Work at Home Moms Articles – WAHM Articles

This Wednesday, we have an interview with Jennifer Tankersley of List Plan It.

WAHM-Articles: Jennifer, what is your business? Tell us a little bit about it.

Jennifer: I have a subscription website called List Plan It which has nearly 250 lists, checklists, and planning pages with more being added all the time! I have categories that most moms would appreciate such as Business, Contacts (communication), Family, Finances, Holidays (Occasions), Home, Kitchen, Memories, Moving, Personal, Planner, Student, and Travel. I have instructions on how to create one’s own organizational Life Manual using the pages that have been printed from ListPlanIt.com.

WA: On your website you say “There are 2 kinds of people in the world. Those who 1) Love Lists and ) Love the IDEA of lists!” I have to admit, I’m in love with my lists. I make lists for everything! What is it about lists that we love so much?

Jennifer: I think there might be a different answer from everyone you asked on this one. There are several possibilities that come to my mind: 1) the opportunity to put the jumble of thoughts that completely occupy every mom’s waking (sometimes sleeping) moments down on paper is one such reason. If you can put the myriad of dates, events, activities, ingredients, instructions, responsibilities, and appointments down where it can be referred to later, that might free up some of the very valuable mind space for more important things like painting with your children or playing tag with them. 2) the satisfaction goal-oriented people achieve when they complete a task that can then be crossed off. 3) the opportunity once it is put to paper for visually motivated people to organize themselves and their families.

WA:How long has Listplanit been around?

Jennifer: Officially, ListPlanIt.com was launched on May 9, 2007! It is a brand new venture that in almost 3 months has over 40 subscribers.

WA: How can your business benefit other moms?

Jennifer: ListPlanIt.com is perfect for moms! I know because I am a mom of 3 children (6, 4, 2 years old). I have always been a list-maker, but my need for lists truly evolved after I had children. Moms as family managers have many responsibilities and List Plan It has almost 250 lists and planning pages to give ideas and direction in nearly every aspect of family-life. There are pages for grocery shopping, menu planning, holiday planning, babysitter instructions, phone numbers/email addresses, financial planning, packing lists, responsibility charts, homework schedules, and many many more!
WA: How did you come up with the idea for Listplanit?

Jennifer: I had just finished working the holiday season at LL Bean here in Maine. It was the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I felt tired and overwhelmed with all of the things that I needed to do to get my home and my family back in order. I got out my notebook to begin to make the list of lists that I was going to need to make. I thought how nice it would be if there were pages that were already organized so that all I had to do was to fill I my own information. The next thing I know, my mind is exploding with the idea of putting together these lists and then offering them on a website for others to use.

WA: How has writing and submitting articles helped you build your business?

Jennifer: There are so many uses for the lists and planning pages on ListPlanIt.com that I want to make information and ideas available to everyone. Submitted articles spotlight different features of the website that might be useful to people who might not have known that ListPlanIt.com existed.

WA: Do you have any advice to share with other moms who want to work from home?

Jennifer: I would say to be patient and wait for your inspiration. There are so many opportunities out there. Working from home is a challenge enough with trying to balance family and work responsibilities, be sure to choose something for which you are passionate! Discuss with your family what it will take for you to make your business a success. You need their support and encouragement. They need to be factored into daily routine and schedule.

WA: Thanks for joining us on the WAHM-Articles blog, Jennifer. We wish you every success!

WAHM-Articles is interviewing one of our writers each Wednesday. All writers who have two approved articles in our database are eligible to be interviewed.

We’re working through the list slowly, but if you want to jump the line, give us a shout! contact@wahm-articles.com

It’s WAHM Writer Wednesday, and since I don’t have an author interview to publish today, I’ll tell you a bit about myself.

My name is Denise Willms, and I’m co-owner of WAHM-Articles.com and a Writer/Virtual Assistant at DeniseWillms.com

Although I’ve worked from home off and on since becoming a mom over 13 years ago (yikes!) I only began working online in 2004.

My first online job was with a local SEO company, and that was my first peek at how a virtual business worked. I liked what I saw. The owner had used the power of the Internet to build a business that worked for him, and I wanted that too.

Also, starting out working for an SEO company gave me a lot of knowledge that I still use today. In a way, I learned everything backwards. I knew how to do keyword research, write copy and create meta tags, but I had no idea how to manage a website.

That experience inspired me to start my own business later that year, Willms Business Solutions. This was a lot of trial and error too. I had no defined target market (my market, all small business owners, was way too general!) or services (let me know what you need and I’ll do it!). Not surprisingly, this business soon spun way out of control. I was doing everything for everybody and making very little money.

Another thing I learned through this, though, was the power of article marketing. I marketed my business purely by writing and submitting articles, and I was amazed at the response. The articles I wrote established my credibility with other Virtual Assistants, presold my services to my clients, and I started ghostwriting articles for other people.

I shut everything down in November of 2006 and took sometime to rethink what I REALLY wanted to do and who I REALLY wanted to do it for.

The result was DeniseWillms.com, a Virtual Assistant business that caters to my favorite people, work at home moms who work online! The services I offer now are very specific as well: writing, editing, and a few other things that I enjoy doing. No more of this “anything for anybody!”

About WAHM-Articles… I saw the site for sale in December 2006, and I knew that I wanted it. It fit perfectly with my plans for DeniseWillms.com because part of what I do there is teach other moms how to market their business through article writing.

And that’s it! All about me and my businesses. Now I want to know all about you!!! Stay tuned to read more interviews with the WAHM writers at WAHM-Articles.com

This week, we have an interview with Stefani Partin of Mommy Enterprises.

WAHM-Articles: Stefani, welcome to the WAHM-Articles Blog.I love your site, www.MommyEnterprises.com. What kinds of services and information can moms find there?

Stefani Partin: At Mommy Enterprises you are going to find a wealth of information about
working from home and owning your own home based business.

I have a whole section called our “Work At Home Help Center”. This section offers home business/job listings, my work at home ebook, Direct sales directory, work at home ideas, articles, ecourse, newsletter and more.

In addition to the work at home stuff we also offer a section with parenting resources, link directory, message forum, freebies, mall and more.

WA: How did you get started working from home?

SP: I started looking for ways to bring in money back in 1996 when I was pregnant with my first daughter. I Have always wanted to have my own website and business for as long as I can remember.

WA: You have articles published on WAHM-Articles.com and many other places. What role has Article Marketing played in your online success?

SP: Article marketing is a great wayTo receive free exposure to yourself. I like to write and when I found out it could help drive traffic to my sites I jumped right in.

WA: Where do you get ideas for the articles you write?

SP: I try to write articles on subjects that I had questions on and gave knowledge of. I know that before I started blogging I wanted to know how I could make money blogging, so I wrote an article on how to make money blogging.

WA: You’re a very successful work-at-home-mom, and I know many of our readers can learn from your experiences. Do you have any words of wisdom to share with us?

SP: I would suggest to any newcomer looking to make money from home, find something you are passionate for. You got to find something you love doing or you will give up and think that working from home is not for you. If you have that desire to work for yourself, just something that you won’t mind doing day after day. I love making websites so now I have built a whole
network of them and continue to update them daily.

WA: Thanks Stefani!

WAHM-Articles: Hi Patty, and welcome to the WAHM-Articles Blog!

First of all, I’m completely intrigued with your business, Greeting Card Gourmet, and I just signed up to send a free greeting card.

I love your slogan, “Greeting cards are enveloped hugs that make people smile.” You‚Äôre exactly right! I know greeting cards make me smile… whether I‚Äôm receiving one myself or sending one to someone else.

Can you tell us about Greeting Card Gourmet?

Patty Gale: Hi Denise. Thank you so much for having me here.
The Greeting Card Gourmet has quite an interesting history. As you know, my very first website was Patty’s Pretty Paper, which I launched back in early 2003. I designed, printed and shipped personalized stationery and note cards.

In 2005, I started a consultant opportunity with Patty’s Pretty Paper and it was quite successful.
Eventually, I needed a way to make the business more global, but still allow for the personalization of my product. I was getting requests from as far away as Australia and Japan not only for the product, but also for the consultant opportunity.

So, in 2006, I took the entire product line and transformed it to digital delivery. It was great and allowed us to reach the global audience we wanted, but in some ways, something was still missing. Digital delivery was easy, but we really missed the tangible product showing up in the mailbox at the curb.

Then, I was introduced to Send Out Cards. One day, I received a card in the mail from Todd Schager. He saw an online conversation I was having, in a forum, about building relationships with customers and he sent me a card. I had no idea who Todd was at the time, but he was very genuine and I appreciated that.

However, Todd did not know about Patty Gale Designs, and when he said that I could upload digital images into the Send Out Cards system to print real greeting cards, that was the turning point.

At that moment, I knew that the missing piece had been found. Since we were integrating everything with Send Out Cards, I couldn’t continue to call it “Patty Gale Designs.”

My husband, Doug, is going to be attending culinary school, so as you can imagine, we have quite a few culinary magazines in our home. One day, he and I were talking about Send Out Cards and I happened to look down to see a “Gourmet” magazine sitting on the coffee table. Then the light bulb went on and “Greeting Card Gourmet” was born!

W-A: How did you make the transition from Patty Gale Designs to this?

PG: The transition from Patty Gale Designs was actually much simpler than I thought it would be. When we presented the idea, to our consultants, about coming on board with Send Out Cards, the response from them was amazing. They loved the idea and it really has given us the best of both worlds. We have access to all of the greeting cards within the Send Out Cards system, plus all of my custom card designs as well. Plus, we now offer the printables as a free bonus when someone joins our Send Out Cards team.

Many people today, especially those of us with online businesses, communicate mostly via email. Do you think that people send fewer greeting cards today than they used to? And if you’re keeping in regular email contact, is it still important to send greeting cards?

The greeting card business is booming! The Greeting Card Association (www.GreetingCard.org) estimates that in the U.S. alone, consumers buy 7 billion greeting cards every year and that number is increasing steadily. Not only are consumers purchasing greeting cards, but more and more businesses are using greeting cards as a way to reach out to their customers and prospects, too.

As you know, my business has always been an online business. However, when I was still working outside the home, I learned incredible business foundations from the owner of the company I worked for. The most important being that people do business with people they know and trust.

Email has its place, but nothing can replace the human connection that happens when you actually hear someone’s voice or receive something tangible in the mail from that person, such as a greeting card. The technology we have today is an incredible vehicle for allowing us to reach out to so many people. At the same time, we can’t forget that the human touch is crucial to grow a business for long-term success, and this is why it is more important than ever to use greeting cards.

W-A: As I was preparing for this interview, you told me you once thought you would never in a million years join another network marketing company. What changed your mind?

Right, I never thought I would. My very first experience with a home business was with a network marketing company back in 2001. Due to various factors and circumstances, after 2 years, I knew it was time to find something else, and that’s when I started Patty’s Pretty Paper.

I’ve always believed in the concept of leverage, but I did not want to venture down the wrong path again, so I stayed away from pursuing network marketing. Since then, I have experienced a lot of personal and professional growth. When I was introduced to Send Out Cards, I could see that this company was going to be much different than my first experience.

PG: You have articles published on WAHM-Articles.com and other places. What role has Article Marketing played in your online success?

Writing and distributing articles has allowed my work to be seen and used by other webmasters. For me, it goes back to what I was saying earlier, that the internet has given us the opportunity to reach out to so many more people, and article marketing is similar in concept.

My articles have been picked up by websites that I probably would have not been able to find on my own.

It’s a fantastic way to leverage your content and help you brand your business.

PG: Where do you get ideas for the articles you write?

The ideas for my articles come mostly from my own personal and business experiences. In business, your word is your bond. Your word is what creates trust with your readers and customers, so I can’t think of a better way than to use real experiences as topics for articles.

W-A: You’re a very successful work-at-home-mom, and I know many of our readers can learn from your experiences. Do you have any words of wisdom to share with us?

The things that helped me the most over the years were the constant reminders that a home business, like any other business, evolves and changes over time and you have to stay flexible enough to go with that change.

Don’t settle for anything less than you absolutely love to do, but don’t forget why you started a home business in the first place. When I started this, my daughter was just born. She is now 6 1/2 years old and I am very thankful for all of the time that I’ve been able to spend with her. It hasn’t always been easy, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

I think the most important thing I learned, though, was really from my dad. He passed away 4 years ago and was only 65, which is way too young. I have this conversation a lot with my kids and what I tell them is this…

Do not to leave any “what ifs” in your life. Life is too short. Go for it and make a difference.

W-A: Thank you, Patty, for sharing your experience and your time with me today. I wish you all the best.

PG: Denise, thank you again so much. I really appreciate your having me here. It’s been my pleasure!