Archive for the ‘Referrals’ Category

These are not the kind of products you would expect to hear about on this blog but seeing as Christmas is just around the corner I thought I’d plug a few of them. Especially as we would be purchaisng from Australian online businesses.

JOLIV Body and Earth - An exquisite range of chemical-free, environmentally friendly and entirely natural beauty and home cleaning products. The products contain absolutely no harmful or artificial ingredients.

At AUSSIE ORGANICS Everything IS 100% Natural & Organic. tHEY have a HUGE range of products. Baby Care, Skin / Body / Hair / Facial Care, Cosmetics, Men’s Care, Household Cleaning Aromatherapy Oils, Incense, Soaps, Even Pet Soap, Gift Packs & much more. They are also offering a free gift with purchases.

Here is a cute little stocking stuffer – Personalised Badge Buttons . There is no minimum or maximum purchase and they will print up your own designs.

Are you a coffee connoisseur? Then try Wine of the Bean – a boutique coffee roaster based in the Hills District of Sydney. They offer a rotating cycle of different varieties of single-origin arabica coffee. All coffee is freshly roasted on-site. They also have organic coffee beans.

Or how about more options for personalised gifts? At Personalized they have a range of products you can personalise – teddy bears with T-shirts, mugs, stickers … just ask them what they have.

Have a browse and enjoy your  online shopping.

Ciao for now,

Elena

What a lovely surprise I found out that EP designs has made it into THE INBOX  of the BUSINESS MUMS MAGAZINE, issue 9. My business activities have been fairly quiet of late so this will give it a nice boost.

The Business Mums Magazine provides practical, useful information to help Mums run a business? There are inspiring stories from business mums and WAHMs. Each magazine is written with business mums in mind, providing practical, down to earth information that can be applied to your business, no matter what that business is.

The magazine is published every 2 months and can be subscribed to at a great value price. Every month, they have goodies to give away in their email newsletter. To be eligible, all you need to do is subscribe to their monthly email newsletter. Check the site for the monthly promotions.

Thank you Business Mums for this great promotion.

Elena

Personalised gifts are a great gift giving idea. Olivia at Piktorize has been stocking up the shelves with gorgeous Christmas gift ideas. I love the the Personalised Photo Bags and Personalised Christmas Photo Ornaments. The Christmas ornaments would make a wonderful keepsake and the bags could never end up ‘belonging’ to someone else. Then there are those Cute and Cuddly soft toys. I know I’ve got to have mine near by for those moments in need, lol. Everyone is catered for. All the soft toys come complete with a t-shirt displaying your favourite photo. They’re just a nice size for a cuddle.

These are all adorable gift ideas. The gifts I’ve mentioned are new additions but there are lots more on offer. Do stop by at Piktorize – have a browse, say ‘Hi’ and enjoy.

Ciao,

Elena  

Flavour of Summer by Annette Piper
© Annette Piper. Photo used with permission.

Annette Piper is at it again with her fabulous jewellery designs. And she is now showcasing and selling directly from her new web site  Annette Piper Dip. Gem. Handcrafted Jewellery Understandably,

Annette is sooo excited – Congratulations to her - Go and have a peek at her wonderful designs. I love this gorgeous necklace made from massive jade rondelles and sterling silver balls. But you won’t find it for sale on her web site - apparently it didn’t stay around for long. You have to be quick to snap up gorgeous work like this. And take note they are one-of-a-kind designs. Generations of ladies after you can continue to enjoy wearing them as they would make great heirlooms.Enjoy browsing!

Ciao for now,

Elena

This article is so apt for me at the moment. There are some wonderful ideas for separating Home and Office …. which is a must if you run a home based business. What I like about this article is that it includes some nice decor ideas to help you along – simple, effective and won’t cost a fortune.

Separating your home and office

by Tash Hughes of Word Constructions (www.wordconstructions.com) 

Not everyone who works from home has the luxury of having a separate room to dedicate to their business. Yet, the more you can separate work and home, the easier it is to feel professional and work effectively.

The following ideas won’t suit every situation, may they may give you some inspiration on how you can run a business and still have a house that feels like a home.

H    Set up your desk and materials in a cupboard of some description so that it can be closed away at the end of business. You may be able to open up a built in wardrobe, enclose the space under the stairs or buy a desk unit that has cupboard fronts.

H    Use a decorative screen – it could be timber, cloth, a photo rack, a plant stand or lattice work. Behind the screen is your business and in front is your home.

H    Add in a temporary wall. Being at least shoulder height will be more effective as it will cover your desk and computer, but a lower one will still make boundaries. The front of the wall could be painted or be a new place to hang photos or drawings, or add shelves. On the business side, the wall could hold a white board or noticeboard for messages or be a set of shelves to store materials and references.

H    If you are working on the kitchen or dining table, get a nice cupboard or dresser to store business items nearby. Otherwise, set up a system of coloured boxes to store different items (e.g. stationary in a blue box, client paperwork in the yellow box and business magazines and articles in the red box.)

H   Keep one side of your desk for business and the other side for family and personal things so they don’t get confused.

H    If you have to move your business things around because you work in different places or use your work space for other purposes, a set of drawers on wheels may the solution. There are many styles available now, but the open mesh baskets make it easy to see what is in each drawer. Then just wheel your business to your work area when you’re ready to start.

H    Make use of tablecloths and runners if you are storing your business things in main living areas. They brighten the room up and help differentiate between home and business.

H    Make things reversible so that they are functional for business and attractive for your home. For instance, put a nice poster on one side of a notice board to hang in your lounge room; when it becomes your work space, turn it around to see your work notices and messages. A low filing cabinet can double as a coffee or side table out of business hours, as can covered storage boxes.

H    Set up a garden shed as office or storage space. Alternatively, is there room in the roof for a small workspace or perhaps the veranda could be enclosed? If you can find an extra room, remember that it might suit another purpose better and your work space can be in an original room. Perhaps the shed could become a cubby so the space near the kitchen can be an office instead of a play area, or the attic space becomes a new bedroom and you work in the old one.

H    Separation doesn’t have to be complete; it is more to highlight the boundaries between home and business. So you could hang some sheer curtains across the room to make a work space that is visible to the rest of the room. Sheer curtains look deliberate and attractive compared to just hanging up a sheet or old curtains as a visual boundary.

Tash Hughes is the owner of Word Constructions and is available to solve all your business writing problems! From letters to policies, newsletters to web content, Word Constructions writes all business documents to your style and satisfaction.

I hope you enjoyed this article By Tash Hughes and found it useful. I know it has me thinking about a few ideas.

Ciao for now,

Elena

Sometimes it’s hard to express your thoughts about a topic especially if it’s one you don’t know much about, or maybe you know a little but not sure how to go about writing on it. That’s where those lovely article banks come in handy. I’ve used a couple in the past and have had people comment on them.
THE REPOZITORY is one of the article banks I’ve used. They currently have 369 Excellent Articles in their Database from 120 Authors – that’s a nice selection to chose from.
WORD CONSTRUCTIONS also has a number of free articles for use on web sites, blogs etc. You can even commission them to write other articles as needed.

I believe it’s a great way to add good content to your blog especially if you’re having one of those ‘blank’ days. I know there have been times when I’ve started writing up a post and have ended up sitting there looking at the screen – not because I didn’t know what I wanted to write about but because my head wasn’t working, lol.

I had a comment from a Visitor to my blog here, who found one of my posts where I used an article form the Repozitory. The lovely thing about his comment is that it related to one of his post on his blog. So much nicer to receive those comments than some of those ’nice blog’ comments from blatant spammers.

…. Hmm, I think it may be time for me to search for some more articles to add here.

Ciao for now,

Elena

EP DESIGNS

Small businesses need all the help they can get …. it’s nice to have help when you need it.

HEART HARMONY is one of those sites full of good, small business tips. Heart Harmony are freelance copywriters who specialise in writing web copy for your websites. They write powerful web words that get you found in search engines, generate traffic and attract more customers.

A whole range of topics can be found here so if you’re a small business it’s well worth a visit to this blog. Sometimes business blogs can be overcrowded with inforamtion making it difficult for the eye to read through, but I find HEART HARMONY  easy to navigate and easy on the eye, which means you can read more and take in more information. It suits me because I’m not too keen on sites with a ‘confusion’ of material.

Enjoy your visit there.

Ciao,

Elena

Is your business part of the One In Five Club? So, what’s this club? Well, if you don’t want to lose your dream business then it’s not the club you want to join. What you need is then is a guiding hand to help you on the road to business success.

Business plans tend to ‘frightened’ away some business owners, for various reasons, but possibly because we usually don’t know where to start or how to put one together, or it simply may be that we don’t think we really need one. Planning plays a major role in determining whether your business succeeds or fails.  According to Donna-Marie Coggins from Jacaranda Business Support

Without a focused, tailored business plan your business is far more likely to join the One In Five Club – one in five small businesses fail within the first five years.

If business planning is one of those things you’d rather not think about then it’s always best to get the experts in to help, support and guide you along. Donna-Marie has a business support service and I’m sure she would be happy to answer any queries about business planning and the reasons for having one. Her blog Small Business Diva is also full of useful business tips which can help you in the everyday running and organising of your business.

Every now and then we need to do a check on how we’re managing our business and if it’s working. An ‘outsider’, preferably an expert can usually see things about your business that you don’t. It’s worth to have them help out even if it’s periodically and to point you in the right direction.

Make a note of Jacaranda Business Support - you may need them some day.

Ciao,

Elena

One of my coffee break activites I enjoy is checking out what other creative people are up to. Jenni Markham is part of the Blog Whammy circle of business women supporting one another through the promotion of each others blogs. in her blog Jenni states -
 

I have always enjoyed being creative, whether it be in handmade papercrafts, digital computer based graphics, pixel art or web design. And now, I’m venturing into painting.

I have also been blessed with the ability to write heartfelt poetry and verse, one of which was published in an International Poetry Anthology Book in 2004.

Jenni is a small business owner of two sole trader businesses, and a partner in another. She produces a range of Sweet Sentiments^TM printed greeting cards and magnetic noteboards as well as designing affordable starter Web Templates and operate an online shopping advertising directory.  In the other, Jenni is a partner with her sister, and together they produce handmade soaps and body products.

As with most people who are creative Jenni busies herself with many projects. This is something I can relate to – when you have an idea you need to try it out and this usually means you end up with more projects than you can handle. But if those ideas keep coming you need to act on them while they’re still fresh. She tells us - 

I have a passion for learning new things, mostly crafty or creative, and sometimes take on more than I should.

Yes, Jenni seems to have her hands full but her work is beautiful and her site is lovely to browse through.  Also pay a visit to her blog where she has snippets on her business, family and finds – there is also a monthly draw for a free gift on offer.

Ciao,

Elena

If you’re anything like me, you’ll need all the help you can get. Although, I prefer to think of myself as having organised chaos. A Good Sort can help you be a little more organised with some niftly ideas and good ‘organiser’ finds. There really is no excuse for mess and chaos. A good clean out is needed periodically as it’s just like a spring clean. You then feel refreshed and lighter. An uncluttered environment lends itself to an uncluttered mind. This is important too especially if you work from home. Running a business, a home, family …. you need some order. Anyhow, if you’d like organising to be made a little easier, pop over to A Good Sort and check their finds, ideas and their own products.

Here’s a cute idea for those who would like to add some colourful canvas prints to your walls. This is especially nice if you have young children …. and it’s a fabulous way to create keepsakes too. At My New Shiny Shoes there are always a range of products sourced out to help you with gift shopping ideas and Little Critters Canvas Print is one of those wonderful ideas.

It is well worth paying a visit to these sites, My New Shiny Shoes has a whole range of finds from  Accessories, beauty, competitions, jewellry, children, Friday finds and lots more. And don’t forget Little Critters Canvas Print with it’s colourful keepsake ideas.

Ciao for now, Elena :)

 In Melbourne the rain has come and settled in continuously. It hasn’t rained like this since 1992, so it is very much welcomed. But no matter how welcome this rain can be, continuous grey skies and dark afternoons can easily affect our moods. 

I feel that these occasions could be used in a positve way. It’s a great opportuinity for taking ‘time out’. Although it’s easy for me to say this at this point in time as I’m still on the road to recovery.  So, as I take it one-day-at-a-time, and do ‘one-thing-at-a-time’ I also manage to browse through other web sites and blogs. This time I came across an article written by Michelle Sweeney at TONIC GIFTS, on the topic of Winter Blues – it’s a good read and there are a range of interesting posts about products available from the Tonic Gifts web site.

Another enjoyable browse is over at MARAKYE if you’re interested in creative jewellery and gifts. Kylie is also into glass art and has a couple of pieces on show.

Of course, I always enjoy catching up on news at the BUSINESS MUMS NETWORK so if you’re interested in joining a supportive group of business mums pop in and have a look around.

I’ve also been updating my PRECIOUS TREASURES BLOG. I’ve chosen a new theme and added posts regarding World Youth Day Sydney 2008. The Precious Treasures web site is on hold for now and so is the EP DESIGNS web site. But I feel that I’m not too far away from the launch.

To all Melbournians – enjoy the rain!

Ciao for now, Elena