How can I keep up my business with my special needs child?

This is a question that I can relate to with all my heart. One of the things that I am fortunate enough to have is friends who have small businesses and special needs children. I myself have a child with autism and they have such strange habits, like not sleeping at night.

I've gone far past the times when I can work when she can sleep. My child has never slept and for me not much work was getting done. And with summer being in full bloom and school being out for a few months how much work can I get done. A lot more now then when she was diagnosed and I was still trying to figure out having a business and the business of therapy and doctor's appointments for me child. Having a regular job where I punch a clock with someone else isn't an option for me. My child has missed so many days due to bad illnesses that it's not funny at all. But here's some of my tips and tricks that I use to get all the work done without having a nanny or babysitter and it's you caring for your child and your business begging for your attention as well.

Day or night there are plenty of times for me to work. My child enjoys stemming and that soothes her, doesn't calm her down to sleep but it does help her function in her chaotic world. My business deals with being solely online. So the computer is my work station and the laptop goes everywhere that I go just about. But for others who create things that they sell that can be a bit of a challenge. A structured schedule can help for not only your special needs child but for other children that you have as well.

Picture schedules are great for keeping children on schedule and yourself as well. Playtime outside if the weather permits is a great break for not only your child but for yourself. Sometimes depending what type of business that you have your child can do work sheets for learning while they sit right beside you and you can help guide them with their education. Some of the things that helps with my child and her autism is the ipad, an exercise ball for stemming, a trampoline and the all important swing. We also do a lot of crafts together where she ends up with something that she can play with. Playdoughs are her favorite and clay is easy and simple to use for her as art is her talent. When it comes to my child I have to make sure that she is always in my eye sight including when we ride bikes together. Call me a helicopter mom if you want but you have to remember that children with special needs are different. They require just as much attention as your business.
Time together with your child is time you will never get back if you don't put forth time and attention for both your business, child and your sanity. Enjoy the break times outside, your child(ren) are only young once.

Too busy to do social media, try these tips

Well, we are all a little too busy with our business and families but what can you do to keep your name in the streams? Put everything on auto pilot!

Blog posts can be scheduled. Facebook statuses can also be scheduled. The only thing I have not been scheduled would be twitter. But you know as they say, where there is a will there is a way. I'll let you in on Something Buildings big secret. It's not easy having to do blogs for Something Building and my own business and Jason stays on the road a lot with his business. So how do we do it?

I'll admit there were times that we were so busy we just couldn't keep up with all things social media. But scheduling everything to go out on certain times and dates makes it so much easier. For all the posts that go out on facebook I just look up business advice and then share that as scheduled. That keeps us in the news feeds, which is also known as "viral visibility". On your regular facebook page you can type in facebook.com/twitter and use this to link your fan page to your twitter account. Everything that you schedule on facebook will be shared on your twitter account.

From your blog type up enough blog material to last you a month if you need. When you schedule your posts make sure that some time during the day you go into your blog and share out to your facebook, and google and any other accounts that you may have. It's easier this way to spread the word about what your business is doing and you can spend plenty of time with your family or focus a little more time with your family.

Technology makes it easier to keep up with what's important. Well these are our tricks that we use. Enjoy using them yourself.

I sell for a company but not sure how to increase my sales

I have been asked this question on more then one occasion. People sell for other companies to bring in the extra income for the family but they are starting to think differently about it because they aren't achieving the success that they thought they would. First and foremost make sure that you are selling a product that you truly believe in. Secondly, make sure that you use every single outlet that you have. And they are all free, through social media sites.

If you have a facebook page you can set up a community and add a lot of your friends and encourage them to add their friends. Share information about your business. Say for instance you sell essential oils. Share meme's and fun facts about the benefits of essential oils for a person's health and well being. People will leave the community but there will be plenty of people who will join as long as you keep it an open community. Allow people to like the page. Remember that when you use social media for your business you have to keep posting and working social media for at least 7- 8 hours a day. This is your business and it needs your time and attention. People want to feel that if they ask a question you can answer it at any time. People need an expert, someone that they can trust and that would be you. Know your product but most importantly know your clients. Sales will come in tidal waves as long as you are persistent and continue to work at your business which you only took on as a side job to help with the family finances.  

Is blogging for me?

Blogging is a great way to share information and also help you to get your information out there to your perspective customers. One thing you have to realize is that blogging takes time and attention. And just like time that's what it takes to get in the search engines for google. There are plenty of blogging websites to use.
I devote a whole day to create up as many blog posts as I possibly can and schedule them to be released on certain days. For my own website I do the same exact same thing. My website runs on wordpress so blogging is pretty simple to do and my website shares all the information out to all my social media sites that it's attached to. So all I have to do is take one day out of my schedule and just type up a months' worth of work and schedule them for certain days. If you notice Something Building's blog posts on Sunday's, Tuesday's and Thursday's. For my own company I send out all my blogging on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.

By keeping a strict schedule of posting 3-4 times a week you give yourself a higher chance of getting in the google search engines. You have a better chance of someone finding your product and services when you keep this strict schedule. Beth, I have no time to blog I'm trying to sell products and grow my business. Well dear, aren't we all? Go on auto pilot. Auto pilot will assure that you still have time for everything else and all it takes is just a day to get everything written up and scheduled for certain times and days and you will never fail. You can also share pictures to your blog just like in Instagram and Vine. All you have to do is just write about your product and how it helps someone or many other people.

Your blog is the extension of your business. Keep a clear message and if you can only do 200-300 words that's still fine and always make sure you keep it fresh. And don't forget the 4 E's: Educate, Entertain, Engage and Enrich. The same exact E's that you should be applying to your business.

Get the help you need how you need it

This was covered on our radio show awhile back and I wanted to go a little more in dept with www.fiverr.com and how it can help your business. Lots of us use blogs and need testimonials to help out with growing the trust with our business.  With Fiverr yes with two r's you get graphics, marketing, video testimonials, reports and many more online services starting at just $5.00. Now this is a website that Jason actually found and I love it.

Some of the best things about fiverr is if you can't do you're own logo's for your company you can pay to get it done for you. Need t-shirts designed, Photoshop edits and/or radio quality voice overs but can't think of how you want to do it. They help with that as well. Need your blog written but don't have the time. Yes, they handle that as well. Beth, did you hire out to create the Something Building Blog. No, I don't. As you can tell there are a lot of time spaces in our blog and that shows you how busy I am. I can't get to the blog all the time. The only reason there hasn't been a miss in awhile for our blog is because of a little secret that I will share in a later post.

Just about anything that you could ever possibly need to have done that you don't have the time for or even don't know how to do, you can find a person to do what you need on www.fiverr.com. So get out there and get your work done, now you have no excuse!

Instagram & Vine for your business

As we all know Instagram and Vine are social media sites that are geared towards pictures and short short video's. Instagram is owned by facebook and Vine is owned by twitter. Visual imagery is great for sharing your business using sight only. We have asked several people that we help with their businesses to create an Instagram account. They did and they have received positive reviews and new clients from sharing their work. Before and after pictures are great for this site. So if you have a business where what you do can be seen this is a great opportunity to showcase your work and generate new leads. 

So you own a lawn business and you need to spread the word about your business. You have your vehicle wrapped and you put your business cards everywhere including putting a yard sign in the person's yard. Go a little further and take before and after pictures of the work that you are doing and post them to Instagram or Vine. This two apps are your portfolio to generate new leads and new interest in your business. It's not that hard. If you are a nail technician this is perfect for you as well because the nails that you share are just like a fantastical work of art. And everyone loves looking forward to seeing your next art piece. 

Well Beth I never thought that I would be able to showcase my business like this. Well, wait it gets a little more interesting because there are still people out there that don't see how important it is to visualize their business in a creative way. There are people out there that sell make up or do photography. For those selling Avon or even Younique you can have tons of before and after photo's. For Photography these are great for showcasing your work.

For creating those eye catching video's of how your product works the before and after and you don't have a video editing software. I highly recommend the Gimp program. It's 100% free and there even tons of tutorials showing you step by step how to create video's also known as gif's. Gif's are video's that have no sound and using this program depending on the camera you use won't come out all blurry. Gimp is a program that you can use to also edit images or your pictures with ease.

Now you have no excuse for not being able to get your visual message across. 

Meeting people interested in your business

In the book Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars by Mitch Meyerson; chapter 5 has a tidbit that I never would have realized could have been used as finding prospective clients. Hashtags are all the craze, but did you know that you can spy on conversations using hashtags? Yes, you read that correctly, spy. Using certain hashtags can get you into conversations without people knowing that you are there, reading everything that they are discussing. Even if their page on facebook is locked up tighter then Fort Knox thanks to the hashtag you have easy open access to their conversation.

Using this technique you can find people that are interested in your products or services. Now is the time to add them to your circle of your social media site if they allow you. Don't jump right into, I've got something that can help you. See our Blog post on Using social media for business. Grow that trust, grow that friendship. Become the expert not the freak. Remember that if people trust you they will continue to come back for more of your products or services.

Using Social Media for Business

The first rule of thumb for using social media to increase your business is to get to know your "friends" first. Look at it this way: You're invited to a party. You don't just walk in and start selling your product. You walk around and to meet and know new people. Well that's the same way that social media works. You have to get to know people first before you start offering advice or your services. Most of your friends will be able to use your services the other half might not be able to use those services. And you want people that will refer your business to others. You want to build a solid trust with people where they can feel they can trust you. To feel as if you are the expert in your field. That's what your seeking. Not a way to have people turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to you.

If you turn people off to you and your business can't grow. Another example is you're at the party and someone comes up to you reeking of the party they started way before they got there. But they see you as a wall. Someone that will hold them up and listen to them. You don't like people like this being all over you so please use common courtesy on your social media site and don't throw yourself all over people. You don't want to be looked upon as the "lush at the party that ralph's on the hostess' shoes."

Remember if you feel people are too pushy with the way they try to sell their products or business don't be like them. Get to know others, your opportunity to share your business will come but you have to get to know your clients and friends first.

Business apps

Well, last season we discussed apps that would possibly help you with your business. As a radio show  that needs just as much attention as a business I figured this would be a great opportunity to try it out. This time around I'm condensing as much work together to split the correct amount of time between the radio show marketing and my own business. I have a lot of things on my plate with having a child with autism and running my own business along with marketing for Something Building. Doctors appointments, iep's, carpool, publishing, and all the things that go along with having a family, especially a special needs child, there's a lot to do. And honestly very little time to do it. This week I downloaded a few apps to help with this other wise tricky schedule. If you only do facebook and twitter hootsuite is your best option. We do facebook, twitter, our blog and now google+. With just one message I can post to all but the blog.

Easypost as the app is called is fantastic. We have no reason to do Instagram or tumblr. Instagram is not an option with easypost but tumbler is. If you need an app to keep up with all you media marketing this is the app to go with. You will have a little trouble with google+ plus but in the FAQ section gives you some help with that. www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha is where you need to go to make the changes to allow google+ on this app. I can not stress enough how wonderful this app is. And the best part for us is it is free. 100% free! Another little problem you might run into is fb for pages don't freak when it wants to add your personal account. Accept that because you can pick after this to the fan page you work under.

Another draw back is that you will not have a clue if anyone likes or comments. I suggest that you personally got into your social media accounts and check them 30 minutes after you make a post using this app. I have apps for each of our social media sites for Something Building and can go straight into them from my ipad. Notifications are usually sent to my ipad on the app of the social media site that I'm on. So if you don't want to check on them, just down load the regular apps and you'll get messages letting you know, "Hey someone comments or used your @.

Teamwork in business

The best part of doing a radio show is that Jason and I work together as a team. We both have businesses and both have lives outside of business. I do all the creative parts of Something Building and Jason does all the rest. I get to do the blog because its writing and that falls into my area. The photo's and ads I get to create them because, well that falls into my area as well. While I work on one area of what we need he's busy fixing the website, twitter, the blog or google+ tying up the loose ends.

He does half and I do half. It's teamwork and that's the best type of work to do. Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life. And it's true. I could not image doing the business of the radio show if I had to do it myself. Sometimes you have to have a partner, someone to have teamwork with. Reading through EntreLeadership book by Dave Ramsey, the people that you work with always consider them your team members. And let the golden rule shine. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's no secret, Jason is my best friend and so I will always treat him as such. We bounce ideas off it other. We are team members as friends and team members as co-hosts of the show. Keep it real but most importantly keep it as team work.

Becoming an Entrepreneur

Checking through our emails today I received one that I had to share. And with special permission Jamie allowed me to share it and even sent in a picture. Here it is:

Dear Jason and Beth,

I was a stay at home mom of two children one being a special needs child. My husband is deployed with the Army and I wanted something that I could do to help keep me sane since I speak to my husband once a day if I'm lucky. I saw your video on youtube and decided what would it hurt to listen to the show. I was surprised to hear that Beth was a mother of a child with Autism and she had her own business. Having a child with special needs is tough and I never thought I would be able to have my own business and still be able to give full attention to my child. You even gave businesses that real people on a tight budget could do with little money invested. Now whenever I'm out and about or at doctors appointments for my child I give everyone my business card and a little bit of information about my business. No longer am I on a tight budget thanks to all the medical bills. I'm able to be the mom I always dreamed of being and it's because of the great advice that I got from your show!

Thank you again!

Jamie O.