WomensNet Newz for The Woman Entrepreneur!

Hi Everyone! I am so happy to announce that the WomensNet.net site redesign / Overhaul is finally complete! Please come by, check it out, and let me know what you think! This new layout will make finding things much easier.

In the coming weeks I will be redesigning all of the other sites in the WomensNet Family, so please keep an eye out for WomensNetOnline.com, DadsConnect.com, and WorkAtHomeIdeasForWomen.com

Now for the BIG announcement! The Amber Grant is BACK! We  are accepting applications for The Amber Grant through October 31st, 2008! If you have applied for a previous Amber Grant and did not win, you MUST resubmit your application.

 As many of you know, Ebay has been going through a massive upheaval for the past several months. First the fees were raised again, then they changed the feed back system so that only buyers were allowed to leave negative feedback - then they changed the ‘neutral’ feedback so that it counted as negative……and when the dust settled, thousands of power sellers were no more….

My husband and I have been EBay sellers for several years, with 3 stores through the EBay ‘partner’ company ProStores. This was actually our second attempt to make it work with ProStores - we wanted to use it because it offered more automation and frankly, when you have 10,000+ items listed on EBay - you NEED automation to manage things.

ImYourNumber1Fan.com launched quietly yesterday as our first Shopster store! Have to say that all things considered - this was an amazingly easy system to work with. And I still really love the fact that we can control the pricing just as when we were dealing direct with these SAME manufacturer’s - but Shopster handles the support and shipping for us. 

I have seen a number of complaints online about Shopster’s prices but after dealing with most of the same companies for the last 5 years, I can honestly tell you that when you factor in the EBay fees that we were paying before - we are at the same pricing or lower, with better profit margins, and less work.

I love summer - and I love working from home, but the two don’t always seem compatible this time of the year!

I will be the first to admit that when the sun comes out I don’t want to be sitting indoors on the phone or the computer. The great outdoors beckons and the pool calls loudest of all! My natural inclination would be to chuck it all and ‘make hay while the sun shines’ but…from a monetary perspective that is not always practical!

EBay has been the ideal home based business for years. Most of us started with the ‘clean out the garage’ model, and over time graduated to dropshipping, and in many cases, it has turned into a pretty significant fulltime income.

Over the last several weeks, several VERY disturbing changes have taken place at EBay as EBay seems intent on wiping out the very business base that built the behemoth, to focus on the corporate clientele that have taken a much larger position on EBay over the past couple of years, using EBay to sell off their excess inventory directly, rather than selling to the large discount chains as was the previous habit.

Product Review: SeNuke

Marketing your website is the ‘necessary evil’ of running an online business, because, unfortunately, without traffic (aka ‘marketing’!), you have no eyeballs and no eyeballs means no business.

Ouch…..the truth is although we should be spending the majority of our time as business owners on activities that get us traffic - that is NOT what happens in the real world. In the real world, you usually wind up doing everything else first that is tied directly to producing revenue, such as client related work, shipping products, taking care of your website….and marketing is the bottom on the list - the tasks that are usually left to “when I have the time”.

This week’s guest column is by Life Coach, Jeannette Samanen Ph.D:

Visualize Your Goal - A Philadelphia Life Coach Tells You Why and How

The first step in any life change is to visualize what it is that you want for yourself.  Before you can plan the necessary action, you need to know where you are heading. To do this you must visualize your goal.

Conceptualize Your Goal in Positive Terms 

The desire to change is usually motivated by dissatisfaction with the present situation. Because of this, when it’s time to identify your goals, you may think in terms of what you want to get rid of.

that you wonder if you can make it to the bedroom? Spend so many hours in front of the computer or talking on the phone to clients that when you get up….you can hardly walk? Do you ever think that if you have to smile at one more customer today….you are going to just lock the door to the bathroom and come out next Tuesday??

June 1, 2008, Cincinnati, OH - It’s that time of year again - Father’s day is around the corner and it seems like there’s a Graduation to attend every weekend - meaning that my gift giving skills are pushed to the limit. Unlike Mother’s Day - you can’t just run out to the nearest florist and send a nice bunch of roses, and that means that when buying gfts for Dads and Grads…..you may actually have to put some thought and effort into the decision!
Fortunately, lots of Dads and Grads (yes, even the female variety!) are sports fans - and that opens up a whole new world of unique, logo bearing gifts!

Contrary to what you might have seen on those late night TV commercials - grants are NOT that easy to come by. The first step is finding a grant that you qualify for - but the second part is the killer and where most grant seekers fail - completing the application process!

If your grant proposal is not complete and accurate according to the grantor’s specific guidelines - you won’t make it past the first qualifying round!

Here are a few tips for writing your grant proposal: