What Social Media Hangout is Best for Your Business!

There’s no arguing it anymore… if you want your business to thrive, you must have a social media presence.  Consumers now have an expectation of interacting with brands online and they love to share their experience of a brand on their social sites. And if you are not out there, your consumers will feel let down. But this is exciting news. After all, where else can you get this kind of consumer attention and interaction? And, where else can you reach your audience for a pittance compared to traditional advertising? Social media has given small business the opportunity to compete with the big brands. How can you beat that?

New Years Goals for Work at Home Moms

Whether you set your sights on a new year’s resolution or not, there are four long-term new years goals all work at home moms should vow to take on this year. They won’t involve strapping on running shoes, or counting calories—but they will help you put your best foot forward when it comes to establishing the best balance for your work and family.

Track your time. The key to profitably when you’re a work at home mom is simple: Make the most of the time you have. With that comes spotting, and banishing, the time-wasters. For the next week, track the amount of time you spend doing everything--whether running to the post office, developing products, taking care of pets, having lunch, or poking around on social media. Some of your tasks will reveal themselves productive (or, unavoidable)--but many won’t. This simple exercise can provide a sense of structure and productivity to your day, and most importantly, alleviate some of the stress that being a work at home mom presents. Check in with your progress each month and course-correct when you slip back into time-wasting habits.

Strategic Thinking and Decision-making

If you run your own business, you already know that seemingly small decisions can have big consequences later on. A critical aspect of decision-making is thinking ahead and learning how to play out those decisions in your mind. Whenever possible, do your best to think long-term rather than short-term. That approach will help minimize crisis situations where you feel compelled to make a quick decision to solve one problem, while creating a new problem in the process.

Good decision-making is an integral part of strategic planning. It allows you to make decisions before they have to be made, relieving the stress of making snap decisions under pressure. While this isn’t always possible because of changing conditions and unforeseen emergencies, the idea is to control the fire drills to a manageable level.

Artisan Spotlight: eden. - Natural Bath & Body From Maine

As its name might suggest, eden is a paradise for natural, hand-milled bath & body products. You'll find all manner of natural goodness there: Dead Sea Bath salts, luxurious hand creams, “scent-sational” body lotions, moisturizing lip balms, and more!

Born in the creative, artist-friendly, seaside city of Portland, Maine, eden’s roots began to take hold in 2007, with the making of an online lip balm recipe for holiday gift giving, and quickly expanded into new products, and new ideas. Word quickly spread about the quality and effectiveness of these creations and--after many years of requests, product formulation, and reformulation—the line is finally available to the public!