by Lesley Spencer Pyle, MSc.

A marriage is a completely unique relationship that we humans experience. You virtually become one with another person and share just about everything together. It is a partnership where two people ideally love and respect one another and grow to appreciate and work through differences “till death do you part.”

What it is not however, is a conflict-free relationship. It is almost certain that your spouse will have annoying habits or do things that irritate you. You will not find a mate that is perfect. None of us are. We must realize this and not expect perfection from our spouse. That causes unrealistic expectations that ultimately lead to disappointment. Just as you don’t want your spouse to have unrealistic expectations of you, you do not want to have unrealistic expectations of him.
We also must accept that we cannot change or fix our spouses. We can only change our expectations and ourselves. We can look for ways to be a better spouse. And it just may be appreciated and reciprocated. But even if its not, it will make you a better person and improve your relationship when you release your spouse from trying to fix him or change him. Love him and focus not on his imperfections. You married his imperfections and you married his good qualities too. Remember that.
Many people go into marriage thinking, “This person or this marriage is going to make me happy.” But that is not true, we must find that joy and contentment as individuals and allow our marriage to be the “icing” – an added bonus. We must release our spouse from the responsibility of making us happy. It is not their job. Our spouses are not equipped to meet all of our needs. No man or woman is. Sure they can and should meet some of our relationship needs, but marriage is not intended to complete us — only to compliment us. For me, it is my faith in Christ that completes me and makes me whole.

It is common to sometimes forget to give of ourselves in a relationship and forget to be others-centered. In all likelihood, we would see dramatic improvements in marriage (and all relationships) if we had the mindset of “What can I do for my spouse? How can I nurture our relationship?” In a healthy relationship, having this mindset is contagious as well. When your spouse sees you working on meeting his needs and giving of yourself, most likely he will want to reciprocate out of appreciation and love.

What is the purpose of marriage then? The purpose of marriage is to love one another, to cherish one another, to encourage one another, to be there for one another in sickness and in health, in the good times and the bad. Sound familiar? Maybe reciting those marriage vows privately or publicly isn’t a bad idea. They have meaning and they have power when they are internalized, believed and lived out.

And don’t forget marriage enables us to have and create the family we dreamed of as little girls. The white picket fence life may be a bit of a fairy tale, but happily-ever after does not have to be.
Lesley Spencer Pyle is the founder and president of the HBWM.com, Inc. Network which includes Home-Based Working Moms (www.HBWM.com) and HireMyMom.com (www.HireMyMom.com). Pyle has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Parenting, Dr. Laura’s Perspectives, Family PC and many others. She has 4 children ages 18 months to 14 years and has been working from home since the first baby was born!

By Lesley Spencer Pyle

If you find yourself walking into your home office with one eye closed, bracing yourself to face the piles of paper on your desk, you are not alone. When you find yourself challenged to do as much work as possible before the kids start needing your attention, it is easy to walk out with work half completed. And creating a filing system is the furthest thing from your mind when your kids are begging for dinner. Being organized is one of the best ways to get more productivity out of your precious workday.

If possible, keep your work place separate from the rest of the house. That includes keeping all business information in your office space and all family matters outside of the area. By keeping all work related items in your work area, you will quickly have access to all of your work needs. By keeping all family items out of your workspace, it will be less distracting and also keep family members from disturbing your work time when they are looking for their things.

Create files by reviewing each piece of paper and writing down the general category that comes to mind, e.g. company ABC – could be a customer.  Company XYZ – could be a vendor. This will help to develop a color coded system.  Customers could be yellow and each customer would have a separate yellow folder, vendors could be blue and each vendor would have a separate blue folder, etc. You have now created a system that will help keep all records in their place, provide for a clean office, and aid in finding information quickly.

Now that you have an organized filing system, you should try to have your desk cleaned off at the end of every day. This process requires you to make a decision about each piece of paper by either filing or tossing anything left on your desk. It is appropriate to have a To-Do file as long as any pending work goes into the file and you review it each morning.

Another necessity in time management and organization is getting control over your e-mail. By applying the “one touch” rule, you will quickly learn to manage your e-mail and develop an effective filing system, which will allow you to quickly find e-mails when you need to refer to them. Therefore, after reviewing an e-mail, a decision should be made to either respond, file, or delete it. If you decide to respond at a later date, you can move the e-mail to your on-line calendar.

An organized office will help you keep a clear mind, which in turn will allow you to focus on your tasks in a more efficient manner. You can now walk into your office in the morning getting a fresh start in an uncluttered environment.

Lesley Spencer Pyle is the founder and president of the HBWM.com, Inc. Network which includes Home-Based Working Moms (www.HBWM.com) and HireMyMom.com (www.HireMyMom.com). Pyle has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Parenting, Dr. Laura’s Perspectives, Family PC and many others. She has 4 children ages 18 months to 14 years and has been working from home since the first baby was born!

You make the most incredible rag quilts, beaded jewelry, herbal soaps or knitted children’s sweaters, but you don’t want to spend your weekends packing and unpacking at craft fairs all over the country.  Are there any other options?

Increasingly, artisans of homemade goods are selling their products online.  While some crafters maintain their own websites, they often find that the html coding, shopping cart decisions and security logistics can become cumbersome.  It may be a better use of resources to pay a small fee to join a group of other sellers and let other people deal with the hassles of website management.

EBay
EBay is the gold standard of online selling. For between $15.95 and $499.95 per month, eBay offers sellers a complete store front option (this is in addition to normal per transaction fees). Depending on the level of service purchased, sellers can customize their store front and have access to a handful of promotional, branding and management tools.

The biggest attraction to eBay stores, however, is the access they give artisans to the enormous eBay audience.  The drawback?  eBay does not specialize in handmade items, however many people successfully sell their work on eBay.

Etsy
Etsy is the online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. They connect buyers with independent creators and shop owners to find the very best in handmade, vintage and supplies. Etsy shoppers are looking for handmade goods, vintage items and craft supplies and not necessarily the cheapest product they can find.

With over 170,000 independent shops, prospective buyers can sift through eclectic and traditional collections of ceramics, indie crafts, jewelry, recycled products, vintage and vegan items, house wares, clothing and more. Their search methods are pretty innovative, too.  You can choose a color and the site displays everything that is offered in that color, or click through categories like Furniture, Children and Weddings.  There is also the Geolocator, letting you shop by locale, the Showcase, which are daily paid feature spots for store owners, and the Time Machine, which lists the most recent items listed on Etsy.

When you sign up to be a seller, you’ll get your own easy-to-use online shop. You can customize it with a banner, fill out a profile and set your shop policies. Etsy sellers can also participate in Alchemy, a feature that allows buyers to post requests for custom made items and allows sellers to bid on those requests. 

The best part?  There is no HTML required. Setting up shop on Etsy is easy and takes only a few minutes. You can customize your shop with a banner, profile, shop policies and more.   You’ll get your own URL for your shop based on your username, http://username.etsy.com  

It costs 20 cents to list an item for four months. When your item sells, you’ll pay a 3.5% transaction fee. Read all about Etsy’s fees for more information.

Tips
Whatever service you use, here are some tips to consider:

• Look for feedback
  Etsy and eBay both have their own feedback system. Feedback and seller ratings are taken just as seriously on Etsy as they are on eBay. Sellers depend on good feedback for their reputation, and bad feedback will leave an ugly black mark on their record.
• Take great photos
  One of the biggest mistakes handcrafters make is having poor photographs of their products.   Choose a photo that is clear, bright and depict the item you have up for sale in the best light.
• Describe well
  Make sure to include the material of the item, the dimensions, if the item comes in more than one color and turnaround time (if any).   For example, if it takes you five to seven business days to produce and ship an item, you must include that information in your description.

Lesley Spencer Pyle is the founder and president of the HBWM.com, Inc. Network which includes Home-Based Working Moms (www.HBWM.com) and HireMyMom.com (www.HireMyMom.com). Pyle has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Parenting, Dr. Laura’s Perspectives, Family PC and many others. She has 4 children ages 22 months to 14 years and has been working from home since the first baby was born!

By Lesley Spencer Pyle, MSc

Sending a press release is a great way to draw attention to your business. This can be utilized if you are adding a new product or service to your business or you brought on a key member to your staff. Also, if you will be doing a presentation or participating in a trade show, send out a press release. It is a cost effective way to get your news out to a large audience.

A press release should express enough excitement to generate interest. It should be professionally written, including proper grammar and layout. Some key points to keep in mind:

• Be concise and leave out overly descriptive words. Try to keep it to 1 page. 

• A captivating headline will want them to read more. A subhead can be used to further peak their interest.

• The first few sentences should tell your story. If the reader puts it down after reading the first few lines, they should be able to know the message you are sending.

• You may have fabulous news to share, but the media is only looking for a good story – so give them a good one.  Tie it into a current event to help make it newsworthy. For example, is your business doing something special to weather the economic storm?

• A reporter may not contact you before they run your story. Therefore, tell your story the way you want it to be printed. You can find out if it has been used in a news article, by setting up Google Alerts that contain the title of your press release and any keywords you used.

• Include your credentials as to why you are qualified to be the best in your field. Adding a quote from a customer that has used your product or service and how it benefited them will help add credibility.

• Conclude with the boilerplate which should include company and name the information the media should contact, address, phone, fax, e-mail and website.

Press releases can be sent directly to each media outlet or the news wires, which the media taps into to find newsworthy topics. Now that you have the basics of the press release, go spread the word about your company.

Lesley Spencer Pyle is the founder and president of the HBWM.com, Inc. Network which includes Home-Based Working Moms (www.HBWM.com) and HireMyMom.com (www.HireMyMom.com). Pyle has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Parenting, Dr. Laura’s Perspectives, Family PC and many others. She has 4 children ages 22 months to 14 years and has been working from home since the first baby was born!

by Dennis and Barbara Rainey

Q: We have a hard time getting our kids to do their chores. Usually they refuse to obey us. Then, after we threaten them, they give in, but they do a sloppy job with a terrible attitude. How should we handle assigning chores and disciplining when they’re not done?

Dennis: There are several points to consider. First of all, we need to make sure that our expectations are reasonable—that we assign kids chores that they are capable of performing. Then, we should give the kids specific instructions so that what we expect is clear to them. They should know when the job needs to be finished and how we expect the finished product to look. If failure to complete the job will result in a penalty, this consequence should be clear from the start.

I also think it’s important to keep in mind that the purpose behind assigning kids chores is to teach them responsibility and maturity. Sometimes we get so caught up in the task we want them to perform that we miss the opportunity to teach a lesson. If the kid’s character is shaping up, and he is learning responsibility, that is more important than whether or not his room is perfectly clean. If I were dealing with a child with a rebellious attitude and if that room were a statement of rebellion, then I’d deal with that differently. I would not let that continue. But we’ve got to stay focused on the end goals, and in light of that, there is a time for grace.

Barbara: I agree. Showing grace and forgiveness, we can exhibit the character of God to our kids. For example, I think it’s a good idea for kids to have regular chores such as making their beds every morning and keeping their rooms clean. There are times, though, when those chores don’t get done, and those occasions don’t always require punishment. There are times when we as a family are tired or too busy, and those are not the times to hammer into those little details.

It’s important that our children know that we love them and will continue to love them regardless of how they perform. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be consequences if they fail to obey, but it does mean that we will always accept them and love them. They need that security in our relationship. The relationship is really the key in raising kids to maturity and developing their sense of responsibility.

Dennis: We’ve got to remember that we’re raising kids, not mature adults. We can expect them to act childishly. I teach a sixth grade Sunday school class and I asked the students one week, “Do you guys know what a clean kitchen looks like?” They all started laughing and said, “Yeah, we know what it looks like.” So I said, “Well, why don’t you do it?” They all just said, “We like to aggravate you. We like to get to you.” It is fascinating that at age 12 they know what is required, but they try to be obstinate just to get back at us. They want to win the battle, but our concern should be more for our relationship than the battle. We’ve got to discipline without provoking our children to wrath.

The thing that I don’t want to do in the process of assigning chores and making sure they are completed is to lose the relationship with the child. If I get so angry with the child that I’m beginning to sever that relationship, then I—as the adult—need to take responsibility before the Lord for my own actions. I need to step back and allow a cool down period, so that we don’t lose the relationship.

Copyright © 1996-2009 FamilyLife. All Rights Reserved.
Used By Permission. www.FamilyLife.com

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why  did God make mothers?
1. She’s the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How  did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger  parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of ?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men’s bones. Then they mostly use string, I think. 

Why  did God give you your mother and not some other mom?  
1.  We’re related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people’s moms like me.

What  kind of little girl was your mom?
1. My Mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.  
2. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.  

What  did mom need to know about dad before she married  him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?  

Why did your mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him. 
3. My grandma says that Mom didn’t have her thinking cap on.  

Who’s  the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn’t want to be boss, but she has to because dad’s such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the  stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What’s  the difference between moms & dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power ’cause that’s who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend’s.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What  does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don’t do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What  would it take to make your mom perfect?
1.  On the inside she’s already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I’d diet, maybe blue.

If  you could change one thing about your mom, what would it  be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I’d get rid  of that.
2. I’d make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.  

Author Unknown

All businesses need reliable, motivated, cost-friendly help.  When belts need tightening, company leaders look for ways to trim every aspect of the budget without sacrificing quality products and services.  Increasingly, one of the most cost effective ways to do so is to outsource a portion of your jobs to contractors outside of your company.
 
Reduces Cash Flow
If you have a bookkeeper on your premises who is only needed five hours per week, you may be paying her for additional hours just to keep her.  Besides her salary, you may be paying for benefits, office space and office equipment.  If you were to outsource your bookkeeping needs, you can choose to only buy the services you need each month.
 
Saves Time
You may have an incredibly talented marketing person who is a whiz at direct mail campaigns.  However, he may have little or no experience with social media, e-zines, e-mail blasts or SEO optimization.  Instead of paying for his learning curve, let him focus on what he does best and hire more qualified people for the targeted pieces you need.
 
Increases Delivery Speed
Studies have proven that a person’s productivity goes up when given the opportunity to work from home.  Clear expectations and agreement on project milestones will guarantee deliverables will be completed on time.
 
Focus on Core Competencies
It often starts as a way to save money, but outsourcing helps companies in other ways.  For example, in a recent Accenture survey of more than 800 health, manufacturing, retail and travel executives in the US and Europe, 86% said outsourcing gives them more control over business results in a variety of critical areas, the most important being the ability to plan. While cost-cutting is among these key areas, the executives also reported equal levels of control in reliability, cost variability improvements and effective implementation of ideas.
 
Getting Started
With over fifty different online companies offering to post your business ads, not to mention the ability to post on Craigslist, what’s a company to do?  What frequently happens with the largest companies is that you become swamped with literally hundreds of emails from job hunters.  The hours and money you wanted to save are now lost.
 
Instead, look for a company that prides itself on professional, personalized service and requires something of its candidates.  The best sites demand that their candidates pay a membership fee and have a minimum number of years’ experience in their field of expertise.  After all, you can get 2,000 responses from Craigslist and have to weed through them all to find a handful of applicants, or use a site like www.HireMyMom.com and get 25 candidates- all talented and experienced professionals. 
 

About the author
Lesley Spencer Pyle is founder & director of www.hbwm.com as well as www.HireMyMom.com, a site than enables professional women to market their skills, experience and education to businesses needing to outsource work.  She is a columnist with WomenEntrepreneur.com, a contributor to DrLaura.com, is featured on DrPhil.com, and the author of The Work-at-Home Workbook: Your Step-by-Step Guide on Selecting and Starting the Perfect Home Business for You.

by Dennis and Barbara Rainey

Q: Sometimes I get so discouraged with the way the kids are acting or the way the house looks. I feel like I’m doing the best I can, but it’s not good enough. My husband tries to help, but I just feel worse. What can I do?

Dennis: I believe that one emotion many mothers experience today is discouragement. Raising six kids, there were hundreds of times when Barbara came to me frustrated and exasperated because she felt out of control.

Barbara: This discouragement is born primarily of high expectations. We enter parenthood with high ideals and expectations, but we don’t realize that we are bound to fail some of the time. As a young mother, I naively felt that I was going to be the most successful parent ever because I was so committed to that role, and I was so committed to doing it as a Christian that I thought I could avoid all sorts of horrible mistakes.

Discouragement set in, though, from the moment our first child was born, because her birth process didn’t go the way it was supposed to go, and I felt like a failure. Then, when I began breastfeeding, it wasn’t working the way I had dreamed it would. I had never done it before, and I didn’t know what I was doing. Then there was teething…then potty training…and on and on.

With these new experiences come all kinds of new emotions. A young mother isn’t sure where they are coming from or how to handle them. Through the years I have come to understand some of that, but it has taken a lot of time, because I didn’t enter my marriage feeling very mature emotionally. I didn’t even know what emotional maturity was.

Dennis: Many adults from our generation grew up in homes where expressing emotion was looked down upon. A part of our responsibility as parents is to help raise our children to express emotion, but before we can do that we need to come to emotional maturity ourselves. We need to realize that emotions are a part of God’s image imbedded and imprinted within us. What we’ve got to understand as adults is that we are made in the emotional image of God and we shouldn’t be afraid of those emotions in our lives when they crop up.

Barbara: I had trouble expressing my emotions, because I had never shared some of those feelings with anybody on the face of the earth. I felt at risk sharing them with Dennis, and a part of what we learned was that I just needed to be able to say what I felt to someone I trusted. I just needed him to listen.

Dennis: But I was doing the typical male thing when it comes to a problem. I wanted to solve the problem, to fix the situation. I know that this comes as bad news to most men, but a lot of emotions can’t be fixed. They just need to be expressed. We need to listen and to do our best to understand what our wives are trying to say to us.

I highly suggest that you develop the lost art of late night talks and walks. There have been a lot of nights in our marriage that seemed to last for days. When we lived in Boulder, Colo., we’d take drives up into the mountains—Barbara talking and me just listening.

Barbara: I would encourage a husband to listen quietly until his wife asks or in some way communicates that she wants a response. However, that doesn’t mean that he should become silent or mentally check out. Then at some point he can begin to say, “Why do you feel that way? What do you think has contributed to your feelings?”

By discussing it, you can help her begin to understand her emotions. Often times a mom gets discouraged and doesn’t even know why. You can help her understand what the circumstances were that led to her becoming discouraged, and maybe help prevent similar discouragement in the future. The key, though, is for her husband to listen in a way that shows her that he cares and understands, and that it’s all going to be okay.

Dennis: The other morning Barbara was really overwhelmed by things that were going on, and she asked me to help.

Barbara: I was getting the kids ready for school. I had to discipline one child for a lousy attitude. Another had sprained his ankle the night before and I was worried about whether or not I should have it x-rayed. Then a third child told me that he had to be at school early for a disciplinary reason. I asked Dennis if he could help me by making breakfast for the kids.

Dennis: So I toasted 8 or 10 slices of bread and set them on a plate on the counter. When we got in the car to go to school, the kids said they hadn’t eaten breakfast. They had never seen the food, because they were expecting me to hand it to them like their mother does.

Barbara: So they drove to school eating buttered toast in the car, and as I walked into the house I realized that Dennis doesn’t carry the burden like I do. He did the task, but I’m involved on a more emotional level with the kids, and I want to do everything perfectly.

The challenge is that I can’t lower my standards, but to continue to aspire to those high standards is setting myself up for discouragement, disappointment, and failure. There isn’t a magic formula for success in raising kids. Kids have sinful natures just like we do, and even if we could do everything perfectly, they would still mess up.

You need to realize that you can’t do everything right, and even if you could, things still wouldn’t be perfect. God’s power is made perfect through your weakness, though. He is strong even when you are weak.

Dennis: Husbands, the incorrect response when your wife is discouraged is to say, “You shouldn’t be discouraged. It’s no big deal.” The correct response is to try to understand why she feels discouraged—the circumstances that caused it and the implications of those feelings.

Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for her.” As husbands we are called to assume responsibility for our wives’ emotional well-being and their emotional development. We are called to love our wives, and a part of that is attempting to understand them and connect with them emotionally instead of just trying to provide a solution or fix their emotions.

Early in our marriage, I found myself verbalizing my commitment to Barbara frequently. In fact, I was caught a little off guard by how insecure she was about my love. I realized that we had to build a relationship of trust, and I could do that by embracing her emotions and never belittling them. I just had to listen and then say, “Well, that’s interesting how you feel,” instead of immediately moving to a solution. I still can’t understand how a woman can have a problem and not want it immediately solved, but that is just part of the difference in the way men and women are made.

Barbara: Today Dennis and I were having lunch, and I began to express my frustration. I was feeling overwhelmed because our lives have been incredibly busy for the last couple of weeks, and I haven’t been home, and so consequently the house is a mess.

Dennis: At first, I took her discouragement personally. I said, “Well, I help around the house a lot.”

Barbara: What I wanted Dennis to do was to listen and to understand and then after a while we could come up with a solution.

Dennis: This is the maddening part of being a man! I just wanted to fix the problem. We had to take a moment and regain our emotional balance, and once we did, we had a very pleasant lunch. I apologized for missing the point, and tried to support her with compassion and understanding like I should have in the first place. Eventually we worked toward a solution, and tonight we’re having a clean-the-house campaign.

No relationships are perfect, but through the power of the Holy Spirit we can together learn to express, understand, and work through our emotions. Your struggle is not against your spouse, and if you don’t work together, your frustrations will only multiply.

Q&A on Defeating Discouragement in Motherhood
Copyright© 2007 FamilyLife.  All Rights Reserved.
Used By Permission.  www.FamilyLife.com

As your business grows, the reality of needing to bring someone in to help with the work load becomes essential. So you decide to take the step and outsource part of your responsibilities to a contract worker. There are a few things to keep in mind before taking the leap:

1. Before searching for a contract worker, identify the key tasks you need done. Contract workers tend to have very specific skills and being specific in your needs will help you find the perfect fit.

2. Ask for recommendations from other business associates. Since independent contractors generally do not work with any supervision, it is imperative that they are someone that has a proven track record.

3. Check with the IRS and your local state agency to insure your arrangement with the contract worker does not place them in a class as an employee. You may both initially agree to a contract worker agreement, but there are guidelines that specifically state when someone is considered an employee despite what you would like to call the arrangement. Therefore, clarify upfront so you do not owe back payroll taxes and possible penalties and interest. Your accountant should be able to help with your particular situation.

4. Once you have passed the IRS test, a contract should be drafted. It does not have to be lengthy, but should leave both parties clearly understanding the expectations. Possible areas of inclusion:
a. what work are you asking them to do
b. how you will communicate timelines for each project
c. how will they be paid
d. it should contain a non-compete clause
e. if equipment or other property is provided, a statement stating how and when it should be returned upon termination of the contract. Also, specifically, what property was provided to them (include serial or model #’s if applicable)

Independent contractors can be a tremendous resource for a small business. It can provide an option to hire a variety of different skill levels without the overhead of a complete staff. As long as you do your homework and find a well qualified person(s). It also allows you to move some of your responsibilities to free up more time to market your company and get it to the next level.

If you are on Twitter and looking for ways to grow your followers, here is a good article on how to be “worth following”….

‘How do I get followers on Twitter?’ - it’s a question it seems everyone is asking. In this post Jo-Lynne (follow her at @dcrmom) shares some tips on being the kind of Twitter users people want to follow. Hi. I’m Jo-Lynne and I’m a Twitteraholic. Yes, I’m unashamedly and unapologetically addicted to Twitter. I use Twitter to build relationships, to keep connected to the outside world, to distract me from the housework, and to find articles and information that I wouldn’t discover otherwise. I choose carefully whom I follow on Twitter. As with any other social network, there are ways to grow your community. In Twitter-speak, this means to gain followers. I’ve put together this list based on the characteristics of the people I most enjoy following on Twitter.

1) Be Interesting
It’s fine to announce what you’re doing and thinking and what you had for lunch, as long as you do it in a way that is entertaining to your followers. Twitter is micro-blogging, and like on your blog, if all you do is give a play-by-play of your mundane daily happenings, you will lose followers. The people I enjoy following find a way to make me smile with their quips and one-liners, even if they are just informing me what they had for breakfast. Here are a couple of examples from the past few days.

@subdiva could have said, “Packing to go to Disney tonight!” but instead she wrote: “Packing up to ring in the New Year on the happiest place on earth. No, not the wine store…”

@rocksinmydryer could have said, “I hate dieting” but instead she wrote: “May I just say, for the record, that PORTION CONTROL STINKS? Thank you, that is all.”

Of course not everything you post has to be clever, but if you’re just sharing your thoughts and happenings, try to make it worth reading.

2) Be Informative
Not every tweet should answer the question, “What are you doing right now?” If you are going to participate in the Twitter community, you need to give something back. I love it when people post links to helpful articles or leave bits of advice and information. Post whatever comes naturally to you. @skinnyjeans reminds her followers every day to get up and drink a glass of water and gives us a much-needed pep talk in the middle of the afternoon. I love this! @problogger always links to the articles he is reading, and I have found lots of new bloggers to follow this way. Not all helpful information has to be your own. If you see a good tweet, do a “retweet” so your followers can get the benefit of the information that is being shared.

3) Be Interactive
Don’t be a “hit and run” tweeter! In other words, don’t just log into Twitter to tell people what you are doing or link to your post and then leave. Respond to tweets, ask questions, answer questions. Twitter is a conversation, not a monologue, and the more you participate, the more you will get out of it, and the faster your community will grow.

Click here to read the full article: http://www.twitip.com/7-ways-to-be-worth-following-on-twitter/