Kristie T’s Home Business Blog Fun, mom-geared work-at-home tips and advice on making money on the net.

My buddy Ron Lindemann of Lindemann Chimney told me about an awesome cool tool I wanted to share with you.

Have you ever been driving down the road and either got a neat idea, had someone schedule an appointment, or wanted to write a phone number down but couldn’t? Jott let’s you take notes with your mobile phone. With this free service, you just call on your mobile phone. You say what the message is. And Jott uses voice recognition to dictate what you said and turn it into a text message that you get in an email.

Now with Jott, you don’t have to worry about entering it into your blackberry and syncing it up with your laptop or writing it on a paper that gets lost.

Their voice dictation software is like a free personal secretary that takes what you say and sends it right to your email box so you don’t forget.

You could use Jott for reminders, to record information like expenses, phone numbers, dates, appointments as you get them, even if there is a car accident.

In fact, some bloggers are using Jott to post things to their blog as it happens. Imagine being at an internet marketing seminar when a big announcement is made and having the ability to post it within seconds to your blog by having it email a special email address that posts to your blog. Very cool!

Have any of you tried Jott? Do you use Jott is unique ways? Try Jott free here!

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Who is waiting to hear from you? When is the last time you wrote a customer to tell them how much you appreciate them?

One of my biggest discoveries this year is the power of relationships. I have made a big effort to focus on deepening my business and personal relationships.

Keeping in touch with your customers is key to creating trust and loyalty. That’s why It’s critical to have a keep in touch system in place to cultivate relationships of your current customers and well as with prospects.

I have found that keeping in touch with customers helps you stay top of mind so that when they are ready to do business, they remember that you are there to help. Handwritten greeting cards with a personal message that shows appreciation and build rapport. Whether you send holiday cards, thank you cards, even birthday cards, regular notes makes your customers more likely to think of you first.

Here is a new article I wrote on 10 Keep in Touch Marketing Secrets.

I’d love for you to try my favorite keep in touch system to send out cards for free here.

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I get letters all the time from moms who are looking for a legitimate work at home job.

For example here’s a letter I got last week:

The reason I am emailing you is because I would like to do data entry. I just don’t know who to trust so can you please send me some info on that kind of thing. I a now doing surveys but I have to pay alot to do them some are free but no money. I need to work I am on SSI but that don’t pay the bills I have 2 girls who are ages 1 and 4 we are going to lose our house and I am trying to keep it! My boyfriend/husband of 12 years is working as hard to keep what we have but there is so much a man can do. He comes home from a job he hates and he’s tired all the time but yet he stills have time for the kids He gives them baths and takes them to the park. Hes a good Dad but he needs to rest so please can you find me something and my boyfriend/husband likes to put things together He is not good at computers!

Here’s the advice I gave her on finding a telecommuting job.

I am so sorry to hear about your situation. Have you looked into telecommuting? Here are some places to help you find a legitimate work from home job.

-Workaholics4hire
-Alpineaccess
-CustomLoyal
-Liveops
-WorkingSolutions

Some of the types of jobs you can do as a telecommuter include: administrative, freelance, computer-related, accounting, marketing, and writing.

Do any of you telecommute? If so, what do you do? How did you find the job you have?

Here are some articles on telecommuting from our Webmomz site.

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Do you ever see people wearing those fun promotional buttons on their shirts and wonder, “How do they do that?” Here is how to make your own buttons in about 15 minutes using Word, Paint, and CafePress.

Make your own custom “buttons” to wear.

1) Go into Word and made a WordArt graphic - VERY EASY.

2) Take a screen shot of the completed graphic in word and pasted it into Paint.

3) Crop the file so all it shows is the graphic, not the rest of the screen.

4) Upload the file into cafepress.com and tell them you want to make a button.

Initially the image may be too big, so scale it back to about 3/4 size (easily done within cafepress)

Voila. Whole process takes less than 15 minutes.

**edit** My cafepress ID # is webmomz, if you sign up for an account and they ask for who referred you.
Just go to our Webmomz CafePress store,
click on Make your own stuff (the green button at the top) and choose which button size you want.

Thanks Kacy Drouin for telling me how to do this!

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Mike Dooley, one of the experts from the movie The Secret, had a great message in his newsletter, TUT, A Note from the Universe, today. Thought I’d share.

Mike writes…

What if, happiness didn’t have anything to do with what you had, where you’ve been, or who you were, and arose entirely from what you chose to think about, yet nobody knew this?

And that changing your thoughts, so that you could feel happier more often, would entirely change what you had, who you were, and where you’re headed, yet nobody knew this either?

Do you think if we told them they’d choose to think differently?

Thinking of you-
The Universe

Just another powerful reminder that we create our own realities. As he says “Thoughts become things. Choose good ones”

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When you start a home based business, no one tells you that it’s much like having a baby. It takes about 9 months for that business to “gestate”. When it’s first born, that new business sometimes needs “fed” in the wee hours of the morning and night. And it can take it’s toll on your health and your marriage.

Even when your business grows older, gets more established and more profitable, it still takes steady effort and focus to keep it running. And it’s really easy to let that needy business take time from the relationships you have with your husband and kids if you let it.

In fact, there’s somewhat of a “sexy” appeal to feeling needed by your business. The intellectual stimulation of thinking of that next promotion, where to find customers, and how to grow profits feels good compared to the conversation you might have with your 2 year old.

I guess what I am saying is that I let the thrill of my business feed me in a way that I stopped investing in my marriage. And this spring it really took it’s toll on us. We are back on the right track now. But I really want to remind you to keep things in this order God first, family second, business third.

Now I am making date time with my husband. I am trying to do thoughtful little things to show I love him (cards, making his favorite cookies etc). And we are trying to take time together to connect everyday - even if it’s just sitting with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and talking.

Having a successful business is worth nothing if you don’t have a happy family to share it with.

That’s part also of why I got really quiet on my blog. I knew it was time to unplug from business and replug in to family. Now that things are out of crisis mode, I look forward to reconnecting to you - my friends.

Here’s wishing you the very best for you, your family, and your business.

God Bless.

Kristie T

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