Top ten tips for mumpreneurs From Karen Sherr


News for mumpreneurs from a mum who has been in business for 20 years.
This Lady is Karen Sherr who offers the following no-nonsense advice at SOURCEWIRE:

1. Research the market and competition.
2. Start small, let the business grow as and when you can cope with expansion.
3. Have a clear idea what you want out of the business
4. Try to separate work from home. If your business is based at home (as all the Musical Minis administration is) have a second phone line fitted.
5. Have backup. If your child is ill what will happen to your business?
6. Know your limitations. For example if you have problems with accounts, get someone to help you.
7. If there are not enough hours in the day to do everything, do the bits you like (with both work and home life) and get help with the bits you don't.
8. Work out the balance between work and home that you want.
9. Keep time to be a mum
10. Set time aside to deal with administration, household tasks etc. If you keep putting it off the task will become huge (hours of paperwork for example – or loads of ironing) - regular manageable chunks of mundane but important tasks will help things flow smoothly.

Karen who is a mum of three, admits: “I think one of the major things I have learned is to set out a strategy and to follow it.

“Working with a strategy gives a sense of being in control and even if things do not develop as one may wish, it makes the identification of where things are not going right far easier.
That is the core aspect for success in any business.
If there is strategy you know where to go, when and how fast.

“The other major lesson is to continually revisit every aspect of the business. It is too easy to be complacent and resistant to change. Having somebody else challenge your beliefs and rationale is really useful and can quickly help you refocus when you have lost your way.

“In terms of formulating a business model for both the running of the classes and for attracting franchisees, my experience as a mum has been invaluable. In terms of the classes, I have recognised that mixed aged classes are both more convenient and more beneficial. For mums running a business, offering the flexibility of working hours and no formal targets, makes the Musical Minis proposal an attractive one.”

Karen adds: “I set about putting together a programme that had cognitive developmental aims at the heart of it. I am not musical and therefore had no wish to create something that would uncover the next Beethoven or John Lennon.

“I have found the balance that is right for me. Expansion with Musical Minis has purposely been kept small, on a level I can manage, as I still want to be a mum. Now as the children are growing up, I feel expansion can be more rapid.”

As Frank Herbert says: There’s no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves.”

Source:
http://cut.io/cgpN
There is no rise without fall and vice versa. In the current economic situation it is logical to think about the economic upturn. Realising this factor ADR International gives advice to different businesses to examine their costs, risks, supply chains and skillsets.

According to the CEO of ADR North America, Bill Michels says many companies have rationalised, closed plants and “taken drastic steps to adjust staffing to meet reduced demand.” He adds “stimulus funds are now being released, financial markets are beginning to unfreeze and banks are starting to pay back government loans.”

The most important things businesses should do in this period are: rethink and restructure approaches to procurement and supply management, organise teams with a core focus on cost and value improvement, automating administrative tasks and outsourcing management of low-value expenditures.

“As we see the recovery of the economy, there will be limited time to capture the short-term opportunities available from the economic recession,” Michels says.

In addition, Rebecca Howard who is Director of ADR Learning highlights the thinking of US training guru Donald Kirkpatrick in her piece for the eBulletin. There are four levels of evaluation, ensures that your training is effective and “produces learning that people can go straight back to their workplaces and put into action.”

As Rebecca Howard concludes: “The nub of what Kirkpatrick says is: it's the results that count. If you're spending money on training and development you want to know that it will make a real difference.”

Source:
Summer already came. And we are looking for some very interesting places to visit, enjoy and relax. Many people search information through internet, friends’ experience and so on. But nowadays an iPhone/iPod touch app, Top-Tens gives the user the ability to keep tabs on the top 10s of their favorite hobbies, interests or pastimes. It allows users to see a series of top 10s for the most popular theme parks and water parks in the USA and UK and other attractions worldwide.
According to the SOURCEWIRE, if you choose Top-Tens, it will be with you every step of the way by listing the top 10 rides and attractions at each of the theme and water parks, allowing you to plan your visit with the minimum of fuss.
The list includes top 10 books, movies, albums, singles and more.

Rod Cambridge, developer of Top-Tens said: “I’m off to Florida this summer and so I thought it would be cool to track the top 10 rides and attractions at the major Theme Parks so that when we get there, we know exactly where to head”.

“I thought it would be cool to add these to the library in Top-Tens so that anyone else who's traveling this summer and using my app can also benefit.”

Top-Tens can be downloaded from the iPhone App store for £1.19 ($1.99) here:
http://www.itunes.com/apps/top-tens
Photo Source:'
What if our sensitive email communication is under threat? This is one of the main problems of communications, and people fight differently to save them confidential.

In order to resolve the problem updates to Webroot® security services provide quota support to manage Internet use policies and a new policy-based encryption service to secure sensitive email communications.

According to the SOURCEWIRE, Webroot that is a leading Internet security provider for the consumer, enterprise and SME market,s announced new releases of Webroot® Web Security SaaS and Webroot ® Email Security SaaS with essential enhancements including web browsing quotas to enforce Internet use policies and a new Webroot Email Encryption Service to secure sensitive email communications.

“With the continued growth in volume and maliciousness of web threats, businesses today require more robust functionality to manage web security as well as employee Internet use,” said Don Beck, Webroot General Manager of SaaS. “For email security, email encryption is becoming required by law. Organisations are increasingly faced with legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. Our new Web and Email Security services address these concerns, block threats in the cloud and keep malware off the network.”

Webroot Web Security SaaS includes quota support. It gives opportunities to organisations to set, monitor and enforce granular Internet use policies for bandwidth, time spent surfing and number of Web sites visited. Independent control of quotas enables to block or warn the user, email the administrator, or simply log the event.

As admitted on SOURCEWIRE, among many new features are Quota Support for Policies, Extended Log Duration, Improved Security, Search Engine Safe Search, Updated Desktop Web Proxy.

As for the new features of Webroot Email Security SaaS include, these are Webroot Email Encryption Service, Customizable Email Digest Reports, Usability Enhancements.

Source:
http://www.webroot.com/
http://www.webroot.com/business
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