A huge percentage of home based businesses are run by people with children.

Many of those parents are stay at home moms, with some stay at home dads thrown into the mix.

When June comes, thousand of children say farewell to their teachers and school books. 

They hit home one day and begin a 2 1/2 month siege on our schedules.

Learning how to stay focused on the tasks we need to complete for our business is critical to success.

When our children are home on school break, we are endlessly distracted with their activities and outings.

Make a point of scheduling for yourself a block of time during each day when you will be the least distracted.

Focus on completing the tasks you need uninterrupted concentration for. 

For me, this would be the time I work on blogs, website content, and correspondence with prospects.

During times you are more likely to be distracted, work on business activities that do not require close attention to detail.

This might be sending out Direct Matches emails where you use the same copy & paste material.

Whatever your business activities are, remember to prioritize the most essential and productive tasks.

Don’t waste time on anything that can be addressed another time.

Spend that extra time with your children and enjoy your vacation time with them!

Believe in Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

Those of us marketing our home based businesses online often build up accounts at several social networking sites, traffic exchanges, article directories, and other sites commonly used to network with potential business leads.

It is quite easy to get distracted and and start wandering around in cyberspace.  Your time gets swallowed up without realizing it.  You also end up feeling fatigued and unfocused.

Social Networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are notorious for taking up hours of time.

It is critical that you make a list of your daily marketing activities.

• List the site,
• Exactly what you will do on the site,
• How much time you will spend there,
• What time of the day or evening you will do it.

You have to stick to your list and not get distracted.

Once you are finished with your online marketing  activities, close your browser windows and walk away from the computer.

You may think you can surf the internet and find valuable content for your business.

Your time would be better spent contacting your customers, following up on your leads, and touching base with your team to brainstorm.

If you like to surf the net, schedule it into your activities and save it for after you have done more important things.

Last thing…always give yourself a day off!

You need one day a week to unplug from your business activities, turn off the computer and enjoy your family!

To be effective at building your Network Marketing business online, you have to keep yourself from getting lost in a virtual world.

Believe In Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

Well, Facebook is at it again!

In an effort to enhance user experience, Facebook has implemented changes that will make a lot of our information and activities public.

I don’t particularly like Facebook making decisions about what I put in my profile public.

But it is their sandbox, and they let me play there for free.

I have written before about guarding your personal information on Facebook and other similar sites.

Too often, people new to Network Marketing, or other types of home based businesses, start marketing their business using an already existing profile where they have been keeping up with family and friends.

Or if they’re like me, their first profile was for their business.  They were having fun and started adding family and friends along with business contacts.

If you are seriously building a business network on a social site, you will quickly have over 1,000 contacts.  After that, this number will grow and take on a life of its own.

Most of your family and friends are not interested in your business activities.

Your business contacts are not very interested in your personal pursuits.  They simply do not have the time.

So if you don’t already have two profiles…one personal and one business…get busy and create another profile.

I would create one for your personal contacts and ask them to friend you on your new profile. 

People who know you personally are more likely to friend you again than are business contacts.  There again…not enough time.

Once you have your personal contacts on your new profile, delete them from your old profile…the one you are going to use strictly for business.

You have to remember that once you start building a large business network, you don’t want people who you know only casually having a glimpse into your private life and the lives of your family and friends.

The other important task is to clean up your profile.

You really have to be careful of the information you put on your profile.

You are on social networking sites to build your business network…your contacts don’t need to know all of your personal information.

Share just enough about yourself to make you a real person others can identify with….but not enough an identity thief can use to make your life miserable.

One of the changes Facebook is making is to automatically place you in groups or fan pages based on your interests.

We generally list only a few key interests in that section in order to relate to each other as real people.

Someone is more likely to do business with you when they share common ground.

However, being automatically connected to random groups of people based on your gardening or bowling interests can wreck havoc.

Your personal information is shared with people you would not normally connect with.

Then you have to deal with all of the extra messages and posts in your Newsfeed from these groups.

I personally like to keep my Newsfeed clear to keep up on what my contacts are sharing.

If you happen to be put in particularly active groups, just imagine how cluttered your inbox can get!

So just be aware of what is in your profile and how you may have to clear out some information.

Time is at a premium for our marketing time.  It is easy to spend too much time on social networks.

Don’t get caught up in all the extra activity Facebook may be sending your way.

Believe in Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

I am so inspired and touched by MY American Idol favorite, Crytal Bowersox’s performance of “People Get Ready”, I had to look up the lyrics.

Music and poetry so often touch our souls on such an emotional and spiritual level, that no other message can make such an impact.

In Network Marketing/MLM, average people enter the entrepreneurial dream land of starting our own home based businesses. 

We are a tribe of amateurs. 

If we are committed to succeed and stick with the business, we need training in every aspect of business from lead generation to personal development.

We often come to the arena loaded with doubts and preconceived notions of how we should go about growing our businesses.

The best way to overcome our doubts is through personal development.  This not only includes reading from the standard library of self improvement business gurus.  We also need to saturate our lives with positive and inspiring stories, music, art, whatever touches us.

So, as part of my own inspirational library, I will share with you the lyrics to

“People Get Ready”
by Curtis Mayfield

” People get ready
There’s a train a-coming
You don’t need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels humming
Don’t need no ticket
You just thank the Lord

People get ready
For the train to Jordan
Picking up passengers
From coast to coast
Faith is the key
Open the doors and board them
There’s room for all
among the loved the most

There ain’t no room
for the hopeless sinner
Who would hurt all mankind just
To save his own
Have pity on those
whose chances are thinner
Cause there’s no hiding place
From the Kingdom’s Throne

So people get ready
for the train a-comin’
You don’t need no baggage
you just get on board !
All you need is faith
to hear the diesels humming
Don’t need no ticket
you just thank, you just thank the Lord

Yeah
Ooh

Yeah
Ooh

I’m getting ready
I’m getting ready
this time I’m ready
this time I’m ready”

Believe In Your Success, I Do!
Karen

http://www.complete-network-marketers-desk-reference.com

I saw a bumper sticker this morning that really turned a light on for me.

Think about this for a moment.

Don’t our beliefs in the economy and life in general have some affect on how successful we are?  Or at least on our perception of how successful we are?

I was talking to a lady recently who was interested in starting a home-based business.

She had downloaded my free ebook, Success In 10 Steps, a Network Marketers guide to success in MLM.

She wanted to learn more about the industry before jumping in.  Smart move.

After chatting awhile, she shared her doubts in starting a business right now because of the down turned economy.

She thought the economy was so bad that nobody could afford the products.  Any products from any company.  She just didn’t believe that people had the money to spare.

Ding!  Ding!

My new contact had hit upon a very important belief system that stands in the way of many people becoming successful with their home based businesses.

It is in such contradiction with the fact that the Network Marketing Industry tends to boom during times of financial crisis.

The crucial point to be made here is that a person’s belief is what drives their choices, success, and energies.

We are in charge of our own realities.

You will be successful if you believe you are successful.

You will be successful if you believe that you deserve to be successful.

You will be successful in building your home-based business—whether it’s direct sales or MLM—if you believe the economy is healthy and people can afford your product.

Napoleon Hill reminds us that “Our thoughts are things”.

We can believe our reality into existence, even if it takes just a simple bumper sticker to help us declare it to the world.

You will be successful if you believe in positive thoughts and affirmations and practice them multiple times a day.

Believe in Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com