1. Increase your fees. You may think that now is not the time to increase fees as doing so may upset the clients and customers you currently have. If this is a legitimate concern, you can keep your fees the same for current clients and just raise them for new clients. However, your products and skills have value, so make sure you’re charging what your worth.
2. Add products or services. This may require you to learn a new skill or develop a new product which can take time. But it can add value to your business, increase your credibility, and offer additional sources of income.
3. Expand your target market by creating a new niche.  If you’re business is geared towards mom, consider tweaking it and offering your products or services to a new group such as baby-boomers. Like adding products or services, it can take time to revamp your materials and create a new marketing strategy, but it can be well worth it. You’re not having to start from scratch, which can save time. And you can substantially increase your market.
4. Expand your marketing efforts. If you primarily marketing online, look at offline options and visa versa. Restudy your target market and find new ways to reach them.

In a good economy, when business is cruising along, many people simply ride the wave of success. But in a tough economy, creativity, ingenuity and elbow grease are required to keep things in the black. Doing so has the potential to change your business in fun and profitable ways.

Whether your kids are underfoot just for the summer or whether they are home full-time, working at home and parenting at the same time is challenging. Here are some tips that can help you manage work and family time.

Younger Kids:

If you’re kids are not in school, they need much more attention and supervision than older children. Its very difficult to focus on a work-at-home job or business while making macaroni and cheese or between showings of Dora the Explorer.  While you can take advantage of nap time and bed time, unless you can really live on just a few hours of sleep, it can be difficult to have the focus and energy needed to make money at home with a hour in the afternoon and a few hours in the middle of the night.

Options:

1) Pre-school programs provide fun and social stimulation that kids love while giving you a few hours of free time. I would drop my kids off, go to a local wi-fi cafe to work and pick them up again a few hours later (and a few buck richer).

2) Start or find a kid care co-op. This is run by moms all of whom take turns watching the kids. When its not your turn to provide care, you have free child care for a few hours.

3) Hire a student or retired person to watch your kids while you work. This works best if your office is away from your kids’ main activities in the house. You are home, but you don’t have to have one eye and ear on the kids while also trying to work.

School Age Kids

While kids are in school, you have a day to get lots done. I love that! But during breaks and holidays, the kids often want you to be on a break too. Because older kids can entertain themselves for a short time, you can get some work done, but usually only in hour or two spurts.

Options:

1) Summer programs offer the kids fun and educational opportunities while giving you time to work. Programs can be half or full day and come in a variety of activities. Even in my small rural area we’ve got day camps, trips to amusement parks, sports camp, outdoor trips, library reading programs, and more.

2) Summer activities. I have my kids choose activities that don’t require supervision that they can do at home. They have planted flower gardens, learned to bake, created art projects, read, and more.

3) Hyper-schedule the day. My kids are good about entertaining themselves first thing in the morning, but after a couple of hours they are wanting me to do something with them. My answer is to work in short shifts. I work about 2 hours in the morning, and then take a break to play a game or spend time with them. Then I work another couple of hours and break again usually to take them to the pool. This schedule means I often have to work some in the evening, but by then my husband is home and he can spend time with them.

4) Hire a student to be an older buddy. Teenagers can take the kids to the pool, play games, and be a great buddy to your kids while you work.

This week’s Spark an Idea deals with making a new business ally.

Often working at home can feel like a lonely and stressful endeavor. You’re responsible for all aspects of earning an income and the burden of its success or failure rides on your shoulders. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Finding a good business ally can offer support, feedback and even a partnership in projects, and the results can mean increased profits for you.

Some WAHMs are resistant to reaching out to other people. For me it was because I was a die-hard-do-it-yourselfer. For others it could be a lack of confidence in what you have to offer someone else. Or maybe its a fear that others will steal ideas or take advantage. But the benefits far outweigh the concerns and in fact, finding a good ally can boost your business in ways you may have never expected.

There are several ways to find a business ally. One is by joining a mastermind group. Members of these groups are already open to sharing, helping, and joining in partnerships. It can be like getting a whole team of allies instead of just one.

Another options is through social networking. Linked-In in particular is a good place to make business contacts. But other social resources such as Facebook and Twitter are also great places for finding allies.

Finally, if you’ve been in your business for some time, you probably are aware of others who offer similar products or services as you do. You may have the mind set that these people are your competition, but they can also make excellent allies as well.

Like all quality relationships, creating a business ally takes time. Don’t expect to contact someone out of the blue and have them jump into a project with you. They need to get to know you, your strengths and assets just as you need to get to know theirs. Connecting through a mastermind group and social networks makes this easy. You can ask or answer questions that allow you have conversations with others. When you find someone you feel is a good fit with your business, you can reach out to her in a way that helps both you and her. For example you can invite her to guest blog on your site or be a guest on your podcast. If she does something that you like, compliment her on it and see if she can help you do something similar. As the relationship grows, not only will you have a great source of support and feedback on your work, but also you have a resource to learn more and even get referrals.

The most important thing to remember about allies is that its a two-way street. Each member of the ally team needs to be giving and receiving for it to be mutually beneficial and profitable. That means you need to also provide support, feedback and resources that can help your ally just as she is doing the same for you. Together you and your ally can expand your customer bases, flesh out ideas, and grow your profits!

Sparkplugging leader, Wendy Piersall, has been making some changes on the network, closing down a few blogs that didn’t take off and beefing up some of the others.  We decided it would be great to add more bloggers to this blog and  in no time at all I found two great work at home moms to join me here on WAHM 2.0.  I have to say that I’m totally geeked about it!

So, Meet Our New Bloggers:

Leslie Truex is well known in the WAHM Community.  Owner of Work at Home Success and author of the newly published Work at Home Success Bible, Leslie is cares deeply about moms finding high quality resources.

I’ve had the chance to get to know Leslie at Mom Masterminds and I’ve had the pleasure of her company as a guest on WAHM Talk Radio and her expertise as a guest speaker at my summertime Hot Seminar Series.  She has a lot to share with us and I know she’s going to be a great addition here at Sparkplugging.

Laurie Ayers is a successful direct seller with Scentsy and a gifted writer.  While she rarely takes on clients these days she is an experienced ghostwriter that I have really enjoyed working with over the years.  A fellow single mom, Laurie knows what it’s like to struggle to build an income in the face of many obstacles.  She keeps it real and usually keeps it funny too

Please welcome Leslie and Laurie and show them some comment love as they dip their feet into the Sparkplugging waters

When I first meet someone offline and get to share about what I do online they are invariably impressed and a little awestruck at the idea of running an entire business with multiple streams of income from a computer in my home office and a BlackBerry.

A friend recently quipped, “I have hard time downloading my email – and you’re downloading a paycheck day after day without batting an eye!”

The internet is not a cash machine like some hype marketers would have you believe and being a work at home mom doesn’t turn your web browser into a guaranteed three diamonds slots game – but it does present an amazing opportunity for those willing to learn the principles of internet marketing.

Meet some great Digital Moms that we’ve featured here on the WAHM 2.0 blog over the last year and be inspired by what they’re doing to build an income online:

• Alyssa Avant
• Laurie Ayers
• Tiffany Dow
• Alice Seba
• Carrie Lauth
• Annette Yen
• Mel Spier
• Tara Brown
• Vera Raposo
• Lynette Chandler
• Jill Hart
• Sarah Zeldman
• Nola Cooper
• Crissy Gipson
• Barbara Ryan

Work at Home Moms aren’t just using the internet, they are mastering it

Amy is a fresh face among moms working to build a business income on the interwebs and she’s proven that having a fresh set of eyes has advantages.  Within weeks of launching her own blog, she discovered an interesting niche offering Twitter based ‘Site Warming Parties’ which has turned into a lucrative business model with lots of great potential.

How many Twitter loving moms are shaking their heads right now, wondering ‘Why didn’t I think of that?!’

I’m telling you, sometimes it’s the new mom on the block who can spot and develop a idea that everyone else has missed.

That’s great news for new work at home moms – being new and inexperienced isn’t all bad.  It’s also a challenge for those of us who have been around for awhile.  We can’t get set in our ways, always doing the same old same old thing.

Want to hear my interview with Amy?  You’ll have to be a Mom Masterminds Member since this recording was made especially for them

I knew I wouldn’t be able to swing the trip to BlissDom myself – but I haven’t let that slow me down as far as enjoying the event and observing from afar.

I actually sponsored two mom bloggers who lived within driving distance to attend BlissDom.

Carrie Lauth of Natural Moms Talk Radio is representing Mom Masterminds – wearing a MM t-shirt and passing out special deal cards to everyone she sees.

Alyssa Avant of Life from my Laptop is representing Mom’s Talk Network, she’s passing out cards with a great deal for mom bloggers who sign up for the Mom’s Talk Affiliates program.

Last but not least, I’m monitoring all the great tweets coming out of the BlissDom sessions.  (I set up a search for the #BlissDom09 hashtag on my TweetDeck.)

So even though I’m not there – I’m definitely getting my bliss on

I’m talking about the new Mom’s Talk Affiliates Podcast that I’ve just launched with my Affiliate Manager, Tishia Lee.  We’re doing it to equip our affiliates for success and hopefully to attract new affiliates.  Each episode is only about 15 minutes long.

This is hour it all breaks down:

• Pre-Planning: 15 Minutes (Created a quick list of questions to cover for each episode.)
• Recording: 80 Minutes (One Back to Back Session)
• Editing/Production:  60 Minutes (Removed oopsies, added music and commercials)
• Publishing: 20 Minutes (Wrote short show notes and scheduled in Wordpress)

Ok, I’ll admit that I’ve got a pretty high advantage in having hosted and produced my own podcast for over five years now – but even if you can’t get it all done in three hours, I hope you can see that you CAN start a podcast with a limited amount of time

Better yet, you can hire a great VA like Christina over at MultiMedia VA to do all the heavy lifting

Want to brainstorm some ways that a podcast can help you achieve your business goals?  I’m available!

• Are You Afraid of Making Offers?
• Free Wordpress SEO Tips from Rae Hoffman
• 13 Ways We Had to Change Our Mindset as Single WAHMs
• Get What You Want Online
• Get More Web Traffic
• I Need To Make More Money Now!
• Podcasting Ideas for the WAHM
• 10 Cool Ways to Be More Friendly on Twitter
• Your Face on the Web
• Add a Niche Directory for New Income
• Shouldn’t We Be Able To Trust Each Other?
• A Man is Not a Financial Plan
• Evaluating Business Ideas: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Congratulations to our Outstanding Winners and my thanks to all those who took the time to vote for their favorite WAHM Blogs!

Nicole on the Net by Nicole Dean

Work at Home Moms Talk Radio by Kelly McCausey

Work at Home Mom Revolution by Lisa Mills

Frugal WAHMs Talk Radio by Angela Wenke & Others

Blah blah blah blog by Carrie Lauth

Five Minutes for Mom by Susan & Janice

They Call Me Wahmmy by Arika Lewis

Wahm Cafe by Dianne Fratscher

Moomettesgram’s Musings – by Cindi

Working Wahm by Val Selby

Winners, display your badge proudly and please send an email to support@momstalknetwork.com to claim your prize package!

The Amazing Prize Package:

• 1 Yr Membership to Mom Masterminds ($270) From Lynette Chandler & Kelly McCausey
• Free One on One Coaching Certificate ($75) From Mom’s Talk Biz
• Information Product Sweetie ($37.95) From Alice Seba
• Mini Site Templates & Graphics ($17.00) From Wendy Wood
• SparklugU Self Study Course of Choice ($30-50 Value) From Wendy Piersall
• Optimizing Your Workflow ($19.99) From Anne Marie Martin
• Yummy PLR Article Pack ($10.00) From Arika Liddiard
• Affiliate Commotion Course ($47.00) From Angela Wills
• Featured Giveaway Listing ($10) From Courtney Chowning
• Offline Marketing Report ($12.99) From Crystal Unrau & Tracy Roberts
• Internet Strategy ($10) From Elizabeth Ashe
• Traffic Tips PLR eCourse ($15) From Nicole Dean
• How to Improve Your Writing ($15) From Jimmy D. Brown
• How to SEO Your Site in 60 Minutes ($25) From Matt McGee
• DIY Email Marketing & DIY Press Releases ($40) From Susan Payton
• Natural Mom Business Guide ($40) From Carrie Lauth
• 1 PLR Pack from Natural Mom PLR ($12.97) From Carrie Lauth & Tiffany Washko
• Mini Course Money ($27.00) from Carrie Lauth & Marie Ynami
• Tips for Home Office eBooklet & Organization Audio ($10) From Brandie Kajino
• Kickstart Your Online Business ($9.99) From Anita DeFrank
• Advertising Gift Certificate ($30) From Mommy’s Helper Online