How To Be A Mompreneur: The Book

How to Be a Mompreneur is an upcoming book that is going to take your enterprising ideas to the next level, with great ways to earn a part-time income, create a small business or make extra money for your family. 

Get ready to  connect with  Jill Dickinson, the author,  and other moms who have invented products, created services, and come up with original ideas for income.  They have incorporated their passions and interests into thriving businesses that You Could Do!

Join our Facebook Group  – Click Here!

In the book, you will find the compilation of tips from some of the best experts and practical advice from everyday Mommy Entrepreneurs.    How to Be a Mompreneur will house a featured snapshot of over 50 successful businesses by moms who have turned their passions, skills and desires into an ideal income-producer.

To quote Mindee Doney, Co-Founder of the ingenious product BoogieWipes (www.boogiewipes.com), she testifies that:

“We believe motherhood is boot camp for running a business.  If Moms can survive months of sleepless nights, the terrible twos, Sponge Bob, teenage hormones and the SAT’s, they are made to be entrepreneurs.  You can learn how to use an excel spreadsheet and post to facebook but no one can teach the humility, perseverance, spirit, self-sacrifice and resourcefulness is takes to be a Mother.  This wave of moms succeeding in business is NOT a phenomenon – it makes total sense.”

WORD of Mouth by MAMAS is a big deal.  To help support businesses created for Moms, by Moms, please refer others to this web site!  We also want to hear your personal success stories to add to the blog/book and to help other Moms succeed in living their dreams!  Please submit a story!

What in the World is a “Mom Bite?”

Cute Personalized tees at Hopscotch Kids

I am over the moon over this site -  Hopscotch Tees.

Hopscotch Kids is a custom tee-shirt house offering the cutest personalized kid’s t-shirts. The company started by an innovative Mompreneur in Seattle.  The tees are fun with great designs and they’re so simple to order.  You gotta love that.

That is what I love: cute, personalized, and at the click of a button.   Doesn’t get much easier than this.

HOPSCOTCH TEES has designs for kids of all ages.  They even carry adult sizes, so that if you want matching tees – they’ll set you up!

The designs are adorable ~ robots, cars, pirates, prince/princess and tea party themes, with positions for your child’s name, location, and birth date.

Find them at Hopscotchtees.com.

The Perfect Gift for Tween Girls: MOGO Review & Giveaway

Watch out Tween fashionista’s - here comes MOGO!

Get Charmed  by the ultimate pre-teen (”tween”) jewelry gift called MOGO, a sensational new product.  MOGO is a playful line of accessories that combines interchangeable charms and linkable Charmbands with designs that kids will be drawn to.

We LOVE how you can link multiple Charmbands together to make necklaces, headbands, anklets, wristbands, and belts. 

You can do anything with them.  They are so fashionably versatile and I love their clever colors – perfect for that kid who can’t get enough of something new.  With innovative fresh designs, colors and different ways to wear them, any tween, teen and even moms will go nuts over these things!  Trust me.

I was at a MOGO launch party recently in Seattle, and I was particularly impressed with MOGO’s  unique  and trendy designs (think preppy fleur di lis, plaid and hot pink puppy dogs meet urban dudette’s peace sign or swanky skull and crossbones). 

I was loving the way the kids were instantly engaged in making their own personal MOGO charm bands.  They were into it and I will tell you that no girl was going to let their mom leave the party without buying them their own MOGO band and set of charms.

It was a mother – tween daughter experience like no other!

But you don’t have to be a kid to appreciate the cool-factor of MOGO.  Your kids will want them, your friends will want them and even you moms will be the new hit in town with MOGO on!

MOGO magnetic charms come in five great colors.  They are packaged singly or in themed sets, with groovy names like Lucky, Twirly Girl, Pet Pals, Peace Time and Key to My Heart.  They also have single alphabet MOGO charms which add a fun splash in spelling out favorite phrases, names or words.  The themed sets each include three magnetic MOGO charms and a totally narly reusable magnetic tin. MOGO Charmbands retail for $15 each and charm sets in tins are $12 each.  You’ll love them, as we have.

For more information on MOGO, visit www.getmogo.com.

WIN IT:

 Participate today for a chance to win a super cool MOGO charmband and the latest and greatest set of three MOGO charms!!

To Enter:–>Main Entry:

Visit GetMOGO.com and tell me your favorite color of charmband and which set of charms is the most delectable!

–>Bonus Entries (leave a separate comment for each entry):

*Go to the Mombite sidebar and click “FOLLOW” on the NetworkedBlogs rectangle (Facebook Blog Networks).  Follow and you get one extra entry.  It’s easy.

*1 entry* Tweet about this giveaway, use mombite.com in your tweet and comment with your tweetlink (you may enter once a day).

*1 entry* Comment on a non-giveaway post and let me know which one(one entry for each comment).

*2 entries* Join our Facebook group for How To Be A Mompreneur (& giveaways) and come back to let me know that you’re in!

*2 entries*Join MOGO’s  Facebook group and let me know that you did it!

*1 entry*Follow Mombite on Twitter.

*1 entry* Follow MOGO on Twitter.

5 entries* Blog about this giveaway with a link back to my site and come back and let me know you did that.  This is a BIG, FIVE entries.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

–>Contest ends 2/12/10  and you must include your email address or your entries will not be counted. US residents only. Winners will be contacted and have 48 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen.  Good Luck!

Domain le Grand Olive Oil Giveaway Winner: Jennifer Olsen

Congratulation to our winner of the Chefshop.com Domain le Grand Olive Oil from France: Jennifer Olsen!

Watch for more giveaways on Mombite.com. 

Mompreneur of the Week: Eliza Ward of Chefshop.com

Meet Eliza Ward, the co-founder of Chefshop.com , who is  Mompreneur of the week.  As a Stanford MBA and Microsoft retiree, she has found that her love of food is a passion that keeps she and her husband Tim Mar moving this  tremendously successful online business forward.  It’s all about the food ~ read more and visit Chefshop.com to see what they offer!

Tell us about ChefShop.com.

ChefShop.com does two things really.  First, we sell gourmet foods and hard-to-find ingredients online. However, our primary focus is to support small artisan food producers and growers.  Many of the best food producers produce in such small volumes that they do not have the ability to distribute their products through the regular grocery or even specialty food channels.  We actively seek out these types of small producers and promote them and sell their products.  Mostly, because we want them to survive and keep making their products.  After all, what would the world be if all our products came from Kraft or Oscar Meyer?

What was it that made you want to start the business?

Mostly the love of good food.  My husband and I had no experience in the food business before launching chefshop.com — although we had a lot of friends who had experience in food.  I came from High Tech marketing and Tim was a professional still and film photographer.  Not a bad combination – really – considering that we launched ChefShop.com when the Internet was still young and no one really had any experience in it.

How do you find customers?

We rely primarily on PR, search engine results, pay-per-click advertising on Google, and a weekly newsletter. Our original ecommerce site was on Yahoo Store — so most of our first customers came from Yahoo.  Also, a few of our original customers came from Mauny’ s Kitchen on MSN.  And they followed us over.  Most of our growth has continued that way – through word of mouth.  We periodically experiment with advertising — but it has never really been worth the cost.

What has changed about your business over the 10 years since you launched Chefshop?

Our business has changed a lot since its start.  More products. Better products.  Closer connections with the producers and customers.  Our original business strategy was to launch the site and then get purchased.  But with the DotCom bust, we had to re-think that strategy.  That is really when we got to our “soul” — and since then our mojo has been building — slowly over time.  We refocused on high-end small producers and growers that really cared about what they were doing.  Future plans are to grow to the point that Tim and I can make a decent living and then keep going.

What has been your biggest challenge with your business?

Over all our biggest ongoing challenge is getting everything done that we need to – both at work and at home – within the time and budget that we have.  Our biggest single challenge was my illness last spring.  We are still feeling the wake of that — from having our daughter in home school to trying to get our son into a proper kindergarten. When both husband and wife are in a small business, you learn that you are very vulnerable to events that are out of you control.  Thank goodness we had good health insurance, otherwise we would be bankrupt now.

What’s your best advice to give someone else who wants to start their own business?

Make sure you are doing it for passion, not for the money.  Because it is A LOT of work — the work never stops — so you better believe in what you are doing.  Also, I do not advise you to start a business with your spouse.  Besides that usual challenges and stresses, you are giving up a lot of security that you need.  So, one of you should be working outside the business.

6 Pence Productions Audio Fairy Tales CD Giveaway

I was a kid who always loved stories.  With a big imagination, I wrote dramatic scripts to perform with the neighborhood kids and my love of stories, books, writing and drama has transferred over to my children in a significant way.

My kids are the typical girl and boy that are both build with big imaginations. We constantly have kids over who get excited to “dress up” and create lively skits and plays.  This coming summer, a big group of them are bound and determined to put on a neighborhood performance of “Alice in Wonderland.”  We’ll see if we can bring that one to life!

So, it was no wonder when talking with Lynn Penny, the mom inventor of 6 Pence, that I was instantly allured by her story of creating audio theatre.  She had a dream and the ambition to produce this amazing CD…

To my excitement, Lynn sent me a copy of  The 6 Pence Players, “The FairyTale Collection.”  I knew by instinct that it would be good.  What I didn’t realize is that this unique audio FairyTale collection CD was soon to be classified by my whole family as great!

Once upon a time, there were four-Penny girls that loved a good story. One afternoon in the family mini-van their Mom had an idea. Wouldn’t it be fun to listen to Children’s theatre voiced completely by children? So, she decided to try it, to create something new to keep everyone captivated, entertained and imaginations sparked! She started a company that produces Audio Children’s Theatre, for kids – by kids! Suddenly all was quiet in the car until the story was over, and the best words of all were uttered … “play it again Mommy!”
And so the journey began…

The website says that the CD is good for ages 3-8, but kids of all ages would love it.   I received two copies of 6 Pence Productions “The FairyTale Collection” and lucky for you, one is going to my readers at Mombite.

WIN IT:

Participate today for a chance to win The 6 Pence Players, “The FairyTale Collection” CD.

To Enter:–>Main Entry:

Visit any blog post on Mombite and make a COMMENT.  Then, come back here and post it in the comment section.

OR

Visit 6PenceProductions.com and tell me your favorite fairy tale!

–>Bonus Entries (leave a separate comment for each entry):

*Go to the Mombite sidebar and click “FOLLOW” on the NetworkedBlogs rectangle (Facebook Blog Networks).  Follow and you get one extra entry.  It’s easy.

*1 entry* Tweet about this giveaway, use mombite.com in your tweet and comment with your tweetlink (you may enter once a day).

*1 entry* Comment on a non-giveaway post and let me know which one(one entry for each comment).

*2 entries* Join our Facebook group for How To Be A Mompreneur (& giveaways) and come back to let me know that you’re in!

*1 entry* Follow Mombite on Twitter and let me know you are doing this.

5 entries* Blog about this giveaway with a link back to my site and come back and let me know you did that.  This is a BIG, FIVE entries.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

–>Contest ends 2/6/10  and you must include your email address or your entries will not be counted. US residents only. Winners will be contacted and have 48 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen.  Good Luck!

Green Mom Picks: Kid’s Tees made from recycled Plastic Bottles! wow!

We can’t resist the kiddie-cutie Think Green tees.  If you can believe it, they are made from recycled plastic bottles!

Putting a tee on your child made of recycled plastic bottles may not be your usual daily routine, but Revenge Is… proves that upcycling is an amazing way to be green and think Earth-smart sense with the softest tees around!

Learn how Revenge Is… recycles plastic bottles into fiber!

Have a Heart – All-Natural Play Clay from Family Fun Magazine

 I stumbled upon this stellar all-natural project for kids from Family Fun.  Play clay that you can shape into a heart and give to their buddies as a Valentine gift.  What a great idea!

Here’s the all-natural, safe and easy recipe:

Materials

• 3 Cups of white flour
• 1 1/2 Cups of salt
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons of cream of tartar
• 3 1/4 Cups of water
• 6 Tablespoons of vegetable oil
• Red food coloring
• Rolling pin

• Heart-shaped cookie cutter
• Small cellophane bags
• Scissors
• White paper
• Markers
• Hole punch
• Ribbon

Instructions

1. Mix the flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a medium saucepan.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the liquids, adding drops of food coloring until you reach your desired shade.
3. Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and stir. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture holds together and gets too stiff to stir (it will stiffen even more as it cools), about 5 to 10 minutes. Let it cool.
4. Knead the clay briefly, then roll or pat it to a 3/4-inch thickness and cut with the cookie cutter.
5. For each valentine, place a clay heart in a cellophane bag. Cut a tag out of white paper, decorate it with markers, and punch a hole in one end. Thread a length of ribbon through the tag´s hole and tie the bag shut with a bow.

Tips:

An older child can make the play clay (with adult supervision) while a younger one makes the tags. Then both children can roll and cut the clay hearts and bag their own valentines.

They also have other varieties of everyday Play Clay.

Materials

• 1 cup flour
• 3/8 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• NATURAL DYE
• BROWN: 3/8 cup plus one tablespoon hot water and 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• FUCHSIA: 3/8 cup hot beet juice (we used the liquid from a 15-ounce can of beets)
• ORANGE: 3/8 cup hot water and 1 tablespoon paprika
• YELLOW: 3/8 cup hot water and 1 teaspoon turmeric.

Instructions

1. In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour and salt. Pour in the oil and your chosen natural dye, and stir well.
2. Knead the dough on a floured surface for a few minutes. If the clay is too soft, add a bit more flour.
3. Store the clay in airtight containers in the refrigerator.

Name the kid who wouldn’t love making their own play clay!

Have a great day!

Jill

Green Mom Picks: Kids Konserve Lunch Ideas for Kids

Kid’s Konserve is about the best eco-friendly resuable product store out there that kid’s will love in my book. I love all of their products and they have down-to-earth, smart and real ideas dealing with kids and how to make a difference in the world. For Kids Konserve, it starts with conserving our resources to help our planet.

This is a great blog from Kids Konserve with top tips on what to put in your child’s lunches, particularily with their signature Food Kozy. The Kids Konserve Food Kozy is an amazing invention that you should look into to use in place of putting sandwiches and meals in plastic baggies.  It’s smart as well as in a sharp looking design that kid’s will like, featured in orange or green.

From Kids Konserve:

Now that the kids are back in school after the holidays, has the stress to find daily lunch packing ideas returned? Are your kids tired of the same old sandwich and are you fresh out of ideas? What’s a busy mom to do? Don’t worry, we have plenty of ideas to jazz up your kids’ lunches and make your life easier and greener.

Let 2010 be the year of green, waste-free lunch packing. While you can always put your child’s lunch items into Ziploc baggies, you can also take an easy step to save money and cut down on the trash being hauled to our landfills by simply using the Kids Konserve reusable Food Kozy. The Food Kozy is an innovative and non-toxic solution that can help you eliminate your plastic baggie, saran wrap, and foil addiction, while giving you the flexibility you need for all your lunchtime creations.

Top 20 Food Kozy Lunch Packing Ideas:

1-Open faced brie cheese and granny smith apple slices on slice of sourdough bread

2-Tomato and bacon grilled cheese sandwich

3-Turkey, provolone rolled up in whole wheat tortilla

4-Peanut butter and banana slices on cinnamon raisin bagel

5-Deli tower: chunk of salami, chunk of cheese with a side of crackers

6-Kid Friendly Burrito

7-Tuna in a pita with grape tomatoes

8-Canned or shredded chicken, mayo, halved purple grapes on a blueberry bagel

9-Cream cheese and jelly cracker sandwiches

10-Baked ham and cheese quesadillas

11-Waffle sandwich: two frozen waffles defrosted with peanut butter and carob chips

12-Pita Pocket Caesar

13-Hummus and thin layer of sliced cucumber on lavosh layered in a stack

14-Cream cheese and cinnamon bread

15-California Veggie Wrap

16-Pizza slice

17-Chicken fingers (use a Kids Konserve mini container for honey dipping sauce or
ranch dressing)

18-Pita Pizza

19-Taquitos (use a Kids Konserve mini container for salsa)

20-Bagel sandwich (get creative with different spreads: garden veggie, garlic herb,
strawberry, smoked salmon)

And, in the kitchen the Food Kozy is great for storing blocks of cheese in your refrigerator; halves of cucumber, bell peppers, and other veggies that you may normally wrap in saran wrap or put in a ziploc bag. To put over a bowl for storage rather than saran wrap, place the Food Kozy over the bowl and secure with a rubber band. Endless reusable options!

Kids Konserve Food Kozy is a reusable alternative to plastic baggies, plastic wrap and foil. Recycled, FDA approved, non-toxic, non-leaching, recyclable PE plastic. This product does not contain Bisphenol-A (BPA) and is Phthalate free. 13.5″ round.

Love it ~ try it out in your child’s lunches and see what a difference you can make in conserving plastic bags, foil and other wrappings.

Also, check out their waste =free lunch kits.  My daughter’s favorite is the butterfly.

I also love their jazzy snack pack for my little guy and snacks to pack on the go.

New Years Resolution #4: Clear the Clutter in my Life

the Mom Blogesphere, I am feeling the general movement of blogging moms to want to clean out their closets.  Have you visited Kelley’s Family Jewels blog~ she’s doing it and so am I.

I know I want the freedom and space in my life to live with less clutter.  It’s symbolic of so many things ~ a clean slate, a fresh start and less baggage to carry around.

Here are three smart strategies found at Martha Stewart online to outfit your closet.   Take a look at these Martha Stewart pictures that she uses as examples of organized space.

Taking command of your closets is like giving your life new movement.  When you heave out the old and organize what is left, you will feel light, fresh and new.

Cleaning out your closets can make you feel like you just gave yourself a clean slate and you may start breathing life into clothing you forgot about.

You may even make extra cash. If there was ever a time to cash your stuff in, now’s the time!  Find it. Clean it out, sort through what you don’t use ~ sell it, sort it, donate it and let it all go!

Kelley’s Family Jewel Blog led me to another that I am just crazy over with its fabulous closet makeover that anyone could do ~ Tatertots and Jello.

Love her design style and what a flair for frugal make-it-yourself strategies.  I could spend hours on her blog looking through her ideas.

Just take a look at what she did to this closet. Imagine how you could make your version of this easy-to-do organization.

Wow!  I want simplicity in 2010 and it’s starting with my closets.  One step at a time.

Filed under Life, decorating, self-help women | Tags: clearing clutter, mom blogs, organized space | Comments (3)

Black Wagon’s Quality Eco-friendly Wooden Toys

Okay, so here’s a tip. Hip and eco-friendly toys are the word at this shop found in the Pacific Northwest. The best news is that this delectable shop in Portland, Oregon can also be found in the cyber world! 

Go check out the selection of lovelies at Black Wagon.

Ever see one of those fantastic toys at someone’s house and you ask ~ where in the world did you get that cool thing? That happened to me today and this is the toy that I spied…..

Wonderworld Sound Blocks…..

Aahh, to be a kid again.  Loving this line of toys. 

Here is another beautiful set ~ wooden blocks of 50 pieces and all-natural.

Want to show up at a baby shower and have the best gift for the mom-to-be?  I think Wonderworld is the bomb  when you want a green toy that every parent would be happy with. 

Black Wagon doesn’t just have toys.  They also loaded with organic lines of clothing, cute baby tees, darling lines of shoes, great baby gear, and even furniture and kid’s decor.  They have it all in-store and online.

Invest in a quality eco-friendly wooden toy that you can find at Black Wagon and Amazon.

Eco-friendly, safe and reliable by Wonderworld: