Sue Cook and family from BoscoBear

Our February, 2012 Business of the Month is Bosco Bear. Read our interview with Sue Cook below.

Tell us a little about the person behind the business: I have three children, twins that are 4 (turning 5) and a two-and-a-half year old. I live in Melbourne but started my business in Sydney. I am a bit of a workaholic and outside of work, cannot get enough sport into my life (netball, cricket, AFL, cycling, tennis–I will watch it all). I love running, although do not do it as much as I would like to and I play netball/tennis. I also enjoy studying search engine optimisation (SEO) in my spare time…which is a little weird because I have no spare time. Why SEO? I cannot answer.

And now a little about the business itself? 

We have been in business since early 2006 and during that time, have had a lot of fun helping to personalise the imagination of children’s bedrooms and play areas everywhere.

We have also helped mums and dads too. We have added to the organisation birthday parties with our party products and personalised party invitations (new range launching in 2011) all over Australia. We have helped make sure that things don’t get lost with our range of labels for school, day care and kindergarten! Whatever the design, what ever the colour we have some cute (and crazy) label creations. We have even helped keep track of time – measuring children as they grow with our height chart designs and teaching the time with our wall decal clock range.

From dinosaurs to butterflies, jungle characters to owls and enchanting trees, pirates to princesses our BoscoBear range is jam packed full of bright, colourful characters and stories that are sure to please. There are over 2000 designs in our range and we are adding to this all the time for new products, new creative and new collections!

How did you come up with your business name?

And finally, what advice would you give to anyone wanting to start a WAH business?

Do you offer any discounts to Support a WAHP members? 

Congratulations to the following businesses who have been randomly selected for the poll to win an In the Spotlight Interview (valued at $500 in free publicity).

Business: Enslaved Design

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/enslaveddesign

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/enslaveddesign

Website: http://www.enslaveddesign.net

Tell us a little about the person behind the business?
My name is Amanda, I am a 29 year old living and working on the Gold Coast. I live with my partner Steven our naughty little 2 year old Cattle Dog Sophie and our beautiful Cat Summer. I fell in love with Graphic Art in 1999 when I produced custom website graphics for clients while finishing High School but my Tertiary Education took me away from my web design and artwork in 2000.

I graduated from Griffith University in 2002 with a Bachelor of International Business majoring in domestic and international Marketing. A few years after graduating I found myself still in love with the world of Graphic Art and went back to complete training at the Queensland College of Graphic Art in Burleigh Heads. I have 12 years marketing experience for both large firms and boutique businesses and 6 years commercial print art experience – but a love affair with it that extends well back into my past. I work full time as a Marketing Manager and also run E nslaved Design – which makes for some long days and working weeks. But I love what I do and wouldn’t change my career for anything!

And now a little about the business itself?
Enslaved Design is a Graphic Art and Marketing business based on Queensland’s Gold Coast. We specialise in making our clients stand out against their competitors. We have a pretty broad list of services including: developing marketing plans, promotions, web art, print art, business stationary, flyers, posters, branding and apparel. During my induction into Marketing I was focused on branding – I have never lost my passion for building and maintaining powerful brands that send simple messages. We love nothing more than a challenge – thinking outside the square to increase clients’ visibility, likeability and sales.

How did you come up with your business name? Back in the 90’s… I was a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan (stop laughing)… and was a little bit in love with one of the characters, Spike. So, my internet name was “Spike’s Slave” at the end of the show, it got changed to just “Slave”. I used to produce a lot of fan art and early web art under that name “Slave”. The name Enslaved Design was born from my old internet name and its pretty appropriate – we do aim to bewitch prospective customers with out artwork and approach to branding.

Who wants to try out a fun new networking activity? It’s called “Get pinned!” Random shoutouts are nice, but pins last forever! They show up in SEO and they link back to your website! And here’s an added incentive to up your game when you post about your business on our page wall: Each month I’m doing up a work at home gallery on Pinterest to highlight my personal favourites from our sponsors and from those who post on our wall as well as useful resources and articles. So, if you want to get noticed, here’s a few tips:

1. Have a website (can be Etsy or Madeit… so long as it’s not just your images on Facebook as you can’t pin from Facebook yet).
2. Take beautiful photos. I’m more likely to pin your images if you take stunning photos.
3. If you do feature something from your Facebook photo album, make sure you put a link to where i can find the image on your website or online store.
4. If you are featured, I will let you know “you’ve been pinned” and it would be nice if you’d share the love on Pinterest (if you’re on there), Twitter and Facebook and pin other WAHP pics from the board onto your own boards.
5. In your product descriptions, make sure you use some key words that will help people find your products on Pinterest.
6. Include a price where appropriate in your product descriptions, and
7. Start your own Work At Home board!

Each day I’ll pick 2 or 3 random businesses to feature. If you want to follow me on Pinterest, here’s the link: http://pinterest.com/mumatopia.

Don’t forget that Pinterest has a few basic, golden rules!

1. Pin other people’s stuff more than you pin your own.

2. You’re more likely to be found if you use descriptive key words and titles in your Board Names and descriptions.

3. Do network with other pinners via repins and comments.

Enjoy!

Each week I have a browse through our sponsors’ website to see what’s new! This week I’m going with a Valentine’s theme and sharing the love! Here’s what I found:

Lifestyle

Baby Vegas specialises in fabulous children’s goods and collectables, from character toys to wind chimes and mobiles to snowglobes and collectables, and much, much more. Baby Vegas has an amazing array of homewares, toys, decor and accessories. Snow globes aren’t just for Christmas! This one would make a cute ornament for a little girl’s room. W: www.babyvegas.com.au/ F: www.BabyVegas.com.au.

Rachel from Atomic Butterfly Photography is a Gold Coast based ‘natural light’ photographer specialising in Pregnacy, Newborns, Families, Couples, Children, Weddings and Commercials. If you live on the Gold Coast and want fantastic photos of your growing kids, talk to Rachel today. atomicbutterflyphotography.blogspot.com F: atomicbutterflyphotography.

Rachael Sheldrick Training offers unique and highly individualised online personal training services for mums, pregnant women and anyone else who finds it hard to get to a gym. If you’re trying to lose the post-baby weight, it’s time to give yourself the love and attention you need and get back in shape. Rachael has a six and 12 week Instant Program to get you moving towards your fitness goals. Have a look through the testimonials and success stories on Rachael’s website. W: www.rachaelsheldricktraining.com/ F: RachaelSheldrickTraining.

Pure Earth Noosa has these beautiful valentine cards. At Pure Earth Noosa you can buy organic for every member of the family.W: www.pureearthnoosa.com.auF: PureEarthNoosa

Family

Owl Baby is the place for modern cloth nappies and other beautiful and eco-friendly and baby-friendly products. If you’re looking sustainable alternatives for your baby, Owl Baby has a fantastic range of products. W: www.owlbaby.com.au  F: OwlBabyStore

Mumatopia‘s mission is to nurture mums! Mumatopia is hosting a DONA International Birth Doula Training Workshop March 2 to 4 in the heart of Ipswich’s chic cafe district. Learn how to support women in having a safe and satisfying birth as a birth doula. The training course is being run by Certified DONA Doula and Doula Trainer Julie Thompson from the US. For information visit Mumatopia today! Book by February 7th and join us for a special session “Social Media for Doulas”: W:mumatopia.com F: mumatopia.

Studio Dragonfly creates and sources innovative, unique, funky and creative gifts and things for babies, kids, pregnant woman and parents to make life simpler for families. All products are Australian-made by WAHParents. Amber necklaces have natural healing properties. They are great for little teethers. W: www.studio-dragonfly.net F: studio.dragonfly

Everything in the Little Peanut store is handmade with love, beautiful and original. Ooo, I  think I need to get myself a pair of these! I’m a sucker for hairclips! W: little-peanut.com.au/ F: LittlePeanutHandmade.

Two Little Princes is where you’ll find fabulous pre-loved and organic fashion for your little princes and princesses. Get some back to school preloved bargains. Two Little Princes is moving house so they’re website is on maintenance mode until February 10th. We’ll bring you more TLP love then. W: Two Little Princes F: Two Little Princes – www.twolittleprinces.com.au

Events

The Party Hub has party themes to suit every little person! The Party Hub has an amazing array of character and animal- themed party supplies that will rock your next your birthday celebration. For little girls dreaming of finding their prince charming, Disney Princess is the perfect party theme! W: thepartyhub.com.au F: thepartyhub

Discount Party Supplies have a massive range of kids party supplies at discount prices, at your finger tips with the convenience of online shopping. They deliver anywhere in Australia with the option for Express Delivery within 24 hours, right to your front door. Nothing says party love like Elmo! W: www.discountpartysupplies.com.au/ F: discountpartysuppliesau

iLiv Cards offers Personalised photo birth announcements, baptism and birthday invitations, wedding and engagement invitations and thank you cards, baby thank you cards, baby shower invitations and more. Declare your love for each other to the world with a personalised photo card! W: www.ilivcards.com.au F: personalisedphotocards

Dee Zee Designs creates personalised baby birth announcements, birthday invitations, wedding invitations, baby shower invitations, christmas cards and more – using your own photos!  W: http://www.deezeedesigns.com.au/ F: deezeedesigns.

Jenni Dinsdale from PIY Invitations & Design is one of our Supporting Members and is also one of the moderators of our member Facebook group. Jenni creates beautiful personalised invitations that you print yourself! W: www.piyinvitations.com.au F: PrintItYourself .

Community

Business to Business

Pink Sugar Design offers an incredible array of product packaging and display solutions for your business.  Give your products some swing tag love. Pink Sugar Design creates custom dye cut swing tags to make your handmade products stand out from the crowd. W:www.pinksugardesign.com F:  PinkSugarDesign.

Loved By Me Designs provides affordable web and design solutions for WAHPs including a fantastic Facebook branding package. Branding is Nicole’s speciality. If you want an amazing customised presence on Facebook, look no further! This is an example of a fanstic website Nicole designed for an online boutique. W:lbmdesigns.com.au F: lbmdesigns

Support a WAHP’s “Admin Angel of Community Connectedness”, Belinda Milne from Sutherland Shire Virtual Assistant does an awesome job at moderating the Support a WAHP Page wall! If you’re overwhelmed with admin tasks or your bookkeeping hasn’t been attended to since New Years year before last, talk to Belinda about outsourcing your bookkeeping, diary management, data entry, word process and social media management. No agency fees, no sick or rec leave pay… just great service so you can focus on the things you love to do with your business. W:www.sutherlandshirevirtualassistant.com.au F: Sutherland-Shire-Virtual-Assistant

AtomicButterlyDesigns is a Gold Coast-based graphic design company that caters specifically for work at home people and small business needs with affordable graphic design for your website, blog, business cards, Facebook, invitations or printing needs. If you need an integrated branding package, Atomic Butterfly Designs offer their services at a great price for WAHPs. Now that your kids are going back to school, isn’t it time to revamp your Facebook branding? W: www.atomicbutterflydesigns.com F: atomicbutterfly.designs

Our January Business of the Month Sunnycoast Websites make the process of creating and updating websites easy! With potential designs available in 24 hrs and your website up and running in 5 days at a set price, you’ll be in expert hands setting up your website presence. W: sunnycoastwebsites.com.au  F: sunnycoastwebsite.

Foyster’s Communications offers a social media helpdesk service to any WAHP anywhere to get you unstuck when you can’t figure out what’s what on Facebook. Just $15 can get you 5 minutes’ support time and most problems only take 5 minutes to fix. W: www.foysters.com.au F:Foysters

All a Buzz’s Lynda Nel offers social media management and administration services to small businesses in her area of the UK and internationally. W:  www.allabuzz.co.uk  F: AllABuzz

Advisory Group member and Facebook group moderator for Support a WAHP, Lucie Battaini, from MultimediART,  is an SEO expert and a skilled website developer. If you need help with SEO, contact Lucie today! She also has a free report on SEO on her website. W:www.multimediart.com.au  F: http://www.facebook.com/multimediart.

WahmBay offers a unique marketplace just for work at home mums! List your products and services today as well as unwanted items. WAHMs supporting WAHMs! W: www.wahmbay.com.au F: www.wahmbay.com.au

It is really tempting to view Paypal as the ultimate payment solution when you’re starting out with your business. It’s easy. It’s quick and everybody uses it, or so it seems. But did you know that if you trade through a Family Trust, like many small and home based businesses in Australia do, Paypal won’t have anything to do with you?

I came across this issue the other day. As many of you know I bought Support a WAHP in partnership with my friend Erica. We set up our Paypal account as a partnership account and all was rosy. Late last year, Erica sold her share of the business to me as she was finding the workload a bit much with young children and I’ve been gradually working my way through all the red tape to change everything over to my name.

The problem is, when I went to close that Paypal account and set up a new one in my name, I ran into the issue with Trusts.

So, I thought, okay! I’ll just look at what else is available. I talked to the bank who wanted to charge me an astronomical amount in fees per transaction, in set up fees and licensing fees to establish a payment gateway and their packages were quite limited and not really suited to my needs. I talked to Eway, which a lot of small business people use but you have to set up a package with them and with your bank which increases your costs even more. The smaller your business turnover, the more expensive.

I spent much of yesterday looking at all the various payment gateways and third party payment options on offer and it became really clear to me that

• micro businesses and work at home businesses are severely disadvantaged when it comes to online payment solutions,
• all of the alternatives are WAY more expensive than Paypal (even taking into account Paypal takes 2.4% plus 30 cents per transaction) and
• most of the services creative entrepreneurs and the like use are linked into Paypal or US providers like Authorize.net which is quite limiting for micro businesses in Australia if you are set up as a trust.

Considering that 68 percent of Australia’s small businesses are home based, it’s shameful that there aren’t more services aimed at this market. There needs to be more support available for the small operators who are, let’s face it, propping up the economy but paying the highest rates for everything.

So, if you run your business through your family trust, what are the alternatives to Paypal? Below is a table summarizing the best services we found this week:

• http://www.2checkout.com/: based in the US but allows any legitimate business to set up an account. Their rates are higher than Paypal’s but lower than some other payment solutions.
• http://www.paymate.com.au: based in Australia, has a great reputation and is compliant with all e-commerce laws in Australia. Has very strict criteria for businesses and passes some of the costs onto consumers which would put some people off. You can opt to absorb the costs but they are quite high.
• http://www.eway.com.au/: Eway is a like a cross between the bank and Paypal. They process the transactions but you get paid directly into your bank account so you need to also sign up for a merchant ID with your bank. This makes it quite an expensive option depending on what your bank charges you for the online merchant ID.

Have you had any problems with Paypal for your small business? Do you think e-commerce solutions are overly expensive for micro businesses? What payment gateway solutions do you rely on and why?

Every day, I come across fantastic resources, tools and ideas I can use for my work at home business. While it may be tempting to download that latest cool plugin for WordPress or start a new spur-of-the-moment promotional campaign because of something you just saw someone else do, it is wise to take a breath and ask yourself the following:

1. How is this going to help me achieve my business goals? and
2. Is this really going to add value to my business?

Sometimes, what seems like a great idea at the time can take you off on a tangent that distracts you from your business goals and objectives. For example: you a see a cool “must have” plugin and you abandon everything else that day to install the plugin. Then you find that this task is going to take you all day. Then you quickly discover that there’s a lot of reading and preparation work that must go into installing it correctly. Then you realize that you don’t really know what you’re doing and you’ll likely have to pay someone to do it for you. See where this is going?

If you come across a cool promotional idea or plugin or anything that seems a bit innovative, my suggestion is to simply bookmark it for later reference and put aside an hour a week to review your “idea” bookmarks. That way you won’t waste precious time chasing after the latest business butterfly to flap its wings at you and you can take a moment to consider how some new innovation, tool or idea will add value to your business.

Another consideration is that you don’t necessarily have to follow suit, just because an idea is trending. I’ve seen lots of people try and make a buck off the back of other people’s success or other people’s ideas. It’s okay to be inspired by other people’s ingenuity and run with your own idea but it’s not okay to copy someone else word for word or to take their ideas and do exactly the same thing. Be different. Be original and look for the gaps rather than the trends. What aren’t people doing?

Each week I have a browse through our sponsors’ website to see what’s new! This week I’m looking for products and services with a “Back to School Theme.” Here’s what I found.

Lifestyle

Pure Earth Noosa has some great back to school products available including BPA Free drink bottles. At Pure Earth Noosa you can buy organic for every member of the family.W: www.pureearthnoosa.com.auF: PureEarthNoosa

Mumatopia‘s mission is to nurture mums! Mumatopia is hosting a DONA International Birth Doula Training Workshop March 2 to 4 in the heart of Ipswich’s chic cafe district. Learn how to support women in having a safe and satisfying birth as a birth doula. The training course is being run by Certified DONA Doula and Doula Trainer Julie Thompson from the US. For information visit Mumatopia today!: W:mumatopia.com F: mumatopia.

Be absolutely gorgeous with a very cool Booble Art lunch box from Baby Vegas.  Baby Vegas specialises in fabulous children’s goods and collectables, from character toys to wind chimes and mobiles to snowglobes and collectables, and much, much more. Baby Vegas has an amazing array of homewares, toys, decor and accessories. Today I’m loving their gorgeous back to school Bobble Art lunch bags for just $24.95! W: www.babyvegas.com.au/ F: www.BabyVegas.com.au.

Rachel from Atomic Butterfly Photography is a Gold Coast based ‘natural light’ photographer specialising in Pregnacy, Newborns, Families, Couples, Children, Weddings and Commercials. If you live on the Gold Coast and want fantastic photos of your growing kids, talk to Rachel today. atomicbutterflyphotography.blogspot.com F: atomicbutterflyphotography.

Rachael Sheldrick Training offers unique and highly individualised online personal training services for mums, pregnant women and anyone else who finds it hard to get to a gym. Now the kids are going back to school, it’s time to give yourself the time and attention you need and get back in shape. Rachael has a six and 12 week Instant Program to get you moving towards your fitness goals. Have a look through the testimonials and success stories on Rachael’s website. W: www.rachaelsheldricktraining.com/ F: RachaelSheldrickTraining.

Family

Studio Dragonfly creates and sources innovative, unique, funky and creative gifts and things for babies, kids, pregnant woman and parents to make life simpler for families. All products are Australian-made by WAHParents. This week I’m loving these cute sunglasses for babies and kids, on sale this week for $24.95. W: www.studio-dragonfly.net F: studio.dragonfly

When you’re walking your big kids up to school  and back with a pram, it helps to have something to carry all the homework and shopping home. Owl Baby is the place for modern cloth nappies and other beautiful and eco-friendly and baby-friendly products. If you’re looking sustainable alternatives for your baby, Owl Baby has a fantastic range of products. W: www.owlbaby.com.au  F: OwlBabyStore

Everything in the Little Peanut store is handmade with love, beautiful and original. Your child will never lose their place in their reading book with this cute bookmark! W: little-peanut.com.au/ F: LittlePeanutHandmade.

Two Little Princes is where you’ll find fabulous pre-loved and organic fashion for your little princes and princesses. Get some back to school preloved bargains. W: Two Little Princes F: Two Little Princes – www.twolittleprinces.com.au

Events

Discount Party Supplies have a massive range of kids party supplies at discount prices, at your finger tips with the convenience of online shopping. They deliver anywhere in Australia with the option for Express Delivery within 24 hours, right to your front door. It’s time to start planning birthday parties for the year. Stand out with these cool Super Mario Party Supplies. W: www.discountpartysupplies.com.au/ F: discountpartysuppliesau

The Party Hub has party themes to suit every passion! The Party Hub has an amazing array of character and animal- themed party supplies that will rock your next your birthday or anniversary. Every early reader loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar! W: thepartyhub.com.au F: thepartyhub

iLiv Cards offers Personalised photo birth announcements, baptism and birthday invitations, wedding and engagement invitations and thank you cards, baby thank you cards, baby shower invitations and more. If your new school age boy has a birthday party coming up, impress his friends with these fantastic, personalised invitations. W: www.ilivcards.com.au F: personalisedphotocards

Dee Zee Designs creates personalised baby birth announcements, birthday invitations, wedding invitations, baby shower invitations, christmas cards and more – using your own photos! How impressive are these ticket-style birthday invitations. Perfect for the teen that’s too school for cool! W: http://www.deezeedesigns.com.au/ F: deezeedesigns.

Jenni Dinsdale from PIY Invitations & Design is one of our Supporting Members and is also one of the moderators of our member Facebook group. Jenni creates beautiful personalised invitations that you print yourself! W: www.piyinvitations.com.au F: PrintItYourself .

Community

Support a WAHP’s “Admin Angel of Community Connectedness”, Belinda Milne from Sutherland Shire Virtual Assistant does an awesome job at moderating the Support a WAHP Page wall! If you’re overwhelmed with admin tasks or your bookkeeping hasn’t been attended to since New Years year before last, talk to Belinda about outsourcing your bookkeeping, diary management, data entry, word process and social media management. No agency fees, no sick or rec leave pay… just great service so you can focus on the things you love to do with your business. W:www.sutherlandshirevirtualassistant.com.au F: Sutherland-Shire-Virtual-Assistant

Pink Sugar Design offers an incredible array of product packaging and display solutions for your business.  Have you seen their custom cosmetic label range? If you make beauty products and need labels, talk to Tegan at Pink Sugar Design. W:www.pinksugardesign.com F:  PinkSugarDesign.

AtomicButterlyDesigns is a Gold Coast-based graphic design company that caters specifically for work at home people and small business needs with affordable graphic design for your website, blog, business cards, Facebook, invitations or printing needs. If you need an integrated branding package, Atomic Butterfly Designs offer their services at a great price for WAHPs. Now that your kids are going back to school, isn’t it time to revamp your Facebook branding? W: www.atomicbutterflydesigns.com F: atomicbutterfly.designs

Our January Business of the Month Sunnycoast Websites make the process of creating and updating websites easy! With potential designs available in 24 hrs and your website up and running in 5 days at a set price, you’ll be in expert hands setting up your website presence. W: sunnycoastwebsites.com.au  F: sunnycoastwebsite.

Foyster’s Communications offers a social media helpdesk service to any WAHP anywhere to get you unstuck when you can’t figure out what’s what on Facebook. Just $15 can get you 5 minutes’ support time and most problems only take 5 minutes to fix. Amanda is away for a couple of weeks rest and relaxation. She’ll be back onboard after Australia Day, just in time for the new school year. W: www.foysters.com.au F:Foysters

All a Buzz’s Lynda Nel offers social media management and administration services to small businesses in her area of the UK and internationally. W:  www.allabuzz.co.uk  F: AllABuzz

Advisory Group member and Facebook group moderator for Support a WAHP, Lucie Battaini, from MultimediART,  is an SEO expert and a skilled website developer. If you need help with SEO, contact Lucie today! She also has a free report on SEO on her website. W:www.multimediart.com.au  F: http://www.facebook.com/multimediart.

WahmBay is for sale! WahmBay is a great concept–mums supporting other mums in business. This website has so much potential and could be taken to new heights by you! Contact admin@wahmbay.com.au if you are genuinely interested. W: www.wahmbay.com.au F: www.wahmbay.com.au

February 5-11th, 2012 we are launching the inaugural International WAHP Week to celebrate and recognize the achievements of work at home parents/people.

 Here’s how you can get involved:

Local Media Coverage. Tell your story and boost your business credibility with a story in your local newspaper. iWAHP Week gives you the perfect opportunity to be loud and proud about working from home! We’ll give you a helping hand to get your work at home story into the media. Just fill out the form below (make sure you complete all fields) to submit your details, then we’ll draft a release on Support a WAHP letterhead and email it to you. You then add your phone number at the bottom of the release as a local contact and send it on to your local newspaper/radio station in the lead up to iWAHP week.

Tips:

• For local newspapers, it is best to call first and ask who to send the release to. Say “I’m participating an an international event for home based businesses” or something to that effect and ask who to send an email to.
• When you send the email, make sure you attach the media release.
• If you haven’t heard back within 2 days, follow up with a phone call to the person who you sent the release to and ask them if they got it okay and if they are interested you could offer to set a time for a photoshoot or send them a photo.
• If you secure an interview and photoshoot, draft a list of questions (we can help you with that, so email if you need assistance) and answers to keep for your reference. You can also suggest questions to journalists but don’t give them your answer sheet.
• In photoshoots wear colourful clothes and bright lippy if you wear makeup. Most newspapers are using colour photos these days.
• Email us or post on the iWAHP Week Facebook Page Wall with any Questions.

Send us a 15- 30 second video. We are putting together a video collage to celebrate iWAHP week which we’ll post on Youtube. Send us your video in .mov format for possible inclusion. Here’s an example of what you can say “Hi, I’m [your name], I’m a [your job/business] and I work from home because [reason you work from home]. One of the biggest challenges for me is [biggest challenge]. Join me in celebrating International Work At Home Person week Feb 5 to 11, 2012!” Imagine if we get lots of these. What an impact we could have with our stories. Email videos to info@supportawahp.com. If your video is too large to email, just let us know and we’ll add you to our dropbox folder for videos.

Spread the word. Tell every WAHP you know about iWAHP Week. Get the iWAHP Week badge from our website and put it on your website. Organise a local WAHP gathering and tell us about it. Let’s rock Facebook and Twitter with #iWAHP!

There is a dizzying array of online selling and promotional tools for creative entrepreneurs but sometimes there can be such a thing as too much choice. There is a big temptation to spread yourself across every shopping platform and every social network but perhaps all that is needed is to identify and focus on those networks and platforms that bring in the most traffic to your blog or website and to make sure your website is optimized for your visitors.

So how do you do that?

1. Make sure you have a Google Analytics Account. It’s free to set up and gives you a ton of useful information about your blog or website. It tells you what posts and pages are the most popular and it can even visually show you where you get the most clicks on your website.
2. Look at things like what browsers most people use to access your website and what social media platforms produce the most traffic. This will give you an idea of where to focus your efforts and what kind of website works for you. Make sure you try out your website on a variety of platforms but if you find it works best on some over others, you can always suggest people switch to Google Chrome or Safari which tend to offer a better browsing experience.
3. Try out new social platforms, especially visual ones like Pinterest. Pinterest has been around for a couple of years but it is still a new kid on the block in the social media world. It has been getting a lot more attention of late, and there is little wonder as to why, because it is highly addictive and lots of fun. As a creative entrepreneur you can encourage your website visitors to pin your items by placing the “Pin It” button next  to photos. It is best to do this rather than pin too many of your own items as Pinterest is a curated website, meaning that the culture of the site is to pin and repin other people’s stuff, and not so much your own.
4. If you have a lot of products, choose an online store platform that allows you to import CSV files. You can cut down your workload by hours by keeping a simple spreadsheet of your products using all the field titles you would find in your online store.
5. Focus on visuals over words. A good quality image says more about your product than any product description could. Websites are starting to move towards a stronger focus on visuals over words but when you do use words, make sure you use keyword phrases in your product descriptions to help people find your business (just one or two specific phrases) and always use “alt” tag descriptions so your images can be appropriately indexed by search engines.

Whatever store platforms and social media networks you choose to focus on, be on the lookout for ways in which you can further improve your productivity online. That way you’ll be able to spend more time doing the things you love and less time tied to a computer screen.
 
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