the entrepreneurial mother

by Peter Williams for TheAge.com.au

Historically small business has had no chance of competing with large corporations in the marketing area.

The costs of using traditional advertising channels, such as TV and print were high and small businesses couldn't afford to employ the marketing people to do the non-advertising marketing such as PR and promotion.

The emergence of the web in the 90's provided small business the opportunity to get global reach but again the cost of technology solutions and lack of IT people meant that many small businesses established websites that cost a great deal and had little impact.

From the earlier part of this decade things have really changed...

Keep reading...

I trust this month has been all that you planned!...
Aren't some of these Olympians teaching us a thing or two about understanding what you want and going for it! good on them I say.... speaking of which, if you want to relive Lauren Burns triumph at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, then there is a whole chapter dedicated to that very story in the "Secrets of Inspiring Women Exposed"... see below for details.

Read that article yet?
Tim Ferriss - "The 4 hour work week" ... if not, please go here to do so. I have started my own 4 Hour Work Week process, so feel free to keep tabs on my progress by searching this blog using "4 hour work week journey", and even better, if you subscribe to the RSS feed, updates will come directly to your inbox...couldn't be easier.

As I always say, be bold and opportunistic ... so, the DESIGN your life and make LIFE! work workshop has now been constructed and given great initial feedback. I can't wait for this to be up and running as attendance will be about giving permission to entrepreneurial mothers (and fathers!) to take the time out to spend on that business idea, or that plan around combining all that you do into making Life! work.

Lets face it, many of us have been "empowered"... but now what?
This workshop will commence the journey of finding the answers, for you...

So in regards to that journey, my question to you is this... how are you going with the "The Entrepreneurial Mothers Guide to Making Life! Work"? ... this workshop will be just the thing you need if you're feeling stuck.

If you think you might have a group that would benefit from having your own workshop, then just reply to this with an email requesting same.

what to do about next School Holidays?...
why not enrich their educational experience as a result of acting on this email...

How to enrich their holistic education experiences?
By partnering with OzSee/Reho Travel/SolvePoverty to conduct a series of pilot familiarisation tours to outback Australia by a multi-cultural, multi-age group of students selected from school and Universities around the country.

Just think about, not only the short-term learning and fun, but also the long-term benefits...

The selected students will form the founder group of an expanding Australia-wide network of youth entrepreneurs, with the first step being to get a snapshot of what it is we need to be thinking about…And for the communities, they benefit economically by getting access to, and introducing visitors to our unique country...

Would you like to know more?
Tours are for 10 days, and the next one commences 25 September 2008... click here for details
(additional dates can be tailored to fit in with your holiday needs)

"Every Day is Mothers Day"...

Buy the "Secrets of Inspiring Women Exposed", and get a 2nd one free
yes that's right, get 2 for the price of 1

go on... buy one as a gift for that special someone in your life, and/or that talented student(s) in your life, and keep the other for yourself ... to go shopping, click here

Feel free to share this with your friends, family and colleagues, so they can also do what you can do... I would also encourage you to encourage them to "subscribe" at www.theentrepreneurialmother.com.au so that they too can begin a beautiful relationship and receive such gifts into their own inbox!!

be in touch again soon...
cheers denise

P.S. Tours will be 10 days (to fit in with most school holidays) so if you want input into what the tours should look like, and when/where they should be, then please do reply and tell me all about them?

PPS If you have friends or family or fellow entrepreneurial mothers should be interested in this, simply encourage them to subscribe today @ www.theentrepreneurialmother.com.au!

still under "Definition"...

System Reset questions...
5. Determine the cost of these dreams and calculate your Target Monthly Income (TMI) for both timelines.
If financeable, what is the cost per month for each of the four dreams (rent, mortgage, payment plan installments, etc)?

Well... isn't this an interesting exercise...
I have completed it manually and scanned it for your viewing pleasure, and to use as a sample. The automatic calculators and forms are available electroniclaly at www.fourhourworkweek.com.au. The process of completing both of these forms is explained in the book The 4 Hour Work Week, pg 56-59.

Once this calculation is done, you then use it to complete your Dreamline, see mine here...

As a result of doing this exercise, I know have critical first steps for each of the dreams listed. The point being that they are actionable and bring you closer to actualisation, provided I actually do them!

To quote Tim... "Tomorrow becomes never. No matter how small the task, take the first step now!"

One of my to do was to book the workshop a particular Internet business workshop, run by Andrew and Daryl Grant. I'm off to Sydney tonight to attend that workshop. That should certainly impact on where I want to go... can't wait.

by Russell Ackoff and Daniel Greenberg for ChangeThis.com

Education should be a lifelong enterprise, a process enhanced by an environment that supports the attempt of people to
find themselves throughout their lives.

For too long, we have educated people for a world that no longer exists, extinguishing their creativity and instilling values antithetical to those of a free, 21st century democracy.

keep reading...
hear hear!
If only the powers that be would pay attention to this stuff...

some interesting reading for you...
many lessons to be learnt from the story of Starbucks

Posted by John Quelch for Harvard Business Publishing

Starbucks announcement that it will close 600 stores in the US is a long overdue admission that there are limits to growth.

In February 2007, a leaked internal memo written by founder Howard Schultz showed that he recognized the problem that his own growth strategy had created: Stores no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Starbucks tried to add value through innovation, offering wifi service, creating and selling its own music. More recently, Starbucks attempted to put the focus back on coffee, revitalizing the quality of its standard beverages. But none of these moves addressed the fundamental problem: Starbucks is a mass brand attempting to command a premium price for an experience that is no longer special. Either you have to cut price (and that implies a commensurate cut in the cost structure) or you have to cut distribution to restore the exclusivity of the brand. Expect the 600 store closings to be the first of a series of downsizing announcements. Sometimes, in the world of marketing, less is more.

Schultz sought, admirably, to bring good coffee and the Italian coffee house experience to the American mass market. Wall Street bought into the vision of Starbucks as the third place after home and work. New store openings and new product launches fueled the stock price. But sooner or later chasing quarterly earnings growth targets undermined the Starbucks brand in three ways.

keep reading...