-
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_
EPnews -- from The Entrepreneurial Parent
a work-family resource for home-based entrepreneurs
@ http://www.en-parent.com
December 27, 2000
Lisa Roberts, Editor:
epideas@en-parent.com
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_
Do you find EPnews useful?
Please forward to a friend, or recommend it to your favorite
Web site or
e-zine. Thanks for your support!
---> Subscribe TODAY: EPnews-Subscribe@egroups.com
<---
For easy reading, simply print
out this newsletter.
_______________CONTENTS_______________
- ... The Funny Things EP Kids
Say & Do
- ... Publicity Opportunity for
EPs
- ... EP Expert Essay: "Let's
Talk Dreams: Auditioning Your New Year's
Resolution" by Sarah Edwards
- ... EP Expert Article: "Advice
from A-Z: What is the Legacy You are Leaving
Your Children?" by Azriela Jaffe
- ... Making Money Matters --
Surveys Needed
_________________________________________
Editorial Note: EPnews is distributed
the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of every
month, and monthly during the summer. The Entrepreneurial Parent
web site
(en-parent.com) is a
hub of community and career resources for
Entrepreneurial Parents -- come visit often. Welcome all new
subscribers!
=====================================================================================================================
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
WomenEnt.com
Extraordinary women-owned websites
who's entrepreneurial spirit makes them
stand out above the rest. Art clocks, healthcare and aromatherapy
products,
web design services, jewelry, gift shops, tarot readings, rocking
chairs,
garden gifts, unique collectibles and more. Ethical conduct,
quality goods
and services and great customer service are our hallmark!
http://www.womenent.com
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
=======================================================================================================================
___________________________________
THE FUNNY THINGS EP KIDS SAY & DO!
Submitted by EPnews Subscriber,
Julia Wilkinson (mailto:JuliaWilk@aol.com):
Lately, whenever my daughter
Lindsay, 6, does something wrong (as in against
our house rules), she tries to use this rationalization:
"It was just a mistake.
Everyone makes mistakes."
Or she'll say,
"What am I, chopped sliver?"
Another time I was trying to
be cute about the moon in the sky. The night was
cloudy, she pointed out the moon and then it went behind some
clouds. I said,
"Look, the moon is hiding!" She answers, "No,
mommy, it just went behind the
clouds."
Guess these little minds are
soaking up everything we say!
=================
Why work at home? So you can
hear the funny things your EP Kids say
throughout the day. Share with the EP Community something your
child said or
did recently that made you smirk, giggle, or LOL. Send your submission
to:
editor@en-parent.com
And if you need a stockpile of
smiles to get you through your EP day, check
out Grace Housholder's heartwwarming "The Funny Kids Project"
at
www.funnykids.com. On those stressed-out EP days, you'll be glad
you did!
___________________________________
PUBLICITY OPPORTUNITY FOR EPs
If you're an overseas "SOHO
Mom," the Kurashi Web: Home Page for Working Mothers is
looking for you. The Kurashi Web covers various content for women
in daily life, such as Cooking, Children, Family, Health, House,
Business, SOHO (Small Office, Home Office), Knowledge, Trips,
and more. Since the end of 1999, their reports of "Overseas
SOHO mothers" have introduced 13 working mothers from nine
countries to this Japanese online community, which is sponsored
by a noted Japanese firm, Panasonic, Matsushita Electric Industries,
Co., Ltd.
Contact Hiromi Hishiki of iBall
Co., Ltd. at: <<iball@b07.cno.ne.jp>>
if you work at home (outside the U.S.) and are interested in
getting featured. Your interview will be translated into Japanese
and put up on the following Web site as an article:
http://kurashi.hi-ho.ne.jp/work/index.html
Good Luck, & Have Fun!
___________________________________
EP EXPERT ESSAY
"Let's Talk Dreams: Auditioning
Your New Year's Resolution"
© 2000, by Sarah Edwards
Few of us make New Year's resolutions
these days because we usually don't
keep them. It's no wonder we don't. We usually choose to make
resolutions
about things we want to stop doing like smoking and overeating
or things we
think we should do like working harder and exercising more.
But what if we held auditions
for our resolutions? What if they had to try
out and win our favor? I started doing this several years ago
and, boy, does
it ever make a difference! Possible New Years' resolutions get
a few weeks
in December to convince me of four things:
1. Will they further my dreams
and bring me closer to being the person I want
to be and the simple good life I want to live?
2. Would I like them so much
that I will do what it takes to learn how to
make them a regular part of my life?
3. Do they have a 75% or better
chance of becoming a habit?
4. Is achieving them within my
power?
If a resolution can't convince
me of these things before the New Year begins,
then forget it, they're a waste of my time.
Thanks to this auditioning process,
my resolutions have had a pretty good
track record. I can usually turn them into habits within 3-4
months. I've
had a few "failures," but they can be as valuable as
the successes, because
they teach me more about what I really want, what I can and cannot
count on
myself to do, and how to best motivate myself.
So my auditions for January 1st
have already begun. Here are a few examples
of the contenders for my 2001 list:
1. Take a walk in the forest
three times a week. I like this one a lot but
I'm not doing it. So, if I choose this one, I'm sure I'll have
a lot to learn
about why I'm not doing something I say I want to do. I have
to decide if I
want to take on something as challenging as this. It's going
to take some
work.
2. Do something new each week
to build traffic on my web site. I like this
one too, and have already begun doing it, so it has a good chance
of making
the list.
3. Invite friends over on Thursday
nights. I want to make more time to be
with friends, so this has a lot of appeal. While it does depend
on the
schedules of others, this one is already a lot of fun. I've had
to do it on
different nights, though, so I need to modify this intention
to having
friends over several times a month.
4. Participate in starting an
investment club. This will require the
involvement of others and I can tell already that I'll only be
interested if
they're equally interested, so this one needs some further checking
into.
5. Eat fish once a week. I don't
like fish, but it's so good for me. I feel
big time resistance to this one. Don't think it will make the
list. I may
work on eating more fish, especially salmon, but I'm not committing
to it.
Would you like to join me in
trying out the possibilities for 2001? What
would win your auditions? More time for yourself? Turning off
the cell phone
after 7:00? Taking a step each day toward starting a business
of your own?
Taking a vacation this year? Setting aside an hour to write on
that novel
you've had in mind? Having a romantic evening out each week with
your partner?
I'll let you know what makes
my list and we can support each other in working
to make 2001 the year we live our dreams!
===========
Sarah Edwards is our EP Home
Career Selection Expert and the author of "The
Practical Dreamer's Handbook, Finding the Time, Money and Energy
to Live the
Life You Want to Live." Let's Talk Dreams is a weekly column.
Sarah wants to
hear about your dreams and the difficulties you're having in
creating them.
E-mail your questions, comments and ideas at www.practicaldreamer.net
and she
may answer or address them in future columns. Sarah and her husband
Paul have
written a dozen books on working from home and self-employment.
They have
over a million books in print. You can read more about them at:
http://en-parent.com/Experts/exp-edwards.htm
___________________________________
EP EXPERT ARTICLE
"Advice from A-Z: What is
the Legacy You are Leaving Your Children?"
© 2000, by Azriela Jaffe
When asked, entrepreneurial parents
will often assert that they are working
hard to have something of value to pass along to their children,
whether it
be a family business the children can make a career in, the financial
means
to send their children to college, or even enough wealth to set
them up in
life so that they won't have to worry about money.
We can witness tangible transfer
of material goods from successful
entrepreneurial parents to their children, but what about what
we can't so
easily see? Money comes and goes, and material wealth that is
given to the
children can be squandered or lost in an economic recession or
hard financial
times in a family because of one crisis or another.
I'm even more interested in the
emotional legacy that an entrepreneurial
parent may leave behind when they die -- that which will not
disappear
depending on the actions of Alan Greenspan, that which does not
depend on
whether the stock market is doing well, or venture capitalists
are investing
in dot-coms, or even whether the adult child turns out to be
skilled in
business or not.
What did the entrepreneurial
parent teach his or her children before s/he
died? What life lessons can the children learn from the way that
their
parent conducted him/herself in business and in the community?
Have they
learned resiliency from watching their entrepreneurial parent
bounce back
from the trials of business?
Are they young adults with high
self-esteem and the deep and unyielding
knowledge that their mom and/or dad loved them for who they were?
Were they
taught to follow their dreams, but responsibly? Were they shown
the
importance of making a positive difference to customers and employees
and the
community? Do they understand what it took to create a successful
business
-- the sacrifices made for family, the emotional commitment it
required?
There is a beautiful tradition
in the Jewish religion of leaving behind an
"ethical will." Written before one dies, a parent writes
his or her thoughts
on the deeper issues of life, to give to the children upon his
or her death.
Beyond who gets what material goods, the parent expresses his
or her life
philosophies, wishes for their children, loving thoughts about
their loved
ones, and reflections on the most significant lessons they have
learned in
life.
Many Jews write a new ethical
will from time to time, as their children age
and their thoughts about life change. Others write one that stays
hidden in
a safe deposit box or entrusted with a spouse for years. So often,
when a
parent dies, we discover that much of their life was a mystery
to us -- what
they thought and felt, why they did what they did, what was important
to
them, what they believed and felt about us that we can use in
our life as we
grow older, and so on.
It seems to me that beyond the
material wealth that an entrepreneur might
hope to accumulate for his or her family, passing along a clearer
understanding of who he or she was and hoped to be, would be
an enormous gift
to his or her children.
Tom Meehan of Sparta, New Jersey
understands the urgency of not allowing our
loved ones to die without the opportunity to know who they were,
and to be
able to tell generations to follow. After retiring in 1998 as
an Accountant
with 32 years of experience in that field, he decided to turn
his Videography
hobby into a Small Business Enterprise that is making a positive
difference
for senior citizens.
He took a part time job as a
Salesman with the "ADT Security Alarm" Company.
Many of his customers wanted him to videotape their personal
property after
installing the Alarm Systems in case of fires, floods, burglaries
and so on.
When his clients requested an "Audio Voiceover " with
biographical
commentary regarding the significance and history of their most
valuable
personal possessions, an idea for a small business was born.
Using college students majoring
in Communication Arts and Broadcast
Journalism at local universities to conduct the interviews, and
with him
behind the camera, senior citizens hire Tom's firm to give their
loved ones a
living biography -- personal statements of family values and
philosophies of
living which can be passed down to their future generations to
come. Most of
his clients come from Senior Citizens in the local area who have
learned of
his service from networking with other seniors, and they wish
to videotape
their memoirs to be handed down to their grandchildren and loved
ones.
What a lovely holiday present
this would be. (Contact info - email
tmeehan@emanseisp.net
or call (973) 398-7358. And if you don't happen to
live close enough to Tom's business, haven't you a family video
camera
someplace in the house that you could drag out to interview your
elderly
relatives at the next holiday gathering?
We never know when our time on
earth will end. Although noble to work most
of our days so that we can accumulate material wealth for our
families,
nothing will probably be treasured more than the priceless gift
of allowing
your children to know who you are and what your life stood for,
before you
are unable to tell them any more. Fifty years from now, you may
have a
grandchild who makes a living using that antique desk that served
you so well
in the years you slaved away at it for your business.
And that same child may wonder,
"who was the man or woman who used this same
desk two generations ago, and what could they teach me now about
succeeding
in my life?" Your picture hanging on the wall won't tell
them.
Azriela Jaffe is our EP Relationship
Expert and the author of eight books,
including "Create Your Own Luck, Eight Principles of Attracting
Good Fortune
in to your Life, Love, and Work." She can be reached at
azriela@mindspring.com,
or http://www.azriela.com.
To subscribe to her free
online newsletter on creating luck, or on entrepreneurial couples
and
families, mailto:azriela@mindspring.com. To read her EP Q&As,
go to:
http://en-parent.com/Experts/exp-jaffe-QandA.htm
____________________________________________
MAKING MONEY MATTERS
Being available to your kids
and managing a career under one roof sounds to
many like the best of both worlds, but without pulling in some
kind of income
what's all the effort for? Making Money Matters!
Want to spread the word about
YOUR business in EPnews? We need more EPnews
Subscribers to profile -- so let's hear how YOU earn your keep
as an EP! Just
copy the questions below, hit Reply to this email, change the
subject heading
"MMM Survey," and answer the questions. Thank you!!
1. In a 2-3 sentence statement,
explain what your home business is about,
including your target market and "mission statement."
2. What are the most popular
products and/or services you sell? How much do
you sell them for (or what's your hourly rate), and how did you
find the
right price/fee schedule for them?
3. What are *your* favorite products
and/or services? Why do you like to sell
them?
4. Tell us a bit about your marketing
campaign. When did you start noticing
your first sales (after which marketing technique), what marketing
efforts
have you noticed yield the greatest results, and how do you make
your first
contact and subsequent sales (via online, phone, fax, mail, face-to-face)?
5. Any additional comments are
welcome.
_____________________________
CONTACT/SUBSCRIPTION INFO
The Entrepreneurial Parent, LLC
is not engaged in rendering legal or
financial advice. If expert assistance is required, the services
of a
licensed professional should be sought.
This newsletter may be redistributed
freely via the Internet. Re-publishing
of separate articles for your print publication needs approval
first; write
to: Roberts@en-parent.com
for permission.
© 2000, The Entrepreneurial
Parent, LLC
Editor: Lisa M. Roberts
POB 320722, Fairfield, CT 06432; http://en-parent.com
Ph/Fax: (203) 371-6212, Email: office@en-parent.com
Community email addresses:
Subscribe: EPnews-subscribe@onelist.com
Unsubscribe: EPnews-unsubscribe@onelist.com
List owner: EPnews-owner@onelist.com
Shortcut URL to this page:
http://www.onelist.com/community/EPnews
|