What's Your Style Statement?

Meet a workbook designed to shake you out of the things you've settled on (career, fashion, friends, home, etc.) and help you focus your intentions on what is truly right for your unique life. Is there any more powerful choice than to be authentic in every move you make?

You know the choices that you've made that bring you joy? Becoming friends with the right person, ditching a job that didn't fit, finding the dress that was exactly "you", art that grabs you by the eyelashes and won't let go? Take the time to discover your Style Statement and you'll find yourself making a lot more of those perfect choices. In Style Statement: Live By Your Own Design, you can take a profoundly fun journey to find the two words that represent who you are!

At first blush, it may sound over simplistic, self-absorbed, pretentious... but keep an open mind. I've started applying it to my life and already it's helping me to not only make wiser buying decisions but also to understand why I love what I do. There's also the added bonus of finding a newfound appreciation for yourself and what makes you tick.

Journeying through the many thought-provoking questionnaires and examples of others who've found their Style Statement, I found myself surprised by my own answers. I must have forgotten how much I yearn to travel, love sharing information, and want to wear dresses. (Dresses? Me? Really?).

The more true to your desires you are, the better able you are to fully love your life and make empowered choices. This is so incredibly important both for your business life (Seriously, why spend the majority of your waking hours doing something you don't find fulfilling? No excuses!) and for your personal life. It's important to be the fully realized version of yourself, especially if you have sweet impressionable children learning from your every move.

The book also has a "Lifestyle Map" which can be very helpful in keeping your goals balanced when putting together a visualization board/ Treasure Map. (We'll be discussing Treasure Maps in March).

I highly recommend working through the Statement slowly and mindfully. Relax and let it come naturally for the best result. Also, don't worry about what others think about your style statement. It only has to please you.

I enjoyed this book so much I gave it to all my girls for Christmas. Now we'd like to gift you with your own copy! We'll be randomly drawing one follower on January 15th. If you'd like to be included in the drawing please join our followers. We'll be doing a different giveaway each month!

Also available for purchase in our Amazon store.

(If you're curious, my style statement is Designed Celebration, and Dani's is Magical Visionary.)

Mission Statement

We've been posting a couple of months now, but haven't had a chance to post our mission statement. We both feel it's truly important that you all know the passion that we have for what we do and for what you do.

The Accomplished Mommy Mission Statement

We are here to assist fellow mothers and women in following their life's path and destiny. In a world where mothers have less of a choice between working their lives away at a job they don't enjoy or keeping the focus on raising amazing people, we want to show you there's a third choice; Putting your brilliant ideas to work for you, raking in the prosperity, AND raising amazing people. The first step is defining your passion. It can be as specific as you want it to be. Maybe you just want to be a business owner, but you don't know of what sort of company. Perhaps you want to be a freelance make up artist. Perhaps you want to write novels. The second step is faith. Believe that you have a path in this lifetime that involves you prospering (whatever that means to you), as well as being blissful in what you do. I don't believe we were meant to suffer day in and day out doing something we don't enjoy for money. It's not a fair exchange of energy. Third is execution. We want to help you find ideas to make your dreams a reality. If it's your true path, I believe it will work out, with a little faith and execution.

We promise to stick on the topic of helping you and your children flourish. We want to hear your ideas and feedback, as we're learning too. If you want more information on a specific topic, please don't hesitate to contact us at TheAccomplishedMommy@hotmail.com.

Here's to your success, and happiness!

The Importance of Setting Goals

It's become quite obvious to someone of my sort, that if you don't set goals you'll never get anything done. When I say my sort, I mean Carly's sort also- maybe even your sort! You know us, the kind that has five trillion great ideas but no execution. I wonder if any of you noticed we haven't posted in about...oh two weeks or so?

This is where goals come in. Write them down somewhere you will see them (please note the much earlier post about my yahoo). If you give yourself due dates for the things you'd like to complete (and tell other people that will help hold you to it!), you might complete one of those five trillion amazing ideas! Maybe one of them is your million dollar idea... you never know.

Look! You could be this guy!



Ahahaha. But really. If you find this hard to do, start small. Start making daily to do lists. Stick to them. When I'm feeling like I'm not accomplishing much, I write down something I've already done and cross it off! (Can we say denial?) Move on to setting goals for particular projects. For example, let's say you're a writer. Set a date that you want to be finished with chapter one. You can then set the next date, or you can schedule it out for the entire book. Join an online forum of writers (or whatever it is that you do- start a yahoo group if nothing exists), and share the same due dates with a buddy or a team. Hold yourself accountable.

As far as your long term goals (once you feel brave), you need to take some time and write out a 5-10 year plan. Lucky for you, Carly has grandtastic fantastic google-ing and/or web perusing skills and do we have a treat for you!

Working With Your Power


This is from last year (we've had it stashed back awhile), so add in the appropriate dates of course.

Fill this out, share it with your close confidants as well as your husband/partner! You need to make sure they're either on board with your plans or that you can find a way to convince them (if you need convincing techniques, feel free to post in comments. Carly and myself are both Geminis and I promise we know how to talk anybody into anything).

And for inspiration:

Billionaire Women

(And Carly- they talk about women in there that took over a construction business and are billionaires! Just sayin ladies, if you think your trade wont make you a billionaire, you haven't thought about it hard enough ;)

Happy Business Building!

Marketing Tips Part 1

The key to having a successful business is Marketing Marketing Marketing! With starting up a business, the money you invest in marketing may be less then you'd like, but you can still make it work! I came across some information indicating that the best way to keep your marketing rolling, is to occassionally splurge on those things that are more costly, and in between to do the less costly marketing tricks.

First tip- Always leave a business card. Always. Give them to your friends to give away, give them to your family members, leave them on cork boards (and another idea that Carly mentioned to me for those left on cork boards, is to get business cards made in post card size!!! Draws the eye right to them!) Put them in all outgoing mail. Leave them with the tip at a restaurant (assuming you didn't tick off the waiter for any reason). Leave them with past clients. A new idea I've just had- offer clients a rebate for passing along business cards to those who buy from you. A referral fee. Get it printed on that back of your business card. Or even offer a discount/coupon on your the back of your business card.

Example:

Redeem this business card before (enter date here) and receive a 15% off of your services/goods!


Second Tip- ALWAYS HAVE A WEBSITE! For the love of Pete, if you don't have a website, get one. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but it does have to be out there for people to find. Everyone and their monkey uses the internet to find businesses anymore, and if you're not available, you're missing out on a whole lotta business! You can do this for a relatively low cost. Microsoft Office Live offers free web hosting and they charge $15 a year for the domain name. Your first year is free. There are many other web hosts out there to assist you in building your website. Be sure to add Meta Tags to your site, and to add it to search engines (see the post below). Send it to everyone you know, link it anywhere you can.


Third Tip- Buy Leads. This wont be applicable to all businesses, but there are some that it will. Service Magic offers lead buying for many businesses that offer home improvement services (this is near and dear to our hearts since I run Peterson Tree Services and Carly runs Hayden Transformations). The company charges a set up fee (I believe service magic is $100), and then you buy leads from them. You can buy as much or as little as you'd like and you can set a budget. The leads vary in price (Tree Service leads for instance run around $10 each, while contracting leads run higher). The leads you receive are customers that are ready to buy what you have to offer. Check to see if there's a lead buying service for your business!






Please post your marketing tips in our comments box!

Using Time Wisely

Whether you telecommute to an employer, are an entrepreness, or just make a little cash on the side selling knitted hats on Etsy, time management is the ultimate tool. It can make you or break you (or drive you insane!).

Some days you get to the end and go, “What happened?!” Or your husband asks the most irritating question you can ask a WAHM, “What did you do all day?” “I survived, alright!?!”

Other days you get to the end and say, “I took you DOWN, to-do list! Take that! I own you!!! Boo-yah!!!” (What, boo-yah isn't part of your vernacular? Maybe it should be, because you kick serious ass!).

Working from home while enjoying your children and managing all the aspects of your life and home can feel impossible sometimes. Things can get out of control really easily. By staying focused, you can get what you want from your day!

Setting an alarm, getting up at the same reasonable time each day, and directly showering and dressing as though you were going to a regular job is essential. I’m sure you’ve heard this advice before, but it is the cornerstone of taking control of your day. You ARE going to work, so act like it. Just because you do your work while breastfeeding or in between loads of laundry doesn’t make it any less of a priority.

Write out a daily schedule for yourself (and your children – structure makes them feel secure). Leave room for organized chaos and spontaneity, but give yourself plenty of time to take care of business. Include a real lunch break to hang with your kids and rest your "business brain".

Involve your kids when you can. They’re curious about what you’re doing and want to be with you. My daughter is still tiny, but while she nurses I catch up on my business reading by reading it out loud to her. Maybe she doesn’t need to know about trends in kitchen cabinets or the right insurance plans for small businesses, but she likes to hear my voice and be part of what I’m doing. I have a tiny extra desk in my office which I’ll set up with art supplies and a play laptop when she’s bigger. She can be my “coworker”. I’m not delusional enough to expect her to sit there for long periods, but it will buy a little time.

Set timers. This is especially helpful for distractable types (ahem, me), or when first learning how to manage a work at home atmosphere. Say you expect that responding to business emails will take 30 minutes of focused work. Set a timer, and remembering you're on the clock will help you stay on task. Timers are even more helpful when you're choosing to take a little "playtime" or when telling children what to expect. "Mommy will help you find Barbie's shoes as soon as the timer goes off." "Okay, Mommy's taking a break until the timer buzzes!"

Keep a Must Do and Want To Do List. Even numbering them by priority can help in focusing your efforts. Write it at night so first thing in the morning you can get straight to it. Include time estimates for each task (and note how long it actually took so you can have a better estimate next time). Be realistic in your expectations of yourself. Yes, you are Wonder Woman, but that doesn’t mean you need to wear yourself out and leave no time for fun!

Beware of Time Vampires! Surfing the net, chatting on the phone, meeting friends for lunch, obsessively checking your MySpace, clicking around Etsy glorious Etsy, getting sidetracked by unimportant projects… It all seems harmless bit by bit, but things like this can swallow your whole day if you’re not careful (social upkeep is very important to your sanity, though, and we’ll discuss that in an upcoming post). Keep focused and remember your purpose. If you attack your work right away and kill your to-do list, then you’ll have time to go play with your kids or lunch with a friend.

Set “office hours”. When the "office" is closed, don't answer the phone, don't check emails. Your business is very important, but your children are what really matters in life. Give them your undivided attention for a set time every day.

The best system I've seen is the Entrepreneurial Time System. Basically, you select Free Days to do as you please; then Focus Days, which are days where you really put on your work boots and kick some serious booty! Then you choose your Buffer Days, where you take care of the little tasks that would distract you on Focus Days (cleaning, making phone calls, etc.).

Be ready to spot stagnation. If your brain starts to get fuzzy and you're sitting there going "think...think...work...come on brain", step away for a short time (this is a break, not giving up! Come right back!). Crank up the music and dance around the living room with the kids, take a walk, take a yoga break, whatever gets your blood pumping and your brain creating. Then tackle your tasks with new enthusiasm!

Those of us who are fortunate (or badassly talented and driven) enough to work from home should count our blessings every day. It is such a privilege to spend your days with your children and be a career woman at the same time!

Want more time management tips? Here are great articles from Entrepreneur.com, smallbusinessessentials.info, and carrieanddanielle.com.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog- The Accomplished Mommy! We're happy to have you here with us. Please feel free to add yourself to our followers off to the right. This blog is for moms of all sorts. We all work hard to be successful in our lives, and at the same time make sure that our children are flourishing and prospering. My name is Danielle, and I am a new work at home mom. I have a beautiful 2 1/2 year old and 8 month old. I run a doula business (www.holistic-doula.com) that I'm planning to grow into a photography and childbirth education business as well in the immediate future.

Here are the reasons I strive to succeed:






The Co-Author of this blog happens to be my best friend and very successful business woman/ wahm Carly. Her and her husband own Hayden Transformations, a general contracting business. She does all of the office work, lead development, payroll for employees, and the Universe knows what else! I know she's a busy bee and she's good at what she does. This is in conjunction with taking care of her very sweet baby girl (born last June- and yes, I was her doula ;)

Carly's reason for striving to succeed:





So we welcome you, mama's from all walks of life. Join us, follow us, read us. Hopefully you can find a few tips and tricks along the way to help you get organized and be more successful every day!

If you have any questions or suggestions you'd like answered, please feel free to shoot us an email at TheAccomplishedMommy@hotmail.com