With record Black Friday online sales ($816 Million) and the online biggest shopping day of the year Cyber Monday ($125 Billion in sales) behind us, you might think the best of the holiday selling season is behind us…

But nothing could be further from the truth!

There are still three solid weeks in this holiday prime time season, and there’s still plenty of time to stoke the fires of your online sales!

In fact there are FOUR big “Online Holiday Paydays” in December!

Don’t think that these Holiday Paydays are simply random dates picked by some Madison Avenue marketing execs.

These online paydays reflect historical consumer buying patterns and should be ignored!

In fact, Forrester Research recently reported that online shoppers continue to increase their use of the web for holiday shopping on these key dates.

So when are these Online Holiday Paydays?  Take a look…

Now that you know what dates to drive to, let’s talk about what to do to capitalize on these dates. …Because buyers will be shopping… you want them to shop with you!

Readying Your Store to Cash In on the Top 4 December Online Holiday Paydays

Product Marketing & Visibility. If I could have have one wish for every independent online merchant this holiday season, it would be the gift of product marketing and visibility during the holidays. Nothing is more important than getting out there and promoting your store.

• Emailing your customer list to let them know about up coming promotions
• Using Twitter & Facebook to offer exclusive coupon codes and social media only deals
• Including a coupon for a special discount in every package you sell, to be redeemed on/near one of the Online Holiday Paydays
• Using your blog to promote your holiday products and send traffic directly to your store
• If you sell on eBay, regularly updating your eBay Stores Promotion boxes with new merchandise
• Creating a video review of a few of your top holiday products for posting on YouTube.

Millions of people search YouTube and the web this time of year for gift ideas and product reviews. A good product review video hosted on YouTube can also land a first page ranking on Google for the long tail keywords of the product you are reviewing!

As you can see, there are many different ways you can get the word out about your online store! You don’t have to do them all. Pick one and get started today!

Promotions. Schedule new promotions to start and end on these top online holiday paydays. Shoppers will either land at your store ready to make a decision (in which case a promotion ending on that date can spur them to buy today!) or they are at the start of the buying process, and a brand new promotion will keep your store front and center in their mind.

Price Awareness. Online product prices can be very volatile the last three weeks of the holiday selling season. Make sure that your products are priced and position appropriately to generate sales and maximize profit margins.

Shipping Options. If you’re not offering express shipping options at this point in the game, do so knowing that it will hurt your late in the season holiday sales. The #1 thing buyers want to know once the clock strikes December is that they’ll receive their purchase in time. Especially if it’s a hot item that’s running out of stock in stores. If you’re not offering express shipping options, you’ll likely lose the sale to someone who is.

Provide Real-Time Customer Service. This can be a tough one for solopreneurs who are busy shipping, marketing and more! But providing real-time customer service during the holidays can also make the difference between getting the sale or losing it. Customers who don’t get their product questions answered right away will go in search of a store who will.

As soon as their product ships, notify your customer and provide a tracking number. An added customer benefit is to follow up with an “Your Item Has Been Delivered Email”. With shoppers making multiple purchases online, you want to make sure that they know the item has been delivered to them. Shipping services like FedEx can actually be configured to notify the customer directly via email with shipping notifications, delivery exceptions and confirmed delivery.

Amazon FBA. It’s still not too late to outsource your fulfillment, express shipping and customer service to Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). Whether your sell on Amazon or use Amazon Multi-Channel fulfillment, outsourcing the time-consuming process of order fulfillment so you can focus on product marketing and visibility is one of the best ways to generate bigger Online Holiday Paydays!

November 26th is Small Business Saturday.

The day when millions of shoppers “Pledge to Shop Small”.

As we cover in the Holiday Selling Guide, this is the day to remind people on Facebook, Twitter and in your email marketing that it’s Small Business Saturday and let them know about YOUR online store and what you are offering for the holidays!

American Express started the Small Business Saturday initiative in 2010.

Already more than 2 million people have Liked the Small Business Saturday Facebook page. Go over there and Like it, share it and reference the promotion in your marketing today!

While Small Business Saturday was originally started for local small businesses, independent online merchants should also leverage consumer awareness of this promotion.

Small Business Saturday received a lot of media attention this year.  MSN.com has featured the Small Business Saturday promotion in the upper right hand corner of their homepage all day today.

Run Your Promotion or Promote a Product

If you have a promotion ready to go for Small Business Saturday, spend today Tweeting it, Facebooking it and also send a special email to your customers.

If you don’t have a promotion ready, pick one of your best or most popular holiday products and showcase it and let people know that you are participating in Small Business Saturday!

You can even get special signage at the Small Business Saturday Facebook page.

And if haven’t planned ahead?

Don’t make it perfect, do it anyway!

If you missed Small Business Saturday this year, be sure and put it on your marketing calendar for 2012.  Small Business Saturday is an annual event and always falls the Saturday after Black Friday!

Solving the Solopreneur Struggle

In the spirit of Small Business Saturday, let’s talk about one of the biggest problems small business owners stuggle with.

Trying to do it all yourself!

Whether it’s…

• Creating a professional online presence with a quality business logo
• Designing seasonal graphics to promote holiday sales
• Setting up your social media presence so that it drives traffic to your store or website
• Writing content for your blog
• Getting quality inbound links to your store
• Editing a product video (which can get you a first page ranking on Google in your niche)

Yet all of these things are part of running successful ecommerce business!

Using traditional methods, getting the list above completed could cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars.

But there is a solution for getting skilled freelancers who live in the U.S., Canada, Europe, etc. to do the work for you on a TASK-BY-TASK basis for $5.

It’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money and NBC News.

I now have clients using it to:

• Create store logos
• Store graphics
• Write ongoing blog posts
• Create product videos… and more

It’s one of the most popular video training series we’ve sold, and in the spirit of Small Business Saturday, you can learn how to get some work off your overfilled plate as quickly as next week!

If you missed this the first time around, here’s your chance to learn how to do this for less than the price of a couple of holiday mochas. (Fewer calories too!)

Get the details here!

… Then Tweet and Facebook your Small Business Saturday promotions!

Yours in online selling success,

- Lisa

10 years ago this month I walked away from a very successful career in corporate America with a dream to become a successful online business owner.

Looking back on it now, as a single parent with a 4 month old and a 4 year old, it was a pretty gutsy thing to do.

The “how” wasn’t clear to me when I made that decision.

But the “why” was very clear.

I wanted to be able to run an online business from my home and have the flexibility to be as hands on in my kid’s lives as possible. I also had a lifelong fire burning inside of me to be an entrepreneur.

So for me, not only is every Thanksgiving a celebration of blessings, it’s also a celebration of entrepreneurship.

Your “Why”

And I know that each and every one of you have your own personal “why” for running your business.

Whether it’s family oriented, financially based or personal fulfillment, behind every business is a person with an important “why”.

An Entrepreneurial Thanksgiving

So I wanted to take a moment on this “Entrepreneurial Thanksgiving” to tell you that I’m honored to be able to bring you the “how-to’s” that will help you successfully accomplish your business goals and fulfill your personal “why”.

Whether through training classes, coaching groups, consulting, emails or blog posts, I am dedicated to bringing you the high-quality, leading-edge strategies and tactics that will help you get where you want to go.

Finishing 2011 Strong and Looking Forward to 2012

We have a lot of exciting new things planned for 2012!

And I’ll be sharing those with you in the coming weeks.

But first, we need to finish 2011 strong!

For some that means Black Friday Power Sourcing tonight!

For others, there’s listing, packing and shipping tomorrow.

I’ll be hitting the Black Friday sales for some arbitrage  sourcing tonight and early this morning, so that I can ship more boxes to Amazon FBA on Friday.

(If it’s not too crazy, I’ll try and get a video at the stores.)

So whether you’re celebrating Thanksgiving today or getting ready for the weekend, I’d like to wish you a “Happy Entrepreneurial Thanksgiving”!

- Lisa

PS: If you have a question about how to finish off 2011 strong, post it below!

With exactly two months to go until December 24th, for online merchants, it’s showtime!

And even if you’ve been meticulously planning for the holiday selling season, there are so many details involved, it’s easy to inadvertently make common mistakes that can derail your holiday sales.

Don’t let these 7 mistakes be the Grinch that steals your holiday sales and profits…

7 Mistakes That Can Derail Your Online Holiday Sales

Mistake #1. Discounting too deep, too early and for too long. While media reports of holiday shoppers clamoring for deep discounts and word of Wal-Mart’s new holiday price guarantee could rattle even the most stalwart independent online merchant; discounting too deep, too early and for too long will kill your profit margins.

Sure you may sell more, but you will make less at the end of the season.

Which means you have to compete for those holiday sales on something else…

• Selection
• Delivery
• Customer Service
• Quality
• Integrity

Keep in mind that the #1 thing online shoppers want during the holiday season is selection and confidence that their product will arrive on time.

And they are willing to pay more for it.

Not all buyers shop on price. In fact in the wake of Wal-Mart’s recent announcement, there has been a huge backlash from customers citing all the reasons they won’t shop at Wal-Mart despite their low-price guarantee.

Higher income customers especially, will pay a premium to get a unique gift, the latest gadget and superior quality and service.  So don’t shortchange yourself or your business.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t run any promotions or offer free shipping promotions during the holidays.

Just know that trying to compete on price with a big-box retailer during the holidays is a recipe for dismal holiday profits.

Mistake #2. Running a 2 month long holiday ‘promotion’. A good retail promotion is a time limited discount on a particular product or group of products.

While you might think you’re doing your customers a favor and driving sales by offering 30%  off on your entire store until Christmas, it actually works against  you. There’s a whole psychology around retail pricing and promotions.

A short, time-limited promotion will drive more sales, than long promotions without a deadline. Promotions based around a current event like Cyber Monday also help customers focus and execute on their buying decisions.

Mistake #3. Not creating holiday gift lists. The holidays are overwhelming for your customers. With a list of gifts to buy and thousands of online options, they often don’t know where to start.

Short on ideas and short on time, they need your help to find the most gift-worthy items in your store.

By creating a holiday gift list of the best holiday items in your store, you not only provide a service to your customers, but you also have the opportunity to drive them to your higher quality, higher margin products.

Here are a few gift list examples:

• 10 Hot New Cooking Gadgets for the Gourmet Chef On Your List
• Our 15 Best Selling Gifts for Dads Who Don’t Wear Ties
• 12 Gemstone Bracelets That Say “I Love You” in Color!
  
• 8 Creative Toys for Kids Under 8

Place your gift list prominently on your website, blog and if possible, your marketplace store. Post your gift lists on Facebook, Tweet them out.

A good holiday gift list can easily go viral driving floods of new traffic to your store.

Mistake #4. Ignoring marketplace incentives. If you sell in a marketplace like eBay or Amazon, be sure to get up to date on the holiday sales incentives being offered to sellers. Amazon’s 3rd party sellers can get in front of Amazon’s best Prime customers by fulfilling their inventory through Amazon FBA.This is especially important if you want to sell in the lucrative toy category. On November 15th, restrictions in the toy category go into place, but you can work around them if you fulfill your products through Amazon FBA

eBay has come out with a variety of incentives this year that they say will boost sellers visibility in search.

Mistake #5. Skimping on customer service. There’s no faster way to lose a holiday sale than not responding quickly to a customer inquiry. Shoppers have one thing on their mind this time of year – to get that gift and get it now!

Website owners can use a tool like Olark for Live Chat to provide real-time interaction with their customers. Amazon sellers who sell through FBA will have Amazon customer support doing their holiday customer service for them. And eBay sellers can add common questions asked by buyers to the Auto Answers system, although if possible, having a dedicated person monitoring My eBay during the busy selling season will allow you to assist the customer in finding the perfect gift.

Mistake #6. Not speaking the language of the holidays. If Grandma Mae comes to your fly fishing store looking for the perfect rod and reel for Grandpa Joe, she wants to see some evidence that you are participating in the holidays.

Messaging about holiday deliver, special holiday items, gift-wrapping for Grandpa Joe’s new tackle box (maybe an upsell to the rod and reel) should all be prominently displayed on the home page of your website.

Holiday shoppers who come to an online store where it’s ‘business as usual’ are not as likely to stay engaged with your site as those with clear holiday messaging (and holiday gift lists). You can get great holiday graphics done for $5 at Fiverr (learn how to use Fiverr here.) or for a very reasonable price on ODesk or Guru.com

Mistake #7. Closing up shop too early. Last year only 12.4% of shoppers had completely finished their holiday shopping ten days before Christmas. You need to be prepared to sell and ship right up through December 23rd. 13% of holiday shoppers start their holiday shopping the week of Christmas. 

Offer express shipping and handling. And prominently post these options on the home page of your website or in  your eBay listings. A graphic with your delivery options works best.

And remember… the holiday sales don’t end on December 23rd.

One of the most popular up and coming activities on December 24th and 25th is… you guessed it! Shopping online!

-Lisa

The holiday selling season is filled with possibility for online merchants!

The biggest selling season of the year, last year’s holiday season boasted the first BILLION dollar online sales day ever!

And this year online holiday sales are expected to increase by another 11%! All indicators point to the biggest online selling season to date.

In fact…

Holiday sales are already happening!

• 39% of holiday shoppers started their holiday shopping in September
• Major e-tailers have been promoting holiday products since Sept. 1st
• Holiday shoppers are buying more holiday items earlier than ever before
• Online shoppers are making their holiday purchases in a very specific way
• There are more ways than ever for this year to maximize your holiday sales

That’s the good news!

The bad news is that possibility won’t automatically turn into profits, unless you take the right actions.

• Unfortunately many online merchants get bogged down during the holiday season… .
• Spending valuable time on holiday selling “to-do’s” that don’t generate the best results.
• While ignoring the tactics and strategies that do!

And that’s why I created this brand new MP3 Audio  “Ten Holiday Do’s and Don’ts to Make This Your Best Online Holiday Selling Season Ever!”

To cut through the holiday frenzy, and show you ten simple things you can do make more holiday sales this year!

Make no mistake, holiday profits don’t come to those who leave their holiday sales to chance!

So if you’re ready to skyrocket your holiday sales, pick up a copy of “Ten Holiday Do’s and Don’ts” and make this your best holiday selling season ever!

It’s  the end of July and already we’re seeing indicators of this year’s hot holiday products!

Last week I was a guest on eBay Radio to give a sneak preview of some of this season’s hottest sellers.

And you’ll be surprised at the breakout hit brand with winning gifts for kids and parents alike!

Click below to listen to my eBay Radio segment:

And if you think July indicators happen too early in the season, consider this…

Last year the summer indicators were right on, giving online retailers early notification of the hot holiday products such as: Squinkies, Nerf Stampede, Silly Bandz, wooden balance bikes, fingerless gloves for women, designer Nook covers, iPad bags for the guys, Harry Potter Lego sets and much, much, more!

Keep in mind that the 2011 holiday selling season will be the be the boast the highest online sales ever! With last year’s online holiday sales totaling more than $32.6 billion dollars in November & December alone!

So, now is the time to start sourcing this hot holiday sellers – before they sell out in stores! We’ll talk more about late to the game holiday sourcing, in an upcoming blog post.

Earth Day is April 22 and is predicted to be the largest Earth Day celebration since it’s inception in 1962.

With thousands of Earth Day celebrations taking place across the globe, sales of organic and eco-friendly products will increase as the eco-friendly message gets more exposure among consumers.

There are many ways for online sellers to capitalize on Earth Day awareness and increase their sales with products related to creating a healthier environment.

And this niche is EVERGREEN.  Meaning it won’t be here today and gone tomorrow.

I like this niche for physical product sellers, affiliate marketers and information marketers.

In fact, you could monetize this niche with a combination of the three!

A Top Product Trend for 2011

Eco-friendly products continue to be one of the top product trends in 2011.  Almost every product category has an eco-friendly or “green” alternative. Selling green means big business, as new earth friendly products are introduced every year.

Bamboo kitchenware products are all the rage.  But bamboo products aren’t just limited to the kitchen. From bicycles to bathmats, consumer purchases made from this renewable source continue to rise.

Products that conserve energy and make use of natural resources are driving consumer sales in every sector. If you sell products related to green living, the Earth Day celebrations are sure to drive more visibility to your business.

Look for ‘Earth Day’ Products in Your Inventory

To monetize this niche, pay special attention to any products that you sell that will appeal to Earth Day buyers.  This takes viewing your product line with a “green eye”.

While you might not sell products made from organic materials, rethink the way you can position your existing products for appeal to Earth Day buyers.

• Bicycles (bike to work, don’t drive!)
• Solar powered watches, clocks, calculators, iPod chargers
• Pre-owned products (re-using instead of manufacturing)
• Plants
• Running/walking shoes (positioned for the person who wants to walk more and use less gas)
• Reusable grocery bags
• Reusable water bottles
• Recycling bins

… Just to name a few.

eBay is running an eco-friendly promotional contest. Take a look at this page and see what products are being promoted.

Even the color of your product can help you position it for Earth Day this year.  Featuring products in Earth Day colors is a great way to attract buyers and make the connection to Earth Day.

No matter what you sell, give some thought to whether or not it can be tied in a way to Earth Day – your sales will benefit as a result of all the Earth Day publicity.  And you just might find the undiscovered treasure of being able to position your product in multiple ways!

Positioning Your Earth Day Products

If you do sell organic and natural products, this is your time to shine!

It’s time to send out an email newsletter to you customers reminding them that Earth Day happens this Friday.  In that newsletter you should provide them with some helpful “greening” tips and offer specials and promotions on some of your top products.  This is also a great time and to introduce new products!

If you sell on eBay, run auction format listings on some of your most popular products; and then include links in your listings to drive buyers to your eBay store and related earth day categories.  This will allow you to capitalize on the additional buyer traffic.

Use eBay Stores Promotion boxes to feature your Earth Day products, so your buyers will see them immediately as they come to your store.

Pay close attention to your keywords.  Use the Google Keyword Tool to determine what keywords buyers are searching for.  Use Google Insights to see how eco-friendly products are trending.

Build an Eco-Friendly Store This Year

If you are not prepared this year to sell products that tie into Earth Day, but this niche is something you are interested in, why not start building an eco-friendly product line now! Or give your customers a green option to choose from in your regular product line.

Baby Hollow has built a great niche store around organic baby/child products.

3R Living features “future friendly products” for the home and everyone who lives in it!  Including the cats and dogs!

There is tremendous opportunity in this niche!

This year more and more cities are hosting green shows for consumers.  If one comes to a city near you, it is the place to go to find out more about what you can sell in this niche.

Selling green products is not only good for your business, it’s good for the planet as well!

We’re less than a day away from one of the biggest shopping days of the year!  Cyber Monday.

The “official” kick-off to the online holiday selling season.

Millions of motivated shoppers will hit the web on Monday, 11/29 to do some heavy duty shopping.

Early projections for Cyber Monday sales are up 30% over last year!

Soooo, the question is… are YOU ready for Cyber Monday sales?

To make sure you don’t miss a beat this week, I’ve put together a last minute Cyber Monday Eve checklist for you!

Cyber Monday Checklist for Online Merchants

Clean up your website homepage or your eBay listings. Remove all traces of Thanksgiving imagery and messaging.  For more tips on adding holiday messaging and imagery, check out my recent blog post on 7 Late to the Game Holiday Sales Savers.

Send out a Cyber Monday email promotion. 9 out of 10 retailers plan to send out Cyber Monday promotions. Will your customers be bombarded with emails for companies eager to sell their wares? Yes! Which is why it’s important to do emails right…  ( see next tip)

Make your Cyber Monday email subject lines specific. Many merchants will send an email titled “Cyber Monday Deals! Save 25%” – and while that may work for Walmart, it won’t work for smaller merchants competing for Cyber Monday eyeballs with the big guys.

If your best-selling items are kids’ rain boots, promote these in the subject of your email. For example: “Cyber Monday Deal: Save 25% on all Colorcraft Rainboots”.

Track sales trends in your niche. Are you staying on top of the sales trends in your niche? During the holidays, things change quickly as deman increase and supplies dwindle! Use trend sites like Google Insights, Twitter Search and eBay Pulse to track searches and demand for holiday products.

Offer shipping promotions. But keep in mind it’s important to put quantifiers on your promotions! “Free shipping on all orders over $50.” “Free Shipping on all orders placed before December 5th.” will get you better results than a generic free shipping promotion.

Display contact information prominently. Shoppers stress is escalating and people won’t take the time to look for your contact information if it’s not displayed prominently. For website owners, this means the upper, right-hand corner of your website. For eBay sellers, this means the upper right quadrant of your listing.

Replenish your inventory. As you sell out of inventory, restock your homepage and your eBay listings with more styles, sizes, colors, etc. Whatever it takes to fill out your store. Even if you’ve run out of your best holiday inventory already, keep in mind that 52% of holiday shoppers will be buying something for themselves this year!. A pair of plain brown boots may not bedazzle a gift recipient on Christmas morning, but they may be exactly what your customer needs to replace their worn out pair before winter kicks in.

Check these items off your list and enjoy the process of fulfilling those incoming orders!

-Lisa

With the Thanksgiving holiday in sight, and Christmas just over a month away, your holiday sales should be in full swing.

But for those who are late to the game, or need an extra boost to amp up the numbers, these 7 late-to-the-game strategies will stoke the fire in your holiday sales…

Speak Holiday.Go right now and look at your web pages, you eBay listings, your online store. How many places do you see holiday imagery, holiday messaging, holiday gift suggestions? If the answer is none or few then your products are not showing up for the party everyone else wants to be a part of.

You have to give your customers visual clues that you’re dialed-in to the holidays. Your store must be part of the fun and festivities. Even the smallest online sellers can add a few holiday graphics and use messaging on their their website to speak the language of holiday sales.

Run Different Holiday Promotions Each Week. If you want to capture the attention of holiday buyers this year, you must run new promotions on a weekly basis. While this year’s shoppers aren’t suffering from frugal fatigue, consumers are looking for a sale.

Unlike last year, they’re not hoping to find everything marked down to 50% off, but they are looking for somewhat of a “feel-good holiday special” so they walk away from the purchase feeling like they got something extra.

Sell Communication & Service. Prominent service messaging must be a part of your holiday game plan. Whether it’s strategically placed graphics on your site or you hop in front of a video camera, one of the key things shoppers should see when they come to your site is a message from you with a commitment to:

• Same day shipping
• Providing tracking numbers
• Customer service (how will they contact you if they have a question)
• Optional gift wrapping services

Free Shipping. If you’re late to the holiday selling game, one of the fastest ways to amp up your sales is by offering Free Shipping. Again this year, Free Shipping is the #1 thing that holiday shoppers are looking for.

Bundle it Spectacular. If your holiday sales haven’t yet made a blip on the radar, it’s time to pull out the big guns and get really creative with your product offerings. A necklace and matching bracelet sold separately becomes a spectacular gift set.  Pair a warm fuzzy bathrobe with matching slippers and create a special Christmas morning promotion around it.

Offer Holiday Gift Suggestions. Holiday shoppers aren’t looking for the “same ‘ole, same ‘ole” when it comes to purchasing holiday gifts. They LOVE creative ideas and unique gifts. Just because the media doesn’t recognize your product line as a “holiday item” doesn’t mean you can’t!

Don’t wait for anyone to give you permission to present your products as a holiday gift. Be bold and step out and make gift suggestions!

Get in Front of the Video Camera. If there is one thing that etailers can do this year to get found in search without the use of costly PPC campaigns and lengthy traffic driving strategies, it’s to get in front of the video camera. There is not a person reading this blog post who sales can’t benefit by doing a video review of a product you sell.

Whether it increases conversion on your site or eBay listing or helps you make it to page one on Google, video product reviews are all the rage this year. And don’t think you have to have a Hollywood stage production video to make it useful.  REAL sells. Take a look at this video review of a popular Nikon camera lens. A little humor, being real, to the point and educational. 11,000+ people have viewed it so far.  (BTW, I came across it in Google search while shopping for, you guessed it! Nikon cameras.)

Even if you’re sales aren’t yet where you’d like them to be this holiday season, you’ve got 30+ more days to keep focused on selling more. Never give up! Keep doing the right things up until the very last holiday minute and you’ll start to see the results of your efforts!

How about you? What are your plans for increasing your sales over the next 30 days?

-Lisa

As we move closer towards Christmas day, I’ve been hearing from many of  you that you’re beginning to feel swamped and overwhelmed.

Sales are picking up, personal holiday duties are picking up and you’re starting to panic at the thought of attempting to do it all!

It’s a very valid concern…

Because no one can do it ALL by themselves!

As multi-tasking entrepreneurs, we already do a LOT! During the holiday season, our responsibilities triple or quadruple.

That’s why I want you take what I’m about to say next, VERY seriously…

NOW is the time to “Beg, Borrow or Buy help!”

Whether it’s:

• Help with the business
• Help at home
• Help with personal errands

You can’t be shy about asking for help or worry about “putting people out”.

“But I don’t have money to pay for help.” you say.

Help doesn’t always need to come in the form of paid compensation.  There are plenty of people in your life who would love to help you during this busy time if you’d only ask!

Make a choice to ASK for what you need and let others be responsible for determining if they can help you.

• Now is the time to ask your spouse or friends to help you wrap and ship a few evenings a week.
• Now is the time to put the kids to work doing basic household chores.
• Now is the time to call a friend and ASK for help!

For example:

“Hey Christine. Help! I’m happily swamped here with orders! And I need your help!!! Would you be willing to come over on Saturday and help me get the rest of
my holiday items listed?  Then  I’ll treat you to dinner and a movie Saturday night.”

Help doesn’t have to cost a lot either. Many people would love to make a little extra shopping money for a few hours of work each week!

Ask:

• The neighborhood kids
• Your niece your nephew
• Your church youth group
• Your children!a

…if they want to make a little extra holiday money for the next month.

Those of you who have done  this are successfully breaking through the  “Lone Ranger Biz Owner Syndrome!”

Some of you have tapped friends to help through the holiday season, and even though the paycheck is not huge, your friends have been THRILLED to help.

Here’s the bottom line…

You need more than yourself in your business to make things happen!

The sooner you realize that, the MORE money you’ll make!

So who are YOU going to ask for help today?

Tell me below!

-Lisa