In the past, whenever we’ve owned an online business (okay…one time!) we made up our own business cards on colored cardstock.  We sent them out with orders, gave them out to people we knew who wanted to promote our work, and so on.  We have a new online startup that I’m slowly working on, but we don’t yet have any business cards letterhead, or any of the other accoutrements I had set up for our previous business.

If you don’t need a totally custom look there are dozens of business cards online based on templates that can be personalized, in a wide variety of styles from trendy, to traditional, and everything in between (starting at $3.95/100!)

With our new business venture slowly being born, my thoughts have been turning towards internet marketing.  While I’m no newbie in terms of promoting a business online, I can’t claim to be a pro either.  In the past I’ve relied upon link exchanges, affordable website directory listings, signature lines and promotional emails (no spam!) on topic-related yahoo groups and the like – internet marketing on a shoestring as it were.

Our online enterprises have never needed local search marketing, because our businesses have always shipped internationally, and haven’t been area specific.  The same goes for our new project.  I have to admit though, I am toying with the idea of doing some experimental click-based ad word advertising once we have more products developed and see how it goes .

Before we became Christians, our family owned and operated an online store for several years that catered to parents of a certain educational philosophy that didn’t have roots in Jesus Christ.  It had many pagan influences – fairies, nature spirits, reincarnation – you name it.  So, when we became Christians it wasn’t long until the Lord laid it on our hearts to shut the business down, though it was only just beginning to provide a decent income.  We closed, and since then have been doing piece work in construction, renovation etc.

After praying, and thinking, and praying, we’re working on a new website - Bogart Family Resources – where we can share God-honouring resources with fellow homeschooling families that we create, as well as resources created by other families that we’ve been blessed by.

There’s nothing there yet, but never fear, I’ll keep you updated!  I’m busy working behind the scenes with our faithful (and ever so patient!) designer.  You can also look forward to some giveaways from our new product selections there (we’ll be starting slow and steady), chances to sign up for free downloads and more!

I hope you’ll join us on this new and exciting journey .

This year I’ve spent some time scouring the internet for affordable supplies that our family could use to make some audio recordings, you know, cases, labels, cd-r’s, and all of the products one would need to set up a little recording studio.  I’m planning to independently record some open domain audio books, but baby-free time to do so has been hard to come by!

In any case, I did find that Shop 4 Tech has a huge variety of CDs, cases, CD printers, and pretty much everything you’d need to get set up.  They have over a million customers, a strong emphasis on customer satisfaction, and low prices.  Too bad they’re in the US, I’m looking for a vendor here in Canada so I don’t get nailed by high shipping costs and border charges.

On a personal note, they also have cheap CD wallets – 328 disc capacity binder for only $20 with free shipping in the U.S.!  Okay, that’s exciting to me, because I’ve been pricing out CD wallets here in Canada (I’m condensing the amount of space I need for DVDs and CDs so I have more room for books!) and they cost $60 or so for the same capacity at a local office supply store.  Too bad I can’t get it on this free shipping offer.  Living in Canada doesn’t have many drawbacks, but it does have some .

Anyone who runs their own business is likely quite familiar with the offers of free business cards that are offered by online printers.  What many web surfers don’t realize upon first glance is that these offers aren’t necessarily free.  Inflated shipping and handling charges apply, and the printing company often advertises on the back of your business card.  With a limited number of ‘free’ designs to choose from, and the amateurish inclusion of another company’s website on the back of your card, it might be best to get your own, minimal cost business cards.

123 Printing is an online printer that offers thousands of business card designs ranging from funky to classical at a modest price.  There are even cards geared for specific professions – think hairstylist, handyman, and more.  Prices start at $1.99 for 100 cards and $3.99 for shipping, with prices adjusted for volume, paper type, shipping method etc.  If you’re investing time and marketing efforts into your business, it doesn’t hurt to invest in professional looking promotional cards as well!

Over the past couple of weeks our family has been thinking of going back into wholesaling our handmade wooden toys.  We’ve been contacted by email, and many of our customers were disappointed when we stopped selling toys.  However, the lack of a workshop pretty much determined the discontinuation of the toy business.  We’re now planning a new workshop.  I had started developing marketing plans.  And then..CPSIA started to loom on the horizon!

ALL products intended for children ages 12 and under will be legally required to undergo lead, and pthalate testing if applicable.  Not only that, but it’s uncertain as to whether each individual component needs to be tested, or if entire items can be.  If you can approve the materials and then manufacture at will or if each ‘lot’ needs to be tested.  Believe me, our lots are VERY small if you count them on a day by day basis.  What exacty would a lot consist of anyway?  Any items found to be uncompliant will not be able to be sold past February 10th, 2009 – yep a month away from now, folks are scrambling.  We’re talking toys, books, clothes, CDs, DVDs – ANYTHING intended for children – yep folks, this includes craft kits and homeschooling materials too.  Small business owners have started closing their doors and dumping inventory already.

Now, we’re in Canada, so we could be looking at a similar resolution being passed here in the future, but for now we are okay.  The thing is several of our customers were in the U.S., all of our retailers sell to the States.  I think it will all work out – our toys are wood with a natural tung oil/carnauba wax finish.  Even if the CPSC won’t accept the finish, it looks as though unfinished wood toys will be exempt from the mandatory lead testing on items for children 12 years of age and under.  Nothing is final yet though, so the past few days I’ve been spending quite a bit of time trying to get a handle on this thing.  Have I been successful?  Far from it.  If only industry had been consulted and CONCISE guidelines of what would be included, what wouldn’t be, and clear guidelines to help business owners through the storm.  But alas – none of that seems to exist.

Look it up online, the blogosphere, email groups etc. are all abuzz.  The Handmade Toy Alliance is a good one to check for implications within the toy industry.  Then pray.  There are so many small business owners – both in the U.S. and elsewhere – who will be desperately impacted by the legislation as it stands.

Well, by now you’ve probably already seen the picture of the re-usable cloth diaper wipes I made for our coming baby in the bloggy carnival giveaway below. Now YOU can learn how to make these super-duper simple wipes. All it takes is some fabric, a sewing machine of some sort, some thread, a pair of scissors, and YOU!

First for some background information. When I was pregnant with my first born I made a pile of cloth diaper wipes, 30 of them, out of white diaper flannel that I bought, I also made diaper doublers, fitted one size diapers, pee pads for lying baby on, breast pads etc. etc. but the diaper wipes were the easiest .

For my second pregnancy for some reason….some of the wipes had gone missing. I think they are like socks that way, they just up and…leave! In any case we were living in a tiny little holiday trailer with a 3 year old and a newborn, so I bought some mail order, they were very very small, and weren’t really any nicer than the ones I had made before, but, we were desperate! They cost $0.75 each, and were tiny, maybe 4″ x 4″, but they did get the job done.

For this baby, I see that MANY of our wipes are missing, are some of them in strange storage tubs out in the shed that is too full for me to get my pregnant belly into? Yes, that is the shed with the snow drift in front of the door in a previous post, but DH has shovelled all the snow away . So I knew, we would need MORE wipes! MORE MORE!

In any case, we were at Larry’s parents doing some work for a couple of weeks, and his Mom has a serger, I brought some fabric, and sewed 45 wipes in a single day, they take around 1 minute a piece when you get going, but with children there are always interruptions .

The fabric I used was a gift, so it was free! YAY! You can use any sort of fabric you have on hand, old t-shirts with a few holes (just avoid those when cutting out wipes), free fabric from relatives – now that my family knows I sew from time to time they seem to like to give us their fabric they’ll not be needing, old sheets, or you can actually buy some too! At the fabric store there is always a discount section so make sure to look there. I basically had $0 cost on these, other than the basic tools needed that I already had, just 45 minutes of time for $33.75 savings, hmmm, good pay!

So, now that you have your fabric and tools assembled, let’s go! These are super simple instructions. I’m not what you call a real sewer or a seamstress, but I am trying to learn, so these are very very simple instructions! I have to apologize for the photos, I’m not a talented digital photographer .

1. Cut up your fabric. I just folded up my fabric and cut squares out of it by sight. The first wipes I made I used a cardboard template I had cut out to the size I wanted and cut around it. This time I just hacked out squares of approximately 10″ x 5″. They are irregularly shaped because of this, but, they don’t need to all be the same! They are for wiping baby bums! Do you think baby will mind if they aren’t perfect? That’s why I say – ANYONE can make these!



2. Get ready to sew. If you have a serger, set it for a three thread overlock stitch that will ’seal up’ the outside edges of the fabric. Adjust tension as needed. Wow, did I ever have to adjust the tension. These wipes are just a single layer of flannel and are pretty thin, so do some experiments on scraps of the fabric you are working with to figure out what tension you’ll be needing to make the stitching fairly even, without bunching and scrunching. If you have a sewing machine, set it for a fairly small zig-zag stitch, and again experiment with the tension (not as tricky as with a serger!) to make sure the stitches are balanced.
3. Start sewing. Again, I used a serger, but if you have a sewing machine set for zig-zag, don’t worry about hemming, or folding over any edges, this is easy! Just go around the outside edge, close to the edge, you can round the corners off while you sew (sew in a curved line, and trim extra fabric later), or pivot on the corners for square wipes. They won’t unravel, no worries! Some of the serging that came undone on my first batch of wipes I just corrected by zigzagging the area, and it never came undone! You may want to stitch twice around the outside edge just to be secure that your wipes are structurally sound.If you are serging, just pick a corner to start at, and start heading around. Sadly, I don’t have any good tips for serging around corners, but a serger can go around a pretty tight curve, so don’t be afraid to pull your fabric around through the curve, sometimes my curves worked out, sometimes not (some fabric would fold over instead of getting cut cleanly away). With a serger, you can just round the edges, when you go around the curve the extra fabric will be cut off.

   Do you have tips for making it around the corner successfully every time? Please comment! Again, these are for baby, so no stress if they aren’t perfect! If you are sewing you do need to do the back stitch and forward stitch trick at the corner to secure your stitching before you take off down the side.

   

4. When you come all the way to the beginning of the wipe, just serge past the corner and leave the tail on, don’t worry about trimming the tail or anything right now.

   We are trying to sew fast because we have children underfoot, so just head on past the corner, serge a bit of a tail, and grab the next wipe. If you are sewing you will need to back-stitch and forward stitch to end your sewing when you come to the last corner of course. Then you can just pull out some thread, and start going on your next wipe, and just leave the old wipe to the back/side of your machine.

5. Start your next wipe, as in step 3. Your attached wipe will move around as you turn your new wipe that you are working on. Don’t worry, this shouldn’t be a problem or distraction (well, for me it wasn’t, I just wanted to go fast!). This time when we go past the last corner, it will cut off the attached wipe with the fabric cutter (see the above picture), see, you just saved yourself a couple of seconds . Put your finished wipes in a pile. Keep going with steps 3 – 5 until you are done with your pile of wipes. Now you have a finished pile of wipes!

   And here is an individual wipe – see it is a bit irregular, but again, it works for wiping up!

   Now you can get your little helper, mine is my 5 year old daughter, to trim off the threads for you, and voila, you are in wipey land!

Maybe some of the SAHM’s out there might want to get really good at this, and start a home based business sewing diaper wipes, customizable, out of a variety of fabric types, prints etc. Even when you do buy them, you can save SO much money over disposable wipes! Another issue with disposable wipes is the preservatives put in them. How long have they sat wet on the shelf in their bag through all types of weather conditions? What do they put in them so that they don’t mold? Hmmm, it likely isn’t healthy!

If you have found this article helpful please feel free to link to it on your blog! I hope it has been a blessing to some of you!

Work at Home Business Idea for Homeschoolers #1, Condiment Making
Or Make Your Own Relish – Frugal Friday

This is a combination post! A bit of cooking, small family home business idea, saving money, and homesteading all in one! It is also a combination of authors, Larry originated the post idea and wrote much of it, I edited, filled in a few details and supplied the recipe.

Over the years our family has had many small home based business to earn extra money and allow us to stay at home, and I would like to share with other home schooling families some of our experiences.

The first home business idea I’d like to share is making food stuff at home and then selling it at farmer markets or other venues like that – local fairs, craft shows etc. Our families first experience with selling food items would be my wife Jennifer when she was a small girl and helped her mother to make and sell home baking, my sisters also did this as a way of earning their pocket money. My our experience started back in the late 1980’s when I had a few honey bees and sold honey at the local farmers market. I very much enjoyed keeping bees and selling the honey.

What I want to share in this post is the business opportunity to make and sell condiments (relish, jams, pickles etc.). While we were down visiting my family, my mother had bought some relish at the local farmers market and we all enjoyed it very much. My oldest daughter liked it very much but we found out that it had wheat flour in it and she has a very hard time with wheat. So I asked Jen to look on the Internet for a recipe to make our own, she found a recipe and we took a morning to make some, replacing the wheat with rice flour. It was a great hit, our first batch was so close to the relish my mother had bought that we knew we had something our whole family could enjoy.

Now the reason that I thought this would be a great home based business was when I sat down and crunched the numbers. The relish my mother bought was $7.50 for a one pint jar and the lady making it has a hard time keeping up with the demand. We had made 17 pints that morning following the recipe we got off the Internet and the ingredients cost about $30.00 not counting the jars. So 17 times $7.50 is $127.50 less the ingredients is $97.50 then you have to take out the cost of the jars at $.65 each times 17 giving you $16.35 for a net total of $81.15 – not bad for about 4 hours in the kitchen, that is $20.28/hour!

*This is also my Frugal Friday post! Making your own condiments saves a LOT of money over buying it at the store. Our family could not afford $7.50/jar of relish at likely 1 jar/week at the way our family eats it! Making your own brings the cost down to $2.00/jar (not counting the jars, which are re-usable), which is far more affordable! And there is a very high vegetable content in this relish, which is wonderful!*

Of course, you may need to take your fuel and marketing costs out as well ?. If you grow your own veggies you could half your ingredient costs, and then you could add other kinds of relish, pickles and jams. Depending upon the regulations in the part of the world where you live you may need to prepare the condiments in a commercial kitchen (either one in your home, or you can rent space in some locations) in order to sell at a farmers market. Here in Alberta that is the way food regulations are going, so you should check into the requirements in your state/province for small scale food processing. People love home made condiments and there is no end to the kinds you can make.

If you have teenage daughters this is a wonderful business idea for them! It is simple, fun, and profitable!

So here is the recipe for the relish we made (we did modify the recipe we found, so this is the revision) if all you do is try a batch for yourself you will I hope find it very enjoyable, just be careful who you give a jar to for they will want more. Jennifer’s grandparents just adore it, we shared some with them on our visit to the city yesterday, and they will be needing more on our next visit for certain!

Lady Rose Relish Recipe

This is the recipe that we will be using next time as a result of our learning experiences – the batch we made this time is slightly different, but we’d like it better with these changes.

Ingredients

4 cups of chopped, peeled cucumbers
4 cups chopped, peeled onions
2 heads celery, cut fine
3 sweet red peppers, cut fine
3 green peppers, cut fine
1 large cauliflower, cut fine
5 cups white vinegar
6 ¾ cups white sugar (we used organic which is ‘tan’ sugar)
¼ cup yellow mustard seeds
1 cup rice flour (you can also use wheat)
4 tbsp. dry mustard powder
2 tbsp. turmeric powder
¼ cup salt

Instructions

Wash, peel and trim all vegetables as needed. Either cut fine by hand, with a chopper, or in the food processor with the chopping blade (we used a food processor – the girls loved helping!) to get the above measures necessary for the recipe.

Place all ingredients in a non-reactive pot (we used stainless steel), stir well and let stand for 24 hours. Heat until the relish comes to a boil, stir regularly to prevent burning. Pour into scalded canning jars, leaving ½” headspace, and ensuring that the rim is wiped clean, place scalded seals and rings on jars, sealing until finger tight. Place jars in a boiling water canning bath for 10 minutes. Remove with tongs and place on counter undisturbed for 24 hours. Tighten any loose rings, and put any unsealed jars into the fridge for immediate consumption.

Mmmm, enjoy!

Is blogging for pay a legitimate income opportunity? If you start looking into this question on the internet, you’ll find different opportunities available. Some involve being hired to run blogs for companies promoting certain positions or issues, or just company blogs – these positions of course require an existing blog, and sometimes extensive writing experience. Then there is monetizing your blog using Google Adsense, very few requirements but you don’ t have any control over the ads (could be risky for a Christian website).

But there is another option as well! You might have been hearing about PayPerPost lately. I know that I had heard of the phenomenon once or twice before Penny Raine mentioned on a mutual Christian mamma e-mail list that she was blogging with PayPerPost. That is what triggered my interest in looking into the opportunities offered by this company.

Yes, you can get paid to blog! It is essentially a form of paid advertising on your blog, but better than adsense or similar programs, because you get to CHOOSE what you blog about, how you present your content etc. And for Christians this is SO very important, that our testimony not be compromised, that our yes means yes and our no means no.

The amount of money earned is dependent upon the nature of the item you are writing about, each is assigned with a certain dollar value, and you need to qualify for different opportunities based upon the quality of your blog and other factors. This is definitely a do-able way to earn a bit of income from your existing blog. The PayPerPost website shows that some of their bloggers are making fairly decent part-time incomes, and Penny is making some good ‘pin money’ too! My first goal is to cover the hosting expenses for my blog and website, since we don’t have a ‘free site’ blog, we pay for our own hosting. After that, well, we are a homeschooling family, and I LOVE books!

My existing readers can rest assured that NO content inconsistent with my walk in faith with Jesus Christ will appear on this blog due to my new relationship with PayPerPost, and that is the most beautiful thing about it all! I can monetize my blog, and still maintain a high quality site of integrity for my readers. I would definitely recommend them to any Mom looking for a bit of supplementary income.

Just click on this burgundy-red button to get started!

Our family has run and operated family businesses in the past – both in ‘real-life’ and an online store selling physical products that is no longer in operation due to a few different reasons 1. our conversion to Christ and 2. due to physical restrictions due to our move – lack of a workshop 3. lack of time, as DH had taken a contract away from home and we travelled with him so we just didn’t have the time to fill the physical orders.

For the past few months we have been looking for a way that we could make a family income online, without needing to fill physical orders, and have been led into the world of internet marketing and e-book production which we find quite fascinating. But we’ve never quite found the right course, as many of them seem to be produced by internet marketing guru’s who only make their money selling other people courses about making money!

But tomorrow there is a course coming out that is produced by regular people! A homeschooling mom and dad who have really made money selling products that are NOT related just to making money on the internet (though they have made money that way too). We were blessed to see the three free videos that they have produced detailing their different money making ventures, how they performed, what they sold etc. If you have ever been interested in generating an income on the internet, I definitely recommend you take a look at what the Beck’s have to offer! They love to help Christian families learn how to maximize their time and resources to earn a living to support their family. Kerry homeschools their children while Steve is in seminary full time, and their part-time online business earns then a six-figure income!

You can get access to their free videos, and learn more about the course at 8 Weeks to Profits.

My husband hasn’t yet had a chance to view the videos, but from what I’ve shared with him so far, he is pumped! We have read some materials and e-books on producing e-books, but NOTHING so comprehensive as this seems to be! It puts EVERYTHING together for you.

Here is some specifics for you to think about!

Some of you may not know it, the Becks, started their online adventure just 4 short years ago. They are just like you & me, the typical “couple next door” who accidently stumbled upon a way to create information products in a variety of niches.

That’s one of the criticisms I hear about Internet Marketing…

“You can’t make money on the Internet unless you teach other people about making money!”

“Any other topic…and you’ll fail!”

Well, that’s just not true and let me show you why.

Stephen Beck just released a video showing how his wife, Kerry, made $11,206.00 in the first 15 days with a $27 ebook about homeschool education!

Kerry also made $2,207.63 in the first 28 days with a $37 ebook about getting ready for Christmas – even with all the free Christmas stuff out there!

What is the moral of this story?

You do not have to be in the “make money” niche to make a great monthly income from information products. And finding a topic is not very hard – - -

Now, go watch Stephen’s video that shows the products they sold on the Internet…Be sure you have a pad of paper to keep notes. You’ll discover what they did right, what they did wrong and find out actual numbers as well. The good, the bad and the ugly!

Go check out the video here:
8 Weeks to Profits

One more thing… you need to enter your name & email to watch the video. I know it’s a hassle, but I promise it will be worth it. This full video is so inspirational.

Here’s the link again:
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=2334702

P.S. One thing they talk about that you don’t want to miss are the mistakes you can avoid by starting right.