My Vintage Baby “Be a Designer” Contest

Visit www.myvintagebaby.com for more!

Pixie Bows Donated Sales to Haiti Relief

HAITI RELIEF

I am sure that many of you have been following the horrific events that have unfolded in Haiti. The news of the deadly earthquake deeply saddened both Sharon & I, but the relief efforts that have since followed have been truly amazing! Last summer, I led a mission trip to an orphanage in Haiti called the Hands and Feet Project.  The children there were precious! Not only did this orphanage care for their own, but had developed food programs to help their entire community. Raising funds for those less fortunate in Haiti has been near and dear to my heart, even prior to this catastrophe.  Now, the need is greater than ever. Hands and Feet is one of the few local organizations leading the relief effort and getting supplies to those most in need.  Please visit their site for updates at www.handsandfeetproject.org

Pixie Bows has decided to donate 50% of all online retail sales placed in the month of February to help Hands and Feet continue their relief efforts in Haiti. I know many around me who have asked how can they help.  Well, here is a way…buy a Pixie Bows’ hair clip!  Not only will you get one of our unique and trendy hair clips, but you will be donating to the relief efforts in Haiti.  What a win-win situation for everyone!

PHOTO CONTEST:

We also have a photo contest running from Feb-April with the winning photo being featured on our online site for the entire month of May. Photos of your little cuties wearing Pixie Bows can be submitted to Sharon@pixiebows.com and we will share all the submissions on our facebook page and blog. The winner will also receive one of our new products that we are debuting at the ENK Children Show in New York City this March.

Mom Made That! Mentioned on Etsy

Thank you to Amanda Steinberg, from Daily Worth, who mentioned Mom Made That! in today’s Etsy blog post titled Seven Steps to Understanding Online Advertising.  We have had amazing traffic and interest as a result of the article, which is very exciting!

You can read the article HERE.

Please take the time to shop through our mom businesses, who work very hard to provide unique, quality products and services.  In addition, if you are interested in promotion with Mom Made That!, you can LIST HERE.

So far, 2010 has been a super year!  BUY MOM!

Mom Made That! Prizes at Blissdom

Mom Made That! is proud to sponsor the Blissful Bites + Bubbles party at Blissdom next week with a two HUGE prize packs!  If you are headed to the event, there are only a few tickets left, so make sure you grab one HERE.

Thank you to the following businesses who participated in the giveaway:

Hand Stamped X’s and O’s Disc Earrings – Charitable Creations
Hand Stamped Hugs and Kisses Sterling Silver Necklace – Charitable Creations
“Good Food, Good Friends, Good Times” Wall Stencil – The Simple Stencil
$50 Travel Certificate – Moms on Vacation Travel Club
3 Humorous Workout Towels – Words to Sweat By™
2 Ladies Pigtail Pals Tees – Pigtail Pals
Mother Fluffer Hair Care Set – Danu
“Follow your bliss!” Wall Graphic – Old Barn Rescue
2 Lasso Necklaces – Designs by Denise
Casserole Dish & Reusable Shopping Bag – Cook Time with Remmi
Easy Lunchbox Container Set and Insulated Cooler – Easy Lunchboxes
Baby Dipper Feeding Set – Baby Dipper
It’s A Keepsake Baby Book & Baby Time Capsule – Digi Time Capsule
Pregnancy Journal Suite – Digi Time Capsule
Children’s Waffled Thermal T – Petit Couture
2 $50 Gift Certificates – Amiastri
4 Pack Organic Washcloths – Luvs Jurn3
3 Pack of Dapper Snappers – Dapper Snappers

Wonderful Wonderbar Donates a Portion of Sales to Haiti

Making Product Reviews, Twitter Parties & Conference Prizing Happen for Moms

I started Mom Made That! in December 2008, inspired by a Mom Spark Holiday Guide I created. I witnessed so many amazing mom businesses doing awesome things, so I wanted a place to showcase their talents, inventions, and artistry.

Being an entrepreneur myself, and having tried every home business known to man (i.e. Avon, eBay, housekeeping, home daycare), I know the trials of self-employment. I know how hard it is to stay motivated when sales are slow, time is hard to manage, and your husband “just doesn’t get it”. This is what keeps me inspired to help moms in business.

In addition to helping these mom businesses promote and advertise, I have started connecting them with review bloggers. So far, this has proven very successful for both the business owner and blogger. In the last three weeks, we have connected over 150 bloggers with review opportunities and have received over 300 requests. Because of the huge amount of interest, I have created a Premium Membership for those reviewers who would like to be contacted directly when new opportunities become available. This also means that reviewers do not need to fill out a request form for each product review opportunity, which saves us both tons of time. The fee for Premium Membership is $10 a year and can be requested in our review form HERE. Read more

Love Bug Kids Gives Gifts to Celebrities

I started Love Bug Kids – Hair Bows & More almost three years ago and it has grown year after year, which is outstanding in this economy. While I have experienced growth, one of my goals is to increase my web sales on www.lovebugkids.com and reach out to more customers in areas outside Los Angeles and Orange Counties. So, about six months ago, I decided to apply to become a Baby Swags gifting partner. Baby Swags, like Mom Made That!, strives to help promote mom-preneurs and provides mom-owned companies with pr/marketing opportunities by helping get their products in front of Hollywood celebrities for birthdays, baby showers, holidays, etc.

I elected to participate in three recent giftings to Grey’s Anatomy stars Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo and a birthday gifting to Violet and Seraphina Affleck.  In December, I won a contest with Baby Swags, in which I was able to gift 15 celebrity families with my interchangeable crocheted hat gifts sets and headbands for the holidays. The holiday gifting is what recently resulted in a sweet thank you note from Jennie Garth. Some of the other celebrities I gifted included Marcia Cross, Melissa Ethridge, Matt Damon, Jason Priestly, Amy Poehler and more. Working with BabySwags has also opened up new opportunities for me in advertising, networking, etc. I’ve seen an increase in web traffic to my site and am now just waiting for that “star sighting!”

A Day in the Life of a Power Mom

I have two kids and run two businesses. My kids are a 7-month-old girl and a 3-year-old boy. My first business, a Web consultancy called Soapbxx, will gross $300,000 in 2009 and employs eight people. The second company, an online finance publication for women called DailyWorth, requires a team of four part-time contractors to operate.

The best news? I’m not mad. I have plenty of time to be with my kids. I even manage to find time to have a leisurely lunch or extended “me” time.

Here’s how I do it:

7am: Our baby girl wakes all of us up.
8am: We’re downstairs, dressed, eating breakfast and packing lunches.
9am: My baby is cared for by a nanny. This nanny shows up at 9am and I hand my baby girl off. My 3-year-old goes to preschool. My husband always takes him to preschool. Bottom line: even if we’re running late, I depart for my home office (top floor of our house) at 9am sharp. This is critical to me. 9am. Work.
9am-11am: After I clean out my inbox, I focus on DailyWorth, my finance blog for women. We send out a daily email, and this requires about two hours of my day to orchestrate.

11am-4:00pm: I focus on Soapbxx, my web consultancy. The tasks I concern myself with include:

I don’t worry about Soapbxx’s internal performance or quality because I’ve learned over the years how to hire only the best people. My team is exceptional and as a result, I don’t have to micro-manage them or worry much. This did not happen by accident. I have 10 years practice hiring and firing. I’ve employed or contracted to 40 people over the last few years and only a select few remain.

4:00pm. I shut down my computer, scoop up my daughter, and drive to pick up my son from preschool. It feels incredible to me that I can run two companies and finish my workday by 4:00. Having been raised by a single mom who was forced into a strict 9-6 corporate work environment, I vowed to set up a life where I could be there for my kids more than my mom was for me. I don’t blame my mom for her absence — she did what she had to do to earn what she needed to earn in the 1980s. But I hated that she couldn’t drive me to school, or be there for me after school. I’m structuring my life so that I can run my businesses and be there for my kids before and after school. In 2009, working moms can have it all if we plan properly.

4:00pm – 9pm. Family time! We run errands (Target, anyone?), make dinner, take baths, read books and every other bedtime ritual that makes having kids so special.

9pm – 11pm. Here’s the part of my life that isn’t so ideal. I generally boot up my Mac and do more work at 9pm. I know my husband would rather that I curl up on the sofa and watch True Blood with him. Sounds dreamy, really. But the truth is, these days I feel pulled to run through emails that came in from 3:30 – 7pm (there are often many) and finish tasks I wasn’t able to finish during the day. I look forward to a day when I can stop work at 3:30pm and not resume until 9am the next day. Until my babies and businesses are more self-sufficient and systematized, it’s a sacrifice I’m making, and hope that my husband realizes it’s temporary.

11pm. Bed.

The keys to my operation:

1. I delegate a lot to very precocious people. I have a very responsible, motivated assistant. Without her, I’d be mad. She loves having her hands in everything from accounting to project management, and I love her for it. If she chooses to leave me (which she will some day), I’ll have a very hard time replacing her.
2. I’m obsessed with cash flow and work with a great bookkeeper/accounting team. For Soapbxx to operate, we need to deposit $25,000 into our bank account every month. I plan quarterly and manage daily when and from whom checks will arrive. My bookkeeper claims I’m one of the best cash collectors she’s ever worked with, and I’m proud to have mastered the science of receivables. Just last month, I got our receivables down to $0.
3. Once a month, I’ll stay up until 4am if need be to push through things I owe. Sometimes, you just have to.

Does my story seem impossible to you? You have to take into consideration my manic, tightly-wound character. I’m more work-obsessed than your average mom. I love my companies and have very ambitious financial goals for myself (tens of millions, thank you). I don’t exercise. I’m generally not eating proper lunches (note above: no lunch break). I do experience exhaustion. I wish I had more time to just be with my husband. For now, I’m satisfied with my structure and recommend it to my power mom friends.

Check out DailyWorth.

Sherri Morris of Digi Time Capsule Nominated for Shorty Award

Mom Made That’s Sherri Morris (Digi Time Capsule) has been nominated for a Shorty Award.  Sherri shares with us how she was nominated and how we can vote for her…

I was nominated by one of my customers for a Shorty award in Small Business because she thought I and my products are amazing and loves My Sponsor a Military Mommy-to-Be Program.  Her words, not mine – haha!  I had no idea what the awards were until I received a nomination, so I looked it up at www.shortyawards/digitimecapsule.  Basically the awards are the “Grammy’s” for Twitter users.  Twitter users can vote in many different categories, one being #smallbusiness to nominate outstanding companies and products that they strongly believe in.  Since the nomination, many other customers, followers and friends have backed up her nomination for Digi Time Capsule in Small business with comments varying from “Product has changed my life to She’s an amazing women trying to change the world through her company.”  All the comments are pretty humbling to see and so now I am trying my hardest to win, or at least come in as a top 5 finalist.  To vote, you just send a tweet like this: I nominate @DigiTimeCapsule for a Shorty Award in #smallbusiness because…

At the end of the award voting period, members of the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences will carefully review the finalists’ tweets and fill out an anonymous survey with their choices for winners. To determine the winner in each category, the Academy’s choices will be combined with the popular vote.

Once the winners have been chosen, the Shorty Awards will hold an awards ceremony in New York City.

UPDATE-Mom Made That! helping the Mayhew Family

UPDATE:

We have reached the end of our collection for the Mayhew family. We raised a total of $100 $166 $223.50 $321.50 $370 $434 for the Mayhew Family!  Thank you to all the mom businesses who helped with this cause.  I will be writing a check to Peter Mayhew this week.

Continue to keep the Mayhews in your prayers because the power of prayer works!

Read my original message below…

***

As many of you know, fellow mom and blogger, Anissa Mayhew suffered a stroke this past Tuesday and still in the ICU.  We are all hurting right now thinking about our vivacious Anissa sick in a hospital bed.  We also know the costs that accrue during a family crisis.  Meals, activities for the kids,  hospitalization  & rehabilitation fees-it adds up quickly.

Mom Made That! is here to help by providing 50% of all listing fees from today until the end of the year directly to the Mayhew family.  Listing fees include all subscriptions and new sign-ups between now and the end of the year.  I will keep a tally each week of the Mayhew Family donations to keep you in the loop.

If you have a mom business or blog and want to purchase a listing, with 50% of the proceeds going to the Mayhews, please LIST HERE.  In addition, please pass the word on to fellow business owners and bloggers.

Our prayers and thoughts are with Anissa and her family.  Follow Anissa’s progress at www.hope4peyton.org and follow the support and love on Twitter at #prayersforanissa.  Anissa also has a Caring Bridge site set up at www.caringbridge.org/visit/anissamayhew.

Please pray for the Mayhews, and thank you for your participation.

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