I know what you are going through believe me.  I have four children ages 27, 23, 20, and 15.  I think that’s accurate.  I sometimes can’t remember their ages right away.  The numbers keep changing and are hard to keep up with.  I usually remember I’m 54.  I’m a professional organizer and former home school mom as well.  I understand your challenges and your desire for a somewhat orderly life.

I’ve been in the homes and businesses of professional athletes, business executives, entrepreneurs (wish that were easier to spell), moms, somewhat disorganized people and chronically disorganized people.  I’m a Level II  Chronic Disorganization Specialist.  This means I work with people who have struggled their own life to get organized, have many failed self-help attempts, and struggle with it every day.  Chronic disorganization isn’t a disease but it’s important to recognize the tools and techniques for helping are quite different.

My blog for Mompreneurs will look at your lives from the point of view of home organization, work space, and time management point of view.  Since I’m old, I think I can pass on some words of wisdom that would be helpful as well.

I want to hear from you.  Let me know what your questions are and I’ll answer in the blog.  My company, Create the Space Professional Organizing LLC is located in Mesa, Arizona, but I have clients throughout the west.  It’s great fun to work with people who are trying to be the best they can.  It isn’t easy to admit you need help.  I want to thank my clients for their courage.

Parenting is the hardest job you’ll ever have.  I’d like to be able to ease your load somewhat.

Nancy Nemitz, Professional Organizer, Create the Space Professional Organizing LLC

It’s difficult to get things done when you give yourself too many options.

Let’s say you decide your child should take ballet lessons.  If you live in a big city, you could spend months visiting ballet studios, checking on-line, asking your friends, and driving yourself nuts in the process.  Some decisions require more investigation than others; however, decide what your top decision making criteria is for this project.  Is it distance to the studio, cost, quality of instruction,  near your favorite coffee stop?  What’s the most important factor?  To make the most of your time,  narrow your choices. Tom Kelley, author of The Ten Faces of Innovation, says “provide a small selection of excellent choices and have a point of view about why you chose those few among the many.”

Too many choices make decision making more difficult than it needs to be.

http://cheftoolsblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/story-of-grill-charmstm.html

 Hello folks!  Here is a little bit more of my presentation:

“Something else I did often during my R&D phase was ASK FOR HELP!

 Did you know that you can actually have an online mentor and councilor for FREE in just about ANY field or genera you can think of?  I used several virtual SCORE.org councilors during the beginning stages of my entrepreneurial journey.  They helped me with everything from writing my business plan to metal fabrication processes for my product. In November I was invited to one of my virtual councilors’ banquets to receive an award for success story of the year. It just so happened he lived in Myrtle Beach, so it was for Grand Strand SCORE Chapter 381. We still talk today.  Once again, it is all about building your virtual village.  

On blogs and forums, join the conversation.  Ask for help.  You don’t have to do it alone and people really like to share information they have learned.  People love to “talk” so ask and then sit back and listen

Another thing I did (and still do) in this interactive social world of ours is enter business contests relevant to my field.  There are so many out there for start up companies.

www.startupnation.com always has tons,

Idea Café gives away $5000.00 every year to a new business

Whirlpool’s Mother of Invention Grant is an annual contest

Make Mine a Million

A lot of these contests I learn about from checking blogs and forums like mompreneursonline.com.”  This will help with building your credibility which I’ll talk about next week. 

Let’s see…. In the world of Grill Charms™, I’ve been a little under the weather with a cold and consequently I sound like a frog!  This was really frustrating because I felt like I couldn’t make any sales calls and grilling season is creeping up fast.  The specialty retailers are buying now (if they haven’t already) for spring and summer and here I am, unable to call on any stores because I sound like an amphibian!  Very frustrating!  I did what I could via email (which is not as effective) but Monday, I’m going to hit the ground running!  Have a wonderful weekend folks!

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™www.grillcharms.com

Hello hello!  The other night, I was watching American Idol when I get an email on my phone.  Robert was down in his house in Miami shot me a quick note that the grilling and barbeque accessory buyer for a BIG BIG account want to talk to me! Since then, the buyer and I have chatted and samples have been sent off!  The BIG accounts (more mass retail outlets) work about a year out, so really soon they will be doing their product reviews for spring and summer 2011, (which is fine just fine) but he also said that it isn’t to late to test market Grill Charms in a few stores for this year.  Keep your fingers and toes crossed! 

Last week I was a guest speaker at a conference here in Charleston for The Center for Women www.twitter.com/c4womenchas   It was and amazing gathering and I’m so honored to have been asked to speak.  Since most of you don’t live here, I thought I’d recap the things I went over.  I was paired with an amazing woman, Jo Ann Studtmueller.  www.twitter.com/joannepicvu  I was asked to speak about social media and Jo Ann TRULY is an expert.  As most of you know, I’ve always considered myself technologically handicapped, so when the Center for Women asked me to speak on this subject, I thought there must be some mistake.  I love talking to a brick wall, so ANY chance to speak in front real people, especially fellow women in business, I jump all over, but when I met with Jo Ann the first time, I confided in her my fears.  I said “Jo Ann… I’m not really sure why I’m going to be up there with you.  I’m successful in business, I’m pretty darn good at getting my brand out there, I can talk all day about inventing, entrepreneurship, marketing and PR, but I’m truly technologically inept.  She said… “do you use twitter”… I said “yes”, “do you blog?”  I said “yes”.  “do you have a FB account and business Fan page?” I said “yes”.  She said “are you Linked In?”  I said “yes”. She said “do you link your blog and website with your YouTube videos?” I said “yes” and low and behold, she said  “YOU’RE IN!”   And in preparing for this presentation I began to realize just what a vital part social media and content marketing has played in getting where I am today.  I’m living proof that it does not take technological know-how to get started.  There are tons of folks out there that are much more tech savvy then I am, but I’ll give you a few easy tricks of the social marketing and PR trade.  

Over the next few weeks I’m going to tell you a little bit about how I used this mystical, magical box called a computer during all of the different phases of my business.  First I entered into what I call the “Research and Development Phase”.  So I had my spicy light bulb moment… now what?!

The first thing I did was turn on my computer and got to googling.  I scoured the blogs and forums for information on the two things I identified myself with most at the time and that was:  a mom and a budding entrepreneur.  Regardless of your industry and what business you are thinking about going into, “Join the conversation!”  

Comment on blogs; praise the contributors and bloggers if something they said helped you.  Post questions (or answer questions) on forums.  There is a blog and/or forum for EVERYTHING!!  The true benefit in “joining the conversation” might not be apparent right off that bat.  You might think that praising a blogger just makes them feel good and maybe brightens someone’s day and that getting active on forums helps because it answers questions you have but it does so much more than that.  It helps you build your virtual village.  It gets you connected to people already “in the know” that can help you later when you need it most.  

Our fearless leader over at the Center for Women Jennet Alterman www.twitter.com/jeannetalterman made a truly profound statement at a networking function, but I have found it equally if not more true in the cyber world. 

“It isn’t who you know, but who knows you and knows what you do.” These people you connect with during this pre-start-up phase are the people that will be rooting for you and who will help you along the way. They will become your virtual village.

3 places I started were

www.mompreneurslonline.com  OF COURSE!

www.mominventors.com

www.startupnation.com

Okay…. this is getting a bit lengthy for a blog post (Thanks to Jo Ann, I learned that blog posts should be between 250 and 500 words and be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays)  Who knew??!!  So, with that, I will continue this discussion next week with more from my presentation “Don’t be a Twit”.  See you next week!!

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com

Bringing a product to market is one of hardest and most rewarding things I have ever done but like most folks who have never done (or tried to do) something before I had some misconceptions about what to expect.  Now that I have little bit more experience and know so many fellow Mompreneurs® and inventors, I want to share with you a general rule of thumb if you are thinking about taking the plunge.  Now I’m not sharing this with you as any sort of discouragement, but I just feel that if people are more prepared, they won’t be disappointed or be too hard on themselves later when things don’t go the way they THOUGHT they should.  (Because what you thought, is probably wrong!).  Okay… here goes…. This is short and sweet:  The first year on the market, expect to HEMORRHAGE money.  The second year, you are doing well if you break even.  The third year, you should be making a profit.  There are always exceptions, but if you go into it with your eyes wide open, you won’t be nearly as disappointed when your QuickBooks reveals the ugly truth every December 31^st. 

I did turn a modest profit in year two but that was entirely because of Shark Tank.  I was extremely fortunate.  Now again, I’m still standing by what I have always said about media…I CAN NOT rely on that (or any other media hit to come) to carry me through year 3.  This time next year do you think anyone will remember me from that show?  NO.  Sales sales sales is where the money comes from.  What’s a little discouraging to me is that what I really SHOULD be doing right now is hitting the tradeshow circuit hard, but I just can’t.  With my husband’s job as a pilot, he’s only home 15 days a month, and so child care is a HUGE issue.   Last year Pa helped out TREMENDOUSLY because he was retired and he would pick the kids up from school etc… but now what he’s gone, it just puts too much stain on my family.  So now, I need to work on a plan B. 

I’ve got a new sales rep that I have high hopes for and I just signed on with a distributor for the state of Hawaii.  I’m really excited about that!  I’m hoping for great success out there.  They grill all year round and if they do well enough, maybe it will warrant a family / business trip out there to visit J  hee hee.  I grew up on Oahu (Pa was stationed at Pearl Harbor) so I have a very special place in my heart for the island.  Since moving away in 3^rd grade I have been back 3 times, but that was BC.  (Before Children). 

Here’s a short little lesson on Distributor basics: Distributors are companies that buy and store inventory and sell to retailers.  They are “middle men” so to speak.  They buy your product is bulk (for less than wholesale) and are responsible for a certain geographic area. FYI, distributors will usually require a gross margin between 20-40%. When working with a distributor, there are many things to take into consideration.  Most will want exclusivity for their territory.  In my case, it was just Hawaii, so exclusivity was not a problem for me.  I don’t have tons of Hawaiian stores beating down my door right now, so that was fine.  I do feel it is important to put in writing the annual or quarterly sales or purchasing “quota”.  It needs to be reasonable and attainable and something you both come up with together.  If the quota is not met after the specified time period, then the “exclusivity” becomes null and void.  Also the terms should be able to be reevaluated and adjusted as both parties see fit every year or two to insure it is still a win-win for both parties.  That’s the only way a relationship works.  Well, I think that’s all I have for now.  Chat with you soon

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com

As mompreneurs we are ever so busy that doing something proactive in marketing can seem like a lot of work.  Especially when it is something you are new at (like getting PR), it can be intimidating to even start.  If you haven’t heard of HARO (Help a Reporter Out) or Journalist Source (for Canadian companies) yet, you’re in for a treat.

Both are free services where you sign up and several times a day an email is sent out with 10 – 20 reporters looking for experts or “journalist sources” to interview and quote for their story.  By signing up, you can have hot PR inquiries delivered to your mailbox and it makes it easier for you proactively contact reporters and get PR for your company.

It’s a great way to learn what types of stories are being written about, magazines that may be reaching your target market that you didn’t know about, and make personal connections with reporters who may write about you and your company.

So you don’t get overwhelmed, I suggest creating a mailbox filter where these emails automatically get filed.  That way you can look at them at your leisure, during the time you have blocked out for marketing and getting buzz for your business.

Elena

Serial Entrepreneur, PR, Marketing and Lifestyle Strategist

PR in Your Pajamas

If you’ve had experience and/or success with either HARO or Journalist Source, I’d love to hear about it.  Let me know on:

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Hello folks!  I’ll get the “news” stuff and links out of the way then I think it’s time for a year in review don’t you?

http://www.thefabulousfinds.com/2009/10/all-you-grillers-out-there-this-is.html

http://tobtr.com/s/709444  (Radio interview will Heath, follow Shark Tank Alumni with Pork Barrel BBQ)

http://www.frugalrimama.com/HolidayGiftGuide/grill-charms

http://gift-guide.mywoodenspoon.com/tools/grill-charms%e2%84%a2/

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/inventRight/2009/09/30/Interview-With-Leslie-Haywood–Regarding-Appearance-On-ABCs-Shark-Tank  (Radio interview with Steven Key)

To listen to behind the scenes commentary on Shark Tank about Grill Charms, hit play: http://www.daymondjohn.com/power_journal/grill-charms-commentary-part-1/  THIS IS REALLY COOL!  Daymond gives a total behind the scenes view of Shark Tank. 

http://www.mominventors.com/2009/12/09/mom-invented-holiday-gift-guide/

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbnrek_grill-charms-the-ultimate-grill-gad_school  Video from @The_Grilldog

I’m not really sure what to say about 2009 other then… It was “Interesting”.  I feel like I not even remotely the same person I was 1 year ago in just about every aspect of my life.  My first year on the market (2008) I felt like I was really just dipping my toes in the entrepreneurial waters.  I made sales calls on stores, tried to build up my brand and gain some product awareness.  2009 I really jumped in with both feet.  I did my first tradeshow in January then a second (one of the largest in the housewares industry) in March.  I secured my biggest wholesale account and due them going into bankruptcy, lost that same biggest account. I more than tripled the amount of stores I was in and to my surprise actually turned a profit for 2009.  (which is almost unheard of 2^nd year after launch!) I had the biggest triumph in my professional career with Shark Tank and was devastated by the worst personal tragedy of my life.  It has been a complete whirlwind of emotions, new experiences, excitement and grief all rolled into 1 little package called 2009.  Looking at where I started January 1^st it seems like 2009 was MUCH longer than 365 days.  I’m more experienced, more jaded, more hopeful and more hopeless.  I’m more appreciative of the life I have and in the same breath a little bitter and hardened by the cold hard facts of it all.  If you were to ask me 1 word that best describes 2009, it’d say it was “growth”, in every sense of the word.

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com