four and eight good jobs a month," she says.

Princeton (N.J.)-based research firm The Kelsey Group estimates that the pay-per-call market will more than double each year for the next five years, with revenues reaching $3.7 billion by 2010. "Call tracking will live side-by-side with pay-per-click, e-mail tracking, coupon prints, and other measurable consumer actions. For off-line businesses in the service sector (painters, roofers, etc.), calls will have a higher importance than clicks," says Matthew Booth, senior vice-president and program director for interactive local media at Kelsey.

Small-business customers like Appleton say it offers a better return on investment than pay-per-click advertising and suits the needs of businesses that often can't close a sale via the Web only (see BusinessWeek.com, 1/29/07, "Small-Biz Ads: The Year of the Web").

Dropping the Dime

Still, the acceptance of pay-per-call by no means signals the end of pay-per-click; in fact, that market continues to grow. But some small-business advertisers are getting outpriced by their larger counterparts (see BusinessWeek.com, 1/22/07, "The Small Fry Sour on Search Ads"), leading them to look for alternatives.

Most pay-per-call advertising services work like this: First, companies bid for placement on keyword searches. Then their ad is served to the user based on location, and the company is charged each time a user calls; the ad itself is placed for free. When companies register with most providers, their site is assigned a unique phone number that appears in the ad, so that the company can track how many calls actually come through the pay-per-call advertising system. Businesses only pay when someone searching for their product or service picks up the phone and calls them.

Some companies think that the local nature of the product will bring in loads of new advertisers. Ingenio, a San Francisco-based local search advertising company with 110 employees and more than $100 million in annual revenue, is one that's betting that the torrid growth rates of pay-per-click advertising can't continue forever. "Everyone focuses on the 500,000 U.S. businesses targeted by pay-per-click, when there are 13 million businesses not engaged online at all, and 70% of them don't have Web sites," says Ingenio Chief Marketing Officer Marc Barach.

Serious Callers

Therein lies an untapped demand that's making companies like Ingenio salivate. Through their bidding system, Ingenio, like SuperPages.com, has created a virtual market that dictates its own pricing, much like the pay-per-click model. Barach says prices vary across different industries and for different services. Legal-service ads draw higher prices than those from hair salons, for example. And when tax time is peaking, Barach says the price of placing tax-service ads on portals such as AOL (AOL) and MSN (MSFT) goes through the roof.

Barach thinks the advertiser's return on investment more than makes up for the higher initial price of pay-per-call vs. pay-per-click. He says the average conversion rate on a pay-per-call ad is three to five times more successful than a pay-per-click ad in a field like legal services, and that rate grows to eight times for smaller purchases like flower shops. "The reason is that people who are clicking to read Web sites are in the research phase, and people who are calling the merchant aren't doing it for entertainment. Hence, these things convert more."

Get Them Talking

Google (GOOG) is currently at work on its own pay-per-call service, which already works as a part of Google Maps but hasn't yet been offered to U.S. small businesses. In that system, users click on an icon for a restaurant, enter their numbers, and an outside provider connects the user and the establishment. The company has already launched a formal pay-per-call product in India, says Rohit Dahawan, a product manager for Google that oversees the click-to-call and pay-per-call products. And they're working on more such products, to be launched in the next several months in the U.S. They've also started tracking calls as part of their updated small-business AdWords service.

When deciding with whom to advertise, small businesses try to keep in mind the eventual placement of their ads and the amount of traffic that will see it. SuperPages.com had 2.8 billion searches in 2006; Ingenio's network of AOL and MSN reached more than 1.1 billion searches. Says Robyn Rose, vice-president of Internet marketing for Idearc Media, "Having a heritage in the yellow-pages business, we know that about 70% of companies are service-based. Most want to conduct business over the phone."

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7 Tips to Speak With Ease

The Friends Theme and Sugar Ray

The words public speaking strikes fear in the minds of otherwise competent and confident small business owners. There are many ways to increase business exposure so why bother to overcome your speaking jitters? Stepping up to the podium not only positions you as an expert in your area of business but provides effortless referrals and improved sales opportunities.

Presenting a non-sales informative speech warms up your target market and builds trust. Unlike endless cold calls the people you present to and follow up with are more receptive to listening to your offering of products and services.

Overcome your fears of public speaking and boost your business with these 7 speak with ease tips:

Start Small: If you’re new to the world of speaking, start small.

Find a few friends and family to practice on. Begin by speaking to smaller groups and build up from there.

In my business speaking career I speak to groups of 30 to 3,000. One discovery I made is the size of the audience makes no difference. If you know your topic, you’re pre-speaking fears will quickly evaporate.

Prepare: Nothing helps ease the speaking fears than knowing your material. The ability to connect with your audience comes from having the confidence you won’t get lost during your delivery. Rehearse several times before the big talk. Time your presentation and always have back up material in case time is left over.

Don’t Memorize: Success in public speaking comes not from memorizing word for word your entire speech. The real pros know their material by remembering key points and prompts on sub topics and examples to cover.

Avoid Bullets: The majority of business presentations and speeches are boring monologues filled with endless PowerPoint slides and bullet points. Trash the PowerPoint presentation and make your material the focal point of the talk. If you do use PowerPoint, take the approach of using visuals that quickly convey your message.

Reduce Stress: The most fearful moment of any presentation is the one minute before your stage entrance. Use the tactic of elite athletes by visualizing a positive outcome and using deep belly breathing to reduce stress and build confidence.

Find a Friend: Prior to your speaking on stage introduce yourself to a few members of the audience in the front row. During your talk look these people in the eye to ease your nerves and connect with your audience.

Engage the Audience: Creating a monologue presentation puts the entire task of informing and entertaining the audience on you. Make your talk a two-way interaction with questions and participation to reduce boredom and speak with ease. Having the group involved also gives you time to reorganize your thoughts if things are going off track.

Make public speaking part of your marketing function and boost your business success. Your fears will evaporate over time and you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner.

Go to source.
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Why Clueless Marketers Are Terrified Of The Web

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If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner… and you’ve been earning a few bucks online using any of the tactics you’ve learned from me (or any of the other veteran marketers online)… then pat yourself on the back.

You’re doing something that many “mainstream” businesses haven’t yet figured out how to pull off.

And… if they continue to ignore the basics of direct selling (which you’re taking for granted as necessary for profits)… they won’t be “mainstream” much longer.

They’ll be extinct.

Bye bye.

Here’s what I’m talking about: The Web has “officially” become the Number One source for advertising for many of the culture’s biggest advertisers — a year earlier than predicted. Gazillions of bucks that used to be channeled through “traditional” media (newspapers, magazines, direct mail, television, radio, etc) have now been measurably diverted online.

For the people who keep track of this sort of info, this news is astonishing and troubling (if not unexpected).

The entire foundation of our capitalistic economy is shifting, and most of the former movers and shakers simply are not prepared for the change.

The obvious signs of upheaval are the disappearance of entire market segments. Like most of the music-selling stores (Tower, Wherehouse, your favorite former local hipster CD haunt).

Less obvious is the way the Web has changed profit margins in markets like new cars — buyers are walking onto lots armed with reams of research on price… and they’re totally hip to ALL the old fall-back upsell tactics. (The last time we bought a new car, we had the salesman literally in tears as every one of his price-raising schemes was shot down… and none of the “invisible” tack-ons made it through the sale. Because of their stubborn reliance on scamster-style price boosts, we figuratively stole that car from them.)

Currently in the news — ironically — is the plight of the daily newspaper.

And there’s a lesson here for all of us. A basic lesson in fundamentals.

Harken: Nearly every newspaper in America now has an online presence. They’re working out the kinks of suddenly having the ability to cover stories in real time (which changes the very nature of reporting and writing stories)… with varying degrees of success.

The local paper here in Reno actually has a great site. Many of the national papers — like the New York Times — could pick up a few good tips from www.rgj.com, in fact.

Yet, nearly all newspapers (both locally owned and chain-owned) have the same complaint: They still aren’t able to turn a profit providing an online product.

And, if you have any entrepreneurial chops at all, you gotta be shaking your head in wonder.

The NY Times, for example, gets millions of hits each week. Millions. And then more millions. They are connected to thousands of other sites who link to them — blogs, other news channels, e-zines… it’s a network of feeds to die for.

And they COMPLAIN about not being able to make a profit?

Anyone with a drop of salesman’s blood in their veins has got ot ask: “What’s the friggin’ PROBLEM?”

I work with entrepreneurs and small business who earn fortunes with a flow of traffic that wouldn’t even be a ripple in the NY Times readership. Not even a tiny little splash.

What would YOU do, if you suddenly had access to millions of hits… all spending oodles of time on your site, reading and paying attention?

You’d… um… sell something.

No brainer, right?

Not to the brain-clogged morons running the show at those big sites.

Go take a look at the ads running on any of the big newspaper sites. Pathetic.

I chose one banner ad, at random. Lots of real estate taken up, nestled next to a riveting front page crammed with content… and the advertiser has a nice photo of a shoe, with some tiny, tiny, tiny printing saying “Introducing the Spring 2007 Collection”.

That’s it, my friend. Shoe, five words. No obvious link.

I ran my cursor over the space until I discovered a link… the designer did a great job hiding it… and I was whisked to a site with a bigger photo of some nice wingtips… the words “distinction being noticed without standing out” (sic), a link “View the spring collection”, and the logo: Allen Edmonds.

Pretty much it. Oh, wait. Six-point type links (all delicately lower-case) that look like border designs: “about allen-edmonds”… “”store locator”… “contact us”… and a Search box.

I spent ten minutes navigating this site, seeking out the secret entrances to something even remotely like a page SELLING something.

And hey — if you’re stubborn about it, you can actually find a way to buy a pair of shoes.

But you better have some time on your hands. And really, really, really want those shoes… cuz buying them isn’t easy.

The insanity of all this is clear: The advertisers shelling out for banner space at the newspapers don’t know how to sell online… and the newspapers aren’t clued-in enough to help them.

The blind leading the blind.

Were I running the advertising department of the Times (I shudder at the thought), I would first get hip to what entrepreneurs are doing to actually SELL stuff online… and then I would help educate my advertisers to the same tactics.

Because, if they learn to sell stuff… and keep track, and see the results of putting their ads in front of millions of eyes riveted to the content of the newspaper… they will see the very great advantages of buying up banner ad space there. And become repeat clients, willing to pay lots of money for that banner.

Clueless, they get to continue to ignore the Web. “We tried advertising online. It does’t work.”

Well, yeah. Because your online ads SUCK.

This is horrible news for big-name advertisers. To really succeed, they’ll have to killl everyone in their marketing department, and somehow replace them with new people who are hip to selling online… and good luck to ‘em on that quest.

Because they’ll continue to rely on Madison Avenue ad agencies for their ads… not realizing that few folks at Mad Ave have a clue what to do.

This is great news for entrepreneurs and small business owners online, of course. Because you are on equal footing with everyone else online, more or less. You may not have the big fancy store in downtown Manhattan, and you may not have any staff at all (let alone a marketing department)… but online, your ad can outsell the Big Guys by vast margins.

Because you know how to sell.

The Web is getting crowded. But classic salesmanship still rules the roost (as it forever will).

While traditional businesses — used to being bullies and dominating their market by sheer size and access to advertising media — stumble and flail impotently online… you can enjoy all the low-hanging fruit still out there.

The way people buy things is changing, fast.

But people still buy things.

It’s just a great time to be selling online. I do hope the NY Times gets its act together, and doesn’t fold for lack of understanding the nature of commerce on the Web.

But I’m not holding my breath, either.

Keep paying attention to the basics of classic salesmanship. All the noise about “new” ways to sell online is coming (mostly) from marketers engaging in fantasy play. The large ad agencies still can’t sell their way out of a wet paper bag. Don’t listen to ‘em.

“Introducing the Spring Collection”, indeed. Those kinds of all-attitude/sales-phobic tactics — beloved by clueless marketers with zero salesmanship chops — will murder a whole bunch of businesses trying to make it online before the traditionalists give it up and start paying more attention to the way entrepreneurs do it right.

But the food chain is pretty thick with cluelessness right now.

We live in interesting times.

Stay frosty…

John Carlton, http://www.marketingrebelrant.com/

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Dating Over 50 As A Marketing Niche

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http://www.fiftyplusconnect.com

After reading an article about internet dating, Miriam Hipsh decided she wanted to find out more. But when she attempted to create a profile on one site, Hipsh, 59, got to a question about body art and realized the site was clearly not targeting a mature audience.

"It wasn't speaking to me," says Hipsh. Instead of discouraging her, this realization piqued her entrepreneurial interest.

After some research, Hipsh discovered that there weren't many dating sites targeting her age group, and she knew from talking with friends that there was a market for such a site. In March 2005, after a year of researching and developing her idea, she launched FiftyPlusConnect.com, a dating website tailored to the over-50 demographic.

"I don't want people to feel that by the time they hit a certain age, it's over," says Hipsh, who became a single mother at 48 when she adopted a 6-month-old baby.

Hipsh financed the startup costs of her business--approximately $30,000--using personal investments and the help of friends and family. She gave up her job as a reading tutor to work full time on the website from home. She also hired a webmaster, who built and designed the site, and now maintains it. Hipsh describes FiftyPlusConnect.com as a "quiet site," mean-ing it's inviting and warm, not flashy or busy. With large fonts and soothing colors such as beige and blue, the site's design is simple and user-friendly.

By early 2006, over 5,000 people had joined at no cost. In March, Hipsh started charging $18 a month for a subscription to the site and projects 2006 sales to reach the low six figures. In the future, she plans to add reader content, diversify the chat rooms and possibly retail FiftyPlusConnect.com items.

Most important, Hipsh wants to continue encouraging people to seek out love and happiness at any age. "I embrace my age, and I embrace experience," says Hipsh. "I love life."
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Dealing with Kid-Related Emergencies

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Here's a true story from a recent day. It's 8:00 a.m., and my phone rings. My nanny can't make it. I have a day packed with meetings but now have my two-year-old to contend with. Sound familiar? How about any of these scenarios?

• You have a huge day of work planned, but your son is sick and can’t go to school.
• You are about to leave for your big proposal and realize your daughter created a beautiful crayon work of art on your presentation.
• You can’t make it to a meeting without your baby because you're a nursing mom.

These daily crises all sound familiar to me because I've lived them--and continue to live them--every day. Mom entrepreneurs encounter unique emergencies and challenges that most business owners don’t have to face. No matter how much help you've arranged, the reality is that you're first and foremost a mom--and that can sometimes get in the way of running your business the way you want to.

Most of you probably became mom entrepreneurs because you wanted a career that was more compatible with motherhood. It’s important to keep that in mind when things start to fall apart at the seams. If you could focus only on your business--free of kids, a house, a husband and a dog--you would probably do a better job, right? Maybe not.

I find that most mom entrepreneurs are so focused and goal-oriented that they can get more done in a few hours than most people can in a traditional eight-hour day. In fact, most mom entrepreneurs still work full time, but they work on the fringe hours of the day and in between their other activities. I truly believe that the right attitude can help you get through most days with your sanity intact. But if the right attitude isn't enough, here are some tips that I find useful in handling the challenges I encounter as a mom entrepreneur.

1. Break the rules. Having your own business gives you the opportunity to break traditional work rules. I have brought my baby to meetings, booked appointments at my home office during my kids’ nap times and hired babysitters to watch my employees’ children just so I could meet with them. Don’t get me wrong. I would much rather have a meeting without a baby at my side, but I felt it was more important to keep my business going and not sacrifice my commitment to nursing. Be as professional as possible but realize it’s OK if you have to bring your child along. After all, it's your business and your choice.

2. Create a virtual office. One of the first things I invested in when I started my business was a web-based office system called Earnware. It allowed me to run my business even when I wasn't “in the office.” It includes a toll-free number, fax, e-mail and e-mail marketing campaign features. But one of the best features for me is its “follow me” feature. I can set my e-mail, phone and fax messages to find me at any number. I can access every file, form and piece of information I need for my business anywhere I can get internet access. I can't imagine running my business without this program or a similar one. So when I have to run to school to pick up my sick son, I can still get my messages along the way.

3. Limit meetings. One of the biggest time-wasters and hardest things to fit into your schedule when you have children are meetings. You can take up a huge portion of your day traveling across town. And when childcare falls through, they keep you too far from home. I appreciate face-to-face meetings but have found most things can be handled via phone and e-mail. Ask yourself if it's really crucial to meet someone in person. If you must attend crucial meetings for your business, another indispensable program is Microsoft Live Meeting. You can schedule online meetings in which numerous people can converse, watch a presentation, see your website and more. There are numerous programs out there that can accomplish this. Read "Getting on Board with Online Meetings" to learn more about online conferencing.

4. Work smart. If you only have a limited number of hours away from your kids, use that time wisely. Schedule your meetings or phone appointments at this time. For me, one of the hardest things about being a mom entrepreneur is that my work hours don’t necessarily coincide with traditional business hours. So be sure to schedule the business hours you do have as efficiently as possible. You can save e-mails or other projects for early mornings or late nights. Get wireless internet in your house so you can set your computer up anywhere. It may give you the ability to check in between dirty diapers and Sesame Street.

5. Have a back-up plan. When you absolutely know that you can’t miss a meeting, have a plan B. Consider doing babysitting exchanges with another mom entrepreneur. I find that once you're watching one child, what’s one more? Consider watching someone else’s children one day and then swapping on another day. Kids get play dates, and you get work time. There are some great services such as www.sittercity.com where you can find last-minute babysitters who have been screened and reviewed by other moms in your area.

6. Protect your office. My office is the only room in the house I can lock my kids out of. I've learned from experience that pens, scissors and computers are just too tempting for toddlers. If you can’t keep your kids out of the office, have locked drawers for important files you don’t want your children to destroy. When my son once crumpled up my beautiful color business presentation, I took a deep breath and put it on a disk. I brought my laptop to the meeting to show the presentation on screen and left the client with the disk to play at his convenience. It wasn’t my first choice, but you have to make lemonade out of lemons.

So, what did I do when my nanny fell through? I got on the phone and rescheduled everything I could. I sat in my daughter’s playroom with my laptop and handled the e-mails that I could. And I begged a friend to watch her for one hour, so I could get one important meeting in. Then I took a deep breath and resolved to work late after the kids went to bed.

I get to speak to hundreds of mom entrepreneurs across the country. All agree that being a mom entrepreneur is the hardest thing they’ve ever done. No one feels like they do a good enough job on either front--motherhood or business. Yet all agree they wouldn’t trade it for anything. I find it mind-easing to say I’m doing the best job I can with the time that I have. We'll all have many years to work without kids. For now, be proud of all that you accomplish each day and go to bed satisfied that you're a great role model for your children.

Lisa Druxman is Entrepreneur.com's "Mompreneur" columnist and the founder and CEO of fitness franchise, Stroller Strides. Druxman is also a nationally recognized speaker and author, and is considered an expert in thefield of fitness, particularly pre- and postnatal fitness.

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How To Choose A Business To Start From Home And Start Earning Immediately

The next great business idea may be simmering on your stove.

That was the case for Frank Barbalace and his business partner Steve Donze last year.

The two Italian men were enjoying some pasta topped with Barbalace’s grandmom’s special pasta sauce recipe one day when the lightbulb went on: This sauce is so good, people would buy it.

Read more on mercury.com.
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